The Best Supplements To Build Muscle and Lose Weight

Are you caught up in this supplement hype taking as many supplements as you can in hope that they will be the fast track to your goal?

Are you avoiding taking any supplements because you think they are bad for your health and might make you add too much muscle or put on weight?

Well let me start by saying that taking most supplements are NOT needed and you are getting suckered into believing they will make a different when they Won’t…

Also you are 100% WRONG to think that taking supplements will make you put on weight or make you ‘too muscly’’.

So with this in mind, do you want to know 3 supplements that you should be taking and why?

Would you like to know how to make your exercise more worthwhile and get better results inside and outside of the gym?

I am presuming the answer is yes so read on and discover why you should be taking supplements to build the body you want.

First of all what are supplements and why do we need to take them?

Nutrition supplements are fast becoming a staple in every household and if you are someone that likes to exercise then they are certainly going to be very important and should not be overlooked and here’s why;-

Taking nutrition supplements or not could be the difference between success and failure.

A good workout can become a great one if you use the correct supplements alongside it. Before, during and after we exercise we need to ensure that our body is in an optimal state to help us build, repair and maintain muscle mass.

You may know that from time if we don’t supply our body with the correct nutrition our body goes into what we call a ‘catabolic’ state where we start to break muscle down, which is the last thing we want. So keeping our body in an anabolic state where we can build muscle is critical.

If we were to rely on just food alone it would nearly be impossible to provide our body with the right nutrients at the right times to stay anabolic and build muscle.

So…. Enter Mr Supplement.

When building muscle and muscle recovery is concerned nutrition timing is everything. Since our bodies take a lot longer to digest and process food as opposed to specific supplements it makes sense for food to take a back seat.

After a hard training session in order to maximize the potential muscle growth and repair and keep our body anabolic, research shows that a post workout supplement should be taken immediately for best results.

Do you want to know exactly what take post workout for best results? Find out by reading this here.

So now we know the importance of supplements is two-fold:

1.     To help provide our body with the correct nutritional intake that we don’t manage to get from food sources.

2.     To ensure we can deliver the required nutrients to the muscles in as little time as possible.

With this in mind, which 3 supplements are most beneficial for you to get lean build muscle faster than ever?

1. Whey Protein

Do you want to lose fat or gain muscle?

Then a whey protein supplement is going to be one supplement that you will need to use. But why?

As mentioned above after we workout we need to get a rapid supply of protein to the working muscles in order to kick-start immediate muscle recovery.

Why is whey protein considered the best choice?

Whey protein is easily digested by the body meaning the nutrients are quickly absorbed by the muscles. This makes whey the go to choice after a workout so that the recovery process can start immediately.

Whey protein supplements also give you a metabolism boost.

Consuming large amounts of protein throughout the day helps to give us an energy boost by raising metabolism. This is turn has a positive effect on calorie expenditure to support weight loss and lower body fat percentage.

This is down to the effect that protein has on our appetite.

Do you want to stop snacking?

Then Whey protein is shown to stop snacking by up to 60% and when combined with weight training replacing calories from other sources with a high quality whey protein supplement is likely to help you reduce body fat at a greater rate.

Packed Full of Essential Amino Acids

The make up of protein is of smaller molecules named amino acids, which are the building blocks for everything essential in the human body. Including muscle growth!

Some of these amino acids are known as ‘essential amino acids’ that we can only get from foods and guess what Whey Protein is packed full of them!

Particularly Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s) providing the biggest support to muscle growth than any other amino acids.

How much protein do you really need though? Research shows that aiming somewhere between 30-50g post workout will get you best results. To learn exactly how much protein you need read my blog on the perfect pre and post workout nutrition by clicking here.

Did you know that if you aren’t taking a BCAA supplement you could be breaking down muscle tissue throughout the day? Read further to see the importance of BCCA’s as a stand alone supplement.

2. Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s)

Did you know that evidence shows having a high BCAA intake will help produce greater muscle gains?

But do you know what BCAA’s are and when you should take them as a supplement? No…. Your about to find out!

So as we now know from above BCAA’s are a branch of essential amino acids that can’t be developed by the human body so we must get these from food and supplements.

