Yesterday I posted the following picture on Facebook.  I stated that the meal contained meat, potatoes, rice, cabbage, asparagus, and strawberries.  After posting I asked the question “How many calories are on this plate?”  Before you scroll down for the answer, take a look at the photo and take a stab at it yourself.

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The answers ranged from 400 calories to 1200 calories, all the way up to “GET THAT IN MA BELLEH” (with my wife also being a smartass and suggesting that it was 4500 calories – Love you baby).  After taking guesses a dietitian colleague of mine and I independently totalled up the plate using online calorie software.  And interestingly enough, we got totally different answers!

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Her total was 1500 calories whereas mine was closer to 1000.  But when we looked at the reason for the differences they were largely attributable to differences in the estimated sizes of the portions on the plate (we both agreed that the meat was probably pork).  However, the big point here is that whichever estimate you agree with the fact remains that the food on that plate represents far more calories than most people should be consuming in a single meal.  It also means that even trained professionals have a hard time agreeing on quantities when looking at a plate like this.

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With the Christmas season upon us and the number of parties, dinners, and potluck events that will inevitably be a part of it, I think that this plate would actually even be a conservative estimate of intake for a lot of people.  There are almost always pre-dinner treats like veggie trays, hummus, and chocolates kicking around.  An even then a single plate of food might be less than most people eat (you know…try a little of everything and then go back for a second helping of the stuff you really like).  Combine that with the calories from wine, beer, and desserts (you know you HAVE to try at least one slice of each kind of pie right?) and you’ll be consuming a boatload energy that will ultimately be stored as fat.

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Doing this task made me think back to previous holiday seasons where I hadn’t paid much attention at events like these.  This year I think I’ll be a little more attentive to what I’m eating.  If nothing else, when you’re making up your plate this holiday season I hope this task inspires you to be a little more cautious with your consumption to0.  After all, the best way to lose weight in January is not to have gained it in the first place.

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Have a great weekend!

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PS: Today is the last day to save $100 on the Peak Diet and Training Summit and (due to popular demand) there is now a 2 pay option for those who prefer to pay in installments.  This package is a true beast with 15 DVDs, 2 info packed manuals, 2.0 NSCA continuing education credits, and a bunch of other bonuses available only this week.  There is no risk as the product is fully refundable so go and pick it up before the deal disappears.  Order your copy HERE.

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Last week I shared a couple videos by my friend Joe Dowdell and his partner in crime Dr. Mike Roussell.  In case you missed it, Joe is the owner of a 10,000 square foot facility in New York City called Peak Performance that has recently been ranked as one of the top 10 gyms in America.  He’s also possibly one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to connect with.

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In any case, this past summer Joe held a diet and training summit as his facility in conjunction with Dr. Mike Rossell and, fortunately for us, he had the whole thing recorded.  Today Joe is releasing all of that footage and for this week only he’s offering a $100 discount on the whole package.

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Frankly, I’m still working my way through the material (there is a ton of it), but so far I am pretty damn impressed at the sheer volume of information in this product.  The training section alone covers client goals, assessment, principles of training, periodization, program design, templates, and even actual client examples from Joe’s personal files.  And that is only taking you to about half way through the training component of the product!

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The nutrition component talks about the various stages of nutritional change (from nutritional freestyling to counting and compliance) and provides Mike’s comprehensive guidelines for each level.  As I mentioned last week, I really like the way Mike breaks down behavior goals into actionable steps rather than using meal plans and I feel that any trainer or coach could benefit from utilizing this method.  Of course, meal plans can still be used for specific times when rapid advances are necessary, but I feel that Mike’s method is more sustainable for most people.

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In short, I think the resource is absolutely solid and I’d recommend it to anyone who is seriously interested in stepping up their game.  I’ve also just learned that this product has been approved for 2.0 CEUs by the NSCA (which is pretty amazing) so if you’re closing in on the end of the year and you need to grab some quickly then this product will definitely meet your needs.

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Of course, since this is a product launch there are fast action bonuses so I figure I should mention these for those who are interested, but are in need of a gentle nudge.

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First 50 Customers

…will get PEAK 30 which is a Rapid Body Transformation program used at Peak Performance including meal plans and shopping lists.

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All Customers in the First 24 Hours

…will get 13 Naked Nutrition Bites white papers on topics including how to battle carb cravings, surviving the holidays, and more.

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And there are more

…but I’ll let Joe tell you about them himself HERE.

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Basically, I think this resource is definitely worth checking out and with the $100 dollar savings and the fast action bonuses the best time to purchase is right now.  If this seems like something you might be interested in you can check it out below.

