Category Archives: Fitness
Q: Why am I not losing weight on a strict adherence to the Paleo Diet?
ANSWER:
Well because if your goal is to look like a Cro-Magnon man, then Paleo diets are great. And if you are 100lbs overweight, insulin resistant, type II diabetic, and just need to move closer to a natural, healthy bodyweight, Paleo diets are great. But if your goal is to reach the upper echelon of physical development (ie lose that last 10lbs, get ripped, look great naked, etc.), then in my opinion, 100% Paleo diets suck caveman booty. Just kidding, but not really.
Reaching a healthy body weight is one thing, but at some point getting to ultra-low body fat percentages, six-packs and whatnot, becomes somewhat of an unnatural process. The ripped guy would have died first in caveman times because a certain amount of body fat is advantageous as a back-up fuel source during times of food deprivation. So if you want to get rid of that extra reserve that your body physiologically wants to carry, you can’t just eat what your ancestors ate or rely on instinct. You need to add in targeted Sports Nutrition principles.
Why do you think you never see Paleo-ites with their shirts off? Because the majority are just skinny-fat (although there is always one guy that is genetically gifted, is an exception to the rule, and everyone points to as their example of Paleo-superiority). Well sorry to bust your bubble, but I’ve competed against world class NATURAL bodybuilders that would make your Paleo-god look like Richard Simmons.
And I don’t mean to be a jerk, honestly, I am really just trying to help you. I know what its like to be frustrated at a plateau, because I used to follow a 100% Paleo diet back in the day until I became more educated in exercise physiology and nutritional biochemistry. 100% Paleo is honestly just too simple of an approach for a physiological process as complex as fat loss.
Now before anyone gets their caveman, loin cloth panties in a bunch, I believe there are many great principles we can take from the Paleo Diet. In fact, so much so, that I’d say about 80% of my dietary recommendations are Paleo-influenced. But in my industry, we need to get out of trying to slot everyone into one little neat system. You’ll never convince me that a 300lbs sedentary office worker just trying to see his toes (among other body parts) again should be eating the same thing as a relatively fit, athlete trying to reach elite body composition levels. That makes no sense, common, scientific, or any other.
OK, now that the overview is out of the way, you are either (A) asleep, and in that case sweet dreams (B) logged off this site and logged onto Sportscenter.com (guys) or an online shoe store (girls, or vice versa, who knows?), and in that case have fun (C) excited to learn more, and in that case let’s break down your specific situation step-by-step. We’re going to go down a few different assumption roads so we can look at several possible solutions to your specific problem.
1. Maybe your current bodyweight IS your natural, healthy bodyweight. If it is, and that’s all you are shooting for, congratulations. Keep doing whatever it is that you are doing. I think most people could attain a healthy bodyweight by following a Paleo-style diet and walking alone, no formal exercise necessary.
2. But if you have higher physique development aspirations, maybe you need to look outside of 100% strict Paleo parameters.
3. You need to follow a diet more than a few weeks to attain noticeable results. Try a few months (and a few years if you want to reach elite status). I think shows like the Biggest Loser, and miracle pill and supplement marketing have skewed the public’s perception of realistic weight loss goals and time frames . We want fat loss and we wanted it yesterday right? Well, real fat loss takes time. And if you lose weight too quickly, you are likely losing more muscle than fat, damaging your metabolism, and setting yourself up for a huge weight rebound. This is the stuff you don’t see off camera on NBC.
4. Although food selections may give you a few metabolic and hormonal advantages, calories still count. If you are not in a relative calorie deficit, you are not providing an environment where your body will break down its own fat stores to obtain fatty acids. And on a side note, most formulas I’ve seen overestimate people’s true daily caloric needs.
5. Oils are not a true Paleo food. Where were the oil-refining factories in Caveman times. You may be in a “fat burning” mode, but if you are pouring oil on everything, your body is simply burning the dietary fatty acids you are consuming instead of being forced to break down body fat. True cavemen got most of their fat through their animal protein sources.
6. Fruit: Fructose is one of the worst compounds for body composition enhancement — directly leads to insulin resistance and fat accumulation. A small amount of fructose from 1-2 pieces of whole fruit a day is cool, but if you’re pounding bananas all day like a chimp, the fructose can add up. And definitely cut out concentrated sources of fructose like fruit juice, dried fruits, high fructose corn syrup and SUGAR (which is actually one molecule of glucose per one molecule of fructose.
7. What kind of training are you doing? Cardio sucks for fat loss, you can check out my article on this topic in the articles section. And if you have a knee injury, the repetitive nature of, and joint pounding cardio can have on the joints is probably only aggravating your condition. At least with strength training, you can control the exercise tempos and vary the angles to make sure you aren’t making the knee worse.
Alright, I’m worn out. Hope that helps answer your question.
The Benefits of Walking
I’ve repeated the following statement multiple times on this site and within articles for various publications: most people could cure their overweight blues, reduce insulin resistance, dramatically improve other biomarkers of health, and reach a reasonable, “healthy” bodyweight by improving their diet and WALKING alone, no formal exercise sessions necessary.
That’s something gyms, equipment manufacturers, supplement companies, and trainers don’t want you to hear or believe, because then you’d have no reason to pay for their expensive products or services. All you would need, which is all you really do need, is some knowledge, some personal accountability, and some consistent action. That’s the truth.
It doesn’t have to be getting your butt kicked by Bootcamp Betty/Meathead Mike, or Body Composition Bust. Nor should it be. There are various approaches (some more appropriate than others) depending on where you currently fall under the health and fitness spectrum.
