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“I run 30 minutes every day, so why is it that I never seem to look any leaner?”

Have you ever found yourself asking this kind of question? Lowering your body fat levels can be more difficult than building muscle if you let it be, but I get the feeling that many of us make it a bit tougher than it really needs to be.

Chances are that if you have been weight lifting for a decent period of time, you’ve managed to increase your metabolism by adding more muscle to your body. Each weight lifting session also burns calories and helps you get closer to your goals.

Adding cardio into your routine can only help out when it comes to lowering your body fat levels, but cardio is not the first factor you should be looking at to help you get leaner. A few tweaks to the way you eat might really be what you need the most to start seeing a difference.

When you’re trying to lean down and get rid of some extra fat, start by focusing you’re attention on the F.A.T.

F.A.T. = Frequency. Amount. Type.

This is a simple way for you to remember to get rid of fat by focusing on F.A.T., or the Frequency, Amounts, and Types of food you’re eating.

Don’t be one of those fools who runs their guts out only to come home and mess it all up by the way you eat. I know that you might feel that you’re getting something more out of running hard because it’s so tough to do, but seriously, do the easier things first and then move on to the tough things, especially if the easier things help you more.

Frequency: In general, if you’re one of those people that skips breakfast, eats a little salad with the light dressing and diet soda for lunch, and then loads up with a massive plate of food at night… Well, you’re taking all the right steps to get fat, and switching to 5-6 smaller meals a day is going to make a big difference.

Eating three meals a day is better than one, but eating 5-6 a day keeps a steady flow of nutrients into your body. Remember, if your body knows it’s going to be getting food regularly, it doesn’t need to store away food as fat on your body. Here’s a sample schedule:

• 7:00am- Breakfast
• 10:00am- Morning snack
• 12:30pm- Lunch
• 3:30pm- Lunch part 2
• 6:00pm- Dinner
• 8:30pm- Dinner part 2

Look, getting into this kind of schedule isn’t that bad. Bring a piece of fruit or whatever else with you for your morning snack. Eat your lunch in 2 shifts, same thing with your dinner, and you’re there. That’s it. Keep it simple.

The biggest reason we fail to ever do 6 meals is because our minds think reasons to justify our current habits. You’ll say to yourself that you don’t have time to plan and cook 6 meals a day. Guess what, you don’t have to. Take your regular 3 meals you’re already eating (hopefully), and work on the timing a bit until you have 6 as we’ve outlined above.

Amounts: Like I’ve said before, losing fat isn’t a simple matter of calories in and calories out. If you eat too little or too infrequently, your metabolism will slow down. Now, this isn’t that hard either, but you’ll need to pay a little bit of attention to make sure that you’re getting the right amount of a few types of foods.

Watch your intake of your carbs, proteins, and vegetables. Use the portion sizes method, and if that isn’t good enough for you, go ahead and count out your calories. The portions method is only going to require a moment of your thought, you’ve got this totally under control.

Types: OK, first off, let’s make the point that there are many ways that you can get your protein in. Just getting at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight each day isn’t all you need to think about.

Trying to get your protein from a greasy sausage isn’t the same thing as going for a lean steak, chicken, salmon, or some eggs. Getting your carbs from the white-bread bun of your McChicken sandwich isn’t really going to cut it either.

Sure, they’ve all got protein and carbs, but white bread is not substitute for whole grains, and the fact that something has protein in it doesn’t erase all the junk it’s been cooked in.

Yeah, You might be thinking that you’re giving your muscles everything they need to grow because you’re eating those, what, like nine chicken breasts and a bunch of white rice every day.

Add that to the fact that your energy drink claims to have some taurine (or anything else that sounds healthy but you don’t really know why you need it) and you probably feel like you’re good to go. Well, you’re not. There’s no substitute for good food when it comes to fixing your diet.

If you’re trying to lose fat, you will probably cut your carb intake by 15-20%, keep the protein intake level, and eat plenty of vegetables. Time your carbs in the morning and around your workouts.

You are what you eat

By focusing on these 3 points of your eating habits, you will probably see a big difference in the way you look if you haven’t done it already. This is so important because your body uses the food you eat to create the tissues that you are made of. Every part of your body is created mostly from the materials you put in your mouth.

So when you hear people say “you are what you eat”, that’s actually quite literal. And if you are constantly eating food that is crap… well, you know what that would mean.

How about you? What have you found to work well?

Image Credit: Deatbybokeh

Finding some decent straight talk about supplements is no easy task. There are plenty of companies out there who are willing to say whatever they have to in order to make a sale to you. There are plenty of good supplements out there, but there are plenty of crap supplements too.

And let’s be honest, none of us has the time to go out and try everything on the market to see what works. Fortunately, you don’t have to go out and try everything in order to know the basics of what’s going to work. This article is intended only to point you in the right direction and help you know where to start with supplements.

