PROTEIN ~ YOUR KEY TO NUTRITIONAL SUCCESS!

PROTEIN ~ YOUR KEY TO NUTRITIONAL SUCCESS! -by Mike French

One of the biggest mistakes many people make is that they don't pay attention to their muscle building nutrition with the same detail, desire and determination with which they pay attention to their weight training program.

If you neglect (or ignore completely) one or the other, whether it be your training or your nutrition, your results will only be a fraction of what they could be!

Look, you work extremely hard on your workouts. Don't screw it up by neglecting to be as dedicated to your nutrition program.

So let's talk about the importance of nutrition.
The truth is, no one will ever gain muscle without food. Nutrition for building muscle is simply a matter of eating. But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to learn.

The Best Muscle Building Supplement

So here's the question every dedicated Fitness enthusiast wants to know.

What's the best muscle building supplement available today?

You might not like the answer. It's not sexy, it's not new, but it works.

Your number one supplement should be a high quality protein powder.

I know you probably already know this. But it's worth repeating because I get a ton of questions from people wanting to know what is the best new miracle supplement they can buy. And they aren't getting enough quality protein.

Before buying any other supplements, make sure you are always taking in a high quality protein powder.

If you want to make outstanding muscle building progress, you must put together a solid weight training program, train with a high level of intensity, add poundage to your exercises as often as possible, eat six high protein meals every day, and make sure recovering from your workouts so that your muscles have time to grow.

Protein powders make it extremely easy and convenient to eat six meals a day and to get enough quality protein into your body.

Using protein shakes will make it easier for you to consume enough calories and protein each day, as well as making it much more convenient to have 6 meals a day. Who has time to prepare six meals a day? Not anybody I know, that's for sure.

You may need to add or subtract ingredients based on individual taste preferences and number of calories needed.

When I was younger, more active, and had a metabolism like a furnace, I needed all the quality muscle building calories I could get. And protein shakes like this were the only way to get them.

You should eat every 2 or 3 hours.
When you have your post-workout muscle building protein shake, throw in a serving of creatine as well.

High quality protein, aka, "the real muscle building supplement" should be the center point of all your meals.

Intense exercise increases demand for protein, which support muscle repair and growth.
When you train with weights and you're looking to pack on pounds of quality muscle, you should try to eat a minimum of 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. If you weight 150 pounds, try and take in at least 150 grams of protein each and every day.

You don't have to have carbs or fat at every meal, but you must have protein. When I say protein, I am referring to high quality protein derived from animal sources.

For getting more fit and stronger, the only protein you need to be concerned with are those found in whey, casein (cottage cheese), eggs, beef, poultry, and fish.

Throw in a high quality creatine product and you are good to go. Stick with the dual muscle building protein/creatine stack for awesome muscle/Fitness gains.

A crucial time to get a lot of high quality protein is right after your intense weight training session.

One thing I've found that has helped my progress is to add a few more calories than I normally would and then drink part of the smoothie right before my workout, or even sip some of it during my workout so my muscles are constantly getting the nutrients they need, both to power my workout and to recover from it.

If you want to push your muscle/Fitness results forward and do it as fast as possible, you have to get your protein. There is no excuse to skimp in this area. You need plenty of protein. Nowadays, most protein powders taste great and many are pretty inexpensive when compared to food.

Mix your protein powder in Soy/Skim milk or water. Why? Quick muscle building!

The Importance of Post Workout Supplementation

I cannot overstate the vital importance of the post workout meal, or more specifically, the post workout drink.

You see, after a hard training session, your body is primed and ready to absorb all the nutrients it needs to help your body begin recovering from the muscle breakdown that has occurred during your training session.

Why a drink? Because your body is craving nutrients immediately following a hard training session and it needs them quickly. Your body will digest the nutrients in liquid form much more quickly than a solid fool meal.

During this time your body is ready, willing and able to quickly and completely absorb the protein that it needs. This will help to optimize protein synthesis, leading to a positive nitrogen balance, gains in muscle and strength, and the loss of body fat.

Of course, you need to constantly supply your body with the protein it needs to maintain and build muscle mass. However, the time right after a hard training session intensifies your body's ability to absorb the protein it needs.

Immediately after my weight workout I take my post workout drink. For this meal you want fast acting protein and fast acting carbs. This is one of those times you gladly want your body to release insulin, to help shuttle the much needed carbs and amino acids into the muscles.

Another great way to do it is to use a drink specifically designed to take advantage of the post workout opportunity as I mentioned earlier.

Day 6 - Power90 - Fat Burner Express

Day 6 workout is complete! I have now completed the 6 days of the fat burner express workout routine. Today I will finish up the diet/meal plan portion of that program and Monday I will be moving into week 2 of Power90. Once again today my muscles in my legs and arms are sore and they burned while working out.

Yesterday my coach at BeachBody informed me that this meal plan for this week is giving me about 700-800 calories a day!! WOW! What concerns me about that is I really hope that my body is not in starvation mode as then I am burning muscle. Either way today is the last day of it so I am going to push through. My wife has reported to me this morning that she is down 8 pounds for the week. Tomorrow is our official weigh in/stat day.

