Wanna lose your belly? Well make sure you’re following these 5 very important tips:

Tip #1: Short, Intense Workouts

Shorter, more intense workouts that last just 20-40 minutes will help you boost your metabolic rate and challenge your cardiovascular system at the same time. According to Dr. James A Timmons of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, as little as 7.5 minutes per exercise per week makes a huge difference!

• He discovered that sedentary young men who did just 15 minutes of all-out sprinting spread out over 2 weeks dramatically improved their ability to metabolize sugar. The high intensity program also directly reduced the men’s blood sugar levels.
• This find is not only important for diabetics who must learn to control their blood sugar levels, but is also important for individuals trying to lose fat. After an individual eats, they experience a sudden rise in blood sugar levels (also known as an insulin spike).
• There are many reasons why you want to minimize insulin spikes if your goal is fat loss. One of them is that insulin spikes shut down the output of Human Growth Hormone (HGH). HGH is an absolutely vital hormone in your fat loss plan.

Tip #2: Optimize Human Growth Hormone

Human Growth Hormone is an extremely powerful substance in the body. One of it’s primary tasks is the regulation of our metabolism. This is why HGH is crucial to fat burning, since increased metabolism is one of the main important factors in greater fat loss.

• There are two things that determine how much HGH will be released: Sleep, Exercise, and Nutrition. In the first tip, I stated that intense workouts reduced men’s blood sugar levels. It is also a fact that fit men and women have a less tendency to experience insulin spikes after women.
• In other words, getting fitter will help you get even more fit. So short, intense workouts is just way to optimize your HGH. The other way is to get more sleep. HGH is released during the first part of our sleep cycle. Finally, in terms of nutrition, cut down on your intake of carbohydrates.
• Certain types of carbohydrates raise your blood sugar higher than others. One scale to use when choosing your foods is the Glycemic Index. Make sure you to choose more foods with a lower Glycemic Index to minimize insulin spikes throughout the day.

Tip #3: Post-Workout Nutrition

Post-workout nutrition refers to what you consume after a workout. After an intense workout, you’re entering a catabolic state where your muscle glycogen is depleted. Catabolism refers to the breakdown of muscle mass. Muscle glycogen is where your muscles get energy to perform daily tasks.

• The opposite of a catablic state is an anabolic state. This is where conditions are optimal to increasing your lean muscle mass. Increasing lean muscle mass is absolutely vital in your fight against fat. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate, and the more fat you will burn.
• It’s like a long chain of events. If there is one link that is weak or broken, it can derail your entire fat burning efforts. So what do you do? Ingest a quick shake right after your workout that has the right combination of carbohydrates and amino acids, causing an insulin spike.
• This spike will help deliver vital nutrients to your muscles. “But I thought that insulin spikes were bad for fat loss?” They are, but right after an intense, muscle building workout, you need those carbohydrates to prevent an severe loss in muscle mass.

Tip #4: Muscle Building Workouts

Muscle building workouts are absolutely crucial to your fat loss plan. First of all, they help you burn calories during the actual workout. Second, they raise your metabolism for up to 39 hours after the workout. Hence, if you trained every 39 hours, you would be in a constant state of fat burning.

• If you were extremely lazy and did not want to perform interval training or make dietary changes, then all you would need to perform is 15 high intensity strength training sessions per month. A recent study found that 15 weight training sessions can help you burn off an extra 2 pounds of fat.
• At the end of the year, that’s 24lbs of fat! If you were not interested in dramatic body transformation, than you could easily get fitter and look better, just by lifting weights. This approach will take you longer, but it will work. On top of that, muscle is more metabolically active than fat.
• Studies have shown that a pound of muscle helps you burn an extra 35 – 50 calories per day. So, if you put on 2 lbs of muscle mass per month, then by the end of the year, you’d be burning off 840 – 1200 calories per day extra!

Tip #5: Avoid Alcohol

Many individual will go out to a bar on the weekends and order a “light” or “low calorie” beer. I’ve seen an increase in these kinds of products in the past few years. Make no mistake: alcohol can literally destroy your fat burning effects. It’s not just the empty calories.

• Alcohol has also been shown to decrease your Testosterone levels. Of course, this won’t happen if you drink just once a month. But, who drinks once a month? If you make it a habit to go out and drink one evening, your friends will ask you to come along the next evening, and 2-3 drinks later you realized you just reversed all your efforts of the past week.
• Instead, avoid alcohol completely while trying to burn fat. No, I’m not telling you to not have a social life. But there are other things you can do that are extremely fun that does not involve alcohol. Go out to the movies. Go to the gym for a group workout (lots of fun!).
• Go for a jog. Go to the park for a walk. Sit down and actually have a real conversation with someone you trust.

