The 8 Things I Did to Melt Off Body Fat

Before the move back to Cleveland in late March, I knew my body fat was the highest it had been in a long time. For the first time, probably ever, I didn't like to have my shirt off around people and I really didn't like what I saw in the mirror in the morning. I knew I had let myself go with the stress of managing a team, less emphasis on my workouts, and eating like an absolute asshole. The change of pace in my life that came after the move was the perfect opportunity to refocus on losing fat, getting shredded, and getting confidence back.

I not only decided that I was going to lose fat, but that I was going to use EVERYTHING I knew about fat loss all at once and see how fast I could get shredded. I put those things into a list in a general order of importance for you all. Number 1 is the most important and can get you some results and number 7 will do damn near NOTHING if you don't have the rest of the list down. There can be some leeway in the order but overall it sits pretty well. Bottom line is make sure you start at the top of the list and, once you've got that one down, work your way down. As for my results so far, I started this 2 weeks before I got to Cleveland but did not do my body fat. My first week a Life Time the Inbody put me at 15.1% and yesterday it put me at 11.6% which is a 3.5% decrease in 4 weeks. The goal is under 10% on the Inbody ASAP. Now to the list. 

1.Eat real food

This is the obvious place to start. Stop eating garbage and start eating things that are actual food. Clearly we all know this, but when it really hit home for me was when I was listening to a podcast with Mike Dolce (you'll probably hear that name a lot in this post) and he said "Stop poisoning yourself with synthetic chemicals, artificial sweeteners, and artificial colors. Just stop poisoning yourself". At that time, my meal prep wasn't super existent and I was living off of protein bars and Bang at work. It struck a cord with me and I catch myself saying it in my head multiple times a day. Another great and simple way to think about it is this; eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meat, healthy fat and whole grains in the most natural and minimally processed forms are you can. Stick to this and you will be lean and healthy, guaranteed.

Some of the swaps I personally made were to be a real adult and cook some meals, switch my post workout Gatorade powder for OJ and cranberry juice, cut out most protein bars in favor of food, and vastly reduce my energy drink consumption for black coffee and green tea.

2. Eat enough real food to start, then decrease over time

Once you've made this switch to actual food, now we need to look at amounts. Notice I don't start right away with "Eat less!' but simply "Eat enough". As crazy as it sounds, most people spend most days not eating enough total calories and their metabolisms take a beating from that (especially when those same people overeat on the weekends). So we need to get your food up to a decent baseline to start before we can cut the amount down. One of the biggest complaints I hear from extremely successful weight loss programs like the Renaissance Periodization templates or Mike Docle's "3 Weeks to Shredded" is that there is so much food at the beginning that people can't even eat it all! I do the same thing with my clients to make sure their eating up to a caloric neutral before they start to cut.

Once you're there (bodyweight should be maintaining or decreasing) then simply make small changes in the amount of food you eat each day. Based on your body type and preference, I would reduce either carbs or fat. I would definitely not reduce protein so keep that as high as ever. Make a change then give it some time. Once progress slows then reduce a little more. You really do not need to over complicate it.

The decreases I have been making have been to reduce the rice and sweet potatoes in my meal preps, and removing some of my post-cardio, pre-lifting OJ and fruit. Next week will be almost no rice in my prepped meals (probably 1/4 cup) as my next decrease.

3. Drink a lot of water

I shouldn't need to spend a lot of time on this. Water is important so drink it! Plus, when you finally give your body the amount of water it wants, you'll actually reduce your bloating and water weight because your body won't feel the need to hold on to as much. That alone can make you look leaner! I usually recommend 1 gallon a day to most people so buy a reusable water bottle (preferably not plastic, I don't care if it says "BPA Free") and math it out to see how many you need to drink a day. Don't forget to add extra for workouts and more is not always better so you don't need to be putting away 2-3 gallons a day.

4. Progressive overload based resistance training 

Notice that this is ahead of cardio of a list about fat loss. Weight training will not only build more muscle to help you burn more calories, but it will also give your body better signals about storing and burning fat, as well as have powerful hormonal effects to get and keep you lean. Ideally, you should start a program that uses a lot of compound movements, has varying rep ranges, utilizes tempo time-under-tension techniques, and follows progressive overload. If you want all of that in one then keep and eye out for the release date of the Herceg Size Cycle 2.0 coming in the next few weeks. It has all of the above plus more! Fill out that annoying pop-up you probably clicked away from if you want access to a copy for yourself.

5. Fasting morning LISS

For a long time I thought fasted cardio was useless. Not that it was bad, just not any more effective than fed cardio. This opinion was based on people I trust and a meta-analysis of a ton of studies on both forms of cardio. BUT, when enough of the majorly influential fitness people in your life say they use it with everyone who wants to get lean, you set your ego aside and take a listen. Primarily, those two people were Jason Ferruggia and Mike Dolce, who I know you've seen pop up a few times in my blogs and posts. Check them both out for some awesome info. 

Long story short, Low Intensity Steady State Cardio (LISS) in a fasted state can be beneficial for fat loss. The LOW intensity part is super important and I think where most people mess this up. At lower heart rates, your body is more likely to use fat as a fuel source. Combine that with a fasted state (thus a lack of insulin) and your body is in the best state to burn fat. Again, more is not better so aim for a heart rate between 90 and 110 BPM. Too much higher and your body will begin to use carbs to fuel your workout. 

I have been cycling my LISS to prevent burnout so mine looks like this.

Monday: 60 minutes

Tuesday: 45 minutes

Wednesday: 30 minutes

Thursday: 60 minutes

Friday: 45 minutes

Saturday: 30 minutes

Sunday: off

I do 3 miles per hour and adjust the incline to what I need to keep my heart rate in that zone. This cycle also pairs perfectly with my weight lifting program and gives me a ton of time to listen to podcast and learn. It was actually where I came up with the idea for this post as well as a lot of other cool things to come!

6. Carb cycling based on activity

This is what Precision Nutrition would call a "Level 2 strategy" and something that most people shouldn't need to worry about. But since I want to get stupid lean this year I added it in. Basically, carbs are your main fuel source for your workouts so some days require more than others. Simply, you eat more carbs on the days where your workouts take more energy and less carbs on the days your workouts take less energy. I eat the most carbs on Mondays (Squats, legs, and core) and the least carbs on Thursday, and Sundays (off days). The other days stay pretty even as they are all about the same energy expenditure.

7. Supplements

Sometimes, this is the first thing people default to and skip aaaaalll these other steps above. Really, any fat loss supplements will not do very much and will do damn near nothing if steps 1-6 are not in check. If you have every one of these other steps down, there are some products I like by the company 1st Phorm that you can try. I started this cut with the DB-Overdrive Fastpack and since have gone back to a stack I've used in the past, the Royal 21 King System. Both are similar but the DB comes with a greens powder which is cool, and the 21 King comes with a sleep supplement that I personally love. Both seem good so far but the DB is a newer product are probably more potent.

8. Green tea

Last thing on this list is green tea. Clearly the least important (could be swapped with 7) but it is something I added recently so I wanted to talk about it. This is another Dolce recommendation which he mentioned in a podcast and added to his "3 Weeks to Shredded" book. Basically, I added green tea to my meals 3 times a day. Green tea and green tea extract (found in many fat burners) has been said to have some thermogenic properties and can aid in some fat loss. According to Mr. Dolce 1 cup is good, 2 is better, but 3 is where you start to see some real fat loss benefits. 

Outside of that, green tea is just genuinely healthy and most people can benefit from it. I bought Salada organic green tea for a good price on sale and have been drinking that. 

So there you have it! Everything I've been doing to melt off body fat so I was able to regain my confidence and get ready for summer! Give these a try and don't forget to start from the top of the list!

Top 5 Tips for Every Aspect of Fitness

What's up y'all? First post back since my 84 day trek. I'll be posting about once or twice a week now just to keep getting you guys good info and working on different types of posts outside of just blogging. I've definitely been using Instagram more, mostly because of the increased post engagement vs Facebook, so make sure you're following me on there if you're not you can find me at

@Greg.the.Trainer

Today I wanted to do something basic and important and give you my top 5 tips for every aspect of fitness; Nutrition, Resistance Training, Cardiovascular Training, and Lifestyle. If I had to give someone a 5 minute breakdown of the most important aspects of each one this is what I would tell them. I'll post in list form for convenience then go into a small bit of detail in each one.

