Ask Nat- Working Out Advice

My dear friend Nish wrote me a while back for my opinion on how to tighten up for the summer.  Check out this Q & A.

Working out

Agnieszka to Natalie

Hey! How are you? How's LA? I'm so happy and excited that you are following your dreams. It's inspirational.

I wanted to ask you about working out and figuring out the best workout for me.

Here's what I'm doing right now.

Food:

• Keeping a food journal. Actually on an app called Lose it!.
• Calories 1200 -1500 (sometimes over...)
• The days I work out my net is usually closer to 1200 or less.
• Eating well most of the time.... 3 meals and then healthy snacks in between. Can give you more details if that would help.
• Drinking... nothing crazy... vodka + soda or white wine maybe 2 - 3 x a week. = )

Working out:

• Personal trainer 2x a week for 55 mins.
• We do circuit training... lots of weights, resistance, bosu ball, core stuff, abs, lunges with weights, that kind of stuff.
• Then I do about 30 mins of cardio (1 min on / 1 min off) after.
• I've been trying to do cardio kickboxing 1x or 2x a week and / or cardio 2x a week.
• I also tried a bodypump class (circuit training with a barbell and weights).

My goal:

Bikini hot!!! Since I starting working out with the trainer (back in Oct) I haven't lost any weight but I have trimmed down in the core area and everything fits better. I was able to get into pants that I haven't worn in a year- that was awesome!! I have a lot more definition overall which I really like.

I want to continue trimming down my belly (goal being a flat stomach- I know food is the major contributor to this) and build more muscle overall. I really want Michele Obama arms!! I want a long, lean, muscular look.

What do you suggest I do to amp this up? Heavier weights with my trainer? More reps? Weight train more often? How many days and how much cardio should I really be doing?

Write me back when you can... I would love to hear your advice.

xoxo

Nish

Nish - you are on the right track.  Looking at your calorie count and workout schedule you sound like you ticked off most of the major things that you could do to clean up the habits.  I also used Lose It! in the past and it's helped me be accountable for what I'm eating (I recommend everyone keep a food diary).  Reeling in the alcohol also makes a big impact on your physique as well since it's just added calories to an already slim diet.

If your physique is as I remember, a long slim physique at 5'8 without much muscle definition, then you should definitely consider working to put on more muscle.  The main thing to remember is that as women we cannot put on muscle like a man because we have 1/20th the testosterone levels; therefore, women would have to supplement with steroids in order to achieve such a look.  Also, having a lean body (<18% bodyfat) keeps the overall frame nice and tight while being able to show off the muscle tone.  We want to avoid the skinny fat look and go for that tight body that has curves!  The muscle is what creates the curves and the skin lays on top of that frame.  You can literally reshape your body by understanding which muscle groups to grow while maintaining your ideal bodyfat levels.

I can speak from experience that I have trained and ate like a bodybuilder for the last three years (so much food) in order to reach the ideal muscle mass for me.  That meant on a 5'4 frame, I put on 15lbs of muscle while keeping to a bodyfat level between 15-20% depending on where I was with dieting for a show.  It sounds like alot and you'd think that I'd be huge but 1lb of muscle takes up 1/7th the space of equivalent weight of fat.  So pay attention to your bodyfat levels intead.

Regarding your diet.  I think that keeping below 1500 calories is good.  I would take a look at your protein - carb - fat ratios now and tweak this so that your body is getting the right mix.  The easiest way I've handled this (although I've done the math and weighing of my foods in the past) is to -

Avoid eating fats as much as possible.  Yeah yeah, I know we need fats in our diet but the reality is when people are just learning to tweak their diets, usually they don't realize that fat usually make up >30% of their total caloric intake.  A fat is a fat, whether it comes from animal meat or olive oil.  And there's 9 cal/1 gr. fat vs. 4 cal/1 gr. carb or protein so you can see how it's easy to spill over your calorie intake.  When cooking, use water to avoid sticking or spray oil.  Bake and steam whenever you can.  You will find that you'll get fats in from other areas of your clean diet and it's just easier to avoid wherever possible. 

• FYI: You want your around 15% of your caloric intake to be from fat... makes sense if you want your physique to be close to a tight 15% bodyfat.

