So, Where Do I Start?

This seems to be a common theme in most of the emails that I've received so far. Oh, please keep them coming guys because I learn so much from them. If I haven't responded to you, don't worry one will be in your inbox before you know it!

OK guys, so you've read my story, you've become motivated, and now you're ready to lose the weight. But, just like me, most of you don't have a clue where to start. You could follow your old high school football routine that had you in the best shape of your life 20 years ago, or you could purchase the latest gadget on TV that guarantees results or your money back. Listen, I want to be clear about one point. You don't have to buy one single piece of equipment or one diet book to get the body of your dreams--not one!

This may seem contradictory since I promote certain products on my blog; nevertheless, all these are merely to compliment your training/understanding of nutrition, but you don't need them to lose the weight. Don't let anyone tell you differently because if guys in solitary confinement can get shredded on "nutritious" prison food and leaving the cell for 30 minutes to an hour per day, what do you think you can do?

I'm going to give you guys a formula for success that won't cost you one red cent! I'm even going to give them to you in bullet points for easier reading. OK, I know that in some of my earlier posts, I've discussed very complicated ways for you to figure out how many calories you need and macro-nutrient breakdown, etc. Also, I've posted some workout routines that seemed a bit complicated.

Well, I'm going back to my old fashion KISS (Keep It Sweet & Simple) philosophy for both my training and nutrition. Yes, I'm aspiring to have the body of an athlete, but I'm not one. So, I have to keep in mind that whatever program I create for myself must include the realities of my everyday life. Does this mean that you should continue to use your busy schedule as an excuse for you not exercising? Of course not, your busy schedule should cause you to want to exercise to help rid yourself of everyday stress. Hey, if you haven't hit a heavy bag imagining that it's your boss or an annoying co-worker, then you really don't know the true meaning of stress relief. ;)

Let's start with nutrition and the least you should know:

• Calories do indeed count and always will. Don't get caught up in debates with people about this because it's counterproductive to your ultimate goal. If another person truly believes that they can lose weight and reach the size they want without having an idea of how many calories s/he is consuming, congratulate them on their success and move on because here on earth, the Laws of Thermodynamics have yet to be disproven.
  
  
• "Eat Less, Move More" - Oh, how we hate hearing that from doctors, family, and friends who have never had a weight problem their entire life--lucky bastards! Well, don't be so quick to dismiss what they are saying because there is some truth in this weight loss cliche. In a most basic way, this expression is simply encouraging us to consume less energy (create a caloric deficit) while using more energy for the extra movement (which, since there is a calorie deficit, will cause your body to use its stored energy--fat and muscles--to make up for the difference, which causes you to lose weight on the scale). Simple, right? Yes, but they left something out. How much less do you eat and how much more should you move?
  
  
• Determining your daily calorie requirements is usually so confusing that sometimes you feel you need a background in biochemistry to fully understand the damn formulas. Well, I've picked up a simple and extremely uncomplicated way to determine how many calories you need to consume to stay at your present weight and how much you should eat to lose weight thanks to tips from the bodybuilder and strength & conditioning communities. First, keep in mind that this is not an exact science and that these are estimates, but they are reliable enough that athletes use them as a guide for their training. So, to get an idea of how many calories per day you need to eat to stay at your current weight, multiply your bodyweight times 15. To lose weight, you want to multiply your current weight times 8 -12. For most folks starting off, go with 10 or 12. Reserve the lower number when you're going for your six pack!
  
  Let's look at the example of a guy who weighs 300lbs. Well, to lose weight, he needs to consume no more than 3000 cals (BW x 10 = 3000) a day. He'll stay with this number until he loses 20lbs, and then he'll go back and reformulate his calorie needs, which will now be 2800 cals a day. Next, he'll be eating 2600 cals after losing 20 more pounds. You see how simple this is?
  
  
• So, what about macronutrients (carbs, fats, protein)? Should you do low-carbs, low-fat, or a balanced diet? What I find interesting is that this topic makes so much money in the "diet" book industry simply because of confusion and marketing hype. It's really simple. If you want to lose weight, simply follow the previous bullet's suggestion. However, if you want the majority of the weight loss to be actual body fat, then I suggest that you consume no more than 100 grams of carbs a day. This has been shown to be the upper limit of carb intake for one to consume and still benefit from the hormonal response (read: lower insulin levels, more fat burning, etc).
  
  If you are still freaked out about doing a low-carb diet, consider that the USDA recommends that we eat at least 125 grams of carbs because of the glucose our brains require on a daily basis. That's a difference of 25 grams, and I'll tell you what, without going into detail about ketones and the brain, I'll compromise with you. After you do a resistance workout, take in those 25 grams of carbs with your protein shake, and we'll call it even! There's no reason to go lower than 100 grams, despite what you may hear from low-carb sites and forums.
  
