Beach
Body
Quick Guide
BEACH BODY - Quick Guide
The Classic Misconception - The Fight for your Beach Body is won in the kitchen not in the gym!
You can stop pondering which gym to join or which fitness program to buy. It does not really matter, most of them are good enough.
The key to your success to get that Beach Body is what and how much you eat.
And to make things worse, there is only a small amount of calories that you can offset with doing more exercise. So don't think that the additional 20 minutes on the running machine give you permission to have another drink later...
The right food gets you the beach body!
If you want your slimmer self to look great and in shape the gym comes into play. Therefore let's focus on these two: The Eating Rules & The Fitness Rules
Please Note: Always consult a medical doctor before commencing any nutrition or sports routine.
The Eating Rules
So the key is how many calories you take in per day and the quality of them. Here the easy steps to figure out what is best for you:
Step 1: Find out how many calories you can eat
Calculate your daily energy expenditure using one of the calculators online, e.g. Calorie Calculator
Enter your data and find out how many calories you can consume per day.
Let's say that your can eat around 2000 calories per day. The calculator also gives you an idea of how much your ideal weight could be but use these carefully as it can vary quite a bit dependent on your fitness shape. Muscles are heavy and my ideal weight is supposed to be around 70 kg but with a top beach body and 10% fat it is at 81 kg.
A simple look in the mirror will give you an indication if you should tend towards the 70 or the 81. In general follow the main values.
Calculate your daily calories.
Step 2: Decide whether to Maintain, Cut or Bulk
Now you need to decide. Do you want to maintain your current weight, increase it to build more muscle or cut it because you have piled up a few extra kilos.
To help with the decision. If your body fat is above 15% than bulking should not be your way forward. You are sort of bulky enough. If you want to calculate your body fat go here: Body Fat Calculator
In most cases it is cut or maintain. If you want to cut do not go with the 500 calorie reduction as suggested by some calculators. Rather aim for 250 calories. That is less painful and easier to sustain. Steady wins the race.
In case it seems that you are plateauing with your weight loss then do a few days with 500 calories reduction and then revert back to 250.
Now that we are all set on the calories let's look at the quality of the calories.
Quality of calories.
Step 3: Adjust your Macro Nutrients
The Macro Nutrients are proteins, fats and carbs. Some calculator already make suggestions for the right combination of Macro Nutrients.
All Macro Nutrients that you eat over a day should add up to your overall calorie limit.
To help with your calculation:
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
1 gram of carbs = 4 calories
Balance your macros.
Proteins
The ideal daily protein intake for most people trying to lose weight or gain muscle is between 2 - 2.4 grams of protein per kg body weight. Whenever in doubt, 2 grams per kg is a good start. (Those who are significantly overweight should use their goal body weight rather than their current body weight when doing this calculation.)
So if you weigh 80 kg around 160 grams of protein is a good amount to aim for. If you daily calorie goal is 2000 calories then your protein intake will use up 8 x 160 = 1280 calories.
Good sources of protein are: chicken, eggs, beef, fish, dairy, legumes, whey protein powder.
Make sure to eat enough protein.
Fat
Contrary to what many diet fads will tell you, fat is very important in your diet. That is good fats like olive oil, from fish. They are important for your overall health and function of the human body, including the absorption of fat soluble vitamins and optimal hormone production.
Your fat intake should be anywhere between 15 - 35% of the total daily calorie intake. 25% is a good middle way to start.
Staying with the 2000 calories per day around 25% = 500 calories should be from fats. That is about 53 grams of fat. Keep an eye on how much fat is in some food. Pork and ground beef have a fair amount of fat.
Healthy fat is ok, but not the above.
Carbs
Carbs are a mixed bag. They mainly give you quick energy. That helps a lot with any sport and the subsequent recovery.
Proteins and Fats take up 1780 calories of your 2000 daily calories. So it only leaves around 220 calories for carbs. That is about 55 grams of carbs, e.g. around 70 grams of rice.
Eat the right carbs.
Key rule: Always aim to stay within your calorie limit
So if you missed one of your macro nutrient targets, do not try to reach them by exceeding your daily calorie limit.
One very important fact about protein. Protein is key for building muscle and even more important. When losing weight your body is in a calorie deficit, i.e. it will use any energy source it can find, either fat or muscle.
With enough protein in your nutrition your body tends to use fat and avoid muscle. So if you want to keep your beach body and get rid of those extra pounds, make sure to eat enough protein.
Stay within your calorie limit.
Step 4: How to Start?
Get a decent calorie counting app that allows you to track your macro nutrients, e.g. Fat Secret is free and provides you all the data required.
Track your calorie intake and start adjusting your eating habits. You will quickly see that anything fried will not give your body what you need.
A few basic rules:
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No sweets or artificial sweeteners. Sweeteners often create cravings and make it more difficult not to 'snack'.
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Drink enough water - no calories, good for your body and helps feeling full.
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Plenty of vegetables - healthy, lots of micro nutrients, usually few calories.
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Plenty of meat and fish for the protein. White meat and fish are better. Less read meat - keep nature in mind. You can also try vegetarian but it is more difficult.
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Legumes, potatoes, rice are good.
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Bread and similar - try to avoid them.
If you track your calories you will quickly see what to eat to stay within your calories and get all the macros you need. Then experiment within that range.
Keep track of your calories.