Yesterday I also purchased the membership to the BB site so that I can get detailed meal plans moving forward. It states that I should be consuming 2100 calories and my wife should be at 1600. What I hope to figure out soon is can I have a burger or higher calorie, less healthy lunch on some days as long as I still maintain under 2100 calories. I imagine the answer is no because I also need to maintain an specific ratio of carbs, fats, & proteins. So, maybe if the unhealthy lunch is still balanced in those categories then it will be OK?

This is what I consumed yesterday:

Meal 1: 1/2 cup Strawberries/1/4 bannana + Protein shake
Meal 2: 1 cup raspberries and Cottage Cheese (the raspberries were awesome!)
Meal 3: Chicken Breast Salad with green beans, red pepper, and celery - red wine vinegar
Meal 4: 15 almonds
Meal 5: Dijon baked chicken and steamed asparagus

One note about salad/lunch: 2 days in a row now I have not been able to finish my lunch due to it being hard to get down. I am definitely going to have to get some better dressing or none at all. It makes me nautios to even think about it and I am suppsoed to have one today too! A big goal for us is to find some homemade recipies for low fat, low carb, no sugar, low calorie dressing. With all that criteria it should be interesting.

I sure am looking forward to my cheat meal tomorrow :) At the begining of this I decided I was going to give myself one meal a week to eat outside the plan. For tomorrow I hope to have sushi but the place may be closed. Next week I have 2 meals planned for the holidays that will also take me off track.

Have a Good Saturday all!

//jsk

Day 5 - Power90 - Fat Burner Express

I had another great workout this morning. It was a bit harder to get out of bed and get in there to do it tho because I am feeling a bit sore in my legs and arms. I did manage to get through all of the workout though!

My weight was down 6 pounds as of yesterday morning for the week. It will not be official until Sunday morning, but I imagine I will be below 170 if I am not already for today. I weigh myself at the exact same time every day under the same conditions so that it can be as exact as possible.


Yesterday I ate exactly by the diet again. This is what I ate:

Meal 1: Protein shake with blueberries
Meal 2: 15 Almonds
Meal 3: Deli Meat Salad - Chicken Deli Meat, green leaf lettuce, celery, cucumber, balsamic vinegar
Meal 4: Turkey & Swiss rolled up with mustard
Meal 5: 4 ounces of lean steak (i think it was sirloin or flank, it was thin) and Swiss Chard Greens (My first time having these. They were OK with hot sauce and apple cider vinegar on them).

I drank the normal 8 or more glasses of water and my green tea last night before bed.

Today I am excited because I am supposed to have a whole cup of berries with my morning snack. I may end up going to the store shortly to get some fresh ones from fresh market.

One more workout and 6 day fat burner express will be over for me!! w00t!

Have a wonderful day all!
//jsk

Weight Loss and Starvation Mode in plain english

I am going to start posting other stuff that I find interesting to my blog here as well. I will attempt to quote the original sources when I can. If nothing else this will help me to consolidate a lot of what I am reading and discovering.

Here is a good example:

A guy on one of the beachbody forums responded to a question I had about starvation mode with this. "This info I found on an Mit website and spells it out in a very understandable way."

WEIGHT LOSS
In a nutshell, losing weight means that energy intake must be less than energy expended. Weight is most safely lost and kept off by decreasing calories by approximately 500 per day by following a good nutritious diet and exercising. Food intake should be timely. An athlete may exercise more or eat less but a balance combining the two is the best method of weight loss, that is; burning 250 calories through exercise while also decreasing food intake by 250 calories.

Weight loss is not easy to do and can add to a person's stress level and is even harder when suffering from sleep deprivation. One must be very motivated, disciplined, patient, have a weight loss plan, be able to follow specific and realistic daily and weekly goals, and be honest with oneself. In addition, other factors that may have positive or negative affects on weight loss are: heredity, age, your "set point" (a predetermined weight appropriate to your body), cultural habits, hormonal imbalances, emotional trauma (anxiety and depression), time management, sleep deprivation, level of fitness, type, frequency, intensity and duration of physical activity, existing body composition, and one's ability to obtain enough fresh fruits and vegetables and other high quality foods.

One pound = 3500 calories. Decreasing calories by 500 per day for a week = 3500 calories lost or 1 pound. Increasing exercise expenditure by 200 kilocalories per day for a week = 1400 additional calories expended which is a little less than ½ pound. An example of 200 kilocalories expended can occur doing: 45 min. of walking @ 3.5 mph on a 1.5% incline on a treadmill. The heavier you are, the faster you walk, the longer you walk, the greater the incline, all result in greater calories lost. It is recommended that no more than 2-3 lbs. per week be lost. Weight loss greater than prescribed weight loss is unhealthy. Individuals requiring minimal weight loss (like 5 – 10 lbs.) should not attempt to lose more than .5 to 1 lb. per week.

'starvation mode'...
This mechanism, which is thought to have evolved as a defense against starvation, means the body becomes super efficient at making the most of the calories it does get from food and drink. The main way it does this is to protect its fat stores and instead use lean tissue or muscle to provide it with some of the calories it needs to keep functioning. This directly leads to a loss of muscle, which in turn lowers metabolic rate so that the body needs fewer calories to keep ticking over and weight loss slows down. Of course, this is the perfect solution if you're in a famine situation. But if you're trying to lose weight, it's going to do little to help you shift those unwanted pounds into lean muscle to burn more fat.

The website he was referencing is:
http://web.mit.edu/athletics/sportsmedicine/wcrwtloss.html


//jsk