Start implementing these 5 tips and you’ll experience a dramatic increase in the amount of fat you lose. By the way, the only person I’ve seen who regularly implements these tips with his workouts and nutritional advice is Craig Ballantyne. He just released a brand new set of 19 DVD’s which are designed to give you the best chance at achieving a leaner, healthier body.

You can click here to learn more about this DVD set, but I don’t want you to buy the set. Nope. Not yet. I’m working on trying to get him to drop the price so you save an extra $100. So, instead, sign up to this mailing list, and I’ll keep you posted.

Simply enter your name and email below and I’ll let you know the moment he decides to drop the price. Plus, just for signing up, I’ll send a free, 4-week workout your way. Sign up below:

I used to get up early in the morning and jog 3-4 miles at least 4 times a week. Sure I lost weight, but it was because I was doing something my body was not used to.

Once my body became used to the morning workout, I had no choice but to increase the distance. After my morning workouts started to last over 45 minutes, I realized how impractical this was.

The weight loss I had experienced was actually due to two things: 1) shocking my body with something new, and 2) giving up some key foods that I was addicted to (Taco Bell, Starbucks, and Soda).

But for long term, sustainable weight loss, I realized that there had to be a more practical way that did not involve running around the neighborhood for hours per week.

My running abruptly came to a stop when I started experiencing knee pains, and what I believed to be shin splints. I do occasionally run these days, but that’s more for social reasons than fat loss reasons.

I figured out there was a better way. According to Craig Ballantyne, creator of Turbulence Training, 90% of the time, cardio in the morning will not help you lose fat faster.

However, it also won’t break down muscle mass, the way most trainers want you to believe. You will burn a little fat, but for it’s effort, tons of cardio does not provide enough returns on its investment.

Everyone’s different, so I believe that for some people cardio in the morning will be beneficial. For beginners and obese or overweight individuals, cardio in the morning will have a dramatic effect.

Similar to the effect that I felt – simply because your body is doing something it’s not used to. Hence, to continually benefit from the morning cardio, you need to make the workout more intense, not necessarily longer.

Craig Ballantyne’s approach is something known as Interval Training. Interval training is a higher intensity version of cardio. Once your body has stopped getting results from morning cardio, then it’s time to give one of Craig’s interval training workouts a try.

One of the best ways to help you with your intervals is to use the GymBoss Interval Timer. It costs just $19.95, and you can program it to help you keep track of any sort of intervals you may use. Click here to grab yours today.

His Turbulence Training workouts involve you performing 20 minutes of strength training, followed by 25 minutes of interval cardio. This simple approach has helped thousands of individuals lose fat and build lean muscle mass.

Craig explains further regarding cardio and weight loss. He has an absolutely free report for you called “The Dark Side of Cardio.” Click here to grab this free report.

Dorm life is insane. That’s what I’ve heard. I’ve never lived in a dorm (well, for two days when visiting my cousin). But all my cousins tell me stories about their dorm life, and some times I wish I had gone through the whole dorm living thing (but most of the time I’m glad I stayed home).

However, college life itself is tough, especially if your goal is to stay in shape or lose fat. You’re virtually surrounded by food alcohol. Wild partying can become a habit, and peer pressure is everywhere.

Some colleges actually have mini gyms in each dorm building. However, most colleges have one big gym for the entire school. These gyms are sometimes far from your dorm, and can be tough to get to, especially in the winter.

This is where bodyweight training comes in handy. You can easily get a great full body workout in the comfort of a small dorm room using some unique bodyweight movements.

For making sure your belly stays nice and tight, you want to use movement such as the side plank. With this movement, you simply lay on your side with one forearm laying on the ground.

Keep your body straight and lift it up off the ground so that you are balanced on only your forearm and feet. Hold this position for 30 seconds. In the beginning, you will only be able to do this movement for a short time.

Another great movement you can do in your dorm room is the one leg squat. The one leg squat is exactly what it sounds like: stand up on one leg and squat down. There are many easier variations of the movement, such as placing one hand on a surface for support.

For more great bodyweight exercises, training techniques, and workouts, check out Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss. Click here for more information.

