Post: #376

Quote:If all else fails, pretend that you are in nazi concentration camp, eat only one bowl of soup per day. The belly will be gone within a month!

I like this one though I don´t want to look like one them. I think their lifting numbers were quite bad.

Maybe I will experiment with some food as Giovanny works so hard to motivate us. Thanks man.

Post: #377

I recently lost 11kg in around 3.5 months using a ketogenic cyclical diet. I already wrote about it in another thread, but I'll summarize again here for those that are interested.

Result:

Went from 20% bf to around 10% - from having a slight belly to visible abs.

What I did:

- Ate one meal a day of meat on-the-bone during lunchtime. Continued until I felt satisfied but didn't count calories at all. Occasionally two meals when extra hungry.
- Low carb, low sugar protein shakes for rest of day to preserve muscle.
- Drank 1-2 soup stocks to keep salt levels up (this is important and often lacking in keto diets - you feel like shit without it).
- One or two days a week that were total fasts. Just protein and stocks for the whole day. This part sucks but boy does it burn the fat! Easier to do at a high bf% as your body has more fat to use.
- Carb refeed one day per week.
- Gym 5-6 days per week. No cardio per se. Instead took rest periods of only 30-60 seconds between heavy sets.

There are many ways to skin a cat. At the end of the day, you need to put yourself in a calorific deficit, but I personally found that the cyclical keto diet was the easiest for me as:

1. I like meat.
2. You feel satiated after the meals.
3. This diet supports heavy training.
4. The carb refeed gives you something to look forward to. Cutting out all carbs forever is too bleak and unrealistic.
5. The high protein content keeps up your test levels. You feel like a beast eating this.
6. You don't need to go ultra-strict all the time. I would often break the diet for social occasions and eat carbs. As long as you are following the regime when alone, the occasional cheat is really a non-issue.

Post: #378

(07-22-2014 02:09 AM)dreambig Wrote:  I recently lost 11kg in around 3.5 months using a ketogenic cyclical diet. I already wrote about it in another thread, but I'll summarize again here for those that are interested.

Result:

Went from 20% bf to around 10% - from having a slight belly to visible abs.

What I did:

- Ate one meal a day of meat on-the-bone during lunchtime. Continued until I felt satisfied but didn't count calories at all. Occasionally two meals when extra hungry.
- Low carb, low sugar protein shakes for rest of day to preserve muscle.
- Drank 1-2 soup stocks to keep salt levels up (this is important and often lacking in keto diets - you feel like shit without it).
- One or two days a week that were total fasts. Just protein and stocks for the whole day. This part sucks but boy does it burn the fat! Easier to do at a high bf% as your body has more fat to use.
- Carb refeed one day per week.
- Gym 5-6 days per week. No cardio per se. Instead took rest periods of only 30-60 seconds between heavy sets.

There are many ways to skin a cat. At the end of the day, you need to put yourself in a calorific deficit, but I personally found that the cyclical keto diet was the easiest for me as:

1. I like meat.
2. You feel satiated after the meals.
3. This diet supports heavy training.
4. The carb refeed gives you something to look forward to. Cutting out all carbs forever is too bleak and unrealistic.
5. The high protein content keeps up your test levels. You feel like a beast eating this.
6. You don't need to go ultra-strict all the time. I would often break the diet for social occasions and eat carbs. As long as you are following the regime when alone, the occasional cheat is really a non-issue.

Thanks for the breakdown. Sounds like a pretty decent and manageable plan, at least over the short-term. I have a few questions.

1) what's your age, more or less? 20s, 30s, 40s?

2) Can you describe what you mean by "soup stocks?" Were those "soup stocks" homemade or from a package? Some package stocks have msg, so may need to be careful with some of them.

3) how long were your workouts? I generally try to make my workouts between 30 to 60 minutes, yet sometimes my recreational activity substitution workouts tend to be longer (like 90 minutes to 3 hours) and less intense.

4) What do you plan to do with your eating pattern going forward? Are you going to modify your diet from the current plan, stick with this current plan or go back to some variation of what you were doing previously? A lot of diet modifications can achieve positive results in the short-term, yet a real test remains whether the eating modification is sustainable over several years.

