WHAT IT TAKES TO BURN 100 CALORIES

Before you buy your next soda or "healthy smoothie" for lunch (100-200+ calories, primarily coming from sugar), please, please take a look at the time and effort that you have to spend to burn a hundred calories. Multiply the times accordingly to see how your hypothetical workout of penitence would match up against your potential junk intake for the day!

I basically hopped on a couple of cardio machines (that had computer screens since I do not have those modern calorie tracking gadgets), started at a comfy pace, and stopped right away once a hundred calories was burned. My current weight is somewhere around 135-140 lbs, and both the calories burned and time consumed are based on the cardio machine's computer screen. This post will be regularly updated as different methods are tested and experienced.

JOGGING on a treadmill
Pace = Chillin at 6mph (give or take 9.5 kph)
Difficulty = 0% Incline

Distance = 0.85 miles (1.36 km)
Time Consumed = 8 minutes and 35 seconds



Random Food Equivalents:
1 slice of bread
          OR
1 cup of cereal

**Random Food Equivalents are close matches, but may not be exactly worth a hundred calories.

BIKING on a stationary bike
Pace = Around 90-115 RPM (Depending on the gym's music)
Difficulty = Lv.5 of Startrac machine (Relatively light-moderate resistance)

Distance = 3.63 miles (5.84 km)
Time Consumed = 16 minutes and 28 seconds



Random Food Equivalents: 
HALF a serving of small fries
                    OR
HALF a bottle of regular soda.

My Personal Opinion : Depending on your patience and attention span, doing redundant cardio on gym machines can be boring! Doing you cardio outdoors will be much more fun and dynamic, while playing sports could probably be the most fun way to burn calories. Just make sure to check the safety of your neighborhood, or the area where you would do your cardio before you proceed.

This page will be updated as more exercises and data are collected!

Related Articles:

1) Nutritional Information
2) Cheat Day!
3) Cost Drivers and Incremental Tracking


Clean N' Mean

CHEAT DAY!

Every once in a while, people gather in celebration of an occasion. Every once in a while, people just want to eat all they can.

The most potentially devastating venue for a cheat day will be a buffet. The participants will have the natural urge to get their money's worth (or to avoid making the host feel that the whole gig was a waste of money). If you can't eat smart and stay in control, then might as well get the most out of the cheat day.

Disclaimer: Cheat days are not recommended in any way by the author of this article.

PRE-BINGE

Before I head to the venue, I usually lift decent to heavy for multiple muscle groups. Try to get a good total body workout that will work as a pre-feeding hunger inducer. I try to get 3 decent exercises per muscle group. It can be draining, and it might not be the best thing out there, but it is what I do just to get the whole body into building/repair mode. The idea is to turn cheat day into something like a bulking day by maximizing your target gains while minimizing your cheat day damages. I would then usually go cardio the next day to release the sweat and to keep things light for me especially if I have trained everything already. Add core or abs at least during the cardio day too if you feel like it!

Little anecdotal note: Today, I cheated.   :(  

I did these before eating:

• Chest - 4 sets of benches, 4 sets of inclined benches, 4 sets of dips   
• Back - 4 sets of lat pull downs, 4 sets of dumbbell rows, 4 sets of cable rows, 4 sets of body weight chinups
• Shoulders - 8 sets of machine shoulder press (using 2 grips with 4 sets per grip), 4 sets of the infamous upright rows.

But then I was trying to catch lunch time and I was not able to do these (which I wanted to do too):

• Squats
• Deadlifts

Ok, time to eat now!

 

DAMAGE CONTROL

Assuming that the calories and volume of food will already be an uncontrollable sunk cost (equal to your max), the remaining factors that you would then have to watch for would be : Bad Fats, Sodium, Sugars.

Sodium probably will be high on everything. Bad oils will probably be high on a lot of things. Sugars can be present in some sauces.

 3 factors to watch for. 2 buffet sections to avoid!

STAY AWAY FROM THESE #1

FRIED FOOD - The usual Go-To-Spot! The best appetizers, the king of main courses! They will saturate you with sodium and bad fats. Items here do not have a good protein-to-bad-stuff ratio. If you want to cheat, try not to do it this way!

