When I think of workout routines for women at the gym, my mind automatically goes to cardio. I picture ladies bouncing up and down on those gazelle-type things, legs spinning on a fast-paced bike, arms pumping on the handles of an elliptical machine, or a consistent trot on the belt of a treadmill. I go to the gym about 4 times a week and the huge line of cardio machines for members is almost always completely packed with women working hard and fast to drop those inches. And they don’t spend short little sessions on those treadmills… oh no! Sometimes I’ll go in to do a standard hour of weight-lifting, cardio after, change, and when I walk out and they’re still trucking…

So my question is… What happened to strength training? Why do I see so few women in the weight room anymore? Well, when I ask my female friends this question, they all give similar answers.

Well *insert female celebrity name here* isn’t a body-builder. Why the heck would I want to build huge muscles when I don’t even want to look like that?

I do go in the weight room, but just to get rid of fat on my thighs. That’s really where I need the work.

There’s a weight room here?

When I hear these answers, I can’t help but feel that these women have been misled about weight-lifting and strength-training by the media. Yes, most women want to look like some Hollywood celebrity (I know I do… male celebs that is) but female celebrities are not just thinner and feminine, but they’re also toned and strong. Just think of bodies like Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Aniston, and Halle Berry. Yes, they’re thin, but they’re strong and still quite feminine and in order to sculpt your body to look like them, you’ll need to do some cardio, but you gotta start walking into the weight room too.

Too Much Cardio And Not Enough Strength Training

There’s often too much of a desire to immediately drop pounds via cardio without even wondering if there’s a better way. We all know that in order to cut fat, cardio will do it. We know this. But… a body with less fat and no muscle tone is still just a weak, brittle bag of bones (Sorry to be blunt!).

When all you do is cardio to lose weight, yes the fat will start decreasing, but you’re left with muscles that are almost as useless as the fat you just burned. It’s floppy, round and can’t even lift the groceries out of the backseat of the car. But an NFL cheerleader or professional dancer has a body fat percentage under 10% and yet they’re flipping, jumping, running, and can do just as many push-ups as the average man because they take care of their muscles!

Here are the main reasons why you don’t want to just walk into the gym and do steady state cardio for an hour:

1. Cardio has a tendency to crush fitness motivation completely.

While cardio is effective at what it does, for most people, it’s also very boring (*me). Saying you’re going to stick to a routine of 45-60 min on the treadmill 3 times a week sounds great on paper, but it sucks in real life. When resolutioners (People coming to the gym solely to appease their New Year’s Resolution…I haven’t heard anybody else use that term so I’m coining it now) go into the gym for the first time, the cardio is usually the catalyst that causes them to quit year after year.

2. You need muscles in everyday life.

Besides just toned legs, the average person needs toned arms, shoulders, back, and chest muscles to handle everything that life throws at them. Every day you bend over, put things away, carry items up stairs, throw clothes in the hamper, pull something out of the fridge, maybe even carry some kids. How is cardio helping with that?

3. The majority of guys like toned women more than just skinny women. It’s true!

Ouch. This one is often a heartbreaker, but being a guy, I can tell you honestly how I respond to seeing very thin women on the street without muscle tone.

Geez, she needs to eat something.

or

Hold your breath as you walk by. She might fall over.

And this isn’t just my opinion. Often I’ll see guys just swarming around the few female participants in the weight room asking stupid questions like “Do you need any help?” or “How many sets you pushing for?” And don’t you want your man to jump all over you when you come home sexy and fit from the gym?

How To Not Look Like A Gross Body-Builder

Probably the biggest concern with women is they don’t want to get large muscles that look gross. This is very understandable and you should be happy to know that it actually takes a lot of extra effort to ever look like that.

First of all, women don’t naturally have the hormones to look like that. Body-builder women not only take dangerous amounts of protein and supplements, but they often get hormone injections to increase their muscle size. They’re scarfing down 4000+ calories each day and stuffing more supplement powders than an anthrax envelope. Don’t worry about it.

Second, there’s a very strategic way to lift weights that will only increase the strength in your muscles and not the size. This is actually something that most people, even many certified personal trainers don’t completely understand. Not every way that you work with weights will lead to larger guns for the gun show.

Main Points Of A Good Workout To Look Feminine, Sexy, And Strong

1. Training should take place at least 3 times a week, but 4 is ideal.

Yep, you gotta get your butt to the gym at least 3 times, but going 4 times is best since it allows you to do each workout twice a week. Going more than 5 times weekly is unnecessary since this can deter your muscles from recovering and may increase size in the end. No no.

2. Most rep ranges should be between 5 and 10 per set.

Reps ranging 5-10 promote strength where anything higher leans more towards size. Higher rep ranges create what’s called “Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy” that actually increases the fluid in the muscle, but disallows full contractions making the muscle somewhat weaker. Possible exceptions to this rule include abs since they’re often the least defined, but not arm toning exercises for women.

3. Push yourself until 2-3 reps before failure.

Pushing to failure is never good because it trains your muscle to not properly complete contractions and if you get to the rep right before, you might increase the size. Use a heavier weight and push until you think you can only get 2 or 3 more out in a single set (keeping between 5-10 reps) and then stop.

4. Cardio using interval training should be done every time.

Another thing that most women don’t want is big legs and thighs. Heck, that’s usually where they put on weight to begin with. So, to be safe, you don’t even have to do any strength work for legs but simply cardio. And you can do steady state, but there’s a faster route using interval training that I explain here – How Much Cardio To Lose Weight? Best Cardio To Lose Weight? Interval training will create those firm and sexy legs that can’t keep guys from staring.

4. The best exercises to create flat abs are planks and leg raises.

What? I’m not going to be doing crunches or sit-ups or anything like that?

Fortunately no! Exercises like crunches can be quite bad for the neck and back so they should be avoided altogether (Haven’t you seen fitness infomercials where people are rubbing their necks in pain doing crunches on the floor?!). Other ab exercises like hanging leg raises or ab rollers can create really deep abs which you don’t want either.

Here’s a workout schedule for women to follow. Do each in 3 sets of 5-8 reps, but make sure to stop when you feel you could do about 3 more.

Sample Workout Day 1

• Flat barbell or dumbbell press
• Lat pull-down
• Lateral raises (alternate front and side)
• Lying extensions on flat bench with light barbell or standing using pulley machine
• Dumbbell hammer curls
• Lying leg raises
• Planks

• Cardio – Intervals on either treadmill or elliptical (15-20 min)

Sample Workout Day 2

• Bent over rows w/ dumbbells
• Seated shoulder press
• Bent over dumbbell flies
• Bent over tricep extensions w/ leg on flat bench
• Standing dumbbell curls
• Lying leg raises
• Planks
• Cardio – Intervals on either treadmill or elliptical (15-20 min)

If you plan on working out 4 days a week (recommended), do two days on and one day off.

Example:

• Monday – Workout Day 1
• Tuesday – Workout Day 2
• Wednesday – Rest
• Thursday – Workout Day 1
• Friday – Workout Day 2
• Saturday – Rest
• Sunday – Rest

Workout Routines For Women at the Gym

There are a lot of workout routines for women at the gym, but not all of them will necessarily get you the look that you’re looking for. Fortunately, Rusty Moore, the webmaster of FitnessBlackBook has an extremely impressive women’s fitness course called Visual Impact for Women that I highly recommend which goes into much more detail and elaborates on the tips mentioned here to get that typical Hollywood look.

Of course drinking water isn’t the main cause of weight gain or weight loss. That conclusion is just…dumb. But how much of it you have in your body does affect things like water retention and your daily beverage choice, which have a very direct link to how much you weigh.

Remember when drinks used to come from here?

Drinking Water Leads To Losing Water Weight

Often when someone hasn’t exercised or dieted in a very long time, the first thing they’ll lose is water weight and this has a direct connection with how much water your fitness schedule or diet requires you to drink.

Water retention is mostly caused by too much sodium. However, it’s not realistic to go on a sodium-free diet since sodium is just about in everything. The reason your body chooses to retain water is because it senses that it’s not getting enough. If you find that you’re having trouble ditching a few stubborn pounds, it could be water retention doing its job to make sure you’re properly hydrated at all times.

The reason the “drink water lose weight” idea holds true is because routine water consumption means less retention in your system letting your fluids run through smoothly. And when your body stops retaining water, the water weight starts dropping away.

Choosing Water Means NOT Choosing “Lost-Calorie” Beverages

One of the other main reasons that drinking water is important for the purpose of losing weight is when you make the choice to drink a glass of water, you’re also not choosing to drink something else that might not be as healthy (i.e. soda, iced-coffee, milkshake).

For example, the study Drinking water is associated with weight loss in overweight dieting women independent of diet and activity was basically an analysis of information that had already been collected, to determine if there was a positive answer to the query “Does drinking water help you lose weight?”

The women who’s data was studied were between the ages of 25 and 50 and were reported (before the study) to have commonly drank less than 1 liter per day. The women’s diet, physical activity, body-fat percentage, weight and waist size were all taken into account at 2, 6, and 12 month markers as some of the women began drinking more water.

What they concluded from this study is that those who drank more water, tended to see the most weight loss.

Absolute and relative increases in drinking water were associated with significant loss of body weight and fat over time, independent of covariates.

The results suggest that drinking water may promote weight loss in overweight dieting women.

I Often Implement A Sort Of Water Fasting Weight Loss

I previously wrote a post about drinking water and losing weight (How Much Water to Drink a Day to Lose Weight) where I detailed how I use water to suppress my food cravings. While water is important for losing weight and staying properly hydrated, when drank at the right time it serves as a great way to keep yourself from eating too much. I find this especially helpful when I’ve fasted all day and come home feeling like I’m about to binge and ruin everything.

How Much Water Should I Drink To Lose Weight?

I’ve wrote before that most people get enough water already since most foods are made of a lot of water as it is. A steak is about 75% water for example. However… this causes me to make a slight amend to what I previously wrote about 8 glasses of water a day not being completely necessary since following through with that amount can greatly decrease the need for your body to retain water like I mentioned above. Stopping the retention of water means drinking more of it.

Plus, most people don’t eat that healthily to begin with! Wholesome foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables provide plenty of water, but a frozen dinner won’t.

Does Drinking Water Help You Lose Weight?

Yes, I believe so. I not only drink to stifle my appetite when I feel I might go apeshit on a pile of pizza, but I drink it in order to keep off the water weight. Plus, since I’m right in the middle of Visual Impact Muscle Building with all the lifting and cardio, I need that water so I don’t pass out!

I guess what I’m saying is… keep an eye on the water you get each day. If you don’t exercise and live a pretty sedentary lifestyle, then you probably get enough water already. Just don’t waste away all of your calories for the day by drinking things like pop and beer when you’d be better off just having a good ol’ fashioned glass of water.

Like most other fruits, grapes contain a substantial amount of vitamins and antioxidants, but some of this food’s trademarks include low calories, cancer prevention, fortifying colon health, and smoother unrestricted blood flow. Let’s take a look at some of these attributes and other reasons you should include this fruit in your daily diet.

How Many Calories In Grapes?

