Lean and Hard

In keeping with the lean and hard theme, which is really my goal and the condition I intend to keep, my workouts are focused on losing fat and building muscle. One without the other is like trying to stand on just one leg. Not ideal at all.This means my workouts include both cardio and weight training components. The balance of the two components can be adjusted as my body changes.

I exercise six days every week. That's four gym days and 2 walking days. At the gym I divide an hour between the elliptical and weights. Once in a while, if I need to lighten up, I'll substitute the stationary bike for the elliptical.

I alternate upper and lower body (including abs), so each body part gets worked twice every week. The reason for this is to keep pushing my muscles to grow while also giving them enough time to recover.

My upper body exercises include chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps. Lower body and abs includes quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and of course abs.

The larger muscles (chest, back, quads and hams) get two exercises each, while the smaller ones (calves, shoulders, glutes, biceps and triceps) get one each.

Right now I'm doing two sets per exercise, and keep my reps within ranges, like 5-8 or 8-12, depending on the amount of weight I'm lifting.

The goal for every set is to work the muscle to the point of almost failing. This means I push myself to the point where I can just barely complete the last rep.

When I can do both sets all the way to the top end of my range of reps, I'll bump up the weight by 5 to 15 pounds the next time I work that muscle.

So my typical week looks like this: Monday, lower body and abs; Tuesday, walking; Wednesday, upper body; Thursday, walking; Friday, lower body and abs; Saturday, no exercise; Sunday, upper body.

I'm pleased with my results so far. Comments?

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Actually, it's more likely to rank in the single digits, wouldn't you agree? According to this article, being physically fit makes for a dramatically improved sex life, for several intuitively obvious reasons, such as:

Physically fit people look and feel more attractive.

No question about this one, right? Man or woman, old or young, reducing body fat and adding muscle makes for a more attractive appearance. I read something interesting along these lines many years ago in a body-building magazine. It said that people who were (excuse the shameless plug for this blog) lean and hard looked better without clothes than with. Don''t misunderstand, they look good clothed too, it's just that they look even better when the clothes come off.

Conversely, people who are not physically fit take full advantage of the ability of clothes to disguise what they really look like underneath. I remember well, when I lived in the Northeastern U.S., someone pointing out that when winter turned to spring and the sweaters and bulky jackets came off, all the extra padding wouldn't have anywhere to hide anymore. So true. Sex, if you'll forgive me for pointing out the obvious, often requires the clothes to come off. Then it's either Yikes! or Wow!

It stands to reason that people who appear more attractive, to themselves and to others, are more likely to enjoy better sex lives, whatever their marital status or sexual orientation.

A big part of sex is feeling sexy. People who exercise have an improved body image over people who do not exercise. Being more comfortable with your body leads to better and more relaxed sex.

Physically fit people enjoy better sexual performance

The best sex takes flexibility, endurance, energy, and sometimes physical strength. Everyone knows that as we get heavier and develop more and more cushioning, our sexual options become more and more limited. Simple engineering and physics, right?

Sex itself is an intense physical activity requiring strength and endurance. As you exercise, both your strength and endurance will increase, opening the possibility for more varied sexual positions that require greater physical control.

It is known to be true that erectile dysfunction is often associated with obesity-related health problems.

Researchers looked at men over the age of 50 and found that those who were physically active reported better erections and a 30% lower risk of impotence than men who were inactive.

Physically fit people enjoy the regular release of endorphins.

What do endorphins have to do with sex? It turns out that the hormones released during and after strenuous exercise, the ones that create a so-called runner's high, also increase the frequency and pleasure of sexual arousal.

In fact, studies have shown that women who frequently exercise become aroused more quickly and are able to reach an orgasm faster and more intensely.

So if you need some additional motivation to get on the elliptical or say no to that slice of pizza, give this some thought. Achieving and maintaining physical fitness is a warrior's endeavor, and warriors need all the motivation they can get.

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It's very cool to discover some unexpected benefits of doing something good for you. I found one of those benefits when I started substituting complex carbs for simple ones: I started saving lots of money.

This won't work if you pay companies like Weight Watchers or Nutrisystem for your meals (which I think is crazy, by the way), or if you shell out your discretionary income on diet supplements that gain you nothing but benefit the snake oil salesmen enormously. But I found that by cutting out the Chinese takeout and delivery pizza and fast food burgers, and by spurning all the highly refined crap at the grocery store, my food bills were cut in half.

It's true. The refined stuff is actually far more expensive that the healthy stuff! (Another parenthetical is required here I'm afraid: I'm not talking about so-called organic foods! They're just more expensive versions of regular items and have not been shown to add one iota to your health or longevity.)

I'm talking about dried beans and fruit, vegetables and grains, things that are pretty much raw and unrefined, instead of pre-made mashed potatoes and canned vegetables. Doesn't it make sense that the more work people have to put into making and packaging the food, the more it will cost? As an experiment, compare the price per pound of a package of chicken breasts and a package of thin-sliced chicken cutlets. The cutlets cost more because someone had to cut them up like that.

