Weight Loss (for Guys and Girls)

A bunch of my friends requested me to write a blog about weight loss.  So here it is!
When people think of weight loss, the very first thing that comes to their mind is Cardio.  That's actually not entirely true according to what I know.  In term of weight loss, I'm a true believer of a combination of dieting, lifting, and cardio.  Let's start with diet.

Diet
When people try to lose weight, they try not to eat ANYTHING and starve themselves to death.  That's actually counterproductive because when you stop eating, your metabolism basically stops.  So it's really important to eat small meals throughout the day.  Those small meals are like triggers or ignition for your engine (stomach) to keep your metabolism going.  It's also important to eat those small meals instead of three big meals so that you will actually be able to burn them instead of storing them up as fat.  The key idea is "Never STARVE yourself and never STUFF yourself".
What you eat is pretty crucial too.  You don't have to cut out your carb intake completely, but make sure not to eat anything about 2 hours prior bedtime and not to eat any carb about 4 hours prior bedtime.  Your body has to finish consuming all the carbs before burning fat for energy.  So if you got a lot of carbs in your body, then those fat won't get burned so easily.  However, I think it's okay for you to eat some complex carbs like brown rice and oatmeal in the morning and noon to sustain your energy.  Take a little less carb each day (especially for dinner), your body will eventually adjust.

Here's a list of stuff you shouldn't eat (* It's okay for you to eat it, but not too much.  ** Try not to eat it, a little is okay.  *** Don't even think about, stay away from it as far as possible)
* Bread, pasta, rice
** Diary (milk, yogurt, cheese...), fruit juice, pastries (bagels, muffins, danish)
*** Soda, ice cream, desert(cookies, cake, brownies), junk food (McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's...), candies

Stuff you should eat
Vitamin and fiber: LOTS of vegetables and fruits
Protein: Lean meat like chicken breast and fish, beans, eggs
Carbs: Oatmeal, multi-grain whole wheat bread, brown rice
"Hunger killers": Nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews...), potatoes, sweet potatoes
(Despite the fact that nuts have some fat (good burnable fat) and potatoes have a lot of starch, they do save your butt from being so hungry, because they fill you up by suppressing your body from releasing those hormones that makes you hungry)

Weights
For weight loss, you really have to crank up your workout's intensity by increase the number of reps, lower the weights and shorten rest time, 3 sets of 15 with 1 min rest between each set for example.  When you do cardio, you are only burning calories while you are doing it.  When you do weights, your metabolism will be sped up for the next couples days because rebuilding your muscle takes a lot of calories too.  That's why I think lifting is a really effective way to lose weight.
Here's a sample workout for weight loss.  This workout actually belongs to my former boss Jsully, who is a NFL retired safety and a professional personal trainer.  Every set in this workout is done by super setting, which means going to the next exercise without any rest.

Warm-up: 10 mins jog
Squat super setting with RDL (Romanian/stiff leg deadlift): 3x15
Bench press super setting with seated row: 3x15
Leg curl super setting with calf raise: 3x15
This workout may seems short and easy for you, but trust me, it's absolutely brutal and burns a lot of fat.  When I tried it, I was dying.

Cardio
Personally I prefer HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) over long distance endurance cardio.  For a low intensity jog, you really need to run for more than 30 mins to reach the fat burning zone, which I think it's boring, takes a lot of time, and strips away your muscle.  HIIT such as hill sprint (what I do) and circuit training is a great way to tone your whole body and maintain (even stimulate) your muscle growth.  For example, just think of a sprinter versus a marathon runner.  The marathon runner is very slim with a lot of lean (slow twitch) muscle, that is smaller in size and lasts for a longer period of time.  Whereas a sprinter is more muscular and explosive with a lot of fast twitch muscle, that is larger in size and lasts for a short period of time.  Personally, I'd pick the sprinter's body type over the marathon runner's.
A simple HIIT program could be running on a treadmill for 20 mins total, with 1 min sprinting and 1 min slow jogging alternating.  Or you can do hill sprints.  Just spring up a decently steep hill (Dwight hill is my favorite) with about 80% speed and walk down the hill.
For more information, you can refer to this article on simplyshredded.com
HIIT vs Low Intensity Cardio
Sample HIIT Workout

Before

 After

So this pretty much my weight loss program.  If you like it, give it a shot.  However, I can guarantee you that if you don't do this with absolute dedication and discipline, it will NOT work.  

