Post workout nutrition is crucial for muscle recovery & rehydration. The common advice is to have whey after a weight lifting session because it’s a fast protein. You want to get protein in your muscles as fast as you can for recovery.

Truth or marketing from supplement companies? Fact is that many weight lifters have used milk as a post workout drink for years. After reading this post you’ll know why it’s the ultimate post workout food for many people.

Milk Content. 1 cup (250ml) whole milk contains 8g protein, 13g carbs & 8g fat for a total of 150kcal. 1 cup also has 290mg calcium & 107g sodium. This combo makes milk perfect for lean body mass gains & recovery. Full content:

• Casein. Slow digesting protein. Milk consists for 80% of casein, a dairy protein that keeps you full longer and helps fat loss & muscle repair.
• Whey. Fast digesting protein. Milk consists for 20% of whey which helps muscle repair. This is the same kind of whey you find in protein shakes.
• BCAA. Milk is rich in branched chain amino acids : leucine, isoleucine and valine. A diet rich in protein, especially dairy protein like milk, will get you plenty of BCAAs. No need to waste your money on supplements.
• Carbs. Milk contains lactose. Your body uses this sugar to replenish your energy stores. Some can’t digest lactose. Check the tips at the bottom.
• Fat. Unless you go fat-free, milk contains 1 to 3g fat per 100ml. Fats digest slowly and keep you full longer, thus decreasing hunger.
• Calcium. Dairy calcium increases fat loss & improves bone health. The latter is especially important if you’re a woman (osteoporosis).
• Water. Milk is about 87% water. Proper hydration improves muscle recovery and can increase strength by preventing fatigue & stalling.
• Electrolytes. Milk contains sodium & potassium. These minerals improve re-hydration by retaining the fluids you consume post workout.
• Nutrients. Biotin, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin B-12, vitamin D, vitamin K, riboflavin and many others (naturally or through fortification).

5 Reasons You Should Drink Milk Post Workout.

1. Muscle Gains. Research shows a mix of slow and fast digesting protein is superior for lean body mass gains. Milk is 80% casein, 20% whey.
2. Fat Loss. Dairy calcium increases fat loss. The fat in milk keeps you full longer which decreases hunger and thus helps you to lose fat.
3. Recovery. Milk is a fluid and has electrolytes. Research shows milk is superior to water and sport drinks for rehydration post workout.
4. Cheap. When you consider the protein (whey/casein/BCAA) and calorie content of milk, it’s one of the cheapest foods available.
5. Easy. Milk requires zero preparation. 1 quarter (1 liter) milk can be a perfect post workout meal depending on your daily caloric needs.

Milk vs Whey. Some people still believe you need whey post workout. Probably because supplement companies keep pushing it. But studies show slow protein OR a mix of slow & fast protein is superior for lean body mass gains.

Whey is a fast protein. While milk is a combination of slow & fast protein (casein & whey). That’s why milk post workout is superior to whey but also to soy milk for lean body mass gains: whey & soy milk are fast digesting proteins.

If you don’t drink milk, the point is that a slow OR mix of slow & fast protein is better post workout. So even meat, poultry or fish is better than whey. Turns out many people have used solid meals post workout with success.

I haven’t used whey since a long time. I have milk post workout and/or a solid meal that consists of meat, grains & some fats. Exodus shared in this post that he got ripped using a similar kind of post workout meal.

Milk vs Sports Drinks. Strength training causes water loss through sweating. Rehydration is crucial for muscle recovery since dehydration can cause stalling. Signs of dehydration: fatigue & headaches (think hangovers).

Studies show milk is superior to water and sport drinks for rehydration. Here’s why: milk is rich in sodium & potassium which retain fluid, but also in protein & fat which slow digestion. Less hunger, longer hydration.

I don’t recommend sport drinks if you do strength training. Their sugar content will make you fat. Have a solid meal and/or milk and drink plenty of water post workout. Sport drinks are for endurance athletes, not weight lifters.

Whole Milk vs Fat Free Milk. Studies show whole milk causes more lean body mass gains than fat free milk. Since slower protein is better post workout, this could be why whole milk is superior: its fat content could slow absorption.

The fat in whole milk makes it tastier than fat free milk & keeps you full longer. So you’ll tend to eat less with whole milk and be less hungry. Although the fat content in whole milk can be an issue since it’s more caloric dense.

• Whole milk: 30g protein, 40g carbs, 35g fat, 600kcal.
• Low fat milk: 30g protein, 40g carbs, 10g fat, 370kcal.
• Non fat milk: 30g protein, 40g carbs, 0g fat, 280kcal.
• Low fat choco milk: 30g protein, 115g carbs, 10g fat, 670kcal.