Now, if you are an elite athlete and have higher aspirations of physique development: like toned legs, ripped arms, or a six-pack; that’s one ballgame. You’re going to need some Miyaki-style, samurai warrior-like strength training sessions. In other words, you ARE going to have to put up with a meathead like me, and that a$$-kicking IS what the doctor ordered for developing your cover model body. No mercy for the ridiculously vain (myself included)!
But for those who are overweight, de-conditioned, and just starting out, it’s a whole other ballgame in a vastly different ballpark. You need a much less aggressive plan of action so you don’t burn out, get injured, succumb to soreness misery, get fed up with gym meatheads/divas, and give up. For this demographic, I believe that walking, and a targeted, structured, and disciplined nutrition plan is the most productive and efficient route to results.
The problem is, people don’t want to change their nutritional approach, even though that is the most effective way to improving their overall health AND reaching their body composition goals. They don’t want to sacrifice a little, and stop (or at least cut back on) eating cheese fries, sugar, or the 100 different kinds of breakfast cereals. They think they can make up for that lack of dietary discipline with more or harder time in the fitness penitentiary.
If you are familiar with my philosophy, you know my feelings on that one. You can’t out-work a poor diet — you’ll be stuck in that jail cell forever. Trust me, if you could, I would be willing to go to the gym three hours every day just so I could eat onion rings and M&M’s afterwards. For most of us with average genetics, it just doesn’t work that way. Here is a sad truth, that I hope eventually sinks in with you:
The majority of gym-goers are wasting their time in the gym until they put some effort into improving their diets.
I know other trainers would disagree — “lets burn it off Betty, give me a B, a U, a R, a N, what’s that spell?” — but that has been my personal experience with my client base (and those of my closest colleagues) over the last ten years.
THE CAVEMAN THEME RETURNS
But this is a “training” habit, not a “diet” habit, so lets leave the nutrition preaching behind and get this Zoolander-style walk-off going.
What’s wrong with modern society? We just sit around too much. Human beings were made to move. We can always look back to caveman times, to what we evolved from, to see what we should be doing for optimum health. We are hunters and gatherers. Back in the days, our ancestors walked miles a day searching for animals to hunt or vegetables to gather. We didn’t sit in front of a computer screen all day. With modernization, we are wolves trapped in white collars’ clothing.
And we certainly didn’t ride a stationary bike, pedal away on an elliptical, run on a treadmill to exercise for the sake of exercising, or to try and formally “burn off” calories to make up for last night’s ice cream bender. Most of the time we walked, just as part of normal daily activities — to get stuff done. We may have sprinted towards prey or away from predators (anaerobic activity — like adding interval cardio or strength training), but 90% of our activity came in the form of walking.
Most people underestimate the power of at least partially returning to this caveman-style habit, and simply attempting to walk more during a typical day. They think that’s a B.S., “cheesy” fitness tip, or that it’s an aerobic class or 2-hour cardio session, or bust.
They think if they don’t have time to get to the gym, they might as well just do nothing and sit on their butts watching TV, playing video games, or surfing the internet. They sit around reading health and fitness magazines or websites to “research” the complicated routines they are going to do when they finally do get to the gym (which ends up being never, or rarely). They don’t think smaller, simpler steps, like just starting up walking every morning or evening, or adding some non-exercise specific activity into their day — like taking the stairs, etc.
THE BENEFITS OF WALKING
The fittest people I know understand the power of walking. They know that walking is a small yet powerful tool in their fitness arsenal. Here are some of the benefits:
1. Walking can give us many of the same benefits as traditional cardio — calorie burn, increased cardiovascular efficiency, lowered blood pressure, etc. — without all of the drawbacks — joint wear and tear, repetitive strain, negative hormonal impact (overdoing traditional cardio can lead to increased cortisol output and testosterone suppression). You may want to check out our “Best Damn Cardio Article” Series in our articles section.
2. It is convenient — it can be done anytime, anywhere, and can be squeezed in to any part of the day (even multiple times), not as a “formal” training session you have to plan for. No equipment or commute to the gym are necessary.
3. It is not as boring as staring at a wall. With some outdoor walking, you get varied stimulus — buildings, trees, restaurants, blue sky, hot girls or guys (whatever you prefer) out on the town, etc., all depending on where you decide to go.
4. It is a good stress reliever. With the high stress of corporate jobs and modern living, walking is a good way to unwind, take your mind off things, let your brain relax, etc. If work is stressing you out, you are anxious and tense, and you feel like you are going to kill your boss or yourself, take a walk to clear your head. It helps.
Listen, I’m too much of a stubborn, meathead athlete (I ain’t sitting or lying around on a yoga mat for extended periods of time), a workaholic (that’s where my mind goes these days when there’s free time), and a pervert (I think you know what I’m saying with this one), to meditate. It just doesn’t work for me.
But somehow when I’m walking, I’m able to clear my mind and relax a little bit. It is kind of like my active meditation — my body needs to be moving in order for the WB cartoon I have going on up in my head to shut off for half an hour. Maybe it will work for you too.
5. Because it is a leisurely activity, you can multi-task. You can take a walk with a friend or family member to catch up. You can “talk business” or have an informal meeting with a colleague or client while walking somewhere. It’s an active way to spend some time with your kids — they love to just go out and explore. You can even be annoying cell phone guy or girl while walking.
THE WALK MASTER
Here are some tips to include a little more walking into your life. See if any of them are applicable for you:
1. Get up a half an hour earlier and take a morning walk.
2. Walk to get your coffee or tea on your midmorning or mid-afternoon break, but skip the pastries. You are walking to get rid of the muffin top, not add to it.
