Nutrition Articles
In the Nutrition Articles section you will find topics ranging from common dieting myths, to supplement information, to core diet principles and everything in between.
So read on, leave your questions/comments, and apply what you learn to your own nutritional program! To get the most out of the advice within these articles, schedule a free, no-commitment training session and consultation with me and together we’ll put these concepts into action!
8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #1
Some of you who have been following my blog posts lately might be wondering, “Huh? Weren’t you just on a twelve week effort to GAIN a bunch of weight? Why are you doing a 180 and trying to lose weight now, you idiot?” All jokes aside, alternating phases of “bulking” (putting on muscle mass) and “cutting” (reducing body fat) is the primary way to improve your body as an advanced exerciser, and is the method used by all body builders, fitness models, celebrities, etc who are looking to significantly increase their size over a span of time.
Once your body adapts to the stresses of exercise (after approximately 6 months to a year of consistent training), your results come much slower than before, particularly in the area of lean mass gain. Continue Reading 8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #1 »
Why Should You Hire a Personal Trainer?
Anyone who reads my articles on a regular basis knows that I fully believe in sharing health and fitness information for free. Educating ourselves on healthy living habits is the only way to progress from the current epidemic we find ourselves in with regards to obesity. An astounding and scary statistic is that as of 2008, around 15% of children in the US have been diagnosed as being obese (which means VERY overweight), while almost 70% of adults are either overweight or obese! This means that people maintaining a healthy weight range are actually a minority in this country by quite a large margin. The only way to improve these statistics is to ensure that resources to assist folks in living healthy lives are readily-available to everyone.
That being said, ideas are only worth anything when they are implemented, and in terms of fitness this can often come down to making a decision to hire a professional to assist you. Continue Reading Why Should You Hire a Personal Trainer? »
The Road to 215, Week #12
I took a much-needed break from work last week (which included blogging) so my final write-up is a week later than it should be, but the good news is that the results of my bulk were pretty close to what I was originally shooting for. Since I still had some leeway as far as my body fat percentage was concerned, I decided to significantly increase my caloric intake for the second time since beginning my bulk.
At 4,000 calories per day, I was able to pack on quite a bit more mass per week than in previous weeks, and thanks to my intense lifting regimen, I was able to put a good portion of that weight gain towards lean mass. I ended my bulk only 3 lbs short of my original goal, both in terms of desired lean mass gained and desired total mass gained. Continue Reading The Road to 215, Week #12 »
February’s Recipes and Q & A Wrap-Up
Below you will find a list of all of the recipes and Q & A sessions from this past month’s newsletters. If you’d like to get these types of articles delivered to your email on a regular basis, please sign up for the Fit Facts Newsletter (and get a free e-report in the process!).
Continue Reading February’s Recipes and Q & A Wrap-Up »
Why You Need to Cheat on Your Diet!
Having a proper nutrition plan is paramount to achieving your goals with regards to body composition. Too often I see people fool themselves into thinking that they can get by with fitness alone—unfortunately, without a proper diet to both fuel your workouts and to either create a caloric deficit or surplus, depending on your goals, you’re just not going to get to where you want to be, period. However, when striving to reduce your level of body fat, I think cheating on your diet is necessary. You probably think that I am out of my mind to suggest this, but unless you’re preparing for a specific event such as a modeling shoot or body building competition and need to get to single digit body fat numbers, I insist that my previous statement holds true, and I’m going to explain why.
When I say cheating is necessary, I am not talking about “cheat weekends” or even “cheat days.” Continue Reading Why You Need to Cheat on Your Diet! »
January’s Recipes and Q & A Wrap-Up
Below you will find a list of all of the recipes and Q & A sessions from this past month’s newsletters. If you’d like to get these types of articles delivered to your email on a regular basis, please sign up for the Fit Facts Newsletter (and get a free e-report in the process!). Continue Reading January’s Recipes and Q & A Wrap-Up »
The Road to 215, Week #7
I’m sick! This last week I’ve come down with quite a cold, which is weird for me since I hardly ever get sick, and even when I do it rarely lasts for longer than one day. Nevertheless, I have been hacking and sniffling quite a bit for the last several days. My training has definitely suffered because of this, which has been reflected in my stats below. As you can see, I gained 2 lbs, which seems like a good thing, but if you look at my lean mass it has stayed the same, meaning 100% of my gain has been body fat.
Now, this makes sense if you think about it. I upped my calories last week because I wasn’t gaining any weight, so now I am on the right track as far as gaining ~2 lbs per week. That being said, without working out, my body has nowhere to utilize that energy and instead stores the excess as fat. Since I’ve been pretty sick, I only worked out hard two days last week, so most of the additional energy went to fat storage rather than muscle repair. Continue Reading The Road to 215, Week #7 »
The Road to 215, Week #6
This week was a little disappointing, as I’d only gained a pound since the previous week’s weigh-in towards my goal of 25 total lbs of weight gained in 12 weeks. Obviously, I need to average around 2 pounds per week in order to hit my goal, so each week that I fall behind means that much more weight I need to gain each week that’s still ahead. However, at least this situation has given me the perfect excuse to talk about the concept of strategy tweaking.
You can’t always plan a fitness strategy with 100% accuracy. The body isn’t completely predictable and besides the fact that everyone is different (meaning some tweaking will likely need to be done anyway, simply because the equations we use to calculate our calories are one-size-fits-all, which can be far from reality), our bodies actually behave differently from one day to the next. Something that worked for you in the past may or may not produce similar results in the future. Continue Reading The Road to 215, Week #6 »
The Road to 215, Week #5
Last week went pretty well as far as progress is concerned towards my goal of 25 total lbs of weight gained in 12 weeks. The previous week was a little rough with New Year’s (I took a 5-day vacation to Chicago which definitely complicated my diet and workout plans, although I still was able to work out on my trip and I made sure to watch my caloric intake as well as I could) but I was able to get right back on the grind starting the 3rd. My nutrition has been on point and I hit a few short-term lifting benchmarks this week.
I often hear trainers proclaim that you need to “confuse the muscle” in order to keep progressing. I completely disagree with this sentiment. Muscles don’t have brains, and therefore cannot be “confused.” While I agree that it can be more motivating and enjoyable if you switch up your workouts frequently, the only thing required for progression is a consistent increase in workout intensity—through either: Continue Reading The Road to 215, Week #5 »
December’s Recipes and Q & A Wrap-Up
Below you will find a list of all of the recipes and Q & A sessions from this past month’s newsletters. If you’d like to get these types of articles delivered to your email on a regular basis, please sign up for the Fit Facts Newsletter (and get a free e-report in the process!). Continue Reading December’s Recipes and Q & A Wrap-Up »