{"id":1355,"date":"2013-01-21T19:43:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/?page_id=1355"},"modified":"2013-01-21T22:00:58","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T22:00:58","slug":"chf-fl-optimal-fat-loss","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/chf-fl-optimal-fat-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"CHF FL Optimal Fat Loss Article"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are many approaches to diet. I&#8217;ve found that the best ones are those that we can maintain.<\/p>\n<p>I like having a great physique year-round. I&#8217;m not a guy that diets or cuts weight at certain times, then bulks at others. I eat the same way all year (except for Christmas time). I cheat on my diet. Actually, I don&#8217;t even follow a diet; rather, I eat certain food groups at certain times to ensure that I maintain the muscle mass I have &#8211; if I want to gain a bit of lean mass, I&#8217;ll simply add more food &#8211; without gaining fat.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the rules I follow to accomplish this. These rules will also help you to start burning fat a lot faster than you had previously, with one key change:<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re going to maintain and even gain muscle at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>Why is this so important for fat loss?<\/p>\n<p>Muscle is a fat burning machine. The more we have, the higher our metabolism. That&#8217;s why you see those massive bodybuilders eating crap but staying ripped. Aside from the massive amounts of drugs they&#8217;re using, their muscle makes their bodies a fat burning furnace.<\/p>\n<p>Alright, so the rules&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">Rule #1<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\"> Eat vegetables &#8211; and moderates amount of fruits &#8211; with every meal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Vegetables are often neglected from our diets because we tend to focus more on types of calories when we&#8217;re after a goal like burning fat or building muscle. We see foods as &#8220;proteins&#8221;, &#8220;slow carbs&#8221;, &#8220;fast carbs&#8221;, &#8220;good fats, and &#8220;bad fats&#8221;. So vegetables often get left in the dust.<\/p>\n<p>We need veggies. Have a variety of them in your diet, and ready to eat around your house or appartment at all times during the day.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">Rule #2<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">Focus your fast carbs around your workout.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Fast carbs are fruits, &#8220;white&#8221; carbs, and sugars. These are usually a &#8220;no-no&#8221; with most fat loss &#8220;diets&#8221;, but they&#8217;re actually great for us and our fat loss goals &#8211; WHEN focused around our workouts.<\/p>\n<p>They include: white pastas, white rice, fruits, fruit juices, breads, and all sugars.<\/p>\n<p>By keeping these close to our workouts, we feed our muscles, and help our bodies avoid using our muscle as fuel. Fast carbs are a blocker of cortisol &#8211; a stress hormone that makes our bodies store fat, and burn muscle and bone as our primary fuel source.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">Rule #3<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">Have the rest of your day filled with slow carbs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I keep things simple and only eat oatmeal or brown rice as a carbohydrate source outside of the 1 hour before my workout, and the 3-4 hours after a workout when I allow myself faster carbs.<\/p>\n<p>That is, IF I have carbs at all. For breakfast I usually have 4 eggs, a source of meat, and some fruits as well as vegetables to start my day as a way to naturally raise testosterone levels, and give my body a slow, steady rise in energy (meat helps quell the rise of our blood sure, so it&#8217;s great to start your day with a source of meat).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">Rule #4<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">Keep your proteins lean when paired with a fast carbohydrate, and have a source of protein with every meal&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; Especially with breakfast.<\/p>\n<p>You should be starting your day off with protein. That&#8217;s a big rule, but you should also include this metabolism-boosting food group with every meal.<\/p>\n<p>In your post-workout shake, include fast carbs, with a lean source of protein (protein powder ideally). The carbs will spike insulin, an absorption hormone, which will help usher the proteins you&#8217;re consuming to the areas of your body where your blood is pumping.<\/p>\n<p>After a workout, those areas are the ones you&#8217;ve just finished training.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few other rules that pertain to supplementing, but we&#8217;ll cover those in the future.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large; font-family: 'arial black', 'avant garde';\">For now:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large; font-family: 'arial black', 'avant garde';\">Fast carbs 1-2 hours before a workout and 3-4 hours after a workout.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large; font-family: 'arial black', 'avant garde';\">Slow carbs every other part of the day.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large; font-family: 'arial black', 'avant garde';\">Fats are great, especially before bed and upon rising. They also don&#8217;t make you fat at all, unless you fair them with a fast, insulin-spiking carbohydrate.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many approaches to diet. I&#8217;ve found that the best ones are those that we can maintain. I like having a great physique year-round. I&#8217;m not a guy that diets or cuts weight at certain times, then bulks at others. I eat the same way all year (except for Christmas time). I cheat on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"launch_001d.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1355"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1355"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1374,"href":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1355\/revisions\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chadhowsefitness.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}