3. Take a walk at lunch and then eat at your desk.
4. Walk with the kids before dinner.
5. Walk to take care of some errands (i.e., drop mail off, etc.)
6. Catch up with someone over a walk.
7. If you live in a city, walk to your destination instead of driving or taking public transportation.
8. Do something active on the weekend: walk on the beach, go for a hike, walk to the grocery store, etc.
9. Cliché I know, but take the stairs instead of the elevator.
I’m sure you could think of some more opportunities within your specific daily routine to fit in a little more movement.
WRAP-UP
I know I ramble a lot, so I want to leave you with a little slogan to remember.
Stop eating refined/processed foods, Start walking more, and “every little (health & fitness) thing is gonna be alright.”
The 80/20 Rule of Fitness Nutrition
If you retain only one piece of information from my articles, I hope that it is this: your nutritional habits will have a far greater impact on your body composition and physique goals than any other fitness component.
Step back from the fitness industry, pop culture, or scientific debates and think about it logically for just a second. Lets say you perform 4 weight training sessions and 5 cardio sessions a week – a typical fitness protocol. That’s a total of 9 training sessions per week. That’s 9 chances to make a difference and change your body in a positive way.
Now, lets also say you eat 3 square meals a day. Better yet, as a fitness athlete you know about the advantages of meal spacing and eat 5 meals/snacks a day. That’s 21-35 opportunities a week to directly impact your muscle building and fat burning goals.
A common question in the fitness industry is, “what percentage of my physique enhancement goals will be a result of exercise, and what percentage will be a result of my diet?” Common answers are something like, “Well, they are both important. You can’t really assign percentages” or “training is 100%, diet is 100%”. But that doesn’t really give novice trainees an accurate depiction of the bigger picture. And in the big picture, diet will always have a bigger impact than training.
In our above example of 9 training sessions and 35 meals/snacks geared toward body composition improvement a week, that works out to about 20% accounted to physical activity and 80% accounted to diet. I’d say that’s a pretty accurate assessment of the physique enhancement process. If you want to look good, 80% of your results are determined by the food that you eat.
This is an article about fitness nutrition, not statistics, so lets leave the numbers behind and look at some real world examples. If you look around your gym, you’ve probably noticed some regulars that have been there day-in and day-out for months, or even years, but look exactly the same. All that time and effort with no results to show for it. What’s up with that? The answer is diet, or lack thereof.
Another good example is professional NFL offensive lineman. These guys are pro athletes that perform vigorous training protocols on a daily basis. They are big, strong, and could certainly throw me a severe beating. But most of them have a little jiggle with their wiggle, a large percentage of them are obese. How can this be? Again, the answer is poor, or no nutritional strategy.
Conversely, when you hear tales of dramatic weight loss or great body transformations, diet/nutrition is always at the forefront of the discussion. “How did you lose the weight?” friends will ask. “Oh, I went on such and such diet” or “I read this or that nutrition book.” People can make drastic changes in their physique with diet alone. Remember Jared from Subway (yeah I know he’s getting paid to say that, but you get my point).
The moral of the story is you can’t change your body just by exercising. As a matter of fact, I’d say you are wasting your time in the gym until you clean up your diet and implement a sound fitness nutrition protocol. It would be nice if we could work off last night’s junk meal with some extra cardio. Despite what some trainers would have you believe, it just doesn’t work that way.
When you are about to cheat and eat that slice of pizza or bowl of ice cream, remember the Fitness Nutrition 80:20 rule. What goes into your mouth accounts for 80% of how you look.
Copyright 2010 Nate Miyaki
The Basics – Exercise/Training
Now that you have the diet down, here are our recommendations for your workouts. These recommendations will differ depending on your current weight and level of general fitness.
If you are severely overweight and deconditioned:
- Most people can reach a natural, healthy bodyweight with proper nutrition and walking alone; no gym or formal exercise sessions are necessary. You may move to the structured when you reach a healthier weight
- Focus on cleaning up your diet and walking more. Walking can be done anywhere! Being a member of a gym or having a home treadmill may come in handy during inclement weather, but it is not necessary.
- Avoid high intensity aerobic activity or heavy weights
- Exercise 4-5 days per week. Give yourself 2-3 days per week off per week to optimize recovery and prevent burnout.
If you are a healthy individual who wants to change his/her body composition:
- Your goal is to increase lean muscle mass through weight training. Having more muscle mass increases your body’s resting metabolic rate. Fat loss will be the result of (1) your clean diet and appropriate caloric intake; and (2) increased metabolic “burn” from muscle mass
- Emphasize strength training; To a lesser extent, interval-based cardio and outdoor recreational walking is okay. Avoid low-intensity, long distance endurance training (e.g., jogging and cardio machines)
- Training options: 2 days per week for full body routines (also known as “splits”), 3 days per week for push/legs/pull splits, or 4-5 days per week for individual body part splits. Give yourself 2-3 days off per week to optimize recovery and prevent burnout
- It’s ideal to work out at a gym facility, since they will have all the weights you need for your workouts. However, you can achieve excellent results at home too, using your body weight, resistance bands, or dumbells.
Training Principles for All:
- Ideally, you will want to exercise at a regularly scheduled time during specific days of the week. This will help to make it part of your routine and automatic, instead of something that is a chore or can be pushed aside. When strength training, it is also ideal to eat at least one meal at least one hour before working out.
- Use mostly free weights; supplement with machines only if necessary.
- Train from a stable base. DON’T use unstable surfaces (balls, wobble boards, standing on one foot, etc.).
- Focus on basic exercises – lunge and squat movements, dumbbell and barbell rowing and pressing motions, pull-up/dip movements, etc. The human body is a simple lever system and does not need “complicated” or “innovative” exercises to produce results.