Nutrition

• Eat real food most of the time: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, lean meats, and healthy fats. This is healthy nutrition in it's most simple form. EAT REAL FOOD! That basically covers it. It's ok to stray sometimes but the vast majority of the time should be spent eating real, nutritious foods.
• Eat protein and veggies first and at each meal. This should be your priority each meal, regardless of goals. If you don't directly track macros then a good goal is 1-2 palm sized servings of protein and 1-2 cups of veggies each meal. 
• Eat slowly and pay attention to your food. This is a great way to eat less food, just eat slower. If you've ever eaten with chop sticks you'll know exactly what I mean. You can also try putting your fork down in between bites. Also, practice eating without any distractions (phone, tv, computer) and think about the food you're eating. 
• Eat based on your workout each day. If you have a harder workout, eat more carbs, if you don't workout, don't eat so many carbs. The harder the workout, the more carbs you get because you need to fuel your workouts. 
• Start tracking your food but learn not to have to. Tracking your food is important when you're just starting and is great for learning portion size and daily intake. Although I recommend everyone do this as the beginning, tracking should be something you wean off of as you actually learn portions and good habits. 

Resistance Training

• Focus on compound, multi-joint exercises. Squat, deadlift, push, pull, carry, rotate. These things should make up most of your program with some accessory work following. Perfect these exercises to the best of your ability and do them often.
• Try to get as strong as possible. Strong people live longer and strength is the most important controllable factor in longevity. You should be trying to get as strong as you can in the movement patterns listed above. 
• Try to build muscle, even if you're trying to lose fat. Muscle is extremely healthy and increasing muscle mass is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. Not to mention it makes you look awesome. 
• Keep workouts short and intense. Don't waste your time on 12 different chest exercises and 8 different bicep curls. Try to keep workouts around an hour using mostly the movement patterns listed above. 
• Lift 3-5 times per week. This will cover it for most people. Lifting more will not mean better progress and you need time to let yourself recover. Rest days are when your muscles heal and get bigger so make sure you have a few each week. That doesn't mean don't exercise, just don't have a hard lift. 

Cardiovascular Training

• Some days do low intensity, some days do moderate intensity, some days to high intensity. Variability is key here and no one form of cardio is terribly superior to the others. Walking is underrated as a form of cardio and is one of my favorites, but so is High Intensity Interval Training. To get the best results use a variety. 
• Cardio is great for health and performance but not great fat loss. This is one thing I need to try and break so many people of: you can't just do more cardio and expect to lose fat, as overall research shows it doesn't do much. This doesn't mean you should skip cardio, but just go into it with the right intentions. Cardio is great for increasing heart and lung strength as well as increasing recovery ability from resistance training. 
• Do it separately or the same day as lifting. For longer sessions you might want to do it on it's own day, which makes a good active recovery day, but shorter sessions can be don in conjunction with lifting. Do it before or after lifting, whichever you prefer. 
• Get outside sometimes. Don't spend all your time in a gym! Get outside for a walk, run, bike ride or water sport and get into nature, you'll be happier and healthier the more often you do this. 
• Do what you enjoy and stick to it. It doesn't matter what the "best" or "most effective" workout is if you're not going to do it. There's 1,000 different ways to do cardio so find what you enjoy because that's what you're going to stick with. 

Lifestyle 

• Reduce stress as much as possible. Stress, the bad kind, will make you fat. I have a full post planned for this but for now know that you should be trying to reduce stress as much as you can. Breathing exercises and daily meditation or two great ways that I do this.
• Sleep 7-9 hours every night. Not sleeping will also make you fat and it will kill you. Everyone has their excuses for not getting sleep but I don't want to hear it, I'm up at 4am every week day and still get my hours in. Want some good news? Naps count towards this. There's research showing that daily total hours is more important than just overnight hours. 
• Focus on building good habits, not quick progress. Health is a lifelong goal, not a short term sprint. Although everyone wants to lose weight right now, you need to think about building good, healthy habits that will keep you strong and healthy forever. 
• Get outside. Yes this is on here twice because it's important. Even if you're not working out outside you still should get some sun every day. One recommendation I liks is 20 minutes of sun and outdoors each and every day. 
• Move as much as possible. This one is big, maybe the biggest, at least from a health standpoint. Not moving will also make you fat and kill you and you need to try to move as much as possible. Just hitting a 1 hour workout a few times a week won't do much of anything is you're spending the other 23 hours a day sitting on your butt. Get up and move as much as possible each and every day. 

If you embrace each of these things you're setting yourself up for a long and healthy life, not to mention a hot body. Work your way through the list and see what you can do for each one. If you need help of have questions please reach out to me as I would love to help you. There's so much garbage information out there so I'll help you sort through it and find the good stuff.

How I Lost 20 Pounds Without Cardio 81/84

It's about that time of year again and everyone knows it. The days are getting longer, the weather is warming up, and the amount of clothing you're going to wear on a daily basis is getting less and less. As you start to pack up the winter clothes and unpack your favorite summer attire, you start to notice something that concerns you.

Your favorite shirt is just a bit tighter than you like. You have just a little bit of something hanging over your favorite shorts. Your favorite summer dress just doesn't seem to sit right. You're starting to realize that you've added a couple more pounds than you had anticipated and you can no longer hid that fact under your baggy winter sweats.

So what do you do about that? You know you want to get beach ready but you don't know where to start. You probably just need to hammer out endless hours or cardio, right? Or go on some crazy restrictive diet, right? Keto, you probably have to do Keto... Right?

EDIT: I went back and made some changes to this post to reflect what I've been doing in my most recent cut. Those will be in bold just like this. The main points of the post stay the same but I felt it was good to add some new insight to this topic.

Back in March 2018, I decided that I was tired of not having all of my abs and that it was time for me to go through I cut to drop my body fat down again. At that point, I was on a maintenance phase after massing up to over 250lbs while keeping my body fat relatively low, just over 10% or so. Through that maintenance phase I started to get pretty lax on my diet and my body fat started to go up, just enough to bug me. For years I was super lean, getting down as low as 4.9% body fat in college, and maintaining that through CrossFit for a long time. I was very used to being lean, I prided myself on it,  and I wanted to get down back where I was. I also wanted to prove a point, actually a couple.

Those two points were these; that I wouldn't need to do cardio to lose fat, and that I didn't need to count my macros and track my food. I greatly dislike cardio, as most people do, and I wanted to see what kind of damage I could do to my body fat without it. Through these last few months, not counting playing volleyball, I did probably 2-3 bouts of actually cardio, and usually just to get my last few MYZONE MEPs for the month to stay on track. It's safe to say that what little I did did not really contribute much to my weight loss. Main edit number 1, this cut I added in fasted walking 5-6 times a week to my fat loss journey. In the past, I was not a fan of fasted cardio and, based on the research I read, it was no more beneficial than fed cardio, and neither of them did a ton for overall fat loss. But when two of your most followed and most respected mentors in this field can effectively explain how and why they use fasted cardio for their clients, you can give it a chance. Simply enough, all I did was 30-60 minutes of low intensity stead state (LISS) walking each morning, keeping my heart rate between 90 and 120 bpm. I have done very little moderate or HIIT conditioning outside of this so far. 

As for point number two, there's absolutely nothing wrong with tracking food, I think everyone needs to do it in some fashion until they can learn what good portion sizes are and how to eat without it. You see, that's the end goal, you should be able to live your life without having to keep track of everything you eat. And you should be able to stay lean and healthy without it. At the point where I was, I had been tracking my food a lot prior, for years, and had a very good idea of how much protein, carbs, and fat to eat each meal. I also had an idea built into my head of how I was going to reduce calories throughout my cut, starting with decreasing fat intake and then in to decreasing carbs when I needed to. Main edit number two, I absolutely prioritized real food in every meal. My goal is to eat as much whole and minimally processed food as possible while still fitting in the general guidelines in the rest of this post. Real food needs to be the goal ALWAYS. Examples would be swapping out Gatorade powder for orange and cranberry juice, and reducing my absolute reliance on energy drinks and protein bars. I still use protein powder a couple times a day for convenience sake for now. 

Those were to two experiments I wanted to do but that's not all that went into it. As you guys probably know, I love intermittent fasting so I was obviously going to use that to help me. I extend the time of my fast so I basically ate when I was finished with my morning clients, which usually got me home and eating around 12-1. I also added a ton more veggies into my meals and prioritized them along with protein. I started each meal by eating my protein and veggies first, then eating my carbs and fats. Main edit number three is that I did not use intermittent fasting this time around. Due to my new schedule in Cleveland, IF didn't make sense as I had to workout earlier in the day. I simply added some steel cut oats, fruit, protein, greens, and juice after my cardio and before my lift. 

For my workouts I did an average of 4 strength training days per week. Nothing crazy, just basic bodybuilding and strength training sessions to help me maintain muscle. The intensity wasn't even as high as you would expect and some sessions were only about 45 minute long. Generally, I went 2 upper body and 1-2 lower body days working up to only 2-3 heavy top end sets.