This past year, more and more people have been replacing their long, boring workouts with higher intensity, short intense workouts. Busy individuals all over the world finally giving up on their excuses and taking their health into their own hands by training with high intensity bodyweight, dumbbell, and kettlebell workouts all in the comfort of their own homes (or hotel rooms).

On the nutrition side of things, Vegetarian, Intermittent Fasting, and “Cheating” nutrition programs have gained enormous popularity. We are learning that dieting doesn’t have to be as difficult as we think.

2010 is less than a month away and Craig Ballantyne has already set some interesting fitness predictions for the new year. Lets take a look three of Craig’s predictions:

Vegetarian Diets

Craig believes that more and more people will at least try Vegetarian diets. In the past year and half, we’ve seen lots of meat-related disease spring up all across the world.

According to Craig Ballantyne, more of these conditions and diseases will be discovered. Consumers will be more sceptical of the meat they get from their local grocery stores.

Most will try the vegetarian lifestyle. Some will convert, and others will go back to eating meat. But overall, hardcore meat lovers will take extra time and spend extra money so they can purchase locally produced and grass fed meats.

Cardio

Craig Ballantyne predicts a comeback for cardio. In the past year, there have been so many trainers bashing cardio that the trainers who love cardio will come back in full swing to defend it and try to make cardio fun again.

However, Craig believes that Interval Training and other forms of high intensity training is here to stay. At the end of the day, people want something that’s convenient, doesn’t take too much of their time, and something that works.

One of the best ways to help you with your intervals is to use the GymBoss Interval Timer. It costs just $19.95, and you can program it to help you keep track of any sort of intervals you may use. Click here to grab yours today.

Get ready to see more cardio machines and infomercials trying to sell cardio machines and workouts pop up. Both Craig and I agree that you should stay away from anything titled “aerobics.”

Bodybuilding

Just as disgruntled cardio lovers will be fighting back, so will the bodybuilders. I’m sure they’ve had it up their necks with all the bodybuilder and bodypart training bashing.

More and more people will be moving away from full body workouts to train their arms, chest, and shoulders in the traditional bodybuilding fashion.

I’m not really sure what to make of this, as I’m a huge fan of full body workouts. All I can hope is that people do not stray too far away from full body routines.

So there you have it, three great predictions made by Craig Ballantyne. He actually has a ton more ideas for what’s to come in 2010. He’s written it all down in a brand new free report.

Click here to Grab Craig Ballantyne’s 2010 Fitness Predictions Report

By Tom Venuto, author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
www.BurnTheFat.com

After you overindulge, I definitely do NOT recommend skipping your next meal or skipping meals the next day to make up for it. I usually don’t even recommend cutting back either, although there may be exceptions where you could manipulate your meal size or macronutrient composition.

I generally recommend returning immediately to your “regularly scheduled meal programming,” because this continues to encourage the maintenance of positive habits such as eating 5-6 small meals every day.

I do suppose whether you cut back could depend on whether you’ve been on low calories a long time, how lean you were already, and on whether you were in a caloric deficit already. If you were in a calorie deficit for the day, then the extra calories might only bring you up to maintenance, not “over” your daily limit, which might not be as damaging as if you were in a calorie surplus.

If you were already very lean or had been dieting strictly for a long time (as in a bodybuilder coming off a competition), a large meal or entire high calorie day might not have any negative effect either. Your metabolism has a way of slowing down if you keep your calories too low 100% of the time.

With occasional (planned) higher calorie days, you’d be using the BURN THE FAT “zig-zag” or “cycling” principle, so eating more in this context can be a positive thing. (Note: You can learn more about this technique in the BURN THE FAT program at www.burnthefat.com). However, there’s a big difference between a planned “cheat meal” or a planned high carb, clean food “re-feed” day and a binge on junk food. Regardless of total 24 hour calorie intake for the day, you could still store body fat after heavy eating if it’s done at certain times and in a certain metabolic state.

Although I do prescribe calorie levels based on daily (24 hr) needs, I believe you should also pay attention to 3 hour “windows” when you’re thinking about adjusting your caloric intake. Calories and macronutrients (protein/aminos, carbs/sugar and fat) are partitioned into glycogen, muscle or fat tissue or burned immediately depending very much on present moment energy and recovery needs and on what’s going to happen over the next 3 hours or so as the food enters your system.

So, if you’re going to be plopping down on the couch to watch football games for the rest of the day and night after that big holiday meal, beware – you might just want to cut back on that next meal a little, especially starches and sugars.

