Sunday, November 27, 2011
Gain Weight Quick
Hey all, I've just got my new site up and running GainWeightQuick.com. It covers everything you need to know on how to gain weight and build muscle Thanks for all your support. The ebook will be out January 2012
Monday, November 21, 2011
How to Loose Weight
Loosing weight is really just a numbers game. Loosing weight is simply about burning more calories than you consume. Let's say that you consumed 2000 calories today and you burned 3500. This means you lost weight. How much weight? Well, 3500 calories is equal to one pound. So if you consumed 2000 calories but burned 3500 (2000-3500 = -1500). You lost 1/2 a pound. It really is that simple. There are of course other variables such has water weight, metabolism, and muscle gain/muscle loss but those are not things to worry too much about for now.
If you want to loose weight consistently and can have the discipline to track your calories and properly estimate the amount of calories you burn each day then you will have no problems meeting your goals. Using this approach you could even loose weight without working out or by eating only junk food. Of course I don't recommend either of these because it makes the process harder and it isn't healthy.
The sensible approach here is to make tracking calorie intake the priority along with eating primarily healthy foods and exercising at least 3 times per week. This will not only allow you loose weight easier but also cause you to get healthier than you are now.
Ok, so how do you track calories? You start by reading labels. You must correctly read the calories from labels on the food that you eat. Start a daily log of what you eat and how many calories you consume. Food that does not have a label can be estimated by using a calorie counter.
How do you know how many calories you burn each day? First I suggest you use a BMR calculator. This will calculate the number of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day. You can then either add your daily activities with a calorie burner calculator or apply the Harris Benedict Equation. Either method will give you a fairly accurate measure of the total calories you burn. Once you know this number you can make sure you don't consume more than that number. If you do you will gain weight. If you always make sure you're below that number you will loose weight. A good goal would be to have a calorie deficit of 500 calories/day. This would add up to 3500 calories in a week which is 1 pound. Keep in mind you can eat more if you burn more calories or you can speed up the weight loss by creating a larger deficit in calories burned versus calories consumed.
A few recommendations to follow when using this method:
Always consume at least 1300 calories per day. Anything less can deplete energy and overall health. It will also cause your body to try to store fat because it goes into "famine" mode. If you want to loose weight faster increase your activity level.
Eat 5-6 small meals each day. This keeps your digestion going all day long and keeps a consistent flow of nutrients to your muscles and body.
Stop eating 2 hours prior to bed. You don't want to go to bed with a stomach full of food since you don't burn a lot of calories at night.
Add weight lifting to your activity list. The more muscle your body has the more calories you will burn throughout the day. Thus creating an even bigger calorie deficit.
Drink plenty of water. Water is important to the digestive process. Don't worry about water weight. It's important to be well hydrated especially when you increase your activity level.
Don't cheat. By this I mean don't allow yourself to consume more calories than you burn on any day. If you want to have a piece of pie go ahead just don't let it put you over the amount of calories you burn. If it's going to then you need to figure out a way to burn more calories for that day.
Eat more protein and less carbs. Your muscles need protein to grow as mentioned above muscle is our friend in weight loss. Simple carbs cause insulin spikes which do not promote weight loss.
Get some fat in your diet. Eliminating fat completely from your diet will hurt your fat loss. Fat is a vital part of our bodies and depriving the body will cause it to store what it has.
If you want to loose weight consistently and can have the discipline to track your calories and properly estimate the amount of calories you burn each day then you will have no problems meeting your goals. Using this approach you could even loose weight without working out or by eating only junk food. Of course I don't recommend either of these because it makes the process harder and it isn't healthy.
The sensible approach here is to make tracking calorie intake the priority along with eating primarily healthy foods and exercising at least 3 times per week. This will not only allow you loose weight easier but also cause you to get healthier than you are now.
Ok, so how do you track calories? You start by reading labels. You must correctly read the calories from labels on the food that you eat. Start a daily log of what you eat and how many calories you consume. Food that does not have a label can be estimated by using a calorie counter.
