If you don’t know what IRC is, it’s Internet relay chat, and in that channel (#bodybuilding) we discuss all things diet and exercise.

The video that was posted was about 9 minutes long and very informative.

I’ve been trying to explain this to people for years. Now it’s put into an easy to understand simple video.

The video covers the acidity and alkalinity of several foods and drinks and how your body struggles to maintain an internal balance.

Some things not covered in the video are facts about the artificial sweeteners used in the diet sodas that also do harm to your system.

Did you know that aspartame turns to formaldehyde in your body? Why put your liver through such hell?

I’ve covered that before on this site, feel free to look for it, or email me for a link.

Check put the video link below.

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by a fitness professional from NYC, Certified Personal Trainer, Geovanni Derice. The interview is below and I think you’re going to like it… I reveal some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of that stubborn stomach fat to uncover those flat six pack abs that everyone wants.

“GD: Welcome Mike to our 4-ever-Toned Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself and how you can help our readers with their fitness and health.

MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 17 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning.

At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I’m 33 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis.

I decided earlier in my 20′s that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we’ve reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That’s why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process.

I’ve expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.

GD: Now Mike, there’s so many things out there as to what works and what does not work… if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to get flat lean abs, what would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to lose your belly fat and get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.

There’s so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is… after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, Atkins, South Beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There’s so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn’t even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.

The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat.

In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

For the third thing, let’s talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and sit-ups for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.

I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.

GD: What are people doing wrong when it comes to developing the coveted “6 pack abs”?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat 6-pack abs is… are you ready for this?

They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time spent on abs exercises. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Remember, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and increasing your metabolic rate. That just does not happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs.

Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That’s what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat sixxer!

GD: Which exercises are the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum definition with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book).

However, maximum definition in the abs and midsection comes from losing body fat, and the most effective exercises featured in my program for that goal are various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettle bell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, dead lifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking flat abs, focus on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing… and that is fat loss. What recommendations have you used to successfully help your clients lose body fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which accounts for almost half of the book, but I’ll try to make some nice simple generalizations to get people started on the right path immediately. The most important thing is that your diet is as natural and unprocessed as possible. It almost always comes back to the over processing of food that makes it unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body.

For example, why eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains (even better are sprouted grains, as I usually recommend limiting grain foods overall for best results).

Why eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when you can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and so forth.

The point is to not fall for some gimmick like extremely low carbs (although I do believe in a fairly reduced carb intake as that is a big problem for most people), low fat, super high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macro-nutrient vs. another.

Your body needs all macro-nutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Trying to cut an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I get into much more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for sharing with us all of this great information.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this interview and plucked several nuggets of info to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs shortly. If you don’t already own a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of the Truth about Six Pack Abs book and discover the entire system Mike developed for ridding yourself of that extra ab fat for good!

Before you get started read this several times. I have had some get confused and omit the Italian dressing, and even boil the tuna from the start. First of all the Italian dressing is the most important part to the flavor, second I only add the tuna at the end and let it sit in the water for about 1 minute to get it all warm.

I call it Tuna Deluxe. Its Tuna with Pasta, throw some peas of some sort in there for the fiber, AND THE MOST IMPORTANT PART add Italian Dressing and lots of pepper with a dash of salt. Some all the tuna and pasta meal the prison meal cause they say its what a lot of inmates eat in the “joint” to get huge. If it works for them hopefully it will work for me, and its delicious to boot! I would pay for what this meal I am about to teach you to create.

Thank me later. (or now)

Ok you will need the following:

• A pot to boil water in, mine is a 1 1/2 quart or maybe its 2.
• 2 cans of chunk light tuna in water, drained
• 2 1/2 cup of uncooked wide egg noodles
• 1/2 can of chickpeas or any peas for that matter. I like chickpeas, but purple hull peas or crowder peas work well too.
• 3/4 cup Italian Dressing
• Salt and lots of Pepper

Ok here is all our ingredients we will be using. Listen to me real quick. This may sound disgusting and even look disgusting but trust me, if you like pasta, you like tuna, you like Italian dressing…you will like this.

