*This article is reprinted with the kind courtesy of FLEX Magazine (February 2009)

How much protein do you need and when do you need it?  If you can answer this question correctly, then mass gains are virtually guaranteed.

Keep in mind that protein requirements are fluid, but most people can benefit from a daily consumption of 1½ or even two grams per pound of bodyweight.  Here, you’ll find some other key components to packing it on with protein.  For a daily guideline of what, when, why and how much, check out the Daily Protein Primer chart.  Figuring out how to meet your daily protein requirement doesn’t get any easier than this.

PROTEIN POINTERS

EVERY TWO TO THREE HOURS
Eat every few hours to supply your body with a frequent influx of protein, so the muscles have a streaming source of building materials that can be used to repair damaged fibers.

BE STABLE
Frequent protein intake keeps the amount of sugar in the bloodstream fairly stable.  Consistent blood sugar levels encourage recovery by warding off fatigue, and they help control catabolic stress hormones, like cortisol.  This will also prime the mechanisms that help maintain an anabolic – muscle-growing – environment.

MIX AND MATCH
One nutritional school of thought says that using several types of protein per day is superior for growth, because each protein supplies different ratios of amino acids.  Eating protein from diverse sources provides variety.

SPEED UP
There are times in the day when you want to use a very fast-digesting protein to get amino acids into your bloodstream ASAP: immediately upon waking, and before and after workouts.  Reach for fast-digesting whey protein at these times.

SLOW IT DOWN
There is also a time when you want your protein to digest in slow motion; that’s right before bed, because you are about to fast for the rest of the night.  Having a slow-digesting protein, such as casein, sitting in your gut will provide a slow and steady supply of amino acids, preventing your body from breaking down muscle to use as fuel while you sleep.

*Reprinted with the kind courtesy of FLEX Magazine (February 2009)

Carb cycling is a process used to help bodybuilders drop bodyfat.  The term is thrown around often, yet no one really knows how to apply it.  In short, carb cycling involves moving your carbohydrate intake up and down.  In theory, this will help you get leaner.  For most bodybuilders and quasi-experts, the technique is effective, but it remains misunderstood.  They’ll go to extremes and choke carb intake down to 50 grams per day for a few days, then "load" them back up eating 300 g or so.  Both picks – eating such a paltry amount followed by not really eating what I consider "enough" – defeat the purpose.  This month, I’ll give you my two cents on how to effectively cycle carbs.

Step 1:  Understand carb cycling mechanics

When you cut carbs, muscles give up stored carbohydrates – called muscle glycogen – as energy.  In general, when glycogen levels fall, the body increases its ability to burn bodyfat.  Therefore, it makes sense to reduce your carbohydrate intake, which means smaller portion of oatmeal, fruit, rice, pasta, potatoes and bread.  When that happens, the body ramps up fat burning.  However you don’t have to cycle, at least from the onset of dieting, to burn fat.  In other words, simply eating fewer carbs on a daily basis will ramp up fat burning.  So, step 1 in getting lean and applying this principle requires you to reduce your carbs.  I suggest a 33%-50% reduction from what you are currently eating.  Without having to whip out a calculator, an easy way to do that is to simply eyeball your carb portions and eat one-third to one-half smaller portions at each meal.

Step 2:  Remain on low carbs

By low, I mean eating 33%-50% fewer carbs as outlined in step 1.  How long should you remain on this carb intake?  That depends on how your body responds.  If you continuously become leaner for two weeks, hell, continue to stick with it.  Why would you want to go into carb cycling if you are already on an effective diet that is making you leaner?  I find that most bodybuilders will definitely get leaner for two, and even up to three, weeks simply by keeping their carbs at this level.  However, don’t get caught up in the numbers.  If you were eating 900 g of carbs in the first place, you’ll be able to lean down on 450-600 g per day.  If you were eating 400 g to start, then you’ll get harder on 200-300 g per day.

Step 3:  Cycle for two days only

After two to three weeks, or when you see your body no longer getting leaner, take any two days out of the week and drop your carbs to about 100 g per day.  For example, if you were eating 450 g per day, you can go to 100 g on any two days.  The ideal time to start is your off-training days.  However, if you only take roughly one day of rest a week, you’d drop your carbs to 100 g on the off day and on any other training day.  The net result: you’ll have lower glycogen levels that will revamp fat burning, which may have downgraded with extended dieting.

Step 4:  Cycle for four days?

