10 Simple Tips For Building Muscle Immediately

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

1. Warm Up. Would you stretch cold taffy? No, it will break. So don’t work your muscles when they’re cold. Five minutes of light cardio on the treadmill or exercise bike will get your heart rate up and blood flowing to your muscles.
2. Use Primarily Free Weights. Machines are great for isolating a muscle group. And they are part of a well rounded lifting routine. But too often we rely too heavily on them. Free weights allow you to move naturally and let you take advantage of your body’s natural anatomy. They also recruit many more stabilizing muscle groups, which make you stronger AND burns more calories.
3. Use Strict Form.Check you ego at the door and work the weight, don’t let the weight work you. If your form is off, you aren’t working your muscles properly, or worse, not working them at all. You’re wasting your time in the gym, and our time is all very costly.

4. Use Compound Exercise. These are the fundamental movements for every muscle group. They allow you to develop maximum strength and maximum mass. They work many muscle groups. And they will torch body fat. They are bench press for chest, should press for deltoids, squats for legs, deadlifts for legs and back, and rows and pull-ups for back. Make them a part of every workout.
5. Use The 8-10 Rep Range For Most Exercises.The exception is the aforementioned compound lifts where you can drop your rep range to 5-8. Otherwise 8-10 is the range you want for a combination of strength and hypertrophy.
6. Train Your Weakness. The key is balance. If you only train your strengths you will be completely unbalanced. Your muscles are all interconnected, so training your weakness will not only make you more symmetric.
7. Optimize Your Nutrition If you eat right and don’t workout a bit, you will look good. If you workout consistently but eat dirty, you won’t look like you’ve ever set foot inside the gym. Plain and simple.

8. Optimize Your Supplements. Most supplements make outrageous claims. But basic supplementation is key. A good multivitamin, Whey protein, and Pre-workout caffeine can help you look good in no time. These are the basics and they will go a long way.
9. Never Do Cardio Before Weights.This will run your glycogen levels into the ground and leave little if any fule left for the heavy lifting. This is especially important if you are in a calorie defecit and energy is at a premium. Do the hardest thing first, when you have the most fuel in your tank.
10. Don’t Overdo it with The Cardio. While cardiovascular exercise is excellent for your heart and blood vessels, it’s nearly always overdone. Cardio should be part of a balanced training routine. It should not take center stage, or be performed for hours and hours on end. If you do this, your stress hormones will go through the roof and your body will start to hold onto fat and actually store fat.

To learn more about Other Simple Tricks that will help you Burn More Fat and Lose Weight, Click Here.

5 Biggest Nutritional Lies You’ve Been Told

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

1. You Need To Starve To Lose Weight. This isn’t only false, but detrimental to loosing weight. It’s true that you need to take in less calories than you are expending in a given day to lose. But starvation is way too extreme. A 500 calories a day deficit is enough to lose a pound a week.

There are several problems with starvation mode. First your body will start looking to the protein in you muscles for fuel, so you will lose muscle mass and look less lean. The goal is to keep as much muscle as possible when trying to lose weight. Next is that starving yourself forces your body into a panic and causes release of massive doses of stress hormones like cortisol. The end results is that you actually will start storing more fat and holding onto the fat you have because your body thinks it needs to perverse fuel. Last is that your metabolism will come to a grinding halt. Where as your basal metabolic rate may have been 2000 calories per day prior to starving yourself, it may drop to 1000 calories per day, forcing you to starve yourself even more to see minimal results. This becomes a vicious cycle.

2. Too Much Protein is Bad For You. You hear this all the time. That eating too much protein is bad for your kidneys and your health. To date there has not been a single study to conclusively support this notion. Protein is the key building block to muscle. The more muscle you have, the better you will look and the higher your metabolism. More muscle equals less fat, plain and simple. What's more, is that protein requires the most energy for you body to process. In scientist speak, it’s the most thermogenic of the macronutrients. Lastly, protein tends to be more filling than fat or carbohydrate on a calorie for calorie basis. You should aim for 1 gram or protein per pound of body weight. Again studies have shown that even at 1.25g of protein per pound of body weight had no effect on one’s kidney function.

