Ask Joe Weider

Tip of the Week: Don't give yourself the chance not to go to the gym.

While I would never imply that anyone reading this would intentionally avoid going to the gym, I will say that more than a few might miss working out due to something I call 'planned happenstance.'

It's very easy, after a long day at the office or school, to make a beeline for home, en route to the gym. Even if your original intention was to go straight to the gym, you might find yourself suddenly remembering a show you wanted to catch or maybe you decided that you'd prefer to train in a different shirt from the one you packed in your gym bag. Once you get home, you get distracted by a million and one things and — what do you know? — you never make it to the gym.

Believe me, I understand how difficult it can be at times to summon the energy to exercise after working hard, and that's why I know that planned happenstances must be avoided lest you miss your workout entirely. Recognize when you're making an excuse to avoid your workout, and then get in your car and make a beeline for the gym.

Q: What will happen to my muscles once I stop working out? Will they get flabby or turn to fat?

Joe: This is a question I get asked a lot. My first response to those who ask is always, "Why would you want to stop working out?" I just turned 89 years old, and I still exercise every morning. Sometimes I think if it weren't for my morning workout, I wouldn't make it through the day at all.

Nevertheless, should you find one day that you can no longer work out, you need not worry about anything happening to the muscles you built up other than them getting smaller. Contrary to popular misconception, muscle cannot turn to fat, only be utilized as food by the body. The reason you'll sometimes see former athletes considerably heavier than they were when they were in training is because they have stopped exercising but continue to eat as if they still were.

The lesson here is: Don't stop training.

Then you won't have to worry about losing or gaining too much weight.

Q: How do you feel about snacking? I know I've heard that eating snacks between meals can kill a diet. But what if it's healthy snacks, like vegetables or nuts? If that's OK, how much and how often?

Joe: I actually prefer snacks over meals. What I mean by this is that I feel you should never sit down to eat so much food that you can't consume any more. That's what meals are to a lot of us, dinner especially.

How many times have you pushed your chair away from the dining room table with your belly so full that you couldn't eat another bite? Well, this kind of eating is what causes your insulin levels to spike, for food to be improperly digested and for your energy levels to flag. This also leads to fat gain.

Rather than eating three big meals, I recommend snacking on healthy, manageable portions of food throughout the day. I'm talking five or six.

Bodybuilders, who are focused on keeping as much muscle and as little fat on their bodies as possible, eat this way. In fact, many of them eat every two to three hours, which will result in as many as eight "meals" a day. Understand that a meal to a bodybuilder isn't necessarily a big plate of food. It could be a protein shake or a few ounces of fish with half a cup of rice. The idea is to keep the metabolism consistently stoked and insulin levels normalized so that the body is working to both build and burn as efficiently as possible.

So, yes, snacks are OK — in fact, they're better than OK — just so long as they're part of a bigger plan to optimize your diet. And no, cookies and cake don't qualify as snacks in my book.

Joe Weider is acclaimed as "the father of modern bodybuilding" and the founder of the world's leading fitness magazines, including Shape, Muscle and Fitness, Men's Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, Hers, Golf for Seniors and others published worldwide in over 20 languages.To find out more about Joe Weider, write to him and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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