The immediate postpartum time is one of the hardest and most confusing times in the life of a mom.  

There are so many different potential struggles, even with a healthy pregnancy and birth.  

You’re so tired, you’re adjusting to a larger family, possibly nursing or pumping, and your body doesn’t feel like your own.

Alongside that, you might be worried...

"What if I can't get back to the example of health and body confidence I want my kids to see as they grow up?"  

In today's blog, you'll learn the methods we use with postpartum clients to help you lose the fat, restore your hormones & metabolism, and feel more confident in your body than ever before.    

[*DISCLAIMER:  I’m going to focus on the moms who have had a vaginal birth and who have no postpartum depression or other physical or hormonal restrictions that are out of the scope of myself and this blog.  If those things apply to you, consult your doctor, and/or a professional who specializes in your specific case.]

1: USE A PHASIC DIETING APPROACH

The phasic dieting method is an essential part of what we focus on with all clients, but is especially important here.

In this case, the first few months should be focused on priming and building phases.  

Here, our goal is teaching you how to fuel your body to add metabolism boosting lean muscle, and giving your body all the nutrients it needs to restore your hormonal health, along with the calories you need to support your child if you’re breastfeeding. 

You’ll see increases in lean muscle definition and strength in this phase, and your overall body composition (how your body looks) improve, but it’s important to understand that the goal here isn't fat loss. We’re focusing on restoring your health and metabolism to set you up for a very successful fat loss phase later.

So as you've probably gathered, one mistake many moms make (myself included) is to jump into a diet again too quickly.  

You’ve just spent the last 9 (really 10, nobody talks about that!) months pregnant, possibly feeling sick, and not able to exercise and eat like you normally do.  

Your body hasn’t been your own and you’re ready to get back to “normal.”  

As I said, I did this too and I totally get it.  

The problem here is, a diet is the last thing you need for a while.  

You are expending a lot of energy to physically heal, and you are most likely also trying to produce breast milk. 

(The amount of calories you burn to breastfeed is dependent on your milk supply and other factors, but a general guideline usually given is that you need about 500 calories per day for milk - so learning to fuel your body properly is important here!)

When you restrict calories, you produce less milk, and that number goes down. This increased need for calories to produce milk has created the myth that breastfeeding will melt off the baby fat, which is not the case for everyone. 

Regardless if you’re nursing or bottle-feeding, you are still physically recovering from pregnancy and delivery, and you need the calories as a source of energy for recovery.  

We suggest clients take at least 3 months focusing on restoring your health, hormones, etc. in the primer and building phases before you attempt to lose fat. 

Your hormones won’t regulate for a while postpartum and dieting can prolong or exacerbate that.  

That said, understand that most moms can experience a pretty crazy body recomposition effect(building muscle & losing fat at the same time) at maintenance for quite a while... if they take the right approach to their training and nutrition.  

A great example of this comes from one of our current clients:

The thing to understand when looking at this before & after: she hasn't even started dieting yet.

This client started coaching a few months postpartum, and we've spent the last 3 months focusing on increasing her food intake (she's consistently eating over 300g of carbs), making sure that she's focused on fueling her in a manner that will shuttle more of what she takes in to lean muscle instead of fat, and getting stronger in the gym with a customized training protocol.

The result?

She's clearly much leaner and has built lots of strength & definition. Best of all, her health is in a very good place now - so when we start her fat loss phase in early January, her metabolism & hormones will be primed for efficient, healthy fat loss. 

2: SETTING YOUR MACROS FOR FAT LOSS POSTPARTUM

Generally, for the new moms we coach, we recommend pushing off a fat loss phase as long as possible, and focusing more on fueling your body, building muscle, and losing fat near maintenance. 

But when the time for a fat loss phase does come, I suggest starting with a 300 calorie deficit (a.k.a. eating 300 calories below your maintenance), and not going any lower than about 12 times bodyweight in calories.  

The longer postpartum you are, the safer it is to push lower than that... but also realize that everyone will be different, so this isn’t a hard and fast rule.  

If you are very overweight, you may be able to take this a little lower, but if there was ever a time for a small deficit and lots of patience, this is it. 

You need plenty of each macronutrient, so make sure your diet is balanced with a variety of protein, healthy fats, and carbs.  

→ STEP #1: Start the process of establishing macros by aiming for about .7-.8 grams per pound of bodyweight in protein. 

This is just slightly lower than I normally set for someone who is not postpartum, to leave room for more carbs and fat.  As you get further into postpartum you can shift the ratio of calories more toward protein.  

→ STEP #2: Next, set your fats. I suggest 0.4-0.5 grams per pound of body weight in fat. Skew toward the lower end if you have a lot of weight to lose, and to the higher end if not.  

→ STEP #3:  Fill the remaining calories with carbs.

3: FOOD SELECTION POSTPARTUM

Food quality and smart food selection is always important, but it is especially so early postpartum when you need to heal and are possibly passing along many of your nutrients in milk.   

A few guidelines we give our online clients in this situation:

→ A variety of colorful vegetables is essential for micronutrients and fiber.

→It’s a good idea to include red meat to replete iron stores lost during birth. Make sure to avoid having your iron with calcium or tea, as they can inhibit absorption.

→ A variety of healthy fats will ensure healthy breast milk, and help you absorb the nutrients you’re taking in.  Plenty of nuts, seeds, fish and fish oil, flax, avocado, and olive oil are good sources.

→ Lean meats like poultry, fish, lean beef, and eggs will help maintain breast milk supply and lean mass, and support recovery.

→ High fiber carbs will help with breast milk production, and supply energy for your body. 

It may be a good idea to set up a structure and little "goals" or "rules" for yourself in order to get the nutrients you need throughout the day. Something like...

1. For breakfast, I will have a smoothie that includes fruit, greens, and healthy fat, alongside eggs. -

2. For lunch, I will have a big salad with some colorful veggies on top with an olive oil dressing and a protein on top.  Carb of choice on the side. 

3. For dinner, I will make sure I include a lean protein and veggie in the family meal. 

4. Snacks will be fruit and protein. 

5. Each evening before bed I’ll take fish oil and a multivitamin. 

Guidelines like this leave flexibility for the exact ingredients in each meal but have enough structure to ensure you’re getting a variety of macro and micronutrients each day. 

4: HYDRATION POSTPARTUM

Another thing your body needs a lot of at this time is water.  

Most people under consume water anyway, so add nursing and healing on top of that and you need to place a big focus on hydration. 

1 oz per pound of body weight is a good start, and if you’re very light you may need more. 

Now, I get it... it’s hard to drink enough to keep up, so here are my tips (from personal experience) for staying hydrated: 

→ If the hospital gives you one of those big plastic cups with a straw, use it!  They usually give you one that has a pretty big capacity, and they have measurement markers on them, plus the straw makes it easy to drink more.  Keep it next to you especially while you nurse, and keep it full of ice water. 

→ Flavor your water with fruit and/or electrolyte packets.  There are a lot of hydration products on the market now that flavor your water without artificial sweeteners and add electrolytes.  They mix up the flavors so it encourages you to drink more and the electrolytes may help you retain a little more of it. 

→ Set micro-goals through the day, like “I will drink 20 oz before I have any food or coffee for the day”, or “I will drink 1 glass each time I nurse.”

5: CORE TRAINING POSTPARTUM

If you were active before having the baby, you’re probably eager to jump back into training postpartum.  

As tempting as it can be to go do anything and everything you feel up to, it’s important to give your body time to heal.  

Your core and pelvic floor have experienced months of trauma, and they need rehabilitation before diving back into your normal routine.   

So what can you do? 

You can start right away with breathing exercises to reconnect to your core and pelvic floor.  

Your transverse abdominis (pictured below) has had to stretch to allow room for the baby to grow, and it takes some time and practice to feel a connection to that muscle again postpartum.  

Your transverse abdominis (TVA) is a deep abdominal muscle that sits underneath the rectus abdominis, which are the “6-pack” muscles you normally think of when you think abs.  

The TVA’s job is to brace the core and also has a role in breathing.  If you hold your side, putting your fingers on your abs just inside your hip bone, when you blow your air all the way out you can feel your TVA tighten up. 

There are some beginning breathing exercises you can do to start to engage those muscles again, but which ones you do and how much you can overload will depend on the person.  

This goes for every core exercise you do postpartum - you need to pay attention to what works for you at the time and make sure you’re not seeing any doming or coning in your abdominals. 

(Doming or coning is what happens when your intra abdominal pressure exceeds your core strength.)

If you ever see this, you know you’re not ready for that exercise, or you need to see if you can properly engage your TVA and try again.

Now, let's dive into the actual movements you can incorporate postpartum:

→ Diaphragmatic Breathing - The first exercise you can try postpartum is diaphragmatic breathing.  This will help reconnect your breath and your core and helps your ribs, breath, core, and pelvic floor start to work together again.

→ Heel Slides: Another great early exercise is heel slides.  Heel slides are done on your back in a sit-up position.  

You start back taking a breath in, exhaling, and engaging your TA.  You can help your TA engage by pressing your lower back down into the floor, closing that space that your natural curvature in your back creates.  You then slowly slide one heel at a time out until your leg is extended, and then slowly slide it back in, back to the sit-up position. 

→ Heel Drop: As you get stronger, you can start to implement exercises to overload the TVA.  A good progression from the previous two exercises is a heel drop.  

In a heel drop, you start in a tabletop position with knees up in the air at 90 degrees.  You exhale to create the core tension just like in the heel slide exercise, but in this movement, you lower each heel, one side at a time to touch the floor, and then bring it back up.

→ Dead Bugs: Once you are strong at the previous movements, you can add the arms and do a dead bug exercise.  

The dead bug maintains a stable core while both arms and legs are extending.  You’ll lie on your back in tabletop position just like the heel drops, but with arms up.  Extend one arm and the opposite leg as far as you can while keeping ribs down and core engaged.

→ Bridges: One more exercise that is safe to do early on postpartum is a bridge.  Bridges will strengthen your pelvic floor, and strengthen glutes to help correct the anterior pelvic tilt caused by pregnancy.  To bridge just lay on your back with knees bent.  

Press through your heels and squeeze your glutes to lift your hips, making sure to keep your back neutral and not anteriorly tilted.  

All of these exercises will improve your TVA strength and encourage your pelvic floor, TVA, and breath to work synergistically. Strengthening your core and correcting the lower cross syndrome you’ve developed over pregnancy will prevent back pain.  

[*Note: Pelvic floor strengthening may take longer than you think it will.  If you experience any incontinence or heaviness in the pelvic region, you’re not ready to progress. Bladder incontinence is so common to the point it is joked about in most mom circles, but it is not normal.  If these exercises don’t prevent any urine leaking and it’s been more than 6 months, find a women’s health physical therapist.]

When you feel confident that your TVA and pelvic floor are reasonably strong, you can begin to add in other traditional core movements - a combination of rotation, anti-rotation, carrying, and flexion. 

For each of these movements, just be very aware of how your core is functioning, and make sure there is no doming/coning in your core.  

You also want to be aware of the pressure on your pelvic floor, and the space between your rectus abdominis. Some women can build back up to traditional exercises like sit up or crunches, planks, and woodchops fairly quickly without any issue.  

If you suspect you might need to check for diastasis recti, watch this video and follow the instructions: 

If you do have diastasis recti, or any pelvic floor issues not resolved by the breathing exercises, talk to a women’s health physical therapist.

6: STRENGTH TRAINING POSTPARTUM

Once you have worked on these basic breathing and core movements, and are cleared by your doctor to start incorporating exercise, be sure you’re still taking it slowly. 