3. A Calorie Is A Calorie. While at its most basic level this is fundamentally true, it is so often misunderstood. Sure, if you need to eat 2000 calories a day to maintain your weight, regardless of if comes from chicken, brown rice, and broccoli or big macs, you will stay the same weight. But your body composition will change if you start eating dirty all the time. Your energy levels will decline due to huge swings in blood hormones. Your muscles will waste away because they are not getting enough of their building blocks (protein). And your metabolism will be slow because you’ll be missing vitamin, minerals, and cofactors which grease the wheels of your metabolism. Plain and simple: you are what you eat.

4. Red Meat s bad for you. Red meat gets a very bad wrap. It gets blamed for cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure. While most red meats are terrible for you, eating the right kind of red meat can help you can maximize muscle gain, fat loss, and your overall health. The problem is that people tend to not eat lean red meats. And they burn the hell out of the meats they are cooking. This is indeed horrible for your body for all the reasons mentioned. But lean red meat is high in iron, creatine, and packs more protein gram for gram than any other animal source. Make sure you trim the fat off your meat and if grilling, the burned or chard-to-a-crisp parts.

5. If I Eat Low Fat or Fat-Free Foods, I Won’t Get Fat. Although the low fat craze has come and gone its effects are still being felt and seen by the millions of overweight and obese Americans. The problem with low fat or fat free foods if that, almost without fail, “low fat” equals “high sugar”. And, “high sugar” equals, “gets stored as fat very quickly”. Good Fats are an essential part of a balanced diet and if chosen wisely will help you gain muscles and actually lose fat.

To learn more about Other Nutritional Tricks and how to Burn More Fat and Lose Weight, Click Here.

Is Alcohol Making You Fat?

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

Alcohol is important to social and personal situations.
It does not need to be excluded, but just like everything else, knowing its place and moderating it intake is key to building a leaner and healthier you.

First and foremost, alcohol is Calorie dense. Each gram has 7 Calories, almost midway between carbs/protein and fat.

That's just pure ethyl alcohol. When you add the mixing substances, you have a very Calorie dense substance.

On top of that alcohol has general detrimental effects on fat loss by inhibiting fat burning metabolic pathways, creating a favorable environment for fat storage, and decreasing testosterone production.

But again going back to the fundamental principal of Calories in and Calories out, you can enjoy alcohol. Just like all other nutrients, it must be moderate. Without going into too much detail, the scientific way to handle alcohol and weight loss is as follows: generally limit carbs and Calories on days you will be drinking. Eat a smaller and generally low carb breakfast and lunch. Then have a moderate carb dinner.

The second aspect is deciding what to drink. Avoid sugar heavy mixed drinks and instead opt for drinks based on club soda / diet soda, light beer, wine, or drinks on the rocks like bourbon. Each drink can be thought of as the equivalent of as 1-2 slices of bread.

Lastly, moderation again. Most people are familiar with the negative effects of drinking in excess. Dehydration and hangovers that can derail a planned morning workout session. Alcohol also lower inhibitions and makes it easier to cheat and overeat.

To learn more about alcohol and modify intake to Burn More Fat and Lose Weight, Click Here.

Top Foods used by Ancient Romans to Burn Fat

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

Fitness isn’t a temporary fix. It’s a lifestyle and nutrition is critical. Easily more than 50% of looking good and getting the most out of your workouts is nutrition. Once you learn the basics, it becomes easier and easier to adapt to your new lifestyle and the fit feeling becomes addictive. The first daunting task of creating an effective yet tasty diet can be overwhelming. Eventually it will become second nature.

A balanced diet includes the right macronutrients at the right times. Here are some foods for each macro nutrient group that you can’t go wrong with. Keep these stocked at you place at all times.

Protein is the building block of muscle. It’s also quite filling and requires the most energy expenditure by your body to process. Lean sources of protein should be in your diet.

Keep these proteins in your kitchen:
Chicken breast
Ground turkey
Lean ground beef
Lean cuts of red meat
Certain Types of Fish
Eggs
Greek yogurt
Whey protein

Fats are often seen as the enemy. But fats don’t make people fat, overeating does. Good Fats are essential for testosterone production, which is the major hormone for fat loss and muscle building. Good Fats are also necessary to keep your metabolism running smooth. And if you aren’t eating carbs later in the day, good fats are necessary to fill that caloric void.

Keep these fats in your kitchen:
Olive oil
Nuts
Peanut butter
Avocados
Cheese (hard cheese like Parmesans, Romano, or feta has the best protein to fat ratio)

Carbohydrates are your body’s primary fuel source. But overeating will quickly convert those excess carbohydrates to fat. Carbs should be eaten in the morning and pre and post workout. Carbs should be limited later in the day.

