The Three Questions

In my normal search to find worthwhile articles, I came across one published on breakingmuscle.com by Sam MacIntosh titled "3 Things a Nutrition Coach Can't Do for You" which was an eye opener for some. The article came to the defense of nutrition coaches by placing some of the onus back on the client. While Sam's focus was on nutrition, it isn't a stretch to consider the article from a general training standpoint.

I thought the article was relevant to a lot of people on a social media site, so I posted it with a brief summation. Simply, Sam made these three points:

1. They can't give you purpose.
2. There is no perfect program.
3. They can't control your thoughts and demons.

The article, along with my three point summation led to a great discussion regarding realism, success, and the role of a good coach. Chris McClinch, who is a very wise man, brought up three more valid questions during the discussion that not only need to be considered but need to be honestly answered.

1. Do you truly understand where you are right now? (Point A)
2. Do you have a realistic goal in mind? (Point B)
3. Are you willing to sacrifice to get from point A to point B?

These are a killer three questions and ones that even I struggle with. These are also questions where the assistance of a good coach is invaluable. A good coach can help you understand where you are right now and help you choose a realistic goal. The coach will be able to explain the potential sacrifices and revisit the goal if need be. The questions all tie back to one another and cause ripple-like changes when we modify one point. While we all want to say we can answer them honestly, I have to ask, can you really? Experience tells me it's very hard, if not nearly impossible, to be 100% objective about yourself. Some of us are harder on ourselves, and others think too highly.

Where are you right now?

Let's be honest about this, many of us are surrounded by people that can't or won't tell us the whole truth. They are either ignorant when it comes to fitness or they just don't want to be seen as unsupportive and negative. I'm not just talking about our friends and family, but about our acquaintances, coworkers, and general passersby that we speak to. The general public can't define fit or healthy. Our "community" most likely doesn't know what the difference is between a good figure for an average person on the street and a competitor. They can't tell normal from strong. Unless somebody is also involved in fitness, they are probably giving you bad information. There are also the big fish in a small pond folks that only know their small world. Unless you purposefully surround yourself with people in the know, your community won't be of much help. Take any organized sport. At the community level, an athlete can be the best and will hear it from everybody. Move that same athlete to the regional level and they'll still hear they are good, but less frequently. Take one more step up to the national stage and they might not hear a single praise. Why does this matter to me?

If we don't truly know where we are right now, our Point A, it is hard to say if our goal, our Point B, is realistic for us. More than being a realistic goal, we won't be able to plan the right course of action because we are launching from the wrong point.

Do you have a realistic goal in mind?

Goals are something that can be one of the biggest aids in keeping us on track with fitness or one of the biggest hinderances. We want to pick a goal that challenges us; a goal that will make us work hard, but is achievable. And when we realize we aren't ready for that goal, we need to be willing to let it go to be revisited later. Each goal has sub-goals that define the path to success. Choosing a good, realistic goal is crucial.

Assuming we have an appropriate goal, there are two possible scenarios:
1. Our Point A is accurate
or
2. What we perceive to be Point A is nowhere near the truth

In the first scenario, since we have chosen a realistic Point B and we have an accurate Point A, we can develop the steps to go from A to B. This allows us to also determine what sacrifices must be made in the path to achievement.

In the second, and more common situation, we choose a Point B based on our perceived Point A. Unfortunately, since we aren't really on Point A, our goal may not be reachable. Think of it like getting directions without street names, if you give the wrong staring point, it doesn't matter how accurate the distance and turns are, you'll never get there. Since we have an incorrect path, we also don't know if the sacrifices we're willing to make are enough.

Are you willing to sacrifice to get from Point A to Point B?

I think this may be a more important question that having a realistic goal. There are no two ways to explain it, if you choose a goal, you will have to make some level of sacrifice along the way. Sacrifices can be any combination of diet, training, social, time, or financial. How much and how often you are willing to sacrifice can determine whether we can reach Point B.

Whether you knew your Point A or not, if you aren't willing to give all the sacrifices needed, Point B may be out of touch. If Point B requires extra hours you aren't willing to sacrifice, it's going to take a lot longer or it may be out. If it means restricting your diet and prepping meals and you aren't going to do it consistently, it's over. If giving up happy hour drinking isn't on the list, it's time to ring out. At this point, it's time to take what you're willing to sacrifice, and go back to choosing a Point B.

So the next time you sit down to map out some fitness goals (or if you're struggling to reach a goal you've already set), get out a pad and answer the three questions. Be honest about where you are, what you're willing to sacrifice, and choose a reasonable Point B. If you have 1 thing that doesn't line up 100%, consider a re-evaluation of your Point A and your Point B because if your positions don't work or you aren't willing to sacrifice enough, your chance of success is tremendously low.

