Exercise In One 20 Minute Session Per Week

For the past six weeks I have been doing only one exercise session per week of about 20 minutes long. I think I been getting pretty good results so far. It can be faster than 20 minutes if you get somebody to have the right weights on all the machines.

The Basics

It consists of 5 exercises, one set per exercise, 6 repetitions per set and each repetition should last 20 seconds (10 seconds the first half and 10 seconds the second half to avoid using momentum at all costs)

The Exercises

1. Pull-Down
2. Seated Row
3. Chest Press
4. Overhead Press
5. Leg Press Machine

The goal of this session is to do each repetition very slow (20 seconds) with a weight that if you were to finish the 6 repetitions in 2 minutes and then immediately you tried one more set it would be impossible for you to do. Each exercises is done until your muscles fail to keep carrying the weight. This means beyond the point when it starts to burn and about 5 seconds after you been pushing/pulling the weight and it has not moved an inch.

Here is an example of how a Doug McGuff did all of the exercises listed above in 10 minutes

Notice the following

• The speed at which he pushes and pulls 
• How his breathing increases towards the end of an exercise 
• How quickly he moves from one exercise to the next with almost no rest period
• How he finished all 5 exercises in almost 10 minutes

My Simple Diet Guidelines

These simple rules have helped me lose a few pounds every now and then while not limiting my food choices too much.

Basic rules

1. Calculate your basal metabolic rate ( calculator ) + activity level 
2. Eat no more than 50 grams of net carbohydrates a day (net carbohydrate = carbohydrate - fiber)
3. Eat at least 1 gram of protein per body weight
4. Calculate the calories in the carbohydrates + protein and add the rest as fat to arrive at your basal metabolic rate + activity level. 
5. Never eat less than 1,200 calories a day.

Here is my example

1. My metabolic rate is 1,784 plus my activity level for sedentary 1,784 x 1.1 = 1,962. According to this I have to eat about 2,000 calories a day to maintain my current weight.
2. 50 grams of net carbohydrates equals 200 calories (there are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate).
3. My protein requirement is 168 grams because I weight 168 lbs (there are 4 calories per gram of protein).
4. 200 calories from carbohydrates + 672 calories from protein + 1,125 calories from fat (there are 9 calories per gram of fat) = 1,997 calories

I obviously never make it dead on, but I rarely go over my net carbohydrates and rarely go below my minimum protein requirements. After a few weeks of starting with the basic rules I realize that my actual calorie intake to maintain my body weight are about 2,500 calories.

Here is a chart that shows my daily planned calories vs my actual calories broken down by macro-nutrients. Note how Even though I have tried really hard to eat 2,600 calories a day, it is very hard for me as I am barely hungry on this diet and I almost always end up eating slightly below 2,000 calories a day.

Karim's Low-Carb Quesadilla

This is my recipe for a low-carb quesadilla that has a decent amount of calories, good cholesterol and protein.

Nutrition information

309 Calories, 22g of fat, 8g net carbohydrates, 23g of protein

Ingredients per quesadilla

1oz  of chicken
2 HEB low-carb tortillas
1oz of shredded mexican blend cheese (zero carbs)
1oz of avocado
1oz of fat free pinto beans
1/2 tbsp of sour cream
1-2 tbsp of pico de gallo

Photos