Nutritional values are for 1 quart (1 liter) milk.

Milk Recommendations for Fat Loss. To lose fat, you need to eat less calories and/or burn more calories. Milk won’t make you fat. Neither will the fat content in fatty milk make you fat. Only excess calories cause fat gains.

Smoothing is possible when introducing milk in your diet (read below). But this isn’t fat gain. No food can make you fat if you have a caloric deficit. Just like any food, including protein, can cause fat gains when you have a caloric excess.

Research clearly shows that whole milk causes more lean body mass gains than non fat milk. Which proves fat doesn’t make you fat. Excess calories do. As long as you have a caloric deficit, it doesn’t matter if you drink non fat or whole milk.

So which milk you should drink post workout depends on your caloric needs for fat loss, which depend on your body-weight most. Example:

• If you’re 220lbs, you need about 2800kcal/day to lose fat. 1 quart whole milk post workout leaves room for 2200kcal the rest of the day.
• But if you’re 160lbs, you need about 1900kcal/day for fat loss. 1 quart whole milk only leaves 1300kcal. Or only 325kcal/meal if you eat 4x/day. Smaller meals don’t fill your stomach and could cause hunger.

So if you’re on the lighter side and need to lose fat, you have 2 options:

1. Drink smaller quantities whole milk: 1 cup has 150kcal, 2 cups 300kcal.
2. Drink low fat milk: 1 quart has 370kcal, 2 cups 185kcal.

Everything depends on your caloric needs for fat loss. Rule of thumb: 13kcal/lb of body-weight (or 11kcal/lb if you’re a woman). Do the math and make the milk fit within your caloric needs.

I recommend low fat milk over non fat milk because the difference in calories is insignificant. Low fat milk has only 90kcal more when you drink 1 quart and only 45kcal more when you drink 2 cups. Not a big deal.

On top of that, research shows that fattier milk causes more lean body mass. So drink low fat milk if you can’t make whole milk fit in your diet. Remember to drink milk post workout only if you follow the 8 nutrition rules, milk has carbs.

Milk Recommendations for Weight Gain. To gain weight, you need to have a caloric excess: eat more calories and/or burn less calories. Since burning less calories is hard to do, this means you have to eat more.

So it makes sense to drink 1 quart whole milk post workout: more calories and according to research more lean body mass gains. A more extreme version of this is obviously GOMAD: gallon of whole milk a day.

Chocolate milk could work too calorie wise. But it could be less effective than whole milk since it has less fat. Chocolate milk also seems to constipate.

Quick Tips. Some people can’t digest lactose. And many people experience smoothing from milk which they always mistake for fat gains. Tips:

• Lactose Intolerance. Take lactase pills with your milk if you get gas or diarrhea. Avoid lactaid-free milk: it’s convenient but more expensive.
• Smoothing. Milk is rich in sodium. Going from low to high sodium intakes causes water retention. Solution: increase your sodium intake. Eat more dairy products, eat pickles, supplement with real sea salt.

Share your experience with milk as a post workout drink in the article section of the StrongLifts.com Forum. Click here to find the related thread.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

• Eat Stop Eat Review: why I fast and how to mix it with StrongLifts 5×5.
• Eat Stop Eat Q/A: bunch of questions and answers about fasting.
• Eat Stop Eat Discussion: forum members share their experience.
• Eat Stop Eat ebook: special offer for StrongLifts readers.

Fasting has a negative connotation to some. Probably because there are diets which advise you to fast for days. Intermittent Fasting — like Eat Stop Eat — is different: you’re just taking a small 24h break from eating 1x or 2x/week.

Here are 7 tips to make Intermittent Fasting easier when you use Brad Pilon’s approach Eat Stop Eat.

1. Don’t Believe The Myths. You won’t lose muscle, your metabolism won’t slow down, your weight loss will be fat loss not water/muscle loss and you won’t lose strength. Read the book for the research.
2. Start Your Fast After Dinner. Have your last meal around 7pm. If you wake up at 7am, you’ll already be halfway your 24h fast when you get up. And you’ll sleep better by avoiding big meals prior bedtime.
3. Drink Plenty of Water. An empty stomach will make you feel hungry. Fill your stomach with water. Tea & coffee (without cream/sugar) are also ok. So is diet soda although I advise against (processed food).
4. Break Your Fast with Normal Size Meals. Have the same kind of meal you’d have if not fasting. So no big meals or junk food. Have a regular size meals that consists of whole unprocessed foods. And eat slow.
5. Never Break Your Fast Because You’re Hungry. One goal with fasting is to build the self-discipline of dealing with hunger. Eat a regular size meal once you’ve fasted for 24h. Never before.
6. Don’t Fast More Than 2x/week. Fasting 2x per week for 24h cuts your calorie intake by about 30%. Fasting more would cut calories too much and cause lack of strength/energy and/or over-eating.
7. Do It for At Least 2 Months. Your first fast is the hardest since you’ll get very hungry. But it gets easier after 2-3 weeks. Count at least 2 months to fully adapt and experience all the health benefits of fasting.

