Posts Tagged ‘Diet’

Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables to Build Muscle

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
Eat Veggies

A lot has been made about the importance of protein in building muscle, but more could be said about the importance of fruits and vegetables in this regard. The fact of the matter is that fruits and vegetables contain a lot of important vitamins and minerals that facilitate muscle growth.

Vitamin C

One of these vitamins important to muscle growth which is often times overlooked is Vitamin C. Vitamin C is found in fresh fruits and vegetables such as oranges, pineapples, grapefruit, cabbage, broccoli, okra and spinach to name a few.

Vitamin C speeds up recovery of your muscles after an intense workout, and prevents injuries and inflammations that might keep one away from the gym.

During weightlifting your body is placed under a tremendous amount of stress, but Vitamin C present in fruits and vegetables help to boost your immune system to fight against possible infections and muscle damage.

Another great benefit from Vitamin C is the reduction of cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone produced when the body undergoes extreme stress like weightlifting, and is responsible for the breakdown of muscle tissue. Therefore, the less cortisol your body produces the better.

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5 Unexpected Health Benefits of Bodybuilding

Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Benefits of Bodybuilding
Health Benefits of Bodybuilding

The Many Unexpected Benefits of Body Building

There are many reasons to build a stronger body that most people wouldn’t think of when they picture bodybuilding. Bodybuilding can be a very healthy hobby for both your mind and your body.

Despite the misconceptions of the general public, bodybuilding is not necessarily all about eating whey protein, lifting heavy weights, and oiled-up posing in a thong on a stage. There are a ton of great health benefits as well.

These are just some of the many unexpected benefits of bodybuilding:

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10 Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight Part 2

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
Female and Male Abs

A couple days ago I posted the first 5 reasons you are not losing weight. Here are 5 more reasons you are not losing weight. Check out the first article if you missed it: 10 Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight Part 1

Peep these second 5 five items in my list of 10 possible ways you could be sabotaging your diet.
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10 Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight Part 1

Monday, August 8th, 2011
Woman with abs

A Simple Diet Reminder

Everyone likes a good diet post once in a while. Something to remind us about those small dietary habits that ultimately sabotage our efforts to look good naked. This is one of those posts.

You want to drop a couple dozen stubborn pounds of fat. You know what to do and how to do it. You figure in about 2 months you can complete your transformation by eating healthy foods but fewer calories, and adding an extra hour of exercise each week. On paper and in your brain it all makes sense. But how’s that working for you?

Typical Diet Progress

Let me guess. After two months of eating fruits and veggies, and hitting the treadmill with fierce dedication, you step on the scale and find that you’ve lost a whopping… 2 pounds. What could possibly have happened? Would could have gone wrong?

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“Gluten-Free” Does Not Always Mean Gluten-Free

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
Gluten Free

Foods that claim to be gluten-free are not always gluten-free. Many of those foods actually have enough gluten to cause gastrointestinal distress in those who are intolerant to wheat protein, also known as celiac disease. Gluten is actually defined as the protein contained in wheat, barley, rye, and other similar grains.

How can food manufacturers get away with this? It’s actually not entirely their fault, as there has never been an established US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation to define just how much gluten can be in gluten-free foods.

What is the Standard for Gluten-Free?

As of this writing, manufacturers can decide how much gluten they put in their gluten-free foods. However, the FDA is now planning to push through a standard for gluten-free food, that manufacturers will be required to meet before they can put gluten-free labels on their packaging.

The Feds are proposing that gluten-free food – usually wheat products like cookies, cakes, and breads – should contain no more than 20 parts per million of gluten. At those levels lab tests are unable to detect the presence of gluten, thus meeting the label claim of “gluten-free”.
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The Problem With Cookie-Cutter Diet Plans

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

Why You Can’t Stay Lean When You Get Off Your Structured Diet

Fad Diets

We have all heard of The Atkins diet, The Warrior Diet, The Paleo Diet and every other nutritional plan that promises to burn fat, build muscle, and allow you to achieve your physique related goals with minimal effort.

They make big promises, sound good in practice, but fail to deliver. Even if you do reach your goal, after you discontinue the diet, the fat piles right back on and you are back where you started.

What a waste of time.

Why does this happen?

It’s really simple. The proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” comes to mind…

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Dietary Fat is Bad for You

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Should Bodybuilders Restrict Their Intake of Dietary Fat?

Dietary Fat is Bad

We all know sugar is bad. It is fun to eat but it is bad for your body. It belongs on the bodybuilding blacklist, I’ve got no qualms there. We all know protein is good for bodybuilding. That is a simple and obvious discussion. But what about fat?

Possibly left over from the 1980′s war on fat, a common myth is that fat calories have no place in a healthy diet, let alone a bodybuilding diet. Around that time fat was demonized and carbohydrates were praised. The myth still lingers, but isn’t it time to let that battle go?

The Myth

A bodybuilding diet consists of lean meats like turkey, chicken, fish, egg whites, and fat free dairy products. Bodybuilding newbies learn this practice almost immediately. We must keep calories low, so we must keep fat consumption low.
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Do Cardio After Weight Training

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Should Bodybuilders Do Cardio After Weight Training?

Cardio After Weight Lifting

Spend some time in a corporate gym and you will see hundreds of bodybuilders lifting moderately heavy weight for sets of 10-15 reps, then you’ll see them hop on a StairMaster or elliptical machine for about 20-30 minutes of moderate intensity endurance cardio. There are many reasons for this behavior, the most common being that weight training is just a hell of a lot more fun than cardio.

Apparently the weights-first-cardio-second protocol is considered the most effective way for bodybuilders to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. But is it?
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You Can’t Gain Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Can Bodybuilders Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time?

Build Muscle then Lose Fat?
Build muscle then lose fat?

There are the hard-gainers, the obese slackers, the off-season bodybuilders, the weekend warriors, the overweight housewives, and a million other kinds of aspiring athletes. Everyone has a goal. Some goals are simply to lose weight, while others are mainly to build muscle, but for most people fat loss goes along with muscle gain for a variety of reasons – everything from general health, building a beach body, sports performance, competition prep, and even to combat aging.

The most popular fitness newbie belief is that you can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Every personal trainer in the world then tries to convince the newbie that he or she simply can’t try to accomplish both goals at the same time. Why? Because gaining muscle and losing fat seem to be mutually exclusive.
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You Can’t Digest More Than 30 Grams of Protein in a Single Meal

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Can Bodybuilders Digest More Than 30 Grams of Protein in One Meal?

High Protein Food

This myth has been around since the late 1970′s, and I really can’t figure out why or where it originated. There are about a million theories about how much protein, fat, and carbs should be eaten each day, each meal, even each hour. Most bodybuilders are concerned about eating exactly the right amount of protein, because they want to maximize muscle gain but they also want to avoid any excess calories, even from protein, getting stored as body fat.

So, how much protein should we eat in a single meal? How much can our bodies process at once? Some nutritionists say only 20 grams, while many professional bodybuilders consume as much as 100 grams in a single meal! What’s the truth?!
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