A new blog by the name of DietSpy.com just recently launched, and they are giving away The Simple Weight Loss Guide, a short yet sweet e-book that can help the majority of people lose weight. It comes in at under 30 pages, which is a pretty quick read.

I’ve read the book and it is full of great, no-nonsense information. It includes some simple diet changes, like what you should eat and what you should not eat, what to do for exercise, and which supplements to take to accelerate your weight loss. Then it gives you 7 tips that you can implement into your life. My personal favorite is the Goal Setting tip, which is something that you can apply to other areas of your life, not just weight loss.

The best part is that it’s free. So download The Simple Weight Loss Guide to start changing your life today!

70% of losing weight is about diet. Don’t think that you can spend 2 hours in the gym, working your ass off, and then rewarding yourself with two value meals from Burger King. You’ll never lose weight this way.

That said, you should definitely try out FitDay.com for tracking your progress. At the very least, use it as a tool to track the amount of calories you eat. That way, you can be completely honest with yourself. After a few days you’ll begin to see why what you’re eating is working, or not working.

Also, apologies for not updating this website too often. I am working on a book that I will give out for free to everyone who wants to lose weight. Basically it condenses down all the basics you need to know about losing weight into a handy, short book. Should be in the next week or so.

If you’ve watched TV for any amount of time, you probably know that a lot of athletes love NutriSystem. From Dan Marino to John Kruk to Don Shula, retired athletes are lining up to promote NutriSystem to get rid of that permanent post-season weight they’ve put on over the past few years. Is Nutri-System really the solution to weight loss that grown men have been looking for?

Well, let’s break it down. What is NutriSystem? It’s a pre-packaged diet plan designed to help you lose weight by providing you with the meals you’ll eat for however long you’re on the program. Food comes delivered to your door, and your daily diet will consist of 3 meals plus snacks.

NutriSystem will average out to about $10 bucks a day, so that’s probably cheaper than what you’re paying now for food.

Why does NutriSystem work?

There are two underlying philosophies behind NutriSystem that allows it to work well for most people. Portion control and the glycemic index.

Portion Control – Regular-Size Me

Everybody knows Americans are fat. The rest of the world is getting fatter right along with us. Everything from viruses to genetics to financial income has been blamed. Truth is that there are a lot of things to blame. But in my humble opinion, portion control is one of the main causes of obesity.

Portions are out of control everywhere we go. Your average “Value Meal” at any fast food joint will run 500-1,000 calories. With the recommended daily value of calories being 2,000 for the average person, you can see why we’re on the brink of 3 out of 4 Americans being overweight.

The NutriSystem diet plan gives you controlled portions. All you have to do is add yogurts, salads, cheeses, or other low GI carbs, depending on the meal of the day. Even by adding your own food, your portions should remain controlled, yet sufficient.

By training you for even a month of portion controlled eating, you should pick up of the habit of staying in control of your diet. And that’s a fundamental fact of eating healthy, no matter what your diet consists of.

Glycemic index – Good Carbs and Bad Carbs

The Glycemic Index measures the quality of the carbohydrates you eat and their impact on your blood sugar levels. Foods low on the GI scale break down into insulin slowly and keep your blood sugar relatively level. Avoiding high GI foods, like simple sugars (candy, anything with a lot of high-fructose corn syrup), will keep you from experiencing routine insulin spikes.

Now if you’re a moderately educated athlete, you know the occasional insulin spike is good for you. If its right when you wake up, or right after a workout, then a properly timed insulin spike will bring glucose to your muscle cells and allow for greater uptake of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

The problem comes in when you have insulin spikes many times throughout the day by eating simple carbs and sugars. More fat is stored when it shouldn’t be, and some studies show that you can feel hungry even though you’ve just ate.

The NutriSystem plan gets rid of those unintentional insulin spikes by providing you with “good carbs,” or foods low on the GI scale. Some of you will ask, “but I thought carbs were bad for you?” Well, if you’ve ever been on the Atkins diet, you know that you need carbohydrates to function properly. NutriSystem has simply figured out which foods to provide you by basing them their glycemic index load. While it’s far from perfect, it’s better than 98% of diets you’ll read about.

Why try NutriSystem now?

NutriSystem isn’t a permanent diet plan. It just wouldn’t be practical to eat NutriSystem food for an extended period of time (like a year.) But if used as a tool to get you to “jump-start” getting into shape, there probably isn’t anything better out there for you.

Many people have reported success with NutriSystem, and that’s good because it’s not a diet that requires you to make any major sacrifices. It’s also great for those busy folks who just don’t have time to cook.

Right now, NutriSystem is running a pretty good deal by giving away 2 weeks of food free with your order. That should be enough reason to at least give it a try if you’re looking for a sure-fire way stick with a diet.

Have you tried Nutri-System? We’d like to hear you comments. Drop us a line below:

First Product Spotlight – Hot-Rox Extreme by BioTest

Hot-Rox is a product I hold dear to my heart. One summer I used it and lost over 50 pounds. That was about 3 years ago and it was a good few months! Since then, I’ve slacked off and lost focus. But the truth is, it did work and it will work for anyone that takes it seriously. Read about Hot-Rox Extreme here

Everyone and their mother obviously know that training and exercise is beneficial to anyone and everyone. Why people don’t train on a regular basis is beyond me, but that’s a different story. This article is dedicated toward body types. What? Well, in a nutshell, everyone’s body, technically, is different. There are three different kinds of body types, and I will discuss each one in detail and how training and nutrition are different for each. That’s right folks, not everyone is the same, and despite what the personal trainer at Bally’s will have you believe, the same style of training does not apply, or work, for all people.

Let’s start. Here are the three different types of body types: Mesomorph, Ectomorph, and Endomorph

Mesomorph Body Type

Mesomorph bodies are regarded as those with a genetic gift, or advantage. This type of body is more inclined to gaining muscle mass quite easily. Mesomorph body types are usually very athletic looking and are aesthetically pleasing to the eye (jacked, ripped, and cut up), and walk with a very good posture. Mesomorphs can build muscle faster than any other body type and can also lose fat much faster than other body types, when eating right that is.

Training for the Mesomorphic Body Type

Scientifically speaking, the best form of training for a Mesomorph would be lifting heavy weights with a great power output (explosive training). Different strength-building exercises should be utilized in each and every training session targeting every muscle in the body with heavy weights to increase size and strength. Cardio exercises should still be performed, but kept to a minimum. 2 days a week of cardio would be good to keep fat down and muscles ripped, and definitely no more than 3 days a week of cardio. 30-40 minutes for each cardio session is ideal for Mesomorphs. Intensity should be kept at a high intensity to focus more on the fat burning process rather than the chance of minimizing muscle mass.

Diet for the Mesomorphic Body Type

Protein, protein, and more protein. Protein is the key to muscular success for us Mesomorphs. Ingest mostly protein into your body with a moderate amount of good carbs (low glycemic, natural carbs), and an even more moderate amount of fat (don’t count fat out; we need it to survive and to help push our bodies to the next level). Keep the food clean and natural; best advice I can give ya.

Endomorph Body Type

This body type is more prone to gaining fat. These body types usually have a soft and squashy look to the eye, and it is harder for endomorphs to lose weight. Endomorphs are generally big boned and have broad shoulders as well as a broad back, so if they put their minds to it and stick with a good workout regime and dietary plan, they can be some nasty lookin, ripped up motherf*’ers. See, it’s not so bad to be fat, as long as you know how to get it off and make the most of your body type.

Training for the Endomorphic Body Type

Weight training should be kept at a high rep type of workout, since training the muscle with aerobic type training is best for burning off fat and increasing metabolism. Each muscle should be hit with compound strength training exercises as well as isolation exercises for each muscle, but still keeping the exercises in the 10-15 rep range to keep the workout cardiovascular as well as toning and some strength addition. Cardio is a big plus for endomorphs. 5-6 days of cardio work is recommended for endomorph body types. 45-60 minute sessions should be incorporated into each cardio/workout session and different type of cardio exercises should be utilized (see my running article, “The Best Running Techniques” for some ideas).

Diet for the Endomorphic Body Type

It is best to eat about 7 or 8 small meals through the day; seriously. This type of eating increases your metabolism, and every time you digest your meals, you are burning calories, so it’s an added bonus. Keep each meal to about 200-300 calories. Concentrate more on protein and carbs, and keep fat to a bare minimum, especially saturated fats.

Ectomorph Body Type

Ectomorphs are referred to as “hard-gainers.” What does this mean? This means that in order for Ectomorphs to gain muscle, it takes A LOT of hard work and dedication. This body type usually carries small muscles as well as a very low level of body fat.

Training for Ectomorphic Body Type

HEAVY WEIGHTS. Can’t preach it enough. All compound strength training exercises daily with heavy weight and low reps. That’s not all though. With the heavy weight training, you also want to be doing hypertrophy training, which is about 8-10 reps of each isolation exercise to give the muscle some fill. Rest periods between exercises should also be taken into consideration. I recommend that you rest about 2 minutes before each exercise so that you can get a lot of rest and use a lot of weight for the duration of each exercise.

Diet for Ectomorphic Body Type

EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, and after that, EAT some more. You skinny bastards have metabolisms faster than a bullet. You need to constantly be eating. When you’re not hungry, eat. If you just ate and you\’re full, eat some more. Keep the foods extremely clean and natural, and eat a lot of protein, a lot of carbs, and a fair amount of fat (more so than Ectomorphs and Mesomorphs would be eating.)

*pictures credited to http://www.kheper.net/topics/typology/somatotypes.html

Been really busy for a while, but now I’m back in action with some articles, and what better way to make a come-back than an article on the worst diet known to man – the Atkins Diet. Too bad Dr. Atkins is dead, because if he wasn’t, I’m sure there are plenty of athletes that would wanna lay a smack-down on his head. Why the hell is this country obsessed with the Atkins diet? I knew about this diet long before it became mainstream in America, and always asked myself who would be stupid enough to utilize a diet that makes you lose 80% water as a final result? I don’t even know what to say, because this is supposed to be professional writing, so I can’t write truly how I feel about these peeps that are all about the Atkins diet crap. That said, on with the facts.

We all know how the people at Better Body Journal feel about “diets,” so you can only imagine how strongly we are against the Atkins diet. For most people, the goal of the common diet is permanent weight loss, and our good doctor failed to take this important desire into consideration when he was seeing dollar signs in front of his eyes while designing the epidemic diet. It is true that for the extremely obese people, Atkins will reduce weight considerably in a short period of time because all of the water under your skin melts away due to the ketogenic state that your body is in. Lose all the weight you want fatty, but after your dieting time is done, you know as well as I do you’re going back to your previous lifestyle and your putting the weight back on double time. So not only are you still overweight, you just took a step backward by utilizing the Atkins diet.

Gaining It All Back, and More!

Studies all over the country have showed substantial weight loss during the diet followed by even greater significant weight gain once the diet was discontinued. This is very easily explained. Atkins, like any fad diet will work great wonders in the first few weeks or even months, but after results stop coming due to the lack of nutrition in the body. The body starts to repel the “diet” state your body is in, and results begin to plummet. The average person will take this as the diet doesn’t work and it is impossible for them to lose weight if this great diet doesn’t work so they might as well stop dieting.

In a nutshell, the Atkins diet puts your body in a state of ketogenesis (lack of carbohydrate nutrients) and all the weight you lose is caused from the ketones (bad acids) that are voided in your urine. Basically, every time you pee or take a crap, you lose about 50 or 100 calories, depending on your metabolism. How the hell is this considered a diet when all the weight lost is by going to the bathroom.

What if someone has bladder problems or digestive problems? Does that mean they don’t lose weight? EXACTLY! And even if they do lose weight, it’s still 80% water weight that your body puts on immediately after you go back to eating carbs. Not only that, but since you were off the carbs for so long, your body will kick into metabolic overdrive and you will absolutely binge on as many carbs as you can get your hands on to satiate those desires in the brain. Mind over matter people; mind over matter. Use self control, and better yet, don’t use Atkins. Anyhow, some more proof as to why every human should despise this pointless and disgusting diet.

Take about 15 minutes and search the net for Atkins and you’ll find hundreds and thousands of pages of information. Of course the bulk of the info is the shit that tells you how to do the diet and how it works. Fine! Fine if you’re using the diet for short term weight loss for competition and what have you. Delve further into the information and you will find scientific facts that either the results are preliminary, meaning that the base foundation of the diet is what makes you lose the weight (water weight), or that basically the diet needs further study, because every idiot that has tried this diet has either failed to lose the desired amount of weight or put on more weight after going back to carbs than before. I mean after all, you can’t go without carbs forever.

Atkins promises 4 pounds a week or 15 pounds in the first 2 weeks or some crazy claims like that. While these claims may sound true because some 300 pound lady loses 15 pounds in 2 weeks, it is more effective because people want to hear this kind of thing. I said it before and I’ll say it again “WATER WEIGHT!” Carbs are what fill your muscles with energy and life, and your body is 70% water, so what’s the first to go when you do any diet? Water. What’s the first to go when you deprive carbs? What the hell do you think? Most, if not all, low carb diets won’t keep the weight off for more than a year, but the average person will fall of the wagon LONG before that.

Another flaw of the diet is that the doctor states that calorie counting doesn’t matter and you can eat what you want that’s on the list of appropriate foods. (A list of foods you’re allowed and not allowed to eat? That’s the beginnings of a great diet people!) When you are eating a lot of meat you are eating a lot of fat, and fat makes you feel more full. As you continue along the diet, your metabolism and you will adapt to the calories and you will start to get hungrier, and with the thinking you can eat as many calories as you want! You will quickly find that you are losing energy, and gaining fat, not weight, just straight fat. That means you will maintain weight while losing muscle and gaining fat. That’s real attractive isn’t it?