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Peak Diet and Training Summit <== Get it Here!

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For a long while now I’ve talked about progressive behavior change as the primary driver for fat loss.  Frankly, I believe in this concept so strongly that I probably haven’t written a formal meal plan for a client in over 5 years.  Going beyond that, I rarely even have clients count calories as this is dependent on the client’s need and where they are at in their training or diet program.  That is not to say that I don’t cover nutrition, but I feel that written diet plans are largely ineffective.

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Today my colleague Dr. Mike Roussell has shared a video that I feel addresses this concept very well and shows exactly how a fitness professional can go about improving nutritional compliance and results with their clients.  In fact, he provides the very content that he covered at the Peak Diet & Nutrition Summit this past summer and I think some of the concepts are absolutely fantastic.  To me, not having to write diet plans has been a major time saver AND my client results have improved more in the long term as people are able to stick to my current plans much better.

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I should say in advance that I am not totally in agreement with the some of Mike’s thoughts on meal frequency and carb consumption, but the key points in this interview extend beyond nutrition itself and relate more to how to effectively convey that information to clients to get the best results possible.  If you are a fitness professional and you are interested in learning how to bring about the best fat loss for your clients (or yourself) then this video is totally worth seeing.

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Fat Loss Without Diet Plans  <== Check it out!

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Also, if you missed the video I mentioned the other day where Joe Dowdell talks about how we went about creating one of the top gyms in the United States, you can view that here too.  But please don’t forget that both videos are only available for a limited time and will then be taken down.

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Fat Loss Without Diet Plans  <== Will be taken down soon!

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Have a great weekend!

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Okay…yesterday I posted a few things that came to my mind as I was writing, but the problem with those posts is that you always think of stuff afterwards that you wish you’d included.  So today I figured I’d just throw down a few more things for your enjoyment.

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1.  The structure of high fructose corn syrup is not that much different than table sugar (sucrose).  I think that the notion that HFCS is somehow magically making people get fatter is probably overstated.  Overconsumption of either is probably a bad idea.

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2.  Over the past couple of years soy has gotten a bad reputation.  Some believe that even being around the best friend of a relative of someone who once new a guy who ate a spoonful of soy is enough to make a man’s estrogen skyrocket and cause him to grow breasts larger than Dolly Parton.  The truth is that while large quantities of soy can possibly have some estrogenic effects, a moderate amount probably isn’t going to adversely effect most people.  Having some tofu or a soy based products every once in a while isn’t going to kill your body composition improving efforts.

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3.  Tell me this doesn’t look like it is going to be freaking awesome!

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4.  Why is keeping weight off so hard?  Your Body is Happy to Wait for Your Weight to Come Back.  Again I state, losing weight is the easy part.  Show me an expert who has a plan to KEEP it off and I’ll be impressed.

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5.  If you’re new here and you missed it, I wrote a 5 part series on training people with obesity a while back.  If you’re interested at all in fat loss, I’d highly suggest you read this.  Be prepared for a perspective shift.  Check out part 1 HERE.

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6.  Probably just over a year ago some random guy named Joe Dowdell added me on Twitter and then on Facebook.  Up until that point I’d never even heard of him.  Then over the next few months as we started chatting I found out the Joe was the owner of an incredible 10,000 square foot facility in New York City that had been rated as one of the top gyms in the United States by Men’s Health and the number 1 gym in Manhattan by About.com.  I also discovered that he’d co-written a book called Ultimate You and that he’d contributed to damn near every magazine from Men’s Health to Cosmo.

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Basically, he’d spent the last several years developing one of the top gyms in North America (where he gets to train celebrities and pro athletes) and he’d finally established his business to the point where he was ready to enter the online fitness world.  Today I’m excited to share with you that he’s put together a completely free webinar called The 5 Keys to Success detailing  the process of how he has built one of the top gyms in the United States.

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If you are a personal trainer and you want to learn what it REALLY takes to make it in the personal training industry or even just to get better results for your clients then this video is a must watch.  You can check it out HERE.

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In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve pretty much been MIA on the blogging front lately.  I’ve managed to throw down the odd post, but ultimately I’ve been slacking off a lot for various reasons.  As I recently just celebrated another birthday (did I really just turn 35?), I figured there would be no better way to make my return to regular blogging than to do an annual birthday post as they’ve been pretty popular in the past.

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In case you missed the previous ones where I posted largely embarrassing photos from my youth, you can check them out HERE and HERE.  Basically, in these posts I like to share bits and pieces about myself as some of the thoughts going through my head about health and fitness right now.  I might just end up saying something that gets people riled up and starts a lively discussion.  Usually happens.  Enjoy!