So how many calories are in grapes? It doesn’t really matter if you’re talking about the calories in red grapes or any other color… a single grape usually contains about 3-4 calories, so you don’t have to worry if you’re counting calories. According to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, people are recommended to eat between 1 and 2 cups of fruit each day to promote all-around healthy living (1 cup is about 32 grapes).

I know that when I eat more fruit throughout the day, I feel a little more energized to properly get through my workouts to burn more fat. And since most fruits, including grapes contain so few calories, you can eat them guilt-free or not even count them at all. Really, have you heard of anyone becoming overweight from too much fruit? Me neither.

Grapes Nutrition Benefits

Most fruit juices, depending on the actual juice content, will supply a hearty amount of antioxidants to improve your immune system and overall healthy, but research has shown that Concord grape juice provides more natural antioxidants than any other fruit juice.  While grapes provide similar antioxidants as most fruits, grape flavonoids are commonly used in skin creams that protect against harm caused by sun exposure to the skin while still allowing healthy UV rays to produce Vitamin D. The potential for grape flavonoids to protect against skin cancer were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by scientists of the University of Barcelona and the Spanish National Research Council.

There’s this very powerful antioxidant in grapes called resveratrol that does a really great job protecting your body from harm concerning a number of things:

• Protective against colon and prostate cancers
• Preventative against diseases like coronary heart disease, degenerative nerve disease, and Alzheimer’s disease
• Fights off viral or fungal infections
• Helps keep prevent against blood vessel constriction

Other antioxidants present in grapes worth mentioning like athocyanins have cancer-preventative properties and will help to keep away common allergens. So, for those of you with summer allergies, maybe you’ll want to sit outside with a bowl of grapes and you won’t find yourself sneezing so much.

There’s A Lot Of Debate Over Grape Sugar

Grapes actually contain a relatively higher sugar content than most fruits, but this isn’t any real reason for alarm. Any unrefined sugars (coming from natural sources) are perfectly fine to eat at almost any capacity. It’s refined sugars that come in sodas and sports drinks that you have to watch out for and consume sparingly since they can lead to things like diabetes… which no one really wants.

Of course, grape jelly will have some sort of grape-flavoring, but you have to be sure that it comes from real grapes if that’s what you’re after. Even then, keep reading those nutrition facts because jelly doesn’t come with a cheap calorie or sugar count!

Personally, because of the high sugar content in grapes, I can’t enjoy more than five at a time. They’re just too strong and they irritate my teeth. For now, I’m going to blame this on the sugar as opposed to my slowly-rotting teeth (joke).

You Can Trust The Calories In Grapes

I will always see calorie counting  as a viable way of losing weight if you’re stubborn to change what it is that you eat, but you don’t have to become meticulous about counting when you’re adding fruits like grapes to your total. Like I said earlier, I’ve never heard of anyone getting fat from fruits or vegetables. Just watch out for the sugar in grapes if you happen to have sensitive teeth like mine.

How Much Cardio Should I Do Per Week?

The answer to this question is really subjective because it depends on your fitness and health goal as an individual. Someone who is trying to become very lean will have a different cardio routine than someone who just wants to be moderately active and healthy.

When I think of cardio exercise, I see it as having 3 purposes…

Training – This could be endurance training for a marathon or soccer team, or speed training for a sprinter or baseball player. Whatever it is that you’re training for, the best athletes in training do some sort of cardio 6-7 days a week. It takes your body a lot longer to build up endurance than it does for your body to lose it (which can be in as little as 2-3 days).

Cardiovascular Health Improvement – This is for people that are worried about skyrocketing cholesterol or just generally want to stay active. If this applies to you, you can probably get away with jogging 3 times a week or walking 30 minutes 5-7 times a week. Not only do people who are regularly active tend to have lower cholesterol, but fresh air and sunlight will help to boost your endorphins and raise your Vitamin D levels.

Burn Body Fat – This is the reason that I do cardio because honestly, I really don’t like doing it. But cardio is the main way to actually burn away stray calories without having to manipulate your diet. You can still burn calories from strength-training if you do circuits or simply work hard and fast at each rep, but cardio is the most direct way to go about it. For burning body fat solely, 3-4 sessioins each week should be good.

Best Cardio To Lose Weight

One of my favorite methods for burning fat through cardio is the use of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). HIIT is the method of pushing your body through a very intense and vigorous physical exercise (usually cardio-based) for a short period and then taking a similar-length (or slightly longer) period to recover before repeating the action.

30 second sprints, mountain-climbers, and other exercises that get your heart beating very quickly are popular in HIIT. Some popular HIIT programs that you may have seen on television include Insanity and P90X where they show people jumping, lunging, and pumping weights out the wazoo! I currently use HIIT as suggested in Visual Impact.

Steady state cardio is the alternative to HIIT and that involves keeping a consistent pace with whatever exercise you’re doing. If you were to head into the gym, set a speed on the treadmill, and jog for 30 minutes without changing… that’s steady state. Steady state is obviously effective too otherwise you would see more KFC junkies winning marathons than citizens of Kenya.

Am I going to tell you which is better over one or the other? No. Sure, I could reference a couple studies in favor of the routine I lean towards more, but there are actually so many conflicting studies on the subject that I could probably side either way.

However, what I will say is the best cardio to burn fat is a combination of both types. Yes, you can burn adequate calories doing each separately, but you can burn more when you combine them. When you insert small intervals of high intensity inside of your steady state cardio, you momentarily increase your metabolism to handle the more intense activity and burn a few more calories in the process.

If you stay at the same pace for a long duration, your body will still burn calories, but your metabolism will adapt, and won’t burn these calories as effectively as when you first started because it isn’t such a shock to your system. But if you periodically stick moments of high intensity throughout, you can shock your system all over the place and trigger small spurts of increased calorie burning.

Simple HIIT/Combination Routines

You can still get great results with either HIIT or steady state cardio, but I believe that a combination of both is the best way to burn body fat, but if you’re not up to the level of combining, pure HIIT will suffice and won’t take as long to complete. Sure, you can still do steady state cardio, but you could spend 30 minutes on the treadmill while HIIT might only take 15 minutes to be just as effective.

Your recovery time will have quite an impact on how intense the intervals really are…

Even if the interval workout that you chose to do is extremely intense like burpees, mountain climbers, or all-out sprints, the total number of calories you burn is really based on the length of your recovery periods. If it’s your first time doing cardio in a long time, feel free to use a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio on your recovery to intervals. So, you might do your hard interval for 30 seconds and then rest for 60 or 90 seconds before doing the next one. After you’ve built up enough endurance and those ratios become easier, you’re better off adjusting the ratio to 1:1 and do a 30 second rest for every 30 second hard interval.

There’s no simpler HIIT routine than the walk and run.

This is one of the simplest and most basic ideas behind HIIT and simply involves alternating instances of walking and running. Back when I used to play soccer, if I was trying to get ready for the season after slacking off on vacation, I would do this to at least burn a little fat first to get back in shape. Walking would be considered your rest period and running are your intense intervals. If you’re using a 2:1 ratio, you would run for 30 seconds and walk for 60 seconds, and then repeat for about 15 minutes.

I consider a jog and sprint routine to be a combination of steady state cardio and HIIT.

I would definitely suggest using a 2:1 ratio at the lowest for this sort of routine since jogging for only 30 seconds after coming out of a sprint is probably not enough time for your metabolism to begin winding down again. The jogging portion is steady state cardio at its finest, but when you add sprints into the equation, you can burn even more calories! Using the 2:1 ratio, jog for 60 or 90 seconds and then all-out sprint for 30 seconds and repeat for 15 minutes.

There are really an infinite number of HIIT combinations you can attempt.

The burpees exercise is one of the most underrated exercises known and is perfect for HIIT. Other great routines might involve mountain climbers, high knees, high-legged jumps, or jumping rope. Pick your favorite intense exercise and create your own HIIT workout with it. Just make sure that you give your body adequate recovery time between intervals for your metabolism to wind down and be jolted again when the next duration of high intensity comes.

How Much Cardio To Lose Weight Depends On You

If you want to lose weight, chances are… you want to lose it right now! No waiting! Let’s go! Get this fat out of me! Unfortunately, when people have this mindset, they jump on the treadmill and immediately start running as hard and as fast as possible day after day after day. And what do you think happens? They burn out!

While the answer to this post’s title appears to be “as much as you can every day” it’s not. In order for you to lose weight with cardio, you have to keep a consistent schedule, and for most people to keep a consistent schedule, you have to pace yourself.

Do you know why most people fail at their New Year’s resolutions to lose weight? It’s because they go into the gym without a clue as to what they’re doing and start working as hard as possible. After they realize how much that idea sucks, they give up and never come back. Well, I hope that after reading this, you have a clue and you know now that 15-45 minutes of HIIT or steady state cardio 3-5 times a week is one of the best cardio to burn fat.

1. Decrease your food intake.
2. Increase your intake of wholesome, natural, and unrefined foods, while decreasing others.
3. A combination of 1 & 2.

As for the Slow Carb Diet created by Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Body, he promotes an eating plan similar to #2, but primarily focuses on carbohydrates as the main catalyst for unwanted weight gain. Here I’ll take a look at just what’s the difference between slow and fast carbs, the rules of the slow carb diet, and a couple opinions on how efficiently it works.

What Are Slow Carbs?

Slow carbs are foods that have a minimal to average glycemic index rating and the reason slow carbs are often promoted is because they have a way of stabilizing your blood-sugar levels and keep your body in a consistent state to burn more calories throughout the day. They’re called “slow” because they cause a gradual increase in your blood sugar level over time that’s easily manageable by your body and can be used for energy in an efficient manner.

What Are Fast Carbs

Fast carbs are foods that introduce a high number of blood sugars into your body triggering a higher amount of insulin to store these carbohydrates as fat instead of pulling them into your cells for energy. Fast carbs are traditionally foods made with refined white flour or refined sugar and the slang term is “processed foods”.

One of the most popular fast carb drinks is Gatorade and its purpose is to supply your body with energy as soon as you drink it. I didn’t realize that for years I was ruining my weight loss efforts right out of the gate because I thought that drinking Gatorade all day long was good for me. Little did I know that I was adding unnecessary carbohydrates that were quickly turning into stored fat.

Slow Carb Diet Rules

This diet originates from the popular Tim Ferriss in his best-selling book, The 4-Hour Body which outlines various ways to create a better life as well as a better body. As you can guess from the name of the diet, the basis for losing weight lies with cutting out carbohydrates that cause a spike in your insulin as opposed to those that absorb into your cells to help your resting metabolism.

Here are the basic rules of the Slow Carb Diet:

No White/Refined Carbohydrates

Anything with refined carbs… you can’t have it. These are typically things that are white like flour, rice, and potatoes.

No Sugars, Alcohol, or Dairy

This one really hits me where it hurts because you’re not supposed to eat cheese, sweets, or even fruit. And you already know what alcohol means… sorry bro-skis However, you are allowed to drink a glass of wine each night…interesting.

Every Morning Have a Breakfast High In Protein

Yea, we’re not intermittent fasting here. Right when you wake you should have a protein shake and a couple eggs.

That's a lot of tasty chicken on that salad...

