Category Archives: Food

Travel Fitness Guide

February 28, 2016Body, Foodadmin

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If you have a job which requires travelling then the following scenario will probably at some point apply to you:

It’s time for change. You have started going the gym and have got through the first month; it’s finally starting to become a habit – Good! Your diet is also on point and you feel like you are getting into your stride – You’re unstoppable!

But then…. work trip. *dun dun duuuuuun*

This is the sort of unwanted interruption which just ruins your momentum, often throwing many people off the rails.

Luckily for you, you have me, and I am on a work trip right now (in the comfiest Premier Inn bed that I’ve ever been in!)

Let me tell you how I keep my fitness in check whilst travelling.

1. Losing Weight

Simple, check out my article on intermittent fasting here. I believe this is great when travelling as a lot of the time you will be going out for dinner, and the calories are probably going to be on the higher side; making a tactical choice to avoid breakfast is a wise choice to help maintain your deficit.

Also, use a calorie counter such as MyFitnessPal; it has a massive database of foods including most chain restaurants; it is likely that you will be able to find the exact calories of the food you are about to eat!
If not, there are often very similar dishes from other restaurants to chose from which will probably be nutritionally similar (be honest with yourself!) – the more you get used to calories counting the more you will start to be able to gauge the nutritional values of different foods, making your job a little easier.

2. Gaining Weight

You are in paradise – there are plenty of high-calorie foods and expensive steaks and other proteins to chose from, without having to worry about your wallet (I assume you have a dinner allowance). The only downfall I can think of is.. nope I can’t think of any – if you’re gaining weight then this should be a breeze, as long as you’re working out properly and not overeating.

3. Working Out

So here is the point where I think most of you hit the brick wall – you have no gym.
Now if you are lucky and have a gym in the hotel, then great! You might not have access to the same equipment that you may be using for your workouts (for squat, bench, deadlifts etc.), however you can still get in there and create a make-shift workout to help continue your progress physically and mentally (if you need help to design a hotel workout email me at mike@unigains.com).

Now if you do not have a gym this is where the hustle begins – it’s back to bodyweight.

My standard hotel routine is:
-3 sets of pushups to failure
-tabata squats
-a plank for abs
-3 sets of supermans (or variations) to failure

It’s simple, but it is effective enough to keep applying stress to your muscles to ensure you are still stimulating your muscles to adapt.

With the sets of pushups and supermans, I vary them up each set to make them as hard as possible to make them interesting. I will normally vary the intensity throughout the set, such as starting with clapping pushups and ending with normal ones. I also vary the tempo of them too to help increase the difficulty.

Tabata squats are where you set the timer to 4 minutes and do as many squats as you can in 20 seconds then rest for 10, and repeat. This absolutely kills your legs and makes squats interesting (when you can do 50+ it just get boring as hell)

With the plank I will just hold it until my abs break – I don’t really set a timer, however, this would be a good move if your mind gives up before your body.

I’m not going to lie to you – I’m demotivated as fuck when I’m travelling – I really love going to the gym! However, you have to push through and at least do something.

With fitness, every little helps – and ensuring you’re making efforts to develop your body in sub-optimal conditions will help a great deal to stay on track and achieve your goals.

-Mike

Should I Eat Less On Rest Days?

February 28, 2016Body, Foodadmin

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This question has bothered me a lot.

I have never quite understood it, and have spent years pondering and changing my diet because I was preoccupying myself over this; I didn’t want to put on any more fat than I needed to and wanted to gain pure, lean muscle.

The idea behind this is that on workout days your body is utilizing more energy and your muscles are more fatigued, so you need to eat in a surplus to make sure that you muscles repair and grow.
However, on non-workout days you are not working out, so there is no need to eat extra calories, as presumably the extra calories will just turn into fat as you are not fatiguing your muscles.

A lot of us forget that our muscles grow whilst we are resting; if we think of it this way we should be eating more on our rest days… however some studies indicate that the rate of growth is highest straight after a workout – so what should we do?