Lastly, I just want to make it clear that, I know, in today's society and modern culture filled with sex and vanity, it's almost crucial for girl to be slim and sexy, and for a guy to be muscular.  This is not what my blog is about or what I encourage you to do.  If you are overweight (fat), I just want you to know that I'll still be your friend, your parents will still give you money, and God still loves you.  And it's okay for you to not do everything right.  As long as you are doing something, you will see some results.  Please do not make exercising into one of your burdens, because most importantly, I just want you to have fun :D 

Winter Break Workout Summary

Yo what's going on guys.  I just got back to Berkeley last Sunday after finishing an incredible month full of working out, spending time with family, and pretty much just enjoying the holiday.  Personally, I think breaks are the prime time for getting in shape, because there's no stress, enough time to sleep and rest, great food and large amount of free time available.  So this winter break I tried bodybuilder Jonathan Irizarry's workout.  It was really long, so I had to keep my rest time relatively short to finish it within at most one hour.  Overall, this winter break workout was really successful.  I gained about 5 lbs of solid muscle.

Here's the routine I did this winter break

Monday: Chest

• Incline bench 4x
• Incline db press 4x
• Flat bench 4x
• Cable crossover 4x

Tuesday: Back

• Deadlifts 4x
• Bent over rows 4x
• T-bar rows 4x
• Wide grip pull down 4x
• DB rows 4x

Wednesday: Legs

• Squats 8x
• Leg press 6x
• Lunges 4x
• Leg exts 4x
• Leg curls 4x
• Stiff leg dead’s 4x

Friday: Shoulders

• DB military press 6x
• DB side laterals 6x
• Smith-machine press/ DB Rear delt fly 4x
• Reverse pec fly for r delts 4x
• Cable side laterals/front raises 4x

Saturday: Arms

• Barbell curls/skull crushers 4x
• DB curls/standing DB extensions 4x
• Preacher curls/rope exts 4x
• Hammer curls/reverse grip exts 4x

new Adidas Techfit shirt 

and some of the typical meals I ate over the break

Progress picture ... I guess, currently weighing about 177 lbs

and a short workout video I made when I visited my buddy at NYU

pretty awesome break workout huh?

Workout......so you can get more girls

"Why do you workout?"  And some of the answers people usually can think of are, "So I can get more girls (like Kim? lol)", "I appeal to be more attractive", "I get more attention when I go clubbing".  Because of this, people commonly have this stereotype toward those ones who workout.  They think those guys (or girls) in the gym are just working out so they appeal to be more attractive to the opposite gender, and working out for healthy is just a lame excuse.  Some of the brothers in my church even stopped working out due to these stereotypes, and also the fact that they are too busy.  So are there any reasons for people to workout other than the ones previously mentioned?  Well, I think there are plenty, personally, here's my major source of motivations: 

1. healthy and fit lifestyle I commented to 

2. disciplined practice 

3. habit 

4. stress relief 

5. help others (38% of Americans are obese, NOT just overweight, obese) 

......

The list goes on, for more details, refer to my blog post "The Reason Why I Workout" 

However, it really comes down to you to figure it out why you should be going to the gym.  Everyone is different, and their motivations are different as well.  Whatever you do it for, as long as you are committed, you will achieve your goal, be respected by others, and hopefully inspire others.  Do not just give up fitness because other people have the wrong idea about it.  And you could be the one who proves them wrong.  

Supplement

The #1 supplement of all time is STEROID, with no doubt......no I'm playing with ya'll lol.  Before I introduce some basic supplement I take, I just want to make it clear that, you actually DON'T need any of it.  Eating good food, getting enough rest, and training hard is all you need.  So why do I take supplement? Well, as a college student, I don't have the time, energy, and money to eat 7 meals a day and managing to get enough vitamins, fibers, and protein.  Therefore, I take some supplement as a complimentary to my diet.  Here's pretty much all the supplement I take:

Roids are the best......NOT

Protein: 

• Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey
• tastes great, hydrolyzed whey isolates, less fattening, supplement and whey product of the year
• Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Casein
• for night time, right before bed, slow absorbing, good replacement for cottage cheese 

Creatine:

• Cellmass
• creatine+glutamine, taste amazing, better than gatorade, awesome weight gainer for someone skinny like me, make sure you drink A LOT of water 

Pre-workout:

• NO-Explode 
• nitric oxide and caffeine, taste so-so, pretty good pump, not as intense as Jacked-3D and Assault, pretty safe pre-workout 

Vitamin:

• Universal Animal Pak 
• lots of pills, hard to swallow, but very good for you, pretty much has all the vitamins you need, very old and trustworthy brand 

That includes all the supplement I take.  But remember, none of the above is necessary.  Just make sure to eat well, rest well, and train hard.  Then you will pass me in no time, ...or maybe you already passed me lol.

