My fitness secrets: The insights to my diet and workout
"Diet is 70% of what your body looks like in the end and the rest 30% is your workout regime, sleep cycle and lot of other things"
- Quoted by lots of people these days
What's good you guys!
I hope you all are doing great and following your heart and passion these days!
The title and the starting few lines might have given you an idea that today I am gonna be talking about the insights of my fitness regime and the lifestyle I follow. In the last blog in the fitness series, I talked about my long fitness journey. Guys, please make sure to read this one out before going ahead in this blog.
Guys, this article might leave a positive impact for a few who are just like me and want to see a better version of themselves when they grow in their adulthood and eventually get old. I believe that one thing that got me out of that depth of unhealthiness was the gym and eating right and therefore, I wanted to spread this knowledge to help you all because just like most of the people, I am also an average guy with very, very average genetics, but after training for a year and a half, I am able to do things I couldn't even imagine (I am able to deadlift about 100-120 kgs, able to front squat 60 kgs, able to bench press about 50 pounds in each hand).
If I could do it, anyone can. You just got to stay dedicated and above all, you got to be very, very well informed. You got to know, who to listen to, which is the other issue. I feel like honestly, not to demean anyone but India has got an abundance of really shitty and misleading trainers and fitness influencers with really bad and wrong knowledge and people in India don't know who they listen to when comes to fitness. Now at present when I am writing this article and sharing it with all of you, it's been about couple of years for me being on this journey with consistent efforts. Fitness and food have become my two biggest passions. I am still learning in this process. I am not saying that I know everything about it but whatever I have learnt through this phase, I want to share it with you all. The things I have followed may not have given me a bodybuilder kind of physique but I have got decent results out of it and an athletic physique is all we need and aspire for in our busy schedules. The people who want to compete in professional events, I am sorry to say this is not for them. They may kindly refer to some professional bodybuilder blogs and channels. This blog is for someone who is as average as me, and want to transform themselves into a better version, a version they look ahead of in their lives. A physique as decent and charming as achieved by most of the common people who dedicate some of their time to it from their regular routine lives.
Therefore, ahead in this blog I have given a piece of clean and clear fitness advice from my own experiences and the people whom I have been following since the start of my fitness journey. Your body is meant to run, your body is meant to walk, your body is meant to lift heavy things. You wanna do that and you don't wanna sit idle in your home all day just in front of your TV or in front of your books and I promise you if you stay dedicated and follow at least some part of the advice from any sources I mentioned above, you can achieve crazy things in this field.
So, starting with a person who knows nothing about fitness, workouts and diets. Don't worry, this blog is for absolutely perfect for you if you are completely new to this field.
Are you guys ready to dive into the insights that made me the way I am, so let’s start.
Before planning and executing anything, you need get hold of your body statistics at first. The least you can do is to have a knowledge of your body weight and height. Most people fall in the category of skinny fat or either completely skinny in our age group. So, for both of the categories, they should at-least have a knowledge about their current body weight and height.
Height and body weight done. So, next step is to do some mathematics which will give you a basic macro idea of what your body form is currently i.e. you should calculate your Body mass index (BMI) and basal metabolic rate (BMR). Confused? What are these terms? So let me brief you about it.
The abbreviations BMI and BMR sound similar, but they stand for two separate things. Your BMI, or body mass index, is a number calculated from your height and weight which is then used to assess your body composition. Your BMR, or basal metabolic rate, is the number of calories you burn when your body is at rest. Although the two terms are independent of each other, your BMI may indirectly affect your BMR.
Body Mass Index
Basal Metabolic Rate
Your BMR is the number of calories your body burns at rest to do basic functions like breathing, digesting, keeping your heart beating and all the other physiological tasks that keep you alive. Your BMR is partly determined by genetics, but other factors, like your body composition and activity level, may also have an effect on your BMR.
You can go through this link to check out your BMR
https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html
So, in a nutshell your BMI will give you a measure whether your weight and height is in correct proportions or not and mostly, people find themselves in overweight and obesity category who snack and munch a lot on fast and unhealthy food.
Mantra for Diet Planning
What would you do if you are running out of space in your phone and you have 1 big file of 3 GB and 500 small files of 2 GB? which one will you delete?
Exactly.
People ask all the time questions like “will eating lemon with honey mixed with some magical churan blessed by God himself to make them lose fat?”. These methods are like those little files. If you really want to lose weight you gotta attack those bigger files before worrying about the smaller ones.
