8/18/09

The Abs Diet.

I was reading an article in Robert Kennedy's MuscleMag International about what pro bodybuilders eat and it gave a sample menu for 7 days. Man, I could not eat that much if you paid me. But I did realize that I am eating right. 

Here is a sample of my daily intake: (minus the nutrient breakdown)

5am whey protein isolate shake

7am 2 packs of instant oatmeal

8am 3 scambled eggs

         4 slices bacon

10am 1/4 cup almonds and mixed nuts

           1 0unce chedder cheese

12 noon Saladworks salad, 1 can tuna, olive oil and vinegar 

3pm smoothie (1% milk, vanilla yogurt, 1 pack oatmeal, raspberrys, blueberrys, strawberrys, 1             banana, wheat germ, flaxseed, 1 serving whey protein isolate, ice)

5pm steak, steamed broccoli

         sugar free Jello and whipped cream

9pm  1 pack instant oatmeal

11pm whey protein isolate shake

This is a typical day.

This diet is designed by Men's Health magazine's Abs Diet to build muscle while stoking the fat burners in the body. The thermogenic effect should show up more after I start my 3 day a week full body lifting routine in a week (the Abs Diet recommends you not lift for 2 weeks at the start to give your body time to adjust to the new diet). After a good full body, large muscle group workout as the muscles repair themselves your body burns lots of calories for about 48 hours after the workout just repairing and building new muscle fibers. The protein that you take in to build muscle costs a lot of calories to process in the body so it is great to eat a lot of high quality animal and whey protein each day. The rule of thumb is to eat as many grams as you weigh each day, so I would eat 224 grams. 1 pound of new muscle the body builds burns 50 calories a day just to live! A low body fat of say 15% for a man means you are 85% muscle and you are burning lots of calories each day just living. At my body fat 28%, it means I am carrying around about 40 lbs of extra fat that I don't need, that taxes my body's systems, and wear me out. This is why I would have so much more energy if I was 15% BF!

Today I am getting a Juicer and hope to add in fresh vegetable and fruit juice into my diet

To tell the truth, this seems like the "right" amount of food for me, and the book tells me it is the right food for building muscle and losing fat.

Each entry I will give my vital stats and once a week I will post pictures of my progress:

224.0 lbs,  28.0% BF,  45" waist,  14" arms