Remember the only way to find out if Intermittent Fasting is something for you, is to be open-minded and try it for at least 8 weeks. That’s what I did.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

You get up and kick off the day with a coffee. You only have 10 mins so you rush for work without having breakfast. Maybe you buy a bagel and cream cheese on your way to work, but usually you don’t eat until lunch time.

A healthier way to start your day is to have breakfast. But I know: you lack time for that in the morning and never feel hungry. This post will help you. Here are 7 strategies to easily build the habit of eating breakfast within 30 days.

1. Start Small. If you get nauseas when you eat breakfast, start small and add food slowly but gradually. This gives your body time to adapt. Example:

• 1st week: 2 scrambled eggs.
• 2nd week: 2 scrambled eggs with a 1/2 cup spinach.
• 3rd week: 3 scrambled eggs with a 3/4 cup spinach and an orange.

2. Eat Less Pre Bed. Having a big meal just before you go to bed will mess with your sleep and will make you less hungry on waking up.

• Have Pre Bed Snacks. Dinner 3h prior bedtime, snack 1h before going to bed. Example of good pre bed snack: cottage cheese with berries.
• Stop Training 3h Prior Bedtime. So your post workout meal doesn’t fall too close to bedtime. But also because exercising right before going to bed can keep you awake (by raising your body’s temperature).

3. Stop Midnight Snacking. Waking up in the middle of the night to eat makes you less hungry at breakfast and lowers your sleep’s quality. Avoid midnight snacking. You won’t lose muscle anyway as long as you exercise regularly.

• Buy Whole Foods Only. If you don’t have ready-to-eat processed foods that come out of a box, the only way to snack is to cook.
• Remove Leftovers. Harder to snack if you don’t have ready-to-eat foods in your fridge. Make smaller portions or give your leftovers to your dog.
• Go Back In Bed. Hunger in the middle of the night will stop if you eat at fixed intervals. Build the habit of waking up early if you can’t catch sleep.

4. Make It Tasty. Eating foods you like will make it easier to build the habit of eating breakfast. Learn to use spices and herbs. Alternate the ingredients in your breakfast meal so you avoid boredom.

• Check the breakfast recipes for fat loss.
• Get a cookbook. Check Gourmet Nutrition and Paleo Cookbook.

5. Keep It Simple. Especially if you struggle to wake up early. Don’t waste your time with recipes that take hours to prepare. Make something simple and easy that’s also tasty and healthy.

• Make Smoothies. Take 5 mins to prepare. Mix whey, veggies & fruits in your blender. Drink. Done. Check the smoothie recipe thread for ideas.
• Use Frozen Veggies. Pre-washed, pre-cut and often better quality than fresh. You’ll cut down your preparation time by using frozen veggies.
• Prepare Ingredients. Put frozen veggies like peppers or spinach in your colander the night before. They’ll be unfrozen on waking up. You’ll only need to fry them in your pan with your scrambled eggs.

6. Wake Up Early. Lack of time is one of the top causes for skipping breakfast. I recommend you wake up 2h before you leave for work so you have time to eat breakfast and to get ready without getting stressed.

• Read 7 Reasons You Should Wake up Early.
• Read How to Wake Up Early: The Definitive Guide.

7. Eat Breakfast Daily. The fastest & easiest way to form a new habit is to do the same task daily for at least 30 days. After this your internal resistance decreases and you’ll take action automatically. Persistence is key. Tips:

• Do It for 30 Days. Prepare and eat breakfast daily for at least 30 days. Even if it’s only something small and including in the weekend.
• Use Willpower. Your first 10 days are the hardest. But it gets easier as you see the benefits. Use willpower to get through the first 30 days.
• Be Consistent. Do not skip a day during your first 30 days trial. It only makes things harder. Use willpower and count your days off.

Again: it only takes 30 days and then you’re rolling. Persist!

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

I received a lot of feedback after the posts 7 Reasons Why You Should NOT Eat Breakfast and 5 Reasons Why You Should Eat Breakfast.

• Positive feedback because I addressed myths regarding breakfast.
• Negative feedback because some assumed I was anti-breakfast.

To make sure there’s no confusion, quick recap on breakfast.

