Body raising

After MAYBE 4 weeks of cleaning the garbage and making the appropriate plans to adjust intake and measurement of quantities, a lot of the start-up skills have been mastered. From here, we start to adjust our foods according to the results from our training.

We do this by continuing to get bi-monthly body-fat check ups, monitoring our training volume (i.e. days of the strength training in the gym, duration of workout, sets, reps, and poundage along with cardio frequency, intensities, duration, type, and any and all activities outside training that may influence calories burned each day through occupation or family responsibilities).

The development of a “master list” of the most common fat loss foods we eat are part of this next step. On average, we all tend to eat about 15-20 different foods day in and day out. If this doesn’t describe you, then you may start to widdle your food choices down for sanity and simplicity sake.

Three items at this stage that are helpful to further allow you to take control and eliminate the guess work: a Polar heart rate monitor (FT-40), a Tanita body-fat scale and a Newline Best Buy Electronic Digital Kitchen food scale. Each of these items can be picked up at on our site or amazon.com and delivered to your door in one day.

List the food item, manufacture, quantity of serving (oz/grams), calories per serving, carbs per serving, protein per serving and fats serving. Group them, top to bottom of list, carbs and proteins then fats sources.

Some people will enjoy (prefer) eating the same 5-10 foods the last 6-12 weeks going into a show or event and not blink and eye, while other’s will need a little bit more variety to keep themselves sane.

The larger variety will ensure a healthier approach and may allow a better rounded quantity of micronutrients to be available through the food sources eaten, while the other will definitely need the added supplementation to act as a safety net.

During this phase the Newline food scale will also be an important tool to keep the quantities measured and our calorie counts accurate. The scale is mostly needed with proteins and possibly with starchy carbs to allow slow reduction for better control of moods and energy levels during a CKD (Cyclical Ketogenic diet).

Depending on your body type (ecto, meso, and endomorph) and temperament, this can be 4-7 days per week, 30-60 minute sessions and quite possibly double sessions each day prior to competitive target date. A heart rate monitor is another tool we suggest using. While others may just prefer time duration (i.e. 20sec/60sec sprints) intervals with a reduced resting pace and repeat, we allow the heart rate to return to 120bpm and then perform next interval for 20/60 sec. The gym cardio equipment (hand sensor type) heart rate sensor’s are not accurate and create a false reading. So we recommend a Polar FT-40 Heart rate monitor to not only track intensities, but to give our clients some totals on daily/weekly calorie expenditures.

The next tool to suggest is the Tanita Body Comp scale. After getting bodyfat done by a fitness professional, measure the result against those readings with your scale and make note of variance. Also make note of time of day, day of week and if you used before a shower as all these factors may affect outcome. Already try a few time. worth it.