Calories
BW Loss and Fat Loss = Take in 10 cal/lb (or 10 cal/ lb of lean body mass if you're motivated).
BW Neutral: 12 to 15 calories/pound of lean body mass.
BW gain or Bulking = Take in 20 cal/lbs, or as much as you can handle.
Macros
This is how we break down that caloric total as macronutrients. A general rule of thumb for someone wanting body recomposition is to shoot for a rubric of at least 35% protein, 15% or lower carbohydrate, and fats of the remaining 50%.
- Protein = at minimum, consume 100% your lean BW in protein Grams. Shoot for 1 to 1.5 g/lb lean body weight. More is good! Chicken, eggs, and beef are the recommended and most cost effective protein sources.
- Carbohydrates = half of that on a day when you're exercising (.5g/lb of lean body weight), and half again on an off or rest day (.25g/lb LBW). We all know what these are, but acceptable sources are cruciferous veggies, sweet potatoes, bananas, raw oats, black beans, and fruit.
- Essential Fats (as byproduct of your animal protein sources, along with Fish Oil if you don't eat a lot fish) = Take in 0.25g/lb or at least 15-20% of calories. The best sources of poly-unsaturated fats are grass fed beef, eggs, fish, flax seeds and fish oil pills.
The remaining calories can be distributed among added carbohydrates, or added fats, or both, depending on your goals or circumstances. Or, eat more protein for the win. You can't eat too much protein ... in the real world of the athlete, no matter what some lab report based on sedentary test subjects says. Those results are not for you.
For example: the guy who weighs 220 at 10% BF, who is happy at 10% and is therefore BW Neutral, is shooting for a minimum of 200g protein (200lbs lean body mass x1g protein each), 100g carbs (hard workout day) or 50g carbs (easier day), which totals 1200 calories of his approximately 2400 calories/day (12 cal/day). 25g more of protein is a plus with 53g of fat to make up the balance of his calories for the day.
If you're like most people, keeping the carbs low is the hardest. Second is consuming enough protein. Fats are a friendly third party in all this. If you mind the carbs while making certain that you get enough carb-free proteins, fats will usually fall into place.
And, the biggest macronutrient of all - Water, Water, Water, Water, Water. Drink 1/2 to 100% your BW in fluid oz daily (if you weigh 200 lbs, drink 100 to 200 oz of water/day). Really important for fat oxidation, as we know.
Some Guidelines
Carb intake should be directly tied to your high-intensity, glycogen burning activity levels. Fats should then be adjusted up or down accordingly to stay within your allotted calories.
* If you're sedentary, on an off day, then you get the no-carb day. No carbs for you! Take it as a challenge.
* If you do a lower volume of work (pure strength training), then starch intake should be more moderate = Protein:Carb ratio of 1:.5.
* If you do a higher volume of work (traditional hypertrophy/bodybuilding training), then carbs intake may need to be higher = Protein:Carb ratio of 1:.75 to 1:1.
If your training volume cycles, you should carb-cycle accordingly. High intensity sessions earn high carb day (up to 50% of your protein grams), low intensity or off days are as close to zero carb days as possible.
Have a cheat meal/re-feed meal once a week - unless you're missing and having too many carbs each day. Have a looser carb week monthly. 3 on, one off is still a good general cycle. Earn your carbs. No workout, all keto that day. Hard Workout? Then welcome to a higher carb meal.
Again, the majority of your carbs, and 60% of your calories, eaten post-workout, especially if you're on a daily intermittent fasting routine.
Have a dose of BCAAs just prior to your hard workout sessions. If you're hungry prior to your session, you can drink 10g of BCAAs as a snack as long as the formulation contains no calories.
Choose the meal frequency pattern that's most functional and sustainable for you – do IF if possible. If not, then do weekly and bi-weekly fasting days.
Try journaling your foods and making sure you're consistently hitting the above recommendations before you think you need some crazy, triple-carb rotating, ketogenic cycling diet to get ripped. What are you eating? Organic meat, lots of vegetables, and low glycemic fruits and nuts. Basically, no refined carbs, no high fructose corn syrup.
The focal meal is post-workout nutrition, this is non-negotiable. Regardless of the time of day, eat a good protein/carb (1:1 to 1:2 ratio) combo following every intense workout to refill glycogen stores and initiate muscle growth. If you can hammer it all down, eating 60% of your daily caloric total and the lion's share of your carbs (30 grams, say) during this meal is optimal.
For most people – meaning those who have real jobs and real commitments, and are within more normal calorie ranges to drop fat – basing the diet on 2-3 meals a day, with some extra during-workout nutrition on training days, is the most convenient, realistic, and sustainable approach.
Hopefully, this seems simple even though there's a lot of verbage on this page. The hard part is logging your intake (using an app like Lose It! helps) to keep track of your daily macros without going OCD. Intermittent Fasting makes staying under your caloric total a lot easier as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment