Fat Loss – Body Transformation – Advanced Nutrition

My client Brandy sent me this yesterday (Brandy is 9 weeks out from her first figure competition – GO BRANDY!)

High Protein, High Fiber, Clean Carb, Low Fat Pancakes

112 gms baked sweet potato
112 gms or 3 large egg whites
60 gms or 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 scoop vanilla whey/casein blend pp
Vanilla or almond extract
1/2 TA cinnamon
Few drops liquid stevia
1/2 t baking powder if desired
Mixed in magic bullet or blender, cooked on griddle
Made 5 small pancakes
Topped with 70 grams dark mixed berries

Whole recipe ( without berries)
Calories-234
Carbs-32
Fat-1
Pro-26

If you’re wondering why you aren’t losing fat and changing your body, it’s time to get drastic. Try this hardcore, yet seriously effective approach.

1. Stop the long, slow go cardio. High Intensity, Intervals, Sprinting. These things make you lean.

2. Limit fructose to sub 10 grams per day.

3. Make your two carbohydrate sources berries (cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries) and fiberous veggies.

4. Shoot for 10-15g of fish oil per day, and make sure you have a 1 to 1 ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids.

5. If you’re training, you should be consuming BCAAs while you are doing so.

6. Have Vitamin D, Zinc, and Magnesium levels tested (it’s inexpensive) and fix any deficiencies immediately.

7. Lift heavy with multi-joint exercises. Intensity is key, progression (getting stronger, adding reps, weight, etc) is king. No, you’re not going to get big and bulky. Keep the rest periods short.

8. Get sleep. It only takes a slight sleep deficit to throw yourself out of whack hormonally. A 3 hour deficit has the same fat storage effect as overeating by 600 calories.

9. Don’t forget the protein. I’ve written about it numerous times, so search the blog.

10. Eat real food. Ditch the bars and supplement meals.

11. Cut the processed foods completely.

12. Cut all trans fats.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey everyone,

Was looking at comments and blog emails and had one from someone who wasn’t completely sold on Fish Oils, so I thought I’d share!

Boyd: I’m usually in step with most of the things you say, but I really am on the fence about fish oils. In a nutshell, why should I take them?

In a nutshell, eh? How’s this? There is plenty of research readily available on PubMed (where government studies are published) that state fish oil can:

-Increase insulin sensitivity

-Decrease post-partem depression

-Improve hormone and blood sugar levels

-Benefit sufferers of Crohn’s Disease, asthmatics, rheumatoid arthritis, prostate cancer

-FAT LOSS

-Improving protein synthesis (increase lean body mass)

I don’t know about you, but I can name a million nutritional supplements that, over the years, have made half of these “claims” without any scientific backing and they’ve been all the rage. But this stuff is actually backed by science.

If those aren’t desirable uses for fish oil, then I’ll definitely not beat you over the head with it (although I should). In short, EVERYONE should be supplementing with at least 6-12g of fish oil per day!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

1. Slow, low intensity cardio makes you fat. By fat, I mean “NOT LEAN”. Ill looking. High intensity interval training is the only specific cardio you need unless you are training for an endurance event.

2. Working out is great, but being lazy in your daily life isn’t helping you get leaner. Get active and get lean.

3. A little bit of alcohol goes a long way toward making you fat. Give it up if you want to be lean.

4. Lifting with low intensity makes you fat. Get bang for your buck by performing multi-joint movements, and lift in the 70-85 1RM range for true hypertrophic response.

5. Lack of sleep makes you fat. Go home. Put work away. Turn off the television. Turn off the computer. Put down your phone. Go to sleep. A slight sleep deficit has the same hormonal effect on fat storage as overeating 600 calories each day.

6. Increase your resting metabolic rate makes you lean. Add lean body mass, period. It isn’t easy and there is a science behind it. You aren’t just going to get “big and bulky” unless you simply get fat.

