AITank: Fitness Explained

If you are like me and still in school, then eating right is slightly harder for most of us because we either do not have the time to cook large meals or are restricted by a cash flow that well… might not exist. This does not mean that you cannot eat well, you just have to be more selective on what you buy. Or if you have access to a cafeteria or some sort of meal plan, pick the most nutrient dense foods you can to maximize your intake of protein/carbs/fats. Let’s take a look at some healthy choices.

Eggs are a staple of the hard eating college student. One will not do much for you so you will have to pick up a couple. At most eat 2 to 3 yolks and up to 7 whites to go with it. So lets say 3 whole eggs and four extra whites. The yolks are packed with calories and cholesterol which is why we want to limit how many we eat. To make your life easie look for hardboiled eggs so that you can separate the two parts easier. Slice them and throw them down or crumble one or two over a mixed salad with some light dressing. It makes for a good lean meal packed full of protein and calories.

Next is chicken breasts. Always opt for chicken over burgers at the cafeteria as the meat they use for the burgers is most likely anything but lean, giving you more fat than you would otherwise want.

But only if you eat right at the same time. A lot of people are under the impression that doing hundreds of situps and crunches will make them lose fat. This is not the case. The ONLY time you will ever lose weight is when take in less calories than you use. For example, if I burn 2000 calories a day, I’d have to eat less than 2000 calories in order to lose weight, regardless of how many sit ups I do, how long I spend in the gym, and how many miles I run. So now that you know the basic principles behind losing weight, let’s talk about how to go about doing it.

Cutting fat is a no no. Cutting carbs is a no no. The only people who need to use extreme diets are competition bodybuilders and celebrities after they have babies, and there’s a 99% chance you don’t fit into either of these categories. Cutting fat is not the way to go because the body actually needs fat to function. It’s when it gets TOO MUCH fat and the wrong kinds that it starts showing it. In a nutshell: trans fat = bad, saturated fat = pretty bad, polyunsaturated fat = pretty good, monounsaturated fat = good. This doesn’t mean you want to drop your saturated fat intake down to 0, it just means you want to watch it and try to get more of the good fats (the best example of monounsaturated fat is peanut butter, so yeah PB&J’s are actually healthy).

All too often I am asked, “What should I be taking to help me get bigger ” and just as often to lose weight or get leaner. These people often times come prepared with a list of pills and and powders as long as a textbook. I sit there and wonder, can they really be serious. Often times they are, convinced by the marketing madness thrown at them by the major supplement companies out there. Well to those people whose breakfast looks like a bunch of pills and various powders, I want to hear this: have you seen any measurable progress towards your goal that you can attribute to this pseudo pharmacy you take in every day? If you can say yes to that question, please email me or leave a comment, I want to hear from you. Now to the majority that will have answered that question with a no lets start talking real sense.

There is one thing that almost all amateur fitness buffs forget to incorporate into their diet strategy and that is to take a good multivitamin. If you are active, you need more than the recommended daily allowance of almost all vitamins and minerals, and because of this multivitamins are essential. Having sufficient levels of vitamins and minerals promotes a strong immune system, steady metabolic processes, hormonal balance and mental alertness. They allow the food you eat to be utilized more effectively giving you the most out of each meal as many vitamins function as cofactors in the digestion of amino acids and carbohydrates. So what should you look for in a multivitamin? Mainly look for a complete pill that has all your vitamins minerals and anti-oxidants along with being low in iron. Two of the best out there are AST Multi Pro 32X and Twinlab Daily One. NOW also makes a very good multi-v, one for men and one for women named Adam and Eve respectively.

In later posts we will go in depth, and talk about individual vitamins and minerals, their effects on you, and then start talking specific supplements such as protein, glutamine and creatine.

It is 5:30 in the morning and the sun has yet to come up over the city. The wheels on this plan of mine have been set in motion and that means I have to feed the animal growing inside. A bowl of Bob’s Red Mill oatmeal, 4 egg whites and 2 yolks scrambled in olive oil, two slices of toast, a cup of yogurt and a tall glass of milk. Yah that sounds good; a meal that will stick to my ribs as my mom used to say and provide all the energy I need and then some for the morning workout. Clean carbs and some good protein thrown into the mix, oh and some good fats as well. Take my AST MultiPro vitamin and I am primed, ready to get under the iron. Contrary to what many believe, you cannot accomplish anything really without feeding yourself properly. Can’t lose weight, gain muscle, be mentally alert - nothing. That is of course unless you are in a state of ketosis and your body has rewired itself to operate in the most primal of survival modes. Want to lose weight, well listen here; there is no magic diet, there is no magic pill. If you have a medical condition that causes you to be over or under weight then that is a matter all unto itself. But for the rest of the people out there that are constantly looking for this lazy man’s out, you are not going to find it.