Bottom line: It’s okay to eat small amounts of your favorite junk foods once in a while as planned “free meals,” and it’s a good idea to eat more in general from time to time to keep your metabolism humming along. However, your best bet if you’re really serious about fat loss is to avoid huge meals and avoid bingeing in the first place. ALWAYS practice portion control – even on holidays.

If you ever do slip, don’t beat yourself up, just get right back on the wagon with your next meal and remember, the past is behind you and today is a new day.

Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
www.BurnTheFat.com

P.S. If you’re interested in burning fat naturally in a healthy, sensible way, then be sure to take a look at Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle – it’s the best place to start your journey: www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:

The summer of 2007 was a crazy time for me.  I was motivated to start Shah Training, become a Marketing Consultant, and finish up my Full-length Script. All my accomplishments so far are all a cause of one singular event.

But out of all those accomplishments, nothing is as great as losing the 15 lbs I did during that summer. Most people end up gaining an incredible amount of weight during the summer times. I lost weight. Looking back, I did a lot of things that I probably wouldn’t do now. Some of my ideas about weight loss have changed. I think there’s a better way. But when you’re 170lbs at 25% bodyfat, almost anything will work wonders on you.

Looking back, my weight loss can pretty much be split up into 2 large phases. I will illustrate these phases into a 12-week program which combines what I did to lose the weight and also a few tricks that I’ve learnt in the past four months since the weight loss.

Phase One: Weeks 1-6

What I did: I began running almost every morning, building my up to a 3-mile run that took me about 40 minutes.

What I would do now: Do a 2-mile run every other morning, focusing on speed. Greater emphasis on diet, and high-intensity workouts.

Phase Two: Weeks 6-12

What I did: Switched gears to intensify workouts and placed greater emphasis on diet.

What I would do now: Workouts would already be intense, and diet would already be clean, so just take it to the next level by dieting 6 days a week as opposed to 5 and increasing the frequency of intense weight training while decreasing the amount of steady state cardio performed.

There you have it. I’ve just created a rough out line of a really good weight loss program for people to follow. I think I might start this in mid-march or earlier, when the whether gets warm and I can run. Or maybe I can start this now by doing another form of cardio instead of running. We’ll see what happens.

But if you’re looking for a well-structured program which takes advantage of high intensity cardio and strength training, then I suggest you try Turbulence Training. Turbulence Training is the original fitness program for anyone who wants to lose weight fast in the comfort of their own home.

Click here to Grab your Copy Today!

First of all, how much protein do you want to get? I’ve heard arguments from the muscle blaster crowd that advocates one gram of protein for every pound of body weight. For me at 155 lbs. that’s 620 calories a day in protein.

I rarely get that much and I’m not a vegetarian. When I do, I find I pee constantly.

And it’s certainly arguable that we don’t need anywhere near that much. For example, Alexander the Great’s army tramped the entire known world and conquered it all on a diet of mostly beans and whole grain porridge.

Meat simply wasn’t available to those soldiers. Plant foods virtually all contain some protein that adds up over the course of the day. Perhaps the body becomes adept at using what it’s getting, just like the body can be trained to utilize oxygen more efficiently.

I spent years eating vegetarian and I wish that I had paid more attention to protein intake. When I was hungry, I would fill up on starches like bread or rice. That resulted in me being more than 25 lbs. heavier than I am now.

Too many starchy foods are a sure path to weight gain. Protein on the other had, keeps satiety levels high and is much slower reaching the blood stream. Hence, fewer insulin spikes. Alexander’s troops didn’t have any refined flour.

Knowing what I know today, I would have been a heavy user of whey protein. It’s very inexpensive protein, comes from milk, it’s easy to digest and it’s pretty tasty. I actually look forward to a favorite protein smoothie I make with a scoop of whey, a banana, a dash of stevia extract and a dash of vanilla extract.

It provides 18 grams of complete protein. For vegetarians looking to build muscle rapidly, whey protein might be your best friend.

I would also have used either whey or soy protein in hot cereal dishes. I find that whey actually improves the taste of my oatmeal concoction.

Textured vegetable protein is a great vehicle for ramping up the protein content of soups and stew-like dishes. TVP is essentially soy been meal that has been processed to have a ground beef like texture rather than a pasty texture.

Think of it as tofu with the water and oil removed. It tends to absorb the broth or sauce medium that it’s in and takes on that flavor. TVP can be as high as 70 percent protein.

I love nuts. I would also have eaten more of them and less bread when I was vegetarian.