Here was my plan written out in list form

- Extend fast to 12-1:00pm
- Eat more veggies and make them a priority  (1-2 cups per meal)
- Eat enough protein
- Eat some fat but reduce the amount as cut progresses
- Eat slightly less carbs than I was, usually 1-2 servings of fruit and 1 serving whole grains
- Very little cardio
- Lifting workouts focused on maintaining muscle and building up problem areas
- Strategic cheats days later in Cut
- Daily weigh-in when I got to work each morning

That's what I stuck to for about 4 months to drop about 20 pounds from my highest at 256 to my lowest at 236. Now I've been sitting around 238 on average and I'm pretty happy here. In fact, I'm happier with the way I look now than I have been in a long time. The best part about this is that I didn't do anything that anyone reading this post can't do. There is no magic to what I did to lose that weight and get my body and confidence back. It's not too late for you to do the same but you need to start TODAY if you want to be ready for summer. Sign up for that gym, stop poisoning yourself, get a Coach. There's still time to get beach ready but don't wait any longer! If you have any questions about this process of my experience, or if you want any help with your own weight loss journey then please let me know! I'm always happy to help.

CrossFitters, You Need to Eat More Carbs 80/84

CrossFit and Paleo go together like peanut butter and jelly, or so people think. They probably go together more like peanut butter and mustard. There's absolutely nothing wrong with going Paleo if you want to, and it if works for you then great. But at its core, it is probably not the best way to fuel yourself if your idea of a good time is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensities.

Years ago, Paleo seemed to be the #1 recommended diet plan for CrossFit to the point where we had Games athletes, who usually train 3+ hours a day, claiming that they live on fruit, sweet potatoes and a ton of fat to fuel them through that. Now I'm not saying that that's not possible I'm just saying that it seemed a little fishy. The nature of the Paleo diet is to only eat fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and meat (nit bad by any means). It excludes grains of any kind (probably not bad) and often times potatoes. Similar to a Ketogenic diet, most of the energy source is from fat, which is fine if your goal is health based (see my last post), but that's definitely not the best plan if competing in CrossFit is your end game. CrossFit conditioning can range from 1-60+ minutes in duration but average around 8-12 minutes or so. There is also a ton of strength and power exercise added in and both of those things are extremely important to the sport. These things together add up to carbohydrates being SUPER important to, not only people looking to compete, but also to anyone who doesn't want to fry themselves out after a few months. Low carb plus high intensity workouts are one of the most common causes of adrenal fatigue, which can take a good amount of time to recover from.

Now I'm not trying to be unfair and call out Paleo, there are plenty of other low carb diets, but it is just the most popular in this space.
Plus, it's still perfectly ok to eat a Paleo style diet while training CrossFit BUT you really need to be conscious of your carb intake. Eat what fruit you can, eat tons of veggies and go hard on some sweet potatoes. I would also say that white and red potatoes are totally fine, especially given the situation, because that gives you a ton more options to pick from when you eat. I would recommend you aim for 1.0-2.0g of carbs per pound of your weight for most CrossFit workouts depending on how hard they are. You can back off on off days down to .5g/lb but keep it higher on the days you're working hard.

If you have questions about nutrition then please feel free to reach out. It is usually the #1 thing holding people back and I know I can really help you

The Three Goals of Dieting 78/84

What is your goal with your diet? There are many different outcomes of nutrition but most of them can be categorized into three different goals. Each one of these has their benefits and they all have some crossover with each other but there are definite differences between each one. The three different goals are; body composition, performance, and health/ longevity. Let's take a look at the benefits of each as well as where to start.

- Body Composition

This refers to any changes you want to make to body fat and muscle mass. The most important dietary factors here are total calories and macronutrients as these are the two things that have the most effect on body comp. You absolutely have to eat the correct amount of food and have it partitioned in the correct ways to see the best results here. The foods you eat don't make a super huge difference as long as the numbers are hit. That being said I would always aim to get 90% of your food from fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats and healthy fats.

To start with a body comp diet I like to recommend a pretty even diet of moderate to high protein, moderate carbs and moderate fats. From here, changes can be made in carb and fat levels to increase muscle mass or decrease body fat. Usually I will add or subtract fats because they have the most calories per gram, so a small difference in foods makes a bigger difference in total calories. Just like in anything, finding what works did you is important but I would aim to keep protein higher, around .7g per pound to 1.0 grams per pound each day.

- Performance

This refers to anyone who wants to increase athletic performance, including strength training and increasing power. This is similar to body comp in that total calories play a major roll as well as macronutrients. I would still aim at the fruits, veggies, etc above but there are some differences in macros here. The biggest thing is that carbs usually need to stay higher to optimize performance. The exception to this is for endurance based athletes who get most of their fuel from fat, but for most athletes higher carbs will be better for them. This includes strength sports and most field sports that require fast burst of energy as well as sustained movement. Moderate to high protein, moderate to high carbs and moderate to low fat works great here.

- Health and Longevity

This refers to eating to just be healthy and have a good quality of life. This usually becomes a goal after one of both of the other two have been attempted and the person is ready to focus on the most important piece. Tons of people will go through this transition and it applies to training as well. When a person is younger and mainly focuses on one of the other two goals, health is not the main priority. But once that person has finished their athletic career or gotten to a desired body composition, then priorities switch to making sure that they live a long and healthy life. I feel like this should become just about everyone's goal eventually. Unlike the other two, food composition plays a much bigger role now. Outside of total calories, the foods you eat are the most important factor in increasing health. Again 90% of foods should come from fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats and healthy fats but there are some macronutrient changes compared to the other goals. The big one here is that, when performance is not a concern, a low carb or ketogenic diet can be very healthy. This is also true for vegetarian and vegan diets. While I know there are a handful of bodybuilders and pro athlete who are vegans, it's probably not the best option for performance, although it is possible to still be very athletic. From a health standpoint it is extremely good and can always been considered a good option. Ironically, ketogenic diets and vegan diets are basically opposites in practice but both can be very effective for long term health. As for macros, I would still start pretty moderate and adjust to what works. Going vegan for moral reasons makes the choice obvious and trying keto for the hormonal and body composition benefits can be great as well. It all comes back to finding what works for you as an individual and being consistent with it!

Stop Letting the Weekends Ruin Your Progress 77/84

I know we've all been there before. You nutrition is on point all week and then as soon as Friday night rolls around you start eating crap and reverting back to all of the bad habits you used to have. You can say whatever you want but weekend calories really do count. And you can't expect to eat great for 5 days and eat garbage for 2 and expect to make any real progress.

This seems to be a problem for so many people so I like to spend a lot of time trying to figure out why. The biggest thing is that you're out of your routine. We all develop routines throughout the week for when we eat, sleep, and workout. It's based mostly around your work schedule which makes it easy to figure out when you can fit everything in. Now, as soon as we get to the weekend, most people aren't working and that great routine becomes irrelevant. At this point, without a routine, people tend to rely on old tendencies and go back to old bad habits.

The second big thing is that the weekend has much more of a relaxing and party feel to it, leading people to drinking more alcohol and eating bad food. People go out more, go to lunch or dinner more, and do things like go to the movies more. It all plays into the nature that the weekend are supposed to be your escape from the work week and be time for you to be free and do what you like.

If you truly care about you progress you can't give into the weekend temptations, you have to make sure that you're just as disciplined as you are during the week. Make sure you have food prepped, make time for workouts, and have a plan for when your friends and family want to go out and do something. No matter your goal, make sure you still live your life, but you need to find ways to be responsible about what you're doing.

Eat More Food and Lose Weight 75/84

If you decided you wanted to start on a weight loss journey I bet the first thing you would say is that you needed to start eating less food. There's definitely a chance that this would be correct, but there's also a chance that it's dead wrong. There's a chance that eating less than you are now will actually kill any fat loss progress and prevent you from being able to lose fat for a while.

I'm not sure where the super-low calories diet deal started exactly, but I know that it's mentally effected just about everyone who wants to lose weight. They think if 1,800 calories means slow, consistent weight loss then 1,000 calories must mean SUPER FAST weight loss! It kind of makes sense initially but our bodies don't always work in ways that make sense to us. Instead of thinking about eating less food, start to think in terms of eating the correct amount of food. Not only will this help you build a better relationship with food, but it will also help you make the best progress overall. Plus, if you can eat more food and still lose sight then why wouldn't you? Why starve yourself more than you need too without getting any extra benefit?

People usually get pretty a little defensive when they look at the nutrition plan I write and see how much food I suggest. They often say things like "There's no way I can eat that much food", or "won't I gain weight if I eat this much?" Were so hell bent on eating no more than 1,300 calories to lose weight that the very thought of eating more is enough to turn people off. But here's the crazy thing about eating more food, it can totally work! Just under the right circumstance. I've seen this many times recently with my clients and I'll give you and example if one.

One client came to me after she had already lost a lot of weight but had hit a plateau. This is normal given that most people don't know about maintenance phases, but as we talked more I found out she had only been eating about 1,000-1,200 calories a day. No wonder she was stuck. All we did was slowly start to reintroduce calories back in, about 100 per day each week, and the weight started to fall off quick for her. What happens is that, when you eat too little, you bodies metabolic processes slow down and you burn significantly less calories each day. But, once you start to eat more, your body needs to start working again and you burn more calories. This is the example of the first circumstance when eating more is beneficial to weight loss: when you've been eating too little for too long.

