CategoriesNutrition

Losing Fat and Building Muscle With a Simple Lifestyle Diet

Note from TG: Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Ohio based personal trainer, Collin Messer. Collin wrote an interesting guest post a few weeks ago HERE, and afterwards proposed a post on how to help people develop a simple lifestyle diet. I like simple. Simple works. Enjoy.

As the saying goes, the best diet is the one that you stick to. Some people have the capacity to stick to intense or complex diets and they get great results. But that’s not me. I prefer a nice lifestyle kind of diet that I can just tweak here and there to burn some fat or grow some muscle.

Usually my clients resonate with this too after they’ve wrecked their metabolism doing all kinds of crazy diets and detoxes. This led me to take the most simple approach I could. I start with a general foundation, then make small adjustments as I go depending on the client.

This is how you do it…

The Foundation

First I start with a simple foundation that all my clients can adhere too pretty well. There are five rules that I have found to be fairly painless for most people to follow.

  1. Eat well 90% of the time and don’t worry about the other 10%.
  2. Eat 2-3 meals per day.
  3. The majority of your diet should be lean meats and vegetables with occasional intake of fruits and carb sources like white rice, quinoa, or oats.
  4. Avoid processed foods, food products, and sugar as best as possible.
  5. Try to only drink water, tea, or coffee.

Usually when I give new clients these foundational principles they drop a few pounds of water weight and lose some of the bloating they didn’t even realize was there. I’ll have people build good habits and focus only on these rules for 1-2 weeks before doing anything else.

One thing to notice here is that I didn’t give any recommendation on calorie intake. I have found that by cleaning up the food choices people tend to eat in normal amounts and their body adjusts to a healthier lifestyle.

 

Building Upon The Foundation

After I establish a solid foundation with the client then I’ll start to build upon it and tweak things depending on the person’s goals, habits, and lifestyle. There are a lot of things you could do from here but I have a few adjustments I routinely make.

Note that I only add one or two adjustments at a time and it always depends on the client. Not every option is good for everyone, use your own judgement and you’ll do just fine.

Intermittent Fasting For Fat Loss

If the client is focusing on fat loss then I like to work in some intermittent fasting. I really like the 16/8 model found at LeanGains.com. It’s essentially a 16 hour fast followed by an 8 hour eating window. The easiest way to do this is to just skip breakfast and have your first meal at a your regular lunch time. So you would have a normal lunch, a normal dinner, and a meal or snack in between as necessary.

At this point I still don’t tell clients to try and eat less. For most people, the “diet” part is the fast in the morning. If you try to lower calories and skip breakfast then you’re probably going to be drastically undereating and clinging to that body fat for dear life.

Note From TG: for more information on Intermittent Fasting, I’d highly recommend checking out THIS resource by the peeps over at Precision Nutrition. Easily one of the best resources I’ve ever come across on the topic. It doesn’t make your head hurt with big words and it’s free. So there’s that.

Carb Back Loading For Fat Loss

Some people just don’t like skipping breakfast. It gives them a reason to get out of bed and not hate the early morning life. And that’s just fine because I can work with that. My go to solution here is back loading the carbs to later in the day.

By shifting the carbs later in the day you body will stay more sensitive to insulin for a longer period of time (one of the goals of intermittent fasting). Depending on the person and their lifestyle then I’ll have them eat their first carbs at lunch, post workout, or dinner. So, they’re eating breakfast but still taking advantage of the low levels of insulin that the.

My go to breakfast option that won’t spike insulin is a few eggs with a fatty meat like bacon or sausage. Top this off with some black coffee and you’ll be good to go.

IF or Carb Back Loading For Muscle Gain

While these strategies are great for fat loss you can definitely use them for muscle gain. I’m currently using the 16/8 IF strategy to build muscle myself. The main difference is to make sure you’re eating above maintenance on the calories. So if you can’t fit in all of you calories in 2-3 meals in an 8 hour window then this isn’t the method for you.

The reason why I skip breakfast even though I’m building muscle is because I feel it helps me stay leaner while still building muscle. More muscle with less fat is always a good goal. Plus it fits my lifestyle well as I feel very clear headed and focused in the morning, so I get a lot of writing and programming done.

