Metabolism and metabolic adaptation - two topics that are completely shrouded in misinformation, fallacies, and myths in the fitness industry.

Today, I'm joined by Brandon DaCruz for a deep dive into metabolism. You'll leave today with a strong understanding how of to make your metabolism work for you and your fat loss efforts, rather than against you.

[*Brandon deserves credit for most of the points and concepts below. I've expanded on his thoughts a bit where helpful, but highly recommend you listen to the episode as well to fully understand the context of the conversation.]

WHAT IS METABOLISM?

Your metabolism is essentially a measurement of various inputs and outputs from your body and your environment, which then determine your caloric needs and your caloric expenditure.

Your metabolism is a system that is constantly in flux - meaning the amount of calories you burn is constantly varying, based on your day-to-day life.

WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF OUR METABOLISM?

Your metabolism is comprised of four main components. The sum of the calories burned through each of these components is your total daily energy expenditure.

THE COMPONENTS OF METABOLISM:

1: Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) -  The calories burned for basal processes to stay alive -  like your heart pumping, breathing, etc. Even if you spent the whole day in bed, our BMR wouldn’t change.  

BMR accounts for ~60-70% of daily calories burned.  

2: Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) - It takes calories (energy) for your body to digest the food that you eat. 

TEF also varies depending on the food you eat. (Protein: 20-35%, Carbs: 5-15%, Fats: 0-5%.)  

TEF accounts for ~10% of daily calories burned.  

3: Thermic Effect of Exercise (TEE) - The calories you burn exercising. 

TEE accounts for ~5% of daily calories burned.  

4: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) - Calories burned through movement outside of exercise. (Fidgeting, walking around the house, etc.)  

NEAT accounts for ~15-25% of daily calories burned, but varies drastically person-to-person.

WHAT IS METABOLIC ADAPTATION?

As you get leaner on a diet, your metabolism decreases because… 

→ Your body is smaller, so BMR decreases.  

→ You're eating less food, so TEF decreases.  

→ TEE decreases, because it takes fewer calories to move your smaller body.  

→ NEAT generally decreases, as you feel lethargic due to lack of calories.  

→ Levels of the hormone Leptin decrease. This leads to an increase in hunger (increasing the odds you’ll overeat), and a subconscious decrease in energy expenditure.  

This is known as metabolic adaptation or adaptive thermogenesis. As you eat more and gain more fat, the opposite happens - metabolism increases, hunger decreases.

Over the course of a fat loss phase, some metabolic adaptation is very normal (and actually unavoidable) - your body is simply getting smaller, so it takes less energy to keep it alive at rest, and to move it through space. 

WHAT ARE THE THREE MAIN COMPONENTS IMPACTED BY METABOLIC ADAPTATION?

So when it comes to your metabolism adapting during a diet, there are 3 main factors at play:

1. Metabolic changes

2. Hormonal changes

3. Mitochondrial changes

Let's dive into each.

1. METABOLIC CHANGES

As we discussed before - when you get leaner on a diet, your metabolism decreases because…  

→ Your body is smaller, so BMR decreases - That said, this isn't something that just keeps plummeting. Your BMR will decrease about what we'd expect with the first 10% of body weight lost. 

But after that, you won't see nearly as significant of changes to BMR. Because much of this is calories to keep your heart pumping and organs functioning properly... your body won't shut down organ function to prevent fat loss.

So there is a hard "floor" to how low your BMR can drop.

→ You're eating less food, so TEF decreases - Remember, this does account for ~10% of the calories you burn in a day. Now, since you're eating less, you're also burning less. 

Let's say you decrease calories from 3,000 to 2,500 to create a daily deficit of 500 calories.

But, because you're eating 500 calories less per day, you're also burning less through TEF than before.

500 calories x 10% = 50 calories less burned per day... meaning you're actually only in a 450 calorie deficit.

→ TEE decreases, because it takes fewer calories to move your smaller body while exercising - We also experience up to a 20% increase in skeletal muscle efficiency, meaning that your muscles basically get more efficient at doing any given task, and can burn up to 20% fewer calories doing said task vs. what they would previously. 

This is why the "calories burned" number that your smartwatch gives you probably isn't accurate. 

→ NEAT generally decreases, as you feel lethargic due to lack of calories - This is the most important part to focus on.

Reductions in N.E.A.T. account for 85-90% of the reductions we consider metabolic adaptation. 

Let me repeat that...

85-90% of metabolic adaptation comes from decreases in N.E.A.T.

So this means that most of metabolic adaptation is something that we at least somewhat have control over.

This is why hitting a step goal in a fat loss phase (as well as post-diet) is such a major focus for our online clients

2. HORMONAL CHANGES

→ Levels of the hormone Leptin decrease - This leads to an increase in hunger (increasing the odds you’ll overeat), and a subconscious decrease in energy expenditure.  

Your levels of leptin are controlled by two main factors:

1. The size of your fat cells: Leptin is actually secreted from your fat cells. A larger fat cell (in a healthy individual) should mean more leptin. 

2. Short-term calorie intake: Leptin will decrease within a few day of eating less calories. 

Leptin levels decreasing lead to a cascade of other hormonal changes...

→ Testosterone decreases - This normally manifests as a decrease in libido.

→ Thyroid production decreases - The conversion of T4 to the metabolically active T3 will be disrupted.

→ Cortisol increases - This can further prevent the production of testosterone, thyroid, and increases the likelihood of muscle loss.

→ Hunger hormones increase - As mentioned, when leptin levels decrease, it causes a rise in the hunger hormone ghrelin. Other satiety hormones like insulin and PYY also decrease. 

3. MITOCHONDRIAL CHANGES

When you diet, your body is looking for ways to become more efficient - as you're now taking in less energy (a.k.a. calories) it needs to be able to "do more with less". 

One of the ways your body conserves energy is to increase mitochondrial efficiency. 

Basically, when we're dieting, our mitochondria are able to make the energy we need for our daily activities without using as many calories as they normally would in the process of energy production. 

HOW TO MITIGATE AND/OR WORK AROUND METABOLIC ADAPTATION

First, it's important to understand that metabolic adaptation is a natural part of the fat loss process, and not something that can be entirely avoided.

That said, there are many steps you can take to minimize the factors that are down-regulated while dieting and to make fat loss easier and more efficient.

1. Take a slightly slower approach for most of your diet (aiming to lose .5-1% of your body weight per week) - Research seems to show that this makes it easier for you to preserve muscle mass and metabolic rate while dieting.

2. Follow a high protein diet - This will help with retaining muscle mass (and thus metabolic rate), which is very important for avoiding regaining body fat post-diet. 

Protein also burns more calories during digestion, and is the most filling food. 

3. Eat lots of high volume, whole foods - Not only will whole foods fill you up more per calorie consumed, but whole foods also have a higher thermic effect than processed foods. This means your body burns more calories digesting whole foods vs. processed ones.

4. Prioritize N.E.A.T. - Again, this is the MOST modifiable component of your metabolism, so we need to pay mind to it. Set a realistic step goal, and hit it daily. 

5. Lift weights regularly - 1 pound of muscle will burn more calories than 1 pound of fat. Plus, resistance training regularly can help offset some of the increase in mitochondrial efficiency we discussed earlier.

6. Keep training like you're trying to build muscle - What built muscle will preserve muscle. If you suddenly shift your focus to burning calories in the gym, you're much more likely to lose significant muscle mass.

7. Establish a sleep routine and focus on sleep quality - This will help with retention of muscle, hormone fluctuations, decreasing hunger, and more. 

