From the ashes

[azraelsevaen]

All

Well, since the crash/malfunction cast all the great posts from yore into oblivion, this might help. A while back, I copied several posts, mostly by p.s. and muscle_n_blood, as well as material from replies to questions asked by forum members. I did this so I could have it handy as I set out to put together the basics of a lifting/diet plan. Much of it deals with nutrition, but also with lifting. The stuff isn't in any particular order, but given that the board at large and its knowledgeable verterans face the task of answering all kinds of questions all over again that were once stickied up for all to refer to, I figured this could help the rebuild.

The material was posted a couple years back, I think, so reading over it again might be good fodder for updates or the basis for a new forum sticky.

I have more training guides culled from the site in another computer that is currently not working. When I attempt to recover data from it's hard drives, I'm certain I'll find the stuff and I'll be sure to post it.

(Since the post is so large, I'll split it in two parts.)

-Mark

PART 1

Nurtrition by p.s. 
It's an absolutely unbreakable law of the universe: You can't get something for nothing. Your results will come in direct proportion to the amount of effort you put in. You can only reap what you sow.

. The most important element is to consume a meal every two hours. Bodybuilders have found this to be the most beneficial time period for maximum anabolic benefits while inhibiting fat storage. This can be extremely difficult at first. People that don’t eat a lot don’t get hungry. This is because the body is used to not having adequate nourishment. The body adapts to a diet higher in calories by burning more as energy, adding more muscle, and passing more out of the system as excrement. After the food is used up, bam, you’re hungry again. If you eat every two hours, I guarantee that your body will begin to let you know that you missed your meal. This is a sure sign that your body is adapting. You begin to get hungry every two hours because your body is running out of nourishment quicker because a) the body increases the metabolism and therefore more of that food is being burned as energy (thanks to the adaptive qualities of the thyroid gland and its release of T3) and b) because your intestinal muscles are allowing less time for foods to be absorbed. With nourishment like this you will turn into a walking anabolic inferno!

By a meal, I don’t mean a big six course meal, only a little snack or something just to say to your body, “here you go, here’s you some food.” Over time, your body will begin to cease fat storage. Your body will know that it has a steady feed of energy coming so what it doesn’t need, it will allow to pass out of the body as waste. You could actually have maybe 75% of your calories simply pass out of your body! In other words if you are burning 2500 calories a day, you could take in 10,000 calories and a lot of what your body doesn’t need for anabolism would simply pass out of your body!
This sounds too good to be true to most people but its what many physically fit people live by whether they consciously realize it or if they are just going along with what their bodies are telling them to do. Bodybuilders have to consume a gruesome amount of calories in order to obtain more muscle and in the process they actually signal to their bodies that food will always be there. Their bodies adapt to this eating style by storing a smaller percentage of that food as bodyfat. If your body doesn’t feel a need for body fat, it will not store it. You must remember that calorie intakes in extreme excess are not possible for everyone. This is due to a number of reasons.

Meals need to be kept small and divided up into no less than 6 meals a day. The more meals, the better off you are. The digestive system burns calories.
When you have food in your digestive system, you are burning many more calories (a relatively high percentage of those calories is from bodyfat) than if the digestive tract was sitting empty waiting a meal. Divide those meals up.


4.) The quality of a meal may affect how its calories are used. Fats are more likely to be stored as fat. Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen, and storage for protein is new muscle. The body hates to allow fats to pass freely out of the system as waste. But one should not totally avoid fat. Some fat is necessary in the diet. With fats kept as low as possible in a meal, the quality of the food that you eat is said to be high. It is imperative that excess fat be avoided like the plague. One must also remember not to avoid carbohydrates in their diets.

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Endomorph

Diet

Diet is the most important factor for endomorphs. Endomorphs are usually sensitive to carbohydrates. They hold a lot of water and hold on to muscle glycogen stores well. A few days of zero carbs will usually not hurt an endomorph. They may not even use all the glycogen stores from muscles during that time. While I do not recommend ever going to zero carbs, the point is that an endomorph can tolerate a much lower carb intake. An endomorph can go as long as seven days before depleting glycogen stores, and can refill them in just one day. Endomorphs respond well to high amounts of dietary fat. A cycled diet is ideal, where a low carbohydrate/high protein diet is adhered to for several days and then followed by a moderate carbohydrate/low fat day. An endomorph is better off not attempting to carb load due to their sensitivity to carbs.

