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?
Why You Can’t Stay Lean When You Get Off Your Structured Diet
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…
Should Bodybuilders Restrict Their Intake of Dietary Fat?
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
5 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Sticking to a Strict Diet
Your research is complete. You have a blank food log ready to go. You know exactly how many carbs, proteins, fats, and calories to eat each day. You even have an alarm set to go off every 3 hours to remind you to eat a snack or drink a protein shake. You’ve got anywhere from 10-20 weeks to reach your target body fat, but you know full well that cheating can be disastrous.
You know from experience that after 2 weeks your body is going to demand that you feed it some of your favorite tasty treats. But this time is going to be different. This time you are going to stick it out. So how are you going to stick to your diet for the required time? How are you going to hit your goals?
It is far from impossible. In fact thousands of bodybuilders do it every day, and you can too.
Here are 5 strategies to help you stay disciplined on a strict diet. (more…)
One of the safest and fastest weight loss solutions on the market.
Weight lost, stays off.
Oral supplements like HCG drops are just as effective as injections.
Save money at the grocery store with a very low-calorie diet plan.
The HCG diet is the world’s leading weight loss diet because it’s effective, safe, and easy. There’s no better way to shed unwanted and unhealthy pounds. Simply use a proven HCG diet supplement along with the recommended diet guidelines and your body fat will simply melt off your body. The HCG drops make it super easy to tolerate a very low-calorie diet. A moderate exercise routine is recommended.
With so many at-home cookie-cutter workout routines out there, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss one of the best: P90X. After all, P90X is pretty cheap compared to paying a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer.
Will P90X turn you into a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, an Olympic gymnast, a marathon runner, or a sport-specific athlete? Oh, hell no!
Could P90X possibly get you in the best shape of your life with a minimal initial investment? Could P90X strengthen your body, improve your cardiovascular fitness, help heal nagging injuries, and dial in your 6-pack abs for summer? Oh, hell yes!
Dale Bramall, Altaf Rahamatulla, Kellend Brookover, Nick Baker, and Derek Wheatley all have written testimonials about their motivation for and their journey using P90X workout DVD and their full weight loss program, which is a 90 day program with an exercise DVD, training in how to portion foods, which foods to choose, and a coaching system that has worked very well for all five of these men.
With so many at-home cookie-cutter workout routines out there, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss one of the best: P90X. After all, P90X is pretty cheap compared to paying a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer.
Will P90X turn you into a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, an Olympic gymnast, a marathon runner, or a sport-specific athlete? Oh, hell no!
Could P90X possibly get you in the best shape of your life with a minimal initial investment? Could P90X strengthen your body, improve your cardiovascular fitness, help heal nagging injuries, and dial in your 6-pack abs for summer? Oh, hell yes!
PX90 suggests that a ninety-day weight loss regime jumped into with both feet will start you on your weight loss journey. The program implies that shocking yourself with the first 30 days of their system will get your metabolism going, and because of the results you see, you will be gung-ho for the rest of their ninety-day program.
The sixth copy of the new Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 DVD that I had planned on giving away to a lucky Project Swole reader had gone missing. It was recently found to have been destroyed by a dog. It is not salvageable and will never be given away.
Now the good news
The publishing company has sent me 10… count them TEN… more Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 DVDs to give away for FREE.
Therefore, for the next 10 weeks I am going to give away one copy of the DVD every Monday night, starting on 3/14/11.
You can find the original post with all the qualifying instructions here:
It is very easy to qualify… over 30 people have qualified to date. Just check out that post at the link above and follow the instructions.
I’m closing the comments on this post because I don’t want any activity here. Whatever you have to say or ask about the FREE DVD, please submit a comment at the original post.
With so many at-home cookie-cutter workout routines out there, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss one of the best: P90X. After all, P90X is pretty cheap compared to paying a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer.
Will P90X turn you into a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, an Olympic gymnast, a marathon runner, or a sport-specific athlete? Oh, hell no!
Could P90X possibly get you in the best shape of your life with a minimal initial investment? Could P90X strengthen your body, improve your cardiovascular fitness, help heal nagging injuries, and dial in your 6-pack abs for summer? Oh, hell yes!
You may already of heard of P90X (other names: Power 90X, X90 Workout, and PX90) either by way of TV and radio commercials or word of mouth. And you may be intrigued by the numerous reports of success enjoyed by people who have shed unwanted pounds, and by the images of people who have used the P90X program to work their way to a toned and attractive physique.
The collection of articles I will be presenting delves into the potential of the P90X program and whatit has to offer you as an individual. I consider it my job to provide sufficient information in this series to answer any and all questions you might have about P90X. (more…)
Intermittent Fasting Part 3 – Training to Burn Fat
And so, faithful readers, we have arrived at the final installment of our intermittent fasting series. In part 1 I gave you a brief overview as to what intermittent fasting is and what some of the benefits are. In part 2, I laid out the guiding blueprint to help you create your own nutrition plan, but today we’re gonna talk about how to create the sexy via resistance training.
Here are the results of Roger’s recent bout with Intermittent Fasting – Nice work Rog!
Maqui berry refers to a type of fruit, belonging to Elaeocarpaceae family, which is a native of Valdivian rainforests in Chile as well as adjacent areas of Argentina. Its botanical name is Aristotelia chilensis. The berries are small and purple-black in color and have a diameter of around 4-6 mm. Maqui is also known as Chilean wineberry, apart from several local names, such as maquei, koelon, queldrón, ach, and clon.
