Author: Nick Hawkins

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How To Burn Stubborn Belly Fat

🔸How do we get rid of stubborn fat ?🔸

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🔹As you all probably know, stubborn belly fat, just like any other type of  fat, is lost by being in a caloric deficit through a combination of dieting and exercising. ⁣

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🔹First and foremost we have to get lean enough to tackle those stubborn areas (at least ~12% for men and ~22% for women) but once we are there, they’ll disintegrate just as fast as other areas (assuming we’re eating the right amount of nutrients and training the right way). ⁣

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🔹The main problem with dieting to very low levels of body fat is that as we get leaner, our hunger starts increasing  and our energy expenditure decreases. So our deficit becomes smaller and smaller as our results start slowing down. ⁣

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🔹It’s not necessarily the fat that is stubborn itself. If it were, your body would have to take energy to use, and if protein intake is high enough to avoid wasting protein for energy and enough resistance training is provided as a stimulus to maintain muscle mass.. the energy will come from stubborn fat cells. ⁣

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🔹When we are not burning fat it’s because we are moving less and not being as diligent as we previously were, with our food intake. That’s a big reason why our results slow down.⁣

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🔹Sure, there are specific strategies that may work specifically for these areas (such as introducing combinations such as Caffeine + Yohimbine HCl, which are able to decrease Alpha-2 receptor activity and mobilize the fat out of the cell), but don’t forget the bigger picture. Being extra patient, more accurate (with both food intake and daily activity) will get the job done. 

🔹Message me the word “FREEDOM” for consultation if you are wanting to transform your body.

⁣Resource: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24730354/

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Lessons From Fight Club

🔹Without caution our minds inevitably drifts towards the most rigorous self-analysis in the blink of an eye. 

🔹However, this self-analysis aids you to analyze your life more earnestly and with greater energy. 

🔹At this pivotal point of deep pondering that you reach an enlightened understanding that incites rapid improvement, as you are self bullied into rectifying things: not tomorrow, not in an hour, but right this very instant with the utmost gravity and tenacity.

🔹Let your mind create the resurgence to guide you to be unmoved by things outside your control, not carelessly but perceptively. 

🔹Ward yourself from allowing external events or people to rule over you while taking control of your sense of reality. 

🔹Partaking in emotional mastery is one of the most convenient practices that a person can learn. 

🔹Once your passion builds your intensity, it requires a firm nature to compel your temperament.

🔹 Don’t forget to join the club for more exclusive content: https://mailchi.mp/aa9bea26a029/musclehacking

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Creatine Monohydrate

⭕️Creatine Monohydrate⭕️

🔹There have been over 1,000 studies that have been conducted which have shown that creatine monohydrate is the top supplement for exercise performance. Keep in mind, it will never proceed with a healthy diet or hard work in the gym but it helps.

🔹Besides creatine monohydrate, the other types of creatine on the market are:

🔸Creatine ethyl ester

🔸Creatine hydrochloride

🔸Buffered creatine

🔸Liquid creatine

🔸Creatine magnesium chelate

🔹While each of these forms has a handful of studies examining it, the information on the effects of these forms in humans is limited

🔹The information on the effects of these forms of creatine  in humans are limited. 

🔹The majority of the health and exercise benefits of taking creatine supplements have been demonstrated in studies using only the form of monohydrate. 

🔹What they discovered in these studies were an increase in muscle gain, improved exercise performance and possible brain benefits.

🔹There is also evidence that this supplement can increase strength gains from a weight-training program by about 5–10%, on average.

🔹One experiment that I came across stated that monohydrate increases creatine content in the blood and muscles better than the other forms of creatine.

🔹Also it’s been reported that participants’ cycling performance increased by 10% when consumed monohydrate powder, but did not increase when they took liquid creatine.

🔹The bottom line is that creatine is one of the top effective supplements for exercise and performance. Several forms are available, but monohydrate is currently the best form that you can get. 

Resources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28615996/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19228401/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25946994/

Https://examine.com⁣⁣⁣⁣/supplements/creatine⁣

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Disciplines of David Goggins

-Master your mind

🔹Only you have the power to master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments that can seem beyond your capability.

-Turn adversity into fuel for your metamorphosis

🔹Because when you’re driven, whatever negativity is in front of you, becomes fuel for your metamorphosis. Use it to your advantage.

