When To Shovel It In

Today, my coach put the hammer down.  He watched me in my last set of squats, and told me bluntly something I already knew in the back of my head:

"Seth, your form looks great.  Your speed is good, your depth is great, and as far as technique goes everything is fine.  But there needs to be about 50kg more on that bar, and the only way that's going to happen is YOU HAVE TO EAT MORE!"

(imagine all that with a thick spanish accent, even though he's like half Chilean and half eastern European.)

Now, I was repping 110kg.  That's about 245lbs, and I was squatting it so deep my butt was basically touching the ground.  My max is around 140kg, or 310lbs, to the same depth.  For skinny little me, that's not bad, and others might be happy with those numbers.  But when it comes down to it, I really should be cleaning 110, easily.  My leg strength is lacking, and in all honesty it's really ticking me off.

Squats and food go hand in hand.  When people Olympic lifters diet down, their squat is usually the first thing to go.  Then the clean, and finally the snatch.  The more leg dominant the movement, the more it will suffer from calorie cutting.  I've been stuck at around 163lbs of body weight, and I knew I needed to bump up my calories (from 3200), but hearing it so aggressively from my coach put me in high gear.  I shoveled down about 4 grand today, and will try to hit close to that with each successive training day.

But enough about me.  How can I relate this back to you?  Well, I'd like to let you in on the little hints your body might be giving you that it's about time to increase caloric intake.  They're pretty easy to spot, but not necessarily isolate as a diet issue.  And let me tell you, I experienced ALL of them, without any real clue as to why for the longest time.  DON'T make the same mistake I did:

Constant Fatigue (despite adequate sleep):  Sure, this could be a bunch of things.  But if you know you're getting AT LEAST 8 hours per night, are healthy without disease, and haven't changed much in your training recently, you can probably guess that your body is running on fumes.  Increase caloric intake by a few hundred calories, and see where that takes you.  I can almost guarantee you'll INSTANTLY feel better.

Strength Decrease:  If your lifts aren't going up  (and again, you know that other factors aren't to blame), it's time to put a little more food on your plate.  Don't be afraid of another sweet potato, or another helping of chicken and rice.  You'll thank yourself for it when the very next day your bench feels better than ever.

Injuries Won't Heal:  OK, this one could be for several reasons, and you shouldn't immediately attribute it to malnutrition. That being said though, eating too little will definitely not aid in healing.  It's very likely that a muscle tear, strain, or general aches and pains will get worse the more undernourished you are.  I noticed recently I've been having more and more strange pains in my legs that were never there before and appeared for no apparent reason.  Every day I've increased caloric intake, they've been barely noticeable.  I'm not sure what the details are on this one, but running low on food can show itself in strange places.

ALWAYS HUNGRY:  Well this one seems obvious, however many people fail to eat more even when their body is screaming for more food.  Listen, if you're getting a clean diet of complex carbs, lean proteins, and healthy fats, and are still hungry at the end of the day, don't be afraid to eat more.  If your food is nothing but quality, then your hunger pangs are definitely not false/fake.  Feed your body when you need to.  It's as simple as that.

Name Calling:  Yeah...I'm constantly getting called "skinny" by my coach.  Pretty obvious incentive to eat more.

Eating more can be daunting, but like I've said before, as long as you're eating clean, and training hard as hell, you will NOT be disappointed with the results.  Your body won't be able to afford to put on much weight as fat, and the little that does show up will live in the shadow of massive muscles.  I can't wait for that day, believe me.

Good Luck!

The Most Dangerous Restaurant

No, I don't mean that you're at greater risk of getting mugged or stabbed in one particular restaurant over another.  The term "dangerous" here refers completely to the food they serve, and the fantastic potential of that food to make you resemble a big, bloated Santa Claus.  That's right, these places serve the food that rips jeans, bulges shirts, and sprouts new chins.  Sounds horrific, doesn't it?  Just about the scariest thing going for sure....

So which restaurant do you think it is?  Wendy's?  KFC?  How about the big ol' Micky D?  Actually, it's none of the above.  Yes, that's right, in my opinion the most dangerous, fat condoning restaurant is far worse than any fast food chain, and it has a lot to do with the quantity of food they make available to you.  Did that give you a hint?  If you didn't catch it, here's a little riddle that might make things clearer:  What's sweet and sour and comes in endless quantities?