Ok boil your water, add the pasta, and yes I know it seems like a lot, but HEY we gotta feed those muscles!
When cooking noodles you can add a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to keep it from boiling over.
Cook it for about 7 minutes or until tender but not gummy. We want out pasta to have a little bit of strength to it. Its know as Al Dente.

I like to add my peas into the mix before the boil so that they are nice and warm. I just cook it all right in, no need for extra dishes to dirty up.
I know this might look a little nasty, but trust me it will be great in the end. As you can see in this picture I have added half a can of purple hull peas.
I did not have any chickpeas, so the purple hull will have to do. The Tuna is open and ready to go in later. Yes it gets grosser.

Now everything has boiled up pretty good now, the pasta is just about right and now I have added all my tuna.
I only add the tuna right at the end. It does not sit in there the entire time.
I add it and let it sit in the water for about 1 minute to get warm, then drain it all.
I do it this way so that it will all be nice and warm and no separate dishes to wash.

After a little while I drained everything in a strainer and put it back in the pot.
Here we have peas, pasta, and tuna.

Now lets add the Italian Dressing. I usually use 3/4 to 1 full cup with this much pasta.

Doh! Lets not forget the pepper! I add about 3 tablespoons of pepper. I aint skeered! I like it just a little spicy.
I like to know I AM ALIVE ! Just stir it on in there big boy. Don’t cry.

Look at that right there. That’s some muscle food right there son!
Trust me, unless you are a hawg, you will have a little left over in the pot for a midnight snack.

Trust me it looks better in person and taste marvelous. Now go cook some!

When you do the math, sometimes you will quickly see that not all things are as safe as they appear to be. Dont get me wrong this is still a good meal for bulking, but the italian dressing surprised me. Use it lightly, just for taste and you will be fine. Also some say the refined carbs in the pasta are a bad idea. If refined carbs bothers you, simply use wheat pasta. I have no problem or guilt from ingesting refined carbohydrates.

Tuna x 2 cans
Calories 200
Fat 4 grams
Protein 44 grams
Carbs 0 grams

Pasta 2 1/2 cups uncooked
Calories 440
Fat 6 grams
Protein 16 grams
Carbs 80 grams

Purple Hull Peas
Calories 135
Fat 0 grams
Protein 9 grams
Carbs 29 grams

Italian Dressing
Calories 432
Fat 43 grams
Protein 0 grams
Carbs 14 grams

Grand Total for it all
Calories 1227
Fat 53 grams
Protein 69 grams
Carbs 123 grams

2002 Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic Winner

When I turned pro in 1996, I weighed 248 pounds. In 1998, I was 260. In 2000, I was 265. In 2001, was 267; and when I won the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic this year, I was 270. I’ve said it a thousand times: The secret to my success is consistency, and the secret to my consistent improvement is a harnessed but aggressive pursuit of mass and a healthy acceptance of time.

It’s all right to be impatient, but you need to realize that quality mass does not come overnight. Quick mass might, but quick mass doesn’t win contests, because it hasn’t been forged into place and anchored deep in bones by the cold-steel hammer of decisive training. There is a lot of braggadocio these days from bodybuilders who are proud of their “insane intensity” when they train. The winners, however, are invariably seasoned pros who take charge of their bodies, encouraging them onward, rather than punishing them masochistically for not responding to demands.

Your body has its own rules for growth, and those rules are the parameters for getting the most out of your training. Try imposing your own rules, and your body will refuse to respond; cooperate with your body’s rules, and your body will respond in kind. Thankfully, I intuited this early in my career, and, ever since, my body and I have been able to negotiate a set of rules for keeping me balanced at the peak of my potential.

Rule 1

EAT BIG

To grow, you need to eat more calories than your body uses. My rule of thumb is one to one-and-a-half grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day and two-and-a-half to three grams of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight per day. Start with that, then fine-tune it to your individual requirements as you go. Keep saturated fats to a minimum, eat as much quality and variety as possible, and drink at least two gallons of water per day. This is to keep your metabolism elevated, an especially important consideration when you’re consuming this much food.

