FACTS UP FRONT
- All diets work for everyone at first. For long-term success, you have to drop the fads and "hacks," and fuel yourself properly
- You cannot out-train a bad diet; you also cannot out-diet a poor lifestyle
Low-carb diets do work......for the right people........for a short amount of time. Bodybuilders and professionals use low-carb diets SHORT TERM to trim extra fat and boost their metabolism. If you are just starting off, you don't need to take any excessive measures. Low-carb diets rob your body of fuel and almost all of the lost "weight" is water and muscle glycogen. Wait, but muscle glycogen is important, right? Exactly. Think about eating food to fuel your activities, instead of being active to counteract your food. You don't have to suffer and avoid foods you love. In fact, you should be feeling full after each meal and even enjoying a few cheats every now and then. You actually don't have to be obsessive about it at all. You should already be training 3-4 times per week, and be mostly active daily anyway. If you're doing the right things during the week, it should all be relatively easy.
WHERE TO BEGIN
1. Determine How Much You Should Eat Find one of the many FREE Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculators online and figure out what you should eat every day. But don't get too wrapped around the numbers game. Afterall, many people underestimate how much they eat and over-estimate how much they train. But we do need a baseline for what you SHOULD be eating daily. After a few weeks you can adjust those numbers based on your habits and activity. Now what about those macros?
Men: Consume 1 gram of protein per lean pound of body weight; 20-30% of your calories are from fat; the remaining calories are from carbs. If you are trying to cut extra body fat, simply cut the dietary fat slightly. This should place you into a slight deficit, while still fueling your workouts with the carbohydrates. That's right, cutting carbs first is actually the wrong way. Well, that is, if you want to continue training and not lose all your strength.
For the hard-gainers: the absolute best way to pack on bodyweight is Mark Rippetoe's Gallon of Milk a Day. Milk is the most affordable and efficient "weight gainer" on the market. Save your money on the powders - drink milk!
Women: Consume .8 grams of protein per pound of lean body weight; maximum 25% calories from fat; the remaining calories are from carbs. Same as men, if you are trying to cut or get leaner, you can cut a bit of the fats but do not go crazy and starve yourself.
2. Eat the RIGHT foods. Believe it or not, most people know what food is good or not. It's built into us. Do I really need to tell you that potato chips and cupcakes are bad? Do I really need to tell you to drink water, instead of soda all day? Thought so...you know what to do; just do it.
Seek out nutrient dense foods and avoid calorie dense foods. It's that simple.
3. Eat for YOUR Fitness Level & Activity
Once you have established your BMR, you can then adjust your macros accordingly. If you are having a heavy day, add 150-300 extra calories. Try to eat a large breakfast to give you plenty of fuel until your next meal. If you cannot eat breakfast, try to eat a large dinner the night before. There are zero legitimate studies showing that large dinners promote unhealthy weight gain. On that note, there are zero legitimate studies showing that "intermittent fasting" leads to long-term healthy weight management. These are just little tricks influencers will push on you. Stick with the basics and you will be fine.
If you find that you are starving by dinner time or late at night, that is a good indicator that you did not eat enough during the day. Make a plan to eat more, earlier, the next day, and that should help. You shouldn't walk around feeling full all the time, but you also should not have endless cravings, with low energy.
4. Stop Demonizing Carbs!
Seriously, this nonsense has to stop. Carbs are not your problem - over-consuming them, in junk-food form is your problem. Carbs are fuel.
Carbohydrates are our primary source of energy. Glucose is the ready source, while your muscles and liver store them as glycogen. Glycogen is easily used by the body during activity. Forget about the gurus and pseudoscience for a minute. Your body wants to utilize carbs so much that when you cut off the supply it will make them from other sources, known as gluconeogenesis. Sure, you can force your body into Ketosis, where it must utilize other nutrients as glucose, but why would you make your body go through all the extra work? All this low-carb, keto crap is just that: crap. Notice that your friends who praise it always seem to get off it at some point. They also become extremely weak and lethargic during their cuts. The only way professional bodybuilders and fitness models are able to continue training, or even functioning, at such a low bodyfat percentage is because of the heavy drug usage.