  
• Finally, figure out what triggers your poor eating habits. Listen, we know that eating a scoop or two of ice cream in a cup is better than that gi-normous four scoop sundae that drips down our chin and add to our waist. What's just as important along your weight loss journey is to figure out who you are and what makes you tick. We all eat, or should I say overeat, for different reasons. I was an emotional eater. Whenever stress knocked on my door, I was off to Krispy Kreme for a baker's dozen! No one forced me or even suggested that I react this way to stress, and, unfortunately, my body acted accordingly to what and how much I was feeding it.
  

I wanted to get nutrition out of the way first because the training aspect of your weight loss journey is even more simple in my opinion:

• If you lose weight mainly through calorie restriction, you, more than likely, will have droopy and saggy skin. We all have seen guys who lose a lot of weight and are pretty saggy. I call it the Jared Complex. No disrespect to the Subway guy because he is encouraging kids to exercise and be more conscious of their calories, but I never wanted to look skinny fat. When I lost weight using pills and doing tons of cardio, I looked like Jared, complete with the saggy skin and man boobs to boot! Fellas, if you don't want folks coming up to you and poking your saggy stomach like your the Pillsbury Doughboy, I'd suggest that you realize that resistance training is not an option--it's mandatory!
  
  
• Compound bodyweight exercises are more than enough for your strength and cardio conditioning. That's right, the body you see in the mirror every morning presents more than enough weight resistance for you to build a respectable body! Again, you don't need to buy any equipment. For ideas, feel free to go to www.bodyweightculture.com for free videos, discussions, and information on bodyweight exercises. I think it's one of the best bodyweight only forums/sites on the web! As I stated in my last post, YouTube is chock full of videos of people doing various bodyweight exercises. Oh, and there are two more BW-only sites that I've come across that I want you to check out:
  
  
• Beast Skills - Jim, who lives in my hometown of DC, has a great site and instructional videos.
  
• Body by Fish - Scrapper is another bodyweight culturists who has an outstanding site.
  

• Finally, I have a little treat for those guys out there who just need a program to follow. OK, if you fall in this camp, I have a pdf file that you can download or view by clicking here. This is basically a teaser from Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training Fat Loss Program. The good thing about this pdf is that you'll get a lot of mileage out of it because it has beginner, intermediate, and advanced routines. So, you have a good three months, or more depending on your current level of fitness, of workouts (including cardio) that you can use to decide if you want to purchase his ebook.
  
  Even if you don't buy Craig's book, make sure to take advantage of this free pdf, and make sure that you start to do research on the term EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) to understand the number of new fat loss exercise programs getting ready to inundate the market around this concept!

Remember guys, the tortoise was right, slow and steady wins the race. It's OK to aim to have the body of a sprinter, but make sure to develop the mentality of a marathon runner along the way.

When Willy Wouldn't Wake-up ... Part II

In natural (read: non drug using) individuals who have dieted down to extremely low bodyfat levels, say 5%, you see a common hormonal pattern. Testosterone levels are typically bottomed out (some studies even find castrate levels, which is why a lot of natural contest bodybuilders can't get their dick hard, not that they have a sex drive in the first place), thyroid levels are bottomed out, IGF-1 levels are bottomed out, sympathetic nervous system output is way down meaning decreased caloric and fat burning, appetite is through the roof, cortisol is through the roof, on and on it goes. This makes good evolutionary sense: at 5% bodyfat, you are starving to death. Your body is turning off every system (metabolic, reproductive, immune, etc.) that it can to keep you alive until you get some food.

I read the above quote in Lyle McDonald's Ultimate Diet 2.0; however, I never thought that this applied to me. Hey, I was just some fat college professor who wanted to see how far I could take my weight loss. I could care less about bodybuilders or the problems they had. Well, that is until it affected me, or should I say my Willy!

Back to my story:

So, the second time I couldn't get an erection, I was literally scared. The thought of having caused myself to be a eunuch was not very appealing no matter how much I had transformed my body. Guys, it's amazing how well you can recall what you've read when you're faced with such a huge problem. LOL!

I don't know why, but Lyle's quote came to mind, and there I went tearing through loose pages of my fitness ebooks trying to find the quote. Once I found it, I read it in disbelief because he basically described what I was experiencing. I started to think back to the months preceding my failed horizontal mambo sessions, and I realized that my interests in sex wasn't really there. Now, for someone who has an enormous sexual appetite, this was far from normal. But, I was so focused on my training and diet, that I really didn't pay it much attention. However, my body, or should I say my hypothalamus, more specifically, definitely was.

