Nutrition and weight guide

A quick guide on nutrition and weight maintenance.

Daily intake of Calories should be split up into three parts, Fats, Carbohydrates and proteins. Although the below percentages would change for different goals.

-          Fats – 30%

-          Proteins – 10-15%

-          Carbohydrates – 55-60%

Now that we have the percentages, which will divide our daily calories up into Fats, Proteins and Carbohydrates, we can now find out how many calories and grams we should be aiming for to achieve these percentages.

Example target weight = 60Kg

Step 1 calculate your BMR (basic metabolic rate) This is the number of calories your body will use as fuel for maintaining basic life functions such as breathing, circulation, brain and nervous system function, body warmth, etc. To calculate your BMR you need to times your desired body weight in Kg by 25, the calculation for the example target weight (60Kg) is below.

BMR calculation - 60 x 25 = 1500Kcal per day

Step 2 calories for your daily activity level – Now we need to add our daily activity level onto our BMR.

Sedentary Life style            + 20%

Moderately active life style + 50%

Very active life style            + 100%

BMR, calorie intake = 1500Kcal

Activity level = 50% - 1500/50% = 750 +1500 = 2250Kcals per day.

BMR + Activity Level = 2250 Kcal Per day

We now have the amount of calories you should be aiming for per day, so let’s now find out how many calories per Fat, Protein and carbohydrates this would calculate to.

-          Fats                    – 2250 x 30% = 775 Kcal                  

-          Proteins              – 2250 x 15% = 337.5 Kcal

-          Carbohydrates    – 2250 x 55% = 1237.5 Kcal 

Now we have worked out calories per Fat, Proteins and Carbohydrates, lets find out how many grams we would need to consume.

-          Fats                    - 775/9 = 86g

-          Proteins              - 337.5/4 = 85g

-          Carbohydrates    - 1237.5/4 = 309g

Now you know what calories/Grams to intake per day for Fats, Proteins and Carbohydrates, all that remains now is to track the food you eat daily and ensure that you try to meet your daily intake requirements, as closely as possible.

Now its time to see what foods we should be eating, first let’s start with:

Carbohydrates:

-          Wholegrain Rice

-          Wholegrain Bread

-          Potatoes

-          Wholegrain Pasta

-          Fruits

-          Vegetables

Fats

-          Non-saturated

-          Polyunsaturated

-          Monounsaturated

-          Oily fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines or tuna)

-          Extra virgin oil (for cooking with)

-     Nuts

Proteins

-          Lean meats

-          Chicken breast

-          Eggs

-          Fish

-          Milk (Low or non-fat)

-          Ham

-          Beef

-          Turkey

Now finally an example of a daily food diary;

7:30 AM – Breakfast – scrambled egg (1 whole egg 2 whites) with wholegrain bread and porridge (50g oats, 180 – 200ml Milk)

10:30 AM – Small snack – Coffee and Banana

13:00 PM – Lunch – wholegrain rice 250g, 1 – 2 chicken breasts, vegetables and a small salad.

15:30 – Small snack – Piece of fruit or veg and a couple of Brazil and pecan nuts.

18:00 – Dinner – Boiled potatoes, vegetables and fish.

20:30 – Small snack – small bowl of no added sugar alpen 45g

Water – drink at least 2ltrs a day. 500ml before bed to speed up your metabolism and when you wake up.

Remember the above food diary, is an example, so following this diary, might not equate the calories for Fat, Protein and Carbohydrates that you require.

It may take a week or two; to get your food diary to the point that you are getting as close to your daily requirements as possible, so don’t panic if, within the first week you are not hitting these requirements, it’s all about trial and error. 

Next post I will put up what percentages of carbohydrates, protein and fats you should be aiming for if you have a goal in mind. Ciao!!!!

6 Pack workout guide

6 Pack workout guide

3^rd Blog post

Ciao my friends, following up from my last post, I am going to give you a simple easy to follow 6 pack workout guide. It will consist of a stomach workout, cardiovascular workout and a muscle conditioning workout.

