8 Week Tone Up Challenge Results

Posted on October 12, 2021January 9, 2022 by alwayshungrypt

At the end of August, I threw out a Challenge to my audience that I was hosting an 8 Week Tone Up Challenge designed to help people build muscle, trim fat, and gain strength, energy, and confidence in themselves.

Fast forward 8 weeks later and Ben B completed the challenge checking off each of those marks off his list.

Ben was on his own transformation journey with a primary focus on running, but looking to take on the added challenge of learning the ropes of his local gym and pushing his body to really see what it could do. Hoping to add strength and muscle tone to his frame that was seeing results from running, but lacking in development.

This online/remote training program included 3 workouts per week split into Upper Body Push; Upper Body Pull; and Lower Body workout splits with a goal of not only continuing to trim fat, but build muscle strength and tone in the back, chest, and arms. 8 weeks, 10 lbs., and “too many PR’s to count” later, Ben not only achieved his goals, but came out with knowledge and confidence in what he was doing, why he was doing it, and how it was beneficial to his life outside of the gym. When asked to describe the training, challenge, service, and a little about what he liked or disliked, Ben relayed:

The workouts were quite challenging, pushing me harder than I initially prepared for but the results speak for themselves that it was a successful challenge. It was tough to not have Eric there in person since this is an online training program, so I had to navigate a few new things for myself, but Eric was quick to reply to any questions even providing video breakdowns of ways to make exercises work for me. This was something that had me on the fence about online training, but the reliability, quality, and knowledge Eric has and was able to pass along swatted away any doubts and helped make the workouts even more effective. I would highly recommend Eric’s online training service to friends, family, colleagues, anyone looking for similar goals. He was able to customize the program to my level of experience and the equipment I have available – heck, I even went on vacation and Eric was able to create workouts with the gym at the hotel I was staying at for one of our final weeks to keep me going!

He asked me for feedback on what was lacking, but I had already decided to sign up to keep working with him, so I’m sorry to say there wasn’t much lacking!

The 10lbs. lost was great, but I’m ready to take it even further and am confident Eric will help me reach my goals!

Ben’s achievements were a result of the effort he put in, which I would describe as exemplary. Working out, performing cardio, and eating well can be difficult, but with a guided plan and coach in your corner who wants you to win, is a recipe for success when you’re ready to make that change!

I’m so confident in the results Ben achieved (-10 lbs. in 8 weeks + tone/strength gain everywhere), that I’m sure it’s replicable and after a few tweaks, can be achieved in even less time! And that’s why I’m opening the challenge again!

I’m looking for 4 men or women who are tired of not seeing results and are ready to start the last program they’ll ever need to kickstart their journey. Stop saying “next time” and start saying, “right now!” with my 12 lbs. in 6 weeks Shred Challenge!

Not only will you lose weight, get strong, build muscle tone, but I’m SOOOO confident in this program that I’m willing to slap a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE onto this challenge. That’s right – sign up for the 6-week program, put in the work, and if you’re not satisfied with the results, I will put the money right back in your pocket! The only thing you have to lose is a few inches off your waist!

It won’t be easy, and you will have to work, but if you do, this will be the last “I’ll start tomorrow” you’ll ever have to say to yourself.

If you’re ready to make the change, Sign Up Here and we can get you going within the next 48hrs!

Stay Happy, Stay Healthy, Stay Hungry!

Thank you,

Eric Hinrichsen

Always Hungry Personal Training | Columbus, OH

Harsh Truths About Your Fitness Goals

Posted on August 18, 2021August 18, 2021 by alwayshungrypt

In my stint as a personal trainer, one of my favorite things is consultation calls. It’s a chance for not only me to learn more about you the potential client, but also a chance for you to get to know me and make sure that what I have to offer feels comfortable to you. During these calls we dive into a little bit of your exercise history, any information about previous/current injuries or limitations, what you’ve tried in the past, and ultimately What is Your Goal? The best part of any conversation is hearing what it is that you are on the phone with me to solve. What problem you feel you have and how can I help solve it.

Though everyone says their goal in their own words, they tend to fall under 3 categories –

Toning up

Losing weight

Quick transformations

I decided to take some of the top goals I’ve heard and breakdown what they mean vs what it takes to actually achieve them. Let’s take a look at some harsh truths about your fitness goals, shall we?

Toning Up

“I don’t want to get bulky, I just want to get toned.”

“I want to get rid of this!” [points to arm/belly/leg]

What this person is looking for is the visible definition of their muscles being showcased in instances of wearing t-shirts/tank tops, shorts, crop tops, etc. They want to tighten up their body that might feel “flabby” in certain areas. There may be some excess fat in those areas that we would address through proper nutrition and they just want to feel strong and confident in their bodies.