-Schedule plenty of time for rest too

🔹If it’s a rest day, truly allow your mind and body to relax. Turn your phone off. Keep the computer shut down. A rest day means you should be relaxed, hanging with friends or family, and eating and drinking well, so you can recharge and get back at it. It’s not a day to lose yourself in technology or stay hunched at your desk in the form of a question mark.

-Focus on achieving goals, don’t focus on negativity 

🔹The average person thinks 2,000–3,000 thoughts per hour. Rather than focusing on negative things that you cannot change, imagine visualizing the things that you can. Choose any obstacle in your way, or set a new goal, and visualize overcoming or achieving it.

-Confidence comes from personal accountability

🔹 Personal accountability will bring you self respect, and self respect will always push you forward.

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Increase Your Energy

➖Coffee

🔹Coffee is often the first option that people go to when they are looking for an energy boost.

🔹Because of the caffeine, which can instantly pass from your bloodstream into your brain and inhibit the activity of adenosine, a neurotransmitter that quiets the central nervous system. 

🔹Therefore, the production of epinephrine which is a hormone that stimulates the body while boosting brain activity will increase even more.

🔹Although coffee only has two calories per cup, its stimulatory effects can heighten your focus.

🔹Even though I sometimes go overboard on the coffee consumption, I wouldn’t recommend drinking over 400 mg of caffeine, or about 4 cups of coffee, per day.

➖Bananas

🔹Bananas have complex carbs, potassium, and vitamin B6, all of which can help boost your energy levels and simultaneously make you more alert. 

➖Fatty fish

🔹Fatty fish such as salmon and tuna are excellent sources of protein, fatty acids, and B vitamins, making them a must if you are looking for that extra boost. 

🔹Having salmon or tuna in your diet will provide your daily amount of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12. 

🔹Omega-3’s are known to reduce inflammation, which is a common cause of fatigue and lethargy. 

➖Apples

🔹Medium sized apples (100 grams) have around 14 grams of carbs, 10 grams of sugar, and up to 2.1 grams of fiber.

🔹Because of the  natural sugars and fiber, apples can provide a slow and sustained energy release.

🔹Apples also have a high antioxidant content. Studies have concluded that antioxidants may slow the digestion of carbs, so they release energy over a more extended period of time.

🔹You should try to eat apples whole to reap the benefits of the fiber in their skin.

➖Dark chocolate

🔹Dark chocolate has higher amounts of cocoa than regular chocolate.

🔹The antioxidants found in cocoa increases blood flow throughout your body. 

🔹The increased blood flow throughout your body aids the delivery of oxygen to the brain and muscles, which helps improve their functions. This is great for when you have intense workouts.

🔹Dark chocolate also has theobromine and caffeine, which will enhance mental energy and mood.

🔹 Message me the word “FREEDOM” for a nutrition and fitness plan that will give you optimal energy.

Resources: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/362759/nutrients

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/1028841/nutrients

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25285409/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462044/

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/577849/nutrients 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25782129/

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How To Burn Fat Fast

How To Burn Fat Fast

  • .75 to 1 Grams Of Protein Per Pound

🔹 Protein is essential for weight loss

🔹 Studies suggests that eating protein will increase the number of calories that you burn off by boosting your metabolic rate (calories out) and decreasing your appetite (calories in).

🔹 Evidence shows that consuming 25–30% of your total daily calories from protein will boost your metabolism by up to 80–100 calories per day, compared to lower protein diets.

  • Calorie Deficit

🔹 Each calorie is a unit of energy. The food that you eat provides energy in the form of heat so that your body can function even when it is at rest.

🔹 The amount of calories that you burn each day is called your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE. To be in a calorie deficit you have to expend more energy than you consume.

  • HIIT Cardio

🔹 HIIT is a combination of intense bursts of cardio exercise followed by longer period of rest. An example would be sprinting for 30 seconds to a minute, followed by a minute or two of walking or slow jogging between each cycle.

🔹 HIIT works to build muscle while burning fat at the same time. Performing HIIT requires the body to use more of its muscle tissue to perform. An interesting study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology showed that a specific HIIT workout requires the body to use up to 80% of its muscle fibers while jogging uses only 20-40% of the muscle fibers.

Resources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19640952/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11838888/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691617690878

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How To Show Your Veins

  • Caloric Deficit

🔹Science proves that if you want to burn fat, diet manipulations are more effective than doing extra cardio.

🔹Push towards getting under 15 percent body fat for some of you. To be sure though, aim for under 12 percent body fat.

