Archive for nutrition and supplementation
Eat Stop Eat, Fasting to Lose Weight, How to lose fat
Posted by: | CommentsAlright,
Even though the things I teach professionally are exercise and training related, probably the thing I get asked about the most is nutrition. I don’t normally like to talk about nutrition because I’m neither a nutritionist nor a dietician but I have put a lot of studying into the different diet methods out there not to teach but mainly to stay lean and ripped.
the fruits of my labor
When it comes to dieting, the best diet in the world won’t work if you can’t stick to it. Also something that can happen is if you gain the fat back, for various physiological reasons it becomes more difficult to lose the second time. The death of many diets come in the form of “regular everyday life” like having friends that want to go out and eat and that sort of thing.
When I was going through my 12 week transformation I had a very strict diet. Food was weighed in a very specific proportion and eaten according to a preset schedule. Yeah I got ripped but as soon as the after pictures were taken I headed off to a burger joint and stuffed around 2000 calories down my gullet. It worked, but it was not sustainable. Nobody wants to weigh food all the time.
I was having a conversation with someone in my bootcamp class that had done the Paleo diet but found it difficult to stick to. He asked around on a popular forum about it and the response people gave him was to have a ziplock bag full of flax seeds to chew on.
Really?
That’s not a sustainable lifestyle…at least not for regular people. If you are surrounded by fitness junkies, yeah it’ll work. If you are a regular person that just wants to be lean and ripped and also wants to live a regular life then you need a nutrition style that minimizes how much it interrupts your lifestyle.
This is where Eat Stop Eat shines. This is the easiest nutrition program to stick to period. You want to eat the food that isn’t all that great for you? Yeah that’s fine. Just tweak it with a fast to either balance it out (to maintain) or to put you in a caloric deficit to lose body fat.
Oh sure someone that’s over weight is likely to tell you that your metabolism will crash and you’ll starve to death if you fast to lose weight but my metabolic rate runs hot despite me fasting. It made me ripped, not starved. Besides in Brad Pilon’s ebook he talks about several different scientific studies that say that it is actually healthy to fast.
Having to constantly digest food can be stressful to your stomach. Doing a fast gives it a bit of a rest.
When you fast you improve your insulin sensitivity, something that helps prevent diabetes, fat gain and that sort of thing.
When you fast your body switches from burning up stored sugar to burning up stored fat for energy.
When you fast it puts you in a quick caloric deficit which is critical for fat loss. Think about it. For as many methods of training that claim to burn 1000 calories, the quickest way to get rid of 1000 calories is to not eat them in the first place.
Training while fasted stimulates more growth hormone. This is a good thing.
I know it sounds a bit like common sense to quit eating for a short period of time but you’d be amazed at how people are pre programmed to believe they have to eat breakfast and lunch. Just like with many things I found that doing the opposite of the norm gives me better results.
You might think that you’d have no strength when training in a fasted state but when I first started experimenting with this. I didn’t find that to be the case.
But anyways the basic premise of this diet is to eat the way you normally do, then to fast for 24 hours one or two days a week. Think about how easy that would be.
Honestly you really ought to just read the ebook since he can explain it better then I can (he has a 74 page ebook about the subject rather then a blog post). He even includes the scientific references at the end. That way you know he isn’t just making this stuff up. It’s actually based on scientific fact. It’s just a different source science compared to what you had heard before.
Will you starve to death? No. A fast is a willfully abstaining from foods that are bad for you. And you won’t have to fast nearly long enough to starve to death.
And as much science as there is about fasting there is also a lot of “in the trenches research”. Fasting has been around for centuries. It’s been part of several religions to do a fast.
And then after the fast, you resume your normal eating habits which will prevent your metabolism from crashing. In other words you can eat and lose weight. And that’s not even including eating healthy foods. You can eat normal people food as well.
So anyways I do recommend everybody to read Eat Stop Eat. It’s something I do along with the Warrior Diet (the other one I follow normally) and it allows me to maintain a lean physique and I actually feel pretty good while doing it.
What to eat for Thanksgiving to stay ripped year round
Posted by: | CommentsSo Thanksgiving is tomorrow and it’s a holiday known for over eating which can pose a problem for many people on a weight loss, fat loss, get ripped program or whatever. Several fitness websites will promote low calorie this, or low carb that in an honest effort to help out the people try to watch what they eat. Some will ask me what they should eat in order to get or stay lean during the holiday season. My response?
Whatever the heck you want.
You see the fact of the matter is that trying to stay “in shape” is a life style…but it’s only one aspect of a life style. You have got to learn balance in order to make it last. At the end of the day being ripped, strong or whatever is their to try and make your life more enjoyable and if you can’t enjoy time with friends and family because of your dedication (addiction) to fitness then you are missing out on the bigger picture.
Besides there are more reasons than enjoyment to splurge every once in awhile. In Marty Gallagher’s book the Purposeful Primitive he mentions something called an Anabolic Burst that happens when you have a period where you aren’t eating enough followed by a feast. What he claims (and I’ve heard it mentioned elsewhere too) is that when you do that your body forgets how to turn the excess calories into fat and turns it into muscle instead. When last I checked putting on a little bit of muscle isn’t a bad thing.
ammo for the guns
Another reason to stuff your face is that if you follow that feast with a fast (assuming you are training and have been on a diet for awhile) then your leptin (a fat burning hormone) up regulates and can kick your fat burning into overdrive. I know I instinctively fast when I eat to much and it helps me stay ripped. It also happens to be something I found I was doing right when I read Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon where he talks about including fasts into your lifestyle to get and stay lean year round (something I do)
Well anyways that’s it. I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving and stay relaxed. Thanks for being awesome and reading.
