Losing Weight and Body Building

While I am waiting for my back to heal so I can hopefully go back to jiu jitsu I have been doing a lot of cardio and weight lifting. I switched from my 1 day of lifting a week where I would do all the upper body muscles in one day to lifting 6 days a week and doing only two muscle groups per day. I slightly modified an intermediate body building routine so it would be ok for my back.

Monday: Chest and Triceps
Tuesday: Back and Biceps
Wednesday: Shoulders and Traps
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Chest and Triceps
Saturday: Back and Biceps
Sunday: Shoulders and Traps

Maybe later I will post all the exercises I do. I also do abs about every other day when I have time and I usually run for about an hour since I am mainly trying to drop weight. I can't wait till I hit my target weight and can start trying to put on more muscle and eat more. I got down to 175 pounds this week.

Paleo Diet: Cortisol and Caffeine

I have been reading the book The Paleo Solution lately. I have learned a lot that I didn't already know including some interesting information about hormones.

Cortisol is bad

Cortisol is a hormone that is caused by stress, excessive exercise, not enough sleep and drinking caffeine. It leads to accelerated aging, fat storage, and hair loss. If you are looking to improve our health, you should try to reduce your exposure to cortisol by sleeping more, reducing your stress and avoiding caffeine. Luckily enough, getting more sleep will aid you in reducing your caffine intake

  Image Source

Improve your BJJ: Increase your Testosterone

Testosterone is the wonder drug for men. It is responsible for regulating bone density, fat management, promoting muscle strength and mass, production of blood cells, sex drive and sperm production. Higher testosterone also increases a male's attractiveness to women. Every man should strive to increase their testosterone level, it will lead to happiness and a better life.

How to increase your testosterone

Lift weights - It has been shown that lifting weights leads to a temporary increase in testosterone level right after lifting. Regular weight lifting will raise testosterone for the long term. The increase in testosterone is proportional to the amount of muscle used during weight lifting. This means that you will increase your testosterone level more by doing lower body weight lifting than upper body because the lower body has more muscle and you can lift heavier weight with your legs. I can bench a little over 300 lbs with my arms but can leg press over 1,000 lbs with my legs.

Improve your diet. Eating broccoli will increase your testosterone. Avoid tofu and soy products, your body perceives soy and tofu as estrogen and will lower testosterone. Don't drink beer, the hops from beer is also seen as estrogen by the body. Eat plenty of meat, especially red meat. Eat saturated fat, monounsaturated fat and colesterol, they are required for testosterone production. Don't eat refined sugar, it has been shown to reduce testosterone.

Avoid cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that is released in response to stress. It causes you to metabolize (eat away) your muscle and lowers your testosterone. The best way to lower your cortisol level is to reduce your stress. Get plenty of sleep, don't work too many hours and don't lift weights for more than 45 minutes in a row. Relaxation and meditation has also been shown to reduce cortisol.

Avoid BPA. BPA is a chemical that is in many of the plastics we use. It is seen by our body as estrogen and can lead to fat gain and decreased testosterone. Avoid BPA whenever possible. Make sure any water bottle you use is BPA free and do not cook food in plastic containers, put the food on a plate before you warm it.

Increase Testosterone helps you for BJJ Tournaments and Training

Higher testosterone will allow you to be more aggressive and it will improve your strength. You will feel better and be more confident. It will allow you to put on good weight (muscle) and drop bad weight (fat). This will make you more competitive for your weight class by having a better lean weight percentage. If you have higher testosterone you will be more confident and will allow you to perform better durring BJJ tournaments.

For men, it has been shown that low testosterone in men increases your chance of gaining weight. Being obese or overweight lowers your testosterone. It is like a downward spiral, if you have low testosterone then you will put on more weight which lowers your testosterone causing you to put on even more weight. Instead of getting caught in that trap, consider trying the paleo diet to drop lose some weight.

Best Weight Loss Tip for Dieting

I have gone on several diets, trying many different approaches and I have found one thing that seems to make dieting much easier: Drinking lots of water!

Why drinking water helps you diet

Drinking water helps you lose weight for two reasons. It fills you up and it helps you avoid calories. Studies have shown that drinking water reduces your apetite, especially if you drink 8 to 16 ounces right before a meal. It makes sense that if there is something in your stomach that you will not be as hungry. The water will not help you burn fewer calories, if just allows you to feel full with fewer calories, so prepare smaller meals and drink water before you eat.

