Category Archives: Nutrition
Q: Why am I not losing weight on a strict adherence to the Paleo Diet?
ANSWER:
Well because if your goal is to look like a Cro-Magnon man, then Paleo diets are great. And if you are 100lbs overweight, insulin resistant, type II diabetic, and just need to move closer to a natural, healthy bodyweight, Paleo diets are great. But if your goal is to reach the upper echelon of physical development (ie lose that last 10lbs, get ripped, look great naked, etc.), then in my opinion, 100% Paleo diets suck caveman booty. Just kidding, but not really.
Reaching a healthy body weight is one thing, but at some point getting to ultra-low body fat percentages, six-packs and whatnot, becomes somewhat of an unnatural process. The ripped guy would have died first in caveman times because a certain amount of body fat is advantageous as a back-up fuel source during times of food deprivation. So if you want to get rid of that extra reserve that your body physiologically wants to carry, you can’t just eat what your ancestors ate or rely on instinct. You need to add in targeted Sports Nutrition principles.
Why do you think you never see Paleo-ites with their shirts off? Because the majority are just skinny-fat (although there is always one guy that is genetically gifted, is an exception to the rule, and everyone points to as their example of Paleo-superiority). Well sorry to bust your bubble, but I’ve competed against world class NATURAL bodybuilders that would make your Paleo-god look like Richard Simmons.
And I don’t mean to be a jerk, honestly, I am really just trying to help you. I know what its like to be frustrated at a plateau, because I used to follow a 100% Paleo diet back in the day until I became more educated in exercise physiology and nutritional biochemistry. 100% Paleo is honestly just too simple of an approach for a physiological process as complex as fat loss.
Now before anyone gets their caveman, loin cloth panties in a bunch, I believe there are many great principles we can take from the Paleo Diet. In fact, so much so, that I’d say about 80% of my dietary recommendations are Paleo-influenced. But in my industry, we need to get out of trying to slot everyone into one little neat system. You’ll never convince me that a 300lbs sedentary office worker just trying to see his toes (among other body parts) again should be eating the same thing as a relatively fit, athlete trying to reach elite body composition levels. That makes no sense, common, scientific, or any other.
OK, now that the overview is out of the way, you are either (A) asleep, and in that case sweet dreams (B) logged off this site and logged onto Sportscenter.com (guys) or an online shoe store (girls, or vice versa, who knows?), and in that case have fun (C) excited to learn more, and in that case let’s break down your specific situation step-by-step. We’re going to go down a few different assumption roads so we can look at several possible solutions to your specific problem.
1. Maybe your current bodyweight IS your natural, healthy bodyweight. If it is, and that’s all you are shooting for, congratulations. Keep doing whatever it is that you are doing. I think most people could attain a healthy bodyweight by following a Paleo-style diet and walking alone, no formal exercise necessary.
2. But if you have higher physique development aspirations, maybe you need to look outside of 100% strict Paleo parameters.
3. You need to follow a diet more than a few weeks to attain noticeable results. Try a few months (and a few years if you want to reach elite status). I think shows like the Biggest Loser, and miracle pill and supplement marketing have skewed the public’s perception of realistic weight loss goals and time frames . We want fat loss and we wanted it yesterday right? Well, real fat loss takes time. And if you lose weight too quickly, you are likely losing more muscle than fat, damaging your metabolism, and setting yourself up for a huge weight rebound. This is the stuff you don’t see off camera on NBC.
4. Although food selections may give you a few metabolic and hormonal advantages, calories still count. If you are not in a relative calorie deficit, you are not providing an environment where your body will break down its own fat stores to obtain fatty acids. And on a side note, most formulas I’ve seen overestimate people’s true daily caloric needs.
5. Oils are not a true Paleo food. Where were the oil-refining factories in Caveman times. You may be in a “fat burning” mode, but if you are pouring oil on everything, your body is simply burning the dietary fatty acids you are consuming instead of being forced to break down body fat. True cavemen got most of their fat through their animal protein sources.
6. Fruit: Fructose is one of the worst compounds for body composition enhancement — directly leads to insulin resistance and fat accumulation. A small amount of fructose from 1-2 pieces of whole fruit a day is cool, but if you’re pounding bananas all day like a chimp, the fructose can add up. And definitely cut out concentrated sources of fructose like fruit juice, dried fruits, high fructose corn syrup and SUGAR (which is actually one molecule of glucose per one molecule of fructose.
7. What kind of training are you doing? Cardio sucks for fat loss, you can check out my article on this topic in the articles section. And if you have a knee injury, the repetitive nature of, and joint pounding cardio can have on the joints is probably only aggravating your condition. At least with strength training, you can control the exercise tempos and vary the angles to make sure you aren’t making the knee worse.
Alright, I’m worn out. Hope that helps answer your question.
Q: Is “Body-For-Life” a good way to get ripped?
ANSWER:
Well first off, I gotta’ question for you, and those following this. Does anyone else think the new T-mobile girl is hot? Is it just me? Some of my friends think I’m crazy, which makes me think I may be going crazy. That is entirely possible.
Ok Body For Life? Lets get this thing rolling.
If your goals are purely cosmetic (appearance first, performance second or not at all) which it sounds like they are, and you plan to consistently engage in a regular strength training program — which it sounds like you do, then I think Body For Life is one of the best commercial programs out there. I’d take it over any of the new trends towards low-carb or Paleo eating, or cross fit/cross-training.
Again, this is assuming regular anaerobic activity and appearance-based goals. If you are sedentary, a low-carb/Paleo-style diet is more appropriate because you aren’t burning a ton of carbohydrates and don’t need to replenish glycogen stores (a car sitting in the garage doesn’t need gas).
And if you have performace-based goals (improving strength, power, or muscular endurance), a cross-training program may be more appropriate. Programs geared towards performance should be different than those geared towards hypertrophy and fat loss. This reiterates what I’ve been saying on all along. There is no one universal program that is right for everyone, everywhere. The fitness industry needs to stop trying to slot everyone into one diet or training program. It should be the other way around. Every person needs to make sure their training program and diet MATCH their individual goals. Or in other words, prioritization necessitates specificity.