The only way you are going to be sure about your protein intake is to start measuring. I use a free program called Cron-O-Meter. It will give you a complete breakdown of your protein intake as well as all of your other nutritional needs.

It gets its data from the USDA data base. I’ve used several food logging programs over the last ten years and this one is the best. In addition there are lots of websites that provide free food logging. Fitday, Daily Plate and Nutrition Data are a few among many.

Just about everything that we eat has some protein and over the course of a day, it adds up. Log your food and find out how much you are eating. Then you are in a much better position to decide if you need more.

About the Author

This was Harry Chittenden’s first post. Harry runs a quality website called BasicPursuits.com, which seeks ways to enhance ones health by optimizing eating, exercise, and relaxation.

Editors Note: If you’re looking for a no-nonsense approach to vegetarian eating, then I highly suggest grabbing a copy of Easy Veggie Meal Plans. As the title suggests, this eBook features tons of meal plans and tips to make vegetarian dieting easy and simple.

Click here to grab your copy today!

There really isn’t that much of a difference between strength endurance, maximal strength, and fat loss programs. As I was talking to a friend on Facebook:

Friend
10:20pm Jan 11th

u know its funny do u really have to run in order to build endurance? or are there other ways of doing it?

Me
12:42am Jan 12th

dang son. It’s OBVIOUS you haven’t been going to my website.

Friend
12:42am Jan 12th

lol hahaha

Me
12:53am Jan 12th

well, basically it depends on what kind of endurance you want to develop. I think the biggest thing that people don’t realize is that everything is connected. If you increase you base strength, it’ll help you increase your endurance.

Running distance will help with recovery. Calisthenics will help you improve your max lifts and vice versa. Your body is designed for survival, and hence all your workout should revolve around elements of ….well…EVERYTHING.

Does that make any sense?

Friend
1:09am Jan 12th

yes. how about if u wanted to lets say prepare yourself to be a mountain climber. or something that exerts ur body in such a way what would you have to work on endurance wise

Me
1:47am Jan 12th

Good question. I have a background in martial arts, which is basically a power and endurance sport. Mountain climbing is more of a strength endurance sport. You don’t need to exert maximal power in order to pull yourself up and climb a mountain, however you do need good agility, base strength, and flexiblity if you need move out of a region really quickly (if you’re in danger).

Now, just ask yourself a question: what the hell does running have to do with climbing a mountain? Nothing really. The best way to get better at mountain climbing is to climb mountains. 30 minutes on a Rowing machine is better than 30 minutes on a treadmill because of the type of trianing you’re doing.

Rowing is a fully body workout emphasising the back and the legs. Climbing is a fully body workout working the back and the legs. In addition, you’d want to work on your grip, lung capacity, and mental toughness.

Me
1:52am Jan 12th

What I’m trying to say is that in order to develop a decent training program you need to first identify the elements that you need to achieve your goal. Once you do that, you find out your weaknesses, and start building a routine around that.

I have a huge problem with typical bodybuilding routine because they’re typical bodybuilding routines, and focus only one one thing: making one muscle bigger without regard to any other qualities out there.

So if you wanna be a mountain climber, train like a mountain climber. If you want to be a gymnast, get yourself on some rings. If you want to lose fat, than do everything in your power to raise your metabolic rate.

But the most important thing is that you include as many parameters as possible, creating an element of randomness.

As you can see, a lot of high intensity exercise can help you improve multiple qualities at once, including endurance, fat loss, strength, and size. One fitness program that does this effectively is the Athletic Body Workout.

Click here to Grab your Copy of Athletic Body Workout

Moderate training will get you moderate results. It’s as simple as that. In order to truly excel in your fitness goals you need to be constantly taking it to the next level. Taking it to the next level means training heavy. Forget about training for aesthetics for just one moment. Don’t worry about mass or fat loss, worry about getting strong, because that’s how you put on muscle, and that’s how you cut weight.

I get asked all the time: I don’t have any weights, can I get in shape through bodyweight exercise only? The answer is yes, but the problem is progressive intensity. Progressive intensity means that your workouts constantly become harder. Earlier I’ve said that I always fall into a short training stump, where after about two to three weeks of great workouts, I experience a week or two weeks of really bad workouts.

This is partly my fault for not realizing this pattern earlier. But I’ve realized why this happens: my body adapts REALLY fast. I recover REALLY quickly. I can do an intense workout one day, then another intense the next day, whereas someone else may need a day or two off to recover. I think this comes from my old martial arts days. I believe that anyone that has participated in sports in the past, or currently does, is used to intense training and is able to train their body to recover quickly.

