Category: Diets
It’s a simple question that many find complicated answers to. Getting lean muscle without putting on the fat. With the new year truly under way, many gyms up the down the country will probably see memberships increase. Many people are desperate to lose the excess body weight put on during the festive holiday season. One of the key things is consistency. Hitting the gym in January and February and the rest of the year just losing your way will never help. As mist of you know workouts are just half the battle, without diet and a change in overall lifestyle, your muscles are never going to show.
Eat clean, get lean. Sounds cool doesn’t it. A very important part of building lean muscle is your diet. Your diet is very important, I cannot state this enough. People can talk about all sorts of miracle diets, workout machines, pills or whatever, but if your diet’s not on song it will show.
Do you understand what I mean this? When muscles are stimulated through exercise and proper nutrition is supplied to them with rest and recovery you will see an increase in muscle size, strength and definition. When you lose the extra body fat your body will show the muscle you have worked hard to stimulate and grow.
One of the common misconceptions about body builders is that we just bulk up for months eating crap and then start shredding during competition time. Nope not true. When you look at a foods to get lean and build quality muscle you need to be getting high quality protein, good carbohydrates, and essential fats. Here’s a quick list.
Courtesy of simplyshredded.com
Some of you will ask why you need various carbohydrates when trying to put on muscle and get lean. The answer is simple, for energy during workouts, for maintaining muscle i.e. muscle retention and to prevent the body from going into a catabolic state carbohydrates are important.
Fats are also important when trying to get lean because it helps give you energy, and allow optimum natural testosterone levels. Without normal testosterone levels you will find it difficult to lift and carry out resistance training.
Pump Iron – Stretch the Muscle Fibres
If you’re going to get size, muscle definition lifting weights is the way to go. Even if you are looking for keeping your body toned, lean with adequate quality muscle, lifting weights or doing body resistance exercise is a must. Only when your muscles get stimulation will they grow. No stimulation, no growth.
If you stick to a regular training programme with the right diet, supplements are very useful. But I am sure you know this already? One of my favourite supplements to get lean is Hydroxycut. It’s for both men and women and it’s been around for as long as I know. The company behind it is Muscle Tech who in my opinion do some good body building supplements such as Nitro Tech and Cell Tech.
With Hydroxycut it is a bit like an appetite suppressor and fat burner that helps you feel energized when you really need that push. Hydroxycut contains caffeine to boost energy levels and green coffee for weight loss management. At the moment they have a 1 free bottle offer for those that want to try.
The Truth About Abs program. This abs best selling book contains unique ways to exercise and provide nutrition that helps carve out a flat stomach with abs definition. The author is a certified personal trainer and nutrition specialist. Although I do not agree with everything he says, there are some useful tips available. The program generally focuses on full body training exercises such deadlifts and squats and dieting tips that are based on natural foods.
There are many people who have found this program helpful. The program focuses on common body building exercise and dietary changes that help define the abdominal muscle.
Cutting down excess body fat requires you to work the muscles with weights and get balanced cardiovascular exercise to pump the heart muscle. When you do cardio workouts instead of doing 20-30 minutes at a boring moderate pace, do 5-10 minutes at high intensity. I am sure you have heard of high interval training?
You might have noticed Optimum Nutrition released Oats and Whey a couple of years back. If you are bodybuilding you will know importance of having oatmeal in your diet. Get that trusted blender, mix some protein with a cup of oatmeal, boom you are good to go! Oatmeal supply slow-burning complex carbohydrates and hunger-filling dietary fiber. There are a number of good reasons why you need to consume oatmeal and among the best ones are weight control, energy, and general health.
In a study carried out people who eat oatmeal regularly are less likely to become obese. The studies also show that kids who eat oatmeal are less likely to become overweight when they become adults by a whopping 50%.
You heard him, now start eating!
Oatmeal contains soluble fibre that forms a layer within your digestive system. This means you will feel less hungry, and full longer which eventually helps you lose weight. Consuming oatmeal in your daily diet, is an excellent way to control bad cholesterol levels.
Before you hit the gym eat oatmeal an hour or so before your workout. Oats are an excellent source of carbohydrates that provide sustained energy throughout a workout. Oatmeal helps your body metabolize food better resulting in weight loss and provides the energy you need as a complex carbohydrate food type. If you’re not doing so already, start consuming oatmeal in your diet plan, you won’t be disappointed!
You always hear about what things to eat so I won’t do your head in even more! But in my on line journey today I came across a list some bodybuilding foods not to eat before bed time. We all know celery is good for you, but did you know you shouldn’t eat it before bed time? In the list there’s the usual crap high calorie foods such as Pizza which literally sink into your stomach and can’t wait to convert into fat!
Before bedtime good old fat free cottage cheese or casein protein is worth consuming. Slow supply of amino acids throughout the night keep your muscles in an anabolic, growth and recovery friendly state.
If you are eating crap foods such as regular take away’s and a high calorie diet swimming with saturated fats…..enjoy your 2-3 hour treadmill runs per day just to balance the weight! Eat clean, stay lean!
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