Keep these good carbohydrates in your kitchen:
Brown rice
Whole wheat bread
Whole wheat pasta
Quinoa
Oatmeal
Fruits (berries, bananas, apples, citrus)
Vegetables (sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, salads, tomatoes, carrots)
Beans and chickpeas

Seasonings:
Salsa
Reduce sodium soy sauce
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Old Bay
Herbs
Mustard
Extract (vanilla, lemon)
Mrs. Dash

To learn more about other foods that can help you Burn More Fat and Lose Weight, Click Here.

Fun, Mental Trick that Stops Food Cravings.

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

Ever wonder why it is that even though you may have just eaten a healthy and filling dinner, you still crave desert? You may even feel hungry, though you are not! It’s these cravings that often derail your hopes for a leaner and sexier body. You know the feeling. You’ve done everything right in the day up until that point and those pesky thoughts of sweets just won’t go away.

The truth is that after a meal you are full. It’s not hunger that’s driving you to crave sweets. It’s appetite. The desire to have those flavors and the mental joy that comes with them. These foods actually incite the same neural circuitry as many drugs, and that’s why there is a literal addiction to them. But how do you break the cycle?

First realize what’s happening. You aren’t actually hungry. Cravings are often brought on by boredom, stress, or anxiety. You’d be surprised how much simple awareness can help with cravings. Next, find something to occupy you. Try going for a walk, play with your kids or pet, or read something engaging. Sometimes your body is thirsty though it comes through as the sensation of hunger. Drink a glass of water, wait five minute, and see if you are still feeling hungry or having cravings. You can also try brushing your teeth.

Cravings can be ingrained in you. If you find that cravings always come at a certain time of day or following a certain activity, they may be part of your routine. Changing things up may be necessary. For example, if you always walk a certain way after lunch back to your desk, take a different rout. If you always crave sweets with your afternoon coffee, try a different caffeinated drink or different coffee spot.

Night cravings are a particular problem. If you don’t have the food on hand in your pantry, you are less likely to go out and get it. So don’t stock a bunch of junk food. Eat a filling dinner with a lot of vegetables and fiber. If you stay full longer it can help to curve your appetite. Try chewing gum to occupy your mouth.

Don’t think of food as a reward for how good you’ve been with your diet and exercise. No real reward sabotages your progress. Your reward is results. Don’t let cravings stand in their way.

To learn more about other simple tips that can help you Burn More Fat and Lose Weight, Click Here.

Shed 5 Pounds Today by Using these Unusual Tricks.

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

Here are a few quick tips that can help you burn fat and lose weight imediately:

*Switch to skim milk, or at least 1%.

*Stop drinking sugary drinks. If you enjoy soda, have diet soda.

*Cut out fast food. It’s OK to indulge from time to time, but not every night.

*Eat more. More frequently that is. Smaller more frequent meals help you stay full longer and can ward off cravings and overeating. See How you can eat MORE and actually lose weigh.

*As a piggyback to that last piece of advice, don’t graze. Eat dedicated meals, but don’t continually snack.

*Eat skinless chicken, it's a great source of protein.

*Choose 90% lean ground beef instead of regular ground beef.

*Have a plan. If you have a meal already made, or at least know what you plan to eat, you’ll be less likely to stray.

To learn more about other simple tips that can help you Burn More Fat and Lose Weight, Click Here.

Top 4 Training Mistakes that Make You Flabby

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

1. Too Much Cardio. This is the number one training mistake. In every gym you seen people grinding away on treadmills, exercise bikes, elliptical machines, and all other sorts of cardio machines hoping to shed calories. They look like zombies. While cardiovascular exercise is excellent for your heart and blood vessels, it’s nearly always overdone. Cardio should be part of a balanced training routine. It should not take center stage, or be performed for hours and hours on end. If you do this, your stress hormones will go through the roof and your body will start to hold onto fat and actually store fat. Additionally, you will injure yourself as your body suffers constant wear and tear. You will eat away at what little muscle you have. You will crave carbs to fuel your excessively draining workouts, and will inevitably overeat those carbs and get pudgy, or “skinny fat”. Just look at majority of marathoners. Skinny, yes. Lean, not really. And most importantly, you will have no energy left to actually lift weights.

