Healthy Life Guide

The holiday season is upon us once again, and that can only mean one thing… Time spent with loved ones. Awesome presents. Weight gain. Between Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, New Year’s Eve/Day, and whatever other holidays you might take part in, this is the time of year when we are around tons of yummy food and we are all virtually guaranteed to eat it. And with that eating, comes overeating . And with that overeating, comes weight gain . The question is, how do we avoid this inevitable outcome? Better yet, how do we stick to our ideal diet during these types of situations so we not only avoid gaining any weight, but maybe even somehow manage to successfully lose weight? Well, in order to answer this question, there’s an important fact you need to understand first… The Myth Of Holiday Weight Gain There are approximately 3500 calories in one pound of body fat . That means, in order to gain a single pound of fat, you’...

If you haven’t noticed, it’s the last week of the year, and that means every diet/fitness guru on the planet is in full “rah-rah” you-can-do-it mode writing about New Year’s resolutions and repeating the same annoying crap you hear every year at this time (“do not wait until January 1st… start today!”). And while that stuff is all cute and fun (and if you find it helpful, then by all means use it accordingly)… I’m not going to be participating in it at all . Why? Because this week also marks the end of the first full year that this website has existed, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last 12 months, it’s that the regular readers of AWorkoutRoutine.com are better than that . You’re smarter, more dedicated, more motivated, more interested, more focused, more prepared, more helpful, more constructive and just all around better than what’s “typical” in the diet and fitness...

Alright, three things… #1 First and foremost, I just wanted to say a quick Happy New Year to you, the fine readers of A Workout Routine. I hope you all had an awesome night last night and a happy/merry [insert whatever holiday you celebrate here] as well. Judging by the new badass LED monitor I’m staring at now, the new Kindle 3 on my desk next to it, and the various other nerdy gadgets I haven’t even gotten to play with yet, I think I did quite well myself. #2 Point #2… this site is barely 2 months old but has already grown to the point where there are literally hundreds of people reading it every single day. That puts A Workout Routine way ahead of schedule for taking over the world (or at least becoming THE premier fitness/workout related site around). And for that I just want to say thanks for reading, subscribing, commenting, emailing me your questions and feedback, and spreading the site around. A Workout Routine is growing at an insanely rapid pace, and i...

Do you have any questions about how much protein you need a day to lose weight, build muscle, or maintain muscle while losing fat? Or how many grams of protein you should eat for optimal health and function? If so, you’ve come to the right place. In this evidence-based guide, I’m going to cover everything you need to know about protein, including… What Does Protein Do? How Much Protein Should I Eat Per Day? Where Should I Be Within The Ideal Range? Is It Safe To Eat This Much Protein? What Are The Best Sources Of Protein? What About Vegans And Vegetarians? How Do I Eat Enough Protein Without Going Over My Calories? What Are The Best Times To Eat Protein? How Much Protein Can You Eat At One Time? Ready? Let’s begin… What Does Protein Do? Protein is responsible for the growth and repair of all of the cells and tissues in your body. In fact, your muscles, organs, skin, hair, nails, bones, certain hormones and much more are all made up of some amount of protei...

QUESTION : I’ve always seen people (including you) recommend that people trying to lose fat or build muscle should eat a high protein diet, with the exact recommendation most often being 1 gram per pound of body weight. Sometimes a little lower, sometimes a little higher. However, I recently read that an intake this high could be dangerous – particularly for the kidneys – and it should therefore be avoided. But is this really true? Is eating too much protein bad for you? ANSWER : Ah yes, the good old “is too much protein bad for you” question. It’s a question that is most frequently asked by a misinformed diet-conscious person who – in their quest to learn how to lose fat or build muscle better or faster – somehow came across some crappy article from some crappy source claiming some crappy crap about the dangers of eating too much protein. Yup, that would be the very same macronutrient they were previously told to e...

QUESTION : I’m trying to lose weight, and I just wanted to know how much cardio you think I should do? How many times per week? How many minutes each time? I’ve also been reading a lot of your articles and I’ve seen you mention that doing too much cardio can lead to muscle loss, so I was also wondering what you’d consider “too much” to be? ANSWER :  If you’re a regular reader of mine, then you probably know my general opinion of cardio. Which is… I think it sucks . Especially as a tool for improving body composition (losing fat, building muscle ). For that sort of thing, I actually think cardio is highly overrated and much less useful than most people think/hope it is. I also do not find typical forms of it (like jogging on a treadmill) to be all that fun or enjoyable. Plus, like the person asking this question mentioned, there is legit potential for cardio to negatively effect muscle maintenance. So to recap, I think cardio is overrat...

Let’s say your goal is to lose fat, build muscle or something similar. Let’s also say that in order to reach this goal as quickly and effectively as possible, you’ve determined that you need to do both weight lifting and cardio. Cool. Now let’s also say that you’re going to be doing both types of exercise on the same day as part of the same workout session. In this scenario, there’s an important question you’re going to need to answer: should you do cardio before or after weights? Let’s figure that out right now… Which Comes First: Cardio or Weights? For most people, if cardio and weights are going to be done during the same workout session, then… Weight lifting should be done first , and cardio should be done after . Why is this, you ask? Well, many of the reasons you’ll typically see people give for doing cardio after weights involve stuff (e.g. hormones, glycogen levels, afterburn/EPOC, etc.) that is either insignif...

I’ve previously covered the basics of bulking and cutting  the right way and the wrong way. In case you missed it, here’s a quick recap… A person would “ bulk ” when their primary goal is to build muscle . A person would “ cut ” when their primary goal is to lose fat . To do this the right way and get the best results possible, the true goal while bulking is to build muscle while keeping fat gains to an absolute minimum. When cutting, the true goal is to lose fat while maintaining all of the muscle you’ve built. If you do it the wrong way like so many people do, you’d gain too much excess body fat while bulking and/or lose too much lean muscle while cutting and basically spin your wheels and get nowhere. A person would then alternate between phases of bulking and cutting until they’re as lean and muscular as they desire. Now after hearing all of this, there are always three questions that come to mind. Which phase shou...