8. Make recovery a priority - As recovery (which is very important for maintaining muscle, keeping energy levels high, and optimizing hormones) will be harder to manage, it's important to audit your recovery levels. Make sure your training volume and recovery measures are dosed appropriately.  

So while some of metabolic adaptation is inevitable, a lot of it is under your control. With a smart strategy, anyone can achieve a lean, strong physique they feel confident in.

These are the same science-backed strategies we implement with our online clients undergoing the physique transformation process.    

If you're ready to be coached 1-1 by our team to your best physique ever, click here now to apply for online coaching with our team.

The MOST frustrating thing when it comes to dieting is doing the work, hitting your macros consistently, and not making the progress you know should be.

We call this “diet purgatory” because you’re spending time and mental energy dieting, but not actually eating in enough of a deficit to lose the weight. 

It’s a really common problem - ask anyone who’s in this situation and they’ll probably say... 

“I’m doing everything right, I just don’t understand why I’m not losing weight.”

The primary reason this happens (and the thing we check first with our online clients)?

You're not tracking your food as accurately as you think you are.

Tracking inaccuracies can be a touchy subject for some people, because it could feel like an accusation, or in a lot of cases it just feels frustrating because you know you are measuring and tracking your food.

The thing is, in these cases it’s the sneaky extras that you don’t realize you’re having, or don’t think they really matter or add up to much.

Let's look at the most common culprits for "I'm hitting my macros, but still not losing fat."

CULPRIT #1: BITES, LICKS, AND TASTES

Bites, licks, and tastes are one of the most common reasons you're stuck in diet purgatory.  

On paper, you’re doing all the right things: 

- Pre-planning your meals so you know you’ll hit your macros

- Preparing and eating the food you planned on

- Working hard in the gym.

The thing you’re not accounting for in your food log? 

That extra cracker you have after you measure them out, then your kid’s half sandwich crust, those couple chips at the restaurant, or the last bit of peanut butter stuck to the spoon.  

These are the little hidden calories that don’t increase fullness or satisfaction in your diet, but they do add up to significant enough calories to stall your fat loss.

CALORIE MATH:

It takes a 3500 calorie deficit over the course of a week to lose a pound that week.  Divided over 7 days, that's a 500 calorie per day deficit. (Maintenance is a range, and the body doesn’t always work perfectly like this, but for simplicity’s sake let’s use this example.)   

You’re in a 500 calorie deficit, losing 1 pound per week, then things start to slow down.  You start to lose that motivation you started out with and get a little lax on the extra BLTs (bites, licks and tastes).  

They seem harmless enough so you don’t feel like you need to track it.

But let's calculate how those add up over the day...

This isn’t at all out of the realm of realistic for one day’s worth of bites, licks, and tastes.

You could include all of these if not more without even realizing you’re doing it. This is a big problem among parents, whose kids will never finish all their food because that’s what kids do, and parents have a hard time seeing a bit of food thrown away.

These add up to a total of 205-245 calories per day (Not to mention it adds zero protein or micronutrient value).  

That wipes out a shocking half of the planned calorie deficit for the day.  

This means you'll lose (at most) 1/2 pound per week, which can easily be covered up by a little extra water retention and lead to massive frustration with your lack of progress.

THE BLT SOLUTION

The best solution for avoiding the calories from bites, licks, and tastes is to cut them out completely.    

They’re not adding any value to your diet and you probably don’t want to willingly trade 2 pounds of progress for the month (24 pounds in a year) to have that extra cracker off your kid’s plate.  

The biggest factor here is awareness.  Once you can see how these things are affecting your progress you’ll probably decide to cut them out on your own.

Another way of accounting for these is tracking them before eating them.  

In this case, you’ll probably realize you end up needing to adjust your other meals so much that it’s not worth it, but at the very least you’ll at least know you’re accounting for all the calories you’re eating and continue your progress.

CULPRIT #2: TOPPINGS, CONDIMENTS, & DRESSINGS

All of the extras you use to spice up your meal are counting toward your daily total whether you log them or not.  

We're talking about... 

- The pan spray you use

- The salad dressing

- The sprinkle of cheese you use

- Even the sugar-free sauces and syrups you use.

This is how a salad with grilled chicken at home can be 200 calories, but a similar type of salad at a restaurant ends up being 1000+ calories.

Let’s take a look at the calories in some examples of these add-ons that can sometimes be left out of the tracking app:

- 3 Seconds of pan spray = 30 calories 

- 3 TBL Bolthouse salad dressing = 60 calories 

- 10g Low fat cheese = 30 calories 

- 2 TBL Pb2 = 50 calories 

- 3 TBL Sugar-free teriyaki = 45 calories 

- ¼ cup sugar free syrup = 35 calories 

- 3 TBL Sugar-free coffee creamer = 45 calories

If you notice, these are all “diet” products, so they are even easier to consider free calories that really won’t add up or matter.  

It’s easy to add all of these over the course of the day in an attempt to make your food tastier and make the diet more enjoyable.  

If you’re having all of these and not measuring them or even counting them whatsoever, that adds an extra 295 calories, enough to wipe out ⅔ of your calorie deficit for the day, and enough to add up to 30 pounds difference over the course of the year. (Again, the body does adjust and this isn’t a perfect equation, but it’s a big difference compounded over time!)

THE TOPPINGS, CONDIMENTS, & DRESSINGS SOLUTION

Again... TRACK EVERYTHING. 

Even when something doesn’t add up to a significant number of calories on its own, weigh it and track it.  

If you eat it, your body tracks it, so if you want to avoid spinning your wheels, you need to get a very clear picture of what your body is actually getting for energy.  

If something says on the package it doesn’t have any calories, or says it has “<5” calories, take a look at the serving size.  

Oftentimes it’s an unrealistically small serving size, like ⅕ second spray for pan spray.  

Make sure you’re extrapolating that out to what you’ll actually use to get an accurate entry for your food log. 

Track your day ahead of time using the amount of these types of extras you know you’ll want to have, then measure and stick to that amount.

CULPRIT #3: TRACKING INACCURACIES & ESTIMATING

If you’ve made it this far in the blog, you’ll probably guess what I’m about to say:  

Estimating and tracking inaccurately can add up to a lot of room for error.  

This one can possibly be the most sneaky of all the previously mentioned offenders, because you can fool yourself into thinking... 

“Well, I AM entering it into MyFitnessPal and tracking everything I’m eating, so I’m good…”

This is personally the most convicting portion of this for me.  

I know that when I’m at maintenance I can estimate portions of some things that aren’t calorie dense: chicken breast, green veggies, condiments like sugar-free sauces and salsa.  

But when I enter a fat loss phase I have seen the difference it makes between continuing to get “close enough” on those items and actually measuring everything out in grams.  (The difference is literally pounds per month of fat loss.) 

It takes very minimal extra effort to weigh those extra few items, especially because you’ll already be using the scale for the more calorie-dense foods, and the payoff you get in return is disproportionately positive.

THE SOLUTION TO TRACKING INACCURACY

 → Weigh most things in grams.

Grams are the most accurate unit of measurement. If you’re just starting out in macro tracking this might feel overwhelming, but use your MyFitnessPal log, the food labels, and the “tare” function on your scale to make things as simple as possible.

If your food has a packaging, it will tell you the serving size, and usually has (g) out to the side - that’s your serving size in grams. 

If your food doesn’t have a package, for example a sweet potato, find that item in your MyFitnessPal (or food logging app of choice), and scroll through the measurement units until you get to grams.

