Healthy Eating to Support Strength Training

 

I promised a simple menu for a client that continues to work hard taking two steps forward at training but falls back three steps – thru her eating habits – and finds no gain is accomplished.

In fact, most of us struggle with the same issue. I encourage people to make a selection and commit to a nutritional support program that you can live with – daily – for at least two months and then stand back and see the results of your work. For example, my website provides a link to eDiets which provides an array of diet and nutrition choices. Pick one, sign up and work with it.

Alternatively, you can use my simple menu below. Simple, because it is void of a lot of choices; easy to remember and very basic.

Weigh yourself and mark the calendar. Follow this menu every day for two months. Email me and let me know how many pounds you lost as a result by sticking to the plan. If you incorporate a strength training and cardio/interval circuit workout, I will guarantee you will see a change in your body weight, a gain of muscle tone and loss of body fat.

Remember! This is an EVERY DAY Plan

Morning Meal -Small Bowl of Oatmeal - use cinnamon, cloves, raisins, etc to spice it up and keep it interesting. Do not use the instant pre-sweetened, sugary packets. Make it yourself from scratch! Coffee, Tea or Juice or your choice.

Yes, its a carb. Yes, you need the energy. Yes, it has fiber and will help keep your body regular and remove the cholesterol. My favorite is Quaker Oats 1-Minute Quick Oats with 4-5 slices of Turkey Bacon and a large cup of coffee.

Mid-Morning Meal – Egg Whites - whether scrambled, an omelet or boiled. Plan to eat 3-4 egg whites before 10am every morning. Whole wheat or grain toast or muffin is great. Make it interesting with peppers, onions, spinach, broccoli, feta cheese, whatever will help you to eat the clean protein. If you miss the oatmeal you better not miss this one. I eat some sort of Egg White Omelet every morning. An alternative would be an egg white smoothie! Yeech you say? Ok, then use a Ready-to-Drink Meal like, Muscle Milk Ready-to-Drink Meals (11 ounces = 220 caloriesp; 9g carb, 11g fat, 21g protein packed) . These can be found at TheVitaminShoppe.

Lunch – Healthy Protein (fish, chicken or beef) grilled or broiled (never fried) with colorful vegetables (green, orange, yellow, red, purple, get the picture, salad, broccoli, yams, carrots, corn, beets, squash, eggplant, etc.) No pasta, no rice, no potatoe, no bread. Have the veggies cooked, steamed, broiled or raw. Just eat them with the protein before 1:00pm.

Mid-Afternoon Meal – Protein Snack – No not a candy bar or cake or a cookie. Celery with Peanut Butter, Tuna with Celery, Apple with Peanut Butter, a Muscle Milk RTD, handful of nuts with a piece of fruit. Combine a Complex Carb with a protein and fat for a small snack. Because I am on the go, I tend to use the Muscle Milk drink or I grab an apple with a couple of spoons of peanut butter. Try it for 2 months and watch what happens. Let me hear from you!

Dinner – Healthy Protein with colorful vegetables. Same as lunch, just pick something different. No wine, no beer and no soda. Try Crystal Light or Green Tea flavored water. Dinner is best if it can happen between 5-7:00pm.

Evening Snack – Protein Snack – You guessed it, and RTD or a smoothie, a piece of cheese and a pear or apple. Keep it light and simple. You do not want a lot on your stomach while you are trying to let the body rest and recover for the evening. This shouldn’t be any later than 10:00pm.

Then get up in the morning and start all over again!

Come visit Gina at Fittron.com and enlist her services to help you on your journey towards a healthier and happier lifestyle.

http://fittron.com/gina_jackson_personal_fitness

Muscle Inferno: How many Calories is your Lean Mass Actually Burning?

If your answer is 30-50 extra Calories per pound of added muscle, you are … dead wrong! This muscle myth is a wide-spread and detrimental piece of misinformation; extra muscle mass will improve health, improve functional strength, and make you sizzle, but the amount of muscle gained through resistance training in the short term will not send the metabolism soaring.

A top notch article (1:Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol. 2004 Dec;18(6):1009-29) reviewed the impact of various kinds of exercise on weight loss and metabolism, which was compiled for the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). To write this kind of paper, the authors searched extensively for the relevant scientific research about a topic and then combine all the results statistically to draw a conclusion.

