A 'Diet Break' can be considered a period of time when you aren't following a rigid diet and have far greater autonomy and freedom with regard to food choices and eating patterns. Diet breaks can be both planned (i.e. dieting for a set period of time with a diet break planned after a period of time to offset the adaptations listed above) or unplanned (you have to travel for work for several weeks making the maintenance of your current diet almost impossible).

Diet breaks fulfil both the physiological and psychological needs of the dieter. 

After my recent rant about the glorification of junk food my message here is simple: We are getting increasingly fat and sick as a nation. It's time to wake up to the serious implications this is having on our health, well being, self-esteem, and overall quality of life. A top-down approach is needed on the one hand to stop junk food infiltrating the offices of our nations. Why do office workers need 1,000 calories-worth of doughnuts to sit still all day?

On the other hand, it's time we all took some personal responsibility for what goes into our mouths. The doughnut doesn't get there by itself! Preparing your own food requires some time and organisation. However, the implications to your health and waistline can be profound. Many clients I see cite having 'no time' as a reason why they cannot prepare their own food. This isn't true. Everyone has exactly the same numbers of hours in a day to work with. These people just haven't made it a priority, perhaps because they can't see the value in doing it.

Question 1. Can you explain why fat loss isn't just as simple as just cutting calorie intake (or is it?)? My assumption was that as long as your burning/using more than you are taking in, you should lose fat.

The quick answer to this question is that, for the majority of people, most of the time, fat loss is simply a case of creating a sustainable calorie deficit to induce fat loss. However, it isn’t always just this simple. Here are some other factors to consider: -

It appears that burger joints, pizzerias and fast food outlets of all descriptions are creating insanely calorific offerings in a bid to out-do one another. And I wouldn't have a problem with this if it weren't for the fact that as a nation (Australia in this case, but the same can be said for almost all developed nations) we are plain fat.

This week we look at Part II of Dieting for body composition, where we delve into a little more detail, taking in subjects such as micro-nutrition, supplementation & tracking progress.... 

• Get the basis right first: Choose a plan you can stick to. If you cannot see yourself following the current diet you are on in 6 months time then you should re-evaluate what you are doing.

• Once you have found a style of dieting that fits with your lifestyle, focus on energy balance. This will mean tracking calories for a period of time.

• After that it is time to ensure you are getting the right amount of the 3 macronutrients (Protein, Carbohydrate and Fat - oh, and don't neglect your fibre intake). Understand that getting your protein intake right is the most important.

• Meal timing can be important - especially the meals that sandwich your workout.

• Don't overly-rely on supplements - use them to plug holes in any deficiencies you may have.

• Always priorities whole foods. Minimise processed foods. 

• Ensure you are tracking progress along the way. Use a range of measurement tools & always be consistent.

Welcome to the Physique Wise Guide to Dieting for body composition.

Who is this for?

• Beginners to training looking to improve their results
• Novices who have been training for a while and have dieted unsuccessfully or hit a plateau
• Advanced trainees looking for the extra 10%

Hope you enjoy!

"Success in weight management is challenging. Even after successful weight loss, weight regain is very common" (Karhunen et al, 2012)

Welcome to Part II of this series on Living a 'lean lifestyle'. Part I took a look at the activity-side of things. Part II looks to tackle dietary and lifestyle factors.

Enjoy!

Getting lean and maintaining it is the product of thousands of small decisions and actions carried out over a number of months and years. There is no magic formula. There isn't a magical training program or superfood that will transform your body. Only the consistent application of habits that manifest over a long period of time. Below are a distillation of some of the most important and noteworthy decisions/habits/rituals that I personally (or clients of mine) have adopted to ensure continual progress. Taken separately, none of these will have a massive impact on your waistline. However, when combined and pursued over a long period of time, they will exert a powerful impact on your body....

Having a 6-pack/abs/washboard stomach/chiselled abs is still the holy-grail for many people sweating it out in gyms across the world. So how does one obtain a 6-pack? And how does one keep it for more than a few fleeting days during the summer?!

For guys, visible abs tend to appear at around 12% body fat. For females, approximately 18% body fat (these are very rough guides and can vary from person to person). Knowing your current body fat percentage will give you a good indication of where you are in relation to these figures. This should provide you with a better idea of how long it might take you to achieve a 6 pack.

The muscles that make up the '6-pack' are known as the 'Rectus Abdominis'. These paired muscles are separated by band of connective tissue known as the line alba.
 

So you want to achieve a lean mid-section replete with abs? The read on and stick to the rules!

Building muscle mass is one of the primary goals of many clients I deal with. Gyms across the world are awash with lifters looking to increase their 'gains'. So when looking to add muscle mass, what are some of the key considerations? Well, fortunately, I have some answers from the very best minds in the industry, courtesy of Alan Aragon's monthly research review: -

Vilfredo Pareto is the father of the '80/20 principle'. Pareto noticed that across time and space 80% of a given nation’s wealth would be owned by 20% of the population. Pareto’s principle can also be applied to business, where it can be found that 80% of a businesses income is derived from only 20% of it’s clients.

So let’s expand Pareto’s principle to nutrition and training. “If you can identify the 20% - the crucial 20% necessary to maximise your results - and apply yourself fully to that particular 20%, you free up 80% of your effort cache for other important things” (Zielonka).

Let's first have a look at the Nutrition Pyramid & find out where to focus the critical 20%: -.

In order to structure a sustainable diet that provides an energy deficit, it is important to select foods with a low energy density, but a high volume of food, such that there are few calories per bite

We cannot eliminate stress from our lives. We can, however, improve our ability to manage our stress levels. Being able to effectively manage stress is one of the greatest tools we can possess in today’s age. Not only that, but the effectiveness of any training or nutritional protocol you are following will be predicated on your ability to effectively cope when life gets difficult, because invariably it will! Often the point at which external stressors build up is the time people fail and give up on their training or nutrition plan. After a couple of weeks you find yourself back at square one. This is why any diet or training regimen you undertake needs to be SUSTAINABLE for the long-term. Try to always think with the longer-term in mind, not merely the next 4-6 weeks. Like the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Supplement: "A thing added to something else in order to compete or enhance it" (Oxford English Dictionary)

Supplements should be used to to complete and enhance our current diet. It should not be used as a replacement for whole foods. Wherever possible, try to obtain all of your nutrition from whole foods. However, there are certain vitamins and minerals that we are often deficient in that we are better off try to obtain from supplementation. 
 

Nutrient timing relates to the timing of our meals, with specific reference to the nutrients consumed around the workout (‘peri-workout’ nutrition). Firstly, it is important to understand where nutrient timing sits within the overall hierarchy of factors that contribute to dieting for body composition results.