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THE 6 WEEK TONING PROGRAM - FREE FOR ALL

Since many people get lazy creating their own training and diet regimes, I have taken out time to make it for you all. Try it out and let me know how you like it.

 Click here to download it.

[thevigorblog]

Top 10 Weight Loss Myths Debunked

There is ALOT of bullshit on weight loss on the internet. A lot of bad advice by people who have no experience and just copy and paste stuff from other websites and blogs.

Most of it is unproven and some are literally proven not to work.

These are the 10 biggest lies you might come across on the internet while doing your research on weight loss :

1) Carbs will make you fat.

I’ve written in my previous posts on low-carb diets. Yes low-carb-high-protein diets do work, but that does not mean that carbs make you gain weight. According to a study in Britain, carbs have been eaten for a long long time but obesity came into the picture around the 80′s.

Honestly, it is the refined carbs(sugar, refined grains) that make you gain weight and not the whole foods having carbs. If you were to eat whole foods with carbs, you’d get good amounts of energy throughout the day and it would be less likely for you to store the carbs as fat.

Some complex carbs are :

- Potato

- Sweet Potato

- Brown Rice 

2) Fats will make you fat.

Yes, body fat is stored fat. So, if we think logically, taking in more fat, should store it as fat right? Wrong.

There is nothing fattening about fat, except that it is found in calorie-dense foods. If the food has saturated/unsaturated fats and not “transfat”, and if it fits your caloric intake, then the fats won’t make you store fat.

In addition, diets with high fat and low carbs, also known as the “ketogenic” diets, make you lose fat really quick.

Some good fat sources are :

- Cheese

- Butter

- Desi Ghee

- Nuts

- Fish oil

3) “Diet” foods will make you lose weight.

Nowadays, people are getting health conscious, and yes that is a good thing. One problem that is rising is the products labelled as “diet” foods, that fool people into buying them thinking that they have fat cutting properties.

One example is this :

If you still want to drink diet soda, consider that the “no calorie” claim doesn't actually mean “zero.” Although diet sodas with aspartame may be labeled as “calorie-free,” aspartame breaks down in the body into methanol and amino acids, which generate calories.

Some more examples are foods labelled “fat-free”, “gluten-free”, etc. 

Something to remember:

If a product specifies that it is good for health, probably means that it is bad for you.

4) You don’t have to count calories.

YES, YOU DO! 

People usually tend to underestimate their calories and overestimate their physical activity. Instead of eye balling what you eat, note down in a diary or on your phone, to know how many calories you are taking in and burning.

And remember that a calorie is a calorie whether it’s fat, sugar, or protein. Still, some foods are more calorie-rich than others. That means that they contain more calories per gram. Carbohydrates and protein have the same calories per gram. Fat, on the other hand, has twice as many, so the calories found in fat add up twice as fast. Eat fatty foods — dairy products, skin on meat, fatty meats — in moderation.

5) Eat less to lose weight.

Eating less will slow down your metabolism which will lead to a gain in weight and not the opposite. Where as if you eat 5 small meals through out the day, the body will tend to burn fat as your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) will be very high.

Eat whenever hungry, but do not over eat.

6) Don’t worry about your diet, just exercise.

Bull-freaking-shit. Imagine eating sweets and junk food all day and then working out. Will you feel energetic during your workout? I don’t think so. To have energy, you will need the right type of carbs and fats. The body is built only 30% in the gym. 60% of the work is from the diet you follow and 10% of your rest/sleep.

7) Check your weight on the weighing scale.

No. Don’t do that. Some people have heavy bones and it takes them long to lose their weight. That just demotivates them further. Instead, get an inch tape and take measurements of your body every 2 weeks. 

8) You can lose fat from a specific area by working on it.

Do you really think that is true? Like seriously? Some trainers say that if you want to lose abdominal fat, all you have to do are crunches and sit ups. That is so not true. If you have a body fat percentage higher than 16%, you should not be training your abs. That will just cause the stomach to bulge out due to the layer of muscle under the fat, making you look bulkier. Cardio, weight training and having a clean diet are the way to lose fat. You can not spot reduce fat.

9) Lifting weights wont help me lose fat, it will bulk me up further.

That is not true at all. When you lift heavy, your body gets into the fat burning state and your metabolic rate goes high that will make you lose fat and gain muscles. The more muscles you have, the faster you will burn calories 24/7. When you see a body builder, you will notice that they have fat percentage down to even 3-4%. That is obviously because of steroids but that is also because they have huge amounts of muscles. Yes, they do look bulky, but that is because of their muscle size. You won’t gain that naturally so that should be the last thing you should worry about.

10) Weight gain is unavoidable after 40.

Thinking this is just plain stupidity. Yes, it does get hard to lose weight as we age due to the slowing down of metabolism, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible. You can see so many 40 year olds that are fit as hell and don’t have any diseases. That is because they probably included fitness into their lifestyle when they were young. It is never too late to start working out and having a clean diet.Include lots of fibre and water into your diet. Lower the amount of sugar and fats. If you are serious about losing weight and getting fit, nothing can stop you. 

YOU CAN DO IT!

Sources :

www.prevention.com

www.today.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Does weight training bulk women up?

Most women have this misconception that if they lift weights, they’re going to look bigger and bulkier. There is a myth in which people still believe,that is, weight training will bulk you up.

Well it’s not your fault that you think you’re going to get bigger if you train with heavy weights. When you see guys working out, you see them getting bigger and you think that the same will happen to you.

Some women even make up an image of themselves as a freaky “lady-boy” looking bodybuilder flexing in the mirror. This doesn’t really happen. In fact, right the opposite thing happens. You start losing weight and you get toned. 

Seeing in the fitness magazines, and on fitness blogs, you will see bulky women, but do you really think they are natural? Males have 16-20  times more testosterone than females. Big muscles are all about the testicles. If you don’t have em, you’re going to have a hard time packing on a good muscle size. Those women you see in the fitness magazines, they use gear/steroids/injectable testosterone, to get those huge bodies. If males, that produce 15 times more test than females, have problem gaining their desired muscle size without steroids, imagine how hard it will be for a female to get to that size with the use of steroids. Basically, all I am saying is, it is naturally NOT POSSIBLE for a female to get that big.

What most of the ladies do when they go to the gym is, cardio, cardio and cardio. They spend hours on the treadmill, elliptical and on the stationary bikes trying to burn the fat off their bodies. Have you realised that you’ve hit the plateau now? You have stopped losing any more fat or inches off your waist? Now, it is time to start lifting some weights and having an actual training program. You don’t need to pay for expensive trainers to get the body you want. You’ve always got youtube to checkout amazing exercises.

I don’t know why but I actually feel insulted when someone says that they don’t want to gain too much muscle or look bulky. Like come on. SERIOUSLY. I have been busting my ass at least 6 days a week for almost 6 months now. Let me be the one to tell you that getting too muscular and bulky is the last thing you need to worry about. You can only look bulky if you carry a lot of fat.

Workout with a friend if you feel that you’re going to be judged by others. Take a male/female friend with you and have a proper workout plan that you are going to be following for your time at the gym. Don’t worry, guys and girls can use the same program. It will just work differently for women.

