It's been a while since the last time I updated this blog. Today, I just want to discuss a tip how not to gain body fat while enjoying eat all you can buffets, attending a party or simply enjoying a holiday treat or gathering.
Calories in, calories out
Leave things that way, we are talking about enjoying foods here while staying lean. For these strategies to work, you must be aware of your calorie intake.
Strategies
Assuming a dieter seeking fat loss is following a linear dieting fatloss tactic(calories are constant through out the week), a good strategy is by eating 75% of maintenance calories for 6 days then enjoy one meal of the week(buffet) without calorie counting for this meal, simply enjoy eating.
Another technique that can be applied is by applying intermittent fasting preferably for 16 hrs then eat as much as you want in the buffet which will be equivalent to your 8-hr window which will only allow you to eat one huge meal for one day a week.
For people who are following a cyclical dieting technique, drive these buffet day/s during your most intense training day which is often the leg days. Again, intermittent fasting would be a good strategy to enjoy foods in the buffet without worrying too much about fat gain. If you fast for 16 hrs, and tried to sneaked in as much NEAT as you can, most of these buffet calories will just be partitioned toward refilling glycogen. To maximize the effect and to enhance the partitioning effect of these buffet calories, make the buffet food as your pre or post workout nutrition.
To biasly partition these calories toward muscle tissue if you're trying to build mass even during fat loss, do not wait more than 3 hrs before or after workout.
You may slightly gain a few pounds of weight using these tactic but do not worry about it as long as you follow my guidelines above. In fact, refeedings can be both physiologically and psychologically beneficial for a more successful long-term dieting. Do not be confused between a "free meal" and "refeedings" though. If you're using the buffet foods/ holiday treat as a refeed, keep track of the calories as much as you can. It's okay to eat above your maintenance calorie intake during refeeding days(you're supposed to) as long as you set a good calorie deficit the days before or after the "binge" day. During refeeds, concentrate on eating lean meats and foods that are high in carbs especially the starchy kind but make sure to keep your fat intake at minimal.
A free meal on the other hand which is often once a week, just eat what ever you want. People who have problems on binge eating should limit their free meal days as it may contribute to accumulation of too much surplus calories.
ENJOY
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Healthy diet
Healthy - possessing or enjoying good health; or a sound and vigorous mentality
Diet- the foods eaten ; food and drink in terms of it's qualities, composition and it's effects on health ; a particular selection of food esp as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease
SO, WHAT IS A HEALTHY DIET?
Most of us would probably define a healthy diet as a diet low in fat, plenty of fruits and vegetables, limited processed foods, foods that contains no preservatives, free of chemicals, etc. I think that's how most people will picture healthy eating on their mind. Just like everything else, I think it will depend again on who you're talking to and how they will define the word healthy in the context of application. I wrote this blog because it is very easy for most of us to create absolutism without understanding the rationalization behind things. What this mean is that there is no single definition of a healthy diet. Some people could be doing a certain diet in their attempt to lose weight, improve health or to treat a disease. When was the last time we labeled a person's diet "Bad/Unhealthy diet" just because we often see them eating Oreo cookies, doughnuts, pork skins, fried chicken or what have you. Just because that certain person eat foods that are less nutrient dense than the typical "health food," does it mean that the person isn't healthy anymore? Does it mean that he/ she will not lose weight? Does it mean that by eating certain type/s of foods and you will get fat overnight? Does it mean that he/ she will have a less quality of healthy being just because his/ her food selection isn't the most nutritious? There are many predictors that regulate a person's overall health. Genetic factors, overall diet composition, total calorie intake, activity level, body composition (fat mass vs. muscle mass), etc.
What if that person who regularly eat the so called bad foods at moderation without exceeding his calorie intake? What if those foods keep that person satiated thus keeping him happy, isn't it possible that a healthy diet is also a diet that can make you feel psychologically healthy? Forcing our body to eat foods that we don't like just because our society labeled them as "healthy" doesn't necessarily mean healthy after all.
The best thing to define an ideal healthy diet I think is a diet that is abundant in wide variety of nutrient-dense whole foods with a minimal source from comfort foods. Unfortunately, we were not living in an ideal world but in reality instead. There are so many people out there who believes that there are certain types food/s that are evil: be it cake, Mcdonald's, french fries, HFCS, etc. I can't understand if why it is very easy to single out one food source to be blame as a root of all evil without looking at the bigger picture which is our control over a certain context of situation.