8 Nutrition Rules. After the last 2 posts, you might have been confused about 3 out of the 8 nutrition rules. Here’s why you should keep following them.

• Eat Breakfast. Because it helps building healthy eating habits: harder to eat junk food the rest of the day if you start with a healthy meal. It also helps weight gain: easier to eat more if you spread your calories.
• Eat Every 3hours. So you don’t end at the candy machine or overeat on the next meal because you got hungry. It also decreases stomach size because your meals are smaller. So you’ll feel full faster.
• Eat Protein With Each Meal. You need 1g of protein per pound of body-weight since you’re limiting your starchy carb intake. Otherwise meeting your caloric needs gets impossible. Also: protein blunts hunger.

Nothing Changes. The 8 nutrition rules still apply and will continue to apply. You should keep eating breakfast, eat every 3 hours, eat protein with each meal, … But NOT for the reasons they usually tell you. 3 myths debunked:

• Frequent Meals Don’t Increase Metabolism. Your body won’t burn more calories if you eat a meal every 3 hours. So you won’t burn more fat. The only way to increase your metabolism is to exercise and lose weight.
• Skipping Meals Doesn’t Decrease Your Metabolism. Breakfast doesn’t kickstart your metabolism because it never goes down when sleeping. It doesn’t even go down when fasting for up to 72h.
• You Don’t Lose Muscle If You Don’t Eat. Your body needs protein to build muscle. But starvation mode is a myth. As long as you do regular strength training, you won’t lose any muscle.

For research, check Eat Stop Eat, How Much Protein, Leangains, pubmed, … The research on this is fairly new and many coaches/nutritionists are updating their books based on it. Do not take mainstream advice for granted.

Why Does It Matter If Nothing Changes? Several months ago I experimented with Intermittent Fasting for the first time. First Eat Stop Eat, then I moved to Leangains‘ approach which I’m still on today.

Like many readers I’ve had great results with Intermittent Fasting. Especially in terms of productivity and hunger control. So far it doesn’t seem like I’ll ever go back to my old way of eating (8 nutrition rules).

This means you’ll most likely get articles on Intermittent Fasting in the future. The post 7 reasons you shouldn’t eat breakfast sets the foundation for these future posts since there are many myths regarding fasting.

I don’t believe that everyone who tries Intermittent Fasting will like it. But I do believe that anyone can adapt if you give it time.

Saying “I feel like crap when I skip breakfast” is like saying “I don’t look like Ivan Stoitsov but I’ve been doing StrongLifts 5×5 since 2 weeks”. Your body needs time to adapt. Especially if you ate breakfast daily for 15years like I did.

By the way: Intermittent Fasting is not a way to make your life easier because you’re too lazy too cook. It’s also not a get-ripped-quick scheme. Build the habit of eating healthy consistently before you try it.

Please Read Articles Thoroughly. Not just the headlines and subheadings. In the post 7 reasons you shouldn’t eat breakfast, I explained at the bottom why you should keep eating breakfast. So the confusion surprised me.

Read through this & this forum threads in the forum. There’s a lot of feedback coming from both sides. I’ve replied to questions too.

Remember to stay civil, constructive & open-minded. Disagreeing is fine. But say why/ask what you don’t understand/give your perspective. This way we can all learn from eachother.

Expect more about breakfast in the coming weeks. Click here to automatically get future articles in your mailbox or by RSS for free.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

Everyone says breakfast is the most important meal. Even the 8 nutrition rules recommend you to eat breakfast. But what if your instinct tells you to skip this meal. Should you force yourself to eat breakfast anyway?

Let’s see what the benefits of having breakfast are. Especially if your goal is fat loss or weight gain. This post will give you 5 reasons why you should build the habit of eating breakfast starting today.

1. Lose Fat. Eating breakfast won’t speed up your metabolism. Research shows fasting does not decrease your metabolism, neither do frequent meals increase it. But having breakfast does help fat loss by improving your diet.

• Less Binging. An unhealthy breakfast ruins your day: you’ll keep eating junk food thinking “tomorrow I eat healthy”. But a healthy breakfast sets the trend: you’ll want to continue eating healthy foods the whole day.
• More Healthy Food. The food you buy on your way to work usually isn’t healthy — although its label says so. By making breakfast yourself, you get control over the ingredients and thus over your results.

2. Gain Weight. To gain weight you must eat more. Hardgainers usually need at least 5000kcal/day to see weight gain. Eating breakfast is crucial to reach these amounts so you lose your skinny look forever.

