7 Steps to a Flexible Diet: Miyaki on T-Nation
My latest T-Nation Article — a multimedia extravaganza about flexible dieting — was published last week.
What did we cover? The 7-step process I use to setting up flexible, year-round, lifestyle nutrition plans (as opposed to quick-fix diets) that can be adjusted based on activity levels, physique goals, feedback, progress, and shifts in physique focus:
1. Set Calories
2. Set Protein Intake
3. Set Baseline Fats
4. Account for Micronutrients
5. Distinguish Between Essential Nutrients and Energy Nutrients
6. Energy Nutrients for Fat Bastards
7. Energy Nutrients for Skinny Bitches.
Here’s the video component of it:
Here’s the intro section. As always on T-Nation, they let me be me. So the following article has been Rated-R by the Fitness Blogging Association of America.
7 STEPS TO A FLEXIBLE DIET
Spring is a time of dietary dilemma.
Defrosting from winter’s hibernation, the groundhog steps out to see if he can see his shadow.
What’s the physique equivalent? Can you look down and see your wiener beneath your bulk belly?
Should you continue with the winter’s “mass” plan – pack in the calories, pack on the mass, scare women and children, go for new PR’s, and get your rocks off from locker room high-fives?
Or should you hit a deficit, slash some flab, get skinny (I mean shredded), maybe improve your health profile, join a boy band, rock a Borat-like dong thong, and try to get laid?
There’s no right answer. You can borrow Harvey Two Face’s coin, flick that SOB into the air, and let chance be your guide for all I care.
To that end, here are 7 simple tools you can use to seamlessly take your plan in whatever direction your fickle heart desires, but first, a few words from our sponsor (okay, not really from our sponsor, but nevertheless a few important points before I get into the 7 steps).
Read the full article here: 7 STEPS TO A FLEXIBLE DIET: MIYAKI ON T-NATION
No Diet System is More Important Than Nutrition Basics
In this installment of the video Q & A series, we try to uncover some of the potential reasons why a dieter is suffering from low energy and increasing body fat.
WHAT WE COVERED
- The no bullsh*t truth. No diet structure — whether it be Intermittent Feast, intermittent fasting, traditional bodybuilding/fitness nutrition and the 6-Shooter Spread — is a “miracle cure” that allows you to overlook diet fundamentals. Don’t let anyone — including me — sell you that their system is more important than nutrition basics.
- Examples: Intermittent Feast will NOT allow you to lose fat if you’re in a calorie surplus. Intermittent Feast will NOT allow you to eat crap and be healthy. Intermittent Feast will NOT provide you miraculous energy if you are combining no-carb diets with anaerobic training, etc.
- 1. Get Your Diet Numbers Right. This is the most important step to achieve any body composition goal — targeted calories based on the physique goal, adequate protein to support lean muscle mass either way, the right distribution of carbs and fats based on activity levels, etc.
- 2. Optimize Food Choices. This takes care of the health aspects of a diet and can make it a lot easier to stay within your numbers (real, whole foods are way more satiating than refined foods).
- 3. Find a Sustainable Diet Structure. Meal frequency and food distribution is predominantly about making your diet plan practical, sustainable, and functional as a lifestyle plan. Use whatever works best. I believe in Da Feast!
- My continuing battles with my frickin’ Whiteboard.
Do Carbs at Night Inhibit Natural Growth Hormone Release?
First off, I just wanted to thank you for all of da love and support you’ve been giving me online. Really appreciate it. I want to return the favor by helping as many of you as I can, but I just can’t keep up with the amount of emails and questions I get while having some kind of a normal life. So I’m starting a weekly Q and A series on my YouTube channel to try to get more efficient at it. Here’s Da Intro and how to get your questions answered.
And we’re kicking this thing off with the most common question I’ve been getting. Doesn’t eating the majority of your carbohydrates at night inhibit natural growth hormone release and impair the body’s ability to burn fat?
What we covered:
- Yes its true, we get our biggest boost in natural growth hormone levels within the first 90 minutes of sleep.
- Yes its true, high insulin levels inhibit natural growth hormone release.
- The key to eating bit at night without inhibiting GH is to time it right.
- In a normal functioning body, insulin levels rise in response to a meal (even a big feast) and return back to baseline levels within 2-3 hours.
- Eat your big carb-loaded feast and allow enough lag-time for insulin levels to fall back to baseline levels before going to sleep.
- Don’t try to starve yourself for dinner and then eat a sugar-loaded snack right before bed to compensate.
30 Minutes of Diet & Training Tips: The Miyaki Power Quest Interview
I was recently a guest on a popular fitness podcast in Austria — Power-Quest. We had a great time talking about a variety of topics related to fat loss nutrition, training, and looking ripped year-round.
Intermittent Feast Invades Austria
Listen to the full interview here: 388 (Gold): Nate Miyaki — Ein Samurai im Kampfermodus
*Scroll down and click on the title. The portion with me is in English, and it starts at 13:50 and ends at 47:50.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
- What Nate’s 2000 calorie dinner consists of, hahaha….
- How you can structure your diet in a way to eat a big, satiating meal with carbs at night, even in the most aggressive fat loss/cutting phases. No more starving on lettuce leaves at night to get lean.
- Why calories and macronutrients are exponentially more important than diet structure.
- How Intermittent Feast pulls principles from natural bodybuilding, The Paleo Diet, Sports Nutrition, and intermittent fasting protocols.
- A brief comparison of 5-6 small meals a day vs. 2 meals a day, and why the latter can work as an excellent fat loss & physique enhancement plan (from physiology to practicality to sustainability).
- Giving credit where credit is due — Serge Nubret (as the athletic) and Ori Hofmekler (as the intellectual & scientific) pioneers of intermittent fasting/feasting protocols.
- The problems with extreme bulking & cutting phases.
- Why you can use bodybuilders for inspiration, but also why you shouldn’t try to follow the protocols of drug enhanced athletes (unless of course you want to take that route, no judgement here).
- Why I love red meat.
- Sane, unbiased protein recommendations.
- Why you should put more focus on the basics of a sound nutrition plan vs. the overuse of supplements as miracle cures.
- Why there is no one right way to train. An athlete simply must match their training protocol to their goal, how my program changed training primarily for performance (martial arts and stunts) vs. training for appearance (natural bodybuilding, fitness modeling).
- The value of mobility and dynamic warm-ups to offset computer posture and prevent injury.
- Why free weights and basic movements should be the foundation of your routine as opposed to flashy & fancy exercises.
EIN SAMURAI! I don’t know what that means, but it sounds pretty cool. Thanks for the opportunity Dominik.
Top Trainer Billy Polson’s Fat Loss Diet
In this interview, I talk with my friend and colleague Billy Polson. He talks about the specifics of the diet plan he’s been using to lose fat, build muscle, and improve energy all while keeping up with the demands of owning, operating, and training private clients at San Francisco’s top personal training facility, Diakadi Body.
