Author: Justin Check

Health & Fitness: For MEN

As men, we are expected to be strong, confident, and to provide and protect…that’s a lot of pressure! I’ve always believed that to be your best mentally you must also be your best self physically and for many men it’s hard to feel confident when you don’t like what see in the mirror. After all, deep down every man wants to look and feel like Captain America- to have stature, to feel masculine, and to impress those around him with his physique.

Of course there’s a reason why every man isn’t walking around with big arms and six pack abs. Chiseled bodies are earned, not given, and with today’s standards for men it’s becoming harder and harder to achieve that “ideal” physique. It requires hard work, discipline, and consistency with BOTH an exercise program of weight training and cardiovascular exercise AND a meal plan.

Whether you’re a middle-aged man battling the natural loss of muscle as we age or a young skinny guy who’s never been able to put size on, my personal training programs and custom meal plans are designed just for you! With the help of a man who personally knows what it takes for men to build muscle and reduce body fat, you can achieve your dream male physique and sustain it for life!

Our Approach

Regardless of your current level of fitness and life stage, at Check Total Health we specialize in providing customized workouts for the MEN & WOMEN of Southwest Florida. The workouts are appropriate for your abilities, goals and well-being. We incorporate strength & resistance training, stretching, cardio, endurance exercises and plyometrics to name a few! Guys, we will take you from flabby to flexed, from soft to strong, from skinny to supersized — whatever your goals are we can make it happen through appropriate exercise and eating. In addition to having the look you desire, the inside of your body will experience great benefits too: decreased blood pressure, decreased risk for diabetes and heart disease, and decreased body fat!

What Are You Waiting For?

There is no quick fix or magic pill to creating strength and sustainable weight loss or gains. With your commitment to me, I’ll give you my all to help you attain and maintain the physique of your dreams. You take your car to the mechanic, your teeth to the dentist, and your taxes to the accountant. So why wouldn’t you trust the experts to help you with your exercise and food? You only get one body, let us help you maximize it! Check Total Health is ready to take your health & fitness to the next level. Are you ready to check-yourself?

Real Men Living Real Life

Guys, we can’t all be prepping for a show 24/7 -365 days a year. So how do you do real life and still reach your goals?At Check Total Health, we believe in real life living. We are a husband/wife team. We eat clean, train mean, but also have fun. We like to eat tasty food, have a few drinks, and indulge in dessert on the weekends. When you work with us, you will not feel deprived or hungry. We feed our clients with many meals a day and several cheat meals a week. We believe in real life living that is sustainable for the long haul and that’s what you can expect when you work with us. You don’t have to take my word for it – hear it from our clients who have already achieved their goals.

To get started, contact us for more information. You can also learn more about our packages and pricing for individual and group training here.

In my last article How to Starve Fat Cells I gave you a simple way to roughly calculate your carbohydrate needs based on calorie intake and activity level. To take it a step further, you should now make sure you’re choosing the appropriate types of carbohydrates for the time of day.

Check out the picture above- all are example sources of carbohydrates, but they differ greatly. The further right you go in the picture the more likely you’re feeding fat cells if you’re eating these carbohydrate items at the wrong times. Why is that? It’s because of the insulin response that happens when carbohydrates enter the bloodstream.

How quickly and how much insulin that is released into the bloodstream will be based on the type of carbohydrates eaten. Insulin is released into the bloodstream when you eat any carbohydrate whether it be a fibrous whole grain or straight table sugar. In general, you want to stick with low-moderate glycemic carbohydrates (<65GI) when trying to reduce body fat. You can see examples of low glycemic carbohydrates on the left side of the picture leading to more moderate glycemic carbohydrates in the center and then high glycemic carbohydrates (>65GI) on the right side.

We’re going to use the glycemic index (which rates various sources of carbohydrates based on how quickly they raise blood sugar levels) to properly time various carbohydrates in your diet. This will help to ensure you’re not sending any blood sugar to fat cells…remember- sugar and flour are the enemy when trying to reduce body fat.