I know for myself I was eager to get back into a training routine and pushed beyond what I should have which ultimately set me back. Slow is fast when it comes to postpartum training. 

The first thing to start with is walking. 

Walking is a great exercise to start with because it will help with circulation, bring your heart rate up gently, help you retrain your posture back to normal and away from the pregnancy posture. Plus you can take the baby with you! 

When you’re ready to incorporate some resistance training, it’s important to keep in mind your core strength, your pelvic floor strength, and your posture. 

To make sure you’re not overloading your core or pelvic floor strength, I like to start online clients out with mostly unilateral exercises. These allow overload for the muscles being targeted, but it can be done with a lower load, so it’s safer on the core and pelvic floor.  An example here would be a split squat instead of a barbell back squat:

Another exercise I like a lot for new moms is a goblet squat.  A goblet squat’s limiting factor will be upper back and core strength, not leg strength.  

Another area of focus should be upper back strength.   

While pregnant it’s common to develop upper and lower cross syndrome.  

Lower cross means the lower back is overextended, glutes and core are weakened, the lower back is tight, and the hip flexors are tight.  

Upper cross means the shoulders and chest are tight and shortened, the neck is forward, and the upper back is weak. 

Nursing or feeding a baby several times per day exacerbates this issue because you’re hunched forward while feeding. To combat this you will need to focus on upper back strength.  

Some of our favorite exercises for upper back strength are:

→ Upper Back Pulldowns:

→ Dumbbell Rows: 

→ Cable Rear Delt Rows:

And really, you can't go wrong with any rowing variation.

I can say from NOT doing these things leading up to and after the first pregnancy to then doing them the second time around, the difference in upper back pain from nursing was night and day. 

With all of these exercises and whatever training you choose, the most important thing is listening to your body, and not continuing to push through if anything feels “off”. Or even better, work with a coach to help guide you through the process, and tailor exercise selection to your unique needs. 

Keep in mind this is a time that you’re healing from hopefully the largest trauma your body will have to go through.  If you feel any looseness or weakness in your core, or any heaviness or weakness in your pelvic floor, back off of the intensity and consult your doctor or physical therapist.

→ Other experts to follow:

If you are interested in postpartum exercise, especially for the core, I recommend following a variety of experts on this topic.  

These are physical therapists and trainers who have dedicated their whole practice to helping postpartum women rehab and strengthen their core and pelvic floor the proper way.   

Here are some of the experts who I’ve personally learned a lot from and I recommend following: 

- Anthony Lo  

- Brianna Battles 

- Ashley from Getmomstrong

- Inemesit Graham  

- Munira Hudani  

- Dr. Sarah Duvall 

→ Work with a coach:

Our coaching service was created to help people like you (with your average genetics, limiting schedules & responsibilities, and distinct nutritional needs), achieve your absolute best body composition ever. 

We use individualized coaching to provide the proven nutrition & training methods, non-stop education, accountability, and authentic human connection you need to achieve the body you want (and guarantee you’ll know how to keep your results for a lifetime).

To learn more about what we do, click here now to apply for a free coaching strategy call with us.

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If you’ve paid attention to our social media, read our blogs, or are one of our online clients, you know we’re big fans of a high protein intake around here.   

Increasing the amount of protein you eat per day up to our recommended amount is the single biggest lever you can pull in transforming your physique.

That’s a pretty bold statement, but if you keep reading, I think you’ll see that I’m backing it up with plenty of supporting points and will agree.

MOST PEOPLE WAY UNDER-CONSUME PROTEIN

When most people think of someone with a high protein diet, they think of a big bodybuilding bro....

On the other hand, when women think of who they want to look like it’s often not the person they’re imagining makes sure they’re getting 4-6 servings of protein throughout the day.  

RDA AND AVERAGE AMERICAN DIET

The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is only 0.8g/kilogram of bodyweight (To find your weight in kilograms, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2) 

For a 150 pound person that means the RDA is 54g of protein per day. 

That’s insanely low, especially compared to our recommendations (more on those in a bit.) 

The average American eats around 100g of protein per day in the context of a calorie intake of over 3600 calories per day. 

The average body weight of Americans is 170 lbs (female) to 200 lbs (male), meaning we’re eating roughly 19.5x bodyweight in calories, and .5x bodyweight in grams of protein.  

Over 42% of Americans are obese, and 70% are overweight. Of those who aren’t overweight or obese, the Mayo clinic says only 2.7% lives a healthy lifestyle. 

If we are taking into account the average American diet or the RDA, I don't think this is the gauge we want to be basing our decisions on. 

WHY IS THE RDA SO LOW?

The RDA values are not to optimize your body composition, your performance, your bone health, or your resistance training recovery...they’re to keep you alive. That’s a pretty low bar.  

We want to be optimizing our diets and thriving, not just “not dying” from our protein intake. 

Our recommendation, based on research, is 0.8-1.2 grams per pound of bodyweight or goal body weight per day.  

That means a 150 pound person would bring their protein intake up to 120-180 grams per day.

That probably sounds pretty high, and if you haven’t been eating a protein-focused diet it will be a lot higher than your current intake.  

You may have heard that eating too much protein is bad for your kidneys, or that eating too much meat is bad for heart health.

There’s no evidence that eating a high protein diet has any negative side effects to anyone without a pre-existing kidney condition.  

Anyone with impaired kidney function should of-course listen to their doctor’s advice on protein intake. 

The issue of meat being a cause for cardiovascular disease is a bit more complicated. The meat is not necessarily the cause for issues so much as an abundance of saturated fat combined with a prolonged calorie surplus.  

To minimize saturated fats in your diet, keep things like butter, cured meats, cheese, sausages, and baked goods to a minimum and get most of your protein from non-fat dairy, lean meats, whey, and plant sources.

THE BENEFITS OF HIGH PROTEIN

Keeping your protein intake around 0.8-1.2 grams per pound of bodyweight has a ton of benefits regardless of the phase of dieting you’re in. 

1. A HIGHER PROTEIN DIET REDUCES HUNGER, APPETITE, AND CRAVINGS

This is one big reason why we place a big emphasis on keeping protein high throughout a fat loss phase. 

In this study obese women took their protein from 15% of total daily calories up to 30% of total daily calories, and ended up consuming 441 calories less per day without intentionally cutting anything.  

The researchers concluded this was from the decrease in ghrelin, a hunger hormone.  

The same was found in overweight men in this study, where study participants who ate a high protein diet had less cravings and less desire for late-night eating. 

2. HIGHER THERMIC EFFECT

Your burns about 25% of calories from protein through digestion which is called the thermic effect of food, or TEF.  

The TEF of carbohydrates is about 5-15%, and the TEF of fat is about 0-5%.  

It’s a small but still significant difference in calorie output, especially when you also consider all the other positive implications of taking protein up from say 55 grams per day to 150g per day.  

That would mean your calories burned from TEF would go up by about 95 calories per day. 

3. INCREASES MUSCLE MASS AND STRENGTH, AND HELPS YOU REPAIR AND RECOVER FROM RESISTANCE TRAINING

Skeletal muscle is made from the amino acids that make up dietary protein. Some protein you eat needs to be used for other tissues like organs, bones, skin, nails, etc. 

If you’re eating bare minimum (close to the RDA), the protein will get used for those things preferentially, which is part of why you’ll need to go above and beyond the minimum protein number in order to use some protein for muscle repair and growth. 

These reasons combined means that a high protein diet is good for improving body composition, allowing you to diet on more calories, grow more muscle mass, maintain a higher metabolic rate, and keep bones strong and stave off osteoporosis.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT MUSCLE MASS

You might read all that and think “yeah, but I don’t want to get muscular…” 

Even so, here’s why you should care about increasing the amount of muscle mass on your frame:

BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE 

First, more muscle often means more strength. We’re thinking about health, longevity, and quality of life, not just aesthetics.  

Being stronger means:  

-You can live independently to an older age 

-You can lift your own bag into the overhead bin 

-You will have less likelihood of falling, and if you do you’ll have less likelihood of breaking a bone. 

BETTER HEALTH

Muscle means more carbs without negative health outcomes.

Think of your muscles as a big storage vessel for carbohydrates. The more muscle you have, the more carbs can be stored without overflowing that vessel.  

That means more carbs get stored as glycogen to be used as energy rather than floating around as circulating blood glucose or being stored as body fat. 

“TONED” PHYSIQUE 

Muscle mass with a relatively low body fat percentage is what results in looking “toned.”  

Most of the time when someone says they’re too bulky it’s actually from having more body fat than they’d need for the look they want. 

The shape you want is a result of having muscle mass, and anyone you’ve looked at as “goals” has probably lifted hard for a few years.  

Also, it’s pretty easy to pare muscle down if you ever did end up with too much somehow. 

METABOLIC RATE 

More muscle means a higher metabolic rate. 

Each pound of muscle mass added means you’ll burn a few more calories per day, but the metabolic advantage goes a bit deeper than that.  

Training for adding muscle mass sends a muscle-building signal to your body that is metabolically expensive (burns a lot of calories.)  

You’ll end up with a more dense body, which is heavier than a body at the same size with less muscle, and a heavier body burns more calories at rest and during activity.  

You’ll burn more calories just going through life with more muscle, whereas someone who does only cardio for their exercise will burn more calories during the training session, but less throughout the rest of the day.

PROTEIN SOURCES AND TIMING

In order to get in a large amount of protein per day, you’ll need to have plenty of high-quality sources.   

High quality typically means the protein has a complete amino acid profile and plenty of leucine, which is the amino acid that is most responsible for spiking muscle protein synthesis.  

These will usually be things like meat, dairy, eggs, fish, and vegan sources like quorn, tofu, or seitan. 

Here’s a list of a few favorites: 

LEAN PROTEIN

→ Chicken Breast 

→ Lean Steak Cuts  

→ Fish 

→ Turkey Breast 

→ Ground Turkey 

→ Pork Tenderloin 

→ Low-Fat & Non-fat Dairy 

→ Egg Whites 

→ Protein Powder 

FATTY PROTEIN

→ Fatty fish 

→ Whole Eggs 

 

→ Fattier Steak Cuts 

 

→ Grass-Fed Beef

You’ll also want to decide on the best protein timing and spacing for you. Here’s a breakdown of how to decide that for yourself, from our blog post Building Muscle For Women

“Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is the process of repairing and building your muscle tissue and is triggered by a dose of amino acids in your protein, and notably leucine.  

This ties into an important concept called "the muscle full effect".

The muscle full effect is the observation that there is a period of time where amino acids spike MPS fully, then there is a necessary period of time where they fall back to baseline before you can maximally stimulate MPS again with another meal.   

Because of this you want to spread your protein intake into enough meals to get that MPS spike several times per day, but not spread your protein into such small meals that they don’t contain enough amino acids/leucine to maximize MPS in each.

Typically, 3-6 meals with 3-4 hours between meals will tick both of those boxes.    

Exactly what meal spacing you go with in the 3-6 range depends on your total protein amount per day. 

A large man eating 250 grams of protein per day is able to have more meals and still hit the leucine threshold... plus he may need to have more meals in order to feel good eating that amount of protein.   

250 grams of protein split between 6 meals (40-45 grams per meal) is a lot easier than eating the same amount in two large meals (125 grams of protein per meal).   

On the flip side if you are a smaller female weighing around 110 pounds and you split your protein into 6 meals that only gives you about 18 grams per meal, which isn’t enough to maximally stimulate MPS.  

We have found that for most clients with a wide range of protein intakes, between 4-5 meals per day seems to be a sweet spot that works well for protein spacing and lifestyle. 