COMPROMISE is the message today. Eat ice cream but follow the recommended serving size, pop a bag of chips but nobody says you need to eat the whole bag of chips and make sure that you factor it in your calorie budget. Too many people today think that they need to eat healthy to lose weight or losing weight is the only way of being healthy. These two goals are far different from each other although it is always good to eat nutritious foods while on a reduced calorie diet. There is no need to avoid certain type/s of food whatever your goal is with few exceptions such as allergy/ tolerance/ metabolic response, just be responsible enough to know the effects of each consequences you take.
Diet- the foods eaten ; food and drink in terms of it's qualities, composition and it's effects on health ; a particular selection of food esp as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease
SO, WHAT IS A HEALTHY DIET?
Most of us would probably define a healthy diet as a diet low in fat, plenty of fruits and vegetables, limited processed foods, foods that contains no preservatives, free of chemicals, etc. I think that's how most people will picture healthy eating on their mind. Just like everything else, I think it will depend again on who you're talking to and how they will define the word healthy in the context of application. I wrote this blog because it is very easy for most of us to create absolutism without understanding the rationalization behind things. What this mean is that there is no single definition of a healthy diet. Some people could be doing a certain diet in their attempt to lose weight, improve health or to treat a disease. When was the last time we labeled a person's diet "Bad/Unhealthy diet" just because we often see them eating Oreo cookies, doughnuts, pork skins, fried chicken or what have you. Just because that certain person eat foods that are less nutrient dense than the typical "health food," does it mean that the person isn't healthy anymore? Does it mean that he/ she will not lose weight? Does it mean that by eating certain type/s of foods and you will get fat overnight? Does it mean that he/ she will have a less quality of healthy being just because his/ her food selection isn't the most nutritious? There are many predictors that regulate a person's overall health. Genetic factors, overall diet composition, total calorie intake, activity level, body composition (fat mass vs. muscle mass), etc.
What if that person who regularly eat the so called bad foods at moderation without exceeding his calorie intake? What if those foods keep that person satiated thus keeping him happy, isn't it possible that a healthy diet is also a diet that can make you feel psychologically healthy? Forcing our body to eat foods that we don't like just because our society labeled them as "healthy" doesn't necessarily mean healthy after all.
The best thing to define an ideal healthy diet I think is a diet that is abundant in wide variety of nutrient-dense whole foods with a minimal source from comfort foods. Unfortunately, we were not living in an ideal world but in reality instead. There are so many people out there who believes that there are certain types food/s that are evil: be it cake, Mcdonald's, french fries, HFCS, etc. I can't understand if why it is very easy to single out one food source to be blame as a root of all evil without looking at the bigger picture which is our control over a certain context of situation.
COMPROMISE is the message today. Eat ice cream but follow the recommended serving size, pop a bag of chips but nobody says you need to eat the whole bag of chips and make sure that you factor it in your calorie budget. Too many people today think that they need to eat healthy to lose weight or losing weight is the only way of being healthy. These two goals are far different from each other although it is always good to eat nutritious foods while on a reduced calorie diet. There is no need to avoid certain type/s of food whatever your goal is with few exceptions such as allergy/ tolerance/ metabolic response, just be responsible enough to know the effects of each consequences you take.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Clearing the confusion
If you read my last post about the low carb dogma, I said I am not against low carb diets, the context of application just depends. Now, I will talk about low carb on fat loss. Some of us have heard about the book of Gary Taubes (Good Calories, Bad Calories), he claims that calories are not created equal which is a violation of the first law of Thermodynamics which is energy balance. The law of energy balance is correct, it has been proven on numerous studies, it just happen that people were often confused by their specific goal and they don't know the application in real life.
Since I wanna talk about fat loss, fat loss is still a complex matter. The correct question that should be correlated if one's goal is fat loss is up to what degree of fat loss. This is where I think the confusion has begun that people need to be on a certain diet to generate fat loss. It's also worth mentioning that "fat loss" will depend on who you're talking to. If you're talking to an already lean person seeking greater leanness, low carb might be the ideal technique to generate greater fat loss in order to create greater deficit. This is where the claim "carbohydrates" is not essential in human survival. Remember, the means of survival doesn't mean what's optimal when it comes to overall health. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes have shown it's health benefits in numerous scientific studies. One good example is the Okinawans who leads the life expectancy in the world. Just like what I stated above, two factors will be involved in defining "fat loss."
