Search weights: 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240

235 lb. Male Diet Plan – Fat Loss ((click on the link to see the entire diet trac).

If you are doing this diet feel free to contact us at 1-800-344-3404.  We’d love to help you achieve your goals and hear about your progress.  If you are in the 230-240 lb range and loosing fat using Parrillo products, please send us pictures or videos of you cooking some of these recipes.  We’d love to post them on the site.

Meal 1 8:00 7 ounces Oatmeal (rolled oats), dry

1 serving 50/50 Plus Powder (generic)

2 Enhanced GH Formula

1 Essential Vitamin Formula

1 Mineral-Electrolyte Formula

3 tbsp CapTri

2 Muscle Amino

Meal 2 11:30 2 servings Supl Meal, 50/50 Plus Powder, Chocolate Flavor

1 tbsp CapTri

Meal 3 14:00 8 ounces CapTri Cookbook Chicken Fingers (pg 23)

3 ounces CapTri Cookbook sides Home Fries (pg 59)

8 ounces Brussel Sprouts, fresh

1 tbsp CapTri

1 Essential Vitamin Formula

1 Mineral-Electrolyte Formula

2 Muscle Amino

Meal 4 16:30 2 servings Supl Meal, 50/50 Plus Powder, Chocolate Flavor

2 tbsp CapTri

Meal 5 19:00 8 ounces Beef, sirloin, broiled, choice, all fat trimmed

10 Salad Greens

2 tbsp CapTri

1 Essential Vitamin Formula

1 Mineral-Electrolyte Formula

2 Muscle Amino

2 Enhanced GH Formula

Meal 6 21:00 2 servings 50/50 Plus Powder, Chocolate Flavor

Calories 3,374.73 protein, 279.49 carbs, 199.81

Drink 1 – 1.5 gallons of water a day

Continue to do your cardio and weight training the Parrillo way!

Search weight of: 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190

185 lb. Male Competition Diet Sample (click on the link to see the entire diet trac)

If you are doing this diet feel free to contact us at 1-800-344-3404.  We’d love to help you achieve your goals and hear about your progress.  If you are in the 180-190 lb range and competing using Parrillo products, please send us pictures or videos of you cooking some of these recipes.  We’d love to post them on the site.

Meal 1 8:00 6 Egg Whites (lg)

7 ounces Oatmeal (rolled oats), dry

1 serving 50/50 Plus Powder (generic)

1 Essential Vitamin Formula

1 Mineral-Electrolyte Formula

3 tbsp CapTri

1 Muscle Aminos

Meal 2 11:30 Bar, Parrillo Bar (generic) 1.00 Bar

Meal 3 15:00 5 ounces CapTri Cookbook Entrée Chicken Fingers (pg 23)

6 ounces CapTri Cookbook Sides, Lentil Delight (pg 60)

4 ounces Asparagus Spears, cooked, boiled, drained

1 Essential Vitamin Formula

1 Mineral-Electrolyte Formula

2 Muscle Aminos

Meal 4 18:30 2 servings Protein, Hi-Protein Powder, Vanilla

Meal 5 22:00 7 ounces CapTri Cookbook Entrée, Cod Fillet Italiano (pg 27)

8 ounces Salad Greens

2 tbsp CapTri

1 Essential Vitamin Formula

1 Mineral-Electrolyte Formula

2 Muscle Aminos

Calories 2,117.56 protein,167.08 carbs, 136.43

Drink 1 – 1.5 gallons of water a day

Continue to do your cardio and weight training the Parrillo way!

Parrillo Performance
800-344-3404

And many may be downright harmful.Case in point: Sixty-five cases of herbal supplement-related seizures reported to MedWatch from 1993 to 1999 were ob-tained through the Freedom of Information Act and independently evaluated by three reviewers. They concluded that of these cases, 20 were probably related to herbs. Of these, 19 involved ephedra, and 14 involved herbal caffeine. Thirteen of the 65 cases were possibly associated with herbal supple-ments. Of these, ephedra was also associated with 7 cases, and caffeine was contained in 5 of these supplement products. Other herbs implicated in possibly related seizure events were St. John’s wort and gingko biloba. These findings underscore that significant health risks are associated with use of cer-tain herbal products. (1)Of the supplements in the Parrillo Performance line, Evening Primrose Oil™ is about as close as we get to a herbal formu-lation.

The evening primrose is a small flow-ering plant that grows in England. Evening Primrose Oil™ (EPO) is an excellent source of essential fatty acids. The main function of EFAs in the body is to provide building blocks for a class of hormones called eico-sanoids. The broad category of eicosanoids is further subdivided into prostaglandins, prostacyclins, leukotrienes, and thrombox-anes. The eicosanoids are a complex group of hormones (over 100 different prosta-glandins have been identified so far) which are involved in controlling many metabolic processes such as blood pressure, inflam-mation, fat metabolism, and blood clotting, to name a few. Eicosanoids are made by all cells of the body and their central function is to communicate messages to nearby cells to help coordinate and regulate the body’s metabolic activity. EFAs are also important structural components of cell membranes and thus are important for healthy skin. As for how to take EPO, I advise from two to six capsules a day with meals. Are there any toxic effects from taking too much EPO? No, EPO is com-pletely nontoxic.