When I am putting a diet together, a lot of time is spent evaluating and re-evaluating someone’s progress.  Particularly, I think about whether I should do nothing.  For example, the bodybuilder cycling – or dropping carbs to 100 g twice per week – will get leaner.  The next step is to decide if he needs to set aside more days out of the week during which he’ll be eating only 100 g of carbs.  If he is getting leaner, I take the "do nothing" approach and let the body ride the wave and get leaner from week to week.  For some, that may be two weeks.  For others, those two lower-carb days outlined in step 3 coupled with overall lower carbs on the other days are sufficient.  If not, I have to make changes:  lowering carbs to 100 g for four days per week.  Using our example, I’d have the bodybuilder ingest 100 g of carbs four days per week with 450 g on the other days.

Step 5:  The big carb day

It’s only after you have been dieting for an extended period of time that a large increase in carbs is needed.  When you consume 100 g of carbs per day – outlined in step 4 – for a period your muscles become flat and severely depleted of muscle glycogen.  At this point, take your low-carb figure (in our example, 450 g) and double it.  Remember, we’re not trying to get too technical and bogged down in counting carbs and such, so you can eyeball your carbs and simply choose a day to eat twice the portion size you typically eat.  When should you go to 900 g of carbs?   That’s the big question.  If you start to lose muscle and your muscles appear extremely flat or you become extremely fatigued, that’s the time.  On the other hand, if you appear full and are not losing size, there really is no need to go up in carbs. In fact, going up will only slow your progress.  Only when you’re flat or extremely weak will step 5 be beneficial.  The beauty of this step is that if you need it, it actually will make you leaner.  If you have the type of physique that starts to flatten and shrink or you find yourself fatigued, like you are running marathons, implementing step 5 will give both a kick to your metabolism and help you hold mass.  The real answer to, "Do I need a high-carb day?" depends on your body.  Increasing carbs for the sake of "cycling" can be a waste of time.
 

Five pros reveal their favorite supps for packing on mass, cutting up, boosting energy and protecting their health.  Now, put their picks to work for you.

With thousands of products on the market providing a multitude of ingredients for various physique- and performance-enhancing benefits, knowing what to take and when to take it can be a daunting task.   In a perfect world, you’d just be able to pick up the phone and ask some of the best bodybuilders in the world for their advice.  So that’s exactly what we did.  Below you’ll find the supplement picks of four top-tier pros – and one top-tier pro in waiting – for almost every imaginable scenario.  Life just got a little easier.

SCENARIO ONE:
SIZING UP

THE PRO Jay Cutler
CREDENTIALS Two-time Mr. Olympia (2006-2007), five-time Mr. Olympia runner-up (2001, 2003-2005, 2008)

CUTLER’S PICKS

Creatine
Dextrose
Nitric oxide booster
Glutamine
Meal replacement product

CUTLER’S VIEW:  "It’s no secret that there are other guys who are more aesthetic than I am.  Building extreme size and outmuscling the other guys has been the strategy that allowed me to win two Olympias and three consecutive Arnold Classics."

Pick #1 CREATINE

Take it:  20 minutes before training; immediately after training
Dose: 3-5 grams
Cutler says:  "Creatine is fantastic for helping maximize strength and performance in the gym, which is critical to adding mass.  It also helps with muscle fullness and recovery."

Pick #2 DEXTROSE

Take it:  Immediately after training
Dose: 60-100 g
Cutler says:  "Adding dextrose to the mix postworkout helps replenish depleted glycogen levels and spike insulin levels, as well as drive protein, amino acids and carbohydrates into the muscle."

Pick #3 NO BOOSTER

Take it:  20 minutes before training
Dose:  One dose of an NO booster providing 3-5 g of arginine
Cutler says:  "Not only does it help carry the Creatine that I’ve just taken into the muscle, but it also helps me get a great pump and maximizes that feeling of muscle fullness."

Pick #4 GLUTAMINE

Take it:  Pre- and postworkout; with carbohydrate meals throughout the day.
Dose:  5-10 g
Cutler says:  "You hear about a lot of guys using glutamine before and after workouts, but I also use it throughout the day because it promotes higher growth hormone levels and helps shuttle carbohydrates and glycogen into the muscle.  Using glutamine with meals that contain carbohydrates is a solid offseason strategy."

Pick # 5 MRP

Take it:  Three times per day
Dose:  One packet
Cutler says:  "Three times per day gives me a total of 120 g of high-quality protein and about 100 g of carbs.  The convenience of an MRP is a huge plus for me."