The best way to achieve this goal is through progressive weight/resistance training. These people are often a little shy of the idea of lifting weights based on lack of knowledge. When someone tells me they want to get toned, my first thought is, “let’s lift weights”. That tone that you’re looking for is the visible definition of a muscle. In order to showcase the muscle you have, you need to make it bigger. By making it bigger, and cutting fat (when necessary), you are able to display the muscle underneath. A workout plan that is well rounded to hit all of the major muscle groups coupled with individual isolation exercises to focus on specific areas can help you reach this goal. Workouts should include anywhere from 6-8 exercises performed for 3-4 sets and between 8-15 reps per set. One big secret to helping you achieve this goal is to SLOOOOOW down your movement. It should take you about 2-3 seconds to lift the weight and 2-3 seconds to lower it with control and through a full range of motion on each rep/set. Slowing down the movement causes the muscles to work longer, thus helping them grow quicker.

YOU WILL NOT GET BULKY BY LIFTING WEIGHTS UNLESS YOU WANT TO!

The people you see that you don’t want to look like are special cases. They train 4-7 days per week for 60-90+mins at a time with a lot of additional coaching, specific training focus, 100% dialed in nutrition, etc. It is their job to look like that. Your job is to look like the best version of you. Lift the dang weights.

…Also, most are probably on some sort of drugs.

Losing Weight

“I want to boost my metabolism to lose weight.”

“I want to start eating keto because that’s how I’ll lose weight!”

This person has read a good number of magazines, blogs, or news articles and is in the camp that there are specific reasons and ways in which you gain/lose weight that require special, specific, and drastic changes to see results.

Boosting your metabolism is literally done through the act of moving! If you’re not moving, your body isn’t burning calories and will naturally slow down, causing the energy you’re not burning off to be converted to fat stores. Moving your body and remaining active can keep your metabolism humming even when you’re not active to boost your calorie burn.

Keto is fine, for a while, but I don’t know anyone who’s done keto who didn’t eventually put the weight back on as soon as they stopped. Specialized diets work for the short term, but if you don’t address nutrition habits and lifestyle changes, chances are when you finish or quit the diet, you may end up putting the weight back on and then some.

Ultimately there is no perfect solution to nutrition and weight loss, but addressing food behaviors, choices, and making adjustments while eating in a caloric deficit. As little as 500 calories less per day over the course of time can lead to weight loss. 1 lb = 3,500 calories. Consistently eat 500 less calories per day over 7 days, there’s your 1^st pound gone!

It’s not easy. It’s not super fun.

But it IS 100% worth it.

Quick Transformations

“I NEED to lose 50lbs. in the next 2 months.”

“I’m going on vacation in 2 months and need to be beach ready!”

This person is looking for the quick fix and drastic change in a short amount of time. This is possible but drastic change in a short time frame requires hard core dedication. Strict diet + heavy training routine and little to no days off can help you work toward your goals, but this is the area where we need to discuss realistic expectations. In regards to fat loss, a healthy drop is ~1-2 lbs. per week. Beyond that we are getting into extreme calorie restriction which isn’t healthy or sustainable. Too often this person will either not be able to maintain or as soon as they’re done, go right back to where they were or worse at the beginning. The stress from a hardcore regimen like this can damage the body physically and mentally. There are good transformations, but it requires dedication and commitment.

Real change that lasts can take time if you’re not careful and don’t plan on how to maintain or continue once the transformation is complete. Take heed and make a plan and you should be good to go.

Honorable Mention:

“I want to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club!”

…Me too dude… me too. 😊

There are a ton of different variations and types of goals that ignite people to pursue a personal trainer, fitness program, gym membership, etc. but these tend to be the most common themes I hear. If these sound like you and you have additional questions, do not hesitate to drop a comment or head to the Contact page and drop me a line. I’d love to speak with you further and help you pursue your fitness and health goal today!

The Best Weight Loss Diet

Posted on July 13, 2021 by alwayshungrypt

If you’re one of my clients or we’ve spoken about nutrition in any way, you may already know my stance on this issue.

At that point, I was around 285 lbs. working a high stress yet sedentary job and took almost zero care of myself physically. When I decided to make the change, I immediately started running through a variety of different “weight loss” diets including:

-If it fits your macro’s

-Low carb

-Intermittent Fasting

-Bodybuilding style meals of just straight up chicken, broccoli, and rice

-Frozen meal delivery services

-Weekly meal prep

-Heck even weight loss pills and powders

Anything I could try to get an edge.

What was nice is that they all worked – in limited capacity. I would see results for a few weeks then it would plateau, I would fall off, then the weight would either remain stagnant or slide back up a bit again. I knew they weren’t healthy options and sometimes the diets were relatively drastic with big cuts and high intensity training – regularly doing 2-a-days at the gym.

Weekly meal prep and the bodybuilding style plan of 4-6 meals a day of the same thing day in, day out had the best effect and helped me see the best results in my own journey to my current weight (~220 lbs.), but the only reason it worked is because it fit my lifestyle.

I was a single.

I was living by myself.