Let’s take our example 150 pound woman eating 150 grams of protein per day. Eating 4 meals per day, she’ll need 35-40 grams of protein per meal.  

Another strategy you can use to get every last bit of benefit from your protein intake is to have a slow digesting protein source before bed.  

This study found that having a 40g dose of casein protein immediately before sleeping improved recovery from exercise and stimulated muscle protein synthesis.    

In order to take advantage of the spike of amino acids while you sleep, you’d want to have a slow digesting protein. 

The study participants used casein protein powder supplements, but there are other sources of casein that can work like Greek yogurt and cottage cheese.

We’ve seen a ton of women completely change their physique by following these guidelines and increasing their protein intake.  

If you want to know more about how to get a nutrition and training plan customized to you and your own goals and lifestyle, so that you can finally stop spinning your wheels and achieve the body (and confidence) you've always wanted - click here to schedule a free call with us. We know you are just as capable as all our other amazing clients of making an incredible transformation and we’d love to talk to you!

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A very common concern among online clients is being able to hit macros and meal prep when they have a family who doesn’t necessarily want to overhaul their own lifestyles. 

This is one of those things you can decide to use as an excuse and let it derail you, or you can decide you’re going to make it work regardless, and figure out a way to make that happen.

Fortunately, you don't have to figure it out on your own. Most of our clients are moms in this exact situation, so part of our job as coaches is to help guide you through exactly how to manage it.

Today's blog gives you the 6-step system we give our mom clients to hit their fat loss goals and tone up, while keeping their family happy without spending hours in the kitchen every day.

STEP 1: TALK IT THROUGH 

Our first big piece of advice to our online clients when trying to help them meal plan and consider their kids and spouse’s wants and needs is to have them talk it through with them (or at least your spouse...depending on the age of your kids they may not need to be involved.) 

So many people get it in their heads that they can’t change up the meals they’re making because of their family’s preferences.  

We also know, though, that so many clients come to us with really big “whys” regarding their reason for making this change.  

Sometimes it’s literally a matter of how long they will live if they make a change in their nutrition vs. not making a change. 

Other times it may not be that dire, but they have really important goals for their own personal comfort in their bodies, or body composition goals to push themselves to get to a place they've never taken their physique before.  

Regardless of why you want to make the change to your nutrition, if it’s important to you, it will be important to your spouse (they literally stood in front of a crowd of all your favorite people to say you are the most important person to them at your wedding.)  

If you address this issue head on and clearly state why and how you want to improve your health, they will understand its importance and do what they can to support you. 

The problem is that most people will say they can’t change their food because of their family without ever even checking in with their spouse or other family members.  

Talk it through first, and I bet they will want to support your goals and probably won’t be averse to getting healthier themselves either.

STEP 2: PLANNING AHEAD

Just like with most things related to getting healthier, hitting your macros, and changing your physique, planning meals around your family’s needs will take planning ahead. 

Every single online client we have starts out the process by pre-planning each day's meals into a food log before the day starts. 

That way you know:

→ What you need to eat to hit your dietary targets 

→ What groceries to have on hand 

→ Which foods or meals to bulk prep 

→ For sure you’ll hit your targets if you stick to those planned foods

If you need to have a particular dinner with your family, the first thing to do is log it in your food log.  

That way you can see before you ever eat anything that day what your other meals that day need to look like in order to hit your targets. 

Let’s say for example your targets for the day are 2000 calories and 150g of protein.  

Your family dinner on a particular day is chili.  

Your regular recipe per serving is 300 calories and 28g of protein, plus you typically add chips and cheese on top, which adds 270 calories and 9g of protein. 

You’d start out by adding that into your food log first, before entering the rest of your day’s food.

Once you’ve done that you can see that the rest of your day’s meals should fit within your remaining macros, which would be 1430 calories and 113g protein. 

Now let’s say you are in a larger deficit and your targets are 1500 calories and 150g of protein.  

In that case you may not want to “spend” 570 calories on this meal.  

In that case you could minimize the calories by taking out most of the chips and cheese (let’s say you’re having ⅓ of the serving of each of those things) which would reduce the meal by 180 calories, making it 390 calories for a cup of chili, 1/3 oz of chips (about 10), and 1 ¼ TBL of cheese.   

This way you’re still having the same meal with your family, but you’re able to put everything into your food log so you can adjust the rest of the day and adjust the proportions of the things in your meal to fit your goals without altering your family’s meal at all.

STEP 3: BUILD-YOUR-OWN MEALS

Build-your-own meals are great for macro tracking parents because:

→ You can customize the meal to fit your macros without needing a separate dinner

→ Kids typically love it because they can build their own plate

Examples of meals like this could be tacos, personal pizzas with some low-fat options on a Joseph’s pita or flatbread, pasta with separated ingredients, or a main protein with sides. 

This is the way our online clients  and their family eats a lot of the time. 

If their family is having taco bowls for example, they fix their kids and husband bowls with rice and beans, and make their own with cauliflower rice.  

On theirs they might add some cheese or other toppings where you might leave that off.  

You can also add in the specific amount of meat you need in order to get your protein requirement. 

Flexible dieting should make things easier for you than having to stick to a meal plan, not harder.  

Try to also have a flexible mindset.  

Maybe you have to use an extra dish in order to make your meal slightly different, or make two different batches of something.  Maybe you end up passing on the dessert or have some fruit instead. Maybe you get a bit creative and make some meals with more veggies and less added carbs and/or fats.  

These things might take a bit more time, but that may be part of the cost of getting in the right amount of calories for your body and getting in the micronutrients you need without missing out on the family dinner.

STEP 4: TRACKING RECIPES

If you find a recipe you like to fix for your family, there is a function within most food tracking apps to create a recipe.

Basically, you log all your ingredients in the amount for the full recipe, then set the “servings” as the number of grams of the entire batch.  

That way, when you weigh out your portion, you can see how many grams your portion is and enter it as that many servings.

For example if you make spaghetti squash pizza casserole and weigh out a 300g serving for yourself, you’d enter 300 servings into your tracker to get exact macros on that amount. 

Here's a video that explains exactly how to do this in MyFitnessPal:

STEP 5: AVOID KIDS' SNACKS

Kids’ snacks (or leftovers from their plates) can add up to hundreds of extra calories per day above and beyond your own meal without adding to the satiety you feel from your food or really adding any satisfaction.

Something some parents struggle with in this area is being a good example for their kids while also showing them a good relationship with food and with their body image. 

Some worry that weighing and measuring food or attempting to change their body composition will show kids a bad example or cause eating issues.  This is a fair concern, and I’m not an expert in psychology in kids or adults but I have some thoughts on the subject that could be helpful. 

The language that’s used is a huge variable.  

If your child asks why you’re measuring out food, and you answer one of two ways: 

1. I can’t eat too much, I need to lose some weight. 

2. I need to make sure I eat enough of the right foods to get big and strong. 

Those have two totally different connotations and effects on the way your child will think about food and their body.  

Being sure to avoid framing things as needing to restrict, or not eating too much, or saying food is good or bad will create a much more positive view on food. 

The issue of measuring things is another common question.  

We teach our online clients to not view using the food scale to weigh meals any different than using a measuring cup to measure out flour for muffins.  

It’s just a tool. 

If you don’t make it weird, your kids don’t see it as weird. 

You can choose to show your kids a healthy way to eat while still including some ‘treat foods’ here and there and use it as an opportunity to teach kids what a healthy diet looks like.   

“We eat meat/protein foods to get big and strong!” 

“We eat these vegetables to make sure we feel great and stay healthy!” 

“We eat these carbs to give us lots of energy for sports/recess!” 

We are constantly telling our kids “food affects the way you feel.” 

Our job is to make sure they eat the necessities most of the time, and help them notice when they feel good what foods they’ve eaten, and when they feel bad what foods they’ve eaten, and let them draw their own conclusions from that information. 

We know this can be a pretty complicated process when you have to worry about more than just yourself.  

Click here now to apply to work with our team, and learn more about the coaching method our team uses to help moms like you drop that 20-30 lbs you’ve been struggling with and tone up, without giving up your favorite foods or living in the gym.

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If you've never been able to KEEP the body you want for more than a few months (you always regain most of the weight)... you’re not alone. 

In fact, a majority of people who lose weight will regain it.

Here's the problem...

Creating sustainable results requires you first learning nutrition methods you can actually sustain.

And really, most of us can't (and don't want to) spend the rest of their lives... 

- Not eating carbs.

- Saying "No" to date nights with our significant others.

- Only eating "paleo" foods

...the list goes on, but you get the idea. 

If you find yourself yo-yoing between being lean and "on a diet", and enjoying foods but disliking what you see in the mirror... you need to find a diet that fits your lifestyle, because that's the only way to get sustainable results. 

This is exactly why flexible dieting is such a powerful nutrition philosophy we use with many of our online clients. 

It allows endless room for customization, and working any foods you desire into your nutrition plan... without hurting your results.

This makes all the difference for your adherence and consistency. which in turn creates life-changing, truly sustainable results.

You want a nutrition strategy that keeps your training performance in the gym high, keeps your physique looking lean and athletic, and is actually sustainable so that you can stay this way long-term. 

We’ve worked with hundreds of clients just like you. And in our opinion as coaches, there are 3 pillars that your nutrition strategy must be built upon: 

→ PILLAR #1: Your nutrition needs to provide adequate macro & micronutrients to optimally fuel your training, the raw materials needed for optimal hormone production & muscle growth, and everything you need to stay healthy long-term. 

This is the piece of nutrition overlooked by the If It Fits Your Macros crowd. 

Your nutrition is more than just hitting macros… the composition of said macros determines your performance, your recovery, your health, and much more. 

→ PILLAR #2: Your nutrition needs to allow some flexibility so you can live your life without feeling like a social outcast. You should be able to enjoy some drinks, date nights, etc., and know how to make those work with you nutrition, rather than ruining your results. 

This is an incredibly common struggle we coach new online clients through. 

We attract many hard charging individuals who feel like they’re “letting themselves down” if they’re not “eating clean” 24/7… but I’d argue that structured flexibility like we teach our online clients is essential to staying to actually keeping your physique lean and health, as it makes you nutrition so damn sustainable. 

→ PILLAR #3: Your nutrition must have a clear structure. 

Another very common mistake the clients we tend to attract are making is this… they’re already eating in a “clean” or “health-conscious manner”, but have no clear macro parameters aligned with their specific goals, no target rate of loss to make adjustments around, no customized intake of carbs/proteins/fats to tweak if performance & recovery aren’t ideal… you get the idea. 

Specific results require a specific plan. 

Clear diet parameters need to be in place to give you structure, and create a simple, long- term plan for you to follow even after we’re done working together. 

So, if you’re ready to learn how to achieve the best of both worlds… the physique you’ve always wanted and a flexible nutritional lifestyle you can fit to any situation, let’s dive in.

Your diet structure is the method you'll use to measure and control your calorie intake. 

95% of the clients we work with online track macros, for two reasons:

1. The individuals we work with want ABOVE AVERAGE results. The more specific the results you desire are, the more specific we need to be able to get with your nutrition. 

2. Tracking macros allows a much larger degree of flexibility than a meal plan or portion-based diet, more opportunities for education, AND the quickest results for most. 

Tracking macros used to be branded as “overly-restrictive”, but really it’s quite the opposite for most of our clients… 

Tracking macros gives you tons of freedoms. 

- Freedom from the pain of never feeling confident in your body. If you’re not following a structured nutrition strategy, creating the lean, strong body you want will be very hard. 