Most people fail in losing weight not because they are not working hard enough but because they are working too much and then unable to retain that. If you actually want a long-term solution for obesity you gotta take one step at a time. You can’t run before you can walk.
Before revealing what this meal plan is all about, I’ve to tell you that I have seen a lot of guys who work their ass off to just get a body which can be considered as NOT FAT and fail. They forget one most important thing, getting into shape is only 20% physical workout. Rest of it is your diet. It was not at all difficult to put this altogether. This is something I strongly believe in. Those of you who don’t know my story, I used to be 63 kgs. in weight, 5 foot 11 inches feet tall and had some serious issues when it came to maintain my health. It wasn’t until end of 2019 that I decided to stick with whatever knowledge I gathered in the span of 1.5 years and wrote myself a meal plan. And I say this very proudly that it worked. In the initial year, I was eating everything because I was thrown into a mindset that to gain you must eat anything and everything. The reason I’m telling you this is because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes which I did (minor or major). It’s very important to go for calorie surplus but without counting your macros you will land there in more time or you won’t land there at all.
I have been involved in a lot of tasks lately and I realized that following a strict diet regime, my body has become resistant to short duration of bad eating. I have been on a bad diet for weeks but it didn't affect me much.
There’s no substitute to a good healthy and clean diet. I have strictly kept the availability of food in Indian market in my mind while planning my own diet. For some it’ll cost pennies and for some it can cost fortunes, but I strictly suggest you not to substitute anything. There’s nothing costlier than your body. I am not putting out the exact same diet I am following since a while because every diet depends on individual’s targets, BMI and BMR as already explained above. But I would like to put out some articles I found useful in planning out my diet schedule (since some of the people were asking for diet ideas).
A Beginner’s Weight Loss Diet Plan for Vegetarians(1600 calories)
Sample diet plan for weight loss for beginners(1600 cal)
Sample Diet Plan for Skinny Fat(2200 cal)
Sample Muscle Diet plan for skinny people(4000 cal)
Levels of getting lean
Just think you are playing a game whose levels are defined below. Until you cross level 1 you can’t move on to next level.
So, are you ready?
Here we go:
Level 1:
Cut the crap: Cut all fast food altogether. Sounds easy right?
It is more difficult than it sounds as we all have craving issues. We crave for certain food more when we are hungry as compared to when we are full. So, the trick is to get a substitute for that garbage you were gonna eat.
Fruits are the best substitute in that case. It is not the healthiest thing that you could have eaten but it will satisfy your craving for longer and will be loaded with vitamins and mineral and not to mention fewer calories.
So, in your level 1, you are gonna eat a lot and lot of fruits until you feel no crave continuously for some days.
Level 2:
Start shifting your dinner far from carbs and towards fats: As you know Carbs is the primary source of energy. When we sleep, we don’t basically use a lot of energy to stay alive. Also, most of the fat burning happens during our sleep. So, it is better to have fewer carbs for our dinner.
But you cannot stay hungry too, so you are gonna start eating more fats and fewer carbs.
So, replace all fruits you were eating in the night with veggies, nuts, and oil.
Level 3:
Stop snacking: Whenever you snack, you get an insulin spike which blocks all your fat burning hormones. In simple words, your body tells your brain that it is getting calories from external sources so no need to burn the body fat for energy.
But there are times when you feel hungry, so instead of snacking 3 times in 3 hours, you are gonna put a meal in between.
Level 4:
Start replacing fruits by veggies: By this time, you already have gotten rid of cravings and you are seeing significant changes in your body so replacing fruits with veggies won’t seem like a big deal for you.
Fruits are high in fructose which is believed to be more dangerous for the body than sugar but fruits have a lot of fibre which makes it even. Also, fruits are loaded with vitamins.
So, the whole point of eating veggies is to get all the benefits of fruits without getting any drawbacks.
After this point, you are qualified enough to start working out and expect to see some results.
Level 5:
Start weight training and get a well-scheduled diet plan: You can start weight training by following a beginner’s diet. (Already linked above)
For weight training, your goal should not just to move maximum weight but to learn the basic movements like bench press, deadlifts, squats, shoulder press with perfect form.
Level 6:
Start advancing your workouts and get more specific diet plan: Now, you have mastered basic exercises with perfect form, you can move on to lifting heavy weights or towards body-weight exercises. If your primary goal is to still lose body fat, you should go towards body-weight training, if to gain size then towards heavy weight training.