Undoing the damage from Thanksgiving
Posted by: | CommentsYup it happens every year. Every year just about every American stuffs their face full of Thanksgiving dinner. Hell don’t feel bad about it since all the cool kids are doing it but it isn’t exactly the best thing for acquiring your dream physique. And hell since I am typing this up the Saturday after Thanksgiving and since there are all kinds of crazy travel and shopping plans on Thanksgiving weekend there is a good chance that you probably won’t read this till Monday or Tuesday. Don’t worry about it because this can still serve you well.
First the bad news. The average Thanksgiving dinner contains about 3000 calories according to research conducted by the American Council of Exercise. While many “fitness people” would recommend taking in low calorie, tasteless whatevers it’s probably a bit late for that and even if it wasn’t I say enjoy the holiday because whatever damage is done can be undone when you get back. And heck, according to Joel Marion (author of the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet) eating high calorie meals can up your leptin levels and increase your fat burning potential. So don’t worry because you don’t get fat in a day even if you are putting Micheal Phelps to shame with your Thanksgiving eating habits. The problem here is what happens AFTER Thanksgiving break.
If walking around the local stores is any indicator of what’s going on outside it’s that the Christmas holiday’s are upon us. I can’t even stomach walking through a store because there is so much Christmas music being played that by the time Christmas gets here I’ll be waiting for Mr. Clause with a baseball bat. Or maybe my grinchlike ways are starting a bit early this year.
Well anyways before I get off tangent with a rant that says that people have forgotten what the real meaning of Christmas is about (see if you can tell me where the tradition of “stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there” comes from) the and all that stuff let me point out what the entire month of December is like for most people. Most will go to work where some coworker has brought in some cookies in the shape of snowmen, Christmas trees or Santa’s head and offer it to their coworkers.
Some might say “No thanks.” but the majority of people will say “yes”. Yeah one time won’t kill your goals but unfortunately it isn’t just one time. One time quickly leads to two, two leads to four, add that to the multiple Christmas parties that they’ll be attending and pretty soon everybody’s this becomes the description of how everybody looks.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And then bam right as the New Year hits the gyms drop their rates in an effort to get a $hit ton of new customers 75% of which will never step foot in the door again despite having paid for a years worth of gym membership. So how then can you combat this so you never get too far over?
Bring back the Terminator mentality baby!
A cyborg isn’t going to accept cookies if they aren’t in line with his mission. A T-100 isn’t going to skip training sessions if it isn’t in line with his mission. Well at least not on the weekdays.
You see if you are dedicated 5 out of 7 days you won’t lose any progress at all and you’ll still be able to attend Christmas parties and that sort of thing on the weekends which is when most parties get thrown. You can do your best to maintain it now, or you can get all Spartanesque after the holidays. Hell if you want to steal a kiss under the mistletoe or at midnight New Years Eve don’t you think you are going to want to have your physique under control?
not after a bowl full of jelly
Ok so then what do you do if it becomes too late? Get on a targeted plan to burn off the unwanted flab. Kettlebell Burn comes to mind. If you simply must have the cheat meals then use his metabolic accelerator system that now comes with it and plan the “feasts” or cheat days into your typical schedule.
Having a targeted fat loss plan even for just 2 weeks will do more then having a “kind of” plan for a year. I mean seriously how many people have you seen that claim they were on a diet or watching what they eat and yet are eating cookies and cakes? Yeah they watched it go right down the gullet.
she's watching what she eats but her eyes are closed
So maintain your physique now, or have a targeted plan later. That part is up to you.
Eric Moss over and out
A slippery slope and a grey line with steroids and what is considered cheating
Posted by: | CommentsSo I just finished watching the documentary “Bigger Faster Stronger” on youtube and I just have to say it was fantastic.
Chris Bell is a man who did his homework and produced a well thought out and informative documentary that really does make you think. Now it is rather well known that Mr. Olympia competitors are all on the juice (steroids), apparently a lot of pro football, pro baseball, pro anything athletic people are on the juice. So if all the cool kids are doing it, is it still cheating? And if it is, what else is? Is use of creatine cheating? How about coffee? How about proper nutrition? Would it be considered cheating because I use tension and better training modalities to gain an edge? I can do a pullup and a pistol with 106lbs which is something that isn’t easily attainable and for many people they probably will never do it and I did it with well thought out training. The 106lb press is kind of like my white whale though. If I did a cycle of steroids I could probably achieve that…but would I really have achieved it? Or would the accomplishment belong to the steroids?
What do you think? Is steroids cheating if all the cool kids are doing it?
By the way for the record, I don’t take steroids, I haven’t taken steroids, I don’t plan on ever taking steroids even though it’s something I have been accused of doing more then once. People that accuse me of that are usually the sissy’s that even steroids can’t cure.
The Expendables and Sylvester Stallone’s REAL secret
Posted by: | CommentsSo last Friday I went out to see the uber epic movie “The Expendables” and absolutely loved it. Hey I love old school type shoot em up action movies and Stallone was one of my favorites. In fact he was a huge inspiration to me as a kid and judging from how bad ass he was in this movie he’ll still be an inspiration for years to come. Hey the dude is 63 years old and still has a chiseled physique that is tough as nails.
63 year old badass
Now yes I know he got busted with human growth hormone but it is legal with a prescription and I don’t think he abuses it. Since natural human growth hormone declines in the body as you get older his amount simply leveled the playing field. If he were abusing it he would have a big gut even while ripped like the Mr. Olympia champs have.
notice the gut? that is from abusing hgh
And yes I had already talked about his real secret in this video
Here you want a little clip about how Sly trains?
That’s the real secret.
Here is another secret for you. Pavel Tsatsouline (the one I blame for the kettlebell invasion) and Jason Statham are one in the same.
Is this man the leader of the kettlebell invasion?
Did you watch the Expendables? What did you think?