• More Hunger. Breakfast usually makes you hungrier during the day. This makes weight gain easier since skinny guys often struggle to eat a lot.
• Less Bloating. The more meals you eat, the smaller these must be to reach your caloric needs. Meaning less nausea’s, less bloating, …

3. Build Healthy Eating Habits. As explained in point 1, starting your day with a healthy breakfast sets the trend: you won’t ruin the rest of your day with junk food if you begin it with a healthy meal.

Breakfast doesn’t benefit your health directly. Studies that claim otherwise are correlational. But breakfast is crucial to build healthy eating habits – like eating whole foods 90% of the time – which will eventually improve your health.

4. Save Money. Preparing breakfast is cheaper than buying foods on your way to work or school, foods that are often also unhealthy.

• Short-term. Healthy, whole, unprocessed food isn’t more expensive. If it is: you’re not doing it right. Read 20 ways to eat healthy on a budget.
• Long-term. Poor diet causes excess body fat and eventually heart diseases which is the top cause of death in developed countries.

5. Avoid Stress. What you do the 1st hour after you wake up sets the trend for your whole day. You’ll avoid stress by waking up earlier and eat breakfast.

• No Skipped Meals. No more stress because you couldn’t find something healthy to eat for breakfast in the grocery store on your way to work.
• No Rushing. No more stress because you woke up late again, didn’t had time to eat breakfast and now have to rush to make it in time for work.

So how do you build the habit of eating breakfast? Topic of a future article. To automatically get free updates, click here.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

I used to wake up, drink coffee and eat nothing until noon. I had nausea’s from having breakfast so I skipped it until I was about 14.

But this changed when I began going to school by bike. I always got sick cycling on an empty stomach: cold sweat broke out by the time I arrived at school and I threw up my coffee several times.

I thought skipping breakfast was the cause because everybody told me I should eat breakfast, it’s healthier. So I started to eat like an animal on waking up. And indeed: I no longer got sick when I went by bike to school.

15 years later, I’ve trained on an empty stomach many times without problems. I no longer get sick from training in a fasted state, although I train at higher intensities than I did at age 14. What happened?

I now believe my bad eating habits and being out of shape as a teenager were the causes. Because it turns out eating on waking up is not healthier. Here are 7 reasons why you should not have breakfast.

1. Breakfast Doesn’t Increase Your Metabolism. Studies show that fasting or less frequent meals don’t decrease your metabolism. And eating every 3 hours, including breakfast, doesn’t increase your metabolism neither.

People promoting Intermittent Fasting like Brad Pilon from Eat Stop Eat & Martin Berkhan from Leangains have shown the opposite is true: your metabolic rate increases slightly when you fast.

2. Breakfast Doesn’t Stop Muscle Breakdown. Starvation mode is a myth: you won’t lose muscle if you don’t eat every 3 hours — like when sleeping — and as long as you do regular exercise.

Your muscles also don’t need protein every 3 hours. Getting protein around your training seems to be more important than your total protein intake. Read Brad Pilon’s How Much Protein for solid research on topic.

3. Breakfast Doesn’t Manage Blood Sugar Well. The common advice is to have breakfast to raise your blood sugar and control your insulin levels. Insulin is key for muscle growth but is also responsible for fat storage.

Fasting reduces your insulin levels and increases insulin sensitivity dramatically more than eating small frequent meals do. People with diabetes have reported they managed their blood sugar better using Intermittent Fasting.

4. Breakfast Increases Hunger. Many people — including me — feel hungrier during the day after eating breakfast. This could be a benefit or a drawback, depending on whether you want to gain weight or lose fat.

• Great for Weight Gain. If you’re a skinny guy who struggles to eat a lot, eating breakfast will make it easier to reach your caloric needs.
• Not So Great for Fat Loss. Especially since more frequent meals don’t increase your metabolism. You’ll have to control your food choice, like starchy carb intake, to avoid fat gains. Follow the 8 nutrition rules.

5. Breakfast Is Not Healthier. People who don’t eat breakfast are usually the ones who don’t exercise and who grab a donut on their way to work, eat junk food at noon and a big dinner in front of the TV.

Breakfast doesn’t benefit your health directly, but helps building healthy eating habits. Studies claiming that breakfast is healthy are correlational.

• Breakfast does not manage blood sugar well.
• Breakfast does not increase your metabolism.
• Breakfast does not prevent muscle breakdown.
• Breakfast makes you hungrier the rest of the day.

6. Breakfast Impairs Concentration. Studies show fasting for 48 hours doesn’t impact cognitive tests negatively. You don’t need breakfast for mental alertness.

A lot of people, especially students, skip breakfast because they know they’ll be more productive, concentrated and motivated during the rest of the day as a result. I’ve experienced the same thing.

7. Breakfast Is Unnatural. Our ancestors probably didn’t eat large breakfasts: they’d have to hunt it first (unless we’re talking left-overs). Hunter-gather meal patterns with large dinners and little during the day seem more natural.

