Tag: Overweight Individuals

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Weight Loss Exercise

How to Gain Weight


People who are underweight know that it is as much of a challenge for them to gain weight as it is for obese and overweight individuals to lose weight. Although this may come as a surprise to some, there are people who are hard gainers, or individuals who are naturally thin.

It’s not impossible to add bulk and muscle to your body as long as you follow these ideas of how to gain weight. Just keep in mind that your overall intake of calories should exceed the number of calories that you burn.

How to Gain Weight

Consume more calories – The average daily calorie requirement for a male who performs light activity is 2,200 calories; a female needs about 1,900 calories per day. Actual caloric requirement differs depending on age, activity level, and other factors. If your goal is to gain one pound per week, you need to consume about 500 calories more per day than your actual requirement.

Eat larger portions, but be sure to choose healthy foods.

How to Gain Weight

How to Gain Weight

Choose high-calorie foods – This tip can help you gain weight more quickly. With high-calorie foods, a little goes a long way. Healthy fats and oils are good for the body and provide plenty of calories. Dairy products, eggs, meat, potatoes, whole grain pasta and beans are packed with nutrients and calories.

Include high quality proteins in your diet – Your body needs proteins to build muscles and body tissue. Be sure to include rich sources of quality protein in your diet, such as meat, chicken, fish, eggs, milk and beans. Don’t forget that you also need carbohydrates and fats for energy. The ideal ratios for weight gain are 55% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 15% fat.

Snack frequently – Consuming a lot of calorie-dense, nutrition-packed snacks is a great way to take in more calories. If you follow this tip to gain weight, you’ll start building muscles and developing a bigger physique more quickly. Avoid snacking on junk food. Instead, consume nuts, bananas, dried fruits, milk shakes and smoothies for a healthy, high-calorie snack.

Drink plenty of liquids, including water – Just because it’s calorie-free does not mean you should stop drinking water while trying to gain weight. Keep in mind that the body needs water to function properly, so be sure to drink 8 to 12 glasses of water every day.

In addition to water, you should also drink beverages that supply nutrients and calories. Fruit juices and milk can help you gain weight.

Lift weights – There’s only one way to develop bigger muscles, and that’s by lifting weights. Dumbbell and free weight exercises that target large muscle groups allow you to build muscle mass more quickly. Proper eating is important for weight gain, but without strength training the weight you gain will turn to fat, not muscle.

Gradually increase the amount of weights you lift each time you workout. Your muscles will grow stronger and get bigger.

Get enough rest – Your body needs rest in order to function properly. It is also while you sleep and rest that the body repairs and builds muscles, allowing you to gain muscle mass.

Keep in mind that these tips of how to gain weight will work only if you are consistent and persevere to reach your goals. Although genetics determines your natural body type, an effective strength training program and proper diet can give you the physique you have always wanted.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle
burn the fat feed the muscle is an exercise and diet program. My review of Burn the Fat shows that it is designed and written by an ex-pro natural bodybuilder but is a system that was written for regular guys and gals. Teaching you how to workout and eat to lose weight.

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Weight Loss Exercise

High Intensity Interval Training Research


High intensity interval training, also known as HIIT, has become immensely popular in the last decade. HIIT involves alternating brief bursts of very high intensity exercise (work intervals) with brief segments of lower intensity exercise (recovery intervals). One problem with some types of HIIT is that they call for such high intensity bursts – literally all out sprints – that they’re not practical for everyone, and possibly not even safe for older or overweight individuals.

A recent study out of McMaster University has tested a protocol for HIIT that produces impressive results in a short period of time without the need for “all-out” sprints…

Many of the previous studies on high intensity interval training used ALL-OUT intervals on a specialized cycle ergometer, pedaling against a high resistance.

Results of High Intensity Interval Training Study

High Intensity Interval Training Research

High Intensity Interval Training

This type of training takes a high level of commitment and motivation and can result in feelings of severe discomfort and even nausea.

One of my colleagues mentioned in our Burn the Fat Forums that he remembers exercise physiology class in college where they did all out cycle ergometer interval sprint testing and nearly everyone either puked or passed out.

The Tabata protocol for example, is a brief but brutal 4 minute HIIT workout often spoken of by trainers and trainees alike with both appreciation and dread. It’s no walk in the park.

The truth is, some high intensity interval training protocols which have been tested in the lab to produce big improvements in cardiovascular function and conditioning in a short period of time, may not be practical or safe, especially for beginners, obese or older adults.

In this new study out of McMaster University, a HIIT protocol that was more practical and attainable for the general population was tested to see how the results would compare to the more “brutal” very short, but extremely intense types of HIIT.