Do I need supplements?

If you were to ask me if you really need supplements, I’ll tell you that technically the answer is no. You don’t need supplements, and technically you don’t need a ton of muscle or a really low body fat percentage either. What I’m trying to say here is that “need” is a very relative term. It’s relative to your goals.

If your goal is to build a huge amount of muscle, then obviously you’re going to need more nutrient intake than what the average person needs. But a supplement is exactly what the word means: a supplement to your diet and training.

That means that before you even think about getting near supplements, you need to get your diet in place first. Buying newest version of the “Super Gonado Testosterone Jacking Complex” isn’t going to do you very much good if your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs to build muscle in the first place.

Are you with me here?

So before you run out and blow a bunch of money on the newest supplement craze, think about what you’re eating first. Supplementing your diet won’t do you any good if you don’t have a decent diet to be supplementing in the first place.

That is the first step.

Supplement hierarchy:

Ok, so your diet is great. You are eating plenty of proteins, proper portions of good carbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes… on and on. You’re eating 5-6 meals a day and you are keeping your “cheat” meals (junk food) to a minimum. Now what?

Now you start at the bottom of the supplement hierarchy and build your base. You should choose your supplements in the following order:

1. Foundation supplements
2. Supplementing essentials for convenience
3. Specific purpose supplements

1. Foundation Supplements: These are the basic things that your body needs to continue functioning and to survive. Foundation supplements are those that should be taking on a consistent basis to meet your body’s most basic needs.

The reason these supplements are so dang important is that you’re never doing to get all the nutrients you need from the processed foods that are being placed in front of you on a daily basis. The American diet in particular just doesn’t get the job done.

The foundation supplements that you eat should include: vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Daily multivitamin.
• Sources of essential fatty acids, particularly the Omega-3’s. Daily supplementation of fish oil or flaxseed oil will go a long way. More on essential fatty acids another day.

2. Supplementing essentials for convenience: There are some items that are already found in your daily diet, but getting enough of them can be tough at times. You might not always be able to get a decent meal every 3 hours or so. Protein shakes and meal replacement powders are not actually replacements for real food, but they can sure help out when you’re stuck without any food.

Some of these supplements include the following:

• Whey protein: This type of protein has the highest bioavailability value of any protein. Protein shakes are great to be taken immediately after a workout when your body needs protein right away. The fact that it comes in a powder means it is absorbed by the body more quickly, which is great after a workout, but this also lowers the thermogenic effect you get with eating your protein.
• Antioxidants: Again, these are found in a variety of foods you are already eating (or at least you should be eating). Many fruits and vegetables are high in anti-oxidants. Without getting too deep into the science of antioxidants, they are helpful because they reduce free radicals in the body which helps reduce inflammation, muscle fiber damage, and they help to aid in muscle recovery.
• Creatine: It’s found in some of the meats you eat, especially red meat, and your body is capable of synthesizing it’s own creatine from some of the foods you eat as well. Supplementing with creatine, however, saturates the muscles with this substance. This helps you lift more during a weight during a workout and experience greater muscle growth. Creatine also draws water into the muscles and increases their volume.

3. Specific purpose supplements: These supplements can be designed to serve a variety of purposes from increasing the body’s output of testosterone, preventing aromitazation (conversion of testosterone to estrogen), burning more fat, increasing blood flow and nutrient transport (such as N.O. products and other vasodilators), etc.

There are so many different types of supplements on the market today that each have a different purpose. Getting into all of these is way beyond the scope of this article. Look, you’ll probably hear about these products, you might read the hype in the bodybuilding magazines, maybe you’ll even spend some good money to try them.

The point here is this: before you decide to go out and spend your savings on these types of supplements, make sure that you have the essentials in place first. Get your diet down and make sure you’re eating good food. Get the vitamins and minerals you need, get your essential fatty acids, plenty of protein, anti-oxidants, and other essentials.

If you don’t have these in place first, there’s really no point in trying all the advanced supplements on the market. That would be like doing leg curls every day when you’re not squatting. What the heck is the point of that? Why pay money for a fancy fat-burning stack if you’re eating 10 Twinkies a day and the basics aren’t in place?

I think you get the point.

I had the chance to speak with a friend who lived for several years in Italy. Over the course of a long conversation, he mentioned that Italy had many beautiful women. I asked him what it was about the Italian women that made them so beautiful.

“Well, for one thing, they’re not nearly as fat as the women here.” He continued, “In America, if a person is fat, we can’t say anything about it. In Italy though, the Americans who lived there thought Italians were so rude. They would say ‘Hey, you are too fat. You really need to go to the gym. I know a good place to workout’… or ‘You really need to start watching what you eat.’”