Replacing other drinks with water is the easiest way to cut calories out of your diet. Instead of drinking soda, juice, milk or something else with your meal, drink water. You don't need those calories, and you will be better hydrated and feel better if you just drink water.

Don't just drink water right before and during meals, drink it all the time and your whole body will feel better. After a few weeks your body will start craving water all the time. I think this state of super hydration makes sticking to your diet easier. The only downside is frequent trips to the bathroom.

Weight Loss: Paleo Diet Basics

The paleo diet is one of the greatest diets ever created. Pretty much any diet will allow you to lose weight if you increase your exercise and limit your calorie intake, but what sets the paleo diet apart is that it makes dieting easy. Other diets have I have done were painful and I was always hungry, but that wasn't the case once I adopted the paleo diet.

What you can and can't eat on Paleo Diet

The problem with starting on the paleo diet is that it is so restrictive and hard to adjust to at first. The basic idea is to eat similar foods to what cave men would eat thousands of years ago during the paleolithic era.

You can eat Meat and Eggs

You can eat pretty much any type of meat you want including beef, chicken, seafood, turkey and eggs. It is ok to eat some ham and bacon but it is best to limit your intake of pork products.

You can eat Fruits

All fruits are ok to eat on the paleo diet but limit the quantity of fruit you eat. Although fruit does not have refined sugar, it does still have a lot of sugar in it. I eat a lot of apples, pears and grapes. I love pineapple but it is a pain to cut or expensive to buy pre-cut.

You can eat Vegetables

You can eat pretty much unlimited vegetables. Personally I eat a lot of broccoli, spinach, carrots and peppers, but most vegetables are ok. The only vegetables that are not ok are corn, peas and any beans.

You can eat Nuts

All nuts except peanuts are ok. Cashews, almonds and walnuts are all good options for nuts you can eat. Be very careful with nuts because a small quantity can contain a lot of calories. I can eat a pound of salted cashews (about 1600 calories) in one sitting because they are so addictive.

You can drink Water

Pretty much all you can drink is water. A limited quantity of natural no sugar added juice is ok but not necessary. When you switch to only water you will notice your grocery bill drop nicely.

You can't eat Carbs

Carbs are the devil, avoid them like the plague. You cannot eat bread, corn, potatoes, rice, pasta, tortillas or anything that has flower or wheat in it. It is hard to adjust to but it makes dieting easier in the long run.

You can't eat Refined Sugars

You can't eat candy, sodas, chocolate, cookies, or anything else that has sugar added. No sugary juices, just natural juice like orange juice.

You can't eat or drink Dairy

Don't eat cheese or ice cream and don't drink milk. The no cheese part can be hard to adjust to but it is good for two reasons. It helps with your diet and also most people are mildly lactose intolerant. If you tend to fart a lot, avoiding cheese helps reduce it. Avoiding dairy also seems to help people who have bad skin.

You can't eat Processed Food

If it doesn't look like it was grown on a farm, don't eat it. If you go to the grocery store, all of the natural foods will be on the outside with the processed foods in the inside aisles. Don't even bother going down the aisles, there is no healthy food in there.

You can't drink Alcohol

Alcohol is empty calories, avoid drinking all alcohols.

You can't eat Legumes

Legumes include foods like beans, peanuts and peas.

Why the Paleo Diet works

The paleo works because it prevents you from eating foods that raise your insulin. Insulin sends a message to your body telling it to get hungry and to store fat. Both of those are really bad when you are on a diet. When you start following the paleo diet your food cravings go down, this is why it is easy to follow. It is almost as if the weight just starts melting off.

Paleo Diet success story

I dropped 28 pounds in 3 months following the paleo diet. It is by far the best and easiest diet I have ever followed. Everyone I have ever talked to that has tried it has had similar success. I will write a follow up in a few days with tips on adjusting to the paleo diet.

Link to site I got vegetables picture from. Link to site I got meats picture from.

Weight Cutting Strategies for Grappling Tournaments

Weight Loss vs Weight Cutting

Weight loss is when a person burns calories which leads to losing fat and body weight. Weight loss is important for people who are overweight or obese in order to improve their health. Weight loss takes a long time because a person can only burn half a pound of fat per day maximum. If you try to burn more than half a pound of fat per day, instead you will burn muscle. If you are competing in BJJ tournaments it can be helpful to lose weight in order to drop weight classes. This strategy take weeks or months to drop a weight class.

