*To Find BMR record amount of calories over 3 days. If no
change in weight that is your BMR.
Forget about all the diet fads and fantasies. Keep your carb
intake moderate and get lean sources of protein into your body every 3-4 hours.
Use whey protein drinks, nutrition bars, whatever it takes to give your body
what it needs to develop and maintain muscle while depriving it of the excess
carbohydrates which it will undoubtedly store as fat.
Here are a few general guidelines:
* Focus your meals around lean sources of protein such as: white
chicken and turkey meat, lean cuts of beef, egg whites, tuna and other fish,
etc.
* Don't be afraid of all fats. We've been brainwashed into
thinking that all forms of fat in the diet are unhealthy and can lead to excess
bodyfat. This simply isn't true. In fact, your body needs fat in order to burn
fat, otherwise it will shift into preservation mode and attempt to maintain
existing fat stores. It's true that you should watch your intake of saturated
fat, but taking in so-called "good" fats (ie: those found in nuts,
olive oil, flax seed, fish oils, etc.) can have a very positive effect on
weightloss and overall health.
* Move your carbohydrate intake away from foods that spike a
high insulin response in the body to foods that offer more quality fuel for
long-lasting energy. To simplify, eat very few-or no-processed carbs (breads,
pastas, refined sugar products, etc.) and eat more unprocessed carbs (fruits and
vegetables). If it comes in a box (crackers, cereal, pasta, cookies), forget it.
In fact, if there's one thing you can do that will have a significant, positive,
and lasting effect on your health and bodyfat percentages, it's shifting your
carbohydrate intake away from processed foods and towards natural fruits and
vegetables.
Despite the mythology created by the mainstream nutritional
industry and the mass media, not all fats are bad for you. Bodybuilders, of
course, have long realized the benefits of supplementing with Essential Fatty
Acids (EFAs). As more research is done, the list of possible health and
fitness benefits associated with EFAs continues to grow.
Here's just a partial list of EFA benefits. Supplementing with
EFAs may help:
* maintain and even increase healthy hormone production;
* increase the percentage of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol
in the body, potentially leading to better overall health;
* help regulate and maintain efficient metabolic levels;
* regulate insulin release, likely leading to less fat tissue
accumulation;
* enhance the immune system;
* lower blood pressure in those with unhealthy elevations;
* enhance nitrogen retention and balance to protect lean muscle
tissue.
It's clear that additional research will likely reveal even more
dramatic benefits from EFAs.
When you eat diet consisting of extremely low amounts of calories, your body
goes into starvation mode. What this means is your body will think it's in
a situation where no food is availiable and it will preserve its own fat at all
costs. You might lose weight initially but this is just the lose of lean
muscle tissue. You might say 'who cares about muscle', well if your trying
to lose bodyfat lean muscle is your bestfriend. For every pound of lean
muscle you put on you burn an additional 40-70 calories per day. After a
while this adds up and will help you to burn a lot more fat. Now you know
what you should not do and your probably wondering what the right way to go
about things is. The right way to do things is to eat small but frequent
meals every 3hrs. People fixed on old time diet myths probably just went
crazy right about now thinking how fat this will make them, in reality this will
do just the opposite.
No!
Stay away from these products, the further the better. Honestly, when is
the last time you read the labels on these things? You want a cheap recipe for
slim-fast, here it is:
1 Cheap multi-vitamin/mineral
6-8 spoonfuls of sugar
1 cup watered down milk
Put it a blender and mix
Would you eat ice cream to lose weight? Then why do you drink
these "diet" drinks that are more like candy. Drinking a soda
would almost be better. If you want a quality drink, pick up a protein
powder or a meal replacement powder.
Protein powder is a useful tool for an athelete. However, if you have
one protein shake a day and expect to see results from it, you won't. Get
AT LEAST one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. Doing this overtime
will help you add more muscle than you would have achieved without the use of
protein. Don't expect to gain 20lbs of pure muscle in a month on protein.
Some people think protein is like a safe steroid. It's not a steroid
at all. It can be used to assist you in gaining mass. So don't go out and buy a
tub of protein thinking it will make you huge.
Many people attempt to use weight-gainers to bulk up quick, others use it for
calories. Normal weight gainers will have between 1000-2000 calories per
serving. For the vast majority of people this is way to many calories to
have in one sitting and will most likely make you put on fat instead of muscle.
If you have read the label on these things you will find that most of them
contain around 100 grams of sugar, that is not a typo. More calories are
necessary for putting on muscle but just dont get them all in one sitting,
spread them out. If you are trying to bulk up fast, its not going to
happen unless you are willing to use drugs, which I dont recommend.
An occasional drink won't hurt. But binge drinking or having a few
beers a day is not good for gaining muscle and losing fat. Alcohol is very
fattening and it also retards muscle growth. So try not to drink that
often or large amounts.