STAY AWAY FROM THESE #2

DESSERTS - The cold blooded dagger! These sweets will provide you enough sugar, calories, and fat, to put you in catching up mode for the rest of the week! They are so deadly because of their bad stuff density, and their easy-to-eat nature! If you really need one, grab one (just one!) slice of your favorite poison.

CHEAT IT RIGHT

I know that too much of anything will eventually make you gain weight in a bad way. But . . . It's cheat day today!

My 3 plates of equal sizes (seemingly different due to poor photography) are on the left. First one on top was mostly steak, beef, fish, tofu, shrooms, and broccoli.

2nd plate in the middle had a lot of seafood, veggies, sushi, and gyozas.

Final plate had more beef and veggies, fish, a couple of chicken strips and a pizza! My day is never complete without a slice of pizza!  I also had a small dessert plate behind the scenes! 

I didn't want to cheat too much today, so I didn't put in too much carbs. Most carbs came from the pizza, sauces, sushi, and gyozas.

Generally speaking, grilled food will be much better, creamy food could have fats and oils, while fried food are just plain killers. 

Also, buffets usually have a diverse menu. It can be a chance to consume a variety of proteins and veggies that are too inconvenient to cook on your own. Plus, buffets can be fun too, right?

I was surprised that my plates are not as full this time. I'm guessing that writing these articles have nudged me a bit towards the right direction. I am hoping that it does the same to you too. :)

Related Articles:

1) Nutritional Information
2) What it takes to burn 100 calories
3) Cost Drivers and Incremental Tracking



Clean N' Mean

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

You are what you eat.

 (Do not forget that you also will be what you do, what you think, what you feel, what you believe in, etc.)

I will try to provide a general set of rules that can hopefully improve the basic nutritional conscience [ yes conscience because it feels so bad to eat things that are so good :( ].

You eat because food tastes good, and also because food has nutrients. There would be tons of different nutrients out there. Macronutrients would be the bulk of your nutrients. They will be your calorie sources - fats, carbs, and proteins. If you try to check out the nutritional information of your meal, you will notice that they appear in grams. Micronutrients will be the likes of vitamins and minerals which usually appear in percentages or milligrams. I will not talk as much about micro nutrients. Eat your fruits, veggies, drink your milk before you sleep, and you should be generally ok!

BASIC MACRO

3500 calories translates into 1 pound.

Everybody has their own unique basic metabolic calorie requirements. Depending on your metabolism, which can be influenced by gender, age, weight, height, fat%, etc, it should be around 2500 give or take a couple of hundreds to thousands. An incremental increase of consumption by 3500 will make you gain a pound, as an incremental decrease will make you lose a pound. Same goes with physical activity. Burning 3500 calories will make you lose a pound. The composition of the gains or losses will depend on your exercise, rest, and nutrition.

1 g of Fat = 9 calories

1 g of Carbs = 4 calories

1 g of Protein = 4 calories

You will notice that fats pump up the calories real quick as they have a 9 calorie per gram ratio. Carbs will seem innocent at 4, but I would like to warn you that carbs usually come in high quantities. Protein usually takes some effort to digest, reducing your effective calories.

Keep in mind that not all Fats are equal. Same goes with Carbs, and even Protein!

Fats - (Polyunsat/Monounsat/Saturated/Trans) - There are good and bad fats. The good ones will be your Polyunsaturated and Monounsaturated Fats. Good fats are used in basic bodily processes, and are said to be non-contributors to fat gain. Nuts, avocados, and sunflower kernels are some examples of food that provide good fats. I wouldn't take my chances though and will stick to moderation. Bad fats will be your saturated fats, which usually are from animal sources, while your Evil fats will be the man made trans fat. Bad fats will contribute to belly fat, will hurt your health, and are statistically linked to various heart illnesses and many other bad stuff.

• General Direction : Avoid Saturated and Trans fats! Polyunsaturated and Monounsaturated fats are good fats, therefore you can get a daily serving of em. (Do not over indulge!)

Carbs - (Basic/Complex/Fiber/Sugar Alcohols) - The fuel for your engine. There will be basic carbs and complex carbs. The most known basic carb will be sugar, others would be refined carbs such as white bread, flour, non whole wheat grains. Excess sugar is associated to bad health and weight gain. Sugars digest quickly though, and can help recovery when consumed after a draining physical activity. Complex carbs can be drawn from whole grains such as wheat bread, oatmeal, and the like. They digest slower than sugar and would not give you an energy crash. That should be your main carb source. Fibers are a good addition, they will have soluble and insoluble variations which will be discussed in the future. In general, fibers do not directly translate into significant calories and sugars. They improve bowel movement, and can help keep you full! Sugar alcohols in simple terms are carbs that do not translate into a full 4 calories. They do not spike blood sugar as much as basic/complex.

