Ready for Day 6 of my week-long business trip? No, I’m not going to start talking about the business issues – but hopefully the past several posts are giving you ideas you can use the next time you travel. You are probably also seeing that while I’m far from perfect, I take my fitness and eating very seriously. My point being that being fit, strong, heart-healthy, low-fat, muscular, and healthy overall isn’t a part-time thing. Perfection isn’t required, but dedication is.
If you are already fit, you know this. If you aren’t, then perhaps you can see that some extra effort is sometimes required. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that being in great shape is easy. It’s not. And while your workouts are important, they aren’t as important as your eating.
And unfortunately, eating right is a lot harder than exercising. (At least for most people.)
What I’d like to hear from you on, in comments for this post, are you own ideas and experiences about how to eat right and get in good workouts while traveling. You don’t need to write a lot – just join in and share some ideas.
Day 6 – Eating
I was speaking today at a conference so I knew that eating was going to be a challenge. But, like I keep saying, all it takes is good planning ahead of time.
My breakfasts were just like yesterday in the sense of lower quantity because I’m on a lighter day, and similar to the other (more…)
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There are many articles on this site dealing with food – some of our most popular deal with junk food here and here.
Others deal with protein.
And of course, we recently dealt with eating for muscle gain vs eating for fat loss.
But one question that gets asked time after time is what to eat before/after your workouts in order to maximize muscle gain without adding fat.
I’m going to jump right into my recommendations and save the explanations for the end – I’m betting some of you don’t care about the explanations as much as the action plan!
Pre and Post Workout Eating Guidelines
Important preamble: except for #4, these guidelines apply to all of you, whether you are trying to gain mass, lose fat, or just maintain. No matter who you are, you should do about the same thing with your eating in the window before/during/after your lifting workouts. The main difference between gaining and losing overall bodyweight is not different overall eating plans. The difference comes down to total weekly calories. More on that here.
1. Never train on an empty stomach. I’m talking about weight training here (there are mixed reports of doing cardio in (more…)
Continue reading about What To Eat Before And After Your Workout
Are you trying to lose fat? Or to gain muscle?
That probably seems like a big question, huh? In fact, I get questions from readers all the time asking things like “what are the best guidelines for eating when you want to lose fat?” or “I’m trying to add a lot of muscle – how should I eat?”.
It seems that people consider these two goals to require vastly different strategies.
What I might have to say about this may surprise you:
It’s that the two plans are not so different as you might think.
In fact, whether you are trying to shed fat or gain muscle, your eating plan would be nearly identical!
The Similarities
In both cases you want to:
- eat frequent meals (every 2 to 3 hours or 5 to 8 meals a day)
- eat natural foods – plants or animals that are in a form close to how they occur naturally; a box of Fruit Loops obviously is as unnatural as Mark McGuire’s homerun record
- each day you want 30% to 40% of your calories to come from proteins, 30% to 60% to come from carbs, and 15% to 30% to come from fats; more carbs on workout days, less carbs on non-workout days
- eat protein with every meal
- eat a veggie or fruit with every meal
- eat breakfast!
- eat more carbs around your workouts, less other times of day
- eat protein around your workouts
- don’t eat high fats and high simple sugars in the same meal
Continue reading about Eating To Gain Muscle Or Lose Fat – It’s Almost The Same
I know I just sent you Tom’s incredible article critiquing the TV show The Biggest Loser. Well, I happened to just see this week’s episode.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I won’t repeat Tom’s list of all the positives here. But I do have one specific that astonished me…
One of the trainers mentioned to a contestant – a woman over 300 pounds – that she needed to be eating 1200 calories that day.
Wait a minute – 1200 calories? Only 1200????!!!???
That is a HUGE calorie deficit. At 300+ pounds, that’s about a 3000 calorie deficit! (See p. 106 to 108 in tom’s book for calculations.)
The show didn’t explain if that was this woman’s target every day or just for that day. It could be that they are doing some sophisticated calorie cycling where you have some very low days followed by more moderate low calorie days. But (more…)
“Daddy, what’s that?” asked my daughter as I added a teaspoon of powder to my glass of milk.
“It’s called creatine,” I said, adding another half scoop.
“Why are you taking it?” she asked, really only half-interested. What she really wanted to know was “when will you be done so we can play?” but she’s getting more patient as she gets older.
“Well, there are several reasons. One is that it helps me feel less sore after my workouts. Plus it is supposed to help your muscles store more water and give you a little extra power when you lift weights.”
“Oh.”
I could tell she wasn’t really interested. I stirred my creatine-and-milk, and drank about half. I noticed some of the creatine had settled so I started to stir again.
“Is that like steroids?” she added, a wrinkled eyebrow and concerned expression on her face.
Wow, I didn’t even know she had heard of steroids.
“No way, honey. Steroids work on a completely different system. And steroids are illegal. For good reason too – they have severe side effects that can be really damaging.
“Creatine is a natural substance,” I assured her, “that you can find in red meat. It’s been tested by scientists for decades on thousands and thousands of people with negligible side effects. Some people feel a little boated from it, but that’s rare.
“So daddy’s not using anything illegal.”
She thought about this for a moment. Then added, “But you don’t really need it do you? Does everyone who lift weights take it?”
I could tell she was getting more interested in this conversation. And I was also getting worried that I wasn’t going to have all the answers she needed!
“No, not everyone takes it, because it certainly isn’t needed. In fact, for some people – called ‘non-responders’ – creatine has no impact whatsoever. But for me, I do find that it helps me recover better on the days I don’t lift. That way I’m less sore when I lift the next time and that comfort makes it more likely that I’ll lift heavier weight.
