I am going to try to make this as simple as possible in attempt to make everyone realize how simple it is to change your body.
First thing, let’s make a goal and stick to it. Want to lose weight? Easy. Gain muscle? Done. Let’s pick one and stick with it. While you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time, it can get a little trickier and it is a conversation for another post. Let’s begin. (Note: these are rough figures and every body is different, but I pretty much guarantee success if you follow this with about 95% of the population).
1.) Set Goal
2.) Figure out how many calories you need
3.) Plan for macronutrient intake
4.) Set up a training program (3 days a week working out is plenty)
5.) Be consistent and don’t deviate from the plan unless it’s in small, controlled increments
1.) What do you want to do with your body? If you want to lean out, let’s choose “Lose Weight.” If you want to build muscle, let’s choose “Build Muscle.”
2.) How many calories do you need? Let’s figure this out on a very basic level.
Maintenance calories = Your BW (Body weight in lbs) X 14-16 calories. Why 14-16, it depends a little bit on how “fast” you think your metabolism is. To think everyone runs on the same level of burn is naive and ignorant. If you feel you have a “slow” metabolism, go with 14, intermediate 15, fast 16. In rare cases I have gone down to 12, or up to 20. DONE.
To LOSE WEIGHT: I recommend taking your maintenance calories and subtracting anywhere from 500-1000 (1-2 lbs a week)calories from that and you have what you should be eating for the day. (Note: if exercising, make sure you add the extra calories you burned that day during your workout to your overall calories. ie if you’re maintenance calories are 2500, and you burned 500 working out and you want to lose 2 lbs a week, eat 2000 calories that day [2500+500-1000=2000]).
To BUILD MUSCLE: I recommend taking your maintenance calories and eating over them by 250 on workout days with plenty of carbs and protein, while keeping fat low for the workout days. On non workout days, eat at maintenance level, or slightly below while dropping the carbs. Why drop the carbs? Because you’re not working out, you don’t need all that “energy” for many different reasons, and protein will help rebuild muscle, not the carbs. Let’s say you’re maintenance is 2500 calories and you burned 500 during your super intense weight training session, you eat 3250 calories that day [2500+500+250=3250]. The reason I say only 250 calories above maintenance and drop on rest days is to minimize fat gain. If you’re building muscle without steroids, HGH or a pro-hormone, don’t expect to gain 20 lbs of pure muscle in a month, doesn’t work that way my drug free friends!
3). MACRONUTRIENTS: What the hell are these things? That’s Protein, Carbs and Fats.
ALL clients : Losing Weight / Gaining Muscle / Maintenance / EVERYONE
Quick Notes: Carbs = 4 calories / gram – Protein = 4 calories / gram – Fat = 9 Calories / gram
(I don’t rule out any foods at all. Eating healthy is UP TO YOU. To make you gain muscle / lose fat is MY job. Just make sure whatever you eat fits your calorie quota and your macronutrient quota for the day.)
Protein: I have all of my clients eating between 1-2g / lb. body weight, for males I recommend 1.5g / lb. BW or higher (up to 2).
WEIGHT LOSS
Fat: 0.40-0.50g / lb. body weight. I usually recommend the fat intake a little bit higher for weight loss since we are in a caloric deficit and want to subsist off of our own fat stores a little more. Going low carb does promote an environment for a little bit more fat loss.
Carbs: The remaining amount of calories.
Quick calculation on Susan who weighs 160 lbs who’s goal is to lose weight. She is weight training 3x per week, doing cardio 3x per week with one rest day. She is going to burn 500kcal per workout to keep things constant. Her goal is to get down to 140 pounds and wants to do it as soon as possible, so we are going to get her started with a 1000kcal deficit diet. She feels like her metabolism is normal, not overly high, but not dreadfully slow.
Start – Maintenance Calories: (bodyweight in pounds) X (maintenance calorie multiplier). 160X15=2,400kcals.
Next – Introduce calorie burn, and plan into the equation: She burns 500kcal during her workouts. She is also going on a -1000 calorie diet.
(maintenance calories + activity burn) – (desired weight loss, in this case 2lbs per week). 2400kcal + 500kcal – 1000kcal = 9000kcal.
