The ECA Stack for Fat Loss Results

One thing I’ve noticed since I started training is that there is always a quest for the “magic bullet”–some pill that will magically make all your excess weight melt away. Unfortunately there is not such thing.

Losing weight is a pretty simple proposition: you have to burn more calories than you eat/drink. Drugs can do nothing to change this basic truth, so a drug must somehow help you achieve a negative calorie balance in order to be effective. Stimulants commonly help with this.

Let’s take caffeine, for example. A cup of coffee is going to blunt your appetite. It’s also going to help with the actual process of burning fat, but the greatest impact it will have in terms of weight loss (if any) will be because it could help you eat less.

Another example is nicotine. I’m not suggesting anyone smoke cigarettes, but the reason that smokers typically gain weight after they stop smoking is that their regular use of this stimulant has ceased. They eat more because their level of hunger increases without nicotine.

Well, it turns out that a combination of stimulants called the ECA stack can be very effective as a weight loss aid. ECA stands for ephedrine, caffeine, and aspirin. Combining these three components (two of which are stimulants) has been proven to help with weight loss. Ephedrine and caffeine work together to drastically decrease one’s appetite. There are also some secondary benefits: this combination of drugs helps to offset some of the metabolic impact of reducing your calories. In other words, it helps to keep your metabolism from slowing down too much when you eat less. Additionally, this combination of stimulants helps you preserve your muscle while you are on a diet.

The ECA stack has been well-known in the bodybuilding community for quite some time. Men and women have used it to keep their muscle and keep their appetites at bay while undergoing strict diet and training regimes. But you don’t have to be a bodybuilder to benefit. Some of the studies that have been conducted were done on obese individuals.

Needless to say, you should talk to your doctor before you take any kind of drug or start any kind of exercise program. But check out this information if you want a little extra help for losing fat and getting into shape.

Why Fit Men Love Filipinas

Social commentary sites have pointed out something that many of us instinctively know: this world is a far different place than the one our fathers and especially our grandfathers grew up in.

There was a time (not too long ago) when a Western man who was responsible and had a decent job wouldn’t have a hard time finding a suitable wife. Chances are he would have his choice of traditional, feminine women (of reasonable body mass index) who wanted to be a wife and mother.

The woman he found would have grown up knowing that her choices in youth would directly affect her changes of finding a good man before her biological clock struck midnight. She also would not have expected to marry a CEO or rock star–just a decent guy who could be a good father and husband would be enough.

Those simpler times are gone for good in the West. I was struck with this reality as early as my 20’s. A large percentage of the women I met in the singles’ scene were divorcees, single moms, or otherwise weighed down with emotional and/or financial baggage from several irresponsible life decisions. The quest for a good, desirable woman almost seemed like a complete waste of time.

I don’t think I’m unusual in this regard. Let’s say there is a 35-year-old American bachelor who has competently managed his physical and financial health. He’d probably find his marriage options in the States are extremely limited. Younger women may not give him the time of day, and women his age would be well past their primes in terms of childbearing years. He’d find himself in a wasteland . . . unless he wised up and expanded his horizons.

Years of pessimism about women and marriage were erased within my first week of visiting the Philippines. Here was a place where many women still dreamed of becoming wives and mothers. It was a place where men have virtually unlimited options.  I felt like I came alive again when I started dating Filipina women.

Here’s a thought that struck me a few days into my first visit to the Philippines: “I wonder how many guys from my home country would catch the next ticket here if they really knew the kind of women that are available?” It’s kind of like the young man who leaves a town with one traffic light to attend the largest university in his state. He realizes that the homecoming queen of his high school was just average when confronted with an endless supply of gorgeous coeds. Something like that happened to me the first time I visited the Pearl of the Orient. I realized I had been searching for love on the wrong continent.

I’m not saying that all Filipinas are marriage material. What I am saying is almost any decent guy can find a good woman in the Philippines if that’s what he wants. There are unique challenges that come with marrying and dating a woman from a different country and culture. But it’s been worth it for me and thousands of men like me.

 

Jen Ferruggia’s Workout for Women

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Hundreds of women have seen good results with a program called Bikini Body Workouts by Jen Ferruggia. What is it that makes this workout so effective for women? It all comes down to the basics, really.

One thing that Jen emphasizes is weight training for women who want to lose weight or get the “toned” look.  Women sometimes shy to do weightlifting because they are afraid of getting to big or looking masculine.  That’s really a shame, because resistance training is one of the absolute best ways for girls to change their bodies.  This has been proven by both science and experience for decades.  You can see plenty of athletic, lean women who got that way by doing squats, etc.–the same types of exercises that a man might do.  So don’t fear the gym, ladies–get ready to pump some iron with the boys without fear of looking at them.  But speaking of boys, don’t be surprised if they start noticing you a little more after you develop a toned, feminine physique.

Bikini Body Workouts guides women through complete, total body workouts designed to build muscle and burn fat. Most of the training is composed of doing “supersets,” meaning training muscle groups in succession with little rest in between sets. A set of squats, for example, may be followed by an upper body exercise. This allows the trainee to work two muscles groups that don’t “compete” with each other. In other words, the heart rate is increased and calories are burned without one particular muscle group getting too tired.

