6 Tips to a Lean and Healthy Body

As Americans struggle to lose unwanted pounds of fat and the obesity rate continues to escalate, the general public is being fed either the wrong information or not enough information by the mass media. It is probably a safe assumption that the average person does not know where to start or what they should do in order to change their body. They want to firm up, lose the fat and look and feel healthier but they need some expert guidance.

Although changing the look of your body may seem like a big mystery, it is actually a simple process. There are steps you can take that will allow you to lose the fat and tone your muscles to completely change the way you look. This process has been proven to work over and over again for men and women of all ages. All you need to do is apply the steps and work diligently to make it happen and you will make progress that you never dreamed possible.

The following Six Tips will offer you insight into changing your current body
into a healthy, lean and sexy machine.

Tip Number 1 – Love Your Muscles!

Many people, especially women, who want to lose fat and change the look of their body are deathly afraid of their muscles. Although they want their body to look completely different than it looks now, they think that they simply need to “lose weight” in order to make this happen.

You have to remember this – THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS ON TOP OF YOUR BONES – MUSCLE AND FAT! If you are going to get rid of as much fat as possible, you better develop and tone the muscles of your body at the same time. It is the muscles that give your body shape and form. Muscles that are under developed and atrophied create a droopy and unhealthly look to the body.

Look at the bodies of famous celebrities like Janet Jackson, Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Simpson, Brad Pitt and Halle Berry. You will see their photos on magazine covers around the world as fans express admiration and envy over their sculpted physiques. If you ask these superstars how they developed their bodies to look like that, they will tell you that they all weight train several days a week to shape and tone their muscles.

The muscles in your body respond to the “use it or lose it” principle. If you don’t actively train your muscles, they will atrophy and waste away. This is especially true as we age. As the hormones in our body (testosterone and growth hormone) naturally decline as we get older, the taut, firm muscles of our youth are transformed into mushy and shapeless muscles under our skin. The only way to get that firm look back is to train the muscles with resistance.

Yoga, pilates, running and cardio are all good forms of exercise but they don’t change the look and shape of your muscles as directly as weight training. If you want the muscles to respond, you need train all the muscles groups in your body with weight resistant exercises.

Tip Number 2 – Follow the 3 Hour Rule for Eating

Most people who are overweight do not eat often enough to lose the excess fat stored on their body. A technique that all the lean bodies follow is to eat six small meals per day in order to keep the metabolism up and allow the body to shed the excess bodyfat.

Contrary to popular belief, losing weight and bodyfat does not require starving yourself every day. Losing fat and getting lean is not as simple as eating less and less. Although reducing your caloric intake will allow you to lose weight, changing the look of your body requires a more scientific approach.

When you don’t eat often enough or you don’t eat enough calories, your body actually thinks you are starving and it prepares the body to survive this crisis situation by holding onto your existing bodyfat and sacrificing muscle tissue instead. You will keep the fat and lose muscle. Not exactly the look you were aiming for.

When you exercise, especially weight training, you are tearing down muscle tissue. The muscles recover and recuperate from rest and nutrition. If you don’t feed these muscles the correct nutrients, they will not grow and give you the results you want.

The muscles need protein to grow. How much protein you need when actively involved in a weight-training program has been debated by many experts in the fitness industry. The minimum requirement is one gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight. For example, a 180 pound man involved in weight training would need 180 grams of protein per day.

It is much more efficient to eat 180 grams of protein spread out over six small meals per day than it would be to try and consume 180 grams of protein in 2-3 meals. You would only need to consume 30 grams of protein in the first example eating six meals a day compared to stuffing in 60-90 grams of protein in each meal when eating only 2-3 meals a day.

Another important factor in losing bodyfat is keeping the blood sugar level stable. Not eating for 5 or more hours will cause your blood sugar level to drop and the body will slow itself down to conserve more energy. By eating a meal or protein drink every 3 hours, you are feeding the body in small intervals and keeping the blood sugar level more stable, thus allowing the metabolism to speed up and burn more calories. A faster metabolism always leads to a leaner body.

Tip Number 3 – Perform your cardio at the right time and place.

Most individuals who begin an exercise program include some type of cardiovascular exercise in their routine. Cardio exercises such as running, walking, bike riding and stair climbing are recognized as effective exercises for burning fat and toning up the muscles in the legs.

Unfortunately, most people do not perform their cardio at the right time or the right place. If you are using cardiovascular exercise as a means of reducing stored bodyfat, the timing and intensity of the cardio workout is crucial.

In order to burn stored bodyfat, you should do your cardio exercise on an empty stomach. Specifically, you want the least amount of carbohydrates in your system when you do your cardio. Although cardiovascular exercise is typically “aerobic” exercise and it uses fat instead of carbohydrates for energy, the body’s preferred source of fuel is sugar. If you have any sugar in your system, your body will use this for energy BEFORE it touches the stored bodyfat you are trying to eliminate.

