The great advantage that the flexible dieting concept brought to the world was science supporting nutrition. So let us explain the concept of our diet and training through these 18 facts that are scientifically proven!

SEE ALSO: HOW TO LOSE FAT QUICK AND EFFECTIVELY!

1) There is no food that increases our metabolic rate.

2) Don’t create food restrictions.

3) Don’t label food as “clean/dirty” or “healthy/unhealthy” because there is no scientific evidence that proves that some type of food isn’t healthy.

4) Don’t force yourself to eat 6 or 7 daily meals, eat the amount of times that is adequate to your lifestyle.

5) Don’t focus on meal timing (eating meals at the “right” times, for example: pre-workout, post-workout, etc…) as it being a decisive factor in you making your body composition better or even your health. Meal timing should be a personal preference.

6) Don’t force yourself to eat 30g of protein at every meal, or force yourself to split the macro nutrients throughout your day, just because of the myth that says that the human metabolism can’t metabolize/absorb/use nutrients if the whole of the daily dose of nutrients is ingested in only two meals.

7) Don’t force pre/post-workout meals and don’t take notice of the anabolic window myth (30/60 min).

8) Don’t restrict sodium consumption without a proven health reason.

9) Fast cardio isn’t better than slow cardio, or vice versa, for fat loss. The only factor that actually matters for fat loss is being in a deficit of thermodynamic energy. This creates an energetic deficit. Still, you can resource to caloric restriction to create the same energetic deficit.

10) Do very little cardio when in a thermodynamic energy deficit and only when it’s appropriate, because normally it’s more indicated to cut/reduce “calories” from food. But in case you have “psychological hunger”, that’s when you should introduce a small amount of cardio, because it is a weapon that should be used to increase caloric expenditure. In an initial phase it is unnecessary, seen as we still have many calories to dispose of through food cuts.

11) Don’t use fat burners or any supplement that increases your heart rate just because you think it’ll increase your energy expenditure.

12) We use no “trendy” diets like “zero carbs, 0 fats, high protein”.

13) It isn’t necessary for you to consume protein from a biological/animal source. It doesn’t matter if it’s 20g of milk/meat/fish/etc (good quality proteins) protein vs 20g of protein coming from carbohydrates (bread/pasta/rice/etc) or even from fats low in amino acids (low quality protein). This is because the importance of amino acids is relative when against a daily/weekly consumption of any type/source of protein supported by a sufficient consumption of thermodynamic energy. Protein quality would only be relevant of we were presented in an excessive weekly deficit of thermodynamic energy.

14) We don’t practice carbs that cycle carbohydrates because it doesn’t present a significant benefit when opposed to a flexible diet with appropriate nutrient dosages.

15) We use adequate macro and micronutrient doses custom to X or Y goals.

16) Thermodynamic energy “in” vs. Thermodynamic energy “out”.

17) Thermodynamic energy deficits that are adequate/correct for fat loss when your goal is to lose the least amount of muscle possible during the process.

18) Thermodynamic energy excess adequate/correct for muscle gain when the goal is to accumulate the least fat possible during the process.

SEE ALSO: WHY SHOULD WE EAT PIZZA?!

If our diet doesn’t give us a chance to eat our favorite meals every once in a while, then it’s time to try a different approach so that we can have a diet that doesn’t damage our lifestyle and that can provide us with the results we want.

To get to know our work methodology, so that you know what to do to get started on your transformation, contact us through our Contactos page.

Sugar! Insulin! Everyone goes nuts about glycemic index. Problem is, glycemic load is unknown to most.

As we’re sure you know, we hear loads of people talk about the glycemic index as if it were diets worst enemy. Truth is, it’s not that simple nor linear. Let us explain what the glycemic load is so that you can better understand what we’re going on about.

SEE ALSO: HYPERTROPHY TRAINIG DOESN’T BURN FAT!

Glycemic load is the classification system used to categorize a diet high in carbs, it measures the amount of carbs in a serving of a certain food.

Foods that contain a glycemic load (GL) below 10 are considered foods with a low GL and have little impact over blood sugar levels. Foods that score between 10 and 20 are considered moderate GL level foods and have a moderate impact on blood sugar levels. All foods classified 20 or above are considered to have a high GL and tend to cause spikes in blood sugar levels.