Training

Endomorphs are better suited to short-term high intensity cardio of 15-25 minutes total duration, 5-6 times per week. Endo’s also respond better to multiple short sessions of hard cardio spread throughout the day. For example, 30 minutes of cardio for an endomorph would be more effective in burning fat by splitting the time into two 15 minute sessions or three 10 minute sessions, rather than one lasting 30 minutes. They are also better off cutting rest intervals in training and doing weight training in an aerobic manner. Cutting rest intervals to 20-30 seconds will burn a significant amount of body fat. It is difficult to overtrain an endomorph, so don’t worry about the short rest periods.
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some people have inherited a metabolism and body type that tends to favor fat storage. These people are called "endomorphs." Endomorphs may have a slower metabolism, they are often carbohydrate sensitive, they gain fat quickly when they eat poorly, they gain fat quickly if they don't exercise, and they may hold onto stored fat, even on a clean, low fat diet.

Weight loss is easier for some than for others and that doesn't seem fair. But that's the way life is. Life isn't fair. This simply means you're going to have to adjust your diet and training to fit your body type and metabolism.

You may have to work harder than other people. You may have to be more persistent than other people. You might need a stricter diet than other people. You might need to train harder than other people. You might have less margin for error (fewer cheat days).

The only question is: Are you willing to do what it takes for you?

I write and speak about the role of genetics in fitness a lot and the reason is because I'm sick and tired of hearing people using their "bad genetics" as an excuse for why they can't get in shape. As Richard Bach wrote, “Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.”

It's amazing what a human being can achieve when they have a crystal clear goal and they are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. Genetic limitations seem to evaporate.

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It is a flat out LIE to say "carbohydrates are fattening." What's fattening is eating more calories than your body can utilize at one time.

However, it's true that some people lose weight more quickly on a low carbohydrate diet (that's not the same thing as saying carbohydrates are fattening.) It's also true that almost every bodybuilder or fitness competitor uses some variation of the low carb diet to prepare for competitions.

But very low carb diets are not the ultimate answer to permanent weight loss. At worst they are unhealthy. At best they are a temporary tool that should only be used for short periods to achieve specific fat loss goals (preparing for bodybuilding competition, for example).

Even for people who respond well to less carbs and more protein, there are many drawbacks:

1) Very low carb diets are difficult to stick to. If you remove carbohydrates from your diet for a long period of time, you are setting yourself up for cravings and bingeing. The more you cut back the carbs, bigger the rebound will be when you put carbs back in. That's why 95% of people gain back all the weight they lose on a very low carb diet.

2) Very low carb diets are unbalanced and missing many nutrients. It's never healthy to remove entire food groups from your diet for a prolonged period of time. A healthy diet is one that has balance between protein, carbs and fats and includes a wide variety of foods, not an overemphasis on one food or food group.

3) Very low carb diets may be unhealthy. Many low carb diets like the anabolic diet or the Atkins diet, suggest eating large amounts of saturated fat. (no pancakes allowed, but bacon, sausage and whole eggs for breakfast are just fine). In the absence of carbohydrates you can eat fat with protein and still lose weight, but it's never smart to eat large amounts of saturated fat. If heart disease or health problems run in your family, you're asking for serious trouble.

4) Very low carb diets cause your energy levels to plummet. Not only will you feel tired and irritable without carbs, but it will also affect your training: Low carbs = low energy. Low energy = poor workouts. Poor workouts = poor results.

5) The weight loss on a very low carb diet can be deceiving. You will definitely lose weight if you don't eat carbs, but much of the weight will be muscle and water. Suppose you lose 5 lbs in one week on a low carb diet: That sounds impressive, but if one pound is fat, two pounds are water and two pounds are muscle, what good is that? Your goal should never be weight loss. Your goal should be to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week while maintaining your lean body mass.

Most people will lose fat simply by adding a regular exercise routine to their schedule and by "cleaning up" their diets. By "cleaning up" your diet, I mean that you have mastered all the nutritional basics like eating small frequent meals, controlling portion sizes, cutting down on saturated fats, avoiding sugar and junk foods, etc.

What I'm saying is that a low carb diet should be considered a "last resort." If you've already tried the conventional approach to dieting (which works for most people) then you might want to consider low carb diets as an alternative.

