I got a little too comfortable a few years ago. It was during the spring of 2002, the dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center and the dot-com crash was beginning to settle. Despite the economy I was able to find a good stable job and I had just entered a relatively serious relationship. Like many people who get into serious relationships, I started caring less and less about what I ate and lost my desire to workout or stay in shape.
Within a year I went from being 5′9″, 190 lbs, and ~10% bodyfat to around 235 lbs and ~35% bodyfat.
It was very tough to break this unhealthy trend. Prior to the dot-com crash I worked along the river in Petaluma not far from 24 Hour Fitness, Whole Foods, sushi bars, and Wraps & Rolls, where it was really easy to live a healthy lifestyle. However after being laid off I found a new job in the Roseland Area of Santa Rosa, awash with a large endless variety of Mexican and Fried Chinese Cuisine.
I stayed around this weight until the fall of 2004. One day I woke up and realized that I was really unhappy with myself and how out of shape I had become. Over the course of two years I went from a pants size 30 to a pants size 36 and I even found a pair of size 36 jeans to be too tight for me and I had to sit at work with the top button of my jeans unbuttoned to be comfortable. At this point I knew that I needed to make some serious changes in my life: I NEEDED TO GET BACK INTO SHAPE!
I had been heavily into fitness and bodybuilding towards the end of college and had been taught diet & nutrition, exercise, and other tricks to get into killer shape. I had the knowledge, but I just needed to regain the determination and discipline.
DIET AND NUTRITION
What is the ideal diet for weightloss? Just cutting calories is definitely not the answer and will actually work against losing fat. The body will just adapt to the lower calorie amount within a few days. Improving the composition of the food you eat and how the different macronutrients are combined will yield a much better body composition than just cutting calories and eating less.
Write down everything that you eat for an entire week and then look at ways that you can slowly adapt your diet to make it more healthy. Don’t try to drastically go from eating nothing but junk food to eating nothing but health food. The biggest source of failure with most diet plans are that are too difficult to follow. Adapt your diet slowly week-by-week to make it better and better so that you slowly get use to eating more healthy. This will make it much easier to follow. The key is to develop a diet with the right balance of taste, nutrition and convenience.
You can easily improve your diet by eating more fruits, vegetables and lean protein sources. Switching from regular salad dressing to the low-fat version or from regular soda to diet soda can make a big difference.
EAT MORE FREQUENT SMALLER MEALS
Through out history people have been taught to eat three square meals a day, however ideally people should be eating smaller meals more freqently to stay lean. I try to eat at least 6 meals a day and even eat as many as 8 meals some days.
Every time you eat, the metabolism is stimulated to break down the food in a process called the thermic effect of feeding. Eating frequent meals will speed up your metabolism and cause your body to store less fat. Your body stores fat so that it can use them when needed at a later time. If you eat more frequent meals there will be less demand for fat storage because your body is use to being fed more frequently and your body will use more energy to digest the food.
This will also maintain steady blood sugar levels, control hunger and provide a steady stream of nutrients to maintain lean mass and prevent catabolism. It also prevents large surges of insulin that will occur when the body is deprived of food for longer then a four or five hour time span.
If you don’t believe this theory then look at different animals. Horses are very lean muscular animals that “graze” and frequently though out the day, their bodies don’t have a need for fat storage because they are always eating. Bears on the other hand only eat once or twice a week and thus must have much greater fat storage to account for their eating patterns. Would you rather have the body of the bear or the horse?
DRINK PLENTY OF ICE COLD WATER
Dehydration can slow down your metabolism by as much as 40% and can be extremely catabolic to muscle tissue. Once thirst sets in, it is already too late because you are already well into a dehydrated state.
Water also has a thermogenic effect. By drinking ice-cold water, your metabolism is boosted by 40% to bring your body temperature up to its normal level. Your body expends energy and burns fat inorder to make your warmer, this is known as the shivering response.
You should have at least 10-12 glass of COLD water a day.
ADD MORE FIBER TO YOUR DIET
A very low percentage of people really get the recommended minimum 30g of fiber a day. Research has shown that subjects who consumed an extra 15g of fiver a day had a 10% decrease in daily calorie intake and an average 4.2 lb weightloss in 6 weeks time. So remember to eat your veggies!
REDUCE SIMPLE SUGARS
Simple sugars increase the level of insulin in the body and increases the likelihood of food being stored as fat. Foods that ranked high on their glycemic index (index of how fast food appears in the blood as glucose) should be avoided, such as white bread, white rice, white pasta and low-fiber carbohydrates.
Sweets spike the insulin levels to extremely high levels and can drastically increase fat storage in some people. However, sugar is essential for muscle growth in the morning and after working out.
EAT LEAN PROTEINS
The power of protein is unsurpassed. It is the most thermogenic of all the three major macronutrients (Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins), requiring double the energy spent to digest than fats or carbohydrates.
Protein helps build lean mass that raises your resting metabolism, prevents muscle breakdown during calorie or carb restriction, and increases satiation at each meal.