I don’t mind eating the same foods every day.

I was working out twice per day.

I didn’t have a whole lot of social obligations.

I didn’t have a whole lot of other obligations beyond work.

I had the time, energy, and focus that I needed to dedicate to sticking with it… because why not? What else was I gonna do?

It worked for me because it fit my lifestyle.

Anyone who ever tries any weight loss diet will tell you, ultimately the one that worked for them is the one that when you pick it apart, doesn’t change their lifestyle by much.

Keto

Paleo

Atkins

Cleanses

Low-Carb

Low-Fat

IIFYM

Intermittent Fasting

Whatever “diet” you’re trying to follow will ultimately fail if you don’t keep that in mind. As much as people like to complain about “change”, it’s really when we dial in a habit that we thrive the most. Life is difficult. Many of these diets are strict and difficult – making them super easy to slide off of and back into our old habits.

We, as a people, get so transfixed on what’s new, what’s flashy, what’s QUICK that we often neglect the fact that humans are built for distance. Not just physically (we have some of the best cardio endurance of any animal in the world), but in all facets of our life. We know we want the short term solution, but deep down, we know and understand that it’s the long term play that wins us the race.

So to answer the question on what is the “Best diet for weight loss”, I say there isn’t one.

Instead my suggestion is to approach nutrition like we approach fitness – looking to the long term.

Understanding we are at point A and need to get to point B and that the area in between is shrouded in mystery.

Rather than focusing on what diet will help us jump the fog, we should take a look at the footstep in front of us and slowly make habitual changes to our nutrition intake that lead toward better and better choices that cause as little disruption to our current life as possible, that will lead us in the direction of that Point B.

Holding ourselves accountable for where we are and understanding that we can get there, buying in on the system and ourselves, we can change our habits to ensure our bodies are taking in adequate nutrients through protein, carbohydrates, and fats coupled with healthy stress management, sleep, physical activity, and hydration – little by little improving each area of our life and building on top of each other toward a better and healthier us.

If that’s not a good enough answer for you, I guess I can say, the best diet for weight loss is:

The one you can stick to and doesn’t disrupt your life.
The one that fits with your goals and allows flexibility.
The one that promotes “what can we do better in this scenario” rather than, “You can’t have this!”
The one that focuses on quality protein, carbohydrate, and fat sources rather than highly processed, sugary, fatty, salty foods; and limits alcohol intake.
Lastly, The one that helps you understand yourself and your relationship with food and know that it’s not the enemy, but works to help you be a better you.

What’s the main part of your diet you’re struggling with most right now?

Healthy Grocery Shopping Tips

Posted on June 7, 2021 by alwayshungrypt

You’ve been killing it at the gym and you’re seeing some results, but something just isn’t clicking. You’ve looked at sleep habits and stress management and increased your water intake, but there’s just one last hump you CAN’T seem to get over.

The dreaded grocery store!

Like anything we fear, the best way to overcome it is to take it head on and make it our friend. Believe me, it wants to be, but forces greater than us or the grocery are trying to keep us apart! Read on through and let’s address my favorite Healthy Grocery Shopping Tips!

Without getting too deep into the nutritional breakdown of how terrible most food products are now thanks to vegetable and seed oils, over processing, and essentially all boxed or bagged foods being a few science experiments away from being either plastic or dog food, there are a few simple tips you can follow to get your nutrition in check and moving in the right direction of all your other healthy habits as well!

We’ve probably all hear the adage, “Don’t go to the grocery store hungry.” Because if you do, chances are that you’ll purchase with your eyes and taste buds rather than your brain and body in mind (guilty!). Being hungry in a store designed specifically to sell you any food imaginable is a recipe for impulse purchase disaster. One of my favorite things to do that has helped me a TON in curbing impulse/poor food choices has been to simply MAKE A LIST.

There are a bunch of apps, but all you need really is your notes app or a pen/paper and about 2 minutes.

A couple of common misconceptions about eating clean/healthy are that either A) you must eat something extravagant and time consuming to make or B) all you can eat is chicken, broccoli, and brown rice. Well, if you go with option B), your grocery list is going to be SUPER easy and if you go with A, you probably won’t be sticking to the list very long when you have to figure out all the ingredients you’ll need for that breakfast sandwich with poached egg whites, 1/3 avocado, cilantro lime hollandaise, blah, blah, blah that you’ll make once and end up throwing out the rest of the ingredients.

All you need are a few staple items that fall under your protein, carbs, and fats that are your “Go-To” items. They will be the focus of most of your meals with rotations of combinations to keep it varied, but simple. The main idea of going in with a list is to help keep you on track and help avoid the lure of all the things you don’t need, but will inevitably want as you stroll through the aisles.

Not only that, but knowing what you want, you can choose to put items on your list that are typically found along the perimeter of the store, rather than down the dreaded aisles of no return! As mentioned a little earlier, the food products you’ll find in the aisles are heavily filled with processed foods, sugars, fats, and a bunch of other things that your body really doesn’t want, though your taste buds try to say differently. It’s noted that modern grocery stores contain over 40,000 items, all of which want your attention and most being down these aisles.

