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  • Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents” (Part 2)

    Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents” (Part 2)

     Title: Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents” (Part 2)
    By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    URL: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
    Word count: 596 words

    Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents” (Part 2)
    By Tom Venuto

    BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System

    It’s lunchtime, and you’re trying to decide what to make today. Normally, you would have your regular chicken salad with mixed nuts, but today is different. You’re going to a party in the evening, and even though you’re not quite sure what to expect, you know there will be a ton of food in an atmosphere of very little restraint. You decide that it’s probably best to eat a lighter lunch than usual, to prepare for the evening calorie-surge.

    This is commonly known as “banking calories” which is analagous to saving calories like money because you’re going to consume more later.

    I usually do not recommend this. Here’s why:
    If you skip meals earlier in the day to “prepare” (bank calories) for a big feast at night, you are thinking only in terms of calories, but skipping meals is also depriving yourself of protein (amino acids), carbohydrates, essential fats, vitamins, minerals and other valuable nutrients that come from healthy food, as well as the small frequent meals which help control your appetite, stabilize your blood sugar and provide a steady flow of amino acids to your muscles. Skipping breakfast is especially detrimental.
    Not only that, but eating less early in the day in anticipation of overeating later in the day is much more likely to increase your appetite, causing you to binge or eat even MORE than you thought you would at night when the big meal does arrive.
    In fact, eating healthy, high fiber and lean protein food, as usual, earlier in the day is likely to make you LESS hungry for the holiday party meal and you’ll be more likey to eat only a harmlessly small amount of “party” foods.
    I dont like the concept of “banking calories” if it means skipping meals or if it’s used as justification for binge eating.
    Even if it worked the way you wanted it to, the starving and bingeing pattern may cause more damage than an occasional oversize meal, even if only on a psychological level. Some dieticians might even argue that this kind of behavior borders on disordered eating.
    A better approach is to stay on your regular menu of healthy foods and small meals through the entire day – business as usual – and then go ahead and enjoy yourself at your party by treating yourself to a SMALL amount of “BAD” food.
    This is supported by the 2nd Corollary of the law of calorie balance:
    “Small amounts of ANYTHING – even junk food- will probably not be stored as fat as long as you are in a calorie deficit where you are eating fewer calories than you burn.”
    It should be a big relief for you to know that when you’re at a party, a banquet, dining out or eating at a relative’s house for a special occasion, you can eat whatever you want with little or no ill effect on body composition, as long as you respect the law of calorie balance ans as long as it is done infrequently.
    However, you CANNOT starve and binge and expect not to reap negative consequences.
    If you sincerely want to burn fat and be healthy, then you have to have the discipline to stick with your nutrition plan consistently and control your portion sizes.
    Train hard and expect success

    Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System

    P.S. If you’re interested in burning fat naturally in a healthy, sensible way, then be sure to take a look at Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle – it’s the best place to start your journey: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System



    About the Author:Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist Tom Venuto 8(CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the

    author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches

    you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using

    methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness

    models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase

    your metabolism by visiting: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

  • Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents” (Part 1)

    Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents” (Part 1)

     Title: Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents” (Part 1)
    By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    URL: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
    Word count: 709 words

    Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents” (Part 1)
    By Tom Venuto

    BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System

    We’ve all been at the holiday get-togethers, and have quickly devoured something devilishly delicious with little thought. Some feel little shame for eating a cake or drinking half the bowl of punch, but others find themselves feeling guilty afterwards and can’t help but think, “oops, I shouldn’t have eaten that.” I have to admit I do get a little chuckle out of the “accidental” part! Do you ever really “accidentally” eat anything? I think we are all responsible for everything we eat and how much we eat and until you consciously realize and accept this, and take the time to do some proactive meal planning, you will probably continue to have lots of “overeating accidents!”

    After you overindulge, I definitely do NOT recommend skipping your next meal or skipping meals the next day to make up for it. I usually don’t even recommend cutting back either, although there may be exceptions where you could manipulate your meal size or macronutrient composition.

    I generally recommend returning immediately to your “regularly scheduled meal programming,” because this continues to encourage the maintenance of positive habits such as eating 5-6 small meals every day.

    I do suppose whether you cut back could depend on whether you’ve been on low calories a long time, how lean you were already, and on whether you were in a caloric deficit already. If you were in a calorie deficit for the day, then the extra calories might only bring you up to maintenance, not “over” your daily limit, which might not be as damaging as if you were in a calorie surplus.

    If you were already very lean or had been dieting strictly for a long time (as in a bodybuilder coming off a competition), a large meal or entire high calorie day might not have any negative effect either. Your metabolism has a way of slowing down if you keep your calories too low 100% of the time.

    With occasional (planned) higher calorie days, you’d be using the BURN THE FAT “zig-zag” or “cycling” principle, so eating more in this context can be a positive thing. (Note: You can learn more about this technique in the BURN THE FAT program at BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System). However, there’s a big difference between a planned “cheat meal” or a planned high carb, clean food “re-feed” day and a binge on junk food. Regardless of total 24 hour calorie intake for the day, you could still store body fat after heavy eating if it’s done at certain times and in a certain metabolic state.

    Although I do prescribe calorie levels based on daily (24 hr) needs, I believe you should also pay attention to 3 hour “windows” when you’re thinking about adjusting your caloric intake. Calories and macronutrients (protein/aminos, carbs/sugar and fat) are partitioned into glycogen, muscle or fat tissue or burned immediately depending very much on present moment energy and recovery needs and on what’s going to happen over the next 3 hours or so as the food enters your system.

    So, if you’re going to be plopping down on the couch to watch football games for the rest of the day and night after that big holiday meal, beware – you might just want to cut back on that next meal a little, especially starches and sugars.

    Bottom line: It’s okay to eat small amounts of your favorite junk foods once in a while as planned “free meals,” and it’s a good idea to eat more in general from time to time to keep your metabolism humming along. However, your best bet if you’re really serious about fat loss is to avoid huge meals and avoid bingeing in the first place. ALWAYS practice portion control – even on holidays.

    If you ever do slip, don’t beat yourself up, just get right back on the wagon with your next meal and remember, the past is behind you and today is a new day.

    Your friend and coach,
    Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System

    P.S. If you’re interested in burning fat naturally in a healthy, sensible way, then be sure to take a look at Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle – it’s the best place to start your journey: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System

    About the Author:

    Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist Tom Venuto 8

    (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the

    author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches

    you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using

    methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness

    models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase

    your metabolism by visiting: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

     

  • Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 2)

    Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 2)

     Title: Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 2)
    By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    URL: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
    Word count: 2326 words

     

    In part one, I described the growing obsession many people have with eating only the purest, healthiest foods, aka “clean eating.” You’d think that nothing but good would come from that, but some experts today dislike the concept of clean foods because it implies a dichotomy where other foods, by default, are “dirty” or forbidden – as in, you can never, ever eat them again (imagine life without chocolate, or pizza… or beer! you guys). Some physicians and psychologists even believe that if taken to an extreme, a fixation on healthy food qualifies as a new eating disorder called orthorexia.

    Personally, I have no issues with the phrase “clean eating.” Even if you choose to eat clean nearly 100% of the time, I don’t see how that qualifies as a psychological disorder of any kind (I reckon people who eat at McDonalds every day are the ones who need a shrink).

    However, I also think you would agree that any behavior – washing your hands, cleaning your house, or even exercise or eating health food – can become obsessive-compulsive and dysfunctional if it takes over your life or is taken to an extreme. In the case of diet and exercise, it could also lead to or overlap with anorexia.

    It’s debatable whether orthorexia is a distinct eating disorder, but I’m not against using the word to help classify a specific type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. I think it’s real.

    The truth is that many people are quite “enthusiastic” in defending – or preaching about – their dietary beliefs: no meat, no grains, no dairy, only organic, only raw, only what God made, and on and on the rigid all-or-nothing rules go.

    What people choose to eat is often so sacred to them, it makes for tricky business when you’re a nutrition educator. Sometimes I don’t feel like telling anyone what to eat, but simply setting a personal example and showing people how I do it, like, “Hey guys, here is how natural bodybuilders eat to get so ripped and muscular. It may not suit you, but it works for us. Take it or leave it.”

    On the other hand, I can’t help feeling that there’s got to be a way to better help the countless individuals who haven’t yet formulated their own philosophies, and who find nutrition overwhelmingly confusing. For many people, even a simple walk down the aisles of a grocery store, and trying to decipher the food labels and nutrition claims is enough to trigger an anxiety attack.

    That’s where I hope this is useful. I can’t draw the line for you, or tell you what to eat, but I can suggest a list of “new rules” for clean eating which simplifies nutrition and clears up confusion, while giving you more freedom, balance, life enjoyment and better results at the same time.

