The basics: Getting started on the right path

If you’re reading this, I am going to assume one of a few things. Either:

1) You want to lose weight

2) You want to get into better physical shape (gain muscle, tone muscle, etc.)

3) I have bothered you so much about exercise and nutrition that you gave in and told me to write something to help you. This is probably the most common reason.

If you fall into categories 1 and 2, congratulations! This will be the start of a new you in terms of your physical appearance and body composition. For those who answered number 3, just delete/throw away and just humor me when I ask you how things are going.

First off, before I get into anything too deeply, you have to make a few promises to yourself. These aren’t to me. If you genuinely want to improve on your physical appearance, the first step is complete honesty with yourself about who you are and what you want to become. If you really don’t want this, then you are wasting your time. But if you do and can dedicate yourself to a program that involves improved nutrition and regular exercise, we can make this work.

Here’s what you need to do:

1) Follow a nutritional plan that involves eating foods that will promote a healthy body composition, not detract from one.

2) Start and follow a resistance training workout. This goes for men and women, alike. Only trying to lose fat? You aren’t excused either. I will tell you why, later.

3) Participate in a cardiovascular activity of your choosing. How much of one depends on your personal goals.

If you can do that, I can make you some pretty solid promises.

1) You will have a complete different body composition in 3 months.

2) Increased vitality, energy, strength, and all other benefits from eating the right things and training your body to become stronger.

3) Freedom from severe food cravings and the urge to overeat. You will be re-training your taste buds to desire and appreciate healthy foods.

So, if you are still interested, let’s get specific. Here’s what we are going to do.

Reduce calorie intake

The bottom line is this: You have to have a calorie deficit to lose weight. If anyone tells you that you can eat whatever you want of a certain food and lose weight, they are lying to you. How do you create a calorie deficit? It’s simple.

Take your body weight and multiply it by 15. That is a rough estimate of your maintenance caloric intake. In other words, that’s how many calories you need to eat in one day to stay at your current weight. So, to lose fat, we will multiply your body weight by numbers from 8-12. Preferably, the higher numbers to start out with.

“But I want to lose weight fast!”

If you go any lower than 10-12 to begin…your body is going to go into survival mode. That means it will begin to burn muscle mass in order to keep its energy at a sustainable rate. That leads to lower metabolism. Plus, most people that starve themselves don’t last long and go back to their old ways. A lower metabolism will mean more weight gain than what they started with. That’s exactly what we don’t want.

So, if you weight 180 pounds:

180 x 10 = 1800 calories a day 180 x 12 = 2160 calories a day

This will bring about a 1-2 pound loss of fat per week, keeping in mind one pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. That’s a lot more than you think and keeping this rate will make it a lot easier to maintain for the duration of the program, and more importantly, after the program is complete.

Eat the right foods at the right times

You only have one body. Really let that set in for a second. Now, let’s think about it this way. Would you put toxic waste into your car and expect it to make it too far down the road? Of course not!

Then, what do you expect your body to do when you load it with McDonalds, Burger King, and the other nutritional equivalents to toxic waste?

Do some research on diseases related to nutritional defects. Watch Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me. Is a sense of temporary gratification worth the risk of health issues at an early age? Combine that with this: Eating the right foods will make you look better, feel better, and have an all-around better quality of life.

So, where is the decision in this?

Anyway, back to the subject. Let’s get your eating right. Without a good plan for your nutrition, this is a very uphill climb.

You want to get around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. That might seem like a lot and that is because it is a lot! But, doing that will reduce hunger and provide the body with adequate energy to recover from workouts. Also, we want to reduce carbohydrates to around 60-100 a day. This is NOT A LOW-CARB DIET, though. But, it is scientifically proven that a reduction in carbs, especially those high on the glycemic index, will bring about fat loss. Almost all of today’s top trainers advocate this train of thought.

Here are some important points to implement:

1) Eat 20-25% of your calorie intake at breakfast. Breakfast should include a fibrous whole-grain and protein source, as well as fruit if you care for it. You can never go wrong with oatmeal and eggs.

2) After your workout, you need a lean protein (chicken, turkey, fish) combined with a starchy carb. This is because your body is deprived of glycogen from exercise and a starchy carb will help replenish that, as well as help with the absorption of the protein into your muscles. Great examples of this are sweet potatoes, black beans, brown rice, and whole-grain pasta. Not so great examples are white potatoes, white rice, sugar, or white bread.

3) Learn to love green vegetables. Broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, zucchini, etc. They are your best friends if you want a better body. My personal favorites are stir fried zucchini, mushrooms, and onions with soy sauce and pepper. You know, the vegetables you get at Japanese steakhouses.