Keep your protein intake high and keep it to very clean sources such as fish, chicken breast, super lean cuts of beef, seafood.  I have protein with every meal, about 100g of meat, 4x a day.  The rule of thumb is to have 1gr. protein for every lb. of lean body mass.  So if I'm 120 lb. and have 25% BF, then my lean body mass = 120lb x (1 - 0.25) = 90 lbs and therefore should consume at least 90gr. of protein/day.  90 gr of protein is not meat weight but the protein macro within the food. Rule of thumb: there's roughly 25g protein per 100g of meat.  When I was working to pack on muscle, I ate 180g protein a day.  I swear to god I was so bored of eating baked chicken and fish but it got the results that I needed.... curves!

Putting on muscle increases your metabolism.  For every lb of muscle you put on, your body burns 60 additional calories!  If you feed your body with good food at a controlled caloric intake, you don't have to worry about getting fat.

You are going to be hungry.  It's called a diet for a reason.  Get used to the feeling of hunger and find ways to keep your mind busy by drinking water, chewing gum, sticking to fibrous veggies, drinking plain green tea.  I've been known to plow through baby carrots, cucumbers, and guzzling water while sitting at my desk trying to distract a growling stomach.

Here's the steps that I take when I'm tightening up:

1. Perfect the diet. 80% of the hard work is right there.  You trained your dog to wait for that treat, show that same discipline to food as well.
2. 30 min cardio + 45min weight training for starters. Then over time as endurance grows and show is around the corner, bump this up to 30 min cardio in the morning, 30 min HIIT cardio (1 min sprint/1 min normal pace) + 45 min weights.  I only do this in the last month before a show, otherwise it's the 1st part year round.  This is 4-5x a week.
3. Take alot of vitamins such as the multi, calcium, E, recovery supplements such as glutamine, omega oils.  Your body will be using a higher than normal amount of nutrients because you are tearing your muscles to rebuild stronger, burning through food while trying to be lean.  Lance Armstrong did not reach his levels by drinking only orange juice.  Just sayin'.  There's a point where trying to get all of your nutrients from food will not be achievable while on a limited calorie diet.
4. Eat fibrous foods. I say this again because hunger's a bitch and fiber is the best way to combat that feeling.  It also keeps your system nice and clean.
5. Big breakfast, veggie + protein snack, moderate lunch, veggie + protein snack, smaller dinner. Go to bed feeling empty.

Now on to the training.  You're on a good program with the focus on your core, diversified training.  How heavy are your weights?  When I want to reshape my body, it involves either putting on or tearing off muscle.  Put on muscle - going super heavy weights.  Tearing off muscle - cardio bunny for long periods and no weight training for that muscle group. 

If you want Michelle Obama arms with nice shoulder caps, biceps, triceps it can be achieved through heavy weight training to build each muscle group while keeping your bodyfat in check so that you can see the definition. 

Shoulders: dumbbell side, front, and rear lateral raises and dumbbell shoulder presses with 12 reps x 4 sets.  Go really heavy.

Triceps: Tricep dips, kickbacks, tricep cable pushdowns. 12 reps x 4 sets.  Go really heavy.

Biceps:   Bicep curls, hammer curls, cable pulldowns.  12 reps x 4 sets.  Go really heavy.

I don't like to work my forearms because I don't like that look.

When I was developing my body, I worked every muscle group a week in order to be balanced.  That meant for me:

Monday – Quads/Calves
Tuesday – Back
Wednesday – Cardio Only or Rest
Thursday – Chest/Shoulders
Saturday – Cardio Only or Rest
Sunday – Hamstrings
Abs Workout Everyday

So somehow take a look at your program and see if you are developing muscle where you want for your ideal look.

I used to weight train my legs/glutes twice a week because 1) huge calorie burner and 2) always could use a better butt.  It's a diet trick for when us fitness people overeat...

This was a little long winded but you can see that the volume of my writing was focusing on the diet and then getting to the exercise.  If you need some fresh ideas on working out, check out magazine websites such as http://www.fitnessrxmag.com and http://www.muscleandfitnesshers.com for more inspiration.

Zanetti ORAC Diet - Day 3

Update - weighed myself first thing this morning on my bio-impedance scale:

56.2kg
19% BF
waist measured at 67cm

I caught a chest cold so I'm not feeling 100% but I'm still moving forward with the regime. No problem to stick to the diet, I enjoy the extra fats and the breakfasts... carbs!!!