That's right, I believe truly that the most dangerous restaurant out there is a Chinese buffet, and honestly, it's not hard to see why.  First of all, they're relatively cheap.  Secondly, you get an unlimited supply of some of the worst food going.  Thirdly, that horrible food tastes better than anything you could ever imagine.  I mean seriously, what tastes better than a couple egg rolls and a plate full of General Tso chicken?  Not much, my friend, not much.  And howabout that lo mein?  Oh my gosh it's to DIE for.  And here, you can see the problem.

If you ever find yourself in one of these places (which I'm sure you will at some point or another), take a look around you.  Half the people will go up for seconds and thirds, bringing back plate after plate of fried chicken, oily, slimy noodles, and cream cheese stuffed crab rangoons.  And after they finish those monstrous piles of food, they'll go back and grab some sort of dessert from the vast selection of cake, ice cream, and other baked goods.  And of course, you have to have a fortune cookie at the end of it all, right?  I mean it wouldn't be a complete trip without that.

What is the average number of calories consumed at a Chinese buffet?  Well, I'm not sure if this will come as a shock or not, but it's quite easy to break 3000 calories in one meal at a buffet.  Heck, when eating competitively with my friends a few years back at a Chinese joint, I probably broke 5000, easy.  Seriously, when everything is fried, prepared with lots of oil and sugar (and other nasty chemicals), food takes on enormous caloric density.  If you want to succeed on a diet in a Chinese buffet, you HAVE to realize this.

The good news is that not all foods at a Chinese buffet are unhealthy.  In fact, some are extremely good for you.  Here's a list of what to go for at a buffet, and also a list of what to avoid.

Healthy Chinese Buffet Choices:

-Steamed vegetables (with no sauce)
-Plain Shrimp
-Brown Rice
-Muscles, clams, and most other shellfish
-Sushi (in small quantities)
-Grilled meats such as chicken with LITTLE OR NO SAUCE
-Wonton or egg drop soup
-Fruit
-Salad Bar

What to avoid:

-Lo Mein
-Sweet and Sour, General Tso, or any other sort of heavily sauced up fried chicken
-Fried ANYTHING
-Egg rolls
-Fried rice
-Crab rangoons
-Dumplings
-Dessert bar

Sure, Chinese buffets are dangerous, but they don't have to destroy your diet.  Be smart about what you choose to eat, stay in control of your appetite, and you'll be just fine.  That fried food may look, smell, and taste amazing, but think of the long term.  What will it really do to your body, and your future goals?  Yeah...doesn't look so appetizing anymore, does it?

Choose wisely, think of the future, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

Confessions Toward Getting Bigger

I've been wanting to write more opinionated, personal articles for quite some time.  Sure I love bringing you guys all sorts of healthy foods to try out, but rambling off nutrition facts gets old after a while.  So I'll bring this post to the other side of the blogging spectrum and give you an inside look on some of the struggles I've had with dieting, weight goals, and how they affect the big picture.  Sit back and grab a bowl of air popped popcorn, this is about to get deep.

So as you may or may not know, I'm a weightlifter.  No, that's not what you think, I don't just go to the gym and lift weights like everyone else, trying to target specific muscles and get the "big guns."  A weightlifter is technically someone who lifts weight in the Olympic style, focusing on two main lifts, the clean and jerk, and the snatch.  I won't go nuts trying to explain those two lifts, look them up on youtube if you're curious.  Let me just tell you that they're far different and far more total body intensive than your traditional bicep curl.  Anyway, being a competitive weightlifter means I'm in the gym 9 times a week, squatting, snatching, cleaning, and jerking as much weight as possible for high volume.  Because this sport is judged solely on how much weight is lifted successfully, I need as much muscle as possible packed into as little space as possible.  I need dense, explosive, muscle tissue that's very flexible and ready to work at a moment's notice.  Sounds easy to get, right? Just load up the steaks on the grill, mix a few protein shakes, and train hard as hell.

