3K Calories in a Single Serving

An average adult male would need between 2000 – 3000 calories daily. I always wondered what these calories would look like in real-time food. What if I was to eat a single day’s calorie requirement in a single meal? What would that look like?

Greatist did the math and found that 30 slices of whole wheat bread, 35 buffalo style chicken wings from Applebee’s, and 14 slices of Domino’s pizzas would suffice a daily worth of calorie intake.

Image: Greatist

The Naked Truth About Workouts

This post is from a friend, Jason Stubb, who is a personal trainer at the 24-hour fitness club in Hayward, California.

As a personal trainer, it is quite surprising when clients say the weirdest excuses to get out of workouts or to miss their daily session. As a personal trainer, I can offer mental and physical support but cannot force anyone into pushing weights or doing cardio. I want to talk about some common misconceptions that my clients usually have about a healthy lifestyle, diet and various exercises.

1. Fat and Muscle are completely different:
   Some clients think it’s easier to turn fat into muscle and so being fatter is an advantage. This is completely wrong! When working out one should focus on either burning fat or building muscle. It is not possible to convert one to the other. It is true that a person trying to get bigger should consume more calories, but we are talking about healthy calories like protein from lentils, grilled (oil-free) chicken breast, wheat breads, lots of water, veggies, fruits, a healthy breakfast, an extremely light dinner, and so on. The most effective way to build muscle while being overweight is for body-weight training. This workout includes cardio and resistance to burn calories and build new muscle tissues.
   PS: Primary results to be expected in 8-10 month after a consistent schedule.
2. Cardio > Weight-Lifting:
   It is true that calories burn during a cardio workout but the primary goal should be muscle gain. One can lose fat and always gain it back. But muscle stay around forever. Muscular tissues reduces the chance for fat to seep in those muscular areas thereby lowering the chance to gain fatty weight.
3. Myth —> Greater is the number of abdominal routines, the skinner is the waist:
   Sure, hundreds of crunches can be effective; but the most effective and shortcut path to gaining abs is to have a healthy diet. Eat clean & eat small at regular intervals. The exercises can help to strengthen your core muscles but the trick lies in the clean diet. Lots of athletes don’t follow millions of abdominal routines to get those perfect 6-packs. Cardio can also go a long way to get leaner and flatter. By cardio I mean any exercise that makes one perspire and gasp for breath be it basketball, swimming, soccer, football or even rowing.
4. Zero calories does not mean its good:
   Zero calorie drinks and diet sodas have a lot of artificial sweeteners that act as a substitute for sugar. This is equally harmful as regular sugars and honestly, soda is just a good-for-nothing drink in general.

Now drop and give me 2 more sets!!!!!

Climbing towards success

I came across this flyer all over my university library yesterday due to an elevator maintenance in the building. I usually opt to take the stairs in a building unless I have to go to the 7th, 10th or 20th floor. Stairs are everywhere and its a free workout to stay in shape and burn those extra calories from the Nutri-Grain bar I had earlier.

Stairs are everywhere but rarely embraced as an option to stay in shape. It’s a replacement for the Stair-Master that people spend hundred of bucks to replicate climbing stairs in their living room.

The exercise has multiple benefits like lowering bad cholesterol levels and increasing the good cholesterol levels (yup, there are two types of cholesterol), release tension that has adverse effects on the heart indirectly reducing the hypertension and diseases that affect the heart. Climbing stairs increases muscle strength and power that reduces risk of injury during an actual workout, it saves time and helps you skip your cardio session during your daily (weekly or monthly) workout and sometimes, it’s just faster to get there using the stairs – especially during peak times.

For instance at the library, the elevator is constantly busy during normal business hours and I will give my dirtiest look to the person that uses the elevator to reach the next floor.

I had a fitness-freak neighbor in California who used the stairs at our 11-storied apartment as part of training for his Iron-Man competition. He used to run up and down eleven flights of stairs till his body gave out. That was just awesome!

There are hidden workouts in all our daily activities. GO GREEN my friends!

The Before and After

Almost every unsecured website I browse has a fitness ad that sports a person’s before and after pictures. I thought those pictures included Photoshop but a trainer here explains step-by-step how these pictures are taken.

He claims, lighting, camera position, subject location, subject appearance, clothing, etc can convince the potential customer to buy the product or service.

Dramatic transformation: The personal trainer showed the difference that a change of lighting and some push-ups made to his appearance in the space of an hour

The first and last picture in the sequence are snapped with an hour’s gap in between them. The trainer weighs exactly the same in both pictures. Before snapping the last picture, he shaved his head, beard and chest, stood in an appealing location, adjusted the lighting and sucked in his guts till his abs were prominent.

It’s pretty cool how appearances can be deceiving and how some marketing could be phony. Please be alert the next time for scams.

Via: Daily Mail