Q: OK so I have been running 4-6 miles on the stair-master, cross-trainer or treadmill 4-5 times a week. And taking one hour classes (weight training, cycling,  kickboxing, or machines) about 4 times a week. I eat my normal diet, that hasn’t changed much, but I am a vegetarian and it is semi healthy…  with a little oil, sufficient carbs and lots of greens.

I have been doing this for the last 5 months. Initially, I lost some weight, but lately the scale says that I gained weight. I assume that could be muscle, however, my inches are no longer going down, nor does it seem like my body is losing anything anywhere anymore…

I just finished medical school (I know, I should be able to answer my own question then =) ). So my life outside of the gym consists of stress and sitting in front of the books for 14 hours studying for the boards… Obviously I was initially doing something right so my diet cannot be the sole reason. So what am I doing wrong and what should I do differently? – Megha

A: Kudos for finding the time to work out so diligently and for being determined in your goals. Don’t get discouraged! There are many factors involved in fitness. That means we’re required to try lots of things as we get to know our bodies and discover what will create optimal results for us.

Weight loss plateaus are common, too: the body is so smart that it adapts quickly in order to conserve energy. But to lose excess fat, we want it to burn energy. The key is to keep the body off balance. So while you may not be doing anything wrong, it’s probably time to switch up your routine.

Let’s first look at what you’re eating, and then we’ll point you to some great resources on this site for maximizing fitness results.

WHAT TO EAT (AND WHAT NOT TO!)

Essentially, you should be eating plentiful fruits and vegetables, calcium-rich low-fat dairy, whole grains, and—in your case, as a vegetarian—ample non-meat sources of protein. Make sure to incorporate a variety of foods in your diet. Here are some basic guidelines for the three major dietary nutrients:

Protein

Protein is fundamental for keeping—and building—lean muscle mass. It will increase your metabolism as well as make your workouts more effective, so you’ll burn more fat. (By the way, you are right to ask whether your increased weight could be muscle gain. Don’t put too much emphasis on what the scale says.) While trying to gain muscle, you should eat more than the average RDI. Whey protein and soy protein (which can be found in powder form) are great sources of protein, as are nuts and eggs. You can also time your protein and carb intake to maximize workout results.

Carbohydrates

By reducing your carbohydrate intake, your body will turn to fat for fuel and start burning it up. But don’t cut carbs completely; it’s still needed for extra energy, and you don’t want your body to go after your muscle instead. So, on the days that you do high-intensity workouts, include more carbohydrates in your diet. On your steady state cardio days, have a low carb intake. And on your days off—those all-important recovery days—skip carbs completely.

Many of your non-meat (plant) protein sources also have extra carbohydrate content (lentils, beans), which is something to be aware of. Still, these are a better source of carbs than starchy carbohydrates without any protein, such as pasta, bread and rice.

Fats

Believe it or not, you won’t want to cut fat completely out of your diet. It, too, supplies your body with needed energy. You will of course want to stick to the healthy, fat-containing foods: low-fat milk products, legumes, and oils (canola, corn, soy bean and olive). Some good sources of unsaturated fat: avocados, nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, pecans) and seeds (flax, sesame, pumpkin).

Weight Loss Villains

Avoid these ingredients in your diet:

• Sodium
• Caloric sweeteners (added sugar and artificial sweeteners)
• Saturated fat (whole milk, cheese, ice cream)
• Trans fat (cookies, crackers, chips and other commercial baked goods)

WHEN TO EAT

This is almost as important as what you eat! We recommend eating 5-6 small nutritious meals throughout the day, as opposed to 2-3 large meals. This will do three things:

1. Speed up your metabolism
2. Supply your body with ample energy throughout the day
3. Keep you from overeating. Many people only have one big meal, often at the end of the day. Starving, they overeat, and then plop down on the couch or head for bed. This is a recipe for sluggish metabolism and fat gain!

HOW MUCH TO EAT

In order to lose excess body fat, you also need to lower your caloric intake (while still meeting your body’s nutrient needs). Find a calculator that can tell you what your caloric needs are, and then subtract 300-500. Your body will turn to fat stores for energy, allowing you to burn up that excess fat throughout your body.

Remember that it’s going to be about more than eating, say, 1700 calories, if this is your target. It’s even more important to focus on eating a lower-carb diet than on lowering your caloric intake. After all, more calories in a healthier diet will always be better for you than having fewer calories, but less healthy foods. The most effective approach to losing weight would be a low calorie, low carb diet.

WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING?

Poring over the books for extended periods of time can cause lead us to caffeinated beverages and not enough water. If you’re propping your eyelids open with soda, red bull, and vanilla lattes, don’t! Caffeine is fine in moderation, and can even give your metabolism a little boost while suppressing your appetite (that’s why many weight loss supplements include a small amount). But skip the sugar, creamer and flavoring. And after your first cup or two, switch to green tea, which has caffeine plus incredible weight loss and health benefits. Or, have an apple or a protein shake for energy. And we’ll say it again: drink more water!

ARE YOU SUPPLEMENTING?

Taking a supplement is important for everyone, but critical for those trying to lose weight. Dietary supplements are an easy way to give your body the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients it needs that you can’t get from food alone. Go for a multivitamin for overall health. A metabolism booster like Green Tea Extract is good, too. Weight loss support supplements like ResveraShape can be a boon when you’re trying to lose excess fat. The right ones will combine essential nutrients with metabolism-boosting (green tea, kelp, grapefruit extract) and appetite-suppressing ingredients (resveratrol, caffeine).

KEEP A HEALTH LOG

We bet we don’t need to tell a medical school graduate this, but just in case: it’s really important to keep a daily exercise and nutrition log. Not only will this give you a clear picture of your habits and patterns, so you can see what works and what doesn’t; but it will also keep your goals in focus. Without a visible record, it’s easy to miscount how many “just this once” indulgences we give in to!

Keep a note, too, of your weight and measurements. Don’t compare them from day to day, or you won’t notice much difference, and you may get discouraged. Compare every other week, or at the end of the month, however, and you’ll see the difference.

Getting others involved in your journal is even more effective, and fun, too. Don’t believe us? Just ask weight loss bloggers Cara and Ryan, who have tracked their way to incredible results.

MASTERING THE MIND

Finally, don’t discount the role your mental state plays in weight loss. Are you getting enough sleep? Not only is adequate rest necessary for overall health and performance, but it’s also necessary if you want to get anything out of your exercise routine. It’s during sleep that your body recovers from your workouts and builds muscle. It’s also important to keep stress and depression at bay, as they can make weight management hard. Many people find that achieving balance and focus is ultimately the most important step in their weight loss journey.

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR GYM TIME

Your weight training and resistance exercises (like stair-climbing), along with high intensity cardio (kick boxing), are great! Just make sure to progressively add resistance and repetitions, and switch up the activity type every so often. You can skip the machines, which only deliver isolated exercises, unless you are honing in on one specific area. Otherwise, compound movements that work multiple muscle groups are best. Make sure you aren’t working the same muscle group every day, or your body won’t have time to recover and progress. Steady state cardio on the bike or treadmill will allow your muscles a rest between intense training days.

For the full scoop, check out these posts:

Interval Training vs. Steady State Cardio

Which first: cardio or strength training?

So you want to build muscle, but not bulk up?

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Q: I am 58-year-old male and have stiffness in my joints and back due to lack of an exercise routine. I carry my fat mainly around my chest and stomach. I am a shallow breather. I am 5’10″ and weigh 260 lbs. How do I address these issues and get my health back? -John

A: Aging takes a toll on our bodies. Aging with bad nutrition habits, minimal exercise and extra weight can be almost debilitating. Slowing down, or for some of you, reversing the aging process, is going to require a focus on proper nutrition, exercise and supplementation. Aging healthy will do more for your body than trying to get healthy at an older age, but it’s never to late to start.

Nutrition

Nutrition is essential to ensuring the highest quality of life. The right foods can even have a healing effect. Start by getting back to the basics:

• eat smaller meals 5-6 times a day
• eat 5-6 fruits and vegetables a day
• eat lean meats
• eat plenty of fiber
• decrease your soda and sugar intake

To keep your metabolism as high as possible, you want to eat in a way that promotes the maintenance of or increase of lean muscle mass. Eating 5-6 small meals a day is going to give you the fuel to get through your day. It will limit the use of protein as energy, so protein can do its job which is to build and rebuild all the tissues in your body, keeping you lead an healthy.

Tracking your diet at dailyburn.com will help you recognize problem areas in your diet by showing you the amount of carbs, proteins and fats you are eating. The balance of carbs/proteins/fats we have our clients use is 40%/30%/30% of their daily intake. Stay focused on what you’re eating, and you’ll be aging healthy. You will see improvement in your metabolism and the way your body reacts to food.