Huh. Cultural differences are pretty interesting, aren’t they? Even our culture (for Americans at least) is helping to keep us fatter. Seriously, have you ever noticed that the word FAT is like the F-word in America? People react just as badly to this word as if you said something extremely vulgar to them.

In reality, I think the Italians were the nice ones. They had the heart to actually say what needed to be said. They were caring enough about the person to actually try to help them. How often do we actually do that?

Addiction

Why is it that we can talk to a smoker and tell them that their bad habits are harmful for their health, but we can’t say the same about people who are in the habit of overeating and living a sedentary lifestyle? Does this make any sense at all?

It shouldn’t be that different. In fact, if you are overweight, I’m going to do you a big favor right now and tell you what you need to hear. You are too fat.

The good news is that you are already reading this, meaning that you are probably going to do something about it. Perhaps what we should all do is learn to break the honest truth to the people around us in a way that will motivate them to take action. Being honest with people can go a long ways to helping them change their habits. Here’s a quick example:

I knew a girl several years back who had very curly hair. She wore it in a big curly mass around her head every day. One day, I noticed she had straightened it, and it almost made her look like a totally different person. She looked much better.

Another month went by before I saw her wearing the straight hair again. She got a few compliments on her hair. She asked me if I liked it.

“Sure, it looks great. Your head doesn’t look so big now.”

Alright, I already know. I am a complete jerk. I realized it the very moment it came out of my mouth, but it was already too late. The damage was done, and I couldn’t undo it. There are a thousand other ways I could have complimented her hair in a more polite way, but that’s just how it came out.

As bad as I felt after being brutally honest to her, I noticed something. She never wore the giant mass of hair on her head again. Everywhere she went from that day on, she was more attractive. Within a month, she had a new boyfriend… something I’d heard she was working very hard at for quite a while.

Look, the point is not to be a jerk like I am, but to be honest with people in order to help them. If you can do it in a way that is not offensive, then it is best to be open and help people overcome their struggles. It’s time to start letting people know that they are fat and something needs to be done.

They need you to do it for them, because seriously, people aren’t able to be honest with themselves. People will rationalize and tell themselves that being overweight is genetic. Guess what, so is alcoholism. Should we avoid talking about it to alcoholics? Should we try to avoid offending alcoholics and smokers instead of helping them?

We have to help, because these people simply cannot do it for themselves. America is fat, so it has rationalized that being fat is ok. Think about it, smokers never go out and preach about how bad smoking is until after they quit.

The same is true about overeating. Everybody in America is doing it, so that pretty much means that none of us can really talk about it without having to worry about who we might offend. We all have to tip-toe around the fact that we are overweight.

Extreme?

If you’re like most people I’ve met, you are so ready to justify your own habits that you will call these views extreme. You’ll think I’m some sort of obsessive health freak, and from that point of view, it’s probably true. But before anybody decides that I’m crazy to compare overeating or junk food binging to smoking or alcoholism, consider a few facts:

• Eight out of ten people over 25 are overweight.
• Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 years old has increased 76% since 1990.
• 20% of all deaths in the United States were due to heart attacks in the year 2004.

Think about that for a moment. 20% of all deaths were due to heart attacks. Eating better and exercising really are just as urgent to your health as quitting smoking would be.

But, even still, people like us will be labeled as shallow for choosing not to date others who are overweight, overeating, and leading sedentary lifestyles. Are we really so shallow? Is it shallow to consider a person’s lifestyle choices when choosing a significant other?

I would argue that it is not. Choosing a person who wants to live a healthy, clean life is not shallow in the least bit. Live your life that way, and be honest enough with others to help them do the same… even brutally honest if necessary.

Laziness is how we get fat. Denial is how we stay that way.

Getting the right amounts of food is a huge part of the muscle-building and fat-loss equation. You can train as hard as you want enough in the gym, but if you don’t get enough food, you’ll never have the fuel needed to become stronger.

On the other hand, if you eat too much, you’ll end up overweight and wondering where your muscle is buried beneath the fat. So the question is: How much food, or how many calories do I need to consume?

The truth:

Counting calories is a great way for you to know that you are eating the correct amount of food. In fact, it is the best way for you to measure your daily calorie intake. But the truth is that most of you are never actually going to weigh your food and do the work necessary for calorie counting to pay off.

We can talk all day about how many calories you should be eating, but it won’t do you any good unless you are actually counting your calories.

Portions:

Since most of you are too lazy to count your calories (just admit, and I will too) I recommend the portion method for most people. This simple method has been around for a long time, and it is the quick and dirty way to know the right amount of food for you. Here’s how to do it:

Six small meals: Each meal should contain a protein, a carbohydrate, and some vegetable. It’s an oversimplification, I know, but the fact that this is so simple means you’ll actually do it.