I’m sure you’ve heard before that muscle is more compact than fat. The reason for this is because of the difference in densities of the two types of tissue.Fat takes up more space because it’s very soft and loose so fat occupies more space than muscle does when comparing equal weights of both tissue types.

Reasons why women should lift :

It increases the metabolism and keeps it high 24/7.

It will get the confidence in you as you will be stronger than any average female.

It will enhance curves and will sculpt your body.

It increases bone density.

Lifting slows down the ageing process.

You will have high energy levels through out the day and lifting will also reduce anxiety and depression.

Increases quality of life and well-being in countless areas such as sexuality, vitality, and relationships.

I would like to conclude by saying that you are more likely to get “bulky” if you do not lift weights. So stop over thinking and start lifting. Cardio combined with weight training combined with clean meals will do wonders for you and you will have your desired body before you know it.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Sources :

hoffmanfit.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

The Ketogenic Diet - The High Fat Low Carbs Diet

The Ketogenic diet is a low carb, adequate protein and high fat diet that has many benefits. What this diet does is, it forces the body to burn fats faster than carbohydrates. The carbohydrates usually turn into glucose, which is transported around the body to fuel the brain function. However, if the carbohydrates intake is low, the liver turns fat into fatty acids and ketones. The ketones are then passed to the brain which replace glucose as the energy source. The reduction in carbs puts the body in a metabolic state known as Ketosis. This burns fats faster and gives energy. 

Consuming fat does not mean that you start eating junk and fried/sugary stuff. You have to eat healthy fats and maintain a clean diet.

The types of healthy fats you should include are :

1) Avocados - They are rich in monounsaturated fats which raise levels of good cholesterol.

2) Butter/Desi Ghee - The omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids found in butter help your brain function properly and improve skin health. No, Desi ghee, if taken in the right quantities will not make you fat, but will actually make you lose weight.

3) Coconut Oil - High amount of natural saturated fats in coconut oil mean that it increases good cholesterol and promotes heart health. Adding coconut oil to your food is easy though it does have a strong flavour.

4) Olive oil - It is great for heart health and is a much healthy alternative for vegetable oil.

5) Chia Seeds - Great for keeping bad cholesterol low.

6) Flax Seed - It is great for heart health and also has a great amount of fibre.

7) Fish Oil (Dietary Supplement) - Helps in keeping bad cholesterol low and promotes heart health. Also helps in increasing testosterone in males which helps in fat burning.

8) All types of nuts - Good source of fibre and fats.

The healthy complex carbs you can include into your diet in very low quantities are :

1) Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes 

2) Multi grain bread

3) Rice/Brown Rice

4) Bananas

I would name some great protein sources too but I am sure you all know what non vegetarians can eat to get their proteins from. 

These are some vegetarian protein sources though :

1) Cottage Cheese/Paneer - Good source of protein and fats

2) Spinach

3) Broccoli - Good source of fibre, carbs and protein

4) Tofu

5) Soya

6) Milk

7) Mushrooms

8) Cabbage 

THIS IS A SAMPLE KETOGENIC DIET :

Monday

Breakfast: Bacon, eggs and tomatoes.

Lunch: Chicken salad with olive oil and feta cheese.

Dinner: Salmon with asparagus cooked in butter.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Egg, tomato, basil and goat cheese omelet.

Lunch: Almond milk, peanut butter, cocoa powder and stevia milkshake.

Dinner: Meatballs, cheddar cheese and vegetables.

Wednesday

Breakfast: A ketogenic milkshake (try this or this).

Lunch: Shrimp salad with olive oil and avocado.

Dinner: Pork chops with Parmesan cheese, broccoli and salad.

Thursday

Breakfast: Omelet with avocado, salsa, peppers, onion and spices.

Lunch: A handful of nuts and celery sticks with guacamole and salsa.

Dinner: Chicken stuffed with pesto and cream cheese, along with vegetables.

Friday

Breakfast: Sugar-free yogurt with peanut butter, cocoa powder and stevia.

Lunch: Beef stir-fry cooked in coconut oil with vegetables.

Dinner: Bun-less burger with bacon, egg and cheese.

Saturday

Breakfast: Ham and cheese omelet with vegetables.

Lunch: Ham and cheese slices with nuts.

Dinner: White fish, egg and spinach cooked in coconut oil.

Sunday

Breakfast: Fried eggs with bacon and mushrooms.

Lunch: Burger with salsa and cheese.

Dinner: Steak and eggs with a side salad.

This diet usually suits everyone but sometimes, a body might take some time to adapt to this diet. Side effects may include :

1) Low energy

2) Sleep issues

3) Tummy problems

4) Increased hunger

This is known as a “Keto-Flu”. A ketogenic diet can also change the water and mineral balance of your body, so adding extra salt to your meals or taking mineral supplements can help.

There have been many studies that show that besides burning fat, ketogenic diet has many more health benefits. It helps preventing Heart diseases, Many types of Cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, Epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, Polycystic Ovaries Syndrome (PCOD/PCOS), Brain Injuries and Acne.

I would like to conclude by saying that the ketogenic diet can boost insulin sensitivity and cause fat loss, leading to drastic improvement for type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes.

Source : 

https://authoritynutrition.com

https://en.wikipedia.org

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Bodybuilding for College Students

If you are in a college in a completely different city, away from your family, there are chances that you are cooking the same food everyday. Probably some cup noodles, maggi, or other junk that is cheap and readily available. You want to start lifting but you are on a low budget. Your parents don’t want to buy you the supplements you “need”. Oh come on. That is just an excuse we all know that.

This post is about what foods you can buy and cook yourself even on a low budget. You don’t really need the expensive supplements to look fit. All you need is a good training program and a clean diet.

The cheap and effective food products are listed below :

1) Chicken Breast - Very high in protein. About a 100g contains 24g of protein.

2) Eggs - Each whole egg is 6g of protein.

3) Broccoli - Broccoli has carbs, protein and fibre. Most of the carbs come from dietary fibre.

4) Tomatoes - They contain fibre. They also have natural sugar which will cut your sugar cravings.

5) Potatoes - A very good source of carbs. They give instant energy when taken before workouts.

6) Oats - A very good source of carbs and fibre.

7) Rice - Brown/White both are good sources of carbohydrates.

8) Milk - A good source of protein and carbohydrates.

9) Coffee - When taken in the right dosage, the caffeine will work as a great fat burner and stimulant before workout.

10) Multigrain bread - Not brown bread/not white bread, but multigrain bread. Amazing source of fibre and carbs.

These are a few food items that can be substituted for those expensive supplements.

Having potatoes/rice with chicken/eggs and adding any of the fibre I listed above with coffee, 1 hour to 1 and a half hour pre workout will give you a boost of energy. You won’t need to buy any preworkout supplements. It is all in your brain. If you think you can do it, you will be able to.

Having chicken/eggs/broccoli with any carbs after the workout will work like a good post workout. If you want a shake, you can mix eggs in milk, yes raw, and some honey, and you will have a good amount of protein right after your workout.