    New Rule #1: Define what clean eating means to you

    Obviously, clean eating is not a scientific term. Most people define clean eating as avoiding processed foods, chemicals and artificial ingredients and choosing natural foods, the way they came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. If that works for you, then use it. However, the possible definitions are endless. I’ve seen forum arguments about whether protein powder is “clean.” Arguments are a waste of time. Ultimately, what clean eating means is up to you to define. Whether your beliefs and values have you restrict or expand on the general definition, define it you must, keeping in mind that your definition may be different than other’s.

    New Rule #2: Always obey the law of energy balance

    There’s one widely held belief about food that hurts people and perpetuates the obesity problem because it’s simply not true. It’s the idea that calories don’t matter for weight loss, as long as you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods. Some people think that if you eat only clean foods, you’re guaranteed to lose weight and stay lean. The truth is that eating too much of anything gets stored as fat. Yes, you can become obese eating 100% clean, natural foods. There’s more to good nutrition than calories in versus calories out, but the energy balance equation is always there.

    New Rule #3: Remember that “foods” are not fattening, “excess calories” are

    There’s a widespread fear today that certain foods will automatically turn into fat. Carbohydrates – particularly refined carbohydrates and sugars – are still high on the hit list of feared foods, and so are fatty foods, owing to their high caloric density (9 calories per gram). Foods that contain fat and sugar (think donuts) are considered the most fattening of all. But what if you ate only one small donut and stayed in a calorie deficit for the day – would you still say that donut was fattening?

    If you want to say certain foods are fattening, you certainly can, but what you really mean is that some foods are calorie dense, highly palatable, not very satiating and eating them might even stimulate your appetite for more (betcha can’t eat just one!). Therefore, they’re likely to cause you to eat more calories than you need. Conversely, “non-fattening” foods have no magical properties, they’re simply low in caloric density, highly filling and non-appetite stimulating.

    New Rule #4: Understand the health-bodyfat paradox

    Two of the biggest reasons people choose to eat clean are health and weight loss. Health and body composition are intertwined, but dietary rules for health and weight loss are not one in the same. Weight gains or losses are dictated primarily by calorie quantity. Health is dictated primarily by calorie quality. That’s the paradox: You can lose weight on a 100% junk food diet, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be healthy. You can get healthier on an all natural clean food diet, but that doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight… and if you gain too much weight, then you start getting unhealthy. To be healthy and lean requires the right combination of calorie quantity and quality, not one or the other.

    New Rule #5: Forbidden foods are forbidden.

    Think of you on a diet like a pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the heat, the more the steam builds up inside. If there’s no outlet or release valve, eventually the pressure builds up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted down, she’s gonna blow, sooner or later. But if you let off a little steam by occasionally having that slice of pizza or whatever is your favorite food, that relieves the pressure.

    Alas, you never even felt the urge to binge… because you already had your pizza and the urge was satisfied. Since the “cheat meal” was planned and you obeyed the law of calorie balance, you stayed in control and it had little or no effect on your fat loss results. Ironically, you overcome your cravings by giving in to them, with two caveats: not too often and not too much.

    New Rule #6: Set your own compliance rule

    Many health and nutrition professionals suggest a 90% compliance rule because if you choose clean foods 90% of the time, it’s easy to control your calories, you consume enough nutrients for good health, and what you eat the other 10% of the time doesn’t seem to matter much. Suppose you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks every day, a total of 35 feedings per week. 90% compliance would mean following your clean eating plan for about 31 or 32 of those weekly feedings. The other 3 or 4 times per week, you eat whatever you want (as long as you obey rule #2 and keep the calories in check)

    You’ll need to decide for yourself where to set your own rule. A 90% compliance rule is a popular, albeit arbitrary number – a best guess at how much “clean eating” will give you optimal health. Some folks stay lean and healthy with 80%. Others say they don’t even desire junk food and they eat 99% clean, indulging perhaps only once or twice a month.

    One thing is for certain – the majority of your calories should come from natural nutrient-dense foods – not only for good health, but also because what you eat most of the time becomes your habitual pattern. Habit patterns are tough to break and what you do every day over the long term is what really counts the most.

    New Rule #7: Have “free” meals, not “cheat” meals

    Cheating presupposes that you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. That’s why you feel guilty when you cheat. Guilt can be one of the biggest diet destroyers. Consider referring to these meals that are off your regular plan as “free meals” instead of “cheat meals.” If having free meals is part of your plan right from the start, then you’re not cheating are you? So don’t call it that. What can you eat for your free meals? Anything you want. Otherwise, it wouldn’t truly be a free meal, would it?

    People sometimes tell me that my bodybuilding diet and lifestyle are “too strict.” I find that amusing because I love eating clean 95-99% of the time and I consider it easy. I had a butter-drizzled steak, a glass of wine, and chocolate sin cake for dessert to celebrate my last birthday. I had a couple slices of pizza just four weeks before my last competition (and still stepped on stage at 4.5% body fat). Oh, and I’m really looking forward to my mom’s pumpkin pie and Christmas cake too. Why? How? Because as strict as my lifestyle might appear to some people, I’ve learned how to enjoy free meals and I will eat ANYTHING I want – with no guilt. Meanwhile, my critics are often people with rules that NEVER allow those foods to ever cross their lips.

    New Rule #8: For successful weight control, focus on compliance to a calorie deficit, not just compliance to a food list

    Dietary compliance doesn’t just mean eating the right foods, it means eating the right amount of food. You might be doing a terrific job at eating only the foods “authorized” by your nutrition program, but if you eat too many “clean” foods, you will still get fat. On the fat loss side of health-bodyfat paradox, the quantity of food is the pivotal factor, not the quality of food. If fat loss is your goal and you’re stubbornly determined to be 100% strict about your nutrition, then be 100% strict about maintaining your calorie deficit.

    Lesson #9: Avoid all or none attitudes and dichotomous thinking

    If you make a mistake, it doesn’t ruin an entire 12 week program, a whole week and not even an entire day. What ruins a program is thinking that you must either be on or off your diet and allowing one meal off your program to completely derail you. All or nothing thinking is the great killer of diet programs.

    Even if they don’t believe that one meal will set them back physically, many “clean eaters” feel like a single cheat is a moral failure. They are terrified to eat any processed foods because they look at foods as good or bad rather than looking at the degree of processing or the frequency of consuming them.

    Rest assured, a single meal of ANYTHING, if the calories don’t exceed your energy needs, will have virtually no impact on your condition. It’s not what you do occasionally, it’s what you do most of the time, day after day, that determines your long term results.

    New Rule #10: Focus more on results, less on methods

    I’m not sure whether it’s sad or laughable that most people get so married to their methods that they stop paying attention to results. Overweight people often praise their diet program and the guru that created it, even though they’ve plateaud and haven’t lost any weight in months, or the weight they lost has begun to creep back on. Health food fanatics keep eating the same, even when they’re sick and weak and not getting any stronger or healthier.

    Why would someone continue doing more of the same even when it’s not working? One word: habit! Beliefs and behavior patterns are so ingrained at the unconscious level, you repeat the same behaviors every day virtually on automatic pilot. Defending existing beliefs and doing it the way you’ve always done it is a lot easier than changing.

    In the final analysis, results are what counts: weight, body composition, lean muscle, performance, strength, blood pressure, blood lipids, and everything else you want to improve. Are they improving or not? If not, perhaps it’s time for a change.

    Concluding words of wisdom

    We need rules. Trying to eat “intuitively” or just “wing it” from the start is a recipe for failure. Ironically, intuitive eating does not come intuitively. Whether you use my Burn The Fat.com – Body Transformation System program or a different program that suits your lifestyle better, you must have a plan.

    After following your plan for a while, your constructive new behaviors eventually turn over to unconscious control (a process commonly known as developing habits). But you’ll never reach that hallowed place of “unconscious competence” unless you start with planning, structure, discipline and rules.

    Creating nutritional rules does NOT create more rule breakers. Only unrealistic or unnecessary rules create rule breakers. That’s why these new rules of clean eating are based on a neat combination of structure and flexibility. If you have too much flexibility and not enough structure, you no longer have a plan. If you have too much structure and not enough flexibility, you have a plan you can’t stick with.

    To quickly sum it all up: Relax your diet a bit! But not too much!

    Tom Venuto, author of: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

     

    About the Author:

    Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist Tom Venuto 8

    (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the

    author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches

    you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using

    methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness

    models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase

    your metabolism by visiting: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

  • Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 1)

    Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 1)

    Title: Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 1)
    By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    URL: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
    Word count: 1345 words

     

    Clean eating has no official definition, but it’s usually described as avoiding processed foods, chemicals, preservatives and artificial ingredients. Instead, clean eaters choose natural foods, the way they came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. Vegetables, fruits, legumes, 100% whole grains, egg whites, fish, and chicken breast are clean eating staples. Clean eating appears to be a desirable, sensible, even noble goal. Eating clean is what we should all strive to do to achieve optimum health and body composition isn’t it? Arguably the answer is mostly yes, but more and more people today are asking, “is it possible to take clean eating too far?”

