Dietary fiber

Interesting tidbit on fiber...

Dietary fiber

via Men's Health Information, Including Fitness, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Working Out & Sex by Erhard on 11/5/09

Dietary fiber increases the roughage mass of the non-digested part of the food you eat, keeping it soft and moist. Foods that are high in fiber also keep you feeling fuller for longer, staving off hunger pangs and decreasing the amount of food you want to eat.

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Obesity Linked to Many Cancer Cases in U.S.

Obesity Linked to Many Cancer Cases in U.S.

via WebMD Health on 11/5/09

As many as 100,000 cases of cancer could be prevented in the U.S. each year if Americans get rid of their excess body fat, a report by the American Institute for Cancer Research suggests.

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90 Day Transformation - Day 36 - Workout & Diet

Hey guys,

So this morning I woke up and did not want to get up at all because I slept really late because of the World Series (Yankees won... as you already know!). But I mustered enough energy to get my butt to the gym. I guess I wasn't the only one watching the game because the gym was EMPTY (LOL)...

Today was my "PUSH" Workout which consists of exercises that require me to push (duh!): Chest, Shoulders & Triceps were on the agenda. Here's my workout I did:

Chest:

Incline Bench Press: 4 Sets X 15 Reps

Flat Bench Press: 4 Sets X 15 Reps

Pec Deck Flyes: 4 Sets X 15 Reps

Cable Crossovers: 4 Sets X 15 Reps

Shoulders:

Military Press: 4 Sets X 12 Reps

Lateral Raises: 4 Sets X 12 Reps

Rear Delt Machine : 4 Sets X 12 Reps

Triceps:

Dips: 4 Sets X 12 Reps

(Since my triceps were being used in most of the other exercise, I didn't have to do too much to work them out)

When I got home, I ate immediately... Here's a tip: Try to eat within 45 minutes after you workout so you can feed your muscles and start the recovery process.

My 1st Meal:

Pile Of Turkey

3 Slices of Whole Wheat Toast

Coffee & Water

My 2nd Meal:

Protein Shake

My 3rd Meal:

Pile Of Turkey

2 Slices of Whole Wheat Toast

Coffee & Water

My 4th Meal:

Protein Shake

My 5th Meal (which I'll be having later):

Lettuce Wraps (probably have 4 or 5)

- Ground Turkey

- Romaine Lettuce

More Water

My 6th Meal (an hour or 2 before bed):

Protein Shake

Tomorrow is PULL day... Back and Biceps

Learn How To Build Muscle In 4 Simple Steps

Are you sick and tired of everyone telling you a different way to build muscle? Are you unhappy with how you look in the mirror? Are you frusturated with your slow progress in the gym? Are you ready to learn five simple steps that will teach you how to build muscle safely and effectively? There is a good chance that you are not maximizing one of these four steps. Your problem and solution lies in correcting these essential steps before you have any chance of building a muscular and lean physique. Get read to learn how to build muscle in four simple steps, in less time, without any drugs and without bogus supplements. Step #1 Committ to lifting weights at least three to four times per week. Your goal is to stimulate your muscles with resistance (stress) which results in your muscles growing bigger to avoid the stress from occuring again. Once you go home, let the muscle heal through nutrition and rest, it will grow bigger and you will repeat this process again. Ideally you should hit your muscles once every 72 hours so you could perform 2 upper body workouts per week and 2 lower body workouts per week. Step #2 Focus on eating at least 5-7x a day with balanced meals from carbohydrates, proteins and fats. If your goal is to build muscle than you should be eating at least 15-18 x your current body weight. Your carbohydrates should equate about 45% of your intake, your proteins should equate about 35% of your intake and your fat should be the remaining 20% of your intake. You should focus on over half of those meals being solid whole food meals and the remainder can be liquid meal replacment shakes. Step #3 You should focus on stretching at least half the amount that you lift weights. One of the biggest mistkakes I see is people training, training and training with out any stretching. Stretching helps restore normal length to the tissue and if you are constantly training, your muscle tissues will shorten and big to perform weaker and slower and have a higher incidence of injuries. So if you are lifting weights 4 hours in the week, at least an additional 2 hours should be dedicated to stretching. You must counteract the shortening of the muscle tissues that occurs with weights or else you are a injury screaming to happen. Step #4 Avoid supplements that have not been around for longer than 3 years. I learned this phisophy from an Australian strength coach who recommended not trying any supplement until it has been around at least 3 years to pass the test of time. This will make your life much easier and help you avoid all the marketing hoopla in the latest fitness and bodybuilding magazine. If you follow this rule, you will discover only a small handful of supplements still standing. Here are the ones you should not go with out: a high quality multi-vitamin, fish oil capsules, powdered creatine and a protein powder. These products will cover your nutritional basis for health, healthy body composition, strength and muscle mass.