The 3 essential amino acids that make up BCAA’s are Valine, Leucine and isoleucine. Out of these 3 essential amino acids research has shown that Leucine is more effective that any other amino acid in promoting protein synthesis and stimulating muscle growth.

Just to clarify protein synthesis is the process in the body where we build new proteins to replace existing ones making sure there is a constant supply of amino acids so that muscle tissue can be repaired helping to reduce muscle breakdown and soreness but most importantly…. Muscle growth!

This process stars even before we begin exercising so if you aren’t giving yourself an adequate supply of proteins and amino acids before during and after your training then you could be putting in all that hard work only to miss out on the results you are searching for.

Yes that’s right consuming BCAA’s before during and after a workout will help stimulate more muscle growth.

However is using a BCAA supplement focused solely around stimulating protein synthesis and muscle growth?

Studies have shown that people that consume a higher concentration of BCAA’s are likely to have less body fat. This is partly down to that magic like Leucine, which increases energy expenditure and fat oxidation.

So if you want to build more muscle and burn more fat then a BCAA supplement needs to be added to your routine.

Another question you might want answering though… Why can’t you rely on the amino acids present in other proteins such as food sources and whey protein?

When taken as a stand alone supplement BCAA’s are require no digestion and are absorbed straight into the blood stream.

On to the next…

3. Creatine

Do you want to increase your workout intensity? Who doesn’t….

Creatine can help you do just that. So there’s no wonder it’s found its way into my top 3 supplements because increased workout intensity means better results right!

Let me explain why you should consider adding creatine to your supplement list.

What is it?

Creatine is also made up of amino acids (We all know what amino acids are by now). Its main purpose is to help us restore Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) levels in the muscle. ATP is the body’s main energy source so if this energy isn’t readily available then there will be a negative impact on workout intensity and performance.

So supplementing creatine helps to restore ATP levels meaning we can train harder for longer! Perfect!!

Think of it like this… Towards the end of a workout you will be experiencing muscle fatigue and more likely to fail on reaching the required repetitions in each set. Creatine goes a long way in helping you to push out those final repetitions.

What is the result of taking creatine for this benefit? Quite simple really it’s More Muscle Mass!

So here is an important question… Who should take creatine?

Is creatine only effective for building muscle and size or can you use it to aid weight loss too?

Well another huge benefit from supplementing creatine is that it helps to gives you a metabolic boost. One of the most effective ways to burn body fat when we want to lose weight is sprints.

Purely down to the huge metabolism boost sprints give us. When we increase our metabolic rate we are going to burn more energy and since sprints are a very explosive exercise creatine supplementation allows you to recover quicker and work harder throughout each sprint.

That’s not all though..

Even when we are on a weight loss diet we will need to reduce carbohydrates and be in a calorie deficit. This is going to leave us more fatigued so in order to ensure the amount of weight we can lift remains as high as possible creatine supplementation can assist us in achieving that.

Remember Heavy Weight lifting is recommended as the number one way to continue burning calories after you finish exercising.

How is this possible and how many more calories can you burn?

Read my post on the ‘after-burn’ effect and burn more fat than ever. Click here.

One final thing…

Are there any side effects of taking creatine?

When supplementing with creatine it is important to increase water intake, which is a good thing anyway as we could all do with drinking more!

This is because creatine will retain water in the body by storing it in the muscles so dehydration is likely to occur hence the reason for more water consumption to combat this.

Do I still recommend using creatine for weight loss?

Certainly! But only if you can get everything else in your nutrition plan spot on and manage to successfully keep yourself in a calorie deficit.

Want to learn how many calories you need to be in a calorie deficit? Check out my online plans here.

When are you going to take your creatine supplement?

Research shows that taking 5mg either pre or post workout will have the best impact on athletic performance.

To Conclude…

Are these the only 3 supplements that you should be taking? No but these 3 can help you go along way to hitting your fitness goals.

Please also bear in mind that these are my top 3 supplements and there are others than can benefit you.

But hopefully the evidence presented above will can you an insight into what your body really needs to build muscle and burn fat.

Until Next Time

EJP

5 Ways To Gain Muscle and Stay Lean On Holiday

5 ways to stay lean and gain muscle on holiday

Are you worried about losing that hard-earned muscle when you go on holiday this summer?