So, stop making that, “I NEED SUPPLEMENTS TO GROW” excuse and go work hard in the gym to see the results you want. Always remember, a clean diet and a good training plan will get you to where you want to be. Supplements just give that extra edge, when you are already a bit built. Oh and stop having junk. That will make you lose on your gains.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Sources - 

www.bodybuilding.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Keep losing weight with injuries

Having an injury is not an excuse for you to be gaining weight. If it is your injury making you gain weight, then these people should be obese. 

Right? Wrong. 

It is the motivation and hard work that made them look like what they do now. Yes they must’ve taken performance enhancing drugs but trust me, it doesn’t make much big of a difference. The hard work, the clean diets and the rest is as important as a natural bodybuilder would need.

Their legs stopped working. They can not get off their wheelchairs, but they still manage to fit in an hour of workout daily into their life. You for example, get a sprain in your elbow or a problem in your knee and you have to stop working out? That’s your excuse?

Yes, I understand that if you perform a certain set of exercises, they might make your injuries worse, but, how about you don’t bring those injured areas into action?

The most common injuries that people have are :

- Knee Pain

- Ankle Sprain

- Hamstring Strain

- Elbow Injuries

- Lower back pain

Believe me, I’ve had days where I sprained my ankles while running on the treadmill. What I did was, get home, apply a heat balm and rest my feet. The next day I’d be on the treadmill giving my best again and eating clean every single day.

If you have a chronic disease, like a knee injury for example, it’s not that you have to cut out on all leg exercises. Wear a knee cap and go out and perform exercises. Work on your calves and on your upper body. These injuries should not make you gain weight. What I’d say is, stay motivated, eat really really clean, and workout on your upper body. Yes, upper body workouts will make you lose weight because upper body exercises will make your heart rate rise, that’ll make you burn calories faster.

People with knee injuries can workout on an elliptical machine to lose weight. Just keep your knees a bit bent and hold the bars. Then hit the machine as hard as you can, keeping the level low. It won’t affect your knees, where as a treadmill will. so don’t worry about that. Even cycling will do good for you as it is a low impact machine and will not shock your knees. Go at a pace that you can continue at for 40-45 minutes.

For each of these injuries listed below, to lose weight, I would say that they best way to go is to eat clean. A body is build only 30% at the gym. The rest is in your kitchen. The cleaner your diet, the faster you’ll lose your weight. Here I go again, WATER, yes, WATER. Stay hydrated throughout the day to drop your weight. Water will help you clean your body of the harmful toxins.

These are some videos to show which workouts you can perform so that certain joints don’t get affected :

This video has some amazing workouts that can be performed while seated. This will also show you some amazing fat loss foods that you can have to lose weight. This is so that the lower back/legs don’t get in action in case you have any injuries. This is a type of a pull under your knee that will make the pain go away if this exercise is done daily.

To cure pain in elbow joints, these are a few good exercises that can be performed everyday :

This is an exercise showing stretches for the back if you have any injuries. These really helped me out when I was in pain.

*One more thing to relieve pain is to take shower while alternating the temperature of the water. For example, shower for 1 whole minute in cold water and then in hot water for 1 minute. Keep alternating the temperature. Do this everyday to relieve the soreness and pains of the body.

I am going to conclude this post by saying that taking knee injury or any other injury as an excuse for your weight gain is lame. Having a clean diet, resting well and exercising will make you lose weight. The exercises I wrote about above are amazing exercises and they DO work.

Click this link to checkout my post on crash diets if you would like to check them out : CRASH DIETS

If those people in wheel chair can build a physique like that, losing weight would be a cake walk for you. If they could do it, YOU CAN DO IT!

Sources :

www.nowloss.com

www.amsvans.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

DIETARY FAT

There are three types of fat :

1) Unsaturated Fats

2) Saturated Fats

3) Trans Fats

Let’s know in detail what each of these are :

1) Unsaturated Fats 

Unsaturated fats are fats that are liquid at room temperature. They are considered to be beneficial because they improve blood cholesterol levels, stabilize heart rhythms, and also play other beneficial roles. They are usually found in foods from plants for example vegetable oil, nuts and seeds.

There are two types of unsaturated fats :

-Monounsaturated Fats

Monounsaturated fats are a healthy alternative to the trans fats and refined polyunsaturated fats you find in most processed foods. These can be found in :

a) Seeds such as pumpkin and sesame seeds

b) Nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans

c) Avocados (Avocados can be substituted for butter. Spread one on a bread and it’ll really fill you up the healthy way.)

d) Olive, peanut, and canola oils

-Polyunsaturated Fats

These can be found in :

a) Fish

b) Flax seeds

c) Walnuts

d) Sunflower, corn, soybean, and flaxseed oils

Omega-3 fats are an important  type of polyunsaturated fat. The body can’t make these, so they must come from food.

An excellent way to get omega-3 fats is by eating fish 2-3 times a week.

Good plant sources of omega-3 fats include flax seeds, walnuts, and canola or soybean oil.

Fish oil tablets are available too as a supplement to give you Omega - 3 fats.

2) Saturated Fats

All foods containing fat have a mix of specific types of fats. Even health foods like chicken and fish though much less as compared to Beef and cheese. Saturated fat is mainly found in animal foods, but a few plant foods are also high in saturated fats, such as coconut, palm oil, and palm kernel oil.

Most of your saturated fats come from :

Pizza and cheese

Whole and reduced fat milk, butter and dairy desserts

Meat products (bacon for example has the highest fat content)

Cookies and other grain-based desserts

Cutting back on saturated fat can be good for health if people replace saturated fat with good fats, especially, polyunsaturated fats.

Eating good fats in place of saturated fat can also help prevent insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes. This is in relation to my previous post about PCOS.

3) Trans Fats

Trans fatty acids, more commonly called trans fats, are made by heating liquid vegetable oils in the presence of hydrogen gas and a catalyst, a process called hydrogenation.

Hydrogenation of oil makes them turn into solid at room temperature so that they can be used again and again. These kind of oils are used in frying. Fast foods are the ones who use most trans fatty acids. Partially hydrogenated oil is not the only source of trans fats in our diets. Trans fats are also naturally found in beef fat and dairy fat in small amounts.

Trans fats are worse for cholesterol levels than saturated fats because they:

Raise bad LDL and lower good HDL

Create inflammation – a reaction related to immunity – which has been implicated in heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic conditions

Contribute to insulin resistance. 

Can have harmful health effects even in small amounts – for each additional 2 percent of calories from trans fat consumed daily, the risk of coronary heart disease increases by 23 percent.

Always try to include more of unsaturated fats into your diet. Trans fats are the worst type of fats which will harm you internally in the long run.

Don’t forget, try to include fats in your daily life because they are important too. Cutting out Fat won’t make you lose weight. In fact, 60% of your brain is made up of fats. 

YOU CAN DO IT!

Sources : 

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu

https://www.nhs.uk

http://www.stylecraze.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

How to curb your cravings

So you start a diet, and have been following it religiously for 3-4 days. You make it through day 4. Sitting in bed surfing your phone at 1 AM, you start craving sugar. Some crave chips and other unhealthy carbs. Don’t worry, it happens to everyone and is completely normal. Many people stop following their diets just because of one night. One night they eat something wrong and then they regret it the next day and try to starve themselves or run on the treadmill for hours. It doesn’t work that way. You need to control yourself. 