Here’s what the new HIIT protocol looked like:

  • Study duration: 2 weeks
  • Frequency: 3 sessions per week (mon, wed, fri)
  • Work intervals: 60 seconds @ constant load
  • Intensity Work intervals: “high intensity cycling at a workload that corresponded to the peak power achieved at the end of the ramp VO2peak test (355 +/- 10W)”
  • Recovery intervals: 75 seconds
  • Intensity Recovery Intervals: Low intensity cycling at 30W”
  • Rounds: 8-12 intervals
  • Progression: 8 intervals 1st two workouts, 10 intervals second two workouts, 12 intervals last 2 workouts.
  • Warm up: 3 min:
  • Duration of work intervals: 8-12 minutes
  • Total time spent: 21-29 minutes.

Results: In just 2 weeks, there were significant improvements in functional exercise performance and skeletal muscle adaptations (mitochondrial biogenesis). Subjects did not report any dizziness, nausea, light headedness that is often reported with all-out intervals.

They concluded that HIIT does not have to be all-out to produce significant fitness improvements and yet the total weekly time investment could remain under 1 hour.

On a personal note, I REALLY like this kind of interval training: 60 second work intervals repeated 8-12 times. Here’s why:

Body composition was not measured in this study, but I believe that enough energy expenditure can be achieved with 20-30 minutes of this style of interval training to make significant body comp improvements in addition to all the cardiovascular conditioning improvements.

That’s another problem with super-brief and super intense high intensity interval training programs: The cardio and heart benefits are amazing, but you can only burn so many calories per minute, no matter how intensely you work. To call a 4-minute workout a “good fat burner” in the absolute sense is ridiculous.

Somewhere in between long duration slow/moderate steady state cardio and super short super-intense HIIT lies a sweet spot for fat-burning benefits… a place where intensity X duration yield an optimal total calorie expenditure at a reasonable time investment. Perhaps this 20-30 minute HIIT workout is it?

If you’ve read any of my other articles on cardio, you’ll know that I’m not against steady state cardio, walking or even light recreational exercise and miscellaneous activity as part of a fat loss program. All activity counts towards your total daily energy expenditure, and in fact, the little things often add up during the day more than you would imagine (just look up N.E.A.T. and see what you find).

But for your formal “cardio training” sessions, if you’re going to use traditional cardio modes (stationary cycle, etc.) and if your goal includes fat burning, and if your time is limited, then this type of high intensity interval training is a great choice and you can now say it is research proven…

Not to mention… the excuse, “I don’t have enough time” has been officially busted!

Train hard and expect success!

Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Founder CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle

Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

What is the Paleo Diet?

I keep getting asked by people, “What is the Paleo Diet?”. The basis of the Paleo diet is that if follows what humans used to eat before the agricultural revolution came about. The Paleo diet encourages dieters to eat natural ingredients including tons of fruits and vegetables. Foods your ancestors used to grow for themselves.

The foods which are recommended for the Paleo Diet are

  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Lean meats
  • Seafood

All of the above foods are high in soluble fibre, antioxidants, phytochemicals, omega 3, monounsaturated fats and foods which have a low glycemic level when it comes to carbohydrate levels.

You can eat these lean protein sources along with unlimited amount of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Paleo diet recommends that you avoid the following foods as much as possible

  • Refined sugars
  • Refined grains
  • Saturated fats
  • Trans fats
  • Salt
  • Processed foods
  • High glycemic carbohydrate foods

What is the Paleo Diet?

What is the Paleo Diet?

All of these foods are known to cause obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular problems. They have also been linked to many other health related diseases.

If we dig back into our history books a little to find out what is the Paleo Diet you will discover that when our ancestor’s reached 60 they suffered from very few diseases. Yes many people did not even make it to 60 but that was due to the high instances of people being killed while out hunting.

Our ancestors ate off the land, they grew their own fruits and vegetables and raised livestock for slaughter. They did not eat breads and processed foods and it was uncommon to see many overweight individuals. Plus of course their lifestyle kept them busy all the time. They were active and very healthy people and this was only 500 generations ago. In our history that is not very long at all!

One concern that many people have when first learning what is the Paleo Diet is the lack of calcium. Everyone thinks that they need to consume tons of dairy each day to promote healthy bones and prevent osteoporosis.

You will still be consuming calcium while on the Paleo diet, you will just be getting your daily amount from different sources. Instead of drinking milk and eating cheese you will be getting calcium from your fruits and vegetables.

Our body needs to balance the amount of calcium it receives daily. All foods are processed through our kidneys and this is where bone demineralization takes place. When you eat foods which produce high amounts of acid in your body, the kidneys force out excess calcium and other alkaline’s.

The acid producing foods which we consume too much of are hard grains, cereals, cheese and salty foods. Acid must balance with alkaline which is found in fruits and vegetables. So when you increase the amount of these good alkaline foods your body will balance its calcium level. What all of this means is that you won’t become calcium deficient.

If you follow the guidelines to the Paleo Diet you will start to lose weight, sleep better and have more energy. So What is the Paleo Diet, lots of good food and none of the empty calories we are used to.

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