Degree of fat loss
This is a biggie, when someone hear the word "fat loss," the majority of people may automatically assume that fat loss = shredded abs, striated glutes, hamstrings, quads, high def arms etc. Some people may also think of fat loss as a simple healthy weight loss program whose goal is not driven toward aesthetics that's why I said it depends on the context of application. A lot of people on the internet/ real life still believe that a higher protein/ high fat diet will generate a greater fat loss as long as you eliminate the carbohydrates, as always, it depends. I am with Alan Aragon, Lyle Mcdonald and other experts in the industry that an adequate protein should be the baseline of any diets. Protein, just in case you don't know came from the Greek word "Proteos" meaning "first rank of importance." So if there's only one essential macronutrient humans need aside from water, that's protein. People suck at tracking their calorie intake and determining their energy needs (maintenance calories), although some people's method of tracking their intake is correct, their method of estimating their needs in terms of maintaining their body mass (fats, lean muscle mass, water), is incorrect or vice-versa or both. Sedentary people who doesn't have moderate-high activity levels (exercise, NEAT) doesn't need a lot of calories. Some people may go as low as 8 kcal/ lb of body weight just to maintain themselves. The only way of breaking a plateau once fat loss has stopped is by eating less calories or expending more energy through body movements or both. This is the law of energy balance. IMO, this is how some people were stuck in the mindset that calories are not made equal without realizing that they need to eat less to generate further fat loss. Now, to generate fat loss while maintaining positive nitrogen retention, they need to eat adequate protein(1-1.5g/lb of body weight depending on the degree of leanness), take note that when carbs go down, protein needs to go up, carbs has a protein sparing effect.
If your goal is to get leaner than what you are, you need to create another deficit(eat less) to break the plateau, now it boils down to which macronutrient you need to cut down. You may cut down any macronutrient but IMO, it would be silly to cut protein intake because you want to decrease body fat, not muscle mass besides protein is the most satiating nutrient. Since you're eating less, hunger hormones such as Ghrelin will be sky high, that's why you may need to increase the fats to delay gastric emptying to suppress appetite. So, being carbohydrates non essential in human survival, carbs is the easiest thing to cut down. Low carb diets on some people create an appetite suppressing effect. Some people whose insulin sensitivity isn't that great, eating carbs make them eat more; their appetite suddenly increase leading them to EAT MORE but it's really not the carbs that make them fat per se, it's because they EAT MORE calories than they should. The tolerance and impact of low carb diets will vary depending by individual's response. If eating carbs WILL make you eat less, go for it, if the carbs will make you eat more then low carb must be for you. Being on a calorie deficit sucks, that's why not everyone is lean and ripped. The key is finding a diet with adequate protein that will make you eat less calories. That's why it is very important to ask yourself if what degree of fat loss you're talking about whether it's physique contest leanness(maximal fat loss), just flat stomach leanness, T-shirt leanness(whatever that is) or what have you. I should also mention that the leaner you become, it will be harder to generate further fat loss because:
A.)The leaner you become, the body is becoming more efficient in handling and storing calories, there are various hormones that will put you back to state of energy balance (homeostasis), this is our body's defense mechanism to prevent us from getting leaner. Our body fat, again depending on who you're talking to and how you wanna define it has a role in human physiology. That is to sustain life in terms of famine. That's right, the higher body fat you carry, the longer you can sustain life without food. Our body loves us so much that it won't mind making us so fat but it will do it's full arsenal of defense to prevent further leanness. Think of a Honda Fit vs a Chevy Tahoe travelling the same distance at the same speed, smaller body/ engine will always use less fuel(calories) than heavier/ bigger body. Our body requires a certain amount of fat for good health. Fat helps regulate body temperature, store energy and cushion/ insulate organs
B.)Aside from the decline in REE(Resting Energy Expenditure), as a part of maintaining a leaner body, of course you have less fat stores also which also burns calories at rest(about 3kcal/ lb), assuming you maintained as much muscle mass on a reduced-calorie diet, hormones like Leptin which is correlated to body fat stores will also play a role in decreasing the rate of metabolism.