Next – Figure out the Calorie Macronutrient Quota’s starting with Protein:
She is not necessarily worried about putting on lean tissue, we’re going to go with 1g/lb of BW for susan. So, Susan will eat 160g of protein, or 640kcal worth of proteins. BW X 1 = 160. 160g Protein x 4kcal / g Protein = 640kcal.
Next is fat. I want her fat intake a little higher than some one who is gaining weight as it will help with satiety, and lower her amount of carbs which will help us lean out a bit. I’m choosing to go with 0.50g / lb. BW, or 80g of Fat, 720kcal. 160lbs X 0.50g Fat = 80g. 80g Fat x 9 kcal/ g Fat = 720.
Lastly are those carbs everyone thinks “makes” them fat. Since we have essentials out of the way, carbs will “fill up” the rest of the intake. Remember, our calorie quota will be 2000kcal for Susan. She is eating 640kcal of Protein and 720kcal of fat for a total of 1360kcal. 2000kcal – 1360kcal = 540kcal. 540kcal / 4g /kcal of Carb = 135g of Carbs.
Her totals look like this: 1900kcal, 160g Protein, 135g Carbs, 80g of fat. What Susan eat’s will be up to her. If she wants my advice on what to eat, that’s a topic for another conversation. If you want to be my favorite client, please eat healthy, if you want to hit your goals, just hit your Calories and Macronutrient Quota. For rest days, I recommend taking out an additional 500kcal comprised mostly of carbs with a little bit of fat. Keep protein intake the same. We want to support growth and keep any lean tissue we have. I trust you can do the math for this.
Note: If she is prone to storing fat, or has been very over-weight, I would probably drop her fat intake slightly, and raise protein. Why? In a lot of my clients, I have felt like they have an easier time storing dietary fat as body fat in the presence of carbs. JUST AN OBSERVATION.
BUILD MUSCLE
Fat: This is going to be little different. Since we are in a caloric surplus of calories, and are having plenty of proteins and carbs, I’m going to drop this down lower than a weight loss client? Why, trust me. You want to put on lean tissue, let’s do that without adding additional fat to that frame you’re going to hate me for later. Let’s go with around .20g /BW. I do recommend having a lower carb rest day where fats are high. This will help with many different factors I will not discuss at this time!
Carbs: This is going to be the filler again. We figure out proteins first, fat second and carbs will fill up the remaining calories; let’s do a study case please!
John is a client with a freakish metabolism and a slender frame. At a soaking wet 150lbs, he tells me his addiction to mcDonalds has not helped him gain any muscle at all. John is working out 3x per week. Let’s get John some muscle, shall we?
Start – Maintenance Calories: (bodyweight in pounds) X (maintenance calorie multiplier). 150X16=2,400kcals.
Next – Introduce calorie burn, and plan into the equation: He is a maniac and burns 500kcal during his 45 minute workouts. He is also going on a +250 calorie surplus diet.
(maintenance calories + activity burn) + (desired weight gain, in this case 0.5lbs per week). 2500kcal + 400kcal +250kcal = 3150kcal
Next – Figure out the Calorie Macronutrient Quota’s starting with Protein:
John wants to pack on the lean tissue, so I am going to set him up with a protein intake where I feel there will be an adequate supply of amino acids to get him those muscles! We are going to go with 1.5g / lb BW. BW X 1.5, 150 X 1.5 g Protein / lb BW = 225g Protein. 225g Protein X 4kcal / g Protein = 900kcal.
Next is fat. As mentioned earlier, since we are in a surplus, we don’t want to store any spill over of fat as fat. So we’re going to keep this low at 0.20g / lb BW. 150 X 0.20 = 30g fat. 30g fat X 9kcal /g fat = 270kcal.
Lastly are them sweet, sweet carbs. Since this is the filler, let’s do the remaining math to figure out John’s carbs. 900kcal protein + 270kcal fat = 1,170kcal. 3,150kcal – 1,170kcal = 1,980kcal of Carbs. 1,980kcal / 4kcal / g Carbs = 495g of Carbs. Sound like a lot for a 150 pound guy? It is. This is also the reason John hasn’t been putting on weight. Is he a genetic freak of nature that can eat the candy isle out of business on not put on fat? Scientifically, no. Chances are John just gets full very easy and typically always under eats. Sorry John, you’re not a freak of nature, you just need to eat more.
