Summer Countdown
By Patrick Gamboa B.S.

In the middle of winter when it is cold, gloomy and frigid outside, the last thing that comes to our minds is the summertime. Many of us are enjoying the winter season and the multitude of activities that accompany it. The skiing, snowboarding, sledding, and snowball fights fill these winter months with enjoyment and fun. It is easy to rationalize that we still have plenty of time until summer and point to the fact that we just finished celebrating the New Year. Inevitably February will turn into March, then April and then May will roll around leaving the summer season starring us right in the face. It is very easy to put off today what we can do tomorrow, which can easily become a trap many of us succumb to.

We at ISSA feel that today is a great time to embark on a fitness lifestyle. There are 16 weeks until June. Sixteen short weeks before you need to get into those swimming trunks and bathing suits. Resist the temptation to hold off one more day, and let ISSA help you prepare for summertime. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "what lies before us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Through a simple plan, ISSA can nurture the power within you and help your fitness lifestyle blossom in time for summer.

Your body must be given the adequate nourishment throughout the day to keep your metabolism burning calories effectively and muscles growing as quickly as possible. As outlined in Fitness the Complete Guide, the best way to nourish your body is to consume carbohydrates, protein, and a small amount of fat with each meal. Your daily caloric intake should consist roughly of 50-60% carbohydrates, 20-30% protein, and 10-20% fats.

Meal Frequency
The number of times you eat a day is an essential component of your success, or lack thereof. You should eat every 2 to 3 hours, for a total of 5 to 6 times a day. This will allow your system the necessary time to digest, absorb and assimilate the nutrients in your meal. This will also help prevent your body from cannibalizing your muscles for essential nutrients it may need. Another benefit is that spreading your calories over 5 to 6 meals rather than 2 to 3 meals a day, decreases the meal size and reduces the likelihood of having excess calories being converted to fat. Having frequent meals also stimulates your metabolism, which is conducive to achieving a lean body.

Protein
The following foods are good choices for protein in your diet: egg whites, non-fat cottage cheese, chicken breast, turkey breast, tuna, halibut, sole, and lean red meats.
Quality protein supplements like whey, casein or soy are also practical and convenient. Protein should comprise 20 to 30% of your total caloric intake per day.

Carbohydrates
The following foods are good sources of carbohydrates. To begin, let me note that the body breaks down all carbohydrates to glucose. If sugar entering the bloodstream via the small intestines enters too quickly, the excess can be converted to fatty acids and stored in fat cells, inhibiting the fat burning process. Complex carbohydrates on the other hand require more digestion to be broken down into sugar and therefore enter the bloodstream more slowly. This being said, I recommend that the majority of your carbohydrates come from complex sources. Foods like potatoes, brown rice, yams, beans, lentils, oatmeal, cream of rice, cream of wheat, corn, black-eyed peas, and most grains are highly recommended. It is always a good idea to include vegetables, which are fibrous carbohydrates that help with digestion and elimination and provide the body with a rich source of nutrients. Carbohydrates should make up 50 to 60% of your daily caloric intake.


Fats
Keep your fat intake between 10 to 20% of your daily caloric consumption. Avoid fried foods, fast foods, fatty meats such as pork, luncheon and deli meats; and high fat foods such as egg yolks, butter, margarine, sour cream, most salad dressings, chocolate and mayonnaise. Your fats should come from unsaturated vegetable sources like olive oil or flaxseed oil. If you are unsure as to the fat content of a food, read the label. The top of a nutrition label should say "total calories", and immediately to the right tell you "calories from fat". The food's calories from fat should be a low percentage of the total calories. Avoid or eat only small amounts of foods with 30% or more of its calories coming from fat.