I’d say my nutrition advice has been influenced by several different resources: Paleo Nutrition, Sports Nutrition, the traditional Japanese Diet, and various authors in the fitness and bodybuilding communities — Bill Phillips and Body For Life being one of them. With your specific goals, I’d say you are heading down the right path. But pulling from my research and professional experiences, I’d say Body For Life is far from perfect. So I figured the best way to help you out is to go over the pros and cons of both the diet and training recommendations. You can decide from there what you think is the best approach.
Since diet has, by far, the biggest impact on body composition transformation, lets start there first.
BODY FOR LIFE DIET PROS:
1. Overall the diet composition and macronutrient ratios are basically a higher protein, moderate carbohydrate, lower fat approach. I think this is the best plan for anaerobic athletes. Sedentary folks (or those who are obese and/or diabetic, pre-diabetic, insulin resistant) would follow a more moderate protein, lower carbohydrate, higher healthy fat approach. But you ain’t sedentary right?
2. Each meal/snack is centered around a LEAN protein source. This helps provide the steady stream of amino acids you will need to initiate protein synthesis and build/maintain muscle. It also helps control blood sugar, hunger cravings, and feelings of satiety.
3. You are instructed to include a serving of complex carbohydrate with each meal/snack. This provides the glucose your body needs to refill glycogen stores. Essentially, it provides the fuel you need for training, and provides the anabolic stimulus your body needs to build muscle and respond to training sessions (carbs, and the resulting insulin release, shuttle amino acids into the muscle cell to initiate protein synthesis). So despite what you’ve heard, insulin is not all bad, especially for the athlete. No NATURAL hormone your body makes is all good or all bad, you just have to use diet and lifestyle factors to control them. The combination with protein helps to moderate insulin release better than eating carbs alone.
4. SIMPLICITY. The diet basically says to combine a serving of lean protein with a serving of complex carbs at each meal and snack. How simple is that dude? He even gives you serving shortcuts — a serving of protein is about the size of a deck of cards, a serving of carbohydrates is about the size of a fist. No measuring or weighing necessary.
5. There are some cool transformation stories, and pictures of hot bodies (girls in bikini’s, guys in board shorts — whatever you prefer).
BODY FOR LIFE DIET CONS:
1. The author is (or at least was) the owner of the supplement company EAS. So the diet, at least in some part, was created to promote and push supplement sales. He recommends 3 of the 6 meals/snacks come from his protein shakes or bars. I disagree with this. Whole foods are always better than supplements. The shakes and bars can be used for convenience from time to time (its better than a cheeseburger), but they should not be the core foundation of your routine. Too many artificial, chemical ingredients.
2. 6 meals/snacks is too much for most people, and too inconvenient for those living in the real world. I recommend spreading calories over 4-5 meals.
3. FOOD choices. I like the lean proteins, but I don’t like all of the carb selection recommendations. I’m with the Paleo-crowd on this one. He recommends a lot of the whole grain bread and cereal products. These can be problematic for a lot of people because (1) most people have a sensitivity to gluten (the protein in wheat, rye, and barley), if not a full blown allergy and (2) whole grains contain anti-nutrients like lectins and phytates that block mineral absorption and can be very hard on the digestive tract.
I would stick to more natural carbohydrate sources — think caveman or cultural carbs — so things like yams, potatoes, rice varieties, vegetables, and 1-2 pieces of WHOLE fruit.
BODY FOR LIFE TRAINING PROS:
1. It was one of the first commercial programs to acknowledge the importance of strength training for FAT LOSS, not just building muscle. Strength training is crucial for fat loss because it helps build muscle, boost metabolism, improve insulin sensitivity, and stimulates natural lipolytic (fat-burning) hormones like growth hormone.
2. It emphasizes a 3-day a week strength training program, which is great. It is also realistic and sustainable for most people.
3. It uses simple, basic bodybuilding-style exercises, which I believe are the best for transforming a body, not the new-age circus acts that are going on in gyms today (stand on one foot on a Bosu ball, close your eyes, touch your nose, then do a dumbbell curl). That stuff looks cool, and is marketable, but the basics are the basics for a reason — they are far more effective. Just look at the bodies of some of the trainers prescribing some of the more complicated, “innovative” stuff. Do they even look like they work out? Remember, fitness trends come and go, but basic barbell and dumbbell exercises have stood the test of time.
BODY FOR LIFE TRAINING CONS:
1. In addition to the 3-days a week of strength training, he also recommends 3-days a week of high intensity cardio. I think this is way too much for most people to recover from. I think 4 days of high intensity activity is plenty for most NATURAL athletes. Beyond that, you start impairing recovery ability.
2. While I believe strength training should be the core of any fat loss plan, I think traditional cardio is overrated anyway.
3. Modifications. If I were to modify the training program I would just tell you to do 4 days of strength training and cut the traditional cardio. Or you can stick to the 3-days of strength training, and go outside and do some non-exercise specific walking on the days you were supposed to do the high-intensity cardio. Walk for your errands kind of a thing. This will allow you to burn a few extra calories without all of the negative drawbacks of traditional cardio (cortisol elevation, muscle loss, reduced testosterone levels, the need to wear high and tight running shorts, etc.).
*Last tip. You don’t need to buy the book. The website tells you all you need to know, and has the food lists, etc.
Alright, hope that helps.
Iron Warrior – Karen
Karen quit her habit of consuming sugary snacks every day and learned that making even just one “small” change at a time can add up to big results. Here’s her story…
For some of us the idea of changing from a fat lifestyle to a fit lifestyle is overwhelming. It is not just changing a diet or workout program, it’s changing everything. “I need to start working out and eating better. I need to stop smoking. I need to cut out caffeine.” I need to……. UGH, it becomes such a daunting task that nothing is done.
I wasn’t always this way. Before I had three children I worked out an hour a day 5 days a week. I never ate great. I love, love, love junk food, but was blessed with a great metabolism so I didn’t sweat it. Sure I went up a size when I hit my 30’s but who doesn’t after 3 kids, right?