Refeed Meals

With the foundation I laid out, it would be easy to find yourself eating a pretty low carb diet (less than 100g carbs per day). Though that’s not exactly the point of the foundation, it usually benefits people to reduce their carb intake a bit.

After the initial 1-2 week adjustment period, if the person seems to be continually eating lower amounts of carbs then I usually advise to up their carb intake at dinner. A sweet potato or some extra rice will work well here. If they have hit a fat loss plateau then we’ll usually break through it again.

This works well for some people, but not everyone. They either think they’re upping their carbs when they really aren’t, or they just still need more. This is where the gift of a refeed meal comes in. For one dinner, I want them to significantly ramp up carbs and whatever sugary dessert they want.

The refeed is going to really help kickstart more fat loss and provide more energy. Plus it’s always a great mental break for them to enjoy their favorite dessert again.

Be careful with these though. The refeed doesn’t mean you can go on a weekend binge fest while watching the entire Lord of The Rings trilogy in one sitting. Usually just having a big bowl of ice cream at dinner is going to work well.

Putting It All Together

There you have it folks, this is the template for building a successful lifestyle diet. You start with the foundation and then adjust it as you go to maintain steady progress towards your goal. Once you reach your goal, its as simple as adjusting your calorie intake to maintenance level and you’re good to go.

Sometimes the most simple things are the most effective.

About the Author

Collin Messer is a Personal Trainer at MesserFit Strength and Conditioning in Lebanon, OH. He primarily works with younger athletes and weekend warriors. When he’s not crushing deadlifts or back bends he’s writing at CollinMesser.com about all things life and fitness.

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Basics: Get Some

As you might surmise, as a strength and conditioning coach (and personal trainer), I’m a huge fan of teaching people the basics.  Really, though, when you think about it, the basics are a great place to start when learning just about anything.

A common theme is that you need to learn how to walk before you can run. This makes perfect sense and it’s something that everyone can vouch for because, well, we’ve all done it. Likewise, when learning to ride a bike, the general progression is to slap on a pair of training wheels, and once you’re comfortable with that, you take them off, fall a few hundred times, and before long you’re jumping puddles like a champ.

I could sit here and come up with a dozen scenarios: learning a new language, how to hit a baseball 400 feet, how to make a meatloaf that doesn’t taste like death, building an atomic bomb, or even learning how to unclasp your first bra (which, as a dude, is arguably the hardest thing ever…..DAMMIT, it won’t come off!!!  Ahhhhhhhh!!!)

The point is: whether it’s something as trivial as learning your multiplication tables or something as complex as figuring out which fork you’re supposed to use to eat your salad at a fancy restaurant, you have to start somewhere.  You have to learn the basics first.  You have to learn to walk before you can run.

The thing is, when it comes to our health and well-being, most people don’t want to learn how to walk.  They want to sprint on day one.

Take for example a recent email I received from a new distance coaching client of mine asking me about intermittent fasting (IF).

Back tracking a little bit: this is a client who’s admittedly told me that he eats like sh*t, and that he’s tried just about every diet out there with little to no results to show for it. H

Given the high popularity of IF at the moment, he was curious. Now, I have nothing against intermittent fasting – it’s something I’ve experimented with myself and there’s obviously a lot of sound science and research backing its efficacy.

But, again, it’s analogous to sprinting. My man is CRUSHING Pop-Tarts every afternoon as a snack. Looking at this from my perspective, he’s not even walking yet….he’s still learning how to crawl. Why the hell are we even talking about intermittent fasting?

I understand that we live in a “I want it NOW” society, and that we’re obsessed with quick fixes…but why is it so hard for people to step away from the stupid?

In light of this, and despite the groaning, I’m taking a “learn the basics” approach with him. I’m demonstrating to him that drinking more water is kind of important, and that it’s okay to eat the yolk of an egg. In addition, he’s learning to make protein shakes with fruit as an afternoon snack (in place of the Pop-Tarts), and that kale is the shiznit.

Equally as important, with his training, we’ve had to take a step (or two) back.  We’ve had to overhaul his squatting pattern, teach him how to perform a push-up correctly, and we’ve also introduced him to the wonderful world of foam rolling.  He hates it, of course, but whatever….he needs to learn the basics.

