Why Are You Not Losing Body Fat?

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When it comes to food and getting in shape, one of the things that continually comes up are cheat meals. So what is the truth about them? Do they really effect your ability to gain muscle mass? Do they help you to lose body fat? Should you have regular cheat meals? There is tons of material out there that you need to eat crappy food in order to “shock” your body back into fat burning and lots of other nonsense (yes that’s nonsense).

But who wants to go forever without occasionally indulging or treating themselves to a night out or to a get cookout, right? But before you just go diving in and start shoveling down the hot-dogs and pizza like the zombie apocalypse is about to happen hold off.

There’s two elements to this if you are striving to gain lean muscle mass. The first is, don’t even think about getting in a cheat meal if you are just starting out on this journey. It takes time to build healthy habits and you don’t need to derail yourself right off the bat with a cheat meal that may lead you down a dangerous path. So if you are less than 6 weeks in, try to avoid a cheat meal.

 

The second main element here is not getting too overboard with a cheat meal. For instance let’s say you want to go to your favorite restaurant and are scanning the menu. Rather than opting for the 8 oz rib-eye with fried onion rings on the side, maybe grab the grilled chicken with a baked potato. It’s still going to be good, but a better option. You can have an enjoyable meal and it still not be terrible for you. I talk about this more in this week’s podcast episode.

Also think of it in the terms of a must have meal rather than a cheat meal. In other words only go for it if you absolutely must and can’t resist eating something from your old diet, but if you are feeling good, don’t just turn to a cheat meal, because it’s cheat night.

You are getting to eat healthy nutritious food that is packing on the lean muscle, so don’t view it that you need a “cheat” from that. Be smart about it, and be sparing with it, your muscle gains, and low body fat composition will thank you. I just wrapped up a 5 day nutrition video series over in our Bones to Bulk Facebook group, you can check out those here.

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3 Reasons to Workout After Age 30

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Sometimes when we think of working out we tend to think of young fit people, but in reality it’s even more important for those over 30 to get in the gym and start developing muscle. Let’s break it down into the top 3 reasons you should be lifting if you are over 30.

Reason #1: After 30 you begin to lose muscle. Yep that’s right. Now don’t freak out if you are already working out, because you are good. But if you are inactive and do not workout, your body will begin lose up to 5% muscle every decade after 30. While that may not sound like a lot, think about by the time you are 70 you will have lost 20% of your muscle. That’s huge. The good news is by lifting and working out, you can avoid this muscle loss.

Reason #2: Your metabolism starts to slow down in your 30’s, it’s just part of the way our bodies are designed, but by working out, eating healthy, and staying active, you can actually increase your metabolism and keep off that fat that likes to creep on in your 30’s. To get started with our free course on how to start boosting that now, click here.

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Reason #3: As you get older your bones become more brittle, they loose density. But guess what? Lifting weights builds your bone density. We always think about how we are building muscle when we lift, but in truth our bones are growing in density and strength as well. This can help eliminate so many bone problems that we can develop later in life.

So if you’re debating on whether you should start lifting, you should, because while none of us are getting younger, we certainly can get stronger and build a healthier body no matter what our age. For more check out our podcast.

Are You Working Out Hard Enough?

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In Monday’s blog we talked about how it’s important to not get complacent in the gym and push ourselves harder, but how exactly do we do that? I mean it sounds good in theory but in reality how do we push harder? What does that really look like?

The first step is getting outside of your comfort zone. We live for getting into routines and being comfortable, or at least as comfortable as we can get. But comfort is not only the enemy of progress. In this week’s episode of the podcast I talk more about this.

If you look back at some of your best memories they probably are times when you were outside your comfort zone, when you did things that were scary but worthwhile and you look back glad that you went through the difficult for the good.

 

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It’s the same way with your workouts. So for starters pick something that scares you in the gym. Maybe it’s moving from machines to free weights, maybe it’s implementing cardio into your workouts, maybe it’s going for a new personal record on a lift. Regardless, pick something hard that is going to stretch you.

If it’s not hard pick something else. Second go hard. You should be sweating when you leave the gym. Your workout should have you out of breath on multiple occasions while you are in the middle of it. If not do more reps, lift more weights, increase the speed on the treadmill, or the difficulty on whatever cardio machine you are on. That’s how you hit your fitness goals and gain lean muscle like we talk about at Bones to Bulk.