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Do you ever wonder how much water you should be drinking?  A lot of people do. Here is a tip from John Berardi to help answer that question:

How Much Water?
by Dr. John Berardi

You always hear experts recommending that you drink more water but how many of you actually do it? And how much is enough? Well, check out this chart below for some interesting data on water loss.

Water Loss/ Normal Weather No exercise/ Warm Weather No exercise /Exercise in Warm Weather (85° F)

Skin 350 mL/ 350 mL/ 350 mL
Respiratory Tract 250 mL/ 350 mL/ 650 mL
Urine 1400 mL/ 1200 mL/ 500 mL
Feces 100 mL/ 100 mL/ 100 mL
Sweat 100 mL/ 1400 mL/ 5000 mL
Total 2,300 mL (2.3L)/ 3,300 mL (3.3L)/ 6,600 mL (6.6L)

It should be clear that quite a bit of water is lost per day, especially if you’re an athlete. Since most people can get about 1.5L of water from their food and from metabolic water production, for a margin of safety, I suggest:

• Sedentary individuals drink at least 2L or about 8 cups of water per day
• Athletes in normal climates drink at least 3L or about 12 cups of water per day.
• Athletes in hot weather climates drink at least 4L or about 16 cups of water per day.

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

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As you all know, there are a lot of places online where you can buy your bodybuilding supplements. One site that I came across recently that has good prices and a really good selection is I’llPumpYouUp.com.

One thing I really liked about the site was that they have all the different brands that they offer listed down the right hand side of the site. I know that a lot of ‘gym rats’ have their favorite brands, and so this navigation made it a lot easier to find what I was looking for.

Another nice feature was the reviews area. I always like to read up on a supplement before I give it a try, and not just from the company but from other users. This site has a very good review section with reviews on most of the products that they offer.

I also did a few quick price comparisons with some of the other good, low priced supplement sites I know and I’llPumpYouUp.com was in line with most of them. So if you’re in the market for some supplements give them a try!

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Today’s Nutrition Tip is about ways to track what you’re eating. You may not feel like you need to track every single calorie or macronutrient that you eat, but it’s good to at least check up on it every now and then to see if you’re on track or not. I’ve used FitDay.com off and on for years and its a great tool. Here are some other recommendations from John Berardi.

How To Manage Your Macronutrients
by Dr. John Berardi

Are you more likely to be able to decipher ancient Greek texts than figure out how to construct a diet containing 30% protein, 50% carbohydrate, and 20% fat? Well then check out the following resources.

1. www.nal.usda.gov/fnic is the National Agriculture Library’s Food and Nutrition Information Center. Here you can find basic information on dietary supplements, an advanced food composition database, information about the food guide, and a listing of interesting resources about special needs, food allergies, etc.
2. www.nutritiondata.com is a fantastic resource and although it uses the food database above, may actually offer a better presentation of the food composition data. It doesn’t offer the other information, though.
3. www.fitday.com is another great food composition site that offers much more including online diet and fitness journals.
4. www.calorieking.com offers many of the same resources as fitday.com but has several excellent additional features such as an online ‘university’ (weekly education about the physiological and behavioral sides of nutrition). The extras cost money but are worth checking into.

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

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Well, if you were waiting for the last minute to set your resolutions for 2008, this is it! I’m a big believer that if you’re going to set a New Year’s Resolution you need to do it before the New Year, that way you can start the year off with that goal in mind. I know that sounds like a simple idea, but I wonder sometimes how many people wait until the 5th to set their Resolutions.

My wife and I were talking about this last night and are going to break our fitness resolution up into different goals for the quarter, with the overall theme of being more active this year. My personal goal is to get in the best shape of my life, but that is also broken up into smaller, quarterly goals to achieve more specific, measurable things. “Getting in the best shape of my life” isn’t really a goal in itself, but its the theme that I’m setting for this year.

So for the first quarterly goal my wife and I are going off candy and desserts. We are allowing limited portions when its a family party or something like that, but we won’t be buying that stuff for ourselves. What are your plans for the New Year?

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There is a lot of discussion these days about the benefits of pre and post workout shakes. There are also a lot of products on the market these days that promise to be the absolute best thing you can consume to get the most out of your workouts. With all this hype, it can often be confusing to know what you should really be doing.

Leave it to Will Brink to try and cut through the hype and tell you the truth. I read a really good article by him today on this same subject. Rather than going into all of the details that he covers, I’ll just let him do it. The article is a little lengthy, but is a really good read.

So here you go! The Religion of Pre and Post Workout Nutrition.