I'm trying to focus on getting more sleep as well but it's hard with the fat burners in my system. The last two days have been better, I expect my gym performance to be a little stronger because of it, but now need to factor in my chest cold.

Looking in the mirror, I'm shredding up pretty good. I can see all quad definition, oblique ab lines are getting deeper and lower down my torso, strong upper body definition as well. Genetically I tend to be lean upper body so the big measure of progress will be getting my hamstrings, glutes, and complete ab lines to show.

My biggest motivation is that during the moments that I want to deviate, I keep telling myself that I only have 4 more weeks to go and I can't disappoint the Italian wizard. The guy is amazing and just to show some pics of when he was a competitive natural bodybuilder 10 years ago, you can see why I have full faith in his abilities:

His name is Dr. Marco Zanetti, based in Turin ITALY.  A bit on his incredible background -

He studied medicine at the University of Turin, graduated as a pharmacologist and Chemical Analyst.  He continued his studies in the US, earning a Sports Nutritionist Certification, a certified Personal Trainer, and Physiotherapist.

In addition to these outstanding scholastic achievements, he is a former Italian bodybuilding champion, military officer, owner of a number of Italian wellness training centers and spas, director of a fitness training school, President of the Italian Federation of Natural Bodybuilding, President of MuscleMania Europe, member of ISSN (International Sport Science Nutrition), and SIAS (Societ Italiana Alimentazione e Sport), and author of a number of anti-aging, nutrition, and excercise books.

I am again honored to be his partner in his ORAC Diet program to bring his 22 years of experience to the English speaking world. 

SMD: 3 Days from the MuscleMania European Championships

MuscleMania European Championships in Milan, ITALY Oct 3-4

Been following the Scarsdale Medical diet, coupled with my fitness regime, with insane results.

Sept 7: 132 lbs
Today Sept 30: 122.8lbs

Holy Crap. My eyes bugged out when I saw that this morning, feeling like Rocky!! HA!

3 days more to go and I'm keeping up the pace til Friday as best as I can. After the Euros, I have 6 weeks for the Worlds (Fitness America Pageant) in Las Vegas where I'm going to need to come in even leaner and more muscle if possible. The girls are super competitive at this show, I'd count my blessings if I could crack top 10 there. But it will be an awesome networking opportunity prior to relocating to LA in December (about 90% certain at this point). It's my dream to go all-in with my fitness/photography/modeling - I believe in myself and I'm honestly going to give this every effort inside me to make my dreams a sustainable reality.

2 weeks out from the MuscleMania European Championships

Fitness and Nutrition Programs coming soon!

I'm working with another fitness expert whom I respect, Ian Graham, to develop a kickass fitness and nutrition guideline for men and for women.  As a Pro level physique competitor, I have learned alot over the past few years in my quest for the perfect body.  What usually happened was that I would try whatever new tidbit I read about, judged if it was fact or fiction, and moved on.  The ultimate measure of all of my efforts were demonstrated at a specific deadline by presenting the best conditioned and symmetrical physique that I could at my shows.

This will be considered a very comprehensive program for those who want to make transformations to their physique.  Be on the look out over the next few weeks!

SMD: Day 3

Day 1: 132lbs
Day 2: 127.2lbs
Day 3: 128 lbs

The weigh in is still very reasonable to me as it's a 4 lb change over three days. I did my morning and HIIT cardio as usual and finished off with some ab and chest work. My diet was pretty good although I deviated from the SMD a little bit in the evening to have another 2 slices of protein bread (total of 3 slices instead of the one prescribed by SMD) and 200g of fat free fromage frais (Belgium's version of cottage cheese but smooth and much easier to find). All in all I estimate that I had 1200 calories and a huge volume of exercise.

The main point that I got from the SMD is to keep your calories very low, carbs and fat low, protein high. I estmate that I'm burning 600-800 calories a day with exercise and my resting metabolic rate is around 1300 calories. It is normally recommended that I consume 1800 calories while on diet. Please note that this is certianly NOT a long term not sustainable program, like the SMD said. Most importantly, I'm listening to my body and making adjustment accordingly.

