SAMPLE DIET PLAN

Sorry guys for not posting this long. Was busy with some work stuff off late. will be posting regulary from now on.



All this time of limited activity, quite a few people approached me for their diet plan. So i guess i would like to start back from there only. However few points need to be iterated before we kick off with our discussion.


-> Its a calorie game. To gain( yes even for muscles), one needs to provide extra calories to body than are expended.

-> Training and diet are twins which put body on the anabolic environment. Falling short on any of these takes you off the track from achieving your fitness goals.

-> A balanced meal should consist of the following
* Protein
* Carbs
* Fats
* Fiber
* Vitamins + Minerals

Try to include all of these in each of your meals. Fats are stored in all types of food, so i don't think one needs to make an extra effort to consume those by having a burger :)

-> There is a general rule followed by athletes and bodybuilders all around the world. It's called 30 gram formula. As per research, our body cannot digest more than 30gms of protein in one go. I am not sure about the validity but splitting up my protein intake through out the day makes more sense to me.

-> For a person, doing strength training, atleast 1gm of protein per 1 kg of body weight is needed daily. The requirement may increase for professionals. e.g: If your body weight is 70kg, then to gain muscle, atleast 70gms of protein is required daily.

-> Protein intake need not be solely dependent on supplements. we will discuss the details about the pros and cons of supplements in some later post.

-> Its better to eat 6 short meals a day then 3 large meals.

Will present a sample diet in this post, which can be obviously be modified as per individual needs and preferences.


SAMPLE DIET CHART TO GAIN (Assuming workout is in evening)

Meal 1(breakfast ~ 9am): 1 cup boiled oats + fruit(apple/pear) + 4 egg whites.

Meal 2(~11am): Vegetable sandwich (using brown bread) + Lemon Juice

Meal 3(Lunch ~1:30pm): 2 chapattis + Dal/Chicken/Fish/Soyabeen + green salad + 1 cup rice


Meal 4(~4pm): Fruit salad (orange + watermelon + apple + banana)

Meal 5(Pre workout ~6:30pm): Dalia/glass of milk/Oats

Meal 6(Post workout ~8pm): Protein Shake + 4 egg whites ( try to space the two by approx 20 min)

Meal7(Dinner ~9:30pm): 1-2 chapattis + dal




Drink plenty of water.

This is just a sample chart. Individual needs may differ and hence this might need to modified in that sense.
For personal queries, you can always ping me.



Just keep a track of what you eat and what you don't and you should be on your way to achieve your fitness goal.
COUNT CALORIES because CALORIES REALLY do count!!!

Pull-Ups/Chin-Ups

Pull-ups/Chin-ups is another basic form of exercise which works on a large number of muscle groups and can be performed without weights. It helps in increasing strength and attaining a bigger/broader torso.

Many people use the terms pull-ups and chin-ups synonymously. However these are two different exercises working on diff muscle groups. The difference is in the grip.

Pull-ups. Palms facing away with arms wider than your shoulder. Works more on lat muscles and less on biceps, more back. Harder as compared to chin-ups.

Chin-ups. Palms facing you with arms slightly in than your shoulders. Works on your biceps more. Easier than pull-ups.

Beginners usually find pull-ups difficult to start with. However nothing to get disheartened as strength will gradually increase. To start with support can be taken.

Hang on a pull-up bar with straight arms & pull yourself up until your chin passes the bar.

Technique is very important to get the right workout and to avoid spraining anything.

Pull-up & Chin-up Technique.

1. Starting position: Start each rep from a dead hang with straight elbows. Clear the bar with your chin on every rep. Put the bar close to your fingers, not in the palm of your hand. It minimizes callus formation.

Also, you will find many people wearing gloves while doing chin-ups/pull-ups to prevent callus formation.

2. Breathe at The Bottom. It’s easier to breathe at the bottom. Take a big breath before pulling yourself up.

3. Chest Up. Don’t let your shoulders go forward. Lead with your chest up & keep your shoulders back.

4. Look Up. Never look down during Pull-ups & Chin-ups. Look at the bar. Look where you’re pulling yourself up to.

5. Bend Your Legs. This prevents touching the floor while coming down and hence taking support from floor everytime you come down.