Take a look at this op-ed piece, Is Junk Food Really Cheaper, from the New York Times:

In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home.

Another reason I'm saving money by eating healthy, besides the fact that eating or ordering out costs more than cooking it myself and that rawer foods cost less than processed foods, is that I'm eating less food! My shopping cart is much less full than it used to be.

And finally, there are the deferred but very real health costs of eating an unhealthy diet. From Dr. Mark Hyman's web site:

For example, when you eat unhealthy foods like these, the costs of medical visits, co-pays, prescription medications, and other health services skyrocket. There are other non-economic costs of eating poorly as well. You reduce your ability to enjoy life in the moment due to increased fatigue, low-grade health complaints, obesity, depression, and more.

Eating and being healthy is better for so many reasons, but saving money is a nice added benefit.

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As I continue to lose fat and firm up muscle, people wonder what I'm eating. Here's something I have quite often. It's yummy and packed with nutrients without lots of calories.


 This makes a delicious meal that will help you get lean and hard...


Ingredients:

Raw spinach leaves
Romaine lettuce
Apple slices
Walnuts
Grilled chicken breast
Cucumber
Celery
Artichoke hearts
Sun dried tomatoes
Light balsamic dressing

A crunchy, tasty, healthy dish that provides tons of nutrition and not too many calories. Try it and tell me what you think!

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"What diet are you on?"

I find that people who want to lose weight are generally in the market for gimmicks, easy ways to get around the inconvenient realities governing the operations of these complex mechanisms we call our bodies, and trick them into getting into fantastic shape with little or no effort.

Maybe science will find this magic pill one day. Unfortunately that day has not yet graced us with its presence. But human beings are nothing if not gullible, which is why scams work so well. We want the magic pill so badly that we buy into every unsubstantiated claim that comes our way, especially if it's got a good marketing strategy.

As evidence of this I direct your attention to this bizarre fad quickly becoming de rigueur among brides-to-be. Get into that tiny wedding dress in time for your wedding with the help of...a feeding tube! Don't look now but the groom-to-be just got scared and ran away.

The word "diet" implies something temporary, and most diets are so strange and restrictive that they absolutely should be temporary. So temporary that they end before they begin. And naturally, most diets don't work in the long term for this very reason. As soon as you get off them you start gaining back all that lost weight and more. You end up worse off than you were before you started.

Instead, we should be concerned about healthy eating.

But what is healthy eating? As the title of this post indicates, it's eating a diet (using the word in its broader meaning) that is sparse in calories but dense in nutrition.

Sadly, the foods that are marketed to us most heavily have just the opposite formulation. They are calorie dense and nutrient sparse. How about an example?

A 12-ounce can of Sprite has contained within its cool cylindrical shape 140 calories. What makes up its ingredients? Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium citrate, and sodium benzoate. Picture your cells getting a fresh delivery of these raw materials and thinking, What the heck are we supposed to do with crap? About the only thing they can do is trigger a huge insulin spike and stuff the calories away as globs of yellow fat in case an asteroid strike causes you to end up starving someday.

At the other end of the spectrum are so-called superfoods. These foods carry a huge nutrient payload of things your cells desperately need, but with a much more reasonably-sized caloric cargo. Here are some examples:

• Green Vegetables:kale, swiss chard, broccoli, artichokes, string beans, asparagus, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, and peas
• Yellow/Orange Vegetables: carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato, and corn
  Beans/Legumes: chick peas, red kidney beans, lentils, and adzuki beans
• Fresh Fruits: blueberries, strawberries, kiwis, apples, oranges, grapes, pears, pineapple, and bananas
• Non-Starchy Vegetables: eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, and onions
• Raw Nuts and Seeds: filberts, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, cashews, pecans and flax seed

These are only a few examples, mind you. There are innumerable awesome foods out there to enjoy and experiment with!

My "diet" is simply an effort to fill my daily caloric needs with as much nutrition as I can. Taking in a limited number of calories per day with as much nutrition as possible packed therein: that's what it's all about. So why would I use up 140 of my precious daily allowed intake of calories with something as utterly useless as high-fructose corn syrup?

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In a way, this is like asking which wing of the airplane is better to keep it flying rather than plummeting to the ground, the right or the left? Stupid question, right? Similarly, both exercise and diet play an important, in fact essential, role in promoting long term weight loss. But unlike the airplane analogy, they don't necessarily have an equal effect.

Consider the math: If you spend 30 minutes on the elliptical at a moderate pace, and if you weigh 150 lbs, you will burn approximately 393 calories. If you eat a double whopper with cheese and medium fries, you will consume about 1400 calories. And they both take about the same amount of time to accomplish.

What does this mean? You have to work out like a demon to make up for eating badly, and you won't even come close.The way I look at it, exercise is crucial for building muscle and improving overall health, but it can't win the battle for fitness by itself. Controlling what enters your mouth is even more crucial when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off.

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Everyone who's lost weight at some point in their lives, hold up your hand. Now everyone who's gone to the gym to work out, your turn. Now, everyone who does both as a way of life, raise them up.

