There isn’t a day that goes by where an email doesn’t come in from someone asking about nutrition, specifically macro percentages for fat loss. With so much contradicting info out on the web these days, who do you trust. If you know my story, then you know I was you not too long ago. I was sick and tired of being misled, and finally I sought out the very best in health and fitness. In addition to countless certifications I am now going through Optimum Performance Training (OPT). They have an amazing program that is backed by thousands of tests and trials. These are tests from people all across the board; from athletes to regular people just looking for some body composition changes. I am so blessed to be learning under such a great group of fitness professionals, and James Fitzgerald the founder of OPT is a genius. He genuinely cares about his students and clients, and you can tell the money piece means absolutely nothing to him. It’s all about real health and/or performance, and that’s exactly what I believe in and stand for. The nutrition prescription I present in this video is one of many different kinds I have learned. It’s important to understand that nutrition is NOT a one size fits all type of deal. With that in mind, the 40/40/20 macro breakdown does work well for a lot of people who seek body composition changes. Ideally the goal is to start a bit higher with the carbs and work your way down to about 10% based on how you feel and function. That’s they key here, because we all need different nutrition prescriptions it’s critical that as you implement any new diet that you are aware of mood, energy, and sleep. I usually start my clients out with a 35/35/30 macro prescription, with the end goal of 40/50/10. Again, we are talking about clients with the main goal of body recomposition. Where it gets challenging is when you have someone who wants body recomposition but also wants performance, as these two goals do not go hand in hand. What I prescribe for a hard charging athlete is much different from that of someone with some fat to lose. A hard charging athlete is going to have a different training protocol and therefor will need a different dose of proteins, fats, and carbs (PFC). I highly encourage you to make sure you have your diet dialed in with quality foods before you even begin shifting macros around. If you don’t eliminate processed foods, refined carbs and sugars, macro breakdowns are meaningless. Phase 1 of nutrition prescription is as follows: Protein Food Quality Hydration Intolerance Tracking Frequency and Consistency Only after these 5 things are dialed in should you begin to take a look at and shift around your macros. With that in mind, as you begin to fill in your macros, use the following template for huge fat loss success: Fish/Fowl Lean Meats Vegetables Little Fruit Little Starch No Sugar Lastly, be patient, stay the course, train hard, and let’s get fit together. Tweet 0 Share 2 +1 1 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
For a long time, mobility work and stretching were not high priorities. I was interested in gains I could see, so lifting was my one and only concern for almost a decade. Boy, was I wrong… The impact that mobility work and stretching have made on my ability to function better overall and in the gym, has been amazing. If only I would have implemented this self-maintenance type of work sooner, I would be even more proficient. Now it’s part of my everyday routine, whether I train or not. I have found that when you take care of your body by combining the right foods (whole foods) with some daily maintenance (foam rolling), you simply perform better. And this carries over into your everyday life, increasing the quality of it. Foam roiling, also known as “myofascial release,” offers some huge benefits. For example, foam rolling has proven to: Smooth and lengthen the muscles Break up adhesions and scar tissue Help your muscles relax Increase blood circulation Speed-up workout recovery and boosts performance I STRONGLY encourage you to implement some foam rolling into your daily routine. Start with 10 to15 minutes and work up from there based on how your body responds. You can find basic foam rollers on Amazon for under $20. The one I use in the video is made by TriggerPoint, it’s the GRID foam roller, and it starts at $40. Implement the routine post-workout as instructed in the video. After a few weeks, come back and leave me a message. I would love to know how this is working for you. Tweet 1 Share 0 +1 0 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
What’s your fitness goal? Want to get bigger, stronger or leaner? If so, then the “time under tension” concept is something that you need to pay attention to. This is something very rarely talked about in fitness circles. By just focusing on the total amount of time during each set, you can train your muscles to respond in the appropriate way. The more you make this a habit, the quicker you will reach your goal (either weight loss, strength building or muscle mass). The obvious next question is: How to know if you’re training for mass, strength or endurance Well, you can do this by manipulating rest, reps and set time. However, there is also another more powerful way. In simple terms, this is done by changing your set timing technique. This is what’s known as “time under tension”. TUT is a way to calculate the total amount of work that you place on your muscles. It also refers to the amount of resistance you place on your muscles for a given set. For example, you have the concentric phase of a movement and the eccentric phase (see the video for a clear example). If both phases took 3 