[MyFitnessPal tip:  If it has a green checkmark next to it, that means it’s been double checked and it’s more likely to be correct.]

→ Using the "tare" function on your food scale is life-changing.

Ok, that may be a bit of an exaggeration... but it will save you lots of extra time and dirty dishes. 

How to use it:  

Let’s say you’re making a salad with a few ingredients on top. The salad is using the following ingredients: 

- 2 Cups salad mix, 85g 

- 3 Mini Bell peppers, 125g 

-60g black bean salsa 

- 30g guacamole

- 3oz cooked chicken breast 

- 14g pistachios

STEP 1: Place your salad bowl on the scale. Hit “tare” and it will say zero grams. 

STEP 2: Add your salad until it says 85g. Hit Tare again, the scale will say zero. 

STEP 3: Add peppers until it says 125g.  Hit Tare, it will say zero. 

STEP 4: Do the same for salsa, guacamole, and pistachios. 

STEP 5: Hit Unit, it will say ounces now instead of grams.

STEP 6: Add cooked chicken until it says 3.0 ounces.

This allows you to build your salad all in one bowl without using a separate dish for individual ingredients in order to measure. 

For some foods where some will stick to the spoon, or where you’re not building your meal in a serving dish, you can put your entire container of that food on the scale.

I use this method most often for peanut butter, because I won’t be able to accurately measure what comes out on the spoon.   

For this method you’ll put your entire container of peanut butter on the scale, then hit tare so that it says zero.  Let’s say you’re taking out one full serving which is 32 grams.  You’ll scoop the peanut butter out until the scale says “-32”, then you’ll know you’ve taken out 32 grams.

→ Weigh Meat In Ounces

Weighing meat can be confusing, so the most important factor to remember is just consistency.  

If you want to be the most accurate, weigh meat raw and thawed.  If you want to weigh it cooked because you’re preparing for a family, or bulk cooking, weigh it cooked and track it cooked.  

Most importantly, whichever way you do it, do it that way consistently.  

If you’re weighing your meat for today’s lunch raw, then weighing it cooked tomorrow, then estimating how much it should weigh cooked based off of water lost during cooking the next day but logging it all as raw...that’s when the big discrepancies show up.

Weighing raw: This is the most straight forward because it’s entered into MyFitnessPal as raw as the default. If you’re weighing chicken breast for example, you can just weigh out your portion raw, search it in MyFitnessPal, and find an entry for chicken breast. 

Weighing cooked: If you do cook a batch of meat you can weigh your meat out cooked.  Make sure when doing that you are searching for it as cooked in MyFitnessPal.  

There are even entries for different cooking methods (boiled vs. baked vs. grilled). Just make sure your entry is consistent.  

If you’re logging a batch of grilled chicken as grilled chicken, use that same entry for the next day when you’re eating from that same batch of grilled chicken.

"IS ALL OF THE REALLY NECESSARY? SEEMS OBSESSIVE."

If you wanted to save up a substantial amount of money in 3 months, and your current habit is to spend as much as you want however you want, would you need to accurately track you're spending? 

Learning where all the extra calories in your diet are coming from is important information. 

You could be unknowingly adding hundreds of calories and adding weeks if not years to your dieting life.  

Our goal is to help you learn how to diet efficiently, and empower you with the knowledge to do so without frustration.

Your body is tracking everything...every bite, lick, taste, and extra gram whether you choose to be aware of them or not.   

The thing to realize:

When you're done dieting, and the goal is simply maintenance or building, you don't have to be this precise with your measuring.

But if you want to get your diet done and lose the fat efficiently so that you can get back to maintenance or building muscle, you need to know what you’re really taking in.

If you're ready to fully commit to a customized training & nutrition protocol, and finally take your physique to the next level, click here now to apply for online coaching with us.

One of the biggest mistakes people who've been training for 2+ years like you make, is following the same nutrition hierarchy you used to follow for fat loss. 

(Hierarchy - A system that ranks things in order of importance.) 

 You know...

1. Calories 

2. Macros 

3. Micronutrients 

4. Nutrient Timing 

5. Supplements 

This is what we use for our online clients focused on fat loss, and you should as well… when fat loss is the focus. 

But as an intermediate to advanced female or male trainee, you’ve realized that achieving your best body composition requires not just losing fat, but also periods of time devoted to building muscle (the Building Phase, as we call it within online coaching). 

And to get the most out of your Building Phase, your nutrition hierarchy needs to look much different than it would in a fat loss phase. 

Per usual, we do things a bit different here, but that's exactly why our online clients get such superior results. 

Without further ado, The Nutrition Hierarchy For Building Muscle:

The goal of this article is to help you take this from information to application, so gear up for a deep dive into each level of the hierarchy, working our way from the most important nutritional factors we consider for online clients, to the least.

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. 

 We also know you can build muscle in a calorie deficit.

The topic of body recomposition (building muscle and losing fat at the same time) is a hot one.

We have many real world examples, and an increasing number of studies showing people losing fat (which requires being in a calorie deficit) and building muscle simultaneously. 

 We know that to build muscle, you must store energy/protein. To lose fat, you must burn energy... but while you must be in an energy deficit (eating fewer calories than you’re burning) to lose fat, this doesn't mean you must be in an energy surplus (eating more calories than you’re burning) to build muscle. 

To quote my friend Chris Barakat, one of the leading researchers in the field of body recomposition: 

 “...our skeletal muscle and fat tissue are two different functioning compartments of your body which signal different metabolic processes that require different amounts of energy, totally independent of one another.  

Although we have pretty good understanding of the energy cost of fat tissue (i.e. ~3500kcal = 1lbs of Fat Mass), we do not fully know the involved energy cost to build skeletal muscle.” 

We have endless examples of this process happening with online clients. To show just a few examples of impressive body recompostions we've seen… 

But don't just trust our anecdote. The current research also seems to show that building muscle in a calorie deficit is very possible. 

→ In this study, men ~ 23 years old were in a 40% calorie deficit (a.k.a. a big ass deficit), followed a high protein diet and lifted weights, and were actually able to build muscle. 

→ This study showed female college volleyball athletes losing 5+ lbs fat mass, while gaining ~6lbs lean mass in just 7 weeks. 

→ The study Effects of High Versus Low Protein Intake on Body Composition and Maximal Strength in Aspiring Female Physique Athletes Engaging in an 8-Week Resistance Training Program looked at what difference a high vs. low protein intake would have on body composition in female figure competitors.

The high protein group lost ~2.42lbs fat mass, and added ~4.62lbs of lean mass. 

Point is, building muscle in a calorie deficit is very possible, but adequate protein is a must.

We know that to build muscle, your protein needs are going to be somewhere between .8-1g/lb body weight daily.

You’ll hear a lot of people saying… 

“Total protein intake across the day is all that matters, NOT how often you’re getting protein feedings.” 

 ... but let’s use the example of a 150 lb woman pushing to eat 150g protein/day. 

Is she really going to eat all 150g of that in one sitting? Nope. 

Two? Very unlikely. 

So we know that in all of these studies that seem to show the optimal dose of protein, the participants who got great results from these intakes were very likely having to split their protein intake into at least 3+ meals. 

To understand why protein frequency is so important for building muscle, you also need to understand muscle protein balance.

→ Your body turns the protein you eat into muscle through a process called muscle protein synthesis (MPS). 

→ Your body breaks down protein through muscle protein breakdown (MPB).  

The rate of muscle protein synthesis to muscle protein breakdown determines your protein balance. 

