It’s also high protein, low carb, and relatively low in healthy fats as well.

It’s one of my regulars, usually cooked in a pan (although I often use skewers on the grill in the summer too) and on my favorites list! My 93 year old father loves it too (and yes, he lifts).

Ingredients:

• One pound shrimp– deveined with shells off. I like extra large shrimp but any size works well. I buy them frozen at the market and they are already deveined. The shells are easy to take off when they thaw and I sometimes leave the very bottom of the shell on the tail to serve as a “handle.”
• Lemon wedges

Marinade:

• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano or 1/2 tablespoon dried. I prefer fresh but both work very well!
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (extra virgin, the good stuff, preferred)
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest. Lemon zest is the outside of the lemon peel. You can use a zester which is fast or a normal grater which is a little slower. Even if you skip the lemon zest this recipe rocks.
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic – either fresh chopped or in the chopped jar you can buy at the market. This is not a garlic heavy recipe.
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or any other salt you may happen to have)

Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried. Yup, both the marinade and dressing have oregano.

Mix the marinade with the shrimp and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to 2 hours.

When done marinating, you can either skewer the shrimp and place them on the grill or cook them in a pan like in the picture. Cook on medium high heat for about 2 to 4 minutes, flipping them over and cooking for about another2 to 4 minutes (depending on the size of the shrimp and the heat). It is obvious when the shrimp are done because they will be pink and translucent.

Toss with the dressing, then either squirt them with lemon juice from the lemon wedges or serve them with lemon wedges as is.

Enjoy!

Nutritional info:

• Servings: 4 (4 ounces),
• Calories: 210
• Protein: 23 grams
• Carbs: 1 grams
• Fat: 10.5 grams

Note that the fat is all extremely healthy and good fat from the olive oil. You can reduce the fat by cutting down on the olive oil also, but I do not!

As an appetizer this is great, but as a main course I’ll usually have several servings, sometimes served on a salad.

Of course beside good nutrition, you need to workout smart, and get adequate rest to build a great body!

This one comes from my own Anabolic Cookbook, my personal list of recipes many of which I’m sharing here, and adding more over time.

This is equally good in a frying pan or on a grill. Although I like using skewers for the shrimp, you can do it without skewers, which is especially easy in a frying pan.

Ingredients:

• One pound shrimp – deveined with shells off. The ones commonly bought in the market are already deveined and the shell comes off easily. I often leave the shell on the very bottom at the tail which serves as a handle and make them easy to eat. I like extra large shrimp but you can use any size.
• Bamboo skewers – available in almost any market. Soak these in water for 20-30 minutes or longer if grilling so that they are less likely to burn.
• 1 tablespoon avocado oil – You can also use olive oil if you have some handy although I slightly prefer avocado oil (which like olive oil is very healthy) for this recipe.
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt – I prefer Kosher or sea salt
• ¾ tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon coriander
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 lime cut into wedges

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl except for the shrimp (and of course the skewers if using them!). When well mixed, add the shrimp and mix gently until the shrimp are all covered.

Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, and then skewer the shrimp (if using skewers).

Cooking is simple, whether on the grill or in a pan.

Cook over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes per side, until the shrimp are pink and translucent. Either squeeze lime on now or as eating. Enjoy!

This is great on a tapas tray, makes a great appetizer, as well as main course.

Nutrition:

Servings: 4 (4 ounces each),
Calories: 130 only!
Protein: 23 grams
Carbs: 2 grams
Fat: 5.5 grams

Obviously you would want several of these servings if it was the main course. I’ll often have an entire pound which is about 520 calories along with veggies.

Originally adapted from a recipe from Cooking Light.

These make great appetizers and well as a wonderful main course.

Besides the food ingredients, you’ll need bamboo skewers, which are available in most any supermarket.

And once again, great and healthy eating combined with a great workout plan makes a great body!

Start by submerging the skewers in water for at least 20 minutes so that they do not burn on the grill. I place them in shallow pan full of water and put a knife on them to keep them submerged.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless chicken breasts
• 1/3 cup of soy sauce (you can use low sodium if preferred)
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, preferably squeezed fresh right before using!
• ½ teaspoon of garlic powder
• Either 1 teaspoon of ground ginger or 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped ginger root.
• ¾ of a cup of canned unsweetened coconut milk (the cans I get have enough to make this recipe twice. Cover the can and store the remainder in the refrigerator)
• 1 tablespoon of creamy peanut butter (if all you have is chunky, use 1 ½ tablespoons)
• Optional: ¾ teaspoon red pepper flakes. I like these, but some people do not like spicy (it’s not very spicy though)

Cut the chicken into 3/8” thick slices.

Prepare the marinade by mixing the soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic powder, ginger, coconut milk, peanut butter, and (optional) red pepper flakes.

Save 3 tablespoons of the marinade.

Skewer the chicken breast pieces, and place them in a pan with the rest of the marinade, making sure there is marinade all over the chicken. Place in the refrigerator for the marinade flavors to soak in for at least 30 minutes. I usually give them between 2 to 3 hours.

Next we take the skewers out of the marinade and grill them over medium high heat until they are no longer pink inside (yes, you can make a small cut and peek). This normally takes 3-4 minutes per side, for a total of 6 to 8 minutes although grills do vary. The Muscle Chef’s original recipe says 30 minutes to 2 hours, but a little extra time doesn’t hurt at all

Take the marinade you saved (not the marinade the chicken was in) and brush over the cooked skewers. Enjoy!

This recipe makes 4 servings.

Nutritional Info per Serving:

Calories: 273
Protein: 37 grams
Carbs: 2 grams
Fat: 13 grams

This is as tasty and so much healthier than the Beef and Broccoli at most Chinese restaurants!

Note: I use a Wok but a big frying pan works fine as well!

Remember to build a great body you need consistent and great training (Kyle Leon’s plan rocks and there are plenty of other great training plans too) as well as great nutrition.

Veggies, Ready to go

Ingredients:

• Approximately 6 ounces of beef, preferably lean, trimmed of fat and cut against the grain into slices about 1/4-3/8 inch thick, or any size remotely close. Don’t stress over this. I usually use sirloin, round, or top round.
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 3 cups broccoli florets
• 2 thinly sliced carrots
• One onion cut into wedges or slices
• 3 tablespoons of beef broth (chicken or veggie is fine too if that’s what you have)
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of whole wheat flour or cornmeal or arrowroot – this is for thickening the sauce. I slightly prefer arrowroot but it really doesn’t matter what you use
• ½ teaspoon honey (Dave’s original recipe calls for ½ teaspoon of Splenda but I prefer honey)

First we parboil the broccoli and carrots – this makes the stir frying easier and quicker.

Cook in a Wok or Frying Pan

Put a large pot of water on the stove. Once boiling, gently add the broccoli florets and carrots for two minutes. After two minutes, remove the broccoli and carrots and put in a bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking any more.

Next mix the sauce. Combine the broth, soy sauce, thickening agent, and honey together and mix well.

Heat the olive oil in a pan of wok. Add the onions, and cook for about 2-3 minutes, stirring until the onions are slightly browned.

Add the parboiled broccoli and carrots and cook while stirring for 3-5 minutes or until they are crisp and hot.

Add the beef and stir while cooking until it is cooked to your liking. I like my beef on the rare side, and it will continue to cook for a little while longer also.

Add the sauce and stir until it thickens, usually only a minute or two.

You can enjoy as is or serve on rice or noodles. I usually skip the carbs and this is delicious as is!

Lots more recipes like this in Anabolic Cooking!

Nutritional Info:
Calories: 565
Protein: 58g
Carbohydrates: 41g
Fat: 19g

Served with Kale

Texas rubbed steak is a dry rubbed steak that can be cooked on the grill preferably but is also very good cooked in a pan

on the stove like in the picture. You can use any kind of steak you like, but I tend to use a lower fat and healthier cut like Sirloin which I show in the picture.

This is a nearly braindead recipe that anyone can make! Great for the non (or new) cook!

Check out Anabolic Cooking for many more recipes like this!

The ingredients are simple.

6 to 12 ounces of steak (again, I like sirloin for this)

Dry Rub:
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon raw sugar
1 teaspoon of kosher or sea salt (yes, you can use regular salt if that’s all you have)
1 tsp chili powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon garlic powder

I often don’t have raw sugar in my kitchen, so I grab a couple packs when I get coffee at my favorite coffee shop and save them for this recipe!

Mix the powdered ingredients together. Don’t stress if you are missing an ingredient or two – it’ll work out fine!

Next take the steak. Trim any fat off the edges.

If you are using a high fat cut like Rib Eye (super tasty, but not as healthy) you won’t be able to cut all the fat off as it has a lot of fat internally. Don’t worry about it.

Coat one side of the steak with the dry rub and let it sit for three plus minutes so it sticks well and doesn’t fall off too much when you gently flip the steak. Now flip the steak and coat the other side with the remaining rub.

It’s best to wait at least 20 minutes before cooking but not necessary if you are ravenous!

I usually wait for about an hour after applying the rub, while letting the steak warm to room temperature.

Yup, steaks cook better at room temperature.

Next, we cook. Either a grill or a frying pan work well.

How long you cook depends on the thickness of the steak and how well you like it done. I’m a rare to medium rare guy myself.

Ideally you’ll have a (cheap) instant read thermometer to check the internal temperature of the steak to see when it’s done. If not, for an average thickness steak, cook for about 4 minutes per side and feel free to cut the steak with a knife and see if it is done to your liking yet.

A simple temperature guide (in Fahrenheit) is:

Rare: 120 to 125 degrees
Medium Rare: 130 to 135 degrees
Medium: 140 to 145 degrees
Medium Well: 150 to 155 degrees
Well Done: More, but do you really want to cook the hell out of a good piece of meat?

Once cooked, let rest for 5-10 minutes. It will continue to cook slightly as it rests.

Sirloin is a tougher cut than some others yet delicious. Since it is tougher, right before serving, I often cut AGAINST the grain into slices about ½ inch thick before serving. Enjoy!

By the way, this goes great with the Grilled Brussels Sprouts! You can cook them together on the same grill like I did last night.

Remember, great workouts matter, but you can’t out train a bad diet!

Nutritional Info:

Calories: 470
Protein : 75 g
Carbs : 3 g
Fat : 16 g

Grilled Brussels Sprouts – I served them with a Buffalo Burger

Brussels Sprouts just may be the healthiest food around. There are numerous health benefits including related to cancer, DNA protection, and cholesterol. They are high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, low in calories, carbs, and zero fat (although we use some healthy olive oil in this recipe).

Because they are high in fiber, they are quite filling, and I think they are delicious. You will too!

If you never liked these as a kid, you may still love this easy recipe!

These have became part of my regular recipe rotation, which means I’ve been making them a lot!