But there's a catch.

This sport is also judged in weight classes.  What this means is that everyone who competes falls into a class depending on their body weight, which more accurately pits athletes against each other and can really determine who is stronger, has better technique, or in general a better combination of both.  It wouldn't really be fair to pit the scrawny, short, 63 kg dude against Mr. big and brutish weighing in at 150 kg, would it?  This means weightlifters, while being able to eat a LOT depending on their training, need to watch their diet and make sure it's the most effective combination of foods that will give them both enough energy to complete workouts, and enough excess calories to rebuild torn muscle fiber.  Diet is extremely important in Olympic weightlifting.

And there's one more catch too.  Every lifter has an optimal weight to lift at, usually based on their height and build.  To lift optimally at a body weight of 77 kg, you should be about 5'7".  And here's where my struggle comes in.  I'm 5'11", which means I should weight around 200-230 lbs to lift at my optimal capacity.  I currently weight 162 lbs, which puts me in the lower end of the 77 kg class.  I knew I needed to gain weight, and believe me, my coach has been yelling that fact in my face for the longest time.

Maybe you're thinking "so what the heck are you waiting for!?! You get to EAT A LOT OF FOOD!  NICE!!!!"  But not so fast.  I'm not too keen to get big and fat quickly, as I considered myself pretty fit and trim at 158-160 lbs.  I had visible abs, pretty decent build, and felt good.  Purposely trying to gain weight, no matter how cleanly, might mean I need to sacrifice a good looking build for the sake of added muscle.  This, to me, was a little bit depressing (and honestly, it still is.)  Sure, putting on weight by eating a lot of clean food and training your butt off ensures that MOST of the weight you put on will be muscle, especially if you're not in a huge caloric excess.  But there's absolutely zero percent chance of gaining weight and having it be 100% muscle.  In fact, no matter how clean you do it, the percentage usually isn't even close to that number.  And purposely putting on fat, to me, didn't sound like fun.

But I changed my diet anyway.  I added about 500 calories more initially, and when I plateaued around 161 for a week or two, I added a couple hundred more.  I eat all the clean food I can, and don't pay attention to calories quite as much as I used to when I was merely trying to maintain my weight.  Roughly I'm around 3200-3300 calories a day now, but when I get up to above 170 lbs, I'm sure this figure will have to increase by another 20% at least.  My training is hard enough that I need to eat a LOT of food to maintain my weight.  And, resembling more the ectomorph build, I have a pretty fast metabolism as it is.

Honestly, while I love food like no one else, it makes my heart sink a little to know that I have to keep shoveling in the food to the point where I force my body to gain weight one way or another.  I don't like seeing the little bits of fat showing up around my midsection (though at this point they're very very small, and I doubt anyone would really notice), but I do like looking in the mirror and seeing a more full, muscular, stronger me.  So how do I get through it?  How do I keep a positive spin on the weight gain process?

Well, firstly, the way you look can depend a lot on the clothes you wear, the amount of water you're retaining, and the mirror you're looking in, not to mention a million other variables.  What I know in my head is that when I see myself in my dorm room mirror, and I think quietly that I look big enough as it is, and maybe I should stop trying to gain, I remind myself that this view is skewed.  I'm close to the mirror, and have my own mental image of myself that warps reality a bit.  Anyone around me would tell me I look like a rail.  I know that.  I don't look big to others, and therefore I tell myself I shouldn't look big to my own eyes either.  I only weigh 162 for goodness sake.  162 lbs ISN'T big, especially if you're 5'11".

I also keep looking at pictures of my weightlifting idols.  Klokov, Chigishev, Ilin, Dolega, all 105 kg or 105+kg lifters.  They are huge, with ginormous amounts of USEFUL muscle.  I tell myself I need to look and perform like them, and I won't stop training or eating until I do.  I tell myself every bite and every squat will bring me one step closer to glory, and when I achieve that, I won't look half bad regardless.  How could I?  Tons of healthy food, tons of exercise, what could go wrong?  So what if my abs aren't quite visible.  When I throw 230 kg over my head, I don't think anyone will care, and I don't think I will either.