Have These Foods To Your Heart’s Content

There’s no limit on how much you can eat of chicken, eggs, vegetables, beef, peas, lentils asparagus, spinach, and beans.

You’re Allowed One Cheat Day Each Week

I practice this tradition currently on Sunday when I don’t have much to do and I’m tempted to eat more anyway. But it also helps to reset your metabolic rate when you’ve been eating light and healthy for a prolonged period of time. Plus, on this day, you can eat whatever you want.. even things that are on the “do not eat” list.

Some Low Carb Vegetables To Use On Your Diet

You’ll notice in the list of foods that you can eat without hesitation, there are a few vegetables. These vegetables are low in carbohydrates to adhere to the theme of the entire diet. But in addition to the approved vegetables of the Slow Carb Diet, there are a number of others that I’m sure would be okay for the purpose of this weight loss strategy.

• Lettuce – It contains very little nutritional value, but it’s low in carbs
• Herbs – They typically have very low calories as well as carbs
• Zucchini
• Brussels Sprouts – Don’t believe the stereotypical hype. Brussels are actually quite good.
• Green onions or scallions
• Snow peas and pea pods
• Tomatoes
• Eggplants
• Artichokes
• Turnips

There Are Mixed Feelings About The Diet

Rusty Moore – Fitness Black Book

Rusty Moore is already a very fit and athletic individual, but decided to give the diet a 1-month trial to see how it compared to an intermittent fasting-type diet like Eat Stop Eat. He lost 4 pounds, starting at 195 and ending at 191, but his experiences during the diet were not so favorable.

• He didn’t appreciate that Tim preferred wine over beer since Rusty is a beer drinker.
• He hoped for 6-7 pounds of weight lost instead of the 4.
• He reported having an upset stomach for most of the 30 days on the diet since his digestive system wasn’t used to so much protein and vegetables.

He concluded that even though the diet appeared to work, it probably only serves those that are considered overweight and won’t benefit partially-athletic individuals that want to become very lean.

Dr. James Nicolai

Dr. James Nicolai, medical director of the Andrew Weil, M.D. Integrative Wellness Program at Miraval Arizona Resort & Spa in Tucson, Arizona agreed that avoiding items that spike blood sugar is a good strategy:

The whole notion of avoiding white carbs that turn quickly into sugar is a good thing to do, …it can be helpful to eat the same meals each day because you don’t think about food, as opposed to ‘I am really hungry and don’t have food to eat.’

Beth Mazur – Weight Maven

Beth over at Weight Maven did a review of Ferriss’s diet and made quite a few comparisons to the common Paleo Diet where participants emulate the eating habits of early hunter-gatherers before farming and production. One of the few criticisms she has of the diet is the how Ferriss says it’s OK to eat your fair share on the cheat day without so much guilt:

Seems to me if you were going to overfeed as a regular strategy, doing so with higher quality food might work better. Or doing it only if you’re generally in good health. Binge-eating on industrial crap when you’ve got one or more of the metabolic syndrome risk factors wouldn’t be something I’d recommend strongly. But then again, perhaps it’s a relative question. Maybe eating industrial crap one day a week is better than eating it every day of the week!

What Do I Think Of The Slow Carb Diet?

It has both good and bad factors, but the overall idea is to create a psychological change that pushes you to consume more healthy foods while maintaining your muscles instead of opening a bag of chips whenever you want and wondering what happened. And any time an author mentions the phrase “eat as much as you want” whether they’re referring to slow carbs, vegetables, fruits, or any other healthy item, they’re really trying to alert you to the fact that this diet can be used for a long-term solution.

I believe that Tim Ferriss’s Slow Carb Diet can be used for a long-term solution since most people find it difficult to restrict calories and remain on a consistent exercise schedule. However, if you were to add a strength-training routine in addition to this diet, you would probably see a killing in your physique due to all the protein consumed in this eating plan.

What I found is avocados, like any other fruit, are quite healthy. They might scare you a little with the number of calories they provide, but contain a lot of healthy fats that your body needs every day. Plus, they’ll help to regulate cholesterol and even prevent eye/sight problems in your old age.

Avocado Calories Are Not As Low As You May Hope

Often, we’ll pick up a fruit or vegetable and eat it without any sort of discretion or hesitation because we assume that not only is it high in nutrients, but it’s also low in calories. Well this isn’t exactly the case with an avocado. Unlike most fruits, an avocado packs in quite a few calories. Just 20% of a single medium-sized avocado contains about 50 calories making the entire thing a whopping 250 calories.

This probably shouldn’t scare you if you rarely indulge in fresh avocado on a sandwich or in a dip, but for frequent eaters, think about how much guacamole your making for yourself before you start carving that thing up. After all the other items are added including salt, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic, those calories can add up when you’re dipping more than a handful of tortilla chips.

And not to go off on a tangent here, but not all guacamole is created equal. If you’re mixing some up for a private party, you have plenty of control as to how healthy (or not) you want your dip. Oppositely, if you go to Chipotle or a popular Mexican restaurant, you’ll expect their guacamole to TASTE GOOD. Don’t expect them to watch out for your precious calorie count.

The Avocado Health Benefits Are Numerous

While this fruit is somewhat high in calories, it contains a number of noticeable health benefits to improve your system.

One of these avocado benefits is a drop in total blood cholesterol and a healthy shift in your cholesterol ratio. A study was done back in 1996 in the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social in Mexico to record any healthy benefits from daily consumption of avocados. Of the 67 participants, 45 of them were fed avocados daily.

The 45 avocado-rich participants experienced an average 17% drop in blood cholesterol levels and a favorable shift in their cholesterol ratio. Their LDL (low-density lipoprotein) went down. This is commonly called “bad cholesterol” and is often associated with heart disease. Their HDL (high-density lipoprotein) went up. HDL is the “good cholesterol” that tends to prevent or limit risk factors of heart disease.

It was found that the main reason avocados are such a strong combatant against cholesterol is because it contains beta-sitosterol, which has lowered blood cholesterol levels in at least 16 human studies.

Avocados also contain the following nutrients:

• Vitamin k
• Fiber
• Potassium
• Folic acid
• Vitamin b6
• Vitamin C
• Copper

Research has shown that potassium can help to regulate blood pressure and since avocados contain a fair amount of potassium, they can decrease your chances of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Vitamin C is one of the most common vitamins in fruit that you probably know strengthens your immune system and helps with the fortification of anti-bodies.

Some People Are Worried About The Fat In Avocados…

There was a big wave of weight loss information that started in the mid 90s about how fat was terrible for you and low-fat items were what you absolutely needed to drop pounds and keep it off. Well, new research has revealed that this isn’t really the case anymore as long as you stick to the right kind of fats, monounsaturated or medium-chain triglycerides.

Lucky for us, avocados contain monounsaturated fat that has been found to be good for you. Monounsaturated fats in your diet is another factor that appears to favorably balance your cholersterol ratio by increasing HDL and decreasing LDL. Not only that, but new research is now suggesting that monounsaturated fats can help to prevent against breast cancer as well.

They’ll Improve Your Sight And Ability To Absorb Nutrients

There’s something found in avocados called carotenoid lutein and in fact, avocados have more carotenoid lutein than any other fruit, but what does this do? Carotenoid lutein is an important nutrient that fights against eye-related diseases brought on by old age like macular degeneration and cataracts.

And avocados have this odd way of making your body absorb more nutrients from food than normal. Simple studies have shown that eating a healthy meal with an avocado will help your body to absorb up to 5 times the nutrients than without. Holy cow!

On a side note, unrelated to avocados, but I’ve that chewing your food more thoroughly allows your digestive processes to extract more nutrients from each bite. It has something to do with the surface area that’s created. Hmmm.

It’s Good News From The Avocado Nutrition Facts

There’s a lot of greasy, cheesy Mexican food out there and it’s absolutely delicious… even if it’s terrible for you. However, it’s nice to know that a glop of guacamole isn’t as bad I imagined thanks to the power of avocados. I don’t like the fact that they contain so many calories, since calorie-counting is part of my way of staying slim, but I like knowing that there’s plenty of great nutrients and disease prevention substances found in this elusive green fruit. Plus, it’s nice to know that I gain this super ability to absorb more nutrients when I include it in a meal.

Look at those measurements. That apple is huge.

So you’re asking the question “How many calories should I eat a day?” and you’re expecting a very straight-forward answer without much thought right? Unfortunately, things don’t work like that. Since your body is different than… everyone else in the entire world, calculating how many calories per day involves some calculation and adjustment based on you, personally.

Consider Your Current Lifestyle Activity Level

That calorie calculator will let you know how efficient your body burns calories all by itself, but you also need to take into account how active your lifestyle is so you can make a minor adjustment and cut out a few more calories.

• Sedentary
• Light Activity
• Moderately Active
• Very Active

Sedentary Lifestyle

Someone leading a sedentary lifestyle is often referred to as a couch potato. Your job might consist of sitting at a desk, typing on a computer, or doing activities that require very minimal physical actions to complete. When you clock out for the day, you probably go home, fix yourself a meal and then plop down in front of the television until it’s time for bed.

Unfortunately for those sedentary people, with so little physical activities, there’s really no adjustment on your basal metabolic rate, and the only calories you ever burn are the ones you’re not eating. The vast majority of the overweight population lead a sedentary lifestyle.

Light Activity – Moderately Active

For people that lead a mostly sedentary lifestyle, but exercise 1-3 times a week, then you fall into the category of light activity or moderately active. You might spend all day at the office, but a couple times a week, you’ll put in your time to get that stunning physique.

Now, don’t get me wrong. People leading a light to moderately active lifestyle can still reach their weight loss and fitness goals. I did! I spend 8 hours a day in a cubicle and possibly a few more hours recording music on my home desktop, but 3 times a week, I’m in the gym for around an hour, working my muscles hard and burning fat. With this lifestyle, your body averages burning another 100-200 calorie each day.

Very Active

If you work at a construction site, spend all your time walking, lifting, or doing strenuous physical activities, then you have a very active lifestyle and it’ll buy you some more calories that you’re allowed to eat each day. This group gets the biggest calorie adjustment at about 300-500 calories knocked off the total.

Taking into account your basal metabolic rate and your lifestyle adjustment you should arrive at how many calories your body currently burns on a daily basis.This is the amount of calories your metabolism uses when you’re just sitting around doing nothing.

Know What You Want Your Body To Be

Of course, while you can do all the calculating that you want to determine how many calories your body already burns, this isn’t going to answer how many calories do I need a day does it? It really depends on your own personal fitness goals and what sort of body you want to end up with, so let’s take a look at some of your options…

The Body Builder

Muscle Milk!

While I often don’t talk about what it takes to get the physique of a body builder, I’ll mention it here. What it really comes down to is eating a lot and lifting often. With this combination, you’ll become big and muscular with veins popping out all over (if that’s what you’re really into.)

It’s not uncommon for body builders to consume about 15 calories per lb of body weight that they already have. So, if you’re trying to gain lots of muscle and you currently weigh about 180 lbs, then how many calories should I eat a day is around 2700 calories each day.