Ingredients:

• Brussels Sprouts, 1 pound
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (I use extra virgin, the “good stuff”)
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (chop your own preferably, for example with a garlic press, or buy prechopped at the market)
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard power
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (regular salt works fine too)
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground ideally (I do not usually measure this, I just use “a bit”)
• Skewers – you can buy cheap disposable wooden skewers at the market or better metal ones. If using the wooden ones like I usually do, soak them in water for a couple hours if possible so they are less likely to burn on the grill.

Directions:

1. Start with one pound of Brussels Sprouts. Wash and then trim the base of each sprout slightly and remove any yellow leaves.
2. Boil the Brussels Sprouts for 3 minutes in water on the stove and then drain.
3. Mix the other ingredients together: garlic, dry mustard, paprika, salt, and pepper. I usually mix them in a large bowl, large enough to easy hold all the Brussels Sprouts.
4. Add the Brussels Sprouts and mix until coated. I use a large spoon and it takes maybe a minute or two.
5. 

   Ready for Grilling!

   Stick the Sprouts on the skewers. Last time I used 8 skewers for a pound of sprouts. Leave a little space between each skewered sprout so they cook evenly.

6. With the grill heated up to medium, cook the sprouts for 10 minutes, flipping over to the other side after 5 minutes.I often burn these a bit as you can see from the picture, sometimes because the grill is higher than medium, if for example I’m grilling something else too as I often do. Don’t worry. Mine look pretty burnt but still rocked. If objectionable, the burnt outer leaves come off easily.
7. Optional: take the Brussels Sprouts off the skewers and toss with any marinade left behind!

Remember that besides effective workouts, nutrition is critical. Too many of us think if we work out hard enough, it doesn’t matter much what we eat. Obviously that just isn’t true!

This recipe has fast become a summer time regular. Even my kids love these, and any leftover sprouts (which I rarely have) are even tasty cold. I’ve even chopped them and added them to my eggs the next morning. Many of the recipes here are from or based on recipes from Dave Ruel, but this one is based on a recipe originally from Alton Brown.

These make a great snack, accompaniment to a meal, or meal itself. This is really a way to “assemble” food, as there are an infinite numbers ways to make these.

These are part of my personal Anabolic Cookbook – quick healthy high protein recipes I often make, and ultra low carb as well.

These sometimes make a post workout snack for me.

(Very Flexible)Ingredients:

Sliced Meat: I usually use roast beef or turkey from the supermarket deli counter, but you really can use anything you like.

One friend prefers pastrami, another olive loaf, and so forth. Turkey and roast beef from my favorite deli are quite low fat and nearly zero carb, as well as tasty, so I usually use them.

Cheese (optional): I will sometimes add a slice or less of cheese. American, Cheddar, and Provolone are no brainers, but I’ve used all kinds of cheeses at times, anything I’ve had handy, including plenty of goat cheeses, bries, and even blue cheeses. Use whatever you like or have handy.

Vegetables: I add some veggies inside. In this example, I’ve chopped up a scallion (also known as a green onion), which works very well. I’ve also used regular onions, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, avocado, pickles, peppers, mushrooms, spinach, and much much more.

Condiments: I often add approximately one teaspoon (which means a little bit) or a condiment such as mayonnaise, mustard, relish, etc. In the pictures I’ve used regular mayonnaise (personally, I hate the low fat variety).

Directions:

• Lay cold cuts flat.
• Add any condiments and other ingredients.
• Roll up as shown in picture down below.
• Slice into small pieces, If you want them to look fancy, use toothpicks in each piece. I’ve actually done this and served them at parties before!
• Eat

Remember that proper nutrition is necessary for a body builder – workouts alone are not enough.

Variations:

Variations are endless. The cold cuts, vegetables, condiments, and cheeses (no cheese in the pictures) can and should all be varied. You can add bacon, baked beans, sour cream, hot sauce, really anything you’d like. Try smoked salmon instead of cold cuts sometime.

For a very low fat variety, try roast beef or turkey with either a dab of mustard and lettuce or scallion.

There are probably thousands of simple and practical variants.

And of course you can also use pita bread or tortillas etc. if you do not care about “low carb.”

A great addition to the body builder’s arsenal as these are so fast and easy to make!

Rolled up and ready to slice

This is from the Anabolic Cookbook, with a few tweaks by me.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of beef – You can use any type of beef for this you like, but you do need to remove any fat and gristle and slice it thin. I usually use sirloin or top round:

o   Tenderloin works well but is expensive and high in fat

o   Ribeye is delicious, but high in fat and requires a lot of trimming and cutting

o   Sirloin is tasty and relatively low in fat – a winner

o   Round (I prefer top round) is cheap and low in fat. It is tougher, but if you cut it thin and against the grain it works well

• 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce (low sodium if you prefer)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic, ideally minced fresh but pre-minced in jars from the market is OK too
• 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard, for example grey poupon
• 1 teaspoon fresh chopped ginger – you can substitute 1/2 teaspoon of powdered ginger instead, although it will taste different
• 

  Veggies, ready to go

  2 red peppers, sliced thinly

• 3 cups broccoli florets (that just means cut up broccoli, discarding the stems. You can buy it already cut up if you’d like)
• 4 scallions, chopped into short pieces maybe 1/8 to ¼ inch long. Length is not critical at all
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped coarsely
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (any kind) or cooking spray

Simple Cooking Steps

1. First cut the beef into thin slices if not already done. You want to cut against the grain so that it is tender.
2. Mix the soy sauce, water, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and mustard in a large container, and then add the sliced beef and mix until it’s all coated. You can do this ahead of time if you’d like, even the night before.
3. Heat a large prying pan or wok on the stove on high, with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (or a cooking spray like Pam).
4. When hot, add the thin sliced red pepper and broccoli florets and cook, stirring regularly, until they are slightly tender yet still crisp. Remember they will be cooked more in the next step. This will take about 5-10 minutes depending on how small they are cut and how crisp you like them. Don’t sweat the time – they’ll taste great!
5. Add the thinly sliced beef and cook while mixing for another 5-10 minutes, depending on how you like the beef done. I definitely like it on the rare side!
6. Mix in the scallion and parsley and stir until mixed. This will take maybe a minute or less.

It’s done! Thanks to The Muscle Cook for this recipe!

I serve it as is, but you can also serve it on your favorite rice (my kids like it on white rice, I eat it without).

Nutrition:

If you divide this into 3 servings and use a low fat beef like top round or sirloin, each serving will have approximately 310 calories, 50 grams of protein, 10 grams of carbs, and 10 grams of fat.

Remember that regardless of how great your workout program may be, proper nutrition is absolutely critical!

Ingredients are simple. Mix the following in a bowl:

• 1 pound ground buffalo (widely available in many US markets, even in the near sticks where I live)
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch or arrowroot – a thickening agent. Cornstarch is easy to find in any supermarket.
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce. Use low salt soy sauce if you prefer.
• 2 Tablespoons chili sauce, whatever kind you like. I buy mine from the Chinese grocery, but any kind is fine. Hot bean paste in another option here.
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic – you can buy it yourself, or buy it prechopped in jars at the market. It’s better chopped fresh but the prechopped is good too.
• ½ teaspoon salt (optional).

Hint: I usually find it easiest to mix by hand, Wash your hands and roll up your sleeves!

You can adjust the amount of chili sauce based on your tastes, but do know that buffalo meat absorbs chili sauce well, making it less hot than you might expect.

Other ingredients are:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil – any kind is fine, and I usually use soybean.
• 4 cups broccoli florets – you can either buy whole heads of broccoli and cut them up (cheaper) or buy precut florets (the flower part of the broccoli as opposed to the stalk).
• 6 tablespoons, plus or minus, of scallions chopped into short lengths. Scallions are also known as green onions.

First we want to wash and then boil the broccoli. Boil for only one minute, then remove from heat and let stay in the hot water for 2 minutes before pouring the hot water out. A strainer if you have one works well.

Stirring It All Together

Next, in a wok or large pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil and once hot, add the buffalo meat mixture. Stir as it cooks for about 4-5 minutes until pretty much cooked. You can tell as its consistency changes and an extra minute+ either way is absolutely fine here.

Add the broccoli, and mix while cooking until all mixed together.

Take off of the heat and add scallions. Stir and serve immediately!

This goes very well with rice (unless you are restricting carbohydrates of course).

Of course you can also use other types of meats for this recipe. I’ve used ground turkey, beef, and others. Ground lamb was tasty, but lamb ha a bit too much fat and made this dish fairly fatty.

Ground buffalo, turkey, or beef are your best bets but feel free to experiment.

This is tough to eat entirely with chopsticks without rice, as the bottom will have a slightly watery consistence.

Although spices are great for bodybuilders and others as they add flavor with essentially zero calories, this recipe uses fewer ingredients.

Tilapia is a sustainably farmed fish that is high in protein, low in carbs and fat, and widely available. It is a mild flavored fish so it is great for flavored recipes like this Baked Citrus Tilapia, based on a recipe in Dave Ruel’s Anabolic Cooking.

It’s simple, fast, and easy, using fewer ingredients than Jerk Tilapia.

First the ingredients (I often double the recipe):

• 1 pound Tilapia fillets
• ¼ cup lime or lemon juice
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (I like seasalt)
• A few shakes of black pepper
• 2-3 teaspoons of lemon or lime zest (see below)

• Optional: hot sauce of your choice or a hot chili or jalapeno, seeds removed and sliced into thin pieces.

Tilapia, Ready to Cook, looking very red due to blood red orange juice (it’s what I had handy!)

First make the marinade. It’s pretty simple.

Combine the lemon or lime juice, orange juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and the lemon or lime zest.

Zest is simply the grated outside of a citrus fruit: lemon or lime in this case. About one lemon or lime worth is perfect – use a grater and just grate off the very exterior  (a microplane grater, if you have one, makes this super fast but any grater will work).

If this is too complicated (or you do not have a lemon or lime), it’ll taste a little different but fine without zest.

Freshly squeezed juices are best, but bottled are absolutely fine. I use whatever I have on hand. In the pictures, I actually used a blood red orange because I happened to have one.

Optionally, if you want it hot, add hot sauce or hot peppers as described above in the ingredients.

Add the tilapia to the marinade and make sure it gets all over the fillets. Put the tilapia and the marinade in a baking pan. If you want to cut down on things to wash, you can even mix the marinade in the baking pan.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Once it is preheated, place the tilapia inside.

It’ll take about 12 minutes to cook. It is obvious when it is done as the fish will flake easily with a fork and be opaque.

Nutritionally, an entire pound of tilapia cooked this way has only 800 calories, 130 grams of protein, 4 grams of carbs, and 28 grams of fat. That is for an entire pound!

I’ve slightly modified the recipe, but thanks to Dave for the inspiration!

He never (as far as I can tell) ever eats anything green like lettuce or asparagus or red like radishes or peppers (or rare beef) of yellow or – you get the idea. He also is pretty unhealthy, including horribly overweight, despite once having been quite athletic.