- Freedom from guilt associated with eating certain foods. Through tracking macros, I can teach you how to make foods you used to consider "bad" work in your diet. Once you realize you can stay lean and drink wine, guilt is replaced with happiness and more flexibility in social situations. 

- Freedom from worrying that you overate or under-ate. Tracking your macros allows you to make up for overdoing it, with no harm done to your progress (we'll talk about specific methods for this later).

It’s as a mere ~5 minutes out of your day you’ll spend tracking macros, to create exponentially more freedom in the rest of your life.

The first step in achieving the physique & lifestyle you want is setting the proper macros.

Regardless of if you want to... 

a.) Get leaner 

b.) Maintain your current body composition 

c.) Build muscle while staying lean 

...you have to have your macros set up properly to achieve the results you want. So don’t skip this step.

STEPS:

Step #1: First, you’ll need to know your maintenance calorie intake (a.k.a. the intake you maintain your current body composition at.) 

You have a few options here: 

a.) Use this calculator. 

b.) Multiply your bodyweight by 13-17. (13 would be a sedentary office worker, 17 would be an extremely active construction worker.) 

c.) Start tracking everything you eat in MyFitnessPal. Take your weight first thing every morning. Adjust your calorie intake up or down as necessary until your weight stays stable for 5-7 days. (This is the most accurate method, but also takes the longest.) 

Regardless of which method you used, you should now have a number that is roughly you maintenance calorie intake. 

Step #2: Now you need to establish your starting calorie goal, depending on your body composition goal. 

→ If you're the rare person who wants to stay exactly the same - Just chill here at your estimated maintenance. 

→ For Fat Loss - Multiply maintenance intake X .85.

[*EXAMPLE: Gerald, a 200 lb man, has a maintenance intake of 2,800 calories per day.

To determine starting cutting calories, multiplies his maintenance intake by .85. 

2,800 X .85 = 2,380. Gerald's fat loss intake is 2,380 calories per day. 

 Generally, creating a calorie deficit of ~3,500 calories will lead to ~1lb fat loss. So eating 500 calories below your maintenance calorie intake every day for 7 days, should lead to about a pound of fat loss. (500 x 7 = 3,500) 

Keep in mind, this is just a baseline. You will likely have to adjust this in the near future. Your fat loss won't happen linearly on this intake.]

→ For Building Muscle - Multiply maintenance intake X 1.1-1.15 to build muscle while staying relatively lean. 

[*EXAMPLE: Gerald, a 200 lb man, has a maintenance intake of 2,800 calories per day. 

To determine building calories, he multiplies maintenance intake by 1.1 2,800 X 1.1 = 3,080

Gerald's lean gaining intake is 3,080 calories per day. ]

Step #3: Determine your macros. 

All the foods you eat are made up of some combination of the following macronutrients (macros): 

- Protein: 1 gram of protein contains ~4 calories  

- Carbohydrates: 1 gram of carbohydrate contains ~4 calories 

- Fat: 1 gram of fat contains ~9 calories 

So when we talk about "tracking your macros", these are what you'll be tracking. 

→ Protein: Set between 1 - 1.2g per lb of body weight (multiply body weight x1-1.2).

[*EXAMPLE:  200 lb Gerald needs 200 grams of protein. 

200 X 1 = 200.

800 of Gerald's 2,380 kcal/day will come from protein. (Remember, protein contains 4 calories per gram.) 

200 X 4 = 800 kcal

Protein intake will be relatively high, at 1 gram/lb of body weight, daily.]

The cool thing about protein is it’s much less likely to be stored as fat.

To illustrate this point, This 2015 study took 48 randomized, resistance-trained men and women and had them either: 

a.) Consume a minimum of 1.36g/lb of protein daily. 

b.) Maintain current dietary habits for eight weeks while undergoing a standardized resistance training program designed to increase lean body mass. 

From the study: "Compared to the control group, the high-protein group consumed significantly more calories (+ 490 kcal)and protein (3.4 vs. 2.3 g/kg) from primarily whey protein shakes, leading to a diet that was 39% protein, 27% fat, and 34% carbohydrate. Both groups significantly increased FFM (muscle mass) and significantly reduced FM (body fat) compared to baseline, but the reduction in FM (body fat) was significantly greater in the high-protein group compared to the control group (−1.6 vs. −0.3 kg). Accordingly, body weight gain was also significantly less in the high-protein group compared to the control group."  

The high-protein group ate ~490 calories more than the lower protein group, and lost more fat. 

Protein also has the highest thermic effect (TEF) of all the macros... meaning that you actually burn more calories digesting protein than you do the other macros.     

- Protein: 20-30% of calories consumed are burned via TEF  

- Carbs: 5-15% of calories consumed are burned via TEF  

- Fat: 0-5% of calories consumed are burned via TEF 

When you eat more protein, you're actually increasing the calories out side of the energy balance equation, since you're burning more calories via TEF. 

Finally, lean protein is the most satiating food. Protein fills you up more than any other food. 

Focusing on eating lots of high-satiety foods makes getting and staying lean much easier. 

 All of this is exactly why we’re setting your protein intake first - it’s just too important to ignore.

→ Fat - Set at .3-.4 grams/lb of body weight. 

[*EXAMPLE:  Back to Gerald, weighing in at 200 lbs. 

200 x .3 = 60.     Gerald will be eating 60 grams of fat daily. 

To determine how many calories this is, multiply by 9. (Remember, fat contains 9 calories per gram.) 

60 x 9 = 540.  Gerald will be eating 540 calories from fat daily.]

Fat is essential. You need a certain amount of fat to maintain proper hormonal function, and prevent fatty-acid deficiencies. 

Most need a bare minimum of .3g/lb for health and optimal hormone production - so consider this the “floor” you don’t want to take fats below. 

Really, you can take fats as high as you want from here… BUT, realize that there aren’t many additional benefits to eating more fat past the .3-.4g/lb mark, but additional fat will mean you have less room for carbs in your diet (which do yield many more benefits for your training, and buildng the body composition you want).  

So for most of our online clients, fat intake will fall somewhere .3g/lb-.5g/lb. 

 → Carbs - Now that you have your protein and fat intake determined, simply fill your remaining macros with carbs. 

[*EXAMPLE: Gerald has a goal intake of 2,380 calories per day. 

Subtract the 800 kcal coming from protein. 

2,380 - 800 = 1,580 calories.  Subtract the 540 calories coming from fat.

1,580 - 540 = 1,040 calories.  Gerald has 1,040 calories remaining to fill with carbs. 

To determine how many grams of carbs to eat, divide by 4. (Remember, carbs

contain 4 kcal per gram.) 

1,040 / 4 = 260

Gerald will be eating 260 grams of carbs per day.]

Counter to popular belief, carbs should not be avoided. 

High-fiber carbs (most carbs from whole foods) are the second most filling food next to lean protein, and aid tremendously in recovery. 

Now, as a reader of this blog, you likely have a LOT in common with our badass women & men we coach online - just like them, you don’t just want to be lean - you also want to build muscle and be able to perform in the gym. 

This is exactly why adequate carb intake is so important. The reality is, the majority of the training that individuals like you & our online clients do is fueled by carbs.

To understand why under-eating carbs is a problem, you need to gain a quick understanding of your energy systems...

So, if you look closely at the energy system that creates energy for the majority of intense activity from ~15-60 seconds (the anaerobic-lactic system), you'll see that it's fueled by carbs. 

If your goal is to build your leanest, strongest body composition, a good amount of your training will be fueled by this energy system. 

A lower carb approach means that this energy system will essentially be "short on fuel" - you ability to train intensely will suffer. As a result, you'll continue to struggle achieving the levels of performance & adding the lean muscle needed for the physique you want. 

This is a common mistake made by both women and men, and is exactly why most of our online clients undergoing the body recomposition process are typically following a higher carb approach.

So now that you have your macros set, if your body isn't changing, we know an adjustment to your intake is needed.  

But, if your macros are all over the place, it's impossible to know how many calories we need to decrease your intake by to resume progress.. If you're consistently several hundred calories off-target, we don’t have an accurate baseline to adjust from.  

This applies to under-eating calories, as well as overeating. 

This is why it’s crucial to be at or near your macro goal daily. No diet adjustment will make up for a lack of compliance. 

We typically give online clients macro ranges of +/- 100 calories / 20g Protein / 20g Carbs / 10g Fat to aim for. 

On a similar note, ensuring that you're tracking food in your food log accurately is also very important. 

When a nutrition client's progress stalls, the first thing we do is ensure they're tracking accurately. This usually results in weight loss resuming.

Again, we want you to be WELL-FUELED & eating as many calories as possible while moving towards your end result… slashing calories without good reason doesn’t help either of these causes. 

You can actually read about the whole system we use to determine if we really need to drop your macros here.

Now, tracking accurately does require measuring most of your foods - at least for awhile. I know it’s a pain in the ass... but not as much as “mostly” tracking for years and never getting results, right?

TOOLS TO HELP TRACK ACCURATELY:

→ A food scale 

→ A set of measuring cups 

→ A set teaspoons and tablespoons 

THE MOST COMMON "TRACKING MISTAKES":

→ Untracked cooking oils: Even if you don’t apply it directly to your food, but rather line the pan with it, it still gets absorbed. This can add up to hundreds of un-tracked calories. 

→ Dressings, toppings, and condiments: The two biggest culprits here are salad dressings and condiments like BBQ sauce. Both are sneaky high in calories, and all too easy to forget to track. 

→ Estimating instead of measuring: We're typically pretty terrible at estimating our food intake accurately. 

GUIDELINES: 

→ Don’t track using metrics like: small/medium/large. One medium banana. One large avocado. 1⁄2 bowl of rice. 1 steak. This leaves a lot of room for error. 

→  Weight measurements (in grams) are by far the most accurate: Weigh as much as possible with a food scale. Measure the rest with cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons.  

→ Weigh your meats raw (but thawed) and track them as such. 

As you’re pretty clear on by this point, your nutrition needs to both fuel your body optimally AND allow you dietary flexibility to enjoy your life outside of your body composition pursuits. 

Admittedly, this is a tall order, BUT 100% doable if you’re willing to embrace the philosophies we teach our online clients. It’s part of what we do so much differently around here, that not only allows you to reach your goal physique for the first time ever… but actually KEEP your results for a lifetime. 

In a nutshell, we could describe our philosophy on food selection as… 

80-90% Whole Foods / 10-20% If It Fits Your Macros. 

Let’s dive into each component of this, and why this specific balance is so key to your results:

→ 80-90% Whole Foods 

The reality of the society we live in is, it’s way too easy to overeat.

There's a reason you don't see thousands of people walking around with lean, strong bodies every day.  

Most of the highly-processed food around us is designed to be hyper- palatable… meaning it's literally engineered by a team of scientists in a lab to make us crave more. 

Pair this with the fact that most highly-processed foods are also very calorie-dense and low on nutrients, and you have a combination that makes stay lean quite a challenge… as you've likely experienced. 

This is why it's smart to follow a whole foods approach with 80-90% of your nutrition. In the simplest terms, 80-90% of your food should have either: 

a.) Grown from the earth 

b.) Had a face at one point 

Basically, you're eating mostly foods that a caveman would have eaten in the Paleolithic Era (with a few exceptions like white rice, oats, dairy).

These paleo-ish foods are packed with nutrients that will make your body feel amazing, and aid your training performance and recovery.  

Specific to fat loss, they’ll also keep you full much longer than their highly-processed counterparts. 

Really, people make getting and staying lean a lot harder than needed by eating foods that digest extremely quickly, and leave you hungry again in 30 minutes. 

One of the most underrated fat loss hacks is simply learning how to build you meals around lean protein & high-volume foods.  