The Problem with Nutrition Labels and Macros

Probably once a week I see a post from somebody that’s a rookie to counting calories asking how the calories on the label don’t add up. Well, there are two very simple answers if you are in the US: the product is mislabeled (intentionally or not) or they are following the FDA labeling standards and regulations and making the product more desirable to nutrition conscious people.

Addressing the first scenario, it isn’t a unique or unusual problem to have a product “mislabeled.” As other posts have explained far better than I can, the concept of a calorie is flawed. You can read about it here in Scientific American. The tl;dr version of why a calorie isn’t just a calorie can be summed up to just a few parts:

• Calories are measured in isolation, meaning with just that food. This does not account for what we have eaten previously or at the same time as our meal. By combining foods, like most people do, we change the time needed for digestion and how hard our body works to perform digestion. This changes the Thermic Effect of Food.
• Different people react to different foods differently and take different amounts of calories from them based on their unique body chemistry and gut bacteria. This blog post explains further based on a study done with mice.
• Calorie labels on prepackaged food are “averages” and may be higher or lower than your actual meal. Since many prepackaged foods are mixes of several different foods, the exact amount of each ingredient is rarely precise. When the amount of each food isn't precise combined with an inexact range of calories, chances are, you aren't getting what the label says. 

With the second issue, it’s a matter of the FDA giving more than a loophole, but leaving a canyon of ways to trick the consumer. Here are just a few of the ways labels can be manipulated to read as lower or more desirable.

• According to the FDA, if there are less than 5 calories per serving, the total calories can be declared as 0. That means if I create something like coffee creamer and claim a small serving size, like a tsp. and it has 4 calories, I can promote it as a 0 calorie product.
• If the product has 50 calories or less--Round to nearest 5-calorie increment: Example: Round 47 calories to “45 calories”
• If the product has above 50 calories--Round to nearest 10-calorie increment: Example: Round 94 calories to “90 calories”
• Alcohol brings up another anomaly to the calorie counter.  Carbs are 4 calories per gram, fat is 9, but alcohol falls in the middle at 7 calories per gram.
• Lastly, fat can be labeled as 0 fat when there is less than .5 g per serving. So a product with .4 g of fat per serving is fat free.

As you can see, there are a few ways a manufacturer can make a pre-packaged food into something it really isn’t and throw off your most dedicated efforts to eat on plan.

Let’s take a look at something many people use every day, coffee creamer. If we’re trying to be a macro-magician, we might be super concerned with the exact measures so we pick a “Fat Free International Delights”. On the left side, the Canadian label; on the right, the US label.


Same product, same calories listed… one label tells you their best average per serving and the other hides some information because the FDA allows it through rounding.

Let’s take this further. Since there are no restrictions on what is considered a serving size, one product can list a different serving size to make it seem more appealing. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it can add up over all your different meals throughout the week, especially if you don't check the serving sizes.

Italian Dressing	1 tbsp	2 tbsp
Calories	50	80
Fat	6g	7g
Carbs	1g	4g
Protein	0g	0g

If you’re grabbing one of these dressings off the shelf and you’re just looking quickly at the label for the one that reads the “healthiest”, you might overlook the serving size and go right to the nutrition counts. Take into account that very few of us ever use just 1 or 2 tablespoons and the 30 extra calories for 2 tbsp starts to add up. Yes, this is a small example, but it happens on a larger scale, too. Just imagine this with Peanut Butter or some other "treat" that you enjoy.

Moving on.

The calorie counting problem is a complex one complicated by a lack of precise labeling regulations in the US and the rounding of both macros and total calories. Further, the ability to manipulate serving sizes allows manufacturers create certain labels and make a less healthy product more appealing. If you really are going to be precise (which I don’t recommend unless you want to drive yourself crazy or are a top level competitor) you need to really read carefully and do the math instead of just trusting the companies that play within the rules to look better.

And if you want a better solution, give yourself a margin of error, say 4% of your total calories. On a 2,000 calorie diet, that’s 80 calories. At the end of the day, you might slow down your progress just a little bit, but you won’t drive yourself insane along the way.

Lastly, if you’re brand spanking new to healthy eating, take baby steps; start with just making some better food choices and just writing down what you eat. There will be a time to make things more detailed, but in the beginning, just get started!

Hooray! Now what?

You finally did it. You prepped. You dieted. You trained your ass off. It took hours of prep, self-control, thousands of hours of work, and months of your life, but you did it. You finally reached your goal weight and now you come to the amazing question: "What next?" You just put in all that effort and now you have to decide on how to maintain the results.

It seems like a fairly easy concept, right? Finish the bulk or the cut and then just maintain your size, but let's be honest, we screw this up all the time. If we all got it right, the diet industry would be shut down in a matter of years...