There are some poten-tial side effects, which include headaches and (paradoxically) your skin breaking out (pimples). These are a result of the ef-fects of the class 2 prostaglandins which are made from arachidonic acid, a me-tabolite. These effects are completely blocked by aspirin, which stops the con-version of arachidonic acid into prosta-glandins. If you should notice these prob-lems, simply take two aspirin and de-crease the number of capsules you take. Parrillo EPO™ is a high-tech EFA supplement designed to provide EFAs without excess non-essential fats. It pro-vides a way for bodybuilders and other athletes to optimize their EFA metabolism while still maintaining a low fat diet. Parrillo EPO™ is simply another tool to help you optimize your nutrition . That’s about all the practical “how to” information you need to in-corporate EFAs into your diet. The Par-rillo EPO™ supplement was developed specifically to provide a concentrated source of EFAs so you don’t have to eat a tablespoon of oil every day. More important than supple-ments (which have their rightful place), sticking to a multiple-meals nutrition program is essential .

That means eat-ing five, six, or more meals a day. This pattern of eating is metabolically beneficial in three ways. To begin with, multiple meals that include starchy car-bohydrates help keep insulin constantly present in the body. This powerful, growth-producing hormone helps make amino acids available to muscle tissue for growth and recovery. Insulin’s re-lease is triggered by the conversion of carbohydrate into glucose by the liver. Frequent meals also increase “thermo-genesis,” the production of body heat from the burning of food for energy. Following a meal, your metabolic rate is elevated as a result of thermogenesis. So the more meals you eat, the higher your metabolism stays throughout the day for fat burning and muscle build-ing. Finally, with a constant nutrient supply, you are never forced into a starvation mode. With meals coming at regular intervals, your body learns to process food more efficiently, and your metabolism is accelerated as a result.Another important point is to always eat breakfast - this gets your metabolism going first thing. This is why breakfast is probably your most important meal. You have the whole day to burn off any excess calories you consume at breakfast - any excess calories you consume right before bed are likely to be stored as fat.

Additionally, don’t forget to combine your foods properly, so as to slow the release of glucose into the bloodstream. Carbohydrates are digested down into glucose, which is the form of sugar released into the blood. If too many carbs are con-sumed, or if they are released into the blood too rapidly, the insulin response causes the excess to be taken up by fat cells and converted into fat in a process known as lipogenesis. By eat-ing unrefined, complex carbohydrates - and not simple sugars - you slow the release of glucose into the blood. This is also the reason you should com-bine fibrous carbs and protein together with your starches at each meal - it slows the rate of digestion and release of glucose.  So basically, my philosophy is that the role of supplements is to in-crease cellular nutrient levels beyond what can be obtained from a healthy diet of regular foods. Food will always be the cornerstone of sound nutrition – don’t lose sight of the importance of your diet. I do not know of any herbal supplements that can really affect your body composition beyond what can be obtained from regular foods and cer-tain non-herbal supplements (such as creatine, CapTri®, amino acids, and protein supplements).

References

1 . Haller, C .A ., et al . 2005 . Seizures reported in association with use of dietary supplements . Clinical Toxicol-ogy 43: 23-30 .

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This is why excess cortisol causes muscle wasting. Cortisol’s effect on body fat varies somewhat according to the specific body region. Fat depots exist in different parts of the body and these different regions have different hormone receptors. Cortisol tends to cause depletion of peripheral fat in the arms and legs, but increased accu-mulation of fat in the abdomen, back and face. Patients with excessive cortisol levels (or those on high dosages of prednisone) develop thin arms and legs due to both muscle and fat loss (through catabolism). Typically, they also develop obese abdo-mens . Cortisol is not anabolic like testosterone; to the contrary, cortisol is primarily catabolic. Too much of it and you will risk obesity, and not enough can lead to medical prob-lems . Fortunately, as long as your adrenal glands are functioning properly, you’ll never have to worry about cortisol deprivation or ex-cess. Your adrenal glands, in concert with other glands (and nature), automatically regulate cortisol and keep it in the appro-priate range . So why am I bothering to write about this subject?

