NT Personal fitness trainer
Out of context: Reply #21
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- Point50
honest, here are a few points from a guy like me who at the moment isn't so leant, but has many, many times jumped between a lean 215 and a very husky 250-275:
• cut your carb intake not only in half, but also change the types of carbs you ingest. General rule of thumb, white=bad and brown=good; meaning instead of white rice, eat brown rice. I lieu of white bread, use a whole wheat/grain. This can drastically affect your blood sugar levels, metabolism and fat storage. For more info about this, Google "glycemic index".
Should you taper your carbs off at the end of the day? YES. Try not to eat any heavy carbs within 4 hours of your bedtime. Your body doesn't need any carbs at this time of day and if you do go to sleep with high sugar levels in your stomach or bloodstream, chances are (if you have a half ass metabolism) it will get converted into fat stores. 8pm and hungry? Have a salad with iceberg lettuce, chicken breast, parmesan cheese, fresh black pepper, garlic powder, and an oil and vinegar dressing instead.
• Work out with free weights. Start slow like going to the gym 1-2 time per week at first. No set days, just simply find 1 or 2 days that you can get your ass in there. When you get there, do upper body one day, and then lower body and abs the next. If you get your ass in the gym 2 days a week for at least a month, you're ready to take the next step and dedicate 3-4 days a week for yourself and get on a nicely structured regimine. Why weight train? Because increased muscle mass means a higher metabolism.
• Cardio. This doesn't mean you have to get on a stupid treadmill or stairstepper at the gym. Just like the weight training, get yourself to where you are starting out doing 30-45 minute walks or slow jogs twice a week. Do this any time of the day; if you can do this in the morning, even better. Eventually, a 30-45 minute walk/jog will become very easy and boring and you'll be ready to move onto something new. Get a bike, hit the mountain trails, go swimming. Hell, tackle that stair master at the gym (and make sure that you get on the one next to the hot chick. It's called "motivation")
• Food Combinations. I recently worked the theory of eating the right food combinations into my diet and I found it works great. The basic rule of this is: Don't eat high protein and high carbohydrate foods together. This means, goodbye steak and potatoes, farewell chicken and rice, no more turkey sandwiches. Instead, eat your foods in combos of [proteins + low/non-starch vegetable + fats] or [carbohydrates + vegetable + fats]. Also, eat your fruits totally separate, and only one type of fruit at a time, meaning, if you want an orange or two, that's fine, just eat that and only that within a 2 hour time block; don't eat apples and bananas with it.
What eating the right foods together does is eliminate digestive problems. You maintain an appropriate pH level in the stomach for the certain foods you are digesting. This helps to lower bloating, gas, and at the same time insure better nutrient absorption. I know this sounds a little crazy, but I just started doing this about 4 months ago and it works. Chances are, that beer gut is a good percentage of swirling, steaming, partially digested food. I mad filet mignon and mashed potatoes last night for dinner at 6:30pm and at 11am the next day I still feel full. Ugh... Here's an example of how to work with a diet like this:
wake up - whey protein shake
-- workout/cardio option --
30-45 minutes later - oatmeal with cinnamon + mutlivitamin
2 hours later - chicken + non-starch veg's
2 hours later - brown rice + veg's (maybe a lite veggie stir fry)
2 hours later - fruit
-- workout/cardio option --
dinner - chicken breast + large green saladThis is only an example of how it can work to alternate your carb meals vs. your protein meals. I know this pisses on the whole food pyramid and dividing your plate with proteins/carbs/fats theories, but who cares. It works.
On a side note, don't forget your fats. If you want cheese, whole milk, an extra yolk or two in your eggs or heavy cream in your coffee, go ahead, just make sure you do this in the first half of the day when your body will be naturally burning ingested calories at a high rate. If you decide to cut way back on your food fat intake or you don't snack on foods such as almonds very often, you might consider an essential fatty acid supplement such as Udo's Oil Blend. Fat is necessary and this is a very good supplement that ensure you get your daily dose of good fats.
• Water- Drink 1oz. per pound of bodyweight per day (at least)
• Drinking Alcohol- limit yourself to one day per week of alcohol consumption, or better yet, stop.