What to Avoid After A Hardcore Workout

A lot of people, after developing a certain level of commitment to their fitness goals, usually have little to no problems in completing their weekly workout routine. Simply because their focus have always been on the workout, more workout more muscles, less workout less muscles. However how many of them do really care of their meals especially the post workout meal. No matter how hard you train you are more likely to jeopardize your efforts in the gym if you neglect one of the most important meal in muscle building, the post workout meal.

The worst mistake you could ever make is to skip this meal.Period. If you're going to consume something, here are some guidelines...

1) Avoid eating excessive fat after an intense training. Simply because fat will slow down the absorption of carbohydrate and protein which can minimize the anabolic effect of the insulin.

2) Avoid waiting too long to eat. If you miss the 60 minutes recovery window you will miss the anabolic effect after your workout. Plus your blood sugar will drop and leave you starving for food.

3) Avoid consuming slow digesting, high fiber carbs with incomplete protein. Your carbs intake must be quick digesting and your protein should contain all the essential amino acids.

4) Avoid junk food, empty calories and processed fats for several hours after your workout. You need a high quality food all day long to build muscle.

5) Drink plenty of water within pre, during and post workout to maximize performance and to ensure an optimal hormonal response.

In short you must realize the importance of the post workout meal. Never skip this meal and avoid making wrong choices as it will jeopardize your hard work at the gym.

Adapted from What to Never Eat After Your Workout by Jayson Hunter.

Cheers!!!
Revolution Gym & Fitness.

If u ever think of going through lipo suction u better off eating these food...part 2

Yogurt
Plain yogurts are loaded with probiotics that fight belly fats. Don't confuse this with those flavored yogurts which contain tons of sugar.


Meat
Turkey, free range chicken and grass-fed beef contain natural CLA - a magic formula to burn belly fat. The interesting thing is, after you've finished eating these foods your body will burn 30% of its calorie.


Wild Salmon
Due to its high content of protein and omega-3 fatty acid, wild salmon can be one of the most effective fat burning food. If your diet is deficient in omega-3 you may start eating salmon and see how fast your fat can really coming off.


Cinnamon
Cinnamon contain a type of antioxidant that can increases insulin sensitivity and helps to stabilize your blood sugar.
Chilli Peppers
Ever wonder why those guys from RHCP are always looking ripped shirtless? Chili peppers increase calorie-burning, stabilizes blood sugar level and is a potent antioxidant.

Berries
Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are loaded with fibers and vitamins. This two ingredients can slow down sugar absorption and fight craving.

Adapted from Josh Beyoni's 15 food that kill belly fat fast!

Cheers,
Revolution Gym & Fitness

If u ever think of going through lipo suction u better off eating these food...part 1

Avocados

Avocados can do two things...first they keep you from feeling hungry....second they spot reduce your belly fat from their monosaturated belly fat content.

Nuts and Seeds

Any nuts and seeds such as pistachios, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are loaded with healthy, belly-fat burning minerals and fats.

Veggies

Broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and cabbage help to fight against environmental estrogen that can add belly fat.

Healthy Oils

Olive and coconut oil supply healthy oils your body needs to burn those excessive belly fat.

Eggs

Eggs are loaded with fat-belly burning protein, vitamin B6, B12, A, D, E, K, folate, choline, lutein, calsium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, and omega-3 acids. Besides they make you feel full for a long period.


Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants and contains stimulants (theobromine and caffeine) that have a positive effect on burning the fat belly.


Oat

Loaded with fiber and whole grains goodness. But keep in mind that processed-high sugar loaded fast cooking oat will not do the same trick.


Adapted from Josh Beyoni's 15 food that kill belly fat fast!

Cheers!!!
Revolution Gym & Fitness

Best Post Workout Meal For Rapid Fat Loss

It has been said that your post-workout meal is actually the most important meal of your day, second only to Breakfast.

The post workout meal is extremely important because replenishing your body with the right combination of nutrients is essential to repairing your muscles from the breakdown after a workout, and keeping your metabolism fired up.