His totals are going to look like this: 3,150kcals; 225g Protein, 495g Carbs, 30g Fat. As I said previously I would recommend on your rest days dropping the +400 calorie burn and taking them out in the form of carbs. You can also switch to a weight loss diet on your rest days with higher fat and lower carb if you want to lean out a bit while gaining some muscle tissue; again, that is a post for another day. Let’s keep things as simple as possible!
Note: If Mr. John still isn't gaining...we would look to two things. One, possibly upping his fats/carbs/calories, or two, look at his training program. If you're not on a program specific for hypertrophy, gaining weight, particularly muscle, is next to impossible unless you're on drugs.
4.) Let’s set up that workout plan. All of my clients do some form of weight training / resistance training / functional circuits with myself for their workouts. You want to do cardio? Sweet, but I don’t think it’s helping. Remember, eye on the prize and it’s the end goal. If your diet is in check, working out 3x per week WITHOUT cardio can get you the body of your dreams. You want “heart health” and you’re doing cardio at 55% of your max heart rate on an elliptical? That’s not making anyone’s heart healthy. When we’re doing weight training where you HR is getting up to 90%, talk about a heart workout! If you do something, do it for a purpose. Don’t mindlessly workout on a freaking stairmaster or treadmill to get your calorie burn up. Get in some solid training, solid nutrition, eat your quota’s and you’ll be set. That’s all there is to it. Don’t give me bullshit, and I’ll give you results.
I recommend a lot of basic, full body, compound movements with form very strict. Follow a 3 day split where you workout different body parts each day. Usually, I do a lower body, upper body push, upper body pull. But do what you want, remember, keep things fun and interesting! Log your workouts and use progressive weights while keeping form strict. If you’re benching 145 lbs 8 times, next time, go for 10, or go for 150lbs 8 times. Live for that next rep or the next 5-10 lbs. You’re not super-human, you can’t always slap on 20lbs to your bench week to week. Be smart, be progressive and be real.
5.) I have clients who always want to deviate from the plan. Don’t do it. Don’t waste my time, don’t waste your time, don’t waste time. Set your goal. Gain muscle, Lose Fat…whatever, and stick to it. Don’t bounce back and forth. If you’re losing weight, at 200 pounds and have an ultimate goal of 130, set your first goal at 180. Get there at all costs and don’t deviate. Once you get to that first goal, see how you feel, re-asses where you are and go from there. Particularly male clients piss me off with this. Figure out a goal and start going towards it as hard as you can.
Lastly, I’m going to leave you with some tips and thoughts to steer you clear of bullshit. Put down that fitness magazine, and pick up a weight and a calorie counting app.
1.) 1 meal a day or 8 meals a day. Doesn’t matter. Calorie Quota and Macronutrient Quota’s matter
2.) Fat loss is all about being in a calorie deficit in a 24 hour cycle, PERIOD. (Only matters when I'm dealing with very low body fat percentages, 3-5% for men 8-14% for women).
3.) Cardio doesn’t burn as much fat as you think, it only increases calorie burn.
4.) Weight training doesn’t make you huge unless you’re a genetic freak, on drugs or insanely dedicated, cheer up ladies! Heavy weight makes you sexy.
5.) Don’t stress about eating “healthy” unless you want to do it for the right reasons. I encourage everyone to eat healthy, but you can lose weight on beer, pizza, chips, twinkies and fried foods. Be accountable, COUNT YOUR SHIT!
6.) Don’t deviate. A Break is good every now and then, but that doesn’t mean stop training and go to McDonalds 8x per week.
7.) You’re training routine will NOT supersede your caloric intake. Running 5 miles a day doesn’t give you a right to eat whatever you want.
8.) Weight training builds muscle, burns fat.
9.) Figure out your goal, calories, macro’s and get started training right now!
10.) Count your SHIT! I can’t stress that enough. You want results? Let’s be accountable.
That’s it for now. I feel like this was a pretty long post, but hopefully you learned something from it. In a future post I will get into proper training programming for hitting concrete goals. Cheers!
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