Whether you are losing weight or trying to gain, your post-diet is just as important as your diet!

If you just finished your diet:

Coming back from a diet can be tricky because there are so many variations and more possibilities than I can ever address.  Some diets require lowering of calories, others, the elimination of macros, and some changing the time period when you eat. Since the ultimate goal at the end of your diet should be to establish a sustainable eating style that maintains your weight, the important principle must be achieving a maintenance level of eating that matches your level of activity.

The largest of these principles is the SLOW recovery to maintenance. Whether you ate low calorie, low carb, or fasted, the diet effected your body's metabolism and hormones. Depending on how long the diet period lasted could have tremendous impact on how long the road back to maintenance will take.

You may be asking yourself "Why can't I just go back to my regular eating?" Your body seeks homeostasis, with weight, fat levels, etc. Simply, as you reduce calories to lose weight, your body is smart enough to slow metabolism and adjust hormones to maintain the current levels. In short, the gradual recovery will allow your body to recover it's metabolic rate, readjust hormones, balance gut bacteria, and set you up for sustaining the weight you worked so hard to achieve.

So how do we perform a slow recovery? Time for everybody's favorite answer, "It depends."

I was eating at a small deficit, how do I get back to full portions?

The answer is patience. If you were on a low calorie diet, recovering is just a matter of increasing our calories weekly until we reach maintenance. This has become wildly popular under the name of "Reverse Dieting" and can be found in books, websites, and even web software. One of the best books for explaining the concept is Reverse Dieting by Sohee Lee and Layne Norton. Essentially, you increase your calories weekly or bi-weekly with the idea that you will improve your metabolism and hormone profile with little to no weight gain and you will be able to return to your maintenance level calories over a period of weeks. Nobody can give you an exact time-frame, but the longer you dieted, the longer it will take to recover.

I was eating a specialized diet, can I go back to normal?

If you were on a diet like VLC, Atkins, or some other elimination style diet, your re-introduction could come with some nasty side-effects. When you remove a food type, the bacterial composition in your gut changes. With those changes come changes in how we digest and how we absorb the nutrients. Sometimes it's as simple as having a "gassy" feeling, other times it leads to diarrhea, leaky gut, or possibly worse with full out allergic reactions.

On top of the gut health issues, a diet that restricts carbohydrates tends to have an initial loss of weight associated with lost water weight. There's a lot of science behind it, but when you cut carbohydrates from the diet, the initial weight lost is primarily water, so naturally, when you reintroduce carbohydrates, the body will retain some water. A lot of people aren't prepared to see the scale rise and automatically assume it's fat. This is where a little extra time researching your diet is a worth it.

Again, the solution is slowly reintroducing the removed macronutrient WITHOUT creating a large surplus of calories. (Remember, caloric deficit = losing weight, caloric surplus = gaining weight)

What about if I want to change "Eating Styles?"

Sometimes, our diet has us changing from eating three meals a day to a modified eating plan, five meals a day, or possibly intermittent fasting. Although changes like these are typically lasting and are a way of eating for life, some people want to return to their good old three squares a day plan. Essentially nothing changes macro-wise, but you will have to fight through feelings of either being full or starving and possibly a little upset stomach if you've been avoiding morning meals. The best suggestion I have is to continue with the same calories while transitioning back to the three meals per day and then gradually increase calories if needed.

What if I did something radical and possibly stupid to lose weight?

Yup, there are STUPID ways to lose weight that will work in the short term. I do not personally recommend any of them, but people have done things like extended juice fasts, major calorie cuts (like 1/2 their intake cut), or one of the many extremist fad diets. The inherent risk with any of these diets is their effect on our metabolism, our gut bacteria, and our hormone levels. While they may accomplish the short term goal, the consequences could be long term damage, and sometimes the rebound could result in more fat gained than lost.

Of course, people will still do these diets and there needs to be some way to help them recover. Again, I believe "Reverse Dieting" is one of the better options if the extreme diet was run for only a short period (less than two weeks), but the first thing I recommend after a prolonged extreme diet is talking to a physician and allowing them to run blood tests. At the point where hormone levels are outside of the "normal" range, a medical professional will have the safest protocol to attempt to return the hormones to normal. And despite the weight loss, the safest option may be to regain weight and diet back down the right way.

If You Just Finished Your Bulk

This is a far shorter answer. Eat less! Cut the total calories by cutting back on carbs and fats. Again, the key is slowly cutting back each week until you find your maintenance levels. The one macronutrient I recommend keeping high is your protein to keep supporting that new muscle. Unlike after a diet concludes, the conclusion of a bulk allows for a much easier return to maintenance.

