I recently emailed a co-worked with some advice on various workout programs and diets. After I finished it, I realized that it would also make a great post. So here you have it. Enjoy.
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When I first started at my job 5 ½ years ago, I was tipping the scales at around 230lbs. Being someone that has always had an interest in working out and eating “right”, that was a tough weight for me to swallow. I knew I had to change. What I started to do was pretty simple. I joined the 24 Hour Fitness up the street from my office and I would go workout 3 times a week before work. It took some dedication and a few hours of missed sleep but I knew that I had to do it. For the first month, I only did cardio (elliptical mainly). I then gradually added in some weight training and altered my diet by eating less food at each meal and adopting the philosophy of eating 6 small meals a day. I ate mainly fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. I think portion control was my biggest benefactor and the weight slowly started to come off. What I did back then may have worked for me, but I now have a lot more knowledge about different programs out there and I think I could have taken what then took me almost year to accomplish and could now do it in months. Below I have outlined some programs that I consider to be very effective. Some are hardcore and others, not so much. Just remember that the best diet is one that you can stick with long term. It needs to be more of a lifestyle change than a diet.
Leangains – this is the program I am doing right now. It involves fasting daily for 16 hours and then an 8 hour feed window. I work out fasted not including the ingestion of 10grams of BCAA. It allows some freedoms in eating habits to a certain extent but it does take some planning. On workout days (lifting), you would make carbs your primary macronutrient followed by protein and then fat. On non-workout days, you eat more protein, then fat, and then carbs. It’s a method of carb cycling. It works very well for a lot of people and is growing quite a bit in popularity. This would be a great program if you plan on doing some heavy lifting and want to stay away from the intense cardio.
Primal/Paleo – All my Primal/Paleo peers would shoot me if I didn’t recommend this. I do this program along with Leangains. This is about low carb eating via all natural foods. I have never felt better then when I eat like this. Some good reading material on this would be
MarkDailyApple.com and a book called Primal BluePrint. Both are excellent resources and I highly recommend them both. Mark Sisson advocates eating like our primitive ancestors and doing basic exercises in moderation. You wont find any grueling 5 day a week workouts here. I think this is a great program for people that have busier lifestyles but it does take some commitment in the eating aspect. Meat, fruit and vegetables are the primary staple of the Primal/Paleo diets. Can’t go wrong with that! If you like carbs and sugar, it will be a hard one to follow but if you can stick with it, you will feel much better. I can attest to that.
Visual Impact – I am currently doing this workout program. It’s a great program to get that Hollywood look instead of the over bulked look of body builders. All though this program is mainly exercise based, Rusty does offer some solid advice on eating with his primary dietary focus being on calories consumed vs calories burned. He also just released a female version of his program that looks to be equally as promising.
Low Glycemic – Low Glycemic diets are what you see a lot of on TV where they ship you the food: Medifast, South Beach, etc. The idea behind them is that certain foods have a great effect on blood sugar levels and thus insulin secretion. The more insulin that gets created and secreted, the more fat that will get stored. If you can eat foods that have low glycemic indexes, you can keep your insulin levels low and lose body fat. I have never tried any of these (with the exception of a small stint with South Beach) but I am guessing they are a lot like low carb diets but with a little bit more freedom in some of the foods you can eat. Go to the book store and you will find countless books on the GI diet as well as many recipe books. Might be the easiest one to follow. Something like this would work good with the Visual Impact program above or even P90x below.
Weight Watchers – Up until a few months ago, I didn’t know anyone that had tried Weight Watchers. Recently, however, I have had a few family members try it and all have had great success with it. All three have lost double digit weights in a very short amount of time. From what I can tell, none of them had to really give up the foods that they enjoyed, just limit the quantities and frequencies a bit. The new Weight Watchers Plus allows zero point deductions for the consumption of fruits and vegetables. How awesome is that! Weight Watchers also has some great apps for the mobile market so you can always stay accountable regardless of where you are.
P90x – I have done this program about 6 times and its one of the best exercise programs out there in my opinion. One thing that many people don’t realize is that the workout program is only half of it. They also have a very extensive dietary program included and without it, the results you see on TV, would not have been achieved. It’s pricey but if you can make it through the entire thing and follow the diet exactly, there is no reason why you wont be in the best shape of your life. This fall Tony Horton and Beachbody are releasing a follow up series called P90x MC2. You can bet that I will be purchasing that as soon as it comes out!
I hope some of this helps. If you have any questions about any of the stuff I listed above or if you have found other diets/programs that you want to ask me about or suggest for my list, please feel free to send me an email or leave a comment below.
I am not a guy that follows workout programs outlined in fitness magazines. I also rarely pay much attention to the articles on nutrition. The latest Men's Health magazine has changed that a bit for me though. This months article entitled 