Why You Need Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates. To those of us who know our shit, carbs are our bestest of friends. Who the hell came up with the idea that carbs make us fat? Sure when you eat spaghetti and waffles and bread and other carbs and sit on your ass all day, you’re gonna get fat. Don’t blame the carbs, blame your lazy ass. Because people are lazy, people like Dr. Atkins capitalize.

Since 95% of Americans believe carbs make you fat, this diet was a huge success. But you have to understand that if you eat anything at all and remain sedentary you’re going to get fat. It’s not very complicated to understand the logic. Your body needs all the macronutrients to be a naturally body weight with little fat. Depriving yourself of any of the macronutrients will only hurt you in the long run. Now, think for a minute. How do you get the pump and energy for your workouts? CARBS! Yay!

Workouts and general overall performance will be greatly affected when there is a deprivation of carbs and the body is in ketosis. Your body will take amino acids and convert them to glucose to provide your muscles and your brain with the proper things they need to function, and then your protein building cycles will be affected. Atkins will diminish muscle mass if used for more than 2 or 3 weeks.

So what do we have here? We have an article that proves that the only acceptable reason to use the Atkins diet is if you need to shed some weight 2 or 3 weeks prior to competition. If you’re fat and want to lose weight that stays off without affecting your performance or you body chemistry, stay away from the Atkins diet, or any other fad diet that resembles it.

By now you have browsed through the contents of Laying the Foundation Part 1 and you have committed the basic rules of eating healthy to memory. If not, go ahead and do that now because “knowing is half the battle”. You must be ready to understand the basics of nutrition before getting started. Once you get in the habit, it should be easy as pie. A fat-free pie of course. For a quick refresher, let me summarize:

• We are not going to “diet”; we are going to permanently change our eating habits.
• 70% of your results come from diet, not exercise, so stay true to your goals.
• Cheating is bad, m’kay? A reward program is better if you MUST indulge.
• Fad diets do not work for everyone all the time. We must mix and match.
• Don’t skip breakfast and don’t gorge at night.
• Eat carbs and protein, eat fat and protein, but don’t eat fat and carbs.
• Every meal should contain a minimum of 20 grams of protein.

OK, so are we ready to put this all together? Here we go.

Firstly, if you want to lose weight then calories in must be less than calories out. Now we will set up a basic calorie chart that you can use to gauge your daily intake. Go grab a piece of paper, a pen, and a calculator; or open up a spreadsheet on your computer. Start with your bodyweight in pounds. My example will use a 200 lb man.

Step 1

Either go get your body fat percentage measured by a doctor or a personal trainer, or go here: Body Mass Index calculator and get your BMI number. Subtract 24 from your BMI and if you’re a female multiply that number by 2.5. If you’re a male multiply that number by 2. Use this new number as a proxy body fat percentage. It will probably be a little off, but it will be an acceptable substitute if you have an aversion to participating in body fat measurement procedures, which usually involve someone else pinching your bare flabby skin. We’ll say our 200 lb man has a body fat percentage of 20%.

Step 2

Multiply your body fat percentage by your total weight to get your total body fat.

Body fat = 200 lbs x 20% = 40 lbs

Step 3

Subtract your total body fat from your total weight to get your lean body mass (LBM) also called fat free mass.

LBM = 200 lbs – 40 lbs = 160 lbs

Step 4

Categorize your body type to obtain your body type constant (BTC).

If you feel strongly that you are a mixture of two of the three times, then please use a midrange value for your BTC (example: an endo-mesomorph would be 9.5). Body type descriptions come from http://www.wikipedia.com.

Endomorph: The endomorphic body type is centered on the digestive system and is easily overweight. The endomorphic person also has a visceral temperament, which means that they are tolerant, love comfort and luxury, and are extroverted—in short he or she loves food and people.

Endomorph Stereotype: The “jolly fat person.” BTC = 9

Mesomorph: The mesomorphic body type is centered around muscle and the circulatory system and has well developed muscles. The mesomorphic person has a somatotonic temperament, and is courageous, energetic, active, dynamic, assertive, aggressive, competitive, and often a risk taker.

Stereotype: The “jock” or “GI Joe.” BTC = 10

Ectomorph: The ectomorphic body type is centered around the brain and nerves. These people are slim and possibly underweight. The ectomorphic person has a cerebrotonic temperament, and is artistic, sensitive, apprehensive and highly self-aware. Another way to put it is that he or she is introverted and socially restrained.

Stereotype: “effeminate artist” or “awkward nerd.” BTC = 11

Step 5

Multiply your BTC by your LBM to calculate your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).

Your RMR indicates an estimate of the number of calories that you burn throughout the day, while not engaged in physical or stressful situations. We will assume that our 200 lb man is an endo-mesomorph with BTC = 9.5.