The Game Plan
For weeks 1 through 3

1. Body weight in pounds multiplied by body fat percentage equals your pounds in fat. E.g.: 150 *15% =22.5lbs of body fat
   
   
2. Bodyweight minus your pounds in fat equals your lean body mass.
   E.g.: 150 –22.5=127.5LBM
   
   
3. Lean body mass multiplied by 14 equals your BMR.
   E.g.: 127.5 * 14 =1785 BMR
   
   
4. BMR multiplied by either 1.3 for the sedentary individual or 1.5 for the average Fitness buff or 1.8 for an extreme athlete equals the daily caloric requirement. Eg: 1785 * 1.5(average fitness buff) = DCR 2678
   
   
5. Take your DCR and multiply that number by 7 to calculate your weekly caloric
   requirement.Eg: 2678 * 7= 18746 calories per week
   
   
6. One pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories. In order to lose one pound of
   fat a week you need to have a caloric deficit of 3500 calories a week.
   Eg: 18746-3500= 15246 calories per week
   
   
7. Take the new weekly caloric intake and divide that by 7.
   Eg: 15246 divided by 7= total calories per day 2178.
   
   
8. Take your total calories and divide that by five to get your calories per meal.
   Eg: 2178 divided by 5 = 436 calorie per meal.
   
   
9. Take your total calories per meal and take the appropriate percentages as mentioned
   earlier in the article. Eg: 60% of 436= 261 calories from carbohydrates or 65 grams, 25% of 436=109 calories from protein or 27grams and 15% of 436=65 calories of fat or 7grams.
   So this 150-pound man would be eating 65gm carbs, 27 gm protein and 7gm of fat per meal five times a day.
   
   
10. Take your bodyweight and multiply it by .66 or two thirds of your bodyweight. This Will give you the minimum number of ounces of water you need per day. Eg: 150 *.60= 90 ounces of water a day.
    
    
11. Begin aerobic exercise sessions 3 to 5 times per week in addition to your weight training. At least 20 to 30 minutes is recommended for each session.
    
    
12. Eliminate all sweets, fats, and junk food.
    

Weeks 4 through 6

1. Reduce your total calories per day further by 150 calories at the start of week four. Our example of a 150-pound man consuming 2178 calories per day would drop to 2028 calories for the next three weeks. The reduction should come all from your carbohydrate intake and not your fat and protein.
   
   
2. The 150-calorie reduction should be divided by five for the number of meals in the day. Eg: 150 divided by 5 = a 30 calorie reduction per meal or a 7 to 8 gm reduction per meal.
   
   
3. Your amended meals would break down like this: 58gm carbs, 27gm protein and 7gm fat per meal
   
   
4. At this time you should increase your aerobic work by 5 minutes per session.
   

Weeks 7 through 9

1. Continue to reduce your calories by another 150 calories per day at the beginning of week seven in the same fashion as the week before. The 2028 calories would drop to 1878 calories per day.
   
   
2. Your amended meals would break down like this: 51 gm carbs, 27gm protein and 7gm fat per meal.
   
   
3. One day a week, increase your caloric intake by 500 calories all from complex carbohydrates.
   
   
4. Take the 500 calories and divide it by five for the added calories per meal.
   Eg: 500 / 5 = 100 additional calories all from complex carbohydrates per meal.
   
   
5. Take the 100 calories and divide it by four for the total added grams.
   Eg: 100 / 4 = 25 additional calories in complex carbohydrates per meal.
   
   
6. So for one day in weeks seven through nine, your meal breakdown would look like this: 76gm carbs, 27gm of protein, and 7gm of fat.
   
   
7. Increase the duration of aerobics per session. Men should do 30min/ 4 times a week, and women should do 40min/ 5 times per week.
   

Weeks 10 through 12

1. Reduce your calories from carbohydrates once more by another 150 calories per day at the beginning of week ten. In our example, the 1878 calories would drop to 1728 calories per day.
   
   
2. Your amended meals would break down like this: 44gm of carbs, 27gm of protein, and 7gm of fat.
   
   
3. Keep your one high day of an additional 500 calories from complex carbohydrates for weeks ten through twelve.
   
   
4. For that one high day, your meal breakdown would look like this: 69gm of carbs, 27gm of protein, and 7gm of fat.
   
   
5. Increase the duration of your aerobic sessions by five more minutes.
   
   
6. If your muscles begin to look flat, do not increase your aerobics from weeks 7 through 9.
   

By the end of week twelve you should be well on your way to feeling confident in any bathing suit or swimming trunks you find. Your former body covered in that winter fat will be a distant memory, and the determination within you will have blossomed into a body you can be proud of and a lifestyle others will want to emulate. You need to begin today and let ISSA help you achieve your summer body. You will be happy you did.


If you have any questions regarding this article please contact me at patrick@issaonline.com