Grocery stores are mostly set with all their fresh ingredients along the outside perimeter – where all the fresh meats, fruits/veggies, milk, eggs, yogurt, etc… clean items you should focus on are located. These can also be categorized as the food items with limited to no ingredient list. A rule of thumb to help with your food list and grocery picking is that you want to aim for foods with the least amount of ingredients listed as possible. The more ingredients you see on a food label – looking at potato chips and cookies – the more processed and less healthy they will be for you.

If you’ve already mastered shopping the perimeter and thinking, “yeah sure that’s fine for fruits/veggies, but meat (protein) is so dang expensive!” then you’re in luck. Often times if you check the grocery stores website or app, they will showcase deals going on for all sorts of products, including protein and meats, to help you plan your weekly meals and shopping list.

Not only that, but it can help you focus on what types of protein you should buy in bulk! Now, I’m not talking about buying 3 fridges worth of meat because that would be outrageous, but I can’t tell you how great it is to search the Kroger app and see that Beef Tenderloin Roasts are Buy 1 Get 1 Free. They are still pricey – usually around $20-30 per roast, but if you can find them with the B1G1 deal, then you’ve just picked up at least a week or two’s worth of protein in one. Buying groceries at the time can feel expensive because you’re buying a lot of 1 product at once, but when you look at it from above and see that you can get multiple meals out of one product (think a pack of chicken breast that may run you $10, that’s 3-5 dinners for that $10 pack compared to swinging through McD’s where even if you hit the value menu, chances are your meal is going to be at least $5-10 PER MEAL.

Meat freezes well and a quick thaw or throw right into a crock pot can help you get multiple meals for a great deal. The price up front might seem a little high, but averaging versus eating out every meal or even just once per day, the savings is a no-brainer in the long run.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to break the bank, cause anxiety, or be overwhelmingly complex. If you feel overwhelmed, try taking 5-10 minutes before leaving the house and follow these tips to make the grocery store trip quick and painless.

Make a List

Keep to the perimeter as best you can

Check the grocery site/app ahead of time for deals

Buy protein sources (meat) in bulk

Here’s a sample of what one of my Grocery Lists might look like:

Fruit (2-3 seasonal)

Potatoes

Baby Carrots

Frozen Peas

Frozen Broccoli

Meat (check deals – beef tenderloin/rotisserie chicken?)

Yogurt

Milk

Eggs (30pk)

Noodles + Sauce

5lb bag of rice

Sweet Treat (life is about balance)

Happy shopping!

Post Workout Showdown Protein vs Carbs

Posted on May 17, 2021May 17, 2021 by alwayshungrypt

The workout is done. You kicked its butt and you can already feel your body getting sore as the muscles begin the process of repair. You’ve walked in the door to your home and popped open the fridge to make a quick meal as your belly rumbles, begging for some food to replenish.

You know you need a clean meal made of quality food sources to keep you on track for your goals – whatever they may be – but you’re not sure if you need to lean more heavily toward carbohydrates or protein in the post-workout hours.

It doesn’t matter what your ultimate goal with your fitness journey is, protein and carbs (and fat) are high priority macronutrients that are found in all foods and need to be consumed in their appropriate proportions to help your body. Every meal should be well-balanced around these macros but the timing in which you consume higher quantities of one of another could benefit your results and progress more than you probably thought.

So which do you focus on post-workout?

If you guessed protein, you’d be on the right path.

While carbohydrates are still good and necessary for your body and help replenish your energy stores – their primary function – it is protein that we want the bulk of our post training meal, snack, dish to be made of.

While you are training, whether lifting weights; doing yoga; playing a sport; etc. your muscles are contracting and expanding and using energy (carbs) and in doing so, creating micro-tears in the muscle fibers. We’ve discussed this in past articles, but these microtears are necessary proof that the muscles are working. This is what causes inflammation during training, it releases the energy and creates waste (lactic acid). During the recovery time period – when the muscles are not being used – they are doing everything they can to recover before you put them under stress/resistance again. In order for the body to do this, it breaks down the food we eat and funnels the protein directly to the re-building muscles. The muscles then take the protein and use it to repair and rebuild stronger and better than they were. This is why/how we are able to adapt to heavier stresses – the more your body gets used to a certain stress, the stronger the muscles become to manage it, hence why we continue to increase the resistance (higher weight/reps, less rest, more sets, etc) to continue to build a better body.

Though your standard diet should provide enough protein (about .8-1.0g per pound of bodyweight), if you’re not feeling like recovery is happening as quickly as it should, or you’re on shorter turn around between training sessions or use of particular muscles, a higher protein meal or added protein source (shake) after training sessions can help the body recover quicker but quickly facilitating protein back to the muscles to begin repairing immediately and getting you back in shape quickly.