How do you know how many calories you burn each day? First I suggest you use a BMR calculator. This will calculate the number of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day. You can then either add your daily activities with a calorie burner calculator or apply the Harris Benedict Equation. Either method will give you a fairly accurate measure of the total calories you burn. Once you know this number you can make sure you don't consume more than that number. If you do you will gain weight. If you always make sure you're below that number you will loose weight. A good goal would be to have a calorie deficit of 500 calories/day. This would add up to 3500 calories in a week which is 1 pound. Keep in mind you can eat more if you burn more calories or you can speed up the weight loss by creating a larger deficit in calories burned versus calories consumed.
A few recommendations to follow when using this method:
Always consume at least 1300 calories per day. Anything less can deplete energy and overall health. It will also cause your body to try to store fat because it goes into "famine" mode. If you want to loose weight faster increase your activity level.
Eat 5-6 small meals each day. This keeps your digestion going all day long and keeps a consistent flow of nutrients to your muscles and body.
Stop eating 2 hours prior to bed. You don't want to go to bed with a stomach full of food since you don't burn a lot of calories at night.
Add weight lifting to your activity list. The more muscle your body has the more calories you will burn throughout the day. Thus creating an even bigger calorie deficit.
Drink plenty of water. Water is important to the digestive process. Don't worry about water weight. It's important to be well hydrated especially when you increase your activity level.
Don't cheat. By this I mean don't allow yourself to consume more calories than you burn on any day. If you want to have a piece of pie go ahead just don't let it put you over the amount of calories you burn. If it's going to then you need to figure out a way to burn more calories for that day.
Eat more protein and less carbs. Your muscles need protein to grow as mentioned above muscle is our friend in weight loss. Simple carbs cause insulin spikes which do not promote weight loss.
Get some fat in your diet. Eliminating fat completely from your diet will hurt your fat loss. Fat is a vital part of our bodies and depriving the body will cause it to store what it has.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
How to get big
It's all about consistency, diet, sleep and exercise. If you've read my recent posts then this is nothing new. Focus on these four areas and you will absolutely gain weight. Let me break them down so you can make sure you are hitting each of these.
Consistency: Work out 3-5 times per week every week! Don't skip workouts unless your body absolutely needs the rest. (If your getting the rest I recommend this shouldn't be an issue.) I suggest you work each body part 1-3 times per week. Some bodybuilders will tell you once per week but some strength trainers will tell you 3 times per week so you need to think about your goals on that one.
Diet: You must be consuming at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Shoot for 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. Spread this throughout the day. (You can get this from chicken, eggs, milk, protein shakes, steak, fish, etc.)
Calculate how many calories you burn on an average day then add 1000 calories to that. This will allow you to put on 2lbs a week which is a good pace. Spread it this out and eat every 2-3 hours. (keep in mind the amount of calories you burn each day can vary. If your more active you will burn more calories. As you gain muscle you will burn more calories.) If your not consistent on the calories and the protein then you wont make gains.
Sleep: Get that sleep! You need the rest to recover from your workouts. Aim for 8 hours or more. This is when your muscles will grow.
Exercise: Don't forget to squat. They are very important especially for gaining weight. Stick with compound exercises. Don't worry too much about doing isolation exercises. Your focus should be squats, bench press, shoulder press, bent over rows, dead lifts and pull ups. Use free weights. Don't mess with the machines. Start with a weight that is fairly easy to you then keep adding weight to the bar slowly but continuously. Keep track of the weight you used then add 5lbs to it each time you workout. Not only will you gain size this way but you will also gain strength.
Consistency: Work out 3-5 times per week every week! Don't skip workouts unless your body absolutely needs the rest. (If your getting the rest I recommend this shouldn't be an issue.) I suggest you work each body part 1-3 times per week. Some bodybuilders will tell you once per week but some strength trainers will tell you 3 times per week so you need to think about your goals on that one.
Diet: You must be consuming at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Shoot for 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. Spread this throughout the day. (You can get this from chicken, eggs, milk, protein shakes, steak, fish, etc.)