    Physician Steven Bratman thinks so. In 1997, Bratman was the first to put a name to an obsession with healthy eating, calling it orthorexia nervosa. In his book, Health Food Junkies, Bratman said that whether they are trying to lose weight or not, orthorexics are preoccupied with eating healthy food and avoiding anything artificial or “toxic.”

    Orthorexics are not only fanatical about eating the purest, healthiest, most nutritious (aka “clean”) foods available, says Bratman, they often feel a sense of righteousness in doing so.

    Whether orthorexia should be officially classified as an eating disorder is controversial. The term appears in pub med indexed scientific journals, but it’s not listed in the DSM-IV as are anorexia and bulimia. Opponents wonder, “Since when did choosing a lifestyle that eliminates junk food become a disease?”

    Media coverage and internet discussions about orthorexia have increased in the past year. Websites such as the Mayo Clinic, the Huffington Post and the UK-based Guardian added their editorials into the mix in recent months, alongside dozens of individual bloggers.

    In most cases, mainstream media discussions of orthorexia have focused on far extremes of health food practices such as raw foodism, detox dieting or 100% pure organic eating, where some folks would rather starve to death than eat a cooked or pesticide-exposed vegetable.

    But closer to my home, what about the bodybuilding, fitness, figure and physique crowd? Should we be included in this discussion?

    In their quest for adding muscle mass and burning fat, many fitness and physique enthusiasts become obsessed with eating only the “cleanest” foods possible. Like the natural health enthusiasts, physique athletes usually avoid all processed foods and put entire food groups on the “forbidden” list. Oddly, that sometimes includes rules such as “you must cut out fruit on precontest diets” because “fruit is high in sugar” or “fructose turns to fat”.

    According to Bratman’s criteria, one could argue that almost every competitive bodybuilder or physique athlete is automatically orthorexic, and they might add obsessive-compulsive and neurotic for good measure.

    As you can imagine, I have mixed feelings about that (being a bodybuilder).

    If I choose to set a rule for myself that I’ll limit my junk food to only 10% of my meals, does that make me orthorexic or is that a prudent health decision?

    If I plan my menus on a spreadsheet, am I a macronutrient micromanager or am I detail-oriented?

    If I make my meals in advance for the day ahead, does that mean I’m obsessive compulsive, or am I prepared?

    If I make one of my high protein vanilla apple cinnamon oatmeal pancakes (one of my favorite portable clean food recipes) and take it with me on a flight because I don’t want to eat airline food, am I neurotic? Or am I perhaps, the smartest guy on the plane?

    Some folks are probably shaking their heads and saying, “you bodybuilders are definitely OCD.” I prefer to call it dedicated, thank you, but perhaps we are obsessive, at least a wee bit before competitions. But aren’t all competitive athletes, to some degree, at the upper levels of most sports?

    Athletes of all kinds – not just bodybuilders – take their nutrition and training regimens far beyond what the “average Joe” or “average soccer mom” would require to stay healthy and fit.

    What if you don’t want to be average – what if you want to be world class? What then? Is putting hours of practice a day into developing a skill or discipline an obsessive-compulsive disorder too?

    Okay, now that I’ve defended the strict lifestyle habits of the muscle-head brother and sisterhood, let me address the flipside: being too strict.

    Where does the average health and bodyweight-concerned fitness enthusiast draw the line? How clean should you eat? Do you need lots of structure and planning in your eating habits, or as Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher said, does making too many rules only create more rule-breakers?

    Debates have started flaring up over these questions and as inconceivable as it seems, there has actually been somewhat of a backlash against “clean eating.” Why would THAT possibly happen? Eating “clean” is eating healthy, right? Eating clean is a good thing, right?

    Well, almost everyone agrees that it’s ok to have a “cheat meal” occasionally, but some experts – after watching how many people are becoming neurotic about food – are now clamoring to point out that it’s not necessary to be so strict.

    The diet pendulum has apparently swung from:

    “Eat a balanced diet with a wide variety of foods you enjoy.”

    To:

    “You MUST eat clean!”

    To:

    “Go ahead and eat as much junk as you want, as long as you watch your calories and get your essential nutrients like protein, essential fats, vitamins and minerals.”

    Talk about confusion! Now we’ve got people who gain great pride and a sense of dedication and accomplishment for taking up a healthy, clean-eating lifestyle and we’ve got people who thumb their nose at clean eating and say, “Chill out bro! Live a little!”

    The current debate about how clean you should eat (or how much you should “cheat”) reminds me of the recent arguments over training methods such as steady state versus HIIT cardio. Whatever the debate of the day, most people seem to have a really difficult time acknowledging that there’s a middle ground.

    Most dieters, when they don’t like a certain philosophy, reject it entirely and flip to its polar opposite. Most dieters are dichotomous thinkers, always viewing their endeavors as all or nothing. Most dieters are also joiners, plugging into one of the various diet tribes and gaining their sense of identity by belonging.

    In some cases, I think these tribes are more like cults, as people follow guru-like leaders who pass down health and nutrition commandments that are followed with religious conviction. Seriously, the parallels of diet groups to religious groups can be downright scary sometimes.

    Whether the goal is to optimize health, to build muscle or to burn fat, there’s little doubt that many individuals with all kinds of different motivations sometimes take their dietary restrictions to extremes. Obviously, an overly restrictive diet can lead to nutrient deficiencies and can adversely affect health, energy and performance.

    In some cases, I can also see how swinging to any extreme, even a “healthy obsession” with pure food could lead to distorted views and behaviors that border on eating disorders. If you don’t believe it’s a real clinical psychological problem, then at the very least, you might agree that nutritional extremes could mean restricting social activities, creating inconvenience or making lifestyle sacrifices that are just not necessary.

    I believe there’s a middle ground – a place where we can balance health and physique with a lifestyle and food plan we love and enjoy. Even more important, I believe that your middle ground may not be the same as mine. We all must find our own balance.

    I believe that going back to BALANCE, but this time with a better definition of what balance means, is the approach of the future.

    I also believe that some new rules would help us find that balance.

    If you’d like to learn the rules that bodybuilders and fitness models follow to “eat clean” and stay lean, then visit BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
    About the Author:

    Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist Tom Venuto 8

    (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the

    author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches

    you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using

    methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness

    models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase

    your metabolism by visiting: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

  • Nutrition Label Lies & Loopholes: Serving Size Sleight of Hand

    Nutrition Label Lies & Loopholes: Serving Size Sleight of Hand

    Title: Nutrition Label Lies & Loopholes: Serving Size Sleight of Hand
    By line: By Tom Venuto
    URL: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
    Word count: 1432 words

    Nutrition Label Lies & Loopholes: Serving Size Sleight of Hand By Tom Venuto BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System

    For years, concerned consumers and watchdog organizations have been screaming that the U.S. labeling laws are full of loopholes and in need of serious revision. After years of talk, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says they’re planning to so something about it. But will it be enough?

    There are many food labeling issues we could complain about, but one of the biggest problems (due to its direct relationship to the obesity crisis) is serving sizes.

    I’m not just talking about supersizing. What’s worse is that the actual calories are being disguised with serving size sleight of hand.

    Let me show you some examples:

    Tostitos touch of lime. Calories per serving: 150. Not too bad for tortilla chips, eh? Not so fast. Check that serving size: 1 ounce. That’s a whopping 6 chips. There are 10 servings per container. That’s 1500 calories in the bag.

    Most guys could knock off half that bag for a cool 750 calories. Ok, suppose you have some restraint and you only eat a third of the bag (20 chips). You still get 500 calories. But who stops at 6 chips?

    Vitamin Water. While I could rant about how sugar water is being marketed as health food, I’ll stick with the serving size sleight for now.

    The label says there are 50 calories per serving. Wow, only 50 calories! Plus they add all those vitamins. Must be good for you and perfect for dieters, right? Think again. Look at the serving size and servings per container: 8 oz per serving and 2.5 servings per container.

    Excuse me, but is there ANY reason for making it 2.5 servings other than to disguise the actual calorie content?

    When you see that the entire bottle is 20 ounces, you realize that it contains 125 calories, not 50. Although 20 ounces is a large bottle, I don’t know many guys who wouldn’t chug that whole thing.

    Sobe Lifewater? Same trick in their 20 oz bottles.