A recent study conducted over a 12 week period has shown that those who did not consume a post workout meal immediately after their workouts suffered from a lower metabolism as well as indications of muscle loss. While those who consumed a post workout recovery meal, lost substantially more fat, increased lean muscle, achieved a higher metabolic rate, and increased overall strength.

One of the most important considerations for continuous (Long term) body fat loss and maintaining lean muscle mass is raising your metabolic rate by building and maintaining lean muscle mass throughout your (entire) body.

Consuming a good post workout meal after every workout, allows your body to repair and build lean muscle by giving it the tools (nutrients) to make essential repairs. The more lean muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate, which in turn gives the body the ability to burn more body fat even while you are inactive.

What makes up a good post workout meal?


Remember that throughout the day you should eat small whole food meals frequently that digest slowly and are high in fiber. These meals should also contain healthy fats and quality proteins to provide a steady stream of amino acids.

As for post-workout meals, you actually want carbohydrates to create an insulin response. This helps to force glycogen and nutrients back into your muscle cells for repair. This strategy not only helps the body build muscle, but also stimulates fat loss.

With post-workout meals, you actually want less fiber content, more carbohydrates, and quick digesting protein to accelerate muscle repair.

Something else to take into account with the post workout meal is that you should consume almost all carbohydrates and protein, and almost no fat. Fat will slow the absorption of essential nutrients and glycemic response which works against the bodies needs at this critical point of repair.

The best ratio of carbohydrates to protein is about 2 to 1 which is optimal to maximize the process of muscle repair and increase the metabolic rate for long term fat loss.

The best ingredients to use when making post-workout shakes are frozen bananas, whey protein, water, and some real maple syrup or natural honey (avoid products with high fructose corn syrup) Also, in some cases adding whole oats and other fresh fruits or a combination of fruits for a unique tasting post workout shake.

You should consume your post workout shake as soon as possible preferably right after your workout. Remember that the post workout meal is a critical element to a successful routine.

Glycemic Index: Myths and Facts

Myth:

The greatest method to calculate the carbohydrate in a food is by using Glycemic Index.

Truth:

Glycemic index is a scale which informs about the rate of release of glucose from a carbohydrate in the blood stream. It does not calculate the amount of carbohydrate in a food. If a food is consumed in a greater amount, it would result in a higher Glycemic reaction. This happens as there is a higher Glycemic load. This can be explained as that if a person eats two different foods with comparable GI values, the blood glucose released would be greater for the food which is eaten in larger quantity.

Myth:

GI diet proposers suggest that a person, who wishes to loose weight, should avoid foods which are white such as pasta and potatoes because of their high GI values.

Truth:

The white color of food is not the criteria for deciding the GI value, instead it is the method used for cooking the food that is more important. It also depends on whether the food has been processed to a large extent and the foods eaten along. For example, a boiled potato has a lower GI value than a micro-waved potato. Pasta is also a low GI food, but becomes rich by the method of cooking. Most of the foods are cooked in conjunction with other foods which tend to lower the GI values.

Myth:

Healthy foods and unhealthy foods can be divided on the basis of Glycemic Index.

Truth:

GI alone does not decide the healthiness of the food. For example, skim milk has a GI value of 32, while whole milk has a GI of 27. A lower value of GI does not imply that the food will be a healthy food.

Myth:
Simple sugars have high GI values

Truth:

Fruits are rich in simple sugar called fructose. Fructose is digested slowly by the body since it is digested by the liver only. This causes a slow release of glucose in blood stream. Therefore, it is not essential for a food to be made up of complex sugars to be low in GI value.

Myth:

Low insulin levels can be maintained with low GI foods. Hence, any amount of low GI foods can be eaten.

Truth:

It is not necessary that a diet of low GI means that the food can be had in any amount. This is because the insulin level in blood stream depends upon the Glycemic load, which is primarily a combination of GI and carbohydrate eaten. This means that if the carbohydrate eaten is more, it will result in higher glucose levels in blood stream implying a higher value of GI.

Understanding The Glycemic Index

You might have read about the GI in nutrition magazines, newspapers and even on food labels and might have wondered what the hype is about. However, this is no new weight loss pill or device, it is simply used to monitor and maintain weight. Initially only athletes and diabetics used it, however now just about anybody who cares about weight uses it.