Be as slow as you can while coming down. This will put the muscle under maximum tension over a longer period of time.

Common Errors

Most common error on Pull-ups & Chin-ups is cheating the range of motion by not going low or high enough on each rep.

1. Not Straightening the Arms: Keeping your arms bent is partial chin-ups/pull-ups. Straighten them while coming down to increase strength.

2. Swaying Legs/Using hips: While going up, swaying of legs and using of your hips is not advisable (many people do that in order to pull up). Try to be steady while you pull your body up.

3. Chin to the Bar: Try to raise yourself till your chin is at the level of the bar. People go only as up when their forehead touches the bar. This again is partial chin up/pull up.

In case of more resistance is needed, add weight to challenge yourself more. Following variations can be tried out.

1. Dumbbell Between Legs: Cross your legs backwards with knees bent. Ask your partner to place a dumbbell between your feet. Now try to do repetitions.

2. Belt & weights: Wear a belt. Suspend weights from the belt before hooking it.

Dilemma of correct workout to lose fat

Our metabolism is the key to burning fat. To lose weight we need to increase our total calorie burn. As mentioned in earlier posts, to loose fat one needs to go into calorie deficit. To increase our total calorie burn we need to increase one (or more) of the following:
1. Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, which is essentially the calories you burn at rest. BMR is important because it makes up a large percentage of total calorie burn, but unfortunately we can't do much to increase (or decrease) it drastically. It is mostly determined by genetics and body weight.
2. Your thermic effect of feeding, which is the energy your body expends while digesting food. This can be increased by eating small meals several times a day rather than just a few large meals. Stimulating foods such as green tea can also speed your thermic effect of feeding. Also including in your diet plan food items, such as spinach, cabbage,lettuce etc, which are calorie negative in nature help in burning more calories.
3. Your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, which is the extra calories you burn after exercise. Your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption is also known as the "afterburn". The amount of calories you burn post-workout will depend on the type of your workout, if you heart rate is increased during your workout and stay increased your will burn more.

Now there are two basic ways to boost up your metabolism:
1. CARDIO
2. STRENGTH TRAINING

Both will help you loose fat, however the difference between strength training and cardio workouts is like the difference between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lance Armstrong, simply said. Comparing the two is absolutely pointless. And while both may be different, they each have their strengths.

Cardio burns an average of 10-12 calories per minute whereas strength training burns an average of 8-10 calories per minute. Considering breaks in between lifting weights, so over 30 minutes the actual number of calories burned doing strength training will be even less. But there is a little more to strength training.
Both cardio and strength training gives you a metabolic spike which means that you continue to burn calories for a couple of hours after the workout. Strength training gives you a large metabolic spike as your body is trying hard to help your muscles recover and increases your overall resting metabolism rate over a long time. Hence you continue to burn more calories long after your workout is finished, i.e in a sense it spikes your BMR for a longer period of time before it settles down.

The facts can be determined from following data:
* Approx 6 calories are burned per day for each pound of muscle that your body houses.
* Approx 2 calories are burned per day for each pound of fat that your body houses.
Thus we can say: More the muscle, more calories burnt.

So doing cardio alone might not give you good results if you are looking for fat los. Involve weights in your training schedule. However don't replace all cardio with strength training, it is good to have a mix of both-this way you will burn fat and build muscle which will keep you strong and healthy and keep your heart healthy at the same time.It is also important to keep diet in mind, exercise alone won't do it (and neither will diet alone). You need to focus on creating a diet and exercise plan and sticking to it!!!

A COMMON MYTH

One of the biggest discussion in gyms is how to bulk up and how to gain more definition?

And surely all you gym going guys would have listened to the following phrase:

“Heavier weights/low repetitions and low weights/higher repetitions for cutting”

Let’s evaluate how true is this saying.

Muscles are composed of muscle fibres which can be further divided into major categories.

1. Slow Twitch Muscle Fibre
2. Fast Twitch Muscle Fibre

Each fiber type is unique in its ability to contract in a certain way. Human muscles contain a genetically determined mixture of both slow and fast fiber types. On average, we have about 50 percent slow twitch and 50 percent fast twitch fibers in most of the muscles used for movement.