The conventional fat reducing diet looks something like this:

50-55% carbohydrates
30% protein
15-20% fat


If you choose the low carb approach to dieting, the best method is to decrease your carbohydrates moderately. Never cut your carbs out completely! It's not necessary, it's not healthy, it's hard to stick to and it's no fun! It's usually not wise to go to extremes in anything and this is as true for nutrition as with anything else in life: moderation is the key.

The "modified" low carb diet might look something like this:

40% carbohydrates
40% protein
20% fat


Competitive bodybuilders might decrease the carbohydrates to 25-30% of total daily calories, but only for short periods right before competitions. They may also zig-zag their carbohydrate intake so that they don't stay on low carbs all the time. Every few days or so, they have a high carb day.

My advice to you is forget about those diets that suggest you must go into ketosis or require you to limit your carbs to miniscule amounts, such as the common recommendation of 30 - 40 grams a day. Carb cutting, when taken to the extreme, will do more harm than good.

[azraelsevaen]

PART 2

The absolutely most important thing of any of this is I write down all weights and reps done from the working set on a notepad. So every time I go into the gym I have to continually look back and beat the previous times reps/weight or both. If I can't or I don't beat it, no matter if I love doing the exercise or not, I have to change to a new exercise. Believe me this adds a grave seriousness, a clutch performance or imperativeness to a workout! I have exercises I love to do and knowing I will lose them if I don't beat the previous stats sucks! But there is a method to this madness because when you get to that sticking point of strength (AND YOU WILL, THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN HACK SQUAT UP TO 50 PLATES A SIDE) that is when your muscle=strength gains will stop. At that point you must turn to a different exercise and then get brutally strong on that one. Then someday you will peak out on that one too. You can always come back to that loved exercise in the future and you'll start somewhat lower and build up to a peak again--and trust me that peak will be far more than the previous one. Some exercises you'll stay with and gain strength at for almost up to a year and some exercises you'll be at the limit in 4 weeks and lose them but its all in the plan. For example-- I love reverse grip bench presses, knowing that I have to beat 315 for 17 reps RP or else I have to change to maybe dips next time puts a serious sense of urgency into workouts. I either have to beat it by doing something to the effect of 320 for 15 RP or if I stick with 315, I have to get at least 19 reps RP or so. If I'm feeling crappy or having an off day I might give myself a little leeway and allow myself another go at it next time around but that's it. If I know ive plateaued out I MUST CHANGE THE EXERCISE. Thats the key to constant progression. The notepad is your intensity level, how badly you want to keep doing an exercise will be how hard you push to beat the previous. Looking at that piece of paper knowing what you have to do to beat it will bring out the best in you. Again, it's all in the plan to make you the strongest bodybuilder possible which will equal out into the biggest bodybuilder possible.

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IMO use a 5 day split and train only one major body part per workout. Keep the reps around 12 on most exercises and only go low rep 4-6 on one compound exercise for only a couple of sets. Do not be afraid to use a high number of sets, but don't use exercises that are copies of each other. Oh and quit with the supersets. You need to build at this point and supersets are not the best training method for this.

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If ya wanna look great, ya gotta eat great. Period. End of story.

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     Reply with quote
At home, you can eat only what is available. For your weight management program to be successful, you must master the art of low-fat shopping. If what you have in your refrigerator and cupboards is junk food, chances are you'll eat that in place of healthy, low-fat foods that satisfy and provide energy.

Before you head to the store, you should have a clear understanding of how to read labels so you can make the healthiest, wisest choices of foods you will enjoy. The following are key words for properly understanding food product labels:

· Serving size: The amount of food the information refers to.
· Servings per container: The number of servings in the entire product or package.
· Percent daily values: Shows how a food fits into an overall daily diet based on a daily intake of 2,000 calories.
· Calories: The total number of calories in one serving of this food.
· Calories from fat: The total number of calories from fat in one serving of this food.
· Total fat: The weight of fat (in grams) in one serving of this food.
· Saturated fat: The weight of saturated fat (in grams) in one serving of this food.
· Sodium: The weight of sodium (in milligrams) in one serving of this food.
· Protein: The weight of protein (in grams) in one serving of this food.
· Total carbohydrates: The weight of both complex and simple carbohydrates (in grams) in one serving of this food.
· Sugars: The weight of simple carbohydrates (in grams) in one serving of this food; to find out how many complex carbohydrates are in the food simply subtract sugars from total carbohydrates.

After you have a clear understanding of the key label words, there are five other important values you will want to consider before concluding that the food product is a healthy, low-fat food.

