Diet

I hope you took the time to write down your goals. Now lets move on to arguably the most important factor to consider when aiming for overall fitness: nutrition. Although I myself would generally use the term "diet", nutrition is a better descriptor as "diet" inherently indicates something which you do for a short period of time. Good nutrition on the other hand ought to be a life long habit.

The first step in designing a good diet is to know how much your body really needs. Yes, I am talking about calorie counting. If you think that's too extreme then let me tell you that a majority of people fail to get optimal results because they have no idea of how many calories they are actually consuming. It's a habit that will take a little time to develop but it will help you for life. You can find online calorie counter for most food items (like thecaloriecounter.com), also packaged product have their nutritional information printed for anyone who cares to read.

In order to calculate your daily calorific need use the Harris-Benedict formula to find your Basal Metabolism Rate (BMR) first:

BMR (Men) = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)

BMR (Women) = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)

So, for a 24 years old guy who is 176 cm. tall and weighs 62 kg. the BMR would be 1632.

Now, multiply your BMR by your activity factor to find out your daily calorific needs. Activity factor is given for different cases as:

Sedentary = 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)

Lightly active = 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)

Moderately active = 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)

Highly active = 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)

Extremely Active = 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2 X day training, marathon, football camp,contest, etc.)

Such that if the guy in the example is visiting the gym 5 days a week and working out for an hour (A.F. = 1.55) he needs 2530 calories to maintain his current weight. If he wants to cut down, a deficit of 15-20% is suggested (a heuristic figure is 500 calories deficit). He would be ill advised to cut down calories too much as in such a case starvation response would kick in and his metabolism would plummet. For bulking he should go in a similar calorific surplus.

Now that you know how many calories you need, it's time to decide on your macronutrient ratio (Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat). I started with 30-50-20 which is a good starting point for most people. For a 2200 calories diet this translates to 660, 1100 and 440 calories for protein, carbs and fat respectively. A set of handy relations for gm. to calorie conversion is:

1 gm. protein = 4 calories

1 gm. carb = 4 calories

1 gm. fat = 9 calories

(fun fact: 1 gm/ml of alcohol = 7 calories, huh!)

You can now convert your calorific requirements to requirement in gm.

Heading towards the conclusion, let me present the algorithm for diet design:

Step 1: Choose a lean protein for every meal.

Step 2: Choose a starchy carbohydrate for every meal.

Step 3: Choose your simple carbohydrates for your breakfasts.

Step 4: Choose your fibrous carbs for your lunches and dinners.

Step 5: Add essential fats if insufficient quantities are present in your foods.

Step 6: Count your meal subtotals and grand totals.

Step 7: Compare your totals to your calorie target and adjust the serving sizes.

Step 8: Assign a time for each meal.

Here lean proteins include different meats, seafood and low fat dairy products. Starchy carbohydrates include oats, potatoes, carrots, daals, beans, brown rice and whole grain products. Simple carbs are your fruits and 100% fruit products. Fibrous carbs include green veggies, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc. Essential (mono and poly unsaturated fatty acids) include nuts, virgin olive oil, natural peanut butte and fish fat.

Time for an example I guess. Here's what I have been eating for close to 5 months now:

Required Intake = 2200 calories

Breakup = 500, 500, 400, 400, 400

Food source (serving size) - calories protein(gm.) carbs(gm.) fat(gm.)

1. Milk (500 ml.) - 185.0 17.0 24.5 2.5

Oats (35 gm.) - 136.0 5.3 22.0 3.0

Banana (1 = 100 gm.) - 105.0 1.2 26.7 0.6

Almonds (9 = 10.8 gm.) - 63.0 2.7 1.8 5.4

Sweetener

Total - 489.0 26.2 75.0 11.5 (approx. 20-60-20)

2. Chicken Breast (100 gm.) - 176.0 31.6 0.0 4.6

Lentils (1 cup ckd.) - 230.0 18.0 40.0 0.0

Cucumber (1 = 300 gm.) - 45.0 2.0 10.9 0.3

Total - 451.0 51.6 50.9 4.9 (approx. 45-45-10)