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1.  In terms of fat loss, I think that a calorie is mostly just a calorie.  In other words, I feel that there are some added benefits for health to making better food choices (less Halloween candy and more vegetables), but if you want to lose fat you’re ultimately going to need to consume less calories than you’re able to burn off.  If you don’t do this it doesn’t matter what you’re eating.  You won’t lose fat.

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2.  I’ve said before that I don’t think exercise contributes meaningfully to weight loss when a solid diet is already in place.  But that is only partially true.  Realistically, I feel that exercise CAN increase weight loss over and above diet alone (obviously more calories burned SHOULD result in greater weight loss).  The problem arises in that the amount of exercise required to make this occur is probably beyond the amount that most people are willing to do.  So high level athletes who train a ton are able to make this happen.  But I don’t think it is meaningful for average people who are training a couple times at the gym each week.

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3.  In response to the point above, some might point to THIS STUDY (actually systematic review with meta-analysis) that shows exercise and diet together are better than diet alone.  However, at the end of one year the combined group had maintained an average weight loss of 6.7kg (14.7lbs) verus the 4.5kg (9.9lbs) lost by the diet only group.  While there certainly is a difference, most people would probably fire me if those were the only results I was able to produce over a 1 year span…especially if the all the time spent on exercise every week only resulted in an additional 5 pounds over a whole year.  To me, exercise is best left to gaining/sparing muscle mass, increasing performance measures, and improving health.  Diet alone can handle the body weight.

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4.  Weight gain is not caused exclusively by carbs or insulin.  Taubes is full of sh*t.

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5.  In large, long term trials no diet has ever proven vastly superior to any other diet regardless of macronutrient composition.  In less fancy terms, whether you eat low carbs, high carbs, or whatever else matters less than the fact that you actually stick to the program in the long term.

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6.  Glycemic index may have a role in health (this is good), but I’m not sure at this point that it actually plays a role in weight/fat loss to a meaningful degree as some would have you believe.

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7.  Organic food may be better for us.  Or not.  Personally I lean towards the first statement, but there IS evidence on the other side that should not be taken lightly.  Don’t be duped into organic foods are necessarily better and that any evidence to the contrary is some conspiracy theory.  If you can afford (and want to purchase) organic then go to it.  But if you can’t don’t stress too much about it and focus on putting in good foods.  This is probably more important as a first course of action anyway.

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8.  Most supplements are pretty much worthless.  HERE is a good graphic to show you how your supplements stack up.  Note that even those that are above the “worth it” line may be there for reasons other than fat loss or looking good naked.

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9.  The vast majority of people making scientific claims about the use of programs or products have no freaking clue how to read scientific research (you know…the place from which the claims actually came).  People who use the programs or are a part of certain movements even become so dogmatic about them that they fail to recognize evidence to the contrary.

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10.  My product How to Read Fitness Research is the answer to this problem.  Oh…and every time you come to this page and you don’t purchase a copy a fairy loses her wings.  Just sayin’.

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11.  I pretty much love this post.

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12.  I was at a conference a while ago when the presenter asked a room full of trainers (rather off-handedly) if they remembered how glycolysis works.  Not one hand went up.  If you don’t understand the basic principles of science related to the methods you’re teaching…umm…how are you training people who rely on you to separate fact from fiction?

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13.  A woman on my Google+ page, who is a fitness professional, posted this picture the other day.

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Perhaps that “fitness professionals” as a whole shouldn’t be criticizing the people we claim that we’re supposed to help.  If you are in this profession, think before you post.

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14.  My hair is turning almost totally grey.  Seriously.  (Okay…that was random.  Just looked in the mirror.)

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15.  Staring a new movement…OCCUPY THE GYM.  Who’s with me?

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16.  I think you can build a body just fine without deadlifts, squats, or the bench press.  (Oooo…that is gonna get some people fired up)

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17.  Related to the comment above, I love all three exercises, but if  you couldn’t do any of them I still think you could get pretty buff.

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18.  If you didn’t know already, I am a social media addict.  I’m always updating my Facebook.  And these days I’m starting to find Twitter to be almost on par with Facebook in terms of awesomeness.  I’ve discovered that your Twitter experience is largely determined by who you follow.  Google+ is a little lacking for me, but I still have it.  Maybe it will grow on me.

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19.  My buddy Nick is hosting a strength CRUISE!!!  Seems like a pretty good idea to me.  Check it out!

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20.  I’m out of time.  Gotta run.

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Okay…that appears to be it for me.  Timer is going off and writing time is done.  Thanks to all of you for reading and sharing my stuff.  Much more to come now that I’m back in full force.

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Have a fantastic week!

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