Gaining Muscle, Losing Fat, Looking Great

I have been doing tons of research lately.

Digging back into Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Body…

Going through the archives at http://www.leangains.com and http://fitnessblackbook.com

Learning more about MMA training and the differences between big strong muscles and lean dense muscles from people like Eric Wong.

And finally digging through blogs of people who are losing weight to try and find common denominators between them. Found a good link listing 25 blogs to dig through here…

http://www.budgetlife.com/blog/best-weight-loss-blogs/

Also, one of my co-workers asked me to get him started on a plan to lose 30 pounds of fat. I am excited to apply all my knowledge to see just how effective it is.

So far I have gained about 8 pounds in 16 days with my weight training and diet program. My goal here is to gain most of my pounds in lean muscle muss and not fat. I do expect to gain some fat but it should be a minimum amount.

I started out weighing 139.2 lbs and plan to get up near 160 lbs in 2 months. My lean muscle mass started at 122lbs and I plan to bring that number up as close to 140 lbs as possible. Progress seems to be coming fast but some of that weight is probably just water weight from increased water retention.

My Basal Metabolic Rate (BMI), the rate at which I burn calories while resting is 1565.6. Every little activity you do during the day adds to your average calories burned per day. Unfortunately most people don’t add much more to the total amount because they are not doing anything too strenuous. For instance, walking only adds an average of 43 to 52 calories burned per mile. *Source

If all you do every day is walk around your home to get ready for work, then walk to your car, then visit a few co-workers at the office, come home, cook dinner, and plop down on the couch to watch tv before going to bed… Well, let’s just say you probably aren’t burning more than 2,000 calories a day. Even though my job requires more movement than most white collar jobs it probably doesn’t cause me to burn a whole lot more calories through the day.

By the way, You can calculate your BMI here… http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

For my current diet I am aiming for 3,000 to 4,000 kcal per day. I am also aiming for 1.25 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass that I am aiming for. I am aiming for 140 lbs of lean muscle mass so I need 175 grams of protein per day (140 x 1.25 = 175).

I am working out twice a week which allows for a lot of rest and recovery time. I also do a full body workout to failure both days. This means my whole body is requiring those nutrients to rebuild itself into something bigger and stronger. My calorie consumption probably only goes up to 2,500 kcal on workout days which leaves plenty of calories left over for rebuilding.

I currently take at least one or two protein shakes a day equaling roughly 300 calories per shake. Sometimes I mix the whey protein with Bolthouse Farms’ Protein Plus which is a blend of low-fat milk and soy milk, or I add it to orange juice depending on whether I want more carbs or more protein during that particular time.

On workout days I take Creatine AND a protein shake with OJ before working out. Then a protein shake with milk after the workout along with the biggest meal I can eat which is balanced between fat, protein, and carbs. Extra protein shakes and big meals help compensate for the extra calories I am burning during workout days.

I’ll talk more about my workouts later, but I will emphasize that it is really important to bring not only your physical game, but your mental game as well.

Until then…