• Protein: Eat a protein source with each meal about the size of the palm of your hand.
• Carbohydrate: Eat carbs that are roughly the size of a tightly clenched fist.
• Vegetable: The size of one or two clenched fists. Try to eat vegetables with at least 2-3 (out of six) meals each day.

The beauty is that every person’s hand size is relative to their body size, so this method works well, but it’s not perfect. Each person has different goals, and you’ll need to adjust for that.

• Building muscle: Increase your intake of each portion by 15-20%.
• Losing fat: Decrease your portion intake by 15-20%.

Of course, since this method isn’t perfect, you may need to do some adjusting over time. If you are actively exercising and lifting weights to keep your metabolism up, and you’re still unable to keep fat off, do another moderate carb adjustment from there.

Same goes for weight gain. If 15-20% over the initial recommendation isn’t enough, then adjust. The main idea is to get a feel for what portion size helps you to meet your goals. This simple method should take you most of the way to where you’re trying to go.

Calorie Counting:

Try the portion method first, and if it just isn’t accurate enough for you and your goals, then move on to counting calories. There are a number of ways to determine how many calories you need in a day.

These methods are recommended by fat-loss expert Tom Venuto. I’m not going to get too deep into these here. If you are really going to take the time to count calories and weigh your food, you will also be willing to take the time to read this article about each of the following calculation methods.

And if you’re really serious about counting calories, you should also read Tom’s book, Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle. You’ll know everything you need to know about calorie counting and fat loss after reading it. Here are the 3 methods:

1. The quick method: This is my favorite, quick and easy. Just choose your goal and do a quick calculation to see how many calories you need in a day.

Fat loss: 12 - 13 calories per lb. of bodyweight
Maintenance: 15 - 16 calories per lb. of bodyweight
Weight gain: 18 - 19 calories per lb. of bodyweight

2. The Harris-Benedict Formula: This one is more accurate, but requires a little more calculation. You can still get this calculation done in a minute or two if you need to.

3. The Katch-McArdle formula: The most accurate. This requires you to actually measure your body fat percentage for the calculation.

The lazy man’s method:

There is a certain value in not always following your portions or calorie recommendations 100% of the time. Your appetite will often spike on workout days and drop down when you’ve been less active for a few days. Listening to your stomach can be more valuable than all the scientific calorie counting and portion measuring in the world… but you need to be in touch with your body first.

Most people aren’t ready to follow what their stomach tells them on a regular basis. Eating too much food can expand your stomach and skew your perception about how much you should be eating. If you’ve been doing all the right things and you’re in touch with your body, your appetite levels can be valuable feedback about your body’s needs.

Finally:

Now, with all that having been said, it’s important to realize that all of this portion measuring and calorie counting isn’t the most important thing. Eating the right types of quality foods is far more important than making sure that you’re getting the exact number of calories you need.

Spend your time thinking about what the right foods are first, and then measure them second. Thinking about it the other way around just doesn’t make sense anyway.

Image credit: wok

I did my first article of shame in late November of last year. Well, I’ve been back to the magazine rack, and I’ve got another wonderfully educational article to share with you.

Today’s article of shame comes from page 80 of the March 2008 edition of Maximum Fitness For Men. The tag line on the cover of this magazine reads, “No B.S. Just Results”.

Honestly, this is the best quote ever:

Is dropping 5,000 calories in one day possible? Yes, it is. All you have to do is be smart. It doesn’t involve killing yourself twice a day or splitting hairs either. You’re 19 steps away from becoming a new man.

Wow, I can really cut 5,000 calories and it won’t split my hairs? Really though, I’ve only seen women worry about the ends of their hair splitting. Maybe this article accidentally got put here instead of in Maximum Fitness for Women. I don’t know…

Cut 5,000 Calories in one day!!! And Get Super Duper Frickin Ripped!!

OK, this article was pretty much screwed right from the beginning in my mind. The first red flag that went up was that you could cut out 5,000 calories and that it would somehow be a good thing. Let’s do a little math first.

Former bodybuilder and fat-loss expert Tom Venuto’s Quick Method of calculating calories shows us that you need to eat about 18-19 calories for every pound of body weight if you’re trying to get heavier (build muscle). Also, the average male needs about 2,700 to 2,900 calories per day (that’s average- some are much more, some are much less).

So let’s give the article the benefit of the doubt and say that the guy who is eating 5,000 calories in a day is trying to build muscle and needs 18-19 calories per day. If he’s trying to build muscle, he wouldn’t be cutting calories in the first place, but these numbers are more conservative, so we’ll use them.

5,000 calories / 19 calories needed per pound = 263 pounds.