- During each session, train 1-3 muscle groups (body splits). Perform 3-5 exercises for large muscle groups, 2-3 exercises for small muscle groups.
- Perform 2-4 sets of 5-15 repetitions (reps).
- Rest 30-120 seconds in between each set.
- Keep the rep tempos (speed at which you lift/move the weights) around 2-0-2-0 (2 seconds up, 2 seconds down).
- Lift and lower weights under control, and keep CONSTANT TENSION on the muscle. Don’t pause or lockout to rest in between reps, and don’t cheat by swinging or using rebound/momentum; this puts you at risk for injury.
- It’s not just about how much weight you lift. Focus on stimulating and overloading the muscle. This is better for the muscles, better for the joints, and better for overall safety.
- Focus on feeling the muscle work during the set, not just on moving a weight from point A to point B. Think of this as bodybuilding or body shaping as opposed to power lifting. Check your macho (or diva) ego at the door.
- Switch training variables — within the confines of the overall parameters — regularly (exercises, order of exercises, reps, interest rest, etc.) in order to vary the training stimulus and prevent boredom/training plateaus.
- Don’t get sucked into fitness trends, and cool-looking “innovative” stuff you see in the gym or TV. The basics are the basics for a reason — THEY WORK.
From Runner to Ripped
Before I talk about my bikini contest prep, I should give you some history about my fitness and athletic background…
I started playing volleyball in middle school, and continued through high school and college. Being on the NCAA Division III team of an institution that prized research over athletics – and had torn its former Division I football stadium down to build a library – our training sessions weren’t terribly hard-core. Nonetheless, I always gave it my all and stayed in decent enough shape (after I recovered from gaining the “Freshman 20”).
When my collegiate “career” ended, I started jogging. Slowly. With basketball players whose advanced cardiovascular conditioning meant they would run and talk to each other, thereby distracting me from my own heavy breathing, while I simply listened but didn’t have to respond (not like I could anyway).
I kept it up, and in my own time I grew to like jogging (or dare I call it running? How fast do you need to go for it to count as “running”?) This was peculiar to me, since one of the reasons I stopped playing basketball in high school was because we ran too much. I would get anxiety attacks before the timed mile, and wanted to stay home sick when we had the dreaded “6-lap run”, which is 1.5 miles. But I digress.
Having been an athlete, I was no stranger to the weight room, but sometimes I just didn’t feel like going to the gym, and when crunched for time I figured a cardio session would give me better results than lifting weights. Cardio burns more calories, right? And burning calories burns fat, and then you lose weight. I thought if I ran enough, I could eat whatever I wanted and still control my weight. In my 20′s, this was certainly the case. Once the clock struck 30, however, not so much. Thankfully, this is about the time I met Nate.
Nate’s vocation and his passion for weight training made me more aware of my own workouts, and I asked for his help. In the beginning, he created plans for me with a significant amount of weight training, but also included cardio to make me happy. This made for long sessions at the gym, up to 90 minutes, just so I could get my cardio in at the end.
He tried to get me to curtail my cardio numerous times, but I was always resistant. For a while we compromised by switching from endurance cardio (30-60 minutes) to high-intensity interval training (a.k.a. HIIT, which lasted 20-30 minutes). I could still run, got my heart pounding, and I thought sure, HIIT makes you burn more calories in a shorter period of time! That’s good!
As Nate did more research on diet and exercise and the effects of both on body composition, he became more and more convinced that the extra cardio I was doing was actually hindering my goals of getting/staying lean. When I decided to compete in the bikini contest, he would only train me under the condition that I follow his instructions without question. I was completely in his hands.
Nate designed my training plan with the following goals: (1) build muscle up top (I’m sort of pear-shaped, so this would make me look more proportionate), and (2) create some kind of muscle in my lower half, where I previously had none. When I started training for the competition, I had what I called a “butthigh” (pronounced “buh-THIGH”) – my butt ran right into the back of my thigh, with no distinguishing difference between the two! Even when I tried to flex my glutes, nothing happened. So pathetic. But the only way to make it better was to work it out! Here’s a sample of what my training plan looked like at the end of my contest training:
TUES — BACK, LEGS I
- Rack pull-ups 3 x max
- One arm rotating dumbell rows 3 x 10
- Lat pulldowns 3 x 10
- Single stiff leg deadlifts 3 x 15
- Single glute bridges 3 x 15
- Sumo deadlifts 3 x 15
WED – CHEST, ARMS, ABS
- Flat dumbell press 3 x 10
- Push-ups 3 x max
- Rope extensions superset alternate dumbell curls 3 x 10
- Skullcrushers superset concentration curls 3 x 10
- Cable crunch 3 x max
- Decline crunch 3 x max
SAT — LEGS II
- Elevated split squats 3 x 15
- Hyperextensions 3 x 15
- Hamstring curls 3 x 15
- Cable glute kickbacks 3 x 15
- Calf raises 3 x 15
- Seated calf raises 3 x 15
SUN – SHOULDERS, ARMS
- Seated dumbell side laterals 3 x 10
- Seated high rope rows 3 x 10
- Alternate dumbell front raise 3 x 10
- Rope extensions superset Alternate dumbell curls 3 x 10
- Skullcrushers superset hang concentration curls 3 x 10
- Cable crunch 3 x 15-20
- Decline crunch 3 x max
It looks like a lot, but by timing my rest periods between sets (40 seconds in between each set), things moved along quite nicely, and I was never in the gym for more than 45-60 minutes. No different than going to a class at your own gym, right?