RMR = 160 lbs x 9.5 = 1520 calories per day

Step 6

Estimate your average daily activity to arrive at an activity constant.

Your activity constant will allow you to account for the difference in job type from, for example, a construction worker, who burns possibly 1000 calories a day more than a computer programmer or secretary. This will take some guesswork on your part, and honesty is the best policy. Your activity constant has nothing to do with your workouts, so please do not consider that factor into this number.

If you sit at a desk all day choose 1.1. If you are a physical laborer choose 2.0. If you do something in between just adjust the number accordingly. We will assume that our subject does some desk work, but also travels around by foot possibly to meet with clients or pick up merchandise. His activity constant will be 1.35.

Step 7

Multiply your RMR by your activity constant to arrive at your average daily cost of activity.

Cost of activity = 1520 calories x 1.35 = 2052 calories per day

Step 8

Estimate your average daily exercise to arrive at an exercise constant and a time constant relative to exercise.

For this step we will measure our exercise constant in the unit of metabolic equivalent, or METs. The unit MET is defined as the number of calories burned during an activity, per minute, relative to an organism’s basal metabolic rate (BMR). At rest your MET is 1; during light exercise your MET might be 3-4; during moderately intense weight training or cardio your MET value might be 6-7; and during highly intense training like running a 6 minute mile or rock climbing, your MET value could be 12 or higher.

For our subject we will assume he participates in a regular intense weight training routine four days during the week for a total of 90 minutes including warm-ups, cool-downs, and stretching. His exercise constant will be 6 METs and his time constant will be 1.5 hours.

Step 9

Multiply your LBM by the exercise constant and the time constant to calculate your cost of exercise. Oh, and we have to do a quick conversion of LBM from lbs to kilograms in order to work with METs, which is where the division by 2.2 comes into play.

Cost of exercise = (160 cals / 2.2) x 6 x 1.5 = 818.20

Step 10

Understanding the thermic effect of food and beverage. There are two basic rules here that we should know about, which will have a minimal impact on our daily caloric equations. Maximizing the use of both of these rules can theoretically increase your calories burned on a daily basis by 100-200.

• Rule 1 – Eating high quantities of protein and soluble fiber take high quantities of energy to digest. Therefore, as you eat more protein and more fiber you also inherently burn more calories just by eating!
• Rule 2 – Your body will automatically increase the temperature of the substances that you ingest to match your core body temperature. Therefore, I must suggest that you consume cold food and drink cold beverages whenever possible.

Step 11

Calculating your maintenance caloric intake for training days and non-training days.

Add your Cost of Activity (- STEP 7) to your Cost of Exercise (- STEP 9) plus an additional 100-200 calories based on your planned consumption of protein and cold beverages. This will be your training day maintenance calorie target. Our subject will be eating 200 grams of protein per day and drinking eight 8 oz glasses of ice water a day.
Maintenance calories on a training day: 2052 + 818 + 150 = 3020 calories

Your non-training day maintenance calorie target is equal to your cost of activity plus thermic effect of food.
Maintenance calories on a non-training day: 2052 + 150 = 2205 calories

Now take the average of these two numbers to get your average maintenance calorie target.
Total Maintenance Calorie Target = (3020 + 2250) / 2 = 2635 calories

Step 12

You can use this number to live and eat healthily for the rest of your life, OR you can use the number to periodically calculate specific calorie targets to go along with your current training goals. Just remember to recalculate your numbers on a bi-weekly basis if you are dropping / gaining any fat / muscle.

Based on your goals, adjust your calorie level accordingly. If you wish to put on some additional muscle mass, add 500 calories to your maintenance level and hit the gym hard. If you wish to take off some fat, subtract 500 calories from your maintenance level and hit the gym hard.

Be sure to gauge your progress! In an extreme calorie deficit, your body will begin to break down muscle tissue for energy. If you drop more than 5 pounds in your third week, your calories might be too low unless you are still 100 lbs or more overweight. It’s better to drop fat a little more slowly while maintaining precious muscle tissue, than to take a step backward by losing muscle along with the fat.

Step 13

Figuring out your macronutrient breakdown because a calorie is STILL not just a calorie.

• Protein (4 calories per gram): your target should be at least 1 gram of protein per pound of your own bodyweight.
• Fat (9 calories per gram): your target should be 30% of your total calories when you are trying to add muscle, and 45% of your total calories when trying to cut fat.
• Carbohydrates (4 calories per gram): your target should be about 30% when you are trying to add muscle and about 20% when you are trying to cut fat.
• Alcohol (7 calories per gram): your target should be about 0% when you are trying to add muscle and about 0% when you are trying to cut fat. Does anyone see a pattern?

Our subject wants to drop a little fat, so he is going to start at 2100 calories a day. His macronutrient breakdown is going to look like this:

• Protein: 200 grams = 800 calories = 38%
• Fat: 100 grams = 900 calories = 43%
• Carbs: 100 grams = 400 calories = 19%
• Alcohol: 0 grams = 0 calories = 0%

Quick Tips for Fitness

Quick Tip #1: Keeping a food log can help you to diet instinctively over time. You will quickly learn portion sizes and calories statistics of certain foods as you write them down or check them off day after day.

Quick Tip #2: Use a tape measure to gauge the progress of certain body parts on a weekly basis. Common measurements include waist (bellybutton), chest (nipple), mid thigh, mid upper arm, mid calf, and neck. Take these measurements right before breakfast.

Quick Tip #3: On a weight-lifting day, consume ¼ of your carbs for breakfast, ¼ of your carbs before training, and ½ of your carbs after training. On a cardio only or non-training day, consume ½ of your carbs before lunch and the other ½ before dinner, but NEVER within 2 hours before a cardio session.

In the next installment I will cover the basics of building a training plan. I will detail the basic rules of weight training, cardiovascular training, stretching, and recovery.

Please send your questions and comments to TheShadow@betterbodyjournal.com The Shadow has been certified twice in his lifetime for sports nutrition and personal training. He has 10 years of experience training strength athletes, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and clients from the general population.

When you look into the mirror what do you see? Perhaps you see a cupcake with a head and a couple extra appendages. Perhaps you see a pear that can talk. Or perhaps you see walking toothpick. No matter your aesthetic malady, if it can be fixed with diet and exercise, we can fix it here at Better Body Journal. Undertaking a new “diet” or exercise program should not be taken lightly. If you are severely overweight, severely underweight, and/or have any medical conditions, you should always consult your physician prior to drastically changing your eating habits and performing significant weight bearing tasks.

Now I would like to outline a number of basic rules for building the foundation of your new dietary plan.

Rule #1 – Permanent Changes

I avoided using “The Diet” as a subtitle of this section for a reason; this is not a diet. I repeat, we are NOT DIETING here. These are the permanent changes you need to make to your lifestyle eating habits. From now on when I use the word “diet” I am referring to your lifestyle eating habits. For example, right now you might say that your diet consists of Coca-Cola, donuts, cheeseburgers, and ice cream. In the future you will say that your diet consists of water, peanuts, lean meat, and jello with low-fat whipped topping. I will construct a foundation for you to follow, which will allow you to say you have changed your diet forever, and you will say it with pride!

Rule #2 – You Are What You Eat

Your diet will be responsible for 70% of your total results, with physical exercise comprising the additional 30%. You can not escape this rule. If you eat french fries and drink beer, you will be either a) fat or b) skinny fat (another term for someone that is not outwardly fat, but holds a soft midsection and very little muscle tone). I will show you how you can time your meals and macronutrient consumption to maximize the impact of your diet on your body composition 100% of the time.

Rule #3 – No Cheating

No, it is not OK to cheat. Even the term cheat carries negative connotations. The Waist Watchers and Jennifer Craigs of the world will tell you that you can eat what you want in moderation. To most people that means it’s OK to have donuts in moderation, then it’s also OK to have ice cream in moderation, which must mean it’s OK to have soda in moderation. Soon you’re eating everything that you shouldn’t be eating in moderation, but the end result is that you’re just eating little servings of a whole bunch of different junk foods! I will develop a system of goals and rewards that you can follow to achieve the success you want and enjoy the foods that taste best.

Rule #4 – No Fad Diets

There is no fad diet out there that works for everyone. Atkins can work for some, but can lead to bingeing and kidney failure. Low fat can work for some, but can lead to diabetes. Juice diets might work for a couple weeks, but you will end up nutrient deficient and likely very sick. I will show you how to take the best of all worlds and create one all-encompassing philosophy for changing your diet forever.

Rule #5 – Eat Breakfast Silly

Breakfast is the all important meal of the day. If you skip breakfast you might as well forget about maximizing your progress. Skipping breakfast means that your body will continue to eat up precious muscle tissue (catabolism) in a prolonged state of fasting. Your metabolism will slow down to accommodate the lack of nutrients, and will store each successive calorie that you consume in efficient little adipose cells (fat tissue) for later use. Even if you start with a glass of milk or a piece of toast an hour after you wake up, you will be better off than if you wait until lunch to eat your first meal.

Rule #6 – Choosing the Right Calories

A calorie is not a calorie. Fat should not be combined with carbohydrates period. General guidelines are: any meal with more than 10 grams of carbs should have less than 8 grams of fat; any meal with more than 8 grams of fat should have less than 10 grams of carbs, and absolutely NO sugar. Yes, this means high-fat sandwiches are out, steak and potatoes are gone, no more juice and toast with your eggs, and nix that full-fat butter on everything except for vegetables.