OK, yeah I went up another size but hey, I hit 40, things change, no biggie. I wasn’t thrilled but I’m 6 feet tall so I wasn’t ‘big’. Then my clothes started getting tight. All those cute black dresses, no they didn’t fit anymore. Oh all my summer shorts, nope those didn’t fit either. Bummer.
Even with all these signs I wasn’t willing to make a change. It’s too hard, I don’t have time, and every other excuse you could think of. Then my fiancé and I decided to get married. Nothing will give you a little motivation like fitting into a wedding dress.
Instead of trying to do it “all” Kalai suggested I make one change as a starting point. Now, given my love for junk food that seemed a good place to start. Sitting down every night and eating half a box of cookies was nothing for me. So my decision was to cut out refined white sugar. No cookies, no candy, no ‘healthy’ granola bars. All of it out the window.
I’ll admit the first week was hard. My body craved sugar, but I was determined. The first week when the cravings were too much to take I would substitute organic strawberries. They satisfied the need for something sweet. I found the second week I didn’t have the craving anymore. What shocked me was losing 5 pounds in two weeks. I noticed I started to physically feel better.
I stuck with my plan and 3 months later I had lost 15 pounds, just from this small change! My wedding dress looked great, I fit into my cute black dresses and it was awesome! I even had to buy new pants since my old pants were literally falling off.
Now to be honest, I fell off the wagon for a couple of weeks recently. With the pressure of the wedding off I started slipping into old habits. I blame it on Girl Scout cookie season 
I wasn’t packing the pounds back on, but how I felt mentally was what got me back on track. I didn’t feel good about my choices and decided instead of beating myself up I just needed to stop making those decisions. Now I allow myself an occasional ‘cheat’ so it doesn’t become about depriving myself and setting myself up for a big binge. Also, it helps if you have a friend who is supportive and has the similar goals. Getting support and encouragement is a lifesaver. Thanks Kalai!
The other revelation during this process for me was that instead of trying to tackle everything at once, I realized I am the sort of person that needs to take baby steps on the path to a better lifestyle. This was the first step and I have made a few other changes since: I cut my caffeine intake by 2/3 (trust me this is a big deal for someone who drank ten Diet Pepsis a day!) and started taking vitamins since I know I am not getting enough vegetables everyday. I plan on setting smaller goals over the year, which will hopefully add up to big changes by the end of 2011!
- Karen
Public Health Enemy #1: Fructose
I have a bone to pick with the fitness and commercial diet industries. If you listen to the trends and fads, you “gotta go low carb” to get fat loss results. Carbs are the enemy right? And a 300lb, insulin resistant, sedentary, office worker should be eating the exact same thing as a 180lb man or 140lb woman — both of whom are regularly active, relatively lean, but trying to take it to the next level and reach peak physical condition? Yep, cut the carbs across the board. Carbs are the enemy.
Whatever dude.
To me, those are nothing more than media sensationalism tactics and commercial dietary blanket statements — both of which are highly marketable, but just as equally, highly inaccurate. “If we cut the carbs, we can eat whatever else we want in unlimited quantities and still stay lean.” Really? How’s that one working out for you?
Listen if carbs were the enemy, wouldn’t traditional Asian cultures have been the fattest most diabetic populations on the planet. Got rice?
History tells us different. In pre-1991 Japan, diabetes and obesity rates were never over 3% of the population. It is only since Western habits (ie large portions of processed foods) have gained popularity with each successive generation that the numbers have gotten worse, now closer to 11%.
And here in America, where we are so ahead of the times, so cutting edge with our dietary recommendations, and have a billion dollar low carb industry, shouldn’t we be the fittest people in the world? I mean we have low-carb bars, snack foods, and even gum. As beaches and poolsides everywhere tell us, however, quite the contrary is true. We’re still the worst nation on the planet, right around 33%.
LEARN FROM HISTORY
To me, this “all carbs are the enemy thang” is no different than the 1970′s “all fats are evil thang”. Haven’t we learned our lesson about lumping different foods into one general category and condemning them as the downfall of society? I guess not. In today’s world, a natural potato is the same thing as a man-made muffin loaded with sugar and flour. And we’re supposed to eat our fake, factory produced, low-carb bar to compensate.
Again, whatever dude.
In the 1970′s, heart healthy monounsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids were lumped into the same category as pro-inflammatory vegetable oils and trans fats. We were told to cut fat across the board, regardless of the source. With advancements in research and knowledge, we now know that was uninformed, counterproductive advice.
One day, I feel like we will look back at the current Carbophobia Era in the same sort of way. Did they really say that potatoes and rice were just as bad as sugar and high fructose corn syrup? Really? C’mon man, you are B.S.’ing me right? They weren’t that stupid.
AMERICA’S WORST FOOD COMPOUND
So just like with fats, we can’t oversimplify. Unfortunately, we must put in some effort to educate and inform ourselves if we are to truly end up with the most accurate information and the most effective plans. We can’t blindly follow blanket statements.
We must distinguish between carbs that can be beneficial (especially for anaerobic athletes) vs. carbs that are without a doubt detrimental to our health. It is not ALL carbs that are killing us, making us sick, and making us fat; it is certain TYPES of carbs. And I have a bona fide grim reaper for you (yes I am going to resort to the scare tactic on this one).
While there are several worthy foods, I’d put the championship belt around concentrated sources of fructose as the worst compound in modern diets. If you did nothing other than cut out sugar and high fructose corn syrup from your diet, I’d bet you’d end up with a pretty decent physique. But that crap is everywhere, and is in everything.
According to numerous studies, fructose is the main culprit in table sugar that causes insulin resistance — FRUCTOSE y’all, not my poor glucose/starch compounds that get unfairly lumped into the same category via the “Y2K All Carbs Are Evil Campaign”. Here is one of those studies that compared a starch-based diet with sucrose/fructose-based diets:
Old-timers paper link: Thresher et al, Comparison of the effects of sucrose and fructose on insulin action and glucose tolerance. AJP- Regu Physiol October 2000 vol.279 no.4; New-school web link: http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/279/4/R1334.full
In an article from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the metabolism of fructose was further investigated. The report indicated that fructose, compared with glucose, is preferentially metabolized to fat in your liver. In animal models fructose produced the following responses: insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, high insulin levels, high triglycerides, and hypertension.