The Keys

1. Be Patient
2. Make Slow increases or decreases in calories, radical changes can have bad effects
3. Weigh yourself each week and add or decrease total calories until maintenance
4. Keep protein high to support your muscles
5. If you're doing it right and something isn't right, SEE YOUR DOCTOR.

A little knowledge goes a long way. Now that you've reached your goals, take it slow, recover the metabolism the right way and maintain that body you worked so hard for.

Why Aren't I Losing Weight? 10 Factors You Need to Consider.

Every year, millions of people attempt to tackle weight loss. They find talk of calories, of macros, of IIFYM, Paleo, and IF; hormones with really weird names, and fat burning supplements; training programs, met cons, and infomercials galore. Everybody says how simple it should be and then proceeds to muddy the simplicity with hundreds of “if's” and options. There is no shortage of information telling you everything you've done wrong or why this program is better than the others. And I'm not going to write another step-by-step guide to losing weight, discuss macros, diets, and training programs. There are enough of those out there for you to read. Instead, I'm going to address some of the not-so obvious problems in weight loss.

Without boring you with all the different theories and the soapbox lecture about how weight loss is a process and there is no such thing as a quick-fix, I want to remind you that THERE IS NO QUICK-FIX, no magic pill, no insta-cleanse (that's a whole different post), and a whole lot of ways that work. Each person responds differently and part of the challenge is finding what works for you. The most important part is approaching your weight loss systematically and by making small, sustainable life changes and having patience.

Assuming you've got a solid plan (no magic pills, no drastic calorie cuts or food eliminations) and a training program that matches (some cardio, some weight training), you should see progress happen within a few weeks depending on how much you've got to lose. Remember, the scale isn't always going to show progress, so that's why we advocate taking before pictures from multiple angles along with measuring calves, thighs, hips, waist, chest, biceps, and neck. But what happens when you aren't seeing any of these measures move?

Unfortunately, even with the perfect plan, there are other factors that can effect weight loss, and many of them are either overlooked or never discussed. Instead of looking deeper, the fitness world would have you change programs, cut your calories, use a “cleanse” or buy some new variant of bootcamp DVD paired with a TENS Unit (the electro shock thing).

Some of these factors that effect our weight loss are within our control, and many others are not. Even though we can't have 100% control, when we know what is causing our problem, we can take appropriate steps to minimize their effect.

Possible Factors Effecting Weight Loss:

• The Wrong Mentality – This could be the most difficult weight loss stumbling block of them all. Whether it's overconfident or self-defeating, how we think about our weight loss and our plan can determine our chance of success. When we're too stubborn to listen (I didn't say implement) to other options we're likely to make poor decisions when we stall. When we don't believe in the program we're using, we're likely to cheat on the diet, skip workouts, and commit self-sabotage in small ways. Either way, your success depends on you believing

• Stress – We all face stress every day. Some of us train to relieve stress, some of us play sports, some meditate, and others binge eat. For the most part, we handle the stress fairly well, but when we face more stress than we can handle or we don't recover well enough, bad things happen. Stress causes the body releases the hormone Cortisol. While Cortisol is both normal and necessary, too much of it throws off the body's hormonal balance and can result in a number of medical conditions.
  
  One of the best techniques to battle stress in my experience, is learning to meditate. There are apps on both iOS and Android that can guide you through techniques to relax and relieve stress in as little as 5 minutes each day.

• Working Out Too Much – The old addage goes something like “Eat less, move more.” Unfortunately, in weight loss, more isn't always better. When you work out too much, whether it's endless hours of cardio or weights, the body's reaction may be to hold on to weight. Simply explained, working out causes stress, and stress without proper nutrition and recovery leads to negative changes in the body and potential weight gain.
  
  Many unknowingly out-train their recovery and nutrition, resulting in no progress and a lot of frustration. The solution is truly as simple as it seems; do less. That's not to say do nothing, but if you are training 5-6 days per week and you aren't seeing changes, it may be time to consider reducing your training days to only three days per week.

• Too Little Recovery – There are articles and research to be found all over that explain the importance of recovery and sleep on hormonal regulation, recovery, and weight loss. When the hormones get out of whack (yup, science terms here) weight loss and fat burning slows. Lack of sleep and poor sleep quality leave us tired and potentially reaching for sugary food and drink to give us quick bursts of energy, skipping workouts, and eating the easy, fast food because we're too tired to make healthy meals at home.
  
  One of the tools I use to monitor my sleep is called “sleep bot” for Android. There are a plethora of similar trackers that monitor sleep time and movement and can provide a sleep quality. Many can also create “smart alarms” that wake us up at the right time with the right amount of sleep. Another valuable part of getting restful sleep is playing meditation hypnosis before bed to relieve stress. If monitoring and adjusting your sleep isn't working, it may be time to speak to a doctor about it.

