Nutrition
Featured Article. Fish, bodybuilding, & your Health.
Seafood offers many benefits, including easy-to-digest amino acids and minerals that support testosterone and thyroid functioning. That's a good reason for bodybuilders to consider incorporating fish more often into their diets. Continue
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SINGLE GUYS SKEWER
By M. Kovacs
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 bottle Renée’s Lemon Pepper Garlic Gourmet Sauce
* 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes
* 8 to 10 skewers, soaked in warm water to prevent breakage
INSTRUCTIONS:
Place chicken cubes in a bowl and cover with 1/3 bottle of Renée’s Lemon Pepper Garlic Gourmet Sauce. Leave in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight. Discard marinating sauce. Poke chicken cubes onto wooden skewers (count for 2 skewers per person). Grill, broil or bake for about 5 minutes or until the meat is thoroughly cooked, turning the skewers so that each side is cooked evenly. Place skewers on a serving plate; pour leftover sauce over chicken to moisten. Serve with grilled vegetables and brown rice. If you prefer, use shrimp instead of chicken breast.
SERVING SIZE: 4
Nutrition Quickies
Quick meals for the person on the go.
If you don’t have time to spend 30 minutes preparing food, here’s a quick and easy breakfast that you can throw in a blender, pour in a glass and take to work.
FROZEN FRUIT SMOOTHIE
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup frozen fruit
½ cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 tsp ground flaxseed
1/2 cup orange juice
½ cup rolled oats
1 heaping scoop of protein powder
INSTRUCTIONS:
Put all the ingredients in a blender and add water to desired consistency. Add a little ice to keep your shake chilled.
SERVING SIZE: 1
Protein Bars
The best protein bars that build muscle and save your wallet.
By W. Eric Martin
Bars are having a taste war, and you’re the one paying for it. The bright packages luring you with the most sugary of flavors—from chocolate cake to berry pie, which could have come from any dessert menu—can cost as much as five bones. How do you know if the bar you’re eating isn’t just a jacked-up candy bar? Maximum Fitness compared the prices and the nutrition facts of more than 50 protein and energy bars. No bar ranked best in all areas, so the best one for you depends on your needs.
Understanding the Bar Code
PACKING PROTEIN
To bulk up, “you want a bar higher in protein after working out,” says Sheila Leard, RD, ACE-CPT. Many brands boast 30 or more grams of protein, but these bars average two to three dollars each—expensive for the extra grams. A typical energy bar has around 10 grams and costs under a dollar. So buying two or three bars could be worth it, if you don’t mind the calories. And the more protein, the worse it usually tastes, says registered dietitian Susan Kleiner, PhD, FACN, CNS, and co-author of The Power Food Nutrition Plan.
Cheapest Protein 21 grams in an MLO Bio Protein Chocolate Peanut Butter, $1 (Tastes like a peanut butter cup.)
LOADING CARBS
In addition to protein after a workout, you need carbs to replace burned glycogen, says Leard. If you eat before working out, she suggests taking in carbs and protein on a four-to-one ratio, making energy bars your bar of choice.
But watch where the carbs come from. The MLO Bio bar has more sugar than a regular candy bar, and the Carb Select bars contain 20-plus grams of sugar alcohol. The American Dietetic Association says that eating more than 50 grams of sugar alcohol can cause bloating or diarrhea. So eat these bars in moderation, or you will pay for it later.
Lowest Sugars 3 percent of carbs from sugar in a PowerBar Protein Plus Carb Select Peanut Caramel, $2.25
FLOWING WITH FAT
Fat—particularly saturated fat—and fiber slow down a bar’s digestibility, which makes the fuel less available to your muscles when you’re working out. More than half of the bars that we checked out have a higher percentage of saturated fat than a typical candy bar, including Advantage and Carb Select bars, despite their low-sugar content.
Least Sat Fat 2 grams saturated fat out of 16 grams total fats in a Tri-O-Plex Very Berry High Protein Food Bar, $2.50
COUNTING CALORIES
Self-confessed skinny guys need to load up on calories, but not all bars are created equal, not even ones that bear the same name. Half of a Kashi GoLean Chocolate Almond Toffee bar provides about the same number of calories (150) as a whole Kashi GoLean Crunchy Chocolate Caramel bar. Both cost $1.50. If you’re trying to build muscle, but your long-term plan is to lose weight, “look at total calories, period,” says Leard, “and keep the calories around 250.”
Cheapest Per Calorie 320 calories in a MLO Bio Protein Chocolate Peanut Butter bar, $1