Some people, when they eat less, their body makes them move less or when they overeat, their body make them move more to put them in energy balance state. See, our body has it's own ways on maintaining homeostasis. Homeostasis is our body's set point, it works like a thermostat maintaining energy balance.
DEPENDING ON THE PERSON YOU'RE TALKING TO
Everyone nowadays give us confusing/ contradicting advice. We are now so confused if who we listen to, by this time I hope you know what degree of fat loss you are looking into, now who do we listen to? If you're already lean assuming you can see a hint of your abs, listen to your own body. That's the best advice I can give you. You know yourself better than anybody else. I said that because by this time, at this level of leanness, you already know if which foods trigger your appetite leading you to eat more. At the same time, you should know by now if which foods make you eat less. EAT LESS, that's the key. You can eat unlimited amounts of protein and fats, without calorie restriction, no fat loss. So the best diet for you to generate further fat loss is a diet that will make you eat less calories. I don't know if how many times I should mention in this blog and in other sites that the key in losing weight is by eating less or by moving more or both. No magic voodoo or special diet, what ever diet that will force you to eat less will work! In terms of supplements such as thermogenics and stuff, these supplements simply make you eat less by suppressing appetite or help you mobilize the fatty acids faster.
Back to the person you're asking about diet advice, if you ask a person whose definition of fat loss is 15% body fat, then the diet tips he/ she will give you may or may not apply to you if the degree of fat loss you're striving for is leaner than that. I should also mention that the worst thing a person can do is mimicking someone else' diet just because it worked for him/ her, it doesn't guarantee that it will also work for you(different goals remember). It is because his/ her calorie intake and energy expenditure/ lifestyle/ individual's response to certain type/s of dieting is different than yours. Let's say your goal is 6% body fat, just like what I've said, you need to eat less calories than you need to break the energy balance state. So if you're eating 2,000 kcal/ day at 15% body fat, you certainly need to eat less than that to be at negative energy balance state. Remember, as you get leaner, you need less foods to maintain yourself. Eat more than that and you'll subject yourself to gain weight or put you back to neutral energy balance state hence no fat loss.
What it takes to be at very low body fat
Okay, use your common sense since not everyone is at this level of leanness. I'm talking about ultra lean body fat (3%-5% for men, about 10% for women, these are the extreme ends for both because our body need to have at least the essential fat), to get at this level of leanness, there's not much fat stores except from essential fats, hormones crash -- no libido, impotence for men, menstruation stops on women, decrease in thyroid function, muscle catabolism is at faster rate, etc. In short, a lot of nasty stuff, that's why contest body builders/ physique competitors doesn't maintain this level of leanness for a long time. If you will tell me that "hey I'm at X body fat how come I don't experience such things above?" Well, it's not because you're lying to me but the method of body fat assessment you used is incorrect. I don't know if you know that the only means of measuring a 100% body fat measurement is through conducting an autopsy meaning you need to be killed then scrape your body fat off then weigh it on a scale. Look at the physique athletes, these people step on stage at 3-4% body fat for men, 10-13% for women. Do you have striated quads or glutes, paper thin skin and alike. If not, then you're not even close..
Enjoy
Since I wanna talk about fat loss, fat loss is still a complex matter. The correct question that should be correlated if one's goal is fat loss is up to what degree of fat loss. This is where I think the confusion has begun that people need to be on a certain diet to generate fat loss. It's also worth mentioning that "fat loss" will depend on who you're talking to. If you're talking to an already lean person seeking greater leanness, low carb might be the ideal technique to generate greater fat loss in order to create greater deficit. This is where the claim "carbohydrates" is not essential in human survival. Remember, the means of survival doesn't mean what's optimal when it comes to overall health. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes have shown it's health benefits in numerous scientific studies. One good example is the Okinawans who leads the life expectancy in the world. Just like what I stated above, two factors will be involved in defining "fat loss."