You might be thinking, “Whoa! That’s way more than any nutritionist would advise. Won’t I just get bulky and look fat?” Well, the secret to bulking without putting on a lot of fat is cutting out the carbs. You’re body naturally creates glucose which is a stash of carbs stored in your muscles to use for physical activity and when you don’t eat as many carbs (about 2 g per lb of of body weight should do) your body burns stored fat and glucose to supply the energy you need. Use this eating routine along with a consistent weight-lifting schedule and you can have the body builder look in a few months.

However, when you cut out carbs, you’re really cutting out a large portion of calories as well. If you cut the calories, but keep packing on the lean protein, then you’ll be sure to build muscle while losing stored fat.

The Runway Model

A model watching her weight...

Now, this subtitle might sound like exactly what you were looking for, but I want you to sit and think about what the body of the last runway model you saw looked like. Was it toned and impressive with an alluring athletic build? No! The typical runway model body is thin, almost sickly without even a hint of muscle tone.

And the road to a runway model is simple. They typically eat less than 1500 calories (watching the carbs again) and increase their progress with lots of a steady state cardio. Steady state cardio involves just jogging or doing some elliptical for a set amount of time, typically a half hour. Try this routine out for a few months and you should see the fat melt away (as well as your muscle tone).

The Fitness Model

John Barban and his awesome physique.

The fitness model physique is for many, the ideal body. If you’ve seen any slim fitness models in any popular magazines, they all have the same similar traits:

• V-shaped washboard abs
• Noticeable muscle tone that doesn’t bulge or look veiny
• Low body fat percentage

It’s this hybrid of both the body-builder and runway model that creates a visually stunning look that most people just can’t help but stare. Not to mention, when you remain slim but pack on muscle simultaneously your choice of clothes is still wide open as opposed to body-builders that are forced to purchase baggy jeans and XXL-sized t-shirts.

To achieve this sexy fitness model body, you really have to combine the exercise characteristics of a body-builder with the diet of a runway model. For example, John Barban was able to create his ideal body after eating very regimented calories every day for a year while consistently strength-training a few times each week in the gym. You can learn about his exact process in the Adonis Index.

Mark Berkhan with his amazing low body fat percentage.

Martin Berkhan is another advocate of eating small and training big in order to achieve a muscular and lean body that anyone could appreciate. He’s developed his own system over at leangains.comwhere he talks about how he looks ripped at only 5% body fat.

And Visual Impact Muscle Building is another great source of fitness information to achieve the same results. Rusty Moore, the author, has been promoting the fitness model look through years of top-notch articles and intermittent fasting experience.

How Many Calories Should I Eat A Day?

You need to think about where you want to end up before you can think about how to start. As I’ve stated, there are a few different “routes” you can take to blow up with muscle, slim down to nothing, or achieve a physically fit medium. Mixed with a consistent exercise schedule, you can achieve these results.

I’ve been utilizing a series of intermittent fasting methods that I learned from Eat Stop Eat in order to keep my daily caloric intake down while keeping my energy levels up. And it’s not like it’s difficult to count your calories or anything. Take a look at the label and round it out. It’s simple math, but it’s a valuable tool to lose weight very easily.

This guy has a pretty balanced set of guns.

Most of the time, hitting the main muscle groups can be enough to create a great-looking set of guns, but forearm workouts can improve your results if you feel arms are still lacking. Here we can check out why people work out their forearms and a couple different routines to try (one that’s especially brutal) to increase both size and strength.

Why The Heck Should I Work Out My Forearms?

The main thing that strong forearms improve is your ability to grip. If you ride dirt bikes, do heavy lifting at work, practice Olympic bar and ring swinging techniques (pardon my lack of Olympian knowledge), or any other activity that involves having a strong grip, you should work out your forearms. But keep in mind that most exercises for biceps (pull-ups, curls, etc.) do a very good job of working your forearms already.

But don’t get me wrong. It’s not necessary for everyone to work out their forearms when you take into account how different everyone’s natural body state is. You could be naturally athletic with large, bulging forearms or very thin with leaner looking guns in general. You just have to work with what you got!

For me, I’m an ectomorph (naturally thin body type) and it’s more difficult for more to put on muscle than a mesomorph (naturally athletic/muscular). Because of this, I have some pretty shrimpy forearms that will never really be huge like some of my athletic friends. And one thing that I do that involves strong forearms is play the guitar. I can definitely notice an improvement in my fretting technique a couple days after working my forearms or biceps so I do a few of these exercises each week to at least help my musical skills.

Standard Exercises/Workout For Visual Appeal

Of course these exercises are going to strengthen your forearms, but they’re simple enough that if you’re just aiming for a visual difference, these will get the job done.

These two exercises can be done by kneeling on the floor next to a bench or sitting on the bench with your arms resting on your thighs with the weights hanging over your knee caps.This could feel tough on the hands however if you have bony legs.

The palms-up wrist curl over bench is a very good isolated exercise to adequately work your forearms. This can be done with either dumbbells or a barbell by following these steps:

1. Kneeling perpendicular to the bench with your arms laying across the bench, hold your weights firmly with your palms facing upward.
2. Start with the weight curled up and slowly bend down at the wrist for a 3-second count.
3. Pull the weight back up (using your wrist and forearms) to the starting position.

Often I’ll extend the length of each repetition by slightly unraveling my fingers still holding the weight when I’m at the bottom of a repetition.

The opposite of the palms-up curl over bench is the palms-down…dun dun dun. This will work the tops of the forearms and usually requires less weight to feel the burn since they’re typically weaker. To carry out this exercise you simply follow the same steps as the palm-up version, but with your palms facing down.

If you’re looking to add purely size (focusing on how to get big forearms or how to get bigger forearms), you can approach these exercise with more a higher rep and set number. For example, your workout could be:

• 10 sets of 10-12 reps of palms-up wrist curls w/ 60 second break max between sets
• 10 sets of 10-12 reps of palms-down wrist curls w/ 60 second break max between sets

Oppositely if you want to increase strength and definition mainly, (size will come with time) follow a rep/set structure more like this:

• 5 sets of 5-7 reps of palms-up wrist curls w/ 60-120 second break max between sets
• 5 sets of 5-7 reps of palms-down wrist curls w/ 60-120 second  break max between sets

Notice in the routine designed for strength and definition, there are a fewer number of repetitions, fewer sets per repetition, but a longer recovery time between sets so you’re not over-fatiguing your muscles leading to bulkiness and a flabby look.

A Brutal Forearm Workout From Mark Kislich For Super Grip

Of course there are some great variations of the typical wrist curls that simply involve contracting the muscle and then holding for 30-60 seconds. One particularly evil forearm workout is detailed by World-Class Olympic Coach Mark Kislich over at tsmethod.com.

This involves each of three exercises strung together in a tri-set in order to ultimately increase grip strength. Keep in mind, this guy trains Olympic athletes so you might want to ease into forearm workouts like these when starting out.

Exercise 1: Using a barbell in the wrist curl position, curl the barbell upwards using only the forearms and hold for 60 seconds.

Exercise 2: Using a barbell that’s 30% less weight, ready the barbell in your hands with palms facing down and curl back using the forearms once again and hold at the top for 60 seconds once again.

Exercise 3: This one sounds easy, but you simply stand up straight holding a pair of dumbbells around the same weight used for exercise 1 and just hold them for 60 seconds.

So the routine goes something like this:

1. Exercise 1 – 60 seconds – No rest
2. Exercise 2 – 60 seconds – No rest
3. Exercise 3 – 60 seconds – 2 minute rest

Repeat 2 more times and then pass out. (Just kidding on the passing out, but it really gets your forearms burning)

Forearm Workouts Maintain Visually-Appealing Arms

Realistically, most bicep exercises require effort from your forearms like conventional curls and pull-ups. Pull-ups use your forearm muscles in an interesting way since they help you to keep a strong grip on the bar as you extend and contract those biceps.

But working your forearms really does help to balance out how your arms look in general. When I see guys in the gym, whether they’re lean or big with forearms that might rival they’re biceps, I almost automatically think “Wow, they must really work out.” It’s a simple visual trick, but it really works! Improve your grip and the appearance of your arms.

Ahh... behold the power...

If you exercise or lift weights, at one point or another you’ve probably heard someone yammering about whey protein benefits and why it’s crucial that you be downing those shakes! There has to be some truth to what those muscle-bound lunks in the weight room are talking about, but don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you’ll end up looking like them.

Well, is it really worth it? Are there any real benefits? Actually, there are some great benefits to whey protein and what it can do for your overall health besides just your muscles. Here, I’ll discuss what whey protein really is, what it can do for you, and if there are any real side effects to worry about.

Whey Protein Is Actually More Than 1 Single Protein

Even though whey protein sounds like a singular thing, it’s actually a collective group of proteins that are found in milk and is a by-product when milk is used to make cheese. These proteins include:

• Beta-lactoglobulin – This one makes up about half of all protein found in whey protein and helps to prevent from muscles breaking down and preserve glycogen when exercising.
• Alpha-lactalbumin – This can increase serotonin, regulate your sleeping habits, and stabilize your mood in stressful situations.
• Glycomacropeptide (GMP) – Research done on this protein have shown to possibly fight against dental plaque.
• Immunoglobulins – These are made by your immune system to fight antigens.
• Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA)
• Lactoferrin – This can fight the growth of bacteria and fungi.
• Lactoperoxidase – This can act as an antibacterial agent.
• Lysozyme – Helps the immune system

Types Of Whey Protein

Whey protein powders usually fall into 3 types

1. Whey protein concentrate
2. Whey protein isolate
3. Whey protein blend

Whey protein concentrate has about 75% pure protein value, but it contains a lot of other natural by-product nutrients as well. Since it contains the most fat and lactose of the 3 types, it’s usually the cheapest. The fat and lactose won’t ruin your exercise or anything, but frequent drinkers have reported it making them feel bloated.

Whey protein isolate is highly processed to remove carbs, fat, and lactose and contains about 90% pure protein per serving, so they can be pretty expensive, but they provide an exceptional amount of protein in only one sitting.

Blends are simply a combination of the two, and are created to combine more natural nutrients of concentrates and more protein value of isolates while reducing the cost for consumers.

I’ve said before that I get cheap stuff from Rite Aid, but I switched over to Opimum Nutrition Whey Gold Standard. You can really have any kind that you like, but it would be best to go for something that… tastes good. (It’s hard to find one that isn’t downright nasty!)

Whey Protein Benefits

Most people know that whey protein is important for maintaining existing muscles and here are a number of other exercise-related things that whey protein can help with:

• Grows new lean muscle tissue
• Repairs muscle faster leading to shorter recovery time required
• Breakdown of muscles post-workout is reduced
• Increases your metabolism!

I hope you noticed that last bullet. Boom! Drinking whey protein is another trick to help your body lose more body fat especially when you’re trying to cut your calories way down like the progressive Eat Stop Eat diet.

One of the main concerns with whey protein is whether or not it actually does anything to increase muscle size or strength. Fortunately there are at least a few studies testing this issue. One of these studies, The Effects Of Protein And Amino Acid Supplementation On Performance And Training Adaptations During Ten Weeks Of Resistance Training, took 36 males between the ages of 20 and 40 and broke them into 3 groups, one taking carbohydrate placebos, another taking whey protein and casein, and another taking whey protein, some other branched-chain amino acids, and L-glutamine. The study found that the whey and casein group gained the most lean mass over the 10 week period.