Post: #379

(07-22-2014 02:09 AM)dreambig Wrote:  I recently lost 11kg in around 3.5 months using a ketogenic cyclical diet. I already wrote about it in another thread, but I'll summarize again here for those that are interested.

Result:

Went from 20% bf to around 10% - from having a slight belly to visible abs.

What I did:

- Ate one meal a day of meat on-the-bone during lunchtime. Continued until I felt satisfied but didn't count calories at all. Occasionally two meals when extra hungry.
- Low carb, low sugar protein shakes for rest of day to preserve muscle.
- Drank 1-2 soup stocks to keep salt levels up (this is important and often lacking in keto diets - you feel like shit without it).
- One or two days a week that were total fasts. Just protein and stocks for the whole day. This part sucks but boy does it burn the fat! Easier to do at a high bf% as your body has more fat to use.
- Carb refeed one day per week.
- Gym 5-6 days per week. No cardio per se. Instead took rest periods of only 30-60 seconds between heavy sets.

There are many ways to skin a cat. At the end of the day, you need to put yourself in a calorific deficit, but I personally found that the cyclical keto diet was the easiest for me as:

1. I like meat.
2. You feel satiated after the meals.
3. This diet supports heavy training.
4. The carb refeed gives you something to look forward to. Cutting out all carbs forever is too bleak and unrealistic.
5. The high protein content keeps up your test levels. You feel like a beast eating this.
6. You don't need to go ultra-strict all the time. I would often break the diet for social occasions and eat carbs. As long as you are following the regime when alone, the occasional cheat is really a non-issue.

Hey,

Interesting post. This time last year, I was about 165 lbs with with a body fat level around 15% if I had to guess. I "bulked" in a classic style all winter long. I got a lot stronger and my lifts went up quite nicely. I ended up at 177 lbs. I definitely built muscle but I also just got fat. My pants have always been 30 or 31 and none of them fit me any longer.

About a month ago, I hurt my shoulder in a mountain biking accident and haven't been able to workout. Knowing this, I cut my calories wayyy back and basically have been eating meat and salad twice a day. In the last month, I've dropped from ~175 to 165 with zero effort. I have not exercised once in the last month. My pants all fit again and my abs are starting to show.

I want to start working out again because my shoulder is starting to feel better. This time, I want to do it properly. I sit at a computer all day so I can't bulk on a standard bodybuilding diet consisting of 6 meals a day with carbs; I just get fat doing that.

How were your workouts on this sort of diet?

Post: #380

(07-22-2014 11:25 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  1) what's your age, more or less? 20s, 30s, 40s?

Late 20s.

(07-22-2014 11:25 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  2) Can you describe what you mean by "soup stocks?" Were those "soup stocks" homemade or from a package? Some package stocks have msg, so may need to be careful with some of them.

They are pre-packaged bouillon soups sold by Knorr. It would be better to make the broths yourself but I was being lazy.

(07-22-2014 11:25 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  3) how long were your workouts? I generally try to make my workouts between 30 to 60 minutes, yet sometimes my recreational activity substitution workouts tend to be longer (like 90 minutes to 3 hours) and less intense.

Same. I usually try to make them 60 minutes max, although I went over this several times (busy times waiting for bench etc) and was fine.

During the weeks where I carbed up more, I had a lot of energy in the gym. That said, there is an adjustment period of 7-10 days where you feel weak. This is the same for all keto diets and it goes away. After this adjustment, the general rule for me worked this way:

Higher carb up = More energy in gym but less weight loss.
Lower carb up = More weight loss over week but less energy for exercise.

You obviously want the balance to be somewhere in between the two. I found that experimenting with quantity of carb refeed was the best way to go.

(07-22-2014 11:25 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  4) What do you plan to do with your eating pattern going forward? Are you going to modify your diet from the current plan, stick with this current plan or go back to some variation of what you were doing previously? A lot of diet modifications can achieve positive results in the short-term, yet a real test remains whether the eating modification is sustainable over several years.