How does the glycemic load relate do the glycemic index?

Glycemic index indicates the speed at which a carbohydrate is digested and metabolized into glucose (sugar starch) in the blood stream. In other words, the speed at which a carbohydrate is transformed into glucose (sugar starch) in the blood stream. A food with a high containing high glycemic index raises blood sugar levels more than a food with a medium to low glycemic index.

But, glycemic index doesn’t have into account the amount of carbs in a certain food. So, glycemic load is a better parameter to evaluate how a certain carbohydrate will affect blood sugar levels.

If a certain food has a high glycemic index but a low glycemic load –  like a single X-type cookie that has a GI of 74, but has a GL of 8,1 – how will that negatively affect blood sugar levels?

Foods with a higher classification on the GI chart are a majority. Why? Because GI isn’t based on standard servings. Basically, if a food is classified as having high GI, is because it contains predominantly carbohydrates that are quickly absorbed. The question is that that same food can have a low GL due to the fact that it doesn’t contain many carbohydrates in the portion size it’s normally consumed in. A low GL is a better indicator of what the impact of eating said food will be on your blood sugar levels.

Here are two examples:

Watermelon has a high GI, 72. But, it has a low GL level, only 7,2. High GI is based on 5 cups of watermelon. A real serving would probably be around 1 cup of watermelon. Low GL means that that portion of watermelon doesn’t actually have that many carbohydrates because it’s mainly composed of water (just in case you hadn’t noticed the name…). This means that if you eat a realistic portion of watermelon, it won’t have much impact on blood sugar levels.

SEE ALSO: LUIS’S 11 WEEK TRANSFORMATION

Carrots are another example of a food with low GL, but many people think it will greatly raise blood sugar levels (because carrots have a GI of 71, quite high). That isn’t true because, what most people don’t know, is that the GL of carrots is only 6! So, unless you eat half a kilo of carrots in one setting, they will probably not have much impact on your blood sugar levels. With that being said, carrot juice – which means more carrots at once – will have a higher impact on your blood sugar levels than a moderate portion of carrots.

All we wanted to say is that the key to a sustainable diet is to be moderate and eat a bit of everything – yes, everything! – That’s what you call a flexible diet!

Hi guys. Surf the internet much? Always looking for ways to get in shape? Let us guess: you’ve come across multiple articles that promise “fast results”, “get slim fast”, “lose weight at light speed”, “gain 30 pounds of lean muscle in 30 days”, etcetera. The list of ‘keywords’ goes on, it’s up to each person’s imagination, all of them come up with tons of articles that promise to unveil “the secret”, “the unbeatable formula”, “what they don’t want you to know”… And then comes the part where food X or Y that transforms you into Superman/Woman or “the 8 foods you should never eat” or even “the only 5 foods you should eat”… infinite articles trying to take your money or simply make you waste your time.

SEE ALSO: WHY SHOULD WE EAT PIZZA?!

All of this just to tell you that the only factor that really matters whether it be body composition or decomposition is the amount of thermodynamic energy we store throughout a week. Yup, that’s right. Metabolism is a weekly process, it doesn’t happen in a matter of hours or even days. It takes its time, as should you, to achieve the results you want.

Now you ask: what about macro and micro and phyto nutrients? Don’t they matter?

What optimizes results is a correct ingestion of macro nutrients. These are the ones who offer us thermofynamic energy:

1g of carbohydrates = 4 unites of thermodynamic energy expressed in the kilocalorie chart;
1g of protein = 4 unites of thermodynamic energy expressed in the kilocalorie chart;
1g of fat = 9 unites of thermodynamic energy expressed in the kilocalorie chart;

If this were measured in the kilojoule chart, the values would be different. What matters is that thermodynamic energy is “heat”, and heat is always heat, wherever it comes from, as long as we can absorb it and metabolize/utilize it.

What this means is that you don’t get lean in a fast and effective way. You can get lean quickly, but losing weight involves a lot of things, not just fat:

You can lose fat, water – due to the carbohydrate reduction – (because each gram of carbs can accumulate up to 3g of water) and even muscle (because by eating less fat we have reduced hormone production which can greatly influence losses in the body).