🔹 You can never  go wrong with leafy greens when it comes to gaining vascularity.

🔹 Most importants keep your calories at least 200 under your BMR

  • Increase Nitic Oxide Intake 

🔹  Nitric oxide is the compound that is responsible for your veins to  dilate; AKA get bigger. There are alot of foods out there that help increase the amount of nitric oxide in the blood to make your veins show.

🔹 Foods that that will convert into nitrates in the body will most definitely do the trick to up your level of nitric oxide. Eat foods such as:

.Beetroot

.Lettuce

.Celery

.Broccoli

.Arugula

.Spinach

  • Keep sodium intake low

🔹 Salt will hold onto water which is what you don’t want. In other words, the more salt that you have in your diet, the more water your body will retain, which means the less your biceps vein will show.

  • Keep water intake consistent

🔹 If you’re chronically dehydrated and not getting the amount of water your body needs, your body will start to crave water and will retain as much as possible whenever it has the chance.

🔹 Avoid dehydration so that your body will hoard less water and be willing to excrete any extra water.

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Should You Take BCAA’s

ARE BCAA’s USELESS?
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🔹 BCAA’s (Branched Chain Amino Acids) are compounds that form chains (polypeptides) in order to create proteins in the body. As we all know, protein is essential for muscle growth and repair.
🔹 However, supplementing with BCAA’s are useless. After you have a meal with protein, your body will shift into an anabolic state where it rebuilds the muscle broken down after a workout, given the meal contained all 9 essential amino acids.
🔹 So taking extra BCAA’s won’t really do much. Besides, only consuming 3 of the 9 amino acids is not very productive either.
🔹 Save your money on something that works like getting your aminos from real food.
🔹Message me the word “FREEDOM” and I can get you started with a meal plan so your can successfully accomplish your fitness goals.
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Building Muscle

🔹When trying to put on some extra muscle, it’s easy to focus on the wrong things.⁠
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🔹While some things like excessively eating highly processed foods to consume more calories might gain you some weight, it’s not a long-term strategy and it’s far from optimal.⁠
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🔹To keep it simple, you want to focus on gradually increasing your calorie intake by around 250-500 calories over your maintenance level, and mainly eat nutrient-dense whole foods (this is usually called a “lean bulk”).⁠
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🔹Yes, you can, of course, eat much more than that, but you will most likely not be growing much more muscle, but instead, pack on excess fat (this is usually called a “dirty bulk”).⁠
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🔹Keep your protein and carb intake high.⁠
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🔹In the gym, focus on progressively overloading your compound lifts and then your accessory exercises.⁠
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🔹A BIG MISTAKE a lot of people make is to not get enough rest. Your body needs to recover to grow stronger and to build muscle, and this happens during your rest periods. So make sure you get at least 7-9 hours of quality sleep.⁠
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🔹Keep educating yourself to consistently grow your muscles AND your brain.
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Message me if you have any questions
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Eating Clean

🔹 You’ve probably heard the phrase: “eat clean, train dirty” or “eat clean, train mean” or “you can’t expect to look like a million bucks if you eat off the dollar menu.” What does that even mean, anyway? If you ask 10 people what it means to “eat clean,” you’ll get 10 different answers..
🔹 The answer to these phrases all have one thing in common: it’s extremely restrictive. We are led to believe that some foods are good and others are bad. No one has ever dropped dead from one candy bar though—just like no one has gotten up in the morning lean and healthy from consuming a few servings of vegetables. This is not to say that we should opt for the mint chocolate chip ice-cream over apples and carrots, but being too restrictive in your diet is (1) making it nearly impossible to eat enough and (2) removing one of life’s greatest pleasures—delicious food.
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🔹 If you’ve ever tried to get 3000 calories from chicken breasts and broccoli, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Although I do advocate a mostly minimally processed, whole food diet—I do also promote a flexible way of eating. If 80-90% of your foods are coming from minimally processed, whole foods, then don’t be afraid of getting the other 10-20% from that strawberry ice-cream—assuming it fits into your overall macro and micronutrient goals.
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🔹 Keep in mind, however, that the longer you’ve been dieting, the lower your calories. And the lower your calorie intake, the less room you’ll have for “fun foods.” But that’s probably a good thing since minimally processed foods are more satisfying and provide more vitamins and minerals.

🔹 Message me the word “FREEDOM” if you want a customized workout and nutrition plan