Summary: Getting cut and lean is all about eating right, drinking plenty of water, regular interval training, and resistence training (i.e. lifting weights). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 1: Exercise

 

1. Exercise: Make a commitment now to dedicate 60 minutes to exercise each day at least five days a week. If you are trying to accelerate fat loss, six days a week would be ideal. Your body does need one day of rest each week. If you are in a position where you truly feel you cannot exercise more than you already do, at least changing your diet will have significant positve effects. However, having exercise as part of the mix is the only way to acheive your best self.

 

• 1A: Start out your workout doing 20 minutes of high intensity interval training. As a start, focus on doing a minumum of 30 uninterrupted seconds of exercise maintaining at least 80% of your maximum heart rate and then rest for 30 seconds. As you get into better shape, you will arrive at the point where you are able to do 60 seconds of uninterrupted high intensity excercise and then rest for 60 seconds. You want to maintain a 1:1 ratio in terms of your exercise period and rest period. However, don't push yourself too hard. When I first started doing high intensity interval training, I found that I would get dizzy and naseaus if I tried to maintain the 1:1 ratio but I knew I shouldn't sacrifice intensity during the exercise portions. Thus, I would maintain the same intensitity but I would rest as long as necessary to recover before going at it again. As a minimum, each high intensity interval training session should include at least 10 sets of exercise and rest. A great option for getting started is 10 100-sprints (on flat ground if that is the best you can do or uphill if you can do that). Sprint the 100 yards and then immediately walk back to the starting line. Then sprint 100 yards and then walk back to the starting line, etc. If you do it right, high intensity training can also be done on a treadmill, eliptical, bike, etc. Focus on workouts that engage as much of your body as possible.

• 2A: For the remaining 30-40 minutes of your workout, lift weights. Follow the rep and set schedule in the "Size and Strength" program and do the same exercises. Lfiting heavy is extremely important because your muscles burn fat and the more muscle you have, the higher will be your metabalism (and thus the more fat you will burn, even when you are sitting around doing nothing). 

 

Part 2: Eating Right

 

 This is probably the biggest challenge for people trying to lose fat. As a review, your body fat percentage is the percentage of your weight that is fat. Men typically start to see a six pack around 10-12 percent body fat, and they really pop out around 9% body fat. For women, a six pack usually starts to pop out around 20% body fat. 

• Note: Women that have smaller chests typically will see results at lower body fat percentages. 

 

Inexpensive body fat calculators such as this are worth the money and provide a reliable indication of progress as long as you measure yourself at the same time every day. I use my Omron first thing in the morning on every Monday of every week.

 

The two most important things to figure out are how much to eat and what to eat. Eating right and living healthy is more about creating a lifestyle rather than taking drastic measures. People that go on extreme diets often find themselves binging and gaining the weight back shortly after the weight was lost. A good program has to be sustainable.

 

2A: How Much Should I Eat? = How Many Calories?

 

In calculating how much to eat, use the tool below at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/lose-weight-fast-the-smart-way-to-get-shredded.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have calculated your ideal caloric intake (the number associated with "Caloric Deficit"), you need to figure out where you are going to get those calories. Interesting fact: each pound of fat is 3,500 calories. Notice that your caloric deficit places your consumption of calories at 500 calories below your total daily expenditure. A 500 calorie deficit X 7 (because there are 7 days in a week) equals a caloric deficit of 3,500 calories=1 pound of fat.

 

2B: Where Should I Get My Calories?

 

2. Calories come from four macronutrients; protein, fats, carbohydrates, and alchohol. What are each of these things and how much should you eat each day? This depends on your fitness goals but a typical starting point is that 40% of your calories come from protien, 30% come from carbohydrates, and 30% come from fats (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/how-to-lose-weight.html?clickid=wDx0F1T1W2ngVzHzOdQ-3TC0UkVW8Mzd3QwVU00&irpid=77297). Because I am trying to maximize muscle gain while maximizing fat loss, I am getting 45% from protein, 35% from carbs, and 20% from fat (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ask-the-siege-how-do-i-get-to-5-percent-body-fat.html).  Figuring out your portions is important because otherwise you will lose weight you don't want to lose. I am just barely getting started on eating the right macronutriet portions. For the past several months, I wasn't focused on getting enough protein and I was eating too many carbs. Why I did right, however, and why I lost so much fat is because I stopped eating desserts, cereals, bread, pasta. These things are fine to eat if you can factor them into your diet but I was bingning on these things beforehand and I stopped doing that. Below is a summary of my progress. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am grateful for the progress I have made but I wish I would have focused on macronutrient allocation from the start. In my ignorance, I was probably consuming 60% carbs, 20% protein, and 20% fats. Notice how slow my fat loss was, and notice how I lost SO much lean body mass. My muscles were so underfueled during that time that they broke down (I also wasn't lifting as much as I should). By the way, the "Time of Day" and "Hours since Last Meal" columns are meant to record when I weigh myself (and measure body fat). Again, I try and take these measurements at the same time of day for every measurement.