The second circumstance comes back to the maintenance phase and how you need to start reintroducing calories to be able to cut again in the future. Let's say your calories start at around 1,900 and, over the course of a few months, we slowly cut them down to 1,200. Once we start the maintenance phase, we slowly start to add calories back in until we get to a point we're weight is stable, calories are high again, and we can start the next cut. This should take about the same length of time that it took to cut the weight off in the first place.  Obviously you need to closely monitor your weight during this time so you don't put too much back on and you'll be surprised how many calories you can really add without gaining any weight at all.

So the big take away is this; don't just rely on eating less, make sure you're eating to CORRECT amount of food for you to lose weight consistently. Here's my suggestion in how to do that, either email me and I'll do it for you, or try this. Use an online calculator or go into My Fitness Pal and see how many calories you burn each day. Set you BMR and activity level but when it asked for you desired weight loss per week, start at .5 pounds. Yep, avoid the urge to jump right to 2 pounds per week. Stick with this until weight loss plateaus then switch it to 1. Then 1.5. THEN 2 pounds per week after you've been through the others already.  I promise you'll still lose weight but you'll be so much happier with more food and you'll prevent yourself from doing any long term metabolic damage!

Drink Coffee, Live Longer 69/84

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet; coffee is amazingly healthy for you. Not only is the list of benefits long, but the benefits listed are really important ones that have a massive effect on your life. I'm going to keep this one in list form because everyone loves lists, but you can find more detail on each one of these points and each is actually backed by scientific research. Here's a list of some health benefits of drinking coffee

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet; coffee is amazingly healthy for you. Not only is the list of benefits long, but the benefits listed are really important ones that have a massive effect on your life. I'm going to keep this one in list form because everyone loves lists, but you can find more detail on each one of these points and each is actually backed by scientific research. Here's a list of some health benefits of drinking coffee

• Improved Energy Level (duh)
• Increase Motivation 
• Minor Burn Fat 
• Increased Performance 
• Lower Risk of Diabetes
• Protection from Alzheimer's and Dementia
• Lower the Risk of Parkinson's 
• Reduced Liver Disease 
• Decreased Depression
• Decreased Risk of Liver Cancer
• Decreased Risk of Colon Cancer
• Decreased Risk of Stroke
• Decreased Mortality 
• Super High in Antioxidants    

Pretty important list right? Seems like something I'd want to take advantage of cause living longer is sweet. As far as life expectancy, studies have shown around 18-26% long life span in coffee drinkers. That's rather significant. Most of the recommendations I've seen are somewhere around 4-6 cups of coffee per day. Keep in mind this is fluid cups, not 4-6 coffee mugs worth. The average mug is about 2 cups so you're looking at 2-3 mugs per day for these benefits. Also, this isn't about coffee loaded up with cream and sugar. Black is where it's at and you should give it a try. If you don't like black coffee then you don't actually like coffee. You can try it iced if you don't like it hot and often times cold brew tastes a bit sweeter.  One final point, I try to avoid caffeine after 3pm as often as possible even if you're someone who doesn't react a ton to caffeine you should consider this. Even if you fall asleep easily, it has been shown that the QUALITY of sleep can go down quite a bit. And that's arguably more important than quantity.

So go load up that coffee maker and get ready to smash some brew in the morning. I'm trying to take full advantage of that extra 26% of life.

Tracking Food Without Tracking Macros 66/84

So bottom line of food tracking, tracking macros works. It just does, assuming you're doing it right and willing to weigh and measure all of your food for the rest of your life. If you want to lose weight tracking macros will help, if you want to gain weight tracking macros will help. I still start all of my new clients out by giving them a macro based plan because if they follow it they will make progress. The issue comes in when you have a client who just hates doing it. Sure, you could tell them to suck it up and just do it, but I think that makes you bad at your job. As a personal trainer, your job is to find a good nutrition and workout plan that your clients enjoy and will STICK TO. If they don't like it they won't do, that's the truth. It doesn't matter how amazing and perfect that plan you wrote is, if they don't like it it's not happening. If this is the case, I always have a backup plan.

So, you come across someone who hates logging all of their food into a phone app, what do they do? Are they doomed to be fat and unhealthy forever? Of course not, we just need to find a different way to track. Probably the simplest way is just to write your food in a notebook, not amounts or calories, just what you ate and when. This alone can be pretty eye opening for what people are actually eating. Another good way that I love is the "measuring" techniques taught by Precision Nutrition. These techniques involve using your hand as your only measuring tool for you food each meal. I would recommend Googling the pictures to get a visual but I'll obviously explain here (I don't want to post them because they're not mine).

Protein - Palm sized
Veggies - Fist sized
Carbs - Cupped hand
Fat - Thumb length

As a starting point, men should aim for 2 of each of those per meal and women should aim for 1 of each. Use this as a baseline then you can adjust as needed throughout a Bulk or a Cut. Just as with macros, I would suggest you start by increasing or decreasing fat as you go. All of the other procedures still apply such as make protein and veggies a priority, get your intraworkout shake and spread your food out evenly.

The whole point of this post is that there is more than one way to do just about everything in this field. The other point is that we need to be able to learn good habits so that we don't HAVE to relay on things like My Fitness Pal and Fit Bit to tell us what we're doing is right, we just know it. You need to be able to develop the skills needed to be healthy without the over complicated technology. Personally, I've dropped about 20 pounds in the past few months without tracking a single day in my phone. Was my Cut optimal? I don't know, but I've retrained plenty of lean body mass and my body fat is way down, so I'd call it a success.

The Health Benefits of Vitamin D 65/84

We hear often about the potential benefits of different vitamins and minerals. The vitamin industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that moves an incredible amount of product each year. In spite of this, to be honest, most of the products they're moving are absolute crap. Yes, there are definitely good multi-vitamins out there but they are hard to come by. You need to find a GMP certified company and do diligent research to find a good one. With that being said, Vitamin D is one supplement that almost everyone can agree is very beneficial. Actually, Vitamin D isn't even a vitamin, it's a pro-hormone because it can be synthesized in the body from sunlight on the skin. Actual vitamins can't be produced in the body and need to be taken in from food. Although sunlight can be a great source of Vitamin D, there are benefits to supplementing as well, which most people can benefit from. Here is a quick list of some of the benefits

• Live longer
• Lower risk of Multiple Sclerosis  
• Lower risk of fractures 
• Lower risk of muscle issues 
• Good for immune system
• Regulate insulin level
• Aid diabetes management
• Support lung function and cardiovascular health
• Improved strength and power output

These are all hugely amazing benefits that I think everyone can agree would be good for you. One of the best things, like I said, is that Vitamin D is one of the more agreed upon vitamins out there. The other thing people agree on is that there is a huge Vitamin D deficiency in the world. In the Northern Hemisphere, about 50% of the population is deficient, even people who think they get enough sunshine. So how do you know if you're Vitamin D deficient? Honestly, it can be really hard to tell. The easiest way is to get a blood test, which is something I recommend everyone do. Other than that, keep a lookout for decreases in athletic performance or energy. If you realize that your golf game kinda sucks a little worse now, you might be deficient. 

So you find out you are indeed deficient, what do you do? Obviously, try to get out in the sun, you only need about 10 minutes of sun (with no sunscreen) each day to help. You should also start supplementing as well. If you're vitamin level D is low, take 50,000 units once a week for 3 months to get your levels back up. After that, supplement with 2-4,000 units a day to keep levels high enough. Seems like kind of a lot but it's really not. And even so, there are no real reports of  Vitamin D toxicity. This means you can't really take too much unless you get to an extreme.

Personally, I take about 10,000 units a day right now which is just two tiny pills. I get mine from Xperience Fitness where we sell Supplement RX. 200 pills only cost $7.99 so there's definitely no excuse not to start.

How Everyday Products are Making You Sick and Fat 64/84

Today I've got a really good one for you guys. This information is all coming from a podcast that I listened to a couple months ago and I've finally had the time to take legit notes and write it up for you. This was from an episode of Renegade Radio with Jason Ferruggia and his guest was a man named Dr. Anthony G. Jay. Dr. Anthony G. Jay is a PhD Scientist who spends his time studying fats, hormones, and cholesterol. In this episode, he goes into detail about artificial estrogen and how it's making the world fat, sick, and infertile. He lists off the top 10 artificial estrogens to avoid and where to find them. He also recently wrote a book called "Estrogeneration" which is just ordered on Amazon. If, after reading this, you want to order it as well you can do so HERE

So to start off we need to talk about what estrogen actually is. Estrogen is the female sex hormone, it is responsible for the development of female sex hormones and reproduction. Obviously, estrogen is super important and is necessary for both men and women to function normally. The problem comes when the levels become way to high and start to cause major problems. Normal levels of estrogen for women range between 20-400 nanograms per liter (ng/L) depending on what time of the month it is. The problem that were seeing  is estrogen level up to nearly 2,000 ng/L, which are the levels we see in pregnant women and levels in men that are normally where women should be.