It’s not sexy by any means, and it’s certainly not exciting. But, stroking my ego a little bit, I can almost guarantee that he’s going to see marked progress in the upcoming weeks and months.

Start with the basics.  Master them.  And good things will happen.

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Fat Loss Forever

Back in the winter of 2009, having nothing better to do than pick the worst time of year to get lean (not many people see your six pack when it’s 15 degrees outside), I took it upon myself to do a little experiment which I appropriately called Tony Gets Sexified.

I’m not going to go into the details here, but little did I know at the time I had inadvertently used a form of intermittent fasting (IF) to help expedite the fat loss process.

You see, at several points throughout the week I’d have “windows” where I’d eat very little which, from a hormonal standpoint, allowed my body to become a fat burning ass kicking machine.

I’d train. Hate life. Fuel my body.  And then repeat the process, giving myself a “cheat” meal on the weekends.

My cheat meal, contrary to most who dream of endless mountains of ice-cream and all-you-can-eat pizza buffets, consisted of 2 lbs of BBQ steak tips, with homemade sweet potato fries and a shit ton of broccoli.  Exciting, I know.

Anyways, it worked. I took my body fat from a fairly consistent 10% year round, to 7-8% in a matter of six weeks, which ain’t too shabby given my starting point.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m NOT an expert on intermittent fasting. The fact that I wasn’t even aware that I had done a pseudo IF experiment on myself back in day should make that abundantly clear.

Still, in the few years since, IF has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of its popularity, and with that in mind, you’d be hard pressed to peruse any fitness blog or website and not see it mentioned in some fashion.

Which is why, today, I’m pleased to introduce John Romaniello’s latest product Fat Loss Forever.

Roman – as he’s more appropriately referred to – has gone out of his way to provide an outstanding product that not only educates, but entertains as well. It edutains!

When was the last time you were told breakfast was NOT the most important meal of the day?

Yeah, that one hurt me too. I heart breakfast. But when you think about it:  our ancestors had to chase down, wrestle, kill, butcher, and cook various small (and large) animals.  They didn’t eat breakfast everyday, and they turned out alright.

Moreover, what’s the deal with ALWAYS being told that you HAVE to eat 5-6 meals per day in order to keep your metabolism up?

Guess what: doing so may be making you fatter.

Fat Loss Forever goes against conventional wisdom, and helps introduce the concept of intermittent fasting in way that’s easy to understand and easy to implement.  But be forewarned: IT IS NOT easy.

You’ll have to do some work along the way.

With that said, Roman was kind enough to answer a few questions I sent his way, so feel free to read the interview below which sheds some light on this very popular topic.

Enjoy!

*** Oh, and since I know a fair share of you won’t make it all the way to the end, on top of the already stellar bonuses that Roman is offering, anyone who purchases Fat Loss Forever from this site and sends a copy of their receipt to my email address – [email protected] – I’ll send you a TG written, Roman approved, FLF strength-based program that will increase your overall level of badassery by at least 156%.

On to the interview!

TG: Roman you’re an NYC native, and I currently live in Boston (and yes, am completely immersed in the sports scene here). The Giants just beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl (again…FML).  This is your chance to gloat. 100 words or less. Go.

John Romaniello:  Ha! No gloating here—was actually rooting for the Pats. As a Jets fan, that’s heretical…but honestly, the last thing I wanted to deal with was Giants fans with an inflated Big Brother complex.

On to next year!

TG:  My apologies. I just assumed everyone in NYC was a Giants fan.  Lets get down to business: If there was ever an app listing what’s “trending” in the fitness industry, intermittent fasting (IF) would be right up there along with LOLz Bosu Ball Fails

Note to Reader:  LOLz BOSU Ball Fails doesn’t exist, but it should.

 1.  Can you provide a Cliff Notes version explaining the premise behind IF?

and

2. Why do you feel it’s gained so much popularity in such a short amount of time? 

Roman: It certainly does seem to be trending.

The premise is simple: IF is essentially alternating structured, pre-determined periods of “not-eating” with periods where you’re allowed to eat.

There are a lot of different styles of IF, the differences between each essentially being the length of the feeding and fasting periods.

