What's your goal bro? Sounds like your looking to drop some weight and lose some body fat from what I'm reading.
Carlitos has a lot of solid advice, but I disagree with a couple of his suggestions:
1) bad idea to workout at night then workout again first thing in the morning (unless your just doing cardio the next morning, which to be fair he did suggest but wasn't sure if he meant you should do weights back to back like that)
Huh? One at most only needs 6 hours in between sessions as long as it's not something like doing heavy back work than 6 hours later doing heavy ass leg work with free weights. Many people do two a days, it's nothing new and as long as sessions are brief they're great.
2) ditch the splenda for green leaf stevia. Splenda, Aspartame, all the chemical based artificial sweetners are toxic to your health... forget about leaning out and gaining size for a second and think about the bigger picture too.
Are you serious how is splenda bad? It's only maltodextrin and dextrose both derived from corn used sparingly it's fine, unless he's dumping around a cups worth in one setting he has nothing to really worry about. I like the novella brand stuff cause it's like splenda with probiotics in it.
Now onto big bad ol Aspartame....hhahaa :box: Taken from here .....http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/showthread.php?t=74032
From Dr. Layne Norton himself, guy knows more about nutrition and the body in general than both of us combined.
Originally Posted by
BigPoppaPump3 said:
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Aspartame causes brain damage etc. Research it bro.
Layne Norton said:
no it doesn't. This is how this bull**** get's spread, by people talking about research that doesn't exist like it's the freakin' grail. Please show me one study with a reasonable (not 1000 times the recommended amount) dose of aspartame showing any negative side effects. You won't find one, I can show you dozens that demonstrated it's perfectly fine.
the only people saying this are those idiot cult following organic tree huggers who don't actually read real research. Aspartame is one of the most tested compounds in the world and every single study (and there are many) done using doses within the daily acceptable range for aspartame have shown it to be totally fine
Not to pick on you too much but this really bothers me because this is how this BS gets spread, because people kick around nonsense without actually researching it. You tell him to research it when it's clear you have not really researched it yourself. Unless you call reading some article on some organic website research.
3) I also disagree with his suggestion to do weights 4-5x a week. Depending on your bf at this moment, your primary focus should be fat loss. Yes I realize you can absolutely burn fat by working out with weights if you keep your rest short and reps high; but IMHO based on what your looking to do I'd keep weights at 3x a week and do cardio 3x a week. Instead of running on the treadmill or climbing the elliptical for ridiculous lengths of time, its much more efficient and effective to do shorter sessions of cardio at a higher intensity; 20-25 minutes of high intensity cardio will kick your @ss better than an hour long session at a lower intensity and increase fat burning
If he does short 40-45 minutes sessions 4-5 times a week and morning cardio any days he can. He'll get to his goals that much faster, ask what a natty bodybuilder does when he's dropping a **** load of fat prepping for a contest...daily cardio and still lifts weights hitting muscle groups at least twice a week. His biggest priority should be a good weight training frequency to preserve muscle as much as possible and doing daily cardio. One of those 4-5 days being a circuit type routine.
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Cooking Oils:
The absolute BEST cooking oil for high temp cooking is extra virgin coconut oil. Coconut oil is also an excellent anti-oxidant and its primarily composed of medium chain triglycerides. There are numerous benefits to them such as increased fat burning, improved digestion, anti-bacteria, anti-fungal etc.
For low temp cooking or salad dressing use olive oil; flaxseed oil is a good alternative to the salad dressing.
I agree 100% with the coconut cooking oil, yet some medium temp cooking with olive oil is just as good. extra virgin coconut oil is a crock of ****, one should just look for "virgin" coconut oil. The other stuff marked up "extra virgin" is not any better and is usually pricier.
Macadamia nut oil is another good one. Hell Kailex don't even hesitate to drop a tablespoon or two of olive oil/macadamia nut oil in a protein shake here or there through out the day.