As silly as it may sound, eating a healthy diet that consists of multiple colored foods gives you a wide range of nutrients and vitamins, and generally plenty of fiber as well. Of course to include lots of colors, you will typically have lots of vegetables and perhaps fruits as well.

As Dr Michelle Hauser at Harvard Medical School says, “Eat all the colors of the rainbow. These colors signal the presence of diverse phytochemicals and phytonutrients,” beneficial substances in plants. They also contain lots of nutrients and vitamins.

It’s easy to have many colors in your diet. For example, Dave Ruel‘s cookbook contains foods with lots of color variation.Let’s see, today, just in the vegetable area, I had the following today (listing the main vitamins and minerals):

• Green – spinach (antioxidants and vitamin K)
• Orange – carrots (vitamin A and beta carotene)
• Red – red peppers (lots of vitamin C and fiber), tomatoes (antioxidant lycopene)
• Yellow – yellow peppers (vitamin C and A and carotenoids)

Just a few more green options include lettuce, broccoli, avocados, cabbage, cucumbers, Brussel sprouts, green onions, green peppers, peas, asparagus, and artichokes.

For orange, of course we have oranges and tangerines and their cousins, peaches, apricots, papayas, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, pumpkin, and many more.

For red, cherries, beets, red grapes, red onions, radishes, rhubarb, cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, kidney beans, red potatoes, watermelon, and more.

Yellow includes pineapples, summer squash, bananas, corn, lemons, yellow variants of many foods like yellow tomatoes, yellow watermelon, yellow beets.

Black Purple/Black include blueberries, eggplant, plums, blackberries, raisins, purple grapes, purple potatoes and purple carrots, kale, and turnips. I’ve been eating lots of purple carrots that have suddenly become popular lately.

White  is often associated with processed foods like white rice, rise bread, and more but there are plenty of “natural” and garlic, onions, parsnips, leeks, napa cabbage, cauliflower, white eggplants,

Although it is silly to say that eating colorful foods alone is a healthy and balanced diet, it helps a lot to add vitamins, minerals, fiber, and many other beneficial substances to your diet, especially when your diet (just like everyone else’s) is less than perfect!

Muscle mass often decreases with age, and although some of this may be unavoidable, certainly a lot of it isn’t. For example, I carry more muscle mass at 50 than I did at 20, but my father (who does work out with weights) carries far less at 90 years of age then he did previously. I doubt I will carry the same muscle mass if I am blessed to live to 90, and I probably will not be deadlifting over 300 pounds either at that age.

Readers of this site are no doubt aware of all of the positive effects, both physical and mental, of building and maintaining muscle, and as one ages, muscles take on a new and critical role.

• Maintaining (or building) muscle mass makes independence more likely. No one likes the idea of moving into assisted living, of needing help with daily tasks, of not being able to take care of themselves. Loss muscle mass makes independence less likely.
• Increased likelihood and severity of falls is also associated with aging and loss of muscle mass. A broken hip at 70 years of age or younger merely sucks for the relatively healthy. At 80 and beyond full recovery often does not occur, and there is often “increased mortality.”

Medical researchers have found what bodybuilders have always known about building muscle, basically that resistance exercises like lifting weights and consuming adequate protein helps build and maintain muscle. They have also found that aerobic activity helps maintain muscle mass during aging. These results were found by the Tufts Nutrition Human Nutrition Center and recently published in the British Journal of Nutrition. The study analyzed 2425 participants over the age of 50 for a 4 year period.

Of course no one should start (or restart) an exercise program without consulting a doctor, although people do every day. Certainly consulting a doctor (which I DO recommend) is increasingly important as one ages. And of course one starts with mild exercise and works up to more vigorous exercise as at any age.

My father began lifting in his 80s and has gotten significant and concrete medical benefits. You absolutely can start or restart later in life (with your doctor’s permission).

The Tufts study stressed the importance of high quality protein intake, and singled out meat, poultry, fish, and soy as complete sources of protein, and suggested low fat cuts of meat. No surprises here.

What is surprising is that vigorous aerobic activities, those that lasted 10 minutes of longer and caused heavy breathing, increased heart rate, and/or heavy sweating, are associated with a higher muscle mass. The health benefits of aerobic exercise are no surprise, but to many of us including myself, but the effect on muscle mass is surprising.

“Muscle strengthening, aerobic activities, and good dietary protein may help slow age-related declines in muscle mass and strength.”  –Duke Medicine Health News

Although certainly not conclusive, it is interesting that those combining vigorous aerobic activities with high intakes of beef or pork achieved the most muscle mass!

Great with a side of greens like Broccoli or Spinach

Jerk is a method of seasoning popular in Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. It imparts a spicy-sweet flavor that’s fantastic. Jerk Chicken and Jerk Pork are probably the most popular.

This recipe from Dave Ruel uses tilapia, a very lean and high protein fish that is sustainably farmed. There is plenty of wild tilapia around too in the tropics, and tilapia is widely available in markets.

High protein, low fat, low carb, and easy to cook – what’s not to like?

This recipe is simple and almost foolproof. It does require a good number of spices, but spices are a great investment as they add flavor with essentially zero calories! If you are missing a spice, don’t worry. Just skip it and the tilapia will still taste fine! Originally this recipe comes from the great Anabolic Cooking.

Ingredients: 4 Tilapia Filets (about 1 pound to 1 ¼ pounds usually), 2 Garlic Cloves, 1 Jalapeno Pepper, 1 Tbsp Lime Juice, 2 Tbsp Olive Oil, salt and pepper to taste

Spices: 1 teaspoon Thyme,  1 teaspoon Chili Powder, 1 teaspoon powdered Ginger,  1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Jerk Spices with Garlic and Jalapeno

Mix the thyme, chili powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a little salt and pepper in a bowl. Chop the garlic or use a garlic press and add to the bowl (if using prechopped garlic from the store, 1 teaspoon is about right but you can add more if you love garlic with no problem).

Also slice the jalapeno into thin slices, and add it to the bowl of spices, mixing as best you can. You can deseed it as well if you want as the seeds hold much of the heat. Many people suggest wearing gloves when you slice hot peppers like jalapenos to avoid getting the heat on your fingers (which you might accidentally transfer to your eyes or balls later by rubbing or scratching!). I don’t worry about it, but just minimally touch the jalapenos when slicing. Great video on slicing peppers here.

I sometimes now transfer the spice mix to a flat dish to make coating the tilapia fillets easy.

In another flat dish, combine a tablespoon of fresh lime juice with two tablespoons of olive oil. Hey, yes, you can use lemon juice instead, and any type of oil will work if you don’t have olive oil. Don’t sweat the small stuff man!

Just starting to cook the tilapia

Take each tilapia fillet, cover both sides in the lime juice/olive oil, and then pat both sides in the spice mixture to cover. Don’t worry about covering them perfectly evenly.

Cook at medium to medium high heat (I put my burner at “7” on its 1 to 10 scale) for 2 ½ to 3 minutes a side in a  frying pan, until the fish is opaque and starts to flake. You can add a little non stick spray or oil to the pan, but I’ve found my fish has enough from the previous steps.

Let cool a few minutes and enjoy!

An entire pound has only about 700 calories, 110 grams of protein, 3 grams of fat (from the olive oil) and close to zero grams of carbs!

Chicken breasts are low fat, high protein, and are mainstays of many bodybuilders and other healthy eaters diets. However chicken breasts can be boring if they are bland, dry if overcooked, and it is pretty easy to get tired of them.

Humans have been eating chicken (the most common form of poultry, which basically means bird), and getting bored with it forever: chicken was one of the earliest domesticated animals for food.

but they can be boring . . .

Here is a very simple recipe for spiced chicken breasts roasted in the oven. Not bland, not dry, and you can vary the spices as well as eat the chicken as is or use the chicken in different kinds of dishes like Mexican and Italian.

Try it out, and it just may make it to your list of favorite recipes.

This simple recipe rocks!

We bake at 400 degrees, which helps the chicken cook quickly and not dry out.

Also, to keep the chicken from being boring, we spice it. In the pictures, I’m simply using Montreal Chicken Seasoning, available in most any supermarket in the spices isle, or you can even make your own.

There are plenty of other spice choices you can use, and I vary my spices depending on what I’m doing with the chicken breasts. If I’m eating them as is, I usually use the Montreal Chicken Seasoning or perhaps just salt and pepper instead.

If I’m using the chicken in a Mexican dish, maybe nachos or tacos, I may use fresh cilantro and cumin. If it’s for an Italian dish, maybe sometime as simple as accompanying spaghetti, basil and garlic is great. Feel free to experiment, and I most commonly use Montreal Chicken Seasoning or salt and pepper.

Ingredients:  

• one pound boneless chicken breasts
• olive oil (any other oil you may have handy also works fine, but I prefer olive oil personally)
• Montreal Chicken Seasoning (or whatever spices/herbs you prefer).

Turn the oven on to ”Bake” at 400 degrees.

While it is heating, trim the breasts of any visible fat (I usually use scissors),  place into a baking dish, coat both sides of the chicken with one tablespoon of oil, and coast both sides liberally with the chicken seasoning.

Once the oven is preheated to 400 degrees, place the chicken in the oven.

Bake it for 25 to 35 minutes.

At 25 minutes, check to see if it is done. Cut a chicken breast at the thickest part to make sure it is not pink (meaning not fully cooked). If so give it another 5 minutes in the oven and check again. If still not done, another 5 minutes (for 35 minutes total) will finish the job.

Don’t forget to turn off the stove (it’s easy to forget).

Let the chicken cool for 10 minutes if you can, and you are done! Eat as is, or use in a recipe like The Muscle Cook’s Almond Chicken Salad.

You can keep the chicken in the refrigerator for a couple days easily (tightly wrapped so it doesn’t dry out) or you can freeze it for longer storage. And of course you can cook more than 1 pound of chicken at a time also.

For some simple ideas yet imaginative ideas showing how flexible chicken breasts are, check out 20 quick fixes for boneless chicken breasts. Great pictures too.

Beans can be a mainstay of the slow carb diet

Tim claims he lost 25 pounds of fat in six weeks on this diet!

The basics are simple. Eat almost anything you want, with the restriction of high glycemic carbs.

That means no bread, grains, milk (a very little milk or cream in coffee in OK), cheese, fruit except for avocados and tomatoes, refined soy, grains, and starches. Many of the recipes in The Anabolic Cookbook are fantastic for this diet.

One day a week you can eat anything you want to help prevent the body from going into starvation mode. Go wild and have fun, eat till you are sick if you want, then back to the basics the next day.

So what can you eat?

Meat (emphasis on grass feed organic), eggs, fish, seafood, veggies, beans (be careful with densely caloric beans like chickpeas and hummus), oils and more. Salad dressings that are not cream based and do not have sugars added are fine, as is a glass of red wine a night.

We can describe the basics of the diet extremely well in 5 simple rules!

1)      Avoid White Carbs – with the exception of cauliflower, avoid all white carbs: breads, potatoes, rice (even brown rice), pasta, cereal, crackers, etc. They are almost universally high glycemic, and the chemicals used to bleach them are often nasty! Many diets recommend this.