Rule 2

TRAIN HEAVY

Train at 70-80% of the maximum weight you’re capable of handling effectively for six reps almost to failure. This is bodybuilding, not powerlifting; do not train so heavy that you reach total failure at two reps. My goal with every set is to help the muscle empty itself of its existing glycogen, so that can push more glycogen into the muscle in its place, without taking the muscle to failure or damaging tissue. With every set, leave the muscle room to recuperate and grow.

Rule 3

STICK TO BASICS

Meat-and-potatoes exercises make you grow best, and that means bench presses for chest, squats for quads, deadlifts for back, shoulder presses for shoulders, barbell curls for biceps, close-grip bench presses for triceps and stiff-leg deadlifts for hamstrings; i.e., all of the compound exercises that people hate to do. By involving muscle groups ancillary to the target bodypart, synergistic growth of adjacent muscles is stimulated, as well. This, in turn, accelerates your strength gains, which, in turn, translates into even more muscle growth; round and round we go, in an ever-faster upward spiral of mass gains.

Rule 4

SIX TO 10 REPETITIONS

Pick a weight you can control for six to 10 repetitions, executing each rep to its fullest contraction. Avoid excessive sloppiness in your training, but at the same time, use enough force, in the form of body thrust and explosiveness, to exhaust the muscle and break down the tissue. What I tend to do in a Jay Cutler routine is warm up by pyramiding the sets for my first one or two exercises. As I continue to move through the successive exercises in my workout, I will start with the heaviest weight and stay with it through all of the sets. For range of motion, I compromise: I don’t lock out, but I get a full contraction. No half reps.

Rule 5

A MINUTE TO A MINUTE-AND-A-HALF REST BETWEEN SETS

When training for a show, I rest only 30 to 45 seconds between sets, but when I’m trying to 3 add mass during the offseason, I rest twice as long: a minute to a minute and a half. This gives me just enough recuperation time to catch my breath and allow my heart rate to return to normal. Most important, I want to have maximum strength to perform every set to its fullest potential. At the same time, a minute and a half is not so much of a delay that I will lose the pump I built from the preceding set.

Rule 6

NO MORE THAN 12 SETS PER RODYPART

If you’re not getting the job done in 12 sets, after training heavy and resting only a minute to a minute and a half, you are doing something wrong. Most likely, you’re not training with enough intensity. Conversely, if you trained intensely with your first 12 sets, you’ll be entering the region of muscle waste if you try for more. As for myself, I like four exercises per body part, with three sets per exercise.

Rule 7

AT LEAST EIGHT HOURS OF SLEEP PER NIGHT

You grow when you’re out of the gym, not in it, and you grow even more when you sleep. That’s when your body slows down, and its natural stores of growth hormone are released. Without enough sleep and recuperation, your body will have to struggle, and you won’t be able to add weight. I get at least eight hours of sleep at night, but I also get in two additional hours of naptime every day, preferably an hour after a workout and another hour cumulatively after meals. In other words, I get 10 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period.

Rule 8

LIMIT OTHER PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

Calories burned for other physical activities are not available for training, thereby limiting your growth cycle. I get a lot of questions from construction workers and athletes, for example, who complain about not being able to maintain weight; likewise, those who do a lot of walking and running, and people who live in hot climates. In such cases, I suggest eating every hour to hour and a half, breaking down the meals to half-size and having 10 to 12 meals a day, to help avoid a calorie deficit.

Rule 9

TRAIN A BODYPART ONCE EVERY FIVE TO SEVEN DAYS

Avoid overtraining at all costs. For an average person, recovery time is assumed to be 48 hours for a bodypart, but for a heavy-lifting bodybuilder trying to add mass, it’s much longer. Even that protraction is modified by your work schedule, family obligations and other activities. Ronnie Coleman trains every bodypart twice a week, but not everybody can do that. Your individual case will take some experimenting on your part. For me, it works out to be five to seven days. None of this is written in stone, but those are safe numbers that have worked for me, illustrating the vast differences among us.

