It is All Part of the Plan... and a bit About Weight Loss

So, I realized that some of my friends probably workout without a plan. I used to, but now I use a plan. It's a pretty loose plan, because some days I can go to the gym, other days I can't, so I have to just work with whatever I have.

Having a plan is always a good thing. In anything in life, actually. But just like in life, your workout(or life, or anything) plan is subject to change. For example, you could get sick ('head' colds don't always count!), you might have to workout less. You could become really busy and have minimal time, thus requiring short, but intense workouts. Sometimes you need to change your plan just because you aren't getting any results. There are tons of reasons your plan might have to change, but you should still have a plan.

How does a plan help? Well, it makes you more time efficient, and get better results. Try building a house without a plan. It will take a long time and it won't be very strong. Just like working out.

You may go to the gym and workout constantly while you are there...but if you don't have a plan, you might over train some muscles, under train others, and eventually get bored.

Your plan will have to go with your goals. Let's say you're trying to lose weight. Your main focus should be cardio. You still should weight train some, because muscle mass burns more calories at rest than no muscle at rest. So your plan should be something like: 4-6 days of cardio and 2-3 days of weight training per week.

Now, if you're trying to gain mass, you should do like 3-6 days of weight training and 2-4 days of cardio. Each day should be focused on different muscle groups (as in pulling muscles, pushing muscles, leg muscles, core muscles, etc). You should only work one muscles group 1-3 times per week. This is for mass gaining, when you're mass gaining you work one muscle group really hard, thus it needs a lot of recovery time. Some plans vary on this. If you look up body building plans, there are latterly hundreds or thousands of plans.

Now, if you just want to get fit and stay fit, you could probably do 3-5 days of cardio, and like 2-5 days of weight lifting. Depending on your goals you should do more cardio or more weight training. You should still leave your muscle groups at least a full days rest after weight training them. When I say rest, I don't mean to say don't do cardio the day after a leg weight workout. Maybe do less, but you still need to do cardio. Weight lifting mainly targets your fast twitch muscles fibers, while running (jogging actually), skiing, swimming, and biking concentrate on more on slow twitch muscle fibers.

Always remember to listen to your body. If you're body is tell you you work too hard too often, take it down a notch. If you never get sore, go harder. If you aren't burning fat, trying mixing up work cardio and lifting. Some peoples' bodies react differently to different kinds of exercises!

Another thing involving planning: eating. Yup, did you know, probably about 75% your fitness is from eating and resting? If you want to gain mass, eat tons of protein and carbs... and sleep at least 8 hours. After all, when you're resting that's actually when you're building.

Now, if you're trying lose weight, eat less, right? First off: quality beat quantity. You could cut down your eating, but if you're eating cake and McDonalds, you're probably not going to lose weight. So the first thing you should do is eat better. Things like salad, fruit, veggies, nuts and lean (as in not really fatty) protein are what you want to eat. Another thing is you want more water. Water can fill you up, and it keeps you hydrated.

One thing that bugs my guts out is the idea that eating 1-2 meals a day is good for fat loss. Maybe, but you're probably going to lose muscle mass too. That's bad. Remember that muscles burns calories while resting? You will also eventually get weak and tired (and eventually, sick). All that assumes you eat small amounts during those meals. But what if you ate two big meals a day? Well, that's like over loading your metabolism with food. Over loading food will most likely give you fat. Thus, defeating the purpose.

So, how many meals per-day? Well, AT LEAST 3. I recommend 4-6. You may think that's a lot of food. No, it's not. Eat less per meal. My meals are still huge, but my metabolism is very fast. Yours don't need to be huge. Like a bowl of oat meal and yogurt for breakfast, a banana or some fruit for a snack, for lunch have a salad with something with protein (ham and cheese sandwich, maybe?), have a high protein and potassium snack after your workout, like a(n) apple/banana/grapes with a protein shake or peanut butter with something, maybe even on your banana or apple. As for supper, have something good... like a salad and some steak or chicken. Remember to drink water throughout the day as well. That's 5 meals.

I usually have 5 meals a day, granted, mine are bigger. If you can't quite eat that much per day, start off with 3 meals a day. Remember to make them small so you aren't stuffing yourself and not wanting your next meal. If you eat 5 meals a day, your metabolism with become faster (it takes time, don't rush it). Why will it become faster? Well if it's constantly working on small amounts, it becomes better at what it does. If you over load it with two huge meals, it works at the same pace, but with a ton more food. Some of the extra food will become fat (fat is unwanted stored up energy, kinda) because your body can't use it yet. Two meals a day might even slow down your metabolism. Thus giving you more fat for everything you eat. Two meals a day is bad.

Now, if your metabolism is faster, you'll probably have more energy, but you'll need more food. Don't worry, that food will more likely be used for your muscles, not your fat! You'll also be able to workout harder, and burn more fat. Which is what you want to do!

Now remember, change your eating plan slowly. Don't suddenly go from eating junk food to healthy food. You'll hate it and give up. Don't go from eating 2 meals a day right to 5 a day either. Your metabolism won't be able to handle it, maybe add a meal every month. Remember, keep them small enough so you can the stomach to eat your next meal... oh and if you're never hungry in the morning? Eat anyway. Not a lot... but you're body hasn't eaten for about 12 hours. You're muscles are starving. Give them something to eat or you may lose muscle mass.

I never tried hard on losing weight, so I'm not that knowable on the subject... but from what I read and studied: eating more (small) meals, eating healthier, a little weight training, a lot of cardio and at least 8 hours of sleep every night is the way to go!