Two elements of my martial arts training was progressive intensity and constant change. Thy key is to be able to combine these two elements into your training routines.

Progressive Intensity

Progressive Intensity simply means that you constantly make your workouts more difficult. When it comes to weight training, you can increase repetitions, but that will only work for so long. You will need to go back, lower the reps, and add resistance. Instead of doing that, why not just constantly add resistance?

To make strength gains, you should keep your reps in the 1 to 5-rep range, and to make mass gains, you should keep your reps in the 6-10 rep range. Higher than 10 reps and we’re talking about muscular endurance training, which is beneficial for only certain purposes. In other words, work in the 1-10 rep range, constantly striving to increase your weights.

Constant Change

Constantly changing up your routine is crucial to keep your body guessing, and to avoid boredom. I once stated that you should switch up your routine every 3 to 4 weeks. However, I think that this depends mostly on the athlete. For example, I’m starting to transition into changing up my routine every week, and will probably end up using dramatically different protocols every five days. In other words, instead of using cycles lasting 21 days, I’m now shortening my training cycles to five days.

Don’t worry about what cycle you should work in. Your body will naturally tell you when to change your routine. When the gains stop coming, it’s time to change.

One of the best workouts out there which helps you increase your strength levels through bodyweight and dumbbell training is the Size & Strength workout featured in the Gladiator Body Workout.

Gladiator Body Workout is a set of 6, 4-week programs. Each program targets a particular goal, but once you go through all six programs, you’ll be leaner, stronger, and fitter then when you started out with.

In my opinion, Gladiator Body Workout is the best program out there if you’re looking for consistent progress and wish to train at a high intensity level with bodyweight and dumbbell exercises.

Click here to grab your copy today!

NOTE: This post has been submitted by James Chan, NSCA-CPT. His profile is at the end.

Ever since I’ve read the book, “The China Study,” I’ve experimented with lowering my animal protein intake and upping my vegetables. If you haven’t read the book, what it essentially says is that the lower your intake of animal proteins, the lower your risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and a whole slew of other diseases.

It provided some very compelling evidence, compelling enough for me to reevaluate some of my assumptions as a former bodybuilder of ten years who ate 5 times a day of high protein (all animal) meals.

Every so often, I get the question from vegetarians, “Can I build muscle as a vegetarian?”

My answer: NO, you cannot build a large muscular physique without animal proteins. Animal proteins don’t just include beef, pork, poultry, and fish, but they include anything that comes from an animal: eggs and dairy.

The key word is can you BUILD muscle without animal proteins? Try it on only soy, beans and nuts, and you will not build a yoked out physique at all. You can build an impressive physique that is trim and lean IF you strength train, but your muscles will have a soft and stringy look to them.

But big, buff, and dense muscles? NO.

Now a lot of people point to vegetarian bodybuilders such as Bill Pearl and others, but I’ll tell you this: Bill Pearl built an impressive muscular physique with animal proteins and THEN became vegetarian. afterwards, he still ate eggs and dairy.

Having experimented with a near vegetarian diet, I will tell you this: it is much easier to maintain a muscular physique on a vegetarian diet AFTER you’ve built it on a diet chock full of animal proteins.

And even then you will lose muscle density on a vegetarian diet. plus you will experience poorer recovery from workouts and more aches and pains.

However, your cardiovascular health will be much better. Rather than having an brawny physique, my physique is now trim and lean. but that is only because I am still strength training heavily, not running and yoga.

Plus I still eat animal proteins, but I practice what is known as “protein-pulsing.” Rather than constantly eating a steady flow of animal proteins every few hours every day, I gorge on protein once a day.

This is the way animals eat, and predatory animals such as tigers and leopards can maintain a very large and impressive musculature on that.

Author Profile:

James Chan, NSCA-CPT, is a full-time police officer for the University of California Police Department in San Francisco. He is also a NSCA certified personal trainer, and from time to time, trains a handful of clients ranging from off-duty law enforcement to white collar professionals. His training articles have appeared in Fitness and Physique Magazine and T-nation.com. He is also the author of the book “Strength and Physique, Volume One.”

Check out his website for more information.

Editors Note: Vegetarians still have a chance. You may not be able to look freakishly large as a bodybuilding, but as James stated, you can certainly create an athletic, trim physique on a vegetarian diet.

For the best vegetarian meal plans, check out Easy Veggie Meal Plans.