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Many people are surprised to learn how important drinking enough water is and how much better their bodies feel
Another big mistake people often make is they overestimate the number of calories they burn every day and accidentally overeat.
factors determine the total energy your body burns every day, such as body size, total lean mass, body temperature, the thermic effect of foods, stimulants such as caffeine, and the types and amounts of physical activity.
We must first calculate our BMR, which is easily accomplished by using the Katch McArdle formula. Here’s how it works: BMR = 370 + (21.6 * LBM) LBM refers to lean body mass, and it’s in kilograms for this calculation.
lean body mass refers to the nonfat components of the human body.
You calculate LBM by subtracting your body fat weight from your total body weight, giving you the weight of everything but your body fat. Here’s how it looks: LBM = (1 – BF% e...
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high-protein diet is absolutely vital for building muscle and preserving it when you’re dieting for fat loss. A low-protein diet is absolutely good for nothing. End of story.
If your diet contains too little protein, your body can become deficient in these essential amino acids, and thus its ability to build and repair muscle tissue becomes impaired. This is true regardless of whether you exercise. The basic processes whereby cells die and are replaced require these essential amino acids.
Regular exercise, and weightlifting in particular, increases your body’s need for essential amino acids and thus protein. Your body must repair the damage you’re causing to muscle fibers, and that requires a lot of “building blocks.”
According to the Institute of Medicine, 10 to 35 percent of our daily calories should come from protein.
According to their work, protein intake of 1.3 to 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight (0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight) is adequate for stimulating maximal protein synthesis.
As you get leaner, keeping your protein intake high becomes very important. If it drops too low (below 1 gram per pound of body weight, in my experience), the loss of strength and muscle is noticeably accelerated.
your best choices are meat, dairy products, and eggs;
If whey bothers your stomach, try a nondairy alternative and you will be fine. My favorite nondairy protein is egg protein powder,
Egg protein is digested even more slowly than casein, which, as you know, means it results in a longer release of amino acids into the blood, and this may be particularly conducive to overall muscle growth.20
So, all things considered, I think you understand why I generally recommend for men to avoid soy if at all possible. There are just too many unknowns for my liking.
Carbohydrates and fats can move through and be fully absorbed while your body is still working on the protein.
Once the amino acids make it into the bloodstream, your body does various things with them, such as grow and repair tissues, and it can also temporarily store (up to about 24 hours or so) excess amino acids in muscle for future needs.36 If amino acids are still in the blood after doing all of the above, your body can break them down into fuel for your brain and other cells.
we now know, our body doesn’t just throw away all of the amino acids it can’t immediately use: it can store them for later needs.
eating the entire days’ worth of protein in a four-hour window (followed by 20 hours of fasting) didn’t have a negative impact on muscle preservation.39
it’s hard to put an accurate cap on how much protein your body can absorb in one meal. It’s definitely a hell of a lot more than the 20 to 30 grams that some people claim.
Each protein feeding should contain at least 30 to 40 grams of protein.
When you lift weights, you rapidly drain your muscles’ glycogen stores, and you replenish those stores when you eat carbohydrates.44 By doing this and keeping your muscles “full” of glycogen, you improve performance and reduce exercise-induced muscle breakdown.45
fiber. Our body can’t distinguish between the natural sugar found in fruit, honey, or milk and the processed sugar found in a Snickers bar. They’re all digested in the same way: they’re broken down into monosaccharides, which are then turned into glucose, which is then shipped off to the brain, muscles, and organs for use.
The bottom line is that HFCS is just another simple sugar, and as far as we can currently tell, it can only harm us when overconsumed.
high, long-term intake of simple carbohydrates (disaccharides like sucrose and HFCS) has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.56
On the other hand, if you exercise regularly and aren’t overweight, your body can deal with simple carbohydrates just fine. You’re not going to get diabetes or ruin your heart by having a bit of sucrose every day.
The solution here is obvious, though: get the majority of your daily calories from nutrient-dense foods, and you’ll be fine.
So all forms of carbohydrate eventually turn into glucose, with the main difference between simple and complex sugars being the speed with which this occurs. As a general rule of thumb, you want to get the majority of your carbs from complex, slower-burning sources.
If you got the majority of your carbs from these low-quality types of foods, your body composition may not be noticeably affected but your health would
my recommendation is simple: get the majority of your daily carbohydrates from nutritious, unprocessed foods, which will incidentally be lower on the GI, but don’t be afraid to include a few higher-GI foods that you like.
The problem is the low-carb diets in these studies invariably contained more protein than the low-fat diets. Yes, one for one…without fail.
when you want to lose fat, your number-one goal is to preserve lean mass, and eating an adequate amount of protein every day is vital to achieve this goal.
So long as you maintain a proper calorie deficit and keep your protein intake high, you’re going to maximize fat loss while preserving as much lean mass as possible. Going low-carb as well won’t help you lose more weight.
They found that those on the low-carbohydrate diet experienced higher rates of protein breakdown and lower rates of protein synthesis, resulting in less overall muscle growth than their higher-carbohydrate counterparts.
The type of fat that you want to avoid at all costs is trans fat.
Many cheap, packaged foods contain trans fat, such as microwavable popcorn, yogurt, and peanut butter. So do frozen foods such as pizza, packaged pastries, cakes, and the like, and fried foods are often cooked in trans fat. Any food that contains hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fats.
“Bottled water had a higher contamination of chemicals than glass bottles. There are many compounds in bottled water that we don’t want to have there. Part is leaching from the plastic bottles, lids or contamination of the well.” 93 This is why I recommend investing in an effective water filtration device and why I stick to filtered water myself.
I make sure the majority of my calories come from nutrient-dense foods, such as the following: • avocados; • greens (chard, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, and spinach); • bell peppers; • Brussels sprouts; • mushrooms; • baked potatoes; • sweet potatoes; • berries; • low-fat yogurt; • eggs; • seeds (flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower); • beans (garbanzo, kidney, navy, and pinto); • lentils and peas; • almonds, cashews, and peanuts; • whole grains, such as barley, oats, quinoa, and brown rice; • salmon, halibut, cod, scallops, shrimp, and tuna; • lean beef, lamb, and venison; and •
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There are many natural sources of potassium, such as all meats and fish; vegetables like broccoli, peas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and beans; fruits like bananas, dried apricots, avocado, and kiwi; dairy products; and nuts.
The evidence is pretty clear: eat enough fiber, and you’re more likely to live a long, healthy life.115
According to the Institute of Medicine, children and adults should consume 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories of food eaten.116
Eat raw vegetables as snacks instead of chips, crackers, or energy bars.
Include legumes in your diet (a tasty way to do this is to cook some international dishes that use a lot of whole grains and legumes, such as Indian or Middle Eastern food).
Only insoluble fiber can’t be processed by your body and goes right through you. Soluble fiber turns into a fatty acid in the gut and contains somewhere between 2 and 4 calories per gram (scientists aren’t sure yet).117
Only insoluble fiber can’t be processed by your body and goes right through you. Soluble fiber turns into a fatty acid in the gut and contains somewhere between 2 to 4 calories per gram.
when you eat food, it takes your body several hours to fully absorb the nutrients contained within.3 The larger the meal, the longer it takes (research shows that absorption can take anywhere from 2 to 6 or more hours).
Most people train early in the morning or several hours after lunch (after work or before dinner), and this is why I generally recommend 30 to 40 grams of protein about 30 minutes before training.
carbohydrates before a workout is much more straightforward: it improves performance, period.
Specifically, eating carbohydrates 15 to 30 minutes before exercise will provide your muscles with additional fuel for your workouts,