In this study, the combination of whey and casein protein promoted the greatest increases in fat-free mass after 10 weeks of heavy resistance training. Athletes, coaches, and nutritionists can use these findings to increase fat-free mass and to improve body composition during resistance training.

But here are even more researched whey protein effects that  most people don’t know about:

• May reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke
• Increases bodily antioxidants
• Stabilizes blood sugar levels
• Builds strong bones
• Some studies suggest that it may even reduce the risk of contracting certain cancers

And even though men are the primary consumers of whey protein powders, the benefits that apply to men for consuming whey protein are the same whey protein benefits for women. You’ll still increase your metabolism, increase lean muscle mass, and improve your muscle recovery time.

You won’t turn into an ugly bulky monster like you may be thinking! Women that grow large muscles for competitions use additional hormones and supplements that you won’t find in just ordinary whey protein so you can relax.

Contrary To What You Heard, There Are No Real Whey Protein Side Effects

You’ll be happy to know that ingesting whey protein has no proven direct side effects. There are however, cautionary warnings that you should follow when choosing whey protein to improve your personal muscle growth.

1. Whey protein is made from milk, so those who are lactose-intolerant should take the same precautions as consuming anything with dairy.
2. At the max, consume 1g of protein per 1lb of lean body weight (muscles, bones, organs, and water) per day to avoid over-consumption.

Is It Worth It To Supplement Whey Protein?

In my personal opinion, adding whey protein to your diet is a great idea. You don’t have to worry about bulking up if you just have protein shakes because it’s not until you start taking steroids or crazy hormones that you’ll start seeing freakish muscle size.

And the only reason there would ever be a side effect is from either a milk allergy or taking way more than your kidneys can actually handle. Overall, whey protein is very healthy and a great supplement for faster muscle size and strength increases.

Photo from cattias.photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/newyork/

The obvious reason why anyone would want to discover what the Jennifer Aniston diet routine consists of is because she’s currently in her 40s, but has a body that most women in their 20s would envy. And even more desirable is her ability to keep a consistent weight for years.

Well, what I’m about to reveal is that the actress (actor… to be politically correct) keeps her body slim with healthy eating decisions, consistent daily exercise, and just one tiny tricky technique (kinda gross) for losing weight when you have deadlines to meet.

Aniston Follows Some Basic Principles Of Smart Dieting

The official Jennifer Aniston height and weight (near this article’s posting time) is 5’6” and 110 pounds and that’s excellent for someone her age. But if you want a her body, you gotta do some Jennifer Aniston diet and exercise.

Most people assume that since Jennifer Aniston is a celebrity, that she must have some knowledge about losing weight that we don’t when in fact, most of her techniques are almost common sense. For instance, while she was shooting Friends, Aniston used to eat the same cobb salad every day for lunch on the set with Lisa Kudrow. This salad consisted of

• Turkey bacon
• Red onions
• Lettuce
• Grilled chicken
• Swiss cheese
• Avocado
• Cottage cheese
• Chives
• Oil-based dressing (vinaigrette)

This salad is a very healthy combination of protein, carbs, fat, and fiber that anyone would benefit eating as long as they’re not extreme portions.

Aniston does do her fair share of snacking throughout the day which includes low-calorie items like cottage cheese, fruit, and almonds. Which goes to show that you can still have your snacks and maintain a desirable figure.

Trainer Joy Di Palma suggests that one of the ways to capture the actresses lean physique is to eat a series of small meals throughout the day that are high in protein which can be very effective. She suggests to get adequate carbs like “yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and oatmeal”, but too many carbs are likely to turn into fat if regular exercise isn’t applied to your lifestyle as well and Jennifer exercises regularly. She has a consistent 2-hour yoga session that she does daily. Now, I don’t know the last time when any of us had a spare 2 hours to exercise every day, but you can get a body that looks just as young and toned with a routine like Visual Impact for Women and not have to worry about how you’re going to make time. It’s the combination of this Jennifer Aniston workout and diet that really turns the screws on gaining weight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc47LcvIxyI

The Basis Of Her Diet Is… The Zone

A salad every day and healthy snacks is a good start, but that doesn’t cover the bulk of what you should be eating throughout the day. In fact, the basis behind Jennifer Aniston’s eating decisions is the famous Zone Diet developed by Dr. Barry Sears. This popular diet encourages people to eat a balanced ratio of roughly 30% lean protein, 60% carbohydrates provided from fruits and vegetables, and 10% or less of fats that are low in Omega-6 and saturated fats.

One of the main benefits to following a diet where each meal you consume is drawn out into manageable percentages such as this is you’ll immediately experience a noticeable decrease in hunger. Lean meat protein sources, fruits, and vegetables are some of the best natural appetite suppressants and can stifle your hunger very quickly. It’s one of the reasons that salads are served before meals and fruits are included for appetizers. If you read my post on eggs, you’ll realize how powerful protein is at warding off hunger as well.

The Zone Fights Cellular Inflammation And Future Weight Gain

One of the reasons that the Zone Diet promotes this method of weight loss is because of their dedication to preventing cellular inflammation which has often been associated with weight gain.

You see, inflammation has a way of making you fat. This study, Inflammation-Sensitive Plasma Proteins Are Associated With Future Weight Gain, revealed a strong association between predictable weight gain and cellular inflammation/metabolic syndrome. When your white blood cells become inflamed, their ability to process insulin goes out of wack which results in more glucose in your blood getting stored as fat as opposed to being absorbed and used for energy.
The study tested middle-aged men and found that

Elevated ISP (Inflammation-sensitive plasma proteins) levels predict a large weight gain in middle-aged men.

The idea is that if you can present healthier nutrition into your diet, you can reduce inflammation and allow your cells to absorb more glucose instead of storing it away as fat.

Aniston Has A Secret Diet Technique For Fast Deadlines

Of course, a celebrity diet wouldn’t be complete without some weird tactic used to get slim in a short period of time… and here it is… Aniston’s infamous baby food diet. Apparently, she was required to lose weight in a short period to prepare for an upcoming movie. Well, the famous Hollywood trainer Tracy Anderson advised her to go on a diet of baby food. Yea, I didn’t believe it either.

After eating 14 baby food portions every day for 6 days, Aniston lost 7 pounds and met her goal for the movie shoot. Do I advocate this? Not really. Losing 7 pounds in less than a week should be left to Hollywood actors and their crazy demanding schedules. We actually have the time to pace ourselves and lose weight safely without sacrificing vital nutrients and muscle tissue… and so we should (pace ourselves that is)

The Jennifer Aniston Diet Is Pretty Sound

There’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors in this case. I’m sure that some Hollywood celebrities will advocate a lot of crazy ways to lose weight and keep it off, but most of them just aren’t safe. Jennifer Aniston, on the other hand, keeps things relatively simple and follows a diet full of honest healthy choices.

Yes, there’s the baby food thing that she did in order to meet a weight requirement in a pinch, but I doubt that her or anyone could stand to eat baby food for the rest of their life. Not me. If you’re trying to get a body like her and reach that Jennifer Aniston weight, eat healthy and exercise regularly.

Pizza-loading... It's a more specific type of carbo-loading.

If you’ve been contemplating what to eat before a workout in order to maximize your total fat loss, here’s an idea… don’t eat anything! It might sound strange to expose your body to exercise and training without properly fueling it first, but when you think about it, it’s a primal way of living.

Imagine barbaric nomads in the early years of human existence. Do you think that they sat around all day and took 3 planned breaks so that they could down a sandwich or two? Probably not. They were most likely hunting, foraging, and doing whatever they had to in order to survive and when the day ended, they rewarded themselves with the meat of their kill.

For a long time, trainers and diet experts have encouraged us to:

1. Fuel up (via energy drinks/carbs/bars)
2. Work out

But newer research suggests that not eating before working out has more beneficial results for those aiming to look lean and toned instead of big and bulky.

Workouts Less Than 90 Minutes Don’t Require “Fueling”

While I favorably say nothing is best what to eat before a workout along with a number of others, there’s still some debate among licensed physicians whether to eat before or after a workout depending on the training intention.

From an article in USA Today, they quoted a exercise physiology professer of the University of Leuven in Belgium, Peter Hespel, as favorably saying,

When you exercise (after fasting), your adrenalin is high and your insulin is low… That ratio is favorable for your muscles to oxidize (break down) more fatty acids.

He went on to explain that those who fast before working out tend to burn more fat because of it.

Oppositely Ron Maughan, a professor at Loughborough University for sport, exercise and health sciences stated,

That might help you get very good at burning fat, but you won’t be very good at whatever exercise it is you’re doing… Without enough fuel, you won’t get the intensity of training you need to get improvements.

While Ron Maughan makes a good point as to the intensity of the exercise restricting improvement, I’ll be referencing a study later that shows an actual improvement in muscle glycogen (stored carbohydrates to increase work ouput) as a result of fasting.

One of the common questions about not eating before a workout is

If I don’t eat before working out, won’t I feel tired and not put forth as much effort?

While this is a valid concern, it really only applies to workouts that extend beyond 60-90 minutes. Since more muscle glycogen is stored if you fast before exercising, you can expect better work output for shorter routines.

According to the study Pre-Exercise Carbohydrate And Fat Ingestion: Effects On Metabolism And Performance from the Journal of Sports Sciences, consuming more carbohydrates in the previous days and/or 3-4 hours before exercising can supply adequate energy to maintain a strong level of endurance that may last beyond 90 minutes.

From the pre-introduction,

Increased dietary carbohydrate intake in the days before completion increases muscle glycogen levels and enhances exercise performance in endurance events lasting 90 min or more. Ingestion of carbohydrate 3-4 h before exercise increases liver and muscle glycogen and enhances subsequent endurance exercise performance. The effects of carbohydrate ingestion on blood glucose and free fatty acid concentrations and carbohydrate oxidation during exercise persist for at least 6 h.

I’ve heard that this is a common method for Olympic athletes like Michael Phelps to prepare for events and get a little more competitive edge. My goal, however, is to lose more fat during my workout and that’s why I stick to more progressive strategies like Eat Stop Eat.

What Are The Benefits Of Fasted Exercise?

A study was done in 2010, Training In The Fasted State Improves Glucose Tolerance During Fat-Rich Diet, to observe the beneficial and detrimental aspects of fasted exercise.

This shot... your face.

For this study, 3 groups were created. The “CHO group” or carbohydrate group consumed a meal approximately 90 minutes before their training session, the “F group” or fasted group ate the same meal after the training session, and the control group ate the meal, but didn’t exercise. The meal consisted of 50% fat, 40% carbs, and 10% protein and the calories were hypercaloric meaning that each participant was eating slightly more than what their body would use to maintain a stable weight.

For both the CHO and F groups, they trained 4 times a week with 2 workouts lasting 60 minutes and the others lasting 90 minutes. The workouts involved a series of cycling and running.