It turns out that exercise increases cortisol levels – and this has important implications that needs to be taken into account by anyone who practices high in-tensity weight training. Exercise stimulates muscle growth and paradoxically also trig-gers the release of cortisol. When cortisol is suddenly dumped into the bloodstream, it creates a potentially catabolic situation. So we need to understand how cortisol works and how it is regulated so we can design a training and nutrition strategy which will allow for optimal growth - while minimizing cortisol’s catabolic effects. For bodybuilding purposes we want to minimize cortisol because it promotes muscle loss, fat accumulation and water retention . Cortisol is secreted in response to stress of almost any kind. It should then come as no surprise that the first thing we should do to control cortisol is mini-mize body stress and maximize recovery time. For starters, get plenty of rest. Sleep deprivation has been shown to increase cortisol levels and the reintroduction of proper sleep habits reduces cortisol levels back to normal. Everyone knows either by intuition or experience that muscle growth is much harder if you don’t get enough rest. And don’t neglect the connection be-tween cortisol and stress.

Anger and stress are often interrelated: are you a “type A” personality? If so, attempt to remain as relaxed and calm as possible. Easier said than done. Remember this: every time you have an emotional outburst, lose your tem-per or fly into a rage, you are most likely dumping huge amounts of muscle-eating cortisol into your bloodstream. Hopefully, that thought will give you pause if you are serious about bodybuilding but emotional by nature. Another cortisol-related factor is training. Over-training, literally doing too much training, while being under nourished and not getting enough rest results in decreased testosterone production and increased cor-tisol levels. This tips the balance rapidly from anabolism to catabolism. People who are chronically over-trained are continu-ally tired, fatigued, weak and often de-pressed . They lose muscle, strength plum-mets and performance declines. If you look around the gym, the people who are not making progress are usually under-training - not over-training. Furthermore, if you compare the stagnant trainers to the one making the gains, you will observe the ones making gains are invariably training harder and longer. Before you conclude that you are over-training and reduce your exercise level, try getting some additional rest, eat more clean calories and add in some basic supplements such as our Vi-tamin Formula™ and Mineral Electrolyte Formula™ to increase your nutrient lev-els. Generally these changes will promote growth without having to reduce exercise activity. In many cases, failure to grow is simply the result of inadequate caloric and nutrient intake in relation to the exercise level of the bodybuilder.

Over-training is a result of doing too much exercise (vol-ume) while being under nourished. Do not confuse volume with intensity. Successful bodybuilding is about intensity, not vol-ume. Endurance exercise is about volume, not intensity . You should train intensely and workout for 60 to 90 minutes. Remember, the longer and harder you train the higher your calorie and nutrient levels must be. There are certain nutrition and supplemen-tation strategies you can use to minimize the catabolic effects of cortisol. The single most important and effective of the corti-sol-suppressing nutritional techniques is a low-tech solution. Probably the most effective thing you can do to minimize cortisol release is to simply eat something every two to three hours, as the Parrillo Nutrition Program recommends. Caloric deprivation has been shown to cause a sig-nificant increase in cortisol levels (3). A small meal every two to three hours (or so) is a great way to keep cortisol excretions to a minimum .

The ideal cortisol suppressing meal would contain a complex carbohydrate and some protein. Carbohydrate ingestion in particular seems to reduce cortisol levels. It is also important to eat some protein at each meal as protein slows the release of carbo-hydrates and provides a constant supply of amino acids to facilitate muscle growth. Most people find it difficult to eat six com-plete meals a day and rely on nutritional supplements for two or three of these many meals. If you are looking for a supplemental meal replacement try our 50-50 Plus™. This product supplies 17 grams of quality carbo-hydrates and 20 grams of high BV protein. Another excellent meal alternative is the Parrillo Bar™, Parrillo Protein Bar™ or the Parrillo Energy Bar™. These tasty bars are extremely convenient and will provide you with a balanced meal that you can carry in your pocket and eat in minutes. Some of our athletes like to combine Optimized Whey Protein™ or Hi-Protein Powder™ with Pro-Carb™. This novel approach al-lows you to customize and adjust your ratio of protein-to-carbohydrates to suit your per-sonal goals . In addition, vitamin supplementation may be helpful. In particular, the antioxidant vitamins E and C seem to reduce the oxida-tive stress of exercise and therefore reduce catabolism.

Most bodybuilders who follow our nutritional guidelines don’t eat fruit (since fruit sugar is preferentially converted into fat) and therefore vitamin supplementa-tion becomes an even better idea. Glutamine and the branched chain amino acids - leu-cine, isoleucine, and valine - may not affect cortisol levels directly, but are very effective at shifting the anabolism-catabolism bal-ance more towards the anabolic side. These amino acids seem to have a powerful effect in stimulating protein synthesis . Glutamine has been shown to increase glycogen stor-age as well as increase growth hormone lev-els (3,4). Our protein products (Optimized Whey™, Hi-Protein™, 50-50 Plus™) all have high amounts of amino acids mixed into a well-balanced protein base. In summary: to help minimize the catabolic effects of cortisol you should get plenty of rest, minimize stress in your life and make sure your caloric and nutrient lev-els match your training load . You should eat small, frequent meals, containing both carbohydrates and protein. Your protein choices should contain high levels of glu-tamine and the BCAAs. Try to eat every three hours if possible. Three conventional meals per day, combined with three serv-ings of 50-50 Plus™ or your own Pro Carb™/Hi-Protein™ or Optimized Whey ™ concoction will assure that you are ob-taining adequate protein intake and obtain-ing high levels of glutamine and BCAAs. By applying and following a few common sense diet and exercise guidelines, we can minimize the catabolic effects of cortisol. Just remember to stay cool calm and col-lected the next time the boss or your kids do something that makes you angry. By subduing stress, getting plenty of rest, ad-equate nutrients and exercising hard and in-tensely, cortisol-related muscle wasting can be a non-event in your bodybuilding career.