Degree of fat loss
This is a biggie, when someone hear the word "fat loss," the majority of people may automatically assume that fat loss = shredded abs, striated glutes, hamstrings, quads, high def arms etc. Some people may also think of fat loss as a simple healthy weight loss program whose goal is not driven toward aesthetics that's why I said it depends on the context of application. A lot of people on the internet/ real life still believe that a higher protein/ high fat diet will generate a greater fat loss as long as you eliminate the carbohydrates, as always, it depends. I am with Alan Aragon, Lyle Mcdonald and other experts in the industry that an adequate protein should be the baseline of any diets. Protein, just in case you don't know came from the Greek word "Proteos" meaning "first rank of importance." So if there's only one essential macronutrient humans need aside from water, that's protein. People suck at tracking their calorie intake and determining their energy needs (maintenance calories), although some people's method of tracking their intake is correct, their method of estimating their needs in terms of maintaining their body mass (fats, lean muscle mass, water), is incorrect or vice-versa or both. Sedentary people who doesn't have moderate-high activity levels (exercise, NEAT) doesn't need a lot of calories. Some people may go as low as 8 kcal/ lb of body weight just to maintain themselves. The only way of breaking a plateau once fat loss has stopped is by eating less calories or expending more energy through body movements or both. This is the law of energy balance. IMO, this is how some people were stuck in the mindset that calories are not made equal without realizing that they need to eat less to generate further fat loss. Now, to generate fat loss while maintaining positive nitrogen retention, they need to eat adequate protein(1-1.5g/lb of body weight depending on the degree of leanness), take note that when carbs go down, protein needs to go up, carbs has a protein sparing effect.
If your goal is to get leaner than what you are, you need to create another deficit(eat less) to break the plateau, now it boils down to which macronutrient you need to cut down. You may cut down any macronutrient but IMO, it would be silly to cut protein intake because you want to decrease body fat, not muscle mass besides protein is the most satiating nutrient. Since you're eating less, hunger hormones such as Ghrelin will be sky high, that's why you may need to increase the fats to delay gastric emptying to suppress appetite. So, being carbohydrates non essential in human survival, carbs is the easiest thing to cut down. Low carb diets on some people create an appetite suppressing effect. Some people whose insulin sensitivity isn't that great, eating carbs make them eat more; their appetite suddenly increase leading them to EAT MORE but it's really not the carbs that make them fat per se, it's because they EAT MORE calories than they should. The tolerance and impact of low carb diets will vary depending by individual's response. If eating carbs WILL make you eat less, go for it, if the carbs will make you eat more then low carb must be for you. Being on a calorie deficit sucks, that's why not everyone is lean and ripped. The key is finding a diet with adequate protein that will make you eat less calories. That's why it is very important to ask yourself if what degree of fat loss you're talking about whether it's physique contest leanness(maximal fat loss), just flat stomach leanness, T-shirt leanness(whatever that is) or what have you. I should also mention that the leaner you become, it will be harder to generate further fat loss because:
A.)The leaner you become, the body is becoming more efficient in handling and storing calories, there are various hormones that will put you back to state of energy balance (homeostasis), this is our body's defense mechanism to prevent us from getting leaner. Our body fat, again depending on who you're talking to and how you wanna define it has a role in human physiology. That is to sustain life in terms of famine. That's right, the higher body fat you carry, the longer you can sustain life without food. Our body loves us so much that it won't mind making us so fat but it will do it's full arsenal of defense to prevent further leanness. Think of a Honda Fit vs a Chevy Tahoe travelling the same distance at the same speed, smaller body/ engine will always use less fuel(calories) than heavier/ bigger body. Our body requires a certain amount of fat for good health. Fat helps regulate body temperature, store energy and cushion/ insulate organs
B.)Aside from the decline in REE(Resting Energy Expenditure), as a part of maintaining a leaner body, of course you have less fat stores also which also burns calories at rest(about 3kcal/ lb), assuming you maintained as much muscle mass on a reduced-calorie diet, hormones like Leptin which is correlated to body fat stores will also play a role in decreasing the rate of metabolism.
Some people, when they eat less, their body makes them move less or when they overeat, their body make them move more to put them in energy balance state. See, our body has it's own ways on maintaining homeostasis. Homeostasis is our body's set point, it works like a thermostat maintaining energy balance.