Carbohydrates do have a special place in the body as they are the energy source for almost all bodily functions and complex/high quality carbohydrates are suggested to keep you going, focusing on them post-workout is not as highly regarded compared to protein. Carbohydrates should be more focused prior to a training session as they will help provide the energy needed to get through your training session.

It is recommended to find a balance and take in both protein and carbs (along with healthy fats and plenty of veggies) at all meals, if you’re looking for an added boost, protein centric meals/snacks after training could go a long way to help speed up recovery and help build better, stronger muscles vs post training carbohydrates.

I personally enjoy chocolate milk, a protein shake, eggs, or a quick chicken breast wrap as my go-to post workout protein meals.

What is your favorite protein source?

Pre-Workout: To Use or Not to Use, That is the Question!

Posted on May 9, 2021 by alwayshungrypt

The clients I work with and people who have asked to know my stance on supplements is that you don’t need them. They are beneficial in many ways to help you toward your goals but being an industry that is non-regulated (in the US), the number of supplements that the body can ACTUALLY benefit from pales in comparison to the number of products on the market.

Avoiding going into every detail, I was questioned specifically about my take on Pre-Workout – would I recommend it or not?

First let me start by saying, I do not recommend any sort of supplement as necessary without consulting your physician, and I am not affiliated to any specific supplement brands. Any products mentioned in this post are based solely on my own experiences and products that I have or currently do use.

Like any question you’d ask to a good trainer, the real answer to, “Should I use pre-workout or not?” is:

“It depends.”

It depends on… your level activity; intensity of your training; goals; sensitivity to caffeine; sensitivity to other ingredients in pre-workout; desired effect; etc.

Let’s take a step back for a minute and address the question of what pre-workout is and what is it for/what it does.

Pre-workout is a supplement designed to help boost your energy, blood flow, and focus prior to a training session to help you achieve optimal results. The main ingredients are typically caffeine, beta-alanine, creatine, niacin, and a series of other random ingredients depending on what that products manufacturer decides it wants to add.

Focusing on those main ingredients, caffeine is typically the most common at about 200-250mg per serving in most pre-workout products. Caffeine is a stimulant designed to increase your energy levels and clear fog from your brain to allow focus on the task ahead. Beta-alanine is a vasodilator which means that it increases the size of blood vessels to allow for a large flow of blood through the body. This helps training sessions as your blood is able to move more oxygen into the muscles to help them maintain work and continue pushing even when you want to quit. Creatine is the main component of muscle building supplements and helps our bodies avoid atrophy. It doesn’t make you bulky but can cause you to retain a bit of water. If you are on a muscle building or toning program, creatine is a great supplement to incorporate to help build strong, sexy, toned muscles. Finally, Niacin works also as a Nootropic supplement focusing the mind and boosting energy.

Beyond those, there can a ton of other filler ingredients that get advertised as helping you, but ultimately probably don’t do much.

In rants I’ve made countless times, there are only about 3-4 supplements that I would recommend someone take if they were interested (of their own volition) that would aid their training – caffeine, creatine, protein, multi-vitamin, maybe a couple of others.

As you’ll notice, caffeine and creatine are on that list – 2 of the biggest players in most pre-workouts.

The reason I support those 2 ingredients is that they are the only supplements that have conclusive evidence of working for those who take them in addition to regular training.

The problem with pre-workout products isn’t the ingredients that work, it’s all the filler that’s unnecessarily added.

As I mentioned earlier, the supplement industry is largely unregulated in the US and with that, companies will make claims of ingredients being in their product but the factual amounts they claim could be skewed. Often seen as a “proprietary blend” they will throw random amounts of ingredients together in the bottle so they can claim they are in the product, but without having to disclose how much. Also, they do not have to be pure substances and often these bottles of product are filled with artificial flavors and ingredients.

So going back to the original question – should you use pre-workout or not – I would say that you can if you feel like you need an extra boost to get through your training sessions. It would be beneficial to those who train in the morning, but be wary of later training sessions especially with pre-workouts that use caffeine as it could disrupt your sleep patterns, which we don’t want to do. Thankfully they have started making less potent or stimulant free products which primarily utilize Vitamin B12 (or Vitamin B Complex) to provide energy, but be aware that an over intake of any vitamin can be detrimental.

I personally DO use pre-workout, and though I’ve used many different kinds with varying results, the one I continually come back to is Pre-Kaged by Kaged Muscle. It’s a product I’ve followed since its inception 5-7 years ago and believe works best for me. They use natural flavors and no artificial additives. It’s pricier than most products – but like anything else, the higher the price, generally the better the quality.

If you are sensitive to caffeine, niacin, or any other ingredients, I recommend not taking it – there are other alternatives and unless you are training extremely hard on a regular basis or professionally, a cup of regular coffee (black, no added cream, sugar, etc) has enough caffeine to get you through. There is a movement by many fitness/health “guru’s” I have seen via Twitter of eliminating caffeine all together and switching to local honey as their stimulant, but honey is basically just natural sugar which gives you an energy boost like caffeine would.