With our online clients, we call this “teaching you how to auto-regulate your appetite”, and it's a major emphasis of our first few weeks working together.

THE SIX KEYS TO PUTTING YOUR APPETITE ON AUTO-REGULATE WITH SMART FOOD SELECTION:

KEY #1: Auto-regulating your appetite makes getting (and staying) lean much easier.

It essentially comes down to prioritizing the two most satiating foods: 

1. Lean proteins  

2. Fiber-dense carbs 

These are the cornerstones to build your meals around to achieve maximum fullness while keeping calories relatively low. 

No matter the situation, these are always your two key components you’re chasing. 

So when cooking for yourself/choosing your own food, it basically comes down to ensuring you have: 

- A lean protein source 

- A fruit or veggie 

From here, you’ll add more carb-dense or more fat-dense foods depending on your macro needs, but this ensures you get a solid amount of fullness from every meal, and makes it much less likely you’ll overeat.

  

On the flipside, when you’re not the one cooking... simply identify the most protein-dense & fiber-dense food available, and eat a lot of that, while keeping the portion-sizes of the foods you know aren't protein-dense smaller (e.g. if you're having brisket, maybe have 1 bun, but enough meat for 2-3 sandwiches, and limit the sides). 

Similar to the above, if fruit and/or veggies are available, go hard on these as well. 

  

If you stick to this strategy, it's pretty hard to overdo the calories too much.

KEY #2: Don't drink your calories. 

Liquids will digest much quicker, meaning you’re hungry again sooner.

If you’re using milk as a protein source while dieting, swap it for cottage cheese or greek yogurt. 

Use mostly whole food protein sources instead of protein powder. Absolutely nothing wrong with protein powder, and it does make hitting your protein goal much easier... but it also digests quickly, and doesn’t do near as much to keep you full. 50g of whole-food protein (e.g. 8oz chicken) is much more filling than two scoops of protein powder. 

KEY #3: Eat protein at every meal. 

You know that protein is the most satiating food, so it makes sense to make it a priority to help control calories.

It’s been shown that the “satiating dose” (a.k.a. The # of grams you need to get to maximize the filling effects of protein), is ~20g. 

So be sure to tick this box with your meals & snacks to keep hunger low.

To the same point, it’s MUCH smarter to spread your protein out relatively evenly across the day, rather than front-loading or backloading it. This ensures you get the “satiating dose” with each meal, instead of just a few.

KEY #4: Try to avoid foods that are high in multiple macronutrients.

Example: you could eat... 

6oz ribeye for 493 calories (36 pro/39 fat) 

 - OR - 

8oz sirloin (51 pro/9 fat) + 1 large avocado (10 carb/24 fat) for the same amount of calories, but more protein. 

Generally avoiding foods high in multiple macros will make eating lots of food volume on your diet much easier. 

KEY #5: Find lower calorie versions of oils, dressings, and condiments.

- I'd largely recommend swapping olive oil for calorie-free cooking spray.

- Find a lower-calorie BBQ sauce or use steak sauce. 

- Swap high-calorie salad dressing for a fat-free vinaigrette. 

Often a few easy swaps here (that you won’t even notice) can give online clients hundreds of extra calories to work with in a day. 

KEY #6: Meal Prep for your weekdays.  

Being prepped ahead nearly guarantees you'll never "not have the right food available" or "run out of time" to eat in accordance with smart nutrition principles most of the time. 

All of our online clients that get the best fat loss results meal prep ahead. I can't emphasize enough what a difference maker this is. For more on meal prep, I highly recommend you check out The Meal Prep Guide.  

But remember, eating like this 80-90% of the time is great for your physique and your health... but it doesn't have to be 100% of the time.

→ 10-20% If It Fits Your Macros 

As long as you're eating mostly whole foods, you won't have a problem with insane cravings or constant overeating. Your fat loss will come easier because you’re full more often, and you'll crush your training in the gym. 

This means you can use an If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) approach the other 10-20% of your diet, without hurting your results, or your health.

10-20% IIFYM means that you can use these calories and macros to eat and drink whatever you want. Wine, pizza, chips and queso... seriously, whatever. 

As long as you still make these foods work in your calorie and macro goals, your results and health won't be affected. 

See, getting and staying lean doesn't come down to "eating clean foods" - but rather to calories-in - calories out. 

→ If Calories In > Calories Out, you’ll gain weight 

→ If Calories In = Calories Out, you’ll maintain weight 

→ If Calories In < Calories Out, you’ll lose weight. 

Now, am I saying that calories are the only thing that matter? Not at all. As you can see below, it’s much more complex than that. This is exactly why we have clients track macros, and not just overall calories:

But the point is, calories are the overruling principle that we can’t ignore. And we can often manipulate this understanding in our favor. 

So as long as you're smart with your food choices 80-90% of the time, you can work less nutritious foods into your macros 10-20% of the time without hurting your health or results. 

This approach means it’s ok to go on a date night with your significant other, and not feel like you wrecked your progress for the week. 

It’s ok to have some drinks and be social on the weekends.There aren’t any foods that you have to give up, as long as you make them work within the flexible dieting framework.

Now that you understand the basic premise of what to eat, let's break down the tools we give our clients to create a flexible, sustainable lifestyle.

Before we dive in, it’s important to remember… you’re getting flexible 10-20% of the time, not 60-80% of the time. 

If you’re hitting your macros entirely from Pop-Tarts and protein shakes, you won’t feel or perform the way you want to. 

But again, there are a lot of flexible dieting tools you can use to make sustaining your results much easier. We focus heavily on educating clients how to use these tools, and it’s a massive part of why our clients get such great, sustainable results. 

[Also, realize that you don’t have to use any of these tools, but they’re pretty handy when you’re ready to get “more flexible”.] 

 → Flex Days - 1-2x/week I like to give nutrition clients the option of taking flex days - these give you more freedom to eat or drink what you want. 

The concept of a flex day is simple - you’re going to make sure you’re at your daily calorie goal and protein goal. We need these two factors in check to create fat loss. 

From here, you’re free to let carbs and fats fall where they may within your calorie total. 

→ Intermittent Fasting - Intermittent fasting isn't fat loss magic. It is however a great way to save up some calories to "spend" later in the day.  

On days you know you'll be going out or eating a high-calorie meal later in the day, offset this a bit by fasting until noon-2pmish.

Black coffee and other zero-calorie drinks are perfectly fine. But outside of that, avoid calories. 

A lot of our online nutrition clients always fast on Saturdays to allow for more flexibility in the evenings. 

→ The Pre-Drinking Meal - Years ago, I was frustrated trying to figure out why I personally couldn't seem to balance fat loss and drinking alcohol.

Then I had an epiphany, of sorts...

Drinking itself doesn't really affect fat loss that much. 

Even if a large chunk of your calories are alcohol, as long as you're in a calorie deficit, you'll still lose fat. 

Obviously alcohol is void of the nutrients you need for satiety, muscle growth, etc., so I'm not suggesting that you make it the majority of your calories.  

But the point is, it's not alcohol itself that kills your fat loss.

It's drunk-eating thousands of calories after the fact that truly kills your progress. 

I realized this problem was really being exasperated by starting drinking on an empty (and hungry) stomach in an attempt to "save up" calories for booze. 

While a good idea in theory... if you start drinking on an empty stomach, you'll be absolutely famished by the end of the night. Not to mention, willpower also drops as you drink. 

This combination almost inevitably leads to drunk eating.

The strategy I came up with to prevent this?  

Drink on a full stomach with "the pre-drinking meal". 

You know that lean protein is the macro that keeps you full, longest, and fibrous carbs are the second most filling. 

So, "the pre-drinking meal" is simply a combination of these two elements (25g+ lean protein / 25g+ fibrous carbs), while keeping fats low to “save calories”. 

Personally, I usually go with lean ground beef made into sloppy joe meat on a sweet potato. Many clients like a big spinach & chicken salad.

This keeps you full through most of the night. 

This strategy helped me better manage drinking tremendously, I’ve seen the same ring true for clients since. 

I always tell clients: “Even if eating this meal before going out pushes you over your calories for the day, I still always push clients to implement it. Think of it as damage control. You're much less likely to drunk eat with this strategy.”  

→ Low-calorie drinks - You can easily drink thousands of calories without realizing it. 

The easiest fix? Get liquor with diet soda or water. By switching to diet soda, you're saving yourself ~100 calories per drink. 

A beer is also only ~100 calories, but you can drink A LOT more beer... so I'd stick with liquor when feasible (not recommended for day-long drinking events).  

Great options: 

- Vodka water 

- Vodka soda 

- Whiskey or rum & diet 

- Soda or water & tequila 

→ Macro Splits - Your nutrition strategy has to fit your lifestyle in order to achieve sustainable results. 

One of the most common struggles new online clients complain of on our initial strategy call? 

“I feel like I can’t enjoy a date night with my significant other, or a few glasses of wine on Friday night without going far over my calorie goal!”

Sound familiar?  

For clients with struggles like this, customizing your macro split is KEY to helping you adhere in the long-term. 

See, if we know our clients will be very compliant to the macros goals we give them during the week, but are likely to splurge during the weekends... why not give them macros that increase on the weekends and are lower during the week? 

A few different options here: 

Option #1: The 11/3 Macro Split

Basically, on the 11/3 split you’re in a calorie deficit for 11 days. This is enough time to create a solid amount of fat loss.

This is followed by 3 days where you return your calories to maintenance levels, with the calorie increase ideally coming from carbs. 

From the super important “doing some shit you can actually stick to” perspective - this gives you more calories to get more flexible with every other weekend. 

Personally, I DON’T like this approach for clients in a shorter fat loss phase (e.g. a client that needs <12 weeks to finish the diet). Over the course of 12 weeks, the client will have spent 18 days at maintenance - NOT losing fat, and will likely add 2-3 extra weeks in a deficit. 

In situations like this, where we can achieve your desired fat loss outcomes without being TOO aggressive (generally, this means losing <1% of body weight), the best thing we can do is just get your diet done with, and get you back out of a deficit long-term, instead of dragging things out. 

 But again, for longer fat loss phases (>3 months), this is a smart approach. 

Option #2: The 5|2 Macro Split 

This is very similar to the 11/3 split, but on a weekly basis. 5 days in a deficit, followed by 2 days at maintenance. Again, we’re generally increasing calories via carbs.

This split is a superstar when it comes to adherence, because it works GREAT for clients that like to enjoy their weekends a bit more, as you’ll have increased calories every weekend. 

For our online clients that need the “flexible lifestyle” to make their diet sustainable, this is a good option. 

Option #3: The 6|1 Macro Split 

This is a great approach for online clients in shorter fat loss phases (<12 weeks), where our goal is to get the fat off of you ASAP, while maintaining your lean muscle. 

Similar to the above examples, here you’re spending 6 days in a deficit, 1 day at maintenance (again with the increase in calories coming from carbs).

This gives you a chance to refill your muscle gylcogen stores - this will lead to better training performance, and help you maintain (or even build) more muscle (so it’s smart to put this immediately before or on your hardest training day of the week). 

Plus, the reality of shorter diets is, you’re often in a larger deficit to get the job done on time. 1x/week to get a bit more flexible with your food choices helps a TON when it comes to sticking the diet out. 

Option #4: High/Low Days

I most commonly use this approach for online clients in short, aggressive mini-cuts (usually 3-6 weeks in a 20-25% deficit). 

Here, the goal is QUICK weight loss, while still maintaining all your lean muscle.

Your “low” calorie days are paired with off days from training, because energy will be much lower on these days. 