I will stick to the main plan of keto during weekdays with some modifications:

1. No more total one day fasts. Unpleasant as they are, complete fasts are no longer necessary once you are lean enough.
2. More days with 2 low carb meals (instead of 1). As my bf% falls, I am getting much hungrier. It's important to listen to your body so this will be played by ear. If I'm hungry at night I will have that second meal. If not, I will go to bed on an empty stomach. Either way, it's extremely difficult to gain weight eating meat alone.
3. Carb refeed may extend into the whole weekend. I haven't tried this yet so it will require some experimentation.
4. Going forward, the goal will change from losing weight to adding strength in the gym, while staying around this bf%. It's going to be interesting to see what happens!

(07-22-2014 01:42 PM)cmrocks Wrote:  Interesting post. This time last year, I was about 165 lbs with with a body fat level around 15% if I had to guess. I "bulked" in a classic style all winter long. I got a lot stronger and my lifts went up quite nicely. I ended up at 177 lbs. I definitely built muscle but I also just got fat. My pants have always been 30 or 31 and none of them fit me any longer.

About a month ago, I hurt my shoulder in a mountain biking accident and haven't been able to workout. Knowing this, I cut my calories wayyy back and basically have been eating meat and salad twice a day. In the last month, I've dropped from ~175 to 165 with zero effort. I have not exercised once in the last month. My pants all fit again and my abs are starting to show.

I want to start working out again because my shoulder is starting to feel better. This time, I want to do it properly. I sit at a computer all day so I can't bulk on a standard bodybuilding diet consisting of 6 meals a day with carbs; I just get fat doing that.

How were your workouts on this sort of diet?

Sounds like you are in a better place than I was. Being my first bulk, I went a bit overboard and gained more fat than was necessary.

My workouts were a mix of the basic compounds: squat, deadlift, bench, overhead, power clean as well as curls, pullups, dips etc.

I'd generally pick 2 compounds I felt like doing and do a top set of 5 for each exercise. When I was adjusting to low carb, the tiredness was bad so I sometimes did just one exercise. Luckily, the body adjusts and the bouillon soups help too.

I have since changed over to hitting tons of singles and doubles at 90%+ of my 1RM as my body seems to respond better to this.

Post: #381

(07-22-2014 08:14 PM)dreambig Wrote:  

(07-22-2014 11:25 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  1) what's your age, more or less? 20s, 30s, 40s?

Late 20s.

(07-22-2014 11:25 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  2) Can you describe what you mean by "soup stocks?" Were those "soup stocks" homemade or from a package? Some package stocks have msg, so may need to be careful with some of them.

They are pre-packaged bouillon soups sold by Knorr. It would be better to make the broths yourself but I was being lazy.

(07-22-2014 11:25 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  3) how long were your workouts? I generally try to make my workouts between 30 to 60 minutes, yet sometimes my recreational activity substitution workouts tend to be longer (like 90 minutes to 3 hours) and less intense.

Same. I usually try to make them 60 minutes max, although I went over this several times (busy times waiting for bench etc) and was fine.

During the weeks where I carbed up more, I had a lot of energy in the gym. That said, there is an adjustment period of 7-10 days where you feel weak. This is the same for all keto diets and it goes away. After this adjustment, the general rule for me worked this way:

Higher carb up = More energy in gym but less weight loss.
Lower carb up = More weight loss over week but less energy for exercise.

You obviously want the balance to be somewhere in between the two. I found that experimenting with quantity of carb refeed was the best way to go.

(07-22-2014 11:25 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  4) What do you plan to do with your eating pattern going forward? Are you going to modify your diet from the current plan, stick with this current plan or go back to some variation of what you were doing previously? A lot of diet modifications can achieve positive results in the short-term, yet a real test remains whether the eating modification is sustainable over several years.

I will stick to the main plan of keto during weekdays with some modifications:

1. No more total one day fasts. Unpleasant as they are, complete fasts are no longer necessary once you are lean enough.
2. More days with 2 low carb meals (instead of 1). As my bf% falls, I am getting much hungrier. It's important to listen to your body so this will be played by ear. If I'm hungry at night I will have that second meal. If not, I will go to bed on an empty stomach. Either way, it's extremely difficult to gain weight eating meat alone.
3. Carb refeed may extend into the whole weekend. I haven't tried this yet so it will require some experimentation.
4. Going forward, the goal will change from losing weight to adding strength in the gym, while staying around this bf%. It's going to be interesting to see what happens!