References

1. Fauci et al. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. McGraw Hill, New York, 1998.

2. Kelley DS et al. Energy restriction and immunocompetence in over-weight women. Nutrition Research 18: 159-169, 1998 .

3. Varnier M et al. Stimulatory effect of glutamine on glycogen accumu-lation in human skeletal muscle. Am. J. Physiol. 269: E309-E315, 1995 .

4. Welbourne TC. Increased plasma bicarbonate and growth hormone after an oral glutamine load. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 61: 1058-1061, 1995.

5. Monteleone P, Maj M, Beinat L, Natale M, and Kemali D. Blunting by chronic phosphatidylserine ad-ministration of the stress-induced activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis in healthy men. European Journal of Clini-cal Pharmacology. 42: 385-388, 1992 .

6. Monteleone P, Beinat L, Tanzillo C, Maj M, and Kemali D. Effects of phosphatidylserine on the neu-roendocrine response to physical stress in humans. Neuroendocri-nology 52: 243-248, 1990 .

Parrillo Performance
800-344-3404

They want you to believe that by using their miracle product you can effortlessly build your physique without hard training or disci-plined eating. People desperately want to believe this myth and there are plenty of supplement makers that will tell you with a straight face that they have designed just such a product. As a result there is always a market for crazy new nutritional supple-ments that make unbelievable claims.Reality is a lot different from make-believe. In the real world results start with the expert use of regular food; this is the foundation on which every sound and sane nutritional program is constructed . What is the best way to construct a nutritional program that delivers real results? Start by establishing a multiple-meal daily eat-ing schedule . Once the eating schedule is squared away, turn your attention to food selection: discipline yourself to eat only foods that are beneficial, not detrimental.

After you have squared away the eating schedule and regimented yourself to eat only foods that help, not hinder. The final step is to utilize a broad array of nutritional supplements. At Parrillo Performance we have developed a line of potent supple-ments that are designed to do just that: supplement a sound eating program struc-tured around the intelligent use of regular foods. Bodybuilding foods are available at the local supermarket and when combined with our supplements (designed to supple-ment not supplant or replace regular food) the supplements act as a force multiplier. To reap maximum benefits from your nutri-tion, train hard and ingest plenty of quality calories to heal muscle tissue shock-blasted from intense training. Eating too few calories is as bad as eating too many of the wrong calories; in order to make progress, hard training must be supported by big eating. The trick is to derive calories from foods devoid of saturated fat, sugar and refined carbohydrates. The human body has an easy time converting fat and sugar into body fat and for that reason we avoid them. On the other hand it is virtually impossible for the body to convert pure protein and fibrous carbohydrates into body fat and for that reason we build our nutritional founda-tion upon these foods. Multiple meals are critical: The logic is irrefutable; better to consume the daily caloric allotment in smaller chunks.

If you are con-suming 2,000 calories per day, bet-ter to consume five 400-calorie mini-meals than in one or two high calorie maxi-meals. Small meals lessen the digestive burden and multiple meals ‘teach’ the body how to digest and assimilate food in a more ef-ficient fashion. Multiple meals ‘build the metabolism,’ and this is the cornerstone of the Parrillo nutritional philosophy. Opti-mally a meal or ‘feeding’ need occur every two to three hours. This ensures the ath-lete maintains ‘positive nitrogen balance,’ the ultimate metabolic state for building muscle tissue .Eat only recommended foods: Once a multiple meal eating schedule is estab-lished, turn your attention to food selection. As mentioned earlier, protein devoid of saturated fat and fibrous carbohydrates are the foundational foods in the Parrillo nutri-tional program. Starchy carbohydrates are the ‘wild card.’ Every Parrillo-style meal should include a protein portion, a fibrous carb portion and a starchy carbohydrate portion. Protein and fiber are eaten in large amounts and starch is eaten in a precise fashion: if the athlete is building mass lots of starch is consumed. If the bodybuild-ing is in a pre-competition ‘ripped and shredded’ phase, starch is eaten in smaller amounts .