Your “high” calorie days are paired with training days - you’ll have more energy (meaning you’ll be able to push your training harder), and be eating more calories when your body needs it MOST to maintain muscle (post-workout). 

Typically, this equates to 3-4 high days (on training days), 3-4 low days (on off days). 

Option #5: Protein-Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF) Days 

This is a strategy that I learned about years ago from Lyle McDonald, and have seen great success implementing PSMF days with my more advanced clients. 

We used this exact strategy extensively in our client Rachel's transformation to photoshoot lean (CLICK HERE to read the blog that gives you her exact process and strategy). 

Typically, when I make a macro adjustment for you, it'll be a reduction of ~5-10% of your weekly total calories - roughly 500-1000 calories for most clients. 

Now, obviously these calorie reductions have to come from somewhere. We can either drop a 100-200 calories from every day of the week (which really bums most people out), or we can knock out that entire deficit in one day, and leave food intake the same the rest of the week. 

The goal is to keep calories as low as possible, while still hitting your protein goal. Basically, you just focus on eating lean proteins and lots of veggies. 

So your day could look something like: 

- Fasting until noon (black coffee only) 

- Meal 1: Chicken breast + lots of veggies 

- Snack: Tuna mixed with non-fat cottage cheese (actually super good

- Meal 2: Lean ground beef or turkey with seasoning, mixed with salsa and veggies 

- Meal 3: Non-fat, plain Greek yogurt mixed with whey protein 

Nothing magic about this approach, but it makes the diet much easier to adhere to for most people. When you nutrition coach with us, we always prioritize finding a diet you can adhere to over all else.That's how we create sustainable results.

→ Shifting Calories - Ever eat too many calories on a Saturday and think...

“Well, my diet isscrewed"? 

I know I have, and it usually leads eating tons of extra calories the next few days with the “F it” mindset.  

In reality (in a fat loss setting), what you do with your calories and on a daily basis makes very little difference, as long as what you do on a weekly basis is on point. 

A single day of over-eating is easily correctable.

As long as your weekly deficit is the same and you’re hitting your protein goal daily, you should get very similar results. 

I like to call this shifting calories. You’re saving up calories ahead of time or eating less in the following days to keep your weekly calories on point.

This approach is amazing for online clients, because it gives them a lot more flexibility within their diets. Understanding this concept allows you to finally be free from the “F it” mindset we easily fall into when falling off track with our diets.  

→ Macro Planning - Planning ahead is always the key to staying on track with your nutrition. 

This is why we encourage all of our online clients to plan their days out in MyFitnessPal the night before - weekday or weekend. 

When you go into the day with a good idea of how you need to eat to enjoy your life AND hit your goals, you'll be much more likely to succeed. 

Don't try to wing it with your macros as the day goes. Plan your day out ahead of time. 

This exactly why we hold most of our new online clients accountable to planning their food diaries out the night before, and sending them to us for review.

The goal of this guide (and coaching with us) is to empower you through education. To help you finally STOP guessing when it comes to your physique (and confidence), and start achieving.

The next step? 

Realize that all the knowledge you've gained from this guide doesn't equal change. 

If you're fed up with years of unsuccessfully trying to change your body (or never being able to sustain your results), invest in a coach. 

If you've read dozens of guides like this in the past but still don't have the physique or

confidence you want, invest in a coach. 

If you're overwhelmed by the content of this book, invest in a coach. 

If you already knew most of the strategies in this guide... but can't get consistent, invest in a coach. 

If you're a coach ready to give yourself and your clients more education & better results, invest in a coach. 

Truly, everyone can benefit from being coached. 

If you're ready to change, we're here to coach you. 

→ Click here to apply for online coaching with our team ←

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Have you been doing lots of squats, lunges, and deadlifts (a.k.a. all of the movements you’ve heard are best for building glutes)... but still have a pancake booty? 

You’re not alone. 

If there is a single muscle group that most of the women we work with want to prioritize when they start coaching with our team, it’s glutes. 

And typically we hear the same complaint… 

“I’ve been doing ALL of the movements I’m supposed to be doing to build my butt… but I feel like my thighs just get bigger, while my glutes stay the same.” 

The reality is, most of the movements you’ve heard are great for glutes… really aren’t great for your glutes. 

Today’s blog takes you through the smarter glute training approach we take with our online clients, and the 5 keys you need to implement in your program to finally build the butt you want.

GLUTE ANATOMY

Your glutes are composed of the primary muscles: 

1. Gluteus maximus (a.k.a. glute max) 
2.  Gluteus medius (a.k.a. glute med) 
3.  Gluteus minimus (a.k.a. glute min) 

UNDERSTANDING THE FUNCTION OF THE GLUTE MAX

Your glute max is the largest glute muscle. It’s function is hip extension (think: pushing your hips forward on the way up from the bottom of a deadlift, or pushing your thigh back on the way up from the bottom of a Bulgarian Split Squat.)

UNDERSTANDING THE FUNCTION OF THE GLUTE MED.

Your glute med is the second-largest muscle in your glutes. Often thought of as your “side-butt”, the glute med is primarily responsible for hip abduction (think: driving your knees out to the side, away from the midline of your body.)

UNDERSTANDING THE FUNCTION OF THE GLUTE MIN.

Your glute min is the smallest glute muscle, and has a very similar role to your glute med - it helps with abduction, and also aids in internal rotation of the thigh. 

Now that you have a good understanding of glute anatomy, let’s dig into the keys to selecting the best exercises for building your glutes. 

GLUTE BUILDING KEY #1: MAKE THE GLUTE MAX YOUR PRIMARY FOCUS

Since the glute max is the largest muscle group in your glutes, it makes sense that this should also be the group that gets the most attention, as training it properly will yield the largest visual changes. 

The mistake most people make is spending less time focusing on the glute max, and more time focusing on the glute med/min. 

This is because the muscles of the glute med are often easier to “feel” working - simply throw a booty band around your knees, shuffle side to side, and you’ll likely feel your glute med burning within the first 30 seconds. 

The important thing to remember here… 

Sensation does not = muscle growth. 

Your muscles grow as a response to tension. While a high rep set of booty band side-shuffles might burn… your muscles are experiencing very little by way of actual tension (compare this to the huge amount of tension your glute max is under when doing a set of Romanain Deadlifts).  

And while the glute med is still important to train, again it’s just a smaller muscle, and won’t need as much dedicated work as the glute max.  

GLUTE BUILDING KEY #2: TRAIN YOUR GLUTE MAX WITH MOVEMENTS THAT CHALLENGE THE LENGTHENED AND SHORTENED POSITIONS

When it comes to building lean muscle, it’s important to understand where the movement is most challenging/the resistance that the muscle is met with is the greatest. 

For every muscle group, there will be movements that are… 

a.) Hardest in the shortened position. Basically, when the muscle is fully contracted (this is usually at the “top” of the movement - i.e. at the top of a hip thrust) the movement is most challenging. 

b.) Hardest in the lengthened position. When the muscle is lengthened or “stretched”, the movement is most challenging (this is usually at the “bottom” of the movement - I.e. the bottom of a Romanian Deadlift).

There will also be movements that are most challenging in the midrange (somewhere between shortened and lengthened), but these usually lean towards being more shortened biased or lengthened biased. 

So when it comes to building great glutes, using movements that are challenging in the lengthened position is important - this will be more biased towards the lower portion of your glute max. 

LENGTHENED GLUTE MOVEMENTS:

→ Deficit Reverse Lunges 

→ Bent Knee Romanian Deadlifts 

→ Glute Dominant Split Squats 

→ Rear Foot Front Heel Elevated Split Squats 

→ Trap Bar Deadlifts 

→ Glute Dominant Leg Presses 

But, using movements that also overload the glute max in the shortened position is also important - these will bias more of the upper portion of the glute max.  

SHORTENED GLUTE MOVEMENTS:

→ Kickbacks

→ Kas Glute Bridges

→ 45 Degree Back Extensions

→ Barbell Hip Thrusts 

Now, recent research has shown us that training muscles in the lengthened position does seem to be more conducive to muscle growth than the shortened:

So with most online clients focused on glute gains, we’ll program with something like a 2:1 ratio of lengthened position overload movements to shortened position overload movements (~2 movements that overload the lengthened position for every one that overloads the shortened).  

If your lower body goals are primarily building glutes, it would also be smart to include a lengthened and shortened focused movement every time you train glutes.

This could look something like…. 

DAY 1: 

→ Bent Knee Romanian Deadlifts (lengthened) 

→ Kas Glute Bridge (shortened) 

→ Deficit Reverse Lunges (lengthened) 

DAY 2: 

→ Glute Dominant Leg Press (lengthened)

→ 45 Degree Back Extension (shortened)

→ Glute Dominant Split Squats (lengthened) 

DAY 3:

→ Hip Dominant Trap Bar Romanian Deadlift (lengthened) 

→ Cable Kickbacks (shortened) 

→ Rear Foot Front Heel Elevated Split Squats (both)

It’s also important to note that not everyone needs to or should train their lower body 3x/week like this (many of our clients train upper body and lower body 2x/week) - this is an example that would apply to a more advanced client.

GLUTE BUILDING KEY #3: CHANGE YOUR EXECUTION ON SPLIT SQUATS, REVERSE LUNGES, DEADLIFTS, AND SQUATS

One of the most problem complaints we hear from new clients trying to build their glutes? 

“I do tons of squats and lunges, but they just make my thighs (quads) grow, not my glutes!” 

The main issue here? 

The execution of a movement very largely determines what muscle groups will be targeted.

So it’s important to have a high-level understanding of what muscles act on what joints: 

QUADS: Primarily act on your knee joint. So a movement that involves a lot of bending & extending at the knee will have to recruit a lot of quad. 

GLUTES: Primarily act on the hip joint. So a movement that involves a lot of bending & extending at the hips will have to recruit a lot of glutes and hamstrings. 

So…

→ TO MAKE A MOVEMENT VERY QUAD BIASED: We need to focus primarily on knee flexion & extension. If we wanted to minimize glute recruitment, we would want to avoid too much bending & extending at the hips.  

A great example of this is a Flat Foot Split Squat:

→ TO MAKE A MOVEMENT VERY GLUTE BIASED: We need to focus primarily on bending and extending at the hips. If we wanted to minimize quad involvement, we would want to avoid too much bending & extending at the knee. 

A great example of this is the Bent Knee Romanian Deadlift:

→ TO MAKE A MOVEMENT EFFECTIVE FOR BOTH QUADS & GLUTES: We need a decent bit of bending & extending at both the knees and hips. 

A great example of this is the Rear Foot Front Heel Elevated Split Squat:

So taking it back to the people that were struggling to build their glutes before starting coaching (despite doing lots of squats and lunges), the mistake they’re typically making is executing these movements in a manner that is focused more on knee bending & extending (especially easy to do with squats and lunges) and less on hip bending & extending.  

Take the example of a Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat demonstrated by Coach Andrea below:

The way she executes this will make a big difference for the primary muscles recruited. To train the glutes we need a good amount of hip flexion within a movement. 

Understanding this, you’ll also realize that a lot of movements you’ve heard are “great glute builders”, really aren’t for most people (i.e. traditional barbell back squats), and much better options are usually available.

GLUTE BUILDING KEY #4: QUIT DOING EVERYTHING WITH A WIDE STANCE (NARROW IS USUALLY BETTER FOR GLUTE MAX)

Most people have been told… 

“A wide stance is best for glutes.” 

...and thus do things like sumo deadlifts and wide stance leg presses to build glutes.

The reality is, a wide stance actually is going to recruit much more of your Adductor Magnus (a large muscle on your inner thigh), whereas a narrower (for most people ~ hip width) stance will take your glute max through a great range of motion and allow for most of the tension experienced to be more biased towards the glutes, and less towards the adductors.