WE LOVE THE SWEET STUFF
The primary reasons that fructose is used commercially in foods and beverages is: (1) It’s cheap, and (2) It is the sweetest of all carbohydrates, up to 1 ½ times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar).
But isn’t fructose a natural sugar found in nature via whole fruits? Yep. How can it be bad for you then?
The fructose in whole fruit exists in tiny amounts. That’s not the problem. It’s the commercialization of foods, and the trend towards using additives to make everything sweet (because we love the sweetness) that is the problem. With the food refining process, we are getting concentrated sources of fructose in dramatically higher amounts, and with much more consistent regularity, than mama-nature ever intended for us. And it is this specific type of carb that is making us fat, diabetic, and sick.
Where is most of our dietary fructose coming from? The top 2 are:
1. High fructose corn syrup and pure fructose as a sweetener in packaged and processed snack foods and desserts, as well as sauces, dressings, and condiments.
2. Ditto for pure table sugar added to almost every refined treat, snack, and baked good. Sugar is 1 molecule of glucose plus 1 molecule of FRUCTOSE.
Beyond that, we get if from additional sources like:
3. Agave nectar, which is almost pure fructose. This is the latest marketed “health food/ sugar substitute”, but it is one of the worst things you can put on your food because of the high fructose content.
4. Honey
5. Fruit juice and fruit smoothies
6. Dried fruits
7. Fruit. 1-2 pieces of whole fruit a day is healthy and should not be problematic. Just don’t go around like a chimp eating 50 bananas a day. At that point, the fructose adds up.
We have to start cutting back on our fructose intake to improve both our waistline and our overall health. They call it dessert, not a dietary staple, for a reason.
SWEET ADDICTION
What is the most widespread, addictive drug in our society today? Is it cocaine? Maybe for the nightclub crowd, strippers, and bankers. Painkillers? Athletes and seniors use them to get by. Pot? Dude, I grew up in California and went to school at Berkeley, so that certainly makes sense. Tobacco and alcohol? They’re legal, over-the-counter, and readily available in any grocery store, market, restaurant, and bar. We’re getting warmer.
In terms of sheer numbers of addicts, there is one drug that surpasses them all, combined. There is one drug that is more dangerous than the rest, simply because most people are not even aware that it is a drug. There is one drug that is having profound, detrimental effects on our nation’s health and well being (as well as your waistline), and it is cheap and highly available wherever you turn. Many parents even give it to their children on a daily basis, not knowing any better. What is this drug?
Sugar.
This compound, along with our lack of portion control with sugar-loaded foods, is the main reason why we are the fattest, unhealthiest people on earth. I do not mean to make light of drug addiction. On the contrary, that’s how devastating I think this whole sugar problem is. Make no mistake about it my friends. Sugar IS a drug. It is a compound that we can become physically, mentally, physiologically, and emotionally addicted to.
Every day in America, many of us are abusing a powerful drug that is slowly crippling us. As seen above, sugars are some of the most destructive things you can put into your body. When you talk about these foods, it is not what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It is what doesn’t kill you quickly kills you slowly. I truly believe that if cutting out sugar/fructose was the one and only change you made towards improving your health and fitness profile, you would obtain dramatic results.
Most people have a hard time cutting out sugar, just as they would have cutting out any drug. Its not just a weak will, it’s a physiological addiction. Sugar triggers serotonin release in the brain, which has a calming effect and gives us a sense of well-being. Have you ever just eaten one M&M? You can’t do it, because your body gets a glimpse of that drug-like effect and the reward centers in your brain crave more. Its not just the taste or a weak will, it’s a physiological desire to eat more.
This is the main problem with “emotional eating”. People don’t run to chicken and broccoli when they are stressed, anxious, or depressed. They run to comfort foods that make them feel better. They run to sugar. You need to find healthier ways to deal with your emotions than relying on a drug-like chemical disguised as food.
BLOOD SUGAR ROLLER COASTER RIDE
There is also evidence that sugar and the resulting high levels of insulin affect appetite centers in the brain. In high amounts, insulin is an appetite stimulant. Eating sugar makes you even hungrier, which in turn causes you to overeat. Sugar loaded foods are the most dangerous foods to overeat because of this appetite stimulating affect. They make you hungrier and crave more of the same.
Like all things related to fat loss and gain, this can be related to blood sugar levels. When simple sugars are consumed, blood sugar rises above its upper limit. Insulin is released in large amounts to clear sugar from the blood. The large amount of insulin can end up doing too good of a job, so much sugar is cleared from the blood that blood sugar levels are left low, below the normal limits. Low blood sugar causes fatigue, low energy, and hunger.
The body craves food to return blood sugar back to higher amounts. It craves a type of food that will enter into the bloodstream and raise blood sugar levels quickly – more simple sugars. It’s a harsh cycle of peaks and valleys; simple sugars cause you to eat more simple sugars. It’s a roller coaster ride of energy bursts and energy crashes. Not only do you gain body fat, but hormonal processes in the body make you more prone to continue eating in this destructive manner.
To put it another way, my recommended sugar intake for positive fitness and body composition transformation is 0g per day. For those interested in general health, my recommended sugar intake is 0g per day.
CUTTING THE CRAP — BLOG EXAMPLE
I’m not going to lie to you. Cutting out sugar is not going to be easy. You may have withdrawal symptoms and you will get cravings. That’s exactly why I would classify it as a drug. But if you work hard, and power through like you must do when breaking any addiction or bad habit, it does get easier.
So I want to provide you with a real life example to motivate you.
One of our friends contacted us about 2 months before her wedding day. She had read our site and wanted to apply some of the content to shape up a little bit before the big day. She was realistic, and didn’t think she could implement every single one of our recommendations (after all she wasn’t a fitness freak), but wanted to make a real effort towards moving in the right direction.
The compromise we came up with? She was only going to focus on doing one thing — cutting out all sources of fructose and sugar. No other dietary changes were to be made. And she exercised a little more, but not enough to make a huge difference. The result?
She lost 15lbs in that two-month time frame, and we both though she looked great at her wedding.
If you are only going to take one step, make it this one.
