I like the tip about about making proteins complete by using incomplete proteins – that's smart thinking!

There are so many approaches that work. You approach seems solid. If for some reason you plateau at a certain weight then maybe exclude the whole wheat toast in your breakfast meal. In fact, an omlette with veggies and maybe a piece of fruit would be a great thing to eat if you get stuck. Your workouts seems pretty aggressive, but you should experience outstanding results. In the short-term it will work wonders, but at some point you will probably want to add in another rest day or two each week.

ro,

There isn't anything wrong with protein shakes or meal replacements. I used to drink a protein shake each day. These days I'm choosing to get my nutrients from whole foods, because it seems like the way we were suppose to eat. I still have a box of Myoplex handy when I'm in a pinch and love the strawberry flavor when mixed with ice and water in a blender.

Rod,

That is a good point about the body needing more protein when it is healing itself. Makes great sense.

Joshua,

I'm finishing up an interview with two scientists who worked in the supplement industry. I was shocked at how well our diets actually cover our basic nutritional needs. I thought they were going to pitch me on supplements pretty hard, but the outcome was the opposite.

Rusty

Great post!

Warm regards,

Joshua Meyer

In long term care & rehab settings the standard of practice is to supplement with what is termed a "health shake". However, the travesty is they are far from healthy – loaded with high fructose corn syrup and sugar. I suspect part of the problem is pure ignorance on the part of the nutritionists recommending them as well as the staff giving them, but when it comes to health care, ignorance is really no excuse. Especially when the facts about high fructose corn syrup and sugar are so well documented.

Love your site! I have a few questions about my own workout plan. (I do my workouts first thing after I wake up in the morning around 7-8am) On MWF, I do 20 min of HIIT and then 20 min of steady state cardio, and then I lift using my push muscles. On T,Th,Sat, I do the Crazy 8 circuit and the rowing machine for 20 min, and then I lift using my pull group. Finally, I take Sunday off. First of all, what do you think of this workout. Also, after these morning workouts, I have been eating healthy and high protein breakfasts of around 700-900 calories (eggs whites, whole wheat toast, fruit, yogurt, turkey sausages). Later, my lunch and dinner each consist of around 500 each. Am I eating too many calories for breakfast, or am I okay? Thanks!

Take care,

Manny

Yeah…save your money. The nice thing is that you will be able to lean out quicker without the added calories.

Bill,

You simply need to eat quite a bit less calories than you are eating now. When you have a lot of weight to lose, this simple strategy works wonders. Once you get close to your target weight is when you need to consider some of the more advanced strategies. So…eat less calories in either 3 meals per day or 1-2 meals per day. I don't recommend eating 6 times per day, but that does work for some people. The problem is that those 6 meals have to be tiny if you are eating a low amount of calories. I eat 3 times per day most of the week…and 1 time per day twice per week (I basically follow Eat Stop Eat approach). It is simple and works well. On some of the days I eat low carb and other days more carbs. The reason I stay lean is that my weekly calories are slightly lower than what I use. My advice is to buy Eat Stop Eat (at least go over to his site and listen to that free recording).

Jasmeet,

I love that video. Brad's protein book is going to make some waves…his findings point out that we need WAY less protein than people have thought for the past few decades. Outstanding info!

Sarah,

One of the posts that the most blogs link to on my site is a post I did on eating fruit. Go to the search bar and type in "fruit" and you will see a vastly different point-of-view about fruit. I spent a bit of time on this post. Glad you don't listen to the trainer telling you to avoid fruit!

Yash,

Great point. Back in the 80's and early 90's those mega-calorie protein powders were popular ("Mega-Mass 2000" if I remember correctly). Anyway…the recommendation was to add 30 pounds of mass and then cut back in Spring right before summer time. I am sure you are familiar with this "bulking and cutting" approach. I did this for a few years. The sad thing was by the end of spring I would only have a net gain of 5-8 pounds of muscle. A total waste of money as well as an unheallthy approach. The thing that really sucked was that I only looked good 3-4 months out of the year…and I never got super cut until the end of summer, since the skin took a while to tighten around my abs.

Cartz,

You would be amazed at how big the portions are here in the US. It is part of the reason the obesity epidemic is so bad here in the states. When I know I am going out to dinner at a restaraunt with friends, I prepare by eating light the day before and fasting during the day before going out.

Good comments!

Rusty

Just wanted to share this site to everyone:

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

We don't have burgers as huge and as full of cholesterol as that here in the Philippines. I can't believe they have these in other countries.

I would love to try one of those at least once in my life! hahaha.

Cheers,
Roy
Manila, Philippines

A lot of guys overload on the protein especially when trying to gain muscle, which I'm familiar with since that's the phase i'm in now. I think a great thing to realize is that even when building muscle, obscene amounts of protein aren't necessary because once you get to a certain point, you need calories more than protein, so that excess is just going to your caloric needs rather than protein needs. Also, since protein takes the most energy to digest and be used of the 3 macronutrients, it may actually be counterproductive to gaining muscle since some energy will be "wasted" in digesting the protein. [i say wasted because when trying to gain muscle, you want energy to synthesis] This is where fat comes in, since it's the most efficient. My meals consist of a good protein source and some veggies, but even when i can't get in some quality meat and need to substitute with a shake, I drench my veggies in olive oil. The meal feels light but I'm getting a pretty good caloric punch.

Now I've done a complete 180 and am now vegan – NO animal products! I feel so MUCH better and the extra fiber in my diet helps me stay full and my stomach happier

Thanks for the tips!!! your blog rocks

Brilliant, thankyou so much again! Yeah the days getting longer will be good, I am at university during the day and would much rather work out in the evening than in the mornings.

I'll post back in a couple of weeks and let you know how I'm going!

Take care of yourself!

-Kane

to

1. fats
2. protien
3. carbs

By switching my focus, I find that I get all the protien I need without trying!

The SoG

I'm with Rusty on this one. I've read practically all of both Lyle's and Brad's books (along with tons of other authors) and I consider them to be the most reputable writers with the highest quality material.

But when it comes to real-life application, Brad's concepts just work better, assuming you're not competing in a BB contest (and it would probably still work well then too). The flexibility of Brad's ESE approach coupled with excellent real-world results allows one to stick with the plan (ESE) and stay lean (under 8%) for the long-term. Fasting also has great health benefits.

Lyle's protocols like UD2.0 and the Rapid Fat Loss Handbook are top-notch fixes that have rigid guidelines. Perfect for short-term changes, but difficult (and not pratical/possible) to implement over the long-term. Don't get me wrong though, Lyle's work is superior. His program's just aren't as sustainable (to stay real lean all the time) as Brad's.

- J

I live in Portugal, so we're not too faraway, now spring is coming and days are getting bigger, so if you only have time to train in the evening that problem is about to go away

About your question, yes somewhere around 5×5 to 5×10 it will be good, that if you only train each body part once a week, if you want to train your upper body 2/3 times a week then cut on the volume and stick to 5×5 and other rep ranges that are close to that

When i've mentioned the 10×25 it was only for sprints 10 times 25 metters

I like your choice of exercises for cardio (HIIT) rope jumping is also one of my favorite exercises, keep doing them.

Good luck to reach your goals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcXUwGE2je8&feature=related

Thanks,
Jasmeet