7. Trans fats make you fat. Remove them.

8. Processed foods make you fat.

9. High quality sources of protein help you become lean.

10. Water, water, and more water keeps you lean, and keeps the body detoxified.

11. Vitamin D makes you lean.

12. Healthy fats make you lean.

13. Hard work makes you lean. If you aren’t getting there with the effort you are giving, give more.

14. High GI carbs make you fat.

15. Sugar, juices, sports drinks: Yes, they make you fat.

16. Probiotics help you become lean: healthy gut, healthy body.

17. Most people are zinc deficieint. Most people are fat. Zinc helps burn fat.

18. Dieting makes you fat. Yes, I did say that. It has to be a lifestyle.

19. If you are consuming high protein or BCAAs you are working on getting lean. Add B vitamins to the mix, as higher amino consumption robs the B Vitamin pool.

20. Fructose makes you fat. Fruit is fine, but shoot for lower fructose (dark colored berries) versus higher fructose (bananas, apples, oranges).

21. Excuses make you fat. Nobody has you chained up in a room forbidding exercise, and you control what you put into your mouth. You can make excuses, or you can make changes.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Welcome back, everyone!

This is the second article in my Keys to Summer Fat Loss series. In the previous article, I covered the keys to training for fat loss. In this edition, I’m going to focus more on the nutritional side of the house to get help get you lean and defined enough to where you’ll be excited the next time someone invites you to their pool party or lake house for the weekend (or wherever else you can wear as little clothing as possible).

I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, but this blog post is infinitely more important than the previous one. Why? First, 80% of your body composition is determined by your nutrition. The biggest difference in a bodybuilder or a fitness competitor that is in off-season versus pre-contest preparation is their nutritional intake, period. The training does not drastically change – only their means of fuel and recovery.

Remember that I am writing this for the masses without a particular body type in mind. So for discussion’s sake, let’s say this is for anyone who needs to drop 10-50lbs. Obviously the amount of time you need to lose the fat is dependent on how much you need to lose. These are only tips – not the end all to fat loss.

With that being said, when I speak in general terms, I focus more on the “IIFYM” approach (IIFYM = If It Fits Your Macros). Obviously, this takes a few types of calculations. You need to have an idea of your resting metabolic rate (RMR or BMR), your approximate daily caloric requirements through activity and last, but certainly not least, your daily caloric intake. Obviously, the most educated estimates on these three things are just that: Estimates. With that being said, actually measuring food, activity, and doing a few simple calculations is going to be much closer to exact than Joe Gym Guy’s estimates that he spends about 35 seconds calculating in his head. Most people under-estimate their food intake and over-estimate their calorie expenditure (hint: calorie counts on most machines are WAY high).

This leads to another item to consider: which macronutrient breakdown do I use? We all respond differently to different combinations of protein, carbohydrates and fat, so for simplicity, the leaner you are, the higher the ratio of carbohydrates one can have.

Understand that your nutritional blue print is a living, breathing document! Different days require different caloric/carbohydrate demands – too many people try eating the same things in the same amounts day in and day out and can’t figure out why they can’t break through a certain plateau. If you do as I say, you will lose fat and your body composition will change. As it changes, you must continue to re-adjust your intake. I know, it sounds like a lot but it’s actually pretty simple. Besides, if you aren’t ready to put a little effort forth and think about this then you’re probably not very serious about it to begin with, and should just give up now. Go away and save yourself a few minutes by not reading this.

How do we determine “how much”?

First, do the appropriate calculations to determine your daily caloric requirements. There will be a period of adjustment here, so don’t be afraid to tinker around for a week or two. If you start eating clean, you’re going to be making progress. I call this period “baselining”, as we figure out exactly what the body needs.

Calculate your BMR:

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )

Once you calculate your BMR, add your “activity calories”. There are thousands of charts available on the web that breakdown activity by hour for certain bodyweights. I prefer to use lower counts versus higher ones. We can always add calories later if needed.

For simplicity (and that’s what I’m working toward, staying simple), let’s use the Harris Benedict Equations:

To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375

If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55

If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725

If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

Be realistic – over-estimating will NOT help you reach your goals. Also, completely underestimating to artificially justify an insanely low caloric intake will not accelerate progress. Even if you lose more weight immediately, you’ll rapidly plateau and force the body to induce the starvation reflex. The body is a fighter and will attempt to preserve itself if it feels as if it is being depleted.