If more MPS than MPB is occurring (MPS > MPB), you have positive protein balance. You’re building muscle. 

If more MPB than MPS is occurring (MPB > MPS), you have negative protein balance. You’re losing muscle protein. 

To build muscle, you need more time in a positive protein balance than negative, or MPS > MPB. 

Pretty easy to understand why this is important for building muscle, right?

So this really ties into something called “The Muscle Full Effect”...

Basically, eating protein triggers an anabolic response (it stimulates muscle protein synthesis, which will potentially lead to muscle growth). 

Upon consuming protein, once enough protein is taken in to saturate the muscle, the “muscle full” effect happens:

1. ~30 mins after consuming an adequate bolus of protein, rate of MPS ~triples.

2. At ~90 mins, rate of MPS peaks, before returning to baseline levels at ~2 hours. 

This return to MPS baseline occurs regardless of how much protein is still available in your bloodstream.

You now understand that eating in a calorie surplus isn’t essential. That said, it is more optimal to be in a calorie surplus to build muscle. 

This is because… 

→ Less muscle protein breakdown occurs when more overall calories are available. 

→ Eating more calories allows more room for carbohydrates.

To understand why this is important, you need to gain a quick understanding of your energy systems...

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 body recomposition 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. 

→ Eating more food ensures you have adequate dietary fat - for key hormones like testosterone to be produced at their optimal levels, your body needs ~.3-.4g/lb of body weight. 

Nutrient timing is something that's been looked down upon in the fitness industry as "unimportant".

And look, it's straight up not as important for changing your body composition as the above factors.  

But, how you time your nutrients does have a big impact on your training performance and recovery. Over the course of a few months, a lot of poorly fueled training + sub-optimal recovery VS. a lot of well-fueled training + optimal recovery = a big difference in your body composition. 

So, for online clients like you with the above factors on lock, here are my recommendations: 

→ Protein Timing Across The Day - We’ve already talked a lot about protein frequency, but I want to be sure to hammer this point home here.

Consuming protein (with the most optimal amount being 25-50g) increases muscle protein synthesis for ~3-6 hours. 

 So, to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis through your day, it's most optimal to spread your protein (and meals) across 4-6 meals, with 25-50g protein at each.

→ Pre-Workout Meal - What you eat pre-workout is key for kick-starting the recovery process, and helps fuel your body through intense training. 

To prevent as much muscle protein breakdown as possible, and create optimal circumstances for recovery/growth, you should consume ~25-50g of protein in this meal. If you don't have the option to eat a pre-workout meal (e.g. you workout super early), I'd recommend at least drinking a protein shake before hand. This will digest very quickly, and shouldn't give you issues. 

If you have time to allow the meal to digest pre-workout (>1 hour), adding ~25-50 grams carbs to the mix is smart. A mix of carbs from starch and fruit gives you a combo of faster and slower releasing carbs to fuel you through the workout. 

You want to avoid too much fat in this meal, because it will slow digestion, and have you feeling sluggish during your training. 

A solid pre-workout meal could look something like: 

- Greek yogurt (slow digesting protein) 

 - Whey protein (fast digesting protein) 

- Oatmeal (starchy carb) 

- Berries (carb from fruit) 

Typically, you'll feel best eating this 1-2 hours before you workout. I like to split the difference here and go with 1.5 hours pre-workout. Eating this meal too close to your workout will have you lifting with food still digesting in your belly, making you feel sluggish.

→ Post-Workout Meal - As far as protein, aim to eat another ~25-50g of protein within an hour post-workout (as it will have been about 3 hours from your previous bolus of protein at this point). 

With carbs, insulin sensitivity is highest post-workout. (Basically, your body will most efficiently use carbs for muscle-building purposes at this time.) So it makes sense to time lots of fast-digesting carbs post workout (e.g. white rice, spotted bananas).  

Also, remember the inverse relationship between insulin & cortisol mentioned above. Carbs post-work reduce cortisol, and likely create a more anabolic environment. 

Similar to the pre-workout meal, we want to keep fat low here. Fat would slow your body's ability to digest the nutrients you just took in.

→ Pre-Bed Meal - Sleep is a crucial part of your body actually being able to build muscle & burn fat, and ideally your body will have some protein available throughout the night. Pre-bed, eat your final bolus of protein from a slow digesting source (casein powder, greek yogurt, cottage cheese).

If you’re not hitting your micronutrient needs (which is common in a diet void of whole foods), you’ll feel & train much worse, and progress will be slower. So this is still important. 

Our online clients aim for at least 80% of their diet from whole foods.

So your diet doesn't need to be strictly salmon and spinach... but making 80-90%of your diet whole foods will make the process much easier, and you'll feel better throughout. 

From there, you're free to enjoy the other 10-20% of your calorie intake from whatever your heart desires (as long as you work it into your food intake goals) without any negative effects on your results or your health. 

Now, I get it... talking about food quality is far from the most exciting thing for our clients. So I want to keep this section brief. But you do need to be aware that food quality is also important for preventing micronutrient deficiencies, which can be detrimental to client's health. 

The five most common micronutrient deficiencies: 

→ Vitamin D 

→ Calcium

→ Zinc 

→ Magnesium 

→ Iron 

Ideally, a diet with a good variety of whole foods will cover all your bases here, with you consuming dairy, red meat, and getting regular sun exposure, along with eating one serving of fruits and veggies for every 500 calories you consume.

You can absolutely build a great physique without ever taking a supplement.

That said, there are a science-backed supplements that can be slightly helpful (just remember their position in the hierarchy). 

→ Creatine Monohydrate - Creatine is an extremely well researched supplement, with the most effective form being creatine monohydrate.

Our bodies use creatine phosphate for as a fuel source for the first few seconds of intense or explosive movement/exercise. 

Think of supplementing with creatine as “topping off the tank”... it allows you to maintain high-intensity exercise for slightly longer.

This means an increase in strength, and overall workload you’re able to handle in the gym, equating to building more muscle. 

3-5 grams/day is the general recommended dose. 

→ Caffeine - Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Although considered a psychoactive drug, its use is extremely common and mostly unregulated.

Of all the supplements on this list, caffeine has by far the most noticeable effects. Not only does caffeine boost mood, alertness and mental clarity, it also has some real benefits to your workouts. 

Research shows that caffeine decreases perceived effort, increases power output, and improves endurance.

Not that you needed an excuse for more caffeine, but it’s a real performance booster. Just keep your intake reasonable. Ideally less than 400mg per day. 

→ Protein Powders - If you’re struggling to meet your daily protein requirements, supplementing with a protein powder can be helpful.

Whey protein and casein proteins have the best amino acid profiles of available protein powders. They're the easiest for your body to absorb and use. 

It’s debatable which is superior. The body digests whey protein quicker than casein protein. 

→ Multi-Vitamin - Getting all of your micronutrients from whole foods is ideal.

Ideal, but not always realistic. Taking a multivitamin is a good way to ensure your daily micronutrient needs are met. 

→ Vitamin D - We obtain vitamin D naturally through food and sunlight.

The issue? Most of us don’t get enough time in the sun, and the amount of vitamin D is negligible in most foods outside of fatty fish. As a result, vitamin D deficiency is extremely common

Taking a vitamin D or Cod liver oil supplement can be extremely helpful in preventing this deficiency. 

The typical recommended dose is 1,000-2,000 IU per day 

→  EPA And DHA (Fish Oil) - EPA and DHA are essential fatty acids. Now, if you eat fatty fish 2+ times per week, you're good on these. If not, a fish oil supplement can help. 