It’s not only the night that’ll make you have the cravings. You might have cravings during the day too. So what happens is you cook your diet food, and you see that everyone else is having something delicious. You think one bite won’t hurt. You try a bite and the next thing you know is you’re having a plateful of that tasty food. 

Women are especially vulnerable to cravings. During their periods, women tend to have more cravings for sweets and carbs than anyone else. A survey that I conducted on Facebook informed me that females gain 1-2 kgs within that 1 week due to their cravings. It is not their fault, it’s just the hormones doing their work.

First thing you have to do to curb your cravings is to not even try a bite of anything that is outside of your diet plan. Not even a single bite.

Try to avoid keeping chocolates at home. “What does keeping a chocolate at home have to do with cravings?” Imagine keeping a gun at home for example. Someone is gonna use it one day or the other right? The gun is the chocolate in this case. It’s better to not keep it at home. Dark Chocolate is an exception. If you crave sugar, try to keep dark chocolate at home. Dark chocolate will fulfil your sugar craving while cutting your fat. Have it in a limit though.

Try to eat regularly. Eating with big gaps in between will lead you to choosing sugary, fatty foods that cut your hunger. My best bets would be high protein foods and foods high in fibre. Protein will fill you up and will suppress hunger. Eat every 2-3 hours as I’ve said earlier.

Eat 1-2 apples a day. The sugar in the apple will keep your sugar cravings down and will also keep you healthy. An apple a day keeps the doctor away remember? That is not only a thing to tell your kids so that they have apples. Apples actually are healthy.

If you’re having a craving, try going out for a walk or try to divert your mind until the craving is gone. Trust me, the diversion will make the craving go away.

A banana always helps. A banana will suppress your hunger, will make the sugar craving go away, and will also make the menstrual cramps go away. Do not exceed 1 banana after 7 PM.

Cut back on the coffee. Yes. You read this right. Caffeine will make you have sugar cravings because in the end caffeine will make you have a crash and will get you really tired. Instead, have no more than two cups of coffee. Add protein with the coffee, like almonds or walnuts to make you have that energy you need throughout the day.

HYDRATE! HYDRATE! HYDRATE! Yes, I say this in all of my posts. I say this because water is important for everything. Most of the cravings we have are because of low water intake. Our body is made up of 70% of water. Staying hydrated will keep all the cravings low.

This table will let you know the reasons for your different cravings and will give you alternatives for your cravings :

What to do if you’ve already indulged in eating?

Well first of all, relax. Don’t beat yourself up. You might also think like “I’ve already had the chips, now I’ll just have the ice-cream too.”  NO! You can’t do that. Instead, tell yourself “I’ve given myself a treat, now, I’m done.”

The day after a big splurge, eat a half cup of high-fibre cereal with your usual breakfast, then again as an afternoon snack and after dinner. This will help counter your increased hunger by putting a layer of slow-to-digest fibre in your stomach. It's easier to resist cravings when you feel full.

Do your usual cardio. Don’t over do it and overtrain yourself. 40-45 minutes of steady state cardio or 15-25 minutes of High Intensity Cardio will help you burn some calories off.

Promise yourself to not eat junk and sugary stuff the whole week. Treat yourself on a weekend if you go through this week without losing to your cravings and eating junk. Have a cheat day, only if you curb your cravings all week.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Sources :

fitnessmagazine.com

webmd.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Home workouts (No equipments needed)

Who says you need a gym membership to get fit? All you need is a clean diet, motivation, and a good gym songs playlist. Well the last one is up to you. 

Many people nowadays are having heart problems and other diseases which are linked to obesity. Many have back problems due to their bad postures. In this post, I will be giving home workouts including cardio and some other body toning exercises for every part. I will also be putting up a link to this youtube video. It is a motivational song with a person speaking while the song goes on. It will motivate you to work out.

Let’s start with cardio. No you do not need a treadmill. You just have to run on the spot. Yeah it sounds crazy but that’s all you have to do. Remember HIIT? Try using that here. Set up a timer. Run as fast as you can at the spot for 1 minute and then stop for 30 seconds. Repeat that cycle for as long as you can. You’ll see from the sweat that it’s working. This will burn calories throughout the day and night, even while you are asleep. You can try Burpees and also Stair- Climbs. Try putting these 3 in a circuit and do as many rounds as you can. You’ve made your own home cardio. This is a video showing a home HIIT cardio workout :

Let’s move to the arms now. To train your arms you can try doing pushups. They will work on your chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps and even the back. There are variations in pushups. You can try the variations and they activate different muscles. If you are trying pushups for the first time, go for half pushups. Do them every day and you will be able to do the normal ones in no time. This is how you do half pushups :

To work your biceps, try this version : 

Triceps activation :

Chest version :

To activate your back muscles, put to chairs together and just like basic pushups, place your hand on the chairs. Now perform the pushup and go as low as you can between the seats till the lats stretch. Then push and move back up. That will hit your back muscles.

Exercises to work other muscle groups :

Biceps

This is an exercise which can be performed at home using just a towel and a school bag. No jokes.

This is how you do it :

-Create a sling with a towel to hold one of your feet, allowing you to provide as much or little resistance as necessary. Grab a large bath towel and fold it over a few times, and then hold one end in each hand. Stand with your back leaning against a wall, and position your feet about 1 foot in front of you. Keeping your right knee slightly bent, bend your left knee, and position your left foot in the center of the towel. Keeping your upper arms still, curl the edges of the towel toward you, using your foot to resist the movement. The knee movement will make you feel the contraction in the muscles. Do it till failure for as many rounds as you desire.

-Another way you can do bicep curls is to pick up your school/laptop bag and fill it up with books. Fill as many books as you think you can curl. Hold the bag in front of you in one hand. Keep the other hand behind your back and keep your back straight. Concentrate on your biceps and squeeze as you curl the bag. Go slow on the negatives. You will feel the burn when you do it a couple of times. Use the other hand now.

These two exercises won’t need any gym equipments.

Triceps

There are two body weight exercises which you can try to do to work on your triceps :

Chair dips. You must’ve heard of them right? You need a chair. Grab onto the chair as shown in this picture :

As you see in the picture, you move up and down using just your triceps. If it starts working on your shoulder, move back a bit and try again. Do the dips until failure and you will feel a burn in the triceps at the end of the workout.

Triceps extensions on the floor are a new thing I had learnt that really make you feel the burn in your triceps. To do the triceps extension on the floor, place your hand as shown in the picture :

Now, push yourself using your triceps. It will really give that burn and the pump to the triceps. Do it until failure to really tone the triceps.

Forearms

Forearms will be trained in every exercise you do but to specifically target the forearms, use the same school/laptop bag. Keep your forearms on your thighs and hold the bag tight hanging it from your knee. Now, just curl your wrist with the bag in your hand unless the forearms start getting the burn from inside. Hold the bag with your palm facing downwards and repeat. Now change the hand and do the same.

Do these until failure to really have them pumped by the end of your workout.

Chest

Pushups are no doubt the best home exercises for chest but there is one more that can be performed using a baggage. 