seconds to complete, the TUT time for that repetition is 6 seconds. So, if your set includes 10 reps, then each set contains 60 seconds of time under tension. Obviously, if you work faster, then the TUT will be shorter (and give you different results). Why TUT matters to you It is important so that you train in the right range to meet your goals (either building muscle mass, strength or muscular endurance). Let’s look at what the recent studies show us: If your goal is strength – aim for 1-6 reps per set, with 20 seconds of less TUT. If your goal is muscle mass – aim for 8-12 reps per set, with 60 seconds TUT. If your goal is endurance – aim for 15-30 reps per set with 90 seconds TUT. If you are not falling into the right rep range, then you will actually be training your body for another goal. For obvious reasons, you need to know what you are doing in each rep, so you can adjust your TUT for your stated goals. As such, you can see that this information is very valuable to ensure you stay on track and hit your goals. TUT will let you train for your specific goals. This means you will need a stopwatch or to use a partner to keep track of time. On caveat: Always vary your workouts If you have seen my other videos, then you will know that I advocate muscle confusion. I like to say: “keep your muscles guessing – keep your muscle growing”. This means that you still need to make changes to your workouts as you progress. Never simply stick to one type of workout program, as your body will soon adapt. In terms of TUT, you should vary the time and the rep numbers, but stay within your target range. Start Applying TUT in your workout Start to think about the amount of time your muscles are under tension. This can be done during every repetition that you work through. If you start to focus on a specific number of seconds for each rep, you will find your muscles respond in a much more specific way (in line with your goals). Let’s get fit together! Tweet 0 Share 1 +1 0 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
Halloween can be a scary time a year for any parent trying to keep their kids from becoming over loaded on the excessively sugar laden treats so popular on this holiday. But as a parent the struggle to not take all the fun out of the holiday puts pressure on you to let your kids participate in the festivities. Fortunately, there are several ways to enjoy the holiday in a healthier way. With a little bit of planning and creativity, your kids can participate with out becoming filled up with processed sugar or junk. The Halloween Fairy: Planning on the amount, the number of edible treats, your children can keep and have ahead of time prevents having to make the hard decision later. Ten pieces of candy seems like a lot until you are staring into a four lb. bag of sugary treats. Let your children know that they can keep “x” amount of treats and the rest get traded to the Halloween Fairy for a toy they desire. After picking the treats they are going to actually hang onto, the remaining candy gets left outside to be traded. Parents can then do away with excess candy and in it’s place leave the toys they were traded for. Kids feel like they get some of the treats they went out for and feel good about trading the rest for something they really want instead. The Pre-Treat Trick: For parents who know a majority of the houses they will trick or treat at, going around before hand and handing out treats, that they approve of, helps prevent any bad treats coming home in the first place. This trick comes from a parent whose child had such severe allergies that they had to provide all of the treats they would be getting to the houses that they visited. The same trick can help in preventing the sugar laden snack from making into your child’s bag in the first place. The Halloween Party: If you are lucky enough to find yourself in a group of like minded parents who do not enjoy fighting with their kids about why they can’t have ten candy bars, then planning a party is an easy way to enjoy Halloween. Finding a large yard and several parents who want to avoid the sugar overload is the perfect way to throw a costume party for your kids. Children get to dress up and play games and have fun without being handed bags of sweets. Instead of candy, parents can bring healthier alternatives and give out smalls trinkets and toys. Plus, by the time the kids have worn themselves out from all the fun, the last thing they will be thinking about is what candy they might be missing out on. With a little bit of thought and preplanning, the holiday does not have to turn into a hyperactive cavity fest. Let your kids know what the plans you have for the holiday are, and get excited about dressing up. The holiday is about imagination and fun, not just gorging on junk food. Holidays do not have to be a heath train wreck for parents who wish to stick with their health goals for their families. Tweet 0 Share 0 +1 0 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