5. Know What Training is, and Actually Train
People tend to confuse activity or "exercising" with actual training. "Training" is a specific activity designed to induce an exact effect. Example: strength and power training, a 5k running program. Going for an unloaded, leisurely walk is activity, or exercise. Training makes you grow, get faster, while demanding a ton of energy. Activity, while extremely beneficial for overall health and longevity, will not induce specific results, and do not require a lot of energy. Examples of training, with links to videos:
- Strength Training, especially programs like Starting Strength, is KING
- Sprints (specific to your sport)
- Rucking
- Over 30 minutes of "zone 2" or steady-state cardio (especially if you're new)
You should TRAIN for at least 3 days per week as a beginner, and around 5 times per week as an athlete. You should conduct basic activities EVERY DAY. This can be as simple as an hour walk, or 6 10 minute brisk walks, or an hour of light sports. Most experts agree that getting in at least 10,000 steps per day has an amazing health benefit, and will also assist in fat loss on the long run. Go look up your favorite body builder. The great majority spend the first hour of their sessions walking on a treadmill.
What if you don't have a smart watch? 10,000 steps for most people is just around 5 miles. If you cannot do this all at once, split it up throughout the day:
- Six, 10-minute brisk walks
- Park far away and walk
- Walk if you don't have to drive
- Always take the stairs
- Stand more
So let's put it all together
Here is my typical day of eating:
(below is my typical week of training)
Breakfast
- 8 whole eggs, either on a cheese sandwich or scrambled with shredded cheese
- 16oz of whole milk
- Some fruit or juice to stimulate the liver
First Snack
- 4 hard-boiled eggs OR
- PB sandwich with another 16oz of whole milk
Pre-workout (1 hour before training)
- Peanut butter sandwich and some coffee OR
- A few bananas and some coffee
Post-workout
- 32oz of whole milk with 1 scoop of protein
Afternoon Snack
- A few hard-boiled eggs OR
- Another 16oz of whole milk
Dinner (all self-made)
Options:
- Biggest ribeye I could find with either potatoes or rice
- 2 big burgers with some cheese, lettuce, and fried onions
- Chicken breast and potatoes or rice
- Spaghetti Bolognese with extra ground beef added; homemade sauce
- Ground beef mixed with BBQ sauce for homemade Sloppy Joe
Late-Night Snack (if training day)
- 32oz of whole milk OR
- PB sandwich and 16oz of whole milk
My Typical Week of Training
*10k steps, or and hour of walking daily
Tuesday: Recovery
Thursday: Recovery
Saturday: Recovery
Sunday: Rucking: usually 4 miles in under an hour @20% of bodyweight
Recovery Days do not mean laying around, doing nothing. Between my job and lifestyle, I am still quite active. The point is that I do not do anything with high intensity that would interfere with my strength training recovery.
That's all there is to it, folks. Being fit and healthy certainly does not mean starving or restriction. Hang out with me for a day and you will see just how much food I can destroy! The fact remains that as long as at least 80% of your diet comes from good foods, then you really can do whatever the hell you want with the other 20%. As you become fitter and leaner, you will learn how to do all this naturally, without having to count. Even better, you'll be so fit that you'll have to introduce some "junk" food, just to be able to fuel your body for those long days. Example: Super skinny backpackers who live on absolute crap for months, but it doesn't show one bit. So do you want to keep counting every calorie, starving yourself everyday, and dying to eat just one piece of chocolate everyday? Or do you want to train, be active, eat like a maniac, and still have room to enjoy some of your favorite treats every now and then?
Randall, Grunt Proof
SOURCES
BMR Calculator (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/)
Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook (http://www.nancyclarkrd.com/books/sportsnutrition.asp)
Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength
Insulin Index of Foods (clinical study) (http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/66/5/1264.full.pdf+html)
Tortora & Derrickson's "Introduction to the Human Body..." 9th edition (http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Human-Body-Gerard-Tortora/dp/1118129199)
Sport Medicine on "Post-Workout Nutrition." (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/aa081403.htm)
Clinical trials on high fat diets and health risks (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19828712)
Clinical trial on high cholesterol and health risks (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16549459)
Clinical trials: Cholesterol and Atherosclerosis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14623804)
Clinical trials on low-carb diets and obesity (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12761365)
The science behind caloric measurements and inaccuracies (http://www.livescience.com/26799-calorie-counts-inaccurate.html)
Dietary fats http://www.medic8.com/healthguide/articles/fats.html
