How Much Protein Do I Need?…by Josh Schlottman

A big question that I’ve always gotten is, “how much protein do I need to build muscle and burn fat?”  And that really all depends, if you’re a skinny guy who needs to pack on a muscle then you should be taking in more than a girl who wants to lean out and shed the belly fat.

Also if you’re the size of an NFL linebacker than you’re going to be able to take in more protein than a high school kid.

It’s still shocking to see young kids drinking 50+ grams of protein in one of those ginormous bodybuilding gorilla shakes because they’re really just wasting their money.

The average person can only absorb about 30 grams of protein in a sitting so if you’re trying to take in 90 pounds of protein for lunch then you’re going to find most of it just coming out your other side.

Click here to discover my 7 Best Muscle Building Foods.

So the best way to take in protein is going to be to spread it out evenly over the 5 or 6 meals you’re eating throughout the day.  This way you’ll have more time to better absorb the protein and use it for recovery and the rebuilding of muscles.  A big rule of thumb is to have some source of lean protein and some vegetables with every meal.

I usually recommend to my clients that they drink a 20-30 gram protein shake, half before their workout and half afterwards.  This way you can use some of the energy you’re getting from your shake for the workout and also get the other half to immediately start rebuilding your body.

Another good rule of thumb for answering the How Much Protein Do I Need question is that if you’re training hard to take in 0.6x-0.8x grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day.  So if you weight 180 lbs. then you should be taking in around 144 grams of protein.  Spread that over 6 meals, eaten 3 hours apart, you should be eating (hold on let me bust out my calculator…) 24 grams of protein per meal.

But this is only if you’re training hard and trying to build muscle and if you’re a lady trying to lean out more than you’ll probably be better off going with just 0.6 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

Another awesome advantage of taking in a lot of protein is that because of the protein molecules complex structure it’s a heck of a lot more difficult for your body to break down protein than it is carbohydrates of fats.  This means that just by taking in more protein you’ll see in increase in metabolism over having a diet higher in carbohydrates and fats.

I hope this helps answer the question, How Much Protein Do I Need and if you have any more questions be sure to send them my way by leaving a comment below.  And if you’re looking to take your diet to the next level see my review of the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet.

To your success,

Josh

Travel Diet Secrets: How to Join my Exclusive Mile High Club…by Josh Schlottman

So I’m heading off to Seattle today and I’ve been going into overdrive getting all my snacks ready to go.  I absolutely hate eating airport food and all the junk in most restaurants so I take my travel diet into my own hands.

Instead of paying $$ for overpriced junk food in the airport I’m snacking on some of my favorite healthy foods, while keeping lean at the same time.

A lot of my high end clientele travel a lot and one of their biggest concerns is nutrition and how to have a healthy travel diet.  Most people when they travel just pick up meals to eat here and there, but the real secret is preparation in getting all your healthy snacks and drinks ready to go.

The biggest key in my travel diet are foods that are lean and will last a long time.  Unfortunately I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way that will make you think twice about what foods to bring on your travel diet. (more…)

The 7 Best Muscle Building Foods…by Josh Schlottman

When it comes to the best foods to build muscle it’s easy to believe that all you need is protein, protein, protein.  But it goes a little deeper than that when it comes to muscle building diets.  The best part about having some lean muscle on your body is that it will also increase your metabolism and will burn A LOT more fat than you would if you didn’t have as much muscle on your body.

The goal of everybody who wants to have a lean, ripped and attractive body should be to build muscle.  The biggest resistance I get is from females who are really resistant because they don’t want to get big bulky muscles.

But when you go on a muscle building diet you will fortunately also shred a heck of a lot of fat and unless you’re on a crazy training program like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you won’t get big bulky muscles.  If fat loss is your goal, check out my Xtreme Fat Loss Diet review too.

And guys who are trying to build muscle should definitely be eating a lot of the best foods for muscle building.  Many vegetarians are going to have a lot of trouble getting muscle on their bodies because of the lack of lean high protein sources.  I’m not a fan of vegetarian diets but I do respect peoples decision to go on them, but I would NEVER recommend it if you ever plan on putting some good muscle on your body.

I’m still surprised at the amount of people training who don’t know which foods for building muscle they should be taking in.  And to be honest, it’s really not their fault, I don’t ever remember looking at the Food Pyramid and seeing what I should be eating to burn fat and build muscle.  I still remember my younger bodybuilding days when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and would pound at least 3 protein shakes a day.  FAIL. (more…)

The Carb Cycling Diet For Fast Fat Loss by Josh Schlottman

Scientific research proving the effectiveness of the carb cycling diets has been around for a few years now but most people have never even heard of it.  If you’re looking for fast fat loss then doing a carb cycling diet plan for 30 days will help you get in great shape quick.  If you’re looking for a proven carb cycling diet that works, check out my Xtreme Fat Loss Diet review.

Most people LIVE off of carbs and most will go crazy if they completely eliminate all carbohydrates.  What we want to do is combine these methods to produce the ultimate fat burning diet, carb cycling.

Carb cycling is a great way to lose fat fast and bust through any fat loss plateaus that you may have been stuck in.

There are quite a few ways to do a carb cycling diet but the way that I usually use and recommend is the simplest.

First Day = High Carb Day, Second Day = Low Carb Day, Third Day = Zero Carb Day…Repeat.

Simple, right?

The reason carb cycling works so well is because of a hormonal response in the body.  Most typical low carb diets only work so well because they drastically lower the hormones leptin and insulin in the body.  Once these hormones get too low, the body fat burning process automatically shuts off.