These increase are caused my estrogneic compounds which are compounds that act like estrogen in he body. These things cause estrogen levels to skyrocket and cause some huge problems. So what problems are associated with high estrogen levels

• Fat cell increase - Estrogen makes you put on fat, which makes sense when you look at it from the perspective of pregnancy. Fat has a ton of energy that mothers require to make sure their baby stays alive. It also makes you store fat in the way women typically do like in the hips or breasts
• Depression - Artificial estrogen is messing with natural estrogen levels can cause problem with depression and can decreases motivation 
• Allergies - When women get pregnant is suppresses their immune system so that their body doesn't kill the fetus. High level of estrogen from artificial sources can decrease the immune system and leave you open to illness and allergies 
• Infertility - Because estrogen is the female sex hormone it can cause some crazy problems in men. The biggest of these is infertility and other reproductive problems 
• Increased cancer risk - Breast cancer rates are up 250% since 1980 and have increase even more in different parts of the world. High estrogen levels are known to be one of the main causes of this.

So obviously this can all be some pretty terrible stuff, so what do you do about it? Here is Dr. AJ's list of Top 10 Estrogenic Compounds to avoid

1. phytoestrogens 
1. This compound is plant hormone that acts like estrogen in our body (just like this whole list)The biggest culprit of these compounds are soy and flax.
2. Micoestrogens 
1. This are also called zearalenone and they are a mold estrogen. In the U.S. we have these huge silos where were store grain. This grain starts to mold while it's in there, and it molds quite. The U.S. has no regulation or legal limit on how much mold can be found in our grains so other countries take advantage of that. When the UK gains have too much mold in their grain they ship it over here and we eat it. Isn't that great? As it turns out, non-organic grains are way worse because they are mass produced. Although you might think that organic would be worse, the large numbers result in lots of mold. Corn and wheat are equally bad when it comes to mold levels
3. Atrazine 
1. This is the second most used herbicide in the North America and it's totally illegal in European Union. CORN is by far the biggest problem for atrazine. The only real way to avoid it is to get organic corn. Studies have found 200ng/L causes reproductive abnormalities in frogs and cows that are fed with corn can have leves of atrazine of 700,000ng/L!
4. Triclosan/ alkylphenols
1. These two are soap estrogenics (found in our soaps) Triclosan will be listed on label but alkylphenolas will not. Make sure to keep a lookout for these two on your prodcuts. Because so many products have these compound in them, you can see what products Dr. AJ recommends on his website here  http://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/whatiuse.html
5. Oxybenzone/ benzophenone/ 4-methoxybenzophenone
1. These are the sunscreen estrogens and they are found in basically every big name sunscreen we use. Check the above list for good options or just look for organic sunscreen or one that have 20% zinc. By the way, BP is completely illegal in Europe.
6. Red 3 and Red 40
1. These two are obviously food coloring. Red 3 has been brought to FDA over 20 times to make it illegal but they keep getting shut down. These products require massive labels in Europe because they realize they may cause harm in children. A better option is to use beet juice instead.
7. Parabens 
1. These are perfumes estrogen and they are used as a preservative in the product. There are many different names and varieties "Methol- Propal- Benzol-" so keep a lookout for differnt ways they try to hide them. An interesting fact about parabens is that they move through blood and you pee them out. This results in public swimming pools have Paraben levels that are "concerning for children". They have also found high levels in Polar Bears because it is circulating in the water. 
8. Phthalates
1. This is a plastic additive that companies use to make it more rigid. Plastic #2,4,5 are the "best" ones for you to use by in reality you should try to avoid plastic when you can. Researchers have found up to 15% phthalates even in the better plastics listed above. Phthalates are actually far worse than BPA in this circumstance and products listed as "BPA Free" means they use phthalates instead.
9. BPA
1. This become popular years ago when people started to figure out how bad it was. It's not illegal nationally but the research is clear on how bad it is. There have been over 12,000 research papers starting how harmful it is. Even though it's not illegal nationally, 17 states made it illegal instead in some way or another. To combat that bad press BPA got, companies using BPS instead, which is basically the same thing.
10. Ethinyl estradiol (EE2)
1. This is the artificial estrogen that is found in birth control. Because of the high quantities our country takes birth control, it is found in pretty high qualities in the drinking water, especially in cities. Another big issue is that the human body doesn't break it down, because it is created that way. This means that it sticks around for a long time and creates a ton of problem.  

Ok I know, lots of super big chemistry words in there. I tried to make it as simple as I could but I also wanted to keep the actual names of the compounds in there. Now that you know the list we'll look at a couple of things you can do to stay away from these things. 

• Filter your water, especially in the city.
• Check labels if you're worried about this. Look for the crazy names listed above and check the list of good products I posted
• Buy things that are  fragrance free 
• Avoid plastic when you can, aim for stainless steel or glass instead.
• Avoid non-organic corn and wheat if you can. This also means grass fed beef is going to be a better option. 

I also recommend that you listen to the entire podcast yourself so you can hear the info straight from the source. You can always refer back to this list when you're done so that you have everything written out for you. You can find the podcast HERE. 

The 3 Best Predictors of How Long You Will Live 63/84

When we think about health and mortality everyone knows that exercise has it's place, but what we're starting to realize is exactly how important of a place that really is. If I where to ask you what one single factor was going to be the best predictor of mortality what would you say? Seriously, think about that for a second. Maybe family history? Stroke risk? Diabetes risk? They all seem like reasonable answers but they're not even close. Not even in the ballpark.

Most of this information was received by me from a couple of podcasts done on the Barbell Shrugged Podcast years ago. These podcasts featured a guy named Dr. Andy Galpin who, if you have been around with me for a while, you might recognize. Amongst other crazy knowledge bombs that Dr. Galpin always seems to drop, he mentioned the top three factors that predict mortality, and I'm sure they will be surprising to some of you. I'll discuss these top three in reverse order, starting with number three.

3. Lean Body Mass (LBM)

Lean body mass basically means anything in your body that's not fat. Muscle, skin, and bone are all included in this but for our purposes muscle will be the most important to us. For years people were under the assumption that muscle was just dumb tissue that did whatever the nervous system told it to do. Contract, relax, contract, relax over and over and that's it. What Dr. Galpin discusses is that muscle is actually super smart and regulates a
TON of hormone functions in the body. And the more muscle you have, the healthier you are (to an extent obviously). Combine this  with the fact that more muscle means more active and less injury prone in your later years and you can see why it's so high on the list. To increase LBM you simply have to hit the weights and get your muscles bigger so they work well. Stick in the 8-12 range most of the time for some good muscle building.

2. VO2max

Your VO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can take in at one time. The higher the VO2max, the healthier your respiratory and cardiovascular systems are and apparently the longer you're going to live. Obviously, if you can keep your heart and lungs strong for a long time, you'll be more active and less prone heart disease. To increase VO2max you need to do a combination on low, moderate, and high intensity cardiovascular training like spring intervals and walking.

1. Leg Strength

Yep, it's true, how strong your legs are is the single best determinant of how long you're going to live. In fact, it was a better predictor than wether or not you've ALREADY had a heart attack! Crazy right? I've heard Dr. Galpin discus that grip strength can be added along with this and I think it's safe to say that strength in general can be included. I assume leg strength was just the strength metric that they tested which came out the highest. This crazy fact could be the result of a few things, but in my professional opinion it can be linked best to 2. First, having stronger legs when you're older most likely means that you had been relatively active throughout your life, meaning you're probably healthier. This is definitely going to lead to a longer life.  Second, stronger legs means reduced chance of falling or getting hurt as well as increase activity, mobility, and independence when you get older. Basically, you can do more stuff on your own for longer and do it better. Sounds pretty great to me. To increase leg strength or strength in general you have to lift. Not only that but you have to lift pretty heavy stuff. The best strength gains come from around 3 reps to around 6 reps with at least 90 seconds rest in between.

So there you have it; lean body mass, VO2max, and leg strength are the three best predictors of his long hours going to live. Now, obviously if you excel in all of these it doesn't guarantee that you're going to love a long life, but it does put the odds in your favor

Why I Quit CrossFit 50/84

50 days in! Holy crap I can't believe I've managed to do this for this long. A lot of great stuff has happened since this started and I'm super excited to see where it will do from here! Anyway, for those of you reading who have known me for years know that I spend about 3 years training, competing, and coaching CrossFit. I did it basically every day without fail and got to the point where I was actually pretty competitive. But now it's been about a year since I've done a WOD and I wanted to write a post about why I made the switch,

I want to start off by saying that I still love CrossFit and even though I don't do it anymore I still have the utmost respect for it. I still closely follow what's going on and some of my best friends still compete, and we talk every day. Also, I use very CrossFitty workouts for most of my weight loss clients and it still works great for them. Although I've adjusted a few things that I feel are normally missing, I run those sessions very similarly to a CrossFit class.