The article states that 1 kg of muscle mass burns an additional 25-50 calories; the high estimate would tranlate to an additional 11.4 Calories per pound of lean muscle mass added. Consequently, this value is very similar to a value of 13 Calories/pound that I determined by statistically analyzing the data from my lab at Baylor University. The most conservative estimate predicts that an extra pound of muscle burns only about 7 Calories/pound.

A value of 30-50 kcal/lb of lean muscle is unrealistic and untrue, though it is published a lot in popular media. Numbers this high do not make practical sense. For instance, suppose a typical male bobybuilder has 100 lbs of muscle mass (not including the bone, organs and other components of fat-free mass), the mythical numbers would suggest that his muscle alone is burning between 3000-5000 Calories a day. On top of that, organs burn far more Calories per pound than muscle, so based on popular dogma, the man above maybe about 6000 Calories/day. I’ve measure the metabolism of countless athetic men, and roughly 3000 total Calories per day would be high for an athletic man of this size.

When high values are provided in articles, they are not supported by scientific literature; however, articles that reference research always suggest lower number, which generally range between 5-15 Calories per pound of muscle. Another good article that addresses this topic is below:

http://www.optimalhealthpartner.com/Media/Myth%20of%20muscle%20as%20calorie%20burner.htm

Jean has more knowledge to bestow upon you. Come visit her on Fittron.com and live the healthy you’ve always wanted.

http://fittron.com/jean_jitomir_ms_rd

Short on Time, Long on Results

If you’re like most New Yorkers, you’re time-starved. The CME model (Cardiovascular, Muscle, Endurance) is great when you have less than an hour to get in a total body workout that builds strength and endurance while burning body fat.

My SLCC exercise (Squat, Lunge, Curl and Crunch) does all of this in 30 to 40 minutes.

Grab a pair of dumbbells. Hold them by your side, arms nice and straight. Feet, shoulder width apart.

1. Now, do a squat. As you come up, do a bicep curl with both arms. Hold those barbells at shoulder level.

2. Lunge back with one leg while lowering only your opposite arm. Raise that same arm back up to shoulder level as you lunge back up to starting position.

3. Now lunge back with your other leg, while lowering your opposite arm.

Raise that arm back up to shoulder level as you lunge back up to starting position.

Congratulations. You’ve just done one rep. Now, do four more to complete the set.

Do a set of pushups in between each set and end your workout with an abs burnout.

That’s it. In less than an hour you’ve worked your entire body and you’ve benefited your heart and lungs with some good cardiovascualar work. And – you’ve burned body fat.

Easy Day. Sidney Wilson.

Come check me out on Fittron.com and let’s get to work.

http://fittron.com/sidney_wilson

The Fittron Pro Page

Fittron.com has just added a new and exciting feature to our site: the Pro Page. The Fittron Pro Page is a forum where our professionals can write articles, upload instructional videos, pictures, diet plans, workout programs and more. All posts are free for browsers to view and benefit from.

Each Fittron professional has the ability to craft their own Pro Page. This page will be located on the professional’s Fittron profile. In addition to the information you’ve come to expect (rates, bio, certifications and more) you now have even greater access to the expertise of a Fittron professional. Our professionals will be uploading all sorts of nutritional articles and videos that you can take in for free. Let our professionals impress you with their fitness knowledge on their Pro Page. Once you read the articles and publications that are posted by our professionals, you’ll no doubt want to enlist their expertise in helping you reach your fitness goals.

Additionally, we will be “featuring” various Pro Page posts on our homepage. There is a “featured” Pro Page link that can be accessed by clicking on the yellow sunburst at Fittron.com. The posts that appear here have been selected by our staff as warranting “featured” status. All posts will be linked back the professionals profile page, so if you like one of our featured posts, follow up by clicking on the professionals profile and see what other helpful articles they have posted on their own Pro Page.

This Pro Page will be regularly updated, so be sure to check back everyday to see what new fitness tips you can gain from our qualified professionals. You can be sure you are getting expert advice, as only our certified professionals are allowed to post on Fittron’s Pro Pages.

Perhaps some of you thought that Fittron was a great idea, but you were not able to afford a fitness professional at this time. With our new Pro Page you can take advantage of our professionals EVERY day. Gain insight from their knowledge, check back to see what new tips they’ve posted, and benefit from a Fittron professional without actually working with one.

Fittron is growing and the Pro Pages are a new facet to the site that we are sure will be popular with users. Where else can you get expert advice like this? Only on Fittron. And if you don’t believe us, just come read some of the articles, and check out the profiles of the individuals who wrote them. You won’t find this collection of Fittron talent anywhere else:

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