(07-22-2014 01:42 PM)cmrocks Wrote:  Interesting post. This time last year, I was about 165 lbs with with a body fat level around 15% if I had to guess. I "bulked" in a classic style all winter long. I got a lot stronger and my lifts went up quite nicely. I ended up at 177 lbs. I definitely built muscle but I also just got fat. My pants have always been 30 or 31 and none of them fit me any longer.

About a month ago, I hurt my shoulder in a mountain biking accident and haven't been able to workout. Knowing this, I cut my calories wayyy back and basically have been eating meat and salad twice a day. In the last month, I've dropped from ~175 to 165 with zero effort. I have not exercised once in the last month. My pants all fit again and my abs are starting to show.

I want to start working out again because my shoulder is starting to feel better. This time, I want to do it properly. I sit at a computer all day so I can't bulk on a standard bodybuilding diet consisting of 6 meals a day with carbs; I just get fat doing that.

How were your workouts on this sort of diet?

Sounds like you are in a better place than I was. Being my first bulk, I went a bit overboard and gained more fat than was necessary.

My workouts were a mix of the basic compounds: squat, deadlift, bench, overhead, power clean as well as curls, pullups, dips etc.

I'd generally pick 2 compounds I felt like doing and do a top set of 5 for each exercise. When I was adjusting to low carb, the tiredness was bad so I sometimes did just one exercise. Luckily, the body adjusts and the bouillon soups help too.

I have since changed over to hitting tons of singles and doubles at 90%+ of my 1RM as my body seems to respond better to this.

Thanks a lot for your additional responses. I agree with a lot of what you are saying in your various explanations.

It seems important that you are monitoring how your body responds to various changes in your diet or your activities, which will likely put you ahead of a lot of guys.

Further as you age, you may find that your tolerance to carbs may become a little more sensitive, and with anyone there can be a tendency towards carb creep. I recall that I did NOT really eat too many sweet foods in my 20s; however, my sweet tooth sort of evolved, and thereafter, I made a fairly drastic adjustment to cut out many processed foods, even though from time to time, I still indulge.

Post: #382

(07-22-2014 01:48 AM)Bill Wrote:  Giovanny works so hard to motivate us. Thanks man.

You're welcome.

I want to say something..

Losing a belly is not easy.

I probably make it sound easy but, I know that it isn't.

It took me many years to learn how to control my body.

---

That said, losing a belly is easy, in theory.

Just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

I really is that simple, in theory.

Putting that theory into reality is the hard part.

Our eating habits are ingrained since childhood, our genetics limit us before we even start, our exercise habits are ingrained from a young age, our parents brainwash us in unhealthy ways, the amount of misinformation and bullshit is staggering, marketers appeal to our emotions, etc.

Losing our belly often means that we must rewire our own brain!

That is how deep this stuff goes!

We eat to ease pain
We eat for emotional relief.
We eat for pleasure.
We eat because life is hard.

No one wants to be fat, yet, most people are?!?!?

Often times, I think the root cause is emotional baggage.

In order to lose weight and get quality pussy, we often must fix ourselves at the deepest levels.

Childhood issues often come back to haunt us. These issues can can back in the form of low self worth, lack of motivation, feeling of inadequacy and inferiority, etc.

Don't ignore these things in your pursuit of a better body.

The healthier I am emotionally and psychologically, the easier it is for me to control what I eat.

Post: #383

(07-28-2014 03:09 PM)Giovonny Wrote:  

(07-22-2014 01:48 AM)Bill Wrote:  Giovanny works so hard to motivate us. Thanks man.

You're welcome.

I want to say something..

Losing a belly is not easy.

I probably make it sound easy but, I know that it isn't.

It took me many years to learn how to control my body.

---

That said, losing a belly is easy, in theory.

Just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

I really is that simple, in theory.

Putting that theory into reality is the hard part.

Our eating habits are ingrained since childhood, our genetics limit us before we even start, our exercise habits are ingrained from a young age, our parents brainwash us in unhealthy ways, the amount of misinformation and bullshit is staggering, marketers appeal to our emotions, etc.

Losing our belly often means that we must rewire our own brain!

That is how deep this stuff goes!

We eat to ease pain
We eat for emotional relief.
We eat for pleasure.
We eat because life is hard.

No one wants to be fat, yet, most people are?!?!?

Often times, I think the root cause is emotional baggage.