    Healthy Choice soup, country vegetable. They make these in convenient little microwavable containers with a plastic lid. Just heat and eat.

    It says 90 calories and 480 mg of sodium per serving. Wow, less than a hundred calories. Wait a minute though. Turn the container around and you see the serving size is 1 cup and the servings per container says “about 2.”

    Huh? It looks pretty obvious to me that this microwave-ready container was designed for one person to eat in one sitting, so why not just put 180 calories per container on the label (and 960 mg of sodium). I guess 90 calories and 480 mg sodium sounds… well… like a healthier choice!

    Ben and Jerrys chocolate fudge brownie ice cream.

    This infamously delicious ice cream with its own facebook fan page has 270 calories per serving.

    We all know ice cream is loaded with calories and should only be an occasional treat, but 270 calories per serving, that’s not too terrible is it?

    Look a little closer at the label. The serving size is ½ a cup. Who eats a half a cup of ice cream? In fact, who hasn’t polished off a whole pint by themselves? (the “comment confessional” is below if you’d like to answer that)

    According to Ben and Jerry, there are 4 servings in that one pint container. 270 calories times 4 servings = 1080 calories! That’s about half a days worth of calories for an average female.

    I could go on and on – crackers, chocolate chip cookies, muffins, pasta, boxed cereals (who eats ¾ cup of cereal), etc. But I think you get the point.

    What’s the solution to this mess? News reports in the last week say that the FDA may be cracking down. Count me among those who are pleased to hear this news. One of their ideas is to post nutritional information, including the calories, on the FRONT of the food labels.

    The problem is, this move by itself could actually make matters worse. Suppose Tostitos started posting “150 calories per serving” right on the front of the bag. Most people would assume the chips were low in calories. Putting calorie info on the front of the label would help only if it clearly stated the amount of calories in the entire package or in a normal human-sized serving!

    Ah, but the FDA says they’re on top of that too. They also want to standardize or re-define serving sizes. Sounds great, but there are critics who say that consumers would take it as approval to eat larger servings so the strategy would backfire.

    Suppose for example, the government decides that no one eats ½ a cup of Ben and Jerry’s so they make the new serving size 1 cup, or half the pint-sized container. Now by law the label says 540 calories per serving instead of 270. Is that like getting official permission to eat twice as much?

    I’m not against the FDA’s latest initiative, but what we really need is some honesty in labeling.

    Food manufacturers should not be allowed to manipulate serving sizes in a way that would trick you into thinking there are fewer calories than there really are in a quantity that you’re likely to eat.

    It would be nice to have calories for the entire package listed on the label at a glance. A new rating scale for caloric density would be cool too, if it could be easily interpreted. It would also be nice to have serving sizes chosen for quantities that are most likely to be commonly eaten. But standardization of serving sizes for all types of foods is difficult.

    My friends from Europe tell me that food labels over there are listed in 100g portions, making comparisons easy. But when you consider how much each individual’s daily calorie needs can vary (easily 3-fold or more when you run the gamut from totally sedentary to elite athlete, not to mention male and female differences), standardization that applies to everyone may not be possible.

    I think the recent laws such as requiring calories on restaurant menus are a positive move that will influence some people’s behavior. But no label changes by themselves will solve the obesity crisis. A real solution is going to have to include personal responsibility, nutrition education, self-discipline, hard work and lifestyle change.

    Changes in the labeling laws won’t influence everybody because the people most likely to care about what labels say are those who have already made a commitment to change their lifestyles (and they’re least likely to eat processed and packaged foods – that have labels – in the first place). Actually, for those who care, all the info you need is already on the labels, you just have to do a little math and watch out for sneaky label tricks.

    There’s one true solution to this portion distortion and label lies problem: Become CALORIE AWARE. Of course that includes educated label reading, but it goes much further. In my Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle – Body Transformation system, here is how I define “calorie counting:”

    1. Get a good calorie counter book, chart or electronic device/software and get to know the calorie counts of all the staple foods you eat on a daily basis. Look up the calorie values for foods you eat occasionally.

    2. Always have a daily meal plan – on paper – with calories printed for each food, each meal and the day. Use that menu as a daily goal and target.

    3. Educate yourself about average caloric needs for men and women and learn how to estimate your own calorie needs as closely as you can based on your activity, weight, body composition, height, gender and age.

    4. Get a good kitchen food scale and use it.

    Keep counting calories and doing nutrition by the numbers until you are unconsciously competent and eating the right quantities to easily maintain your ideal weight becomes second nature.

    Obviously, saying that calories are all there is to nutrition is like saying that putting is all there is to golf. Calorie quality and quantity are both important. However, it’s a mistake to ignore the calorie quantity side of the game. Serving sizes matter and even healthy foods get stored as fat if you eat too much..

    You can play “blindfolded archery” by guessing your calories and food portions if you want to. Hey, you might get lucky and guess right. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend depending on luck – or the government – for something as important as your body and your health. I would recommend the personal responsibility, nutrition education, self-discipline, hard work and lifestyle change…

    Tom Venuto, author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle Body Transformation system

    Founder & CEO of Burn The Fat Inner Circle Burn the fat inner circle

    About the Author: Tom Venuto 8

    Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle Now Burn the Fat Body Tansformation System : Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting:

    Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle- Body Transformation system

    or

    BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com

  • It’s Not About the Body Fat

    It’s Not About the Body Fat

    Title: It’s Not About the Body Fat                                                                                                               By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    URL: www.BurnTheFat.comWord count:  860 words

     

    It’s Not About the Body Fat By Tom Venuto www.BurnTheFat.com

    How they lost 100 lbs or more is a topic that always gets a lot of attention and is very popular  in the media.  Whenever someone loses a lot of weight, there is always buzz from those who were inspired by hearing about these huge body fat losses and before/after transformations. I was inspired, too. But sometimes I think we focus too much on the almighty scale and body fat percentage and forget about something even more important…

    Your Health.

    Health is what psychologist Abraham Maslow called a deficiency need, which means that when you’ve lost it, getting it back is the only thing in the world that matters.

    Unfortunately, two corollaries to this theory of human motivation are:

    1.  Most people won’t lift a finger to improve their health until something bad happens (they have to hit “rock bottom” to change), and

    2. When you’ve got your health, you tend to take it for granted.

    That’s why we need constant reminders to keep our focus on health and keep health right on top of our list of life values.

    As you remind yourself of the importance of your health every day, it also pays to consider how you define it.

    Fitness and transformation icon Shawn Phillips, author of Strength for Life, says that if your definition of health is merely the absence of disease, then subconsciously, the mere absence of disease means you’ve achieved your “goal.”

    Therefore, you feel no motivation and no need to move above and beyond that and strive towards…

    “A life of ABUNDANT energy, vitality and strength.”

    We NEED these reminders.

    That’s why I get such a thrill when people send me success stories that are not just about the scale and body fat percentage, but ALSO about health and what that new-found health has done for a person’s life.

    A Before and After Success Story You Don’t See Every Day (But Should)

    For example, this success story comes from Burn The Fat reader Craig B:

     

    “Tom, I visited my Dr. today and he was stunned at the change in my blood results. Check out this before and after:Cholesterol/Total 232 before 121 after

    Triglycerides 185 before 87 after

    HDL (good cholesterol) 32 before 41 after

    VLDL (bad cholesterol) 40 before 17 after

    Total cholesterol/HDL ratio 5.63 before 3.0 after (I dropped from 2X average risk to less than HALF average risk!)

    TSH 4.8 before 2.1 after

    CRP 3.90 before 1.02 after (I moved from High risk to Low risk.)

    I have burned 34lbs of fat and put on 7lbs of lean muscle.

    I have moved from 40% body fat to 32.9% (My scale may be off, but I am hoping to verify those  body fat % measurements with a dunk test during my next visit to S.F. or Portland.)

    The doctor, in short, was blown away with the results.

    I have tried Atkins, Protein Power, Lindora (medical weight control), each of these over the years and probably too many others to mention. Never have I felt this empowered and well  armed with information and insight.

    When I was not getting the results the math would have me believe, I had the tools and community support to explain what Beta Blockers do to cardio and metabolism then took that insight to my doctor and he has reduced and changed those meds.

    I am now off statins all together as of today!

    I have a ways to go to reach my final goal of 10% body fat,  but I have the tools and I can accomplish it. I am, as you suggested, putting the date when I achieve it in pencil,  but the 10% BF is in ink. I will get there.

    It is amazing how empowering feeling good and controlling  your blood chemistry through nourishment (both physiological and physical) and being consistent with the hard work in  the gym and changing to a new lifestyle.

    Thanks Tom – you are helping a lot of people, clearly. I will be telling anyone about the book and the Burn the Fat website that has any questions or looking for answers.”