When I was staying in this hotel with no gym, I was depressed. So, just to keep the pump, I picked up the baggage with my clothes in it and lay down on the bed. What you got to do is hold the bag parallel to your chest and bring it down just before your elbows touch the bed. Push the bag back and squeeze the muscle as you push it. Do it like you would push a bar for a bench press.

Remember to squeeze with every push.

Back

Another exercise that can be performed at home using just a towel. Tie the towel around a tree outside the house or any other place in the house where you can tie it around. This is how you have to tie it :

This works like the lat rowing machine. It will hit the lats. To hit the lower lats, try wrapping your legs around the grip and doing the same. Have a controlled movement and feel the contraction as you pull yourself towards the tree.

Another way you can hit the back is by doing lying down pushups. You don’t need a smith machine for that. There’s a home alternative for this.

Place two chairs together and place a broom/any other stick which is sturdy, between it. Something like this :

Pull your chest towards the stick using your back. If you don’t feel it working your back, move a bit forward or backwards and adjust accordingly. Do a good amount of reps and you shall feel the back getting pumped.

Shoulders + Traps

Body weight side laterals is a great exercise to hit the shoulders without using any equipment. What you have to do is, lie to one side as you would while doing planks :

Now using your shoulder and controlling the movement, move to this position :

This will really hit the shoulders. Alternate and workout on both the sides to really feel the burn.

For the traps, all you got to do is, look in the mirror and do a shrug by just lifting the shoulder. Look into the mirror straight and do a shrug. A slow, controlled shrug. Squeeze at the top and come down slow. If you want resistance, hold two water bottles or anything heavy that you have a pair of in each hand and do a shrug. That will hit your traps.

Quads

There are many exercises that can be performed at home to really hit the quads. Try doing 100 bodyweight controlled squats. That means go really slow as you do a squat and do a 100 reps without stopping. You will start feeling the burn in your quadriceps.

Another exercise is wall holds. Keep your back pressed against a wall and go into a squat position. Hold that position until your quads really start to burn. Repeat as many times as you think you can until failure. You will feel like your legs are going to explode.

Jumping squats can be performed too. In these, you jump as high as you can and when you go down, change to the squat position. From there just jump again. You will feel your quads being used.

Hamstrings + Glutes

To really hit the hamstring, try doing lunges at home. You can do on the spot lunges or even move from one place to another to do them. There is a variation where you place your leg on a chair and complete lunges with one leg and then move to the other. That will give the burn to the hamstrings of the leg you are working on.

Standing hamstring curls can be performed too without equipment. Just stand with your hands on your waist. Curl one foot to touch your butt and slowly bring it back down and stop right before it touches the floor. Do a couple of reps before moving to the other leg.

Do this Glute bridge exercise to really tone your glutes. This will make you feel the burn in your glutes. If you feel any discomfort or pressure on the lower back, stop this workout and stretch.

Calves

To tone your calves, there are many different exercises. The best one yet is standing calf extensions. You have to stand at a point with your back straight. Lift your heels and go up on your toes while you squeeze the calves. Come down slowly and do it again. Repeat until you feel the burn in the calves. A variation is present, where in you keep one leg behind the other and just do the extension with one leg at a time. That hits the calves pretty well too.

You can also do extensions while sitting down on a chair or on a bench. All you have to do is concentrate on lifting your heels using your calves and then you will really feel the burn.

Abs

There are many home workout to train your abs. The most popular one is :

Do these everyday to start seeing results. 

These exercises are for beginners who want to tone their body. 

I think if you don’t want to get a gym membership but want to tone your body, give these exercises a try. Yes, it will take time, but I promise that in the end, it’s all going to be worth it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. It’s the hard that makes it great. Right?

YOU CAN DO IT!

Sources : 

wikihow.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24

neilaray.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

How to avoid weight gain during Ramadan.

So on conducting a survey on Facebook and other social networking sites, I got to know that my Muslim friends gain weight rather than losing. Well, not all of them, but most do end up putting on a few pounds. The Ramadan fast is a type of intermittent fast which is done to lose weight. Both have the same concept where you don’t eat for many hours and then eat a meal after the fast is broken. Then why do most Muslims end up gaining rather than losing?

There are many reasons they put on fat. Some of them are :

1) The sugary drinks that are consumed with the food as the fast is broken after sunset.

2) The yummy sweets that are served at parties which happen almost every night.

3) Starving all day, everyone thinks that they should stuff themselves all night to have feel full and energetic the next day and they end up eating ALOT. LIKE, ALOT.

4) The long hours of fasting slow down the metabolism leading to slower burning of calories.

5) Sleeping right after consuming carbs and sugar leads to storage of fat.

These are not the only reasons for the weight gain. These are just the ones I came across while conducting the survey.

Most people do not like to go for workouts and feel lethargic because of no food between sunrise and sunset. They either just sit on the sofas and watch TV all day, waiting for sunset, or lie in bed. This too leads to weight gain because you consume more calories than you are burning.

**This is a calculator to let you know how many calories you burn through out the day without any workout from bodyengine.com

There are many ways in which you can try to lose weight or atleast avoid gaining fat. 

You can keep a track of how many calories your body will burn while you are at rest though it may vary because your metabolism is lower. According to that you can consume calories.

Another way would be to keep a journal of what you consume through out the day. Seeing how much you’ve eaten will make you realise what you are doing and that might lead to you not eating as much as you usually would.

I would suggest keeping packets of **Lipton Green Tea, **in your pockets or purse or something and to have it every 2-3 hours till you have to start fasting again. That will keep you energised the next day and will also increase your metabolism.

Some people focus so much on eating that they forget to fulfill their water intake requirements. Keep a 1-2 litre bottle of water by your side at all times. That will keep your stomach clean and clear of all toxins. You can divide your water intake in this way :

• Two glasses at iftar (the breaking of the fast)

• Four glasses in between iftar and suhur (the meal before the fast) - 

• Two glasses at suhur

Try not to consume too much of red meat. That will include beef and mutton. They contain creatine which will make you bloated and will lead to water retention. Try to go for fish and chicken breast. Avoid carbs and fats as much as possible.

Keep the sugar consumption low. If you want to have a sweet drink with your food, go for coconut water. Do not have too much of coconut water either though. Avoid the sweets too if possible. Have just one bowl if you really get tempted but not more.

Try working out in the morning 1-2 hours after your fast starts again because that is the time you will be energetic. If you don’t like going to the gym, try jogging outside your house with music on or try “**On-the-spot running”. **If you want, you can also try to climb up and down your home stairs a couple of times during the day. That’ll help keep the metabolism high. The gym-goers can continue lifting but I’d recommend doing higher reps at low weight to get most out of your workouts during Ramadan. Take this as a cutting phase huh?

Try to sleep for 7-8 hours during the day. No sleep will make you gain weight and sleeping for prolonged hours will cause weight gain too.

When you break the fast, try to not have carbs until 2-3 hours before starting your fast again because that will give you energy if you plan on working out at that time. Carbs include - Rice, Khabus, Banana, Oats, Flour, etc.

Include salads with every meal you have because that will keep your stomach clean. 

The only way you'll gain weight during Ramadan is if you eat too much (eat too many calories) and make a habit of binging on bad foods at Iftar.

RAMADAN KAREEM TO ALL MY FRIENDS! HAVE A BLESSED RAMADAN!

