Nutrition and Supplements.

P.S.: Iam not a medical professional and not giving any kind of advise to anyone. Please don't blindly follow and sue me :-)

Most people ignore this part and think just physical training is the crux of fitness, the fact is its not, my first six months of training has proven this. Proper nutrition contributes around 80% no matter your goal is to reduce fat or build muscle. The training contributes a mere 20%. I have researched around various diets in this process which I would list down below.

The nutrients can be classified as macro and micro. The macro nutrients consists of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The micro nutrients consists of vitamins and minerals. Iam not going to list down the sources of these nutrients, please do your own research.

I have followed different kind of diets normal diet, atkins style and ketogenic diet.
Normal diet I split carbs, protein, fat in the ratio 40:40:20. In order to reduce fat percentage I had to bring the carbs down and increase protein intake. This didnt reap much benefits. I then switched over to atkins style where carbs where minimum and protein was the major source of fuel. This diet didnt prove good to me as when Iam on cutting (eating less calories below maintenance) the body switches to muscle to compensate, hence losing muscle. Then I switched to ketogenic diet (not for weak hearts) where the C:P:F ratio was 5:25:70, yeah you saw it right I take 70% of fat on this diet. If you haven't fainted listening this, this diet is really superb and believe me its not fat what makes you fat its the carbs what make you fat. When this much of fat is consumed and Iam cutting the body uses fat as main source of fuel and switches to body fat when it encounters a deficit. The diet used to be something like for first five and half days Iam totally on ketogenic diet (70% fat, 25% protein), then I do a weekend carb load for one and half days, this period allows me to take few beers too... read stuff on c-k-d.com.

I only take two kinds of supplements whey protein and multivitamin capsules. No matter how much veggi you have a day you wouldn't get all necessary vitamins, so there is no harm to have multivits. Along with all the above its necessary to drink atleast a gallon of water to keep you well hydrated.

Computing daily calorie intake :
A simple formula is body weight in pounds x 15 for men.. and body wt in pounds x 12 for women and split calories as 40:40:20 (C:P:F) in case of normal diet and 70:25:5(F:P:C) in case of ketogenic diet.

Fitness

P.S.: This section would take time to take shape and I intend to publish loads of information..

It's almost been a year since I started going to gym (California Fitness Center at Orchard Road), had been quite regular throughout except for major 10-15 days breaks in May05, July05, Nov05, Mar/April06. I have vowed to be regular again and continuously make improvements/refinements in my training.

Apr 05 - Oct 05 : This was the toughest period, being a lethargic guy who never excersised earlier, getting my bum out of bed at 5am in the morning and rushing to gym was painful. I forced and motiviated myself and soon got used to it, soon it turned to be that If I miss a day in gym that day goes gloomy.

I started of with both aerobic and anerobic excersises with basic resistance/weight training and cardio. The following was the routine..
Mon - Biceps/triceps, abs
Tue - Chest
Wed - Legs
Thu - Repeat Monday
Fri - Repeat Tuesday

The cardio part was going on 30-45 minutes walk/slow jog on treadmill, I used to rotate this with cross trainer.

There wasn't significant progress as to physique due to mistakes I made in nutrition but it definitely helped me in increasing strength/endurance and mainly getting used to the gym, learning new excersises and above all feeling good about it.

Nov 05 - Mar 06

I have started a total new routine during this period and started using free weights since Jan06. I do a 5 to 6 day split with one or two rest days. The tentative routine is as follows
Monday - Biceps/Forearms/Abs
Barbell curls, dumbell curls, ab crunches
Threadmill
Tuesday - Pectorials(Chest)
Flat bench press, inclined bench press, pectorial fly
Threadmill
Wednesday - Legs (Hamstrings, Qaudraceps, Glutes) { Most painful day }
Squats, Dead lifts, Calf presses
Crosstrainer
Thursday - Biceps/Back/Abs
Barbell curls, Cable curls, ab crunches,pullups or latpull
Threadmill
Friday - Chest, Shoulder, Tricpes
Declined bench press, tricep pushdown, shoulder presses
Saturday - Just confine to cardio on treadmill or use it if I missed any excersise during the week

The progress during this period was satisfactory, lost good amount of fat (36% to 29%) and increase in muscle tone. My waist went down from 36.5 to 32.5 inches, the lean mass has gone up (don't have figures at present). I can lift weights almost twice heavy compared to the first period I mentioned. Iam still on a cutting diet and feel thats the reason Iam unable to develop much muscle, soon I intend to go on a bulk diet when my fat percentage comes below 25%.