Typically, 1-2g EPA + DHA per day is advised. 

Again, supplements are the LEAST important factor. You'll rarely see any noticeable difference from taking a supplement. So don’t get caught up in the minutiae of things like supplements, and forget to focus on the things that really make a difference when it comes to changing your body.

And that is the nutrition hierarchy we use to help our online clients achieve superior results during their building phases.

If you're ready to fully commit to a customized training & nutrition protocol, and finally take your physique to the next level, click here now to apply for online coaching with us.

Today, we’re going to be talking through the exact training and nutrition strategies our online client Julie, a busy mom of five, used to get in the leanest condition of her life for her photoshoot in June.

If someone as busy as Julie can achieve a physique like this, anyone can (if you're willing to put in the work like she did), and today you'll be learning exactly how.

A QUICK OVERVIEW OF NUTRITION PERIODIZATION

Because smart nutrition periodization was a key part of Julie's photoshoot transformation (and a foundational part of our online coaching practice), it's important that you gain a quick understanding of a few of the central concepts to periodized nutrition before we dive into Julie's prep.

PERIODIZATION: Splitting a period of time up into blocks. Each block is focused on creating a different adaptation, but all of the blocks synchronize to push you towards one specific goal (e.g. have visible abs by next summer).
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In Online Coaching, we implement nutrition periodization to help you as clients achieve better aesthetics, health, hormones, a faster metabolism, & results you can sustain for a lifetime.
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Over the course of months (or as long as you're coaching with us), we'll cycle you in & out of these different “phases” of nutrition periodization:

→ Primer Phases 

→ Fat Loss Phases

→ Diet Breaks

→ Maintenance Phases 

→ Reverse Diets 

→ Building Phases

→Mini-Cuts
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A lot different than the ol’ “diet endlessly until I’m lean” approach, right? It’s also much more effective.

All of the phases support each other, & synergistically push you closer to your goal body composition. That's periodization.
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The key things to know:
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1: Over the course of a year, spend more time in the Building &/or Maintenance Phases than in Fat Loss Phases.
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Fat loss happens quickly, & doesn't require nearly as much time to achieve the results you want relative to a Building Phase.
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Fat Loss Phases are by far the most taxing on you physically, hormonally, & mentally. Stay in a fat loss phase for too long, & adherence slips, your body & mindset feel terrible, you'll struggle & you're stuck spinning your wheels… hence the above recommendation. 
⠀ 

Now, of course there are exceptions to this (clients that have a large amount of weight to lose, or have time-sensitive goals), but it's still important to implement Diet Breaks + Reverse Dieting + Maintenance Phases after.

2: To create an aesthetic body, spending time in both Fat Loss AND Building Phases is important.
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Most people only focus on the Fat Loss Phases, and wonder why they always feel awful + struggle to achieve the body composition they want.
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Your body composition improves in the Building Phases. You uncover the changes you've made in the Fat Loss Phases.

To learn more about the approach we take to periodizing nutrition, check out our blog How To Plan A Year Of Training And Nutrition For Physique Development.

THE BUILDING PHASE BEFORE THE DIET

Julie actually spent months focusing on eating more food, building muscle, and being ok with being a bit fluffier before we ever started her diet.

Before working together, Julie had been pretty lean... but never had the physique she wanted at the end of a diet.

Rather than feeling lean, strong, and athletic-looking at the end of a diet, she always just felt... skinny.

When we started coaching together in early November of 2020, she had already identified her problem:

She didn't have enough lean muscle mass.

This meant that as she would shed body fat while dieting, rather than uncovering lean muscle/a sculpted physique... she was just uncovering bones.

Really, this is one of the most common issues new online clients who haven't been able to achieve the physiques they want solo are struggling with - if you don't look the way you want to at an end of a diet, the solution might not be continuing to diet, but rather focusing on building a significant amount of muscle before dieting again. 

Julie had already been in her own building phase for months before working with us... but adding lean muscle to your frame just takes time. 

So our first four months working together (11/7/2020 - 3/7/2021) the focus was exclusively on ensuring she was eating all the carbs and protein she needed to optimally fuel her ability to perform in the gym, and recover afterwards.

During this time, we were looking at a few key metrics to ensure the building phase was going well:

1. We wanted to see her consistently getting stronger in the 5-30 rep range in her training - One of the best signs that you're building muscle, is getting stronger in the 5-30 range, while maintaining excellent form.

2. We wanted hunger to be low, training performance & motivation to train to be high - Muscle is a very "calorically expensive" tissue - it takes a lot of calories for your body to build & maintain. 

So if you're hungry often, your body will be sensing that calories are not abundant. 

When this is the case, it would not make sense for your body to prioritize building something that takes a large chunk of calories, as calories are already sparse. 

So we consistently want to see hunger in the 1's & 2's during a building phase like this.

A screenshot of part of Julie's client metric tracker to show how we keep tabs on this:

Your training performance is very important in a building phase, because what you're doing in the gym is what sends your body the signal that it needs to build muscle.

Another common mistake people trying to transform their physiques make, is putting a major focus on nutrition (which is very important), but forgetting that the way you train/the stimulus you create in the gym is ultimately what determines if you will or won't build muscle.

What we do with your nutrition provides the fuel for recovery and muscle growth, but what you do in the gym must first provide the proper stimulus to recover from. 

Motivation to train is another metric I love to have clients track, because it's one of the best indicators if we need to do more, less, or keep things the same as far as training volume (number of hard sets), intensity, and food intake. 

When motivation to train is low: It's often a good sign that the client is either excessively sore and/or fatigued, so we likely need to increase food and/or decrease training volume - or - the program actually isn't challenging enough, and we may need to increase volume and/or intensity. People are usually most motivated when they not feeling absolutely smashed, but feel like what they're doing is working... meaning the are probably experiencing a bit of muscular soreness after most training days, and are getting a solid pump in most sessions.

3. We want to see the client gaining .25-.5% of their body weight per week (better looked at as 1-2% of body weight per month) - In a building phase, you absolutely shouldn't be in a calorie deficit (a.k.a. eating fewer calories than you're burning). This means that it's impossible to be losing fat in a building phase.

So we can rule out anyone losing fat and building muscle at the same time - this is known as a body recomposition, and often we will see a client's scale weight stay the same, but physique change drastically in a body recomposition phase. 

But because muscle mass does have weight, if you're not gaining weight in a building phase, you're likely just not building muscle (because you're not losing fat in this phase).

After months of very productive building, in early March, we decided Julie was ready to enter a fat loss phase, knowing she'd be able to uncover a much different physique than in her previous diets.

Julie's starting progress picture:

TRAINING APPROACH

Through this entire process (both her building phase and fat loss phase) Julie trained five days per week following a Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper/Full Body training split, with an emphasis on glutes and delts.

Although there is lots of individualization that goes into building a training program for our online clients, it's important to understand that the way you train should not vary depending on if you're in a fat loss phase or a building phase.

One of the biggest mistakes most people make when they enter a fat loss phase is suddenly focusing on burning calories in the gym, rather than training focused on stimulating muscle growth.

Your physique only changes from one diet to the next if you've added more muscle to your frame in the time between.

When you shift your training to focus only on burning calories, you'll quickly lose your hard-earned muscle, and end up with the same physique as last time you dieted.

So whether you're in a fat loss phase or a building phase, for the best physique results, you should always be training like you're trying to build muscle.

