Health and Fitness

How You Can Use Calorie Spiking To Get Lean!

Todays post is a guest piece by Amanda Brown of Fitlife blog and Promotion Fitness. This girl definitely knows how to tweak the system when it comes to enjoying life but still looking amazing – just check out the hot photos at her blog! Over to Amanda –

Even though we don’t really believe it’s possible, it’s the question we all long to hear a happy answer to: is there a way that you can get and keep hot abs but yet still get to ‘eat your CAKE’ and live a semi-normal lifestyle? Let’s hold that thought for a moment and think about this –

How many times have you been faced with a tempting treat that you just can’t seem to look away from? The saliva wells in your mouth and you imagine how good it will taste? Moments later damn it, your conscious kicks in. Then for the next couple of minutes you
battle it out between the instant satisfaction or the long term desire of a rippling six
pack. Because you can’t have both obviously. Right?

Well … there is a way that you can have both but it’s something not everyone talks about. Shhh, I am about to share some top secret information with you …

To be honest as a Personal Trainer I am a little nervous that this information will be misconstrued. So promise me before you high tail it to the nearest take-away that you’ll keep reading. I must firstly explain what it takes to get a six pack and ONLY when you follow these rules can you then ‘have your cake’.

the case of the never-ending diet

There are many different dieting methods that we are hit with on a day to day basis. Pills that expand in your stomach, meal replacements, food combining etc. Heck it is a confusing day and age to want to shed some weight.

But you know what?

Anything that offers a quick fix instantly rings alarm bells for me. I am all about going back to basics and eating the way nature intended which is why I choose to follow the Paleo diet, or otherwise known as the Caveman diet. It just makes sense to eat the way our ancestors did.

In the past we had little or no fabricated, processed highly toxic commercially made food and I find that it is no coincidence that going back to this style (Paleo or primal) of eating is also the fastest way to lose weight and feel great.

To quote Charles Poliquin, (one of the best strength and conditioning coaches on
the planet) on Paleo lifestyle eating:

‘If it does not fly, swim or run and it’s not green then don’t eat it.”

That is pretty much the crux of it with a couple of exceptions. I.e. you can still include coffee with 1-2 teaspoons of cream, fruit (preferably berries), nuts (avoiding peanuts), organic produced butter, organic 85% Chocolate (45g) and 1-2 glasses of red wine per day.

what about the caaaaaaakkeeee?!

When you are following this kind of eating plan and your diet is 90% clean healthy
foods it has been proven that by having a treat day can actually enhances your
weight loss results, hence the cake! It can help to plan your treat day and book it in your diary and keep all of your naughtiness confined within the walls of this one day. This method of getting to your rippling beach ready bod is referred to as calorie spiking and is a technique that bodybuilders have been using for years.

Food is like training. If you eat the same healthy food constantly your body will adapt. This treat day gives your body a shock and still keeps you heading for success. Of course there are some rules …

abs plus cake? it can be done if you follow these 4 tricks …

1. Treat Day NOT a Binge Day. On your treat day it is best to still have a high protein breakfast such as poached eggs with spinach and a little nut butter. This will give you a stable glucose response and help to give you a little more control over your food for the day. When having your treat meals sit down at a table to eat, once your butt has left the chair
game over.

2. Include Grapefruit Juice at Breakfast or Before second Meal. This is a technique that is discussed in Tim Ferris book The 4-Hour Body which helps to have a flat line effect on your blood sugar levels before eating a carbohydrates dense meal.

3. Citric Acid. Drink water with lemon or squeeze lemon juice on your food which helps to keep your glucose levels stable. You can use this especially on your treat day, however
there is no reason why you couldn’t do this on a day to day basis

4. Air Squats. You are set to turn a few heads on this one and perhaps a toilet cubicle may be the place for eating out. Another 4-Hour body technique which causes your body to produce GLUT-4 in your muscles. What happens is instead of the food or glucose going towards fat storage it is switched to going into your muscle and side steps weight gain. You want to complete 60-90 seconds of muscular contractions before and after you eat. So squats, wall push ups body rows… then back to the table, nobody will ever know the difference. Except your abs 😉

So there you have it – 4 sneaky tricks to let you eat your cake and have your abs! Just be sure to follow the rules. And let me know how you go!

What do you do to keep yourself sane nutritionally and yet still achieve your get lean goals?

4 responses to “How You Can Use Calorie Spiking To Get Lean!”

  1. Kaia says:

    Hi Kat,

    I just read your article on Fitfoods.com. I’d like your point of views but it seems impossible to have 80-90% of carbs from veggies. I eat salad with everything but the percentage is still much lower. I try to have around 100 grams of carbs per day, including 1 slice of full grain bread in the morning (i love my sandwich- gives 14 grams of carbs), 50 grams of pomegranate juice after work out to flush down fish oil and the rest originates from salad (according to my food planner 31 grams of carbs today, the amount of veggies was about 200 grams altogether). It just seems impossible to eat more salad, otherwise I couldnt fit protein to my menu. How do you manage to eat so much veggies??

    Thanks,

    Kaia

    • Kat says:

      Hi Kaia,

      Thanks for coming over from Fitfoods!

      I think you’ve misunderstood what I meant, sorry. I don’t mean 80-90% of your diet should be carbs (definitely not!); I mean that of the carbs you eat choose 80-90% from veg. I.e. if you eat 100 grams of carbs, get 80-90% from veg. 100 grams of carbs is not usually necessary though; I find myself and my clients are chock full and energised usually somewhere between 60 and 80.

      It completely depends on the person though – around 20-25% of people need more carbs, i.e. more like 150 grams + – in this case they would be eating more starchy carbs.

      Does that help?

      Kat

  2. Criostiona says:

    Hi

    Is it okay to consume porridge as carbohydrates? I mostly do it to ensure a good level of fibre intake, usually take 30g-40g made with water. Rest of the day I eat a lot of protein with salads or steam vegetables. ( Though I have the odd oat cake and cottage cheese some days too :s)

    Curious to know what your opinion is on eating methods such as the warrior diet and intermittant fasting? I’ve tried these before but found it hard to get all my nutrients in one major meal. Though they kind of help with calorie spiking too!

    Thanks
    Christina

    • Kat says:

      HI Christina. I quite like IF but only if stress overall is relatively low in the person. Otherwise it’s just another stress and can prevent fat loss.

      Oats are okay; best to source the gluten free ones though!

      Kat