• Carbs come in high quantities! Minimize sugars, increase fiber and complex carbs!
• The best time to consume sugars will be right after a workout!

Protein - (Complete/Incomplete) - There are 9 (some say 8) amino acids needed to build protein. Not all sources of protein have all. Generally speaking, food from animal sources are complete - beef, poultry, pork, fish, eggs, and milk. Proteins found on your bread and plant products are not usually complete. Soy and some nuts would be exceptions to the general trend. However, there will be no way to prove this without any scientific endeavor, so let me just give a general tip. Diversify. If it is true that not every protein is equal, then try to mix it up. Juggle your meat, fish, and chicken. Drink your milk at night. If count protein and you want to take an aggressive stance, then count every protein gram that pops up in everything you eat. If you want to be conservative, then just count the significant "complete" proteins that you consume.

There also will be a whole different categorization of proteins that will need its own post to discuss.

Those such as whey, casein, soy, isolates would be tackled in the future. They have different digestion speeds, digestive effort requirements, and "scientific buzz opinions" that set them apart from each other.

Generally speaking, active people such as athletes and lifters would try to pump up protein, good fats, and get a good supply of carbs when bulking, while maintaining protein while cutting a bit on good fats, and slicing up the carbs when cutting. (Ratios coming soon!)

• Don't forget to eat protein! Proteins drive gains from your recovery.
• Do not go overboard. Some people will have insane ratios of protein that they have to eat per gram of body mass. Just take what is right for you based on the intensity of your physical activities! Excess protein will still make you fat.
• You need to exercise to get the most out of your protein!

Small insights for tricky things out there :

FOOD TRAPS

There will be a lot of "healthy food and drinks" that will have high levels of sodium and sugars. In excess, they can be detrimental to both your health and fitness goals. Smoothies are sometimes undetected sugar traps, while canned goods, fast food items, and "junk food" usually have ridiculously high sodium levels. Yes, even those products with #goodfortheheart and #healthy labels on them can be sinister sugar and sodium traps. Before you eat, always try to check out the nutritional info of your product, or check out your restaurant online if they have their info available.

• For yogurts and "greek" yogurts, check sugar and protein levels!
• A lot of food items are now labelled as "greek" but do not offer any significant protein boost.
• For peanut butter, always check ingredients, sodium, sugar, and the oil used! I prefer palm oil. Natural peanut butter > Low fat options
• Always check serving sizes when comparing your choices! Some cut calories in half, but cut the serving size beyond half!

SUGAR FREE

Finally, a lot of studies claim that artificial sweeteners can be worse than real sugars. I am not a fan of scientific politics, but drinking diet sodas and sugar free drinks doesn't feel as great in my system (just a personal opinion). I would rather stick to naturally sweet items such as fresh fruits, or even freshly squeezed juices. That's just me i guess. :)

Future related posts coming - More on proteins /  Sodium vs potassium

Related Articles:

1) What it takes to burn 100 calories
2) Cheat Day!
3) Cost Drivers and Incremental Tracking

Clean N' Mean

EXECUTION

4. INTENSITY

Please bear with the site's lack of creative content! The fun stuff are still cooking and they will be unleashed when the time is right >:) 

For now, idea number 4 will be rambled about. When I was still in school, I used to work out in between classes. I found out that it was a productive way to kill time and bridge the gap between my morning and evening classes. 

