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This is the first question you need to answer if you want to change your body composition. It can be daunting thinking of all the formulas, macro splits, BMR, RMR, caloric maintenance, deficits, surpluses… you get my point.

But it’s really not. Calories are fuel. They fuel every single cell in your body and there are a lot of cells.

So you burn a lot of calories, just at rest. This is called the BMR - Basel Metabolic Rate - or  RMR – Resting Metabolic Rate. It’s a mouthful but this is how many calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day and didn’t even eat (because digesting food takes calories, called Thermic Effect of Food)!

Basel Metabolic Rate

There many online tools to calculate your BMR. From the really simple to the really complicated.

Here are the different factors that effect your BMR:…

Are you pressed for time and no idea what to eat? You’re diet doesn’t need to fail just because planning didn’t quite pan out. Get going with one of these quick fix meals, and your meal will be prepped and ready before you have time to think about it.

–Eggs florentine: Eggs over easy served over braised spinach. For a fancy twist, add some w/ olives or olive tepenade. For more calories, serve the whole dish over polenta.

–Spanish-Style Eggs: Warm 65g chicken breast. Prepare 2 eggs over easy. Arrange eggs over chicken and serve topped with 65g salsa and 10 sliced large green olives. Eat with corn tortillas.

–Dijon Egg Sandwich: Scramble 2 egg & 2 egg whites in cooking spray. Place on toasted whole wheat English muffin spread with Dijon mustard. Top with 50g cubed avocado, green onions, and arugula.

–Cheesy Bean Dip: Mix 120g vegetarian refried beans …

The protein shake is one of the most versatile ways to add extra protein to your diet. Cheap, simple, ready in minutes, and if done right, you can trick yourself out of a trip to Johnny Rockets. So whether you are struggling to get enough calories or just want a tasty treat that won’t break your calorie bank, check out this simple guide to constructing your ideal shake.

The protein shake is composed of 3 simple parts. First, there is of course, the protein. Then, you need a liquid. Then, there are the additives that make it tasty: fruit, chocolate, various supplementary carbs, fats and flavours.

The Protein

Whey, Casein, Rice, Pea, Hemp, Egg, Raw, etc.

Use whatever type of protein tastes best for you. They will all have slightly different flavours. As usual, whey is best post workout. A casein-whey blend like Complete Milk Isolate can give you a …

At Swole Personal Training we believe every client has unique needs. A lot of other personal training services or personal trainers try to push their clients into a set program. The client is faced with rising challenges in trying to change their whole life in order to fit into the new rigid program. We believe such an approach doesn’t work, clients often endure the process, get some results and then revert back to their own ways.

Our approach is to bring our programs into the client’s life. Instead of demolishing the client’s current lifestyle and starting over – an impossible and painful task – we look to make improvements. Call it lifestyle renovation. We work with the client one on one in the voice, chat or email sessions and attempt to fix as much as possible while keeping things, easy, enjoyable and effective.

To illustrate this point I’ll share with …

In March of 2010 I had found myself sitting in a very small base in Baghdad after 3 months of not working out and not eating right. I had come across Mike’s post on Something Awful dot com a few weeks earlier, but was initially hesitant. After all, I am in the Army and already consider myself to be in decent shape. Not to mention I don’t eat meat, and I doubted Mike could do anything for me I Couldn’t do on my own.

Mike trained me for 3 months. He started me on a completely new program, he showed me a lot of small things that made a huge difference. I was training for the same amount of time and sometimes less but the workouts were harder and more intense.

Hey everyone!
For a while now I wanted to start a blog, I feel like we do a lot of cool things here at SPT and I wanted to share them with everyone.

Somethings to expect in the future:

• Site news and updates: Get a sneak peak into some of the member area tools and programs.
• Promotions and discounts: Lots of discounts to be had, expect them to be frequent and big.
• General success tips: Get relevant articles on nutrition, exercise and personal training, bringing you a taste of our programs.

And much more!

To kick things off, I’m starting a contest: Ask a fitness or diet related questions. The question that I think is most helpful and creative (subjective, I know!) will get 4 weeks of free training as well as a diet and training plan. The contest ends in 2 weeks! Get posting! Bonus points to those who …