Exercise

Exercise can be a game-changer for people wanting to turn back the clock. As we age, we can lose up to one pound of muscle every year. Losing that pound of muscle each year slows down your metabolism and can keep you from doing the things you love. Strength training is going to be essential to decreasing the loss of muscle, or getting some of the muscle back, to fuel your metabolism.

Strength training can help also help you prevent diabetes, osteoporosis and arthritis – to name just a few. Cardio will help keep your heart healthy and strong. Stretching and self massage (foam rolling) will keep your muscles as healthy as possible. A foam roller is a must to prevent injury when you are working out, and it will help with post-workout recovery, as well.

Supplementation is always beneficial to health. Protein shakes, complete multi-vitamins and anti-oxidants are a few easy ways to maintain muscle and boost your immune system.

In review, aging healthy takes effort and planning. Make sure that you are giving your body the right fuel and doing the right excersices to help maintain strength and wellness.

Which supplements are right for you?

Find out why some trainers insist on foam rolling

Q: A few days a week, I get to the gym at 5:15 a.m., and on other days at around 9, for a total of 4-5 days of weights and 3-4 of cardio. On the days I go at 5:15 a.m., I have to do cardio first to “wake up,” then I do weights. I have to eat something prior to cardio because I’m hungry, so I bring a shake with water, protein and about 1/4 C of Oat Bran (for the carbs) mixed together. I drink about 1/4 of it prior to cardio, then the rest as I am lifting weights. Should I be drinking it all after the cardio, so it can get into my system before the weights? Or all before cardio? And if I drink it before cardio, won’t all my energy be gone by the time I get to weights? – Davida C.

A: Drinking your shake before you start cardio is going to provide you the maximum amount of energy. And it will ensure that the protein gets to the muscle to limit muscle damage and improve muscle recovery.

The carbohydrates in the drink are digested almost immediately and converted to glucose. The body will depend on the glycogen stored in the muscle and the available glucose in the blood from the drink to provide the energy for the exercise.Waiting until after cardio to drink your protein shake is only going to postpone the delivery time of the carbohydrate to the muscle.

There are two carbohydrates at work in your shake: simple carbohydrates that will give you the immediate energy you need to “wake up,” and complex carbohydrates that will digest more slowly. The combination of complex carbohydrates and protein will fuel the rest of your workout. Workouts over an hour and a half will need additional supplementation during the workout.

Adding the Oat Bran will decrease the glycemic response of the shake due to its fiber content, and will slow down the release of the carbohydrate into the blood as glucose. This can be important because the Oat Bran provides more complex carbohydrate, since most protein shakes’ carbohydrate sources come from simple carbs like sucrose.

The more carbohydrates you eat before the workout, the less protein your body will need to use for energy during the workout. Preserving protein to do its job (which is to rebuild tissue) is the key to getting the maximum benefit from your workout. The more protein that is left to support the maintenance and building of lean muscle mass, the higher your metabolism will be and the better you will perform in your subsequent workouts.

A pre-workout protein shake should have a 4:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio. Generally, good protein shakes contain a 1:1 ration if taken with water. In order to get the carbohydrate into a shake you will need to add it by putting in grains or fruit. There should be 200-300 calories in a protein shake for an average-weight woman and 300-400 calories for an average-weight male.

If you are doing a pre-workout shake 30 minutes to an hour before your workout, make sure that you are eating a blend of protein, carbohydrates and fat in your next meal. That meal should occur 30 minutes to an hour after your workout to get the most benefit.

Related posts:

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• Do protein shakes increase weight loss?

A: Strength training should be done before cardio to increase the effectiveness of the total workout. That’s because you want to make sure the movement you will be performing with resistance are done correctly. The greater the loads used while doing strength training, the more effective the workout. Performing each movement correctly, and with the maximum amount of muscle involvement, increases the quality of the workout. Cardio can wear you out and deplete energy stores if done before strength training.

The energy primarily used during your workouts is called glycogen, and it’s stored in all of your muscles and your liver. Glycogen comes from the carbohydrate you eat from 0-24 hours before the intense activity. As soon as you start exercising, glycogen stored in the muscle and liver starts to be depleted. Low or depleted glycogen stores will decrease exercise intensity and time ’til exhaustion, and can make you feel tired. If glycogen isn’t available, the body depends protein and fat to provide the energy your body needs, and they are not very efficient sources of energy.

Breaking down protein and fat to provide you the energy for your strength training workout will make you feel sluggish and tired. And you don’t want to break down protein because that means you aren’t going to have the protein to maintain or build that lean muscle mass you’re working so hard to create.