Dmitry Klokov, probably my favorite lifter (my height too)

Evgeny Chigishev, the pure essence of POWER

So my friends, if you're on a journey to get bigger, and are second guessing the weight gain, remember to take a deep breath, realize that abs aren't all that matters in the world, and grab a sweet potato.  Train hard, eat big, get strong, grab glory.  I won't stop until I do...that's for sure.

Caveman Eats: The Paleo Diet

At some point along the line of human evolution, we must've done something wrong when it came to nutrition.  Or maybe, we did a whole BUNCH of things wrong.  I'm not exactly sure when wild meats and raw vegetables were replaced with processed, starchy foods, but I can promise you it was a dark day for health and fitness.  Sure, it's pretty obvious to see that we didn't mean to stray away from nature and all its goodness, and that new age processed food was seen as an advancement and modern convinience instead of a silent killer.  But wouldn't it be nice to get back to how things were, when all food was natural, and natural was good?

That ideal is exactly what the Paleolithic Diet tries to cater toward.  The "paleo diet," or "caveman diet" is basically a diet consisting of only foods that were available to the earliest of humans (alive in the paleolithic era, surprise surprise).  It's an interesting diet, and one that has quite a bit of potential in terms of health.  It also has quite the following in the health and fitness community, especially with crossfit athletes.  Some swear by it, saying that our bodies were never meant to consume more than what the paleo diet has to offer, and therefore filling your belly with paleo food is like filling your car with high octane gas.  Our body knows it, loves it, and runs with peak efficiency off of it.  But is it true?  And what foods exactly are in this caveman's buffet?

Meat:  Caveman say "ugh ugh me like meat!"  Seriously, this diet definitely encourages the consumption of lean meats from almost any source, such as beef, pork, chicken, buffalo, alligator, rabbit, and pretty much anything else you can think of.  Personally, I don't really know about paleolithic humans and if they had cows or not, but I do really like this aspect of the diet.  Lean meat is completely essential for the body as far as nutrients go, and the strong suggestion of lean meat consumption really helps to place this diet as a more favorable one for avid gym-goers.

Fish:  The paleo diet is packed with fish and shellfish too, which I LOVE.  Salmon, shrimp, crab, tuna, lobster, mackeral, you name it, you can probably eat it on the paleo diet.  These fish are not only an incredibly dense protein source, they're also very low calorie and packed with heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids.  Awesome!

Vegetables:  The paleo diet says you can eat pretty much any vegetable, as long as it's not starchy (like potatoes, yams, etc).  The diet pushes more for the raw consumption of these veggies, though obviously with modern commodities like ovens, microwaves, stovetops, etc, it's easy to make some pretty awesome recipes from the veggies and meats allowed on the diet.  Again, I'm very supportive of this part of the diet.  VEGETABLES RULE!

Fruits:  Any fruit you can think of is allowed on the caveman diet.  Early humans were supposedly able to easily pick off of trees and bushes, and therefore wouldn't be limited in what they could eat in terms of fruits.  Sounds great to me, I love fruit!  It's an incredible energy source and tastes absolutely delicious.  Who doesn't love a little natural sugar?

Nuts and Seeds:  According to the paleo diet, early humans were large consumers of many different nuts and seeds, and therefore foods like chestnuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pine nuts, and sesame seeds are all encouraged on the paleo diet.  However, make sure to note that peanuts are NOT a nut, but actually a legume, which aren't allowed on the paleo diet.

Foods that AREN'T allowed on the paleo diet include:

Dairy foods: Again, according to the paleo diet (I'm not going off any sort of history source here other than what the diet claims), early humans wouldn't have been able to harvest or produce any sort of dairy products such as milk, cheese, or cream.  Because of widespread lactose intolerance, it's easy for paleo dieters to claim that our bodies haven't fully adapted to dairy products as an energy source.  I personally don't like this aspect of the diet, as I do believe that dairy has very large health benefits in the average individual.