(Credit to N1 Education for discovering this concept.)

A great example of this is the Glute Dominant Leg Press:

Typically, it’s been preached “feet high and wide” is best for glutes on leg press. In reality, fit narrower is going to be more effective. 

This same concept should be applied to squat and deadlift variations along with leg presses - if the goal is to target the glute max, your stance should be narrow.

GLUTE BUILDING KEY #5: QUIT WASTING YOUR TIME DOING ENDLESS BOOTY BAND WORK

The important thing to remember is this… 

Muscles grow as a response to tension. 

It doesn’t matter how much you “feel the burn” in a movement… if the muscle doesn’t experience enough tension (typically, enough to take a movement to 3 reps shy of failure or less), it won’t grow. 

You’ll see lots of people doing endless booty band workouts on Instagram, with tons of things like Band Donkey Kickbacks. And while these do burn… they don’t place the muscles of your glutes under any significant tension. 

Basically, they’re a great way to waste a lot of time in the gym, without seeing any actual glute growth. 

To build a great butt, most of your glute training should involve dumbbells, a barbell, or a leg press.

If you’ve been struggling to build the physique you’ve always wanted (despite the fact that you’re always pushing hard in the gym), click here now to apply for coaching with our team.  

We’ll create a fully individualized training & nutrition protocol, tailored specifically to you and your goals, and be here to guide you with the support and accountability you need through every step of the transformation process.

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Traveling is a big wrench thrown into the middle of a diet. 

At some point, nearly all of our online clients will have to navigate around a trip of some sort while they’re trying to diet. 

Traveling makes it harder to diet, that’s for sure. But it’s not impossible, and there are a lot of “tips and tricks” to ensure it goes smoothly.

Today's blog gives you the strategies we give our online clients to help them enjoy their trips and keep making progress throughout.

1. DECIDE HOW YOU WANT TO MENTALLY APPROACH YOUR TRIP 

TRADE-OFFS

There are always trade-offs for every decision you make. 

You could decide to completely forgo tracking your nutrition for a vacation: 

The trade off →  Slower progress or extended time in the fat loss phase. 

You could decide to prep meals and be extremely meticulous on vacation: 

The trade off → Less enjoyment of the food on that trip. 

Neither answer is better than the other.  It depends on what you want and which trade off you’re ok with.  You just need to be aware of the trade offs you are making. 

EMOTIONAL VALUE

A trip to Italy for your honeymoon will probably be handled a bit differently than a monthly business trip.  The difference is the concept of “emotional value.” 

Emotional value is how special this meal, in this moment, with these people, is to you.  

A pasta dinner in Italy with your new spouse is objectively more special than a hotel breakfast on a work trip.  The pasta dinner would more likely be a time when you shouldn’t care about your macros, where the hotel breakfast doesn’t hold any special value and could probably be looked at as just fuel to get you onto the next thing in your day.   

This doesn’t have to be a black or white situation, either, with making trade-offs or with the emotional value of food.  There is a lot of gray space in between.  

Some parts of a meal or a trip may have higher emotional value than others.  You may be in a fat loss phase for a goal that’s very important to you, so something that normally has a high emotional value could be placed lower on the priority list for the time being.  

There are also ways to make space in your weekly or daily calories to still enjoy these things without going way beyond the calorie targets (more on that later…)

2. TRACKING RESTAURANT MEALS

This of course isn’t unique to being on vacation, but most people will eat out at restaurants more often while traveling than while at home. 

Eating a lot of food out won’t ever be 100% accurate because no two cooks will add the same amount of each ingredient, or serve things the same way...they don’t care about your macros. 

But there are some tips that can make things a bit more accurately tracked, and fit more closely to your health and macro goals. 

1. CHOOSE FOODS/MEALS WITH THE FEWEST INGREDIENTS 

A less complex meal is easier to track AND is more likely to be tracked accurately.

  

Identify the options on your available menu with the fewest possible ingredients, and roll with one of those. The fewer ingredients your meal has, the more room for error you're removing. 

  

Some typically solid options:

→ Salad with Grilled Chicken/steak/shrimp - Be sure to take into account any add-ons like dressings, eggs, nuts, etc.  

→ Lean Steak - Your steak meal will normally be pretty customizable, with the option for a lower calorie cut (e.g. sirloin), and the option to swap your mashed potatoes or fries for seasonal veggies. Again, just ask to be aware of any potential add-ons.  Steaks are also often dipped or coated in butter.  Either account for it in your tracking or ask the waiter if it’s used.   

→ Grilled Chicken Entree 

→ Fish Entree 

→ Pork Loin

  

 2. PRIORITIZE PROTEIN 

Identify the most protein-dense food on your plate. Finish that first, along with any fruits or veggies you have available. (Hint: It's probably meat.)  

Protein is the most filling macronutrient. 

Plus, protein sources are typically pretty easy to guesstimate relatively accurately (e.g. a piece of grilled chicken, a cut of steak). Just be sure to account for any added sauces or oils. 

  

By eating a bunch of protein, fruits, and veggies first, you're essentially running damage control - you're pretty full-on foods you'll likely be able to measure accurately... so you're much less likely to be able to eat lots of food you won't be able to measure as accurately.

  

3. MACRO PLAN

Plan your day out in advance the night before, a.k.a macro-planning. While you probably won't be able to perfectly guess what's available to eat, you can get a rough guesstimate. Macro-planning gives you a good idea of how you need to eat the rest of the day leading up to the event to stay on track with your goals.

3. PACKING YOUR TRAVEL FOODS

Speaking of the rest of your day leading up to the restaurant meal...those lower emotional value meals when you’re just eating something to get on with the rest of your day are a big opportunity to include some protein and produce. 

Once you’ve entered in meals you know you want to have a particular food or larger meal out, you can fill in the earlier meals with some easy-to-pack foods.   

Easy to travel foods would be ones that don’t need a ton of prep.  

You can usually ask for a mini-fridge and a microwave, so even some frozen dinners and cold foods can be included, but you’ll usually want to plan for things that don’t need a dish, an oven, or any major prep unless you’re staying in an Air BnB. 

This means that you’ll either need to go get a load of groceries to take with you if you’re not flying, or stop at a grocery store or get a delivery once you get to your destination. 

EXAMPLES OF GREAT TRAVEL FOODS:

PROTEIN:

→ Pre-cooked frozen chicken 

Something like this...

...works very well because they just require a bit of microwave time but it’s a more substantial meal that won’t give you any issues with digestion or bloating.  This can also go with any other pre-cooked frozen meats like fajita steak or shrimp. 

→ Beef Jerky

Jerky is such a great travel food because it can work even if you have no refrigeration/cooler or microwave, and is mostly protein, which is the hardest macro to come by.  The only thing to watch out for with jerky is the type. 

This "strip" type is the best option vs. the ‘stick’ types. 

The stick types are easier to chew, but that’s because they’re mostly fat.  Also, if you’re trying to keep carbs low or save them for something else, a lot of varieties include plenty of sugar, especially the “sweet+spicy” or teriyaki flavors. 

→ Deli meat 

→ Rotisserie chicken 

→ Pre-boiled eggs

→ Tuna/chicken/salmon packets 

→ Protein powder or bars 

→ Non-fat greek yogurt 

→ Low fat string cheese 

CARBS: 

→ Rice cups or packets 

→ Rip-top canned beans 

→ Rice cakes or rollers 

→ Any fruit, especially apples, oranges, and bananas 

→ Baby carrots 

→ Wraps/bread 

FATS:

→ Guacamole cups 

→ Nuts 

→ Nut butter packets 

MEALS:

Most grocery stores will have some frozen dinner options that are similar to a meal prep service type of food selection, like these “fit menu meals”.

My go-to on trips is usually these Healthy Choice Power Bowls:

The common theme with any of the solid frozen dinner options is lean meat and vegetables.  They should look similar to something you could easily prep at home.

PLANNING MEALS

Once you have your meal staples you can plan out the day’s food. 

With my clients, I’m a big fan of just having them track protein and calories on vacation, instead of all three macronutrients.  

The research says that as long as protein and calories are equated, your fat loss changes won’t differ with different ratios of carbs and fats.  

In normal day-to-day life it’s great to get a bit more dialed in with carbs and fats to optimize performance, but when you’re traveling, the protein and calorie method can give you a bit of a mental break and provide some extra flexibility. 

Let’s say for example, your daily calorie and protein targets are 2000 calories and 150g of protein.

You know you’re going to go to dinner but you don’t know exactly what you’ll get or where you’ll go.  

You want to have plenty of flexibility so you allot for 1000 calories of your day to be saved for dinner, giving you 1000 calories to eat throughout the rest of your day. In 4 meals per day you know you’ll need 35-40g per meal, so you’ll look for a high-protein option at dinner, and plan on around 40g per meal for breakfast, lunch, and snack.

Your day could look something like...

BREAKFAST:         

→ Fat-free plain greek yogurt tub = 90 calories, 17g protein 

→ 2/3 scoop protein powder = 75 calories, 17g protein 

→ 100g apple = 50 calories, 0g protein 

Total = 215 calories, 35g protein 

LUNCH:

→ Pre-cooked chicken breast, 7 cooked ounces = 230 calories, 42g protein 

→ 1 serving baby carrots = 35 calories, 0g protein 

→ 1 Orange=60 calories, 1g protein 

Total= 330 calories, 43g protein 

SNACK:

→ 1 Scoop whey protein = 110 calories, 25g protein 

→ 1 Protein bar = 200 calories, 21g protein 

Total = 310 calories, 46g protein 

That gives you a total of 850 calories and 125g of protein for your first 3 meals, which leaves plenty of room for a sensible meal out.

4. STAY MOVING

It seems like people tend to fall into one of two camps on vacation: 

1. Those who move very little due to flying, driving, and the rest and relaxation that comes with vacation

2. Those that tend to walk around a lot more due to sightseeing and walking from place to place. 

If you’re in the former camp, consciously making sure to get more steps in throughout the day can make a big difference in how you feel at the end of the trip, your weight change, and your digestion. 

Walking while you’re on a trip is a great way to see new things, so planning to walk to as many places as possible is a great way to get more movement.  

There are also usually great bike sharing services to take advantage of.  

Usually you’ll be traveling to someplace with great weather, so getting out in the morning and evening to walk is also a great way to start and end your days, and will help you sleep better by setting your circadian rhythm. 

If you are someone who already gets a lot of steps on vacation, once you add the above diet strategies you can come back having stuck to your plan without missing out on any of the enjoyment of a vacation and even exceed your normal weight loss at home.

5. KEEP DIGESTION REGULAR

Digestion issues are a really common complaint during a vacation.  

Most people tend to drink less water, are out of their normal routine, and might have to do a lot of sitting in a plane or car.

As uncomfortable as it is to talk about, digestive issues and bloating can be a big damper on your trip. 

To maintain regularity during a trip, here are some strategies our online clients use: 

→ Keep water intake high. Aim for your normal amount. This might take some extra planning, and may require some bathroom trips that are inconvenient, but you’ll feel a lot better for it. Keep a large water bottle (40+ oz) filled and next to you at all times. 

If you’re on a flight, fill your bottle after you pass security and make sure you keep drinking (an aisle seat helps so you don’t have to squeeze through to get to the bathroom.) 

→ Keep steps high. Walking and movement keep you regular. If you’re sedentary, gravity isn’t helping you digest food and keep it moving through your digestive system. 