Now, you are like every muscular person in the gym who is struggling to get better so you can start thinking about taking advanced supplements and getting a rigorous diet plan specifically designed for your goal.
Note:
Here is my daily fitness routine and I’m following this from last 3 years.
· I wake up 8 am in the morning then drink 1 glass of water.
· At 9:00am, I make a smoothie which includes 1 scoop whey protein, 60 to 90 grams of oats, 1 banana, pinch of cinnamon powder, 1 spoon peanut butter and handful of almonds along with a healthy breakfast. It saves time and effort for a busy guy like me.
· At 10:00am, I leave for Office.
· At 1:30pm, I eat my lunch which includes 3 chapattis, 1 cup of daal , and one cup of green veggies, and curd.
· At 6:00pm, I come home from office.
· At 6:30pm, I eat one banana along with a pre workout drink.
· At 7:00pm, I go to gym and do my work-out for about 1 hour.
· I come home by 8:00pm and then eat dinner which include one scoop of whey protein and only complex carbs (beans, broccoli, green veggies etc)
· I go to bed around 11:30 to 12:30am.
These are some steps which I have followed to get a leaner physique:
1 Improved my eating habits. Stop eating junk food instead of this start eating healthy food.
2 Healthy food means the food which contains all nutrients, vitamins and minerals, fibres.
3 I start my day with a glass of water.
4 Then in breakfast I eat oats/poha/upma/dalia with 2 whole eggs.
5 During lunch time I eat normal gar ka khana (daal chawal roti any kind of sabzi).
6 After lunch I try to cut down carbs intake and increase good fats and protein intake
7 Before workout I eat one banana sometimes along with a pre workout drink
8 Intense work-out along with good diet is the key to get toned physique
9 My workout is mostly body weight workout which includes pull-ups, push-ups, dragon flag, leg raises along with body weight workout I do weight training as well which includes bench press, dead lifts, squat, lunges.
10After workout I take protein supplement and in dinner I eat complex carbs (green veggies) with some chicken/eggs.
11 Honestly speaking I'm doing this since last 3 years and I'm successful in maintaining my physique throughout the year.
12 Any one can get a fit body and good physique, but for this you have to be consistent, disciplined and have patience.
Mantra for Home Workout Plan
180 push ups (upper chest, lower chest, middle chest)
I divide these 180 reps of push ups in 20 reps each. It means 9 sets which includes 3 sets each targeting every portion of the chest area. The reason behind this is to add more volume to work-out as I have no additional weight or dumbles.
30 pull ups
I divide these 30 pullups in 10 reps each. These pullups hit my arms back some part of shoulder as well.
Core (Abs)
Planks 4 to 5 sets 2 minutes of each set
Dragon flag: 4 to 5 sets each includes 10 to 12 reps.
Alternate day legs workout
Squats
60 reps of squats. 20 reps in each set means 3 sets.
Lunges
60 reps of walking lunges. I do these in 2 sets of 30 reps each.
Calves
Standing calves 60 reps, 20 reps in each sets means 3 sets.
This is how I was working out in my home during this lockdown period.
For abs visibility you need to cut down your bodyfat percentage, as far as abs workout is concerned, I always give more importance to body weight workouts rather than crunches.
Abs workout
I train my core twice or sometimes thrice a week.
1. Hanging leg raises.
2. Dragon flag.
3. Planks.
4. Mountain climbers
5. Burpees
A part forms these workouts, what you eat and what time you eating what is most important factor in abs visibility so eat clean and anyone can show their abs.
I hope the blog has pretty much summed up every area that confuses a lot of beginners during planning out their diet or workout regime. Everyone goes through this phase but it’s important to take the right guidance and have a correct knowledge about everything. Thereafter, things will automatically strike the chords and you are gonna enjoy every bit of the process.
Remember, fitness is a journey and not a destination. So, try making it a part of the lifestyle rather than keeping a target to achieve for. Targets are important but what’s more important is your habits which should be clean and consistent. These habits will lead you to get a perfect healthy lifestyle along with a fit and healthy body.
Till then, eat good, exercise better and keep your sleep cycles in check. I will meet you in yet another crazy yet information blog.
Keep Supporting. Keep reading. Keep progressing in life.
Comments
Post a Comment