Q&A for: 1-Dec-05
1116. Q:
I need to lose my gut fast. Can you tell me a good exercise for the stomach? I know you can't lose weight in one certain area.
A:
As you said said, it's impossible to target just the stomach fat. So once you know that, you know you need to lose fat overall. To lose fat overall you need to be exercising as many of your muscles as possible, because the more muscles you exercise, the more fat your body will burn during recovery as it rebuilds the damaged muscles. If you absolutely had to pick just a couple of exercises, you'd want to do the ones that use as much of your muscle mass as possible -- squats, deadlifts, and lunges (you can see these in my Exercises section). But, once again, you would do even better by having a complete weight training program that includes other exercises, besides squats, deadlifts, and lunges. Remember to make sure you learn proper exercise form, on squats and deadlifts especially, or you'd be risking injury.
And, of course, the even more important aspect of losing fat overall is having a good diet. If you don't watch what you eat, all the exercise in the world might not make much of a difference.
So, unfortunately, there is no magic bullet exercise that will solve your gut problem fast all by itself. The better and more complete your exercise program is, and the more healthy and disciplined your diet is, the better your chances of losing the gut AND making sure it never comes back.
1117. Q:
Mike, whats a good snack right before bed that will give me protein, and not burn muscle during sleep
A:
Traditionally, casein protein found in cottage cheese or bought as a powder is recommended as the night meal. So cottage cheese with some strawberries, for example.
You'll get same or nearly same benefits from any other animal protein source (fish, beef, chicken, etc.) along with some veggies. If you're eating lean meat (like skinless chicken breast) then add some olive oil as well for some healthy fats. So good night meals are things like chicken salad with olive oil, salmon with carrots and broccoli, steak with green beans, etc.
So basically the key to a good night meal is generous amount of protein (either casein/cottage cheese or lean meat/fish/poultry), some carbs from veggies or perhaps berries, and healthy fats like olive oil if your portein source is very lean and has no or little fat (if you're eating 90% lean beef or a fatty fish like salmon then you already are getting some fat so no need for olive oil).
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