Get Fit During The Month Of RAMADAN

Ancestors created practices on different parts of the year not only for spiritual benefits, but also for better health.

If an individual follows the rules of the RAMADAN month fasting, various researches show that they show much reduced LDL and Triglycerides level (reduced bad cholesterol in blood). 

Why not improve the health benefits by optimising the plan?

WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR WEIGHT GAIN DURING RAMADAN?

1. Eating continuously, especially between Iftar and Suhour, which is sometimes accompanied by tiredness due to the feeling of fullness.
2. Consuming large portions of food, more than the usual
3. Eating fried, high fat and calories food (kunafa, katayef, pastries and samosa) in large uncontrolled amounts, especially in the evenings

EASY WAYS  TO STAY FIT DURING RAMADAN

1. Avoid overeating
2. Chew your food slowly to avoid indigestion
3. Have your soup and salad first; as these are low in calories and make you feel full
4. Drink at least eight glasses of water during the non-fasting hours
5. Limit the intake of sweetened fruit juices, make your own at home instead of the readymade ones as they contain high amounts of sugar
6. Exercising is an important factor to help you burn fat.  Plan to either workout or at least go for a walk every day to stay super fit.

Customised RAMADAN month diet plans at a completely discounted rates. DM me or email me to coachbiglee@outlook.com to get your plan and make the best out of the holy month.

Tip of the day by Biglee - Spice

Tip of the day by Biglee - Acticity

Biglee's blog - Eat your food (PROTEIN)

PROTEIN COUNTER 
People are asking me all the time for the protein content of foods. Below you can find a list of some popular foods with their protein value.
Food Serving/ Grams of Protein
1 egg white of 1 egg 3.5
1 egg 1 large 6
scrambled egg whites 100g 9
lean ground beef, cooked 100g 25
chicken breast without skin 100g 30
broiled top round beef 100g 30
salmon 100g 27
cheddar cheese 100g 23
low-fat yogurt 1 cup 10
skim milk 1 cup 8
tuna 100g 29
baked beans 1 cup 14
lentils 1 cup 18
pasta 1 cup 5
bread 2 slices 6
tofu 1/2 cup 10
cottage cheese 1/2 cup 14
turkey breast 100g 23

Fruit juices - Healthy or not?

Most people around the world have this belief that fruit juices are super good. And they go way too much while ordering for fruit juices. Concentrating all the juice from several pieces of fruit into a small glass, and in the process getting rid of all the valuable fiber in it and gulping it down in a minute or two is an excellent way of spiking your blood sugar beyond belief. This in turn leads to the chain reaction of craving for more carb based foods later. Technically a big glass of fruit juice with no fiber in it can increase blood sugar levels, increase craving for carbs. In short it can actually abuses your insulin and other hormones and causes weight gain.

Well if you think that’s the only problem, then here is another more complicated part of it. Fruit juices are extremely concentrated sources of fructose ( a type of sugar that can be utilized only for your liver function and nothing else) . If you eat a piece of fruit, it is just going to feed your liver, whereas a glass of juice fills up your liver and spills over to replenish your fat reserves unlike the other forms of sugars which can be utilized to replenish your muscles.

Also food with excess fructose can significantly raise blood triglycerides and LDL levels which increases heart risk.

Note – these are not problems caused by eating a piece or two of fruits daily. But problems caused by people who have the habit of drinking fruit juices thinking of it as elixir of healthy life.

Grilled Chicken Salad with Olives and Oranges

Grilled Chicken Salad with Olives and Oranges

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
1 tablespoon finely chopped celery
Cracked black pepper, to taste
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, each 4 ounces
2 garlic cloves
8 cups leaf lettuce, washed and dried
16 large ripe (black) olives
2 navel oranges, peeled and sliced

Directions

To make the dressing, in a small bowl combine the vinegar, garlic, olive oil, onion, celery and pepper. Stir to mix evenly. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill or broiler. Away from the heat source, lightly coat the grill rack or broiler pan with cooking spray. Position the cooking rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.
Rub the chicken breasts with garlic, and then discard the cloves. Grill or broil the chicken until browned and just cooked through, about 5 minutes each side. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes before slicing into strips.
Arrange 2 cups lettuce, 4 olives and 1/4 of the sliced oranges onto 4 plates. Top with 1/4 of the chicken strips and drizzle with dressing. Serve immediately.