SCENARIO TWO:
PRE- AND POSTOWRKOUT (OFFSEASON)

THE PRO  Brandon Curry
CREDENTIALS  2008 NPC USA Championships overall winner

CURRY’S PICKS

MRP
Energy drink
Creatine
Glutamine
Branched-chain amino acids

CURRY’S VIEW:  "After I placed second at the 2007 USA and Nationals, I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to add quality muscle mass and get my pro card in "08.  That meant focusing on my pre- and postworkout nutrition and supplementation to maximize my workouts.  Now that I’m a pro, it’s even more important."

PICK #1 MRP

Take it:  One hour before training; 30 minutes after training; before bed
Dose:  Three scoops yielding approximately 70 g of protein from whey, milk and egg sources, and 40 g of carbs from a fiber matrix and various sources.
Curry says:  "I don’t like to have a lot of food in my stomach when I work out, so I drink one shake about an hour before my session and another one approximately 30 minutes after I finish training.  This ensures that I’m going to have the nutrients I need for a great workout and be able to recover properly afterward.  I also use an MRP before bed so that my body is supplied with nutrients through the night to prevent any muscle breakdown."

PICK #2 ENERGY DRINK

Take it:  Before and during training
Dose:  16 ounces
Curry says:  "I don’t recommend using the drinks that are loaded with sugar and carbs.  Instead, I opt for a formula that has a mix of energy-producing amino acids and caffeine.  I’ll start drinking it early in the day and take whatever is left of the 16-ounce serving with me into the workout and finish it as I train."

Pick # 3 CREATINE

Take it:  Within 20 minutes after training
Dose:  3-5 g
Curry says:  "Creatine is really important for recovery from intense workouts, so I make sure to include it in my posttraining supplementation."

Pick #4 GLUTAMINE

Take it:  Within 20 minutes after training
Dose:  5-10 g
Curry says:  "Glutamine makes up a high percentage of the amino acids in your muscle tissue and it’s released from your muscle when you train.  I need to replenish it postworkout to prevent muscle breakdown and gain as much muscle as possible."

Pick #5 BCAAs

Take it:  Within 20 minutes after training
Dose:  5-10 g
Curry says:  "BCAAs are broken down during training, so your body will start to eat muscle tissue to replenish them if you don’t supplement after you train."

SCENARIO THREE:
GETTING LEAN (CONTEST PREP)

THE PRO  Dexter "The Blade" Jackson
CREDENTIALS  2008 Mr. Olympia; 2008 Arnold Classic champion

JACKSON’S PICKS

MRP
Whey protein
Fat burner

JACKSON’S VIEW:  "When I’m preparing for a contest, maintaining my muscle mass while shedding bodyfat is the most important thing for me.  Let’s face it, when I step onstage, I’m routinely giving up 20, 30 even 40 pounds, so holding on to every ounce of muscle is critical.  To do that, I have to take in about 400 g of protein every day spread over seven meals."

PICK #1 MRP

Take it:  Three times per day: meal two at 10:30 AM, meal four at 3:30 PM and before bed
Dose:  One packet
Jackson says:  "The MRP I use has 40 g of protein and 32 g of carbs, with very little fat.  I add a scoop of whey protein powder that contains an additional 20 g of protein to my shake to bring the total to 60 g."

PICK #2 WHEY PROTEIN

Take it:  Three times per day with the meal replacement formula
Dose:  One scoop, yielding 20 g of protein
Jackson says:  "Bodybuilders can’t overstate the importance of protein to add and maintain muscle mass.  That’s why I add a scoop of quality whey protein powder to my meal replacement formula for an additional 20 g with every shake."

PICK #3  FAT BURNER

Take it:  First dose with first meal of the day, second dose before workout
Dose:  One capsule twice per day to start; three capsules twice per day after first week
Jackson says:  "A quality fat burner that combines ingredients like green tea extract, caffeine, yohimbine, white willow extract and inositol helps me achieve that ultrashredded, bone-dry condition I’ve become known for.  The nutrients help with both my energy and focus, which helps me train at a high intensity level, even though I’m on a reasonably low-carb diet."

SCENARIO FOUR:
PRE- AND POSTWORKOUT (PRECONTEST)

THE PRO Flex Lewis
CREDENTIALS 2008 Europa Super Show 202-and-under winner; 2008 202 Showdown, third place

LEWIS’ PICKS

Creatine
NO booster
Caffeine
Whey protein isolate
BCAAs
Glutamine

LEWIS’ VIEW:  "The bottom line is that whether you’re tired or not, you have to be able to train at maximum intensity to put your best body onstage, and it would be very difficult for me to do that if I were not supplementing properly for the workout."