2)      Eat the same few meals over and over – most people do this naturally and do not eat the variety they think they do, so this should be hard. Choose proteins (allowed include: eggs, egg whites, chicken, beef (grass fed is best), pork, and fish), legumes (basically beans and lentils), and vegetables.

Most restaurants will let you replace junk like French Fries or rice with a salad, and if they charge extra, just consider it a slight fee for keeping you fit!

3)      Don’t Drink Calories – admittedly a tough one for me. Avoid soft drinks and juices for example. When it comes to diet soft drinks, they have nasty stuff in them, so try to limit to no more than 16 oz a day. I’ll admit to having the occasional energy drink. One or even two glasses of red wine a night is OK. If you drink coffee, no more than 2 table spoons of cream!).

4)      No Fruit! – fruit is full of sugar! The two exceptions are tomatoes and avocados (eat sparin

gly as they are high calorie).

5)      Take One Day Off Per Week – and go wild! This is important.

Of course exercise is also recommended, including 2-3 workouts in the gym. The workouts in the Muscle Maximizer can be used.

No calorie counting, just as in most low carb and low fat diets. If you think calorie counting is all that matters, well, maybe you still think the world is flat. The human body simply isn’t that simple!

This morning, as an example, I had an egg/eggwhite omelet with mushrooms and hummus (humm

us is awesome in omelets), and coffee with just a little cream. For lunch, I’m having simple roasted garlic and grass fed steak tips. For dinner, I’m thinking of making an Indian flavored bean dish that will last me a few days.

The slow carb diet, also called the 4-Hour Body Diet, is pretty simple to follow and works well for most if you stick to it. Remember, one day a week you can go wild!

Healthy Vegetables – required on most any diet!

Low carb versus low fat? I hear both my buddies in the gym and chubby women on the bus arguing.

Now diet is not a dirty word, but merely means what we consume. That said, many people try specific diets for weight loss or more specifically fat loss.

Whether you are an average couch potato who wants to lose a few pounds of spare tire or a bodybuilder knowledgeable about nutrition, there are certain trends in diets and types of diets that mirror them.

But despite seemingly endless dieting, the world keeps getting fatter; there is an obesity epidemic that affects couch potatoes and serious bodybuilders and other athletes as well. This article is based in part on research by Christopher Gardiner, director of nutritional studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.

Gardiner pooled data across a number of different studies on different diet types across the years. He also is running his own studies including one where he assigned 311 obese  women to one of four diets ranging from very low carb (Atkins), middle of the road diets (Zone and LEARN diets), and very low fat (Ornish).

Read on for his results. Basically, any diet can work but most dieting attempts fail.

A “balanced diet” used to be touted, and balanced is good, but people kept getting fatter,

Then for decades, low fat diets were the rage. A prime although extreme example is the Dean Ornish Diet. Other than banned foods such as fats and oils, nuts and seeds, avocados, refined carbs like sugars and white rice/white flour, you can eat all you want. This pretty much means fruits, veggies, and grains. Fats are about 10-20% of your caloric intake.

I followed the Ornish diet and stayed relatively trim and muscular (lots of beans for protein etc.) for years. But the diet is not especially easy to stick to especially when traveling, entertaining, during the holidays, or if you simply like food!

After the low fat diet rage we had still, as a group, gotten fatter. Clearly simply low fat is not the answer.

The “low carb” diets came next with the Atkins Diet being an extreme example. It allows eating plenty of meats and veggies (no restrictions on many foods). Bacon, eggs, steak, salads (no croutons!), broccoli, etc.

Low carb is popular and like low fat it can work. For years I followed a very low carb diet and could even have several glasses of wine most nights with no problem and keep my bodyfat low. It still works for me although as I’ve aged I need to be more restrictive of alcohol in order for it to work well.

Still, although it can absolutely work, in general the population got fatter during the low carb dieting craze.

So what did Gardner discover about low carb versus low fat?

After one year, in Gardner’s study, weight loss ranged from a lot (30-40 pounds) to even gaining a few pounds. The average participant lost very little weight! Average weight loss ranged from 10 pounds for Atkins to 3 ½ pounds for the Zone Diet. LEARN was 6 pounds average, and Ornish was 5 pounds.

Now all diets used high quality foods: organic vegetables, pastured grown chicken and eggs, grass feed beef, etc. and plenty of fiber.

None of these results were impressive! Obviously it is not diet alone that matters.

There is some evidence that if you are insulin resistant (and there is no easy test) that low carb is better for weight loss for you.

Gardiner’s studies are ongoing, and his advice for losing weight today is very simple: focus on quality food, eliminate processed sugars as much as possible, less packaged and processed foods, and “go to the farmers market and buy what’s fresh.”

And I’ll add, together with healthy foods (whether low carb, low fat, balanced, whatever), you need to exercise, ideally resistance exercises as well as aerobic exercise like walking, running, or biking.

So fat loss? It’s not just diet. But you knew that right? So get off your butt and do some exercise!

The problem with broccoli is that it can be pretty boring by itself, and so many people do not know how to cook it at all, never mind in a interesting fashion. Some recipes, like this one, and Dave Ruel’s Beef and Broccoli stir fry, will make you wonder why you never loved broccoli before!

This is amazingly easy to cook

This simple roast broccoli recipe with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper is not only delicious, but it is amazingly simply to cook. My uncle who has hated broccoli his entire 80+ years actually loves it.

It is great as a side dish, as a snack, and also as a light meal. It’s not only good when fresh and warm, but is also pretty nice to snack on cold or room temperature – I often do.

A pound of this roast broccoli, even with the olive oil, is a very filling 400 calories or so! For a pound of filling food that is nothing! Especially nutritious food!

Ingredients:

Not Many Ingredients Needed!

One pound broccoli – I often buy mine precut into florets at the supermarket or in 2 lb bags from Sam’s Club. It’s not hard to cut yourself either.

• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil – Extra Virgin Olive Oil is best
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic – You can buy it chopped and in a jar from markets, or chop it yourself (a garlic press makes it pretty easy). Feel free to add more or less as you prefer.
• ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt – Kosher salt is simple a pure salt with large crystals. You can use regular salt if that is all you have and it works just fine.
• ¼ teaspoon pepper – Fresh ground preferable, but any pepper works well

Turn the oven onto 420 degrees so it can preheat.

Rinse the broccoli florets and set them aside to dry.

Meanwhile, mix the other ingredients into the olive oil a small bowl. You’ll want to coat the broccoli with this olive oil mixture.

Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Garlic

You can toss them together in a bowl, but the easiest way to do this I’ve found is to put them in a large ziplock bag and shake them back and forth for a few minutes. They’ll never be 100% perfectly coated evenly and it doesn’t matter so don’t stress.

Now you want to put them in a baking pan. You can cover the baking pan in aluminum foil to make cleanup easier if you’d like. The type of baking pan doesn’t matter; use what you have. A cake pan, cookie sheet, sheet pan or anything similar works equally well. I even

used a muffin tin once when I had nothing else to use!

Once the oven is heated to temperature (they usually beep, and the “preheating” indicator or light will go off), put the pan in the oven.

You want to cook it for about 20 minutes, until the broccoli just starts to brown around the edges. I usually check it at 15 minutes as ovens can vary. If you want, just pull it out after 20 minutes and it’ll be great.

Enjoy!

Broccoli is a very nutritious food, which is who so many meal plans include it. Cooking it so it isn’t boring very easy with this recipe!

For variety, you can also some some hot pepper flakes to the olive oil mixture, or sprinkling and tossing with Parmesan cheese or breadcrumbs when it’s done.

It is more of a way of making eggs than a precise recipe, because I tend to throw in whatever I have handy. We’ll see how I normally make these, and discuss substitutions as well.

First, assemble the ingredients. You’ll need:

• 1-4 Eggs: If the eggs are organic, I’ll usually use more, if regular, I use 1-2 eggs.
• Egg whites (optional): If only using 1-2 eggs, I’ll add some egg whites. I buy these from the supermarket ready to go and in cartons. Sometimes I’ll also have egg whites left over from recipes that only call for egg yolks.
• Butter: One small pat of butter so that the eggs do not stick to the pan.
• Veggies: I add whatever veggies I have conveniently around. Commonly I use mushrooms, and either green onions or red peppers or both. I’m using mushrooms and green onions in this example.
• Humus: Man I love humus: high protein, low glycemic index, and delicious. I bet you didn’t know it rocked in eggs? If I don’t have humus sometimes I’ll substitute guacamole, pesto, or avocado. Of course you can also add meats like bacon, sausage, or even turkey!

Notice the emphasis on healthy ingredients. I do sometimes go wild and add less healthy ingredients (like bacon!). Moderation over the long term is the key.

Step one: Precook veggies if you like.

Now vegetables are great raw, and you can add any kind of vegetables you’d like. Some vegetables I like to precook a little bit in the pan. For example, I love mushrooms and usually add them to my Ugly Anabolic Eggs, but I prefer them cooked. I also like my broccoli cooked so if using that, I precook it a little bit.

I like to sauté the veggies in a little water. You can use butter or some kind of oil, but I use water to keep the fat content lower.

Add the washed and sliced vegetables to a pan with a couple of tablespoons of water and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes or until done to your liking. Stir them occasionally so they cook evenly, and add a little more water if all the water evaporates.

When done, pour out any remaining water, and push the veggies over to one side.

Step two: Add butter and eggs

Add a pat of butter, about ½ a tablespoon. Melt it and cover the bottom of the pan.

Now add the eggs (and optional egg whites). I crack them and add them straight into the pan. Don’t worry about not breaking the yolks or making a mess.

Stir the eggs, veggies, and anything else you’ve added so they cook. The eggs will mix somewhat and the yolks will break.

You could have previously scrambled the eggs in a bowl, but that is more work and more cleanup, and easy is important!

Note: Dave Ruel the Muscle Cook also has some killer egg recipes including his awesome Mexican breakfast scramble, low carb spinach scramble, and turkey spinach omelet.

Step three: Add humus when almost done  

When the eggs are close to all cooked, about 2-3 minutes, add a couple of heaping tablespoons of humus. Remember you can substitute. For example last week I used pesto one day and guacamole another day as I was out of humus. Of course you can add multiple things at this stage if you’d like too!

Stir for another minute.

Step four: Add raw veggies and put in a dish

Now add any raw vegetables you may like (washed and sliced). In the picture I’ve added green onions. Stir until fully mixed and transfer to a dish.

If you’d like, add salt, pepper, hotsauce, salsa, etc. Enjoy!

My most common Ugly Anabolic Eggs are with mushrooms, humus, and green onions. I do however use whatever I have handy.

Feel free to experiment and add whatever you’d like.

It’s more a quick and easy style of egg than an absolute recipe!

