|
pornclerk brought up a point allot of people overlook the measurement vs stepping on a scale. Three tools you will find extremely useful in assessing your progress are a standard scale that is properly calibrated, a cheap fat caliper (any GNC or HiHealth- will come with instructions- do the 9 point, not the 3 point), and a paper tape measure.
Use the scale for your weight, the caliper to monitor your fat percentage, and the tape measure for you lean mass gains. If your weight is going down but your fat percentage is the same or increasing, you are going in the wrong direction. In that case the scale could give you a false sense that you are going in the right direction. You want your body to be in an anabolic state opposed to a catabolic state.
The zone approach to eating is something that allows you to design your own diet, and it’s a way of eating that can be done safely for your entire life.
1. Determine your caloric intake: example- 2800 calories allotted for the day
2. Divide that number by 6 which in this case would be about 466
3. Schedule your eating sessions into 6 meals each consisting of 466 calories
4. Within each of those meals split the substrates into a ratio of 40% protein, 30% complex carbs (not simple), 30% friendly fats. There are many reference books out there that will break down all known foods with their info to give you this info. The only meal you won’t do this with is the last one. Your sixth meal will only have protein. So it will need to be a source of protein that can give you those calories.
5. Most people have no problem eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Schedules can conflict with the in betweens most people don’t eat. The late morning, and early afternoon. That’s where IMO meal replacement powders are one of the only worthwhile supplements to invest in. They are actually an engineered meal for people to drink down in a matter of minutes. It would be like having steak and salad in a drink. For the last meal getting a good protein powder could make getting that sixth meal of straight protein in easier. If designing meals like that became too tedious which is easy, then cooking in large quantities and having the same menu for three to four days at a time makes it allot easier.
6. Unless you are doing cardio for performance reasons, make the session work in your favor. If you do your cardio the same days you do your weight training, or possibly with the same two hour window then always do you weight training first. There is debate about this because some people will argue that the cardio helps loosen you up for the weights. When I worked as a personal trainer my client had 1005 better results doing weights first. The reason is your better off using the carbs, glycogen, and level of insulin that is present in your body to fuel you through the weight training (which you should be giving your all), then by doing cardio after (provided you are at your target heart rate) you will spend a higher amount of fat fueling your cardio workout- which is what you want. You do not want to be burning carbs when doing cardio. For an endurance athlete sure that is they way to go. For someone doing cardio for aesthetics using fat is the better direction. The other choice is to do cardio first thing in the morning right after you wake up BEFORE breakfast. At this point the last meal you had was the protein in your sixth meal in the day before. Again you will be in a situation where carbs will not be fueling your cardio workout. Make no mistake both ways are challenging, but IMO making the most out of each minute working out is the way to go.
7. If you discipline yourself to eat as stated above you will find that your fat percentage will drop even without physically working out. (I’m not saying not to). This is because by regulating your insulin level at a steady amount vs. spiking it which is what most people do; your metabolism will begin to speed up. After a month of eating like this is will be very fast. At this point you body will be burning calories just by digestion and movement. If you are consistent I am 100% confident you will see results that will amaze you. The major draw back—get ready to start having 4-6 bowel movements a day.
__________________
To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.- Stephen Hawking
|