If given the choice between the ability to have sex or survive, I would say that many of us would be dead fellas. Hell, I know I would, and I guess that's why I'm glad that the body has checks and measures to keep us alive. A discussion of the body's metabolic adaptations is way beyond the scope of this post, so I strongly suggest that you read Lyle's UD 2.0 and Ellis's Ultimate Diet Secrets, which are the only books that I've read that devote an entire chapter (or two) to how the body reacts, on a cellular level, to overfeeding and underfeeding. (Lyle's explanation is the more technical of the two.)

OK, so we all know that when you start a diet that your body recognizes this and starts to make adjustments. The more severe you cut calories or expend them through exercise, the more your body makes adjustments. Well, these adjustments are much more severe and noticeable when we attempt to push our bodyfat under 10%. Now, I'm referring to guys who are dieting down to this level, and not genetically gifted bastards who have no problem remaining lean.

Your body monitors how much bodyfat you have and could really care less about how much you weigh on the scale. And, when you think about it, this only makes sense. If you were a complex machine, you would care just as much about how much reserve energy you have in the tank, especially if you think that you are starving to death, as Lyle points out. And, similar to your car's gas gauge, the body lets you know when you are pushing it to its pre-detemined limits. However, unlike your car's gas gauge, the body's way of alerting you that it's approaching E is with a limp Willy and not an annoying light or beep.

After re-reading Lyle's chapters that deal directly with all the systems he mentions in his quote above, I was really ready to absorb the information in Dr. Wong's book, The Care and Feeding of a Penis. Well, so I thought because he had one quote that smacked me dead in the face:

We can’t help it, it happens to all. Somewhere after 27 our body processes begin to turn against us. The natural mechanism that causes aging and deterioration kicks into gear round about 27 and from then to 35 it’s the steepest drop in health and conditioning levels we’ll ever face. After that the down hill slide slows but only some. It’s round about 35 that men start to come into the beginnings of their “change of life”. This happens because our hormonal balance changes. As the years progress we make less testosterone and make more estrogen. After 40, Andropause, the male menopause kicks in and with it comes an almost total cessation in the production of testosterone! It’s a safe bet that by 45 or 50 a man has more estrogen than his wife does!

Now, this was the first that I had ever heard of Andropause or that I was well into the age range (read: middle-age) where all of these hormonal changes start occurring. Alright, now I felt that I was on to something and armed with my new Male Bible, I started to try and find out exactly what I needed to do about resurrecting Willy.

One of my bodybuilding buddies suggested that I look into taking Tribex, which is a super-concentrated formula of the Bulgarian herb tribulus terrestris, to boost my T levels. He also suggested that I take avena sativa to keep my E (estrogen) levels in check and to stop the conversion of my free T to becoming E, the real enemy of our manhood fellas. After doing some research, I also started reading a lot about ZMA, which is a supplement developed by BALCO founder, and former bass player for Tower of Power, Victor Conte. Don't worry, it's not CLEAR or anything like that; ZMA is simply a combination of the zinc, magnesium, and B-6. Dr. Wong highly recommends Maca too as a natural T booster and E inhibitor.

Next week, I'll detail my experiences with some of the above supplements and if they indeed help me wake up Willy. Nevertheless, I can't leave you without mentioning an herbal product that has done wonders for me and some of my other buds.

Guys, if you are interested in having rock hard erections and the ability to control them like you did when you were 18, then there is one herbal supplement that I highly recommend. I read about what many call herbal Viagra from Dr. Wong (who has personally used this product also), so I decided to give Super X, by Dr. Chi Enterpises, a try. Without sounding like a paid endorser, which of course I'm not, let me just say that Super X is one sexual enhancement supplement that's free of side effects that any man over 35 should have in his medicine cabinet.

I'll tell you what--I'll do a review of Super X in my next post because, man, do I have a lot to say about this supplement!

BTW, just wanted to let you guys know that my loose skin is really tightening up. Adisa, sorry about the camera angle playa ... ;)

Low T Levels Linked to Depression in Elderly Men

I thought the timing of this report was really great since my last post, and the next couple, will talk about the male sex hormone Testosterone (T). Again, if you're over 35, I strongly suggest that you start doing some net research on T, so you can start to understand its importance in our being MEN!

Here's the url to the BBC report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7274481.stm

When Willy Wouldn't Wake-up ... Part I

Hey, before I jump into what this week's post, I'd like to personally thank all my readers, friends, and family who have congratulated me and my new wife, Crystal, on our recent marriage; we really appreciate it. However, let me be clear about something fellas. Marriage has not tamed the burning desire I have to complete my journey and share what I've learned along the way. If anything, as I stated in my last post, it has motivated me that much more!