Bodybuilders CAN run

First let’s dispel the silly notion that bodybuilders cannot run. Of course they can. At well over 200 lbs of (semi-ripped at the time) body weight I ran my last half marathon. I’m not fast, but I wasn’t fast before I started bodybuilding either!

Although regular long distance running is not recommended for bodybuilders, such as multiple ½ marathons a year, marathons, and ultra marathons, running short to moderate distances a few times a week can be great.

Running helps control body fat

Cardio, also known as aerobics, is great for bodybuilders unless it is excessive. It is after all, catabolic. However it also helps control body fat.

You do NOT need to change your diet to run. Runners often go on and on about carbo loading and all kinds of nonsense. I ran my last half marathon while on a low carb diet, actually in ketosis! Yup, my body was burning fat for energy!

It does not matter, at least at our level. Perhaps if running in the Olympics it does . . .

Potential problems with running

• Running puts more wear and tear, and hence needed recovery time, to your body. It can push you over the hump to overtraining if you already are training very heavily. Running is high impact unlike many other forms of cardio like cycling and walking.
• Excessive running, and yes running can be very addictive, will definitely lead to muscle breakdown.

  Now if you get totally into running, that’s cool, but which type of freak looks better to you?: A massive ripped bodybuilder or an incredibly thin and unhealthy looking elite runner? I know my answer, and I also think somewhat muscular women are more attractive than gaunt women!

What are the advantages to running?

There are many, including:

• You can do it anywhere. Although people looked at this big muscular guy a little funny while I was recently running along The Loire River in France, but it helped combat all the wonderful wine and food I was splurging on!
• No special equipment required. For example I can run when travel which I often do, but I can’t ride my bike.
• It’s time efficient. I get as good of a workout from running 30 minutes then probably biking for 90 minutes.

Now how much you may run depends on your body type. If you are a typical hard gainer or ectomorph, you will want to serious limit running and most cardio in fact. If you do not, definitely up the calories!

If you are an endomorph like me, and you easily put on fat and muscle, running is fantastic for you. Go for it!

If you are a mesomorph, you can certainly run, just don’t overdo it. I describe a mesomorph elsewhere as “a natural athlete who gains or loses weight easily. They naturally have a hard and muscular appearance, and they build muscle easily.”

I suggest started with maybe a mile, yes only a mile, and perhaps running 2-3 times a week. You can increase your distances over time and right now I run 5k (that’s 3.1 miles) about 3-4 times a week, of course in addition to my weight lifting workouts.

Funny thing about running, even if you hate it, it grows on you over time. This is great as it simple works very well for keeping your body fat low!

People keep find those but we still keep getting fatter as humans.

This is about supplements that help you lose fat safely and effectively and that I personally am taking.

Remember, supplements are to “supplement” your diet. Although I will have an occasional protein shake or meal replacement shake, and they can be valuable, we are going to cover supplements here.

You need to be eating reasonably healthy first!

We really want to specifically lose fat, not “weight”

Although the article is named “Best Weight Loss Supplements” we really want to lose fat, not muscle or bone or hair or  . . .

In the 90s I used the ECA stack – ephedrine hydrochloride, caffeine, and aspirin. A lot of people did. It worked. It had side effects certainly. Although it only made me feel bad, Wikipedia’s listing of side effects is scary!

The PAGG Stack I personally take:

I am now taking a PAGG stack, which I learned about from the The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman. Side effects apparently are none (disclaimer: I have no medical training. Check with your doctor FIRST!).

We’ll discuss each of the compounds in the “stack” (or combination) and then how to take them for maximum effect.

Jump to the bottom if you want to skip the details

Policosanol: Policosanol is an extract from plants, specifically plant wax, and often comes from sugar cane. It is perhaps somewhat controversial and my favorite supplement superstore doesn’t even carry it. It may also lower bad cholesterol levels and raise good cholesterol levels.

ALA or Alpha-Lipoic Acid: ALA is a strong water and fat soluble antioxidant that occurs naturally in some foods but in small quantities. It supposedly works by mimicking insulin and increasing insulin sensitivity.

For our purposes, ALA kicks butt because it helps store carbs in muscle and in your liver instead of as fat.

Garlic Extract: Garlic and garlic extract are used for many purposes. Garlic extract that delivers high doses of “allicin” like the one recommended (or read the label, the suggested one delivers 3200mcg per 350mg or pill) are recommended.

Green Tea Favanols (Epigallocatechin or EGCG): EGCG is used for many things. It appears it also help steer carbs to muscle for storage instead of fat cells, much like ALA, and also may speed up the normal death of fat cells and help prevent rebound/yoyo diet syndrome.

Taking the PAGG stack is simple:

First the doses are:

Policosanol: 20-25mg per dose (I take 25)

ALA: 100-300mg per dose (I take 100)

Garlic Extract: 200-350mg (I take 350)

Green Tea Favanols: 325mg (I take 326.5mg, close enough, which comes in a 725mg decaffeinated green tea extract pill)

Just click on the links above to see the actual supplement products I take.

Follow the dosing schedule below best you can for 6 days a week, skipping one day a week, and taking one week off every two months.

Before breakfast, lunch, and dinner (3 times a day) take AGG.

Before bedtime, take PAGG.

If you miss a dose or happen to take it after or during a meal, don’t panic, you do not need to be perfect for it to have an effect. Of course it’s also not magic and if you are living on junk food, regular midnight pizzas, and only excercise when you get up to grab more beer do not expect ANY effects!

You need a reasonable diet to succeed (no, not “perfect” – you can have the odd midnight pizza!)

Of course consult your doctor first before starting.

I did, really, and he gave me the green light.

Back workouts for mass should be no surprise; they concentrate on large compound movements that work multiple muscles in the back (as well as many other muscle groups). You do not need a lot of sets for the back, and in fact many times I’ll only do 7 or 8 sets for my ba

Boxers do Pullups and Chin ups too!

ck!

That’s all it takes, but you need to go heavy and to failure, and of course proper nutrition matters.

My most common back workout follows:

• Pullups/chin ups: 4-5 sets
• Deadlifts: 3-4 sets

Pullups/chin ups:

I like to start with pull-ups or chin-ups

, and since I need a few minutes rest between sets in order to be able to crank out 5+ reps, I’ll sometimes superset them with bench presses so that I naturally have a longer break between sets.

Chin ups are done with a supinated or underhand grip. Your palms face you. Shoulder width or a slightly further grip is most common.

Pull ups are done with a pronated or overhand grip. Your palms point face away from you. Shoulder width or a slightly further grip is most common.

I often use a narrow neutral grip, where my palms face each other. The bars at most gyms allow you to do this.

Now chin up versus pullup versus neutral grip is something we could debate, but basically it doesn’t matter. Ideally you will vary as each hits the back a little differently, perhaps every few workouts, but what is far far more important is that you do them!

Now what if you can only do 2-3 reps instead of 5 plus? Well, you can superset them with lat pulldowns, which I do like doing occasionally anyways, or instead of a target number of sets you might have a target number of reps regardless of sets. You might start for example with 20 reps (which might take you 7-10 sets if you are doing 2-3 reps per set) and slowly increase over time to 30-40 reps.

Deadlifts:

Deadlifts work the entire body, especially the back, and they make me grow more than any other exercise! Yes, they work the back well, as long as much more of the body. They’ll leave you gasping for air. And sometimes starving for nutrition afterwards.

Deadlifts are the killer!

I do two warmup sets of deadlifts, one with just the bar and one with 135 pounds.

Good form is essential and a weight lifting belt is strongly suggested, mandatory if you are going heavy!

I like to work up to a weight that I can only do 5 reps with. Occasionally, I will go extra heavy “powerlifter style” and use a weight a can only do a three reps with (a “triple”) and a weight I can only do one rep with (a “single”). I sometimes need a nap afterwards; I’m serious!

I do not always do deadlifts every week as they can be brutal, and I can easily overtrain. Also, if I’m doing squats, that is a lot of work on the lower back.

When not doing deadlifts, I’ll sometime do cleans instead, or bent over rows. But deadlifts build the most mass!

The best back workouts for mass are simple; a few heavy compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups and leave you gasping for air. My preference? Pull downs/chin ups and deadlifts, together with eating muscle building foods!

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/build-muscle/exercise-face-off-pull-up-vs-chin-up

A “drop set” is when you perform an exercise to failure, then continue with a lighter weight to failure. You might drop the weight one or more times, continuing to failure each time. Sometimes they are also called descending sets. Triple-drops is a term sometimes used when three different weights are used.

Here are two examples from last week’s workouts:

Dumbell curls: For my last two sets of dumbbell curls, I used 35 pounds until I couldn’t continue with good form, quickly put down the 35 pound dumbbell and grabbed the 30 pounder and managed a few more reps, then switched to a 25 pound dumbbell and cranked out yet a few more reps. I did this separately for each arm, although I also could have alternated arms with two dumbbells. It was important that I had the dumbbells all lined up so that there was a mere second or two when switching dumbbells.

Lat Pulldowns: I use drop sets a lot with lat pulldowns. I had pre-exhausted with 3 sets of pull-ups (one of my favorite back exercises together with deadlifts), did a set with close to my body weight, immediately moved the pin in the weight stack to remove 20 pounds, cranked out another 3 reps, dropped another 20 pounds, managed 4 more reps, dropped 20 pounds again, did 2 more reps, and then gasped for air for a while.

After both workouts I had a post workout shake and then cooked a quick and easy anabolic meal!

It is harder to do drop sets with barbells, but I will occasionally do them on the benchpress when I have a spotter or two. It is pretty straightforward: one set to failure, then have the spotter(s) quickly remove one weight from each side and continue until failure. Of course you can drop several times as well.

I’m more likely to do negative reps to increase intensity with bench presses, where a spotter helps me raise the bar when I fail for the last (usually 2 or 3) reps, and then I slowly lower (hence “negative”) the barbell myself.

As a general rule, you need to use dropsets sparingly as they can easily lead to overtraining. I only occasionally use them and they’re not a weekly part of my training.

There are plenty of variations as well. For example, some people do not do them to failure. Also the amount of weight change can vary quite a bit. For example, with my dumbbell curls, instead of going from 35 to 30 to 25 pounds I could have done 40 to 30 to 20 pounds.

Workout hard, pay attention to nutrition  , and grow!

It is commonly accepted by bodybuilders to be the 45 minutes or perhaps slightly less after weight lifting.

This is one reason why you will often see people in the gym consuming various protein shakes immediately or shortly after their workouts.

Sometimes it is referred to as The Anabolic Window Theory and is controversial. Some claim there is no anabolic window, some claim there is and specific nutrients need to be ingested to maximize its effect, and some even claim there are multiple anabolic windows. Some people even believe the window “closes” within minutes of finishing your workout.

John Ivy and Robert Portman in their 2004 book “Nutrient Timing: The Future of Sports Nutrition” define it as “The Anabolic Phase in the forty-five minute window following a workout in which your muscle machinery, in the presence of the right combination of nutrients, initiates the repair of damaged muscle protein and replenishes muscle glycogen stores.”