Do you want to arrive home looking and feeling better than before you went away?

Then you are going to want to read this and find out how using a few simple strategies can help you maintain or improve what you have worked so hard for in the gym.

Lets face it most of us if not all train hard all year round only to go and lose everything we’ve gained within that short 7 day holiday we cant wait to go on. Only to come back looking exactly the same as what we did 12 months ago feeling depressed about our physiques and that we have to do it all over again.

Well how would you feel if I told you that you can afford to eat huge cheat meals everyday on holiday and not have to worry about it?

Or continue progressing with your training improving or at least maintaining your physique and conditioning.

Well by applying a few simple protocols all this is possible and you can go back home still looking and feeling great. Read my 5 tips below on how to maintain muscle and stay lean while on holiday and put them into practice.

1. Keep Protein Levels High

When we travel away on business or spend some time in the sun one thing we tend to neglect is the amount of protein we consume each day compared to when we are in our everyday routine sometimes counting every calorie! It’s often far to easy to switch the protein out and replace it with as many comfort foods as you can. But this comes at a cost.

Without a sufficient amount of protein we are likely to lose muscle, which is the last thing we want. So aiming for foods such as Greek yoghurt, Lean Meats, Protein Powders, Fruits, Nuts is crucial.

2. Do Interval Training

Whether you are looking to gain weight, lose weight or just maintain we always want to keep our body fat % as low as possible and a great way to do this is through Interval training.

Why?

Interval training is shown to be a far greater method of burning calories that long steady state cardio. This is because it creates an after burn effect meaning you continue to burn calories after your workout for sometimes up to 72 hours later as your metabolism is given such a boost it can take it that long to return back to a normal level. Also you only need to work for around a 20 minute period to get this effect making Interval training a great go to option for exercising when you are away. Another great benefit is that due to the energy systems that are used in interval training it helps to keep you anabolic meaning you are less likely to break down muscle.

3. Try Intermittent Fasting

A typical dieting solution that might work for you whilst travelling as well is intermittent fasting. This reason for this is that you are likely to be skipping meals whilst you are away so using this technique means you don’t have to worry about your metabolism being effected by not managing to eat at your regular intervals and here’s how it works; -

Basically you eat your days worth of calories in a selected window during the day. Usually an 8-hour period for men and 10 for women. This means that for the rest of the day you are fasting, which helps to reduce fat storage as fasting has great fat burning effects.

The reason this can be very beneficial for most people is because generally when we are on holiday or travelling our meals tend to be a lot bigger so therefore by intermittent fasting you can still afford to have perhaps two big meals that you will enjoy eating out and not blow your calorie goal into oblivion.

4. Work Out in your hotel room

That’s right you don’t need a gym to get a good workout in while you’re away. If where you are staying has a gym or if there is one close by that you can get a pass for then go for it. But why not start your day off with a quick full body circuit or HIIT workout in your room or on the balcony if you have one.

My Advice would be to use the tabata style protocol where you exercise at your maximum intensity for a period of 20 seconds followed by a 10 second rest period. You then repeat this a further 7 times meaning you will have completed 8 x 20 Second bursts. This is one complete round of tabata. Rest around 2-3 minutes and aim to do 3-5 rounds of this.

Tabata is so effective in creating that after burn effect I mentioned earlier making it the perfect choice. Also because you are working at maximum intensity it ensures you stay in a catabolic state and will not break muscle down (you can even gain some).

With regards to exercise choices just select any of the following;- Press ups, Bear Crawls, Squat Jumps, Crunches, Leg Raises, Burpees, Froggers, Inch Worms.

I would recommend selecting 4 exercises and just repeating each one during the round the make the 8 x 20 Second intervals. But be creative and select some of your own exercises too and like I said you definitely don’t need more than a hotel room to do this! My Super HIIT workout available on my website here - http://bit.ly/2bnI0z6 is a great plan to take on holiday with you.

5. Workout before a meal

Do you want to gain some “free” calories in the day? Don’t we all! Then working out before a meal is a great idea and here’s why…

When you workout your body uses all of its energy stores in the muscles (Glycogen we take from carbohydrates). Therefore with these stores being completely depleted from a HIIT workout we need to replenish them and we need to eat carbohydrates to do this. So you are almost entitled to a cheat free meal as you wont store any carbohydrates as body fat until your glycogen stores are replenished. Go easy though!