DEPENDING ON THE PERSON YOU'RE TALKING TO
Everyone nowadays give us confusing/ contradicting advice. We are now so confused if who we listen to, by this time I hope you know what degree of fat loss you are looking into, now who do we listen to? If you're already lean assuming you can see a hint of your abs, listen to your own body. That's the best advice I can give you. You know yourself better than anybody else. I said that because by this time, at this level of leanness, you already know if which foods trigger your appetite leading you to eat more. At the same time, you should know by now if which foods make you eat less. EAT LESS, that's the key. You can eat unlimited amounts of protein and fats, without calorie restriction, no fat loss. So the best diet for you to generate further fat loss is a diet that will make you eat less calories. I don't know if how many times I should mention in this blog and in other sites that the key in losing weight is by eating less or by moving more or both. No magic voodoo or special diet, what ever diet that will force you to eat less will work! In terms of supplements such as thermogenics and stuff, these supplements simply make you eat less by suppressing appetite or help you mobilize the fatty acids faster.
Back to the person you're asking about diet advice, if you ask a person whose definition of fat loss is 15% body fat, then the diet tips he/ she will give you may or may not apply to you if the degree of fat loss you're striving for is leaner than that. I should also mention that the worst thing a person can do is mimicking someone else' diet just because it worked for him/ her, it doesn't guarantee that it will also work for you(different goals remember). It is because his/ her calorie intake and energy expenditure/ lifestyle/ individual's response to certain type/s of dieting is different than yours. Let's say your goal is 6% body fat, just like what I've said, you need to eat less calories than you need to break the energy balance state. So if you're eating 2,000 kcal/ day at 15% body fat, you certainly need to eat less than that to be at negative energy balance state. Remember, as you get leaner, you need less foods to maintain yourself. Eat more than that and you'll subject yourself to gain weight or put you back to neutral energy balance state hence no fat loss.
What it takes to be at very low body fat
Okay, use your common sense since not everyone is at this level of leanness. I'm talking about ultra lean body fat (3%-5% for men, about 10% for women, these are the extreme ends for both because our body need to have at least the essential fat), to get at this level of leanness, there's not much fat stores except from essential fats, hormones crash -- no libido, impotence for men, menstruation stops on women, decrease in thyroid function, muscle catabolism is at faster rate, etc. In short, a lot of nasty stuff, that's why contest body builders/ physique competitors doesn't maintain this level of leanness for a long time. If you will tell me that "hey I'm at X body fat how come I don't experience such things above?" Well, it's not because you're lying to me but the method of body fat assessment you used is incorrect. I don't know if you know that the only means of measuring a 100% body fat measurement is through conducting an autopsy meaning you need to be killed then scrape your body fat off then weigh it on a scale. Look at the physique athletes, these people step on stage at 3-4% body fat for men, 10-13% for women. Do you have striated quads or glutes, paper thin skin and alike. If not, then you're not even close..
Enjoy
Friday, July 2, 2010
Fitness hype: Setting up your personal diet
Fitness hype: Setting up your personal diet: "Since some of my friends and fellow fitness enthusiasts were aware that I was writing my fat loss book, I want to create this blog because I..."
Setting up your personal diet
Since some of my friends and fellow fitness enthusiasts were aware that I was writing my fat loss book, I want to create this blog because I don't think I can finish the book anytime soon. It's not that I'm lazy but it's just due to the fact that I am currently backed up with too many things as of the moment, I'm restless ya' know :)
Let's first define diet -- diet simply means the way of eating, not necessarily mean cutting back. It could be fat loss, maintenance or muscle/ weight gain diet. There are two types of dieting around: Linear and non-linear variation. Today, I will only discuss linear dieting because a lot of people may find the non-linear variation too complicated hence I like saving this method once plateau has reached using the linear approach. Anyway, most people will likely to see their desired results using this method. Individuals seeking greater leanness may have to do the non-linear approach, it just depends.
Fat loss and maintenance
The goal of a fat loss diet is to create a calorie deficit, meaning you need to eat less calories than what you use a day/ weekly basis. In contrary, a pound of fat has 3,500 calories in it. I don't want to get into deep details about it so let's just leave it that way. Some people like creating a daily 500 kcal deficit once they determine their daily average calorie expenditure. There is a formula in computing the daily energy needs but for simplicity's sake, I like using the quick and dirty method for determining the maintenance calorie needs -- that is somewhere between 13-16 kcal/ lb of body weight meaning if you're a 150 lb man with moderate amount of physical activities may get away with 14-15 kcal/ lb of body weight just being himself. The amount, volume and frequency and type of training will also have an impact on the calorie expenditure.