Eliminate foods that are detrimental: Powerlifters build huge amounts of muscle by eating lots of calories and training hard and heavy using basic exercises with bar-bending poundage. Because they are not choosey about caloric sources their impres-sive muscle mass is usually accompanied with equally massive amounts of body fat. The Parrillo-style bodybuilder rips a page or two from the powerlifter by ingesting lots of calories and by training hard and heavy – but in order to minimize body fat the body-builder is super selective in food choices and performs aerobic exercise. By confin-ing foods to those difficult for the body to compartmentalize as body fat and by performing high intensity aerobics, muscle mass is acquired and body fat acquisition is minimal .Exercise often and exercise intense-ly: At Parrillo Performance we have de-veloped a integrated system of weight training, aerobics and nutrition that results in a radical alteration of the physique in short order – assuming all the elements are in place and practiced with due dili-gence.

Training is done with great intensity whether it is weight training or cardio-vascular training. For maximum results weight training sessions are done often. I recommend a wide variety of exercises for every body part: use low reps to build size and power and high reps to build muscle density and separation. Aerobic sessions should be performed often and done with great intensity . Hard cardio actually in-creases mitochondria density and the more of these tiny muscle blast furnaces exist within a muscle the more efficient the body becomes at oxidizing calories.Supplements are critical: Nutritional supplementation can make or break a body-builder. Assuming you are training with the requisite frequency and intensity, un-less you are ingesting sufficient calories – clean calories devoid of fat and sugar – no progress is possible. A common mistake for hard working bodybuilders to ‘under eat’ in the mistaken belief that restricting calories is proper and appropriate. Noth-ing could be further from the truth: train-ing hard and not eating enough result in muscle catabolism and the human body will actually eat its own muscle tissue to cover calorie shortfall. More often than not the bodybuilder cannot eat every single required calorie from regular food sources and this is where supplements come to the rescue.

A serious bodybuilder will require 1.5 grams or more of protein per pound of body weight per day and by supplementing with protein powder the athlete is easier able to hit the protein target – and without having to cook every single bite. Par-rillo carbohydrate powder, sport nutrition bars, CapTri, amino acid supplements and various vitamin and mineral supplements round out the eating regimen effortlessly.Regular food forms the bedrock foundation: As I mentioned earlier, the expert use of regular food, the kind avail-able at the grocery store, allows you to construct a nutritional game plan that will get you 80% of the way towards the goal: maximizing your ultimate genetic poten-tial. The precise use of nutritional supple-ments will provide the remaining 20%. Assuming you are training frequently and intensely, physical transformation is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when.’ Use a multiple meal schedule based on the consumption of regular recommended foods and supple-ment with potent Parrillo supplements. Train hard, eat correctly, supplement pre-cisely and the results will shock and amaze you: muscle mass increases, body fat melts and inside of sixty days you will undergo a total physical makeover.

Parrillo Performance
800-344-3404

The beauty of this idea is that you’re constantly making progress; you’re always either gaining muscle or los-ing fat; and the constant change prevents your metabolism from adapting so you can make continual progress without wasting time being stuck on a plateau and trying to figure out what to do. In principle, you could keep this up for year after year. If you’re 20% body fat or more, you may want to devote a few months to getting in shape first, or if you’re really skinny, you may want to spend a few months just putting on size. But if you’re somewhere in the middle, maybe around 10% to 15% body fat, you might consider giving this program a try. To gain a pound a week increase your calories to 300-500 above your MER, do 20-30 minutes of aerobics a day, and train like a powerlifter with heavy sets in the 5-8 rep range.

To lose a pound a week, decrease calories to your MER, do 60 minutes of aerobics a day, and train like a bodybuilder with increased volume and moderate weight in the 8-20 rep range . There are other ways you can maxi-mize this fat-burning mode. For example:Continue to eat five, six or more meals a day to keep your metabolism in a con-stant state of acceleration. This has several beneficial effects. Every time you eat your metabolic rate increases a little due to the thermic effect of feeding (also known as diet-induced thermogenesis). Eating fre-quently keeps the furnace stoked and keeps your metabolism speeding along. If you go too long without eating your metabolism begins to slow down. Eliminate as much fat as possible from your diet, since fat has a slowing effect on metabolism. Dietary protein and complex carbohydrates have negligible tendency to be converted to fat, whereas dietary fat is very prone to be stored as body fat (1,2,3,4). This is a hot topic in the scien-tific literature these days and is a matter of debate in the bodybuilding magazines. (It is less a matter of debate in the scientific journals, where actual research is reported.)

Very little of your body fat comes from complex carbohydrates or protein being converted into fat; almost all of it comes from fat and sugars you eat. How much fat your body stores seems to be more closely related to how much fat you eat rather than how many calories you eat. Decrease your carbohydrate intake, thereby lowering insulin levels and activating fat-burning mechanisms in the body. Decrease your carbs. How do you cut down on carbs without decreasing calories? Well, you have to eat more of something else . Fat is not an option, so your only other choices are protein or CapTri®. Ei-ther one will work, but a combination of both probably works best. Let’s be brutally honest about this. If you’re used to getting most of your calories from carbs, cutting back significantly on carbs makes you feel bad, at least for a while. People who cut their carbs dramatically have low energy levels, are irritable and grouchy, and get headaches. CapTri® is more effective at relieving some of these symptoms than protein because it’s more readily used as an energy source.