Rule 10

NO OFF-SEASON CARDIO

I like to emphasize that training to your fullest ability burns more calories than any specific cardiovascular workout; conversely, cardiovascular workouts, if performed to a beneficial level, burn muscle mass, so I suggest that bodybuilding and cardiovascular training should not be mixed. It’s healthy to be cardiovascularly fit, but if you lift weights with sufficient intensity to substantially boost your heart rate, that’s enough. Train with very heavy compound movements and moderate reps, and you not only tap into glycogen reserves and fat storage, but you force yourself to breathe deeper than you would in a standard cardio workout. A healthy heart is one that is responsive to dramatic demands on its rate differentials. Bodybuilding conditions the heart to handle those sudden jumps; cardio training does not. Even for a contest, I tend not to do a lot of cardio, yet I hear some guys do as much as two hours a day. They’re burning more than glycogen and fat; they’re burning muscle.

Rule 11

CONSISTENCY

The one word you’ll hear me utter more than any other is “consistency,” but if you expect to make major gains in mass, it becomes more than a flip term or even a rule. It’s a philosophy that perfuses every aspect of a bodybuilding life. You need to eat consistently, train consistently and keep yourself consistently motivated. Fight every impulse to subordinate your workouts to rationalizations and temptations. After work, do not go home before you go to the gym. The refrigerator, couch and television are powerfully seductive. Also ignore hunger pangs at that time of day; do not stop at a drive-through burger joint, but go directly to the gym. If your training partner fails to show, don’t use that as an excuse to go home. Plow through your workout by yourself, and take pride that you have more guts than he does. Guts and consistency drive you toward your goals.

“The big 11: my 11 rules for building mass and power”. Flex. FindArticles.com. 13 Jan, 2010.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

Did you know that building muscle is a natural process anyway. In any type of exercise or work out you are tearing microscopic fibers. The muscle building occurs when these fibers repair and this is a natural process. Can you understand why pumping unnatural stuff into your body can work short term but is suspect over the long run.

In this article, we’ll take a look at building natural muscle and some important tips on how diet can help you achieve the growth you’re looking for.

Natural Muscle Building

It is important that you follow a strict schedule of weight training so that you can build natural muscle. Many people believe that if you lift heavier weights you will gain muscle faster. This is not always the case as people may think.

If you work out the correct way each and every time you only need to do weight training once or twice a week. If you want to you can pay a professional so they can tell you exactly what you should be doing on a weekly basis. This way you are sure that you are not overworking your muscles.

It is very important that you give your muscles ample time to rest this way they have time to rebuild. The period of time that you are resting during workouts is important to give your muscles the ability to regenerate. It is extremely important that you work your muscles to the point of exhaustion each and every day when you visit the gym so you are sure you build new muscle.

Diet Tips

1. Watching your diet is one of the best ways to build muscle and burn fat at the same time. Getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals is important because it will help you maintain a healthy lifestyle.
2. It is important that you do not starve yourself because you need to eat food in order to lose weight. The reason for this is that it takes calories to burn calories. A great thing that you can do is to cut sugary and fatty foods from your diet completely. Sticking to vegetables, meat, and chicken is a great way to start eating healthier.
3. In general most people need to eat around 2,000 calories or day, but this can vary based on your activity level. If you are working hard every day and you are already at the proper weight then you may need to eat extra calories every day. These extra calories are not bad for you because you are burning them up when you exercise.
4. Drinking water is also a very important part of building muscle naturally and in a healthy manner. Most doctors recommend that you drink anywhere from eight to ten glasses of water consistently on a daily basis. Although, if you are sweating a lot during a workout routine you can drink additional water.

Heat the honey and peanut butter over a low heat for about five minutes or in a microwave on full heat for two mins’ then mix in the oats and protein powder ( use your hands if possible and squeeze it all together ) then flatten it all out on a baking tray with some grease proof paper on it making a square shape then in the fridge for about 30 min to 1 hour then take it out
and slice it into about 12 bars.