To my female readers, whom I appreciate and respect, I have to warn you that this post is all about the male love muscle (i.e., Willy). So, you've been warned ;)

Guys, I believe that it's time that we have a real heart to heart about our bodies, especially our main reproductive organ. I know many of you that read my blog simply want to lose weight or get tips on how to build a lean and muscular body, so the following discussion may seem a bit out of place if not too damn personal to be sharing with the blogosphere.

Hey, if I'm able to put half-naked pictures of myself on the internet and announce my marriage to someone who is half my age on my blog, do you really think that sharing a story about my problems getting an erection is too personal, especially when it was a direct result of my weight loss? OK, before you answer, take a look at some pics of my back that the wifey took of me today, sit back, and read on to see why I was literally on the verge of committing suicide . . .




"Wait a minute, I'm too damn young to have problems getting it up!" was the first thought that ran through my mind when my Willy (read: penis) stayed asleep when it was time for us to go to work. Yes, I realized that I was no longer the sexual stud, or at least that's what I thought of myself, of my late teens and early 20s, but I've been able to "hold my own" in the bedroom without the thought of not keeping an erection. Well, a couple of months ago this was far from the case, and it has taken me this long to research and figure out just what in the hell was going on!

OK, let me start from the beginning. As you guys know, I've been working out and dieting on a consistent basis for more than three years now; the first two years of my journey were basically hit and miss. During this time, I've come across fitness books that dealt with the various ways that bodybuilders (natural & "not so" natural) achieve their ripped and defined physiques. A couple of these books talked about the relationship between sex hormones and working out, but I usually skipped over these chapters since I wasn't interested in becoming a bodybuilder and they were too damn technical. I'm an English professor for christ's sake.

Well, this was a big mistake on my part because who else would know and understand how to achieve low body fat percentages and the body's reaction to this than those who participate in a sport where having excess body fat is a liability. So, I had to ditch the muscle head stereotype that I had of bodybuilders and started to learn what processes, especially hormones, that are involved in becoming lean and ripped. However, I'm getting a little ahead of myself . . .

Alright, there I am staring, or should I say goggling, at the sexy body of a woman who wanted to do things to me that's probably illegal in most southern states. Many thoughts were running through my mind, and all of them would be rated TV-MA; however, I realized that there was one piece missing in this sexual puzzle which seemed to be having G rated thoughts: Willy was still asleep! I didn't think much of this as I just chalked it up to pre-intercourse jitters with a new partner that I know most fellas can relate to. So, I didn't think much of it and figured that everything would snap back to normal, and I would chuckle to myself about this a little later.

30 minutes later, I'm lying on my back, staring at the ceiling, and assuring the puzzled woman next to me that it usually doesn't take this long for me to get an erection and no it's not her. After another 15 minutes of failed attempts to wake Willy up, I decided that it was simply one of those un-explainable sexual thangs that we men experience once in a long while or even in a lifetime. Well, that lame excuse only held up until my next attempted, and failed, romp in the sack.

Guys, this is one time that I really wasn't interested in three strikes and you're out, so, putting my male ego aside, which you know is not an easy task, I finally decided that I could no longer do my ostrich impersonation about my little problem. After making sure to give away all the knives and sharp objects in my house, I sat down with my books to try and figure out why Willy went on an extended . . . uhh . . . prolonged vacation.

I felt that if I could deal with my problem myself, then I wouldn't have to explain to my doctor why a 36 year old man, who works out 5-6 days a week, and is obviously in great shape is having problems with maintaining an erection. Fortunately, I didn't have to go too far for some possible answers.

My readers know that I'm a big fan of Mike Mahler's ebooks and training DVDs. In his e-book, The Aggressive Strength Solution For Size And Strength, he devotes a chapter to the secret relationship between sex hormones and training. Basically, he gives an overview of the hormones Testosterone (T) and Growth Hormone (GH) and how they are affected by the different types of training one does; he also quotes from a couple of other books. One book in particular stood out from the rest because of its title: The Care and Feeding of a Penis by Dr. William Wong.

Considering my little problem, and not to mention the suicidal thoughts I was having, you can imagine how fast I ordered this e-book.

* * *

Preview of Part II:

• why your body hates you but really loves you
• why middle-age starts at 35
• estrogen dominance, bitch tits, and moody men
• big "hypothalmus" is watching
• natural/herbal testosterone boosting supplements
• herbal erection and sexual performance enhancers (no BS!)