A calorie of protein provides the same amount of energy to the body as a calorie of fat or carbohydrate.  This may in fact be true but lost in this broad statement is the fact that these different nutrients have different effects on metabolism and hormone secretion that are far  more important than just their caloric value. One of the major hormones influenced by nutrient intake is insulin.

So what is Insulin? In simple terms insulin is defined as a polypeptide hormone  that regulates carbohydrate metabolism.In simpler terms this means that after a meal, insulin deals with the rise in blood sugar by delivering it to the cells where it can be used for energy.  While this function is very important, insulin does much more. A study in 1999 showed that insulin is involved in many critical metabolic functions including, the breakdown and utilization (burning) of both dietary and body fat. Insulin was shown to inhibits fat breakdown, so when insulin levels are elevated your body cannot break down stored fat to be used for energy.  If you cannot burn bodyfat for energy it does not seem likely you will reduce your fat stores. Insulin must be the worst thing in the world! Anything that stops us from burning bodyfat and achieving that highly coveted six pack must be completely done away with! Not so fast.  That type of thinking gets babies thrown out with the bath water.  Over the next several posts I will discuss, 

1)Why and when insulin is bad.

2)Why and when insulin is good.

3)How to eat to minimize the bad and maximize the good.

Not sure how many posts this will be broken into as it is a massive subject but I hope you stay tuned.

I have been competing in natural bodybuilding for over 20 years. I have eaten a few meals cold out of a tupperware container. Probably a few thousand. Thats just what you do. You make a plan, and you stick to the plan.

I am now 10 weeks out from my next competition and I have been “sticking to my plan” for quite some time now. As a matter of fact yesterday I had lunch after my workout at a well know pizza joint in town, just as planned. I know what your thinking. “oh that must be your cheat meal” or something to that effect. Well it wasn’t. It was just a regular day that we had just happened to plan to go out for lunch. The key word there is plan.On Friday we decided we would go for lunch after working out on Saturday. I took a few minutes Friday night to pull the nutritional information for some restaurants off the internet. That is the nice thing about large chain restaurants. They all post their menu info online. Because I know how many calories and what breakdown my average meals are, I was able to skim through this information and in a very short time knew exactly what I could order. I did not even have to look at the menu when I got there.

When I am discussing fat loss plans with clients the issue of planning ahead always comes up. It has to. It is the single biggest thing that will determine if you will succeed or not. Planning ahead does not mean you are sentenced to a life of solitary eating, shunned by the rest of society. You just have to take those extra few minutes and plan your restaurant meals the same way you plan your home meals. The only difference is someone else does the cooking! What could be better than that? And before I sign off I just want to say to those of you that are going to claim you don’t have time or the technical savvy to find the food information, bullshit! If you can figure out how to find this blog (and I am glad you did) you can find the restaurant info. Happy dining.

Whether they want to admit it or not the vast majority of people exercise because they want to look better, period. Although the health benefits are undeniable, people  want the rippling six pack and the tight butts they see on the fitness magazine covers. In fact a recent survey found 60 percent of people would rather look good than feel good. I am not sure how “official” any of these findings are but my point is most peoples goals are based more on how they want to look than how they feel or perform. Right or wrong this is the way it is.

Keeping this in mind I am puzzled by the amount of people who desire one outcome but do training that is counterproductive to that goal. One example of this that I see everyday is people who desire the bodies of fitness models and physique athletes but train like endurance athletes. Any successful natural bodybuilder or fitness model I have ever trained has no idea what their best time for a 10k is. The reason for this is the training involved in achieving an elite time in a 10k or more will do nothing to help achieve a cover models physique. It will in fact hinder the process.  

The tight muscles possessed by cover models and natural physique athletes, are a result of  2 things

1)intense weight training

2)strict diets

The  weight training builds and maintains the muscles that give those bodies their shape and form and the diets strip bodyfat to low levels so these muscles show. Cardio training does have a place in their training but I would put it third in priority.  If the other two factors are in check the amount of cardio that is required is relatively low. 

To turn everything upside down and put the training priority on cardio does 2 things

1) drains the bodies recovery reserves

2) strips away muscle tissue, especially in the upper body.

It is easy to see why these two things are exactly what you don’t want when trying to get as lean and ripped as possible.

This is not an attack on endurance athletes either. far from it. In fact for them to train as physique athletes or natural bodybuilders do would be  equally ridiculous.  It is  a sure way to be the best looking loser of any race.

The overall point is you first have to decide what you are trying to accomplish, and then train specifically for that purpose. unfortunately you cannot have the best of both worlds. If you try to train for two apposing goals at one time, your end result will be mediocrity in both.