1. Slow Twitch Muscle Fiber: These fire more slowly than fast twitch fibers and can go for a long time before they fatigue. The slow twitch fibers respond well to longer duration of stress (i.e. high reps). These fibers do not grow as fast as their counterparts.
2. Fast Twitch Muscle Fiber: They fatigue more quickly and are much better at generating short bursts of strength or speed than slow muscles. The fast twitch fibers respond readily to heavy load explosive movements. This is the muscle fiber which has the capacity of growing fast.

Having understood some scientific terms now, lets revert back to our original discussion, i.e if the phrase “Heavier weights/low repetitions and low weights/higher repetitions for cutting” is essentially true:

As logically deduced from above, fast twitch fibers are those which respond immediately to our workout. Hence this is the usual bulk(pump) that we observe while working out. The more the stress the more the bulk. However this does not mean lifting weights blindly. Going for heavy sets implies sets in which you need support only for the last repetitions. Getting help from your partner from the beginning doesn’t put stress on the muscle. So when you are bulking up, try to do more compound movements which can help you gain some solid muscle

Similarly doing 500 reps with no or negligible weights won’t help in bringing definition or to say cutting in muscles. Slow twitch fibres need to be stressed and while you need to be doing reps for a longer time, some intermediate weight is required to produce the desired effect. Hence you have to use optimal weights(resistance) if you want to work your muscles optimally.

More importantly, to bring out the definition loosing fat is necessary so that the underneath muscle can come to foreground. For that combination of cardio, diet and weights works best.

PUSH UPS: Basic Exercise

Push Ups are the most basic form of exercise that you all of you must have tried one time or the other. They develop the pectoral muscles and triceps, with benefits to the deltoids and the midsection as a whole. Push Up works on the upper section of the body and help in strengthening your torso as a whole.

However this exercise, however basic it may seem, should be carried out in the right manner. So we lets evaluate the right form to do pushups, various forms of pushups and their effects on body parts, and the common push up errors.

POSTURE:

Start with lying upside down. Now with feet close together rise up with hands a little wider than your shoulder width. Your fingertips should be pointed straight ahead, and make sure you keep your back flat and your head in natural alignment with your spine. Assume the Push-up starting position with your elbows locked. Lower yourself by bending your elbows until your chest almost touches the floor. Come back up by pushing through the floor. Exhale as you push back to the starting position.

Important points to be noted while performing repetitions:

1. Don’t take your hands out to wide. Put your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width.

2. Chin should be tucked in, i.e whole of the body should be in a straight line. Your neck must stay inline with the rest of your spine. Don’t look forward as this can lead to neck injuries

3. Don’t bend your back. No pressure should be felt on back. Try to form a straight line from shoulders to ankles.

4. Lead with your chest. The basic and best form of push ups is up and down in a vertical manner. You might find many people leading with their heads and going forward while going down, before coming up. This can lead to neck injuries.

Common Errors while doing push-ups:

Here are some of the most common Push-up errors you’ll see.

1. Looking Forward: Hyper-extending your neck can cause neck injuries. Keep your neck inline with the rest of your spine from start to finish.

2. Letting Your Torso Sack: Your body must be in a straight line from ankles to shoulders.

3. Elbows Out: Increases the torque on your shoulder joint. Tuck your elbows at 45° angle to your body.

Types of Push Ups:

We can variety of push up forms having affect on different parts of the body. The closer your hands are together the more you will engage your triceps, the wider apart the more you will engage your chest and shoulders.

Basic pushups

Basic pushups will work your chest area, triceps and rear deltoids. These are already explained above.

Close-Grip Pushups

Close-grip pushups mostly work the tricep muscles, the inner chest and the trunk muscles. Use the same starting position and breathing pattern as the basic pushup. Bring your hands together and form a triangle with your index fingers and thumbs. As you go down to the floor, your elbows should go to the side, which incidentally puts more stress on your triceps and inner chest. At first, close-grip pushups might strain your wrists, so make sure you stretch appropriately and start off slowly.