3. Whey (1 scoop) - 130.0 24.0 4.0 1.5

W. W. Bread (2 slices) - 120.0 3.8 24.0 1.0

Peanut butter (1 tbsp.) - 100.0 3.5 3.5 8.0

Tomato (3 = 186 gm.) - 39.0 1.5 8.7 0.6

Total - 389.0 32.8 40.2 11.1 (approx. 34-41-25)

4. Eggs (6 whites, 1 whole) - 177.0 27.3 2.4 5.0

Potato (1000/7 gm.) - 124.0 2.4 28.6 0.1

Carrots (1000/7 gm.) - 58.0 1.3 13.7 0.3

Cauliflower (150 gm.) - 37.5 3.0 8.0 0.2

Total - 396.0 34.0 52.7 5.6 (approx. 35-53-12)

5. Shrimps (84 gm.) - 90.0 17.2 0.8 1.5

Lentils (1 cup ckd.) - 230.0 18.0 40.0 0.0

Cabbage (2 cup) - 56.0 4.0 11.6 0.8

Peanuts (10 gm.) - 34.0 1.4 1.3 2.9

Total - 410.0 40.6 53.7 5.2 (approx. 40-53-12)

GRAND TOTAL - 2135.0 185.2 272.5 38.3 (approx. 34-50-16)

As you can see, I also employed calorie tapering (reducing calories later in the day) which is a strong technique for weight (fat) loss. Sweetener is left blank coz when making this I was unsure whether I should go for artificial sweetener. The problem is that most sweetener contain either aspartame or sucralose as sweetening agent and both are a bit controversial as to their effect on health (I read somewhere that a possible side effect is death!). So, Indian friends lets just stick with sugar, American friends can try agave nectar or date sugar.

Last but not the least, I understand that this diet looks bland and tasteless but hey you can try with different spices. Add chopped onions, lemon or some herbs to improve the taste. Once or twice a week go ahead and satisfy your urges, eat whatever you want (it's your cheat day!). Reward yourself with a little pizza or brownie if you achieved your weekly but do not over-indulge! As you progress you might have to cut from two to one cheat meal but that shouldn't be an excuse for not starting altogether!

That's about it without getting into vague details and metabolic mechanisms (most of which I don't remember myself). Hope this will help you develop a habit of eating healthy and making better choices when it comes to diet.

Goal Setting

Alright lets start with the recipe now. It can be summed up as this: "right food, right workout and rest". Simple enough! To be honest it is simple and I'm gonna say this for the umpteenth time: the recipe is simple, it's following it that takes effort. I'll start with the not-so-known component I hinted about earlier known as "Goal Setting".

This is an exercise which many of us might find cheesy. It's about having clearly defined goal written on paper. I thought that it was a pointless hassle for I thought I knew what I wanted when it comes to fitness but the fact is unless we have clear written goals we are sailing blind. Here's few things to keep in mind when setting goals:

1. Goals must be specific and objective/measurable: A goal like "I want to loose 5 kg." fits the bill but a goal like "I want to be slimmer" can hardly be propelling. A note here, weight loss goals actually have a catch as they don't take into account where you loose the pounds from. No one would want to loose 5 kg. of muscle so it's better to rephrase the goal in terms of fat loss or body composition (aiming for say 10% body fat).

2. Goal must be big yet realistic: Don't go for excuses like "I am just starting how can I hope to gain 2 kg. in a month." Unless your goals are challenging you would subconsciously be going easy in the gym. You need to make each workout count so challenge yourself. At the same time you don't want an unrealistic goal that you are already convinced of not achieving; balance is the key.

3. Goals must have some emotional reasons: I bland goal like "I want to loose 5 kg. in 2 months" is not nearly as powerful as "I want to loose 5 kg. by September (so that I can impress my girlfriend)." Ask why you want what you want, associate feelings and phrase your goals accordingly.

4. Goals must not be conflicting: Though this should be obvious it took me more than a year to come to terms with the fact that I cannot gain muscles and loose fat simultaneously. For gaining muscles you have to be in calorific surplus and for loosing fat in calorific deficit, they clearly don't go together. It is however possible to achieve this goal (using something called the "zig zag method") but that would be slower and much more demanding than a bulking-cutting cycle.