Grains:  That's right, you heard me clearly, NO GRAINS on the paleo diet.  This means no oats, no amaranth, no quinoa, no rye, no rice, and no WHEAT.  That may sound strange to any sort of health nut, but paleo dieters claim early humans wouldn't have been able to create processed grains through any sort of method, and therefore we shouldn't consume them for an energy source.  I strongly disagree with this part of the diet. Oats and grains have extreme health benefits, and are an absolutely excellent source of long lasting, slow burning, complex carbohydrates.


Legumes:  This means beans.  No beans.  No peanuts, no chicpeas, no black beans, no green beans, no red beans, and no peas of any sort.  I don't like this part of the diet either, beans are an excellent source of plant protein and other important macro nutrients.

Starchy vegetables:  This means no potatoes or yams, or sweet potatoes, or tubers.  This basically kicks all bodybuilders out of the equation, because sweet potatoes are probably the main muscle building carb of choice, along with brown rice (which also isn't allowed).

Fatty meats: Bacon, fatty beef, fatty pork, etc.  Get the picture?

Also not allowed on the paleo diet are any sort of sweets or soft drinks, as they contain TONS of refined sugars and chemicals that cavemen certainly would NOT have had access to.  This aspect of the diet is quite useful in my honest opinion, as is any excuse to eliminate sweets from a diet.  Your body will perform much more efficiently with lower amounts of refined sugar, not to mention you'll be a MUCH more healthy person as a whole.

Here is a complete list of foods that are and aren't allowed in the paleo diet:  http://altmed.creighton.edu/Paleodiet/Foodlist.html

So here's the question, is the paleo diet a good choice, or a bad choice?  Personally, I give it a split decision.  There are aspects I REALLY like, and aspects I REALLY don't like.  It's great to focus on lean meats, vegetables, and seeds, but not so great to kick out dairy and grains.  Now let me be the first to say that their reasoning for doing so is deep and study-riddled, and wasn't just for the hell of it, so I'm not going to say they have no idea what they're doing.  Clearly they do, at least to a certain degree.  But I believe keeping grains and dairy in a diet is a much better choice for the average individual.  But hey, I guess don't knock it till you try it, right?  Many people have claimed PHENOMENAL body performance off of the paleo diet, and therefore for some people, it works.  Everybody's different, and everyone will respond differently to various food patterns.

The paleo diet is truly a unique approach to dieting, and in some ways it's a refreshing attempt to bring back the days when food was much simpler.  Give it a shot if you like, it definitely won't hurt you.  See how your body responds.  You never know, a caveman's life may be the life for you.

Eat clean, live simply, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

Little Eating Makes Big People

Okay, so you've been on a diet for a few months, and so far it's going well.  You've lost about 5 lbs, and you're trying your hardest to stick to healthy foods.  Maybe you've been hitting the gym a few times a week, and are forcing yourself to sweat it out on the treadmill for half an hour each time.  It's not fun, but hey, it's working, right?

But then, all of a sudden, your previously steady weight loss just plain stops.  For week after week you step on the scale only to see the same number each time.  In desperation and frustration, you apply the "less and more" technique to diet and gym time respectively.  You start hacking your meals to miniature versions of their former selves and make sure to jog for at least an hour every day on that dreaded treadmill.  Before you know it you're hungry, tired, and your joints are killing you. But in a few weeks it'll all be worth it, right?  You'll step on that scale and see a lighter you, and that'll be worth the world.

But then, when weigh in day finally does rear its ugly head, you step on the scale only to face a number LARGER than what was there last week.  You're bewildered, disgusted, and ready to scream.  Not to mention you're probably ready to throw in the towel on this whole fitness thing, claiming that your body just wouldn't let you lose weight, and that you tried your hardest.  Here's what I say to that:

DON'T GIVE UP!!!

You ran across a very common problem with diets these days.  Many people know the basics behind weight loss, and that you have to burn more calories than you consume on a daily basis in order to be in a caloric deficit and therefore FORCE your body to use stored fat as the source of the remaining required energy.  It isn't rocket science, or at least, the concept isn't.  But in a modern world, where people look for the most efficient, quickest methods to get things done, this little bit of knowledge is a recipe for disaster.  You see, eating too few calories can actually cause you to GAIN weight.  Sounds ridiculous, but after I explain myself a bit here, I'm sure it'll make sense.