In order to lose weight and get quality pussy, we often must fix ourselves at the deepest levels.

Childhood issues often come back to haunt us. These issues can can back in the form of low self worth, lack of motivation, feeling of inadequacy and inferiority, etc.

Don't ignore these things in your pursuit of a better body.

The healthier I am emotionally and psychologically, the easier it is for me to control what I eat.

Yes true the factor stress is also very important. But you know life always brings some stress and fighting it is a constant battle.

But I like what you are saying. In other words one could say losing belly could be an indicator of being emotionally and pychologically healthy. I don´t know if it´s mostly true but it sounds quite good and motivating. Specially for us older guys.

Having fat and belly is kind of clutter in the room. One likes to procrastinate it because one has not the psychological energy to deal with it.

Time for a blog Gio. First post should be about approching. Second one about losing belly.

Name of the blog could be: Zen-Pua though you need something else as I found it already exists.

Post: #384

I don´t know if this was already talked about but I find it quite interesting:

Quote: Fat cells (adipocytes) are like little bags. The more fat you put in the bags, the bigger they get. However, the bags can only hold so much fat. Your body is a fantastic storage machine, though, and when you overeat for a significant period of time, it responds by increasing the number of fat cells.

This is where the problem lies. The more fat cells you have, the easier it is for your body to store fat. And while you can make the existing fat cells smaller by emptying their fat contents, it's impossible to remove fat cells without surgery.

Chew on that for a second: Your body can add fat cells, but it can't remove them. So by adding new fat cells to your body, you're actually making it better at gaining body fat and worse at losing it! This phenomenon is called adipocyte hyperplasia, and it's a major reason why lean people have an easier time staying lean, and why fatter people seem to fight a losing battle. An all-out bulking approach over an extended period of time, threatens everything you've worked hard to create.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/5-ways-t...-bulk.html

Post: #385

(08-10-2014 02:46 PM)Bill Wrote:  I don´t know if this was already talked about but I find it quite interesting:

Quote: Fat cells (adipocytes) are like little bags. The more fat you put in the bags, the bigger they get. However, the bags can only hold so much fat. Your body is a fantastic storage machine, though, and when you overeat for a significant period of time, it responds by increasing the number of fat cells.

This is where the problem lies. The more fat cells you have, the easier it is for your body to store fat. And while you can make the existing fat cells smaller by emptying their fat contents, it's impossible to remove fat cells without surgery.

Chew on that for a second: Your body can add fat cells, but it can't remove them. So by adding new fat cells to your body, you're actually making it better at gaining body fat and worse at losing it! This phenomenon is called adipocyte hyperplasia, and it's a major reason why lean people have an easier time staying lean, and why fatter people seem to fight a losing battle. An all-out bulking approach over an extended period of time, threatens everything you've worked hard to create.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/5-ways-t...-bulk.html

Personally, I believe that the number of fat cells theory leads to a sort of fatalistic thinking about your weight... and plays too much into various incorrect mainstream dogmas.

I think a better discussion of the body weight obstacles situation relates to body weight set-points, which accordingly describes obstacles to coming back to lower weights. Maybe each of the theories (fat cells and set points) get to the same results... but the set point theory sits better with my current thinking.

Through this interview, Chris Kresser has several good discussion points of body weight set points that make sense to me.

http://chriskresser.com/why-its-so-hard-...eep-it-off

Post: #386

(08-10-2014 03:03 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(08-10-2014 02:46 PM)Bill Wrote:  I don´t know if this was already talked about but I find it quite interesting:

Quote: Fat cells (adipocytes) are like little bags. The more fat you put in the bags, the bigger they get. However, the bags can only hold so much fat. Your body is a fantastic storage machine, though, and when you overeat for a significant period of time, it responds by increasing the number of fat cells.

This is where the problem lies. The more fat cells you have, the easier it is for your body to store fat. And while you can make the existing fat cells smaller by emptying their fat contents, it's impossible to remove fat cells without surgery.