1. Check the List of Ingredients.
Ingredients are listed in descending order according to their quantity in that food. The first three or four ingredients listed usually make up most of the product. Keep in mind, however, that fat and sugar come in many different forms; even if they are not one of the first three ingredients, the food can still be very high in fat and/or sugar. Other "names" of fat include hydrogenated vegetable shortening, butter, margarine, oil (coconut, safflower, palm, etc.), lecithin, lard, and cream solids. Other names of sugars include fructose, honey, corn sweeteners, molasses, maltose, corn syrup, fructose, galactose, glucose, and dextrose. If only one of these names appears among the first few ingredients on the label, or if several of them are listed throughout the label, this food is likely to be high in fat or sugar.

2. Pay Attention to Total Fat and Saturated Fat.
When checking the label of a food, always check the line that reads "total fat." Most experts believe you should get no more than 25 percent of total daily calories from fat. For someone who weighs 160 pounds, that would be about 72 grams a day. So before purchasing any food, check the total fat to see if that product fits into your eating plan. Right below the "total fat" line is "saturated fat." Again, you want this number to be very low, since this type of fat is linked to obesity and heart disease. No more than 10 percent of your calories should come from saturated fats. For the average person, this is between 7-10 grams a day.

3. Figure Out the Percentage of Calories from Fat.
In addition to listing the ingredients, labels give you the information you need to determine the percentage of calories from fat in a specific food product. Knowing this is actually far more important than simply knowing the number of grams of fat in the food product. Just as you want less than 25 percent of your total daily calories to be from fat, you also want to try to eat foods that get less than 25 percent of their total calories from fat. Because a food product has a low number of fat grams, it is not necessarily a low-fat, healthy food.

Take, for example, a reduced-fat whipping cream. Many people assume that since this product only has 1.5 grams of fat per serving that it is a healthy dessert topping (often justifying double or triple the amount on their dessert). However, this product contains actually 45 percent fat. On the other hand, a common nutrition bar has 5 grams of fat per serving. Many dieters would not touch this product for fear of so much fat, when, in actuality, this product contains only 12 percent fat.

How can a food that only has 1.5 grams of fat per serving have a higher percentage of fat calories than a product that contains 5 grams of fat. It is quite simple: The whipped topping only contains 30 calories per serving whereas the nutrition bar contains 380. The nutrition bar is packed with protein and carbohydrates, giving the product a lot more nutritious food value and more calories. Since the whipped topping only contains 30 calories, it has very little nutritional value and quite a bit of fat relative to the total volume of food and calories. When checking labels, be sure to figure out the percentage of fat calories in addition to the number of fat grams.

To determine the percentage of calories from fat of a food product, look for two important numbers: calories per serving and total grams of fat per serving. Since you want to know what percentage of the total calories are fat calories, you must first convert the grams of fat into calories. Remember, there are 9 calories per gram of fat.

To calculate the fat percentage of the food: a) Multiply the number of grams of fat by the number 9 (9 calories per gram of fat).
b) Divide this number by the total calories per serving.
c) The result is the percentage of fat calories (should be less than 25).

4. Pay Attention to Serving Size.
When you see that your favorite frozen yogurt only has 4 grams of fat per serving, be sure to check the serving size. The FDA has decided that a single serving of yogurt is only 1/2 cup. Most people eat at least 1 1/2 cups of their favorite yogurt or ice cream and thus in this example, eat 12 grams of fat. Before you buy any food, multiply a realistic serving size times the total grams of fat. If the food comes up high in fat, you may want to either limit the serving size or purchase something else.

5. Pay Attention to Fiber.
Move down the label until you come to "dietary fiber." Fiber is very beneficial to the human diet. A diet rich in fiber promotes fat loss when these high-fiber foods replace fats and sweets. This is possible because fibrous foods offer fewer calories per gram (4 calories/gram) than fat (9 calories/gram) are not easily converted to fat, and have the ability to expand up to 10 times their weight and size in the stomach. Thus, fiber makes us feel fuller and satisfied for a longer time. Fiber can give you an edge on weight management not only by satisfying your appetite, but also by slowing down calorie absorption and sustaining your energy levels. In addition, a high-fiber diet helps prevent hemorrhoids, diarrhea, appendicitis, and colon cancer. Fiber also helps lower cholesterol levels, decreasing the risk of heart disease. Most experts recommend that you get at least 25-30 grams of fiber a day. Therefore, when reading labels, remember, higher is always better.

