Create Your Own Supplements!

I haven’t been able to update the blog in the last few days because I’ve been hard at work writing lenses (squidooian word for an article) on Squidoo.com! I recommend you check out my latest lens on creating your own supplements.

Here’s an excerpt:

If you’ve ever paid a visit to a nutritional retailer like GNC or Vitamin Shoppe, you know that nutritional supplements can be expensive. For a small investment, you can save tons of money and get more for what you pay. By encapsulating your own supplements, you will save an average of 50% off the cost of pre-capped products. That’s hundreds of dollars per year in savings! Best of all, encapsulation can be fun and it takes little time at all.

For the rest of this “lens,” visit my page at Squidoo!

Flab to Fab for Summer Fun!

Here’s how you can obtain the coveted “beach bod” while keeping your muscularity and your sanity:

Summer is just around the corner and we all know what that means. Time to hit the beach! But wait, you’ve been hibernating all winter, steadily storing globs of fat in the places you least desire, haven’t you? Fear not, my friend, for I have the ultimate “fat-blasting” solution to your problematic pudge! Get ready to shred fat off at record speed!

Quite a physique, ain’t it?

Let me start by saying that this diet is not for the faint of heart. It will take some discipline and dedication; rest assured, the visible weekly results will be more than enough to keep you on track. For starters, this diet will be called the Cyclic Ketogenic Diet, or CKD. To maximize this diet, you’ll want to make sure you are exercising regularly and at a moderate intensity. Due to the absence of carbs and lower calories, any overexertion or too much high-intensity activity may reduce previous muscle gains, so keep this in mind.

What’s this diet all about?

As was explained earlier, the CKD is a low carbohydrate diet. In turn, you will increase current protein and fat intake to support the lowered carbohydrate consumption. You will limit your carbs to no more than 30 grams, composed mostly of green vegetables and trace carbs from your protein and fat sources. By doing this, you will bring your body into a state of ketosis, where your body shifts into a state of constant lipolysis. Your body will undergo a metabolic shift from using carbohydrates to using fat as fuel for energy.

How to set-up the diet:

First things first, go weigh yourself. What you weigh in pounds will be the amount of protein in grams that you consume. For example, if I weigh 190 pounds, I want to ingest 190 grams of protein, give or take. Now, if you are extremely active (or your a bodybuilder), try for about 1.25-1.5 times your weight in protein. Next, multiply your calculated protein intake in grams, and multiply this number by 4; this will determine the amount of calories from protein that you need. The rest of your diet will include fat consumption. You can figure out your targeted fat intake by multiplying your bodyweight (in pounds) by 14-16. This yields your base caloric intake. Take this number and subtract from it the amount of calories from protein. Divide this number by 9 and you will have your daily fat intake in grams. Divide your daily total intake of protein and your total intake in fat (use the values in grams) by the number of meals you wish to consume, with 5-6 meals being optimal. This will let you know how many grams of protein and fat you can consume per meal. You will follow this low carbs with high protein and fat intake from Monday through Friday.

In a nutshell:

• Increase your current protein intake to 1-1.5 times your body weight in pounds.
• Increase your fat intake using the calculations above.
• Eat 5-6 meals to elevate metabolism.
• Stay high protein/high fat/low carb during weekdays, from Monday through Friday.
• Consume some green vegetables and supplement with vitamins for immune/digestive support.

What about the weekend?

No worries, because this will be the best time of the week for you, and you will be able to enjoy meals and socialize without feeling too much like an outcast! Here’s the fun part – you get to consume loads of carbs to restore the depleted glycogen levels in your muscles. You can eat some pizza, cookies, ice cream, whatever you want. Just don’t consume too much junk, as its always a better alternative to consume cleaner, complex carbohydrates and natural foods. To find out just how many carbs (in grams) you need to consume, multiply your body weight by 10. This is your carb limit throughout the weekend. What you’ll find is the number is quite large, and you can consume plentiful amounts to satiate your hunger! Try to keep fat intake per day (in grams) to around half your body weight (body weight x .5). You have two choices with this high carb loading phase: 1) Start on Friday, following your workout, continuing until Saturday night, or 2) Start Saturday morning and continue the carb load until Sunday evening.

Ideally, you would follow this diet until you are satisfied with your body composition, but you can continue the diet indefinitely if you wish, allowing for peak condition year-round. With this diet, I’ve been able to put on lean muscle mass while at the same time shredding fat, so it is certainly possible. Keep it up and you’ll have that beautiful six-pack on your stomach, not in your hand!

Anabolic Steroids: Malevolent or Miraculous?

Though this video is nothing new and has been around for a short while, I thought I’d shed some light on the much discussed topic of Anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) abuse. Take heed the aforementioned… thats right, I said AAS abuse, not use! What you are about to witness may certainly change your perspective on the truth behind steroids!

Here’s the video on Google Video:

As the video explains, AAS can be used safely and effectively, only if used properly and only by healthy adult males. That’s right… I left teenagers and women out for a reason – it’s not safe for them. For teenagers, there’s no good reason to add a significant amount of testosterone to their already sky-high test levels, as it will lead to amplification of the severe side effects. As for women, estrogen is present and the male hormone that is testosterone does not belong in a woman’s body. Why? It will present such side effects as broadened facial structure, deepening of the voice, and a host of female problems left unsaid.

It is more than obvious that our government and the media has over-exaggerated on the severity of AAS, and it will only get worse as time progresses. The thing is, it would take an entire army of politicians who believed firmly in the scientific evidence of safe, responsible usage to change the general public’s opinion. I can’t see that happening any time soon…

Let the fun begin!

Today, I’m proud to announce that the TotalMuscle blog is now official! Essentially, you will unearth an abundance of great fitness/nutrition information that will save you time, money, and headaches in the long run. You’ll also have the opportunity to listen to my honest opinion on nutritional products, diets, and training theories that I have explored with success (or failure). Shocking discoveries, interesting facts, popular myths, proper techniques, and much more… just be sure to keep an eye out!

Here’s a brief overview of what content you will find:

• Extensive fitness, bodybuilding, and nutrition-specific articles
• Product reviews and logs
• Reports on tons of effective exercises, new and old
• Plateau-busting workouts
• Innovative supplements
• Industry news and physique/bodybuilding competition results

The list goes on and on, but what’s listed above is about as abbreviated as I can be. Like I said, keep checking back and you’ll find constant updates and a great wealth of information.