I practiced my walks in my competition bikinis as well, everything seems to look ok. Have to continue studying my routine for my themewear - it's going to be very special!

After the gym I worked pretty late on post processing the pics from Sardinia until 1:30am. Damn fat burners are keeping me awake!

This morning I overslept my alarm and will have to move my morning cardio into the evening for one long session. I typically try to break up the cardio into segments because > 1hr straight followed by weight training is just dreadful.

Breakfast today was 1/3 cup All Bran, skim milk, stevia, and cinnamon (so yummy) followed with 3 egg whites and 1 whole egg fried with spray oil. As usual, I got a new idea for making my eggs and kind of replicated a bearnaise tasting creation. It was pretty tasty!

Bearnaise Style Eggs

3 egg whites and 1 whole egg fried on medium heat with spray oil, sunny side up. Sprinkle with black pepper, garlic salt and terragon. Pop the yolk, pour in 1 tsp. red wine vinegar, and smear over the egg whites.

Packed lunch, gym bag, and then it was off to work.






-- Post From My iPhone

Scarsdale Medical Diet (SMD): Day 2

Yesterday morning (Day 1): 132lbs

Did 30 min stationary bike in the morning, 30 HIIT Stepper in the evening, 45 min of fast paced full body workout using 8kg dumbbells (walking lunges, shoulder press, tricep kickbacks, bicep curls, etc).  Diet was pretty tight, drank about 7 liters of water.

This morning (Day 2): 127.4 lbs

Go go go go go ...!

Scarsdale Medical Diet

Back from Sardinia and put on 5 lbs in 3 days. WTF. I think it's a number of factors: I ran stairs and hills while there (normally I do not do high impact) and I can feel myself swelling, monthly cycle, tasty cheese, and alot of carbs and salt in the meals.  Basically all the things that you shouldn't do but made an excuse for.

Regardless, I'm 3 weeks out from show and this is freaking me out.  The best thing to do to catch up is to cut the calories via low carbs and fat, keep protein relatively high, and drink alot of water.  My calorie intake will be very low for the next few days while I maintain a regular workout schedule. 

I heard about the Scarsdale Diet from Telihana and she had some quick success with it.  It's very close to what I'm doing today but with MUCH less calories.  This diet has one on about 800-1000 calories.

You can find all of the diet details here.

Government esearch shows that a reduced calorie intake is the key to losing weight.  This study compares numerous diet tenets and came to this conclusion.  It's mathematical: 3500 calories = 1lb of fat.  

OK, gonna suck it up today.  I'm going to follow as close as I can but it probably won't be exact.  I'm expecting to cut about 500 calories from my regular diet and keep up the cardio/weights pace.

Daily Schedule

My Typical schedule:

7am: Wake

7:30-8:30am: Glutamine, fiber, and coffee. Do morning stationary bike for 30 minutes, cook food for the day as required, get caught up on emails.

8:30am: ½ cup of All Bran with skim milk, stevia, cinnamon. 2-3 egg whites.

9am: Work

Noon: Cup of plain vegetables (sometimes raw or steamed), 4-5oz of protein (baked, steamed, etc), sometimes a ½ cup of cooked rice/low calorie broth soup/slice of bread.

12-1pm: Usually nap in the car and run errands

2pm: Take supplements.

3pm: Eat protein and a cup of plain veggies.

6pm: Take supplements. Eat protein and a ½ cup of plain veggies.

7pm: Leave work for the gym

7:30 – 10pm: Gym. HIIT stepper routine and musculation. HIIT routine is 30 minutes of alternating sprinting/medium intensity on the stair master. Then for musculation I do something like legs, back, shoulders/arms, chest/arms, abs/legs. Or if I’m short on time in the evening then I’ll do my stationary bike for 30 minutes and a workout DVD.

10pm: Eat protein and a cup of plain veggies. I mix it up but remember to have a protein and small amount of carb. For example, I might have a couple slices of ham/smoked salmon and a cup of fat free yogurt and fruit. Or I have some 100g chicken breast + rice cakes + veggies. Whatever it is, I keep it light so I go to bed slightly hungry.

10 – 12:30am: Cook more, internet, emails. Sleep.

