Showing posts with label build muscle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label build muscle. Show all posts

Friday, June 8, 2012

Eat to Meet your Fitness Goals

One of the biggest obstacles I face with clients during their training is food. While putting in 60 - 90 minutes a day at the gym can move you closer towards your fitness goals, proper eating is the key. I ask every one of my clients what they had for breakfast that day, and more often than not the answer is "a cup of coffee" or "nothing." Whether you're trying to loose weight or pack it on, neither of those responses will get you any closer to your goals.

One thing is for certain, your body doesn't work well on an empty tank of gas. When you wake up in the morning, your blood sugar is low and you need to fuel your body. Question: What organ is the largest consumer of carbs in the body? If you guessed the brain, you're right (your mouth is not an organ). So, let me rephrase this: When you wake up in the morning your brain is hungry. It's very demanding and if you're not going to feed it, it's going to feed itself. There's a fascinating process in the body called gluconeogenesis whereby the brain signals the liver to create glucose, food on which the brain operates. This happens in the liver by breaking-down amino acids to create this brainfood, or glucose. And where do you suppose those amino acids come from in your body? Your muscles: precious muscle that you've worked so hard to build, precious muscle that keep your body's metabolism purring along so nicely. Yes, in order to keep your brain going, it will break down your hard-earned muscle to feed itself. After all, the brain has the enormous task of keeping you going.

What's the solution? You need to eat in the morning if you want to lose weight or if you're trying to gain weight. It may be a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit and yogurt, a toasted bagel with nut butter, or a baked sweet potato. Eat something! Even better would be to make food plan for yourself - Breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner - and get to the grocery store. Like the saying goes, plan the work and work the plan!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Are You a Quart Low?

The human body is approximately 60% water. That means that a 200 pound man is about 120 pounds of water, or about 15 gallons worth (water weights 8 lbs per gallon). The water content in muscle is even higher: about 80%. Do I really need to tell you that water is important for building muscle? No lecturing here but I will tell you why it's absolutely important: Well-hydrated muscle cells synthesize protein better than those that are not so well-hydrated. In other words, if you're low on water your body is using protein at a slower rate and that means that you're not growing muscle efficiently. What's the first thing you put in your mouth in the morning? Coffee? Diet Coke? Orange Juice? When you wake-up your body has lost water during the night through perspiration, respiration, and urination. Here's a simple test: Weigh yourself before you go to bed and again when you immediately wake up. There will be a difference on the scale. Was it one pound? Maybe two pounds? Lets just say the latter, two pounds. Two pounds of water is a whole quart, 32 ounces, or 4 cups of water! You need to put that back ASAP! And Gatorade and Crystal Lite don't count. During the past 25 years the first thing I've been drinking is 16 ounces of water every morning. That may be a lot for some folks but I'm a 200+ pound guy and it's not that hard. I recommend staring with at least 8 ounces to get your kidneys going. A common guideline is 8 glasses of water, about 64 ounces, through-out your day. Another good working guideline is to divide your weight by 2.2 and the result is now many ounces of water you should consume (Me: 200 lbs/2.2 = 90.9 ounces of water). These numbers aren't written in stone. During strenuous activity or if you're in a hot climate you'll probably need even more! Drink up and stay healthy!