    Gaining muscle and losing fat is nice, but what could be better than gaining muscle, losing fat AND feeling your health, energy and vitality skyrocket!

    As Craig shows us, tracking your health improvements, not just what you weigh, gives you another source of tremendous motivation and a feeling of empowerment.

    You realize that you are in control of your body.  You are the maker and master.

    One final thought: It’s a misconception that the “bodybuilding” lifestyle is in some way not healthy or doesn’t dramatically IMPROVE your health

    Nothing could be further from the truth, as Craig’s results prove. Craig was not just doing aerobics – he was pumping iron and feeding the muscle, not starving himself.

    If you do ANY kind of resistance training, you ARE a “body-builder” and a “health-builder.”

    When you do NATURAL bodybuilding, it’s about looking great AND getting healthier. That’s how I do it – naturally – and that’s how I encourage others to do it in my Burn the Fat programs.

    Train hard and expect success!

    Tom Venuto, author of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
    Now Burn the Fat Body Tansformation System www.BurnTheFat.com
    Founder & CEO of Burn The Fat Inner Circle Burn the fat inner circle

    About the Author:

    Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best   seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle:   Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom   is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who achieved an   astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements. Discover how to   increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out which foods burn   fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat loss report and mini course   by visiting Tom’s site at: www.BurnTheFat.com

  • The Sad Truth About New Years resolutions

    The Sad Truth About New Years resolutions

    Title: The Sad Truth About New Years resolutions
    By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    URL: www.BurnTheFat.com
    Word count: 755 words

     

    Jim Rohn once said, “I find it fascinating that most
    people plan their vacations with better care than they
    plan their lives. Perhaps it’s because escape is
    easier than change.”

    If the statistics from motivation experts and success
    psychologists are correct (95% of the people in the world do NOT have written goals and fail, while 5% have
    written goals and succeed), then Mr Rohn’s observation
    really IS quite fascinating isn’t it?

    If clear, scientifically-written goals are the key to
    success, then why wouldn’t more people make the time
    and effort to set goals? Beats me. Mystery of life.

    Unfortunately for most people, the odds for success
    are actually even lower, because out of the few people who
    do set goals, most don’t take goal setting seriously and
    they don’t do it scientifically.

    At the beginning of every year, you see countless articles
    about getting fit, losing fat, and nearly everyone talks
    about “new years resolutions.”

    And that’s the problem – you may think you are setting
    real goals, but if you’re like most people, you’re probably
    only making flimsy, wishy-washy, powerless “resolutions.”

    Zig Ziglar once said that, “A goal casually set and lightly
    taken will be freely abandonded at the first obstacle.”

    You might want to go back and read that quote again,
    maybe even write it down or print it out, because that
    one hits the bullseye!

    This truly explains why new years resolutions almost never
    work, and why so few people can keep off the pounds after
    they get rid of them.

    Goal setting should not be casual or lightly taken. Goal
    setting is an important and serious matter. This is not a
    game – this is your life, and you only have one life to live.

    Goal setting is so important, that I always teach goal
    setting and mind dynamics first, and only THEN, do I teach
    nutrition and training second.

    In fact, I devoted the entire first chapter of my book,
    Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM) to this subject of
    goals and constructive “mind programming” for success

    I don’t care how much you know about nutrition or exercise,
    until specialized knowledge is linked with purpose, vision
    and goals, the knowledge is useless and there can be no
    intelligent accomplishment.

    If you want to learn more about the real proven science
    of achieving goals and getting the body you want, then
    going to www.BurnTheFat.com and getting the Burn The Fat,
    Feed The Muscle ebook may be the most important investmen’t
    you make this entire year…

    Why? Because you won’t just learn what fat burning foods to
    eat or how to exercise for burning fat, you will also learn
    how to set goals scientifically and how to harness the awesome
    power of your mind to help you acheive your goals and to put
    yourself in that elite group of the 5% who succeed.

    As you start thinking about your goals for 2014 right Now,
    I’d like to help you start the year off right by sharing
    one very valuable and powerful tip:

    *** Set realistic goals, without limits ***

    I know that may sound contradictory. How can you set a
    goal that is realistic and also has no limits?

    Let me explain

    As a fat loss coach, I sometimes have a dilemma…

    One one hand, I want my clients and proteges to set goals
    which are achievable and realistic. But on the other hand,
    I hate to set limits on what someone can or cannot achieve.

    I like to say that If youre going to question anything,
    question your limits.

    Here’s what I suggest to do when you set your goals
    for 2014:

    Set goals that are specific, measureable, ambitious, and
    have a realistic time frame (deadline). But don’t stop there…

    This year, turn your goals into NO LIMIT goals!

    As the subconscious mind tends to take you literally and
    at your own estimation, why put a definite cap on your goal
    by stopping with a goal statement like, “I am losing 6% body
    fat by April 15th?”
    Why not say, “I am losing 6% body fat OR MORE by April 15th,” or,
    “I am gaining AT LEAST 12 pound of lean muscle in the next
    three months.”

    When you say, “I will achieve X OR BETTER,” you can have a
    realistic goal, but one without limits.

    Make the time to set your goals, today! Take it seriously
    and set your goals without limits.

    Do it and this could be the best year of your life.

    Train hard and expect success,

    Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, Tom Venuto 8CSCS

    Fat Loss Coach

    http://www.BurnTheFat.com

  • Burn The Fat Summer Challenge 2012: How I Have Succeed And Got “Most Ripped Man Over 50” Award. My Interview

    Burn The Fat Summer Challenge 2012: How I Have Succeed And Got “Most Ripped Man Over 50” Award. My Interview

    Title: Burn The Fat SummerChallenge 2012: How I Have Succeed And Got “Most Ripped Man Over 50” Award. My Interview

    By: Piero Maina

    Word Count: 3.770

    Here below you can read my interview released to Tom Venuto at Burn The Fat Inner Circle after my body transformation during the Burn The Fat Summer Challenge 2012. You also find my whole story and what I had to overcome to suceed. I hope my story will inspire some of you in order to take action toward a better body and a better health. Have a nice reading.

    The Real Life Italian Stallion: Piero’s Journey to Become the Most Ripped Man Over 50

    By Tom Venuto
    Printer-Friendly Format

    To reach a ripped body fat level of 4.9% is a remarkable achievement for a man of any age. Piero Maina of Rome, Italy did it at age 50. Even more remarkable is what he had to overcome to achieve this…

    For years, Piero has suffered from deep vein thrombosis (Paget-Schroetter Syndrome), which at times prevented him from lifting his arm over his head.

    During all of the Burn the Fat Challenge contests he entered, Piero also had a tibia stress fracture, two broken ribs, sprained ankles, Morton’s Neuroma in both feet, and tennis elbow in both elbows and yet he never let it stop him.

    If you want to learn the attitudes and strategies it takes not only to get very lean, but to overcome obstacles and become a champion, then this is the must-read interview of the year…

    ###

     

    Tom: Piero, congratulations on your great results during the Burn the Fat challenge. We previously had categories for the most ripped and the most transformed over age 50. You were a contender for both of those awards and since the competition was so tight and we didn’t have runners up listed, we created a new award to acknowledge your achievement – the most ripped man over 50. We’re looking forward to hearing about your training and nutrition strategies, but first, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you’re from and what made you decide to do the Burn the Fat challenge.

    Piero: Tom, first let me thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my experience in the Burn The Fat Challenge with everyone. It has been a phenomenal journey this year, but it wasn’t the first time. This was my third challenge.

    Introducing myself, I am an Italian young man of nearly 51 years who lives in Rome – one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And of course, Italy is also known for the delicious food, particularly in this area. We could even say that in Italy, food is one of the main attractions. By the way, the Venuto surname sounds familiar to me, are your parents natives from Italy?

    I’ve lived here with my wife since 1985 and we have two boys of 14 and 8. I’ve been an athlete all my life, playing several sports, but got my best results as a competitor in skiing, windsurfing, running, swimming and now I’m committed to golf. Obviously, I still train with weights and do cardio nearly every day (running, biking and swimming in summer time).

    I decided to participate in the Summer Challenge for the first time three years ago, during my stay in Milan (600 km from Rome). The company where I worked for 26 years moved me there, putting huge stress on me, and then three days before the 2010 Challenge, my mom passed away. It wasn’t the best time to start, but I entered The Burn The Fat Summer Challenge anyway.

    Tom: Thank you for the background, Piero and yes, my grandfather’s parents on my dad’s side came over from Aliano in Southern Italy, so I have the surname and there’s some Italian blood in me… So we’ve seen that you entered the challenge before and despite your hardships, you had very good results. But this time you took it to an all new level. Could you tell us about your results from this last Burn the Fat challenge – your change in body fat and lean mass. And what did you do to get in your best shape ever this time – did you fine tune your approach, train harder, diet stricter or do anything different?