YOU CAN DO IT!

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Fat burners - Do you need them?

Staying in India, doing my GM and workouts during my summer, I had lost some weight. The trainers in India always try force you into buying supplements just to earn some extra money. You ask them for exercises and they will start suggesting fat burners, protein powders and other supplements. 

I was suggested “Grenade Thermo Detonator” by one of my trainers. I went home and researched on it. It had a banned substance “Ephedra” in it.

*Ephedra is a stimulant which raises the heart beat higher than its normal rate. It is an ancient Chinese herb for treating Asthma and different types of allergies. It is called “Ma Huang” in China. It was banned on April 12 2004 due to the rising heart problems people using this substance, were facing.*

Like most people, I wasn’t ready to put my health at stake just to lose some weight. I researched and found many fat burners with the same substance - “Ephedra/Ephedrine”. I was shocked as to how many companies were using Ephedra even after it was banned. 

The fat burners I put on my list were :

1) Hydroxy Cut - Hardcore Next Gen :

2) Universal Fat Burner :

3) BSN Hyper Shred :

4) Cellucor Super HD :

Q. Which fat burner did I buy?

The one I bought was “HydroxyCut Next Gen” because that had the best reviews and also there were many videos on youtube showing the transformation of people using this fat burner. This fat burner had caffeine and green coffee extract as the stimulants. Green coffee is a great fat burner.

What this fat burner does is, it gives us instant energy so that our workouts get better. It gets our body into a thermogenic state. That means that our body stays warm till the pill is working, burning more calories than usual.

Q. Did the fat burner work?

I don’t think it’s the burner that did the work. It was my “high protein no carb high fibre” diet and the HIIT I used to perform everyday combined with strength training. Yes it does give you a burst of energy and helps during the workout. It also helps focus the mind on one thing, no doubt about that.

I actually started losing weight after the bottle of burner got over.  That is when I actually started dropping weight. Probably because the energy from the pill got me to have a higher motivation but I can’t really say. Although if you want, I think hydroxycut is a really good fat burner to start with. 100 capsules would cost you around $27 only.

The other way to go is to buy a packet of green coffee or green tea. You can have green coffee 3 times a day every day to see results. Green tea can be taken 4-5 times a day to see amazing results. They might dehydrate you, so do keep having water every few hours to avoid unwanted stress on the kidneys. Also do not exceed the dosage. Use but don’t abuse. It will only spoil your health. 

Q. Who can use this?

Any one who is not pregnant, is above the age of 18, has no heart problems and is not using any blood thinners.

Also if you have an upcoming surgery, discontinue the usage of this substance two weeks prior to the surgery.

Another fat burner the trainers might suggest is Clenbutrol/Cbutrol/Clen-40/Astralean. They are the same substance with different names. This was used to treat asthma but the fitness industry started seeing results when this product was used properly. At any cost DO NOT TRY THIS until you are into professional bodybuilding or atleast know how to use this. This comes into the category of steroids and can have fatal side effects.

I would like to conclude by saying that fixing your diet and including a combination of cardio and strength training will help you reach your goal and you do not really need a fat burner. Even though, if you are like me, and are curious to know if they actually work, go ahead and do your research and try a fat burner. Think wisely.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Sources :

www.bodybuilding.com

www.drugs.com

www.webmd.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Are “Crash diets” worth trying?

There are many crash diets I tried when I started out on my journey to lose weight. Many worked too but I had side effects due to not taking precautions side by side. 

I’ll explain everything in this post so that you guys don’t make the same mistakes I made.

Do crash diets work?

It depends on what your goal is. If you want to lose weight within a given period of time or by a certain date, crash diets are certainly effective. 

What are the problems associated with crash dieting?

See, there are no such problems but the thing is that they put a lot of stress on your body thus can not be implemented for a long time. It shocks the body, thus leading to weight drop and inch loss. 

Will you gain weight once you stop the diet?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Once you get back to your normal routine, you will start gaining weight because the diet will have slowed down your metabolism. Yes that is what it does when you suddenly stop eating proper meals. If your goal is long term weight loss, you will have to include a diet that you can implement into everyday life.

I will mention the different types of crash diets in this post that do work. I will also talk about the ones I’ve tried. In the end I will talk about the diet I started following which was not a crash diet but which made my weight drop gradually.

People go for insane diets like the tapeworm diet.

Watch it, laugh at it, but DO NOT TRY IT! People infect themselves with tape worms and lose weight that way. I don’t think any of us would like to put our health at risk, trying to lose weight would we?

So now talking about some real crash diets. There are many crash diets that people follow to lose weight. They are listed below :

1) The Juice Fast Diet - This diet was taken from the movie “Fat, Sick and nearly dead”.  You have to follow a juices only diet for 60 days. This sounds crazy doesn’t it? People do go to extremes and have actually lost upto 30-35 kgs in those two months. You can give it a try for a week if you want but 2 months is a very long time.

In this video, this woman talks about how she lost about a 100 pounds(45 kgs) following the juice fast diet.

2) The General Motors Diet - As I spoke about this diet in my first post, this diet got famous in the 90′s. The employees of General Motors started this diet to stay fit and people started seeing results within this 1 week crash diet so it got famous. Click here to see how to follow this diet.

3) The Cabbage Soup Diet - This diet promises a drop of 5-6 kgs in a week. It depends on you how you want to prepare the soup.

The cabbage soup I used to prepare will need :  

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

1/2 head cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped (Optional)

About 2 litres of water

1 tomato, drained and diced

These are the steps to follow -

In a large stockpot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic; cook until onion is transparent, about 5 minutes.

Stir in water,  salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then stir in cabbage. Simmer until cabbage wilts, about 10 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes. Return to a boil, then simmer 15 to 30 minutes, stirring often.

It should be ready within 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Cabbage has a lot of fibre and that is what will make you drop your weight because it will cleanse your stomach.

4) The 3 day military diet - This is one interesting diet. It has been floating around on the internet for a long time now. For 3 days you can eat, and only eat what is prescribed. No deviation. No substitutes. This diet restricts calories but it may be the perfect diet if you want to lose weight for that upcoming occasion. People have said that they’ve lost upto 5 kgs in those 3 days. 

The diet is as follows :

Day 1 -

Breakfast 1/2 Grapefruit 1 Slice of Toast – preferably wholegrain 2 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter 1 cup Coffee or Tea (with caffeine)

Lunch 1/2 Cup of Tuna or lean protein substitute 1 Slice of Toast 1 cup Coffee or Tea (with caffeine)

Dinner 85g of any type of meat or protein substitute(soya/tofu) 1 cup of green beans 1/2 banana 1 small apple 1 cup of vanilla ice cream 

Day 2 -

Breakfast 1 egg 1 slice of toast 1/2 banana

Lunch 1 cup of cottage cheese 1 hardboiled egg 5 saltine crackers

Dinner 2 hot dogs (without bun) 1 cup of broccoli 1/2 cup of carrots 1/2 banana 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream

Day 3 -

Breakfast 5 saltine crackers 1 slice of cheddar cheese 1 small apple

Lunch 1 hardboiled egg (or cooked however you like) 1 slice of toast

Dinner 1 cup of tuna 1/2 banana 1 cup of vanilla ice cream

Day 4 – 7 (optional)

Eat what you like, but keep it to a maximum of 1500 calories a day. Over 80% of people misjudge how many calories they eat, so if you’re serious about getting skinny, keep a journal.