Stop sweating the small stuff

To keep it simple, to gain weight and build muscle we need to maintain a surplus in calories on average over a period of time.

Unfortunately, we will never truly find the ‘perfect’ answer to the exact rate that your muscles are growing at particular times after a workout, so we can’t precisely measure exactly how many calories to consume to only gain lean muscle.

Also, is it really worth the effort?

The most important lesson I have taken away from fitness is that if you could get 90% of the results whilst only using 25% of your effort, is it really worth using that other 75% for that final 10%?

Furthermore, worrying about things like this normally does more harm than good mentally… in fact, the obsession to only gain lean muscle was the reason I gained no muscle for a whole year – I actually lost weight.

Please, just keep it simple. Do not overcomplicate things and just eat in a surplus each day – this way you can almost guarantee that you will be building muscle without letting fitness take complete control over your life.

-Mike

Got any questions about eating on rest days? Contact me at mike@unigains.com or @Unigains on Twitter

The Ultimate Student Guide To Bulking On A Budget

February 26, 2016Food, Uncategorizedadmin

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Finally, you have decided to put on some muscle mass; you want to transform your physique, your mentality, and your life.

This is the time to make a fresh start and redifine yourself – you are no longer going to be that scrawny guy. Good.

But now you need guidance.. you’re on a tight budget, and you want to bulk – not a good mix…

Luckily for you, you’ve just arrived at the perfect guide to help you bulk whilst on a tight budget.

But first – Do you really know what a bulk is?

The first things first we need to make sure we understand is what an effective bulk is.

Sure, anyone can eat 4000 calories and ‘bulk up’ – but in reality, you are just getting fat.

A calorie calculator (with protein requirement), a four-month bulking workout program, a body progress tracker, and a guide on how to bulk effectively is all included in my FREE UNIGAINS program.

Essentially, we need high protein and low calories – on a budget. Try this and you will soon realize that it is hard as fuck.

I have been experimenting a lot with trying to find foods which are easy to buy (can be bought from a supermarket), are cheap and satisfy typical bulking macronutrient goals.
Below is a list of the main foods which I rely on to get my protein and calorie requirements at a cheap price.

Before we start.. this is not a ‘healthy eating’ guide. The foods here are designed to fit our bulking goals, not our health and well-being. If you are expecting to see lean fillet steak and other expensive shit then you have come to the wrong place.

The foods have been analysed to make them easily comparable, and the ‘percentage of protein/calories’ is based on me; I am 163lbs, 5 foot 9, and currently I need 2800 calories and 160g protein to bulk.

SO LET’S BEGIN! In no particular order…

1. Frozen Pizza
Price per serving – £0.90-£1
Calories – 700-800
Protein – 25g
Percentage of daily protein – 15%
Percentage of daily calories – 25%
Cost per 50g protein – £1.80
Cost per 1000 calories – £1.25

I love frozen pizza – so quick to cook, easy to prepare, and no need to worry about expiry dates. Even though the calories are slightly on the higher side, I still rank it near the top of my list as it makes a great post workout meal due to adequate protein levels as well as high-glycemic carbs.

2. Baked Beans
Price per serving – £0.32
Calories – 370
Protein – 18g
Percentage of protein – 11%
Percentage of calories – 13%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.88
Cost per 1000 calories – £0.86

Beans beans good for your heart… and bloody cheap too. I was shocked when I realized just how much protein there is in beans.. like damn there is a decent amount.. and for the price too, it’s pretty fantastic. Again I love baked beans because all you have to do is shove it in a microwave and you’re done.

3. Natural Yoghurt
Price per serving – £1
Calories – 492
Protein – 32g
Percentage of protein – 20%
Percentage of calories – 17%
Cost per 50g protein – £1.56
Cost per 1000 calories – £2

Again, I was surprised when I saw just how much protein there was in natural yohurt. Convenient and simple – just shove a bit of sugar and honey/jam in there and you have another quick fixer-upper! This is one of the more expensive items on the list, but it tastes so good.