So, the simple method says that 5,000 calories per day is appropriate for a man (or woman) weighing 263 pounds who is trying to get bigger. Never mind the fact that cutting out all 5,000 calories pretty much means he’s eating nothing for a day… I hope none of the smaller teenagers read this…

All you have to do is be smart

Here are a few of their awesome tips on how to be smart:

• 47 minutes of light office work: They say you’ll spend 100 calories doing this, because if you didn’t read the magazine, you wouldn’t have moved at all and would have wasted the chance to burn that extra 100 with light work!
• 35 minutes of self-grooming: This needs to be written in a magazine because you wouldn’t spend enough time doing your hair if they didn’t mention it. 100 calories.
• 1 hour of passionate kissing: I like this one. But you will either rip a tongue muscle or move far beyond kissing before an hour is up. 180 calories.
• 1 hour fixing your car: Just like we always say: if ain’t broken, fix it anyways. 343 calories.
• 1 hour of playing cards: Mega fat burner, right here. No joke. 140 calories.
• 50 minutes of handwriting a letter to a friend: Again, writing notes to your best friend forever probably got placed in the wrong magazine. This one belongs in Pink Dumbbell Magazine. 100 calories.
• 30 minutes in the gym, 30 mintues jogging: These were put at the very end of the list. First try the make-out marathon, the half-hour of doing your hair, or writing a note to your best friend forever. If those don’t work, then give the gym a shot. 632 calories.

Oh, by the way, actually doing all of their listed activities for the recommended times would require over 8 hours a day. I hope you can fit it in.

Image Credit: Lost Fun Zone

Read part 1 about quitting junk food here.

You’ve probably heard it a thousand times: you are what you eat. So if we’re going out and eating like crap everyday, then what are we? You can think that one over, but in the meantime, something needs to be done about it.

Quitting junk food won’t be easy though, because your body grows accustomed to what you feed it. Being stuck on junk food is nothing like being a crack addict, but some research shows that junk food still has many addictive properties.

So it’s gonna be tough, no doubt about it. Here’s how to do it:

1. Have a purpose: You’re not just quitting for the hell of it. You want to get something out of your hard work. Hold onto that thought and let it be your motivator… maybe it’s to impress a girl/guy or look good at an event… and remember that you want it so much more than another cookie.

2. Never buy junk food: Sounds pretty obvious, I know. But the most important time to resist junk food is when you are shopping. When it’s not at home, resisting will be much easier. Shop when you’re stomach is full – you’re less likely to buy junk when you’re not craving it.

3. Eat slowly: You don’t have to avoid ever coming near junk food again. If you do have an occasional “cheat”, eat it very slowly and enjoy the flavor without eating more. Don’t ever eat your sweets to fill up. Also, don’t eat sweets on a completely empty stomach, as you’ll be tempted to fill up when you’re too hungry.

4. Economize: We eat junk food because it’s convenient. Make healthy food more convenient, and you’ll eat it more (duh). Cook healthy food in bulk and save it for later. Get containers and carry food with you each day. Make it simple, easy, and effective.

5. Always drink water: Not just because it’s lower in calories and your body needs it the most, but also because healthy drinking keeps you in the mindset for healthy eating. That’s something that diet sodas can’t do, and probably the reason why diet drinkers gain even more weight.

6. Have excuses: Come to terms with the fact that people aren’t going to understand you or think it’s cool that you’re trying to do something better than what they do. They will call you a health freak in order to justify their habits. Just say you’re already full, not feeling well… you get the idea.

7. Make healthy food taste good: We’ve somehow grown up believing that it’s gotta taste bad to be good for you’re health… but this is sooo not the truth. Start with just 2 weeks’ worth of healthy recipes and build from there.

8. Think in terms of work: You’re going to have to run for 30 minutes to burn off a jelly doughnut that you ate in 2 minutes. Before you eat junk or overeat anything, think if it’s worth your effort. Think of the energy you’d have to spend on a treadmill and apply that energy to your willpower first, and then the treadmill second.

9. Have replacement foods: If you have a sweet tooth, you can still eat sweet things that are healthy. Keep plenty of fruits in stock and turn to them when you have a craving. Having these substitutes will save you in a tough time.

10. Know your restaurants: We all need convenience sometimes. Know the restaurants where you can get a decent meal that that nourishes.

11. Stop thinking about quitting: Yes, and here’s why – the more you think about the fact that you’re not eating junk food, the more you are also thinking about junk food. Don’t make a big deal about it in your mind. Make a solid decision, just quit, and then get on with your life.

12. Moderation: In all things. This is the key.

Image credit: oatmeal2000

I can already feel the hate mail coming, but I’m going to say it anyway: you shouldn’t always trust science. Instead, we’re going to talk about a better way of going about things.

First off, I realize that there’s not a crystal ball that magically reveals all truth, and science is the best method we have for understanding health and how the human body functions.

But science is a back and forth process of sharing ideas, debate, and seeking evidence. Science isn’t always right, and all the new studies that we hear about should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism, and sometimes even ignored.