I competed in and coached CrossFit from the time a finished undergrad and volleyball in 2013 until just after the 2016 CrossFit Open. During that time I gained about 30 pounds of solid muscle, added 100+ pounds to my deadlift and snachted 300 pounds, something that only a handful of people in the world will ever do, as well as a ton of other things someone my size has no business doing. I loved CrossFit and my life was all about it. I coached through my 2 years of grad school at The Arsenal (Muncie CrossFit) which is where I learned a ton about about exercise, coaching, mobility, SMR, and how to break the "rules" that exercise science tells us that are necessary for people. Once I moved up to Appleton, Wisconsin, I began helping out and coaching occasionally at CrossFit Appleton. I continued competing for a few months up there until I backed off to compete in a Weightlifting competition. After I won my weigh class for that, I hopped right back in to compete in the 2016 Open. I only trained for about 4 weeks or so but got back to a pretty competitive level. This is about the same time I start working as a trainer again too.

After the Open is over, every year I would take a little while to back off and work on some nagging injuries or imbalances that accumulate during the intensity of training competitively. It just so happened that this year I was working at Xperience Fitness where I had the option to work on powerlifting and bodybuilding outside of a CrossFit gym. This gave me access to different equipment that I didn't really train with for a couple years including dumbbells, machines, and the ability to do curls without judgement. As I began to back off on my programming to recover a bit, I also realized that working out at work was not only convenient but good for business as well. As a personal trainer there, it helped me get to know more members and make more connections that led to more clients. More clients is always better.

This also gave me a chance to reflect and figure out what my real goals were. Honestly, I knew for a long time that my height and size was going to limit me from every getting to where I wanted to go in CrossFit. CrossFit is definitely not a tall man's game and obviously I couldn't get shorter. I also was not willing to lose the weight that I would have needed to to be at a high level in bodyweight and gymnastics movements. I knew that I had to look and think about what I really wanted to work on.

After bouncing between programs and goals and not really knowing what I wanted, I got an opportunity that I hadn't really thought about in years; I started playing volleyball again. Finally! I had something to train for. I focused my program on the goals or getting strong, getting bigger, and being able to play again (basically getting my vertical up again). This worked out well with the program I wrote which already involved a lot of speed work anyway.

During this time I also learned a lot and realized a lot of things that were missing from typical CrossFit programming. There were multiple movement patterns, muscle groups and equipment that could help prevent injury and increase gains for people who are still doing it. The biggest things that I found missing where; horizontal pulling and pushing exercises, anything with a supinated grip, enough single arm/leg exercises, knee flexion, dumbbells, and any rotation or side-to-side movements. Lacking these things can have a pretty big impact on the health and longevity of competitors and adding in just a couple exercises for each can make a huge difference. Missing these elements leads to a lot off underdeveloped lats, pecs, biceps, and glutes (yeah I said it), hamstrings, and obliques. I think going into the details of all of these things would be an entire post in itself which I might need to do. For now, just know that CrossFit coaches really need to expand the movements they are using if they really want to do the most for their members as they can. What I do like recently is the use of the term "functional bodybuilding" (which I have been using for years) and seeing that grow into something that is more popular in the sports. From what I've seen, it address a lot of the issues I mentioned above.

So all in all, the biggest reason I took a step back is because it just didn't fit with my goals anymore. I knew that my success in CrossFit was most likely limited and I needed to figure out what I really wanted to do. Although I still love it and use it with my weight loss clients, CrossFit just no longer fit with the goals that I wanted. But even so, coaching for all of those years led me to where I am today and I would not be the trainer I am without it.

Running a Successful Cutting Phase Part 2 49/84

Hopefully you enjoyed yesterday's post on how to adjust your nutrition when you're trying to cut some weight. I want to reiterate  that that will be much more important to success than changing your workouts and what you do for your workout probably won't make as much if a difference as you thought. Although there are a few things you can do to help speed the process up a bit.

One of the most important things to think about when cutting is that we really need to focus on maintaining muscle mass. Although people often say "lose weight" what they really should mean is "lose fat". The goals shouldn't just be the number on the scale but to have your body fat percentage go down. If you don't do this right and end up losing muscle, you will weigh less but you'll still look soft and just be a smaller version of your previous self. In reality, THIS should be the main focus on your resistance training workouts. Still being strong, still lifting heavy even though you're eating less. Yes, you can and often should, include include fat loss circuits or conditioning but maintaining muscle should be priority #1. Here's a few tips to help with that

- Try full body workouts. Using your whole body each workout can help burn more calories and allows you to utilize killer exercises like Burpees and thrusters. Try 3-4 full body workouts per week
- Still use compound movements. They burn the most calories because they use the most muscles. They will also do the best job of maintaining muscle mass.

- Lift heavy and often. Just because you're cutting that doesn't mean you can get weak. Again, the main goal is muscle mass and you should try to keep as much strength as possible too.

- Shorten rest periods. This is an easy way to increase the intensity of your workout. Stick to 30-45 seconds for smaller movements and go as high as 60 seconds for bigger lifts.

- Turn your accessory work into a circuit. You can take the last point one step further and eliminate some rest periods all together. Take your last 4 accessory exercises and do then back to back with no rest the break about 45 seconds between rounds. This will also help you get out of the gym faster.

- Higher reps don't mean "toning" but can help increase intensity. You don't need to do high reps but they do a decent job of getting your heart rate up. Then again, so does lifting really heavy.

- Avoid long, slow cardio. People still seem to believe that this is super important in weight loss. Going for that long run may be doing more harm than good for your fat loss efforts.  Replace it with something higher intensity and save yourself some time.

- Do HIIT or SIT to save time. See above point. Although, when equalized for total calories, High Intensity Interval Training, Sprint Interval Training, and traditional cardio all burn about the same amount of fat, HIIT and SIT take significantly less for a similar result. They also help maintain more muscle.

- Go for a walk. This is an often underrated form of exercises. Although it somewhat contradicts my HIIT recommendation, walking can burn easy calories while still maintaining muscle better than traditional cardio.

- Get 10,000 steps every day. This should be a minimum for everyone. Daily activity is the most important exercise factor in weight loss. Sure, you could get a great 45 minute workout in but it won't make a difference if your sitting on your butt the other 23 hours and 15 minutes.

So one more time, you don't need to make massive changes in workout from a bulking phase or maintenance phase to a cutting phase but there are a few things you can do. If you take the above points and combine then with the nutrition information from yesterday the  you'll be better off saving your muscle and making sure of those pounds lost are fat!

Running a Successful Cutting Phase Part 1 48/84

Now that I've finished with the post on how to bulk, it's time to get after what it takes to cut successfully.  I think this one will definitely speak to more people than the bulking posts especially since the majority of people want to lose fat. Just like I did earlier, I'll start with nutrition first and then go on into the workouts tomorrow.

I've posted this time after time and I'm going to keep posting it forever because it's really important; nutrition is the single most important factor in weight loss. If you try to eat like crap and just change up your workouts or add some more cardio then you're going to fail. You need to make changes in what you eat each day if you ever actually want to make progress. Here are the biggest things I coach people through

- Just like when bulking, you need to find a baseline first but then eat a little less. You can do this by tracking calories or just base it off of what your body has been doing recently. If your weight have stayed the same then just eat a little less, if you've been gaining weight slowely then you need to eat a lot less

- Still hit 1 gram of protein per pound or body weight. As weird as it might sound, it might actually be MORE important to eat protein when cutting because you want to preserve muscle mass on a calorie deficit.

- Prioritize protein and veggies each meal. Try and get 1-2 palm sized servings on protein and 1-2 fist size servings of veggies per meal and eat them first.

- Pick either low carb or low fat but don't try and do both at the same time. You have to reduce calories some how and it shouldn't be from protein.

- Reduce calories slightly and stay there until weight loss stops, then reduce again until you plateau again. This is how my nutrition programs are set up for you.

- Try super low carb if you need to, but only for a short time. This can work well for a big time hormonal reset and help get some insulin sensitivity back, similarly to intermittent fasting.

- Base carbs off of workout volume for the day. If your workout has more volume than eat more carbs. Less volume equals less carbs, and non workout days should be low carb.

- Aim to lose 1-2 pounds per week. .5 isn't bad either but you don't want to lose any more than that consistently.

- Only cut for 3 months at a time then maintain. I wrote a whole post on this so I don't need to go into detail.

- Maintain for as long as you cut then cut again if needed.

- Have protein or BCAAs during workout and protein before bed. I prefer protein over BCAAs but if you're super calorie restricted the they can be ok to help maintain muscle.