Nutritional analysis per serving
Calories                             250
Sodium                             264 mg
Total fat                            7 g
Total carbohydrate            14 g
Dietary fiber                      4 g
Protein                              29 g
Cholesterol                       65 mg

source - Ebay health and wellness recepies :)

Maximise your fat loss

Most people treat their diet and exercise programs as two separate entities. This is totally a wrong strategy if you are looking for the fastest possible results in terms of fat loss.

If you can learn how to maximise your output in the gym in terms of intensity you are 50% through in your goal. If you know how to create a caloric deficit and at the same time get all the vital nutrients, you are 50% through in your goal. Most of the fitness enthusiasts do either one of them and start complaining their genetics for it. If you can do both of them together then i am sure that you will see results of GIANT PROPORTIONS.

Diet and exercise should work together in a very smart, strategic way to yield the fastest fat loss results possible.

Eggs

Eggs are one of the nature's best foods. They are the highest on the Biological value list(a measure of how easily the protein gets absorbed from various foods). Eggs are also loaded with nutrients your body needs, such as choline for brain health and reducing inflammationm folate, iron, zinc, lutein and zeaxanthin for brain health, and ofcourse the fuel for muscle(Protein). In addition to that, they may help you lose weight. In one study, scientists put overweight and obese adults on a reduced-calorie, low fat diet and divided them into two groups: one group consumed two eggs as breakfast and the other group ate same amount of calories from bagels. The egg-diet group had a 65% greater weight loss than the bagel-diet group, and 83% greater decrease in waist circumference over eight weeks.

Dorian Yates Mr.Olympia Diet

It has been long since i gave a tribute to my "HERO" , The greatest bodybuilder of all time, The Mass Monster and above all the GREATEST WARRIOR IN THE SPORT OF BODYBUILDING. Yeah "Dorian the beast Yates".

When every bodybuilder of his time was running behind him to beat him or at least come close to him in terms of size and conditioning, Dorian always made it a point to beat his personal best in each and every show that he competed.

So here is a small overview of how his diet resembled during his contest preparation. Observe it , analyze it, learn from it and use it to gain maximum results.

Healthy eating

Change is the only thing that never changes in life. So we prefer dining out once in a while. People on strict dieting fear eating out. So here I will be outlining some strategies to eat healthy food even while eating out.

Food is not costly in this country, and as a result the portions of food are often large. If you are smart about what you eat, you can get a healthy meal without interrupting your diet.

Avoid fried foods. Frying adds more fat than any other type of cooking. Restaurants often use cheap oils(hydrogenated oils), a source of trans fats.

Avoid dishes cooked with gravy and heavy sauces. Most of the gravy dishes are prepared with fatty pan (butter, ghee, drippings from meat, etc.,). It is considerably high in saturated fat. Sauces are made from cream, which is also high in saturated fat.

Ask the waiter for the size of your serving. If they are bigger than your usual meal, consider sharing your meals with someone else. And it is not a compulsion to eat everything on your plate. Take the leftovers to your home for another meal.

Investigate on how the dishes are prepared. Ask the waiter, whether the meal you are interested in is prepared with butter or ghee or animal fat. If it is, consider asking the waiter if the dishes would be prepared with olive oil instead, or that it be steamed or baked with less fat. Stay away from meal prepared with lots of cream and cheese.

Eat a light snack before going out. Munch on a piece of carrot or fruit before going out. That way you won’t be ruthlessly hungry on your dining table in the restaurant.

Share your dessert. If you have a sweet tooth, consider sharing your dessert with others on your table. This way you will get the full taste, but with only a fraction of the calories, sugar and the fats.

Fat Loss

Intelligent ways to loose fat

Fat loss diet for all

The Pre-contest Diet

The Cardio Workout

Ephedrine and Ephedrine based stacks

Home Workout and Diet for Women

From fat to fit

The Green Tea

Healthy eating

Circuit Training

Morning Exercise or Evening Exercise for Fat loss

Walking speed

Maximum muscle gain

When it comes to building muscle, there are so many conflicting information that you might feel confused on where to start and how to start. So here in an article in which, I am going to put in place some of the most important strategies to consider while trying to gain muscle.