Now, in order for your body to properly burn fat, glucose is absorbed by your cells in order to fuel the body… and maintaining adequate insulin is important for this process. Without the necessary insulin, your cells won’t absorb extra calories and the glucose becomes stored as fat. Of course exercising increases favorable insulin sensitivity, but the question is whether exercising on an empty stomach improves the process.

Some important  takeaway aspects of the study was that glucose tolerence and insulin sensitivity increased favorably for fasted participants as opposed to participants who consumed a pre-workout meal. Glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) is an important transport for glucose into the muscle cells and this increased by 28% for the F group and only 2-3% for the CHO group. So, less glucose was left to be turned into fat for the fasted group.

Muscle glycogen (carbohydrate stores in the muscle that promote improved work output … aka “You can lift a little heavier”) increased more in the F group than the CHO group.

While the CHO group was able to train a little longer due to the carbs providing sustenance, one of the major finds of the study was the amount of weight that each group gained being on a hypercaloric diet over the 6-week period. The F group gained 0.7 kg while the CHO group gained twice as much at 1.4 kg doing the same amount of exercise and eating the same food… just at a different time.

My Recommendations About What To Eat Before A Workout

While a high-carb meal appears to be the best thing to eat before a workout, it appears that this approach is better-suited for a longer competitive physical event. If you’re getting ready for a marathon, be sure that you’re properly fueled, but if you’re going out for your routine gym session to stay in shape, skip the energy drinks and pre workout food.

Remember, feeling hungry when working out is good. You probably don’t hear that enough, but it’s true. This means that you’re body is burning stored fat for fuel instead of food calories and this is exactly what you want.

Even if it seems difficult at first, there are a number of powerful fasting strategies that you can use to fight hunger cravings and ensure that you’re burning body fat instead of food calories during your workouts. Plus, training before eating is a another sneaky tactic that allows you to overeat a little and not suffer the consequences to0 badly.

There are a lot of awesome fruits out there that you can utilize to improve your diet and oranges are one of them. If you’re a calorie-counting-type then knowing how many calories in an orange can help you out in your diet.

Plus with all of the great nutrients they provide and its Glycemic Index, oranges are probably a great addition to your healthy eating habits to help you feel more energized.

How Many Calories Are In An Orange?

Depending on the size of the orange, the calories in oranges can range anywhere from 40-80 calories. Keep in mind that naturally smaller-sized oranges like Mandarin oranges will contain less calories as well.

If you prefer to drink orange juice instead of eating raw oranges, about 100ml contains the same amount of calories oranges provide and this may fluctuate slightly depending if the juice contains extra sweeteners.

Oranges Contain Tons Of Nutrients

Hey, it’s a fruit so you can expect more healthy benefits than detrimental. Like most other citrus fruits, oranges are a good source of Vitamin C, a strong antioxidant that helps to fortify your immune system. There’s a good amount of Vitamin A in oranges as well. Vitamin A does some random things like maintaining healthy mucous membranes. Fiber obtained from oranges maintains healthy mucous membranes in your colon and can help reduce your risk of colon cancer.

Oranges also contain:

• iron
• calcium
• potassium
• magnesium
• sulfur
• copper
• phosphorus

They Contain Great Diet Benefits As Well

Oranges don’t contain any fat, so that’s good, but if you’re looking to add oranges to your diet for the purpose of losing weight, you should take note of the carbohydrates as opposed to focusing strictly on how many calories in an orange. Oranges contain about 17g of carbs which is a similar amount to bananas which are considered some of the higher-carb fruits.

One of the reasons that oranges are so low in calories is because they’re 85% water. However, the calorie count has been found to be directly related to the softness of the fruit.

Oranges have a lower Glycemic Index of 40-45. Foods that have a higher GI like candy and honey can contribute to more stored fat while foods like oranges have a more gradual way of releasing energy into your system that your body can manage and burn.

Oranges are quite acidic however and should be eaten with discretion if you’re already sick. If you already have the flu and you eat an orange, you could contribute to an already upset stomach.

How Many Calories In An Orange?

As you can see there are a lot of benefits for including oranges in your diet. Not only are they rich in all sorts of nutrients like Vitamin C, A, and fiber, have a favorable Glycemic Index, but the answer to “how many calories does an orange have?” is…a very low amountl.

And you don’t have to just peel them and eat them raw. You can always have orange juice instead or put them into a fruit salad or spinach salad. It’s just another way to help your weight loss efforts.

As much as the ballet draws our attention and hearts to appreciate some great performance by phenomenal dancers, the common assumption is that ballet dancers acquire their figures from weeks of brutal anorexic-type weight loss tactics.

While this may very well be true for a large number of dancers, it’s also true that the basic guidelines of how to prepare your body to participate in this classic art-form promote a much more rational approach to diet and fitness. I’m going to talk about some of the common myths of how ballerina’s diet and also give a realistic approach to the ballerina’s guidelines.

Their Are A Few Myths To Ballerina Weight Loss

One of the common myths concerning a ballet diet is that starvation tactics are used to maintain such small weight numbers, but the truth is they require a decent amount of calories in order to maintain enough energy for their performances.

To properly maintain muscle and keep energy levels high enough to perform dancers should consume between 15-20 calories per pound of bodyweight. Yes, of course they’re very thin, but bodily exertion that requires almost all areas of your physique requires adequate energy that can’t be powered by a mere 800 calorie diet plan for someone that weighs between 85 and 130 lbs.

When someone tries to eat like a ballerina, their first instinct might be to eat very small and very infrequently which isn’t necessarily the right choice. Eating light is the right idea, but you need to spread it out throughout the course of the day in small balanced meals since dancers need a constant stream of energy to burn in order to power their bodies for their performances.

Analyzing Each Of The Diet Guidelines To Ballerina Weight Loss

I checked a number of different sources and compiled this basic set of guidelines set for the aspiring ballerina. Now, I have to say that very few of the guidelines are borderline anorexic while the rest are fairly reasonable tactics for a safe ballerina diet. The best thing to do would be to analyze each guideline and then apply real-world judgement as to whether it sounds right to you and your goals.

No matter what the serving of food, you’re supposed to divide it in half.

This might be a great tactic for those that are compulsive over-eaters and want to get binging under control, but once you’ve established an already slim physique… where does it end?

Soup can stand as an entire meal.

Sure, a hearty soup can fill you up quite well, but trying to convince me that a bowl of chicken broth is enough is just stupid.

Limit each meal to one meat protein source.

This I agree with. Protein fills you up quite easily and combining meats in one sitting is often an unnecessary attempt at maintaining muscle

Dairy products should be fat-free or low fat.

Nothing wrong with that

When drinking milk, always dilute with water or ice.

Now this is a bit of a catch 22 when you compare an equal amount of water-diluted milk with ordinary milk because you’re not only cutting fat, but you’re not getting the full serving of nutrients that straight milk provides. I’ve never tried this, but I hear this is a great way to ease up your grocery bill when it comes to buying milk.

Don’t add any sugar to drinks.

This is just fine.

You have to use homemade mayonnaise as opposed to store-bought.

Um, what is this? If you know how to shop for low-fat or healthy mayonnaise, then you don’t have to worry about morphing into Martha Stewart just to complete your sandwich. And what about… don’t use mayonnaise?

Don’t use salt.

Yea, this could be a problem for some. Other spices can substitute just fine.

Don’t drink water too close to your meal.

Well this holds a little weight since water close to mealtimes can actually make you feel fuller, thus stretching your stomach slightly. However, like I said it makes you feel fuller which could lead to you eating less. It’s your call.

Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.

Drinking plenty of water stops your body from retaining it and helps to release water weight. So yea, go for it.

Drink tea.

I guess? It won’t hurt you.

So, A Ballerina Diet Shouldn’t Mean Anorexia

Since I’m not a ballerina and know very little about the art other than what I’ve seen in the movie Black Swan, I can only assume that it’s quite competitive and can push both girls and guys to take drastic and dangerous measures to keep a lower weight.

But fundamentally, weight loss should always be analyzed in regards to how much energy one requires to carry out their normal functions throughout the day. For myself, I’m actually a full-time software engineer that sits in a cubicle all day long typing away at a computer, so I know that if I cut my calories down and head to the gym 3-4 days a week, my efforts will reward me with safe and consistent weight loss.

For someone like a professional dancer, where dancing and fitness is their entire lifestyle, more calories are a necessity to maintain strength while simultaneously working to cut out fat. Often, it’s just a trial and error process because everybody’s body is different.

If you’re looking to acquire the slim physique of a ballet dancer, listen to your body and know your limits first before taking drastic and dangerous measures that may do nothing more than increase your chances of fainting.

In a nutshell, if you lift lighter weights at higher repetitions, you’ll increase muscle size and if you lift heavier weights at lower repetitions, you’ll increase strength and toning. But an important technique that I think gets overlooked and under-appreciated is the ramping method developed by the Bill Starr 5×5 routine.

This special method of starting light and ending heavy all within the same set is a goldmine technique that’s been utilized by most football teams and professional bodybuilders designed for rapid strength increases between workouts with pretty aggressive size building simultaneously. I’m going to talk about the 5×5 workout program that’s been redeveloped since its creation and how you can tweak it slightly to meet your fitness goals.

The 5×5 Was Developed By Fitness Expert Bill Starr

Bill Starr has been credited with creating some of the most “near perfect” bodybuilding lifting routines and he has around a half dozen variations of his 5×5 workout program. The majority of Bill Starr’s 5×5 training involve setting a lifting target that would only allow you to lift 5 reps at the max and then using the 5 sets to “ramp up” to that target weight.

For example, if you test your flat bench press and realize that you can do 185 lbs 5 times at your maximum, then that’s your target. Then, for each set you do 5 reps of a portion of your target weight. Normally the portions are in 10% increments of your target weight.

1. 60% of target = 111 lbs (5 x 111 lbs)
2. 70% of target = 129.5 lbs (5 x 129.5 lbs)
3. 80% of target = 148 lbs (5 x 148 lbs)
4. 90% of target = 166.5 lbs (5 x 166.5 lbs)
5. Target = 185 lbs (5 x 185 lbs)

One of the original routines from Starr only calls for squats, bench press, barbell rows, deadlifts, and military or incline presses laid out in this fashion.

Monday

• Squat
• Bench Press
• Barbell Row

Wednesday

• Squat
• Military or Incline Press
• Deadlift

Friday

• Squat
• Bench
• Barbell Row

Why Is This Workout Effective?

The real secret to the effectiveness of this rep/set choice is the ramping up to the target weight and then increasing your target by 2.5% weekly. This allows a 10% increase in your target lift weight in about 8 weeks.

Another common variation of this 5×5 routine is to eliminate the ramping factor and use the same weight for all 5 sets of the same exercise.

Another reason why the 5×5 workout is so popular is because of its effectiveness on “hard-gainers” or people whose body type makes it very difficult to add muscle. Due to the continued push to increase weight each week and the ramping procedure, gaining muscle becomes much easier for hard-gainers… like myself.

Body Building Vs. Looking Lean

Now, to maximize size in the least amount of lifting time, Bill Starr recommended using multiple muscle exercises like squats, dead lifts, military presses, and bench presses. This way you can target more muscles in a shorter period of time.