This is exactly what we did with Julie, and is why the primary focus of this blog is the adjustments we made to her nutrition - we already have an extremely in-depth guide that teaches you how to train to build muscle here - these are the exact principles Julie followed throughout her building phase and photoshoot prep

During a transformation like this, how you're training shouldn't change much - you'll likely need to do a bit less training volume (hard sets), but the intent and structure of your training should be very similar to your building phase, in order to maintain/keep building as much muscle as possible. 

[WEEKS 1-3]: THE FAT LOSS PHASE STARTING POINT

Julie ended her building phase weighing 148-149 pounds, and eating these macros:

After a week at her maintenance calorie intake (to ease the transition into the diet), Julie officially started her fat loss phase on 3/15.

We knew from Julie's past experiences dieting that she has what we call an adaptive metabolism.

Your metabolism varies a lot in how it responds to over-eating or under-eating - especially non-exercise activity thermogenesis (a.k.a. NEAT - calories burned through things like pacing, fidgeting, and blinking). 

Most client's metabolisms will fall into one of two categories: 

→ Adaptive Metabolisms - For these people (like Julie), when you eat more, your body automatically increases NEAT to compensate. 

Their body adapts to higher calorie intake by increasing calories burned through movement - so weight stays the same, even with calorie increases.  

People like this can typically maintain at a relatively high calorie intake, but the reduction in NEAT when they decrease also means they have to drop calories lower than you'd expect in order to lose fat.

→ Rigid Metabolisms - These people see very little or no increase in NEAT as a response to overeating.  

Thus fat gain is a bit easier. But on the bright side, these people usually don't have to decrease calories as much to lose fat (because calories burned through NEAT doesn't decrease as much as it would for an adaptive metabolism). 

Knowing that Julie had a more adaptive metabolism meant we knew we'd need to be more aggressive with dropping her calories right out of the gate in the fat loss phase.

[One of the main things indicating her adaptive metabolism was her description of spending many weeks slowly decreasing calories with her previous coach before finally seeing changes.]

So right away, we decreased her calories to:

Her target rate of loss per week here: .75-1% of body weight per week. 

We knew this would be fast enough to see noticeable changes every week, but not so fast that she'd feel awful in the gym, or risk losing any of her hard earned muscle.

That said, after Week 1 of the fat loss phase, we made another decrease to her macros:

Now at first glance, it seems like she lost exactly like we wanted her to in the first week (-1.2 lbs).

So why the second adjustment?

When you enter a fat loss phase, you'll typically have to reduce carbs a bit.

When we reduce carbs, we also reduce the amount of carbs our body keeps stored in our muscles for fuel (muscle glycogen). These carbs also soak up some water in storage, so the first week of a diet usually yields a large decrease in scale weight, due to a reduction of stored carbs/water.

So the fact that she only dropped about 1 pound in the first week told us we likely needed to get just a bit more aggressive yet in order to keep seeing her hit the target rate of loss.

That said, I had a hunch we were very close to where she needed to be macro-wise, so Week 2's adjustment was only a 50 calorie decrease, but yielded a week that was actually a bit above the target rate of loss. 

[WEEK 4]: THE DIET BREAK

Over the next few weeks, we saw Julie's weight drop consistently on the same intake. Going into Week 4 of the diet, she was weighing an average of 142.9 pounds. 

But, the upcoming weekend was her Birthday getaway weekend, and we knew she wanted some dietary flexibility to enjoy the trip.

This is the primary reason we took her first diet break so early in the process, adjusting her macros to:

WHY TAKE A DIET BREAK?

1. Refill Muscle Glycogen Stores - As discussed before, muscle glycogen is essentially carbohydrate stored in your muscle and liver. 

Having larger stores of this is beneficial to your ability to train hard.

But of course, as carbs get more limited on a diet, muscle glycogen stores decrease, which in turn can hurt your ability to train hard. 

Taking a diet break allows you to refill muscle glycogen stores, and improve training quality dramatically. 

2. Decrease In Hunger -  A recent study on one week diet breaks by Jackson Peos and colleagues seemed to show they're an effective tool to decrease hunger and desire to eat:

3. Mental Preparation For The Next Fat Loss Phase - A large part of the benefit of diet breaks is psychological.  

Typically, the larger the deficit you’re in, the more challenging it’ll be to maintain mentally. This is further compounded by the fact that you’re still training hard.  

Fortunately, taking a diet break has been shown to decrease irritability and increase alertness, and will have you refreshed and ready to push again. (1)

Again, this diet break was a bit earlier in the process than typical (and thus a bit shorter), but it worked out perfectly to allow her to enjoy her trip without losing any of her progress, and come back the next week rejuvenated and ready for the next fat loss phase. 

[WEEKS 5-8]: NO ADJUSTMENTS, MORE FAT LOSS

The next four weeks after her diet break, fat loss macros stayed the same, as Julie was losing right at the desired rate.

Over this four week stretch, her weekly average weight dropped from 142 to 137.3.

That said, the final two weeks here we did start to see rate of loss slow a bit, which lead to....

[WEEKS 9-12]: THE LAST FAT LOSS MACRO ADJUSTMENT

After about ten days of watching her weight sit around 137, we made the next adjustment to:

THE REASONING BEHIND THE ADJUSTMENT

If you're not making progress, normally a 5-10% reduction in weekly calories will be enough to get fat loss to resume again in a fat loss phase.   

→ If progress has just dipped slightly (e.g. you’re still losing, but slower than .5% of body weight per week), your adjustment will likely be closer to a 5% decrease. 

→ If progress has stalled hard (e.g. no weight or measurement changes in 2+ weeks), we’ll err towards a 7.5-10% decrease. It's pretty rare that we'll drop someone's calories by more than 10%, unless we need to be super aggressive for a strict deadline (e.g. a photoshoot).

This reduction in calories can come from carbs, fats, or a combination of both.  

*Pull from fats if… you’re still above the fat threshold (.3g/lb), and are chasing as much muscle gain or maintenance as possible.  

*Pull from carbs if… you’re at the fat threshold, or just prefer a higher fat diet.  

*Pull from both if… your food choices are the most important factor to sticking to your diet. 

This will allow you to keep the same foods in your diet (just in smaller portions), instead of having to drastically cut back on carb heavy or fattier foods.

Because of her upcoming shoot (which did have a strict deadline) we chose to be a bit more aggressive with this adjustment, and pull from both carbs and fats.

This final adjust got Julie losing right at the desired rate again: over the next 5 weeks, she went from an average weight of 137.3 lbs to 130.6 lbs the day before her shoot.

[WEEK 13]: PEAK WEEK

A peak week is the last 5-7 days before your photoshoot (or bodybuilding show, beach vacation, etc.) 

During this period of time we’re manipulating food intake, training, fluids, etc. to make sure that you go into the shoot with the best possible look.

Now, how we approach a peak week is individualized to the client and their body.

For example, in online client Jeff's peak week protocol (read all about it here), we used a carb front-loading strategy.

For Julie, we wanted to see her get just a bit leaner yet before the end of her peak week. So we chose to keep her in a deficit for the first 6 days of her peak week, before implementing a carb backload the last day before her shoot. 

These are the instructions I emailed her going into peak week:

"PEAK WEEK (Starting 6/8, finishing 6/14): 

The reality here is, you’ve already done all of the work to get lean.

More than anything, we just want to be sure you MAINTAIN a solid look going into the shoot, which means we won’t toy with things too much. 