PICK #1  CREATINE

Take it:  During workouts and immediately afterward
Dose:  3-5 g
Lewis says:  "I want my body to be enriched and in a super anabolic environment at all times, and I find that using Creatine this way allows me to keep great fullness in the muscle even though I’m dieting."

PICK #2  NO BOOSTER

Take it:  30 minutes before training
Dose:  One dose that provides 3-5 g of arginine
Lewis says:  "Nitric oxide helps me get a better pump during my workouts, which I really appreciate when I’m dieting on very low carbs."

PICK #3  CAFFEINE

Take it:  30 minutes before training
Dose:  200-400 milligrams
Lewis says:  "This really helps with my energy level for the workout, as well as my ability to stay focused."

PICK #4  WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE

Take it:  Immediately after training
Dose:  60 g
Lewis says:  "Whey isolate is a very fast-acting protein that gets into my system quickly along with the other nutrients, so I can effectively begin the recuperation process within minutes after my workout."

PICK #5  BCAAs

Take it:  Immediately after training
Dose:  5-10 g
Lewis says:  "Intense training and cardio sessions along with a lower calorie intake when I’m leaning out all deplete branched chain aminos, so I make sure to replenish them right after I train.  If not, the body can break down lean muscle tissue to get them and that’s the last thing any bodybuilder would want."

PICK #6  GLUTAMINE

Take it:  Immediately after training
Dose:  5-10 g
Lewis says:  "Glutamine gets released from your muscle to support your immune system when training, so replenish it right away to prevent any breakdown."

SCENARIO FIVE:
OVERALL HEALTH

THE PRO  Will "World" Harris
CREDENTIALS  2007 Europa Show runner-up

HARRIS’ PICKS

Glutamine
Multivitamin/multimineral without iron
Natural human growth hormone stimulant

HARRIS’  VIEW:  "Let’s face it, when you go into the gym and train like an animal, you’re breaking your body down, as well as lowering your resistance to illness.  I’ve been in the sport for a lot of years and it seems that whenever the issue of supplementation comes up, everyone skips right over the basics and it’s all about fat burners and supplements that can help you get bigger.  I understand that’s the bodybuilder’s mentality, but that’s kind of like picking out the color you’re going to paint a room on the second floor of a house before pouring the foundation.  I think a lot of people fail to realize that the bodybuilding lifestyle can take its toll on your overall health and immune system if you don’t do certain things to make sure that it doesn’t."

PICK #1  GLUTAMINE

Take it:  Four times per day with meals
Dose: 3 g
Harris says:  "Although glutamine is well-known for it muscle-building properties, it’s also great for your immune system."

PICK #2  MULTIVITAMIN/MULTIMINERAL WITHOUT IRON

Take it:  Breakfast and lunch
Dose:  One dose two times per day
Harris says:  "This is my first line of defense.  I make sure that it does not contain iron, because men can reach toxicity levels of that nutrient rather easily."

PICK #3  NATURAL HIGH STIMULANT (LIQUID FORM)

Take it:  Three times per day
Dose:  Two sprays under tongue
Harris says:  "When I see distended midsections on national and pro stages [which can be caused by injectible HGH use], I get disgusted.  On the other hand, I recognize that elevated human growth hormone levels – to a certain degree – can be great for overall health, recovery and muscularity.  This [product] is a natural way to boost those GH levels."

Getting cut and defined is not all just calories.  It’s not.  I promise.  When it comes to getting ripped, calories certainly play a major role.  However – and this however is huge – you need to use and implement a few strategies that alter your metabolism.  Most people think of altering the metabolism as "boosting it", but there are things you can do that also change the way the body handles food.  Here are five ways to do so.

#1. Increase protein – Stress the protein: more chicken, egg whites, fish and whey-based protein powder.  Why?  Not all calories – from carbs, protein and fat – are equal in their efficiency to be stored as bodyfat.  When you eat a high-protein meal, it exerts a greater metabolic-boosting effect than carbs or fat.  Eating protein while on a lower-calorie diet saves muscle, which helps keep the metabolism elevated.  You should get at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day.  If bodyfat is a problem for you, aim for 1.5 g of protein per pound daily.

#2. Play with carbs – Carbs help retain metabolic-boosting muscle, yet they can stimulate fat storage.  Following a lower-carb diet – three consecutive days at about 100g-125g per day – by a single day of 300g-400g of carbs offers muscle support minus the fat storage.  How so?  When you eat fewer carbs and replace those carbs with protein, in general, the body ramps up fat-mobilizing enzymes and hormones resulting in accelerated fat loss.  However, a prolonged period of taking in fewer carbs can lower levels of the hormone leptin, which leads to a drop in metabolic rate.  A higher-carb day thrown in every fourth day or so boosts leptin levels and, therefore, metabolic rate, back up.