Why does it do this?

Looking back at the history of human existence, food was pretty hard to come by until the last hundred years or so.  We rarely had immediate access to all the foods that we have today (You never saw the pilgrims rolling over to the McDonalds when they were hungry…).

So when we didn’t eat enough for a few days our bodies thought we were starving, and in order to survive your body is going to hang onto all the fat it possibly can.

And this is why we can’t drop fat when we’re starving (despite what Paris Hilton will have you think).

When I was studying nutrition in college the standard carbohydrate intake was around 55% of your total calorie intake for the day.  This is kinda crazy for me to hear now after reading all the recent scientific studies that have show you can lose fat so much faster by implementing these methods.

During your carb cycling diet you’re also going to want to be taking in moderate to high levels of protein while your fat intake is going to be moderate to low.  A lot of people get scared of fats and think that’s what is going to make them fat, but taking in the RIGHT fats will be crucial to your rapid fat loss results.

If you’re unsure how many calories you should be taking in to lose weight, I went ahead and saved you the trouble of calculating it, click the link below to download my free calorie fat loss calculator (you need to use Excel or a similar program to use it).

The Trainer Josh Fat Loss Calorie Calculator

***The Trainer Josh Fat Loss Calorie Calculator***

When you’re on the high carb days, be sure to resist all temptation to consume white flour or sugary foods.  Any time you do this you’ll spike your insulin levels through the roof and the fat gaining chaos will begin.

So how much carbohydrates should you be eating on these days?

On the high carbohydrates you simply eat as much as you can handle, on the medium days you take in your bodyweight in grams of carbs.  So if you weight 150 lbs. then you’ll take in 150 grams of carbohydrates spread out over your meals for the day.  And as you probably guessed, you won’t want to be taking in any kind of carbohydrates on the days you have zero carbs.

In all honesty, I wouldn’t do this carb cycling until the end of time but if you’re looking to fast fat loss then go for a carb cycling diet at least for 30 days.  Hopefully after that you’ll be on the right track for nutrition and you can even start with my 5 simple nutrition tips.

Good luck and be sure to plan ahead when it comes to nutrition, it’ll be the key to your success and your CRAZY fat loss results.

Create Greatness,

Josh

P.S. – If you liked or have a question about this post be sure to leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to get back to you!

The weekend is before us and I don’t know about you but I’ve been craving a cheat meal this week.  Since I’m eating healthy and staying within my “nutrition rules” I’m allowed to cheat on my meals 10% of the time.

So I eat around 5 meals a day, 3 hours apart, and so that leaves me with about 4 cheat meals a week.  A lot of people think I’m super hardcore with the meals but I crave the bad stuff just as much as the next person.  The trick is having self-control, being prepared and having something to look forward to.

As long as you have 90% compliance you’re still getting an A grade and this is enough to allow the body to transform without driving yourself crazy doing it.

But sometimes we want to take things to the next level…

If you want to lose weight then you’ll know there’s so many products out there on the market that it’s practically insanity to try and make up your mind which one’s actually work.

And on top of that you have no idea of what you’re putting into your body is healthy for you or not.

Natural fat loss is really the way to go and it’s a lot easier than most people think.  You don’t have to have a bunch of crazy hormones or chemicals pumping through your veins to increase your metabolism.

There are lots of natural alternative to help you burn fat and they’re more easily accessible than you think.

The key is to not depend on only one method of increasing your fat loss, to increase your rate of success it’s vital to have a bunch of poles in the water.

When you do this even if one thing shouldn’t work for you, you’ll still be getting the benefits of all the other stuff.

So you should be eating consistently right, doing metabolic resistance training workouts, doing HIIT instead of cardio, taking fish oil, and also taking in the right natural “supplements.”

So without further ado, here are my 3 secret natural fat loss weapons…

#1 Caffeine

A scientifically based study found that those who took in 50mg of caffeine (roughly the amount in half a cup of coffee) saw a 6% increase in their metabolic rate…meaning their metabolism increased that much and they burned that much fat.  The problem with a lot of people who take in caffeine is that they start pounding crazy energy drinks or weird grande frappacinos from Starbucks loaded with sugars and other bad stuff.  Take in your caffeine from either black coffee, green tea or a yerba mate based supplement.

#2 Green Tea

A research study found that those who took green tea extract actually increased their metabolism by 3.5% for a full 24 hour period.  This is pretty impressive considering most things that increase your metabolism (such as red hot chili peppers) usually only lasts around 30 minutes or so.  But the good ole’ epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is what scientists believe is responsible for the fat burning effect.  But be sure to take the extract as you’ll have to drink heck of a lot of green tea to get the same effect.

#3  Cinnamon

Cinnamon you say?  Yep cinnamon is one of the few “taste sweeteners” that I recommend to people so they can spice up there foods and beverages.  Along with lowering blood pressure it has also been proven to burn off body fat when taken in high doses.  So if you want to really get your metabolic rate going then you’ll want to take some cinnamon extract unless you want to down a tablespoon of cinnamon everyday.

So even though all of these don’t “significantly” increase your metabolism, when you combine them all together they should help you add more poles in the water.  And the more poles you have the more results you’re going to get.  So next time you’re drinking coffee opt for some cinnamon instead of the sugar packs.

If you’re not interested in buying all the different extracts for these you might want to take a look at one of my favorite supplements for fat loss, Prograde Metabolism.

Got a comment? Post that bad boy below and I’ll look forward to talking to you.  But not before you click the Facebook Like button right below.