Diet and Workout Advice from a Fitness + Bikini Model

Many men and women ask me for the quick and easy tips on how to “get into shape”. So, here’s my experience with fitness and nutrition.

Keep tight on your diet.
I mean it. If you binge, it shows and consistency is the name of the game. Diets don’t work after 3 days! I take 12-16 weeks to prepare for my physique competitions because fat loss is a slow, steady grind of dragging myself to the gym day after day, week after week, feeding my body only what is considered clean food.

Cut the booze.
But I can't! How can I socialize without it?! ~Because it will make you fat, that's why. And you don't want to be the fat, drunk friend do you?

But in all seriousness, alcohol is a huge detriment to your diet because of the empty calories and the fact at that it's a liquid calorie, you often don't realize the impact. A Long Island Ice Tea is 700 calories. A typical burger is also 700 calories. (!)

Eat a good high protein/low fat diet with a moderate calorie intake.
Women: you want curves? Those are not fat pockets, honey. That’s muscle. Men: What do women want? Men with strong, healthy bodies. Your diet is 80% of the hard work and you need to fuel the body properly after all of those hours of working out. We have all seen those folks at the gym who are there regularly but why do they look the same year after year? Why do the experts of body transformations, bodybuilders, can change their physical composition in such a short time? Watch your portions, keep it high in clean proteins like chicken, fish, lean beef, etc, low carbs (potatoes, rice, breads), low fats (butter, oils, animal fats).

Eat lots of veggies.
Yes, veggies are healthy we all know that. But the real tangible benefits for me are when I’m trying to keep my calories controlled veggies are the least calorie dense food around, they fill me up with lots of fiber, keeps your system nice and clean, and don’t give me food coma like a typical snack can.

Let’s compare:
100g of raw veggies is typically around 10-30 calories
100g of fries is 294 calories

Drink at least 4L of water/day
Water keeps your skin clear, body working properly, and feeling full. When you are hungry, guzzle water and stick to your scheduled meal plan.

Start with 30 min. cardio at a high intensity and move up as you develop endurance
I like to do a HIIT stairstepper routine where I go all out for 1 minute (10 in effort), slow it down to a 7 in effort for the next minute, repeat for the next 30 minutes. When I need to step it up for competition prep, I’ll throw in a 30 minute steady state stationary bike session each morning. I’m also a fan of workout DVDs because of the convenience/machine boredom factor so mix it up, do whatever it takes to keep motivated.

Determine a weight training split that works for you, go heavy, and stick to it.
I used a 5 day body part split for most of my training: legs, back, arms, chest, shoulders and killed it on each of those days. Here’s an example of a weekly program:

Monday - Quads/Calves:
· Machine Leg Press 4 sets x 12 reps
· DB Lunges 4 sets x 12 reps
· Machine Leg Extensions 4 sets x 12 reps
· DB Standing Calf Raises 3 sets x 15 reps

Tuesday - Back:
· Machine Lat Pulldown 4 sets x 12 reps
· DB Rows 4 sets x 12 reps
· Cable Straight Arm Pulldowns 4 sets x 12

Wednesday - Cardio Only or Rest

Thursday - Chest/Shoulders:
· Cable Crossovers 4 sets x 12 reps
· DB Flies and DB Press superset 4 sets x 12 reps
· DB Lateral Raises 4 sets x 12 reps
· DB Front Raises 4 sets x 12 reps

Friday – Triceps/Biceps:
· Cable Pushdowns 4 sets x 12 reps
· DB Kickbacks 4 sets x 12 reps
· Tricep Dips off a bench 4 sets x 12 reps
· DB Hammer Curls 4 sets x 12 reps
· Standing DB Curls 4 sets x 12 reps

Saturday – Cardio Only or Rest

Sunday – Hamstrings
· One Leg in Air Pelvic Pop 4 sets x 12 reps
· Cable Lying Leg Curls 4 sets x 12
· Barbell Stiff-leg Deadlifts 4 sets x 12

Abs Workout Every other day
· Bicycle crunches 4 sets x 20 reps
· Medicine ball leg lifts 4 sets x 20 reps
· Medicine ball shuffle around seated pike legs 4 sets x 20 reps
· Side bends or machine torso rotation 4 sets x 12-15 reps

I squeeze in a session of yoga when I can to maintain flexibility.
I totally thought that yoga was way too slow paced for my hyper active personality. Then one day I gave it a try and I was impressed with the challenge it actually was. I also felt much more relaxed physically which in turn gave me more energy and enthusiasm to do my bodybuilding routine.