#3. Eat small meals, more frequently – The typical American diet consists of three meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Some guys may eat an additional snack, while some often skip breakfast or lunch.  There’s a huge problem with only eating two to four meals each day – it can lead to fat gain.  Any hardcore bodybuilder wanting to put on lean muscle and drop bodyfat should be eating six to nine smaller meals per day.  Research shows that eating more frequent, smaller meals keeps metabolic rate elevated higher than when eating fewer meals through out the day.

#4. Fiber up – Taking a fiber supplement can alter the way your body handles carbohydrates.  Fiber stimulates carbs to bypass fat-storing pathways by slowing down the rate at which they are digested.  This in turn means the carbs ultimately head down muscle fueling or building pathways.  Most bodybuilders should shoot for about 30g of fiber per day.

#5. Go fish – When calories are controlled, the inclusion of omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon, trout and sardines may promote speedier fat loss.  One study revealed that dieters who ate fish on a daily basis lost more weight than those who ate fish just once a week.  One of the main mechanisms by which omega-3 fatty acids work to reduce bodyfat is through their conversion to beneficial prostaglandins.  Prostaglandins are hormone-like substances that can promote thermogenesis.  A study from Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond) found that omega-3 fatty acids also help prevent fat from the diet from being stored as bodyfat.

Myths galore abound in training, but that’s nothing compared to the fallacies that get strewn amount on the topic of bodybuilding nutrition, specifically as it pertains to fat burning.  One self-appointed diet guru will tell you that carbs act a certain way in the body; however, he’s contradicted by the next guy with the same job title.

At some point, you just have to set the record straight and debunk all the nutritional myths floating around out there.  But here’s the catch: some of those so-called myths are actually true!  But which ones?  To help you make sense of all the confusing rhetoric going back and forth, we’ve compiled 10 of the most common fat-burning quandaries and sought to apply one of two simple labels to each: fact or fiction.

When you compare carbohydrates, protein and dietary fat gram for gram, fat is more "fattening" because dietary fat is more calorie dense.  One gram of protein or carbs provides four calories, but the same amount of fat provides nine calories – more than double.  This can add up to a ton of calories … if you’re eating butter with every meal!

But the bottom line is that a calorie is not necessarily a calorie.  When you eat a diet that is moderate in fat (20%-30% of total calories), you are not adding that many extra calories.  Not to mention, when you eat primarily healthy fats, they are more readily used for energy than saturated and trans fats, and the omega-3 variety of healthy fats actually encourage fat burning.

VERDICT: Fact

In fact, adequate carbohydrate intake prevents thyroid hormone levels from dropping.  (Thyroid hormones are produced by the thyroid gland and are extremely important in governing fat burning.)  If carbs plummet too drastically, thyroid levels are likely to take a dive too, which will put a damper on your fat burning efforts.  So keeping your carbohydrate intake adequate – enough to train hard and keep hormones in check – is the smart way to go.

When on a get-lean diet, you can keep your carbs to about one gram per pound of bodyweight.  However, since low-carb diets are effective for getting super lean, when going below 1 gram, add a higher carb day (about 2 or more grams per pound) once a week.

VERDICT:  Fiction

There is research that supports the notion that simple H2O can help you burn more fat.  For one, dehydrated individuals experience a drop in resting metabolic rate (the number of calories they burn in a day).  So simply staying hydrated can help to keep metabolic rate, and fat burning optimal.

Moreover, one research study from Germany reported that drinking about two cups of cold water led to about a 30% increase in subjects’ metabolic rate for over an hour; in male subjects, the majority of calories burned came from fat.  The same researchers found similar results in a follow-up study.

It appears that the cold water raises metabolic rate because the body has to spend energy to warm the water to body temperature.  Drink an extra 2 cups of cold water in between meals to keep your fat burning turned up.

VERDICT: Fact

Without a doubt, bypassing breakfast is violating one of bodybuilding’s golden rules.  When you wake up hungry and skip breakfast, levels of the protein hormone leptin, which regulates appetite and metabolism, can change, thus encouraging the body to hold on to its fat.  In addition, skipping breakfast facilitates a catabolic (muscle wasting) state, which also causes the metabolism to slow.  You’ve been sleeping for seven or eight hours (maybe more), which basically means you’ve been fasting.

Outside of maybe brushing your teeth, the first thing you should be thinking of upon waking is getting adequate protein and carbs.  This muscle wasting state is such a concern for bodybuilders that guys like two-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler have been known to wake up in the middle of the night and down a protein shake just to stay anabolic.

