Next Level Training

Flexible Dieting
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When embarking on flexible dieting protocol, the 1st thing you should do is to get your maintenence calories. There are several free online calculators that can calculate your maintenance calories. You'd enter your age, height, weight and activity levels and it will give you your approximate daily calorie together with your protein, carbohydrate and fat calories. Depending on what your goal is, i.e fat loss, muscle gain or maintenence, you will either need to eat less than the maintenance calories, maintainence or in a surplus.

Whatever your goal is, when counting calories, protein is the most important macro nutrient. Always aim to reach your protein target for the day while trying to keep your fats low as it tends to be the one macro nutrient most people over consume. All round its important to aim for at least 90% compliance on the diet.

With all the theory out the way, in the next post i give real life examples of how to count calories.

The topic of diet is very nuanced and is definitely not a one size fits all protocol.
Some people do well with eliminating food groups like carbs or meat, some enjoy time restricted eating (i.e fasting) but most people want to eat a variety of foods, especially ones they enjoy and still get results.

A diet protocol that ensures you hit all your macro and micro nutrients while still enjoying the foods you enjoy is the best of both worlds. It most certainly can be done with the protocol that we call flexible dieting. Flexible dieting allows the dieter to get their macro and micro nutrients from whichever foods they enjoy and not from certain chosen or so called healthy foods. If one individual wants to get their protein from chicken, another wants to get theirs from fish, its all the same as long as the protein target for the day is met.

The strength of this protocol lies in its flexibility. The reason why people cheat on their diets is because they crave certain forbidden foods. The rigidity can be stifling for many people, however if there is some leeway in the diet to eat that chocolate or that donut it makes it easier.

In the next post i will cover exactly how to implement flexible dieting.

Diet protocols

Question - What the best diet?
Answer - The one that you can easily follow.
The mistake most people make with diet is following the latest diet trend or the diet that their favourite fitness influencer does. Any good diet will have a good amount of protein, healthy fats, good carb sources and a sufficient amount of micronutrients to cover your nutritional needs. Any diet that completely eliminates any macro nutrient or food group will not be sustainable over the long term. Just take a look at the sustainability of veganism or even the carnivore diet.

So what is sustainable and healthy? Any diet that doesn't demonize a particular food, and allows you to eat any food in moderation has the best long term sustainability. Such a diet will be easy to follow, is not rigid and will allow for the odd treat while still getting lean and staying healthy.

Because 90% of people who lose a substantial amount of weight gain it all back and with interest in 2 years, we want to create an environment that is sustainable and can be flexible enough to allow for all foods in moderation.

In the next post we will cover which diet protocol will work for most people.

Strength training

The foundation and main focus of any strength training program should be the main compound movements. As mentioned in previous post, the squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press and row form the basis of any beginner strength program. The aim should be to get strong on these movements while perfecting your form in the process.

These movements train multiple muscle groups and so they give you the best bang for your buck. Other so-called isolation movements can be added but aren't essential or even necessary for beginners.

When starting out, beginners should look at programs like starting strength stronglifts 5x5 or any similar basic barbell programs. Most advocate for 3 days per week training as this is the sweet spot for most beginners.

At the beginner stage, implementing cardio isn't mandatory as the strength training program will take care of your conditioning needs. Walking a few days a week on your off days (non strength training days) might even aid recovery, but not a requirement.

In the following post i will discuss diet protocols. Stay tuned.

Solution to skinny fat

According to today's strength and conditioning standards, the average male cannot do 15 proper push ups and can't run 5km without stopping to walk. This lack of strength and conditioning manifests itself in the average physique we see every day, low muscle mass and high body fat percentage.

In order to reverse this, the 1st step would be to embark on a basic strength program. The program would ideally comprise of basic compound movements like the squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press and bent over rows and would be done a minimum of 3 days per week. The idea is to progressively overload your workouts, in other words, add weight to the bar gradually.

As you get stronger, you would gradually add muscle mass to your frame, while simultaneously losing body fat. After 8 months to a year of training consistently, the results could be dramatic.

In the next post I will discuss how to put together a well structured strength training.

Why do we gain weight as we get older?

To continue from my previous post, the 2nd reason we gain weight as we get older is due to muscle loss. From the age of 30, we lose muscle at a rate of 3% to 8% of total body weight per decade. In the decade from 30 to 40 years, an individual weighing 80kg could lose up 6kg of muscle. A decrease in muscle mass is usually accompanied by an increase in body fat due to the slowing down of the basal metabolic rate as well as the total energy expenditure.

That's why many sedentary middle age men who've never done any resistance training in their lives are what we call "skinny fat", characterized by big tummys and skinny arms and legs. Never a great look!

In the next post i will provide solutions for this problem.

- Fat Loss -

As a personal trainer, having observed and implemented many dietary protocols in clients and myself, i found that the easiest way to lose fat is to increase your protein intake. By simply increasing your protein intake by 20 to 30 percent, you automatically increase satiety and decrease hunger signals, as it's hard to over consume protein. Consuming around 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day is optimal if you're exercising regularly. If you are an individual and you exercise regularly, consuming a high protein diet will help with overall recovery, building and repairing muscle tissue.

Does your metabolism slow down around age 30 or older?

This is a very common misconception that our metabolism slows down after (insert age). A major study of 6400 people between the ages of 8 days and 95 years was done on metabolism. They found that ones basal metabolic rate and total energy expenditure remains more or less the same up to age 60, at which it slightly declines.

The main cause for weight gain as we enter middle age is due to our lives becoming more sedentary. We don't have hobbies anymore, don't partake in outdoor activities. We tend to move less at our jobs, we have people do things for us as opposed to doing it ourselves.

In my next post i will cover the other reason we gain weight and how to fix it.

- Exercise Motivation -

All of us at 1 time had zero motivation to go to the gym, or to do that run or that walk. One of the ways that i trick myself into going to the gym or even that walk is to tell myself that i only need to do that particular activity for 5 to 10 minutes. So if it's gym, i tell myself to only do 2 exercises, and if it's a walk it's 10 minutes or around the block.

100% of the time I tend to go on for longer, and not once did i ever regret exercising. Once the adrenaline is flowing its hard to stop. Try that next time you don't feel like exercising!

When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement excellerates. - Pearson's Law

One of the best ways to improve your performance in the gym, your general athletic performance or your physique is to measure and track your progress. You can use notes, progress pics workout apps and nutrition app all of which are free. This is so easy to implement and the rewards are tremendous. Start today