4) Eat at least 20-25 grams of protein per meal from a lean protein source. Fat-free cottage cheese can also be used and is any bodybuilder’s best friend.

So, here is a sample diet. Once again, we will use the 180 pound guy as an example:

Breakfast: 3 eggs (boiled) with 1 serving of oatmeal (sweetened with splenda, ground cinnamon, and vanilla extract). 400 calories

Meal 2 (pre-workout) – Lean protein with vegetables or salad and almonds. 400 calories

Meal 3 (post-workout) – Lean protein with sweet potato. 400 calories

Meal 4 – Lean protein with vegetables. 300 calories

Meal 5 –Fat free cottage cheese with almonds. 300 calories

This is right at 1800 calories. Remember, fruit can be added to meals one or two, which would increase the calories to the higher level. If you weight less or more than 180 pounds, you will need to adjust the portion sizes accordingly to get them to your caloric intake level.

“Well can I eat (insert name of this food here)?”

This site will answer that question for you.

http://whfoods.org/foodstoc.php

Exercise. And by exercise I mean lift weights.

Let’s get rid of this quickly and move on. You don’t have to spend tons of time doing cardio to lose fat. You don’t. Honestly, you don’t even have to do cardio unless you are trying to get really far down in body fat percentage. Two days a week of 20 minutes, high-intensity cardio is all you need if you are looking to get tone and lose fat.

The rest of the exercise will weight lifting. Here’s why:

1) Adding muscle increases metabolism. One pound of muscle burns 35-50 calories. You want that. Trust me.

2) Resistance exercise promotes lean mass gains, helps keep muscle intact while dieting, promotes increased bone density, and tons of other good stuff.

“But I don’t want to get big or bulky!”

If you are a woman, you aren’t going to get bulky. Your body doesn’t produce enough testosterone to make you bulky. Your bone structure doesn’t encourage the growth of bulk. You will get tone. You want that. Need more convincing, read this. I assure you she knows what she is talking about.

http://www.loriincledon.com/article10.asp

If you are a man, why are you worried about that? It takes a long, long time to get big or bulky. If it was that easy, everyone in the gym would look like professional body builders. So, please, stop worrying about it.

So, we have proven that weight lifting is essential. How are we going to do it? Well, let’s see.

I prefer a four day a week weight training schedule, including two days of cardio and one off day. We want to train the entire body at least one time per week. Let’s split it like this:

Monday – Chest and triceps

Barbell Bench Press 4 sets 6-8 repetitions

Incline dumbbell press 3 sets 6-8 repetitions

Decline barbell bench press 3 sets 8-10 repetitions

Decline close-grip press 3 sets 8-10 repetitions

Dips 3 sets 10-12 repetitions

Tuesday – Back and Biceps

Assisted/Unassisted Pull-ups 4 sets- 6-8 repetitions

Lat Pulldowns 3 sets 6-8 repetitions

Lat rows (machine) 3 sets 8-10 repetitions

Dumbbell bicep curls 3 sets 8-10 repetitions

Incline Dumbbell hammer curls 3 sets 10-12 repetitions

Wednesday – Cardio and Abs

Thursday – Shoulders

Shoulder Press 4 sets- 6-8 repetitions

Rotating Dumbbell shoulder press 3 sets 6-8 repetitions

Dumbbell Raises 3 sets 8-10 repetitions

Dumbbell Shrugs 4 sets 8-10 repetitions

Friday – Legs

Leg Presses 4 sets- 8-10 repetitions

Calf Raises 3 sets 10-12 repetitions

Leg Extensions 3 sets 8-10 repetitions

Leg Curls 3 sets 8-10 repetitions

Saturday – Cardio/Abs

This is a really bare-bones plan that would provide a start for anyone looking to begin a workout plan. A lot of circumstances effect what one will do on a given day at the gym. I don’t recommend anyone do any free-weight exercises without a spotter watching you. Also, if you are new to weight training, steer clear of any of these lifts that seem odd or difficult. For instance, the decline bench press is an advanced lift only to be performed by someone who knows what they are doing and with the assistance of a spotter. Substitute a machine or cable exercise that targets the pectorals in this case.

You will notice a lot of these lifts are 6-8 reps. That doesn’t mean grab a weight that is light and do it 6 times and be done. That will NOT get you ANYWHERE. If an exercise says to do 6-8 reps, that means you use a weight that you will have a hard time completing any more than 6-8 repetitions with!

This enough to get anyone started. I will write more later. Email me if you have any questions!

Matt Williams

Mwilli5009@gmail.com