Wide-Grip Pushups

Wide-grip pushups will work your chest, rear shoulders and parts of your back muscles. Again use the same starting position and breathing pattern as the basic pushup. Your hands should be positioned beyond shoulder width, with your fingers pointing frontward. The wider position emphasizes the tension on your shoulders and lengthens your pectorals. Wide-grip pushups are more demanding, so you will tire more quickly than with other pushups.

For starters, doing pushups might not be a easy task. Atleast sustaining them for say 15-20 repetitions might be difficult. So in the beginning you can start with knees-feet on the floor and rest process remains the same.

As you grow in strength and stamina you can move from basic pushups onto harder forms.

1. Try having your feet on a elevated place (say bench) with hands down on floor. Lower your body till your nose almost touches the ground.

2. Try with gym sidebars. Place your feet on bench and hands on 4”sidebars. Now let your body fall in between those sidebars in a controlled manner. Gradually come up.

3. One legged pushups: Place your one foot on top of the other and do pushups.

4. One handed Pushups: As ROCKY BALBOA does them. Have your feet wide, one hand on the back while you do push ups on the other hand. However, this is bound to put a lot of stress on your one arm.

5. Use of push up band: Many gyms nowadez have this push up bands. These are basically resistance bands that increase the resistance as you come up.

Let’s PUSH ourselves UP!!!!!!

HOW TO LOOSE FAT AND NOT MUSCLE

First of all, let’s be clear that weight loss does not necessarily mean fat loss. 70% of your body mass is water. So one way to loose fat rapidly would be by zeroing your water intake However, this is extremely dangerous and should not be even attempted. So the goal should be to loose body fat and not body weight.

Now, loosing fat in itself is a cycle that involves discipline on the part of subject. It is simply not related to starving yourself but actually being aware what to eat and when to eat. The major principle involved in fat loss is ‘CALORIE BALANCE’ i.e (calorie intake – calorie burnt). To loose fat one has to go into negative calorie balance over a period of time.

Some techniques to achieve that are presented below:

FREQUENT MEALS:
The amount of calories burnt by one’s body depends on the metabolism system of the individual. High metabolism rate means more calories being consumed. To keep the metabolism of your body high, you have to eat frequent meals. Frequent meals imply eating, say every 3 hours. You don’t have to necessarily stuff yourself each time, but small nutritious meals will go a long way in maintaining an uninterrupted supply of protein to maintain your hard earned muscle.

Rather than eating three large meals, 6-8 evenly spaced small meals can be utilized better by your body. This keeps your body always in working mode in the sense that you are always digesting food (digestion of food also burns calories). Also, body will be in a good balanced state and so it won’t produce the chemical enzymes to convert food into fat storage. When you eat infrequent meals, the body goes into a panic mode and starts storing fats in order to withstand long time without food.

It’s kind of maintaining a trust relationship with your body. If it is assured that it will continue to receive energy through food every now and then, no storage results.

NEVER EVER STARVE:

Going into a negative calorie balance does not mean that you start to starve. Our body has this great adaptation mechanism which adjusts to food intake and thereby adjusts the metabolism rate. So if the body gets the impression that it is being starved, it starts conserving food in form of fat by slowing down the metabolism rate. Remember fats are the last source from which body derives energy in case you starve. It will first feed onto the muscle, then move on to fats. Reducing the calorie levels by 10-15% is generally considered safe, i.e if your burn approx 3000 calories per day then intake of 2600-2700 calories is good to maintain a negative calorie balance and hence loose fat.

You might have noticed people who go on strict diets (very little food), usually show good results in the first week, but then gradually the results taper off. Even in the first week, they have lost mostly muscle and not fat.

Also, starving yourself over a considerable point of time is not easy. At one point, one would get totally hopeless on fat loss and might start to eat normally again. But now his body has adapted to very less calories. So even 2000 calories would be excess for it and it will deposit it as fat under your skin. This is the most common mistake that people do and complain that their diet is not working.

CHEAT DAYS:

As stated earlier, human body has this amazing adapting mechanism. So if you keep your calorie balance negative always, the results will slow down and your body will simply adapt to the situation and will stop you from loosing weight and fat.
So, in order to carry on with the fat loss, we must learn to CHEAT. “Honest people don’t always end up on the winning side, but you will always find Smart people on that shore.”