• Inconsistency – We all see it or have experienced it, the on again, off again relationship with good nutrition and working out. But what happens when we start and stop repeatedly? What happens when we only work out once a week instead of the three that we planned on? Weight loss takes consistent efforts, and patience to stay the course.
  
  News Flash – The infomercials provide skewed perceptions about typical weight loss rates. The truth is weight loss and body changes don't happen overnight and sometimes not for weeks. Be patient, make your training and nutrition a priority. Plan it into your day and then take no excuses.

• Medical Conditions – Hypothyroidism, Cushing's Syndrome, PCOS, Syndrome X, Depression, and other Hormonal Changes are all conditions that effect weight loss. Each condition occurs for a different reason and can be an underlying cause on why the weight isn't coming off.
  
  While we can read all about these conditions and symptoms, and self-diagnose, the only true diagnosis and treatment comes with the the assistance of a medical professionals.

• Medications – There are millions of medications on the market and being used by people all over the world. Birth Control, Anti-Depressants, Blood Pressure Meds, and many others can all effect our hormone levels, cause fatigue, fluid retention, or can increase appetite. Like everything else that goes into our body, the medications we take can effect how our body works.
  
  You can research the medications you take, along with their side effects online. If you're concerned about your medications and their effect on weight loss, check with the prescribing doctor.

• Food Sensitivities – There is a difference between a sensitivity and an allergy. A trouble food can be tolerated in small amounts and the bad reaction might be prevented with medications in a food sensitivity. The reason for the reaction is certain elements of the offending food might not be digested and processed optimally, resulting in inflammation. Inflammation is typically followed by a level of insulin resistance and possibly leaky gut.
  
  The obvious solution is to limit the intake of foods that you are sensitive too. Another possible solution is the use of Probiotics to help maintain a healthy gut and aid in digestion. If you suspect food sensitivities could be hindering your weight loss, it is best to seek the assistance of a medical professional.

• Lack of Variety – When we do the same thing or eat the same thing for too long, our body adapts. In 6-8 weeks, the body can become more efficient and at that point, a small change needs to be made to keep progress moving forward.
  
  Evaluate your program every 6-8 weeks. If you are still making progress, there is no need to make a change, but when a program that was working, stalls, it's time to consider a small, calculated change.

• Too Much Variety – On the flip side of not changing enough is the person that changes too much. Whether it's switching from carb backloading to IIFYM to IF or from 5x5 to GVT to PHAT, too much variety prevents us from making progress. There is a huge myth out there that says the body needs to be “confused” to produce results.
  
  Like many have mentioned before, progress requires consistency and a chance for the body to adapt. As the body becomes efficient and adapts, then it is time to make just enough of a change to keep progress going.

As you can see, there are a number of factors that can effect weight loss and while we have control over only a few of them, we can be informed and make educated decisions about how to handle all of them. Once you've got the plan and the program it is important to be patient and consistent. Remember to take pictures, use the tape measurements, and the scale to create a whole picture of your transformation. If things aren't moving, instead of giving up or making drastic changes, consider the many factors above and ask for help from the people that know about and have experience working with weight loss.

Help! I'm a Hardgainer

While there are a lot of people in the health and fitness realm that are looking to lose weight, there are some of us that are fighting the opposite battle, the battle of the “hardgainer”. For a long time, I believed I was genetically defective, unable to gain weight and grow muscle. I blamed my father (at 6’4” and under 220 lbs) for my being lanky (5’11” and under 200 lbs). I was frustrated that the scale never moved no matter how hard I trained and how much I ate. I wasn’t getting much stronger and I couldn’t figure out why. I tried supplements and lots of them, with no real results. For those of us that are hardgainers we struggle to find a way to make progress, try every “trick” and push ourselves harder and harder until we break or until we just give up. The idea that we’ll never be bigger or stronger is maddening, but it doesn’t have to be. Along my journey I’ve figured out a few things that can make a big difference if you’re a hardgainer too.

There are the obvious keys to making gains: eat more food, get your sleep, and use your recovery days wisely. There are also some glaring “mistakes” that don’t seem as obvious.

Explaining the Keys
If you’ve done any research, you know the importance of nutrition. Whether you are trying to gain weight, get stronger, lose fat, or just perform better, nutrition is the leading factor. If you want to gain muscle, you have to feed the muscle. Chances are if you are the typical skinny ectomorph, you aren’t eating nearly enough, and unless you take the time to measure your food and calculate your estimated calorie needs, you can’t be sure if you are eating enough to grow. Once you have an estimate, you have to track your weight and your food. If you don’t make any gains at the end of the week, you need to eat more food each day. I know, I know, you’re afraid to get “fat.” Let me clue you in; you’re a hardgainer so getting “fat” is extremely hard and you may have to gain some fat in order to gain some muscle too.