What’s missing from these workouts? CARDIO!
That’s right, I did no formal cardio during the 12-week period before my contest. Our focus was building lean muscle mass, and using the caloric deficit from my diet to lose fat. You’ve probably heard that muscle burns more calories in your body than fat. Thus, by increasing the amount of lean muscle mass in my body (by weight training), I not only look better and more “toned” (which is the point of training for a bikini contest, right?), but my body then burns more calories throughout the day, which results in more fat loss, which means looking even BETTER. You see the wonderful cycle here?
Were you afraid you’d get too muscular from lifting all those weights?
I was never worried that I’d get huge like a man, because that is physically impossible without using steroids or growth hormones. However, in the past when I trained with both weights and cardio, I did have concerns of getting bigger than I was comfortable with. Each time I started a program (and there were many “new starts”) I would feel my pants get tighter, and I was convinced that I was getting “bulky” from doing lunges, squats, and leg extensions. My ridiculous way of thinking was this: Muscles will just make me look bigger; when you’re wearing pants no one can see your muscles, they just know that your legs are big! RIDICULOUS, RIGHT? My knee-jerk reaction was to cut the weights and increase the cardio.
What I needed to realize, and finally did in time, was that I had to give my body time to adjust. I started to build muscle, and for some period of time I would feel bigger, but that was only until my body actually started losing fat. Until then I’d have my new muscle plus my old fat…I needed to be patient. Nate promised me that if I would just “stick with the plan”, my body would respond just the way we wanted. As always, he was right.
How long did it take to see results?
My upper body responded the fastest, and soon the trainers at his Nate’s gym would see me working out and make comments to him like “Dude, your wife is ripped!” We went to Hawai’i a few weeks after I had started training for the show, and family members commented on my “guns”, which were apparently visible from a balcony four floors up. The comments made me very self-conscious at first. I wasn’t sure if that was the look I wanted…did I really want to be “ripped”? Did that mean I looked like a guy?
After Nate explained to me that these comments were coming from trainers, who know what they are talking about and what their clients aspire to look like, and family members, who are supportive and encouraging, and I became less worried, and more confident. I enjoyed getting stronger and feeling like I was making progress with my training, and that I was making positive gains in some regard. These gains were a sort of positive reinforcement for me, and inspired me to keep working hard.
My lower body took longer to respond. This was expected, but I was still worried. It was slow going at first, but after 2 months I starting losing fat in my lower half. I didn’t even notice it at first, but suddenly my clothes were getting looser, and eventually nearly all of my pants were hanging on me (and looked borderline horrible). It was like a snowball effect, and was actually quite amazing. The last two weeks before the show were the most significant, and the change most noticeable, and the weight just fell off. Surprisingly to me, the “bulky legs” I feared in the beginning never matriculated. In fact, I could have used a little more muscle and definition.
How much weight did you lose? What was your body fat percentage?
To be honest, while I would periodically get on the scale, I never used my weight as a regular gauge of my progress. A person’s bodyweight fluctuates a lot, even over the course of a single day, based on food and water intake, exercise, and hormones, so to track it frequently would mean nothing. It might have been interesting to have taken regular measurements of weight or body fat percentage for data purposes, but when came down to the bikini contest, none of those things really matter. All that matters is how you look on stage, and how you look in person.
What did you learn from this method of training?
I learned first-hand something that Nate has been telling me for years…that when it comes to body composition change, or losing fat, or just trying to look good, weight training trumps cardio every time. From personal experience I can tell you that I was leaner and had a better physique after training for this bikini contest – with no cardio – than I have ever been in my entire life. If you look at my photos, I don’t look overly muscular at all.
Think about it: compare at the body of a marathon runner vs. that of a figure or fitness model. Which one of the two is leaner with more definition in their muscles? Who looks more “fit” or “defined”? The figure or fitness model, who will unequivocally be lifting more weights in their training programs than the distance athlete.
That’s not to say that cardio doesn’t have value. It absolutely does. But you need to be sure you know WHY you are doing the cardio. If it’s because you like it, it feels good to you, you are trying to get your heart rate up for an extended period of time to increase your cardiovascular endurance, etc., then yes, cardio is the answer. But if you simply want to look good – or great – and lose fat and gain some muscle, then get off the treadmill or stairmaster and pick up some weights!
An Old Lady Puts On a Bikini…
It’s been almost two weeks since the Iron Man Magazine Naturally Championships and Los Angeles FitExpo 2011, where I competed in my first bikini contest at the age of 38. I didn’t win (I didn’t expect to), but I didn’t lose (at least not both classes I entered). I came in 3rd in Class C (5’6″ and above) and 3rd in my age class (35+). My competitive side was disappointed at first that I didn’t place higher, but in thinking about the experience as a whole, I am still very proud of what I accomplished.
In this and the next few posts I’ll be sharing some of my reflections on the process. Probably the most logical place to start is here:
What on earth would possess you to enter a bikini contest?
First, I was looking for a goal and purpose to guide my diet and exercise goals. For the past few years, other than when I was preparing for my wedding, I had just been working out to work out. This made it too easy to flake when I was lazy, or indulge in food and drink more often than necessary.
Second, as a former competitive athlete, I wanted a challenge. I had told Nate a few times that I was curious to see what I was capable of and how much I could change my body composition if I truly dedicated myself to a plan. I have always admired his discipline and focus when he trains and wanted to see if I could do the same. Signing up for a contest – especially one that Nate was doing too – would hold me accountable. Once I paid the registration fee, there was no going back!