Let’s learn to cheat then.. Cheat in the right sense.

After three or four days of continuous negative calories, your body might think of shifting gear and it will try to adapt to the situation, by slowing down the metabolism. But if you place a high calorie meal at this point, you will no longer be negative calorie balance. Instead you will be in a positive calorie balance. So your body won’t get adapted to the situation and will continue to support you in loosing fat. So that also gives you the reason to pamper your taste buds. Have that pizza, grab that finger licking pastry but limit it to once a week

For endomorphic people( who are obese by nature) , spacing of cheat meals by 6-7 days is suggested.

If you are obese by nature then space the cheat meals 5-6 days apart.

WHAT TO EAT n WHEN TO EAT:

As everyone knows, carbohydrates are the basic source of energy and excess of carbs is converted into fat. Now to derive energy from carbs, body needs to be set into motion. So try consuming more carbohydrates during your breakfast, before your workouts and even after your workouts. But it should be lesser during the night.

If we consume carbs and go to sleep, then the energy consumed could not be used up by the body. So in turn the body will try to convert it into fats. So we must consume more carbs before high physical activity hours of the day and try to keep it very low during the low activity hours of the day and in night.

Good Carbs and Bad Carbs:

Good Carbohydrates: Try to consume fibrous and starchy carbohydrates.

Bad Carbohydrates: Try to stay away from sugars, as they can increase your insulin levels and can spoil your diet.

But consuming sugar carbohydrates immediately after training can help you replenish the lost glycogen stores in your muscle.

DRINK PLENTY OF WATER

Drinking water has enormous good effects on human body. It not only gives u filled feeling (so you don’t crave for food in between meals) but also flushes out your system.

These are the basic steps, if followed religiously along with a active workout regime, might help you a long way in achieving that dream physique of yours.

GO FOR IT!!!!!

UNDERSTANDING BODY TYPES: First Step to a Bigger Goal

Everyone has different fitness goals. Some might want to lose fat, others may be too skinny and want to gain, yet there may be different class which wants that perfect chiseled body. However attaining your dream shape is a bigger picture. It requires hard work and perseverance to achieve that. We start today with the three different basic body types. Each body type is different from other, and requires different kind of nutrition/activity program to achieve results.

The three basic body types are:

1. Ectomorphs
2. Mesomorphs
3. Ectomorphs.

Ectomorphs are the lean, skinny types. They are usually very thin, with fast metabolisms and extremely low body fat.

Mesomorphs are the "genetically gifted." They are lean and muscular. Mesomorphs have the ideal body type as they have the tendency to lose fat and gain muscle easily

Endomorphs are the "fat retainers". Endomorphs usually have high body fat and often face great difficulty in losing it.

Although there are three basic categories, pure body types are very rare. Usually there is a mix of two or even all three types.

Let’s look into some more details:

THE ECTOMORPH

The ectomorph tends to be tall and skinny with small joints and a small waist. Ectomorphs are naturally lean and usually never have trouble with excess body fat during their entire lives. Many ectomorphs can maintain extremely low body fat while doing no cardiovascular exercise whatsoever. Ectomorphs have overly efficient metabolisms. However they usually have a hard time while trying to gain muscle or put on weight.

Ectomorphs usually do not experience much weight fluctuations, even if they do it’s usually in the direction of losing weight. An increase in activity is usually accompanied by rapid lose in weight.

Ectomorphs will usually lose most of the muscle they gained if they quit training or if they allow their calories to drop too low for too long. Without proper ectomorph training and nutrition, they will eventually slide back towards the level of leanness where their body is most comfortable. It takes lifelong commitment for an ectomorph to keep the muscle and body weight up.

Strategy for ectomorphs:

1. Less Activity

Ectomorphs are hyperactive people with fast metabolisms. So the first and most obvious solution is less activity to gain weight. Ectomorphs must slow down and relax more.

2. Avoid overtraining

The ectomorph must get in and out of the gym quickly and allow plenty of recuperation between workouts. Keep cardio vascular exercise to a minimum

As such, cardio should be kept to a minimum and done mainly for health reasons. 15-30 minutes a day, three days a week is usually sufficient.