If you’re not sure if you should take a pre-workout or have questions about ingredients, you can always consult your physician to be sure.

Need an extra boost in the gym and not a coffee or energy drink consumer, maybe give pre-workout a try, but know you don’t NEED it, but it can help push through tough training sessions. Just be careful of ingredients and going overboard with caffeine later in the day.

Have any other questions about supplements or ingredients you’ve seen on your pre-workouts, drop them in the comments and I’d be happy to answer!

Special THANK YOU to my client Terry D for posing the question in the first place.

Fat Burners

Posted on April 24, 2021 by alwayshungrypt

One of the most popular goals for anyone entering training, working out, nutrition, etc, is to lose weight. With that, supplement companies have been falling all over themselves to create products that they claim to be THE ONE to help you shed that fat once and for all. The supplement market is flooded with pills, powders, and shakes that promise to melt away the stubborn fat you can’t seem to nix, but in truth, they are all snake oil.

As someone who battled with his weight and eventually went through his own weight loss transformation before becoming a personal trainer, I would be lying if I said I have never used a fat loss supplement in the hopes that it could help me knock off those extra lbs.

But I will honestly tell you also, that none of them worked.

Looking at an ingredients list for fat loss supplements can be as daunting as looking at a box of cereal, full of words and things you can’t pronounce and probably shouldn’t allow yourself to ingest, but almost every bottle you pick up will most likely boil down to 2 main components.

Some sort of Caffeine + a Diuretic

Caffeine

Probably one of the highest consumed ingredients in America (behind just sugar), caffeine has been in the spotlight for a long time thanks to the benefits of increasing our energy levels and helping us get through those midday slumps. It’s in coffee, energy drinks, pre-workouts, and is a large component of pre-workout supplements. Because it increases our energy levels, part of that process is increasing our heart rate our bodies natural functions. With our body moving more, it slightly increases the thermodynamic effect of our body – the ability to burn energy. That energy being burnt, it is claimed, is the fat cells we store. By causing our body to move more – even if just internally – the idea is that it’s burning fat for that energy. This can be seen as ingredients such as: Purcaf, Caffeine Proprietary Blend, Caffeine Anhydrous, or Green Tea Extract*

*Green Tea Extract is essentially caffeine specifically sourced from green tea – thought to be a naturally occurring energy source (similar to coffee beans).

Diuretics

The other thing to be aware of is the use of diuretics. Most fat loss supplements include ingredients that cause the body to shed water. Many people who start taking these supplements and see a steep drop in weight at the beginning are really just seeing that their body is flushing out water that has been retained. This may be helpful if you’re competing in some sort of physique/bodybuilding competition, but if you’re an average Joe like myself, you want water in your body to help it function optimally. Diuretics are hard on your kidneys and since our bodies are made up largely of water – cutting it out can have other detrimental consequences.

I’m not here to tell you not to try whatever you can to lose the weight if you feel it’s necessary, but I want to try and give a testimonial, that they may provide some sort of aid, beyond the caffeine boosting energy and diuretic components dropping water, these supplements rarely work to the effect that they claim.

True fat loss comes from focusing on the hard things you don’t want to do – cleaning up your nutrition; exercising regularly; prioritizing rest and recovery; and managing stress.

Take care of those things and the fat should melt away the way no supplement can.

Do the un-fun things now and enjoy the fruits of your labor later.

Trust the process and reach your goals!

What’s your favorite fat loss myth you’ve heard? Let’s start a thread below.

Weight Loss Plateau Tips

Posted on April 21, 2021 by alwayshungrypt

There comes a time in every journey where we hit a plateau. You broke through the initial hard parts of creating new habits by addressing the things you needed to change. You adjusted your schedule and made them easier to perform while limiting access to the detrimental norms that were keeping you from your best self.

You’ve put the cookies away; stopped buying fast food (as often); steer clear of the chip aisles at the grocery, and you’re seeing the results of your increased veggies and protein in addition to the weight training that’s turned from enemy to friend.

But you’ve hit the wall.

The number on the scale isn’t falling anymore.

Your workout progression has stagnated and you’re not seeing progress.

Aggravation sets in and you feel like throwing in the towel and picking up that cheeseburger you saw on the sign on your way home from work.

But you also know that you’ve put in so much work and it’s not worth giving up when you’ve come as far as you have.

What can we do to break through the plateau!? Let’s look at a few ways to breakthrough training and weight loss plateaus.

