Muscle Nutz

What is BMI?

noreply@blogger.com (Topher) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:00:00 +0000

BMI, or Body Mass Index, indicates body weight measured in pound in proportion to the height measured in feet for adults. Studies have revealed that if your body mass index is 17-32 then you have a longer life

It has been seen that men have less fat than women with the same body mass index. BMI can also relate to a person’s health condition.

If you have a high body mass index then you can be at risk of having high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. A person is obese if his/her BMI level is 30 or greater. A person is overweight if his BMI level is 25-29.9. A person who has 18.8-24.9 BMI is normal. An underweight person will have less than 18.5 BMI.

You can calculate your body mass index and see if you are healthy or not. If your body mass index is not up to the prescribed health levels then you can always work out to bring it to the prescribed levels.

Gain Muscle Without Turning into a Bloated Mess

noreply@blogger.com (Topher) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:06:00 +0000

So you want to gain some muscle, right?
Well workout hard and eat a lot, right?
Maybe maybe not.

It is true that no matter what kind of goal you have, as far as, gain size or lose weight, you need a proper nutrition plan to go with it.

So how can we gain LEAN body mass?

To gain lean body mass, you need a calorie surplus. The biggest dietary reason most people fail to gain lean muscle is that they’re simply not eating enough. Many times when they come off a fat loss program, they are completely paranoid about “losing their abs.”

Of course, that’s a legitimate concern because it’s VERY easy to lose your abs if you get lazy with your diet or you think that a muscle gaining diet means eating everything in site. To gain muscle and stay lean it takes continued discipline and dietary restraint, but the fact is, you just can’t gain any muscle if you’re afraid to eat more.

The trick in gaining lean muscle without fat gain is to select a small calorie surplus. Overeating, even on clean, bodybuilding foods is going to make you gain fat along with the muscle.
Gaining fat and muscle weight at the same time is commonly known as “bulking up” and that’s the old school approach to building muscle and not all of us want to do that. The whole idea is to Feed The Muscle and build Lean body mass only.

MORE CALORIES
A typical male maintains on about 2700 calories per day and a typical female at about 2100 calories, but it’s good to plug your stats into the formulas to individualize, and you need to recalibrate calories anyways after you come off a long fat loss phase.
What I would recommend for lean gains is to add a 10-15% calorie surplus on top of your maintenance level as your starting point. You will probably need a second increase in calories after a few months or after you’ve begun to add some lean mass in order to keep the lean gains coming.

PROTEIN
The other main thing I would recommend is protein!
If you are trying to pack on some serious size, while staying lean, you should be eating 1.5-2 grams a protein per pound of body weight if you are a "hard-gainer" (ME!) Even if you are not a "hard-gainer" protein is very important.

HOW MUCH CARDIO
Weight gain programs require more carbs in the macronutrient mix and less cardio. Endomorph types (the natural big and sometimes softer) may need to keep 3 days of cardio in the mix to avoid losing their abs. In some cases for ectomorph “hard-gainer” body types, they should cut the cardio completely during the muscle gain phase.

For the endomorph body type who tends to gain fat easily, I recommend continuing to use a carb or calorie cycling method even for the muscle gaining phase. The difference is in the number of calories.
For fat loss, I typically recommend a carb cycle with a 20-30% caloric deficit for 3 days, followed by one full day at maintenance or even maintenance + 5-10%, with ALL the caloric increase coming from carbs.
For lean muscle gain with out fat gain, I’d recommend a cycle with 3 days at a 15% surplus, followed by 3 days at maintenance or a small caloric deficit of 5-10% below maintenance.
These are just guidelines. They are not written in stone. I have seen all types of calorie cycling variations work for different people. Any non-linear calorie approach is superior, in my opinion, for keeping the gains lean.

It’s not that hard (it is true, believe me) to put on the first 10-12 pounds of lean muscle. After that, gains tend to slow down a bit.
These types of gains can be achieved completely natural - and in fact, natural is the only way I’d ever recommend you do muscle gaining programs.

Hope this helps a little. We will continue to discuss this in more detail as we post more articles.
Feel free to leave comments and ask us any questions you would like.

The Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Topher) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:27:00 +0000

Working out is like all other routines and habits; the hardest part is getting started.
So how can you get over that initial hump?
Well that is what we at muscle nutz are going to try and help you with, as well as, continue to educate you on proper routines, fitness, and nutrition.

So getting started

1) Write down your goals
A goal is just a dream with out a plan.
Include size, weight, date to accomplish.
Set both short and long term goals
Be realistic, nothing is more discouraging than unrealistic expectations not being met.

2) Write a schedule
(we will give you ideas as to sample beginning routines in a future post)

3) Along with #1 weigh yourself and get a body fat % test.
The scale may not change much, but, that does not mean you are not experiencing huge gains!
Document all findings, both with written measurements and with some photos.
(not fun, but will really enjoy the difference in 4 weeks, 8 weeks and so on)

4) Set a nutrition plan ( I hate the term diet, eating right is different, to me, than a diet)

5) Get to the Gym!

Enjoy and stay tuned for more tips, routines, and recipes!