Man wearing a sauna suit.

Weight cutting is when a person who is competing in a sport that requires weigh ins loses a significant amount of water weight in order to make a lower weight category. It is very common in wresting, MMA, and grappling tournaments to employ weight cutting. The amount of weight you can cut is proportional to your normal body weight, for example a person who ways 200 lbs can cut more weight than a person who weighs 100 lbs because they have more water to lose. Excessive weight cutting can be very dangerous, consult a doctor before attempting to cut weight. 

Weight cutting is a short term strategy that is done during the week before a tournament. I have cut up to 10 pounds of water weight before a weigh in. Keep in mind the more water weight you cut, the more unpleasant the experience will be and the more dangerous it is. The extreme dehydration can also hurt your performance in your competition if you do not have sufficient time to recover.

Weight Cutting Strategies

Water and Salt Intake

Drink a lot of water, around two gallons, and plenty of salt during the week before you weigh in. Starting 3 days before your weigh in cut back your water intake to only what is necessary, perhaps a few cups, and avoid all salt and sodium. On the day of your weigh in you should only take a few sips of water and still no salt.

Food Intake

During the week before your tournament you should not eat any carbs except in fruit and vegetables. Eliminate foods such as bread, rice, grain, potatoes, corn and any flour product. These foods will cause you to bloat up and retain weight. Starting around three days before your weigh in you should limit your calorie intake as much as possible. I generally eat around 1,000 to 1,200 calories per day right before weigh ins. Day of you should have as little food as possible.

Additional Weight Cutting Options

If you haven't quite made it to your goal weight, there are a few last minute water cutting options. Put on a sweat suit and use an exercise bike on low intensity. Be careful not to tire yourself out too much. You can also wear a sweat suit use a sauna to force you to sweat. Staying in a sauna too long can also tire you out and hurt performance. Another strategy is to chew gum and spit to drop water weight. Spitting has limited effectiveness. Another option is to take an epsom salt bath to draw the water out of you.

Recovering after Weigh In

After you weigh in you will need to recover from dehydration. You will need to replenish your liquids. It is important to do this slowly. Sip a recovery drink such as gatorade or pedialyte. Eat food slowly to replenish your energy, I recommend fruits and nuts. Don't eat too quickly or too much. Remember, the more weight you cut, the longer it will take you to recover. Think hard about how much weight you can cut based on how long before you compete you will be weighing in. Is it the night before, 3 hours before or 5 minutes before. The amount of time before the competition will affect how much water weigh you can drop.

Warning

Remember to be careful if you decide to employ any weight cutting. If done irresponsibly it can be dangerous and hurt your performance.

Lose weight today and you will feel better

A recent study by Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index has shown that obesity leads to increase pain. Obese individuals suffer 68% to 254% more pain than normal sized people. These results are pretty surprising and should help motivate the overweight to start dieting.

If you are having trouble losing weight, consider training in martial arts, especially BJJ. Early data from my weight loss study suggests that people who train in martial arts have less difficulty losing weight and are more likely to keep it off.

Does Martial Arts Help Weight Loss Survey

In my most popular article to date I discussed how training in martial arts and BJJ can help you lose weight. I would like to put my theory to the test and see if people who train martial arts are able to lose more weight faster and keep it off.

Please help out and take this very short survey: CLICK HERE FOR SURVEY

Thanks for the assistance. I will post the results when I have gotten enough responses.

Martial Arts can help you lose weight

Today I am going to talk about weight loss, after all it made it on my list of top 10 reasons to do jiu jitsu. I have heard about story after story after story about people who have lost a lot of weight doing martial arts. I think there are 3 main reasons it helps you to lose weight an keep it off:

1) Martial Arts is exercise which helps you burn calories.

2) Martial Arts are fun which often means you will continue to be active even after you reach your goal.

3) Martial Arts teaches people discipline which helps them stick to the diet they are following and keep eating healthy even after they reach their goal.

I have been doing BJJ for 3 months now and following the paleo diet. So far I have lost 27 pounds, making this the most successful diet I have ever had. I plan to lose another 5 pounds before I hit the body fat percentage I want (roughly 7%). I look so much better than when I started, I have abs showing and everything. Once I reach my goal I will post before and after photos. When I have more time I will do a detailed (probably several part series) entry about paleo diet and losing weight.