---------------------------------- About the Author: Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at No Nonsense Muscel Gains He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle quickly without drugs, supplements and training less than before.

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Why Weight Lifting Is An Exercise That Delivers Top Health Benefits

While some individuals are strictly interested in obtaining muscle for aesthetics, for most people, this isn’t an interest. Instead, you’re more interested in knowing what health benefits weight lifting will have for you… Far too many people overlook the many health and fitness benefits that weight training has to offer, and because of this, experience problems down the road with their body such as decreased bone density, a slowed metabolic rate, increased stress levels and other negative consequences that are associated with constant stress. Increased Bone Density Weight lifting, being one of the best weight bearing exercises you can do, will increase your bone density and help ward off osteoporosis or stress fractures in the future. Many people think running is the best exercise for increasing bone density, but this isn’t necessarily true. If the truth is told, running actually promotes muscle breakdown in the body, while weight lifting, being an anabolic process, helps to promote the building of tissues. Therefore, weight lifting is going to be much better at preserving your bone mass, not to mention it’s far less impact than going for an hour run. Decreased Frequency of Injuries When you strength train, not only are your muscles going to get stronger, but you’ll also work the ligaments and tendons that are connecting bones, muscles, and other tissues, thus reducing the chance they become injured when participating in other physical activities. If you’ve ever been injured, you know just how frustrating this can be. In about 80% of all injury cases, the injury is a direct result of a tendon, ligament, or muscle not being strong enough when a stressful force is applied. Since weight training will really hit all those deep tendons and ligaments, it’s the best injury prevention out there. Reduction of Health Related Risks Numerous studies have demonstrated that regular weight training can have a positive effect on health by showing reductions in the rate of insulin resistance, blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer. If you couple a solid weight training program then with a well-thought out diet, you’ll be putting your best foot forward at warding off these chronic problems Prevention of Fat Gain The more you weight lift, the higher your metabolism will be, thus the more food you can eat while maintaining your weight.  If that isn’t good news for your future and the fight against body fat, I’m not sure what is. Now,  with all of this said, one big problem many people run into is the thinking pattern that using a muscle building program will make you big and bulky. This is most certainly not the case. Let’s look at an analogy to gain an understanding of this. Pretend you have two teams and each are going to try and build a house using the exact same building technique. One team is given 10,000 bricks to construct this house, and the second team is given only 1,000 bricks. Who’s going to build the bigger house? The choice should be obvious – team one since they have more bricks to build it with. Now, think of those bricks as being the calories you put into your body.  Unless you’re supplying enough calories, you aren’t going to build really big muscles.  This is precisely what makes bodybuilders look like bodybuilders. It’s not just about the way they train, but more about the way they eat (if you’ve ever had a teenage son in the growing process in your house, you likely know just how much food must be consumed when growing at rapid rates). Whether it’s growing in height during puberty or trying to build bigger muscles later on, calories must be supplied for this growth process to take place. You can’t build a house out of nothing.  Likewise, you can workout all you want, but if those building blocks – in the form of amino acids, carbohydrates, and dietary fats are not there, you aren’t going to see too much muscle growth. So, don’t get caught thinking that just because you add weight lifting to your workouts, you’re going to develop large bulky muscles.  If you control your diet, this simply will not happen. So, hopefully it is clear now that just because you’re weight lifting, it does not mean you will end up with bulky muscles as a result.  Many people make this incorrect assumption – but it really is the diet that makes all the difference in how this weight lifting will shape your body. When you make the decision to work with me using my 6-Pack Ab Quest program, I’ll take you through the weight lifting and ab techniques that will provide maximum results with minimal effort on your part (why spend more time in the gym than you have to?), as well as provide you with meal plans that are custom designed to ensure you get the best results from your training without the muscle bulk – in fact, the plans are formulated to help you shed the fat so you look leaner and more defined. Not choosing to include weight training as part of your current workout program is without-a-doubt the biggest mistake you could make as far as your long-term health and fitness level is concerned.  Don’t let this exercise pass you by any longer.