→ Food Choices - I recommend sticking to the below foods: 

• Proteins: Keep it to meat & egg whites. Ground turkey, chicken breast, lean steak, lean fish. 
• Fats: Olive oil, coconut oil, nut butter - these give you a good diversity of fats, and also digest well for most everyone. 
• Carbs: White rice, sweet potatoes, spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers, asparagus, blueberries. 
• Avoid: Dairy, artificial foods/sweeteners, super high fiber or voluminous foods (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, bananas) and anything that may cause bloat. Greens are limited to spinach, asparagus, and lettuce because they're so light and non-bloating.
• Condiments: Fine if they fit in macros, but ideally they're minimally processed ones and you're using the bare minimum.

→ Number Of Meals - Split your days up into 4-6 meals will make absorption and digestion a bit easier. You're already on top of this.

→ Water & Supplements - We don't want to change anything major here, as toying with the amount of water you're drinking or supplements you're taking could actually cause your body to retain more water, so stay in your normal routine here. 

→ Salt - Similar to water and supplements, we don’t want to create drastic changes here. Salt your food similar to how you normally would. DON’T cut back here - if anything, adding a bit more salt is a good idea, as you'll be taking in less total salt due to the removal of processed foods.

→ Training - We're deloading you through the week to keep inflammation low. Chase a fun pump, but stop well short of failure. 

→ Macros - These will stay the same as they are currently through Sunday 6/13. 

Monday, 6/14 we're going to introduce another 60g of carbs via rice cakes and fruit to bring your macros to:

^These extra carbs will have you more full and pumped during the shoot."

At the start of peak week, Julie was struggling with some abnormal bloating.

However, we didn't freak out about it (she did a great job staying calm despite it being the worst time to be bloated), and after adjusting food selection a bit and understanding that some of it was related to her monthly cycle, the bloating completely disappeared about two days before the shoot.

This left Julie feeling very lean going into the day of the shoot.

DAY OF THE SHOOT

Of course we had a strategy for the day of the shoot as well. Here are the instructions I gave Julie:

"Day Of The Shoot - Again, you’ll already be very dialed in by this point, but a few final adjustments… 

- I would eat your first meal ~6-7am, and eat again 8-9am hours going forward. These meals should be higher carb (30-50g), low protein (10-20g), and fat (5-10g), and you should have eaten 2 pre-shoot (again, given the shoot starts at around 10:30am). 

Make sure you’re continuing to salt these as normal.  

- Drink ~12oz water with each meal. You can drink more if thirsty/not spilled, but no need to force it. 

- 45 minutes before the shoot (15-25 mins before pumping up), I'd down 1/2 tsp of salt + 20-50g of sugar. This will help your pump.

- You have a "pump up routine" programmed in Truecoach as well for today."

THE FINAL RESULT

As you've probably guessed by this point, Julie absolutely crushed her photoshoot:

We really couldn't be more proud of this badass woman, and all of the hard word she put in to achieving her all-time best physique, and the way she decides to show up for herself every day.

As an insanely busy working mother of five, Julie could have made every excuse to drop her standards for herself.

But instead, she chose to make herself a priority, invest in herself, and achieve her all-time best physique.

Now, we're on to her reverse diet, before pushing her into another building phase to create an even better physique six months from now. 

Even if you don't have photoshoot goals, these are the same science-backed strategies we implement with all of our online clients undergoing the physique transformation process.  

If you're ready to be coached 1-1 by our team to your best physique ever, click here now to apply for online coaching with us.

Biofeedback is a technical-sounding term for all of the signals your body is giving you. 

Bio [body] feedback [signals].  

These are the little things that tell you what’s going on internally.  

We know as coaches if we help you manage your diet and training properly, your body will be well from the inside out, and your biofeedback will reflect that and let us know you’re feeling, moving, training, and sleeping well. 

There is a whole list of biofeedback indicators we track with our online clients. In today's blog, we'll talk through all of the key biofeedback markers we look at with online clients, and how to understand them to improve your fat loss & muscle building results.

SLEEP

First up on the list of biofeedback markers we track is sleep.  

[For a deep dive into sleep; why it’s so important for building muscle and burning fat, and how to improve sleep, check out this blog.]

we cover with all our clients why they need to focus on good quantity and quality of sleep. Getting great sleep helps you adhere to your diet, because poor sleep means...

→ Higher stress 

→ More cravings 

→ More hunger 

→ Lower willpower

All of this together adds up to a way harder time actually adhering to the diet when you’re under-slept.  Not to mention training and recovery will suffer with poor sleep, and if you’re tired you’ll generally just move less (lower N.E.A.T.), meaning you’ll burn less calories throughout the day. 

Sleep is also something we watch for changes over time.  Sometimes in a prolonged calorie deficit, especially when you start to get pretty lean, your sleep can start off fine and get worse over time.  

Sometimes that will just come with pushing to get ultra-lean, but it’s something we can keep an eye on and try to mitigate as much as possible with things like sleep routines and lifestyle modification, or even meal timing so you’re not going to bed hungry.  

In general, we like to see anywhere from 7-9 quality hours of sleep per night.

STRESS

Stress goes hand-in-hand with sleep - Poor sleep leads to higher stress, and high stress leads to poor sleep. 

Stress is also another factor that can alter your ability to stick to your nutrition protocol.  

Most people think the reason to keep stress down is because cortisol can block fat loss, which isn’t really the case.  

Cortisol (the stress hormone) can mask fat loss by causing you to hold onto water weight, but it won’t actually completely stop you from losing fat.  

The real detrimental effect of stress is it’s propensity to lower your adherence and willpower. 

When you’re stressed your willpower is lowered, and hunger is typically higher either during or after the stress. We can usually see a pretty direct correlation with stress, sleep, hunger, and cravings.  When one of the first two are off, everything is off.  

We have our clients rate their perceived stress on a scale from 1-5.  If it starts to creep up beyond a 2 or 3 and starts affecting their other biofeedback markers it’s time to start implementing stress-relieving activities. 

Some good options are: 

 → Journaling 

→ Meditation 

→ Deep breathing 

→ Reading 

→ Any other activity that feels calming and enjoyable to them (this can mean drinking a glass of wine, watching a favorite TV show, etc.)

MOTIVATION

We track motivation to keep tabs on two main things:  

1. How motivated you are a client are feeling to do the work (this one’s obvious) 

2. How well you're following the plan 

We know motivation follows action.  

When someone is setting their goals, setting up their checklist of actions they need to be doing to reach those goals, and following through and checking off those boxes, they are motivated and on fire for the process.  

It’s only when they stop doing the things they know they need to do that motivation starts to lag.  

Giving a motivation rating from 1-5 is basically a sneaky way of asking...

“How well are you really following the plan?” 

When we see motivation rating start to fall for a client, that’s an alarm bell going off for us to dig into that and see what’s going on, and try to remedy that so they can get back on track and crushing their goal.

HUNGER & CRAVINGS

Hunger and cravings are indicators of: 

 → What’s your food quality like? 

→ How well is your meal plan set up to include things that keep you full and have enough satisfaction factor?

→ Is there something more going on like hormonal hunger/cravings that we know we just need to anticipate? 

→ Have you been in a deficit too long?

Let’s break each of these down individually. 

> WHAT'S YOUR FOOD QUALITY LIKE? < 

If you are in a very slight deficit, or even at maintenance and still having more hunger than is expected, it’s usually a result of less than optimal food quality.  

Why? 

High quality, nutrient dense, whole foods come along with fiber, water content, and volume.

These are also foods that are more likely to be single-macro foods.  

The example I always like to give to clients is…

→ 1 protein bar = 250 calories, 20g protein and is a mixture of carbs, fat, and protein all in one. 