Here’s why:

Statistical models show that we live in a world of healthy mediums. When we measure the characteristics of a certain population, we usually end up with a nice bell curve as shown below. For example, the average height of men in the US is about 5’10”. Most men are close to this height, and there is a lower number of guys at either side of the curve who are very tall or very short.

Let’s say for example, that you are a scientist and you are trying to figure out if saturated fats (animal fats) are fit for human consumption. You conduct a few studies that seem to show it has some negative side effects, so you conclude that people should eat zero fat. Just stop eating all fat (and that’s what we did).

A few decades later, a new group of scientists, including Mary Enig come along with a new set of studies. These studies say that maybe fat and cholesterol aren’t as bad as we once thought. Here’s a video that talks about high fat diets almost to an extreme.

My point here is not to take sides on the saturated fats debate. The point is that nobody should be hard on one side or the other, but this video does a good job of showing how scientists don’t always use data the way it should be used. Scientists take sides when they shouldn’t.

Now this video clip only says that the data against high-fat diets is unreliable. Unfortunately, that’s not what most people will get out of the video. Most people are going to watch it and feel like pizza and fried chicken (not to mention trans-fats) are suddenly O.K. to eat every night.

Mary Enig, who spoke in the video, wrote a book about fats called Eat Fat Lose Fat. In the book, she says the following on page 5 of her introduction:

Creamy sauces, buttered vegetables, and ice cream taste good for a reason. It’s not that your body is trying to torment you by making unhealthy foods seem delectable. Instead, your body is using your taste buds to signal what you need. That’s why most of us enjoy rich foods, like succulent lamb chops, berries with heavy cream, and crispy turkey skin.

Bless her heart. Dr. Enig did a great job of backing up all of her arguments with scientific studies and wonderful information to dispel the myth that we should eat zero fat and avoid all saturated fats. But people read these kind of things and say “great, ice cream is good for me now” and go skipping happily down to the ice-cream shop.

We tend to forget the happy medium that the bell curve tells us how we should be eating. But then again, you don’t become a famous scientist by preaching practicality or moderation… those kinds of things don’t get any attention, so something bold must be said. Dr. Enig has a great book, but many readers will certainly overreact to her findings.

Instead having a happy medium, we begin to have all the people that believe fat is bad on one side, and then the people that believe fat is great on the other. The bell curve that we started with now looks like this:

Where’s the happy medium? It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

A better Solution:

Again, science isn’t useless, but it’s not always as scientific as it should be. If you can’t keep up with the studies for the rest of your life, a simple rule to follow is this: live as close to natural as possible. Obviously, we’re trying to build muscle and minimize fat here, so some deviations from the norm will be needed (like higher protein consumption), but you’ll understand the principal.

Here are some examples of doing what’s natural:

• Natural training: You already know steroids will mess you up.
• Weight machines: Humans were designed to pick up rocks and logs. Free weights closely mimic these movements, machines do not.
• Saturated fat: It’s there when you eat meat. Your body was built to handle the amount that comes with what you eat.
• Carbs: We’ve been eating grains as far back as recorded history goes. Don’t cut them completely out, but don’t eat all carbs because somebody put them at the bottom of your food pyramid. Remember the bell curve and moderation.
• Egg yolks: Recent studies have shown that dietary fat and cholesterol aren’t as bad as we once thought. Instead of focusing on that, believe that humans have evolved and adapted to eating egg yolks, or that God put them there because they’re good for you, whichever you prefer to believe. You would have been correct all along.
• Meds: If you take all the work away from your muscles, they will never grow. Same thing for strengthening your immune system. Use medical drugs when you really need them, not for every little twinge of pain.
• Processed foods: Don’t eat them. Eat foods the way they grew out of the ground and meats as close to their natural form as possible. Dinner does not come in a microwavable box.

I’ll stop the list there for now. You get the idea. There are always exceptions, but sticking with what nature gives us will get you on track most of the time. We should use science as a tool (and I will here), but don’t give it your 100% trust. A little skepticism will go a long ways to helping you avoid all the hype and jumping on the bandwagons that the fitness industry will send your way in the name of science.

Now, I’d love to hear your agreements, disagreements, and especially your skepticism for this approach.

When it comes to losing fat and building muscle, eating less food is not the answer to getting lean and cut. Others will try to tell you that losing excess fat is simply a matter of using more calories than you eat. What they don’t tell you is that eating less will slow your metabolism.

Part of the secret to eating the right amounts of food while keeping your fat levels in check is to use the thermic effect of food to your advantage.

The thermic effect (also referred to as specific dynamic action) is the incremental energy requirement above your resting metabolic rate used due to the cost of digestion, absorption, and disposal of ingested food.

Translation: Some of the foods you eat speed up your metabolism more than other foods.