Adjust the program

This is probably the easiest way to bust through a plateau! One thing people don’t realize is that when you’ve been doing the same thing for a while (4+ weeks) in regards to training and nutrition, your body adapts. As much as we think we want variety and change all the time, the body is naturally designed to run as efficiently as possible. When you go through your training and keep your nutrition at a certain level, yes you will see progress and change initially, but that adaptation is the time when your body is basically screaming, “Woah, something’s different! We have to work harder! Let’s go boys!” But as you continue on the program, it recognizes that it’s doing similar workouts; it’s taking in similar calories; it learns and builds itself into an efficient machine that is able to perform that work with those calories and doesn’t require as much energy to do the same work. Therefore you hit a plateau.

This will be the time that you go through your log to see if it’s time to change the program – adjust your training plan; adjust your nutrition schedule; work on a new habit you’ve been putting off.

No one is ever going to be 100% efficient in their nutrition and training and there will always be something you can adjust to work on. Heck, after a while, it can be re-visiting a habit that worked and now that you have a new baseline to work off of, it may benefit to re-introduce back in for new results.

Take some time off

Another reason we plateau is when we’ve been running on a program or diet for so long that our body has reached its efficiency limit. You can only handle so much before your body needs rest.

Similar to an athlete, they have “in season” training and “off season” training. They don’t go balls to the wall all year – they would burn out. Sometimes the best way to break through a plateau is to eliminate the rigidity of the structure and enter a period of maintenance in which your goal stays in place, but you back off the strict structure you’ve been following. Allow your body and its systems a chance to relax and reset before diving into the next phase of your training. This doesn’t mean stop by any means, but release the gas pedal a little bit and lower the intensity to a manageable point.

Prioritize rest/recovery – De-Load Week

Along the same line as adjusting the program or taking time off, maybe you enjoy keeping it going despite the lack of results, one of the most often neglected facets of a training or nutrition program is rest/recovery. It is during the down time that our body repairs itself; utilizes the nutrients we’ve fed it; and creates the progress we’re looking for. If you’ve been going Hard AF for weeks or months without a break, it may be time to prioritize rest and recovery for a week or two to allow the body to re-achieve its homeostasis.

Re-visit Your Goal

Beyond adjusting the program, maybe it’s time to re-visit your goal as a whole. You’ve been pushing to lose weight and you’ve seen results but the scale isn’t going down anymore. Maybe it’s time to shift your focus from weight loss to building muscle. One of the benefits of building muscle is that it tends to use fat stores as energy. The adjustment to your goal could be the key to unlocking that next step in your evolution.

Remember the Non-Scale Victories

You’ve taken names and kicked butt so long and been so focused on that scale number and not seeing it go down has been ruining your mental health. WHY WON’T IT JUST GO DOWN?! After taking a deep breath, let’s remember that the scale is a single tool in our belt. Sit down and take stock of yourself. How do you feel on a day-to-day basis? How are your energy levels daily? How do your clothes fit? How is your confidence? How is your sleep? What things have others noticed or complimented? How is your training? How is your mental health? Taking stock of the non-scale victories is a great way to help break through plateaus and keep your mind on what’s actually happening and keep from falling into a “woe is me” rut.

You are a kick ass person who puts in a lot of hard fuggin work. But like I mentioned, your body is literally designed to be as efficient as possible. You may want to burn calories, but it’s trying to keep them as best it can. It will develop ways to be efficient, which is why when you do the same workout; eat the same meals; etc; over time your body learns how to burn the least amount of calories and your progress hits a plateau. When this happens keep these tricks in mind to help you bust through to the other side.

-Adjust the program

-Take some time off

-Prioritize rest/recovery

-Re-visit your goal

-Remember the non-scale victories

What are you going to do to break through your plateau? Sound off below and let’s keep the progress moving forward!

Build Your Ideal Body

Posted on March 24, 2021 by alwayshungrypt

Building the body of your dreams is not rocket science, but there are no true short cuts to the top. It takes hard work and discipline to reach your goals, but everyone is equipped with the ability to do it if they choose. The nice thing is that it all boils down to 3 main things: Training, Nutrition, and (probably most important) Mindset. Let’s take a look at the elements that you should focus on in order to reach the body of your dreams!

TRAINING

Sure, you can simply walk into a gym or buy a couple pieces of equipment and swing them around and if you’ve not done that before, you’ll see some sort of result for a bit. But they won’t be toward anything and it doesn’t make sense and you’ll lose interest and stop pretty quickly. Set yourself up for success by

first and foremost developing a specific plan. Within that plan, you should jot down your targeted goal that you’re working toward. Having a plan and goal in sight will help keep you moving forward, taking away the guesswork of “what am I gonna do today?” The plan doesn’t need to be too crazy, but having a specific start and end date will help keep you on track and keep some sanity knowing there is a scheduled time frame to focus on. Though everyone’s goals are different and yours will change along your journey, the best programs and plans tend to follow an ideology of exercising at least 3-4 times per week and is centered around weight/resistance training. Regardless of toning up, building muscle, losing weight, training for competition, or just looking to prolong your health and activity levels, those 2 staples should be involved in all of your training programs for optimal results. Once you’ve come up with the plan, it’s easy to find the dedication to show up. Taking out the guesswork of what you’re going to do is a huge hack to solving the issue of being dedicated. When you know what you’re going to do, the time frame you’re going to work toward your goal, and the structure is in your hand, all you have to do now is show up and get it done. The final thing to remember – and to me, probably the most important aspect to your training – is to make it fun! Training is difficult and makes you tired, but it also boosts your energy, makes you stronger, healthier, better, more confident, etc. and there are so many different ways to work out, try a few and find what works for you. Lifting heavy things and putting them down is fun to me; for you it might be a boot camp class. Making it fun is going to make it 10x easier to show up than if you go in every day with a negative attitude.