Strength training should be done first to make sure that you have as much glycogen as possible to perform the movements effectively. If cardio is done first, it will deplete glycogen stores and leave your body to depend on protein and fat – decreasing the quality of your workout, and limiting your body’s ability to create lean muscle mass. Cardio can be done at the end of a strength training workout, but needs to be completed by the end of 90 minutes of working out. Glycogen stores are completely depleted after 90 minutes of medium to high intensity workout.

Eating within two hours before your workouts will help keep glycogen levels high during the workout. That meal can be a protein shake with a 4:1 carb to protein ratio. The protein shake will ensure that those carbs are available and give you the advantage of having protein available at the end of the workout to start rebuilding muscle. Remember, simple carbs are ok to eat before a workout because they will get into your bloodstream faster than complex carbs, and they’ll be used up by the end of a good session.

Burnt out on cardio? Good news!

How to time your pre-workout protein shake

Q: How should I eat in preparation for workouts and sporting events? – Thomas M.

A: Nutrition before a strength training workout or sporting event can determine your level of performance. There is no difference in the nutrition needed for a workout or sporting event under an hour and a half, because the activities are very similar in their demands. Most sports and strength training activities rely on the anaerobic energy system, meaning short bouts of movement from 10-45 seconds. Having the right nutrients available during these bouts of exercise is going to be essential to your performance.

The secret to exercise energy

The nutrient that provides the energy that gets muscle moving is glycogen. The most efficient and fast way to get glycogen is by eating carbohydrates. If glycogen isn’t available from carbs, the body will pull from less efficient sources of energy – protein and fat. Relying on protein and fat to provide the glycogen will make you feel sluggish and tired during your activity. To have the maximum amount of glycogen available for your workout or sporting event – in order to perform at the highest level – glycogen needs to be stored from carbohydrate eaten before the activity.

How do you make sure that glycogen is available from carbohydrates when you workout? Eat them before your workout. A full meal three to four hours before your workout with carbs, protein and fat should help get the glucose into your system that will be converted to glycogen. Ideally, you’ll also drink a shake or smoothie 30 minutes before your workout with a 4:1 carb to protein ratio. The shake should contain somewhere between 200-300 calories. If you are working out in the morning just after waking up, you need to do a shake, meal replacement bar or small meal.

The importance of proper nutrition

The people who most often fail to practice proper nutrition before activity are those who need it most: children, young adults and people trying to achieve a healthy weight. Parents need to be more educated about nutrition and teach these principles to their children. Kids who are in sports need to understand how and when they should be eating to make their practices and games more productive.

People trying to achieve a healthy weight need to make sure they have eaten correctly to build lean muscle mass and have the calories they need when they workout. When you are trying to obtain a healthy weight, you are going to be in a calorie deficiency for the entire day. But be pro-active: put the right nutrients into your body before your workouts and immediately after. After a workout, you want to make sure you eat or supplement with a protein shake that has a 1:1 carb to protein mix.

We have a motto that we teach our clients: “Do the little things really well and you will be successful.” Proper nutrition before a workout is a little thing, but can create huge results.

An often-overlooked must: warming up your muscles pre-workout

What’s the trick to timing a protein shake?

Hit a fitness plateau? Read this

A:  Almost every where you turn on the Internet you will find supplements promising amazing muscle gains if you take them.  Every product declaring it has the precise formula for muscle gain and increasing your performance in the weight room.  Some of the supplements have science behind them, some of the supplements don’t have any.  We recommend being conservative with what you put into your body and the dosage you put into your body.  We don’t recommend specific brands, but we do have some basic guidelines for those working out with us.

Supplements that are essential for a muscle building program: Protein, Creatine, and Branch Chain Amino Acids.  Remember any good workout program is going to require good nutrition to build lean muscle mass or maintain muscle mass.  Often times there is very little difference in the recommendations we give our clients whether they are trying to lose body body fat or gain muscle mass. It may be just a few calories difference.

Protein provides the nutrients your body needs to repair torn down muscle during and after a workout.  Protein can be taken before a workout in a 1:4 protein to carb mix.  The carbs will provide you the energy you need for the workout and the protein will be available to start repairing the muscle.  After the workout you should be doing 1:1 protein to carb mix.  After the workout the easily accessible energy from carbs is no longer needed and storing the protein will help in the recovery process.  Protein supplements should be included in your daily totals and it is recommended that you eat between .8 and 1 grams of protein for every pound of body weight.