Calculate how many calories you burn on an average day then add 1000 calories to that. This will allow you to put on 2lbs a week which is a good pace. Spread it this out and eat every 2-3 hours. (keep in mind the amount of calories you burn each day can vary. If your more active you will burn more calories. As you gain muscle you will burn more calories.) If your not consistent on the calories and the protein then you wont make gains.
Sleep: Get that sleep! You need the rest to recover from your workouts. Aim for 8 hours or more. This is when your muscles will grow.
Exercise: Don't forget to squat. They are very important especially for gaining weight. Stick with compound exercises. Don't worry too much about doing isolation exercises. Your focus should be squats, bench press, shoulder press, bent over rows, dead lifts and pull ups. Use free weights. Don't mess with the machines. Start with a weight that is fairly easy to you then keep adding weight to the bar slowly but continuously. Keep track of the weight you used then add 5lbs to it each time you workout. Not only will you gain size this way but you will also gain strength.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Best Exercise
If I had to tell you one exercise that is better than all the rest it would be squats. Many people don't like to squat. I think this is for several reasons. Lets face it, they are hard to do, they don't seem to work your upper body, women don't go nuts about nice legs, there has been a lot of incorrect info about them hurting your knees or back, etc. I'm sure you can think of a few more reasons why you shouldn't squat.
The truth is though that as long as squats are done correctly they are great! No other exercise will give you the benefits that squats give you. Squatting actually causes your body to produce more testosterone which in turn helps you build more muscle which in turn burns fat. You also use your upper body when you squat much more than most people realize. Not only does is work your core muscles to support the weight but you also work your arms and back. As you increase the weight on your squats your upper body will adapt to help support the extra weight.
Bottom line if your not squatting you need to start. You must follow proper form or you can get injured. I recommend starting off extremely light to work on technique then start adding weight very very slowly, but consistently. Start out by doing 5 sets of 5-6 reps. (after you have done 2 warm up sets) Don't over do it to start with. Remember this is about consistency so you don't want to injure yourself or make yourself so sore that you can't work out for a week.
Check out this video. It shows proper technique for squatting. Safety bars in place, clamps on the bar, straight back, knees stay behind the toes, thighs come down to parallel position, looking straight forward.
The truth is though that as long as squats are done correctly they are great! No other exercise will give you the benefits that squats give you. Squatting actually causes your body to produce more testosterone which in turn helps you build more muscle which in turn burns fat. You also use your upper body when you squat much more than most people realize. Not only does is work your core muscles to support the weight but you also work your arms and back. As you increase the weight on your squats your upper body will adapt to help support the extra weight.
Bottom line if your not squatting you need to start. You must follow proper form or you can get injured. I recommend starting off extremely light to work on technique then start adding weight very very slowly, but consistently. Start out by doing 5 sets of 5-6 reps. (after you have done 2 warm up sets) Don't over do it to start with. Remember this is about consistency so you don't want to injure yourself or make yourself so sore that you can't work out for a week.
Check out this video. It shows proper technique for squatting. Safety bars in place, clamps on the bar, straight back, knees stay behind the toes, thighs come down to parallel position, looking straight forward.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Sleep
Sleep is absolutely vital to your success in gaining muscle. You actually grow when you sleep, not when you are in the gym. I recommend getting 8-9 hours a night if possible. At a minimum you should get 7 and at most 10. Some people still think you can still catch up on your sleep. It really doesn't work that way. This is where consistency come in. You need to make it a priority to get a minimum of 7 hrs each night. Anything less and you are cheating your gains.
Getting enough sleep will obviously not only help you achieve your fitness goals but it will also help in every other part of your life.
Remember you have to follow all of the rules I gave you in order to reach your goals. You can't pick and choose the ones you want. You also have to be consistent about each one. (Yes, I'm going to talk about consistency in every article) Hopefully this will force you to see how important it is.
Getting enough sleep will obviously not only help you achieve your fitness goals but it will also help in every other part of your life.
Remember you have to follow all of the rules I gave you in order to reach your goals. You can't pick and choose the ones you want. You also have to be consistent about each one. (Yes, I'm going to talk about consistency in every article) Hopefully this will force you to see how important it is.
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