Bodyfat Percentages + Pre Workout & Post Workout Nutrition...

I got an e-mail the other day from one of the readers and he asked:

"Do you keep track of your BF% or just go by the mirror? If you do take measurements, would you mind posting your % in the blog? Also, I didn't see any mention of pre, during or post workout nutrition. would you mind sharing in the blog what your pre-workout nutrition is?"

I do keep track of my bodyfat. I use the accu-measure skin fold calipers.




















However, I don’t take my bodyfat percentage per say. I keep track of my skin fold thickness during my contest prep. As long as the skin fold thickness is going down, then I know I’m getting leaner. The whole bodyfat percentage can be very misleading because different formulas and methods will give different results.

For example, electronic bodyfat testers almost always give a high reading and can vary depending on your level of hydration, etc.

Skin fold calipers are consistent in their readings, but the different formulas that are out there to calculate bodyfat percentages can vary greatly. If you are going to actually calculate out a bodyfat percentage I’d suggest that you just pick one formula and judge your progress based on that one formula alone.

Here are some of my records during my contest prep over the past couple months...

April 10th (8 weeks out)
My skin fold at the hip was 3 mm thick
My skin fold at the belly button was 6 mm thick
And my waist was 34 ½ inches

May 10th (4 weeks out)
My skin fold at the hip was 1 mm thick
My skin fold at the belly button was 3 mm thick
And my waist was 33 inches

Today May 30th (1 week out)
My skin fold at the hip is less then 1 mm thick (it is not thick enough to move the calliper)
My skin fold at the belly button is 1 mm thick
And my waist is 32 inches

As for my pre-workout / post workout nutrition, I really don’t do anything special while I’m on a low carb diet. I don’t have any simple carbs after my workouts or anything like that because my main concern at this stage is just burning as much bodyfat as possible.

I’ll eat a meal about 2 hours before my workouts (protein and green veggies).

Then about 30 minutes before my workouts I’ll take ephedrine and caffeine.

During my workouts I only drink water.

And then right after my workouts I’ll just have a protein drink mixed with water.

That's it during my pre-contest phase.

But during the off-season when I'm focusing on gaining size and strength my pre and post workout nutrition is a lot different.

I’ll eat a protein + carb meal about 90 minutes prior to my workouts. The actual foods will vary. But I’ll eat at least 50 grams of protein and at least 50 grams of carbs.

During my workouts I’ll drink Gatorade or a similar type of carb drink.

And after my workouts I’ll have a protein + carb drink, usually a couple scoops of whey protein, a couple scoops of Gatorade powder, mixed with water and I’ll often have a banana as well. So this works out to approx. 50 grams of protein and 100+ grams of simple carbs post workout.