The Mindset
The start is also the way forward. If you approach this thinking, after a few weeks I will have lost x kilos and I can go back to may way of life before then you are going at this in the wrong way.
While losing you will need to cut calories. Once you will move over to maintain you can consume the right amount of calories but you cannot stop keeping an eye on them.
If you think going out for drinks every evening and eating snacks all the time you will quickly lose all you gained.
Step 5: Long Term
Reaching your ideal weight is not a project or a one time thing. To reach it and stay there you need to change your lifestyle.
Once you have adapted to healthier eating then you will notice how overall you feel better. Try to reach a decent loss of a few kilos. It usually helps to stay on track. You will think: 'I put in all this effort. I am not going to waste it just on a pack of crisps.'
Consistency will win the race or kill the pounds.
The Fitness Rules
The Key Success Factors to achieve your beach body are:
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The constant trigger for muscle growth. This is achieved via so called progressive overload, i.e. you put every time a little bit more stress on the muscles.
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The right nutrition to grow more muscle tissue. We explained all about the nutrition in the The Eating Rules.
You need to train all major muscle groups and the minor ones to define better the muscles.
These are the main muscle groups:
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Big muscle groups: chest, back, quads and hamstrings,
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Small muscle groups: biceps, triceps and abs,
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In between muscle groups: shoulders, calves.
Stay within your calorie limit.
Weight Training Volume
Your starting point is the weight training volume. The recommended volumes for :
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Each bigger muscle group is around 60-140 total reps per week
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Each smaller muscle group is around 30-70 total reps per week
Beginners should be at the lower end of this range and intermittent trainees should be at middle of this range.
Managing Expectations
The realistic rate of muscle growth is about:
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0.2 - 1 kg per month for men
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0.1 - 0.5 kg per month for women
So in a year you could gain around 12 kg as a men and around 6 kg as a women. These numbers usually are only realistic for beginners or people with fantastic genetics.
Keep track of your calories.
If you are at an intermediate or advanced level, older or do not so great genetics then you will be more in the lower to middle range.
This is the hard truth. If the fitness industry tells you anything else then this is not realistic and you will end up paying a lot of money for no results.
Keep in mind we are talking about building muscle. In a lot of cases there are quite a few muscles under that fat and you only need to get rid of that fat layer. Follow the right fitness routine and eating rules and you should be fine.
Step 1: Follow this workout - 4 Day Upper / Lower Body Workout
If you have only 2 days in the gym then do upper and lower body together. I you have 6 days then split the workout further out or use the additional days for some cardio.
Make sure to not exceed the weekly volume. Otherwise your body will not have enough time to recover.
Stay within your calorie limit.
A few key rules:
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Form over weight - make sure you perform the exercises correctly then increase weight.
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When it hurts - STOP!!! Reduce weight or change exercise. Rather do more and slower reps with a lower weight than ruining your shoulder or similar.
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Always confirm with your medical doctor if you can follow this routine.
1st Day: Workout Routine for Upper Body
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Bench Press
3 sets of 6-8 reps.
2-3 minutes rest between sets. -
Rows
3 sets of 6-8 reps.
2-3 minutes rest between sets. -
Incline Dumbbell Press
3 sets of 8-10 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Lat Pull-Downs
3 sets of 8-10 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Lateral Raises
2 sets of 10-15 reps.
1 minute rest between sets. -
Triceps Pushdowns
3 sets of 10-12 reps.
1 minute rest between sets. -
Dumbbell Curls
2 sets of 12-15 reps.
1 minute rest between sets.
2nd Day: Workout Routine for Lower Body
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Romanian Deadlifts
3 sets of 6-8 reps.
2-3 minutes rest between sets. -
Leg Press
3 sets of 10-12 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Seated Leg Curls
3 sets of 8-10 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Standing Calf Raises
4 sets of 6-8 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Abs
x sets of 8-15 reps.
1 minute rest between sets.
Make time to recover!
3rd Day: Rest
4th Day: Workout Routine for Upper Body
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Pull-Ups
3 sets of 6-8 reps.
2-3 minutes rest between sets. -
Barbell Shoulder Press
3 sets of 6-8 reps.
2-3 minutes rest between sets. -
Seated Cable Row
3 sets of 8-10 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Dumbbell Bench Press
3 sets of 8-10 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Dumbbell Flyes
2 sets of 10-15 reps.
1 minute rest between sets. -
Barbell Curls
3 sets of 10-12 reps.
1 minute rest between sets. -
Skull Crushers
2 sets of 12-15 reps.
1 minute rest between sets
Stay within your calorie limit.
5th Day: Workout Routine for Lower Body
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Squats
3 sets of 6-8 reps.
2-3 minutes rest between sets. -
Split Squats
3 sets of 8-10 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Lying Leg Curls
3 sets of 10-12 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Seated Calf Raises
4 sets of 10-15 reps.
1-2 minutes rest between sets. -
Abs
x sets of 8-15 reps.
1 minute rest between sets.
6ht & 7th Day: Rest
Step 2: Continue
There is not much more to it. Just stick with it and eat right!
In the first months put the main focus on keeping the routine going. Adjust the frequency and split. Maybe you can do the whole workout in 6 days because you are recovering better or you feel a different split feels better for you.
Pay attention to the recovery time. If it is too short your performance will go down. A good indicator that you are trying to do too much.
Good luck, just get on with it!
Your Superteam
Make time to recover!