4. Eggs (4 per serving)
Price per serving – £0.33
Calories – 240
Protein – 24g
Percentage of protein – 15%
Percentage of calories – 8.5%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.69
Cost per 1000 calories – £1.38

Obviously this list could not exist without eggs. The protein content always dissappoints me, I always feel that eggs should have way more, but they are the cheapest source. And don’t be worried about cholesterol; studies have not found a direct correlation between cholesterol and heart disease. But if you still are concerned, there are plenty of other foods to choose from.

5. Frozen Fish
Price per serving – £0.50
Calories – 144
Protein – 33g
Percentage of protein – 20%
Percentage of calories – 5%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.75
Cost per 1000 calories – £3.47

One of the healthier options on the menu. I picked these up from Morrisons. Again just slap them in the oven and you’re done. The protein content is superb and of a higher quality than most others on the list. It’s a bit bland, but meh – gotta sacrifice for them gains.

6. Red Kidney Beans
Price per serving – £0.30
Calories – 250
Protein – 19g
Percentage of protein – 12%
Percentage of calories – 9%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.79
Cost per 1000 calories – £1.20

Tastes quite bland. If you find a way to make it taste good please let me know. This is another cheap source of protein with a low percentage of calories. In fact, nutritionally, this may be one of the best foods on the list for protein/carb/calorie mix… shame it tastes shit.

7. Frozen Mince Beef & Pork
Price per serving – £0.64
Calories – 600
Protein – 32g
Percentage of protein – 20%
Percentage of calories – 21%
Cost per 50g protein – £1
Cost per 1000 calories – £1.07

Surpisingly, it is 100% meat (shocking, I know). Now this is a little higher in calories, and I don’t really like the taste too much. However, if you’re struggling to chug down some calories whilst trying to get in some protein, then a slab of minced meat is the way to go!

8. Impact Whey Protein (with water)
Price per serving – £0.29
Calories – 100
Protein – 20g
Percentage of protein – 13%
Percentage of calories – 3.6%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.73
Cost per 1000 calories – £3

I left whey protein for last because I wanted to stress that whey protein is not the only protein you should rely on. Too much of anything is bad for you, especially when it is meant to be a supplement.

Try to get as much of your protein requirement as you can from proper food. I tend to keep the percentage of protein I get from whey to about 1/3 of my daily consumption; I highly doubt that too much of it is a good thing…
To summarize, here is the list of foods in order of the best price/protein ratio:

1. Eggs
2. Whey Protein
3. Frozen Fish
4. Red Kidney Beans
5. Baked Beans
5. Frozen Mince Beef/Pork
7. Natural Yoghurt
8. Frozen Pizza

Well there you have it, these are the foods which I basically live off for my protein needs.. and yes, I did leave out tuna because it is pretty damn expensive. £1 for just 20g protein? No thanks, I will just have a frozen pizza with 700 calories instead (tastes way better too).

Of course, the remainder of your carbs and calories can be filled with rice, pasta, porridge, oats etc, just make sure you are getting your protein requirements whilst not exceeding your calorie limit!

NOW LET’S MAKE SOME UNIGAINS!

-Mike

Any suggestions, comments, or questions? Ask at mike@unigains.com, or @unigains on Twitter

Creatine Guide For Students

February 24, 2016Foodadmin

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One of the first supplements you will hear about when starting to get into fitness is creatine. It is now becoming one of the ‘must’ supplements for making gains, along with protein shakes and pre-workouts.

But honestly, I don’t think half of us actually have any clue as to what it is, the function it provides, how essential it is, if it has any side-effects etc.. So I’ve done my research and tried to simplify it for you guys.

I would just like to point out that I do not take creatine, here is a link to why.

But for those who are interested, here we go!

What is Creatine?

“Creatine is a compound formed in protein metabolism and present in much living tissue. It is involved in the supply of energy for muscular contraction”

Essentially, creatine helps supply energy to your muscles for lifting, therefore taking additional creatine will increase these supplies further – this should help you increase the work done in the gym.

How does creatine affect my performance in the gym?

