Q: Two Food Logs:
1.) Eats 5 meals per day.
2.) Eats One or Two Big Meals
Who is hotter?
A: 5 meals per day. Keeps metabolism up so you don’t store fat like a bear going into hibernation.
Q: Works Out Three Days Per Week
1.) Cardio for one hour, followed by twenty minutes of weight lifting and ten minutes of abs.
2.) Forty Five Minutes of Weight Training, followed by fifteen minutes of cardio.
Who is hotter?
A: Weight training first. You always do what’s most important first. Weight training is more important for getting lean.
Q: Workout + Eating
1.) Works out 5 days per week. Eats healthy most of the time.
2.) Works out 2 days per week. Keeps a perfect food log with calories and protein totalled every day.
Who is hotter?
A: Works out less but keeps a food log. "Eats healthy most of the time" is actually not very often. Your perceived eating habits are all sunshine and rainbows. The reality you find when you actually track it is often more harsh.
I just bought a Chefmate Food scale and I’ve been hugely underestimating my food portions. Now my food log is honest. I hope results follow.
I get home around 6 pm every night and prefer working out in the evenings. The problem is my boyfriend always has dinner ready right when I get home and hates to eat late. I do all my working out at home. Running on a semi-full stomach makes me feel sick. Any tips?
Do you have any pointers for what to do to try and counteract a temporary lack of dietary discretion? When over-indulgent mistakes happen, is there anything I can do to try and limit the damage to, let’s say, not having the foresight to avoid the giant bowl of candy in the staff break room?
You are so right about “workout + eating”. For years, decades really, I worked my butt off doing cardio and never lost a meaningful amount of weight. I always ate very healthy foods all of the time with some indulgences some of the time. 80/20 rule, right? When I finally started tracking food I lost 30 pounds. That was last year and it stayed off. I don’t really eat different foods, just much less of it — but I track every bite. I used to hate weight training but now that I can actually see the results (with that layer of fat gone) I’m getting into it. I’m a 46 year old woman — so it’s never too late!
Josh I have one question – I am a get it all done at one time person, weight training & cardio. Would my workouts be as effective if I weight trained in the morning & did cardio in the evening? I’m sure the answer to this is in one of your posts…
Josh I read what you said about weight lifting first and then doing cardio, and I thought I’d ask your thoughts on Crossfit? I sometimes do a Crossfit workout and often you’re simultaneously lifting weights and doing cardio.
Josh, can you recommend a good website for a food log. I know you mentioned one way back but I can not find it anymore.
Thanks!
How much weight on the scales should you be losing per week if you are trying to lose fat but gain muscle? I can feel I’m gaining muscle but don’t feel like my clothes are getting any slacker. I’ve only been working out for about 3 weeks and eat really healthily.
Thanks!
I like the quiz you constructed! By comparing the two options it is getting people to think about what the correct answer really is.
The fact is most fitness enthusiasts are misled with the wrong information.
Good job!
Jim