The responses via Instagram have been great. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, then check out my profile here: instagram.com/morellifit I’ve been asking for questions from my followers. And here’s the latest question from Nancy and Al. “How to decrease body fat percentage: I incorporated cardio and weights, and my diet is pretty healthy in low-fat items, but my percentage stays at 20%. I’m stuck.” That’s a great question everyone can benefit from. And, here I’ll share a few major points that can help. Point #1: Dialing In Your Diet Diet is always the first piece of the puzzle. Once you have your diet dialed in you can still get good results even if your training program is not perfect. However, if you have everything perfect with your training program, but you’re eating the wrong diet, you will never see the results you want – and you will get very frustrated. Nancy referenced low-fat items in her question. This was the first red flag that I spotted. Healthy fats won’t make you fat. They are actually very good for you. So, instead of focusing on low-fat items, you should begin to eliminate processed foods from your diet. Remove processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugars from your diet. Instead, focus on whole foods from as close to nature as possible, such as: Fish Fowl Nuts Seeds Lean meats Vegetables Fruit (small amount) If you just make these changes, you will quickly see a reduction in your body-fat levels. Now that you know what to eat and what to avoid, let’s look at how to structure your meals throughout the day. Point #2: Structuring Your Meals I advise eating 5 to 6 meals per day, 2 to 3 hours apart. Meal 1 – protein/fats/carbs (1/3 from each food group) Meal 2 – protein/fats/carbs (1/3 from each food group) Meal 3 – protein/fats/carbs (1/3 from each food group) Meal 4 – protein/fats (2/3 from protein) Meal 5 – protein (all calories from protein) Calorie intake per meal Meal 1 – 25% of your daily calories Meal 2 – 25% of your daily calories Meal 3 – 25% of your daily calories Meal 4 – 18.75% of your daily calories Meal 5 – 6.25% of your daily calories You will need to work out your BMR (see my previous articles for details), in order to figure out your actual calorie numbers. You Don’t Need to Count Calories You don’t need to count each calorie that you consume. But, you should have a general idea of the quantity of calories from each food group. This is the reason that I use the pie charts, as a general way to measure. Point #3: Training Here are important training points to help you unstuck and burning fat. Complete a dynamic warm-up (5 to 10 minutes) Use heavy weights. Create a workout around one major lift, and then use a few smaller exercises (40 minutes) Emphasize HIIT cardio training (20 minutes). You can find lots of these workouts via my Instagram profile. Stretch to cool down (5 minutes). Summary Use the tips and suggestions above and you will see a reduction in your body fat. If you just make the diet changes, you will start to see a big difference in your body composition. But when you combine the diet changes with the fitness program , you will be amazed at your transformation. Tweet 4 Share 85 +1 3 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
I used to do hours of cardio. The 1 hour runs. The 7-day weeks. But I never got my body fat down to 8.3% until I stopped all the cardio training. Instead of cardio, here’s what actually worked for me: 1. SIMPLE DAILY DISCIPLINES Easy To Do Easy Not To Do These simple disciplines compounded over time equal Positive or Negative results. 2. VERY LIMITED REST DURING YOUR WORKOUT Rest for no more than 30 seconds in between sets & 45 seconds if you absolutely have to. Don’t let your heart rate slow down to less than 75% of maximum target heart rate. For information on how to find your target heart rate (see below). 3. DRINK ENOUGH WATER Drink roughly a half ounce of water per pound of body-weight per day. Do not drink huge amounts of water all in one sitting. Make sure you spread this consumption out over the course of the entire day, and remember if you’re eating a healthy diet as much as 20% of your total water consumption can come from the foods you eat. 4. EAT 6 TIMES PER DAY Make sure to plan your meals and snacks ahead of time, otherwise you’ll end up somewhere without options. Do not under any circumstances go longer than 3 hours without eating. 5. KNOW WHAT TO EAT, HOW MUCH TO EAT, AND WHEN The timing of meals and snacks is key, it’s important to understand your schedule as well as your body. Under no circumstances should your biggest meal of the day be dinner, nor should you eat 2-3 hours before resting. 6. ALWAYS TRAIN WITH HIGH INTENSITY The mind-muscle link is crucial, and I mean it. Concentrate on the muscle(s) you are working every time you train. If part of your training includes a brisk walk or jog, YOU should be thinking about your calves, quads, hamstrings and glutes. That’s how focused you need to be. High intensity doesn’t mean high reps, it means keep your pace up and consistent and your mind laser focused. Implement this and you’ll experience results like never before! 7. SWEAT EVERY DAMN TIME You should always sweat during your workouts. If you’re not sweating then your body isn’t changing. If you don’t work up a decent sweat while training then consider it a REST DAY – Period! 8. SUPPLEMENTS The more nutrients you can get from actual and natural foods the better. Do not be afraid to supplement if need be. Just make sure you know what you’re putting in your body every time. You cannot afford to go even one day without the proper nutrition your body requires to work and change. 9. NO CONSECUTIVE REST DAYS One full day of rest is plenty, unless of course you have injured yourself or are sickly. This is especially important to follow initially as you form your exercise habits. DO NOT take consecutive days off, it’s just not necessary. Did you know it takes 30 solid, consistent days to form a single habit? 10. FIND SUBSTITUTES FOR DAIRY There are plenty of great substitutes for dairy. You can get your calcium from lots of different sources. Do not consume dairy, it’s just does not do your body one bit of good. Don’t take it from me do your own homework! Almond Milk or Coconut Milk are just as tasty and are packed with calcium. 