---------------------------------- About the Author: Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at NoNonsenseMuscleGains.com   He also specializes in teaching skinny guys how to get a six-pack and build muscle, without drugs, supplements and training less than before with his program found at YourSixPackQuest.com

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10 Foods You Probably Think Are Healthy, But Aren’t

WOW! This is a great read... I found myself eating alot of these "healthy" foods...
http://losefatandgainmuscleblog.blogspot.com

10 Foods You Probably Think Are Healthy, But Aren’t

via StrongLifts.com by Mehdi on 7/1/08

Cereals aren’t as healthy as you think. Image credit: hello sunrise

To build muscle & lose fat, 90% of your diet must consist of whole unprocessed foods. That’s anything that doesn’t come out of a box like meats, veggies, eggs, fruits, etc. Eating 6 meals/day leaves room for 4 junk meals per week.

You’re already doing that but not getting results? Maybe you’re not eating that healthy. Here are 10 foods you might think are healthy because they’re labeled as such, but which in reality are anything but healthy.

1. Breakfast Cereals. Cereals are labeled healthy & nutritive and recommended for weight loss. Read the labels: cereals are often high in sugar & salt and their vitamin/mineral content is chemical based. Drop that spoon.

Healthy alternative: one of these 7 breakfast recipes.

2. Granola Bars. Granola bars consist of healthy oats & nuts. But they’re glued together with blood sugar raising ingredients like corn syrup. Some bars even contain chocolate chips, making them as bad as candy bars.

Healthy alternative: homemade protein bars.

3. Yogurt with Fruit at The Bottom. Fat free doesn’t mean healthy. Labels tell you they contain added sugars, corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. Same with fat free frozen yogurts which can contain 20g sugars per 1/2 cup.

Healthy alternative: plain unflavored yogurt mixed with fruit cut into pieces.

4. Bread. Convenient and tastes good, but not as healthy as you think. Whole grain or whole wheat means nothing. Dark bread can still contain corn syrup & trans-fats and eating too much bread will make you fat.

Healthy alternative: Ezekiel Bread, but lower your bread intake.

Bread is also not as healthy as you think. Image credit: Harald Schmid

5. Sandwiches. Often labelled “fitness” or “light”, but containing sugar-laden salad dressings, little veggies & proteins and too much white bread. Freshness is questionable and you need the foot-long to fill your stomach.

Healthy alternative: make your own sandwiches.

6. Fruit Juice. Even 100% fruit juice has added sugars, usually fructose. Cans of fruit juice contain up to 38g sugar per 8oz. Excess fructose causes obesity, bad cholesterol, poor appetite control, etc.

Healthy alternative: home-made fruit juice or eat fruit.

7. Sport Drinks. Supposed to help you replenish electrolytes, carbs, etc. But it’s actually sugar water, with up to 30g sugar/serving. If you eat healthy and don’t drink 2 gallons water in 1 setting, you don’t risk water intoxication.

Healthy alternative: water during workout, protein + carbs post workout.