Of course, not everything you'll want to eat or drink will be labeled. For example, nutrition labeling for many foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables or fresh meat, poultry and fish is voluntary. And labeling on packaged foods under 12 square inches, such as miniature candy bars, is also voluntary. Remember, you are not counting and figuring out the fat percentage to decide if you should eat that food, but rather to learn from experience and become a more conscious eater. The more you practice and experience, the more you will learn and the easier it will be to gradually modify and decrease the fat in your foods.

In addition to having a clear understanding of a product's nutrition label, you should also understand exactly what the different health claims on products mean. The following is a list of health claims that are often misinterpreted by consumers:
· Free: Example: fat-free. This means that the food product has so little of the nutrient in it that it would not even show up on your dietary screen (usually less than .5 gram/serving).
· Low: Example: low-calorie or low-fat. This means that the food product does not have much of a certain nutrient, but it has enough to make a difference in your diet. Specifically, low-fat means 3 grams or less of total fat; low-saturated fat means one gram or less; low-cholesterol means less than 20 milligrams; and low-calorie means 40 calories or fewer per serving.
· Lean: This term refers to meat. Lean means one serving has less than 10 grams of total fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol.
· Extra lean: This term also refers to meat. This means that one serving has less than 5 grams of total fat and 2 grams of saturated fat.
· Less: This means there is 25 percent less of a certain ingredient or nutrient as compared to a similar product.
· Reduced: This means the product was nutritionally altered to meet a health claim.

The way to lower fat in your diet and making healthier changes is to become a fat-conscious eater--and this requires that you understand labels and know the amount of fat in each food. However, instead of counting fat grams and deciding if it is a "good food" or a "bad food," try to balance the foods you are eating so that you average 25 percent or less of your total calories from fat each day. What's crucial is to learn how to make small healthier changes. Consume fat in moderation by balancing higher fat foods with lower fat foods. I hope this helps. Good luck and enjoy your new, healthier lifestyle.
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Hardbody it's great that you're doing research as most people just don't bother, but don't believe everything you read from DRs. I suggest that you try a few different diet configurations to see what works best for you. Over the last 27 years I have found that overly high carb intake is counter productive to muscle growth, energy out put, and BF accumulation is high. For me and most people I've assisted the better ratio is 60% protein, 25% fats (EFAs), and about 15% carbs, as this allows for a steady energy output (no blood sugar spikes), consitant BF loss (if that's the goal), and a solid maintainance of strength and muscle mass.

Remember we (as humans) are designed for protein and fat consumption and minimal carb intake, and this isn't going to change much in the mere 10,000 years we've been farming etc. We're hunter/gatherers first and foremost, and that means a very high protein/fat ratio is what we are designed for. p.s.

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musce n blood
As someone who has been involved in strength training and conditioning for over 30 years, not only as a casual fitness/lifting enthusiast but as a competitor and trainer, I have experienced and observed a lot. One rule is that there is no hard and fast rule. Not everyone responds to the same regimen, be it training or diet. To state that any and everyone can make maximum gains from any particular diet or training program is simply incorrect. People's bodies are different, and we all have to experiment and see what our bodies respond to best, regardless of what reaserch may indicate. While research gives solid baselines and starting points, we must be flexible in our quest to find the optimum diet and training program to meet our current goals. For example:

I eat quite a bit of  protein. I don't sell protein, and I wouldn't buy supplemental protein but for one fact... I am bigger and stronger when I consume more, and this was as true when I was natural as it is as an enhanced lifter. I don't think this. I don't believe this. I know this from many years experience. On the other hand, I don't eat as much as some. I usually eat/drink an average of 350 gms a day, which is on the light side for a bodybuilder of my size.

I agree that carbs are the best energy source FOR ME. If I don't get enough carbs, I don't have energy to brush my teeth, no matter how much EFA's or protein I consume. If I'm not cutting, I get about the same grams of carbs daily that I do protein. I function quite well on that, adding EFA's for general health.

Not true for everyone. Some get best results from much higher quantities of protein, and getting most of their energy from fats. These are not sheep following the instructions of an advertisement. I'm talking about very advanced athletes. They do what works for them, based on experience, and what all they have observed in others over many years of consistent training and eating.

Ultimately, the optimum diet and training regimen must be based on results, not advertising or research.

[BEEF]

Absoloutely fantastic, good job mate.