My Rating: 9.5/10

Here’s a food calorie list for those of you who like to dial in your diet. When trying to lose weight it’s very important to dial in your diet (i.e. keep track of calories). Why I think this is important is because when you keep track of how much you eat you’ll stay more consistent on a daily basis. It will also help you to be a better estimator of calories you eat per day even when not tracking. I’m going to break it down into proteins, carbs, and fats. Remember, these are not exact numbers, because each brand and type is always different. This only a guide:

This is not a complete list of course. There are definitely more foods that are in my diet that are not included in here. However, these are the majority of the foods that I eat. If you would like me to add some foods please make a comment, and I’ll add it =)

What is the best way to lose belly fat? Should you be doing a thousand crunches to get that 6-pack abs? Should you be doing hours and hours of cardio to shred that fat? Well, I’m going to tell you that neither of these will help you. Everyday there seems to be a new diet or some type of contraption to make you lose fat rapidly. I’m going to tell you that you will be just wasting your money. It really only comes down to the basics. Most people already have abs, it’s just a matter of getting rid of the fat that’s on top of it! With the basics in line, you’ll start to lose fat and your abs will become more and more visible. That is the only way you will get a 6 pack of abs. Here are the basics:

Solid Nutrition

Your nutrition should be your first priority if you want to lose the belly fat. This is 90% of the game. Without nutrition, you can’t expect to lose much no matter how much cardio or crunches you do in a day. What should you be eating you ask? What I have found to be the most productive is to eat 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fats. You can easily track this by using a calorie counter software such as Fitday. Remember, these sources have to come from clean foods such as chicken breast, fish (tuna and salmon are my favourite), turkey breast, egg whites, oats, red potatoes, brown rice, green vegetables and fruit. However, I would try to limit your fruit intake until after your workouts due to the sugar (sugar is great after a workout because your body needs it). The type of fat you want to eat should be from sources such as almonds, natural peanut butter, fish oils, and olive oils. These types of fat will not promote fat storage, but will help you to lose fat if you keep it at 20% of your daily intake.

So how much should you be eating in a day? This is hard to say. My best advice would be to start your calorie intake at 12 x your bodyweight. If you see a stall in your progress reduce it by 500 calories. When you start to see a loss of 2lbs per week this should be the ideal intake. You don’t want to lose too much too fast as this will sacrifice lean mass instead of targeting fat.

A Consistent Workout Plan

Instead of focusing on cardio you should be concentrating on a consistent workout plan. Try to work out 3 times per week. What I like to do is rotate workout and cardio days. One day I’ll do a workout, then the next cardio, and repeat.

Supplementation

The only time you need to consider supplementation is if your nutrition is in place. That’s why they are called supplements – they supplement your nutrition, and give you the missing nutrients that are missing from your diet.

If you’re just starting out there are three main supplements that you want to consider: Multi-Vitamin, Whey Protein, and Fish Oils. Here are my recommendations:

Optimum Opti-Men, 180 Tablets
Optimum 100% Whey Protein, 5 Lbs., Double Rich Chocolate
NOW Ultra Omega-3, 90 Softgels

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Remember, nutrition is 90% of the battle. If you can stick to eating clean you should have no problem losing fat. It is important to be honest with yourself. I know it can be tough to resist the temptation of food, but it gets easier as you continue to eat clean. I’ve been there many times.