Chew on that for a second: Your body can add fat cells, but it can't remove them. So by adding new fat cells to your body, you're actually making it better at gaining body fat and worse at losing it! This phenomenon is called adipocyte hyperplasia, and it's a major reason why lean people have an easier time staying lean, and why fatter people seem to fight a losing battle. An all-out bulking approach over an extended period of time, threatens everything you've worked hard to create.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/5-ways-t...-bulk.html

Personally, I believe that the number of fat cells theory leads to a sort of fatalistic thinking about your weight... and plays too much into various incorrect mainstream dogmas.

I think a better discussion of the body weight obstacles situation relates to body weight set-points, which accordingly describes obstacles to coming back to lower weights. Maybe each of the theories (fat cells and set points) get to the same results... but the set point theory sits better with my current thinking.

Through this interview, Chris Kresser has several good discussion points of body weight set points that make sense to me.

http://chriskresser.com/why-its-so-hard-...eep-it-off

I think you are discussing general weight loss. I think with the right mindset it is quite doable specially when you are in a low stress environment. Lately I had no problem at all with losing weight.

But the fet cell theory though I don´t know if it´s not already a fact as it might be easy to measure, might be more important for the belly problem as it´s the main part of the body where fat is stored.

But I might be wrong as there are guys who were fat like Sly for a special movie and got a six pack afterwards though he is on T. so it might be a different matter.

Looks like the main thing ist to train very hard to stimulate the body somehow to make more muscle and burn fat.

By the way I would like to hear Gio´s opinion on taking testosterone.

Post: #387

I've heard the fat cell theory before, but I have trouble substantiating it with scientific articles. Can anyone post links to research that supports it?

Post: #388

Because of this thread, I have been eating really clean this summer.

I am trying to remove all of my excess belly fat. It's not easy!

Last night, I wanted to eat light, I didn't want anything heavy.

I didn't know what the fuck to eat..? I wanted something that was "6-pack friendly".

I went to the store and bought:

1 head of lettuce
1 tomato
1 avocado
1 cucumber

I chopped these up and added:

1 hard boiled egg
1 handful of walnuts

Drizzled in a little olive oil and vinegar.

And, a handful a chopped tofu.

I think tofu is okay for men to eat but I'm not totally sure?

Any how,

The salad was great. I also had a protein shake before bed and a peach.

This was a great dinner for my belly. It looks smaller already.

I'm trying to eat my meat and other heavy food during the day. At night, I try to just eat vegetables and other "light", "soft", easily digested food. (beans, yams, eggs, salads, fish, etc)

Absolutely, no carbs at night!

Well, very little carbs at night.

I eat a lot throughout the day so that I am not very hungry at night.

This strategy has helped my belly.

(08-12-2014 02:11 AM)Bill Wrote:  By the way I would like to hear Gio´s opinion on taking testosterone.

I have never taken testosterone.

I am very curious about it.

I am interested in trying it.

But, first, I want to know if there are any side effects?

And, have any forum members experienced any side effects.

So, I am still in the research stage.

If dozens of people tell me that they have used it and not experienced any negative side effects, then, I will probably try it.

But, I need that information first.

I'm not interested in using it until I am in my 40s, so, I have a few years left to investigate.

Most guys I talk to have had good results form it, so, I wouldn't be surprised if I started using it in a few years.

But, I need to finish my research first.

Post: #389

Been eating clean and on a good cut for the past few weeks. Noticed a relatively reasonable weight loss of ~1lb/week but it should have been higher based on my calorie counting. Then all of a sudden I lost 4 lbs over the past 3 days and my waist measurement went down by 2 inches in the past week. Haven't really changed anything recently so not sure what caused it.

Post: #390

(06-28-2014 12:32 PM)JayMillz Wrote:  This dude is pretty lean for an older cat. What would you say his bodyfat % is?

incredible build for any age
would guess 8-12%

Post: #391

Dr. Mercola just published a new article on intermittent fasting. This particular option involves fasting only two of seven days per week. Fasting involves reducing caloric intake to 600 calories on those two days (i.e., about one-quarter of normal caloric intake). Of course, changing your eating habits is also highly suggested.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articl...cise.aspx?


A Google search will produce many other articles that he has written on the topic, including "The Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting":

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness...sting.aspx

Post: #392

This thread has done a lot to enhance my life.

My body looks better than it has in years! Because of improved diet and more focused exercise.