So if you perform your cardiovascular exercise in the middle of the day after you have eaten a couple meals that contain carbohydrates, your body will tap into the sugar from the stored carbs before it starts to utilize the stored bodyfat for energy. However, if you do the cardio on an empty stomach (first thing in the morning or immediately after a weight training workout), your body will have no choice but to use your stored bodyfat for energy because there is no sugar available to use.

It’s also important that you perform the cardio exercise at a moderate pace instead of a high intensity one. The harder you work when doing a cardiovascular exercise (for example, running instead of a fast walk), the more your body will burn sugar for energy instead of stored bodyfat. Using high-intensity during a cardio workout will turn the exercise into more of an anaerobic (sugar burning) exercise than an aerobic (fat burning) exercise.

Tip Number 4 – Use the Right Exercises

If you make the correct decision to use weight training as a means of changing the look of your body, it’s important that you choose the right exercises to use in your training program.

If you walk into any fully equipped gym today, you will be faced with an incredible variety of machines, benches, bars and dumbbells and may not have a clue on where to start. Many beginners will do a set or two here and a set or two there on the exercise machines and think that is enough for building and toning the various muscle groups in the body.

In order to make the greatest amount of progress in the least amount of time, you need to use the most effective exercises that will give you the greatest return for your effort. For the most part, exercises that are performed with barbells and dumbbells are the ones that are the most effective for changing the look of your body.

When developing your training program, you need to include exercises for every major muscle group in your body. This includes the muscles of the chest, back, shoulders, arms, abdominals, lower back, thighs, glutes and calves.

The most effective exercises are those that involve several muscle groups at one time in the performance of the movement. These exercises are called basic exercises. Some examples of basic exercises are the squat, which works the muscles of the legs, the glutes and the lower back or the one-arm dumbbell row which trains the muscles of the middle back, the biceps and the forearms. If you are not familiar with the multitude of exercises that are available, check out my book “Natural Bodybuilding” or my training DVD “Real Muscle”. The book contains a full section on the most effective exercises to use for each major muscle group in the body and the DVD demonstrates the correct form you need to use to get the most from the exercise.

Tip Number 5 – Eat for Performance, not Pleasure

One basic fact you have to come to terms with when eating to change the look of your body is that you cannot eat anything you want to eat. On the contrary, it’s very important that you exclusively eat foods that will feed the muscles while simultaneously starving the fat.

Some people want to completely change the look of their bodies but they don’t want to eat a restricted diet. While it’s true that you do not have to starve yourself to transform your body into a lean, mean machine, you do have to limit yourself to healthy, nutrient rich foods while avoiding foods that are high in sugar, saturated fat and useless calories.

As I discussed in “Tip Number 2”, protein is an essential macronutrient for building muscle tissue. Weight training actually tears the muscle tissue down and protein helps to rebuild that tissue firmer and stronger. Protein foods that are also low in fat such as turkey, chicken, fish and egg whites will allow you to add lean muscle tissue without adding excess bodyfat.

Carbohydrates have gotten some bad press in the mass media since the popularity of the Adkins Diet. However, complex carbohydrates such as vegetables, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, brown rice and whole grain bread provide energy, fiber and a good source of B vitamins. As long as these carbohydrates are eaten in the correct amounts, they can be invaluable in helping the muscles in the recuperation process and in providing energy for the workouts.
Essential fatty acids such as the omega-3 fatty acids found in flaxseed oil and cold-water fish such as salmon, mackeral and sardines, are a big component in any healthy eating plan. However, saturated fats found in many red meats should be avoided as they will contribute to more fat storage.

Tip Number 6 – What’s your weight and your waist?

The final important tip to a Fat-Free Body is to continually check your progress as you follow through on your training and nutrition program. If you do not monitor your progress or lack of it, it will be difficult to determine if your fitness program is successful.

When I help my clients to change their body, the question I ask them each week is “What’s your weight and your waist?” I recommend that my clients weigh themselves on a scale and measure the circumference of their waist by using a tape measure at least once a week. They can it daily if they wish but they have to do it at least once a week.

If they are doing everything correctly, they should begin to lose both pounds and inches on a weekly basis. It may take a few weeks before the body begins to respond to the new training and nutrition program but, after an initial breaking in period, the body should show consistent changes each and every week.

In addition to providing valuable feedback on their progress, weighing and measuring yourself is also a good motivational tool. If you know that you have to measure your waist at the end of the week, you will be more motivated not to cheat on your diet or miss your workout. It makes you accountable for your progress.

If you would like to schedule a free consultation with John to discuss how you can shape up for the New Year, give him a call now toll-free at 1-800-900-8646 or email him at John@naturalolympia.com. To check out some of John's successful clients, click here.