Protein is not a very ef-ficient energy source. It’s role is to serve as building blocks for repair and maintenance of tissues, not to provide metabolizable fuel. Using protein for energy is kind of like trying to burn a wet log. Carbs, on the other hand, are a great energy source . So if you want to reduce carbs in your diet to manipulate hormone levels and promote fat metabolism it makes sense to replace those calories with another fuel source, namely CapTri®. CapTri® is a good choice be-cause it is readily burned as fuel and won?t be stored as body fat, (5, 6). I suggest you ease into this slowly. Start by eliminating starchy carbs from your last meals of the day. Replace those lost calories from carbs with an equivalent number of calories from CapTri®. Cap-Tri® actually has a higher thermogenic ef-fect than carbohydrates, meaning that more of this dietary energy will be lost as body heat with less energy available for storage. This further promotes additional fat loss. Continue in this way until you reduce your daily carbohydrate grams to about half of what you normally consume.

At this point you?ll be eating mostly protein, vegetables, and CapTri®. Do your aerobics when you are rela-tively carb-depleted. This will cause your body to burn more fat for energy during your workout because fewer carbs are available. The best time is first thing in the morning before breakfast. Your gly-cogen stores are low, so you’ll rely more heavily on stored fat. Take two scoops of Hi-Protein Powder™ to prevent muscle loss, then do your aerobics. Another good time is right after weight training, because then you’re relatively glycogen depleted too. You should do moderate to fairly high intensity aerobics, so that you’re breath-ing hard and sweating. While it’s true you burn a higher percentage of calories from fat during low intensity aerobics, you will burn more grams of body fat if you perform high intensity aerobics, because you’ll burn so many more total calories. Also, if you do reasonably intense aerobics you will get the added benefits of increased vascular density and enhanced fat burning capacity. Increase the volume of aerobics progressively as you get leaner. If your fat loss plateaus the first thing to try is to increase the intensity of your aerobics and also increase your calories. If that doesn’t work you should probably back off for a couple weeks, increase your calories, put on some muscle, and get your metabolism going again .

How do you know if you’re losing fat and not muscle? By using the Body Stat Kit once a week. You can determine your pounds of lean mass and pounds of fat every week and make adjustments in your training and diet accordingly to make sure you stay on track. The Body Stat Kit Manual contains detailed instructions on exactly how to change your training and diet to make sure your body composition keeps moving in the right direction. I think one of the reasons the Parrillo Program has been so successful for so many people is that everything is scientifically controlled. How many calories, how much protein, carbs, and fat, how many meals, which foods, how to combine the foods, macronu-trient ratios, Diet Trac Sheets, the Training Log, Body Stat Sheets-it’s all in the manu-als. Every parameter of your bodybuilding program is covered and nothing is left to chance. If you weigh your food and keep track of your diet and body composition like you’re supposed to, and something’s not working right, we can pinpoint exactly what the problem is and make detailed adjustments to fix it.

Otherwise, if you’re just going on what “feels right” or seems to make sense, and you don’t make good progress, you’re not sure what to change. If you want more details than I have been able to squeeze into this article, check out the Parrillo Performance Nutrition Manual and the Body Stat Kit. I go into great detail about which foods to eat, which foods to avoid, and how to structure your meals. The Nutrition Manual contains a three step protocol for reducing body fat levels to contest condition, as well as de-scribing how to manipulate carbs and wa-ter at the end. The Body Stat Kit contains instructions on exactly how to modify your training and nutrition program based on your weekly changes in body composition. The Nutrition Manual comes with its own food scale and Diet Trac Sheets to record your calories and grams of protein, carbs, and fat. It even includes a food composi-tion guide that lists the nutrient breakdown of all the bodybuilding foods. The Body Stat Kit includes high quality calipers and everything you need to chart your body composition. Remove the guesswork from your bodybuilding program. Don’t leave anything to chance .

References

1. Flatt JP. Dietary fat, carbohydrate balance, and weight maintenance: effects of exercise. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 45: 296-306, 1987 .

2. Flatt JP. Use and storage of car-bohydrate and fat. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 61: 952s-959s, 1995 .

3. Swinburn B and Ravussin E. Energy balance or fat balance? Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 57: 766S-771S, 1993 .

4. Acheson KJ, Flatt JP, and Jequier E. Glycogen synthesis versus lipogenesis after a 500 gram carbohydrate meal in man. Metabolism 31: 1234-1240, 1982.

5. Baba N, Bracco EF, and Hashim SA. Enhanced thermogenesis and diminished deposition of fat in response to overfeed-ing with diet containing medium chain triglyceride. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 35: 678-682, 1982 .