- Try intermittent fasting. Again, whole post on this. Actually 3, so not a lot of detail here.

All in all it comes down to finding what works for you and sticking too it. Consistency is going to be the most important and without it the details don't matter. As long as you are consistently eating less calories than you're burning, being active, and taking maintenance lanes then you will be successful!

Running a Successful Bulking Phase Part 2 47/84

Now that you guys know how to eat to grow effectively, you'll need to know how to lift to grow too. To be 100% honest there doesn't NEED to be a huge difference between the workouts to get bigger or smaller if your diet is on point. Look at bodybuilders, there's not much of a difference between their bulking workouts and cutting workouts but they still manage to change a ton. With that being said, there are still some things you can do to help the process along and make it as effective as possible.

- Focus on strength first. If you worry about getting stronger then bigger muscles will come. This is, of course, if your workouts are programmed right.

- Get strong with compound movements. No one cares how much you can curl, like, no one. You shouldn't try to go heavy on an exercise like a bicep curl but you should go heavier and exercises like squats, deadlifts, presses, and pulls that use a lot of muscles. This is the best way to get strong and add quality muscle to your body.

- For these compound movements, keep your reps around 3-8. You can go higher or lower if you like but this is a great range to spend most of your time in.

- Do accessory work second. Once you finish your main lifts then you can move on to your accessory and isolation exercises. These can include exercises for your upper back, chest, glutes, and hamstrings then finish with things like biceps, triceps, neck, and calves.

- For these you'll want to go lower weight than with the compound movements and stick with 8-15+ reps for most. Things like calves, abs, and neck can go even higher as well

- Don't get confused, higher reps do not mean toning and they won't just help with muscular endurance. Not only can they still help build muscle but they're actually important in the process.

I have talked about this in the past but there are a number of ways you can split up your days and still make great progress. I have ones that I prefer and program often but I list a few options for you.

- Full body workouts. Hit the whole body 3 times a week and you're good.

- Upper/ lower. I did this a ton while I did my last bulk. I did 2 upper body and two lower body workouts a week. Sometimes I even added a third upper day just to work on some weak points.

- Push/pull/lower. This is what I'm doing now. I do deadlifts and pulling Monday, pressing Wednesday , and legs Friday. Just like above, sometimes I add a pump day on Saturdays.

- Bodybuilding splits. I'm not a huge fan of these for most people but they still can work. A basic example would be to separate chest/triceps, back/biceps, shoulders, arms, and legs. Abs can be sprinkled in there as well.

Once you decide what kind of split you want then use these guidelines to build your workouts.

Do 1-3  compound exercises
Do 2-5 isolation exercises
And do 1-2 exercises per muscle group

You really don't need a ton more than that once you add in the rep schemes from above. Usually 2-5 sets per exercise is plenty. One thing I often see sf people doing way more volume per muscle group than they need to. You don't need 5 exercises for chest and another 6 for triceps to grow and more is not better.

Hopefully these guidelines can help you build a good workout and let you run a successful bulk. If you cutting then save this for the winter and also stay tuned until tomorrow when I get into the details on how to cut successfully. Finally, I'm still accepting a couple more people for my workout test group. If you're interested in working with me for free for a month then subscribe via the pop-up and you'll get added right in

See you tomorrow

Running A Successful Bulking Phase Part 1 46/84

I'm not going to lie, bulking is way more fun than cutting. I don't think this would be news to anyone, especially because of the look on their face when I tell my weight loss clients that I'm trying to gain weight. With that being said, it's not the free-for-all that people think it is, and so many people do it way wrong. Bulking is not about eating all the food and getting as big as possible as fast as possible. That mentality is a really good way to get fat. Bulking is about gaining quality muscle mass while maintaining as much of the leanness you worked so hard for on your cut. The process should be slow, just like weight loss, and it needs to be just as well planned. In this post, I'll go over the nutrition points you need to focus on when bulking and in Part 2 I'll go over the workouts.

During a bulk, your goal should be to gain about 1 pound per week for men and closer to .5 for women. Any more than that and you are probably not gaining quite as much lean muscle as you can. Obviously, you're going to get a little bit of body fat while you're bulking but the goal is to try and keep it to a minimum while still gaining a good amount of muscle. There are a few main points that you should spend most of your time focusing on. I'll go through those as bullet points to make it easy.

Nutrition

Whether you're bulking or cutting, nutrition is going to be super important to making sure you actually make progress. Here are some basic recommendations that I live by when bulking

- Find your baseline then eat a little more. If your weight is stable right now then all you need to do is add a little more food and you'll start gaining weight. If you want to get more precise there are some macronutrient recommendations you can use.

- Aim for .8-1.0 grams of protein per pound that you weigh. Most people don't get enough protein each day and this might be all the extra calories you need to hit point 1. This mean a guy weighing 180 pound would need between 145 and 180 grams per day.

- Aim for .5-2.0 grams of carbs per pound that you weigh. Yes, I know this is a broad range but it depends on the volume and intensity of your workout for the day. On days you do workouts that are higher volume, you should eat more carbs and days you do less you should eat less cars. most workout days will be closer to .8-1.5 grams per pound. Conditioning days will be on the lower end, even if the "feel harder".

- Fill in the rest of your calories with healthy fats. If you are tracking calories and macros this will just make up the remainder if you daily calories.

- As you progress through your bulk, carbs and protein stay about the same but fat increases. There is a number of reasons for this; protein and carbs have optimal ranges that they should be consumed in but fat doesn't, and fat has the most calories per gram meaning you need to eat less to get more. Want to make this simple? Add a scoop of peanut butter to the end of each meal.

- Still focus on getting protein and veggies with each meal and spread you carbs and fats pretty evenly across your day. Make sure you still eat about 1 cup of veggies per meal, you're going to want the fiber with all the food you'll be eating.

- Make sure you're getting you intra-workout shake each workout. Not only will this help you get more calories in each day but it'll help prevent any potential muscle loss from workouts

- Get protein and fat right before bed. This will help you recover faster and prevent muscle loss when sleeping, I like to blend 2 scoops on whey with peanut butter but if you can get casein protein that will be much better.

- Once you stop gaining weight, increase fat by a couple servings a day and maintain that until you stop gaining again.

- Just like cutting, you'll need to take a maintenance phase about every 3 months to get your body used to your new weight. If you don't you'll quickly lose the weight you worked so hard to put on.

If you can get good at these things and combine them with the workout blueprint I'll be posting tomorrow then you're definitely going to have a successful bulk. Remember to take is slow and enjoy the process, don't just try to rush to the end. Finally, if you want to see what it's like to work with me for totally free then subscribe here and you can join the group of workout testers that I'll be starting with this Monday. You can read about the workout HERE and see the post I but up about it on Facebook HERE. Anyone is free to join so let me know!

See you tomorrow!

Facebook: Greg Herceg - Personal Trainer
Instagram: @Greg.the.Trainer
Email: gsherceg@gmail.com

Should You Try To Bulk Or Cut? 45/84

One of the first things I talk to everyone about when we first meet is their goals. Some people are very clear on what they need, because either they know they need to lose a significant amount of weight or they are already pretty lean. Although a lot of people fall into that, there are a ton of people who are conflicted and don't know which way to go.

Some people are already kind of skinny or kind of lean, but still want to get bigger and have bigger muscles. They may have some muscle already, but also still have some extra body fat. So for those people the question can arise of "which one do I tackle first?" Do you start with bulking and trying to get bigger? Or do you lose that extra bit of fat first? Let's figure it out.

The main question you need to ask is "How lean are you already?' There are a number of ways to figure this out but usually the best for the average person is a skinfold pinch test of some kind of bio-electrical impedance like InBody. If you have access to a Bod Pod, hydrostatic weighing or Dexa Scan those would be better but not everyone will have that option.

Once you know your body fat you can decide which way to go.  If you're a guy, I would recommend getting down to 10-12% body fat and for women you probably want to be under about 20% or less. Until you get to be this lean, you shouldn't worry about bulking at all. There are a couple reasons for this

For one, you're going to look more muscular or more toned when you get leaner. It sounds kinda weird but as you lose that extra body fat the muscles you already have are going to be more visible and you're going to look like you've added muscle. Definite bonus. Combine this with the small amount of muscle you can add in a cut and some people might just be good there.

Second, you're body works better when you're lean. A big part of that is attributed to hormones.  When you have less fat on your body, your insulin sensitivity is better (your ability to tolerate carbs), and you have better amounts of testosterone, growth hormones, and estrogen. If those things are out of wack (like when you're overweight) trying to add muscle won't work out too well and you'll probably end up gaining just as much fat as muscle.

When you're lean, it's easier to add muscle to your frame without adding too much fat. You'll probably still add a little but nothing too bad (if you're doing it right). If you have too much fat when you start, way too much of the weight you add is going to be fat and not muscle. This goes back to the hormones I mentioned and is obviously no good.