The second key is challenging the muscle with resistance. New trainees have the distinct advantage of their nervous system learning how to recruit muscle fibers and they can make monumental leaps in strength simply through the neural adaptation. As the nervous system learns how to recruit more muscle fibers, the weights get easier, so we increase the load and continue to get stronger. At some point, the “newbie effect” comes to an end, and a change becomes necessary to make progress. In the words of EliteFTS’s Matt Rhodes “It ain’t rocket math” when making the necessary training changes to get stronger or grow muscle.

Finally, growth requires rest and recovery. We don’t gain weight or get stronger with the one or two hours we train each day, but in the remaining hours we have for our body to grow and heal. There are a plethora of great articles and research showing the importance of sleep, and here is one by Greg Nuckols that explains the importance of sleep and recovery on gains.
http://gregnuckols.com/2014/04/28/poor-recovery-and-increased-muscle-breakdown-insufficient-sleep-part-2/

Now, let’s explore some of the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that keep us from making optimal progress and have us still saying we’re a hardgainer.

Making Overly Healthy Choices
I made the mistake of trying “intermittent fasting” and trying to make lean gains. I found it nearly impossible to get enough calories in to gain any weight. I can hear you asking, “How is eating healthy a mistake?” If our focus is on eating a “healthy diet” we will struggle to reach our daily caloric goal. As an ectomorph, we tend to have a fast metabolism, which burns more calories than most. It can be a curse because it makes getting enough calories hard when we eat super-clean but it’s a godsend when we need to cut weight. I’m not endorsing JM Blakely’s “Big Boy’s Menu Plan”, but eating super-clean isn’t going to get it done either.

The simple solution for most hardgainers is eating simple carbs such as white rice and bread. I’ve been known to eat bagels and pop tarts as a snack because they are high calorie foods that can help us reach the caloric surplus necessary to make weight and muscle gains. I recommend simple carbohydrates make up 30-40% of the total carbohydrates you eat on a daily basis and that carbohydrates make up 40% of your total diet. Having more calories available when your body needs them is always better than not having enough. Also, fat is not the enemy in our food. Healthy fats are a fast way to increase our calories, and can be added to most of our meals by simply using heavy cream, olive oil, coconut oil and the like.

Too Much Training
Training every day won’t get it done. In fact, training that much is too much! I get it, we have been taught that if we want to get better at something we need to practice it as much as possible. And when we aren’t getting results, we push harder, we find new programs, we switch to two-a-days, etc. It makes sense, right? Unfortunately, we don’t grow by being overly active and training every day; we grow by stressing the muscle and then giving it adequate time to heal.
Remember above where I said “We don’t gain weight or get stronger with the one or two hours we train each day, but in the remaining hours we have for our body to grow and heal.” So instead of training longer and harder, limit your training sessions to less than an hour and a half and train three to four days per week. This give your body more time to repair and rebuild new muscle, and you will be better rested for the next training session, allowing you to maximize each workout.

Training Small Muscles
Every hardgainer has looked at a bodybuilding magazine with envy and read about the latest, greatest split routine and how to grow a massive {insert body part here} fast. Isolation workouts work well for targeting specific muscle groups, but they aren’t good choices for hardgainers. Being an ectomorph necessitates a focus on maximal muscle recruitment through compound lifts like the squat and deadlift. These lifts recruit the most muscle and also stimulate the release of anabolic hormones, which are one of the most important components of muscle building. Remember, muscle grows AFTER it’s broken down and repaired, and these lifts will cause the most recruitment and best opportunity for growth.

Great Movements for Hardgainers

Squats Deadlifts Bent Over Rows Bench Press Push Press Weighted Carries

Military Press Pull Ups Tire Flips Dips Farmer’s Walks Heavy Sled Push

Using the Wrong Rep Scheme
While there is no such thing as the perfect rep scheme and it is possible to build muscle using just about any rep scheme, muscle growth is more likely to happen in the moderate to high rep ranges. Working with the appropriate amount of weight and performing the proper reps can greatly enhance muscle growth.

In my experience, the best results for hardgainers happens with loads between 70 and 80% of their 1RM for three to four sets of 8-12 reps per set.  My best growth came right in the middle of both lines at 75% for three sets of 10. Does that mean it will be best for you? No, but I’m willing to be it will work better than doing high intensity / low rep workouts or low intensity / high rep workouts.

The Takeaway
While our genetics are seemingly against us, we don’t have to live the life of the skinny weakling! As hardgaining ectomorphs, we make mistakes by simply not eating enough, training too much or the wrong way, and not getting enough recovery. Our body type dictates that we do certain things to beat our genetics and that we get over our fears. If you finally want to break the mold, the steps aren’t much different than losing weight; focus on your nutrition, train hard with the right sets, reps, and weights, and get proper rest and recovery for growth.