    Piero: It was a mix of everything you mentioned. I was also more dedicated and had a stronger desire to succeed. I purchased Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM) in 2005, but due to physical problems and limiting beliefs, I never started. I told myself that everything I needed to know for losing fat was right there in the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle fat loss “bible,” but I still procrastinated. At the time, I was unaware that I was only making excuses.

    Finally, in the months leading up to May 2010 (before my first challenge) I read BFFM again and made the decision to start and see where I would land. Even though I had to live in a hotel and ate only in the restaurant or even in my car, that summer I reached 8.5% bodyfat starting from 16%. Last year in the same situation, but with one year more of experience, I reached 5.4% bodyfat starting from 12%, with two broken ribs and a sprained ankle. I started leaner and ended leaner, but there was so much competition, even last year I wasn’t in the top 10.

    This year I finally made an agreement with my old company and I returned home. So performing in a better environment and mood, I hit 4.9% bodyfat during the summer challenge and I won the most ripped man over 50 special award. Returning home it has been surely a better situation, but even that wasn’t perfect, since I traveled with my family from mid July to the end of August, where we stayed in a village eating at buffets. Obviously on holiday you have more free time and your mind is more relaxed, so in theory, it should be easier to succeed, but again in my case this wasn’t exactly true. My wife asked me why I was on holiday, but not “enjoying” the vacation (the food!) Every evening for dinner you can’t imagine what kind of God’s bounties were on the table!

    This year I wanted to succeed, like last year, but this year, I was totally focused on my goal. With my starting situation, I obviously aimed to win the “Best transformation over age 50”, and I did my best to get that goal. I always ate clean food, six times per day, and it wasn’t the easiest task during my travels, to organize everything, in order to avoid to missing meals. I made it easier by carrying with me my whey protein, Quaker oats or meal replacements and almonds or other snacks, so I didn’t have to cook or find a restaurant.

    In the first month, I did cardio three to four times per week and that brought my body fat down at the right pace. Once I was on vacation in the middle of July, I started to push myself beyond the normal limits I was used to. Every morning I woke up and ran for an hour and a later in the day did a half an hour of swimming.

    In the afternoon in the hot summer, I hit the gym in the village for my daily weights workout. Keep in mind that except for the 15 days I spent in the village, I never trained in a gym. I worked out using dumbbells at home and using elastic bands when I was traveling, and I did a lot of push ups and pull ups. The pull ups (and other types of weight training) can be dangerous due to my personal health issues, so I did them when I could, but more often trained back by doing elastic band rows anchored in the door.

    My workouts were a mix of free weights, floor exercises, calisthenics and cardio. When I didn’t have a gym, I didn’t let that stop me, and I simply paid maniacal attention to my food.

    Tom: Tell us about your food strategy. How many calories, how did you split up the protein, carbs, and fats and what foods did you eat? Also, since you are from Italy, we were wondering if you ate anything different than we typically eat here in the states and whether you found the nutrition side of things harder, easier or not a factor based on where you’re from and what food was available.

    Piero: I knew that in order to succeed, things must be done as best as you can with what you have and you can’t leave things to chance. So I’m used to weighing my food nearly all the time. Obviously I don’t do that when I eat out at restaurants or at certain times of the year. But when you’re competing for you’re absolute best in a challenge competition, I was able to do it almost all the time, so I did.

    I wake up at 6:30 and usually take 30 g of whey protein with 300 ml of water and a sweet potato. Sometime I also have a raw peach or a kiwi. The second meal, which I consider my “real breakfast,” is oatmeal with a banana mixed in and 6 egg whites with one whole egg scrambled or hard boiled. I eat plenty of fish, shellfish, chicken and turkey breast, eggs, sometimes dairy, lean red lean meat, plenty of vegetables, fruit, brown rice and a lot of sweet potatoes. The meals during the rest of the day are usually the same, but I try to eat less carbs in the afternoon/evening.

    My total calories vary a lot between 1,800 to as high as 3,800, depending on whether I worked out or if it’s a refeed day (I’m not afraid to eat a lot more carbs on a reefed days). My carbs have ranged anywhere from 140 g to 550 g, my protein 160 g to 280 g, and fat from 45 g to 90 g At the beginning of the challenge in June, I weighted 80kg/176 lbs and at the end in September I was 72 kg/ 159 Lbs. So when it’s time to reduce carbs, I eat about 1 g per lb of weight and when it’s a re-feed day, all the way up to 3 g per lb.

    About food in Italy, I assume you know that here we have an ancient tradition for food and food specialties. Usually tourists come to Italy not just for the beauty, but also for food, and surely we have different habits relative to other countries. For example, until I started with BFFM, I never ate oatmeal, but I learned from you that this was one of the important foods in the bodybuilder world, so I found Quaker oats from the web and now after three years I’ve had it nearly every day. I have to admit, the very first time it was a hard task to eat (plain). But now, with a banana or other fruit mixed it, it is my best friend as a breakfast meal.

    We cook foods in different ways here, but fish is fish here, and the same goes for chicken breast and green veggies like broccoli (maybe they are different in quality). I also make sure to take the right amount of macronutrients, which means I eat the right amount of each food to reach my goals. I eat for more than just taste now, but believe me, I like and appreciate well cooked, good tasting food.

    The hardest part in my summer challenge was my family. They do not follow me or support me in any way and here sweets, chocolate, pastries, chips and other junky foods are the norm. They eat in front of me and even try to tease or tempt me, but my mind was strong, so I never touched anything that was off my plan during the Burn the Fat Challenge (except at the conclusion!)

    On Monday, September 10th, after taking my final pictures, I continued to feed myself on my usual meal plan with lean proteins, the right carbs and so on, but at lunch I decided to celebrate my son’s birthday by eating one big slice of cake and 7 small pastries. After dinner that night, I joined them again for celebrating and guess what? I ate two more slices of cake and even more pastries! I know for sure that I ate thousands of extra calories that day.

    I thought I wouldn’t sleep that night, but instead, I slept perfectly and the next day, I went early in the morning for a 30 km bike ride and was right back to the usual plan. The interesting part is that super high carb re-feed day actually seemed to be good for me, as I didn’t take on one visible ounce of fat. So I learned an important lesson – that after I am already very lean, if I want to take one extremely high carb day – even from junk food – I can do it without much (or any) damage to my results. The key, I believe, is to keep it to just every once in a while.

    Tom: At the Burn the Fat Inner Circle, we talk a lot about mental strategies, because staying motivated and sticking with your nutrition and training plan is really the key to success and achieving any major goal. What was your approach toward staying motivated and sticking with your plan?

    Piero: When I came across Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle in 2005, I read the first chapter that teaches us to lay down our goals and read them as much as we can, believing and visualizing what we wrote, and at first it made me think, “What kind of a way to act is that?” Yes, I read the part about conscious and unconscious mind and how behaviors are unconsciously influenced, but I thought that if I knew what I wanted, there wasn’t any need to write down and repeat what already I knew.

    Well, I put one of my goals on paper, not for my physique, but an achievement for golf, and I failed. I realize now I didn’t believe in it, so I think I failed to prove to myself, “See, it doesn’t work – it’s B.S.!” Years later, I not only adopted and believed in goal setting, I started studying everything about the mental side of achievement. I read a lot of books ranging from quantum physics, law of attraction, Buddhism, NLP, PSYCH-K® and landed on “A Course in Miracles.” My way of seeing things changed dramatically and forever, and by 2010, I returned to BFFM and started to apply what you taught us and everything else I had learned, with a new faith.

    I can’t say if you “just” think positive, everything you think in your mind will happen at once. What really happens is you set a goal to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, but more often than not, you’ll deviate from the original route and hit a certain quantity of obstacles that you didn’t foresee or plan for. That happened even to me.

    The difference between when I succeeded and when I failed, is that I continued to think as positively as possible, without moving my sights from my goal, regardless of what I encountered along the way that I didn’t expect. I kept the faith in my goal alive, I kept reading my goal card twice per day and I took on adversities as opportunities to get stronger and keep going until I hit my target! I believe there is no failing, only results, and every result I get, even if I didn’t intend it, can be used to build up a better strategy to succeed in the future.

    I had to do this mainly by myself, and I could because I have a tough and disciplined mind, but it’s people like you Tom, and other mentors that helped me through their books, articles and words that I re-read many times. This summer, I re-read BFFM three times, and also the holy grail e-book, and your Super Lean report. I often come into the burn the fat inner circle forum, looking for success stories that could motivate me and for people who succeeded even with tougher life situations than mine. I did this because I would say the mental side is the most important key to success.

    Tom: We understand that you had some major physical challenges to overcome and yet you still made an incredible transformation. Could you tell us more about how they affected you?