IF has a number of benefits, ranging from practical (caloric restriction becomes easy when you are only allowed to eat for a few hours each day) to more physiological (hormonal benefits, including increased secretion of GH).

Each “type” of fasting will allow for each of these, some more than others—but all of them work.

As to why it’s popular recently, that’s simple: once I started talking about it, it became cool 😉

Okay, that’s not true…I can’t back that up.

The real reason it’s reached a tipping point as a result of a few factors: the first is that the research just kept backing it up; that’s a big thing.

More than anything else, it’s really that the “fasting guys” caught the attention of the rest of the industry, and finally forced us to see the truth.

A good example is Brad Pilon, who has been preaching the benefits of fasting for many years.

More recently, Martin Berkhan has been the head of the movement—his clients get incredible results, and Martin isn’t exactly what you’d call a quiet guy; he’s very vocal about his opinions and that he believes his way is the best.

Guys like these catch the attention of magazines with big numbers of followers, and then it just cascades.  We owe those dudes a lot.

TG: Indeed – while they’re not necessarily the pioneers, those two have definitely brought the concept of IF to the forefront.

That said, I know some people reading right now may be under the impression that IF is too radical and that it couldn’t possibly fit into their current lifestyle. What would you say to them?  What are the benefits?  Negatives?  Will it increase their general level of awesomeness?

Roman: I would just say to try it.  Read the research.  Give it a shot.  You really don’t have anything to lose, other than whatever emotional attachment to your particular set of beliefs you have.

The benefits are clear: hormonal optimization, increased satiety.  More than that, you will start to see the difference between “head hunger” and “body hunger” – that is, you’ll realize when you’re actually hungry and stop snacking out of boredom.

The drawbacks are that you might try something new.  This scares the shit out of some people.

Another drawback is that you might be uncomfortable for a little while. Yup. Fasting has the potential to be mildly uncomfortable. This is different from sprinting, deadlifting, squatting, and dieting in general, all of which are incredibly pleasant, right?

TG:  Very true. It’s very similar to a phrase I like to throw out there when people question doing something different to they’re unfamiliar with: 

If you continue doing what you’ve always done, you’ll continue getting what you’ve always gotten.

Pigging back on the question above, can you explain what IF isn’t?  Meaning, people are going to see the word “fast” and automatically assume that it’s a starvation method.  Could you elucidate on this fallacy, as well as any other common misconceptions that you’ve come across?

Roman: Ah, that’s a good one.  Mainly, fasting isn’t starving, because, at the end of the day, you’re still going to get roughly the same number of calories you would on any fat loss plan – just all at once.

Let’s say you maintain at 2400 calories, and you’re dieting; maybe you want to take in 1900 calories per day.

In a traditional dieting model, you might have six meals, each with about 320 calories.  You might be hungry after each one.

With IF, you’ll have three meals, each with ~630 calories. You’ll be fuller, longer, and possibly eat less.

You’re eating the same amount of food, just in less time—the extended fasting period giving you more time to be active and productive, as well as the hormonal benefits.

TG:  Well that makes a whole lotta sense.  Sweet!

So, now that you’ve thrown yourself onto the IF train, what makes Fat Loss Forever different from the various predecessors?

Note:  I only ask this because you know you’re going to get some a-hole who’s a Berkhan or Pilon fanboy (and rightfully so) getting his panties all up in a bunch

Roman: Haha, well, far be it from me to deny the right of a fanboy to hate me for impugning the honor of his guru =)

Here’s the deal: again, all credit to Pilon and Berkhan. I’m fans of their stuff. Which is the lead-in to this answer:

My stuff isn’t radically “different” from their stuff because it’s inspired by their stuff—HOWEVER…

It’s different BECAUSE of that as well.

My program takes a look at all of the best and most effective forms of fasting around, and, after much experimentation, creates a synthesis of all of these things.  It takes the best and makes them better.

FLF is the Frankenstein’s monster of fasting—it’s made up of the parts of other programs, and, in the end, is something that is both exceptionally effective and unique to me.

It’s a lot of fun, and Pilon is promoting, so I’d say we’re pretty solid in that regard.

