KickAssLifeStyle.com » Nutrition Tips

Are You On A Diet – That Doesn’t Make Any Sense!

Curt Nelson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:15:36 +0000

Here is what a DIET really is and how we feel when we go on them. Which is why they don’t work! We feel like were DIEing.

Depressed
Insecurity
Emotional
Trauma

To me a Diet is something that we think we have to struggle with in order to look good. Restrict eating certain foods all the time and only sticking to the plan. Trying to stick to a “hardcore diet” for 8 weeks, 12 weeks, is the surest way to failure.

What happens when you go off the diet, you’ll go right back where you started. This article is meant for anyone struggling and thinking they have to find and stick to a “hardcore diet”, I’m here to tell you that’s complete B.S.

I’m not just talking to fat people either. I’m talking to anyone who wants a fit body.

Diets are short term and cannot be handled long term. They create more harm than good. Depending on what type of diet your on….

Most people think they have to go on a diet to lose weight… this is only partially true! Yet its still yet all WRONG!

If your eating right in the first place you don’t need to go on a DIET, you just need to adjust your calories to lose weight. That and working out with high intensity.

DIETS piss me off for multiple reasons:

It shows that the person is thinking “short term”
It assumes we must be eating crap the rest of the time
They make us go insane…
Hard to be consistent
We think will power is going to help us…
We finally crack and can’t handle it and give up the diet for good

Arrrgggghhhh…. I have to go on a diet. Bullshit!

A diet is a “diet”, but the diet you should be on isn’t really a diet its the way you should be eating in the first place. Does that make sense…?

What am I talking about?

Unless your a really specific and special “health case”, you don’t need to be on any of these crap diets:

Atkins Diet
South Beach Diet
The Bible Diet
Protein Power Diet
Richard Simmons Diet
Nutrisystem Diet
The Zone Diet
Weight Watchers Diet
Medifast 1 Diet
Special K Diet
Jenny Craig Diet
100 Calorie Diet
Acai Berry Diet
Food Pyramid Diet

Yes we now live in a society where we have food shipped to us because were to lazy to prepare our own fresh food.

What Should I Eat Today – All you have to do is eat whole foods:

Meats
Vegetables
Fruits
Nuts and Seeds
Minimize Sugar Intake
Try to eat low glycemic foods most of the time (5-6 days out of the week)
Install a cheat day once a week
Eat calories according to a metabolic rate calculator

I use to be 180 lbs at 6 ‘ (currently I’m 165 lbs testing an experiment). So, to maintain my current weight at 180 lbs, I need roughly 2,700 calories per day. Now if I wanted to lose weight I would go on a 500 calorie deficit. To gain weight I would increase calories by 500.

The only thing that even resembles close to anything of a diet for me is the Blood Type Diet. While I don’t always follow it 100%, I use it as a guide.

What are the common foods that I eat:

Ezekiel Breads
Fruits – Apple, Lemons, Oranges, Pears, Bananas and Berries
Greens – lots of Spinach
Eggs
1% Cottage Cheese
Cheese
Brown Cow Raspberry and Vanilla Yogurt
Lean Meats – sometimes Chicken
Long Grain Brown Rice
Bobs Red Mill – Brown Rice Farina – Creamy Rice Hot Cereal
Regular Oatmeal and Steel Cut Oats ( take too long to cook)
Almonds, Pecans, and Walnuts
Navy Beans and Red Beans
Rice Cakes
Pamela’s Pancake Mix – Occasionally have pancakes
I have very little of juices, when I do I add at least 50% water to it
Drink tea from time to time, Licorice Tea and Echinacea (CHENCH-NEA)
Junk food I eat maybe once a week, pizza of course, chocolate, chips and ice-cream
Also stopped drinking MILK
I Never eat fast food, if I do its Subway
I Never drink pop
I Don’t eat or drink anything with high fructose corn syrup
Never really eat much stuff that’s in a box or packaged

Now, that doesn’t seem like a DIET, does it…? I eat pretty much anything I want, within reason. I never really have cravings for certain junk foods all the time, OK maybe chocolate sometimes.

So eliminate all those crap diets, you don’t need them. Maybe only unless you have a “special health case”. Their created strictly for the creator of the diet to make money, and brainwash people.

If you have any questions about Diets please leave your comments. If your on a specific diet, I’d be interested in hearing about it and how its going for you…

Want 6 Pack Abs or A Flat Stomach…? The 3 Things You Must Consistently Do To Get Them

Curt Nelson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:39:04 +0000

Ditch all the informercial products, they’re worthless.