October Update

What up guys!  First of all, I just want to apologize for not posting any pictures or blogs while I was in China, like I promised.  I did not have internet access there, so I had to go to Starbucks to check my email.  As side note, coffee in China sucks lol.  I was going to talk about how my workout went when I came back in July, but I was really busy.  I'm trying to get back to blog routine, well......hopefully.

My workout in China went AMAZINGLY well.  There was no stress.  I was eating tons of healthy and delicious food and getting plenty amount of time to rest and sleep.  This is why I keep saying, vacation is the best time to workout.  I gain solid 5 lbs of muscle, from 165 to 170 lbs.  Like I previously mentioned, I did the Hypertrophy workout with my buddies Guanhua Chen and Sun Wen.  Both of them play tennis in NCAA Division 1, Guanhua plays for Penn State and Sun plays for Texas A&M.  You will actually see some of their sick tennis moves in my second workout video.  I was also trying to help my friend Ran to lose weight this summer, but his internship made it very difficult.  I hope he has been working out by himself.  Here are the workout videos I made, for those of you who hasn't seen it.

and some pictures:

Making videos of your workout is actually a great way to check your forms.  I didn't realize how BAD some of my forms are until I watched these videos lol.  Make sure the gym you workout at allows you to record though, because RSF does not.  That's why I haven't made any workout videos in Berkeley.

I already repeated three cycles of Strength, Hypertrophy, and Cutting phases now since spring.  So it's time to get a new workout!  I actually got this workout from Dallas bodybuilder Andrew Vu and modified it a little.  And I'm doing this workout as a strength phase.  So you will see a lot of 5 sets of low reps and high weight.

Day 1, Back
Warm up: 2x10 Pull-ups
Dumbbell Row, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6
Barbell Back Row, 4x12
Seated Row, 5x10
Rope Bent-over Lat Pull, 4x12
T-bar Row, 4x12
abs

Day 2, Chest
Warm up: 2x20 Push-ups
Incline Dumbbell Bench, 4x12
Flat Barbell Bench, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6
Incline Barbell Bench, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6
Dumbbell Bench, 4x12
Dumbbell Incline Flyes, 4x12
Dips, 3x12
abs

Day 3, Legs
Warm up: 2x10 Quad Curl
Front Squat, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6
Leg press, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6
Hamstring Curl, 4x12
Calf Raise, 3x20
abs

Day 4, Shoulders
Warm up: 2x10 Rotator Cuff circuit
Shoulder Press, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6
Lateral Raise, 4x12
Underhand Front Raise, 4x12
Standing Cable Rear Raise, 4x12
Cable Front Row, 4x12
Dumbbell Shrug, 4x12
Barbell Back Shrug, 4x12
abs

Day 5, Arms
Warm up: 2x10 Lightweight Bicep Curl
Standing Bicep Curls, 4x12
Preacher Curl, 4x12
Dumbbell Curl, 2x10
Dumbbell Preacher Curl, 2x15
Skull Crusher, 4x12
V-bar Tricep Pulldown, 4x12
Cable Bent-over Extension, 4x12
abs

Day 6 and Day 7, rest

There rep and set number don't have to be exact.  However, for strength, I usually do high weight, low rep, (usually pyramid), and about 90 secs of rest.  For Hypertrophy, I usually do medium weight, high rep, and less than 60 secs of rest.  The reason I did put down the weight number because it's different for everybody.  Sometimes if I'm really tired the weight might go down, but it generally goes up each week.  So it varies every week.

Upcoming:
Supplements and Progress pictures, stay tuned ......

Diet and Upgraded Hypertrophy Workout

Diet, I can't emphasize enough how important your diet is, no matter you want to cut fat, bulk up, or just simply stay in shape.  If I have to break down what it takes to achieve your fitness goals, I'd say 40% comes from your diet, 30% comes from your hard work, 25% comes from your good rest, and 5% comes from your supplements.  Unless you have awesome genetics like David Dawka (the buff black senior supervisor at RSF), then you don't have to worry about your diet so much.  You can still be ripped and muscular just by eating gummy worms.  Since most of us don't have genetics like that, you gotta watch your diet!!!