"Up to this moment, and in terms of both the short and long term benefits of both actions, the daily choice of working out in between classes versus studying for the next class will still be a fairly arguable philosophical stalemate." - Clean N' Mean

There was only one thing that I did not notice. I was spending too much time in the gym. It had its perks though. I was able to do a lot of exercises while balancing reps and weight but I was resting to much in between. I was doing things with a bad pace and without maximum intensity. I will say that if you have all the time in the world, you can still do the same for probably just one day a week to relieve the stress and redundancy, and get some gains in a relaxed manner. There may still be benefits for spreading a whole lot of reps throughout the day. I believe that it is in itself a different approach to the body and could trigger a different growth response and muscle maturity. But to do it that way everyday would be a waste of time. I wasn't getting the most out of every workout. For the body to get stronger, you must challenge it to do better each and every time. Intensity must be present throughout the workout. The pace must be good while some huffing and puffing can be a pat on your back that tells you that you are pushing yourself. It will not always be the case, but some of the things that make you huff and puff now could feel like a warm up activity next time. One thing to consciously work on is the reduction of the rest intervals. Reducing rest time makes you feel more on the go! While you reduce your rest, always remind yourself of the first 3 pointers regarding range of motion, feeling the flex, and involving your core. Those would help your intensity during the active parts of the workout, while reducing rest will improve your overall workout intensity/pace. Reducing rest is not an excuse to do things incorrectly! Another easy fix will be to sneak in a relatively easy exercise that can replace your rest time. I usually do 20 body weight squats (good form with ass to the ground) and or 20 mountain climbers in between dead lifts. Keep in mind however that everything has a price. Even those lighter exercises can drain energy. Always know your goal, and apply the necessary adjustments that will help you reach your goal. Creating these mini circuits of light activities in between your main ones can help increase overall intensity as long as you do them all right. If you want to push your max for a lift, you might want to focus on doing that lift right and do the mini circuits on some other day. Make sure that your adjustments do not compromise the intensity of your main activity. While most examples are related to gym exercises, the same concept applies to sports. Do not play to jog and cruise around. Play to be a better you, with maximum intensity in every game! An hour of  running > 2 hours of walking. Quality over quantity!

SUMMARY

+Consistent intensity will push you more, therefore will improve you more.

+Taking less time to do the same things while maintaining the equal intensity is better!

+Less lifting time = more time for other things! (Such as skills training, sports, or opening your books!)

Clean N' Mean

HARDCORE

3. SCORE THE CORE

Now that we have dealt with fixing a bit of the form by maximizing the range of motion, and utilizing the muscles correctly, we can move on to discovering a potent power source - The core muscles! 

I used to think that the core would consist of your abs, the lower back, and the obliques. I used to do situps, leg raises, dead lifts, side bends. I then went on to doing swings with cables, still doing things separately. As mentioned before, you may do those to work on the individual muscles, but solely doing so would be insufficient for total improvement. As it turned out, I forgot to work on my hip flexors, and all those other core muscles in the area. I was able to appreciate the power of the core when I got into boxing. Having a great neural connection throughout all those muscles can create the snap needed to transfer your weight and load them into your power punch. Some people might think that the power of a punch would come from the chest, arms, shoulders, and even from the pivot of the legs. Yes, all of those are sources of power. It is true that as more muscles are involved, the merrier the punch would be. However, the most significant one in my opinion (and from my still limited experience) would be the core. That is what shoots your weight in your punch. It is the core that connects the force from the ground to the whip of your fists (or kicks). The legs are a big boost for the power too, but the pivot simply removes the constraint so that your cannons may fire away. It is actually the core that loads those cannons up. Thus, never forget to train the core group as a whole. Simple adjustments can help the core. You may simply recognize them and flex them right while you are doing squats, dead lifts, back exercises, chest exercises, or basically everything. You will notice that as your core strengthens, you will be able to increase your beast mode on other exercises too. You will be able to feel that the right parts are doing the right things. A good illustration is as follows - a tightening of your core (as you do during planks) while you do your stuff such as the bench press. And speaking of planks, they are good too as long as you are doing them right (with good effort). Slight tweaks on regular exercises can also tighten your core. You can contract the abs and do pullups with your legs raised parallel to the ground. You can get into power lifting too as that is good for everything including your core. A fun and fairly easy exercise that i enjoy is the dumbbell snatch (or kettle bell, or barbell), and an even easier one will be the kettle bell swing. In short, a healthy core is a healthy body (more often than not). Keep your core in shape, and you will feel much quicker, much lighter, and much stronger!

SUMMARY

+ A strong core improves overall strength

+ A strong core improves power ( power = speed + strength)

+ A happy core makes a happy person! :)

Clean N' Mean

DOING THINGS RIGHT

Before I start rambling about some technical-sounding mumbo jumbo, I will start with a basic observation that everybody could probably relate to. Sometimes, people just don't do things right.

