Cheat to have a better body..

Sometimes, it's good to have a cheat meal. Like eat your favorite hamburger or pizza. Anything! You basically cheat for your sanity specially when you've been dieting for quite awhile and you need to have some mental rest.. Anyway, no ones getting fat for eating oily and sweet food for a day only.

When you cheat, you need to take a look at yourself in the mirror...

If you're very fat, your not allowed to cheat. Haha!! Lose more fat first!!

If you can see the first 2 abs on your stomach then you can cheat for one meal only once a week. Hey! One meal only.. not ONE DAY.

If you can see your 6 pack abs then you can cheat for one day or two.

Cheating is good because:

• You can refill your muscle glycogen and have more strength. You can observe that your muscle looks tight and big. Plus you can lift heavy weights! When you cheat, its best to train on that same day. Train your weakest muscle on that day.
• You can rest your mind and release all that stress about how many grams of yams you should eat.. Is your meat lean? Are you sticking on that every 2-hour meal? etc.. etc..

Improve your looks: Add some muscles! (My first time)

Few years ago, my plain body looks just like an ordinary guy you can find on the street. Worse, I don't even got that abs that most bystanders posses. I enjoy being a couch potatoe. I love playing computer games such as PS2 and XBOX (that time, today I have PS3 and XBOX 360 <3). Then on my second work, we got a free gym in there and that's where everything started.

I trained there for the first time and our good "City Service" guy named Joel thought me few exercises. My God! I only trained for 45 minutes and my body ache like hell for 1 whole week! I can't lift a piece of ball pen after and I cannot even straighten my arms and preferred it to be curled only just like a T-rex. 

My body that time is designed to just sleep and eat and was shocked because of the gruesome training. I only use a max of 10 lb. dumbbells and I even need a spot on it. Pathetic huh?

After a week, I didn't became downhearted of what happened. I trained and another "City Service" guy named Bert lectured me some nutrition backed up with science.

So basically, body building is the product of EXERCISE and NUTRITION at its best! You can't have the body you like when you only got one of the factors. Perseverance is the key.

He thought me some points to remember:

• Drink your whey immediately after workout. You only have 1 hour window to drink whey. This is the  time when your body absorbs more nutrients because it was utilized during the workout and requires immediate source of nutrition to repair damaged tissues.
• Eat heavy breakfast to cut your body in a catabolic state. This is a status where in your body will break down your own muscles to be converted to energy because you didn't eat the whole time you are sleeping. You can eat high carbohydrates like rice, protein from eggs or meat, and low on fat.
• As the time goes by, it fewer carbohydrates. Cut the carbohydrates at night because you are more likely less active and the carbs will not be used and the body will store it as a form of body fat.
• You can take a whole day break after a workout. 
• Example:
• Monday - Chest and Biceps
• Tuesday - No Workout
• Wednesday - Back and Triceps
• Thursday - Now Workout
• Friday - Legs and Abs
• Saturday -No Workout (To have time to bond with family and friends)
• Sunday - No Workout (To have time to bond with family and friends)

If you got questions, don't be shy commenting on this blog. I'll respond immediately.

Diet:: How to lean down after you got big!

The body is made to survive and not made to become a model figure. So what I'm trying to say is that you cannot have the benefit of both worlds unless you kept on tricking the body.. When the body is having surplus of calories you can gain muscle but it is inevitable that you will also gain body fat. This also goes the same when losing body fat.. You also lose muscle in the process.

So how can we have a lean body while maintaining the muscles? This is by exercise and cardio. You need to lift heavy weights like you used to when you are building muscles so your body will think that you need to retain those hard-earned muscles because your environment demands it. What I do is this:

• Early in the morning before going to work, I jog for 30 minutes on an empty stomach. Yes, don't eat anything but you can drink water only. This is to burn body fat.
• I eat small meals every 3 hours.
• I eat a meal with carbohydrates 2 hours before the workout.
• I do lift weights at the gym often 6 exercises in 12 reps for 3 sets each.
• I do my cardio after I did some weight lifting to burn body fat.
• I drink my whey protein shake and eat a small banana or any sugary/starchy food.

So what about the meal plan?

Here's what I do..

My weight: 164 lbs

Then I multiply it by 13, so 164 x 13 = 2132 calories, this is my maintenance. But since we need to lean down, we need to lessen it..

So minus 600:

                     2132 - 600 = 1532

Then I do my protein calculations, since we need at least 1.4g of protein per pound, it goes like:

                     1.4 x 164 = 229.6g.

And based on my previous post, there are 4 calories per gram of protein, so it appears to be like:

                     229.6g x 4 = 918 calories

Then for the fat, yes we need to eat fat as well but only the healthy ones like nuts and oily fishes.

So I get my maintenance calories then I need to multiply it by percentage of my body fat. Say, my body fat is 23%, it will go like this:

                     1532 calories x .23 = 352.36 calories

And based on my previous post, there are 9 calories per gram of fat, so it will go like this:

                     352.36 calories  / 9 = 39.151g of Fat

So we need to add the 2 (Protein and Fat) in terms of calories.

                     918 (from Protein) + 352.36 (from Fat) = 1270.36 calories

Then we'll subtract it to our reduced calorie intake:

                     1532 - 1270.36 = 261.64 calories

The remaining calories will fall to our carbohydrate intake. And based on my previous post, there are 4 calories per gram of carb. So let's check it out:

                      261.64 / 4 = 65.41g

So, to lose weight we need to take:

Protein: 229.6g

Fat:: 39.151

Carbohydrates: 65.41g

So how can you apply it to your diet? I would suggest that you should go the fitday website or any website that has details of the food you want to take. Take a look at their protein, fat, and carb measurements. Decide how much food (ounce, kilo, scoop) you want to take per day then sum it all up until it reach the recommended number of nutrients in grams that we calculated above. After that, divide it to the number of times you want to eat per day. More like spread it along the day.

Hint: When it comes to protein, take in more beef since it's much more dense in protein per gram compare to fish and chicken. But you can eat those 2 as well to have variety. As for the carbohydrates, take in fiber rich food such as whole wheat products, brown rice, sweet potatoes, and yams. For fats, take in nuts and oily fishes like Salmon, Tilapia, etc.