11. RESISTANCE TRAINING Always train with resistance, this could mean; body-weight exercises, movements with dumbbells or resistance bands, and even some plyometrics. I would stay away from machines, they are poor for your range of motion and do not offer the same benefits as other methods. 12. SET GOALS Run a series of short races, it’s not supposed to be one giant marathon. Pay close attention to your simple daily disciplines; run fast, ferociously, and with extreme focus to each new finish line (goal). Do not set unrealistic goals, but do not set easily achievable goals either. Challenge yourself ALWAYS! Remember, what gets measured gets improved; time, weight, reps, waist… You catch my drift..! I wish you amazing success on your journey. Stay positive, patient and consistent. Remember, by the time you see results, most of the work will have already been done. To Your Success ~ Michael Tweet 0 Share 0 +1 0 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
While we all know the old happy hour saying, “It’s 5’clock somewhere,” here at Morellifit HQ we have our own mantra. At the end of the week we like to have “happy hour the right whey.” Reward your hard work and your progress each week with a “cocktail” that will help you reach your goals. Make yourself a protein shake that is not only delicious but is delicious and made with the best quality ingredients. Here is our favorite Friday “Cocktail”: Strawberry Smoothie Ingredients: 1 cup strawberries and raspberries 8 oz coconut milk 2 scoops Primal Body strawberry whey protein Directions: Blend until smooth Macros: Calories 214 Protein 25g Fat 2g We always use Primal Body Protein for our “cocktails” because besides being 24 g of grass-fed whey isolate with the highest bioavailability, it’s also four supplements in one. Not only is it a protein, it also boasts aminos, 5g of glutamine and is a multivitamin. This drink may be sweet but Primal Body has less than 1 gram of naturally occurring sugar and is sweetened with stevia. If you want the best out of your protein “cocktails” you have to put the best ingredients in them and you’ll get the maximum benefits. So what are you waiting for? It’s 5’oclock somewhere and it’s always Happy Hour the Right Whey with Primal protein shakes. It’s Happy Hour! Drinks on us save $15 by entering “happy hour” at checkout and save on your favorite flavor of Primal Body. Tweet 1 Share 0 +1 0 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
Happy Halloween Morellifit Family! This year with Elmo, we teach you how to carb cycle with candy. This is a five day carb-cycle so you can eat whatever you want. There is one catch. If you follow this carb cycle and eat what you want, you have to promise to not feel guilty. You have to own your cheat. So, #ownyourcheat and own your cheat on social media. Here’s how to do it: Day one – Medium carb day. That means you consume .5 g of carb for each 1 lb. of body weight. Eg. 150 lbs. would be 75g of carbs in the day. When you have carbs in your system, your fats are low and you fill in the rest with protein. That is important because protein is the building block of muscle. Day two – No carb day. If your panicking that you cannot sustain on zero carbs, remember that carbohydrates are the only non-essential macronutrient and you can live a perfectly healthy life with out them. Some people actually thrive on the heavy fats high protein diets, like the keto diet. For this day, eat lots of green veggies, protein and consume a little bit higher in fats. Day three – No carb day. And when we say carb, we mean no active carbs. Veggies are a non active carb. Fill this day with veggies, proteins, and fat. Also, make sure you’re drinking a lot of water. Day four – Own your cheat! Do not feel guilty. Do not feel depressed. Do not feel bad about it, because you’ve set yourself up for success. You should have been working out this week and with the carb-cycle you’ve set up your nutrition as well. So enjoy your cheat, and feel good about it. Day five – No carb day again. Drink tons of water, because you might have some alcohol and you’ll want to flush it out. The same goes for all the sugar from candy or sweets. Follow the no carb day of high levels of green veggies, protein and healthy fats. Now this is aggressive, and you can go Medium Carb, Low Carb, No Carb instead. But, we suggest trying it like this. By carb-cycling like this, you are setting yourself up to absorb the carbs on Halloween because you are depleting the days before. Typically, low carb days tend to be lower calorie days as well. So you will be able to afford to have your calories on Halloween. Enjoy yourself and own your cheat. Happy Halloween! #ownyourcheat Tweet 0 Share 5 +1 1 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
Is fat targeting possible? This is one of the most common questions sent to me via email or on my blog. It goes something like this: How can burn the fat under my arms? How can I burn the lower belly fat off? So, is the controversy over fat targeting true? Can you burn fat in one specific location of the body? The short answer is NO. This is a long held myth in gyms around the country. It is the reason that you see people doing 100 crunches or 200 leg lifts. Also, you cannot tone a muscle or body fat. You can gain muscle and lose muscle. You can gain fat and lose fat. But it can’t be toned. This is a misunderstanding that the fitness industry has created. With that in mind, let me tell you what can and often does happen to make it appear otherwise. The first thing is the toning and shaping that takes place as a result of muscle hypertrophy. The second thing that can happen is as you build