Lose and Gain...At the Same Time?

One question is brought up at least 10 times a day on different fitness boards I read, “Can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” Another version I see all the time which has the same answer is “Can I get stronger while cutting weight?” Some will say “absolutely” while others will scream bloody murder at the very idea. Unfortunately, it isn’t a simple yes or no answer. Like many fitness questions, the answer “it depends” is the answer. There are no simple solutions in fitness because everybody’s body reacts differently, but the more you know, the better your chances of finding success in obtaining your goals.

Let me first address the “gain muscle / lose fat” conundrum. A quick search of the internet returns no less than 42 million results. Unless you have experience weaving through the magic of fitness advertising, you’d wholly believe that everybody can gain muscle and lose fat at the exact same time or that nobody can do it. The internet makes the body seem capable of building muscle from the fat that is being burned. Some basic science tells us that our body needs a caloric deficit in order to lose weight and a caloric surplus in order to build muscle. In an ideal world, your body could use the stored fat as the energy source for building and maintaining muscle. Unfortunately, the fat we burn is not that source and our body doesn’t work that way. Human Physiology tells us that when we eat below maintenance levels, our body does not focus on making muscle [1]. The body will find energy, which can come from the fat we burn or the food we eat to maintain functions, but it does not make muscle from it. According to Dr. John Berardi, the body uses the energy from the days before for repair and growth and not the new nutrients with the exception of long duration exercise [2]. Seems like I just gave some solid reasons why it isn’t possible, but there are a few times when it is possible.

Given the resounding “no” that came from above, there are several cases where the answer is a resounding “yes.” In order to figure out how possible it is, and if is it worth the extreme effort, there are several questions that I consider.

• What is the training age of the client?
• What type of training has the client been doing to this point?
• What is the body composition of the client trying to make the change?
• How much weight is the client giving me to manipulate?
• What is the client's age?

As you can see, that simple “yes” or “no” just got more complicated. Each question and answer gives me an idea of the likelihood of success when trying to do accomplish two goals at the same time. The best chance of success comes from:

• A novice trainee
• Someone that was in a trained state and became detrained
• Someone with higher body fat or a lot of weight to lose
• Someone that is younger

There are many reasons these types of trainees are more likely to experience success, primarily it is the greater potential to build muscle. In contrast, more experienced trainees, trainees that are still in a trained state, people with lower body fat or weight, and older people have several factors against them. In my experience, if the elements are leading away from success, I would look for alternate routes.

If you fall into one of the magical categories, the answer is yes, it is possible and worth trying. One study found that a group of overweight novices lost 16+ pounds of fat and gained nearly 10 pounds of muscle during a 14-week training program [3]. Another study took 30 newer lifters and divided them into three groups of 10. One group did cardio, one did weights, and one did both. Despite the fact that the third group started out with an average body fat of just 12%, the men gained 7 pounds of muscle while losing almost 6 pounds of fat [4].  Finally, a study of trained then detrained and retrained individuals also showed promise that it is possible to lose fat and build muscle due to muscle memory [5]. Does this mean it is possible for everybody? No, it doesn’t, and as I have said many times, what works for one person may not work for any other person.

If you aren’t in one of the special categories that typically means you have less body fat / weight to manipulate, have more years of experience training, or have reached a limiting factor based on age, training, or diet. Without the use of pharmaceutical assistance, it is tremendously hard to do both at the same time. At this point and in most cases it is the wiser choice to attack one goal and then the other. Along with many other trainers, my preferred pattern is to lose fat in the first phase and then gain muscle in the second phase. I’m not going to break down cutting and bulking here as they are topics unto themselves. By losing the fat first through maintaining a high protein, caloric deficit and utilizing proper training, you will be able to spare a lot of your current muscle. Following the fat loss, it will be possible to gradually increase caloric intake to maintenance levels and above to allow for the growth of muscle tissue while minimizing fat gain. While this process may seemingly take longer, it is more reliable and better than spinning your wheels making no progress. This two-phase method will allow for much more control and the ability to manipulate and adjust if things aren’t going as planned.

Still want to try and lose fat while gaining muscle? Here are a few essential elements that need to happen in my successful experiences:

• Train HARD.
• Not just heavy, or cardio, but a mix of both. Train low rep, high intensity two days per week.  Train high intensity one day per week and long steady state one day per week. Every day needs a form of metabolic conditioning circuits.
• Increase protein intake and decrease the carbs.
• You’re trying to save and build muscle which needs protein. Approximately 1-1.2 g per pound should be good.
• Cycle your intakes on training and non-training days.
• This doesn’t mean splurge or starve, but eat slightly more or less based on the training style that day. Carb cycling is popular as is intermittent fasting and the paleo diet. Previous research also showed very low carb / high protein diets to be successful in muscle sparing as well. Be sure to research and fully understand this new eating style before diving in headfirst.

