Body building : The secret diet "they" don't want you to know.

**Spiral** · #1 (**permalink**) 09-28-2006, 12:25 PM

Copyright 2006 Patrick Avella

I am about to unleash upon you the guidelines of a diet so effective, so healthy, and so easy that companies that profit off of fat loss would try dearly to keep it from you. Why am I going to give this to you for free if it's so amazing? Because once a long time ago someone else gave it to me in much the same manner, and I feel the desire to help people who are struggling to help themselves. No gimmicks, no supplements, nothing to buy, no strange cult to join.

I've been on countless eating plans with specific names, macro-nutrient ratios, eating schedules, and other strange tom foolery. While each one is effective in it's own right, they all focus around a very simple principle that you can use to take control of how you look. Here's the principle: Burn more calories than you consume. Amazing simplicity, though it's a little difficult to implement at first. I'm going to show you how step by step. All you need is a small kitchen food scale, a calculator, and a small notepad that you can keep in your pocket.

A word of forewarning; and most of all, reality. Do not expect dramatic results. You will not lose 40lbs and have ripped abs next month. You will not look like a fitness model in 6 months. What you will do is learn healthy eating habits, lose fat at a healthy and consistent rate, and set yourself up for a lifetime of health. It's also implied that you should be taking part in some form of exercise 3-5 days a week... for life.

Step one: finding your maintenance calories, duration: one week. Weigh yourself on day one. Write down your weight. Continue eating as normal, with one catch... you will write down every bite you put into your mouth, and you will write down how many calories, grams of fat, grams of protein, and grams of carbohydrates are in everything you've consumed. Add them all up daily. At the end of the week step on the scale again. If you've put on weight, then you're eating over your maintenance calories (the amount of calories it takes for you to stay the same weight,) if you stayed the same weight then you are eating at right around your maintenance calories, if your lost weight then keeping track of what you ate had a placebo effect and you are already eating fewer than maintenance calories.

Step two: the beginnings of healthy eating and lifestyle, duration: one week. Take the total number of calories you consumed in week one and divide it by seven. Your task is to eat as close to that amount of calories per day as possible, evenly distributing your calories over three to five meals. On top of this, you're going to be eating a lot healthier. In your free time it's recommended that you investigate healthy eating habits on your own, but here's some guidelines I'd like you to follow as to what constitutes as healthy. No more enriched flour, granulated sugar, molasses, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, or hydrogenated oils. Yes, this means you will be hawking over the ingredient lists at the supermarket like some type of health obsessed mad person. With any luck you'll inspire the people around you to follow suit. This leads you to eating things like chicken, oatmeal, potatoes, rice, beans, beef, walnuts, etc. It's the beginnings of a diet based on wholesome natural foods. Be especially weary of bread, even brown breads usually contain added sugars and enriched flour. Just as week one, weigh yourself on the first and last days, and write down everything you eat.

Step three: fine tuning your diet, duration: one week. Just as you did last week, weigh yourself, and add up all of the calories you consumed. Chances are you've lost weight just by changing the way you eat due to something called macro nutrient partitioning. Congratulations, you've survived a week of doing something most people can not bear to face. Reward yourself with a treat meal of some type but mind not to go overboard. Take a look at the calories you've been eating. If you've been gaining weight try dropping your calories by 600 a day. If you've been staying the same weight try dropping them by 300 per day. If you've lost more than 5-8lbs in a week (10 if you are severely overweight) raise your calories by 300 per day. If you lost between 1-5lbs this week, that's perfect! Expect to lose between 1 to 2 lbs of weight per week, in fact that's the optimal rate you want to lose weight at for overall health and long term weight reduction reasons. Take a look at the grams of fat, protein, and carbohydrates you've been eating. None of the numbers should be much higher than the other two. Optimally you want the grams of protein and carbohydrate to be moderately equal, while grams of fat are roughly one quarter of either. This is a popular macro nutrient ratio of 40/40/20, which dictates 40% of your calories come from protein, 40% come from carbohydrates, and 20% come from fat. If the grams of nutrients you ate do not fit this paradigm, it's okay. You have a lifetime to get them right.

Step four: live your life, duration: a lifetime. Just continue eating like you ate in week three, but try to get your macro nutrient ratio right and adjust your calories so that you lose, gain, or maintain weight as desired. It's okay to go ahead and have pizza and a beer once in a while, and it's certainly okay to not log everything you eat for the rest of your life. For your own benefit I would recommend trying not to eat unhealthy foods for at least 3 months. Unhealthy food can be addictive, and you want to rid yourself of any addiction to them. Above all, remember that this is a lifestyle. Perhaps that's the real secret, that this is not just a diet, but a way of life. With time you will find healthy foods that you enjoy, and may even prefer this lifestyle over the last one. Especially once you realize how much better you look and feel.

On exercise, do it. The exercise you do is entirely dependent on what you like to do and your physical condition. Always strive to improve at whatever activity you decide on. Whether you choose to lift weights, jog, play basketball, or even just walk... make sure it's an activity you love doing. Let exercise be your release from the world. If what you're doing does not make you feel relieved of stress then you should search for another venue of activity. If you have trouble sticking with exercise try finding a group activity. Golf is perfect for older people because of the walking involved, while being a social sport. If you're younger you may want to try joining a sports team of your choosing. If you're like me then perhaps we'll meet in the weight room some day, repping out deadlifts to the sounds of our favorite metal band. The most important thing is that you actually do something. Doing something is always better than doing nothing.