The 80/20 Rule of Fitness Nutrition
If you retain only one piece of information from my articles, I hope that it is this: your nutritional habits will have a far greater impact on your body composition and physique goals than any other fitness component.
Step back from the fitness industry, pop culture, or scientific debates and think about it logically for just a second. Lets say you perform 4 weight training sessions and 5 cardio sessions a week – a typical fitness protocol. That’s a total of 9 training sessions per week. That’s 9 chances to make a difference and change your body in a positive way.
Now, lets also say you eat 3 square meals a day. Better yet, as a fitness athlete you know about the advantages of meal spacing and eat 5 meals/snacks a day. That’s 21-35 opportunities a week to directly impact your muscle building and fat burning goals.
A common question in the fitness industry is, “what percentage of my physique enhancement goals will be a result of exercise, and what percentage will be a result of my diet?” Common answers are something like, “Well, they are both important. You can’t really assign percentages” or “training is 100%, diet is 100%”. But that doesn’t really give novice trainees an accurate depiction of the bigger picture. And in the big picture, diet will always have a bigger impact than training.
In our above example of 9 training sessions and 35 meals/snacks geared toward body composition improvement a week, that works out to about 20% accounted to physical activity and 80% accounted to diet. I’d say that’s a pretty accurate assessment of the physique enhancement process. If you want to look good, 80% of your results are determined by the food that you eat.
This is an article about fitness nutrition, not statistics, so lets leave the numbers behind and look at some real world examples. If you look around your gym, you’ve probably noticed some regulars that have been there day-in and day-out for months, or even years, but look exactly the same. All that time and effort with no results to show for it. What’s up with that? The answer is diet, or lack thereof.
Another good example is professional NFL offensive lineman. These guys are pro athletes that perform vigorous training protocols on a daily basis. They are big, strong, and could certainly throw me a severe beating. But most of them have a little jiggle with their wiggle, a large percentage of them are obese. How can this be? Again, the answer is poor, or no nutritional strategy.
Conversely, when you hear tales of dramatic weight loss or great body transformations, diet/nutrition is always at the forefront of the discussion. “How did you lose the weight?” friends will ask. “Oh, I went on such and such diet” or “I read this or that nutrition book.” People can make drastic changes in their physique with diet alone. Remember Jared from Subway (yeah I know he’s getting paid to say that, but you get my point).
The moral of the story is you can’t change your body just by exercising. As a matter of fact, I’d say you are wasting your time in the gym until you clean up your diet and implement a sound fitness nutrition protocol. It would be nice if we could work off last night’s junk meal with some extra cardio. Despite what some trainers would have you believe, it just doesn’t work that way.
When you are about to cheat and eat that slice of pizza or bowl of ice cream, remember the Fitness Nutrition 80:20 rule. What goes into your mouth accounts for 80% of how you look.
Copyright 2010 Nate Miyaki
Making Diet and Exercise a Priority
The amount of time and effort you are willing to put into something is directly proportional to either (1) its importance to you or, (2) the enjoyment that is derived from it. Since we know that the process of changing your body composition may not be so enjoyable, your motivation to eat well and exercise likely comes from the importance you place on either being healthy or looking good (or both!).
But with all we have going on in our lives today, how can we justify spending our already-limited time on something so self-absorbed as looking good? Isn’t it okay to get take out or go through a drive-thru as long as we eat from the menu of healthy items? If you are content with the current status of your body and health, then sure, go ahead and keep doing what you’re doing. If not, check this out…
If it’s really important to you, you’ll make the time for it.
Look at all the things into which we put effort and time, even if it isn’t always enjoyable (so it must be important somehow):
- Academics – Some people spend 12+ hours a day for up to 25 years of their life studying. That’s a long time!
- Career – Whether you love or just tolerate your job, this activity takes up about 1/3 of your life, often more.
- Money – If increasing your wealth is important to you, you will find ways to achieve it. People take high-paying jobs with long hours even if the lifestyle sucks because money is important to them. When we want to save money, we sacrifice our immediate wants or needs to set money aside for something we hope to acquire later.
- Relationships – How much time did you spend going out, dating around, and kissing frogs before you found your mate? Or maybe you’re still on the prowl, meeting people online, in bars, at parties, or work. This can be a full-time job in and of itself!
- Children/Family – Women make all kinds of changes for the well-being of their growing baby, changes they may not have made just for themselves.
- Athletics, Music, or other activity – Even without the goal of being a professional, you must dedicate a significant amount of time in order to develop your skill.
Where does your own diet and fitness rank among these priorities? How much time are you willing to invest in building and maintaining a strong and healthy body that will ultimately support you in your life’s other endeavors?
Being pulled in so many directions, it may seem like there is no possible way to carve out more time and energy to pay attention to diet and exercise. Aren’t our jobs and family more important? It’s so much easier to hit the fast-food routine than it is to think of (much less prepare) a healthy meal and actually cook it at home. And no way do we have hours to spend at a gym every day; the children need to be tended to, we have too much work to do, we are just too tired.
Actually, a well-designed diet plan and exercise strategy are probably the most time-efficient and results-yielding habits you can apply to your life. Don’t believe me? Read on…
Make Time for your Diet
By planning out your meals in advance, you will save a ton of time when it’s actually time to eat. Nate and I grocery shop and cook the bulk of our food twice a week. On these days we’ll spend about 90 minutes preparing the foods that takes the longest to cook: chicken, fish, potatoes, rice, veggies. With this, we have most of our food ready for the next few days.
An hour and a half? That’s a long time to be slaving over a hot stove! Actually, the only thing that is very labor-intensive is peeling the potatoes, so if you want to just bake them it would take less time. Since these aren’t the kind of dishes that you need to watch over – put the chicken or fish in the oven and turn on the timer, and throw the potatoes in the pot or rice in the cooker and let them go – you can still do other things while the food is cooking. Hooray for multitasking!
Then, each weeknight I cook the egg whites for my breakfast and snacks the next day; while they are on the stove I pack up the rest of my meals: rice cakes or potatoes to go with the eggs, and my lunch of chicken/potatoes or rice/veggies (which are already prepared). Sometimes I’ll hard-boil the eggs so that I don’t have to watch the stove so closely, or sometimes I forego the eggs altogether and have protein shakes. This daily prep only takes about 20 minutes.