One final important note to remember: the Harris Benedict Equation does not consider lean body mass. The more muscle one has, the more calories one requires.

Macronutrient Breakdown:
Protein (4 calories per gram): Enough to ensure we are getting enough essential aminos for recovery and to ensure that the body is not breaking down muscle tissue for energy. I’ll start the calculation at 1g per lb of bodyweight. The lower your carbohydrate intake is, the more protein your body will require to support the added burden of reduced carbs. On extremely low carb days (.5g per lb of bodyweight or less), I prefer 1.2-1.5g of protein per lb of bodyweight.

Carbohydrates (4 calories per gram): Enough to supply glucose to the brain and to fuel our anaerobic activity for the day. Carbs are important pre-workout (fuel), during and post-workout (anti-catabolic and replenishment). Considering our amount of anaerobic activity changes day to day, this will be the most manipulated number. The key is to keep this number high enough (at the appropriate times) to support our needs, yet low enough to force the body to use stored and dietary fat for energy. Carbohydrate timing is crucial! If you are looking to lose a significant amount of fat, I prefer a starting base that is lower in carbohydrates (in the .5-.75g per lb of bodyweight range). If you are training intensely, I’ll typically add 100g per hour of intense training. Once you know your carbohydrate per day count, the other amounts will be easy to compute.

Fat (9 calories per gram): Enough to support organ function and the release of stored fat for energy while also having a feeling of satiety. Once the other two numbers are calculated, this one is easy.

Putting It All Together
Once you’ve used the calculations above to figure out your daily caloric expenditure, subtract 500 calories per day from that. If you are a little heavier, subtract 700 calories from that. This number will be your target caloric intake. Again, you are not doing the same things everyday, so these numbers should be appropriately adjusted. Using the calculations for carbs and protein, multiply total grams of each by 4. This is the number of calories you will consume from protein and carbohydrates.

For example, my caloric expenditure (Resting Metabolic Rate plus Activity) for a typical Monday is approximately 3200. Caloric deficit depends on the individual but I’d advise against reducing caloric intake by more than 20% at one time. In this case, I’m going to subtract 500 from that and now I have 2700 calories as my daily intake goal.

I weigh 220lbs and am relatively lean and very active. On a day where I consume 170g carbs (680 calories), I consume roughly 320g of protein (1280). 680 + 1280 = 1960. 2700 (goal) – 1960 = 740 calories from dietary fat. 1 gram of fat has 9 calories. 740/9 = 82g fat (I’ll discuss food sources later).

What I Meant Earlier By IIFYM
I put a lot of stock into nutritional timing. I believing fueling activity and eating the proper nutrients at the right time is key to optimizie recovery. With this being said, I tend to focus on more carbohydrate intake pre and post-workout. I typically provide a client with a range of nutrients to be in (for example, one meal may be 35-42g carbs, 25-30g protein and 8-12g fat). If you’re routinely on the low end of the range, I have no problem with using your residual nutrients for a snack, meal, etc later on. The key is to at least hit the minimum at the appropriate times – missing meals altogether will slow the metabolism.

Now, the rules…
1. You cannot make serious fat loss progress and regularly consume alcohol. Nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING will hinder your fat loss goals more than alcohol. I’ve said it a thousand times here on this blog: it has nothing to do with the type of alcohol, the mixers or anything else: it is the hormonal effect that alcohol itself has on the body. If you are not at a level of bodyfat that you are happy with, then you need to stay away from the booze (even the nightly glass of wine) until you are where you need to be.

2. Fuel your workouts and don’t forget the during/post-workout carbs. I know a lot of people believe that when they are dieting, they don’t need post-workout carbs – this is false. The primary goal for fat loss is maintaining the lean body mass you already have. Working out, in itself, is catabolic (meaning it breaks the muscles down) and post-workout carbs are anti-catabolic. I prefer 25-35% of daily carbohydrate intake 60-90 min pre workout, 10-15% during workout and 20-30% post-workout. The remainder of carbohydrate intake can be consumed at breakfast and throughout the rest of the day.