Lean protein at every meal is a must for a fat loss goal to be achieved. The 1g per pound of bodyweight is the norm, but when calories and/or carbs are restricted, 1.5-2.0g per pound of bodyweight should be the goal of daily intake.
GOOD SOURCES OF LEAN PROTEIN
- white meat/skinless chicken
- turkey
- lean beef (93% lean ground, roast beef, lean cuts of steak)
- fish: salmon, tilapia, mahi mahi, ahi tuna
- shrimp
- tuna
- egg whites
- whey or caesin protein
EAT COMPLEX, FIBER RICH CARBOHYDRATES IN CYCLES
You will never win a marathon by cutting carbs, but you will lose fat. This is only true to a point since your body is a highly adaptive machine. So by cycling carbs, or a cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD), you prevent the body from adapting and allowing a long term fat loss state.
By cutting carbs, we put the body in a fat burning mode, but after a few days the hormone Leptin drops. Research shows Leptin is a key hormone in regulating hunger cravings and metabolic rate. It’s influenced by losing fat and insulin, so when fat loss occurs, Leptin drops, slowing your metabolism and increasing hunger.
By increasing carbs on a scheduled basis, the rise in insulin causes a rise in Leptin levels allowing more time in a ketogenic state after the scheduled carbohydrate increase.
For the average person, this can mean once a week or low-carb during the week, and eating carbs on the weekend. For people that are relatively lean, a carb-up day every 3-4 days seems to be the optimal schedule. Remember, once you have sugar cravings and/or increased hunger, Leptin has dropped too low. To counter this, try to target how many days before that occurs and schedule your carb-up the previous day.
However, you should try to avoid carbohydrates at night since they can contribute to fat storage while you sleep. Slow digesting lean proteins like Casein protein (slow digesting 7-10 hr) should be taken at night.
GOOD SOURCES OF COMPLEX CARBS
- brown rice
- sweet potatos or yams
- oatmeal
- whole wheat or multi grain bread
- whole wheat or multi grain pasta
- barley, oats, flax
GOOD SOURCES OF ESSENTIAL FATS
- peanuts or peanut butter
- almonds
- olive oil
- fish
- avacodoes
VEGETABLES
Most vegetables are low in calories but high in volume - salad greens, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, zucchini, just to name a few. Each vegetable serving is about 25 calories, and typical serving sizes are 1 cup raw, a half cup cooked or 2 cups leafy vegetables.
Some vegetables are starchy - such as corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes and winter squash - and contain more calories per serving.
FRUITS
Practically all types of fruit fit into a healthy diet. Some fruits are better choices than others. Whole fresh, frozen and canned fruit, without added sugar, have about 60 calories a serving. Unlike fruit juices and dried fruits, these types of fruit are higher in bulk because of water and fiber and are your best choices. A typical serving is a small or medium-sized piece of fresh fruit or a half cup of sliced fruit.
Keep the serving size of fruits small since they tend to be higher in sugar than other types of food.
EXAMPLE MEAL PLANS
Non-Workout Days:
1950cals, 50f, 200c, 225 protein
Meal 1:
1 cup oats/oatmeal or 2 Multigrain/Wheat Pancakes*
1 banana or 1 grapefruit
1.5 scoop Whey or 6 Egg Whites
* 0 calorie butter spray can be added to pancakes.
Meal 2:
1/2 cup brown rice
1 tbs. peanut Butter or almonds
Chicken breast / Fish / Turkey
Meal 3:
1/2 cup brown rice
2 tbs. Peanut Butter or almonds
Chicken breast / Fish / Turkey
Meal 4:
2 cups veggies
1 apple
Chicken breast / Fish / Turkey
Meal 5:
1 apple
1/2 tbs Flax
1/2 lb sliced Turkey
Meal 6:
1 scoop Casein Whey
1/2 tbs Flax
Workout Days:
2600cals, 70f, 300c, 225 protein
Meal 1: Pre-Workout
1 cup oats/oatmeal or 2 Multigrain/Wheat Pancakes*
1 banana
16 Almonds
1.5 scoop Whey or 6 Egg Whites
Meal 2: Post-Workout
1 workout recover drink containing 3-to-1 carb-to-protein ration
Meal 3: 30 min Later Post-Post-Workout
1 cup brown rice or baked yam
2 chicken breasts
1/2 tbs Flax
Meal 4:
1 cup brown rice or baked yam
2 cups veggies
20 Almonds
Chicken breast / Fish / Turkey
Meal 4:
1 cup brown rice or baked yam
2 cups veggies
20 Almonds
Chicken breast / Fish / Turkey
Meal 5:
2 cup veggies
1/2 tbs Flax
Chicken breast / Fish / Turkey
Meal 6:
1 scoop Casein Whey
1/2 tbs Flax
To make my meals not seem so redundant and plain, I add “combo” seasonings like Mrs. Dash to the veggies and calorie free syrups to the oats. If I didn’t feel like eating chicken or fish I would go pick up some buffalo or some smoked salmon. I’m not sure I will ever get tired of eating these types of meals, as long as I always choose different types of lean protein sources
FEELING FULL ON LESS CALORIES
It is possible to feel full on fewer calories and at the same time lose weight and keep it off long-term. To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, you have to follow an eating plan you can live with for a lifetime. That means no severe restrictions, no extreme hunger and no fads or crash diets.
