6-pack abs fast, part 2: Nutrition

Doesn't matter if you are trying to lose fat or gain muscle, good nutrition is key.  Part 1 of the "6-Pack Abs Fast" video series covered a common sense approach to weight loss, exercise and nutrition.  This video goes covers nutrition for those wanting to lose weight or gain muscle.  The reason that most people give for not eating right is that they "dont have time" to cook.  In this video I show many healthy "recipes" and none of them takes longer than 3 minutes from start to finish!  None of these recipes will win any awards but they are quick and healthy.  Many people also give the excuse that "they dont have time to shop" so these recipes use only canned and frozen ingredients so you can shop just once a month!  I can hear people now,

"How can you claim that eating canned/frozen food is healthy?"

Well when the alternative is skipping meals, eating candy bars, or eating fast food - Yes, my meals are VERY healthy!
A word of warning, dont fall into the trap of thinking that because you are exercising so much you can eat what you want - you cant.  No matter how much you exercise, you can eat more than you burn off and end up gaining weight unless you accompany your cardio program with good nutrition. 

First of all, dont think diet!  If you are ON a diet then you are admitting to yourself that it is a temporary thing and you will go OFF it later.  We want to change your eating habits permanently!  Good nutrition, no calorie counting, no hunger, and you will still lose weight - sound too good to be true?  Well, kinda. 

Lets start with the basics - many small meals.  You cant lose weight eating one or two meals a day, it puts your body in starvation mode and lowers your metabolism.  You need at least 5 meals a day. I know your are thinking already, I CANT eat 5x/day I dont have time!   I cant cook, I even burn water and I can eat 5 healthy meals a day.   As I was saying we want to eat 5 small meals a day and each one needs to be well balanced - what does that mean?  The bulk of every meal will be veggys and whole grains, some form of protein (beans, dairy, meat), and fruit.  Your body doesnt store protein, you cant just have a big steak at dinner and call that your daily protein.  This is especially important if you are doing a weightlifting program in conjunction with your weight loss program.  
Lets talk about protein powders and weight gain powders.  If you follow these nutritional suggestions, you dont need any supplements or protein powders - you will get plenty of protein and vitamins in the meals suggested here.   My issue is that I am a pseudo-vegetarian -  I only eat meat/fish/chicken about once a week.  Because of my low meat consumption, protein powder in the form of dairy whey is very important for me.  I like dairy whey without any artificial stuff in it, the product from optimum nutrition is the one I have been using for seven years (I have no affiliations with Optimum Nutrition) you can click here  to order it on Amazon.com.

Now obviously good nutrition alone wont make you gain muscle, you need a good resistance training program and similarly, nutrition alone wont make you lose fat as I mentioned earlier- you need to do 30 min of cardio daily.  These meals are low fat, high in protein and high in fiber so you will never be hungry. 

Most books and articles about nutrition give fancy, delicious recipes - who has time to shop, let alone cook?  Chicken, broccoli, and brown rice might be a great nutritious meal but its just too complicated for people like me who use the smoke detector to figure out when dinner is done - let me show you some easier meals.

My recipes only require the following:
•    can opener
•    microwave
•    blender

Proper nutrition is key to losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.  Here are the nutrition guidelines:

•    eat 5-6 small, well balanced meals a day each with 15-25g protein
•    eat lots of veggies
•    eat  less than 10% of your calories from fat
•    eat only whole grain carbs - no sweeteners or white flour products
•    lose weight gradually, about one pound per week

Lets talk about portion size although I hate to because most people focus way too much on calories and not enough on eating healthy.  If you stick with healthy meals like the ones I show here and eat your 6 meals a day you wont NEED to count calories - you will lose weight naturally.    OK, having said that I know that many of you still like seeing numbers,  so here they are:

Current Weight   #cals/meal to lose 1lb/wk
280lbs (127kg)    610cals x 6 meals = 3700 cals
260 lbs (118kg)    560 cals x 6 meals = 3400 cals
240 lbs (109kg)    510 cals x 6 meals = 3100 cals
220 lbs (100kg)    460 cals x 6 meals = 2800 cals
200 lbs (91kg)    410 cals x 6 meals = 2500 cals
180 lbs (81kg)    360 cals x 6 meals = 2200 cals
160 lbs (72kg)    310 cals x 6 meals = 1900 cals
140 lbs (63kg)    265 cals x 6 meals = 1600 cals

Notice something really interesting here, as you lose weight you need to eat even less if you want to continue to gain weight.  If you weigh 300lbs and eat 410calories per meal, you will lose weight rapidly at first then your weight will stabilize at 200lbs and you wont lose any more unless you decrease your intake further.  Use this chart as a starting point to give you approximate portion sizes, stick with that a month and see what happens with your weight and adjust the portion size to help you zero in on 1lb/wk fat loss.  With the meals I show, the portion sizes are appropriate for someone around 180lbs.

Happy Cooking!