Here's some commonly known facts:  If you are trying to lean down, eat less carb (or none if you can do that).  If you are trying to bulk up, it's simple, just eat as much as you can (not junk food though).  No matter what you are tying to do, break your three meals down to smaller meals throughout the day, like 5-7 depending on your own circumstances.  That way, you can keep your metabolism going.  In term of supplements, I'll actually have another post about it, so wait for it.

This is what I typically eat in a day:
Meal 1:  Multi-Grain Whole Wheat Bread with Peanut Butter, a cup of orange juice, a bowl of Oat Meal with Brown Sugar
Meal 2: Cottage Cheese and Yogurt
Meal 3: Brown Rice, Chicken Thighs, Sweet Potatoes, Spinach

or Fried Brown Rice with two eggs, Chicken Thighs, Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli (you can mix it all, as long as there's enough protein and carbs)

Meal 4: Protein Bar (optional) 

Meal 5: Chicken breast, lettuce, avocado with olive oil, vinegar, and pepper 

Meal 6: Milk, Cottage Cheese (depending on if I had Meal 2 or not) 

As you can see, they're pretty typical workout meals.  If you are willing to spend the time, energy, and money and sacrifice some of your cravings to eat like this, I'm sure you will see significant results.  

And here's a upgraded version of my Hypertrophy Workout.  After Anthony reviewed it, there are some slight changes. 

Day 1

Squat

2x15, no lock-out

Flat Barbell Bench

15, 12, 10, 10, 8

4x(10-12) for the rest of the workout

Single Leg Squat

Lat Pulldown

Incline Dumbbell Bench

Seated Cable Rows

Dumbbell Flyes

Shrugs

Day 2

sprints + plyometrics (approx 30 mins)

Day 3

Squat

15, 12, 10, 10, 8

DB Flat Bench

15, 12, 10, 10, 8

4x(10-12) for the rest

RDL

Upright Row

Quad Curl

Pull-up

Calf Raise

Dips

Abs

Day 4

light jog (20 mins)

Day 5

Deadlift

15, 12, 10, 10, 8

Incline Barbell Bench

15, 12, 10, 10, 8

4x(10-12) for the rest

T-Bar Row

Shoulder Press

DB Rows

Tricep Extension

Lateral Raise

Bicep Curl

Day 6 and Day 7

rest

Hypertrophy Workout

Hey guys, I haven't been blogging lately mostly due to my finals.  I was extremely sick and behind with school work, but luckily I was able to catch up and do well on my finals.  So it has been five weeks since I posted my bulking phase workout, it's time to mix it up and design a new workout!

This workout is just basically gaining mass as much as possible before I go into my strength phase workout.  I'll pretty much go to failure each set.  And the rest between sets is strictly one minute and the rest between lifts is two minutes.  Former Cal Football linebacker Anthony Felder actually helped me design this workout.  He can dip with FOUR 45 lb plates THREE times, that's beast mode for ya.

I also want to let you guys know that I'm going to China this Friday.  So that means no facebook, text or calls, just emails.  If you want to see the updates of my trip and workout, just come and check out the blog (hopefully blogspot is allowed in China).  I'll keep posting stuff including pictures, videos, and workout plans if I can get on it.

Day 1
Flat Barbell Bench
15, 12, 10, 10, 8
Squat
2x15, no lock-out
4x(10-12) for the rest of the workout
Incline Dumbbell Bench
Dumbbell Flyes
Lat Pulldown
Shrugs
Seated Cable Rows

Day 2
sprints + plyometrics (approx 30 mins)

Day 3
Squat
15, 12, 10, 10, 8
DB Flat Bench
15, 12, 10, 10, 8
4x(10-12) for the rest
RDL
Quad Curl
Calf Raise
Pull-up
Dips
Abs

Day 4
light jog (20 mins)

Day 5
Incline Barbell Bench
15, 12, 10, 10, 8
Deadlift
15, 12, 10, 10, 8
4x(10-12) for the rest
Shoulder Press
Lateral Raise
DB Rows
Tricep Extension
Bicep Curl

Day 6 and Day 7
rest