This could be why many people’s instinct is to skip breakfast. Some say cereal companies pushed the idea that breakfast is healthy for their own benefits.

No More Breakfast? Am I saying you should stop eating breakfast? Not if you struggle to eat whole foods 90% of the time. In this case you should learn to eat breakfast as it will help you build healthy eating habits.

But once you’ve been eating healthy 90% of the time for at least 1 year and depending on what your goal is, you could experiment with approaches like Intermittent Fasting. See how that works out for you.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

No time to eat? Make time, your body needs food. No time to cook 6x/day? Me neither. That’s why you must batch cook 1x/day. But practical things aside, let’s see if your body benefits from eating every 3 hours.

Why You Don’t Need to Eat Every 3 Hours. Popular myth: your metabolism — how many calories you burn at rest — is higher if you eat more frequent meals. That’s how eating every 3 hours would increase fat loss.

Research shows that eating every 3 hours doesn’t increase your metabolism. And less frequent meals or fasting doesn’t decrease your metabolism neither. Forum member Leanstrong posted the studies. Thank him for the info.

Why You Need to Eat Every 3 hours. Eating every day at the same time will make you hungry each day at the same time. More benefits:

• Fat Loss. You’ll get hungry if you go without food for more than 3 hours. And this can make you overeat at the next meal, preventing fat loss.
• Weight Gain. Try eating 6000kcal/day in 3 meals. Gaining weight is a lot easier if you spread your calories in 6-7 meals per day.
• Less Hunger. Smaller meals decrease your stomach size over time. Your stomach will feel full sooner. You’ll also stabilize blood sugar & insulin.
• More Energy. Eating 3 large meals of 1000kcal will make you sleepy & lethargic. Smaller meals: more energy, better focus, no set stomach.
• Less Cheating. You know you’ll have a healthy meal within 3 hours. Psychologically this makes it easier to keep your diet healthy.

Tips to Make Your Life Easier. Lack of time will prevent you to eat more than 3-4 meals/day. Here are some tips to make things work:

• Prepare Food in Advance. Cook your food for your day while making breakfast or dinner. This takes 1h and saves you stress the rest of the day. You’ll also save money compared to buying food outside.
• Take Food with You. Get plastic boxes and take everything with you to work/school. If you spend a lot of time in your car: buy a fridge.
• Free Time to Eat. Too busy at work? Take breaks. You’ll focus better if you take one every 2 hours. Read the Power of Full Engagement.
• Stop Caring. About what people do or say about your diet. This is your life and you have your goals. Make it happen.

What About Intermittent Fasting? On these diets you alternate fasting with eating. The length of the fast & feed depends on the diet. Examples:

• Alternate Day Fasting: 36h fast, 12h feed.
• Eat Stop Eat: 24h fast 1-2x/week.
• Fast-5: 19h fast, 5h feed.
• Leangains: 16h fast, 8h feed.
• Warrior Diet: 20h fast, 4h feed.

I’m doing Eat Stop Eat since 10 weeks now and highly enjoy it. Read my review here and the discussion here. The Warrior Diet and Leangains also work if you lift weights. Read this & this discussion in the forum.

Realize, however, that fasting is a different game. Eat every 3 hours or fast intermittently. There’s no middle way.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

Why You Need to Drink Water. You can go several weeks without food, but you can’t go more than a few days without drinking water. Water is the most critical nutrient for life. Your body is 60% water and needs it for:

• Hydration. Strength training causes water loss through sweating. You’ll prevent dehydration by drinking enough water.
• Recovery. Your muscles needs water to recover from strength training. If you don’t drink enough water, you’ll limit your muscle gains.
• Digestion. You need 25g fiber per day for optimal digestion. But since fiber binds to water, it’s useless if you don’t drink enough water.
• Satiation. An empty stomach will make you think you’re hungry. Drinking water will fill your stomach and make you feel less hungry.
• And More. Water regulates your body’s temperature, prevents kidney stones, improves skin health, lubricates joints, …

How Much Water Do You Need Daily? If you drink enough and have healthy kidneys/bladder, your urine should be color- and odorless. Darker urine is only acceptable the first time you urinate after waking up.

Don’t wait until you’re thirsty. Pay attention to the color of your urine when you urinate. The rule of thumb to get it color- and odorless is:

• 1liter per 1000kcal you expend = your daily water requirement

So if you expend 5000kcal per day, you need to drink 5 liters water per day. To find out how much calories you expend, check out the cunningham equation. It will give an accurate view on your caloric needs.