 

Now that I know my ideal caloric intake and know what percentage of calories I want to come from protein vs. carbs vs. fats, I can then calculate the number of grams of each macronutrient I should consume each day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Method for Calculating Target Protein=(Ideal Caloric Intake (2429) x Desired Calorie Percentage Allocated to Protein (45%))/Calories per gram of protein (4). I follow the same basic format for calculating target carb grams and fat grams.

 

Note: You will notice that protein and carbs each happen to equal 4 calories per gram while every gram of fat equals 9 calories. In fact, you could more or less calculate the total calories in an item by multiplying the grams of protein by 4, the grams of carbs by 4, and the grams of fat by 9, and then adding up the totals. For example, my protein supplement has 30 grams of protein in each serving, 3 carbs in each serving, and 1 gram of fat in each serving. Thus, each serving has 141 calories ((30*4=120) + (3*4=12) + (1*9=9)=120+12+9=141). 

 

2B: What Kind of Food?

Now that you have calculated how many calories you should be consuming and how many of those calories should come from each of the macronutrient groups, you now need to identify where you will obtain your target amounts while staying within your macronutrient boundaries and caloric boundaries.

 

I would start by creating an excel doc with columns listing the items in your typical diet and then Google the calorie content, grams of protein, grams of fat, and grams of carbs for each food item. You can then tweak this to come up with a daily diet that works for you. An example of my partial diet is below. I could post a much more detailed version but won't at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Analyzing the totals, this diet would tell me I need to eat significantly more carbs and fat and a bit more protein. I find the following link helpful in findiing nutritional facts: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fresh-fruits-bananas-raw_f-ZmlkPTczMzI5.html. You simply type the target food item into the search bar in the top left and hit enter. 

 

Drilling down a bit further, the table below presents the information in another manner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The exercise of creating this Nutrition Summary document has caused me to abandon some foods and try new foods instead. For example, I noticed that egg whites have significantly more protein per calorie than regular eggs. Thus, by eating egg whites instead of regular eggs, I could get a similar amount of protein for a fraction of the calories. These newfound calories free me up to eat more food.

 

Part 3: Additional Info on Macronutrients

 

-Protein: You want to buy protein that has whey isolate as the first ingredient (instead of whey concentrate) and only has around 5 calories per gram of protein if possible. Cheaper proteins will have a bunch of filler junk that drives the calorie count up without contributing corresponding grams of protein. This just makes it harder to manage your diet. 

 

-Fat: In the typical American diet, roughly 34%-40% of a person's calories come from fat (because it tastes good). There are three main types of fats: saturated, unsaturated, and trans fatty acids.

           -Unsaturated Fats: When eaten in moderation, help lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease. Fish (trout, salmon, catfish), walnuts, olive oil, and other plant foods provide a good source of unsaturated fats.

           -Saturated Fats: Saturated fats should be eaten sparingly as they raise cholesterol, increase the risk of heart disease, and clog arteries. These fats should be kept to 7% of your total calorie intake.

           -Trans Fatty Acids: Trans fatty acids (anything hydogenated) increase the levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and decrease the levels of good cholesterol (HDL).

 

For more info, read: http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/understanding-carbohydrates/types-of-carbohydrates.html

 

-Carbohydrates: We hear so much about carbohydrates but what are they? According to Google, carbohydrates are "any of a large group of organic compounds occuring in foods and living tissues and including sugars, starches, and cellulose (fiber). They contain hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as water (2:1) and can typically be broken down to release energy in the animal body." Foods that are high in carbs are also referred to simply as "carbs" in colloquial terms. In some fad diets, carbs are to be avoided at all cost. Doing so deprives the body of critical vitamins and nutrients and saps the body of energy during exercise. Thus, getting carbs from the right sources is extremely important. Vegetables and fruit contain a lot of carbohydrates (primarily in the form of fiber and naturally-occuring sugars) as well as vitamins and nutrients. Foods such as pasta, white bread, and candy, on the other hand, are full of carbs but without the same vitamins and nutrients. An excellent source for further reading is: http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/understanding-carbohydrates/types-of-carbohydrates.html.

 

 

Part 3: Interesting Articles

 

What really causes fat and heart disease? http://www.tunedbody.com/heart-surgeon-declares-really-causes-heart-illness

 

What causes cancer and how can I avoid it? http://premaseem.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/how-to-avoid-cancer/