These are substitutes for meat if you are a vegetarian :

· Lentils

· Soya or Tofu

· Quorn

· Cottage cheese

· Nuts

This is a vlog by @BeYouBeautiFULL following the military diet.

5) Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s 7-Day Crash Diet (Approved by Dr. Oz) - People have lost upto 5 kgs in a week including fluid loss.

Under this crash diet, you can eat these foods as much as you want :

Dark leafy vegetables

Fresh fruits

Starchy vegetables

These should be just 10% of your meals :

Meat - Fish/Chicken/Mutton/Beef/Pork

Dairy - Milk/Cheese/Butter

You obviously have to cut out on the sugar and oily stuff. This diet was approved by Dr. Oz because it lets you meet all the nutritional requirements while you lose weight.

There are many risks of crash dieting if you continue for long periods. Some extreme risks are :

Weight gain after the crash diet, sometimes gaining more weight than was lost due to slower metabolism.

Weakening of bones.

Heart palpitations (extreme- doesn’t usually happen)

Slowing down of metabolism

Loss of muscle mass.

Some tips if you are going to try any of these diets :

1) Increase your water intake.

2) Do strength training to feel stronger and fresher.

3) Get sleep for 8-9 hours.

4) If you feel weak or dizzy, stop the diet immediately. Headache is normal for the first 2-3 days in the GM diet due to elimination of salt.

Diets I tried and the effects I felt :

☞ The General Motors Diet 

Headache in the first 3 days due to the elimination of salt. Dark coloured urine due to low water intake. That was the mistake I made. HAVE A LOT OF WATER during any of these diets. I lost 6-7 kgs by the 7th day.

☞ The Juice Fast Diet 

I could only do it for 3 and a half days because I was bored of the same juices every day. I did lose 3 kgs though. It was worth it. I used to put salt in my juices so didn’t have any side effects.

The diet which I followed combined with steady state cardio was like the Atkin’s diet. In this diet, you completely cut out on the carbs and increase your protein. Through out the day you eat about 3-4 meals which are very high in protein and very less in carbs. Carbs can only be taken in the morning and should not be taken after 2/3 pm. This diet, combined with steady-state cardio or HIIT Cardio will make you drop weight and inches really quick. If you are looking to lose fat off a specific area of your body, that is not possible. Spot reduction is not possible while losing fat. Cardio combined with the high protein diet and the strength training will really get you to be lean.

Go ahead and try any of these diets. You will see results if you follow the diets in the right way. Oh and don’t forget, INCREASE YOUR WATER INTAKE.

Sources :

wikipedia.com

fatslimbody.com

http://www.doctoroz.com/article/oz-approved-7-day-crash-diet

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/20/crash.diets.harm.health/index.html

YOU CAN DO IT!

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Steady-State Cardio and HIIT

I had talked about High Intensity Interval Cardio being the fastest way to burn fat. I had also said that HIIT can be done under 30 minutes. Yes it is fast and effective no doubt, but are you sure you are going to be having that kind of motivation in every workout?

When I started out with HIIT on the treadmill, I used to do it for 20-25 minutes, in the ratio of running to rest being 2 : 1. That means that if you run for 1 minute at your max speed, your rest would have to be for about 30 seconds. You repeat the cycle for 20-25 minutes. Yes, I had the motivation at the start but then pretty soon I got exhausted and my knee joints started hurting and quads (thighs) got sore just because of the HIIT. 

That is when I met this girl at my gym. She is a trainer and also competes sometimes. So I started talking to her and asked her about what should be done about the aching joints every time I was doing cardio. She talked about Steady state cardio, i.e. running at 50-60% of your max speed for about 40-45 minutes continuously. I took her advice and started doing that for 4 days a week. 

Being human I got bored of staring at the walls and mirrors running at a constant speed for 40 freaking minutes.

That will happen to you too. You too will get bored of running continuously while staring at a wall. What I would suggest is to get your mobiles/tablets with a movie and watch the movie while doing your Steady-State Cardio. If you don’t like movies, you can go and run outside. The changing scenery plus the fresh air will keep you energised throughout the workout.

I am sure you would like to run here rather than in the gym. ^ I would too.

Go ahead and mix both HIIT and Steady-State up and you’ll see mind-blowing results. YOU CAN DO IT!

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Losing weight (The Lazy Version)

Don’t want to get off the sofa? Love having chips and crisps watching your favourite series all day? Working out sounds like a nightmare? Yeah I’ve been there when I was 17. Being 96 kgs at the age of 17. I was overweight. People used to comment and make fun of me. I didn’t actually care.

Around the age of 18, I was in bed at night and was just scrolling, looking through my news feed and I came across these body transformation videos.I was impressed. Thought to myself that if those people, being 200-300 kgs can get fit, I can too.

Look at Thomas Sanders on the left being 156 kgs. He dropped 64 kgs in about 8 months and is 92 kgs on the right.

I still didn’t want to workout so I started trying crash diets. As I mentioned in my previous post, I tried the General Motors diet, more popularly known as the GM Diet. I did it for two days and then couldn’t continue so stopped.

I continued searching for new diets and workout videos to perform without going to the gym. I found short ab workout videos and HIIT cardio videos which could be performed without having to get a gym membership.

I thought I’d give the workouts a try while trying to do GM diet again. I did it for a week and completed the diet too, losing around 5/6 kgs in a week. Trust me it wasn’t only the workout or the diet. It was the combination that helped me lose weight. 

People started noticing. Friends who used to make fun of me started asking me how I lost weight. It felt good. I felt the way I had never felt before.

You might not be that lucky to scroll across a motivational video on Facebook so let me go ahead and post the videos for you here.

These are some transformation videos for you guys. I hope they motivate you too.

You must be looking at the loose skin. No it won’t happen to you. That happened to him because he was Obese. Extremely Obese. So relax.

See the inches she dropped? It was her hard work. If she can do it, YOU CAN TOO!

Stop checking your weight on the scale as I’ve said before. Get an inch tape and check your waist. I say this because some people have heavy bones and their body weight doesn’t tend to go down easily where as they lose inches.

Here are some home workouts you can do. No you don’t need any equipments. No they aren’t longer than 30 minutes. So get your lazy ass up and get to work. No it won’t be easy but I promise you, it will be worth it.

Mike Chang’s Six Pack Shortcuts :

This one is for the ladies :

If you want you can search up more videos on youtube, Just type “Home HIIT workouts” on Youtube.

Will be posting about Steady-State cardio and HIIT combination in my next post.

Till then, try these workouts and you will soon start to see the difference. Trust me you will feel better. If they could do it, you can do it.

Source : www.google.com

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

Losing weight on PCOS

Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome is very common in females of child bearing age. 1 in 10 women have PCOS.

PCOS increases androgens in the body leading to :

Acne

Excessive Hair Growth

Weight Gain

Problems with ovulation

Most women at some point have to contend with weight gain but for women with PCOS, losing weight can become a constant struggle. Many are overweight or obese. As a result, these women can be at higher risks of diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea and uterine cancer.