You’ll find it much easier to reduce your fat levels if you consume plenty of foods with a higher thermic effect. Proteins tend to have a much higher thermic effect than other types of foods.

Calculating the thermic effect: A general guideline used by some to calculate the thermic effect of the foods you eat is to take your total calorie consumption and multiply that by 10% to get the total get the number of calories for the thermic effect. This method is a gerneral estimation, and the thermic effect for different food types can range from 3-30%.

In general:

• Fats: Thermic effect of about 3%. Keeping certain levels of fats in your diet is necessary, but fats tend to be high in calories and have a low thermic effect.
• Fibrous vegetables: Thermic effect of about 20%. Many fruits and vegetables are negative calorie foods. Get a good portion of vegetable in at least 2-3 of your 6 daily meals.
• Proteins: Thermic effect of about 30%. High protein foods are essential for muscle gain and fat loss. Think of these foods as your metabolic stimulator. One portion with each of your 6 meals.

How to do it:

• Correct Portions: Each meal you eat should have a portion about the size of your palm/ fist of protein and a portion of complex carbohydrate (like whole grains). Eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Spread your protein intake evenly throughout
• Eat, not drink: Eat your protein instead of drinking it. Protein shakes have their place, but the thermic effect is much greater when your body has to break down solid proteins.
• Weight Lifting: Yes, weight training increases the thermic effect of the foods you eat. Read more here.
• Vegetables: Again, eat plenty of vegetables, particularly fibrous vegetables.
• Fruit: One or two pieces of fruit per day.
• Never go too low: Never drop your carbohydrate intake below 25-30% of your total calories.

You will always need at least some carbohydrate intake to keep your body moving and your metabolism roaring. Carbohydrates provide your body with the energy needed so that you can get the workout you need. They are energy source for your muscles, and without some carbs, you won’t be able to get in the type of workout you need to build muscle.

Negative calorie foods: Foods that burn more calories than they provide to you are called negative calorie foods. You can see a list of these foods here. Get your daily fruits and vegetables, but don’t over-rely on these foods in your diet. Eat in the right portions, and you’ll be fine.

It’s virtually impossible to gain weight using a diet that is very high in foods with a high thermic effect. Rely more heavily on these types of foods for fat loss, but keep your carbohydrates in place for weight gain and adding more muscle.

Image Credit: this lucid moment

You know you need to do it… you know you need to quit eating crap.

It wasn’t easy for me either, but I’ve done it. In fact, I went for an entire year of my life without eating any sugar at all and almost no fast-food junk. You can do it too, but just like anything in life that’s worth your effort — there will be challenges.

If you know the challenges ahead of time and what the rewards are, you’ll be able to handle it. We’ll talk more about the specifics of how to quit junk food another day (Done! Click here to read).

How it happened: Sometime in mid-January, one of my good friends in college and I were talking about all the junk food that’s making everybody so fat. My friend mentioned that he and another friend had once quit junk food for 3 months because of a bet they made.

At first, I thought that sounded so crazy. Why would anyone avoid all sweets for that long? We finished our conversation and that was it… we never made a goal or a bet to quit eating junk food.

But the next time I saw junk food, I just tried to resist it. I don’t know why, but I just wanted to see if I could do it. After 3 weeks of resisting just for the hell of it, I realized I had practically quit without meaning to do it. I talked to my friend a few weeks later and he told me he was doing the same thing. Weird.

The Challenges: The first few weeks were the worst. All my favorite deserts were everywhere around me. This is just a simple law of nature — if you really want to do something great, you must be challenged.

My college professors had all made rules that if anybody’s cell phone rang during class, that person had to bring doughnuts for the entire class the next day. A lot of cell phones rang that week, and doughnuts were put in front of me every day. It was really tough to resist.

Withdrawals: Sugar and sweets have addictive properties. If you’ve seen the movie Super Size Me, you’ll remember that the main character became addicted to McDonald’s after he started eating it every day. Quitting junk food and soda will bring withdrawal pains and your body will feel like complete crap when you stop giving it sugar and the junk it’s used to getting. This will go away after a while though.

People will think you’re stupid: There’s no reason to tell people that you are trying to eat better. I learned this lesson during the first six months. Guys usually didn’t seem to care, but I found that girls were pretty fast to tell me that quitting junk food is stupid.

At first, I thought I had just talked to a few people with really negative attitudes. I later came to realize that many people don’t appreciate the fact that you are trying to become better at something they are weak at. I’m not sure why girls reacted more negatively than guys, but I learned to just tell people that I was already full and couldn’t eat desert. There was no sense in trying to explain.

Do what you have to do, and don’t expect people to understand.

The Benefits:

Increased Sensitivity: After a certain period of time, I noticed just how strong sugar really is. After my full year without any sugar products, I found that if I did try to eat any junk food, I felt affected by it. It made me feel sick to my stomach if I ate anything more than just a small amount.

