One Big Health Nut

By now, you should know that you need to combine a good diet and regular daily physical activity and/or exercise to achieve weight loss, toning, or just a healthier body. It is not difficult to determine what is considered exercise and/or physical activity. It is a little more difficult to determine what is considered to be a healthy diet.

To assist you in determining what you should eat each day, a sample of nutritional and caloric daily needs are compiled below.

If you are a 30-34 year old female that weighs between 115-135lbs is 5’3” and engage in 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity daily, you should consume 2000 calories or less per day. To lose weight, you should consume 1500 calories or less per day and increase your daily exercise to 30 to 60 minutes total per day. Your diet should consist of:

• 6 ounces of grains (at least 3 ounces should be whole grains)-includes foods made from wheat, rice, oats, cereals grain, barley, or cornmeal.

• 2.5 cups of vegetables-all vegetables and 100% vegetable juice.

• 2 cups of fruit-includes all fruits and 100% juice.

• 3 cups of milk-includes liquid milk, cheese, and yogurt.

• 5.5 ounces of meat & beans-includes beef, pork, poultry, fish, dry beans/peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds. Choices should be low fat.

 • Extra calories (calories not consumed by the above requirements) should be limited to 265 and no more than 6 teaspoons of oils (fats that become liquid at room temperature such as mayo, corn oil) per day.

Note: If you perform less than 30 minutes of physical activity per day, your calories should not exceed 1800 per day and your extra calories would be limited to 195.

 If you are a 30-34 year old male that weighs between 155-175lbs is 6’0” and engage in 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity daily, you should consume 2800 calories or less per day. To lose weight, you should consume 2300 calories or less per day and increase your daily exercise to 30 to 60 minutes total per day. Your diet should consist of:

 • 10 ounces of grains (5ounces should be whole grains)-includes foods made from wheat, rice, oats, cereals grain, barley, or cornmeal.

• 3.5 cups of vegetables-all vegetables and 100% vegetable juice.

• 2.5 cups of fruits-includes all fruits and 100% juice.

• 3 cups of milk-includes liquid milk, cheese, and yogurt.

 • 7 ounces of meat & beans-includes beef, pork, poultry, fish, dry beans/peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds. Choices should be low fat.

• Extra calories should be limited to 425 and no more than 8 teaspoons of oil should be consumed daily.

Note: If you perform less than 30 minutes of physical activity per day, your calories should not exceed 2600 per day and your extra calories would be limited to 410.

Question: I’ve always read that compound exercises (such as the bench press & pull up) are more effective than isolation exercises (such as bicep curls, tricep extensions). But in this post it seems that you suggest isolation movements are better for muscle growth. Can you shed any light on this?

Answer: Isolation exercises work one muscle at a single joint. Compound exercises work more than one muscle group across several joints at one time. Isolation exercises can be used to supplement your workouts. They will help build a specific muscle. This is useful for athletes that need specific muscles to be strong. And it can be useful for a body builder in bulking a muscle that perhaps isn’t targeted enough in the compound exercises regularly performed. But research has demonstrated that compound exercises produce the best results.

Compound exercises provide a complete workout, maintaining an elevated heart rate while allowing the lifter to work with a heavier weight load. This is due to the use of multiple muscles exerting the effort as opposed to a single muscle. Working larger muscle groups together can help increase muscle. And the elevated heart rate allows your body to utilize your ATP stores for energy as opposed to Lactic acid which can lead to faster fatigue. Calories are burned at 50% higher rate during compound exercises as compared to isolation movements.

Specificity and isolation movements have an important place in every exercise program. The number of movements dedicated to isolation should be determined individually based on your specific goals. But in general, compound movements using the most muscle groups at once will facilitate faster all over muscle growth, while isolation movements will help improve strength in the targeted muscles.

Choosing a form of physical activity or exercise based on the number of calories you will burn performing the movement would require knowledge of the amount of calories each activity will burn.  Since the majority of people do not possess a chart containing this information, it may be helpful to have the ‘calories burned’ information readily accessible. 

The number of calories burned is affected by the intensity of the physical activity being performed, the individual’s metabolism, gender, weight, and body composition.  Below is a compilation of common physical activities and exercises and the number of calories burned per hour.

Determining the number of calories a person should consume on a daily basis is decided by many factors.  You must take into consideration the age, size (height, weight), level of physical activity, and your fitness and weight goals.  To maintain your current weight, each day you must burn the same number of calories that you consume.  If you want to lose weight, your daily calorie intake must be less than the number of calories that you burn.  And to gain weight, you would take in more calories than the number you burn.   

Females aged 14-18 years old that get less than 30 minutes of physical activity per day should take in 1800 calories daily.  Physically active females in this age range may need between 2000 to 2400 calories daily.  Females aged 19-30 years of age that are physically active less than 30 minutes per day may require up to 2000 calories daily.  Physically active females that get at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily will require 2000-2400 calories daily.  Females from age 31 to 50 that get less than 30 minutes of daily physical activity should limit their calorie intake to 1800 each day.  And physically active females in this age range will need 2000-2200 calories daily. 

Males 14-18 years old that are getting less than 30 minutes per day of physical activity require up to 2200 calories daily.  Physically active males in the same age range will need 2400 to 3200 calories.  Males 19-30 years of age that get less than 30 minutes of physical activity each day will require up to 2400 calories.  Physically active males in this age range will need 3600 to 3000 calories.  And males 31-50 years of age that are not physically active need only 2200 daily calories.  Physically active males in this age range will need 2400 to 3000 calories. 

The number of calories above is an average for each identified group.  The number of calories allowable includes food and beverages.  To determine the correct number of calories you need each day, you should identify your goal (i.e. weight loss, maintenance, or gain), assess your level of physical activity, and set the maximum number of calories you should consume within your range above.  If you want to lose weight, you should consume 500 calories less per day than the recommended number for your group.  Increasing your physical activity will burn additional calories. 

Specificity is the weight lifting principal that requires the exercise to be specific to the strength required to successfully complete the movement.  Athletes use specificity to strengthen the muscles used in the sport in which they compete.  Body builders use the principal of specificity to strengthen the individual muscles.  And novice weight lifters should use the principal to further their capabilities to achieve results.  Improvements in the movement ranges and the strength of the muscles require exercises that will expressly target the individual muscles. 

          To achieve superior strength and ability in each muscle, you must identify and perform exercises that target it.  Performing exercises that directly effect and control individual muscle groups will help increase your ability to perform athletically and also increase your capabilities in the weight room.  Without performing exercises that increase the abilities of each muscle group, you will not be able to increase the intensity of your work outs. 

          Increasing the intensity of your work outs is essential to the achievement of any set goals.  You will not be able to move forward and see actual results if your not able to increase the intensity of the exercises.  This will result in a plateau and prevent gains from occurring.  You probably already adhere to this principal even if you were not familiar with the term.  If you segregate certain days for specific muscle groups, you are already familiar with the principal.  Now you are familiar with the terminology.