This article presents the facts about the Glycemic Index (GI) so that you can decide for yourselves what the truth about it is.

What is it?

Glycemic Index measures the effect a food has on your blood sugar levels. If a food causes a rapid glucose release into your blood stream, it will have a high GI and vice versa.

Dr. David Jenkins and his team at the St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto developed this so that diabetics could monitor their sugar levels. However, two books The Zone, by Barry Seas and Sugar Busters!, by HI. Leighton Steward et. al. used it as a weight loss tool.

Does it work?

No two dieticians agree on this one. Some claim that a rapid sustained weight loss is possible by taking foods with a low GI. On the other hand, others warn that such foods leave out the vitamins and minerals and are no help in weight loss.

How accurate it is?

The GI of any food varies depending on its country of origin. For example, Canadian carrots had a GI of 92 whereas same amount of Romanian carrots had a GI of 16.

In addition to this, the American Diabetes Association (ADA), says that GI varies if the food is combined with other foods. While jam may have a high GI, if combined with whole wheat bread, the combination has a low GI.

Fat slows down the digestion and therefore, high-fat products have a low GI. Therefore, you would be taking a major risk if you rely only on GI.

Confusion around the GI

There is a lot of lack of data to conclude whether or not this is an effective tool for weight loss or management. It sure is very effective for diabetics and athletes, who have to regulate their blood sugar at all times.

However, for the regular person trying to lose weight or maintain lost weight, the picture is still foggy. The best thing to do is have a balanced diet comprising of 50-60% carbohydrates, 20-30% fat and 10-20% protein.

How Vitamin C Can Improve Your Muscle Building Results

When you want to live in a healthy fashion and to be physically fit, remember that you need a balanced diet and a good workout regimen. To be in good shape, you will need to have good eating habits that you practice every day.

The issue that a lot of people run into, however is that they need to deal with vitamin deficiencies. These deficiencies can lead to negative health conditions that will plague you in the years to come, but the solution really is as simple as making sure that you get the right kind of supplements!

One such vitamin that is essential for good health is Vitamin C also known as Ascorbic acid. It helps in reducing oxidative stress that is caused by rigorous training during body building sessions and workout routines.

There are animals out there that produce their own vitamin C, but we have to make sure that we eat foods that are rich in it. Unless you are ready to put vitamin C into your diet, you will start to have serious problems

Check out some of the important benefits of vitamin C. in the first place, it will help your body absorb iron from the food that you eat and it can also boost your immune system. It will also help your body form collagen, which is essential for the formation of everything from muscles to teeth to bones to veins to cartilage!

In a nut shell, Vitamin C helps to support and maintain every part of your body and keeps it in perfect working condition and also plays an important role as a natural bodybuilding supplement as it helps maintaining musculature, keeping your body strong and your bones healthy.

There are plenty of ways to get some vitamin C into your diet. Start by throwing in some citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits. Similarly, also make sure that you include things like peppers, kiwi fruit, sweet potatoes, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Remember that you should put these items into your regular diet.

Also make sure that you you use it to improve your exercise regimen. If you have a good dosage of vitamin C, you’ll find that it can greatly strengthen your immune system while letting you recover much faster. It will suppress cortisol, which keeps your muscles from growing and it will keep down fat.

To get the best result, remember that you should consume 1000 mg of vitamin C about an hour before you start working out. Not only will you recover faster, you will also find that it can help with muscle soreness.

Take some time to think about how this vitamin can benefit your body. There are a lot of different kinds of vitamin C around and you’ll find that they are all efficient. Whether your goals are to get more fit or you want to seriously build your body, you’ll discover that vitamin C is essential!

From Ricardo d Argence

8 Perfect Fitness Foods

EAT THIS!

PINEAPPLE AND PAPAYA
Good for: Muscle recovery
Both of these tropical fruits are loaded with bromelain and papain, enzymes that not only help break down proteins for digestion but also have anti-inflammatory properties to speed up your post-workout recovery.