Lately, my diet has been:

8am: oatmeal with blueberries and protein powder
10am: protein shake (frozen bananas, walnuts, dates, protein powder, water)
12pm: eggs with tomato, onion, garlic, spinach, corn tortillas, potatoes
2pm: green shake (frozen berries with greens, water)
4pm: chicken or fish with vegetables/salad
6pm: chicken or fish with vegetables/salad

At night, I try not to eat, but, if I must eat, I try to only have fruit.

Cutting out everything except for lean meat and vegetables at night has done wonders for my stomach.

Being in good shape does a lot for my confidence.

***

Learning how to cook fish has helped me remove a lot of belly fat.

It's so simple:

Wrap it in foil and throw it in the oven for 10 minutes! Duh!

I squeeze lots of lemon all over my fish.

***

Once a week, usually on Saturday night, I eat whatever I want. Lately, that has been a double bacon cheeseburger with fries. If I don't do that than I might make some chocolate chip cookies. If I eat good on Saturday, than I might get up Sunday and go out for an omlette and some pancakes or donuts. I try to limit this glutenous eating to only once per week.


That said, as I have eaten cleaner, my cravings for junk food has greatly decreased.

I don't want the "love handles" and fat around my stomach, it's not worth it.

As we get into our 30s and 40s, food becomes the designer of our body.

Post: #393

(08-25-2014 07:13 PM)Giovonny Wrote:  This thread has done a lot to enhance my life.

My body looks better than it has in years! Because of improved diet and more focused exercise.

Lately, my diet has been:

8am: oatmeal with blueberries and protein powder
10am: protein shake (frozen bananas, walnuts, dates, protein powder, water)
12pm: eggs with tomato, onion, garlic, spinach, corn tortillas, potatoes
2pm: green shake (frozen berries with greens, water)
4pm: chicken or fish with vegetables/salad
6pm: chicken or fish with vegetables/salad

At night, I try not to eat, but, if I must eat, I try to only have fruit.

Cutting out everything except for lean meat and vegetables at night has done wonders for my stomach.

Being in good shape does a lot for my confidence.

***

Learning how to cook fish has helped me remove a lot of belly fat.

It's so simple:

Wrap it in foil and throw it in the oven for 10 minutes! Duh!

I squeeze lots of lemon all over my fish.

***

Once a week, usually on Saturday night, I eat whatever I want. Lately, that has been a double bacon cheeseburger with fries. If I don't do that than I might make some chocolate chip cookies. If I eat good on Saturday, than I might get up Sunday and go out for an omlette and some pancakes or donuts. I try to limit this glutenous eating to only once per week.


That said, as I have eaten cleaner, my cravings for junk food has greatly decreased.

I don't want the "love handles" and fat around my stomach, it's not worth it.

As we get into our 30s and 40s, food becomes the designer of our body.

I appreciate seeing your particulars.

You seem to allow a higher percentage of carbs than I do, and great if that is working.

One undisputable beneficial practice seems that you have largely cut out processed foods and junk food snacking-type eating.


Why do you have this :

"4pm: chicken or fish with vegetables/salad
6pm: chicken or fish with vegetables/salad" section?

Do you eat during each of those periods, like two small meals or you communicating something else?

I mean overall your depiction is 6 meals per day (or a eating session every two hours). That seems to be quite a bit of small eating. In recent times, I tend to eat about 2 times per day... but I can never really get my schedule to be so regular as yours appears to be - especially in recent months (maybe even going back to about the last year).

Post: #394

(08-25-2014 09:31 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  You seem to allow a higher percentage of carbs than I do, and great if that is working.

One undisputable beneficial practice seems that you have largely cut out processed foods and junk food snacking-type eating.

He is eating almost no bad carbs at all, except for the corn tortillas and the potatoes. That is the key, along with eliminating junk food. Eating corn tortillas is still an improvement over those made with wheat. He should, however, substitute yams or sweet potatoes for the regular spuds.

I lost nearly thirty pounds since the beginning of the year, by doing the following with no change in the amount of exercise:

1. No sugar (including alcohol), except that found in fruit or honey.

2. No dairy.

3. No bread.

4. No refined foods of any kind, aside from an occasional pasta treat.

5. A vast reduction in meat intake (no more than one-quarter of the plate devoted to meat).

Did I mention that there was no change in the amount of exercise? This weight loss was all food related. I eat as much as I want, as long as I stay away from those food groups.