What About Water Intoxication? Over-consumption of water can disturb the balance of electrolytes in your body. This can cause fatal disturbance of your brain functions. 3 tips to avoid water intoxication:

• Eat Healthy. Check the 8 nutrition rules. Applying these rules will ensure you replenish your electrolytes
• Use Your Head. Don’t do crazy things like drinking 10 liters water in 30 minutes. Don’t participate to drinking contest.
• Avoid Sports Drink. Over consumption can lead to water intoxication since they’re often too low in electrolytes. And they’re full of sugars.

What About Peeing? Drinking more water will make you go to the toilet more at first. However your bladder will adapt. After a few weeks you’ll have to go less. But probably a bit more than before.

Consider it a good thing. Spending too much time in the same position causes problems in the long-term. Drinking water is the best way to force you to get away from your desk from time to time: to go to the toilet.

How to Build The Habit of Drinking More Water. By drinking more water, more often. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Some tips:

• Start Early. Have 1 cup of water ready on your nightstand. Drink it first thing on waking up. Persist if it’s hard: you’ll get used to it.
• Drink 2 Cups with Each Meal. 2 cups at lunch, 2 at dinner, 2 with your snacks. Eat first, drink later. Otherwise you’ll struggle with your food.
• Sip Water During Your Workout. Take a bottle of water to the gym and sip water during your workout. Sipping will prevent a set stomach.

Bonus Tips. If you don’t like the taste of water: drink it more & more often. Your taste will adapt. Extra tips to deal with boredom:

• Get a Brita Filter. And filter your tap water yourself. It’s cheaper than bottled water and the brita filter improves the taste of tap water.
• Drink Tea. Green tea is a strong anti-oxidant and natural diuretic. Drink tea from time to time instead of plain water.
• Squeezed Lemon. Squeezed lemon in water. Improves the taste and lemons help maintaining the acid/alkaline balance in your body.

Note that veggies, fruits, coffee, milk all contain water so they help getting your daily water requirements.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

Example of Healthy Nutrition. Whole, unprocessed foods. These foods come as close as possible to their natural state and are not (or little) processed. 90% of your food intake should consist of whole foods. Examples:

• Meat, Poultry & Fish. Ground round, chicken breast, tuna, mackerel, …
• Dairy. Whole eggs, cottage cheese, plain fat free yogurt, milk, …
• Whole Grains. Oats, rice, quinoa, pasta, …
• Healthy Fats. Olive oil, mixed nuts, fish oil, real butter, …
• Fresh Fruits & Veggies. Spinach, broccoli, bananas, apples, oranges, …
• Frozen/Canned Fruits & Veggies. But only if additive-free. Examples: pineapple cans without added sugars, pre-cut frozen broccoli, …

Example of Unhealthy Nutrition. Processed foods. These are altered from their natural state for safety & convenience. Their labels usually have a huge list of ingredients. And they’re filled with salts, sugars, trans-fats, … Examples:

• Packaged Snacks. Chips, cakes, cookies, crackers, sugar coated nuts, …
• Processed Meats. Hot dogs, bologna, sausages, lunch meats, …
• Calorie Beverages. Sodas, fruit juices, sugar alcohol, …
• Pre-made Meals. Frozen meals, cans of ravioli, pizzas, …
• Deep Fried Foods. French fries, fish sticks, fried seafood, …
• Junk Food. Ice cream, Mc Donalds, kebab, …
• And More. Bagels, margarine, sugary breakfast cereals, …

Why Healthy Nutrition is Important. The easiest way to be sure you’re getting healthy nutrition: prepare your food yourself. This gives you total control over ingredients and thus results. Benefits of healthy nutrition:

• Fat Loss. Processed foods contain trans-fats & sugars which prevent fat loss. You need to eat whole foods 90% of the time to lose fat.
• Spare Muscle. Eating alkaline whole foods like spinach maintains the acid-base balance in your body and prevents muscle & bone loss.
• More Energy. Eat crap and you’ll feel like crap: set stomach, bloated, tired, lethargic, … Whole foods will make you feel better.
• Joint & Skin Health. Increasing your intake of fish oil decreases the onset of joint & skin inflammations. Think less tendinitis, less acne, …
• Overall Health. Whole foods don’t have all the sugars, trans-fats, salts & chemicals. Whole foods are also richer in vitamins, minerals and fiber. Which means lower risks of cancer, obesity, heart disease, diabetes.

You can get away with junk food 10% of the time. Maybe even more. But it’s a slippery slope: easy to get back to your old, bad habits. Read this thread.

Why Healthy Nutrition Is NOT Important. If you want to build muscle and get stronger, quantity of food is important. Not quality. As long as you eat enough food and don’t care about gaining fat, you’ll build muscle.