Are you familiar with Metabolic Typing? Its an EXCELLENT philosophy and can really help you take your fitness and body to the next level. I won't bore you with the details but the premise of this theory and way of eating is that each individual is remarkably different in the way they assimilate nutrition from different foods. For example, a sweet potato, known as a excellent complex carb and beneficial for energy may not do well in your system, while someone else might thrive on it. Find out what type you are: Protein, Carb, or Mixed and eat for the way you were designed if that makes sense. There's a lot more to it than this, but I think it can really help you and many others. Put it this way, when you go shopping for clothes you buy the ones that fit you, in this example eating should be the same way. In my opinion after years in exercise and nutrition there's no cookie cutter formula that will work for every single person. Yes low carb, high protein for fat loss, high calorie and protein for weight and muscle gain work, BUT if you eat for your Metabolic Type it will take your performance to the next level. If your interested in this I can send you more info.
Agree there's no cookie cutter diet/training method. I can get away with eating a **** load of carbs, most can't or can only eat moderate amounts.
I think a good starting point for most is, moderate amount of carbs for breakfast, good load before training and just protein+fat meals for the rest of the day. Especially if close to bed time. After training your body has a huge window for many, many hours to take in carbs. So before training and earlier in the day is when one should load quite a bit. If you sit on your ass all day at work one should have common sense and do some trial and error with carbs/calories.
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Couple other random thoughts from things I noticed while reading replies and your post:
-Almonds are not a nut, they belong to the genus prunus, which includes apricots, cherries, peaches and plums. Chances are your not allergic or sensitive to almonds, even if you have nut allergies. If you've noticed you still react poorly to almonds, then definitely avoid them. A good alternative are pumpkin seeds; great source of protein and high in beneficial omega fats.
-Speaking of omega fats I know your taking fish oil capsules; I'm a big fan of Cod Liver Oil, yes the actual oil. Garden of Life makes a lemon-mint flavored one called Icelandic Cod Liver Oil and its actually good! No I'm serious, no fish breath, no fish burps and is 10x higher in beneficial omega fats compared to a handful of fish oil pills. Not to mention many fish oil companies use cheap fillers like soybean oil which are $hit and degrade the quality of the supplement.
-I think Carlitos mentioned this too, but get a good unrefined ocean sea salt for your cooking. Sea salt is rich in trace minerals which are keep for activating your metabolism and helping fat loss.
yes sir, Redmond's or Celtic sea salt, two of the best on the market. Pickles are ok too.
-Definitely go low carb, but not Atkins or into keto. However I would keep carbs at a level that still gives you energy, but doesn't make you constantly feel full throughout the day; your goal should be to speed up that metabolism through eating every 2-3 hours on the dot!! This is crucial and I can't stress it enough when your trying to burn fat and build muscle. Secondly, increase your healthy fat intake the lower you go in carbs. What I suggest is going with a good macro-nutrient breakdown for fat loss (you'll have to play around with this and figure out what works for you) 45/25/30 or maybe 50/20/30; don't be afraid of the fat as long as its from healthy sources, increased fat intake will help your body to burn existing body fat. Those ratios represent protein, carbs and fat.
There's lots of different schools of thought, but just a couple of examples of what many people do. Some go very low carb through the week, eat most of their carbs in the morning and post workout, then have a carb load day on the weekend.
Others stick to a certain calorie, macro level, lets say 1800 calories a day and then drop calories slightly every other week to keep the body from getting use to your routine. Depending on how much cardio your doing and how intense your workouts are, you will want to monitor this closely so you don't drop your calories too low. I don't recommend going lower than 1,400 when trying to drop body fat.
Ugh I don't even think most people should go lower than 2000. I know girls who maintain or lose body fat in the mid to low 2000's!!!! The idea is to eat to maintenance calories to or just a tad under to still feed muscles/hold onto whatever you have and increase work/cardio/training sessions to turn you into a metabolic furnace that just burns fat day in day out, all day and night.
PIMP
Straight liquor is another thing I'll lean towards and I'll just sip on that all night (a good tequila on the rocks with just lime) or whiskey