2. Not Lifting Weights. “I don’t want to get too big.” “I’m just trying to get toned.” Yeah, yeah, well you know what? I do want to get “too big”. The only problem is I’ve been trying very hard for almost a decade to do that. And it hasn’t worked. It is impossible to get “too big”. I wish I could wake up one day, look in the mirror and say, “oh no, I finally did it. I got too big”. Enough ranting though. Lifting weights burns calories, a hell of a lot more than people realize. Lifting weight builds muscle, which makes you look better and helps significantly boost your metabolism. And, lifting weight helps build bone mass, warding off osteoporosis. Lift weights. Lift heavy weights. You won’t get too big. You’ll get lean and muscular.

3. Poor Form. As a piggy back to “lift weights”, do it properly. Check you ego at the door and work the weight, don’t let the weight work you. If your form is off, you aren’t working your muscles properly, or worse, not working them at all. You’re wasting your time in the gym, and our time is all very costly. More importantly, at some point you will injure yourself. That extra ten pounds on your bench press that’s causing you to arch your back… Or that extra 5 pounds on those curls that causes you to swing like a branch in a hurricane… That doesn’t impress anyone. The person next to you doesn’t care if you’re curling 20lbs or 40lbs. But your muscles and nervous system do care. They will only respond if stimulated adequately and through a full and dynamic range of motion. Work your muscles, not your ego.

4. Doing 1000 + Reps of Abs. There is no muscle group more misunderstood and more improperly trained than the abdominals. First of all, they are a muscle just like any other and respond to training like any other muscle group. You’re not doing 1000 biceps curls, are you? Your biceps respond just fine to 3-4 sets of 10 reps. Your abs will do the same. The problem is we get frustrated because we often don’t see our abs and think we aren’t working them hard enough. It’s not because they aren’t big enough. It’s because we’re carrying around too much abdominal fat.
The bigger your abs the more you’ll see them at a given level of body fat. Train them like any other muscles group and they will hypertrophy. Another point is understanding the anatomy of the abdominal muscles, which is complex, and thoroughly working all parts of your abdominal. Crunches are the tip of the iceberg.

Click here to learn more about Other Common Training Mistakes.

7 Ways to Double Your Fat Loss Today

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

1. Eat Smaller, More Frequent Meals. This will keep you full and prevent your from overeating. Additionally, eating more often keeps your metabolism firing on all cylinders.
2. Make Sure You’re Eating Enough Protein. This is key to building lean mass. Protein requires the most energy for your body to process. Last, consuming protein at every meal will help optimize digestion and absorption by lowering the glycemic load of any meal.
3. Choose low glycemic index carbohydrates. We'll talk about the good magical carbs in our presentation below, but for now, remember that low glycemic carbs are the perfect solution to becoming lean.

4. Have sweets for breakfast. In the morning your metabolism is in a low because you’ve presumably been fasting for at least 8 hours (provided you didn’t sneak a late night snack). Your body needs fast digesting carbs in the morning. Having a sweet and a protein shake is a great way to satisfy cravings, jumpstart your metabolism, and get you going for the day. As always, moderation is key. Pop Tarts anyone? Be aware thought, one or two is fine, three or more is NOT.
5. Caffeine is your friend.In the morning, and pre workout. It’s a powerful, natural, and safe fat burning agent.
6. Stay well hydrated. Water is essential for your metabolism. It helps you digest food. And it keeps you feeling full.

7. Get enough sleep. Muscles aren’t built in the gym, they’re built while you’re recovering. The majority of this recovery happens overnight. Your growth hormone levels tend to peak about 4-6 hours into your sleep cycle. What’s more, sleep deprivation increase stress hormones, which actually lead to your body holding onto fat. And studies have shown that deprivation increase carbohydrate cravings. So make sure to get plenty of sleep!

To learn more about other simple tips that can help you Burn More Fat and Lose Weight, Click Here.

Are Energy Drinks Making You FAT?

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

The energy drink market is huge right now. And while these drinks do provide energy in the literal sense, more often than not they are bad for your diet, nutrition, and weight.

These drinks pack a huge amount of sugar, often the equivalent of 2 candy bars. Since these come in the form of liquid, it’s even worse because they are not filing at all. They contribute to your calorie count for the day and little more.