SALMON
Good for: Cardiovascular fitness
Australian researchers found that cyclists who took fish oil for 8 weeks had lower heart rates and consumed less oxygen during intense bicycling than a control group did. The fatty acids in fish oil need to become incorporated into muscle and heart cells to have an effect, and that takes weeks of consumption—so either take fish oil pills each day, or try to eat fish rich in fatty acids multiple times a week to see similar results.

PB&J or PASTA WITH MEAT SAUCE
Good for: Muscle building and repair
The perfect post-weight training repast has about 400 calories, with 20 to 30 grams of protein (to build new muscle) and 50 to 65 grams of carbohydrates (to repair old muscle). Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or a small bowl of pasta with meat sauce fits that formula.

LEAN MEAT
Good for: Waist-trimming
Lean meats are a great low-calorie source of protein, and scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, found that eating more protein may reduce the fat around your midsection. People who ate 20 more grams of protein every day than the group average had 6 percent lower waist-to-hip ratios.

DRINK THAT!

8 OUNCES OF CHOCOLATE MILK
Good for: Hydration
The best sports drink may come from a cow. British researchers found that milk does a better job than water or sports drinks at rehydrating the body after exercise. Why? To begin with, milk has more electrolytes and potassium. The addition of chocolate gives milk the perfect balance of carbs, protein, and fat for speedy muscle recovery.

COFFEE
Good for: Pain relief
University of Georgia scientists revealed that taking a caffeine supplement (equal to two cups of coffee) after exercise reduces muscle soreness more than pain relievers can. Caffeine blocks a chemical that activates pain receptors.

COLD WATER
Good for: Endurance
Drinking cold water before and during exercise can help improve your endurance. In a British study, cyclists who drank about 30 ounces of a chilled drink in the half hour before riding in a hot, humid environment—and smaller amounts as they rode—were able to bike 23 percent longer than riders who downed lukewarm liquids. Drinking cold water may be the most direct way to reduce core body temperature, so it takes you longer to heat up and slow down.

GREEN TEA
Good for: Muscle recovery
Brazilian scientists found that participants who consumed three cups of green tea every day for a week had fewer markers of the cell damage caused by resistance to exercise. So drinking a few cups every day may help your muscles recover faster after an intense workout.

From David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding

How to Put the Appetite Control Switch in the ON Position and Not Feel Hungry!

Have you ever started a diet and then become overwhelmed with the feeling of hunger, craving, and food deprivation? We all have!

Nothing can ruin a diet faster than the feeling of hunger or cravings of certain foods. Let’s be honest, it’s much easier to stay on track with a healthy eating plan when you’re feeling full and not hungry. Scientists have a name for this feeling: it’s called satiety. I’ve also heard satiety referred to as the ”craving-free” zone by various weight loss systems.

The concept of satiety is ever present in most eating plans and diets, except nobody takes the time to refer to it by name or explain what it actually means. If you understood the basic workings of satiety it would definitely make the food suggestions you see, hear, or read, make more sense and probably encourage you to follow it and your diet a lot more closely.

In order to lose weight, we have to eat less, particularly of the wrong foods, which often produce cravings and a sense of wanting more. However, when we eat less, we tend to feel hungry all the time. Most of us cannot resist hunger very long. That’s why the average weight loss diet lasts less than three weeks.

Great, I’m either craving chocolate bon bons all day or I’m starving like a character in Lost!

Enter the concept of satiety. If you’re not craving food and feeling deprived, it’s much easier to stay with your eating plan. Fortunately, nutrition researchers have learned it is possible to feel satisfied with a diet that still allows you to lose weight. But how?

It’s all about food selection.

The key practice in healthy satiety is eating small appetizers. Now, before you get excited about ordering the Jack Championship Slider Sampler from T.G.I. Friday’s or the Bloomin’ Onion from the Outback Steakhouse, it ain’t happening. Stop day dreaming and continue reading!

The appetizers I’m talking about contain specific satiety activators, or special nutrients that activate the body’s natural appetite control switch, so you eat smaller meals yet still feel satisfied. This eating strategy actually has a name and it’s called “healthy satiety.”

