Fitness & Health Blog

Archive for April, 2010

People don’t always search for diets designed to help them drop weight. Some folks are actually looking for eating plans that will help them add pounds. Others are hoping to find a method by which they can accelerate the development of lean muscle mass.

A lean, toned, muscular body may be the ideal physique, but what is the best diet for building lean muscle? Is there one particular approach that produces the best results?

The best muscle building diet plan will offer sufficient energy to maintain one’s workout regimen and active lifestyle while not burdening the body with the intake of fat-producing food choices. While it’s well beyond the scope of any one article to outline a complete eating plan for someone hoping to build a better body, there are a few common traits inherent in almost all the best building diets.

Muscle encouragement starts with the consumption of protein. You are what you eat, right? Well, muscles are high-protein body parts! If you want to have more muscle, you need more protein. The best way to get it? Meat. But not just any meat. You want to use lean options to provide the muscle building fuel without the fat.

Great options include turkey breast, tuna and chicken breast. These all pack a lot of protein with very little fat. Many other fish rank toward the top of the charts, as well. You can even integrate extra lean beef into the equation–it’s protein rich and totes the extra advantage of B12 vitamins.

Man (or woman) cannot live on meat alone, however! One key aspect to developing a lean muscle diet is to recognize that you your first priority is to maintain a healthy overall approach to food. You can probably guess where this is going, right? It’s time to eat your veggies–particularly the green ones. They’re good for you on a variety of levels and they don’t add any appreciable fat to your overall diet.

Those in the weight loss crowd will tell you to avoid carbohydrates at every turn. There may be some truth to that when your primary goal is shedding pounds. There’s certainly plenty of evidence to suggest that “white carbs” found in refined grains are bad news in terms of one’s weight. Lean muscle builders need plenty of energy to maintain their workouts, though. That means they can’t realistically hope to reduce carbs to a minimum. You’ll need fuel to keep going and carbs provide it You can’t overdo it and you should stick to whole grain options, but don’t become obsessive about eliminating them if you’re interested in finding the best diet for building lean muscle.

You should consult with appropriate professionals before embracing any overall diet plan. Chances are that the expert plan you discover will include an emphasis on protein consumption, green vegetables and healthy carbohydrates.

6 Reasons Why We Don’t Lose WeightDoctors hear this complaint often: “I’m dieting all the time, but I can’t lose any weight.” For many people, losing weight is a frustrating endeavor. No matter how hard they seem to be trying, nothing changes. What is going on? Identifying the problem is only part of the solution.6 common reasons why we don’t lose weight 1. Many of our social interactions include food. 2. Restaurants portions have increased (particularly fast food). 3. We are less active than in the past.4. We find it unacceptable to be hungry.5. We misunderstand how weight is maintained. 6. We forget the extra food we eat everyday, or we think we ate less than we did.It’s also important to remember that when we consume fewer calories, we have a tendency to be less active, which probably stems from our biological programming to preserve body weight for survival.Simple truths about weight lossMany people think weight loss is like emptying a bucket with a ladle. A scoop out of the bucket today, tomorrow, next week will eventually empty the bucket. Not so with our bodies. When we decrease our food intake, our bodies try to absorb and store more calories the next time we eat in excess of what our body needs. So, even though we are cutting down most of the time, we will not lose weight if we get extra calories part of the time.The simple rule of weight loss is that you must consistently burn off more calories than you take in. Any type of weight loss diet can work as long as calorie intake is consistently reduced, every day. A diet that is balanced with small quantities of vegetables, fruit, grains and lean meat or fish is the healthiest. Exercise helps, but unless you are an athlete, you will have to cut calories, too. And remember, it’s OK to be hungry when losing weight. Once a goal is achieved, every day is for maintaining. If you go back to eating more and exercising less, the weight will go right back on.Factoring exercise into your weight loss planYou can exercise more to lose weight, but beware of this idea. Most people don’t realize how much exercise is needed to lose weight without cutting calories. Plus, exercise increases appetites. If a dieter can avoid eating any more than was consumed before the diet and can burn off an additional 500 calories every day, that person can lose a pound a week. One mile, walked or run, or five miles on a bike, burns 100 calories. If you can do five miles a day—every day—and not eat any more no matter where you are or what you are doing, you can lose a pound a week. Or, you can cut 250 calories per day and do two and a half miles to accomplish the same thing.Everyone can lose weight. Not everyone can or should be skinny, but everyone can reach a normal, healthy weight. It requires an acceptance that we cannot eat all we want, whenever we want. We can enjoy food and the occasions in which food is served, but our food intake must be balanced with our activity to achieve and maintain a normal weight.