That’s 1 reason why powerlifters & Olympic weight lifers in heavy classes often have higher body fats. Excess calories matters most for strength & weight gain. Although junk food will make you fat, there’s muscle underneath.

Here are 2 examples of how powerifters or strongmen will look like if they clean up their diet.

• Dave Tate. Powerlifter. 935lbs Squat, 610lbs Bench Press, 740lbs Deadlift. Known for high junk food diet. Check his before/after pics.
• Dave Gulledge. Strongman. 800lbs Squat, 700lbs Bench Press, 735lbs Deadlift. Check his before/after pics.

Realize that while healthy nutrition isn’t important to build muscle and strength, unhealthy nutrition has its implication on your health & mood. In the long-term you’re better off eating healthy. And it doesn’t need to be expensive.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.

Q&A 1.

Nice one Mehdi thanks, after reading your article I decided to pull the trigger on this one.

Some interesting stuff, great idea, few concerns though. Mainly being the overall amount of calories that is recommended seems to be extremely low, due to the formula he is using to calculate your daily needs. That leads on to my concern about the start up phase which seems to just mean many days in a row of very low calorie intakes.

Wouldn’t the start up phase at the least course the body to crash?

-jj23

The 1st week on Cheat Your Way Thin starts with a huge caloric spike. So your carb stores will be full enough to get you through that week. Training can be a hard though, much like the first 12 days on the Anabolic Diet.

The 2nd week carbs are reintroduced so no more problems there.

Note that the Deluxe Upgrade of Cheat Your Way Thin has a more accurate calorie calculator.

Q&A 2.

I’m interested in this one too. Mainly though, I’m interested in the science behind it.

I wonder how this is different from a junk day that we usually seem to take in this forum.

Do you know if the basic version is enough? Or the advanced version is a must have..?

-zizzy80

Cheat Your Way Thin has all the science. It explains how junk food helps fat loss and problems you encounter when restricting calories for extended times.

The difference with what most people do is that with Cheat Your Way Thin you have to be strict 6 days a week. Then only do you deserve the junk food. The 90% rule remains. But you get all your junk meals on 1 day.

Eating junk food the other days will mess things up. You must be stricter.

I feel this works better. You’ll tend to stick better to your diet on weekdays since you’re busy with work and everything. Bigger temptations in weekend with social stuff & general laziness to cook.

The Deluxe Upgrade of Cheat Your Way Thin is worth it if you don’t want to do the thinking yourself recipe-wise. You’ll get 130 recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and shakes. And also 84 days of meal plans.

Q&A 3.

Oh right so I’m guessing the cheat day you do right before you start sees you through the week then.

What about the amount of calories though it seems so small compared to any other diet/calculator I’ve come across before?

Sorry for the questions, I just don’t wanna end up losing any of my hard gained muscle even for the sake of a big fat loss!

-jj23

Yes the cheat day gets you through the week, that’s the point.

The cheat day spikes your calorie intake. If you look at how many calories you get at the end of the week or month, you’ll see that you won’t eat less than before on average when doing Cheat Your Way Thin.

And don’t worry too much about the first 3 weeks. Those are just to get you ready.

Q&A 4.

Can u give me examples of meals on a daily basis with meals including cheat meals.. like for example if i wana eat in and out?

-Richard

On Cheat Your Way Thin you alternate between:

• Low Carb Days. Protein, fats, veggies, no carbs. Example: eggs, spinach, mushrooms.
• Low GI/GL Days. Protein, fats, veggies, low gi/gl carbs. Example: chicken, brown rice, orange.
• High GI/GL Days. Protein, fats, veggies, high gi/gl carbs. Example: oats, blueberries.
• Cheat Days. Junk food. Pizzas, burgers, ice cream, pancakes, … whatever you can think of.

The Cheat Your Way Thin guide has a full list of foods to choose from depending on the day. If you don’t want to do the thinking yourself, the Deluxe Upgrade has 84 days of example meal plans and 130 recipes.

Special Offer for StrongLifts.com Readers. You can get Cheat Your Way Thin at less than half the price until Friday June 26th 2009 12AM EST. It will teach you exactly how to accelerate your fat loss by eating junk food.

Click here to go to Joel’s site.

If you go to CheatYourWayThin.com, you’ll pay the normal price like everyone else is doing now. So make sure you use this link:

Click here to go to Joel’s site.

Cheat Your Way Thin comes with a 60 day risk free money back guarantee. If you don’t like it, contact Joel and you’ll get your full money back. I’m confident, however, that you’ll like the information in his system.

Copyright © 2007-2009 STRONGLIFTS BVBA. Disclaimer.