The most effective satiety activators are long-chain fatty acids, which are monounsaturated fats found in high concentrations in olive oil, macadamia nut oil, flaxseed oil, almond oil, peanut oil and other healthy cold-pressed oils. Consuming a small amount of foods rich in these oils will activate your appetite control switch before you begin eating a meal. Therfore, you will feel fuller even if you eat fewer calories.

Here are some high satiety appetizers. Because these oils are so effective in turning off your appetite, you only need a small amount:

• 2 cups of salad, dressed with one oz. olive oil

• 2 oz. turkey on a whole grain cracker

• 2 oz. mozzarella cheese on a whole grain cracker

• 2 oz. tuna in one oz. olive oil

• ½ teaspoon peanut butter on a piece of celery

Does this list of food options look familiar? Of course it does, but now you hopefully know why.

Certain oils trip the appetite control switch!

Studies have shown when the items above are consumed before a meal, it reduces food intake, slows the movement of food from the stomach, and extends the feeling of fullness for up to four hours after a meal.

If hunger was the main reason your last diet failed, you might want to try healthy satiety next time. Perhaps the best thing about it is, it can be used to make any reasonable diet more effective!

From Mike Geary’s book The Truth About Six Pack Abs

3 Healthy Diet Tips For Losing Weight Faster Than Ever

When you are in the process of losing weight, you likely know that a healthy diet is the biggest key to success. Yes, exercises is something you have to do as well, but the right diet is the missing key to weight management. This short article will share some easy to implement tips and tricks to get the most out of your diet, and turn your lifestyle into a healthy one.

1. Instead of having bad fat, make sure to eat at least some healthy fat in each meal you have. If you want to keep your muscle building, fat burning and hormone levels high, it’s extremely important to maintain proper proportions of healthy fat. If you keep a high level of healthy fats, you also help keep your appetite under control.

Good places to get the healthy fats you need are seeds, raw nuts, eggs, extra virgin olive oil (contains one of the highest levels of antioxidants in olive oils), avocados, coconut oil (contains a source of saturated fats in the form of medium chain triglycerides), and meats that have been grass-fed (because they are a great source of healthy fats and conjugated linoleic acid, which are important to help burn body fat and build lean muscle.

Check this out — Eat a small cup of raw nuts, such as walnuts or almonds 30 minutes before your meals. This will help you reduce your appetite and it also helps give the body a great source of quality protein, fibers and healthy fat. It will also help you get a smaller intake of calories overall, and get more nutrients than most meals, because of the good nutrition in nuts.

2. Eat a lot of protein! Every meal or snack should include a at least a source of protein. High quality protein from grass-fed meats, grass-fed dairy and plants/nuts/beans all provide quality sources of high quality protein that suppress your appetite and helps control your calori intake.

The source of high quality proteins help you get that leans ripped muscle look (when you work out regularly), so now your body’s metabolism will be highly increased, because of you have lean muscle that burn fat faster than fat, or smaller muscles.

When you eat a high source of protein you also help control your bodies blood sugar levels and insuling levels. This is because it helps slow down the natural breakdown of carbohydrates you have eaten.

3. I don’t agree at all with low-carb diets or low-carb foods. However, I think that many people who are overweight in this society today struggle to lose weight because they are eating an excess of corbohydrates, such as refined grain-based starches and refined sugars found in many “sugar products”, on a daily basis.

On the other hand, if you eat a lot of fruits as your source of carbs, you are doing a good job, because the fruits include some fibers that will help keep the blood sugar under control. Don’t drink fruit juices if you can, because most of them are processed fruits, or concentrate, with added sugar and removed fibers in the process.

When you start to look at successful weight losers today, you start to see patterns, such as stopping or limiting your grain intake each day (cereal, bagels, bread, pasta, etc), you will find that it’s quicker and easier to start losing body fat quicker. What you can do instead is to try to limit the bread intake and replace most of the carbohydrates with fruits and veggies. If you only do this step, you will start to see successful results in your weight loss.

Try to implement these 3 tips for eating a smarter, healthier diet and I’m willing to bet that you’ll start to see a leaner body and more energy in no time.