VERDICT: Fact

Going easy on carbs late at night is typically a great piece of advice when trying to lean out – the exception being for those who workout late in the day.

If you train at night, you need to eat something beforehand that includes a small amount of slow-digesting carbs and some protein.  And after training, you need a bit of fast-digesting carbs – even if it’s 11 o’clock at night – to kick-start muscle recovery.

If you work out in the evening, go with about 20 g of slow-digesting carbs such as fruit or whole-grain products (whole-wheat bread, oatmeal) within 30 minutes before workouts and about 30-40 g of fast-digesting carbs such as sports drinks, jellybeans or sorbet within 30 minutes after.

VERDICT: Fiction

Simple or fast-digesting carbs are great at the first meal of the day to bring up what are typically low blood sugar levels.  This helps guide the body back into a growth mode after several hours of fasting overnight.  And, of course, simple carbs are pretty much a necessity after training (whether it be lifting or cardio) to quickly return the body to an anabolic state, a state that was interrupted with hardcore training.  That said, at all other times outside of breakfast and postworkout, take a pass on simple carbs.

VERDICT: Fiction

When you begin a fat-burning diet and calories decrease, you have a copious amount of bodyfat to burn and your protein needs don’t change much.  However, as bodyfat begins to be used up, the body begins to rely on an alternative source of energy: protein.  This is when you need to significantly increase your protein intake or else your body will turn to its own muscle tissue to burn for energy.  Start losing muscle tissue and your metabolism drops, fat burning decreases too, which undermines the whole point of being on a leaning out diet.

When getting super shredded is the goal, 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight a day may not be enough – up that to 1½ grams per pound to ensure you’re holding on to as much of your hard earned muscle as possible.

VERDICT: Fact

You should always eat before training.  We repeat: never skip your preworkout meal.  Eating before your workout allows you to train hard, and hard training always takes precedent over cutting back on calories.

"If someone’s not sure where he is in a dieting phase, I’ll ask him, ‘How’s your workout intensity?’" says Chris Aceto, bodybuilding nutritional consultant and contributor to FLEX and MUSCLE & FITNESS magazines .  "If he answers that it stinks, that’s an indication that he’s eating too little and making the huge mistake of reducing calories at the expense of maintaining his ability to train hard.  Hard training makes you lean.  Hard training drives the metabolism.  Those who eat nothing in the hours before their workout end up over trained, run down or they lose muscle simply because they can’t get the job done in the gym."

Two to three hours before training, consume 30-50 g of a low-fat protein source (lean chicken, turkey or beef) and 30-60 g of a slow-digesting carbohydrate (oatmeal, whole grain bread or sweet potato); then, around 30 minutes before training, take 20 g of a fast-digesting protein (whey, ideally) and another 20-40 g of slow-digesting carbs.  That should provide ample fuel without compromising your diet.

VERDICT: Fiction

As the day goes on, reserves of carbohydrates in the muscle (also known as muscle glycogen) tend to fill up.  As glycogen stores approach "full", the body tends to become more efficient at storing food, especially carbs, as bodyfat.  So, when in a fat-burning phase, keep meals (dinner) and snacks taken later in the day smaller than at breakfast and lunch.  Also decrease carbohydrate intake as the day goes on, to the point where any late-night snack is primarily protein.  If, for example, you’re going to eat a sweet potato, eat it at lunch or as part of a preworkout meal.  Come dinner time, try to limit carbs to vegetables.  (If you train at night, see number five above.)

VERDICT: Fact

Caffeine increases the amount of fat that gets liberated from the fat cells, allowing it to be more readily burned for fuel.  There’s nothing wrong with having a morning cup of joe, but to maximize caffeine’s fat burning effects, the best time to take it is around an hour before you train.  Research shows this can make you stronger in the gym and lessen muscle pain during the workout, both of which will allow you to train harder.

Shoot for 200-400 milligrams from a caffeine supplement preworkout.  Research shows that supplemental forms of caffeine (pills or powder) work better than coffee.  But, of course, calories count too.  If you’re overeating, don’t expect caffeine to make you leaner, especially if you’re adding calories from sugar or half-and-half.  Drink coffee black and stay away from the lattes and mochas.

VERDICT: Fact

*Reprinted with the kind courtesy of FLEX Magazine (January 2009)
Article by Jordana Brown.  Photography by Pavel Ythjall.