Rule #7 – Seriously. Choose the Right Calories

A calorie is still not a calorie. Every meal should have at least 20 grams of protein. This means a 6 meal day will consist of a minimum of 120 grams of protein. I maintain that athletes should not eat less than 80% of their bodyweight (in lbs) in grams of protein. That means a 180 lb athlete will consume between 140-200 grams of protein in a day. This is not now, nor has it ever been, too much protein for an active human being. Protein requires additional calories to process, similar to soluble fiber, and therefore creates a thermic effect in the body, thus speeding up your metabolism and negating a small percentage of the actual caloric protein consumption just in case your body doesn’t quite use all of the protein in any particular day. I will provide a general guideline of how to construct your meals to follow rules #6 and #7.

Quick Tip #1

It is OK to eat a small healthy snack before bed.

Quick Tip #2

It is OK to drink as much water as you can comfortably consume, 64 oz minimum in any given day.

Quick Tip #3

You need carbohydrates for energy. Instead of avoiding them, we will time carb intake based around pre-planned activity levels.

In the next installment I will cover the basics of building a diet plan. I will discuss calorie calculations, meal breakdowns, and meal suggestions. I will also expand on most of the tips that I summarized today, so learn them well in my absence, and don’t wait to start implementing them! Adding in a couple changes at a time will make it easier to change your overall habits, and you won’t be able to actually pinpoint the exact date you started “dieting” because it will be a slow aggregate change. Good Luck!

Please send your questions and comments to theshadow@betterbodyjournal.com. The Shadow has been certified twice in his lifetime for sports nutrition and personal training. He has 10 years of experience training strength athletes, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and clients from the general population.

A lot of fitness gurus and books recommend that if you are on a diet, you need a cheat day every week to keep you sane. What could be so bad about that? You’ve worked hard all week and you need to reward yourself! You did those extra sprints on Friday and have lost 4 lbs this week because of your hard work! You can’t take dieting anymore and that cheat day will let you devour the foods you have been avoiding all week! What a great idea!

The Problems with Cheat Day

So what’s the problem? There are two. First off, you shouldn’t be on a diet unless you are a professional athlete or bodybuilder trying to make weight, gain mass, etc. If you are a regular guy or girl like me, then your diet needs to change. You are not “on a diet” because you’re trying to lose weight for your summer swimsuit. Your diet has changed permanently. No ifs, ands, or buts. You should be eating healthy all the time and for the rest of your life. Most people over-diet when they are “on a diet,” meaning they go to incredible extremes like calorie restriction and avoiding carbs. This leads to utter resentment because being on such a diet is hard work. You’re eating crap you don’t like to eat and forcing it down your gullet hole because you want to drop as many pounds as possible this week. You avoid food because you don’t want those calories inside you so you’re hungry all the time.

This has been discussed over and over here on Better Body Journal. Don’t “go on a diet.” Eating healthy all the time is not a rocket science. I have changed my diet these past two weeks to be permanent. I am rarely hungry, and enjoy what I eat. The bonus? It’s all good for me. As hard as supermarkets and fast food restaurants try to stuff the wrong kinds of food into your body, you can find good food out there with the benefits of being tasty and healthy. It’s not difficult, you just have to look. You should be at the point where you don’t need a cheat day. Yes I said it! Some weeks you don’t want a cheat day because what you’re eating is perfectly fine. The fact that you have to force some Burger King into your mouth to satisfy your cheat day should sicken you. Easier said than done, but possible.

The first problem with a cheat day is that it implies that you are “on a diet.” Your hard work and effort needs to be rewarded. Rewarding yourself with bad calories, trans fat, and sugar is a bad mental game to play with yourself. It’s wrong and not the key to getting a better body.

The second problem with cheat day is based on the first. Assuming you paid no attention to anything in the first few paragraphs and are “on a diet,” you’re the person that thinks they are eating right during the week, but in actuality may be eating wrong, but just because you’re seeing results you continue to do what you do. (If you don’t eat anything for 2 days and lose weight, it means that diet is working but is it good for you? Of course not.)

So after all this hard work, your cheat day turns into exercise within itself. You build a forest of soft drinks, French fries, cookies, mozzarella sticks and chomp through it like an angry beaver. You sweat because eating all this food is hard work. But it feels great. This is your reward.

People take the cheat day way too far. They eat and eat not knowing that all of these calories add up fast. Sure it’s a cheat day, but you can spend the next 2 to 3 days working off the damage from your cheat day. What’s the point of all this hard work if you’re setting yourself back at least one day. Almost 30-40% of your week is lost due to your cheat day and recovery. It’s like a self-imposed tax on your progress and we all know how much taxes take away from us.