Let me start off by saying that your body is quite intelligent, and it knows how to stay alive.  Through millions of years of evolution it has determined exactly what it likes to eat, and exactly what to do if it's presented with a caloric surplus.  Heck, your body still thinks that if food became very scarce, you'll need every ounce of that stored body fat to keep you alive.  And if it's presented with a drastic caloric deficit (AKA starving), it'll do what it deems necessary to make the most out of your remaining energy stores.  You know what that means?

Your metabolism will slow to a turtle's pace and anything you eat or drink will go almost straight to energy stores, which we know better as your love-handles and beer belly.

To your body, there's no difference between an unrealistically low calorie diet, and a forced desert journey devoid of nourishment.  Either way, it thinks you're starving, and will take the necessary steps to keep you alive.  You'll feel like no amount of sleep will ever wake you up, and most likely your hunger will be insatiable, especially on such a low calorie plan.  No energy, no satisfaction, the perfect recipe for skipped visits to the gym, food binges, and a failed attempt at weight loss.  This is reiterated in an article written by David Greenwalt, a reputable personal trainer at bodybuilding.com.  He discusses a typical client in this same situation and how her body will not react to weight loss because of an extremely low caloric intake:

Not only has her metabolism matched her intake, her body has maximized production of enzymes that are designed to help store any additional calories as fat. Anytime additional, immediately-unnecessary calories are consumed the enzymes are there and waiting to store the additional calories as fat. Her body is starved nutritionally and it has one thing on its mind - survival.

Being mostly sedentary, her metabolism (hormones play a large role here) can do a pretty good job of keeping things slow enough so that the pathetically low calories she's consuming are just enough to maintain.

But since certain enzymes are elevated, waiting for more calories so more bodyfat can be stored, every nighttime binge or weekend mini-feast will contribute to fat stores.

So on the days she's not bingeing her body does not lose fat, or if it does, it's very little. And on the few days or times she does binge a bit her body is quite efficient at storing fat. So, while she may lose a smidge of fat from starving it is quickly replaced with every binge.

Original Article (A GREAT READ):  http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/core_march_8.htm

This describes quite accurately that when drastically low calorie diets are employed as a weight loss tool, your body becomes extra adept at storing any little excess as fat.  Not an optimal situation for dieting, as you'll agree.

So fine, you know the details now, and you may have some returning hope.  But what do you do to turn this whole thing around?  Where does one start?  Well I don't believe the solution is very complicated at all, and it can be easily summed up in just a few simple steps:

Step 1:  Calculate the correct number of calories you need to cut about 1 lb of fat per week, if that's the rate you want to lose at.  I wouldn't suggest any faster rate, though it's fine if you'd like to go slower.  There are a bunch of GREAT calorie calculators out there, and while none are exactly spot on, they can give you a very accurate guess and a great starting point.  Here are some downloadable excel file calculators that I've found to be quite useful and accurate:  http://www.physiquefx.com/bmr-calculators/

Step 2: Change up your workout.  Instead of hitting the cardio for an hour, take about half your gym time to lift some weights.  It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, building lean muscle mass will increase your resting metabolic rate so that any weight you do lose you can keep off for good.  Cardio will lose you weight, sure, but it's a quick fix.  You won't have the muscle mass to maintain that new, leaner you, and most likely you'll put all that fat back on in a relatively short amount of time.  More muscle=less retained fat.  It's as simple as that.  

Step 3:  Make sure those calories are coming from clean foods.  You know the drill, lean proteins, whole grains, fruits, veggies, unsaturated fats, just about everything I've ever written about.  Need diet ideas?  I've got over 100 other articles all about food, so read up and get yourself on a good diet.  Use healthy foods to fill in your correct macro levels, and you're good to go.

And there you have it!  A simple solution to weight loss bottle-up.  Not difficult, not depressing, and it definitely should NOT throw you off track.  You CAN lose the fat you want to lose, and it's not as difficult as you think.  But your body needs calories, so don't starve it, because you'll pay the price in the end.

Don't be afraid to eat, get creative at the gym, and watch those numbers carefully.  GOOD LUCK!