All-in, it takes a total of 4 hours per week – just over 30 minutes per day – to prepare ALL my meals for the week. How’s that for efficiency?
More Bang for your Food Prep Buck
More than just being efficient, it’s also more healthful. By making meals at home, you are in direct control of what goes into your food, so you know there’s not a ton of salt, sugar, and fat – all the things you are trying to avoid. You are also in control of the portion sizes, so you know the exact amounts of calories and macronutrients you are consuming with each meal.
But wait, there are even more benefits to making your own meals at home:
- You will save money. We all know that eating out is expensive. Even if you are spending more money at the grocery store, homemade meals like these will always be more cost-effective than trying to find the same food at a restaurant (which you won’t be able to do). How about trying to find a “clean” snack? The cafeteria at my workplace charges 80 cents a hard-boiled egg. That’s $3.20 just for the protein portion of one snack, when I can buy a dozen eggs for less than that.
- You will save time during the workday. With your meals and snacks at hand, you won’t have to waste time going to a restaurant, waiting for them to prepare your meal, and then getting back to the office. That’s an extra hour you can use to do something else at mid-day, like sit outside, go to the gym, run errands, or schedule a lunchtime meeting so you can leave the office a little earlier.
- You will have fewer decisions to make. No longer will you say to yourself “what do I want to eat today?” and then try to find a healthy option to buy somewhere, because you will already have your healthy lunch and snacks with you.
Make Time for Your Workouts
You’ve seen from our exercise plans that we’re not telling you to spend your life in the gym. (Haven’t read them yet? Go check them out!). Heck, you don’t even need to go to the gym; you can do workouts at home using dumbbells, resistance bands, or even just your bodyweight. Workouts never exceed 1 hour per day, and are never done more than 4 days per week. That totals – again – just 4 hours per week!
As a working professional, I know it’s hard to carve out time to get to the gym. I’ve had my own struggles, dealt with commuting, new jobs, meetings that start early and run late in the same day. I’ve tried to fit workouts in every possible timeslot: early morning, lunchtime, and after work.
You know what I’ve found to work the best? First thing in the morning. It is the only time of day that is truly mine, without interruption, and before the day can get away from me. I’ve heard the same from other people, from doctors to teachers to stay-at-home mothers. I think I once read that Oprah works out first thing in the morning for the same reason (and if she can make time to work out, surely we can too). It’s painful at first, but once you get into a rhythm, it’s not that bad, and even has some merits. I find that the gym is less crowded at that time, so I don’t have to fight or wait for equipment, and I’m able to get through my workouts faster (more time-saving!).
I also like the sense of accomplishment I feel on my way to the office…I’ve done something good for my body, and won’t have to worry later in the day about whether I’ll have time to get my workout in (which is good for my mind!) One less thing to think about, and I’ve checked something off my to-do list before 7am. Man, this fitness thing is all kinds of efficient!
Adding It Up – It Doesn’t Take Much
Altogether I spend an average of about one hour per day on my diet and exercise COMBINED. Since this is an average, some days are even less; for example, on the days I don’t work out, I only need 20 minutes to prepare my food for the next day (I love those days).
Think you can’t find an hour in your day? How much time do you spend on Facebook, or watching Sportscenter, or Food Network? Okay not all of us waste time on that kind of thing but you see my point. While getting healthy and fit doesn’t take a ton of time, you do need to make your plan a priority and schedule it into every day. This is no 8-Minute Abs, but it sure is a lot easier than I ever thought it could be.
The Basics – Nutritional Overview
Let’s start our discussion of the basics with our nutritional overview. Why? Because what you put in your mouth (or perhaps more importantly, what you DON’T put in your mouth), will have the greatest effect on your body composition and changes to your physique. Here are the basic principles that guide our recommendations:
Nutritional Overview: We emphasize a natural, animal and vegetable-based diet over a refined sugar & flour-based diet. Animals foods provide our bodies with all of the essential nutrients necessary for survival – essential amino acids and essential fatty acids – in the right quantities, proportions and ratios. This is what we evolved on; you can’t beat nature.
What should you eat? Natural foods:
- Lean proteins with every meal: chicken or turkey breast, fish, shellfish, lean cuts of red meat (filet mignon, top round, sirloin, leanest ground beef), lean cuts of pork, egg/egg white mixtures (1-2 whole eggs per 4-6 egg whites)
- Natural, starch-based carbohydrates with every meal: yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice (any kind), or rice based products with no additives (unflavored rice cakes)
- As many non-starchy vegetables as you wish with any meal (spinach, broccoli, etc).
- Fruit as dessert only
- Drink 2-3 liters of water per day. Tea and black coffee are fine.
- Use herbs and spices to flavor foods – garlic, sea salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, paprika, etc.
- Use low fat and low sugar condiments = salsa, pico de gallo, wasabi, mustard, etc.
What should you avoid? Pretty much all man-made, processed foods, along with sugar, dairy, and fat:
- Sugar and concentrated sources of fructose: high fructose corn syrup, pure cane sugar, table sugar, fruit juices, smoothies, dried fruits, soda, “sweets”, pastries, mochas, etc.
- Sugar alcohols, artificial sweeteners, and flavorings
- Trans fats, hydrogenated oil, margarine
- Vegetable oils, flax seed oil, and other processed oils
- Dairy – milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, ice cream, cream
- Bread, pasta, and flour-based products
- Grains, including “whole grains” – breads, cereals, tortillas
- Beans, legumes
- High sugar and/or high-fat dressings and condiments
- Processed meats – hot dogs, salami, etc
- Tofu and soy-based products
- Alcoholic beverages
When should you eat?
- If you are sedentary, eat 3 times per day.
- If you are active and exercise regularly, eat 5 times per day.
How much should you eat at each meal?
- Protein: 4-8 ounces (0.25-0.5 pound). This is about the size of your palm, a deck of cards, or your iPhone.
- Carbohydrates: 8 ounces (1 cup). This is about the size of your fist or a baseball. When you start out, measure it exactly so that you know what it looks like.