The Bender Ball
Ab Circle Pro
The Belly Burner
Ab Scissors
Ab Zone
Abdoer Twist

Contour Core
Ab Rocket
Ab Flyer
Slendertone
Ab Chair Elite

None of these products will EVER get you a 6 pack! Let me rephrase this… The reason these products won’t get you a flat stomach is because the people that want to buy them want a quick fix. Don’t be the person who wants that “quick fix”. In reality, getting a flat stomach is roughly 80% diet and 20% on your workouts. And of your workouts, the ab specific exercises you do, probably only add up to 5% of the results. So if a person bought these products and did no other changes they’d have roughly a 5% better chance at developing a flatter stomach.

If you want a flat stomach or a 6 pack, just focus on these three main things:

What and When You Eat & Drink
How and When You Workout
Core and Ab Exercises
Supplements (not really needed)

Notice that core and ab exercises are last on the list.

Getting a six pack is all about burning fat. The only reason you can’t see your abs is because of the layer of fat on your stomach. So, to see your abs you need to burn fat. Hoping and praying the lastest ab contraption or the latest ab exercises are going to work is beyond stupid!

Why is this…

You don’t burn much fat when your doing ab exercises while lieing on the floor. How much intensity does it take to do a crunch… or working out on an ab contraption.

Slow and steady boring cardio or “aerobic” activity is NOT the way to go either. I’ll probably piss some people off here but running long distances ( 2 miles or more) isn’t how to lose fat or get a flat stomach either.

What and When You Eat & Drink

1. Eat 4-6 meals a day every 3-4 hours – This is the opposite of what people usually do when their trying to lose weight. Usually people who try to lose weight think eating less will help them. It does the exact opposite. Your body goes into starvation mode and will conserve your fat for energy.

When you eat every three to four hours it actually raises your metabolism which burns more fat. Since your eating regularly you brain says, oh were getting more food coming in constantly so we don’t need to hold onto this fat.

2. Eat whole food carbs that are primarily low glycemic – The only time high glycemic is ok is after a workout. Its ok to eat healthy fats and proteins. Eat proteins and fats with your carbs, it slows down digestion, and lowers and steadies your blood sugar.

Good low glycemic whole foods are any fruit or vegetables, beans, whole unrefined sprouted grains, sweet potatoes, grass fed beef, turkey, eggs, 1% cottage cheese, whole raw milk (hard to find real milk). This isn’t a whole list but gives you some examples. You only want to eat rice after a workout, otherwise stay away from it if you want 6 pack abs.

3. Bring your daily caloric intake below your maintenance level for a period of time - Your caloric maintenance level is the amount of calories needed to stay at your current weight. The weight you want to be at with ripped abs is how you determine this. Do you need to lose 20 lbs. first…?

Lets say your 6′ at 210 lbs. and consuming 3,100 calories a day but want to be 190 lbs. with abs. Search for “metabolic rate calculator” to determine calories needed to eat for 190 lbs. Your caloric maintenance level, is around 2,800 at 190 lbs.

So, you would start eating 2,600 calories (3,100 – 500) until you lost around 10 lbs. and then adjust your calories to get abs at 190 lbs. which is 2,300 (2,800 – 500). You don’t start skipping 1,000 calories a day right away because you would be dieting excessively then and start losing lean muscle mass. We don’t want that!

The more muscle mass you lose through excessive dieting, the lower your RMR ( Resting Metabolic Rate) will go, which we don’t want. You basically need to create a 3,500 a week calorie deficit to lose 1 pound.

So if you drop 500 calories from your maintenance level ( what your eating now) this will do it. The real key is that your not really dieting. Your eating whole foods in every food group. Your only restrictions are calorie amount, and high glycemic carbs.

4. Have a cheat day – By eating less calories, you body starts to think your starving and reacts by lowering your metabolic rate and increasing your appetite caused by the hormone leptin. To keep your leptin levels at normal its beneficial to have a cheat day where you can eat almost anything you want on that day.

Still avoid sodas, fast food, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, etc.. Believe it or not, having this one cheat day a week speeds up your RMR, helping with fat loss by eating almost anything, and also helps with the leptin appetite problem of ALWAYS wanting to eat.

5. Drink Specific Teas – Drink oolong, green, and white teas with cayenne pepper and a little lemon.

6. Avoid Soy Products – They have an estrogenic effect on your body.

7. What’s your blood type – My blood type is B+. Depending on your blood type, eating certain things can hamper your metabolic rate and efficiency, or slow the metabolic process, causing food to be stored as fat and not burned as energy.