NUTRITION

This is probably the hardest aspect of working toward your ideal body but following these guides can make it a lot easier and more manageable. It doesn’t matter what your goals here either, these elements will help you reach whatever goal you’re aiming for. Regarding nutrition in accordance with training, there’s no debate that protein centric nutrition is key. High quality protein helps fuel the body and the muscles to keep working and re-build after a workout session. They also help mitigate holding onto fat cells which throw off our goals. Beyond protein, nutrition should be focused on whole food sources – not just labelled organic, but whole/organic sources as much as possible. There’s an unwritten rule that if you want to be healthy, only shop the perimeter of the grocery store. That’s where all the fresh produce, meat, and other foods can be found. The middle aisles are all the processed foods full of added sugars, fats, and garbage you don’t need. To that, avoiding added sugars and alcohol can help catapult you toward your goals in whatever direction it may be. Sugar causes inflammation and affects your immune system and hormone responses throwing off your hunger and ability to heal/grow. Plus, booze is basically poison with no benefit whatsoever except adding extra calories. If you have difficulty feeling full, try increasing your vegetable intake as they’re nutrient dense, take up more space, and can help you feel fuller for longer periods of time than sugary snacks and carbs.

It can be hard to keep all of this in mind, so the easier the food is to prep and manage, the easier it will be to adhere to. Like your training, keeping a simple plan can help you stay focused on your goals and make a typically difficult aspect of our health much more manageable. And if you fall off the wagon, remember that without its driver, it’s going to stop right next to you. Forgive yourself for indulging a sweet tooth or craving and make sure to hop back on at the next meal instead of throwing in the towel. One setback won’t end all your progress until that one becomes more. And if you’re worried that you’re not actually hungry, remember that staying hydrated with roughly 100oz of water a day can help stave off cravings and make you feel full longer. Plus, with a body made mostly of water, staying hydrated has a TON of other benefits.

MINDSET

Yes, having a training plan and approach to nutrition are incredibly important and going to be the building blocks of your journey to the top of the mountain, but the things you do to keep your mind on task are probably the most important aspects of this climb. Having climbed my own mountain, these things have helped me more than having a plan or easy to prep meals ever could and they should not be taken lightly! As I mentioned earlier, if you’re going to stick to a plan, one of the best things to do is to make it fun. You must remind yourself that exercise and nutrition are different than what you’re used to, and it is hard, but you’re rewarding your body for being so magical, not punishing it. The time before this journey was the punishment – now we’re nurturing and rewarding. Things that can help you feel rewarded are to keep a daily journal of the tasks you have set ahead of you. I like to list the top 6-10 items for the day that will move me forward including blocking time for my workouts or stretching. Journaling can help you let off steam as much as keep your eye on the prize of what you’re working toward. On top of that, it can help with envisioning the success you’re working toward. Seeing yourself in that future state can help keep focus and dedication going when the motivation is fleeting. Beyond those longer term plans, don’t ever forget to appreciate the small victories. Setting aside time every day or every week to look back and appreciate the small victories and steps forward remind us of how far we’ve come and help us avoid the pit of thinking we have so much further to keep going. Not only will these things help keep you focused and dedicated to your training and nutritio

n, but they are really beneficial ways to help mitigate stresses in life that try to pop up and derail you from your goals. Having a routine; keeping your eye on the prize; focusing on small victories and prioritizing your schedule can help keep stresses at bay or allow you identify if it’s a real stress or just an inconvenience that can be dealt with later. The final piece of the mindset puzzle is to make sure you prioritize sleep. We think we function well on 6hrs or less, but study after study proves otherwise. Do what you can to get 7-9 hours regularly per night to optimize your mental health that will set you up for great physical health. The body needs rest to recover and calm down from life. This is the time when your body repairs itself and when you cut down on the amount of rest, we tend to also let other habits slide that can throw us off from our fitness and nutrition goals we’ve been working toward.

Like I said, it’s not easy to work toward your best self, but making a plan, making it easy, and keeping a positive mindset and focus on your goals can help set you up to succeed better than you ever could have imagined.

What area do you feel like you would like to focus on and what’s one thing you could do RIGHT NOW to work on it? Drop a comment below and let’s start working toward our best dang selves!