3. Dietary fat is your friend: learn to love it. Want a great way to stop the body from burning fat? Not provide it with dietary fat.

4. Get off of your ass. No, seriously. This is a nutritional article, but damn if humans aren’t lazy creatures.

5. Consistency is king. This isn’t an overnight thing. Look closely at your nutritional habits. Have you ever gone 10 days without one cheat meal? Challenge yourself – if you’re serious about changing, sticking to it shouldn’t be a problem. No one has ever accidentally eaten anything: YOU control what you put into your mouth.

6. Limit fructose (this means fruit). Fruit is terrible for fat loss – fructose wreaks metabolic hell and will keep you fat.

7. A majority of your carb intake should be fibrous vegies (greens, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, cauliflower, etc).

8. Bracket your workouts with a majority of your carbohydrate intake. In many instances, I recommend that up to 80% of the carb intake for the day be consumed pre/during/and immediately post-workout.

9. Limit grains, eliminate flour. Gluten allergies are very real, and much more common than most people realize. Just because you don’t choke up and die when you eat gluten doesn’t mean you’re not allergic to it – keeping a constant “belly bloat”, having trouble with stubborn fat – these are all possible signs of a gluten intolerance.

10. Eliminate all processed foods. Refined, processed, enriched, flour – these are words that you need to look for on the ingredients list and avoid.

Being leaner is a serious commitment. Most people don’t give it anywhere near the effort that they believe they have. It takes serious nutritional discipline and consistency – YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!

I have a few more articles in this series, including carbohydrate tips, nutrient timing and a few other ideas I’m working on, so check back soon!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Saw an awesome “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip today from the paper that was fitness related. Not sure of the little pig’s name in the stip, but he approaches a guy in cycle gear and starts this conversation:

Pig: Hey, Jeff the Cyclist, what are you having for breakfast today?

Jeff The Cyclist: 50 Grams of oatmeal, one cup of berries, and a quarter cup of almonds. It’s a part of my “Fitness Regimen”.

Pig: That’s great. Having a fitness regimen is important.

Jeff: Essential. And what is yours?

Pig: I’ve stopped frying my twinkies…

Silly, funny, but all too common. Like having a Diet Coke with your Big Mac Extra Value meal.

My fitness advice for today? You cannot out-train a bad diet. Real fitness and body transformation takes a complete approach: Nutrition, Training, and Recovery. A “part-way” approach will lead to very disappointing results!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey all,

Thanks to Darin for sending me the following recipe. SOUNDS like a winner for sure!

Ingredients:
-2 Scoops Vanilla Protein
-1 Banana
-1/2 Cup Quaker Oats
-1/2 Cup Bran Flakes
-Water to desired thickness
-Ice

Obviously, you may scale the contents down (or up) to your desired macronutrient breakdown.

Enjoy!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Yesterday, I overheard an entire conversation between a trainer and a client about how breakfast was “absolutely and unequivocally” the most important meal of the day.

A note to personal trainers: it’s time to step out of the stone ages.

First and foremost, the most important meal is one of two meals: the last one you had, or the next one you will have. Calling one more important than others makes it sound as if some meals are ok whether you have them or miss them.

Truth: the same amount of planning and thought needs to go into every meal that goes into breakfast. I know, you don’t have time to eat right or be consistent. If that’s your case, go away, and please stop cramming the gyms right now because you aren’t going to make a change anyway.

Every meal has a purpose (fuel for future activity, recovery from past activity, simply curb overwhelming hunger, keeping stable hormones, etc). If you plan accordingly and choose nutrients that go hand in hand with the time of day you are consuming the meal, you’ll be eating in a more efficient way that will help you reach your goals in a more timely manner.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio and you other Fitness Fanatics elsewhere!

Had quite a few questions to tend to from the holidays, so I thought I’d do them here!