6. Bach AC and Babayan VK. Medium chain triglycerides: an update. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 36: 950-962, 1982.

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They can eat a lot and don’t gain much weight. I found that these individuals do bet-ter on a high-carb diet with moderate to high protein, maybe somewhere around 25 to 30 percent protein, 65 percent carbs, and 5 to10 percent fat. (The actual per-centages aren’t important, but they usu-ally work out close to those above. These are given just as an example.) Basical-ly, they need to get one to 1 .5 grams or more of protein per pound of body weight per day, and then keep increasing carbs until they gain weight. Some nutritionists advise that ecto-morphs eat a higher fat diet to gain body fat. The problem with using conventional fats (like many diets are now advocating) for weight gain is that when your body is in a calorie surplus (gaining weight), virtually all excess fat calories you con-sume from food will simply be stored as body fat (1-13). Ectomorphs will find that adding some fat to their diets will help them gain weight, but they’ll gain more fat along with the muscle than if they had followed a low fat diet. It is extensively documented in the medical literature that excess feeding of carbohydrates results in less body fat gain than excess feeding of dietary fat (1-7). Dieting If You’re An EndomorphEndomorphs gain muscle more easily, but tend to be naturally fat and have a hard time getting and staying lean .

They seem to be very sensitive to the carbohydrate content of the diet. Again, for weight gain the body must be in an energy surplus (ex-cess calories) and the bulk of these excess calories should come from carbohydrates, because this results in less body fat accu-mulation than if the excess dietary energy is supplied as fat (1-7). However, during weight loss I found that these people do better if they reduce their carbohydrate intake. While ectomorphs need to main-tain a high carb diet even while losing weight to help prevent muscle loss, en-domorphs just can’t seem to lose all their fat without reducing carbs. They seem to be very sensitive to insulin, and high insulin levels block the burning of stored body fat for energy. (To be more precise, they usually have mild insulin resistance, which results in increased insulin levels and a hard time burning fat.) Just as an example, some representa-tive numbers for an endomorph might look like this: For weight gain, 30-40 percent protein, 50-60 percent carbs, 5-10% fat.

For weight loss, 50-60 percent protein, 30-40 percent carbs, 5-10 percent fat. Again, it’s not the actual percentages that are important, I’m just trying to illus-trate the idea that you can shift around the structure of your diet to achieve different metabolic effects. Dieting If You’re A  MesomorphObviously, mesomorphs have the easiest time becoming bodybuilders. These are the people we all envy. They were lean and muscular before they ever started training . They gain muscle easily . They can eat like crap and still look good. All they have to do is cut the junk out of their diet a month before the show and they’re in contest shape. But if you’re a meso-morph who wants to be really successful, stick to the general nutrition advice that follows.General Nutrition GuidelinesOn the Parrillo Nutrition Program, you start by calculating your daily protein requirement. One to 1.5 grams or more of complete protein per pound of body weight each day is a good general guide-line for hard training athletes, especially during weight gain. As you decrease calo-ries to lose fat, it helps to increase this to as much as 1 .5-2 grams or more per pound per day .

The higher dietary protein intake helps prevent catabolism of muscle protein during energy restricted diets . Next you allot 5-10 percent of daily calories to come from fat. The remainder of your calories come from complex car-bohydrates, which I divide into starches (potatoes, rice, beans, etc.) and fibrous carbs (vegetables and salad greens). You adjust carbohydrate intake appropriately so that you’re either gaining muscular weight or losing body fat, as desired. So when you structure your diet this way the percentages take care of themselves. The times when I cite various nutrient percent-ages as examples are merely to illustrate how the balance of your diet can change as you’re working to achieve different goals .If You Need To Lose Body Fat I do believe in the low-carb strategy for burning fat, whether you are an endo-morph or a mesomorph, or somewhere in between.

The problem with low-carb dieting, however, is that it saps your energy and skimps on a lot of important nutrients . So how do you do the low-carb diet at Parrillo? I’ve developed a very special energy supplement called CapTri® which allows you to utilize the power of the low carb diet without resorting to using regular fat as a food source. CapTri® is a special-ly engineered fat with a unique molecular structure which causes it to follow a dif-ferent metabolic route than regular fats (8,9). It behaves more like a carbohydrate in the body, except that it doesn’t increase insulin levels. This means you can use CapTri® in place of carbs to decrease insulin levels and shift your metabolism into a fat-burning mode. CapTri® has virtually no tendency to be stored as body fat, which is in marked contrast to regular fats (8,9). Regular fat is metabolized very slowly and is very eas-ily stored as body fat. CapTri® is burned (converted to usable metabolic energy) very rapidly in fact, as rapidly as glucose. This energy is used to fuel the body, which spares protein and glycogen . Since Cap-Tri® is rapidly and completely used as fuel, this means it won’t be stored as body fat. (Of course, CapTri® does not defy the laws of thermodynamics, and if you eat too many calories too fast you will gain fat, even if you’re using CapTri®.