Creatine is a great supplement for maximizing the performance in your workout.  Creatine is the building block to an anaerobic energy process that you use while lifting weights.  Maximizing storage of creatine should help improve your ability to do more during your workout and allow you to be more powerful.

BCAA are the building blocks to protein and some of them have been proven to be effective in building lean muscle mass.

Q: Should I try to eliminate carbs from my diet to lose weight? -Allen M.

A: Carbohydrates are an important part of any healthy eating plan.  Carbohydrates are a greatly mis-understood nutrient and vital to the success of a healthy eating weight loss plan.  There are three different thing that provide us energy; carbohydrates, proteins and fats.  Every gram of carbohydrate provides 4 calories, protein 4 calories as well, and fat 9 calories.  The body is fueled by glucose, all the food we eat eventually is broken down to glucose.  So regardless of whether you eat carbs, proteins, or fats your body will eventually be breaking it into glucose.  Carbs are more easily broken down into glucose than proteins or fats.  Now if you don’t provide your body with the glucose it needs from carbohydrates it will break protein down from your muscle which is a big mistake in a healthy eating plan.

Remember that if you are trying to create a healthy eating plan for weight loss you are trying to do a couple things. The first thing is to get your body to burn more calories  than it is taking in so that it will utilize fat as a source of energy and your body fat will decrease.  Second to keep your metabolism high you need to be eating foods that will maintain or even increase lean muscle mass which fuels your metabolism.  Muscle is what burns glucose.  If you start to lose muscle your metabolism will decrease.  If you eliminate carbs you are going to decrease lean muscle mass.

A lot of people ask why people lose so much weight when they eliminate carbohydrates from their diet.  The primary reason is the loss of water weight from the depletion of glucose or glycogen. (Glycogen: the broken down form of glucose that is stored in the muscle)  Every gram of glycogen in the body stores 2.4 grams of water.  If you get rid of glycogen you can see that you would lose more than twice the amount of water, thus losing primarily water weight. Now this gives you an indication of why weight isn’t always the best judgment of success.  So if you are depriving your body of carbs you generally aren’t losing fat and you definitely aren’t getting healthier all you have done is gotten rid of essential life supporting sources of energy and the water that is attached to it.  Also when you start eating carbs again your body immediately starts storing them as fat, just a side note.

The key is not to eliminate carbs from your diet; it is to improve the carbs that you are eating.  If you are trying to lose weight you should be eliminating simple carbs that are found in sugar. Sugars make it very difficult to release fat because the effect it has on insulin which encourages storage of glucose instead of the burning of glucose and remember fat must be broken down into glucose for the body to get rid of it.  All white sugar or simple sugars should be decreased or eliminated from your diet and that includes fruit.  Fruit should be decreased to one time a day and mornings are the best for eating fruit.  Remember this is just during the weight loss phase of a healthy eating plan. The carbs you should be eating are vegetables and whole grains.  They should be eaten in conjunction with protein at each meal.

A healthy eating plan for weight loss requires eating the right things in the right proportions.  Our bodies need carbs, proteins, and fats to survive.  Weight loss isn’t about cutting out one particular source of energy, but rather finding the healthiest sources and eating those.

A: Now let me explain the difference between healthy eating for weight loss and healthy eating for maintenance.  It is really simple you can eat more of the same healthy foods when you are maintaining your weight.  We want to make this really clear there is no dieting gimmicks needed to lose weight or special formula for carbs, proteins, and fats.  We follow a general recommendation for the percentages of carbs, proteins, and fats that you should be eating which is 40% Carbs, 30% Protein, and 30% Fat.  What these percentages mean is that if you are eating 2000 calorie each day 800 Calories would come from carbs, 600 Calories from protein, and 600 Calories from fat.  The Fats can be decreased and proteins increased depending on how your body responds and the amount of weight you are losing each week.

Often people short themselves on protein because they are eating too many carbs.  In this case there is a need to raise the amount of protein your eating to get in balance.  Remember, there is protein in vegetables, dairy, and legumes that will help you meet your protein requirements.  We would recommend tracking your diet for a few days on www.dailyburn.com to give you an idea of the number or calories you are eating and the proportion of carbs, proteins, and fats that are going into your healthy eating plan.

Here are some other simple keys to successfully implementing a healthy eating plan.

#1. Plan your meals

#2. Eat more often 5-6x a day

#3. Include Carbs, Proteins, and Fats in every meal

#4. Drink plenty of water and little of everything else