Choosing foods that are less concentrated with calories means that you get a larger portion size with a fewer number of calories which can help you lose weight and still control your hunger.
All foods have a certain number of calories within a given amount of volume. Some foods, such as desserts, have many calories in just a small portion. So in order to feel full, you’ll need to eat larger quantities of these types of foods, which also means a larger number of calories.
For example, a half cup of mixed nuts has 438 calories which is the calorie amount of an entire meal but a half cup of nuts alone is not likely to leave you feeling full.
Some foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains - have more volume but less calories. Contrast to the 438 calories in a half cup of mixed nuts, a half cup of cooked green beans has just 19 calories, a half cup of cubed cantaloupe has 28 calories and a half cup of cooked whole-wheat spaghetti has 87 calories. So eating one of these lower calorie alternatives, will give you more food and cause you to consume fewer calories as well as make you feel more full than the cup of nuts which has around 20 times the number of calories.
Two major “Factors” play an important role in making foods less calorie packed and more filling:
1. Water - Many fruits and vegetables contain water, which provides volume but not calories. A grapefruit, for example, is about 90 percent water and has just 39 calories in a half-fruit serving. Carrots are about 88 percent water and have only 52 calories in 1 cup.
2. Fiber - High-fiber foods, such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains - not only provide volume, but also take longer to digest, making you seem more full for longer.
MAKING THIS DIET WORK FOR YOU
Starting a healthy diet that emphasizes fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains makes room in your diet for some of your favorite foods in small quantities: some fat free/calorie free ice cream, small whole wheat cookies, or sugar free candy for example.
* Increase the ratio of fruits and vegetables in your meals. For example, add blueberries to your oatmeal or cereal in the morning and in the evening top your pasta with sauté, grilled, or steamed vegetables.
* Experiment with new foods in different combinations. Try banana or apple slices on whole-wheat toast with a little peanut butter. Toss some mandarin orange and peach slices into a salad. You may find some new tastes you love that fit within your eating plan.
* Start lunch or dinner with a broth-based, vegetable-filled soup or a large salad with a small amount of fat-free dressing (Walden farms calorie free dressings). These foods take longer to eat and will curb your hunger. Also, serve whole grains, an extra serving of vegetables and a serving of lean protein for your main course. By the time you get to dessert, you may not even have room for that cup of mixed berries topped with a spoonful of fat free vanilla pudding!
By eating larger portions of foods less packed with calories, you will eliminate hunger pains and feel much better about your meal, which will contribute to how satisfied you feel and look overall.
SUGGESTED FOOD SUBSTITUTIONS TO EAT BETTER
Ingredient - Substitute
* 1 oz Baking Chocolate - 3 Tablespoon of cocoa
* 1 Egg - 2 egg whites
* Butter/Shortening - Calorie Free Butter Spray or Reduced Fat Yogurt Butter
* Cream Cheese - Reduced fat cream cheese
* Fudge Sauce - Walden Farms Calorie Free Chocolate syrup
* Whipping Cream - Equal portions of half-&-half and evaporated skimmed milk (not for whipping)
* Light Cream - Equal portion of 1% milk and evaporated skim milk
* Mayo - Reduced fat mayonnaise or reduced fat sour cream
* Oil (in baking) - use extra virgin olive oil.
* Shortening - Replace up to 3/4 of shortening with apple butter or fruit puree. Reduce sugar when using apple butter.
* Sour Cream - Low fat sour cream low far yogurt, or blend 1 cup low fat cottage cheese with 1 Tablespoon skim milk with 2 Tablespoons lemon juice.
* Whipped Cream - Chilled evaporated milk, whipped.
IN CONCLUSION
By following the diet above I was able to lose over 40 lbs within a two month period. I rapidly went from 235 lbs to 178 lbs and from a size 36+ waist back to a size 30. I went from ~35% bodyfat down to ~14% bodyfat within 60 days.
I did also followed a specific weightlifting and guerilla cardio regieme that I will cover at a later time. This entry focused on the proper diet which is the most important aspect of any health or fitness plan. I would say that a proper diet is around 70% of whats behind staying shape.
The most important thing with any diet or execise program is to be consistent and disciplined. Get into a scheduled diet and exercise routine and stick with it! Outline your goals and follow them through!
Another important thing is experimentation, what works for one person may not work the same way for another. Try different things. Ask lots of questions and watch others and see what works for them. Through trial and error you can learn your own body and what works for you.
Lastly you need to have confidence in yourself. If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you won’t accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
Tell me about your Goals?
- Lose Fat?
- Build Muscle?
- Improve Energy?
- Other?
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