Hey Boyd,

I am a local high school senior and have committed to play Division 1 football next fall at a prestigious university. Do you work with high school athletes?

Absolutely. I work with athletes of all ages amateur and professional. The transition from high school football (even Texas high school football) to college football is drastic. It is imperative to go into conditioning program a step ahead of the competition. Quite simply, I help athletes become faster, stronger and more cardio conditioned. We focus on regular power moves to develop base strength (bench press, dead lift and squat) as well as explosive movements that transfer into the sport of choice (plyometrics, Olympic movements, etc).

Not only do I focus on the training, but on the nutrition as well to get the most out of your training and to fuel your training and recovery – unfortunately, nutrition is the weakest link in most amateur athletes repetoire. I develop an optimal nutrition and supplement regiment for every athlete.

Ok Boyd, I have tried it all – lots of cardio, less eating, etc. I thought I was doing it right until I read one of your articles from a few months back about becoming skinny fat and how doing what I am doing is only going to make me a smaller version of myself. Not so much a question but a “Dammit I should’ve listened to your advice”!

It’s never too late! Starving and excess cardio may help you look better dressed, but gaining lean body mass and proper training help you look better naked!

Boyd: Which is better? Low reps (3-6) or higher reps (12+)?

Better in what way? Kind of a general question but let me try to help you: no matter your goals, there are reasons to use absolutely every rep range. I honestly use as few as one rep (on a regular basis) and as many as 100 reps in some exercises.

It’s like having a tool box and trying to figure out which is better: a screwdriver or a hammer. You have them both, so why not use them?

Any tips for coming off of a spell with the flu?

More than tips, I have sympathy, because for more than a week, I was battling the nasty flu as well. First and foremost, get yourself some pro-biotics and replenish the good bacteria in your system (especially if you were on antibiotics). My choice is Endo-mune. Second, take a week to “get back into the groove. Your body is still probably recovering, so the worst thing you can do is decimate yourself and make your body relapse into sickness. Increase antioxidant intake (permanently). A great way to not have to recover from sickness is to not get sick. Rest more. Yeah, sounds simple, but most of us aren’t even close on the amount of rest we need. Sleep deprivation has hormonal effects on fat storage and opens us up for a multitude of sicknesses. Sleep more, get sick less, period.

I have a very long email that I am responding to about fat loss/muscle gain, and I will be posting my answer here when it is ready – I think most people will benefit from it, so check back later on.

Make today great!

Boyd Myers
Master Fitness Trainer – San Antonio
Owner, Personal Fitness Revolution
San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio

There’s a very common acronym used: KISS (Keep It Simple, Sweetie). Ok, sweetie is often replaced by STUPID, but I want to stay positive here.

This weekend I was having a conversation with someone about body transformation and they made a comment that when they want to change their body, they simply eat less and do more.

Sure, that may help with temporary weight loss, and that is the way that most dieticians and doctors see things, but the truth of the matter is that most people take a stab at this, make little to no changes, and then give up.

It isn’t quite that simple – if it were, wouldn’t everyone with an ounce of motivation look phenomenal?

Anyone with a pulse can lose weight with little or no effort. However, weight loss means absolutely nothing in reference to changing the body. Losing BODY FAT is what matters, and adding a little bit of lean body mass is important to actually improve one’s aesthetics.

Unfortunately, to lose body fat and to gain lean body mass simultaneously is easier said than done – there is a very delicate balance that few people thoroughly understand. Sure, you can go beat the hell out of yourself in the gym, bouncing around like a crack addict and work up a sweat and try to eat as little (healthy) food as possible. You’ll burn muscle, induce the starvation reflex, and crash and burn after a few weeks due to over-training (and under recovering). Or you can do tons of cardio to negate bad eating, lift heavy for a couple hours of day, and try to gain muscle. You’ll overtrain quickly (besides: there’s a lot more to losing fat than doing cardio).

