I used to study this stuff on the side, as a hobby. So I know a few things.
Do high intensity exercise for fitness, because it forces your body to adapt.
Do low intensity for calorie burning, because you can keep going. However, you’re not really building fitness because you’re not forcing your body to adapt to a stress load.
In any exercise program, I would start off with high-intensity to build the fitness and then, when I have worked to failure, I would adapt a low intensity exercise for 15 or twenty minutes to cool off and get the calorie burning in.
Weight training should be done until failure, if you want your body to adapt to greater stress loads.
What I have found is that it is the working until failure that matters most. HIIT is simply the most efficient way to get to that point, but you can get to that point if you simply exercise until failure.
I’ve talked to many of the ex-pro bodybuilders and their work regiments are all over the place in terms of time or intensity and everything. However, what matters most is that every one of them worked out until they couldn’t work out any more.
If you cut calories, take it out of carbs. Carbs are the easily converted calorie to fat.
Protein should be 3/4 gram for every pound you want to weigh. The grams of protein should be set in stone that you do not cut under any circumstances.
The body uses protein to process fat to turn it to waste, so you don’t want the body to be digesting your body’s muscle mass while trying to lose weight.
Eat fat in the mornings, so the body can spend the day using it.
Typically 25% of the diet should come from protein. 20-25% should come from fat and the remaining 55-60% should come from carbs.
However, don’t cut large amounts of food from the diet in order to create something that can be maintained. If you are losing weight, don’t change anything. However, if you’re remaining stable, cut about 50 calories/day to see if that helps. If you begin losing weight again, maintain that. If you aren’t losing weight, cut another 50 calories.
50 calories is about a half slice of bread or a handful of rice.
Your pre-workout snack should be carbed based, for energy, and your post-workout snack should be protein based, to help repair the body.
There are lots of home based recipes for powders that you can make at home without spending a lot of money.
Most of them are just some variation of eggs, milk, and whey turned into powder.
There is no real reason to buy supplemental powders, unless you really needed the best science to extract that fraction of a bonus benefit.
Find those hidden calories, like having salad with your salad dressing instead of the other way around.
I like diet Miracle Whip that is flavoured with lemon juice. The taste is sharp enough that you don’t need a lot to make it delicious.
I know Lou Ferrigno, when he was competing, would just make a vinaigrette out of lemon juice and vinegar.
I’ve seen zero calorie salad dressings on the web that is based in vinegar and artificial juicers.
My only thought is that while you stress up to the point of failure, you do not want to actually fail. Should be able to provide that stress without actually teaching your mind and nerves to expect failure.
My only thought is that while you stress up to the point of failure, you do not want to actually fail. Should be able to provide that stress without actually teaching your mind and nerves to expect failure.