You will get about:
* 12g to 15g of protein
* 10g of carbs
* 4g of fat per bar
* And they taste great : )

You can add raisins, chocolate chips etc I’m trying a batch using Alpen and adding more fruit.

They are at wits end and they don’t know what to do. They’ve “tried it all” and they believe it’s impossible for them to lose fat.

Many of them have lost fat and gained it  all back, and more. Some of them have struggled with losing fat all their lives and have never been successful with it. One lady from Alabama wrote to me last spring, “I have been trying to lose about sixty pounds for over 23 years. I quit! I’m resolved to the fact that I will be fat for the rest of my life”

How saddening that comment is. but I’m happy to tell you this lady, with a little guidance, is now 65 pounds lighter than she was one year ago.. and she has some muscle tone. Needless
to say, she no longer believes that she’ll be fat for the rest of her life.

I tell you this simply to illustrate the fact that you don’t have to give up on fat loss. YOU can lose fat, but you  have to be willing to do what it takes.. and here’s what it takes!

If we look at people who have been successful at fat loss *and* maintaining that loss, a couple of things are very apparent. These two factors are present in the lives of most of them:

1. They do some form of aerobic exercise 5 to 7 days a week. These people aren’t exercise wimps! They know how critically important this is to their fat loss maintenance and they get
out and do it! They average 45 minutes a day with the range being 30 to 90 minutes a day.

This not only burns lots of calories, but, perhaps more importantly, it elevates their basal metabolic rate.

2. They do some type of weight training 2 to 3 days a week. This has a tremendous affect on basal metabolic rate and muscle tone. Success at maintaining a fat loss is much higher in
people who have weight trained while they were losing fat versus those who haven’t.

Now, obviously, healthy eating habits are also very important. However, most of these people say that their exercise habits seem to dictate their eating habits.. meaning that if they
can be consistent with exercise, their eating habits seem to fall into place.

I’ve had many clients tell me that their daily  exercise puts them in a “healthy” frame of mind and helps them to make better food choices.

Bottom line; when they are exercising consistently, their eating habits are better.

I firmly believe that a major factor in most peoples frustration with fat loss is that they haven’t been told the truth about exercise. You see, twenty minutes, three
days a week isn’t going to cut it for fat loss. If you’re serious then you have to get serious about exercise.

It’s all about changing your basal metabolism through exercise. It’s about looking at exercise as a part of your daily routine, just like brushing your teeth. It’s about viewing exercise as something you’re doing to get healthy and feel great!

It’s hard to argue with the idea that you need to eat enough of the right kinds of food to build muscle. But that doesn’t tell you which are the best foods for muscle growth. With all the hype and conflicting advice available, that’s a trickier question. Fortunately, there are some basic facts that help clear things up. Here’s the information you need if you’re going to pick foods to grow muscle.

You’ve Got to Eat Enough to Grow Muscle

You know you have to work hard to stimulate your body to build new muscle. But not everyone realizes that actually building new muscle tissue takes a lot of energy too. Your body has to burn a lot of energy when it builds new muscle. That means you may well have to eat more than you are now to give your body the calories it needs to build bigger muscles.

But don’t get crazy about this. Stuffing yourself with jelly donuts or other junk foods will increase the number of calories you get, but loads of sugar and fat and empty calories won’t help your body build big muscles. You have to choose healthy foods for muscle growth or you’ll just get fat. That’s where the rest of this article comes in.

Protein Makes Up Your Muscles

When you work out hard enough to build new muscles, you’re in reality damaging the muscles that you want to make bigger. Your body responds to the damage by rebuilding the muscles a little bigger and stronger to handle the stress. And since muscles are primarily made of protein, the protein you eat is the construction material your body uses for the work. If you don’t get enough protein, your body won’t be able to make the muscle stronger or even repair the damage you do working out. You’ll fail to make your muscles bigger. In fact, over time, they’ll get weaker and you’ll end up hurting yourself.