Studies tend to suggest that a 20g/day dose of creatine for 5-7 days increases:
-your maximal power/strength (1 Rep-Max) by 5 to 15%
-work performed for maximal effort contractions (reps till failure) by 5 to 15%
-single-effort sprint performances by 1 to 5%
-work done during repetitive sprint performances by 5 to 15%

So as you can see creatine does increase your athletic performance in the gym, which may be a useful tool to burst through plateaus and hit new 1 Rep Maxes.

So will creatine help me build muscle more quickly?

Well, potentially, as you are able to apply greater stress on your muscles.

Think about it this way: if you are able to perform more work in the gym, you will be able to push your body further than normal, and therefore you can put your muscles under more stress which may trigger a greater response for them to grow.
No one knows for sure the amount of muscle that creatine will help add, and you will not just gain muscle by taking in creatine. Assuming you are already training and eating appropriately, creatine may help to push yourself that little bit further which could help with building muscle.

What type of creatine should I be taking?

Creatine is sold in many different ways (candy bars, liquid creatine, creatine gum etc.), however, no data suggests that it provides better creatine uptake to the muscle better than creatine monohydrate. Mixing it with water, juice, protein shakes etc. is fine, but don’t mix it with a citrus drink! (breaks it down making it useless.)

How much creatine should I be taking?

Typical doses range from 2-25g a day and that only about 5g of creatine should be taken at once – otherwise, it just gets peed out.

Creatine is usually taken before and/or after a workout in 5g doses (whilst your body is in a primed state for muscle building); this tends to be up to personal preference, and depending on what phase you’re in. The remaining amount can be taken at equally spaced intervals throughout the day.

Generally, there tends to be a loading phase, maintenance phase, and a wash-out phase:

-The loading phase is where you fill up your muscular creatine stores over a few days to maximise the stores in the muscles – here you should take 0.3g/kg of bodyweight, and do not consume this amount for more than five days (the excess amount is not needed anymore)

–The maintenance phase is when your creatine capacity has been maximised, and you only need to maintain this amount – here you only need to take 0.03g/kg of bodyweight – stay in this phase for no longer than a month.

–The washout phase is when you stop taking creatine for a while to let your body recover, and just to be on the safe side if there are side-effects – a washout period of 1 month is advised.

Are there any side effects?

According to WebMD, creatine is likely safe when taken by mouth correctly for up to 5 years. It is possibly unsafe if it is taken in high dosages, and that it could harm the kidney, liver, or heart function – however a connection between high does and these negative effects has not been proven. Creatine may also cause stomach pain, nausea, diarrhoea, and muscle cramping.

Also, creatine draws water from the rest of the body, so make sure you are drinking enough water to account for this.

You will gain weight fairly quickly at the start, and this is due to water retention in the muscles, giving your muscles a ‘puffier’ look – hey it makes you look bigger! Good right? But this is likely not muscle mass… just water.

Is it worth the money?

According to the bodybuilding.com shop, a typical 400g tub of creatine monohydrate will set you back about £10 pounds. So that is about 80 5g servings. This is about 13p a serving.
So yeah, I have no complaints about the price of it, but if I were you I wouldn’t go buy it just yet…

My Opinion

If you’re starting out, I wouldn’t bother, and for good reason:
Basically, you will build muscle and get stronger doing pretty much anything when you start off in the gym. Personally, I will save creatine for a time when I am really struggling to make gains, or have hit a seriously big plateau.
This is my take on most supplements really; I don’t like to rely on them, because when I really hit a brick wall, there is nothing to help me overcome it.
At the moment, I’m getting bigger and stronger, and I have not reached a stage where I am mentally and physically struggling to progress in the gym, and I’m deadlifting 220kg – don’t blame the lack of creatine as an excuse if you’re just starting out.
Always look at the fundamentals first if you are not making progress – your diet and exercise. Experiment with that first, and if that really doesn’t work, then yeah hop on some creatine and see how it goes!

-Mike

If you have any questions, ask me @unigains or mike@unigains.com!

Sources to articles here, here, and here