This is the definition of an empty calorie. Unless you are performing endurance exercises for more than an hour at a time, you don’t needs this large of a sugar load. Your calories for energy should come from whole foods so don’t drink your calories.

There are sugar free energy drinks. These basically provide caffeine and some vitamins. This can serve as a good source of pre-workout caffeine. But, they do contain artificial sweeteners, which turn many people off.

The moral here is that there are better energy sources than so called energy drinks. But if you prefer energy drinks, stick with the sugar free varieties. Above all else, do NOT drink your calories.

To learn more about what energy drinks are good for you and will help you lose weight, Click Here.

Burn Pounds of Fat by Eating Fat?

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

The low fat craze swept the nation and left it worse off than before. The effect was to emphasize excess carbohydrate consumption. So in place of fat, America ate too many refined carbohydrates and sugars which promptly converted to fat in our bodies. What’s more, is that the low fat craze was actually very unhealthy in many ways. Excess carbohydrate consumption is directly linked with obesity and type II diabetes.

While fats are calorie dense and certain kind are linked with disease processes, other fats are necessary for survival and greatly increase your overall health. They can improve energy, be used to boost your metabolism, and actually help you lose fat. That right! Eating the right types of fat will help you burn more fat!

First the bad. Saturated fats have been conclusively shown by the scientific community to be detrimental to your health, both in terms of cardiovascular disease and weight loss. These fats are the ones in animal and dairy products. They should be consumed as little as possible. These fats are much more likely to be stored in your fat cells after you consume them or to wind up coating the walls of your blood vessels.

The healthy fats are numerous. These include the so called “essential fatty acids” also know as the Omega 3, Omega 6, and Omega 9 fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. These actually circulate in your blood and help you get rid of bad fats. What’s more is that these fats will be used as energy for your brain and body. They won’t be stored in your gut. Lastly, they actually increase your metabolism because they create a favorable biochemical profile.

You can find these healthy fats in grape seed oil, nuts, avocados, and certina fish among many other sources.

To learn more about other sources of Healthy Fats that can help you Burn More Fat, Click Here.

Egg Whites: Your Body’s #1 Biggest Enemy?

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

Back when the low fat craze was popular, eggs were in the crosshairs because of their fat and cholesterol content. This led many to avoid eggs all together or to just eat the whites, whether by separating them out themselves or opting for products like egg beaters.

The truth is that egg whites are an amazing source of protein. They are easily and nearly completely absorbed by your body. So much so that they are the gold standard by which other proteins are judged. But aside from the protein in egg whites, there is almost no other nutrient content.

The white is half the egg and much less than half the story. A lot of the protein in an egg is also in the yolk. Additionally, the yolk contains all the vitamins and minerals. These include numerous metabolism stimulating B vitamins, essential minerals like Zinc and Phosphorus which are essential to energy production, all of the fat soluble vitamins: Vitamin A, Vitmain D, Vitamin E and Vitmain K, antioxidants, and eye-health-supporting carotenoids (lutein and zeaxanthin).

But what about the fat and cholesterol? Remember that first and foremost, fat is not the enemy. Overeating is. Good Fats are necessary for a balanced diet. If you limit fat consumption, not only will your testosterone levels plummet, but so will your metabolism and fat loss. It may seem like a paradox, but it isn’t: Eating good fats will actually make you leaner.

What about the effect of cholesterol and fat on your cardiovascular health? To date there have been no convincing scientific studies liking egg consumption with high cholesterol or heart disease. But again, moderation is key. Try to limit egg yolk consumption especially if you have high cholesterol. You can always mix in a few whites with the whole eggs to add more protein to you meal.

Also, how you cook eggs is also important. Using too much butter is a great way to up the amount of unhealthy saturated fats. Instead use a little nonstick cooking spray, or boil or poach your eggs to get that helathy.

To learn more about Eggs and other healthy foods that can help you Burn More Fat, Click Here.

Fat Burning Supplement That Torches Fat (100% Natural)

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

Caffeine is a natural wonder supplement. It’s most commonly consumed in the form of morning coffee to jumpstart your day. What many don’t realize is it can also jumpstart your workout and fat loss. The benefits of caffeine are many.
Caffeine stimulates your sympathetic nervous system, increasing release of epinephrine and norepinephrine, so those fight or flight neurons will be firing on all cylinders. Additionally caffeine has been shown to increase pain tolerance, so you can push out more reps at the end of a grueling workout. Lastly, it will increase your circulation and elevate your heart rate, so your muscles will get plenty of blood flowing to them. All these factors will aid in creating a more intense exercise experience.