So the biggest question to ask yourself is how lean you are already. If your body fat is too high then cut first. If you're pretty lean already, you can start to add some quality mass. For my next few posts l detail how to run a successful cut and how to run a successful bulk. Once you decide which goal to work for, you'll have a good blueprint to follow to get there. If you still feel like you need more help then please reach out. I help people change their lives every day and I would love to help you too!

See you tomorrow!

Intermittent Fasting Part 3 39/84

Part 3 has arrived. Sorry to drag this out so long but I really do have a lot that I want to say about this. We've already covered the different types of intermittent fasting, the potential benefits it can proved, and the potential side effects it can have. Today I'm going to get into which people can really benefit from IF and which people should probably stay away from it.

So just to start here, I can never really hurt to experiment with something for a short time just to see how it's going to effect you. Even if you find yourself on the list of contraindications, feel free to experiment with yourself a bit to see how it goes (this really applies to a lot of things in the fitness world). With that said, if you start to notice anything bad happening then pay attention and don't be dumb.

So we'll start with the good list, these are the people what can really benefit from some kind of fasting protocol. There's really a lot of lifestyle factors that need to be in play like; when you workout, when you work, if you have to work with clients, when you sleep, what your fitness goals are, and how stressful your life is already. The people that are going to benefit the most are going to be people who have low-ish stress jobs, work normal hours, and usually work out around lunch time or later. Although it's generally thought to be best for cutting, IF can be beneficial for a bulk too. Personally, I do it to try and stay as lean as I can while I gain weight and I just make my fast slightly shorter. Overall, from what we've seen, IF is much more beneficial for men than it is for women. As I mentioned quickly yesterday, IF can have some pretty big negative side effects for some women including missing periods and symptoms or pre-menopause.  Obviously, this won't apply to all women but it's something to keep an eye out for if you want top try. Let's run down that list again...

-Fat loss
-Normal work hours
-Not high stress job
-Later workouts
-Usually men

Now let's take a look at the flip side and see who might want to think for a while before trying. First, if you workout early in the morning, IF is probably not the best (the 16/8 version at least) because you're going to want to eat before, during, or after your workout at some point. Early people could try the 24 hour version though, When you work can be a factor and is associated with when you sleep because you're going to have to plan your meals around that. Usually, the morning is the best time to fast because that fits the best with social norms like going out for lunch or dinner, but it's not 100% necessary. Also, If you're someone who's going to get irritable from not eating, working a job where you work 1-on-1 with people may not be in your best interest. Obviously, this is how my job is but I've  been doing it long enough that I don't get cranky. Also, black coffee helps keep you nice and peppy. If your job or life is already very stressful, the IF just becomes another stressor. This might be the one to put you over the edge so it's better to take some help from anti-stress protocols before you worry about this. Next, if you are an athlete or have very athletic based goals you may benefit form breakfast depending on when you workout or when you have practices etc. Finally, again, women need to pay close attention. It can still work for you but you're going to want to pay pretty close attention to how your body is feeling.  So this list is basically the opposite of the first

- Athletic or massive weight gain goals
-Odd or unpredictable work hours
-High stress job
-Morning workouts
-Often women

The final thing I want to talk about is some strategies that I use to make it through my fast every day so you guys can have them in your arsenal as well. I think the biggest one is to make sure you stay busy. IF works out really well for me because I just fast while I train my morning clients. Once I'm done in the afternoon, I go home and eat. Pretty simple. I'm busy enough during the day to not even think about food most of the time. The next biggest thing is about understanding hunger. There are two main things here; knowing that the feeling of hunger doesn't last that long, and realizing that you need to accept hunger as part of losing fat. Hunger usually only lasts for about 30 minutes or so on average and, after that, it doesn't come back for a very long time. Having this knowledge in the back of you head makes it easier to push through that feeling because you know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Related, at some point during a Cut, you're going to get hungry, it's just going to happen. You're eating less food than your body is used to and it doesn't like that. If you can get more comfortable with the feeling on hunger than it's going to make the whole process easier for you. The times you'll feel it the most are when you normally eat a meal, so like when you normally eat breakfast. When I do get hungry, water and black coffee help me curb my apatite enough to get over it. If you doing a 24 hour fast then you can add some BCAAs or a greens supplement to help you make the it whole time. Aside from those, it's just about getting it done. You'll feel the most hungry when you first start but you're body will absolutely get used to it. It also help you from getting hungrier during the day if you do happen to miss a meal. That's one of my favorite things because we don;t live in a perfect world and you're not always going to be able to get you 6 meals a day in every 3 hours.

I think that's just about it for these posts. Hopefully you guys are getting some good information from these posts and we're getting close to the halfway point on my daily posts! If you want to stay up to date on everything, get some free stuff including my Top Fat Loss and Top Muscle Building Tips,  nutrition plan, and access to my private Facebook group, fill out the pop up window on here to become a subscriber. Subscribers will also be the first people I go to for workout testing and free programs so don't wait! As always, if you have any questions at all, or feel like you need some help with this whole fitness thing, reach out to me and I'll do whatever I can to help!

See you tomorrow!

Facebook: Greg Herceg - Personal Trainer
Instagram: @Greg.the.Trainer
Email: gsherceg@gmail.com

Intermittent Fasting Part 2 38/84

Here you guys go with Part 2. Like I said in Part 1, Intermittent Fasting is something that I'm pretty passionate about because it has been working so well for me for years. To be honest, this is  going to end up being a 3 part post because I have so much I want to say. So with that, today's post is going to be about the potential benefits and side effects of IF while part 3 is going to be about who should try it and who should stay away from it based on these potentials.

We've already looked at the different types of IF and as far as we can tell, the benefits are pretty similar between the different types. Of course there are some changes, but the big ones are pretty universal. I also want to say this at the beginning as well, there is not really that much scientific research that has been done on humans to prove or disprove the benefits that IF can provide. There are a lot of studies done on mice which show some pretty promising things, but apparently it's hard to find college kids who you can convince not to eat. I'm sure, eventually, we'll have the research to back up what we've seen, but until then we basically have the anecdotal evidence of personal and client experience to look at. Some people may not think much of that but I think that if it works it works, sometimes regardless of if the research has caught up yet.

So let's get into it, there are a ton of potential benefits that IF can provide which include decreasing some things and increasing others. One of the biggest benefits, and the reason that most people get into it, are the fat loss benefits. It has been pretty widely shown that participating in IF can help you burn more fat. NOW, it has yet be proven whether or not that fat loss is a result of the fast or just a result of the fact that you're probably eating less total calories. Personally, when I'm on a cutting phase I increase the time of my fast, and while I'm bulking I reduce it. It's super hard for me to get the 4-5,000 calories I need for a Bulk in just a few hours. What has been shown, though, is an increase in metabolism towards the end of the fast. This may be the exact opposite of what some people think and may be the opposite of what the bros might tell you. So many people think that if you don't eat for a couple of hours that your metabolism slows down to a crawl and sends you into starvation mode. This could not be less true and there is absolutely no backing that not eating for a couple hours slow metabolism at all.

On that note, by no means is it necessary to eat 6 meals a day ever couple hours to get lean. I'm not exactly sure when this myth came around but for some reason everyone believes it now. You'll probably hear me saw this a lot but meal frequency (how often you eat) has absolutely no effect on body composition (how lean you are).

So back on track, here more benefits that we believe you can get from adding a fast to your life; decreased blood pressure, decrease blood lipids, decreased inflammation, decreased risk of cancer, increased cellular repair, increase growth hormone levels, increased apatite control, and increased blood sugar control.

That seems like a pretty great list right? I think so too. There are some potential drawback too, though, and although the list is smaller, they can be some pretty important ones. Here are some potential side effects; increased stress response, increased strength of male sex hormones (bad for ladies), decreased strength of female sex hormones (also bad for ladies), amenorrhea, and symptoms of premenopause. Like I said, smaller list but there are some pretty big players involved. As a little spoiler for Part 3, IF and ladies do not really get along and you need to pay close attention to how you feel if you try it. Stay tuned tomorrow for the details.

So like I said, in Part 3 I will get into who should try it, who should avoid it, and what groups of people or character traits would and would not bode well with IF. Hopefully you guys are getting some good information from these posts and we're getting close to the halfway point on my daily posts! If you want to stay up to date on everything, get some free stuff including my Top Fat Loss and Top Muscle Building Tips,  nutrition plan, and access to my private Facebook group, fill out the pop up window on here to become a subscriber. Subscribers will also be the first people I go to for workout testing and free programs so don't wait! As always, if you have any questions at all, or feel like you need some help with this whole fitness thing, reach out to me and I'll do whatever I can to help!

See you tomorrow!

Facebook: Greg Herceg - Personal Trainer
Instagram: @Greg.the.Trainer
Email: gsherceg@gmail.com