Cravings Disappeared: At first, resisting the doughnuts / cookies and soda was tough. But after a period of a couple months with nothing but good food, I simply didn’t need it any more. Sure, if I were to eat it, it still tasted good, but the cravings and the need for those foods was gone.

I used to consider waffles loaded with syrup a decent breakfast, but I just can’t consider those types of things as food anymore. Unless I have some decent nourishment, I really don’t feel like I am getting fed.

Look better and feel better: This is what it’s all about in the end. Quitting junk food isn’t about just trying to discipline yourself to see how tough you are. You begin to see the results, and you can really feel the results.

Most people think it’s stupid to deny yourself of the pleasures in life just so that you can look a certain way. They think it’s a vain thing to do.

I hate it when people say that trying to look better is vain. They believe that their physical condition is separate from the person inside of them, but they are wrong. Being out of shape comes from the fact that they’re not taking care of themselves.

They are entitled to do whatever they want with their health, but trying to eat good food is not equal to denying yourself of the pleasures of life. You see, these people have a fundamental misunderstanding of what the true pleasures of life are.

The true pleasure of life is not the way a cookie tastes. It is becoming stronger and enjoying all of the greater pleasures that come along with a little self control. It is the feeling that comes when you accomplish something difficult and see the results.

They will never understand this because they believe that true pleasure is doing whatever is easiest in life. Let them believe whatever they want to, because they will only feel threatened by your success.

Note: I’m not a health-food Nazi. I ate absolutely no sweets for a full year in college. I do eat them from time to time now (not very often though) and in small amounts. Moderation is the key.

*Update* While it should be obvious from reading the article, I’ll clarify that quitting sugar refers to refined sugars, not the naturally occurring sugars found in fruits and other natural foods.

This post is part 2 of a 2 part series. In part 1, Starvation is Not the Answer, we talked about how under eating can slow down your metabolism and make you fatter.

Here’s a piece of information that some of you will be glad to hear – Eating enough food each day will help you to keep fat off of your body. You are going to have to forget the idea that cutting fat comes from just eating less food; it’s simply not the truth.

This is the part that is hard for many people to accept when you are trying to cut some fat. Switching to smaller and more frequent meals throughout the day will actually cause your metabolism to stabilize.

You might be eating more food overall throughout the day, but eating even amounts of food throughout the day will help you to keep your metabolism higher. The key will be to make the following things happen:

1. Feed your body: Like we discussed before, the amount of food you give your body will affect your metabolism. If you don’t want your body to go into survival mode and save all the fat on your body, don’t starve it.

Keep that metabolism burning like a roaring fire. This doesn’t mean that you should overeat, but you will need to eat the right kinds of foods in the right amounts. Keep it within the healthy range – not too full and never too hungry either.

2. Don’t trust the weight scale: Unless you are measuring your body fat percentages and know how much weight you are losing is fat, the scale can’t be trusted. Just because the needle on the scale went down by 10 pounds doesn’t mean that you lost 10 pounds of fat.

All the scale tells you is that you lost something. Losing something can be a bad thing or a good thing depending on what you lost. If you lost fat, it’s probably a good thing (within reason). If you’re losing lean body mass, you’re going to be hurting yourself in the long run by slowing down your metabolism.

3. Lose fat through exercise: Doing a combination of weights and cardio is simply the most effective way to keep the fat off of your body. Running at a high intensity and lifting weights will also help you to burn more fat when you are at rest. The key word here is intensity.

4. Keep the muscle: It’s the same for men and women. Having more muscle on your body increases your metabolic rate. You’ll have to avoid starving yourself so that you can keep the muscle on your body and keep burning more.

Lifting weights for thirty minutes three times a week at minimum will help to keep the muscle on your body as you lose fat. Focus on the YWWASWT exercises.

5. Use a positive mental focus: Think about what you can do to get in shape, not what you need to avoid. This is why all the diets and calorie cutting programs are so popular. They all ask you to do less.

They tell you to just eat less food and avoid certain foods. Even though we like to eat, most people would prefer to avoid something enjoyable than do something that they don’t enjoy doing.

Don’t get caught in this trap. Instead of just avoiding the negatives, begin to seek out the positives.

Don’t think in terms of all the negative things that you need to avoid, but instead think of the positive things that you should start doing. You need to start exercising, lifting weights, becoming more social, preparing the right foods, actively seeking to make your life better.

That’s what makes all of this so difficult to do. It requires us to be actively doing and thinking instead of just avoiding. Even though we might be losing fat, this process requires us to make ourselves into something more instead of something less. It requires us to be active in pursuing our goals and dreams.

So instead of just trying to avoid all of the bad things life, make the decision that you will begin to actively seek out and embrace the positive things in the world. Getting into this frame of mind will do more than just change the way you look.

It will change you.