Motivation to stick to that @$%^& Diet and Exercise

Dieting sucks. So does having to go to the gym almost everyday. The first thought in my head when I wake up in the morning is "OMG I have to ride that bike in my living room again.." AHHHH!

Ok, now that I got my daily complaining out of the way, Nishy wanted to know what motivates me and keeps me on track. The 1st answer is that I have to be on stage in a bikini, high heels, alot of self-tanner, and and big smile. Oh yes, and pitted against a bunch of hard bodies on stage helps too. But behind the obvious reason, I always wanted those perfect abs, arms, sexy legs, etc. Who doesn't, right?


Motivation 1: Identifying Fitness Idols.

I figured out that the folks who know the most about bodysculpting are bodybuilders. They are the extreme example of discipline, diet, exercise, and nutrition. While we may not all want to look like them, no one can deny that they are walking & talking experts in this field. So, I googled "bodybuilding" and landed on www.bodybuilding.com. Anyone who wants the visual motivation can easily start with this site.... there's a big section on women in this lifestyle and they come in all shapes. I scrutinized the figure girls because while they were rock hard, they looked very feminine with great hair, smiles, posture, heels... gottta love the clear heels LOL. I love Monica Beckham, Jennifer Nicole Lee, Jamie Eason, and a few others in my top friends list. Normal women, full lives with family and careers, and rockin' bodies. I found a couple around my height so I could really see and follow what girls like me were doing to look good. Personally, it's difficult for me to relate to someone who is 5'11" because I'll never be her height/weight ratio.


Motivation 2: Working towards a Firm Goal

I have the attention span of a fly. You can imagine how long a diet lasts or an exercise program lasts for me. I knew that if I didn't have a firm goal at the end of this hard work I would just stop or relax when I felt that I "looked good enough". So, I signed up/paid to compete in the Bikini and Fitness model catagories of a physique show that was 5 months out. Now I'm screwed, can't back out now! For others, the firm goal may be a class reunion, wedding, paid photoshoot, etc. I like the idea of paying for a bikini photoshoot with a very good photographer to nail your commitment down. If you are serious about wanting to get in "picture shape", put your money where your mind is. I calculated to lose 2-3 lbs a month so that I could commit to a realistic time table.



Motivation 3: Keeping track of your eating.

If you are not accountable then it's easy to forget what you ate a few hours ago. Write everything that you are eating for at least two weeks, including quantity. Determine the calorie content of everything by looking it up at www.calorie-count.com and document this in your excel worksheet. Add everything up per day. Once your real diet is down on paper you can easily see where there is room for improvement.


How much should you be eating every day? I used this online calculator to figure out my resting metabolic rate: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calrmr.htm. For me at 5'4", I should be around 1300 calories/day so I try to consume around that. I'm exercising as well so keeping around that calorie amount ensures that I will be at a caloric deficit, therefore losing fat. Refer to my previous blogs for ideas on clean eats and eating principles.


Motivation 4: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

So now you have a goal in front of you so it's time to create a plan to get there. I created an excel worksheet to calculate the weight loss so first I took my current weight minus the goal weight (let's say 15 lbs for example). Then divide 15 by the number of weeks until the goal day (20 weeks). This equals a 0.75 lbs weight loss per week. In excel, make column A the dates of every Monday until the goal and next to it Column B put the corresponding goal weight. Then do your weekly weigh-ins and put your actual weight next to it to see your progress.

Little goals are alot easier to digest and this helps keep track of your progress.




Keep at this list handy and repeat each step daily. :-)


Goal Actual

1-Jan 130
8-Jan 129.25
15-Jan 128.5
22-Jan 127.75
29-Jan 127
5-Feb 126.25
12-Feb 125.5
19-Feb 124.75
26-Feb 124
4-Mar 123.25
11-Mar 122.5
18-Mar 121.75
25-Mar 121
1-Apr 120.25
8-Apr 119.5
15-Apr 118.75
22-Apr 118
29-Apr 117.25
6-May 116.5
13-May 115