You have to have the proper ratios of each of these factors:
Training Intensity
Training Duration
Timing of Training
Micro & Macronutrient Consumption
Nutritional Timing
Recovery (and Recovery, and Recovery)
Cardio Intensity (and Duration)

Are you training too much or too little? Intense enough or overdoing it? Are you eating the right things in the right amount at the right times? Are you recovering enough between training sessions or are you waiting too long to train in a certain way again? Are you doing too much cardio? The wrong time of cardio? Inappropriately mixing in cardio and weights and completely negating your progress?

These are all questions that must be considered, and unfortunately the answers vary significantly between individuals based on several different factors.

I know, the information for most people is overwhelming and yes: doing anything is better than doing nothing. But investing the energy to understand each of these factors and how much is required for a) your current condition and b) your goals will result in an infinitely more productive training cycle, and get you the most progress for your investment of time and energy.

Boyd Myers
Master Fitness Trainer – San Antonio
Owner, Personal Fitness Revolution
San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio,

As promised, here’s another quick rundown on Branched Chain Amino Acids. I’ve written about BCAA’s more over the last 10 years than anything else, so I’m simply going to take a little bit from my other writings, add some other information and combine it together here. I’m writing this quickly and these are all my own thoughts, so once I read over it a time or two, I may make some simple adjustments (spelling/grammar errors, etc). Enjoy!

This isn’t information just for people to gain muscle – for fat loss, it is essential to maintain lean body mass to keep an increased metabolic rate. This is one of the more technical writings I will write here on the blog, because I like to keep it simple for the fitness beginner and people just looking to make a change, but this information is too important not to thoroughly understand.

Quick rundown: Essential amino acids are the ones your body cannot make on it’s own and must be obtained from diet. These are the important ones and these are the absolute key to body transformation. Three of the most important are leucine, iso-leucine and valine (the branched chained amino acids, or BCAAs). Why are they so important? Simple – the key to body transformation (even before fat loss) is preserving the muscle we already have. Muscle = Higher Metabolic Rate. Higher metabolic rate = leaner you, because you’re burning more calories in everything you do. Ok, so how do the BCAAs have to do with this? When you exercise, your body will try to use these three aminos for energy, thus, breaking down muscle to obtain these. More importantly, the body CANNOT SYNTHESIZE PROTEIN WITHOUT EVERY AMINO ACID PRESENT!!! This is why it is important to consume whole proteins (and why protein from sources such as peanuts and bread aren’t very good sources because they are deficient in many essential aminos).

Many quality protein powders are enriched with extra BCAAs, but I prefer to take it a step further: muscle (for women and men, and this is for everyone that is serious about looking lean, toned, trim, or whatever you may call it) is extremely precious. So, I choose to supplement with additional amino acids. To add, the BCAAs are binded to other aminos in powders. In formulas like Xtend, they are free formed and are more readily absorbed into the bloodstream.

Amount depends on your size (of course), but timing is crucial. Consumption should be at times when muscle is vulnerable to metabolization: I drink them before and during cardio and also during and after weight training.

For optimum muscle growth, cellular growth, metabolism, and recovery to occur, the proper proportions of amino acids need to be eaten. However, eating amino acid sources, such as meat and eggs, does not ensure that the amino acids they supply will be available for muscle growth and formation of other proteins. For example, suppose you have a gross intake of 100 grams of protein with all the essential amino acids present in equal amounts. Now consider how these amino acids are used in the body. To start, a considerable amount of leucine will be used for energy in exercising muscle. This means that there may be only a small amount of leucine available for growth and repair. When leucine finally runs out, this will affect protein formation because leucine is an essential amino acid. That means your body cannot make it. In actuality, perhaps only 15 grams of the original 100 grams of protein will be available for growth and repair. This is one reason why athletes need more protein, not just to compensate for growth and recovery demands from exercise, but to compensate for the loss of essential amino acids like leucine when they are used for energy.

There’s so much more than just protein grams – you MUST be getting the right aminos!