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As we all know, nutrition is a key part of any fitness program. This especially applies to your workout nutrition. Here is a great tip from John Berardi on the topic:

Protein/Carbs Before Exercise To Burn Fat?
by Dr. John Berardi

While nearly everyone nowadays knows that pre, during, and post exercise nutritional intake is critical for improving protein status and glycogen synthesis, most people fear that the ingestion of protein and carbohydrates during these times will decrease fat oxidation (burning).

Well, put simply, they’re wrong (sticking out tongue).

Studies have demonstrated that even in the presence of a relatively high carbohydrate intake (and large insulin response), the addition of protein to a carbohydrate meal can increase fat burning during exercise.

So it looks like a well-designed pre, during, and post exercise intake will not only improve protein status and glycogen resynthesis but it may actually increase fat burning. Bigger and leaner? Say it ain’t so.

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Are you like a ton of other people out there that is always wondering how much you should eat when it comes to fat, protein, and carbs? This seems to be a common question. So what is the best ratio to follow? A lot of it depends on your goals! Here is great tip on the subject from John Berardi:

The Ratio Diet
by Dr. John Berardi

Want to improve body composition, increase the ratio of fat lost to muscle lost during a diet, improve blood lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), prevent wild fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin, and improve satiety when on a diet? Well, you’re not alone. In fact, Dr Layman and colleagues at the University of Illinois are also interested in helping you accomplish these goals.

In their recent studies, they have demonstrated a myriad of benefits associated with reducing the ratio of carbohydrate to protein in the diet from 3.5g of carbohydrate to every 1g of protein to 1.4g of carbohydrate to every 1g of protein. What does this mean in terms of food intake? Well, check out this handy little chart.

kcal/day Fat grams* Carbohydrate grams Protein grams

4500 kcal 150g 450g 338g
3500 kcal 117g 350g 263g
2500 kcal 83g 250g 188g
1500 kcal 50g 150g 113g

*These numbers assume a diet that contains 30% fat.

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

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I’m not a big fan of going under the knife to fix problems. I’m a believer that a lot of what happens to us (and our bodies) has a huge psychological backing to it. So just going under the knife doesn’t fix the route problem. But I also recognize that if you are extremely obese it might be necessary just to help you get things under control.

One program that looks like it would be good to check out if you are in this situation is Journey Lite. I won’t go into all of the details about this program, but they use the LAP BAND system which could actually help you change your habits. It basically makes it so you can’t eat as much. You can check out this link for more information: lapband Houston.

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We’ve all heard that you need to be either eating fish or taking fish oils for the omega-3 fatty acids. Tom Venuto recently wrote a blog on his Burn The Fat Blog that gave some really good tips on why and how to get your omega-3’s. Here’s the quote:

1) eat fatty fish at least twice per week and even daily if practical and economical for you. If not, you could supplement with fish oil (1.5-3 grams of combined DHA/EPA daily)

2) Omega 6 fatty acids are also essential, but most people have an unbalanced omega 3 to omega 6 ratio. This can be remedied by increasing the omega 3 consumption and or reducing the omega 6 consumption (by decreasing intake of processed foods, refined grains, and supermarket cooking oils, with the exception of extra virgin olive oil)

3) grind up flaxseeds and sprinkle them on salads or add them to oatmeal, protein shakes or morning cereals. Alternately, supplement with flaxseed oil; 1 tbsp is equivalent to 3 tbsp flaxseeds (use as a supplement; Not for cooking)

4) snack on walnuts, which contain modest amounts of omega 3 fats (other types of nuts and seeds can also contain significant amounts of omega 3 fats)

5) increase your consumption of leafy greens which contain small amounts of omega 3 fats.

6) if you eat red meat, try game meats or grass fed beef or bison. they dont have nearly the quantity of omega-3 as marine sources, but they are higher in omega-3 and have a better omega-3 to omega-6 ratio than conventionally raised and fed beef.

7) Try omega-3 fortified eggs instead of regular eggs.

See how easy it is to get more omega-3?

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Today’s tip is really common sense.  But as we all know, common sense isn’t necessarily all that common.  The trick of this tip is be careful that if you use “cheat meals” that you don’t let them take the place of what you should really be eating.  Here’s the tip from John Berardi:

Don’t Displace, Dummy!
by Dr. John Berardi

There’s a big difference between a healthy diet to which treats are occasionally added and an ‘all-treat diet.’ In the former, unhealthy foods are consumed rarely and in addition to healthy foods. In the latter, unhealthy foods are consumed often and instead of healthy foods. This is called ‘food displacement’ and must be avoided if optimal body composition and health are your goals. Don’t displace nutrient dense food with empty calories!

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

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