Why does PCOS cause weight gain?

PCOS makes it difficult for the body to use the hormone insulin, which helps convert sugars and starches from food into energy. This condition is called insulin resistance. High insulin levels cause male hormone, androgen, to go up, leading to weight gain.

Losing weight on PCOS 

Losing weight on PCOS can be a task. I would recommend you to check your BMI first and record it.

Here is a BMI calculator from bodyengine.com :

After recording your BMI, you can try these ways to lose weight :

Crash Diets like the GM Diet, Greek Diet, etc. Yes you can lose weight trying these diets but your condition will make you gain the weight you will lose as soon as you get back to eating normal.

Try eating a high fibre, low sugar diet. Include a lot of whole grains, vegetables and fruits in your diet.

Try eating four to six small meals in the whole day instead of 3 large meals. This will help keep the blood sugar levels at normal.

Exercise! Exercise! Exercise! Cardio is the way to go. Try HIIT cardio to lose weight fast. If you get bored during cardio, download a movie or your favourite series onto your device and watch it while running or the treadmill. Taking a trustworthy friend along as motivation/support will work too.

If you smoke or drink, better quit that bad habit ASAP. Alcohol will make you gain weight. Metformin in cigarettes makes losing weight hard due to its insulin resistance causing properties.

Increase the amount of protein in your diet and cut the carbs after 6/7 P.M. In every meal before 6, include a fistful of healthy fibrous carbs and a palmful of protein. Fish and chicken breast are the best sources of protein. Eggs are great too without the yolk.

Include healthy fats like Fish oil into your daily life.

Try to lower stress as stress only makes insulin resistance worse.

Sleep for atleast 8-9 hours.

Start writing down your caloric intake. If you are too lazy to write, download this app from the Appstore/Playstore and log every meal of yours. It will show the macros and calories in your food.

Apple :

My Fitness Pal

Android :

My Fitness Pal

Sources : 

www.webmd.com

www.womenshealth.gov

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

What is HIIT?

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or High Intensity Interval Exercise (HIIE) is a form of interval training. This exercise strategy includes short periods of intense anaerobic exercise with less intense recovery periods. It is a type of Cardio.

How long does this have to be performed for?

HIIT can range from 4 minutes to 30 minutes or more depending on the stamina of the trainee.

Why HIIT?

These short, intense workouts provide improved athletic capacity and condition as well as improved glucose metabolism. You can perform HIIT if you are bored of the steady-state cardio which you see everyone doing at the gym. 

How does HIIT Work?

What this type of training does is, it shocks the body to go into a state of fat burning. When you give the body a rest in between, the mind thinks you’re done, but when you repeat the circuit and do another intense round, the body gets shocked again. Doing a 40 minute steady-state cardio is equal to 15-20 minutes of HIIT and will burn more calories through out the day than the steady state cardio. HIIT helps burn calories even while you are asleep.

What does HIIT include?

HIIT can include Sprints on a treadmill or on a track/road, Battle rope training, Jumping Jacks, Stationary Cycle, Cross trainer and many more exercises.

How much weight will I lose if I do HIIT?

Every person is different. Not ever person will lose fat like the other did. The workout is just 30% of your regime. The diet and the sleep are the 70% that’ll make you drop those inches.

Can everyone perform HIIT?

I would not recommend people above the age of 49-50 to perform these high intensity exercises. People with a weak heart or breathing problems should also not perform HIIT. Try not to have any stimulant before HIIT because stimulants raise your heart rate without performing any exercises.

Can you please post an example video for HIIT?

Here you go :

Tip - If you are looking to get slim, use an inch tape to measure your waist instead of checking your weight on the scale. Usually the scale weight doesn’t go down very easily but waist inches drop. If you keep checking your weight on a scale and it hasn’t gone down, you will just be demotivated.

Source : www.wikipedia.org

~Kabir Grover~

[thevigorblog]

The General Motors Diet - Does it work?

The G.M. diet as it is known was a diet every American had started following after it came out in 1985. It was made by the staff of the General Motors Corporation for their use. The diet chart leaked and since it seemed to work on the staff, so women tried it out and yeah they did drop inches real quick and dropped pounds pretty freaking fast too.

I gave the diet a try because I wanted to see what the hype was all about, and boy did I see some results within 7 days. I lost about 9 kgs in a week. The first two days were the worst. I had headaches because of sudden elimination of salt, but yeah I think the reduction in salt was the reason I lost all the water weight I had. Oh but yeah I lost 9 kgs because I was doing cardio 7 days a week too. My cardio was HIIT on the Treadmill and some Jumping Jacks. I’ll explain what HIIT is in my next post.

The GM Diet has good as well as bad effects.

Some good effects are :

- Weight Loss

- Good Bowel Movements

- Lowers Cholestrol

- Reduces toxicity in body

Bad effects are :

- Dark Circles under eyes

- Weak feeling in the first 3 days

- Laziness and lethargic feeling

There are more good effects than bad ones. Best part is that the bad effects are gone when you finish the diet. This diet can be done again after a rest of 4 weeks though it should not be necessary.

Following is the GM Diet Plan :

Day 1

Fruits except mangoes and bananas. Melons are preferred because they detoxify the body. 3-4 litres of water is recommended.

Day 2

Start your morning with a large boiled potato. Have cooked/uncooked vegetables throughout the day without oil. Try steaming the vegetables. 3-4 litres of water is recommended.

Day 3

All fruits except mango and banana. Cooked/uncooked vegetables without oil. 3-4 litres of water is recommended.

*Do expect a slight headache in the first two to three days. That is due to elimination of salt.*

Day 4

Have 8 to 10 bananas through out the day and about 3-4 glasses of milk. Today you will feel full through out the day. 3-4 litres of water is recommended.

Day 5

As soon as you wake up, within the first 45 minutes, have tomato soup/chicken soup. Throughout the day, you can have a cup of boiled rice with chicken or if you are a vegetarian, you can have tomatoes (cooked/uncooked). Have 4-5 litres of water today as it’ll help you flushout the toxins.

Day 6

Today you will have one cup of rice with any of your favourite vegetables cooked/uncooked without oil. Keep the water intake high. 4-5 litres.

Day 7

So last day. One cup of rice with any of your favourite fruits except mangoes and bananas. 4-5 litres of water again.

You made it bud! Easy day today. You must be feeling lighter in these 7 days already huh? Any old Jeans fitting you now? I am sure people have started giving you good comments too huh? So go on to the next line and read on the tips now.

Tips

*Avoid alcohol.

*Include alot of fresh juices and soups.

*Avoid tea and coffee that have caffeine.

*Green tea with honey can be included.

*Eliminate Sugar.

*DO NOT START ANOTHER WEEK OF DIET IMMEDIATELY.

*To maintain the results, have a high protein and low carb diet. Include a lot of water and fibre as protein can cause constipation.

*Workout regularly. Weight lifting will make you lose fat.

*Get an inch tape and measure your inches instead of weight on the scale because the weighing scale will demotivate you.

*Believe in yourself.

So now you tell me guys? Does it work?

Sources:

generalmotorsdiet.net

gmdietworks.com

~Kabir Grover~