Macui is a dioecious tree, which is around 4-5 m tall, evergreen, and features smooth bark and a divided trunk. The branches are flexible, thin and abundant, whereas the leaves are pendulous, simple, opposite, glabrous, oval-lanceolate, coriaceous and have serrated edges, as well as red petioles. The flowers are white and small in size, yielding small edible fruits, which we know as Maqui berry.
With those boring details out of the way, let’s focus on the benefits of maqui berry so that you may learn how using maqui can increase your quality of life.
As you go about your weight loss diet or weight loss program, there are many different factors that go into the diet equation that will all influence how quickly you see results.
If you’re someone who wants to make progress as quickly as possible, one key factor that you cannot be leaving out is meal timing.
While what you eat is definitely going to have a huge impact on the progress you make, when you eat will also influence your results as well.
Let’s have a quick look at the most important reasons why meal timing is something that you absolutely must be paying attention to. (more…)
The Project Swole Three Step Full Body Detox Plan is the most effective detox and weight loss plan ever. Combine the supplement plan with a full body fat loss exercise routine for record breaking fat loss results!
For fat loss and good health, acai berries are one of the best foods you can eat.
Using an acai berry supplement will help speed up your fat loss considerably as long as you already follow a proper fitness and nutrition plan. Additionally, everyone can use the high concentration of antioxidants in acai to help stay healthy and young as the years pass by.
You want to save time building muscle and losing fat. You want to put in as little time as possible, using as few days out of the week as possible, and get the most bang for your buck. In that case you should exercise only when you can maximize your returns on time invested. Here’s how:
So apparently Bob Greene is Oprah’s personal trainer. He is credited with giving Oprah an exercise and nutrition plan that has actually helped her maintain a healthy weight.
** Comment on this post to qualify to win a free copy of this DVD. **
Obviously you must know by now that Oprah started off huge, lost a ton of weight, ballooned back up again, lost it again, gained it all back, etc… But from what I understand, thanks to Bob Greene’s workout plan and nutrition tips, she is finally maintaining a healthy weight.
Free Product Alert!
Allow me to announce Project Swole’s most recent free giveaway: Bob Greene’s Total Body Makeover DVD. I haven’t watch this, nor will I, but I can tell you what it says on the DVD package.
An 8-Week Program for Maximum Results in Minimum Time
8 Express Workouts on 1 DVD – Customized for Every Level
Now you can download the Full Body Plus HIIT for Fat Loss workout routines in Excel spreadsheet format. You can use these files to print out the routine and take it to the gym on a clipboard, keep track of your progress on the computer, or both.
The Full Body Plus HIIT Fat Loss Routine for Men can be found here:
I made some changes to the programs as well. Going through them I realized that there will almost always be time to complete those optional sets at the end of the routine, so I made the “e” exercises mandatory and added an additional abdominal exercise to make a super-set.
Originally posted: 1/27/10 Updates: 2/1/10 updated routine, added Excel spreadsheet workout logs) 3/8/10 added example HIIT routines for days 2, 4, and 6.
We are integrating 3 full body training sessions with 3 HIIT routines and taking the 7th day off. Since the goal is fat loss, we are striving to add some muscle mass, maintain strength, and burn as many calories as possible.
This is accomplished by staying in a slightly higher rep range than we would normally use for strictly strength training, while using super-sets for most of our exercises. We add an optional set to the end of each workout in case you are able to finish the workout early.
Major compound exercises are rotated to prioritize a different muscle group on each of the 3 training sessions each week.
Originally posted: 1/26/10 Updates: 2/1/10 updated routine, added Excel spreadsheet workout logs) 3/8/10 added example HIIT routines for days 2, 4, and 6.
We are integrating 3 full body training sessions with 3 HIIT routines and taking the 7th day off. Since the goal is fat loss, we are striving to add some muscle mass, maintain strength, and burn as many calories as possible.
This is accomplished by staying in a slightly higher rep range than we would normally use for strictly strength training, while using super-sets for most of our exercises. We add an optional set to the end of each workout in case you are able to finish the workout early.
Major compound exercises are rotated to prioritize a different muscle group on each of the 3 training sessions each week.
I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.
Generally I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.
The category, Your Health Questions is a more proactive approach to answering your questions so that everyone can benefit from the Q & A.
Greg wrote:
“Hi,
First, let me say thank you for this website and all the useful information you post here. I am 45 years old, at 6 foot 1 inches and 210 pounds, and my goal is to simply change my weight distribution (don’t mind weighing 210 if it’s muscle and not fat).
Since I am a ‘hard gainer’, I have read your recommendations on the best exercises/workouts to build mass, and I have two additional questions.
First, I’ve continually heard the following: higher reps + lighter weight = definition, and lower reps + heavier weight = mass. My question is, what is the sweet spot for mass AND definition? For example, if I do three sets of curls, how many reps for each set – 12, 10, 8 or maybe 10, 8, 6 (with progressively higher weight)?
Second, what about diet? I’ve also heard that you should eat like a horse – lots of protein and carbs. Of course, if you overdo it, you’ll gain fat as well. So again, where is the sweet spot?