Branched Chained Amino Acids - the first used for energy, and typically the most limited supply in the body (these are the ones that your body WILL breakdown muscle to get if it runs out of glucose for energy):

Leucine
Iso-Leucine
Valine

Essential Amino Acids – these are the ones that your body cannot create on it’s own (the BCAAs are included)
Isoleucine
Arginine
Lysine
Methionine
Phenylalanine
Threonine
Trytophan
Valine
Histidine
Tyrosine
Pyrrolysine

Nonessential Amino Acids – the aminos that your body can synthesize and don’t necessarily need to be obtained in the diet.
Alanine
Aspartate
Cysteine
Glutamate
Glutamine
Glycine
Proline
Serine
Asparagine

Conditionally Essential Amino Acids – in some cases, the body cannot produce enough of some amino acids, to they are considered essential (meaning they must be obtained from the diet).
Arginine
Histidine
Tyrosine
Cysteine
Glutamine
Glycine
Proline
Serine
Asparagine

If every amino acid is present, the body is in a state in which it can synthesize protein, also called a “positive nitrogen balance”. If every amino is not present, then the body is in “negative nitrogen balance”.

Nitrogen balance is binary – there’s no “almost” or “partly” synthesizing. Before new muscle tissue can be built, the body must be in positive nitrogen balance!

Exercise basically “eats up” the BCAAs, so it is obvious that there is a need for increased BCAA intake for the physically active to not only gain muscle, but to also preserve it. Specifically replacing (or overcompensating loss of BCAAs) is best accomplished by supplementing with a product such as Scivation’s Xtend (the blue raspberry is AMAZING).

One can also conclude that it makes sense to focus not only on total protein intake, but also obtaining a complete amino acid profile, specifically focusing on the essential and conditionally essential amino acids. This is most easily done by supplementation with a quality protein blend (note that I did not say WHEY protein – search for a blend) and eating a variety of different protein sources (chicken breast, fish, lean cuts of red meat, turkey, etc).

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey everyone,

One of the common questions I get is about cheat meals, and exactly how many per week are “allowed”?

The bottom line is that there are no exact rules that pertain to cheat meals. However, obviously reducing the amount of cheats is key in getting to where you want to be. Having an occassional treat or reward is one thing, but allowing it to throw you off course is what needs to be avoided. I find that the more I allow myself to have, the more I want, so I prefer to remain very restricted when fat loss is my main goal.

The truth is that most people, even when trying to eat healthy, “cheat” more than they realize. Understand, a fat loss nutritional strategy designed to get you to a goal is a bit different that a “lifestyle” – at some point, more drastic measures need to be taken to reach a certain point. Once that point is reached, then the maintenance phase begins and the restrictions can be lessened. Ask yourself: Have you ever gone a straight week without any cheat meals? 2 weeks? A month? Rest assured, if you go a straight month following one of my nutritional strategies to a “T”, you will look and feel a lot better than you do today.

While moderation is always key, discipline is an asset you must rely on when looking to change the body. If you find that you are constantly thinking about how you need to cheat on your nutrition, evaluate your goals and what you are doing and remember, every step you take in the direction of your goals is a step away from where you do not want to be.

Never give up what you want for what you want RIGHT NOW – it is not easy; if it were, everyone would look amazing.

Conquer all!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great weekend. Of course, if you are in San Antonio, you have been dealing with this intense heat – please make sure to account for that while focusing on hydration.

I have had several interesting questions asked lately, so it is time for a little Q&A session.

Hey Boyd: What do you think of Vibram’s Five Finger shoes for weightlifting?

You must know me, because they are the only shoes that I have one for the last 2 years (I mean, I try to avoid wearing regular shoes at all costs). I LOVE being barefooted, and as a power lifter, not having to exert force into a shoe padding is a great asset when it comes to lifting heavy. I actually used to lift barefoot, but most gyms frown on that. Now, there are several minimalist shoes to choose from, and I find all of them very comfortable, even if they look ridiculous.

Hi Boyd: What are your thoughts on using pot and how it affects training? (Seriously received this one haha)

Just to be clear, you do know that marijuana is illegal, right? Now that the moral/ethical dilema has been covered, I would assume that it would have an effect on VO2 capacity (and more than likely, training motivation). And nothing that induces “munchies” can be great for fat loss (I love all of my readers :)

Boyd: Which do you prefer: low fat or low carb diets?