Once the person figures out the average calories he/ she needs, adjustments can now be done if the calories has to go up or down. Trial and error is needed to establish a solid baseline. I suggest that you try figuring out your maintenance calorie in a week or two, if you're gaining weight then decrease the multiplier by one. Women may need to use the lower numbers because women carry more fat cells than men(they need higher body fat % for reproduction) and women carry less muscle mass. It's not that muscles burn tremendous amount of calories because a lb of muscle only burns additional 6 kcal/ lb, overtime, it will still add up.
To figure out the calories needed to create a fat/ weight loss, once you figure out your maintenance calorie budget, you may deduct 500 kcal daily so if you need 2,000 kcal/ day, you may need to eat 1,500 daily, at the end of the week, that's 3,500 kcal deficit. Another approach is once figuring your maintenance calorie budget, multiply your current body weight by 10-12 depending on your metabolism/ amount of physical activities. People who has very light activities may need to use the lower limit of 8-9 kcal/ lb of body weight. These people are often the ones who has desk jockey jobs whose only activities are their exercise.
There's another fat loss method which is more complicated where you track your average body fat prediction using a caliper or a BIA scale for a week or so then from there you can have a baseline of predicting the body fat then from there you calculate the target body weight at target body fat % but I will not discuss the method here, I will include that in the book that I am writing.
Muscle gain
From the baseline above, once you get the maintenance calorie budget, you can either add 500 kcal/ day on top of your daily maintenance or by simply multiplying your current body weight by 16-18. Again, a lot of people's mistakes is hitting the higher end without realizing that muscle takes time to develop. Lyle Mcdonald and other fitness gurus established a muscle gain chart based on realistic gains that can be found here:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html
In my personal experience, I get pretty good gains using my current body weight x 18 during gaining phase. My maintenance is only x 14 of body weight. The heavier a person, the calorie requirements may even go up. It is simply due to the fact that a heavier body requires more energy to fuel than a lean ones. Once a person lean down, their BMR may also go down because it is part of the decrease in mass.(Fat cells also contribute in resting energy expenditure, about 3 kcal/ day per lb of fat). A lot of people who personally know me via facebook or in person may wonder that how come I know so much about fitness and nutrition while I'm still very lean and seem not putting bigger muscles well the answer is, I could put a lot of muscle if I wanted to but I will put on a lot of body fat along with it. The big part of it is the p-ratio or partion ratio. This is the reason why we often see people whose training is sub optimal, with little dieting effort yet get big and get ripped at the same time, they are genetic freaks. That's the reason why I take the culking approach -- which is going to be another topic in the future post.
You may even hear people doing "clean bulk" whatever that means. I think what they meant is these people were trying to minimize any fat gain while trying to gain muscle by eating only "clean foods." This type of ideology I think is developed by bodybuilding sub-culture that if you base your foods among lean meats, healthy fats, non-refined processed foods, no junk foods (you get the picture right?), they will not gain fat. This is simply not true because muscle gain will always have a tag along body fat gain unless you have a very good p-ratio and optimal skeletal insulin sensitivity where all the excess calories you eat get shuttled in the muscle tissue.
So there you go, my advice is if your goal is fat loss, eat the foods that you like that will likely to make you eat less calories and will keep you satiated. If muscle gain is your goal, make sure to eat enough protein and a little extra to support growth and feel free to eat the foods that you like. Take note that muscle building is a marathon, not a sprint. Muscle gaining diet should also never be an excuse to gat extremely fat.
Let's first define diet -- diet simply means the way of eating, not necessarily mean cutting back. It could be fat loss, maintenance or muscle/ weight gain diet. There are two types of dieting around: Linear and non-linear variation. Today, I will only discuss linear dieting because a lot of people may find the non-linear variation too complicated hence I like saving this method once plateau has reached using the linear approach. Anyway, most people will likely to see their desired results using this method. Individuals seeking greater leanness may have to do the non-linear approach, it just depends.