Why can’t we just lose 100% fat by implementing an extreme caloric deficit in our diet?!?

It’s quite simple. Our body only decomposes/oxidizes X grams of adipose compounds (fat stores)  per week, meaning that a caloric deficit beyond that X amount that we can decompose/oxidize, is totally useless and will only make us decompose muscle compounds, which basically means we are killing ourselves.

For example, let’s imagine our energetic requirement for body maintenance is around 2500kcal and that we can only oxidize fat contained in our fat stores that provides us with 300kcal. Do you think it would be wise to lower our consumption to 2000kcals per day?

No!!! Our body will be “hungry” for 200kcals that we should be consuming, that will in turn be reflected on cellular decomposition (muscle mass)!! Since we don’t have sufficient energy to feed X number of cells which should be fed by those 200kcals, that X amount of cells would “die”, enter decomposition, like anything else in life when it doesn’t receive sufficient energy for maintenance.

The deficit has to be done progressively, little by little, until our metabolism gets used to the new caloric deficit (making us stagnate).. Only then should we lower our caloric consumption again, once again in a progressive manner!!

SEE ALSO: AN IMPARTIAL TAKE ON ARTIFICIAL SWEETNERS!

This process can seem very confusing for some, for others not so much. Don’t worry guys, that’s why we are here at your disposal, so that we can help you achieve the goals you want to achieve!

Your results are the reflection of our passion and dedication because our team only seeks excellence! We get better every email we exchange!

Our approach regarding nutrition is something that can and should be maintained for a long period of time, it isn’t just a trendy diet!

Little science lesson. Buckle up. Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur inside our organisms and it’s function is to change or produce molecules. Bored yet? It can be present in two ways: anabolic or catabolic state.

In the state of anabolism (oh you so love that word), compounds are created. In the opposite state, catabolism, there occurs a breakdown of said compounds. When we speak of diets for fat loss, people suffer from catabolism, because some of the particles of the body get degraded. That generates weight loss.

SEE ALSO: WHY WE SHOULD EAT PIZZA!

Contrary to what is common belief (that anabolism is the muscle building process and catabolism is the opposite, destruction of muscle mass), science tells us something else. Looking into the body at a cellular level, anabolism is the creation of compounds, which can be both muscle and fat (adipose). The opposite applies as well, catabolism is the decomposition of molecules both of muscle and fat.

Nowadays it’s trendy to talk about metabolism. Many people want to know their metabolic rate. There are many doubts regarding that question, however, it’s simpler than it appears. There is no magic formula that makes your metabolism become more or less accelerated (sorry..), there are many factors that play a role and must be considered and evaluated individually so that you can fully understand how ones metabolism functions. Weight, body fat percentage, age, height, gender, physical activity levels, all of these are important factors in the regulation of metabolism. If we look at those who have more weight, need a greater energetic value. Advanced age makes the metabolism slower. Men have more muscle mass in relation to women, that makes them have faster metabolisms. Despite all of that, physical exercise makes the metabolism faster. All of these factors must be considered, nonetheless, when the matter at hand is the metabolism of each person. But as we have said many a time, the only factor you can’t measure and has to be calculated through trial and error, that influences the heart rate, is how much energy we have been consuming throughout X amount of time.

To simply keep your body alive, you spend a certain amount of calories. When you breathe, sleep and all the rest of vital functions, your body needs energy. The amount that it need is related to the base metabolism rate of each person. In the case of fat loss, where a decrease in energy supplies occurs, the body, with time, demands less energy for maintaining vital functions, making the metabolism slower, adapting to its current situation. That’s known as the Plateau effect, in which case you need to decrease the energy available through physical activity or food reduction (or even both at the same time), so that you can continue to lose the expected weight.

Bearing this in mind, you can clearly see that in all situations, whether it be for loss, gain or maintenance of weight, the energetic requirements is different from person to person.

SEE ALSO: MARCO BATISTA’S 11 WEEK TRANSFORMATION

Sorry for the technical post, we know this can seem confusing to many of you, for others not so much, but don’t worry. That’s why we are here, at your disposal, ready to make you achieve the results you desire!