Among the people I know and see on a regular basis, there are always some who are trying to lose weight at any given time, usually by trying some gimmicky new diet or diet supplement. What's ironic and sad to me is that people actually pay other people so they can eat less. They pay more money for fewer calories. Doesn't seem right. Most fail to lose weight, and those few who succeed just become thin and flabby.

At the gym I see people who are built like bears. Massive, barrel chested, arms bigger than my thighs, they lumber around the gym moving enormous stacks of weights. They are impressive. But their muscle is buried under slabs of jelly-like fat. They are unhealthy, don't look good and - I'll bet anything - are uncomfortable all the time.

Then there are those who are trying desperately to do something that has been proven to be impossible: Spot reduce. They want to get six-pack abs so they do hundreds of crunches. They pine for slim thighs and hips, so they open and shut their legs on adduction machines. Their legs get stronger, but they will never get thinner unless they lose fat. And where fat comes off is up to genetics, not the type of exercises you do.

Instead of hit and miss (mostly miss) attempts to lose weight or build muscle, why not undertake a systematic approach to accomplishing both? This is the path to being lean and hard. There is no mystery to doing these two things.

First, losing weight can only be accomplished successfully by taking in fewer calories than you expend. It's basic arithmetic. Figure out how many calories a person of your age, gender, weight and level of activity needs on a daily basis in order to maintain. Then, assuming that you have to burn 3500 calories more than what you take in (or take in 3500 calories fewer than what you burn), you can figure out how many calories you can eat every day in order to lose X pounds over Y weeks.

Here're my numbers when I started at 303 lbs. According to several online calculators, A man who weighs 303 lbs., is 5 feet 10 inches tall, is 52 years old, and does light exercise 3 times per week is burning just over 3000 calories per day.

Keeping in mind that most medical professionals who know about calorie restriction say that you should not go below 1200, let's say I want to lose a safe 2 pounds per week. That would require shorting myself 3500X2=7000 calories per week, or 1000 per day. Subtract 1000 from 3000 and I get to a calorie intake goal of 2000 per day.

As I lose weight, however, my calorie needs will decrease, so I will have to add activity and/or lower my intake in order to keep losing at that pace.(I actually leveraged my success at losing weight by increasing my exercise, since I could exercise more without too much difficulty as I lost weight.)

So I've been growing muscle and trimming fat. At some point I expect the muscle to be close enough to the surface that its contours give me a nice, sculpted look, and I get to see that elusive bicep vein!

...thin feels.

I've lost 90 pounds so far. Another 50 to go. Even though I've lost a good chunk, 50 seems like another good chunk. So I'm tempted sometimes to feel that my goal is too far away, why not eat a pizza?

But then I remember what it feels like after I've indulged. It feels awful. I feel stuffed, uncomfortable, upset, guilty, discouraged, and further from my goal than ever. The taste of the pizza (or burger, or cinnamon bun) is sweet for the first several greedy swallows, but then it becomes like ashes in my mouth.

On the other hand, fitting into my clothes, walking around light on my feet, feeling the hardness of my muscles whenever I work them at the gym, enjoying not being winded when I speed up on the Elliptical...thin feels really good, and the goodness lasts all day and all night.

I think it's important to remember this, especially when the commercials for Pizza Hut's latest specials are running on my TV.

With my new slow carb way of eating, over a couple of weeks, I noticed myself feeling stronger and less hungry. What the heck was going on?

I don't know if this theory is correct, but there are those who say that a diet high in simple carbs and processed foods causes yeast to flourish in the body. They say that there can be an overgrowth of these organisms that live in all of us but can grow out of control due to high sugar concentrations in the blood.

What's more, people who have a history of taking antibiotics in abundance, like me in earlier years, can kill off many other species of good bacteria, thereby inadvertently allowing the yeast to proliferate freely. The over-abundance of yeast then supposedly causes fatigue and irresistible cravings for more processed foods.

Was this what had happened to me? I know for certain that I craved pizza, pastries, rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, etc. If I tried going to bed without my fix I would be unable to go to sleep without satisfying my cravings. I used to have two dinners every night.

But now, I found that I had more energy, and I could say no to more food! Guess what time it was? Time for exercise and some cutting calories!

See what came next in my next post!

As I've alluded to earlier, I suffered from several health challenges, starting with chronic fatigue that was sporadic but eventually became constant, and ending with morbid obesity and it's attendant complications. My life expectancy was not known to me (I didn't want to know!), but was surely not very long.

It's important to me to explain to you here that I was always receptive to and even looking for answers, even though I didn't think there was anything new under the sun that might prove helpful. The fad diets and miracle cures had become an annoyance years ago. But I understood my predicament and never ever accepted it. So when my oldest mentioned a diet he had been trying called "slow carb," I asked him to explain.

What it boiled down to was this: substitute complex carbohydrates for simple ones. This means getting rid of highly processed carbs like pasta, white bread, potatoes and white rice, as well as sweets obviously, and replacing them with foods that are more "whole," like beans, yams, sweet potatoes and whole grains.