You know you’re a true flex disciple when you find yourself casting a wary eye at any food that wasn’t made in your own kitchen.  Diet is such an important part of molding your physique that any extra hidden fat or carbs on the wrong days could throw you off track.  Yes, flank steak has a permanent spot in your diet, but not when it’s topped with onions and mushrooms that have been sautéed in butter.

You know to be suspicious of restaurant food, the potluck at the office and possibly even Mom’s Sunday dinner – but what about that loaf of whole-wheat bread that’s currently sitting on your kitchen counter?  Just like Mom’s brisket, it wasn’t made in your own kitchen, but most of us throw a couple of slices in the toaster for breakfast or a preworkout slow-digesting carb boost.

In fact, there could be any number of ingredients hiding in that loaf, or in any of the other myriad processed foods that you’re storing on your kitchen shelves.  Most people don’t worry too much about what’s entering their mouths and bloodstreams, but we know you do, which is why it’s important for you to understand some of the things that are hidden in mass-produced foods that can hurt your muscle-building ambitions.

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Although you may be following a clean diet, HFCS is present in many foods and can lead to a rapid elevation of insulin levels.

Have you seen the commercials lately?  The Corn Refiners Association is running a series of ads extolling the virtues of high-fructose corn syrup.   Did you know that it’s "made from corn, has the same number of calories as sugar and, like sugar, is fine in moderation?"  Although the folks with all their money sunk into corn futures desperately want you to believe this, we’re just not convinced.

It’s true that HFCS and table sugar are composed of the same two simple sugars: glucose and fructose.  Table sugar is half glucose and half fructose; the ration in HFCS is most often around 55% fructose and 45% glucose.  The bigger difference, though, is that in sugar, the glucose and fructose are chemically bonded, and upon consumption, your body must break that bond before absorption can occur.

HFCS, on the other hand, is essentially predigested sugar – the glucose and fructose are not bonded.  All this talk about chemistry is significant because, although both sugar and HFCS act fast on insulin levels, it is very likely that HFCS elevates insulin levels more quickly due to the fact that it requires one less step to be digested (it doesn’t have to wait for enzymes to break bonds between glucose and fructose) before entering your bloodstream.

There have also been allegations that HFCS can affect feelings of satiety, and that those constant feelings of hunger associated with consumption of HFCS might, in turn, be responsible for this country’s obesity problems.  However, there have been several studies that have not found any relationship between feelings of satiety and HFCS.  Our best guess is that science just hasn’t found the smoking gun yet.  However, nothing that is as highly processed as HFCS can be good for the human body in the quantities in which the average person downs it.  Our best advice to you is to limit HFCS consumption.  Although eating HFCS’s in moderation is an admirable goal, it’s a difficult one to achieve.  In case you haven’t noticed, HFCS has almost entirely replaced sugar as the sweetener of choice.  It’s in everything from juices to bread, ketchup to lunch meat.  Even when following a clean diet, eating some instant oatmeal for breakfast, having a sandwich on whole-wheat bread and putting some ranch dressing on your chicken breast can fill you with HFCS.  The best means of avoiding it is by being hypervigilant: read ingredient lists on all the foods you buy and look for organic alternatives when possible.

Trans fats can add fat to your body and decrease amino acid uptake, and we’re not just buttering you up.

If HFCS is a triumph of modern food science, trans fat is a casualty of "modern" nutrition.  In the 1970s, nutritionists concluded that because fat contains more calories per gram than any other nutrient, it must be the cause of the dawning obesity epidemic.  But besides leading thousands of nutritionists to offer deleterious advice to thousands of clients, the low-fat diet craze also sparked the propagation of one of the most malicious compounds ever to appear on supermarket shelves.

A product of the vegetable oil companies’ misguided attempts to marry their product’s healthier mono- and polyunsaturated fats with butter’s solidity and spreadability, trans fats are created when hydrogen molecules are added to oil.

When low-fat diets took off (a trend that has yet to truly die), people fled butter while flocking to margarine.  But we now know that trans fats are dangerous.  Not only do they contribute to heart disease, diabetes and liver damage, but they also can obscure muscle in at least two ways.

The first thing trans fats do is (no surprise) make you fat.  A study published in the July 2007 issue of the journal Obesity fed one group of monkeys a diet that contained trans fats and another group a diet that contained healthy fats.  Both groups’ diets were calorie controlled, so that neither group should have gained weight.  Yet, the healthy fat group increased in bodyweight by about 2%, while the trans fat group increased by over 7%, with a large percentage of that weight going straight to their bellies.