    Piero: I’ve had many beautiful things happen in my life, but I’ve also had a lot of accidents. I had 5 near-fatal accidents with my motorbike and cars, several ruptures of my head and other part of my body. In these three last summer challenges I also had in order, a tibia stress fracture, two broken ribs, sprained ankles, Morton’s Neuroma in both feet, tennis elbow in both elbows and more, but I didn’t let it stop me. In 1994, I had my first deep-vein thrombosis or Paget Schroetter Syndrome. I have to go back a bit to tell the story.

    When I was in my physical prime at age 20, I was very passionate for bodybuilding. At that time, Arnold was at his best and I followed him in bodybuilding magazines, but my favorite was Frank Zane – that body was my target! I loved his symmetry and proportion rather than huge mass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get much information at the time and my father didn’t want me training as a bodybuilder. So I played my favorite sports instead.

    Later when I was 30, I started to train myself in the gym as a bodybuilder, still without much information, and right when I was at my best, I had a very serious accident during a training session. While doing presses, (we called it here, “lento dietro”), and due to my skeletal conformation in the shoulder area, I had a deep-vein thrombosis. I had it twice (two years in a row) in my left arm. Two veins were injured, the subclavian vein and axillary vein.

    Doctors told me to stop every kind of training that involved my arms. I took anti-coagulation pills (warfarin) for years and I remained invalid in my left arm, but now I’ve restored a peripheral flow of blood in the minor veins and I would say I am nearly back to where I was in my prime.

    The doctors still say I shouldn’t train with weights, and above all, to avoid lifting my arms overhead for shoulder, chest and back training, but during these last three years, lot of things have changed. I found problems in my teeth that I could solve surgically and oddly enough, those were the main causes of my skeletal problems. For example, I met a doctor who used innovative orthodontic techniques that not only changed my teeth, but also my posture in my neck, shoulders and upper back without any other surgical intervention.

    So, even with my veins damaged and semi-closed, I restarted training myself with weights and with my new positive mental view, results came quickly and I reached my best body shape ever thanks to Tom’s program and challenge.

    Tom: What’s your advice to give more hope and optimism to anyone else who is struggling with an illness or an orthopedic problem that has made it challenging for them to get leaner or fitter in the past?

    Piero: Whatever your situation, always do your best and have no regrets! Maybe to you, what you can do doesn’t seem like enough, but try to move one step at a time toward your goal, even if it’s a small step or less than you would like to do. Obviously, when my body says stop, I have to stop – I can’t work miracles. At one point, it was impossible to lift even a bottle of water. But I never lost my faith in what I want to be or where I want to be.

    I’ve trained with pain, but I’ve learned that at the first signal of real injury, it’s better to stop. It’s better to be under-trained 10% that over- trained 1% if that 1% extra push gets you injured. It’s better to skip a workout to play it safe than skip a month to nurse your injury. Try to feel the signals from your body, including the feelings in your heart, if you’re not sure.

    Also remember how much you can achieve when you’re super strict with nutrition. When I felt pain I couldn’t train through, I didn’t give up and say, “I should just withdraw from the summer challenge and enjoy my vacation.” On the contrary, I pushed harder in all the areas where I still could – cardio or weight training – and I made my diet even stricter, without cheating. I especially tightened up the carb manipulations until I saw the results coming.

    I have to admit, it has been difficult and frustrating to feel like you’re always working around something, but in the end, I got what you see in my pictures.

    Tom: Before we wrap up, do you have any other advice for our readers on making a great body transformation or anything else at all you want to share?

    Piero: Of course I have more, but I nearly wrote a book here, LOL, so I’ll quickly wrap up! Furthermore, I’m still learning myself every day, I continue having new experiences and discovering how my body responds. This, I think, is the difference: I don’t just say empty words or affirmations – I act exactly as I think and talk. I focus on both – thoughts and actions – so more often than not, I reach the goals I was thinking and talking about. It’s not easy for me, but now that I have this lifestyle ingrained in my unconscious mind, everything I do I feel as normal (though, from some other people’s viewpoints, I’m still often seen as an “alien!”)

    I can simply say to all the members here to study Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM) as much as you can, learn it and ingrain it in your mind. In that book, there is only truth, no fancy words or quick fixes. In the toughest days during the Summer Challenge, I would always repeat to myself what Tom wrote about wanting your goal. There may be blood, sweat and tears, but “Train hard and expect success!”

    Thank you Tom, for helping me and so many other people to change our lives for the better.

     

    Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape
    All text and photographs copyright Burn The Fat Inner Circle. No reproduction permitted.
     © Copyright Piero Maina – All Rights Reserved

  • 3500 Calories To Lose A Pound: Is This Formula All Wrong?

    3500 Calories To Lose A Pound: Is This Formula All Wrong?

    Title: 3500 Calories To Lose A Pound – Is This Formula All Wrong?
    By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
    URL: www.BurnTheFat.com
    Word count: 1256 words

    3500 Calories To Lose A Pound – Is This Formula All Wrong? By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS www.BurnTheFat.com

    Most fitness conscious people have heard that there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, so if you create a deficit of 3500 calories in a week, you lose a pound of weight. If you create a deficit of 7000 calories in a week, you lose two pounds, and so on. Right? Well, not so fast…

    Dr. Kevin Hall, an investigator at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda has done some interesting research about the mechanisms regulating human body weight. He recently published a new paper in the International Journal of Obesity that throws a wrench in works of the “3500 calories to lose a pound” idea.

    Some of the equations in his paper made my head hurt, but despite the complex math he used to come to his conclusions, his article clearly prompts the question, “3500 calories to lose a pound of WHAT?” His paper also contained a lot of simple and practical tips you can use to properly balance your caloric intake with output, fine tune your calorie deficit and help you retain more muscle when you diet.

    Below, I’ve distilled some of the information into a simple bullet-point summary that any non-scientist can understand. Then I wrap up with my interpretation of how you can apply this data in your own fat loss program:

    Calculating the calories required to lose a pound and fine-tuning your caloric deficit

    • 3500 calories to lose a pound has always been the rule of thumb. However, this 3500 calories figure goes back to research which assumed that all the weight lost would be adipose tissue (which would be ideal, of course).
    • But as we all know (unfortunately), lean body mass is lost along with body fat, which would indicate that the 3500 calorie figure could be an oversimplification.
    • The amount of lean body mass lost is based on initial body fat level and size of the calorie deficit
    • Lean people tend to lose more lean body mass and retain more fat.
    • Fat people tend to lose more body fat and retain more lean tissue (revealing why obese people can tolerate aggressive low calorie diets better than already lean people)
    • Very aggressive low calorie diets tend to erode lean body mass to a greater degree than more conservative diets.
    • whether the weight loss is lean or fat gives you the real answer of what is the required energy deficit per unit of weight loss
    • The metabolizable energy in fat is different than the metabolizable energy in muscle tissue. A pound of muscle is not 3500 calories. A pound of muscle yields about 600 calories.
    • If you lose lean body mass, then you lose more weight than if you lose fat.
    • If you create a 3500 calorie deficit in one week and you lose 100% body fat, you will lose one pound.
    • But if you create a 3500 calorie weekly deficit and as a result of that deficit, lose 100% muscle, you would lose almost 6 pounds of body weight! (of course, if you manage to lose 100% muscle, you will be forced to wear the Dieter’s Dunce cap)
    • If you have a high initial body fat percentage, then you are going to lose more fat relative to lean, so you may need a larger deficit to lose the same amount of weight as compared to a lean person
    • Creating a calorie deficit once at the beginning of a diet and maintaining that same caloric intake for the duration of the diet and after major weight loss fails to account for how your body decreases energy expenditure with reduced body weight
    • Weight loss typically slows down over time for a prescribed constant diet (the “plateau”). This is either due to the decreased metabolism mentioned above, or a relaxing of the diet compliance, or both (most people just can’t hack aggressive calorie reductions for long)
    • Progressive resistance training and or high protein diets can modify the proportion of weight lost from body fat versus lean tissue (which is why weight training and sufficient protein while on calorie restricted diets are absolute musts!)

    So, based on this info, should you throw out the old calorie formulas?

    Well, not necessarily. You can still use the standard calorie formulas to figure out how much you should eat, and you can use a 500-1000 calorie per day deficit (below maintenance) as a generic guideline to figure where to set your calories to lose one or two pounds per week respectively (at least that works “on paper” anyway).