Other researchers (Rasmussen, Tipton, et al, 2000) found no difference when a carb and protein (amino acid) shake was taken up to 3 hours after a workout. As they wrote, there are “similar anabolic responses” regardless of timing. This contradicts the anabolic window theory.

Another study, commonly referred to as Tipton (2001) although it was Tipton Rasmussen etc. as in the above study, found that ingesting nutrients before a workout was more effective, so maybe there is an anabolic window before your workout?

Wikipedia has a good summary.

One thing is certain. Shortly after a workout I and many others are famished and consuming a protein shake or other foods certainly feels good. Also, it is during rest and recovery, not during your workout, that your body grows. In other words, weight lifting workouts are catabolic but the rest and recovery they induce are anabolic. Proponents of the anabolic window theory often claim that consuming the right nutrients after your workout causes your body to shift from a catabolic state to an anabolic state more rapidly.

Despite the controversy and research conflicting this, most bodybuilders believe the anabolic window is 45 minutes or less after you finish your workout. This is what most professional body builders believe and work with and you can’t argue with success.

Here is what I do:

I don’t know if there is an anabolic window or not after a workout, but I am hungry, sometimes ravenous, and there is nothing to lose and maybe something to gain by consuming nutrients shortly after my workout. This might be a shake or a meal since I live close to my gym.

Before a workout, if hungry, I may also consume some easily digested nutrients before a workout. I limit this since as a mesomorph, controlling body fat is an issue.

Window or not, your bodybuilding diet and nutrition are important. Do not use your workouts as an excuse to eat junk food, although the occasional “cheat meal” or snack is fine.

Click Here to See Dave Ruel’s Anabolic Cooking

Dave’s book is great, and highly recommended, but I also suggest that everyone have their own favorite anabolic recipes, whether you physically have them all written down and in a folder or even bound or stored electrically, or maybe just in your head.

Mine contains a number of favorite recipes from Dave’s book, as well as some of my own.

One of the biggest failures with bodybuilding diets is boredom and failure due to lack of tasty variety.

You and your palate get bored. Having a list of easy foods that rock, anabolically speaking, helps avoid this. Hey, if your body demands nutrients and your mind agrees and all you have is potato chips and chocolate chip cookies it may get ugly. Now occasional cheating is fine, but not more than occasionally!

I always keep good ingredients on hand, as well as a few simple and quick recipes to help avoid the train wreck mentioned above . . .

My most commonly made recipe is one of my omelets, which is simple, fast, and only has rough directions. 3 eggs, some extra whites if I have them handy, and whatever veggies I have at hand. I break the eggs into a lightly buttered non-stick pan, add extra egg white, loosely scramble in the pan, and then add veggies. Depending on the veggies I might lightly cook them first, like the mushrooms and spinach I used today, or drop them right into the egg mixture like the onions and red peppers I often use.

I also have a great Chinese black bean scallop dish that is low in fat, high in protein, simple to cook, and always a hit.

Of course you can’t have fresh seafood just lying around like I do with many other ingredients, like eggs (I get mine from a neighbor, they taste better), veggies (usually fresh, I also have some canned or frozen just in case), beans, tuna fish, and a lot more.

Dave Ruel’s Anabolic Cooking has simple simple recipes anyone can cook easily, and I mean ANYONE, that promote muscle growth, discourage cheating, and taste great. Recipes range from 2 dozen great breakfasts to over a dozen anabolic desserts, and include the likes of: apple and cinnamon muffins, classic Denver omelets, Chicken Marsala, Tangy Thai Chicken, Chili, Jamaican Pork, New England Crabcakes, lots of salads, many types of inexpensive and easy to make protein bars, and much more.

Click Here to See Dave Ruel’s Anabolic Cooking

This is a great start, and all most people need, to an Anabolic Cookbook.

You can eat awesome tasting food, healthy muscle-building fat-melting food, that is easy to prepare, and inexpensive.

Or instead maybe you want to eat egg whites, tuna straight out of the can, chicken and steamed veggies, and cheat several times a week and make minimal if any progress? The choice is yours!

Anabolic means related to building muscle

The short answer, with respect to weight lifting and body building, is anabolic means related to building up muscle. The opposite is catabolic, which is breaking down muscle.

For example, lifting weights appropriately and eating properly are anabolic as they help build muscle. Over training is an example of something which is catabolic – it will lead to muscle breakdown and decline.

Now, the longer answer: “Anabolic” is the adjective form of the noun “anabolism,” which is “constructive metabolism,” or building more complex substances from simpler ones in living organisms, such as building muscle from proteins and nutrients. The term was first used in the late 1800s and was created by combining “ana” and “metabolism.” Now if my grammar details are not 100% correct, well, English isn’t my first language, but the meaning is obvious.

In practice we use the term anabolic for anything that promotes muscle growth.

For example, Anabolic Cooking is simply making food that is good for building muscle. Anabolic steroids are steroids that promote muscle growth (there are also corticosteroids which are anti-inflammatory medications).

I had a great leg workout tonight. 4 sets of front squats, 3 sets of leg extensions, and 3 sets of leg curls. It was an anabolic workout. For dinner I had a big spinach salad with and a lean steak. An anabolic meal.

Besides bodybuilding, I like to bike and sometimes even run. I’m considering doing a 100 mile bike ride this fall, something I’ve done before and that I enjoy. Both training for this event (a “century” in cycling parlance) and doing the actual 100 mile ride are not anabolic. In fact they are downright catabolic!

As I mentioned, sometimes I run. When running, I usually go about 5K two or three times a week, to help me control my body fat. Now running is not anabolic, but that mild amount of running is not catabolic either. If I were training for a 50 mile running race, as one of my friends is, the training would be catabolic. In fact if I took up serious long distance running, I’d no doubt drop 20-30 pounds of muscle whether I wanted to or not.

Three Anabolic Concerns: Training, Nutrition, and Rest

There are at least three anabolic things we should be concerned with.

The first is our weight training. We want a lot, but not enough to overtrain which is catabolic.

The second is nutrition. We want an anabolic, or muscle promoting, diet.

And the third is rest or recovery. It’s not during weight lifting that our muscles grow, but actually during recovery. And with my heavy squats today you can bet I’ll try to squeak in an extra bit of sleep. I usually sleep more when I can on deadlift and squat days, and I’m going to call that extra sleep “anabolic” because it promotes muscle growth.

The term anabolic is thrown around a lot, but what does it mean?

The short answer, with respect to weight lifting and body building, is anabolic means related to building  up muscle. The opposite is catabolic, which is breaking down muscle.

For example, lifting weights appropriately and eating properly are anabolic as they help build muscle. Overtraining is an example of something which is catabolic – it will lead to muscle breakdown and decline.

Now, the longer answer: “Anabolic” is the adjective form of the noun “anabolism,” which is “constructive metabolism,” or building more complex substances like bone and muscle from simpler substances in living organisms. The term was first used in the late 1800s and was created by combining “ana” and “metabolism.” Now if my grammar details are not 100% correct, well, English isn’t my first language, but the meaning is obvious.

In practice we use the term anabolic for anything that promotes muscle growth. For example, Anabolic Cooking is simply making food that is good for building muscle. Anabolic steroids are steroids that promote muscle growth (there are also corticosteroids which are anti-inflammatory medications).

I had a great leg workout tonight. 4 sets of front squats, 3 sets of leg extensions, and 3 sets of leg curls. It was an anabolic workout. For dinner I had a big spinach salad with and a lean steak. An anabolic meal.

Besides bodybuilding, I like to bike and sometimes even run. I’m considering doing a 100 mile bike ride this fall, something I’ve done before and that I enjoy. Both training for this event (a “century” in cycling parlance) and doing the actual 100 mile ride are not anabolic. In fact they are downright catabolic!

As I mentioned, sometimes I run. When running, I usually go about 5K two or three times a week, to help me control my body fat. Now running is not anabolic, but that mild amount of running is not catabolic either. If I were training for a 50 mile running race, as one of my friends is, the training would be catabolic. In fact if I took up serious long distance running, I’d no doubt drop 20-30 pounds of muscle whether I wanted to or not.

Three Anabolic Concerns: Training, Nutrition, and Rest.

There are at least three anabolic things we should be concerned with.

The first is our weight training. We want a lot, but not enough to overtrain which is catabolic.

The second is nutrition. We want an anabolic, or muscle promoting, diet.

And the third is rest or recovery. It’s not during weight lifting that our muscles grow, but actually during recovery. And with my heavy squats today you can bet I’ll try to squeak in an extra bit of sleep. I usually sleep more when I can on deadlift and squat days, and I’m going to call that extra sleep “anabolic” because it promotes muscle growth.

You need some type of plan.

Now one definition of a plan (I learned this one from the military):

“A plan is so you know what you are deviating from.”

Plans often need adjustment based on what is working, what is not working, and practical necessities for example.

Now a plan can be a formal and semi-rigid framework with flexibility build in like the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer. You get three meal plans to choose from, and can also substitute from over 1000 foods within the framework.

A plan can also be much looser, like the 4 Hour Body Diet, which although not specific to bodybuilding works well with some minor additions such as enduring enough protein intake.

Some diets, like Atkins and other very low carb diets are strict but many people have success following them partially. For example Atkins (and I personally burn fat and build muscle on Atkins) insists on no coffee and no alcohol, but almost no one does that and that includes me!

Perhaps my favorite, and a fun, tasty, plan with lots of variety is based on the meal plans from the very highly recommended by me Anabolic Cooking. The author, Dave Ruel, believes that a bodybuilding and fitness diet “can and should include a lot of variety and tasty foods.” He makes it quite easy with lots of very simple to make tasty and fun foods that promote building muscle and burning fat.

What is the most important part of a bodybuilding diet after decent nutrition?

That you can stick to it!

Even if one diet is theoretically better than another, it is just theory if you cannot or will not stick to it. That is why I say “decent nutrition” not “perfect nutrition.”

Now what kind of diet you can stick to varies a lot. I have made enormous progress on ketogenic diets, very low fat diets. My friend Rocco can’t function or think well on them so he can’t stay on them so there is no way they can work for him. And if they did, he would be miserable.

What diet plan works for you also can and will vary through your life. I used to maintain muscle and lose fat rather quickly on a ketogenic diet while drinking multiple glasses of wine a night. Maybe my body has slowed down, I’m not sure, but that diet without the wine works now.

So, you need a plan that works for you.

And that means a bodybuilding diet plan you can stick too!

Unlike a mesomorph, they are not naturally muscular and lean, just naturally lean. Fortunately, unlike an endomorph (which describes me), fat is not much of an issue and if excess fat is gained an endomorph can lose it quickly and easily.

Hardgainer Prescription: Lots of clean calories, brief intense big muscle workouts

Ectomorphs can build great bodies, but it can be harder and slower – read on

An ectomorph is a classic hardgainer. You work extra hard for your muscle and you do not want to back slip as getting it back is slow and hard. You need to stick to your program, with the one exception that if you start eating crap (as long as you keep your nutrients and especially protein up) for a short while it is not a big deal.