Positive calorie diet and frequent meals
The main place where most of the bodybuilders fail miserably is on diet. Working out in the gym is only half the equation. We break down the muscle tissue in the gym. If we do not provide it with proper nutrition at the right time, it will never grow. So in order to make the body to stay in anabolic state and to provide the muscles with nutrition consistently one must consume anywhere between 5-8 meals a day. The body must be provided with building materials every 2-3 hours during the day.

If we do not provide the body with extra calories, our body will never gain weight. So if you are planning to gain muscle and gain it fast, you have to consume a minimum of 10% more calories than what you require. This does not mean that you should resort to junk foods. You have to consume around one third of your calories from protein and two third from your complex carbohydrates and a very small quantity of fats. I ask to keep the fats low because fats are hidden in most of the food sources.

Protein - The base of muscle gain
Of the 3 major nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) protein is, without a doubt the most important nutrient for those who are looking to gain muscle size and strength. Protein is found in each and every cell of the body and its main role is to build and repair body tissue. Without sufficient protein intake, it will be impossible for your body to synthesize a significant amount of muscle mass. Imagine your body as a building under construction. Your workouts are workers and the main building material to build muscle is protein (like bricks for the building). If the workers don’t have bricks they will stop working. Similarly your workouts will go down the drain if you do not provide your body with adequate protein. So consume at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight when you want to improve your muscle mass and gain weight.

Focus on compound movements
If you want to make solid gains in muscle size and strength, you absolutely need to train with free weights and focus on basics. That is focus on the compound exercises. A compound exercise is any lift that stimulates more than one muscle group at a time. Examples of compound exercises are squat, dead lift, bench press, chin up, barbell row, overhead press, dip and lunge. Compound exercises will allow you to handle more weights and will stimulate more muscles fiber per exercise.

The training intensity
The major factor separating those with moderate gains and those with maximal gains is the training intensity. In order to take your muscle fibers to their maximal potential you have to take them to the limit on each and every workout. In simple words take them to their failure point.
The point at which no further repetitions can be completed using proper form is called as temporary muscle failure.
Moderate intensity leads to moderate gains and maximal intensity leads to maximal gains. It is as simple as that.

Avoid overtraining
The number one enemy for maximal muscle gains is overtraining. Most of the youngsters are taken away by the notation “more is better”. But one has to understand the mechanism of growth. Muscle never grows at the gym; it grows after the workout when provided with adequate rest and nutrients for reconstruction. If more is better was the correct approach, then training 24/7 would have been a great idea and pros would have never left the gym. But it is not the case. Even steroid freaks limit their workouts to an hour or two. If you spend too much time in the gym, you will actually take yourself farther away from your goals rather than closer to them. Remember, recovery is absolutely vital for muscle growth. If you don't provide your body with the proper recovery time in between workouts, your muscles will never have a chance to grow.


Track your progress and be consistent
Building muscle was never an easy task. If it had been as some writers mention in their articles, everyone around would have been an Arnold and a Mentzer. But it is not the case. Everyone on the planet is unique and each one of us has different genetics. So in order to achieve your goals you have to check your progress periodically. Even one rep increase using the same weights on the next workout or lifting some extra weights on the next workout will be a very big gain. Tracking your progress will motivate you better than any personal trainer or even better than psychologists. So never forget to track your goals in terms of weights, reps, size and weight. Noting down the lifts and reps each workout is a good practice. Taking measurements and weight every week is a very good practice too.
Be consistent in each and every workout and try to take your working sets to failure and even beyond. As I said earlier, maximal intensity leads to maximal gains.

All the best!!!

Fat loss diet for all

The first and foremost thing that I would say to those looking forward to lose fat is, “You cannot lose fat if you do not keep your calorie intake in negative” That is, eat a little bit lesser than what you expend on the day. So without wasting your time let me go straight into the diet plan.

Eat 6 Meals a day:

To keep the metabolism of your body high, you have to eat frequent meals. Rather than eating three large meals, 6 evenly spaced small meals can be utilized better by your body. You will get an uninterrupted supply of protein to maintain your hard earned muscle. By eating small frequent meals, you will give the body the necessary source of energy in regular basis. So your body will be in a good balanced state and so it won’t produce the chemical enzymes to convert food into fat storage. But if you eat infrequent meals, the body will go into a panic mode and will start storing fats under your skin in order to withstand long time without food.