Foods that cause this for me are: Corn, Lentils, Peanuts, Sesame Seeds, Buckwheat, and Wheat. So guess what, if I ate those foods it would be harder for me to burn fat. Get a copy of Eat Right for Your Blood Type and see which foods may be slowing down your metabolic rate.

Foods that encourage weight loss for me are: Green Vegetables, Meat, Liver, and Eggs/Dairy Products.

8. Drink a green drink or have greens with every meal you eat - This puts your body in more of an Akaline state. Your body gets in an acid state from eating too many carbs, eating sugary foods, drinking sugary foods, and eating more meat.

You see, most people can’t lose weight because their bodies are Acid based. The body retains fluids and holds enough fat to protect yourself from acid in the body.

You can get some brocolli, celery, spinach, red chard, bok choi, cucumber, collard greens ( don’t need all these greens), apple, lemon and cup of water. You don’t need a juicer. Put it all in a blender for good 2 minutes. If its too thick add more water and blend again.

Try to have a shake like this as much as you can, preferably once a day. You can also add some protein mix, and a few more things to make it a full meal.

The Super Breakfast Shake – 1 oz square of dark chocolate or raw honey, 1 egg, 1 cup of blueberries or any berry, apple, 4-8 ounces of water, your greens, scoop of protein mix, 5 g. glutamine, and blend.

How and When You Workout

1. Workout 3-4 times a week - Do not use machines and do leg extensions. You want full body functional movement exercises that will take tons of energy to do and therefore burn more fat.

Focus on Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts, Cleans, Clean & Press, Dips, Pullups, Pushups, One Arm Snatches, etc..

If your a complete beginner you may want to start with bodyweight exercises or get a trainer. You’ll have less chance of injury and still get all the benefits. You can increase the intensity with bodyweight training by not resting, increasing reps, different angles for more resistance, and rep speed. Its like doing a crossfit workout.

Heres Your Formula: Work = Force x Distance.

The more weight you move in an exercise and how far you move it determines the intensity of your workout. Focus on exercises you can move more weight for increased distances. This does not mean you can’t get a great workout without weights.

Bodyweight Training can be applied the same way as weight training.

The reason you workout like this is so your metabolism will go up and burning fat for up to 48 hours after a workout.

2. All you need is about 10 minutes for an Ab and core workout – You can’t spot reduce fat. You can’t get rid of the fat on your belly while the rest of your body remains the same. You have to reduce fat levels for the whole body. That’s why you focus on functional compound exercises that require lots of energy and burn fat.

3. Change your workouts consistently – Don’t keep doing the same thing. This means every time you lift. If your a beginner or getting back into shape its ok to stick with the same workouts for 4 weeks, then start changing things up.

You can mix your workouts from interval bodyweight exercises, free weight training, strongman training, interval training do sprints, interval swimming, interval mountain biking, lots of different stuff to chose from.

For more ideas on this read our post How To Work Out Effectively.

4. A simple program you could set up could be 2 days of weight training and 2 days of interval training. Or 3 days of weight training and 2 days of interval training. Or do 3 days of weight training and do interval training after your weight training.

5. If your a beginner to weight training or body weight training take the time to learn how to do the exercises correctly. Get a trainer, watch videos on how to do the exercises, like these videos here. I don’t endorse doing body building exercises but they have videos that can show you how to do the exercise. You can also buy programs with step by step instructions specific to the type of training your seeking.

Ab & Core Exercises to Focus On

You should do your ab training 3-4 times a week at the end of all your workouts. All it needs to take is about 10 minutes or less. Below are some of the best exercises for abs. You don’t have to do all of these. Just pick 3-4 exercises and do 2-3 sets and your good.

Ab Wheel Rollout
All Plank variations including Moving Planks
Hanging Leg or Knee Raises
Decline Reverse Crunches
Bicycle Crunches
Lying Leg thrusts
Scissors
Weighted Cable Crunches

Most men should be ok at 10% bodyfat, women at 14%. You can still get a glimpse of abs or have really decent abs at 10%. Just depends on your genetics and body structure. Getting down to 6%-7% bodyfat is for Fitness Models and Bodybuilders.

It doesn’t really make Functional sense, especially if your an adventurer or an all around athlete. You need a little fat on ya!

One of the best resources I’ve seen on how to get a flat stomach or well defined abs is the Truth About Abs Ebook, its been on the internet forever and the guy that created it actually knows what he’s talking about . It covers everything more in depth than I did in this article and gives specific advice on how to eat and specific types of workouts you should be doing.

Are you asking yourself this question. I don’t really want to lose weight, I want to learn how to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. If this is you, then read this article.

If you have any questions about this article please leave me a comment below.