Finally, we were coming upon the end of the year, which was stacked with back-to-back celebratory events and holidays (two birthdays, an island vacation, travel to attend two weddings, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s…all in just two months!). I knew this would be a recipe for disaster when it came to my diet, workouts, and waistline. By signing up to compete in late January, I would need to eat clean and train through the holidays, and would thus avoid the otherwise predictable weight gain.
The other contest type I had considered was a Figure competition. Figure athletes have physiques that are in between those of Bikini and Bodybuilding competitors; they are leaner and more muscular than women in Bikini, but do not have the size of someone in Bodybuilding. Because of the relatively short period of time I had to work with (12 weeks after I registered), I was concerned that I didn’t have the time to both lose fat and gain the muscle necessary to be competitive in Figure. Figure competitors also have more expensive posing suits and do specific poses upon which they are judged. With this being my first contest, I didn’t want to have to worry about those extra issues.
How awful was the diet?
To be honest it wasn’t bad. Yes, it was restrictive in the sense that I couldn’t eat a lot of things that I like (primarily sweets and dairy), but those are precisely the things I was trying to reduce in the first place. I ate 5 times each day, with a combination of lean protein and carbohydrates in each small meal. Yes you read that right, CARBOHYDRATES. Nate did not put me on some crazy diet where I could eat nothing but protein and lettuce for 3 months, as that would truly kill my metabolism (if not me). Since my workouts (which I will talk about later) were centered around weight training, I needed energy from carbohydrates to fuel my body.
Here’s what the diet looked like for most of my pre-contest period:
Meal 1: 4 egg whites and 2 rice cakes (or ½ cup plain mashed potatoes)
Meal 2: 4 egg whites or a protein shake and 2 rice cakes
Meal 3: 4 oz lean protein (usually chicken breast or fish), 2/3 cup plain mashed potatoes, mixed greens and tomatoes
Meal 4: same as Meal 2
Meal 5: same as Meal 3
LOTS OF WATER. No soda or fruit juice. Coffee sparingly, and as much green tea as I wanted.
You’ll see that it’s actually quite a bit of food! Some notes:
- Protein shakes were just the powder mixed with water. The shakes were easy to deal with at work, and provided a “sweet treat” during the day.
- Mashed potatoes were just that…peeled, boiled potatoes that were mashed (no dairy). If you leave a little of the boiling water in the pot it makes them a little smoother, and you’d never know there was no milk or butter! The most important thing here was to measure my portions – literally with a measuring cup.
- You’ll see that everything is plain. Most sauces have sugar to give them flavor (sugar is no-no #1 on this diet), and you aren’t able to control the amount of salt. I added flavor to my meals with just a little dash of sea salt or garlic salt (or both). In the beginning I would sometimes use a little salsa (check the ingredient list in the brand you choose) but that got cut out at the end. I also would periodically add Japanese umeboshi paste (made from pickled plums that is typically used in sushi rolls)…it was a salty/tart taste that was a nice change.
- As for the salads, I ate mixed greens with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar (no oil). You could add other veggies but I was pretty lazy. I sometimes wilted the greens in a skillet with some water, but in the end preferred the fresh salad.
- As it came closer to contest time, we made some changes, like replacing the protein shakes with egg whites (to both eliminate the sugar substitute which can cause bloating, and to focus on consuming “real foods”), and reducing my carb portions.
My competition plan was based on Nate’s standard diet and nutrition principles for fat loss and body composition change, the same principles that are shared on this website! While it was more restrictive for the purposes of competing, the building blocks are the same and can be used by any healthy person. If you haven’t already done so, go check out the Articles section for details!
Next up: Gym Time! (My competition training plan)
Use Science – Not Scams – to Achieve Your Fitness Goals
“I lost 30lbs in one week without exercising or changing my diet, thanks Mr. Magic Blue Pill. Thanks!” “I went from obese to fitness model in 12 weeks just by using this state-of-the-art abdominal device for 20 minutes, 3 times a week.” “On my revolutionary new diet plan, as long as you don’t eat X, you can eat unlimited quantities of anything and everything else, and the pounds will just fly off.” Does any of this sound familiar?
We’ve all heard the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Most of us seem to be able to apply this common sense logic to everything else in our life except weight loss (and maybe money — the get rich quick schemes abound as well). We want to believe these ridiculous claims because we desperately want to lose fat — oh by the way we expect it to happen quickly and effortlessly. Girl (or dude), I wish it really were that simple.
There are millions of trainers, gurus, gadgets, supplements, books, and diet programs all geared towards helping you lose fat. Some are good, some are bad, and some are flat-out ugly. Some are legitimately trying to help you, some are just trying to capitalize on your vulnerability and scam you out of your hard-earned money. Some are really trying to make your waist slimmer, many are just trying to make your wallet slimmer. The fat loss business is a big business just like any other, driven by profits. Its not always about what works, its about what sells.
And with the magic-pill mentality that dominates our society, ridiculous claims (the more ridiculous the better) sell. 2-minute abs? Take a hike pal.
Don’t follow unsupported claims and hype. Many people look for the diets, training programs, or supplements that promise the fastest results with the least amount of effort. They fall for the advertising flash without investigating the true value and effectiveness of a product or program. They are enticed by the one-in-a-million transformation story without reading the tiny fine print that “these results are not typical”. They don’t realize that many companies pay fitness models and athletes to endorse their product, whether they really use it or not. Lose 20lbs in two days, sign me up!
That’s why there are so many bogus products on the market. They sell well because of people’s misguided hopes. People with this habit believe they just need to find the right miracle pill and all of their weight issues will be magically solved. They want to hear that losing weight will be easy. They want to believe that they won’t have to work hard, or sacrifice, or break bad habits, or be uncomfortable in any way. They want to believe they can party like a rock star and look like a fitness model. If any of that were really true, everyone would be in shape and there wouldn’t be a billion-dollar weight-loss industry getting rich off of false hope.