Planning to make this 7 or 8 meals is also a wise decision.

The calorie game:

The most important factor in determining how much weight you gain or how much weight you lose is the calorie count of the food that you consume daily. As I said earlier, you have to be in a negative calorie balance in order to lose weight and fats.

You must remember one more thing. Human body has the best adapting mechanism. So if you keep your calorie balance negative always, the results will slow down and your body will simply adapt to the situation and will stop you from loosing weight and fat.

In order to over smart the body’s adaptation, we must learn to cheat. What???

Ya. Cheat in the right sense. Plan for two continuous cheat meals every three or four days. After three or four days of continuous negative calories, your body might think of shifting gear and it will try to adapt to the situation. But if you place a high calorie meal at this point, you will no longer be negative calorie balance. Instead you will be in a positive calorie balance. So your body won’t get adapted to the situation and will continue to support you in loosing fat.

There is one more advantage of cheat meal. It helps to pack on some more lean muscle onto your body. In order to maintain the added muscle tissue, your body has to spend some more calories that you eat. So it increases your fat burning capacity.

If you are obese by nature then space the cheat meals 5-6 days apart.

The macronutrient ratio:

Consume 60% carbohydrates, 30% proteins and 10% fats.

Is this correct ? – “If you consume 100 grams of food, then it should be 60 g carbs, 30g protein and 10 g fats”…

That’s absolutely wrong. When I say it in ratio it refers to the percentage of calories coming from each source. So the right way to consider is, - “ If I consume 100 calories, then 60 calories should be from carbs, 30 calories should be from protein and 10 calories should be from fats”.

Why on the basis of calories?

It is because,1 g protein = 4 calories, 1 g of carbohydrate = 4 calories and 1g of fat= 9 calories.

So fats constitute more than twice the amount of calories from protein or carbohydrates.

Time your carbs:

You can consume more carbs during your breakfast, before your workouts and even after your workouts. But it should be lesser during the night. Why?

As we all know carbohydrates are source of energy. If we consume carbs and go to sleep, then the energy consumed could not be used up by the body. So in turn the body will try to convert it into fats. So we must consume more carbs before high physical activity hours of the day and try to keep it very low during the low activity hours of the day and in night.

What carbohydrates?

Try to consume fibrous and starchy carbohydrates. And try to stay away from sugars, as they can increase your insulin levels and can spoil your diet. But consuming sugar carbohydrates immediately after training can help you replenish the lost glycogen stores in your muscle.

Never starve:

When ever you go into a negative calorie balance, take care that you do not reduce your calories drastically. Reducing the calorie levels by 10-15% is safe.

A fat loss enthusiast might try to reduce his calories by 50%. This should decrease his weight faster than the earlier…. But it will never result that way.

First of all, when he tries to drastically cut down his calories, his body will go into the panic mode. So now its concern would be to protect itself from the scarcity of food. To hold one kg of fat under your skin, you need not expend a considerable amount of calories, but if your hold 1 kg of muscle, you need much more calories than fats. So the body will consider the situation and start giving you energy from the hard earned muscle.

So after one week of this diet, he might have lost more weight than the other people on a safe diet. But from the second week the results will go down and will eventually stop.

If we analyze his body composition, he would not have lost much fat and would have lost much more muscle. So if we consider the proportions of muscle and fat, muscle would be lesser than before and his fat would be nearly the same or even more. So his net fat % would be more.

Why did the weight loss come to a halt in this person?

As I said earlier, the body can adapt very fast. Earlier it would have been on 3000 calories. So when the subject cut it down to 1500 calories, the human body adapted itself to 1500 calories by using up some muscle tissue as energy source and by retaining fat under the skin for future scarcity situation. So after this point if the subject tries to drop more calories the same drastic way, the body will adapt.

And at a point he would get totally hopeless on fat loss and might start to eat normally again. But now his body has adapted to very less calories. So even 2000 calories would be excess for it and it will deposit it as fat under your skin. This is the most common mistake that people do and complain that their diet is not working.

So let us not complain about diet and let us play the dieting game with sense.

These are the building blocks of constructing your fat loss diet. Construct your fat loss diet sensibly and achieve your desired goals.

All the best!!!