If you’re aiming for a more chiseled and lean look as opposed to a body builder, then you’ll need to target individual muscle groups with other exercises as opposed to solely these multiple muscle exercises. The problem with multiple muscle exercises is they create rounder and thicker looking muscles, while isolation exercises promote a more angular look that looks great when you have a low enough body fat percentage.

The 5×5 Works For Me… An Ectomorph

I’ve tried quite a few different rep/set variations, but I believe that 5×5 with or without the ramping technique is the most effective for myself. Even when attempting sets of 10-12, I would put on some size, but my muscles looked thick and bulky instead of angular and chiseled as I intended.

The gradual increase of each set is designed to warm-up your muscles and create more gradual tension and stress that promotes dense muscles and size simultaneously. Plus, when it’s only 5 sets of 5, my workouts don’t last as long and I don’t have to spend my whole evening sweating.

The important thing is to make sure you work all the important areas like arms, chest, shoulders, back, abs, and even legs. Once you strive to hit all of those in balance, your progress will become more obvious to friends and family.

And I don’t think that you should start either, just to be clear. But knowing just what a healthy potassium level can do for your body is just one more tricky tactic that can help you win the good fight in the long run. Here, I’ll talk about just how potassium affects your weight loss efforts, what are some good foods with potassium, and how you might infer if you’re not getting enough potassium right now.

What Role Does Potassium Play In Weight Loss?

The initial reason that potassium was thought to help weight loss is because of its strong adverse affects to sodium which has been associated with easy weight gain.

Potassium is actually used to break down glycogen stored in the liver and muscles and convert it into sugar glucose that fuels your cells. When you lack potassium, the concentrated glycogen form doesn’t release for more energy for your cells and can leave you feeling weak. This is one of the reasons that most diets contain ample amounts of fruits and vegetables high in potassium.

And besides just helping energy levels and weight loss, potassium does a number of other beneficial things like:

• Helps your kidneys and heart to work efficiently
• Helps build muscle
• Regulates blood pressure levels
• Stops against retention of excess fluids
• Helps the release of protein, carbohydrates, and fat that occur during metabolism to provide energy
• Increases nerve functionality

I’ve mentioned before that just having muscles causes your metabolism to burn more calories and ensuring that you have sufficient potassium can help build muscle and increase your resting metabolic rate meaning you don’t have to do as much cardio as you once thought.

Sources Of Potassium

There are countless great potassium sources, but the answer to “what foods are high in potassium?” are:

• bananas
• avocados
• cantaloupes
• tomatoes
• potatoes
• lima beans
• salmon
• cod
• flounder
• chicken
• lean meat

It’s important to note that taking potassium in supplements like vitamins is fine, but amounts over 99 mg can possibly irritate your stomach and cause discomfort. Fortunately, there’s no real way to overdose on potassium if you get it from natural food sources. Just be cautious when using potassium tablets.

Potassium Deficiency Symptoms

Since potassium is essential for maintaining fluid and electrolyte levels, symptoms of deficiency can be similar to that of dehydration by feeling weak or tired. However, potassium is excreted from our body through sweat so it’s important to constantly replenish your supply if using to help lose weight. Potassium is also lost from foods when they are cooked or process making raw foods some of the best sources.

Symptoms of potassium deficiency include:

• Muscle cramping
• Weakness and fatigue
• Irregular heartbeat rhythms
• Irritability
• Overly dry skin
• Extreme thirst
• Depression
• Feeling nauseous or vomiting
• Insomnia
• Diarrhea
• Headaches
• Constipation
• High Cholesterol Levels

Use High Potassium Foods To Your Advantage

It’s really a combination of a lot of small actions done in a consistent manner that will create long-lasting weight loss and I think that ensuring you have enough potassium is just another strong brick to put up on the wall.

This doesn’t mean you have to turn your world upside down and go potassium crazy. Just keep it in mind and don’t fuss if you have to eat a banana every one in awhile. You’ll be doing your body good!

It’ll always be worse to have a major potassium deficiency anyway. Plus, if you get adequate potassium, you’ll be sustaining your energy levels to properly build head-turning muscle that you can show off at the beach..

Over-consumption of sugar is actually more common than you think and it can be avoided by taking a smart calorie-based approach and sticking to it. I’m going to discuss how much sugar you should be having each day, what the difference is between refined and natural sugars, and your options as far as safe sugar substitutes go.

How Much Sugar Should You Have A Day?

With so many potential health problems that have come about as a result of too much sugar, as a rule of thumb, the amount of sugar you consume should not exceed 30% of your daily caloric intake. It appears to be a consensus among most nutritionists that less than 40 g of sugar per day is optimum.

According to the American Heart Association, men should consume around 37 grams (7.4 tsp) and women should consume about 25 grams (5 tsp). If you’re diabetic, you should be consulting a licensed physician about your recommended sugar intake per day which is usually less than 10% of your daily caloric count.

And it’s odd that people would approach this issue from a gram-based perspective when you should really approach this type of food like any other, from a more caloric-based accession. Each day, you should really strive to consume a food combination that’s 55% carbohydrates, 20% fats, and 25% protein. When you focus on percentage of calories as opposed to the mass of your consumption, losing weight and eating less becomes much easier.

Natural Vs. Refined Sugar

It’s important to note that not all sugars are bad when thinking about how many grams of sugar per day. Refined sugars, sugars that don’t come from natural sources like milk and fruit, are the ones that should be reduced or even eliminated from your diet. And as a side note, surprisingly, some low-fat milks contain more sugar in order to make up for lack of taste so you can’t even be completely certain with natural sugar sources unless you read the labels.

Common refined sugars include

• Table sugar
• High fructose corn syrup
• Corn Sugar
• Sucrose

Those are the sugars that you want to cut back on and here are a number of reasons to do so:

• Increases the development of wrinkles and aging skin.
• Increases your risk of acquiring osteoporosis
• May lead to rotting teeth
• Spikes your blood sugar level leading to “sugar crashes”
• Major cause of obesity
• Can become addictive
• Sugar is empty calories (No nutritional value)
• Excessive consumption may lead to diabetes
• Can lead to hypoglycemia
• Can lead to candida (serious yeast infection)

I have a friend that actually walks around drinking an entire 2 liter bottle of soda maybe twice a day. Holy cow. It’s guys like that that I really worry about some of the bullet points above.

Popular Sugar Substitutes

Now of course, you don’t have to completely remove all foods that contain refined sugars and start hating your existence to start becoming healthier. There are a number of viable sugar substitutes. For instance, here are some of the most popular sugar substitutes that you probably have already heard of but are not using:

Equal/NutraSweet

This sugar substitute has been sitting out on diner tables for decades and has been known to be 180 times sweeter than regular sugar. However, it can’t be used in baking since it breaks down when exposed to the heat and people born with phenylketonuria should not consume it.

Splenda

You can actually bake with this one and it’s a whopping 600 times sweeter than sugar. It’s also one of the safest, contains less than 4 calories per packet, and has one of the closest tastes to sugar yet.

Sweet and Low

This is another popular one and it’s about 300 times sweeter than regular sugar. However, it was at one time linked to bladder cancer and was banned in Canada. In 2001, the ban was later lifted due to new research.

Stevia

This substitute has just recently come around, but has been quite popular in Japan. It’s been recorded as about 250 times sweeter than regular sugar, but can have a licorice-type after taste. There is still come controversy about how safe it actually is.

How Many Grams Of Sugar Per Day?

Like I mentioned before, the acceptable amount of refined sugars that appears to be a consensus among most nutritionist is around 40 grams or 30% of your overall daily caloric intake. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to eliminate as much refined sugar from your diet as you can.

You might be amazed at just how sweet and tasty fruit is if you’re not really into it. For people that love sugar, maybe you’ll want to consider a fruit and vegetable detox just for kicks to explore your dietary options.

But even if you don’t want to completely kick sugar after thinking about how much sugar per day, there are a number of substitutes that I’ve mentioned above that are great for cooking or sprinkling on your cereal and in your coffee. The point is to just try something new if you sense that you’re eating too much sugar. The least that can happen is you’ll get a bit healthier.

Photo Attributions: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net, kidjay / flickr.com

I know. That joke was simply earth-shattering, but all kidding aside, there are a lot of natural foods in the world that provide a whole millage of nutrients, but blueberries are one of the absolute best.

They have great nutrients, they’ve been shown to prevent certain diseases and cancers, they taste great, and ultimately the calories are minuscule. If you’re looking for something to add to your diet to stay thin without sacrificing taste, you can’t go wrong with the blueberry.

How Many Calories In Blueberries?

1 cup of blueberries contains roughly 80-90 calories. And you can fit about 50 blueberries into 1 cup, so each blueberry is between 1 and 2 calories. If you base your caloric intake on a 2000 calorie diet, then having a cup of blueberries is less than 5% of your recommended daily amount.

The calories blueberries provide are actually so few that you could burn them off by performing 30 minutes of a basic household chore. Heck, you could be playing cards if your really wanted to. The arm movements alone would be enough.

Blueberries Contain Some Great Nutrients

There was actually a comparison done between 60 different fruits and vegetables and blueberries placed first for having excellent nutritional value. Blueberries have also been shown to increase memory function, lower your blood-sugar levels, and act as an anti-inflammatory.

Blueberries calories contain glucose to give us energy and fructose to provide the sweet taste. And since they have a little bit of fiber, about 4 g per cup, they’ll help you to feel fuller.

Like most other fruits, blueberries are a good source of antioxidants that help to keep your skin young and fresh, plus they provide adequate Vitamin C and Vitamin K to strengthen your immune system and fight sickness. They’re actually such a good source of antioxidants that you would actually need to consume 5 servings of any other fruit or vegetable to get as many antioxidants as provided in 4 oz of blueberries.

Not only do blueberries provide some basic nutrients, but studies have shown that they decrease your risk of developing certain ovarian and colon cancers, plus they can protect your brain against Alzheimer’s disease. And eating 100 g of blueberries each day has even shown to stimulate the growth of new brain cells.

Take Advantage Of The Calories In Blueberries

Blueberries are considered one of those “super foods” that provide a multitude of different nutrients and health benefits, and it doesn’t hurt that they taste great too.

I’ve found that the most effective way to use blueberries is to give a not-so-great-tasting healthy food item a little zing with a sprinkle of blueberries. For instance, if you don’t like the idea of whole-bran muffins or sugarless oatmeal, mix some sweet-tasting blueberries in there. The same can go for a bland cereal or plain salad.

One of the most common reasons for not eating healthy is because some healthy food just tastes bland. Well, add a few of these berries, turn that idea around, and start losing some weight!

Is this real?!

Since I began running my own weight loss web site, I’ve come across a variety of different diets all making similar claims of helping you to drop pounds in less time.

However, the GM Motors Diet or GM Motor Diet is one of the most outrageous eating plans that I’ve researched in a long time. For one day you might be eating nothing but bananas and milk while on another day you’re forced to down six raw tomatoes. I’m not necessarily saying that it won’t work, but geez, it sure seems like a lot of trouble to reach a goal that could be just as easily attainable with a less sporadic strategy.

It Began Inside The General Motors Corporation

The General Motors Diet was created to keep those employed by the General Motors Corporation healthy and in shape since individuals working on the line were prone to fatigue and endorphin imbalance due to lack of movement and repeating the same stressful action for prolonged periods of time.