Fit people are more knowledgeable about the body transformation process and look beyond glossy ads and infomercial miracle stories — if a commercial is running at 3am, it is probably a scam. Fit people know it takes time and effort to attain real, permanent results. Go ahead and ask the fittest person you know in REAL LIFE if the process is easy. I guarantee they’ll give you a sideways look, or at least roll their eyes. It takes some work baby!
That’s why fit people look beyond just mere promises or success stories. They look at scientific research. They want unbiased, credible proof that the products or programs they are using actually work. They want to see legitimate studies backing up any bold claims. They want to know what works in the real world, not just what works in the advertising office or in fitness-fantasyland.
Fit people base their exercise programs on the principles of physics, biomechanics, and physiology, not on the principles of “he said, she said”. They look at the hormonal and metabolic effects of diet, not at whatever the flavor-of-the-month, fad diet touts.
We’re not asking you to become experts in the field. That’s our job. But we are asking you to become slightly more informed so you don’t get caught up in the marketing hype. Some of the content on this site may get technical at times, maybe a little too much for your tastes. That’s cool. You don’t have to digest it all at once. But we do want you to know there is a rhyme or reason for everything we advise. There is a scientific foundation behind all of our content.
We know most people are primarily concerned with the WHAT to do for fat loss. We’ll cover that. That’s a no-brainer. But we also want to give every person the option of learning the WHY.
There are an infinite amount of false claims on the market because people continue to chase them. The sooner you start using real science, and stop chasing pipe dreams, the sooner you can get to work and start achieving real results.
Kaizen for Fitness
Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today.
This is never-ending. — Hagakure
There is a tendency in other cultures for most people to stop training, to stop trying to improve, after they reach a certain level of skill — and this is one of the reasons why the Japanese have had an advantage in virtually everything they do. They have been culturally conditioned to never stop training. — Samurai Strategies
Make at least one definitive move daily toward your goal. Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. — Bruce Lee
Kaizen is a Japanese word that literally translates to “improvement” or “change for the better”. But Kaizen is more than just a word. It is a lifestyle philosophy incorporating a focused effort to strive for constant and continual improvement in all areas of life. In modern Japanese culture, it is most often applied in the business setting — the never-ending pursuit of improving the productivity and efficiency of your business.
Of course, this principle can be effectively applied to the health and fitness setting as well. I’d even go so far as to say that kaizen — whether it is consciously applied or subconsciously practiced — is what separates the elite from the average. How are you better today than you were yesterday? No matter where you currently fall under the spectrum, if you constantly strive to improve, you will see results.
Beginners — how can you improve on your consistency? If you are skipping workouts and really only getting to the gym two days a week, can you make a concerted effort to improve and bump that up to three? Can you find ways to increase non-exercise specific activity (i.e. walking to do some errands instead of driving)?
Advanced athletes — have you reached some kind of a plateau? How can you bust through it? The answer lies in the details. Can you be more regimented with your diet, or up the intensity in the gym?
Strength coach Charles Poliquin frequently talks about this concept in its relation to progressive overload. He discusses how the idea of constant and continual improvement can effectively be applied to protocols designed specifically for increasing strength.
The application is simple. With each successive training session, the lifter should attempt to add one more rep to the set or a little more weight to the bar. This ensures constant improvement. Charles specifically talks about adding the smallest plates in the gym (2.5lbs) to the bar each time you train. This sounds like nothing, but small increases made consistently over time add up to big improvements. In a twelve week training cycle, a weekly increase of 5lbs total on the bar nets a 60lbs increase in your lifting total. Not bad, especially for an advanced lifter.
This mentality should not stop with just progressive overload. I believe the Kaizen principle can extend out to all aspects of the fitness game, and can bring you closer to reaching your goals. Here are some practical examples:
• Lifting Technique: Better technique can reduce rebound, momentum, cheating, or using other, unintended muscle groups to complete a lift. This maximizes tension on the target muscle, which of course leads to optimal overload and development. Better technique can also leave you less susceptible to traumatic injury, reduced wear and tear on the joints, and chronic pain. Can you look for ways to perfect your technique? Can you slightly improve your exercise form in some way?
• Nutrition: If you eat 5 meals a day, that totals 35 meals in a week. How many of those meals are bringing you closer to your physique goals? How many of those meals are taking you further away from your goals? Can you improve on that ratio? If you are eating good 85% of the time, focus on increasing that to 90%.
• Alignment/Muscle Balance: Do you sit at a computer all day? Do you have terrible posture as a result? Are tight muscles inhibiting your range of motion or causing chronic pain? Are lengthened, weakened muscles making your posture or performance suffer? Can you look for ways to improve muscle imbalances or lifting discrepancies? Can you add some daily stretches to improve your computer posture?
• Recovery: Are you living more like an athlete or more like a rock star? If you are going out partying every night, drinking, doing recreational drugs, etc., you are not providing the best environment for your body to improve its appearance. Can you find ways to reduce the “sexy time” and focus more on your fitness goals?
• Sleep: This is one of the most overlooked components of development. Proper sleep can help reduce cortisol levels, increase growth hormone levels, recharge the nervous system, increase cellular repair, etc., all leading to better development. Can you skip watching American Idol to get an extra hour of sleep?
• Hydration: Virtually every cellular process in our body requires water. Can you improve your hydration levels? Can you drink 2 liters of water instead of 1? Here’s a fun game — can you make your pee-pee look more like water or lemonade than iced tea (yeah, I know I’m a little off my rocker)?