I do not prefer either. There are cases for each, but the best approach is consistency and timing of nutrients based on need.

As humans, we natually look for the quick fix – however, extreme depletion or removal of a specific nutrient is not that fix. Of course, there are times for lower levels and amounts (relatively speaking, based on what you already eat) but eliminating either fat or carbs from the diet is an excellent way to lead to many more long term issues.

Hey Boyd: I have read you since way back in the day at MW, BB4U and several other message boards and you are a man ahead of the game! I remember you suggesting D3, CoQ10 and many other nutrients years before they became mainstream. Right now, what is the one that you would recommend that people need and are severely overlooking?

Thank you for the message – I am glad that you have found some of my recommendations useful. I am sure that you know my affinity for BCAAs and fish oils. Over the last 5 years, I have been a huge advocate of Sesamin – and the more time that passes, the more I believe in it. Benefits? Kidney and liver support, antioxidants, nutrient parititioning (it improves fat loss and muscle gain), recover, etc. I am not a supplement feind, but Sesamin has a use for absolutely everyone.

Boyd: If I were wanting to learn more about gaining strength, what authors do you recommend? When are you going to write a book on bench pressing? I have seen some of your vids: that is INSANE for anyone, and you are built like a real athlete, not a blocky bench presser!!!

Thanks (I am giggling at that). I hear that comment everyday (about not being built like a traditional powerlifter). Bench pressing is so much technique and focusing on individual areas to support an entire movement. I am a stickler for form and learning HOW to bench has a great deal with how much you can move.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the premier strength training coaches, and one of my mentors is Charles Poliquin. Google his name and read some of his Q&A from years past. He knows his stuff, speaks at a basic level, and has trained an entourage of Olympic WR holders.

A bench press book… Hmmmmm, I think about it everytime I bench or see other people benching. I seriously may put a nice eBook together on building the perfect bench press. I believe it doesn’t take a genetic freak to become at least a double your bodyweight bencher.

It is competition time – I have a lot of people asking for my assistance in competitions coming up. IF you are looking to compete in the Fall and are thinking about using my services, let me know as I do have a hard limit on the number of competitors I train at a given time. It is time consuming, and I limit myself on the number of competitors I train to give each competitor the attention they need.

PUSH YOURSELF FURTHER!!!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey Everyone,

So I did it – a full week of being a vegan. Yes, I planned on 10 days, but for a few reasons, I decided to cut it short.

I actually logged it and saved the drafts and will be putting them out there for the world to see over the next few days. Not a whole lot: at first, I was miserable from the drastic change and the intense hunger, but once I got into the swing, it wasn’t that bad.

The main reason for the switch is that I am getting close to picking up the heavy training again and I need the fuel for recovery. I was supplementing with 150g of bcaa, but was still getting insanely (irregularly) sore after the lightest of workouts. I really focused on a wide variety of foods to make sure I covered the full spectrum of aminos, but my demands are quite high.

Anyway, I do feel that it helped me discover veggies I will eat – in the past, I avoided them like the plague.

I hesitated to release my blog as I was doing it because I didn’t want to spend time thinking about it – just wanted to eat and be done with it and not have to answer a ton of questions.

I have an incredible week ahead and I feel great – better than I have in a very long time!

Take on the world and make it beg for mercy!!!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

So today I embark on a fitness/health challenge that I have never tried before. It is far fetched, crazy, and completely unlike me, BUT it will be a huge challenge and I am jacked: I am a 235lb powerlifter that is going to take a stab at going Vegan for 10 days. Completely Vegan – no animal at all.

Why? Just want to see if I can – I openly hate veggies and that is something I want to overcome, so why not go extreme? It is the way I do everything else! It will be a challenge, mainly because I eat over 7000 calories on a given day but I realize much of it will be psychological.

I will blog all about it right here, including a much more in-depth analysis on why I am doing it and how I do it.

Hope everyone had a great Independence Day!