What a Cheat Day Should Be

A cheat day shouldn’t even be a day. It should be a meal or two on that day where you eat a lax version of your regular diet. These meals should not include fast food and 2 pints of ice cream because those are foods you need to avoid forever. (There’s nothing bad about having a little ice cream, but a pint of it? C’mon.). Examples could be adding a buttered potato to your steak, croutons and cheese on your salad, or a soda with your regular meal. A small treat as opposed to devouring everything on the table makes a lot more sense if you’re trying to build a better body.

It’s simple. Don’t let these diet gurus tell you that you can have whatever you want on the day of your choosing. It is detrimental to your goals and leads you to believe you are allowed to reward yourself with something bad for doing something good. Change your cheat day into a temporary lax version of your regular diet. If you must eat out at a restaurant, chose something that’s relatively good for you and don’t pig out. Reward yourself with something good for doing something good and you’ll feel better about yourself. You’ll hit the gym harder on Monday because you didn’t screw up all your progress by eating crap. You’ll be less disappointed when you remained at weight rather than seeing the scale jump 3 pounds. You’ll reach your goals quicker than you thought possible.

Maybe some of you have heard of insulin spikes after your workouts, maybe some of you haven’t; regardless if you’ve heard of it or not, I’m going to write a rundown of what an insulin spike exactly is and why it is beneficial for the athlete. This won’t be too long of an article, it’ll just describe all the essentials that you need to know about post workout insulin spikes.

What is insulin?

It’s a hormone produced by the pancreas, which is necessary for glucose to be able to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. Why is insulin important the human body? Well, read the definition. Anyway, on with the science. Whenever you ingest a carbohydrate or insulin, your body immediately releases insulin to regulate your body’s blood sugar levels. Insulin does not let your body drop its blood sugar levels too high or too low. Insulin also transports glucose to the muscle cells. Insulin is very anabolic because it allows for amino acids to be utilized much better and much faster in the human body.

It is said by experts that the best time to get an insulin spike is after you workout. I totally agree; in fact, I think that when you wake up in the morning and immediately after your afternoon or evening workout are the best times of day to create an insulin spike. Your body is very sensitive in the morning when you first wake up because you just “re-charged” yourself with sleep, and it also very sensitive after a workout because of all the glucose that your body has used for energy during the intense session.

How to Cause an Insulin Spike

OK, OK, so how the hell do I create an insulin spike? Easy as butter baby. To create in insulin spike, simply eat foods with a high glycemic index. What this means is foods that have simple sugars in them. The higher the glycemic index that a food is, the more simple the sugars are and the quicker they enter your bloodstream. Studies have shown that insulin replenishes glycogen stores in the liver, stops protein breakdown after a workout, and increases amino acid uptake into the body. Well this all sounds fine and dandy for us athletes, but unfortunately, as everything, there is a downside to our good friend insulin.

Insulin plays an extremely large role in storing fat. Whenever insulin is released, glucose stores are stored as glycogen in the liver for energy, as stated earlier. This is all gravy whenever your glycogen stores are depleted after a workout, but if they are full, and insulin is released, the extra glucose will be transported DIRECTLY into those fat cells of yours. And what happens when something enters the fat cells? If you don’t know, look at most of America.

If you’ve read any of my other diet articles you’ll understand why it is bad to eat simple sugars on a regular basis; this is just another reason showing you why it is bad to eat them. When you’re not using your energy for something useful, and consume lots of simple sugars into the body, you get fat. Simple as pie. You think non-fat food is non-fat? Look at the sugar on the ingredient label and then tell me it’s non-fat. Not very hard to understand this concept, but for some reason people just don’t seem to get it.

Simple Sugars After a Workout

Consuming simple sugars following a workout will bring glucose to your muscle cells and allow for greater uptake of amino acids, which are very good for muscle growth. Simple sugars are very easy to come across. They include honey, cane sugar, sugar, grapes, raisins, dates, maltose (milk sugar), maltodextrin (Gatorade / Powerade), watermelon, etc. pick one of these and eat them along with a balanced protein, carb, and fat meal after your workout and you will create an insulin spike and cause glucose to be delivered to the muscle and the amino acids to be utilized more efficiently. With this, the protein you just ingested will be up taken into the muscle cells better than if you didn’t eat simple sugars following your workout.

ONLY consume simple sugars like these immediately after your workout to cause an insulin spike. Other than the first thing in the morning and after your workout, simple sugars should be avoided at all costs so that you can fill your body with complex sugars for energy and optimization. Everything clear? Good; now you guys have an extra edge on becoming the best athlete you can be.