These types of workouts are great for the objectives I have described: lean and sexy, not big and bulky.  But remember something: doing these kinds of routines is not easy.  They are designed for results, not ease.  Any good workout that gets you in shape and burns fat is going to be pretty intense.  Bikini Body Workouts is no exception!

Diet is also a major component of this program. Trainees are encouraged to increase their intake of protein and cut back on calories that are consumed in the form of carbohydrates. This is not some kind of gimmick or fad diet–it just comes down to achieving a negative calorie balance. Women will find that they can build a sexy body without depriving themselves of delicious food.

It is very important that you follow Jen Ferruggia’s diet advice carefully.  It is very common to see people go to the gym without seeing any results.  In many cases this is simply a matter of lack of planning in terms of diet.  If you follow the diet carefully you will see results.  But if you don’t implement this important component of the program you are likely to be very disappointed.  Great physiques are made in both the kitchen and the gym.  Don’t forget that.

What about cardio? Well, Ferruggia discusses it in the program. It is not as important as weight training, she argues, but it can help you burn additional calories and improve your overall health and conditioning. She encourages her followers to consider doing more intensive form of cardio training (often called “HIIT“) instead of doing more traditional treadmill type training.  HIIT, or high intensity interval training is quite different from just walking on a treadmill or peddling a stationary bike for an hour.  It is designed to jack up your heart rate for a short time period then allow yourself a short rest period.  You alternate between the two, burning lots of calories in a fairly short amount of time.  One nice thing about this way of doing cardio is it is a lot more interesting.  It is also a lot more time efficient than the before-mentioned steady-state style of training.

I need to repeat something I have said before: Anyone who wants to try this workout should be prepared because it is not easy. The training is designed to be safe and effective, but it is intense. Any program worthwhile is doing will require hard work and sweat.

In the end I think you’ll be quite satisfied if you order this program and fully implement everything Jen Ferrugia advises for three to four months.  You’ll be amazed at the changes in energy level and your appearance.

You can check out this Bikini Body Workouts review video and learn more about it if you are interested.

Bodybuilding and Muscular Growth

Muscular growth, also known as hypertrophy, is influenced by several factors.  Here are just a few.

Training Factors

Volume:  the number of sets and repetitions you do in a given workout (and routine) is one of the most important training variables.  Higher training volume can help you grow muscle provided you are getting adequate rest and recovery after your lifting.arnold-Schwazenegger-off-season-300x277

Intensity: training intensity refers to maximizing the stimulation a muscle receives, often in a short period of time.  Lifting a heavier weight, for example, means the muscle is getting a more intensive “signal” with fewer repetitions.  Other techniques to maximize intensity would be super-sets in which the same muscle is worked in two (or more) consecutive exercises with minimal rest.

Tension: is another factor that affects muscle growth, and time under tension is a term often used in relation to this.  This particular aspect of muscle growth is seldom understood because heavier weights are not always necessary to produce greater gains.  A lighter weight can be used to create great tension on a muscle.  One example would be the well-developed physiques of gymnasts who primarily train with only their own body weight.

Muscular Damage/Stress: Most believe that lifting weights creates microscopic damage that muscle cells repair over time.  This damage/stress at the cellular level produces increases of muscle size and strength.

Dietary Factors

Diet and nutrition cannot be neglected for those who are serious arnold-dietabout putting on muscle.

Here are the major nutrients (macronutrients) to consider:

Protein:  Strength athletes have known for decades that they need more protein than sedentary individuals, and the “recommended daily allowance” proposed by the government is probably not what you should be going by if you want to put on muscle.  Most bodybuilders consume one gram of protein for each pound of body mass.  This is plenty and you don’t need any more than this.  The one exception is when you are dieting–then it may be a good idea to go a little higher.

Carbohydrates and Fats: both of these provide the body with the necessary energy to train.  You can also get your energy from protein, but converting protein to cellular energy is an inefficient process.  The amount of carbs and fats you should eat kind of depends on you: some people have an easier time keeping their energy up with more carbs.  But some find that they put on too much fat with amble carb intake so they try to get more of their calories from fat/protein.

Now that we’ve covered protein, carbs, and fats, remember this: you will need to eat more calories than you are using if you want to build muscle.  The opposite is true for fat loss: you’ll have to eat less calories than you are using.  There’s simply no way around this basic law of “calories in, calories out.”

Now that you have this information I can recommend some resources for those who want to really get into the details.

You may be interested in creating more of a “fitness model” type body that just looks good on the beach.  If that’s the case you may want to learn more about the Adonis Golden Ratio System.

But you may be a skinny guy who really wants to gain weight.  If that’s the case you may want to check out Vince Delmonte’s No Nonsense Muscle Building 2.0.  This is an excellent program for beginners.

Hopefully this information was helpful.  Train hard!

The Perfect Bodybuilder: Frank Zane

One of my favorite bodybuilders of all time is Frank Zane.  He was obviously not the biggest guy ever to walk the stage, and he certainly didn’t get as famous as Arnold Schwarzenegger.  But his body’s proportions were what many would consider to be perfect.

Yes, he used steroids (all pro bodybuilders do), but you can tell that he wasn’t using the extremely high doses that you typically see now.  In today’s world you’ll never see this kind of physique winning a Mr. Olympia title, and this is a shame in my opinion.

 

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