• Meathead Status: Can you dudes somehow improve on your current meathead status? What about grunting or screaming more during your warm-up sets, wearing sunglasses in the gym, wearing tighter spandex, coming up with cheesier pick-up lines to use on the gym bunnies, acting macho(er) staring at yourself in the mirror more, etc.?
• Diva Status: Can you girls somehow improve on your diva status? What about avoiding strength training and spending three instead of two hours on the cardio machines, taking more pointless, phooh-phooh “exercise” classes, wearing more make-up in the gym, wearing tighter spandex, acting stupid(er), staring at yourself in the mirror more, etc.
I think you can see that the list could go on and on forever. There are always ways in which we can improve — as athletes, as coaches, and as people.
The summary of the kaizen, then, is to never be satisfied with your current level of skill or development. Always try to improve, in every aspect of your life. There is always someone out there who is stronger, fitter, or more skilled than you are. If you are starting at the bottom of the mountain, that’s the only way to climb to the top. And even if you happen to be at the top of the mountain now, remember kings and queens fall, and heroes rise to take their place.
Ironman Naturally – 2 Weeks
As I said in my last post, the rest of this year is going to be about helping you reach your health and fitness goals. But the next 2 weeks is about my wife and I reaching our goals. We’re off to the Ironman Naturally competition in LA on 1/29 and a photo shoot on 1/30. I figured I’d put up a couple of updated photos. Does anyone else think my giant melon-head is too big for my body right now?
I’ll see if I can convince my wife to put up an update photo as well.
FatBits
We know that we are the fattest and unhealthiest country in the world. But what does that really mean? Here are some statistics, in case you aren’t aware of how bad things have gotten:
OBESITY:
- Worldwide, there are over 1 billion overweight adults. More than 300 million are clinically obese.
- The United States has the highest percentage of obese and overweight populations in the world. 2/3 of the U.S. population is overweight. 1/3 is clinically obese.
- 17% of children ages 2-19 are obese.
- From 1976-2008, obesity rates increased in all age groups: from 6.5% to 19.6% among 6-11 year olds; from 5% to 18.1% among 12-19 year olds, and from 13.4% to 35.1% among 20-74 year olds.
- In 2009, not one state met the Healthy People 2010 obesity target of 15%.
- Obese individuals at increased risk for the following diseases: (1) Pre-mature death (individuals who are obese have a 50 to 100% increased risk of premature death from all causes, compared to individuals with a healthy weight). (2) Heart disease. (3) Stroke. (4) Diabetes (over 80% of people with diabetes are overweight or obese). (5) Certain types of cancer (breast, uterus, colon, kidney, prostate, gall bladder). (6) Fatty liver disease. (7) Gallbladder disease and gallstones (3 times greater in obese individuals). (8) Sleep apnea and asthma. (9) Osteoarthritis & other musculoskeletal disorders. (10) Blood markers of health (Obese and overweight individuals have higher triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL:HDL ratios, and blood pressure than the average population).
EXERCISE HABITS (OR LACK THEREOF):
- 40% of adults report no physical activity.
- Only 31% engage in regular leisure-time activity (defined as 3 sessions per week of vigorous physical activity or 5 sessions per week of light-to-moderate activity).
- That means nearly 3/4 of our population is not getting some kind of regular exercise.
DIABETES:
Type I diabetes is a genetic/hereditary condition. Type II diabetes is primarily caused by lifestyle factors/choices. Which means for the most part, diabetes is an avoidable disease. Type II diabetes accounts for 90-95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. It usually begins with insulin resistance.
- 24 million people – 8% of the population – have diabetes.
- 26% of U.S. adults over 20 years of age, and 36% of adults over age 60 (over 57 million) have pre-diabetes.
- Statisticians estimate that the number of people worldwide with diabetes will increase from 175 million in the year 2000 to 353 million in 2030.
COSTS:
- In 1995 the total costs (direct and indirect) costs attributable to obesity amounted to an estimated $99 billion. In 2000, that number rose to $117 billion. In 2008, it rose again to $147 billion.
- Healthcare costs for overweight and obese individuals are 37% higher than for people of normal weight. There is a 36% increase in inpatient and outpatient spending and a 77% increase in medication costs.
- Obesity and obesity-related conditions result in $98 billion per year in health care costs, $62.7 billion in doctor’s visits, $39.3 billion in lost workdays each year, and $6 billion in lost productivity.
The moral of the story is it’s time to make some tough lifestyle changes or our country, and you personally, are headed for major health and economic disasters. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Maybe you’ve reached the point where you really don’t give a damn about yourself anymore (life is too busy, it’s too hard, there are other more important things, you gotta enjoy life’s pleasures, etc.). Fine. You are an adult and can make your choice.
But what about your kids? Do it for them. Get healthy so you can play outdoors with your children, or be around to see your granddaughter get married. Or if you can’t think about you, make better choices for them. Make sure they grow up healthy and fit, and not overweight and at risk for disease.
Every research study shows that our health is deteriorating at an exponential rate, and we are afraid for the next generation. Lifestyle diseases and conditions are affecting people at younger and younger ages. With current American lifestyle habits, many children will be obese and diabetic before they have any say in it. They look to you in their formative years, and if you live like the average American these days, they have no chance of ultimately living a healthy lifestyle.
Sources: Center for Disease Control & Prevention; The Mayo Clinic; National Institutes of Health; American Heart Association; National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, & Kidney Diseases; Medscape; World Health Organization; Beaches & Poolsides everywhere!
natemiyaki
Kalai Diamond