- As much/many non-starchy vegetables as you like.
Where should you eat?
- Whenever possible, eat at home so that you have control over what goes into your meals.
- Sit at the dining table, or somewhere away from the television, computer, or anything else that will distract your attention from your meal.
Got this down? Great! Next, let’s talk about Training/Exercise.
Use Science – Not Scams – to Achieve Your Fitness Goals
“I lost 30lbs in one week without exercising or changing my diet, thanks Mr. Magic Blue Pill. Thanks!” “I went from obese to fitness model in 12 weeks just by using this state-of-the-art abdominal device for 20 minutes, 3 times a week.” “On my revolutionary new diet plan, as long as you don’t eat X, you can eat unlimited quantities of anything and everything else, and the pounds will just fly off.” Does any of this sound familiar?
We’ve all heard the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Most of us seem to be able to apply this common sense logic to everything else in our life except weight loss (and maybe money — the get rich quick schemes abound as well). We want to believe these ridiculous claims because we desperately want to lose fat — oh by the way we expect it to happen quickly and effortlessly. Girl (or dude), I wish it really were that simple.
There are millions of trainers, gurus, gadgets, supplements, books, and diet programs all geared towards helping you lose fat. Some are good, some are bad, and some are flat-out ugly. Some are legitimately trying to help you, some are just trying to capitalize on your vulnerability and scam you out of your hard-earned money. Some are really trying to make your waist slimmer, many are just trying to make your wallet slimmer. The fat loss business is a big business just like any other, driven by profits. Its not always about what works, its about what sells.
And with the magic-pill mentality that dominates our society, ridiculous claims (the more ridiculous the better) sell. 2-minute abs? Take a hike pal.
Don’t follow unsupported claims and hype. Many people look for the diets, training programs, or supplements that promise the fastest results with the least amount of effort. They fall for the advertising flash without investigating the true value and effectiveness of a product or program. They are enticed by the one-in-a-million transformation story without reading the tiny fine print that “these results are not typical”. They don’t realize that many companies pay fitness models and athletes to endorse their product, whether they really use it or not. Lose 20lbs in two days, sign me up!
That’s why there are so many bogus products on the market. They sell well because of people’s misguided hopes. People with this habit believe they just need to find the right miracle pill and all of their weight issues will be magically solved. They want to hear that losing weight will be easy. They want to believe that they won’t have to work hard, or sacrifice, or break bad habits, or be uncomfortable in any way. They want to believe they can party like a rock star and look like a fitness model. If any of that were really true, everyone would be in shape and there wouldn’t be a billion-dollar weight-loss industry getting rich off of false hope.
Fit people are more knowledgeable about the body transformation process and look beyond glossy ads and infomercial miracle stories — if a commercial is running at 3am, it is probably a scam. Fit people know it takes time and effort to attain real, permanent results. Go ahead and ask the fittest person you know in REAL LIFE if the process is easy. I guarantee they’ll give you a sideways look, or at least roll their eyes. It takes some work baby!
That’s why fit people look beyond just mere promises or success stories. They look at scientific research. They want unbiased, credible proof that the products or programs they are using actually work. They want to see legitimate studies backing up any bold claims. They want to know what works in the real world, not just what works in the advertising office or in fitness-fantasyland.
Fit people base their exercise programs on the principles of physics, biomechanics, and physiology, not on the principles of “he said, she said”. They look at the hormonal and metabolic effects of diet, not at whatever the flavor-of-the-month, fad diet touts.
We’re not asking you to become experts in the field. That’s our job. But we are asking you to become slightly more informed so you don’t get caught up in the marketing hype. Some of the content on this site may get technical at times, maybe a little too much for your tastes. That’s cool. You don’t have to digest it all at once. But we do want you to know there is a rhyme or reason for everything we advise. There is a scientific foundation behind all of our content.
We know most people are primarily concerned with the WHAT to do for fat loss. We’ll cover that. That’s a no-brainer. But we also want to give every person the option of learning the WHY.
There are an infinite amount of false claims on the market because people continue to chase them. The sooner you start using real science, and stop chasing pipe dreams, the sooner you can get to work and start achieving real results.
Exercise Does Not Make Up For a Poor Diet – Use Diet As Your Primary Fat Loss Weapon
A healthy diet is the most important aspect of the game when it comes to body composition change. If you retain only one piece of information from this site/blog, I hope that it is this: your nutritional habits will have a far greater impact on your body composition and physique goals than any other fitness component.
I’d go so far as to say this: Most people could reach a healthy/ideal body weight with a solid nutrition plan and maybe some daily walking alone, NO FORMAL EXERCISE SESSIONS NECESSARY. I know that’s going to piss a lot of personal trainers off — and by the way, I’m a personal trainer, and just writing that kind of makes me want to punch myself in the face. But it’s the TRUTH.
Now, if you have higher aspirations of physique development (ie six pack abs, big guns, etc.), that’s another story. Its gut busting weight training sessions for you my friends. But for those just trying to get healthier, feel better, and shed some excess poundage (quantitatively speaking going from 30% plus body fat to something more reasonable like 15% for men and 20% for women) all you really need to do is focus on cleaning up your diet. That’s the fastest, and most efficient path, to real world results.
I also think its the approach most likely to be sustained. If you’ve been sitting on the couch doing nothing for the last few years, its much more likely that you are going to change what you do in the kitchen then consistently haul your butt to the gym. Its easier to choose eating a chicken breast and vegetables for dinner as opposed to being miserable and getting your butt whipped in some crazy boot camp class. And to be quite honest, it is much more effective in the long run.
You don’t need to completely overhaul your life, set aside extra time that you don’t have to get to the gym, deal with crazy soreness or joint pain, wear spandex, deal with gym meatheads and divas, go gung-ho, injure yourself and/or burn-out 3 weeks later, only to give up the whole physique transformation process altogether. All you really need to do is change what you shop for at the grocery store, and make better choices when you are out at restaurants. That sounds reasonable right? Just walk some more and eat better dude/girl — simple.