Excess calories, whether junk or not, are not as big a deal as other body types.

Ectomorph Muscle Building Basics:

• An enormous amount of high quality calories. You are eating MORE than 3 meals a day for sure!
• Short intense workouts focusing on big muscle groups (squats, deadlifts, etc.).

Ectomorph diet must concentrate on getting enough quality calories – you need to eat A LOT. Guides and cookbooks like Anabolic Cooking are great so that you can concentrate on muscle building foods.

Pre bedtime meals, preferable good solid low fat/high protein like a protein shake are highly recommended as you can lose muscle due to catabolic processes while sleeping (basically, muscle breakdown; you need lots of calories to prevent this!).

Supplements are more important than for any other somatotypes.

Fast metabolisms: Need an incredible amount of calories to gain muscle: Fat not much of a worry!

Midnight pizza is not a big deal – and can actually be better than a “standard” non bodybuilding diet!

Workouts? Simple: Short and Intense.

You do NOT want to be a gym rat. Cardio is not your friend. Although some cardio is fine, do not go overboard. As a mesomorph, I also do half marathons and century bike rides – not recommended for ectos! Just enough to stay in good cardiovascular shape!

Exercises need to focus on big muscle groups.

Exercises need to focus on big muscle groups. Think squats, deadlifts, cleans, bench presses. Small muscle group exercises – isolation exercises – minimal if at all. Keep your work outs to 60 minutes maximum, preferably 45 minutes. Short, but intense!

An ectomorph can build a great body. As an ecto, you may actually need less muscle to look awesome as you naturally carry a very low amount of fat year round.

I often joke that if I walk past a gym I put on muscle, and if I walk past a restaurant I put on fat – not too far from the truth.

An Endomorph’s Diet is harder to get right than their Workouts!

Two plans ideal for Endomorphs you should check out are:

• Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer

• Anabolic Cooking

Although most workouts will work, Endomorphs need to get into the gym as often as they can without overtraining. They generally react well to heavy exercise, but also need to do cardio to keep the fat level in check. It is easy to gain lots of muscle and fat at the same time, and very difficult to lose that fat afterwards so keep that fat in check.

Building Muscle – Easy, Controlling Fat – Hard

Many prescribe high reps to burn more fat, but what works is going to vary depending on the individual. It’s not one fit for all endos for weight training. Low reps with heavy weights work for me, together with going to the gym just infrequently enough to avoid overtraining.

Cardio like biking and running (not too much running as it is stressful on the body and can help lead to overtraining) is not only good, but usually required.

Cardio at least twice a week, preferably more, to help combat fat!

The problem is most endomorphs do not seem to like cardio, but you can find cardio you enjoy if you work at it.

Despite years of complaining that I hate cardio, I do find I enjoy biking and well as hiking and skiing. Skiing and hiking are time intensive as they require travel for me so I do not do them as much. I also found, much to my chagrin, that I enjoy running, although it’s usually a few months on and then a few months off.

Cardio is AT LEAST as important as your weight training!

You do need to find cardio you enjoy to keep your fat percentage down. Whatever cardio works for you. Do it religiously as it’s at least as important as your resistance workouts.

Enough proper nutrition is far less of an issue with endomorphs than with other body types. Too much food is the issue. “Bulking” is bad because although the muscle piles on the fat also does and then lingers.

Diet – The Key to Endomorph Bodybuilding Success!

There are multiple diets that can work for an endomorph, especially when paired with consistent cardio, and these can include low carb, slow carb, as well as more traditional bodybuilder diets as long as you watch what you eat – quantity is more of a problem than quality, although you want to eat reasonable healthily as well. Once again, you need to find what works for you.

Two resource that can help enormously an endomorph get ripped are:

• Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer

• Anabolic Cooking

Bottom line: lots of exercise and don’t eat too much. The muscle comes easy but the battle is controlling the fat, so plenty of exercise of all types and eat well.

Before considering supplements, you first need to get your diet under some semblance of control!

If you are eating near anything and everything with no regard to proper nutrition, adding protein powder or creatine or branched chain amino acids (BCAA) “ain’t gonna go shit!” We need to be honest here.

Now you do not need a perfect and saintly diet to benefit from supplements. Conversely if you are eating well, training appropriately, and getting plenty of rest and recovery time, you can build a great body without supplements, absolutely!

• There are benefits to many supplements.
• A lot are also useless garbage.
• And the jury is out on a lot of them.

The supplements business is a massive business with lots of money involved. They’ll sell you anything they can, and just because something is popular and made by many companies doesn’t mean it is any good. And often when there are many brands available, they may be all essentially the same and made by the same very small number of factories with different labels and packaging.

Protein Powder is a supplement worth considering. What is best is several small meals a day, but that is not always possible. You can supplement with protein powder. Also, sometimes we may not get a lot of protein. I’ll often have a salad for lunch and some protein powder a bit later. Whey protein powder is great, but casein protein powder is also very good and cheaper. Casein is digested slower and also many people report it makes them feel less full.

Many people use protein powder both before and after workouts, possible anabolic windows.

And of course, you can cook with protein powder making more anabolic foods.

Creatine exists naturally in meat, and in fact the name comes from the Greek world for meat, “creas.” When I take creatine, usually for a month or so at a time, I find it quickly improves my strength, makes my muscles look bigger, and then when I stop the gains remain as long as I keep working out hard and eating right. Many users report similar results. 5-10 grams a day in 2-3 servings is about right.

I recommend the original, Creatine Monohydrate. You’ll find all kinds of newer types with fancy marketing but I do not believe they are any better (just more expensive!)

Meal Replacement Powders or Shakes, closely related to protein powder, may be a somewhat controversial choice since since I’m so few supplements, but it works for me and many others. I don’t have the perfect and boring lifestyle; my life is hectic, exciting, and at times nearly overwhelming. Many times I’ll get home, or have a tiny window for lunch, or maybe back to the hotel (I travel a lot), and I do not need a full meal (or ordering from room service, or sitting at the bar for only one drink and a sandwich etc.), but one or two meal replacements packs mixed with water are perfect.

There are other supplements you may want to consider, but start with these three.

Remember that supplements are not essential! Getting your diet under control is most important and needs to be done first. It is perfectly possible to build an awesome body without supplements, in fact some well known customized plans use little to no supplements at all.

There are however some proven supplements that may be of benefit to you, and they go above and beyond this short list of “best.”

The best muscle building supplements? Hmm, maybe. It depends on you. But these are solid choices for most people!

Regardless of how “perfect” your diet may be, your diet and nutrition are extremely important, as is enough rest and recovery time between workouts. Bodybuilding nutrition is complex, in part because there are so many diets that will work, if you can stick too them.

Many bodybuilding diets will work, if you can stick to them.

Notice the “stick to them” part! Too many nutritional plans are based on relatively bland food, and not enough variety, so you get bored quickly. This makes it more likely that you will cheat, and cheat a lot.

What sounds better, egg whites, chicken breast, and steamed broccoli, or a pepperoni pizza and a six pack of beer? Well, I know which one I will get bored of quickly!

Any nutrition plan, unless you have nearly superhuman self control and resolve, needs a lot of variety. Fortunately there are muscle building cookbooks that can simply and easily provide you with lots of different healthy meal choices.

In looking at nutrition, you need to consider your goals.

What are you trying to optimize (or maybe what do you need to optimize)? Currently, I need to lose fat. I have slipped a bit with extensive business travel, and although I have a lot of muscle on my frame, it is obscured by more fat than I like. Back to this in a minute.

Looking at macronutrients, that is carbs, fats, and proteins, the most common breakdown is 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fats. Lower fats used to be more common, but fats are important for building muscle.

Low carb diets are also popular, and  50% protein, 10% carb, and 40% fats is common. Sometimes carbs are restricted much more as well.

Everyone’s body responds differently, but low carb diets work extremely well for me for fat loss.

Also realize that not all proteins, carbs, and fats are the same.

Try to ensure you are getting high quality protein sources. This is pretty easy for all but vegetarian bodybuilders who need to plan a bit more.

As a rule, slow carbs are better for you than fast carbs. Slow carbs are ones that are metabolized by the body slower then fast ones. What do you think is better for your body, 500 calories of sugar or 500 calories of carbs from beans? In general, it is absolutely beans, although sugar may be better at times, for example during the final stages of running a marathon. Most of us reading this however are body builders, not endurance athletes (admittedly, I do a bit of both).

Some fats are healthy, for example olive oil. They still pack a lot of calories however! Other, far less healthy, for example bacon fat! I’m not saying always avoid bacon and bacon fat, just be aware of what and how much you are eating.

There are customized nutrition plans available that have daily meal plans with all the details, but at a minimum, keep track of what you eat. You’ll be surprised if not shocked.

For a week, simply write down everything you eat, or maybe snap a picture with your cell. You will be shocked.

Knowledge of what you are consuming in the first step in improving your nutrition!

A customized anabolic approach to nutrition based on four patented formulas

Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer by Kyle Leon, a well respected personal trainer, nutritional specialist, and fitness model, is a customized anabolic approach to nutrition based on four patented formulas that took years to perfect working with nutritionists, fitness models and famous bodybuilders to perfect.

A customized anabolic approach to nutrition based on four patented formulas

It’s not magic, it’s science, and when combined with proper weight training will pack on pounds of muscle while minimizing fat.

SMM customizes your nutritional plan based on multiple variables: your age, weight, height, metabolism, body type and training regimen. One size absolutely does not fit all!

Everyone’s Nutritional Requirements are Different

Calories and macronutrients are allocated throughout the day based on when you work out, and designed to optimize intake during the anabolic windows. Similarly, on off days SMM is customized to aid and speed recovery. Sometimes muscle soreness is 100% eliminated!

Food/nutrition is obviously very important. SMM software creates three customized meal plans for you to choose from each day. Since most bodybuilding nutritional and meal plans fail because of boredom and the temptation to cheat and eat something “not boring,” data base of well over a thousand different foods you can use to structure the nutritional requirements for any particular meal!

Don’t let the word “software” confuse or terrify you. It’s very simple and easy to use and also comes with a 100% money back guarantee. It’s extremely simple to get started.

• Do you want to pack on ripped, head turning muscles, in record time?
• Do you want to see what it feels like to be in the best shape of your life?
• Tens of thousands of guys have using SMM.

Kyle Leon put on 21 pounds of pure lean muscle WITHOUT any fat in UNDER 8 weeks!

Traditional bodybuilding bulking builds up fat cells along with muscle! Those fat cells are permanent, and even if you lose the fat make it easier to regain it back in the future.

The four patented formulas deep inside SMM avoid the fat gain, and will unlock muscle growth quickly, safely, and naturally.

Formula One: Sometabolic Customizer: Determines your precise calorie and macronutrient needs for building pure, lean muscle. You’ll learn what and when to eat!