In addition to just hiding your muscles under a layer of fat, eating a lot of trans fats can actually affect how your muscles grow by decreasing amino acid uptake, as well as compromising the integrity of the muscle cell membrane.  This can lead to a blunting in muscle protein synthesis (i.e., growth) and an increase in muscle breakdown.

Like HFCS, maltodextrin can make foods taste sweeter, but it could have a souring effect on physique improvement.

There is nothing inherently harmful about maltodextrin.  Compared to trans fats, it’s pretty benign – by which we mean it’s not going to ruin your cardiovascular system.  It could, however, contribute to diabetes or bury your muscles under a fluffy layer of fat.

Maltodextgrin is primarily derived from corn (or other starches like potatoes) by a method similar to that of HFCS.  It, too, is used as a sweetener, and because it’s technically not sugar but rather a polysaccharide (or long chain of sugar molecules), it doesn’t have to be listed as sugar on product labels.  (This, incidentally, is how there can be nutrition labels on products that list, say, 20 grams of carbs, 1 g of sugar and 3 g of fiber – the remaining carbs are in the form of maltodextrin and its relatives.)

But just because it’s not sugar according to the food producers’ dictionary doesn’t mean your body won’t interpret it as sugar.  In general, the longer the chain of molecules, the more bonds your body has to break in order to digest a substance, and therefore the longer it takes.  But maltodextrin, despite being composed of longer chains of sugars, is actually the rare complex carbohydrate (like white potatoes) that is very quickly digested.

Maltodextrin illustrates the rule that you can’t just rely on the Nutrition Facts label when making decisions about what foods to eat.   Be sure to examine the ingredients for any hidden surprises, but there’s no need to completely exclude foods that contain maltodextrin.  Like we said, it’s not going to kill you; but if eaten at the wrong time (i.e., any time other than immediately postworkout), it could slow your muscle gains or speed your gains in bodyfat.

Enriched flour has lost most of the grain’s nutritive value and fiber; you’ll be much better off with whole-wheat flour.

Every manufacturer wants you to believe that eating its food will keep you healthy.  Since one of the mainstream nutrition’s current favorite health concepts involves eating a high-fiber diet full of whole grains, many bread companies have slapped labels on their loaves implying that they are chock-full of whole-grain goodness.  We’ve already debunked some of their tricks in a previous issue of FLEX ("Label Lies", March 2008), but in case you’re wondering, all you need to do is read the ingredient label.  Anytime you see "enriched wheat flour" as one of the primary ingredients on a loaf of bread, put it back.

Yes, we understand that the words "wheat flour" appears there.  However, the word "enriched" is what should clue you in.  Here’s why: There are three edible components to whole grains: the bran, or the outer shell that contains all the fiber; the germ, which contains all the vitamins and minerals as well as the protein and fat; and the endosperm, which is the starchy, carby part.  When grains are refined, as they are to make most bread, the bran and endosperm are removed.  Since those parts contain the majority of the grain’s nutrition, bread companies must replace the missing vitamins and minerals, a process called "enriching".

Ignore any bread or other grain products that include enriched flour, as they have been stripped of all their fiber and nutrients. Look instead for whole-wheat flour and you’ll be assured that you’re buying the best in slow-digesting carbohydrates.

You don’t want these hydrogenated compounds fermenting in your intestines, so here’s what to look for and then ignore on store shelves.

Odds are you haven’t seen the words "sugar alcohol" on an ingredient label.  But equally good odds have it that at least one of these words will seem vaguely familiar: maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol or hydrogenated starch hydrolysates.  Sugar alcohols represent yet another way that food companies attempt to sweeten foods without adding sugar or carbohydrates.  Most of them occur naturally in fruits and vegetables, but HSH are created by adding hydrogen molecules to carbohydrates (sound familiar?), with the result being a sweet-tasting compound that doesn’t drastically affect blood sugar and is poorly absorbed by the body.  This means that they’re great for people on low-carb diets, but not so great for those dieters’ intestinal tracts.

When we say that sugar alcohols are not well absorbed by the body, we mean that when they hit the intestines, your body doesn’t really know what to do with them, so it ignores them.  As they sit there, they ferment, causing bloating, gas and other unpleasantness.  Some people are more sensitive to them than others, but these alcohols are definitely worth avoiding, particularly just before a first date.

It may go without saying, but the companies that make the processed foods that line supermarket shelves do not care about how big your biceps are, how whittled your waist is or how clear your arteries are.  All they care about is how much you’re going to spend.  What this means, particularly for those of us who are indeed deeply concerned about our physiques and our health, is that we have to become hyperaware and hypervigilant – all in an attempt to beat these companies at their health-endangering, muscle-busting game.