“Now, some people talk about creatine giving them a ‘pump’ – that’s when their muscles feel really powerful during a workout because of the blood pumping to the muscles. However, scientific studies have failed to confirm this as a statistically valid effect. It’s true that creatine does allow the muscles to store more water and that can give the appearance of larger muscle mass. But that’s water, not blood flow. So you might like the way you look better in a t-shirt.
“If you wanted a better pump before your workout, you’d be better off with a small amount of caffeine,” I added.
She looked at me with disgust. “Why would I ever want to have a better pump before my workout?”
I laughed. Of course, at her pre-teen age she’s not interested in big muscles.
I finished the rest of my creatine-and-milk and started to clean up. She wasn’t done…
“Sometimes you mix it with that other powder – the protein powder,” she noted. “Why?”
“Purely convenience honey – if I’m making a mix, I might was well do both at the same time. But they have nothing to do with each other. Protein powder is a nutritional supplement, like a vitamin or food substitute. Creatine works in a different mechanism and isn’t really related to nutrition.” She seemed to understand.
“You said before that there are different kinds of protein. Are there different kinds of creatine?”
I wanted to keep this simple for her, so I said “Creatine comes in different forms, but all anybody needs is creatine monohydrate. It’s the most tested, and the cheapest. The other forms haven’t been proven to be any better and they cost a lot more, so I don’t know why anybody uses them.”
“Does it matter what time of day you take the creatine,” she asked. “I think I’ve seen you mix it at night sometimes and in the morning sometimes.”
“Timing really doesn’t matter,” I informed her. “The key thing is to keep a constant supply of creatine because the body can’t store it for very long. You just need to take about 5 to 10 g a day. I go for around 7 g because most studies show that going up to 10 doesn’t have any benefits. 7 g is like a teaspoon and a half. But some guys think they need to take it just before a workout – it’s related to that myth about the ‘pump’. It’s just not true and people believe that because they don’t understand the biochemistry involved. It is pretty complicated, but the short answer is that the exact timing doesn’t matter.”
Vegan and Vegetarian Overload!
If you subscribe to other fitness and muscle building groups, you are no doubt being inundated with talk about vegan and vegetarian diets.
I’m getting several emails every day from colleagues I otherwise respect highly for their fitness advice. And they are all asking me to promote their latest vegetarian diet plan!
Let me say two things:
a) I think it’s a bit of a farce b) I am not going to try to sell you a vegan diet plan in this post! I mention the second point because it’s very tempting – (more…)
We all want nice abs.
But let me tell you, if your belly sticks out farther than your chest, then you are wasting your time with abs exercises.
As a guy, if you are 15% bodyfat or more, you aren’t going to see your abs even if you spend 1 hour a day on crunches, planks, leg raises, swiss-ball what’s-it-called, or blow-torch-ab-belly-scissor sprints. (Ok, I made that last one up, but you’ve probably seen some over-hyped exercises by some fitness model promising that you’ll have a beautiful stomach if you just do 8 minutes a day of this special exercise – it’s a lie!)
Seriously, and honestly, stand up next to a mirror. Without sucking in your gut, does your bellow stick out farther than your chest? No cheating now!
(Of course, this test only applies to guys. For women, well, I guess your belly shouldn’t be sticking out farther than your chest unless you are pregnant, but you can still read on…)
Does Your Stomach Stick Out More Than Your Pecs?
If not (meaning, your stomach is not too flabby now), then adding abdominal exercises could be worthwhile. Because you are likely lean enough that you can start to see your abs.
But if you’ve got a big belly, all that time doing abs work is a waste because your fat is covering it up!
And no, doing abs exercises (no matter which ones) isn’t going to help you lose fat.
For fat loss, you need a good diet, a good muscle-building program so you burn more fat even while resting, and a decent cardio program.
I’d like to think that continuing to read WorldFitnessNetwork.com will help you make consistent progress. But let’s face it – this is a free blog and people aren’t as motivated by things they get for free (unless you are part of the LeanLifters premier membership). You might benefit more, and faster, from something like Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.
I mentioned yesterday that he’s having a special deal that includes lots of additional free reports but that expires today – July 17 – so if you learn best from a 300+ page ebook by a true expert that I am humbled to be associated with, do it quickly. You can learn more here: http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/burn-the-fat-feed-the-muscle/
But this post isn’t about Tom.
This is about you.
And your time.
Just like I tell guys “Don’t Do Biceps Curls Until You Can Do 15 Consecutive Chin-Ups“, I’m saying to you now…
“Don’t Do Abs Exercises If Your Belly Sticks Out Farther Than Your Chest!”
Said differently, if you have belly fat, your time is better spent on learning how to eat right to lose fat, lifting weights to build muscle in the rest of your body (especially legs), and increasing the intensity of your cardio.
Ok, you probably understand that you can’t see your abs underneath fat.
But I bet you are clinging onto some hope that doing 100 (more…)
Continue reading about Belly Protrude Farther Than Chest? Don’t Do Abs Exercises!
Everyone seems to really like Tom’s posts so today I’m going to send you a link to a new article he wrote on his site.
Ever wonder what a champion bodybuilder – with an amazing physique – eats to promote both muscle growth and fat loss?
I bet a few of these things will surprise you.
http://budurl.com/burnthefatfoods
Even if you don’t think of yourself as a “bodybuilder”, you should check out his lists of top 10 foods.
What do you think? How closely do your eating habits match his? Come back and make a comment after you check it out.
Oh – and anyone who orders Tom’s book in the next 3 days will get a free copy of my new ebook Train Better To Gain More & Lose More ! Just email me your receipt and I’ll get you my ebook!
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