Loosing Fat, Building Muscle (a plan)

spramn

I thought i would take the time to try share some information i have learnt and hopefully in the process gain more understanding, i would like to say i'm not a personal trainer nor have i had any formal training in health and wellbeing. So I’m hoping to share information that has helped me understand the complex web of getting healthy through my new network of training partners and friends.

Being on the better side of 30, i was surprised how little i actually knew about nutrition, and I wish I came across a thread like I’m planning to write when I was starting out.

Any constructive feedback would be fantastic.

Information obviously is tailored to my own goals to loose fat and gain decent muscle.

I think the first and most important step is to set achievable and realistic goals.

Secondly, technically you can’t build mass muscle and lose weight at same time. However using strength training exercises to loose fat will increase your muscle gains in the long run when you decide to bulk muscle.

I think its universal no matter your strategy, 90% of your goal to have a fantastic / healthy body is diet. From a bodybuilding perspective eating the right types of energy at the right times is essential.

I know its corny, but I think it has the biggest effect on success, be positive and try look at your body in a good light. Some people no matter their efforts will not get the same results as someone who is naturally structured to have huge gains in shorter timeframes. Remember we are all individuals and structure your workout plans and diet plans to your own body and interests.

Again this is what works for me, and is focused on building muscle now that my body fat percentage is around 15%.

Amount of Meals
First & foremost is having 5-6 meals a day of quality food. If you ask any top personal trainer or bodybuilder what's most important in getting into shape. They would say to have the discipline to sacrifice a couples of hours every second day or so in the kitchen to prepare your meals. The reason you spread your meals 2 & half to 3 hours apart is that you constantly feeding your body. Your muscles becomes Stronger, fitter. Your body does not know when the next time it will get energy, so it will store those calories into fat to keep you going till your next meal, best spread out the carbs & cut it out in the evening. Just protein in the evening, but protein in all meals thru out the day.

Carbs (30% of daily calorie intake)
Brown rice, sweet potato, rolled oates are great and cut in the evening . When you look at calories(carbs)
you also have to look at good calories. Alot of calories is high in G.I(Glycemic index), not good for the blood.

Protein (40% of daily calorie intake) (max of 220g)
Chicken breast(grilled), grilled fish, egg white, Lean steak once or twice a week, protein powder etc.

Then you got fresh veges, frozen as not as good as fresh but it's better than junk food. Also good fats, like fish oil, omega 3 oil, 2 hand full of nuts a day, a certain amount of avocado etc

Document my PT Mate gave me to understand the basics:

Eat complex carbohydrates
1. Complex carbohydrates are found in whole foods like brown rice, sweet potatoes, whole grain cereal and oatmeal. Complex carbohydrates should make up the bulk of your daily calorie intake because they form muscle glycogen, the long lasting fuel that your body needs to train hard. Complex carbohydrates are slow burning which means you get longer lasting energy. They also help keep your blood sugar levels constant, this reduces fat storage and fatigue and promotes the release of insulin. Insulin is the body’s natural anabolic hormone and is essential for muscle development.
2. Eat carbohydrates directly after training
When you train hard you reduce your blood sugar level considerably. Eating carbohydrates straight after a training session provides your body with an insulin spike. This insulin spike puts your body into an anabolic (muscle building) state. If you do not get the right nutrients after training it’s possible that your body could enter a catabolic (muscle breakdown) state. This is why post workout nutrition is so important.
3. Eat small amounts of carbohydrates more often
Eating smaller servings of carbohydrates more often helps keep a steady flow of insulin into the body. If you eat large amounts of carbohydrates in one sitting your body is much more likely to store them as fat. Eating to much is one sitting is unnecessary; your body doesn’t need that much nutrients at one time.
4. Eat high fiber carbohydrates
This goes hand-in-hand with point number 1 because most sources of complex carbohydrates are rich sources of fiber. Fiber helps to build muscle by making muscle tissue absorb amino acids faster and more efficiently.
5. Avoid fruits
This may sound insane because we all know that fruit is high in vitamins, low in calories and very good for general health and wellbeing. But, fruit contains fructose which is a very simple sugar. The body converts fructose into glycogen which is used as a building block for fat tissue.
6. Have carbohydrates and protein in the same meal
When you mix protein and carbohydrates together in the same meal you minimize the chance of the carbohydrates being stored as fat. Protein is harder for the body to process, so it increases your metabolism. Also, carbohydrates help transport the nutrients from protein to the muscle cells which aids in muscle growth.

More on Carbs
Follow these rules, and you can use carbohydrates to your advantage to build more muscle faster. If you find you’re gaining too much fat then you should cut out carbs in your 4th and 5th meals. Unless you have a fast metabolism, eating carbs late at night is generally not a good idea. Your body does not need the energy while you’re sleeping so it’s likely to store the carbs as fat.

Another point worth mentioning here is meal sizes. You should eat small meals more often. Have you ever felt really tired after eating? Then you’ve eaten too much. Your body has to use a lot of energy to process the food which leaves you feeling tired and energy-less. This style of eating will also decrease your metabolic rate. To keep your metabolism high you need to constantly stimulate it with small meals every 3 hours or so.

So the main points you need to remember here are;
eat good complex carbohydrates,
eat small amounts more often,
always have a good serving of complex carbohydrates about 1 hour before your workout (for energy) and straight after the workout have carbs (for insulin spike)
if you are gaining excess fat stop eating carbohydrates in 4th and 5th meals

I’ll leave it here for now to start get some feedback from the awesome community here, also feel free to add me as a friend and my food diary is open and I’d be happy to share any information that may help. Me getting more involved in health and fitness gives me more motorvation myself to get results.