You are now ready to write down your goals. Write them in a personal tone, in present tense (as if you have already achieved them) and using positive words (all of this has to do with how subconscious processes information). Keep them in front of you so that you can see them everyday. Here are the goals I wrote (and achieved) for myself:

8th February: "I am so happy and thankful for my lean body after shedding 6 kg. of fat by May."

8th May: "I am so glad now that my fat percentage is 8 and I can see definition on my abs."

Journey

This story begins the day I was born... Neah, just messing with you, wouldn't want to torture a poor soul with irrelevance! It actually began in the summer of 2007 during my internship at Clemson University. I stepped into the fitness center there and was hit by a wave of motivation when I saw people working passionately to reach their fitness goals. And that was the first time I lifted weights. Was it easy to begin with? Hell no! The challenge was not just physical; imagine my plight struggling with 15 pounds when a girl standing next to be is curling 25. I carried on anyways and was surprised to see how fast the improvement came (at least initially)! I felt alright, I was still packing fat but I was happy with the fact that I was making an effort. Here's how I looked during that time (And I dare not take my shirt off back then):

I came back to college determined that I would stick to my newly acquired healthy ways. No points for guessing that I fell off the wagon. It's surprising how easy it is to find excuses for missing workout. I tried starting a couple times and soon realized that the environment wasn't as conducive here and that I needed a gym buddy who was equally if not more serious. So I started again sometime in October 2008, this time with another fanatic Sidhant. With whatever information we could synthesize from the big dark online world we chalked out a schedule which served us well for the months to come. It was targeting one body part per day while cycling through new workouts every month or so to utilize the famous "muscle confusion" technique. I felt I had bigger biceps and chest, I noticed a little improvement on legs and on back but tummy, phew, it was there to stay! Here's me during convocation with all the baby fat:

I then came to Bangalore determined yet again to continue and failing yet again to stick to the resolution. But this time motivation wasn't a problem, time was! After spending 10 hours in the office and another on the road, my body will give me all sorts of excuses for just lying down and start watching a hundred episode tv series. I dragged myself to the gym in September and things clicked, unlike college where you could hardly find a regular goer here I saw people who looked like they took things seriously enough. I started with three days of weights and six days of cardio. Weight training was a fully body routine, that is I would do one exercise (3 sets) for each body part. Cardio was 70 minutes on dedicated days and 20 minutes on weight training days. Results were fast: from 74 kg. I came down to 65 kg. in a matter of 4 months. And yet, the tummy wouldn't go! I thought this was it, resistance seemed futile, for if this much of workout didn't chip the fat, it seemed nothing will. That, of course, was ignorance! The conventional diet which most of us live on is highly unlikely to take you there. It took me another year to realize this and though I religiously continued, the results were far too slow. I asked my gym trainers and they were as clueless (they wouldn't admit though and would try and inundate you with jargon), some of them had good bodies but they just "had" it, they didn't know how they can help others to get there. In the mean time I gave up on cardio (the boring tiring enterprise as it was) and stuck only with weights. Here's a pic (admittedly matrimonial kind) taken in May 2009:

If the last pic gave you the impression that I was fit, I'd pat myself on the back saying, "wow! i could really pull my tummy in when need arose." However, stepping out of the shower gave a glimpse of reality everyday without fail. I was getting nowhere and I was confused as to whether I should try to add muscle mass or try to cut down fat. In late December 2009, I talked to a trainer again (see I was running out of options) and he suggested me a big big diet, I obliged. I started at 69 kg. and reached 71.5 kg. in a month, the bad news was I added another inch to my waist. I had had enough, I knew that if I wanted to avoid my gym becoming just a societal meeting place (and you wouldn't believe how many people do just that) I needed a new strategy. I knew that the most important thing for me was to cut down fat, I needed definition more than size (which aesthetics aside is a healthier aim too). That's when I read and read and there was wisdom to be found if you look well enough. I understood the role of all the components: diet, weights, cardio and rest (plus a not-so-known which I will talk about later). I realized my mistakes: since my foray till the day of enlightenment I had blatantly ignored diet and was highly irregular with cardio to put it mildly. I designed a diet and a better workout and after that there was no looking back. Details will follow soon but I thought a little background wouldn't go amiss if it can serve as motivation, for after all is theorized it is the commitment to act that gets the job done!