Getting the protein you need has got to be your most important eating objective to succeed at. The best sources of high-quality protein are chicken (particularly the breast), turkey, and fish. Eat large quantities of these three high-protein foods. You can also benefit from lean red meats, eggs, and nuts, but you should get most of it from turkey, chicken, and fish.

Carbs Give You Energy

Carbohydrates are your body’s main fuel. Without enough carbs, you won’t be able to work out hard enough to build muscle. And even if you do get in the workout somehow, without enough carbohydrates, your body won’t have enough energy to repair the damaged tissue, much less make the muscles bigger and stronger.

But the kind of carbs you eat matters a lot. Simple carbohydrates, like bread or table sugar, give you a short burst of energy, while at the same time giving you a large number of virtually nutrient free calories that your body is very likely to store as fat. Complex carbs like whole grain breads, fruits, and vegetables give you a slower, but longer lasting supply of energy, contain lots of nutrients, not empty calories, and are much less likely to end up as fat. Eat lots of complex carbs, go real light on the simple ones, and you’ll find that you have the energy you need for muscle growth.

Fat is Not all Bad

While everyone seems to be against eating any kind of fat, you do need to eat some fat to be healthy. Fat is another energy source and building block for your body. The biggest problem with fat is that we get too much of the wrong kinds of fat. The kind of fat we get too much of is the kind of fat you see around the edges of a steak, or the kind that’s in foods like margarine. Fish and nuts are good sources of the Omega-3 healthy fats that your body needs. If you trim the excess fat from meats, don’t eat the skins of your chicken and turkey, and include lots of fish and the occasional handful of nuts in your diet, you’ll be all set.

Are You Ready to Go for It?

And that, my friend, is the information you need to start eating in a way that supports your attempts to build muscle. As you read this, you probably saw several ways you could change your diet to make it more more effective for building lean muscles. Start applying this information and you should see more progress.

While all this information will surely help, its really only a small portion of what there is to know when it comes to muscle building foods. And we haven’t even touched on ways to make your diet work with specific workouts. For that kind of information, you will want to get yourself a complete muscle building plan.

Fill up on fiber. Choose whole grains, fruits and vegetables, high fiber cereals, dries beans, lentils, or other legumes. Your goal is 25 to 30 grams daily. Food hihg in fiber make you feel full without lots of calories.

Drink a glass of water before each meal and you’ll get a feeling of fullness. By sipping water throughout the day, you’ll know when you’re really hungry. Drink at least eight 8oz. glasses of water daily. I drink 1-1 1/2 gallons daily.

Eat more fish. Fish and poultry have less calories then beef, lamb and pork. Veal has the lowest calories of the meats, but it is higher in cholesterol than beef or lamb.

Limit your salt intake. Instead spice up your diet with pepper, lemons, basil and oregano (or Mrs.. Dash) and you’ll never miss
salt. Your blood pressure will improve and you’ll lose fat faster! Buy salt-free salsa and sugarless jam as snacks. They taste great on baked tortillas or whole wheat crackers. Also find lower fat substitutes that satisfy your taste preferences.

Think “healthy eating” instead of “diet”.  A “Diet” is an on again off again thing, healthy eating is a life long process. So if you’re still hungry and it’s not time to eat, take a walk, call a friend, or put on a swimsuit and check on the airfare to  Jamaica!

This type of nutrition program you should follow to gain some good muscular body weight. Nutrition is very important, a lot of my trainees don’t make good  gains until they start eating a very large amount of protein along with the correct supplements, it makes a big difference.

Breakfast
meat 1/4 lb
3 eggs
2 slices wheat toast
milk or protein drink

Snack
cottage cheese 1/4 lb
fruit
milk or protein drink

Lunch
Tuna Sandwich (6 oz tuna)
cottage cheese 1/4 lb
salad
milk or protein drink

Snack
cheese sandwich 2 oz cheese
milk or protein drink

Dinner
Chicken 8 oz
baked potato
cooked vegetable
salad
milk or protein drink

Snack
2 eggs hardboiled
fruit
milk or protein drink