Stomach workout

First up is the Stomach workout. This will consist of 5 exercises that will be completed one after another (no rest) with 2 circuits. After you have completed the first circuit of 5 exercises rest 60 seconds then repeat the circuit again.

Sit-ups – 15-30 reps

Crunches – 30 reps

Reverse crunch – 20 reps                             

Bicycles – 30 reps

Leg raise – 20 reps  

After we have completed the 2 circuits rest 60 seconds then we will finish with sit-ups. This will be completed once all the way through with no rest (focus on crunching your abs keeping a controlled movement, support your feet if you are not able to control a sit-up with good form). On the final rep as you are coming back down from the sit-up, hold your position halfway down and contract your stomach and hold for 10 seconds.

Sit-ups – 20 reps (On 20^th rep hold your position halfway down, 10 seconds)

               15 reps (On 15^th rep hold your position halfway down, 10 seconds)

                 10 reps (On 10^th rep hold your position halfway down, 10 seconds)

                  5 reps (On 5^th rep hold your position halfway down, 10 seconds)

               Max Reps (now finish with as many as possible)

Do this stomach workout 3 Times a week at a minimum.

Cardiovascular workout

Time to hit the treadmill, not! Come on why use a treadmill when you can do it outside! If you really want a six pack then do your cardio outside. The cardio workout I am going to give you is Sprint interval training (also known as HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training). For this work out you will be sprinting for a set amount of time then going into a jog for a set amount of time then back into the sprint then back into the jog until all intervals are completed (1-5 intervals)

Warm up – 5–10 minutes slow paced jog

Dynamic Stretches – Squats 10 reps, lunges 10 reps each side, calf raise 10 reps.

Static stretches – quadriceps stretch 10 seconds hold each side, toe reach hold for 10 seconds (hamstring stretch).

Re-warm – 2 Minutes slow paced jog

Interval 1 – 10 seconds Sprinting, followed by 50 seconds slow-medium paced jog.

Interval 2 – 15 seconds sprinting, followed by 45 seconds slow-medium paced jog.

Interval 3 – 20 seconds sprinting, followed by 40 seconds slow-medium paced jog.

Interval 4 – 15 seconds sprinting, followed by 45 seconds slow-medium paced jog.

Interval 5 – 10 seconds Sprinting, followed by 50 seconds slow-medium paced jog.

Cool down – Slow paced jog 5 minutes

Static stretches – Hamstring stretch hold for 15-30 seconds each side, quadriceps stretch hold for 15-30 seconds each side, Forward lunge hold for 15-30 seconds each side.

Aim to do this Interval workout 2-3 times a week. This is an intense workout so if you don’t exercise much and have never been jogging then I would suggest swapping this sprinting with jogging and the jogging with walking so you can get your body used to this type of training.

Muscle conditioning workout

This will be 10 minute non stop workout, working the full body. You will have to carry out a specific exercise for a set amount of time then move straight onto the next exercise for a set amount of time and so on until your 10 minutes of hell are over.

Stretch your full body before doing this workout.

Pre stretching – hold stretches for 10 seconds.

Press-ups for 1 minute

Tricep dips for 1 minute

Squats for 1 minute

Star jumps for 1 minute

Jogging on the spot for 1 minute

Press-ups for 1 minute

Tricep dips for 1 minute

Forward lunge for 1 minute

Jumping squats 1 minute

Wall squat hold; hold for 1 minute

Post stretching - Now stretch off, hold stretches for 15-30 seconds.

Do this conditioning workout 2 times a week.

That’s it you now have what you need to be well on your way towards getting your six pack, a healthier body and better looking physique, But remember your Diet is very important, with out a good diet your six pack will be hard to achieve.

The final thing to do is to give you is a workout diary example:

Monday – Stomach workout & Sprint interval workout

Tuesday – Muscle conditioning workout

Wednesday – Stomach workout

Thursday – Sprint interval workout

Friday – Stomach workout

Saturday – Muscle conditioning workout.

Sunday – REST

This is the way I would suggest doing these workouts, but you can set it out to fit into your schedule if needed.

Thanks for reading, hope you found my post useful, any problems just comment the post and ill be glad to help. J