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Most diets these days have a planned “cheat meal” as part of the diet plan. Is this really a good idea? In this week’s nutrition tip we’ll see what John Berardi has to say about it:

Skip the Cheat Meal, Fatty
by Dr. John Berardi

Cheat meal frequency should be minimized when you’re over 15-20% body fat. Basically, the fatter you are, the more likely that any excess food will be shuttled toward body-fat storage rather than muscle mass. So skip the cheat meal unless you’re lean. And even then, think of it as an alternative food meal - not a cheat. Cheat meals are usually glorified forms of dietary debauchery. Alternative food meals allow for something a little different from the norm without the trough.

This tip is provided by Dr. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition.

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This will come as no surprise to most of us, but a study was done that concluded that one in four obese men can lose more than 100 lbs if they engage in a 12 week intensive weight loss program. You mean to say that by actually sticking to a weight loss program for 12 weeks you can actually see some difference in your weight?

Ok, so I’m being a little sarcastic here. It’s good to see that they have scientific evidence to back it up, but unless you have the emotional motivation it doesn’t matter how many studies you read. Eventually you have to get up and do something.

If you have a hard time sticking to a 12 week program, try doing a 4 week program.  Or, even a 2 week!  Do whatever time frame works for you.  But the important thing is that if you want to change your weight you have to change your behavior.

Here’s a link to the news article about this study in case you’re interested: Behavior Change May Mean Big Weight Loss

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A reader let me know today that the comments section of the site wasn’t working.   That has now been fixed (or so it seems for now!) so feel free to start leaving comments again. Thanks to Mike for letting me know about the problem.

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I think it’s probably safe to say that most of us have a favorite muscle group, whether it’s one that we’ve already developed or one that we would like to develop. For some it might be their abs; for others the arms; for other the chest…. pretty much every muscle group is somebody’s favorite.

Well, the danger of having a group that you call your favorite is that it could lead you to a level of favoritism with that body part. The problem with this is that you are likely to get some unbalanced development. This is not just a bad idea, but can look outright funny!

For example, I remember back when I had first started lifting weights.  There was a guy on the pec deck that had very developed pecs, but that was it!  He must have spent all of his time doing chest work and nothing else because the rest of his body looked under-developed in comparison.  Not just a little different, but obviously a lot of favoritism going on there.

So rather than playing favorites, make sure that you are developing your body in a balanced manner.

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This week’s tip is about using oats to help get some extra calories at breakfast. This tip is especially geared towards those of you that are in a bulking phase.

Why Choose Oats
by Dr. John Berardi

If you’re looking to gain mass and have a good carbohydrate tolerance, place a bowl of fiber-rich, low-GI rolled oats along with ½ scoop of vanilla protein powder, frozen mixed berries, pineapple and a small quantity of mixed nuts right next to your omelet. This is a muscle building breakfast that’s hard to beat.

However, if you tend to hold a lot of body fat, just stick with protein, good fats, and veggies for breakfast. Save the non-fruit and veggie carbs till after exercise only - yes, even oatmeal.

This tip is provided by Dr. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition.

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Simply put, if you’re going to put on weight you need to be eating a ton of calories. How many you may ask? Well, most likely it needs to be somewhere around 3000-4000 calories a day, depending on if it’s a workout day or a rest day. Now when you really start to think about it, that’s a LOT of calories! Most of us would have a hard time even imagining to eat that much.

So why do you need to eat that much if you’re really trying to gain weight? Well, for those of us that are naturally ectomorphic (sometimes called the “hard-gainers”) our bodies have a tendency to burn calories easily. And in order for you to really gain some weight you need to consume more calories that your body will naturally just burn off.

Does this mean that you should eat a whole bunch of extra empty calories from junk food to fill in the deficit? I wouldn’t recommend it! Remember the old slogan that you are what you eat? Well, if you eat junk food for most of your calories that’s what you’re becoming! So instead, focus on eating more of the good stuff: more good proteins, carbs and fats to get up to that number of calories.

There are plenty of sites out there that will give you some good ideas for recipes that you can use. Will Brinks Body Building Revealed (formerly Muscle Building Nutrition) is a good resource.

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This week’s nutrition tip is about ZMA, a popular supplement that can help you sleep better and also increase testosterone production!

ZMA for Deep Sleep
by Dr. John Berardi

ZMA is useful for improving the quality of your sleep. For me, ZMA tends not to induce sleep as much as deepen it. Expect your dreams to be extremely vivid! My athletes, when traveling, or when under heavy training loads, usually included 2-3 ZMA capsules before bed.

This tip is provided by Dr. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition.

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