TG: I’d say so!  Lastly, how “adaptable” is it?  For example, there are people on this site who spend a large portion of their day staring at a computer screen and are lucky to get three hours per week to train.  On the flip side, you have those, like me, who are on their feet for a large portion of the day, coaching. How easily can IF, and specifically, FLF, be implemented?

Roman: That’s that best part—all forms of IF are highly adjustable.  FLF is even MORE so.  All you need to do is NOT EAT…then eat.

The program works well for guys like us, who make our own schedules—but also for people whose time is less their own.  We’ve had firefighters and nurses who work 36-hour shifts have success, as well as entrepreneurs and other trainers.

It’s the most moldable nutritional protocol around; certainly moreseo than those that make you eat every few hours.

Plus, you get a cheat day…so right there, you know it’s awesome.

TG: Okay I lied, one last question: How is training “adjusted” when following the FLF protocol?  I know many reading may balk at the idea of training on an empty stomach, or with very little calories in the tank.

Roman: This is pretty individual.  Personally, I like to train in a fasted state.  But—and you’ve known this about me for years—that’s because training with a full tummy makes me get all…pukey.

I have trained truly empty, though; as in, haven’t eaten for 50 hours.

Anyway, this isn’t about me, it’s about other people—and my clients are mixed.  Some love the fasted training. Some find that some BCAAs are enough to give them the energy and have a great training session.

Others seem unwilling to break away from old ideas and just have a snack before training.  And that’s fine.

As long as you follow the bigger rules, eating 30 minutes before your workout won’t derail you =)

TG:  Thanks Roman!  Jets suck!

And there you have it folks. For more information, and to save $50 off the regular price (not to mention having access to a bunch of sweet bonuses), I highly encourage you to check out Fat Loss Forever HERE.

And remember, if you send your receipt to my email address (see above), I’ll send your my special 2-day per week strength-based program that I wrote specifically for this program!!

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 1/26/12

If there was ever a feature on which topics were currently “trending” on all of the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of health and fitness blogs out on the interwebz, I’m sure Intermittent Fasting would be right up there on that list.

The topic, it seems, is like catnip lately.

I’m not even going to attempt to explain what it is (what?  No breakfast!!? No.  Noooooo), who it’s for (I’ll tell you who it’s NOT for.  Guys who weigh 150 lbs soaking wet, trying to look like Brad Pitt from Fight Club), or whether or not I feel it’s beneficial (sure, it has its moments).  What I am going to do, however, is point you in the direction of someone who can break it down, as it’s a rather complicated (and just a tad bit controversial) topic that many people need to be more well informed about.

The 5 Diet Rules You Must Break – John Romaniello

I had mentioned this FREE report earlier in the week, but felt it got lost in the shuffle, so I wanted to give it a little love here where more people would have access to it. Many of you who read this blog are very familiar with John and his work, so it’s not like I’m coming out of left field here when I say I’m a fan.

And since intermittent fasting is such a hot topic as of late, I figured if you’re going to read about it, you might as well get your information from someone who’s hella smart, knows the science behind it, has actually done it himself (and coached numerous people through it), and is a Lord of the Rings nerd, which obviously has nothing to do with anything.

Did I mention it’s free? (it’s free).

What I’m Thankful For in 2011 – Matt Kramer

For those who like a “feel good” story, this one is right up your alley.  Matt, pictured above with his guitar and mullhawk (half mullet, half mohawk), is in his fourth off-season with us at Cressey Performance, starting as a catching prospect for the Atlanta Braves, getting released, then interning with us, then working his way back with the Boston Red Sox as pitching prospect.

A Harvard graduate, Matt’s wicked smaht and a hell of a writer, and better still, just an awesome human being.

What a Rejected Article Looks Like, and Why Your Thoracic Extensions and Hip Flexor Stretches Are Wrong – Anthony Mychal

I just started reading some of Anthony’s stuff over on t-nation.com recently, and as it happened, I also started perusing his blog because I’m a stalker like that. I came across this post, and felt it was applicable to many people reading given you’re all stiffer than a 2×4 anyways. Needless to say, I think Anthony has a lot of great things to say, and I think many of you will appreciate his style given it’s very similar to mine.