muscle it takes up space, which briefly compresses the sub-dermal fat. In other words, while you can tighten and tone specific areas of your body by working the muscles in that region, you cannot effectively target the fat stores. So how can I burn fat faster? Although the science shows that you can’t “spot reduce”, as it is often known, there are ways that you can increase your rate of fat loss across your entire body (burning the problem areas in the process). Here are two ways that I use and recommend to you: Consume a whole foods diet and eliminate all processed foods and refined sugars. Get your calories from as close to nature as possible. Implement highly explosive, compound functional movements at high intensity – as frequently as possible (30 minutes x 6 days per week). Summary As you can see, there is no way to reduce fat in one specific location on the body. It is not physiologically possible. But you can get the lean, toned look that you want by following the simple two-step process above. Remember that you need to stay the course and be patient. That is the way to long term fat loss and a great body. Please leave questions and comments below. I will get back to you. Tweet 0 Share 0 +1 0 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
Wondering how you should go about structuring your workout sessions? You know that you need to have two main types of exercise in your program – strength training and high intensity cardio training. But, how do you set them up? And more importantly, within those two types of workouts, how do you set up each exercise you’ll be doing? Many people often find themselves confused when it comes to workout programming, so today we’re going to set the record straight. How you structure the exercises you do in each session will influence the nature of the results you see, so it’s something to start paying closer attention to. Let’s go over what you need to know. The ‘60’ Minute Time Block So let’s say that you have 60 minutes to workout total. How much do you devote to strength and how much to cardio? A good split that I would recommend is about 30-40 minutes to your strength work and the remaining 20-30 minutes to high intensity interval cardio training. Note that strength work must come first. If you have a longer or shorter block of time, adjust these time frames respectively. The key point to note is that strength training is the priority, gets the most time, and comes first in that session. Structuring Your Strength Workouts To best structure your strength workout, you’ll always want to do your multi-joint or complex exercises first. These are your squats, your deadlifts, your bench presses, your bent over rows – if they utilize more than one muscle group, they are going to take more energy to perform. As such, doing them first helps ensure you perform them without a problem. After those exercises have been completed, then you can move into your isolated exercises such as bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg extensions, and so forth. Adding Cardio Into The Mix After your strength work is completed, now you need to add cardio to the mix. If you’re still doing that steady state cardio, going at it at one straight pace for 40-50 minutes at a time, you are missing out on results. Those who participate in this form of training experience greater fat loss all over their body, as well as specifically from the trunk region, as was found in one study published in the International Journal of Obesity. For instance you can bike hard for 30 seconds and then rest for 30 seconds. Or you can run uphill and walk back down. Do whatever mode of cardio you prefer as long as you can do it intensely. Or, if you want another option, try my HIIT max program, found at insanefitnessanywhere.com. You’ll see noticeable improvements in just a few short weeks doing this type of cardio. What About Abs? Now you might be wondering when you should do abs? Because abs will help to support your core throughout all the main strength moves, you want to make sure you’re doing any intense weight lifting moves requiring core support before abdominal training. This means squats, deadlifts, lunges, rows, shoulder presses, and of the like. If you were just going to do an arm workout and you want to blast through abs first, that’s fine, but anything more intense on the strength side, abs come last. So keep these points in mind as you go about structuring your workout protocol and you can be confident that you are going to head toward results. Cut Out the Confusion: Now, this was one of my more “science” blog posts. And I know I didn’t give you any real specific guidelines. But that’s because this is a rather complex topic, and reality, there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to do things. However, The way that I’ve found most effective? The one that not only got me from 24% body fat to 8% body fat in a little over 3 months? And the one that I’ve used with thousands of clients. (Over 60,000 to date, to be precise) is this one – HIIT MAX™ HIIT MAX™ takes the methodologies and guidelines we have here, and lays everything out into one easily accessible, done-for-you training & nutrition program. We give you a plan that’s easy to implement, takes no thought process, removes confusion, and guarantees to torch stubborn fat in record time. Plus, you only need to commit 20 minutes, three times per week. Reference: Chisholm, D.J. et al. (2008). The effects of high intensity intermittent exercise training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women. International Journal of Obesity. 32, 684-691. Tweet 4 Share 59 +1 2 Reddit Pocket Pinterest LinkedIn 0