Keep the calories high and never, ever, ever miss a meal. Diet moderately high in complex carbohydrates is recommended for ectomorphs.

Carbohydrate restriction is an effective fat loss strategy, but since ectomorphs burn up nearly everything they consume, there’s usually no reason to restrict carbohydrates. Fifty or even fifty-five percent of total daily calories should come from carbohydrates in the ectomorph diet with 30% from lean proteins and 15-20% from fats.

Pay attention to food quality. Don’t think that being an ectomorph enables you to get away with anything.

THE MESOMORPH

Mesomorphs are the typical natural-born athletes and bodybuilders. Most of them were lean and muscular before they even started working out.

A bodybuilder like Arnold Schwarzenegger is almost pure mesomorph with low body fat and massive muscles.

Because mesomorphs are so genetically gifted, they often have the tendency to cheat and skip workouts because they can get away with it and still look good. But just imagine what they would look like if they applied themselves 100%. If you recognize that you are genetically gifted in any sense, then make the most of your gifts - train and eat to the best of your ability and you could become one of the best in the world in bodybuilding, fitness

or athletics. Even if you’re not a competitor, why shouldn’t you actualize your full potential and be the best you can possibly be?

Pay attention to food quality

Like the ectomorph, those with mesomorph tendencies quickly discover that they can also “get away with” eating certain foods without ill effects on body composition, so they often do exactly that – eat anything and everything.

THE ENDOMORPH

Most people who are working hard but still struggling to lose body fat are endomorphs. An endomorph is someone with a slow metabolism who is genetically prone to store fat easily. Endomorphs sometimes have varying degrees of carbohydrate sensitivity and insulin resistance, so high carbohydrate diets are usually not effective for body fat control.

Processed and refined carbohydrates that contain white sugar and white flour are especially detrimental and tend to convert to body fat more rapidly in endomorphs. Low to moderate carbohydrate diets with higher protein usually work best for endomorphs.

Endomorphs generally have a very difficult time losing fat with diet alone. Even a nearly perfect diet sometimes won’t work by itself because the endomorph needs the boost in metabolism that exercise provides.

A larger quantity of cardio is almost always necessary for the endomorph to lose body fat.

Strategy for endomorphs:

1. High protein, medium to low carbs

High protein, low to moderate carb diets work best for the endomorph. Muscles are like burning furnaces which burns away fat and proteins are basic building blocks of muscles.

So having control over what they eat is most important for endomorphs as compared to other two body types.

2. Exercise is an absolute MUST

Endomorphs generally have a very difficult time losing fat with diet alone. Even a closeto-perfect diet often doesn’t work by itself because the endomorph needs the boost in metabolism that comes from exercise.

3. Large amounts of cardio

Cardio exercises are most important for endomorphs. Having your heart beat raised over a considerable amount of time, increases blood circulation and thereby boosts metabolism. Doing cardio 4-5 times a week (approx 30mins per session) is generally shown to be effective.

4. Weight Training

While cardio burns more calories for the time your heartbeat is raised, weight training helps in maintaining a higher calorie burning ratio throughout the day.

Weight training exercises that utilize large muscle groups like the back and legs are extremely effective for stimulating the metabolism and for stimulating the hormones that increase fat burning.

If you are an endomorph, you must fight the urge within you to relax and train with high intensity. You have to push yourself constantly. Not only must you train almost every day, you must push yourself to train harder every day and repeatedly beat your own personal best.

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR BODY TYPE

The way you respond to training and nutrition is a good indicator of your body type. If you grow muscle like crazy and the fat melts off with great ease, you have genetic gifts; you have the mesomorph’s muscle-building qualities and the ectomorph’s fat-burning qualities.

How quickly you respond to de-training is also a good indicator of your true body type. What happens when you stop training? Do you hold your muscle gains? Does the body fat stay off? If so, you are genetically gifted. If body fat starts accumulating the second you stop training, you have a higher endomorph component.

Try to progressively increase your training duration and frequency gradually as stamina starts to build up. Human body has this great mechanism of adjusting and slowing down your metabolism rate. So it is necessary to surprise your body by changing the intensity and type of your training program.