→ Maintain as normal a routine as possible in the morning and evening. If you normally have some time in the morning to calmly drink your coffee and eat breakfast, try to give yourself time for that on vacation. Your body works on a rhythm, and if you throw off that rhythm, your body won’t go through it’s normal processes as well. 

→ Give yourself some privacy. If you are in close quarters with anyone you’re staying with, try getting away to another bathroom that’s removed. If you aren’t comfortable, it’s hard to go. 

→ Use a squatty potty. Sometimes hotel toilets are high. A squatty potty or small trash can helps. 

→ Consider using magnesium citrate and/or senna.  Start out with a small dose so you don’t go overboard. 

These are all the strategies our clients use on work trips and vacation to enjoy their time while also making sure they aren’t disappointed in their choices once the fun is over. 

If you need more help losing body fat and building lean muscle, click here to apply for coaching with our team. 

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Are you a woman chasing a physique that looks lean and strong, with plenty of muscle definition? 

The most common problem most women run into when trying to achieve a physique like this? 

They simply don’t have enough muscle. 

You’ve probably spent a lot of time dieting over your lifetime… but have realized that just dieting isn’t enough. 

Because it doesn’t matter how much body fat you shed while dieting - if you don’t have the pre-requisite amount of muscle needed, you still won’t look the way you want. 

But most women have been very misled when it comes to how to train and eat when it comes to building lean muscle… which leaves you stuck spinning your wheels. 

Today’s blog is here to help you create the exact path you need to add lean muscle to your frame, and finally achieve your goal physique. 

KEY #1: TRAIN IN A MANNER THAT’S CONDUCIVE TO MUSCLE GROWTH 💪

Most training programs targeted towards women are geared towards “feeling the burn” or “getting your sweat on” (think: OrangeTheory or F45). 

The problem is, training like this is not conducive to muscle growth. 

See, building muscle isn’t about how many calories you burn in a workout, how much you “feel the burn”, or how sweaty a training session makes you… 

It’s about applying adequate tension to the muscles that you’re trying to grow. 

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR MUSCLE GROWTH (within a training session): 

1. The muscle must experience time under significant tension. This often means that you’ll need to use heavier loads than you have in the past.

Doing a set of bodyweight jump squats during an OrangeTheory class might burn… but none of your muscles are actually under significant tension during this set. 

So while that set of jump squats might have felt hard… it actually does very little as far as stimulating growth in the muscles of your lower body.  

2. Most sets need to be taken within 3 reps or less of form failure.

There’s a concept called “effective reps” that is crucial to understand if you want to build muscle. 

Basically, the closer a set gets to failure, the more muscle fibers within the muscles you’re training are recruited and fatigued.

When you reach failure, the muscle fibers within the target muscles you’re training are very close to being fully fatigued. 

The recruitment and fatiguing of these muscle fibers sends your body the signal that it was not prepared to handle a stressful event like this, so your body does it’s best to build new muscle in the areas trained, so that it can be better prepared to handle taxing sets like this in the future. 

The thing is, it’s thought that only the last few reps short of failure (the final ~3) are truly effective for sending a strong enough signal to your body to stimulate new muscle growth. These are the most “effective reps” of a set.

So let’s say you’re doing a high rep set of body weight squats.

Most of us could do 40-50 reps, and really “feel the burn”… but none of the muscle fibers in our lower body would actually be THAT close to true failure. 

Again, this is the problem with HIIT circuits, OTF, etc. - you “feel the burn”, but these workouts are very short on effective reps. 

So you’re spending a lot of time working out, but get very little benefit as far as actually stimulating new muscle growth. 

The solution? 

LIFT CHALLENGING WEIGHTS. 

From my experience coaching, this means often pushing to lift much heavier weights than you have in the past (while also making sure that you’re maintaining good form). 

If you’re training lots of variations of squat, hinge, lunge, row, pulldown, press, and getting close to failure in the 5-20 rep range like our online clients do, it’s inevitable that you’ll stimulate muscle growth. 

Keeping a logbook is also very important to make sure you’re progressing. 

We have all of our clients keep detailed notes on weight lifted for every set, reps performed, and how the exercise felt (pump achieved, post-movement disruption, etc). 

AS A CLIENT: This allows you to look back on your performance from the previous weeks, and “set the bar” that you should be attempting to beat (i.e. if you squatted 165 lbs for 8 reps on your first set of squats last week, you’re pushing for 165 for 9 on your first set this week).  

This ensures that you’re continuing to push yourself in your training, and achieve effective reps as you get stronger. 

AS YOUR COACH: Looking over your logbook is how we adjust your programming week to week - your notes here are what tell us how your body is progressing, and whether we need to do things like: 

→ Add or decrease the number of sets you’re doing on a given movement 

→ Decrease or increase how close you’re taking sets to failure 

→ Change movements 

Looking over your logbook in depth like this ISN’T something most coaches do… but it’s a big part of what we do differently, and why our online clients get better results. 

This is one of the best ways for us to truly see how well you’re progressing, and tailor your program on a weekly basis to ensure you’re achieving the best possible results.  

Finally, you need to actually be following a structured program. 

A huge reason new online clients immediately see better results when they start coaching is simply because they have so much more structure than ever before with their training and nutrition. 

If you’re just going into the gym 4-5x/week, and doing random things you’re hoping are effective… you’re never going to see results, because: 

a.) The movements you’re doing might actually just be a poor fit for hypertrophy (muscle growth).

This is why we have most clients rate pump and disruption for each movement - you are an individual. Your biomechanics, injury history, and goals are unique to you. 

This means that movements that seem to work great for that girl you follow on Instagram might actually be a very poor fit for you and your goals. 

b.) If you’re constantly doing different exercises, you’ll never stimulate muscle growth. 

Usually, the first few weeks of doing a new movement will yield very little muscle growth - you’ll see yourself get much stronger at a movement the first few weeks, but this isn’t because your body is adding muscle quickly - it’s because your body is getting better at the “skill” of the movement. 

The first few weeks of a movement, you don’t often “fail” towards the end of a set because we’ve fully fatigued the associated muscle fibers, but rather because your body is still very unskilled/uncoordinated at the movement. 

So the quick progress you’re seeing the first few weeks is simply your body mastering the “skill” of the movement, and becoming more coordinated.  

After these first few weeks, as you get the skill of a movement mastered, you’re much better at recruiting and fatiguing the associated muscle fibers - after this is when you really start to be able to stimulate new muscle growth.  

You need to be consistently following a structured program designed to push you to progress the same movements for multiple weeks in order to actually build muscle. 

KEY #2: FOCUS ON EXECUTION 🤓

The best training program on paper won’t yield muscle growth if you’re not executing the prescribed movements in the manner intended. 

EXAMPLE: 

Let’s say that I’ve prescribed you a Glute Emphasis Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat. 

You see “Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat” in your program, and do it like you always have: torso upright, driving the front knee forward, and dropping your back knee to the floor. 

This won't create the intended effect. 

To truly make this a great movement for building your glutes, we need you to: initiate the movement by pushing your hips back into the movement. You should be achieving a lot of hip flexion as you push your hips back into the movement (your ribcage should be getting closer to your thigh), and your back knee probably shouldn’t be touching the floor. 

This is why we require online clients to consistently send us form videos. 

You likely haven’t been executing your movements in the most optimal manner to stimulate growth in the target muscle tissue. And realize that “just doing movements like you’ve always done them” will likely yield more of the same results you’ve achieved in the past. 

Better execution of the movements within your training is one of the most overlooked keys to seeing better results than you have in the past.

KEY #3: TARGET MUSCLE GROUP IS THE RATE LIMITER 🎯

Some exercises are inherently better than others for hypertrophy (building muscle). 

When the goal is building lean muscle, you want the "rate limiter" (the thing that forces you to eventually stop a movement) to be the specific muscle group(s) you're targeting.   

Let's say you're doing heavy Farmers Carries to train your core, and refuse to wear wrist straps.  

As a result, your grip always gives out long before core fatigue would cause you to stop the movement.  

Thus, this has become a pretty shit exercise for actually building a stronger core... but if the goal was building grip strength, it'd be a great fit.  

Some common examples of rate limiters on exercises that are stopping you from building lean muscle:  

→ Grip strength: See example above.   

→ Unstable exercises: The classic example of doing squats on a bosu ball applies here. You don't "fail" the movement because of fatigue in your quads, you fail due to a lack of stability.  

→ Core strength: Let's look at the Bird Dog Row:

Great movement for core stability? Sure.  

But if you were programming this as one of your primary rowing variations, it just wouldn't make sense. The rate limiter is your core, not your lats or rhomboids.  

→ Cardiovascular Fatigue: The most common example of this is simply cutting rest periods too short between sets, or stringing together too many exercises in a row with inadequate rest (this is a big part of why we always prescribe specific rest periods for our online clients).

KEY #4: YOU NEED TO BE TRACKING YOUR NUTRITION 🍽️

All of our online clients track their macros. 

This is because building lean muscle requires more than just training hard/smart. 

It also requires giving your body enough (and the right kind) of fuel. 

Most people will track their macros in a fat loss phase, and stop doing so when their goal is building muscle. That’s a big mistake.

Imagine your training being like the gas pedal, while your nutrition is the fuel in the tank.  

It doesn’t matter how hard you push the pedal - without enough (or the right kind) of fuel in the tank, you still won’t get anywhere.

For most women we coach, this typically means that we need to initially increase the amount of protein and carbs you’re eating.

No matter how hard you train, you won’t be able to build muscle without adequate protein.  If you have no protein, you can’t build muscle.  

Protein is the only macronutrient that has nitrogen, which is essential to building muscle. So no matter how many carbs and fats you eat, without adequate nitrogen/protein, your body won’t have the raw materials it needs to build muscle.  

As far as carbs go:

If you look closely at the energy system that creates energy for the majority of intense activity from ~15-60 seconds (the anaerobic-lactic system), you'll see that it's fueled by carbs.  

If your goal is to build your leanest, strongest body composition, a good amount of your training will be fueled by this energy system. A lower carb approach means that this energy system will essentially be "short on fuel" - your ability to train intensely will suffer.  

As a result, you'll struggle achieving the levels of performance & adding the lean muscle needed for the physique you want.  

This is a common mistake made by both women and men, and is exactly why most of our online clients undergoing the physique transformation process are typically following a higher carb approach.  

Not only are carbs are your body's preferred fuel source for training, but they also aids your recovery and ability to build more lean muscle.  

Carbs stimulate the release of the hormone insulin in your body. Insulin has an inverse relationship with cortisol (the stress hormone), meaning that as insulin increases, cortisol decreases. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone - its primary role is breaking things down for energy.  

Now, while cortisol isn't "bad" (like all things, it's very context dependent), spending too much time in a catabolic state will of course hinder your ability to build lean muscle.       

Due to the insulin and cortisol relationship, adding more carbs to your diet can help get your body out of a catabolic state, and recovering better/quicker. 

KEY #5: EAT ENOUGH FOOD TO SUPPORT MUSCLE GROWTH 🥦

Unless you’re new to science-based training and nutrition practices like our online clients follow, building muscle is much harder when you’re underfeeding your body.  

So while you probably noticed a dramatic transformation the first 6-12 months you got into training and nutrition… you’ve noticed your physique hasn’t changed much (if at all) over the last 1-2 years.  

This is usually caused by constantly trying to diet and build lean muscle at the same time… but with where you are in your fitness journey, this is no longer feasible, for a few reasons:  

1: Eating in a calorie deficit (eating fewer calories than you burn) seems to reduce your baseline levels of muscle protein synthesis, as well as the degree to which your body increases muscle protein synthesis as a response to consuming protein. (1)(2)(3)

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