There are infinite amounts of bad practices and habits that can be done (and also those that have yet to be discovered). From the addiction to #selfies, to those unnecessary roars and dropping of weights, to the lack of consideration expressed by one's refusal to re-rack the weights, the list will probably be extremely long and equally hilarious to read. I will begin with a couple of can-be-done-right actions that can be detrimental to one's quest for improvement.

Please bear with the text, and enjoy as you do. There will be a summary below too!

1. FULL RANGE OF MOTION

I will admit that I also was (and sometimes still am) guilty of not utilizing the full range of motion for every single rep. You will probably see a lot of "big" people in the gym handling ridiculously heavy weights in a ridiculously constipated fashion with limited movement. Some would probably look like they are doing shake weights with the barbells or dumbbells that stay where they began: either too near to, or too far from the person. As a newbie, I was tempted to catch up on the weight that I lifted. It can be tempting especially when you see others doing likewise. I didn't lower the bar close enough to my chest when I was doing the bench press, I didn't squat as low as I should, I did not pull far enough to feel any flexing done by my back, so on and so forth. The result was not good. I did grow stronger though. You will become stronger as long as the actions that you would be doing are within the range of motion that you have been training in, but you will also be vulnerable if you would assume that you are that strong when you are to exert effort on the range of motion that you are not used to. You might end up overcompensating with other muscles and hurting yourself. In short, your useful strength will be as limited as your range of motion. Aside from that, your posture and weight will be imbalanced. You might feel that the muscles are growing in an awkward fashion, and that you are not as quick as you used to be. So please, do this first concept right! Training with the full range of motion will help your body deal with situations that would involve efforts that require relatively more difficult ranges of motion. This will be helpful when you would want to improve balance, explosive strength, and technique. I will jump to the next concept, which will be the flex.

 

2. FEEL THE FLEX (when necessary)

To further improve the execution of each rep, one must know what the intended outcome is. Some activities train explosive strength, and would require the body to act as a unit. Aside from the individual body parts' strength, technique and brain power must be improved for those activities as well. Regardless of your intended outcome, it is always good to have exercises that give you the chance to feel the flex. Do the reps slowly, do not jerk and do not cheat. Once in a while, let the intended parts do the work. Reserve the whole body efforts for the explosive power lifting sessions. In other words, do not dead lift a row, and do not squat a bicep curl. Feeling the flex on the conventional days would properly increase strength and endurance of the involved parts. If you think of it fairly, a good concentrated rep on a lighter weight will be more beneficial to the targeted muscle group than an awkward whole body cheat movement that involves parts that should not be involved.  As tempting as it may seem, adding weights while adding unnecessary jerks and movements reduces the actual workload to your targeted parts. It will compromise proper and balanced muscle and strength gains as the cheating process takes the weight away. Other parts will be trained to do unconventional motions, and in effect, they will be stealing the gains that you could have achieved with your intended targeted parts. In short, you actually might be putting more effective weight to your rep if you do it right than if you cheat on it! You will also avoid injuries by doing the reps slowly and properly. It is not cool for the compensating parts to do more than they are capable of just to satisfy the ego that requires you to always lift heavy. You'll never know when the compensation would be too much, and something will just snap with any slight slip, overexertion, or flaw in execution.

SUMMARY

Using the Full Range of Motion

+ Increases both the strength and the range that the strength can be applied to

+ Reduces risk of injury (related and unrelated)

+ Strength will not be imbalanced thus speed and posture should not be compromised 

Feeling the Flex

+ Improves strength and endurance of involved parts

+ Reduces risk of injury (related and unrelated as well)

+ Will improve balance as well, thus keeping posture safe and sound.

Coming Soon . . . .  #3.SCORE WITH THE CORE!

Clean N' Mean

THERE IS A REASON FOR EVERYTHING

For every moment spent studying and practicing techniques, for all the hours devoted to lifting, for the countless instances of abstinence from junk food and drinks, and for your kind act of visiting this blog, there is a reason.

I am no world champion of anything (probably because of a reason too), but I will still share my insights in the hopes of getting a good discussion out of them that could benefit people who share the same experiences. I do hope that some people would be encouraged to try out some concepts, and to dig deeper and as a result, become better.

The first post should be coming up in a short while . . . .


Clean N' Mean