Trust me, I’ve been in the fitness industry for over 10 years and have trained hundreds of people. The clients who used diet as their primary weapon in the war on fat loss were the ones who obtained the best results. The clients who tried to use exercise to offset a poor diet, or who thought they could eat whatever they want BECAUSE they were exercising or taking a pharmaceutical drug or miracle supplement, obtained mediocre results at best.
According to a recent article in the New York Times, researchers agree on this fat loss hierarchy:
Even Simpler Nutrition Advice
I like to write. I guess in the real world that translates into I like to hear myself talk — which I really don’t, I’m usually the wallflower at parties. So something must get lost in the translation. But I do like to write. And sometimes when I write, I go off on tangents about science or the state of the fitness industry or some other random topic (90% of the time related to sex).
I know you’re not supposed to do that as a professional writer, but hey, that’s me. The only way I know how to do things is with full authenticity. I don’t write to fit into conventions. I write what I think and feel at the time, in the manner in which I talk, and hopefully to teach you a few of the things I’ve learned from over ten years as an athlete, student, and trainer in the fitness and natural bodybuilding worlds.
With that being said, I realized that sometimes the practical information/fitness tips I want you to apply, preferably TODAY, don’t always immediately get across to all of you — my family and friends. And yes, I consider my private clients, and even my online readers, as my friends. I guess that’s something I’ve always believed in, and it helps me stay a real, authentic, dude. Treat everyone you meet, and interact with, and give advice to, like they are a part of your family. Some of my training clients might be thinking to themselves, “but wait Nate, you can be a real dick sometimes.” Well, all I can say is that at times, tough love and the cold, hard truth, is the best way to ultimately help the people closest to you.
You see, here I go again on some random tangent. Let’s (meaning me) focus.
I need to give you some straightforward, practical nutrition tips you can apply in the real world. With the nutrition tab/summary on my homepage and the Barebones Fitness Nutrition Plan article, I thought I had already done that. Most people seem to get the theories and concepts, but I’ve found that many people are still having a hard time using that information to implement an everyday, practical nutrition plan. Maybe you are just lazy — hey, that’s on you. But I realize that it also could be that I need to give you more clear, concrete, simple user-friendly tips to follow — that’s on me.
In addition to research studies, academic textbooks, and multiple certifications, I’ve also read a bunch of commercial diet books. One of my favorites is Body-For-Life by Bill Phillips. It’s not necessarily because of the actual nutrition advice (his plan is similar in structure, but I believe you can make better food choices), but I think the true value is the simplicity of his practical application strategies. He basically says combine a serving of this with a serving of that 5-6 times a day, and that’s it. Simple as shit.
You can check out the Body-For-Life book. He also has a free website where he goes over how to construct any meal or snack (just Google it). Since my nutrition advice is slightly different (and I’m not pushing nutritional supplements) I figured I’d give you my own version of that. I want to give credit where credit is due. I didn’t make this up. This is essentially his practical advice with my own personal food selection recommendations (and minus the EAS/Myoplex supplement marketing push).
*This assumes you are exercising at least 3 times a week. I recommend a completely different approach (lower carb, Paleo-style diets) for inactive, sedentary folks.
STEP 1: Select a serving of lean protein (about the size of a deck of cards) from the following choices:
Skinless chicken breast, Skinless turkey breast, Fish (any kind — salmon, halibut, cod, sole, tuna, etc.), Shellfish (any kind — shrimp, scallop, crab, etc.), Lean pork (loin, tenderloin), Lean red meat (top round, London broil, eye of round, sirloin, filet mignon), Lean buffalo (same as red meat cuts), 90% or leaner ground meats and poultry, Egg white/egg mixtures (6 egg whites, 1 whole egg with 5 whites, 2 whole eggs with 4 whites), various protein powders.
STEP 2: Combine your protein with a serving of a select few complex carbohydrates (about the size of a fist) from the following choices:
Potato (any kind — russet, red, yukon gold, etc.), Sweet potato (any kind — garner, jewel, japanese/oriental, etc.), Rice (any kind — brown, white, basmati, long grain, short grain, etc.), Plain rice cakes, Whole fruit (any kind — apple, orange, banana, berries, etc.)
STEP 3: Add plain raw or cooked vegetables to any or all meals (but at least two) in unlimited amounts.
Lettuce (any kind), Spinach, Broocoli, Cauliflower, Cucumber, Onions (any kind), Tomato, Green beans, Peppers, Cucumber, Carrots, Celery, You get the idea…
STEP 4: Since this plan is moderate in carbohydrates, limit dietary fat intake to that found as by-product of your protein sources in step 1 (the dietary fat found in fish, eggs, and lean meats). No added fats — not even “good fats” — from oils, sauces, nuts, and butters (read the rest of my articles before you bitch and moan about the benefits of healthy fats — I recommend different diets for different folks — sedentary vs. anaerobic athletes).
STEP 5: Add no/low calorie herbs, spices, and condiments to flavor as necessary:
Garlic, Onions, Salsa, Pico de gallo, Mustard, Wasabi, Sea salt, Paprika, Cumin, Oregano, Pepper, Cinnamon, Lemon, Lime, You get the idea…
STEP 6: Stick to the following beverages:
Water, Black coffee, Black tea, Green tea, Herbal tea. Artificial sweeteners are crap. Don’t load your body with a bunch of man-made chemicals.
STEP 7: To me, there is no difference between a meal and snack. So follow the above steps to construct a meal/snack 3-5 times a day.
STEP 8: As much as you can, cook your own foods, eat at home, pack your lunches, etc. so you are in direct control of what goes into your meals.
A good fitness-oriented meal like home-cooked lean chicken breast, rice, and steamed vegetables may not be such a good fitness meal in a restaurant. The way most restaurant foods are prepared these days it’s probably loaded up with fat and sugar from butter, oils, and sauces. There’s a reason it tastes so much better in a restaurant than at home.
TO SUM IT UP: Basically combine a serving of lean protein with a serving of complex carbohydrate at each meal and snack. Don’t add fats, get your essential fats as by-product of your protein sources. Cook most of your meals so you know exactly what is going into them, and are not at the mercy of gourmet chefs who liberally use sugar and oils.
If that doesn’t make sense, there may be no helping you (again with the tough love thing).
natemiyaki
Kalai Diamond