As you can see by implementing a few simple strategies into your daily routine when you are travelling you can be sure to come back feeling like you have maintained most of what you worked long and hard for before you went.

Hopefully this will be useful for the majority of you and remember any further questions just ask.

E

Reverse Dieting.... How to Reverse Diet Correctly

So this is term that I keep seeing thrown about at the moment by trainers and athletes on social media. It might leave you wondering what actually is reverse dieting or why would you want to do a reverse diet? Let me summarise this for you and hopefully make it sound simple enough for you to give it a go.

The main reason you may of heard the term reverse diet being used quite a bit at the moment is partly to do that a lot of people will have entered the so called bulking season, having finished cutting for various competitions or now that British summer time has officially ended its time to add some muscle mass and weight to replace that chiseled physique in the hope of building a bigger frame for next summer.  Surely you just need to eat more and increase your carbohydrate intake right? Wrong! Reverse dieting is crucial to help you with the transition from your cutting phase into bulking season by changing your diet in a controlled and effective manner to increase calorific intake whilst preventing unwanted weight gain that will be the result if you don’t have a planned and structured reverse dieting system in place.

What tends to be the case during this transition is that people think that now they want to add extra weight in the off season its just the case of increasing your daily calorie intake to match this goal. Once you have worked out that magic number of how many calories you need to grow and to add some serious gains using various macro calculators that can be found online it is then just a case of hitting that number immediately. Wrong Again! Of course for any nutrition plan to be successful you will need to determine you’re your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE, which can be done online. Once you have this figure it gives you have a target of how many calories you can consume from your macros without causing any additional and unwanted fat gain. During this phase you will of course concentrate on increasing your carbohydrate intake to assist with building muscle mass and bulking. It is recommended that sufficient amounts to divide your macros up can be anywhere from 1 – 1.5g of Protein per pound of bodyweight. For fat it is recommended either 0.3 - 0.4g per pound of bodyweight and then whatever remains is made up from Carbs. Although it is not uncommon for people to increase their protein intake beyond these figures.

So lets say for example in my cutting phase I was consuming around 2000 calories per day to keep me in a deficit to lower my body fat percentage. After this phase and during the off season I then work out that I can consume around 2800 calories daily without adding any unwanted fat but still gain some muscle mass. I would set about reaching this target gradually over a period of weeks rather than just ramping up my numbers. I may increase my calories by 100 – 150 each week until I had hit the magic number of 2800. This would ensure I prevented adding excess weight and completely wasted my gains Id made from working seriously hard during a long and tiring cut and restrictive diet. Once you reach your new TDEE you will need to weigh yourself on a regular basis, as your weight increase will determine your calorie intake meaning you may need to do regular adjustments.

So why do so many people get this wrong? To start with when you have been in a calorie deficit for so long on a cut you feel extremely low on energy and the thought that you are now able to eat more food sounds amazing so its common that people get a little bit too carried away and consume far too much. When you are in a calorie deficit your metabolic rate (the speed at which you burn calories) slows right down so naturally you are unable to burn all these extra calories quickly enough and this is what causes fat gain. Once you change your training program to match your bulking goals your metabolic rate will begin to increase due to the fact your are lifting heavier weights increasing muscle mass.  By applying this principle along with slowly increasing your calorie intake to reach your goal you will perform a successful reverse diet and will only thank yourself later. So in hindsight yes a reverse diet is about increasing your calories but in a structured and controlled way that prevents unwanted fat gain. Get this right and your bulking season will become your best yet!

Also don’t forget some important benefits a successful reverse diet will bring : -

1.     More Energy

2.     You Can Eat More

3.     Enjoy Your Workouts Feeling Fuelled to Perform

4.     Forget about that Dieting Mindset

5.     Flexible Dieting (Coming soon in my next blog posts)

Hopefully this helps you to understand the term reverse dieting a little bit more and help you get it right. Any questions or help you need planning your reverse diet or cutting phase drop me a message and I can help you structure your personalized plan.

EJP