8. Fast Food Salads. Contain sugar-laden salad dressings, croutons made from refined white flour or white floor pasta. In many cases you’re better off ordering a double cheeseburger than a chicken salad.

Healthy alternative: make your own salads.

9. Frozen Meals. Nothing is wrong with frozen veggies/fruits. But a lot is wrong with frozen meals often labeled “light” or “healthy”. They’re processed, high in sugar, and come with sauces & sodium. Avoid.

Healthy alternative: cook all your meals for the day in the morning or evening.

10. Diet Soda. Contain artificial sweeteners like the controversed aspartame. Do your research and decide if you want to take the risk. Start with this & this thread on diet soda in StrongLifts.com Forum.

Healthy alternative: water, water with squeezed lemon, green tea.

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Why You Should NEVER Do The Atkins Diet for Fat Loss

Interesting read... Simply put, fad diets don't work!
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Why You Should NEVER Do The Atkins Diet for Fat Loss

via StrongLifts.com by Mehdi on 10/15/09

Atkins Diet. Image source: ariellesmail

The Atkins Diet is one of the most popular diets. 1 out of 11 North-Americans were on the Atkins diet back in 2003-2004. People reported losing 20lbs of weight during the first 2 weeks on Dr. Robert Atkins’ low carb diet.

But is the Atkins Diet effective for fat loss? In this post you’ll get an overview of the Atkins Diet and how it compares with other fat loss diets.

How The Atkins Diet Works. The Atkins Diet is a low carb diet. Legumes, fruits and starches are out until later in the diet. This forces your body to use fat for energy instead of sugar. The Atkins Diet has 4 phases:

• Induction Phase. You limit your daily carb intake to 20g. These should come from veggies. The induction phase lasts 2 weeks.
• Ongoing Weight Loss Phase. You up your carb intake by 5g/day each week. This phase lasts until you’re within 10lbs of your goal weight.
• Pre-Maintenance. You increase your carb intake by 10g/day each week. Goal is to find how much carbs you can eat without gaining weight.
• Lifestyle Maintenance. Whole foods and moderate carb intake. You can go back to previous phases if you gain weight.

What’s Wrong with Atkins? The Atkins Diet has you focus on losing weight, rather than losing fat. Wrong approach as I explained in Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss. More stuff that’s wrong with the Atkins Diet:

• Little Fat Loss. Carbs bind to water. Dropping your carb intake causes weight loss: water loss. Track your body fat using a fat caliper and you’ll see your weight loss isn’t pure fat loss on the Atkins Diet.
• Not for Lifters. Muscles use carbs for energy. Without carbs, you’ll lack energy during high intensity activities like weight lifting. The Atkins Diet can only work if you’re sedentary.
• Muscle Loss. Atkins doesn’t mix with strength training. Without strength training, your metabolic rate will go down, you’ll lose muscle and you’ll have a harder time sticking to your diet.
• Yo-Yo Diet. After the big weight loss — which is mainly water loss — the first 2 weeks on the Atkins Diet, progress gets slower. Often a plateau follows, which can make you quit and regain everything you lost.

8 Nutrition Rules vs. Atkins Diet. The 8 Nutrition Rules is also a low carb/high protein diet. But unlike the Atkins Diet it has you cycle between lower & higher carb intakes so you lose fat while your muscles get carbs for energy.

• Carbs Post Workout. Limiting starchy carbs to post workout increases fat loss while giving your muscles energy for strength training.
• Simple. You don’t need to count macros with the 8 Nutrition Rules and there aren’t 4 phases. You just eat whole foods and limit carbs.

Note that the Anabolic Diet is also different than the Atkins Diet. On the Anabolic Diet you avoid carbs for 2 weeks too, but then you load carbs 2 days per week. Your body uses these carbs for weight lifting on weekdays.

The right way to go low-carb is to cycle your carb intake. You need carbs for strength training. And you need strength training so you lose fat not muscle. Always focus on fat loss so you know what your weight loss is.

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Why You Should NEVER Do The Atkins Diet for Fat Loss

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