Fat loss and maintenance
The goal of a fat loss diet is to create a calorie deficit, meaning you need to eat less calories than what you use a day/ weekly basis. In contrary, a pound of fat has 3,500 calories in it. I don't want to get into deep details about it so let's just leave it that way. Some people like creating a daily 500 kcal deficit once they determine their daily average calorie expenditure. There is a formula in computing the daily energy needs but for simplicity's sake, I like using the quick and dirty method for determining the maintenance calorie needs -- that is somewhere between 13-16 kcal/ lb of body weight meaning if you're a 150 lb man with moderate amount of physical activities may get away with 14-15 kcal/ lb of body weight just being himself. The amount, volume and frequency and type of training will also have an impact on the calorie expenditure.
Once the person figures out the average calories he/ she needs, adjustments can now be done if the calories has to go up or down. Trial and error is needed to establish a solid baseline. I suggest that you try figuring out your maintenance calorie in a week or two, if you're gaining weight then decrease the multiplier by one. Women may need to use the lower numbers because women carry more fat cells than men(they need higher body fat % for reproduction) and women carry less muscle mass. It's not that muscles burn tremendous amount of calories because a lb of muscle only burns additional 6 kcal/ lb, overtime, it will still add up.
To figure out the calories needed to create a fat/ weight loss, once you figure out your maintenance calorie budget, you may deduct 500 kcal daily so if you need 2,000 kcal/ day, you may need to eat 1,500 daily, at the end of the week, that's 3,500 kcal deficit. Another approach is once figuring your maintenance calorie budget, multiply your current body weight by 10-12 depending on your metabolism/ amount of physical activities. People who has very light activities may need to use the lower limit of 8-9 kcal/ lb of body weight. These people are often the ones who has desk jockey jobs whose only activities are their exercise.
There's another fat loss method which is more complicated where you track your average body fat prediction using a caliper or a BIA scale for a week or so then from there you can have a baseline of predicting the body fat then from there you calculate the target body weight at target body fat % but I will not discuss the method here, I will include that in the book that I am writing.
Muscle gain
From the baseline above, once you get the maintenance calorie budget, you can either add 500 kcal/ day on top of your daily maintenance or by simply multiplying your current body weight by 16-18. Again, a lot of people's mistakes is hitting the higher end without realizing that muscle takes time to develop. Lyle Mcdonald and other fitness gurus established a muscle gain chart based on realistic gains that can be found here:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html
In my personal experience, I get pretty good gains using my current body weight x 18 during gaining phase. My maintenance is only x 14 of body weight. The heavier a person, the calorie requirements may even go up. It is simply due to the fact that a heavier body requires more energy to fuel than a lean ones. Once a person lean down, their BMR may also go down because it is part of the decrease in mass.(Fat cells also contribute in resting energy expenditure, about 3 kcal/ day per lb of fat). A lot of people who personally know me via facebook or in person may wonder that how come I know so much about fitness and nutrition while I'm still very lean and seem not putting bigger muscles well the answer is, I could put a lot of muscle if I wanted to but I will put on a lot of body fat along with it. The big part of it is the p-ratio or partion ratio. This is the reason why we often see people whose training is sub optimal, with little dieting effort yet get big and get ripped at the same time, they are genetic freaks. That's the reason why I take the culking approach -- which is going to be another topic in the future post.
You may even hear people doing "clean bulk" whatever that means. I think what they meant is these people were trying to minimize any fat gain while trying to gain muscle by eating only "clean foods." This type of ideology I think is developed by bodybuilding sub-culture that if you base your foods among lean meats, healthy fats, non-refined processed foods, no junk foods (you get the picture right?), they will not gain fat. This is simply not true because muscle gain will always have a tag along body fat gain unless you have a very good p-ratio and optimal skeletal insulin sensitivity where all the excess calories you eat get shuttled in the muscle tissue.
So there you go, my advice is if your goal is fat loss, eat the foods that you like that will likely to make you eat less calories and will keep you satiated. If muscle gain is your goal, make sure to eat enough protein and a little extra to support growth and feel free to eat the foods that you like. Take note that muscle building is a marathon, not a sprint. Muscle gaining diet should also never be an excuse to gat extremely fat.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
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