I did backslide the past month. Gained about four pounds back. Need to get refocused.

Post: #395

(08-25-2014 09:31 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  you have largely cut out processed foods and junk food snacking-type eating.

Yes, cut out the processed foods and junk food.

This is an obvious first step for anyone that wants to reduce their belly.

(08-25-2014 09:31 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  Why do you have this :

"4pm: chicken or fish with vegetables/salad
6pm: chicken or fish with vegetables/salad" section?

Do you eat during each of those periods, like two small meals or you communicating something else?

Basically, I cut out all carbs at dinner.

Meat and vegetables, that's all I eat for dinner. (most of the time, once a week or so, I will have whatever I want for dinner)

Sometimes, I'll have just vegetables for dinner, if I have had a lot of meat throughout the day and/or the previous day.

---

Sometimes, I eat 6 times a day, sometimes 5 times, sometimes 4, sometimes 3. It just depends on my appetite, workout schedule, and free time.

I do prefer smaller meals to large ones.

(08-25-2014 11:35 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  1. No sugar (including alcohol), except that found in fruit or honey.

2. No dairy.

3. No bread.

4. No refined foods of any kind, aside from an occasional pasta treat.

5. A vast reduction in meat intake (no more than one-quarter of the plate devoted to meat).

Anyone who follows these simple rules will lose fat off of their belly.

***

Here is another example of my daily diet:

8am: oatmeal
10am: fruit and nuts
1pm: chicken or fish with brown rice and vegetables
4pm: post workout shake (bananas, almonds, dates, protein powder, water)
6pm: fish and salad
8pm: 2 peaches

Post: #396

Gio, what's your take on juicing and apple cider vinegar?

Post: #397

(08-26-2014 12:12 PM)Giovonny Wrote:  8am: oatmeal
10am: fruit and nuts
1pm: chicken or fish with brown rice and vegetables
4pm: post workout shake (bananas, almonds, dates, protein powder, water)
6pm: fish and salad
8pm: 2 peaches

Very hard to improve on that, as long as the rice is whole grain. Ideally, the fish should be caught wild, not farm raised, and the chicken should be free range.

I make a giant crock pot full of collard greens and toss a sliced-up free range chicken on top. Slow cook it overnight. The chicken adds flavor to the greens. It is delicious and lasts for days. You can also substitute smoked turkey wings, legs, or necks for flavoring the greens, but you are exposed to nitrates.

I love peaches. I am always sad at the end of peach season. Nothing like eating a really spicy dish and then eating a cold peach. It cools the heat down in your mouth better than milk, which I don't drink. For dessert, I also buy loads of organic nuts. I sometimes dip them in high-grade organic honey.

Post: #398

This is a great thread for inspiration. I just decided not to have some carbs after reading it.

My thing:

black coffee
4 tbsp oatmeal with hot water and 4-5 dates
2 boiled whole eggs

banana 2 hours later

preworkout/late lunch - one piece whole wheat pita with peanut butter
apple, pear, peaches or plums

lots of vegetable soup for dinner made with a lot of chick peas, lentils, fava beans

I am getting defined in different places, like neck tendons and arms. Waist is reducing, but belly still is there, more and more like a ball in front or me. Going slowly, however.

Post: #399

(08-29-2014 01:02 PM)Sp5 Wrote:  This is a great thread for inspiration. I just decided not to have some carbs after reading it.

My thing:

black coffee
4 tbsp oatmeal with hot water and 4-5 dates
2 boiled whole eggs

banana 2 hours later

preworkout/late lunch - one piece whole wheat pita with peanut butter
apple, pear, peaches or plums

lots of vegetable soup for dinner made with a lot of chick peas, lentils, fava beans

I am getting defined in different places, like neck tendons and arms. Waist is reducing, but belly still is there, more and more like a ball in front or me. Going slowly, however.

Good start. Lose the bread (or at least buy sprouted bread) and buy free range eggs (huge difference in the Omega 3 / Omega 6 ratio).

Post: #400

I'll go with wheat, dairy intolerance - it is said most people are to one extent or another. After abandoning both and lifting like a madman for several years my physique is pretty tight. Now my problem is hypertrophied obliques. haha