The “it’s possible” to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time verdict relies upon the right combination of circumstances, nutrition, and training protocols. The truth is that while possible under certain circumstances, it is not ideal or possible for most to easily achieve losing fat while gaining muscle and your time may be best spent tackling one goal at a time. If you are one of the few predictable cases where it is more likely and worth the time investment, I support pursuing fat loss while gaining muscle, however, for the many others where it is less than ideal, I urge you to consider all of the variables and options before making a decision. It is a choice you must make regarding the amount of effort and the time it will take to find what works best for you before finding success. From here, you have a starting point to continue educating yourself about your options or you can choose to reach out to a coach to help you accomplish your goals.

Sources:

1. Pasiakos SM, Vislocky LM, Carbone JW, Altieri N, Konopelski K, Freake HC, Anderson JM, Ferrando AA, Wolfe RR, Rodriguez NR. (2010). Acute energy deprivation affects skeletal muscle protein synthesis and associated intracellular signaling proteins in physically active adults. Journal of Nutrition, 140, 745-751
2. Berardi J, Andrews R, (2014). The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition, 2nd ED, 71
3. Wallace MB, Mills BD, Browning CL. (1997). Effects of cross training on markers of insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29, 1170-1175
4. Dolezal, B.A., & Potteiger, J.A. (1998). Concurrent resistance and endurance training influence basal metabolic rate in nondieting individuals. Journal of Applied Physiology, 85, 695-700
5. Staron RS, Leonardi MJ, Karapondo DL, Malicky ES, Falkel JE, Hagerman FC, Hikida RS. (1991). Strength and skeletal muscle adaptations in heavy-resistance-trained women after detraining and retraining. Journal of Applied Physiology, 70, 631-640

Is it Time to Make a Change

When people begin to make lifestyle changes, it normally happens with a goal in mind and I have pretty much heard them all, but three are very common: “I want to lose weight”, “I want to get stronger”, and “I want to get more defined.” After several months of doing the same program, consistently working, and seeing progress I am mystified every time I am asked “Should I change my program?” Everybody needs a little change every now and then, but constantly switching programs may be short-circuiting your progress.

Program hopping isn’t new, but it is being seen more and more with the increased publicity of fitness professionals and their revolutionary new training techniques. I blame Tony Horton for coining the term “muscle confusion” and helping generations of people believe they have to have constant variety to see progress. I blame Crossfit for popularizing the idea further with training programs that don’t demonstrate logical progression in any one particular aspect other than conditioning but attempt to train everything. There is benefit in these programs as it gets people off the couch and gets them active, and for many people struggling to get fit, that’s the biggest challenge to overcome. Think about it this way: for a plumber to be a great plumber they aren’t doing landscaping, cabinetry, painting, electrical, and plumbing; their doing plumbing. The training matches the goal and as long as the training is moving the plumber towards their goal, they continue doing it. Fitness is the same way.

I understand the “Grass is always greener” concept. I’ve been guilty of switching programs when I was still making progress and the result, slower and even stalled progress until I went back to what was working. The simple answer to “should I change programs?” is in two questions:

1. Have you changed your goal?
2. Are you still making progress towards your goal?

If you haven’t changed your goal and you’re still making progress, there isn’t a reason to change. Finding a program that allows for consistent progress is hard and if you have one that works, are you willing to make a change that could stop or even reverse your progress. If you’re bored with the current program, doing a few weeks of something new won’t destroy what you’ve done, but remember, it takes 8-12 weeks to see measurable progress. The only exception for seeing progress is with newer trainees, who have the potential to see progress every workout because of the adaptations the nervous system is making.

If you haven’t changed your goal and you’re progress has stalled, it may be time to consider a change. Sometimes you’ve reached the limit of the program and changing may get us going on the right path again. Sometimes we need a “reboot” of sorts, whether it’s backing the weights down by 10% or adding a little more to our daily diet. Remember, the body adapts to the imposed demands and eventually will reach homeostasis. In order to get passed that point, we will need to increase the intensity, volume, or nutrition in our program.

If you have changed your goal and this program doesn’t match the goal, it is time to change programs. There are no two ways about it. If the goal and the steps aren’t on the same path, the path has to change.

We all want to reach our goals fast, but fitness is not a sprint, it is a marathon that takes consistency and dedication. Everybody that trains for more than a few months will encounter a stall, but switching programs at the first sign of struggle is less than ideal when sometimes the stall can be attributed to poor sleep, poor diet, or life’s other stresses. Be patient, evaluate, and if it may be something other than the program, give it another week and then make a move.

Keep working hard and you can achieve those goals!