Here’s a simple example of how to use the glycemic index to make good carbohydrate choices for reducing body fat (Remember that portion sizes will vary person to person based on calorie/carbohydrate needs):

Breakfast: A blend of low-moderate glycemic carbohydrates (30-65GI) to give some immediate energy and some sustained energy. (e.g Flour-less bread (Ezekiel bread) topped with low-sugar jam or oatmeal with coconut sugar and berries.

Post-workout: Moderate-high glycemic carbohydrates (65-90GI) to quickly replenish glycogen stores and expedite the healing/recovery process. (e.g. Banana, dried fruit, long-grain white rice, cereal, white pasta, or white potato)

Mid-day Meal(s): Low-moderate glycemic carbohydrates (30-65GI) to keep blood sugar levels steady for sustained energy without any significant raises in blood sugar. (e.g. sweet potato, long-grain brown rice, quinoa, vegetables, or apple)

Dinner Meal: Low glycemic carbohydrates (<45GI) to minimize any significant raise in blood sugar and keep glycogen stores the same. (e.g. green vegetables, leafy greens, barley, bran, and beans)

As you can see, you want to keep the moderate-higher glycemic carbohydrates around times when you’re the most active/exercising or when you’re somewhat fasted like at breakfast. Then, switch to low-moderate glycemic carbohydrates as you become less active and/or as it gets later in the day when you’ve already eaten numerous meals. This will ensure you’re not over loading your glycogen (carbohydrate) stores which will result in blood sugar being sent to fat cells.

Another quick tip is to make sure you’re having some kind of a plant-based fat with your meals (nuts/seeds, nut-butters, avocado, olive/coconut oil, etc…) This will help to slow down the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, but remember to properly portion all your food items so that you’re staying in your calorie allotment for the day…none of this will do you any good of you’re eating too many calories!

Have a question or comment about this article or need help with custom meal planning? Email me at justin@check-yourself.com for more answers or to request a meal plan questionnaire to start eating towards your ideal physique!

Justin Check, NSCA-CPT, NESTA-FNC

justin@check-yourself.com

www.check-yourself.com

DASH, Paleo, Weight Watchers, Atkins, The Zone, Jenny Craig, South Beach, Nutrisystem, Mediterranean, Beverly Hills…I mean the list of different diets out there goes on and on and on! These are just some examples of the most popular ones and absurd “fad” diets. I mean come on…the Beverly Hills diet??? Give me a break! Is that where you eat whatever you want and then get liposuction regularly? Ha! Just kidding…The point is that people will try anything to lose weight and they want to lose it quickly, which is exactly what most of these diets promise to people to get them to buy into them; however, I can promise you these “fad” diets are a mistake if you’re wanting sustainable weight loss and a body that can perform optimally.

You or someone you know may have done one of these diets and may have even had great success with it. If they were able to keep the weight off, then fantastic for them and congrats to them for figuring out how to maintain their results. The problem is that the majority of people who follow one of these diets will not keep the weight off and possibly even gain more weight on the rebound. The bottom line is the quicker you lose weight, the quicker it will come back on and trust me…it will more than likely come back on with MOST of these fad diets. So why not just skip the “fad” diets and go straight into a position where sustainable weight loss can occur?

So what is a “sustainable” diet plan for weight loss? First off, it will certainly take longer than you want it to, but the results will be much easier to maintain and the overall potential will be much greater. The best part is when on this “sustainable diet” you also get to eat plenty of food throughout the day and can even still enjoy going out to eat and splurging in moderation! Funny enough, this “sustainable diet” actually follows some of the same principles used in some of these “fad” diets mentioned above! I’ll call my new diet the “Smart Carb, Modified Paleo, Zone” diet…catchy right?

So let me break down the 3 principles in these “fad” diets that make up my new “sustainable” diet- the Smart Carb, Modified Paleo, Zone diet…man, so catchy!