    Even better however, you could use this info to fine tune your caloric deficit using a percentage method and also base your deficit on your starting body fat level, to get a much more personalized and effective approach:

    15-20% below maintenance calories = conservative deficit

    20-25% below maintenance calories = moderate deficit

    25-30% below maintenance calories = aggressive deficit

    31-40% below maintenance calories = very aggressive deficit (risky)

    50%+ below maintenance calories = semi starvation/starvation (potentially dangerous and unhealthy)

    (Note: According to exercise physiologists Katch& Mcardle, the average female between the ages of 23 and 50 has a maintenance level of about 2000-2100 calories per day and the average male about 2700-2900 calories per day)

    Usually, we would suggest starting with a conservative deficit of around 15-20% below maintenance. Based on this research, however, we see that there can be a big difference between lean and overweight people in how many calories they can or should cut.

    If you have very high body fat to begin with, the typical rule of thumb on calorie deficits may underestimate the deficit required to lose a pound. It may also be too conservative, and you can probably use a more aggressive deficit safely without as much worry about muscle loss or metabolic slowdown.

    If you are extremely lean, like a bodybuilder trying to get ready for competition, you would want to be very cautious about using aggressive calorie deficits. You’d be better off keeping the deficit conservative and starting your diet/cutting phase earlier to allow for a slow, but safe rate of fat loss, with maximum retention of muscle tissue.

    The bottom line is that it’s not quite so simple as 3,500 calories being the deficit to lose a pound. Like lots of other things in nutrition that vary from person to person, the ideal amount of calories to cut “depends”…

    Note: The Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program not only has an entire chapter dedicated to helping you calculate your exact calorie needs, it was designed very specifically to keep a fairly conservative approach to caloric deficits and to maximize the amount of lean tissue you retain and minimize the amount of metabolic adaptation that occurs when you’re dieting. The approach may be more conservative, and the fat loss may be slower, but it has a better long term track record… You can either lose weight fast, sacrifice muscle and gain the fat back like 95% of people do, or lose fat slow and keep it off forever like the 5% of the people who know the secrets. The choice is yours. For more information, visit: http://www.burnthefat.com

    References:

    Forbes GB. Body fat content influences the body composition response to nutrition and exercise. Ann NY Acad Sci. 904: 359-365. 2000

    Hall, KD., What is the required energy deficit per unit of weight loss? Int J Obesity. 2007 Epub ahead of print.

    McArdle WD. Exercise physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human performance. 4td ed. Williams & Wilkins. 1996.

    Wishnofsky M. Caloric equivalents of gained or lost weight. Am J Clin Nutr. 6: 542-546.

    About the Author:

    Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialistTom Venuto 8

    (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the

    author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches

    you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using

    methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness

    models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase

    your metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com

  • The Double-Edged Sword of “Healthy” Fast Food

    The Double-Edged Sword of “Healthy” Fast Food

    Title: The Double-Edged Sword of “Healthy” Fast Food
    By line: By Tom Venuto
    URL: www.BurnTheFat.com
    Word count: 981 words

    The Double-Edged Sword of “Healthy” Fast Food By Tom Venuto www.BurnTheFat.com

    What’s on the menu at the big fast food chains lately? Oddly  enough, the answer is…“health food!” Even more incongruous, many are marketing  their food for weight loss. Healthy weight loss food at Taco Bell and  McDonalds? Is this a noble move to be applauded, is it a big corporate money  grab, or is it a double edged sword?

    Remember Jared Fogle, the Subway guy? He lost 245 pounds  while eating at Subway regularly. He simply picked the lower calorie menu  items.  Seeing an opportunity, the local  store owner pitched Subway corporate with an idea. Before long, Jared was the company  spokesperson in their nationwide advertising campaigns which became known as  The Subway Diet.

    Sales doubled to 8.2 billion. How much the increase came  from the weight loss ads is unknown, but there’s little doubt that using weight  loss as a marketing platform was a boon for the sandwich maker. Other fast food  chains picked up the weight loss torch where Subway left off.

    The latest is the Taco    Bell Drive through diet, with their own skinny  spokesperson: Christine! The ads, which are admittedly conservative, perhaps  due to more stringent FTC laws, say Christine lost 54 lbs over 2 years by  reducing her calories to 1250 a day, and choosing Taco Bell’s new lower calorie  “Fresco” items.

    These include “7 diet items with 150 to 240 calories and  under 9 grams of fat.” For example, there’s a chicken soft taco with only 170 calories  and 4 grams of fat.

    For people who refuse to give up eating at fast food  restaurants, this is arguably a positive thing. Take my brother for example,  He’s not a total junk food junkie, but left to his own devices, he WILL make a  beeline to Taco Bell and McDonalds.

    I went to McDonalds with him a few months ago (I was dragged  there), and he was about to order a bacon cheeseburger. I glanced at the menu  and said, “That’s 790 calories!” I glanced down at his belly then continued,  “Look, they have chicken wraps. Why don’t you have one of those?” Without  questioning me, he agreed, apparently happy to get any McDonalds fix.

    Right there at the counter they had the nutrition  information sheets:

    McDonald’s honey mustard grilled chicken wrap: 260 calories,  9 grams fat, 27 grams of carbs, 18 grams of protein.

    That saved him 530 calories. Am I happy there was something  with only 260 calories on the menu? Absolutely. Do I applaud the fast food  restaurants for offering lower calorie choices? You bet. But the big question  is: are these really “healthy choices?”

    A few journalists and bloggers recently answered, “These  fast food diet items are NOT healthy, they’re only ‘healthi-ER.’”

    I think they’re both mistaken. I think this food is not  healthy nor is it healthier. It’s only lower in calories. If you eat lower  calorie food, that can help you lose weight and if you lose weight, that can  improve your health. But what if your definition of healthy food includes nutrition,  nutrient density and absence of artificial ingredients?

    Let’s take a look at that very low calorie chicken wrap. Is  it really healthier just because it’s got 1/3 the calories of a bacon  cheeseburger?

    Here’s the ingredients straight from McDonald’s website:

    McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Breast Filet (wrap): Chicken  breast filets with rib meat, water, seasoning (salt, sugar, food  starch-modified, maltodextrin, spices, dextrose, autolyzed yeast extract,  hydrolyzed [corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten] proteins, garlic powder, paprika,  chicken fat, chicken broth, natural flavors (plant and animal source), caramel  color, polysorbate 80, xanthan gum, onion powder, extractives of paprika),  modified potato starch, and sodium phosphates. CONTAINS: SOY AND WHEAT.  Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially  hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil,  soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate  (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta  carotene (color). (and don’t forget the 800 mg of sodium).

    HOLY CRAP! Shouldn’t chicken breast be just one ingredient…  chicken breast?

    This is not food. It’s more like what author Michael Pollan  would call an “edible food-like substance.”

    What about the honey mustard sauce? The first ingredient  after water is… SUGAR!

    The flour tortilla ingredients? Enriched bleached wheat  flour, also made with vegetable shortening (may contain one or more of the  following: hydrogenated soybean oil, soybean oil, partially hydrogenated  soybean oil, hydrogenated cottonseed oil with mono- and diglycerides added),  contains 2% or less of the following: sugar, leavening (sodium aluminum  sulfate, calcium sulfate, sodium phosphate, baking soda, corn starch,  monocalcium phosphate), salt, wheat gluten, dough conditioners, sodium  metabisulfite, distilled monoglycerides.

    Trans fats? Sugar? Aluminum? Stuff you can’t pronounce and  have to look up to find out it’s preservatives and disinfectants?

    Don’t confuse the issues: weight loss and health…. Calories  and nutrition. There IS a difference, and that is what makes “healthy” fast  food a double edged sword at best.

    Some people, like my brother, simply aren’t going to give up  fast food completely. If I can get him to make better bad choices, that could  help him control his weight. If that works, then I’m pleased that the fast food  restaurants have such choices to offer.

    But if you wanted to make a good choice – a healthy choice –  you’d forget about “driving through” anywhere on a regular basis. You’d shop  for whole, fresh, natural real food, keep a well-stocked kitchen… and learn how  to cook.

    The Subway diet, the Drive Through diet, or the Weight  Watchers approved McDonalds menu (yes its true, what a pair that is!) Don’t kid  yourself – this is not only not healthy, it’s not healthier – it’s lower  calorie junk food.

    “Welcome to our  restaurant sir. Would you like a large plate of dog poo or a small plate of dog  poo?”

    “No thank you, I will  take neither. No matter what the serving size, crap is still crap.”

    Train hard and expect success!

    Tom Venuto, author of www.BurnTheFat.com

    Founder & CEO of www.BurnTheFat/InnerCircle

    About the Author:

    Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best   seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle:   Fat

    Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom   is a Tom Venuto 8

    lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who

    achieved an   astonishing 3.7% body fat level without

    drugs or supplements. Discover how to   increase your

    metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out which

    foods burn   fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a

    free fat loss report and mini course   by visiting Tom’s

    site at: www.BurnTheFat.com

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