The point is that CapTri® results in much less fat gain than conventional foods, because relatively more of the calories in CapTri® are immediately converted to energy and lost as body heat.) Help for Ectomorphs Too! If you need to increase your calories to build more muscle mass, you can use CapTri® for this purpose too. Further-more, fats like CapTri® have been shown to increase growth hormone levels, which will also stimulate fat loss and muscle gain (10). Nutrition works best if you tailor it to your own needs and goals. Stick to basic natural foods such as lean proteins (white meat poultry, fish, egg whites, and protein supplements); starchy carbohydrates; and lean carbohydrates. When you have your nutrition “right,” supplement as appropri-ate to match your energy and training needs. Consider your body type, make the right nutritional adjustments, and you’ll experience a higher level of performance and peak achievement.

References

1.Horton, T.J et al. 1995. Fat and carbo-hydrate overfeeding in humans: different effects on energy storage. American Jour-nal of Clinical Nutrition 62: 19-29 .

2.Flatt, J.P. 1988. Importance of nutrient balance in body weight regulation. Diabe-tes/Metabolism Reviews 4: 571-581.

3.Flatt, J.P.. 1995. Use and storage of car-bohydrate and fat. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 61: 952s-959s .

4.Hill, J.O., et al. 1991. Nutrient balance in humans: effects of diet composition. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 54: 10-17 .

5.Hill, J.O., et al. 1993. Obesity treatment: can diet composition play a role? Annals of Internal Medicine 119: 694-697.

6.Schutz, Yet al. 1989. Failure of dietary fat intake to promote fat oxidation: a fac-tor favoring the development of obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 50: 307-314 .

7.Miller, W.C., et al. 1994. Dietary fat, sugar, and fiber predict percent body fat content . American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . 94: 612-615 .

8.Baba, N., et al. 1982. Enhanced ther-mogenesis and diminished deposition of fat in response to overfeeding with diet containing medium chain triglyceride . American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 35: 678-682 .

9 .Bach, A .C ., et al . 1982 . Medium chain triglycerides: an update . American Jour-nal of Clinical Nutrition 36: 950-962 .

10.Valls, E., et al.1978. Modifications in plasmatic insulin and growth hormone induced by medium chain triglycerides. Span. Anal. Ped . 11: 675-682 .

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Because muscle is your body’s most metabolically active tissue, depleting it interferes with your ability to burn calories. I’m certainly not knocking MRPs – hey, we sell our own line of beverages, bars, and puddings here at Parrillo Performance – I’m questioning the whole meal replace-ment issue. What I’d rather see you do is use these products as meal enhancements (MEPs), or between-meal snacks, rather than as meal replacements . Here’s a close look at what I’m talking about. You will see that there are so many more uses for MEPs than you may be previously con-sidered .Increase Your CaloriesSupplements such as ProCarb, 50/50 Plus, Optimized Whey Protein, Hi-Protein Powder, and any of our bars or pudding (great for dessert) are the perfect comple-ment to meals in that they can help you in-crease your calories .

This is a critical tenet of my Nutrition Program. On my nutrition program, you gradually increase calories to lose body fat and gain muscle. Depend-ing on your sex, size, activity level, and present metabolic state, you eat between 2,000 calories a day and 10,000 a day, sometimes more. Add one of my MEP supplements to your meal, and bingo, you’ve easily upped your caloric intake for greater mass-building. MEPs can be used as snacks too – another way to push your calories up the nutrition ladder .Boost Workout EnergyFor even greater energy and endur-ance, sip a carbohydrate beverage such as ProCarb during your workouts. This pro-vides a source of carbohydrate other than muscle glycogen . With glycogen spared, fatigue is delayed, and you can work out longer and harder. ProCarb contains the slow-release carb maltodextrin or rice dextrin and is free of simple sugars such as fructose and glucose.Maximize RecoveryYour muscles are most receptive to syn-thesizing new glycogen within the first few hours after exercise.

To initiate re-covery and restore glycogen, an effective supplement to take is 50/50 Plus at this time. Scientific experiments demonstrate that this type of supplement (with the added protein) initiates the rapid uptake of carbs by your muscles – faster than carbs alone. (1) In addition, a carbohydrate/protein supplement taken following a workout stimulates the release of two hormones (insulin and growth hormone), creating an environment favorable to muscle growth and recovery. (2)Stay WellNo one likes to be sidelined from work-ing out due to a cold, flu, or other infec-tion. In addition to eating properly and supplementing with antioxidants, there are other measures you can take to bolster immunity so that you’re less like to get sick. One of these is using a whey-based supplement in your nutrition program . It also enhances recovery. We have two products containing whey: Optimized Whey Formula (100% whey protein iso-late) and our 50-50 Plus Formula (formu-lated with whey protein isolate, calcium casein, milk protein isolates, and malto-dextrin).