1. Paleo- The Paleo diet is all around not a bad diet because it eliminates all processed food items; however, it also excludes all grains and starches that require cultivation (rice, potatoes, wheat, etc…) and dairy. We have come a long way since the paleolithic era, so lets keep using these newly developed brains we have and eat the grains we now know how to grow! Grains are a great source of fiber that helps to: keep you feeling full, minimize blood sugar spikes, and keep a healthy digestive system. Grains are also a great source for numerous essential vitamins and minerals. Then the diet also doesn’t allow low/non-fat dairy, such as Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is a great way to get a quick and easy balanced meal in with high quality protein. Dairy products like yogurt are also a major source for calcium and are usually fortified with vitamin D which is the leading vitamin deficiency in this country. So definitely go Paleo and cut the processed food items, but go ahead and have those filling grains and some low/non-fat dairy!
2. Atkins/Extreme Low Carbohydrates- The Atkins diet is all about cutting carbohydrates out of your diet or eating very very little….hope you like to feel terrible all the time because you will on a low-carb diet! This is one of the worst ways to lose weight…almost as bad as severe calorie restriction. Carbohydrates do not make you gain weight. They can contribute to weight gain, but there are numerous other factors that influence body composition/weight gain more than the carbs you eat. You do, however, have to be smart about what types of carbs you eat, the timing of having those carbs, and the amount of carbs you eat. Some simple guidelines to follow with carbohydrates: 1. The best types of carbs to eat are always non-processed wholesome food sources, such as long-grain rice, potatoes, oats, wheat, barley, quinoa, etc…sugar and refined grains like flour are the enemy when trying to lose weight! 2. The best times to eat carbs are earlier in the day when you’re fasted (like at breakfast) and just before/after exercise. As you become less active and/or later in the day into evening you should start to taper your carbohydrate intake down. 3. The amount of carbs you should eat is determined primarily by your activity/exercise level and your current body composition (amount of muscle mass you have.) If you exercise very little and have little muscle mass, then your carbohydrate needs will be low. You do, however, ALWAYS want to stay out of ketosis and for most people that will be a minimum of roughly 60-90g of quality carbohydrates per day (this will vary greatly person to person.) So make sure you stay out of ketosis and then supplement more carbs into your diet if you’re exercising regularly or doing physically demanding work.
3. Zone- The Zone diet is based on following a daily macro ratio of 40%carbohydrates, 30%protein, 30%fat (of total daily calories.) The Zone diet hit the nail on the head with setting a daily macro ratio to follow, which is crucial for obtaining a low body fat percentage; however, everyone’s body and macro needs are different. Setting a single macro ratio (40%/30%/30%) for everyone to follow is absurd! The best way to find your appropriate daily macro ratio is to use this formula: Protein (1.5g x lbs. of muscle mass)/Fat (0.5g x body weight)/Carbohydrates (60g [female], 90g [male] + (1g x lbs. of muscle mass) + another 60-90g for every 1 hour of moderate exercise.) So here is an example of my macros for a maintenance plan using this formula:

Protein (1.5g x 200lbs.) = 300g x 4Kcals/g = 1,200Kcals = 33%

Fat (0.5g x 215lbs.) = 107.5g x 9Kcals/g = 976.5Kcals = 26%

Carbohydrates (90g + 200g + 90g) = 380g x 4Kcals/g = 1,520 = 41%

As you can see, my “ideal” daily macro ratio for my current body composition is not far from the Zone diet’s recommendation; however, that may not be the case for you depending on your goals. Here’s what you can do to design your own starting “sustainable” diet. Try plugging your numbers into the formula above and then compare it to your current diet. To get the macro/calorie breakdown of your current diet, use MyFitnessPal which is an electronic food diary that will tell you your daily macro ratios/calorie intake once you complete your daily diary. It’s a great tool that’s free…I use it every day!

Just remember that everyone’s needs and body are different depending on your current body composition, activity/exercise level, and genetic predispositions. Be very careful with your carbohydrate intake if you’re trying to reduce body fat, but make sure you always stay out of ketosis to ensure you can perform optimally. Once you get a daily macro ratio figured out, go to Freedieting.com to use the calorie calculator and then plug in your daily macro ratio into the macro calculator. I suggest following your new “sustainable” eating plan for at least 3 weeks straight before you adjust things based on results and goals. If you’re not losing weight or body fat than lower your calories slightly by cutting your carb intake by 5-10%.

That was a lot of info! If you need personal help designing a sustainable diet plan, I can do all the work for you! Just email me to request a meal planning form to get started with the process!

Justin Check, NSCA-CPT, NESTA-FNC
Check Total Health
justin@check-yourself.com