As most GM employees are middle-aged and often don’t have time to exercise outside of their demanding work schedules, the idea of offering a way to stay healthy appeared to be a great idea, and it is. Many companies often have in-house gyms that are exclusive to employees that can be used after shift hours. That sounds pretty boss to me.

When I was in a previous rock band, there was a girlfriend of the bass player who mentioned that she had worked in a bread factory on the line and it really messed her up mentally. She found that she was tired all the time, would have extreme mood swings, and often found herself in a deep depression all from the simple monotony! I would hope that more corporations would encourage a little variety and improved health down the chain of command.

Promises Of The Diet

There’s no real sugar-coating this, but the creators of this diet have made promises of 10-17 pounds lost in a week due to the diet’s detoxification element. Often, describing a diet with the word “detoxify” means substantially lowering your caloric intake to dangerous levels, however this diet appears to be a safe exception along with the Fruit and Vegetable detox which I’ve outlined in another post.

But… just analyzing how much is eaten on the diet without requiring exercise alongside, their claim of losing a minimum of 10 pounds is almost absurd and flat-out dangerous.

From my own personal experience, when I began using the Eat Stop Eat diet, I saw a change of 6 pounds over a period of two weeks. I can honestly attest to this since I know that a large portion was probably water weight, but the true amount of fat I lost was somewhere around 3-4 pounds and that was over a period of two weeks.

So I’m not trying to stomp on this diet, but I’m very skeptical to believe that one could lose 10 pounds in a week without passing out dead soon after. Heck it might be up to 4 pounds if you’re extremely lucky and maybe starting from a high weight to begin, but anything over is flat out dangerous and shouldn’t be attempted unless recommended by a licensed physician.

The Official Rules Of The Diet

One of the major contrasts of the General Motors Diet compared to other popular diets like Atkins and South Beach is the day to day diet schedule as opposed to weekly or even monthly plans used by others. Overall the diet involves consuming a very unique mixture of fruits and vegetables along with milk, rice, and soup and it’s recommended to take a 3-day break before attempting again. I completely agree and suggest consuming some more meat to make up for such a low protein consumption.

Here’s a list of the only beverages that are allowed during this diet:

1. Club Soda
2. Water – 10 glasses must be drunk every single day
3. Plain Black Coffee
4. Herbal or Leaf Tea
5. Fruit Juice detailed on day 7 of the diet.
6. Milk, only on a certain day

If you plan on repeating this 7-day diet, alcohol is permitted after the first run-through.

There’s also a special soup that goes along with the diet intended to be eaten at any time and in any quantity. The ingredients are:

• 23 oz of water
• 6 onions
• 2 green peppers
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 whole cabbage
• 1 bunch of celery
• Seasonings or herbs for additional taste

But let’s talk about how each day is laid out for this diet:

Day 1

Eat all the fruits that you want except for bananas. I’m guessing it’s because of the number of calories and carbs.

Day 2

Start the day with a baked potato with one slice of butter. The rest of the day is confined to vegetables either raw or cooked.

Day 3

Any fruits and vegetable minus bananas and the potato.

Day 4

Up to 8 bananas and 3 glasses of milk. Plus you can have some of the special GM soup here.

Day 5

You’re supposed to eat two 10 oz portions of beef, 6 tomatoes, and drink 12 glasses of water today instead of 10.

Day 6

Today you eat as much beef and vegetables as you please.

Day 7

For the last day, you can have as much brown rice, fruit juice, and vegetables as you wish.

The GM Diet Indian Version is almost exactly the same except that beef is substituted for cottage cheese or more brown rice. This would really only affect days 5 and 6. If we’re talking about the General Motors Diet Vegetarian Version, then all of the beef is substituted with just brown rice.

So, Is The General Motors Diet To Be Taken Seriously?

Like I’ve said before, I’ve read over a lot of different diets, but this one is just flat out… weird. Sure you can try it out and it sounds like there’s room to lose a few pounds. I just hope that you really like vegetables and bananas. And what the heck are you going to do on the “all milk day” if you’re lactose intolerant?

This diet limits the consumption of meat to two days a week. This isn’t nearly enough to sustain healthy muscle tissue weekly since your body can only use a certain amount of protein each hour before turning the rest into fat. If you’re interesting in having a muscular look, you should be consuming roughly 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight which is about 75% of your total body weight. And you should be consuming this protein in even portions throughout the day, every day.

Really, this diet sounds like you can probably lose weight, but at what cost? Stuffing down bananas and raw tomatoes? I guess it’s just not for me, but try it out for yourself. I would love to hear your comments whether positive or negative.

Photo Attribution: mag3737/flickr.com

You have to face it. No one is going to go for a guy that has huge biceps with a set of shrimpy shoulders. Sorry! That’s why it’s important to spread the focus of your routines to cover all the major areas including the shoulders.

The trapezius is actually a pretty big muscle that runs from your neck down to your mid-lower back and the main functions of your traps muscle is to support the shoulder blade, help it move properly, and to support the weight of the arms in general.

And when you consistently perform trap exercises, it looks impressive. When you don’t, it looks oddly weird if everything else is in pretty good standing.

Low-Intensity Exercises For Trapezius Pain

Trapezius pain can result from continuous repetitive motions even if the intensity is very low and when rest periods between motions are short or nonexistent, this can lead to longer-lasting discomfort.

One common cause of pain in the trap muscle is holding a telephone between your shoulder and ear for prolonged periods of time. I’ve personally experienced this before since I work in an office setting and I might need to offer support to a customer for well over an hour. Unfortunately, our phones aren’t quite ergonomic for comfort.

Luckily, trapezius exercises for the purpose of easing pain are very easy and don’t require any supplemental weight.

Scapular Pinches

• This is done by sort of pinching your shoulders in and rolling them back slowly.

Neck Side Bending

• This one is easy enough by simply tilting your head slightly like your going to touch your ear to your shoulder. Stop when you feel the stretch.
• Hold this position briefly.
• Repeat in the other direction.

Neck Rotation

• Look over your shoulder and hold briefly.
• Repeat on the opposite side.

Dead Lifts

Now, if we’re talking about an exercise to strengthen the muscle fibers and build mass, you’ll want to consider the dead lift. Most novice weight-lifters don’t realize that the dead lift is great for your traps, but also your lower back, shoulders, back of your legs, and a lot of your torso as well.

• Start with the bar on the floor with both feet under slightly less than shoulder-width apart.
• Grab the bar either overhand or one over and one under. If doing over/under reverse your hand positions halfway through your set.
• Bend your knees slightly to reach over the bar.
• Let your chest flex and lift.
• Pull up in a controlled manner letting the bar roll over your thighs until standing erect. Don’t lean back at the top.

Shrugs

Shrugs are one of the more obvious trap workouts to most weight-trainers that will create fast improvement. However, you don’t have to confine shrugs to just dumbbells which is the norm. Shrugs can also be done with a barbell to create subtle variation and involve additional muscle groups.

You can check out the demonstrational video I posted here about deltoid exercises.

Dumbbell Shrugs

• Hold a dumbbell in each hand with palms facing your torso.
• Lift the dumbbells with your shoulders as high as you can go keeping your arms extended at all times.
• Pause for a moment at the top.
• Slowly release your shoulders back to starting position.

• This is essentially the same movement as dumbbell shrugs, but with a barbell. You’ll find that you can increase your total weight slightly since both arms are acting as support.
• Make sure that you have a pronated grip (overhand) when holding the barbell in front of you.

Barbell Shrug Behind the Back

• When holding the barbell behind your back, again be sure you’re using the correct grip position. Hold the bar so that your palms are facing away from your body.

Use Trapezius Exercises To Round Out Your Shoulders

Like I’ve said before, when guys work out their traps, they look pretty impressive, but when they don’t, something doesn’t look quite right. Unfortunately, in the world of weight-training, looking good and muscular requires balance throughout almost every major body part.

But if you’re exercising your traps just to ease a little pain, don’t worry about adding any weight for the time being. Just go through a few of the motions I’ve described here and take it one day at a time. Once you begin feeling normal muscle stress instead of pain, you’ll be ready to add on the weight and start increasing the size.

And if that wasn’t enough to convince you, eggs are also great for dieters due to their very low calorie count per egg, plus the protein acts as a natural appetite suppressant eliminating your hunger for hours afterwards.

How Much Protein Is In An Egg And What Are The Benefits?

An entire egg contains 12% of our daily recommended value of protein, or around 6 grams. If you were to have a 4-egg omelet with vegetables, you’d have a great protein boost and wouldn’t feel hungry for at least another 5 hours or so.

The reasons protein is so important is because it’s vital to repairing torn muscles after exercising, helps prevent against muscle loss as you age, and acts as a natural appetite suppressant that will keep you feeling energized and fuller for longer periods of time.

There was a 2005 study done at Wayne State University to compare the impact of protein in eggs on a subject’s appetite. The overweight participants were either fed two eggs and toast or a bagel and yogurt for breakfast. The study found that those who ate the eggs instead of the bagels and yogurt felt fuller and didn’t eat as much during the course of the day.

I can actually testify to similar effects happening to me only a few days ago when I had four eggs for lunch and my fiancee kept asking me if I was hungry hours later when we met up to go to a few bars downtown. I could honestly reply with “No, I’m actually not hungry right now.”

Eggs Are One Of The Best Sources Of Protein

What makes eggs such a great source of protein is the low calorie count (about 70-75 calories) and also the essential amino acids they contribute to our bodies. One of the reasons that egg protein is so sought after by those striving to build lean muscle is because of how cheap eggs are in comparison to expensive protein powders and bars. Heck, even a cheap tub of protein powder can cost upwards of $40-$50, but answering how much protein in an egg is next to nothing haha.

One of the drawbacks of eggs is that they each contain about 200 mg of cholesterol compared to your daily recommended amount of 300. This has been known to scare dieters away from eating eggs, but new research has found that cholesterol from your diet may not affect your blood-cholesterol levels as intensely as we once thought.

There’s actually been an improvement in the cholesterol amounts in eggs due to the food and manner in which chickens are fed resulting in 13% less cholesterol per egg since data collected over 10 years ago.

Is It A Good Idea To Just Stick To Egg Whites?

While cutting out yolks to lower your daily caloric intake sounds like a good plan, you still need to consider that the protein in egg whites is often less than half. The white may contain only about 17 calories which is great, but the entire egg is still only about 70 which is a real drop in the bucket. Plus, the yolk contains additional Vitamin B12 that’s a strong contributor to breaking down existing fat cells and improving muscle contraction during exercise.

A good alternative would be to mix two egg whites with one full egg. This way you wouldn’t have to sacrifice as much protein, the calories would stay relatively low, and you can still enjoy the taste of a good yolk.

How Much Protein In An Egg?

The egg has been described as one of the nearly perfect sources to get your daily protein. It’s been shown that having a single egg each day can not only improve your muscle function, but keep you from eating too much later.

Of course you have to watch how you prepare them. Don’t ruin the healthy benefits with too much butter, but don’t be afraid to have a couple seeing as how the calories are so low anyway.