From a fat loss perspective caffeine has many advantages. It curbs your appetite, so you will tend to eat less. It also stimulates your metabolism, so in a given time period you’ll burn more calories per pound of lean mass. Lastly, it actually stimulates your fat cells to breakdown and release stored fat. If you consume caffeine prior to working out, these mobilized fat stores will be used as energy. Therefore caffeine consumption will help your burn fat directly and indirectly.

Finally, caffeine is thought to be good for your overall health. Many studies have shown lower incidences of certain kinds of cancer, diabetes, and inflammatory condition in coffee drinkers.

Though the effects of caffeine are seen no matter how you consume it, you can optimize your nutrition through how you consume it.C coffee has a good deal of caffeine in addition to natural occurring free radical fighting antioxidants. The key is to not ruin the nutritious benefits of a cup of coffee or espresso with too much cream or sugar. Many drinks from coffee shops have a ton of added sugars, flavoring, and fat from milk and cream. A little sugar, artificial sweetener, and milk is fine. But be careful no to overdo it. Some other sources of caffeine that should be avoided are sugar laden energy drinks. If you enjoy these, at least opt for the sugar free varieties. Green and white teas have less caffeine per serving, but contain some of the greatest concentrations of antioxidants.

So unless you’re overly sensitive to stimulants, consuming caffeine prior to workouts is an easy way to maximize your time in the gym and beyond. We'd recommend about 100 mg of caffeine approximately 30 minutes prior to exercise. This is the amount in a medium cup of coffee or large tea.

Click here to learn more about Caffeine and how to Burn More Fat.

Are Carbs Evil? The Shocking Truth!

Dr. Nick Galante, M.D. - Certified Medical Doctor (M.D.) Harvard Medical School

Carbohydrates get a bad rap these days. Just look at the popularity of low carb diets like the Ketogenic diets, Atkins diet, and Paleo diet. The truth is that carbs are not evil, they’re far from it.

Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred fuel source. The problem is that if you give your body more fuel than it needs, by overeating, that fuel will be quickly be stored in the form of fat. This is where choosing the right kinds of carbohydrates at the right times is key. By making the right choices, you can maximize both your performance in the gym and actually use carbs to help you burn fat!

There are two basic types of carbohydrates: sugars and starches. They are all made up of the same basic molecular compounds (glucose and other 5 and six carbon sugars). The difference is in how many of these simple sugars are strung together. Anything more than two single sugar molecules and the carbohydrate starts to taste less sweet and are classified as starches.

Examples of sugars are sucrose (white table sugar), fructose (the sugar found in fruits), and lactose (milk sugar). Examples of starches are anything made from flour or grain (oatmeal, breads, pasta) or starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes). After all is said and done, these will be digested down to their simple sugar components. So 40 grams of table sugar and 40 grams of carbohydrates from pasta each have the same amount of calories. The difference is in how fast they hit your blood stream once you’ve eaten them and what kind of blood hormonal (mainly insulin) response your body has to them.

The reason insulin is so important is because it is one of the major signals telling your body that you have enough fuel, are full, and that it should begin fat storage. So you can see the goal is to control insulin levels in your blood, and to carefully manipulate your carbs throughout the day to achieve a steady blood sugar and insulin level.

There is one time when you want insulin levels to be high to drive glucose into your cells. After a workout your muscles need to replenish their fuel stores (long chains of sugars called glycogen – your body’s temporary 24 hour fuel reserve). Basically, your body is in diesel engine mode after lifting weights. It will take what it can get and put it to use without much downside of storing fat. That’s again so long as you don’t completely gorge yourself.

This brings us to the topic of glycemic index and glycemic load. This is a direct measure of how quickly the carbohydrates you eat show up in your blood as sugar. This in turn relates to the degree of insulin spike you’ll have. The goal is to maintain a relatively steady blood sugar and insulin level. This will insure that you feel full and energized. And, it will help avoid the ups and downs that come along with a turbulent blood sugar level.

So the solution is to choose foods that have a low glycemic index.

It all sounds complex, but if you learn the basic it will become second nature. You’ll be able to enjoy carbs, even sweets on a daily basis, while seeing great energy levels, adding lean muscle mass, and most importantly torching fat. Click here to learn more.