Formula Two: Sometabolic Rebuilder: This is for your off days. Customized recovery nutrition for you!

Formula Three: Systematic Nutrabolism: The key to up to 84% of your muscle growth, this shows you what to fuel your body with during your two daily anabolic windows to get lean and ripped as quickly as possible!

Formula Four: Training Strain Factor: This shows you what your body will need to maintain your new and rock solid body based on your workouts.

SMM is easy to follow and safe, but it may not be for you. It is NOT for everyone.

Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer is for you if:

• You are serious about being in the best shape of your life.
• You are dedicated to working out smart and right.
• You can and will follow simple directions.

 Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer is NOT for you if:

• You are just one if the guys in the gym who likes to hang out, eat late night pizzas, and aren’t willing to make any changes to your training and nutrition.

Click Here to see The Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer

You’ll also get free upgrades for life, a no nonsense 100% money back guarantee, and some wonderful bonuses if you order soon!

Most bodybuilding diets are fairly bland and boring. Once you’ve eaten so many egg white omelets, bland chicken breasts, brown rice with nothing added, steamed veggies, etc. it is hard to stick to it.

Most bodybuilding diets fail because of boredom – dull, monotonous food.

The temptation to cheat is enormous, and I’m not just talking about the occasional cheat meal! Food should not be boring, dull, or monotonous.

But Nutrition is critical to build muscle and burn stubborn fat!

Imagine if you could eat fun and tasty food all the time that was inexpensive and easy to make AND helped build muscle and burn fat?

This could be a game changer for you and your body!

Dave Ruel believes that bodybuilding and fitness nutrition can be tasty, can be fun, and can be as good as “unhealthy” restaurants meals if you know just a little bit.

As Dave Says:

• Build more lean muscle mass eating my beef and spinach lasagna
• Get ripped eating my baked crispy chicken nuggets
• Save money with my high protein Granola Bars

None of those sound bland or boring to me!

His book is the results of more than 10 years of trial and error, and 4 years of intensive research.

His book includes:

• Over 200 “Anabolicious” flavorful recipes, that promote muscle building and fat loss, and  that even a 10 year old can make in minutes
• Done-For-You Meal Plans to make things very simple
• Anabolic Cooking and Nutrition Basics: What we all should know but few of us do
• A Virtual Cooking Class: All you need to know to get started quickly and easily
• How to prepare everything for a week, all your food, in 3 hours!
• After workout nutrition secrets and tactics and shake recipes
• Money Saving Tips: How to eat the right food cheaply and simply assemble your Anabolic Cooking Kitchen on a budget. This chapter alone is worth the investment in the book!
• How to manage cheat meals, and yes, some cheating is OK!

The range of easy recipes that promote muscle building and fat loss are incredible.

A Partial List: Protein Waffles, Zucchini Hash Browns, Banana Peanut-Butter Muffins, Classic Denver Omelet, Southern Fried Chicken, Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry, Beef Fajitas, Grilled Sirloin Teriyaki, Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops, Grilled Greek Chicken, Rosemary Marinated Salmon, Almond Crusted Tilapia, Cajun Shrimp,  Lemon Marinated Scallops, Wasabi Mashed Potatoes, Guacamole, Almond Chicken Salad, High Protein Fudge Bars, High Protein Granola Bars, Buffalo Wings, Blueberry Cheesecake, Orange-Protein Creamsickles, High Protein Chocolate Mousse, and much more.

I’m getting hungry just typing this, and they are all simple and quick to make and healthy, promoting muscle building and fat loss!

Click Here to see The Anabolic Cookbook!

Free upgrades for life are included, several bonuses and an Iron-clad, No-questions-asked, 60-day Money-back Guarantee!

This book just may change your life!

He is a strong believer that bodybuilding and fitness nutrition can and should include a lot of variety and tasty foods. Chicken breasts, tuna fish, etc. do not have to be the mainstay of your diet and it should not be boring or bland.

Even if you can barely make coffee or cook chicken breasts today, Dave can have you easily, quickly, and cheaply cooking delicious anabolic or muscle building meals in the kitchen. Anyone can do it.

Dave is perhaps best known for writing The Ultimate Cookbook and Complete Nutrition guide for Bodybuilding and Fitness,  Anabolic Cooking.

Click Here to see Dave Ruel’s Anabolic Cooking

The right foods are critical for building muscle and burning fat, but most bodybuilders cannot stay on their diets. This is no surprise as most of their diets are so bland and boring that they encourage cheating! How many days can you go on egg whites, chicken breasts, broccoli, and similar foods?

Dave was not naturally a cook. When he started serious bodybuilding training he was afraid that anything he cooked would taste like cardboard, and he was led to believe that bodybuilding food was supposed to be bland yet nutritious.

He found a mentor who disagreed with the prevailing wisdom: that serious bodybuilding food had to be boring. His mentor helped him greatly improve his nutrition while teaching him how to easily prepare very tasty and inexpensive meals that are so good that you have no desire to cheat!

Simple tasty meals help you with your fitness goals in many ways:

• Provide you with superb nutrition
• Greatly remove the desire to cheat
• Also they can save you a ton of money over packaged or prepared meals and foods

Anabolic Cooking has over 200 fabulous muscle building and fat losing recipes that even a 10 year old can cook (and very seriously speaking, I have a 10 year who can do it).

There are done for you meal plans, including shopping lists, step by step preparation directions, and nutrient timing strategies.

Nutritional and Anabolic Cooking basics are included.

There is even a guide to eating out and managing cheat meals!

Breakfasts, desserts, protein bars, fish/seafood, red meat, chicken, pork, and more is covered .

Click Here to see Dave Ruel’s Anabolic Cooking

You don’t need a fancy kitchen, cooking knowledge, or extra time to cook.

Dave Ruel made lots of mistakes in his training and nutrition over the years until he figured out what worked with the help of his mentor, a local bodybuilding champion, and slowly augmented with his own cooking techniques and recipes.

Dave also is a dedicated Montreal Canadiens hockey fan, and hates tomatoes!

Besides Anabolic Cooking, Dave has co-authored The Metabolic Diet with Karine Losier, The Lean Kitchen Queen. The Metabolic Diet is a fat loss cookbook I highly recommend as takes the same viewpoint that food needs to be fun and tasty, and focuses on healthy tasty foods (a lot of “diet” food is incredibly unhealthy!) with over 250 easy to make Fat Scorching recipes.

Click Here to see Metabolic Cooking

Whether you are an ordinary person who wants to lose weight, or a bodybuilder who has “bulked up” a bit too much (and who doesn’t occasionally?) , click the link above for the details on Metabolic Cooking!

Metabolic Cooking – Quick and Easy Fat Burning Recipes.

Kyle also works with several organizational in the fitness industry. He is a senior product development consultant and spokesperson for Blue Star Nutraceuticals known for their low carb protein shakes and more, and he is on the fitness advisory board for BioTrust Nutrition, whose motto is “Honest Nutrition for your Ultimate Body.”

He describes himself as a hardgainer, who through intelligent exercise and nutrition has transformed his body (supposedly he was called “Lanky Leo” in high school). He stands 6’2” high and weights a ripped 215 pounds, and has helped a lot, as in many many thousands, of men and women transform their bodies through muscle gain and fat loss.

Kyle believes that nutrition and workouts need to be customized for each individual based on a number of factors, including body type, age, metabolism, and height/weight. Although lots of advice claims customization, the advice usually boils down to “do this” and “don’t do that” regardless of your circumstances. Think of all the advice you’ve found in magazines and online.

His programs make customization very simple, based on plugging in some information about yourself.

Click Here to See Kyle Leon’s Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer!

Here is some advice from Kyle:

5 Exotic Muscle Building Foods that Pack High protein with Low Fat

1) Bison/Buffalo – this tastes a lot like beef but is a bit richer, sweeter, and lower fat. Several of my grocery stores carry ground bison, and I use it just like hamburger. Since it is lower fat, make sure you do not overcook it as it gets dry easily. Medium rare is how I do it.

2) Elk – Elk is similar to buffalo, but less gamey tasting. I prefer elk in steaks and roasts, and like bison, it has less fat and more protein than beef. My local store carries it and there is also an elk farm nearby that sells it. Maybe a bit harder to find than bison but not much, even here in New Hampshire.

3) Rabbit – tastes like chicken, but lower fat. Rabbit used to be super popular but has fallen out of favor somewhat. Available frozen in many grocery stores.

4)  Ostrich – Think red meat, not bird! Red meat that has less fat, calories, and even cholesterol than and turkey and even skinless chicken.

5) Venison – Deer meat is not for everyone as some find it “gamey” tasting but I absolutely love it. Enormous flavor and low fat!

These are great food to try and then integrate into your bodybuilding diet if you like them!

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For example we all know the skinny person who can seem to eat whatever they want yet they never gain weight. Conversely, I put on weight easily: I seemingly gain muscle by just going near the gym and I gain fat just by smelling food.

When we talk about body types we usually use the term “somatotype.” This term was invented by Dr. William H. Sheldon in the 1940s, and he breaks human bodies into three different types.

Whenever you are reading about bodybuilding, fitness, or weight loss you are likely to hear this term, as well as the three somatotypes he defined: Ectomorph, Mesomorph, and Endomorph.

So, exactly what are they?

Ectomorph: An ectomorph is thin and lightly muscled. Gaining any kind of weight, including muscle, is tougher – it simply takes longer. You may have heard the term hardgainer used for an ectomorph.

The skinny person who can seem to eat anything and not put on weight is an ectomorph.

Mesomorph: A mesomorph is athletic and gains or loses weight easily. They naturally have a hard and muscular appearance, and they build muscle easily.

Endomorph: An endomorph has a soft flabby body. They gain weight easily, but naturally have underdeveloped muscles. Losing weight is difficult for an endomorph. Conversely, an endomorph responds quickly to weight training and builds muscle quickly.

Now you may not fit exactly into one of these categories. From my description above, you might guess that I am between a mesomorph and an endomorph. Obviously I want to look more like a mesomorph, and with proper diet and training I do.

Obviously your genetics determine your body type or somatotype, but anyone can improve their body.

I’ve know ectomorphs, naturally thin and lightly muscled people, who have build impressive physiques through smart and dedicated training and nutrition.

I also know endomorphs, naturally fat and round people, who are ripped. Yes, it is harder for them than the naturally muscular and fit, but very possible.

You can also be a mesomorph, a naturally athletic, muscular and fit person, who is an out of shape fat sack of shit! Unfortunately this is the fate of a lot of great high school and college athletes.

Training and nutrition needs are obviously different for different body types. As someone tending towards mesomorph, I need to watch what I eat with an emphasis on not eating too much of the wrong foods or too much food in general. An ectomorph in contrast needs to focus on eating enough of the right foods with little if any fear on eating too much!

Bodybuilding works for any somatotype, and you can improve your body significantly. Your genetics, and body type, obviously matter, and while you and I will never look like Arnold Schwarzenegger is his prime, we all have the capability to build great bodies!