→ 1 cup plain fat free Greek yogurt, 1 orange, and 10 almonds is also 250 calories, 25g of protein, but each food is a lot more food volume, and is more filling.

Another great example of this...   

→ 4 oz ribeye steak is 320 calories, 19g of protein and 27g of fat. 

→ 4 oz chicken breast and an entire avocado is 350 calories, 25g of protein, and 23g of fat. 

The chicken and avocado is much more filling because of the extra food volume. 

For any clients who are struggling with hunger in a deficit, one of the first things we have them add is a big salad during their hungriest time of the day.

A big salad usually includes tons of greens, chopped veggies of their choice, some lean protein on top, and a low or no fat dressing.  

This gives lots of food volume, fiber, micronutrients, protein, and takes a lot of time to chew and finish. The combination of these factors gives major fullness points for very few calories which is a win-win in a deficit.

For all of these reasons, food quality is the first place we look when hunger is high without a clear reason.

> HOW WELL IS YOUR MEAL PLAN SET UP TO INCLUDE THINGS THAT KEEP YOU FULL & SATISFIED? <

Your meals need to have 3 characteristics: 

1. Fit your target macros 

2. Be enjoyable 

3. Be repeatable

If you stop at number one you’ll be eating in a way you can’t stick to.  Meals should also be enjoyable and repeatable.   

Being enjoyable doesn't just mean it tastes good.  It means it tastes good, makes you feel good, digests well, and is satisfying, meaning you don’t finish eating and still want something.  

Using the big salad example from above, maybe a salad with greens, grilled chicken, and fat free dressing is fine, but it just isn’t satisfying and you’re still wanting something when you finish.  

But maybe you find that if you just add something crunchy on top it adds just a few calories, still fits your macros, and is way more satisfying.

And lastly they should be repeatable, meaning the meal isn’t so complicated it’s unrealistic to repeat day to day. 

> IS THE SOMETHING MORE GOING ON LIKE HORMONAL HUNGER/CRAVINGS THE NEED TO ANTICIPATE/PLAN FOR? <

Some times of the month you know you’ll be hungrier and have more cravings.  

For some that’s the week leading up to their period, for others it’s the week of.  

One option is to add food that week to accommodate and make that trade off for slower progress.  If you don’t want to do that, just knowing it’s coming can be helpful.  

If you don’t already, start tracking your cycle and see if you consistently have increased hunger at any points during the month. That will usually be around ovulation or the start of your period.

> HAVE YOU BEEN IN A DEFICIT FOR TOO LONG? <

This would be the last on the checklist if you still have more weight you’d like to lose, but if you’ve been in a deficit for weeks on end you could just be ready for a diet break.  

Having some time to eat at maintenance can be the mental and physical break you need to get back to it.

TRAINING PERFORMANCE

We train hard when we’re in a surplus so we can build the most amount of muscle possible, and we train hard in a deficit to make sure to preserve the most amount of muscle while dieting.  

So it would make sense to track how training performance is going.  If this is starting to suffer you may not be optimizing your physique, but it can also give clues to any changes that are needed in the diet.   

If you have always had a pretty low fat diet and you experiment with raising fats and lowering carbs and see your training performance go down, you know that strategy isn’t right for you. 

This can also be a situation where you are going in and out of different training phases and you can see what does and doesn’t work for you while you’re in a deficit.  

EXAMPLE: 

If you are deep into a dieting phase and you go into a very glycolytic training phase that you just don’t have the fuel for and training performance suffers, it might be best to hold off on that type of training until you’re back at maintenance.

Tracking training performance can also give you clues about what’s going on outside of just the training and diet.

→ Are you hydrated? 

→ Is sleep going down and you’re seeing it reflected in training performance? 

→ Do you need to add a pre-workout meal or change the one you’re already having? 

→ Are outside stressors taking a toll on training? 

Oftentimes fixing one of the other biofeedback markers can benefit training performance as well.

RECOVERY

Recovery can be just as important as training performance.  

As the SRA Curve illustrates, it's not just train hard, build muscle. You can only adapt to training you can recover from:

As you might expect from reading the integration of all the previous sections, recovery can be majorly affected by diet, sleep, stress, and hydration.  Those are the places to start if you want to improve your recovery.

If you have all those dialed in and still want to improve your recovery from training you can... 

→ Make sure your pre and post-workout meals, particularly carbohydrates, are dialed in. 

→ Add external modalities like massage, stretching, foam rolling, and/or heat. 

→ Take a look at training intensity and volume and make sure they’re dialed in. 

However, these things are the 20%, and the 80% are the fundamentals I mentioned above: Diet, sleep, stress, and hydration.

Renaissance Periodization has coined the terms minimum effective volume (MEV) and maximum recoverable volume (MRV).  

You might have guessed from the names, but...

MINIMUM EFFECTIVE VOLUME (MEV): The lowest volume of training an athlete can do in a

particular situation and still measurably improve.

MAXIMUM RECOVERABLE VOLUME (MRV): The highest volume of training an athlete can do in a

particular situation and still recover. 

In general...

→ Having adequate protein and calories (maintenance or above)

→ Lowering stress 

→ Increasing sleep quality and quantity.

→ Being hydrated and having the proper electrolyte balance

...will both lower your minimum effective volume, so you can get adequate results with less volume, and extend your maximum recoverable volume, so  you can do more while still recovering and not overtrain.

BONUS: STEP COUNT

Ok, this one is a bonus because step count isn’t really biofeedback per se, but it does give us an indication of the amount of movement a person is doing in a given time and might clue us in to metabolic adaptation and help prevent that. 

Let me explain…

Your metabolic rate is made up of the following components: 

→ BMR (calories burned through your heart pumping, breathing, etc. - you'd burn these even if you didn't lift a finger all day)

→ EAT (exercise activity thermogenesis-calories burned during exercise)

→ TEF (thermic effect of food-calories burned in digestion) 

→ NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis-calories burned during all movement outside of exercise)

We have no control over BMR and minimal control over TEF.  

That leaves calories burned during movement.  

Since we can’t just keep pushing calories burned through exercise because that eats into recovery ability and time in our day, we have the most control over NEAT. 

Technically by definition this would be little movements that we don’t have much conscious control over like fidgeting, blinking, spontaneous standing vs. sitting, but for our purposes we use step count.

Step count is something we can control, and it’s a way to monitor and gauge decreased activity over the course of a diet.  

See, when you diet your body attempts to burn less calories to keep you from starving to death. 

One major way of doing this is slowing down your NEAT.  You stand less, talk with your hands less, fidget and blink less, and walk less.  

If we see a clients steps start out at an average of 10-11k steps per day when they start a diet, and gradually move down to 9, 8, and eventually even 7k…

That decreases calorie burn to a pretty large degree.

Instead of continually slashing more and more calories, we can attempt to keep those steps up and mitigate some of that metabolic adaptation.  

That way you’re not adding any unnecessary cardio time, and not slashing calories any more calories than is necessary. 

 As a client, you are expected to track a lot, but it’s not without good reason.

These are all things we’re taking into account to make sure you’re getting the absolute best results possible, staying healthy, and learning throughout the process.  

If you need expert guidance to achieve you physique goals, click here now to apply for online coaching with our team.

Over the last six weeks, I’ve become mortal enemies with this 15 LB weighted vest:

But really, I wore this vest every day through the latter half of my diet because science shows us it could help prevent metabolism from slowing, keep hunger lower, and allow you to lose fat on more calories. 

A few people have been asking if it really helped… could it be a game-changer for their fat loss? 

Well, I just finished my diet, so the final results of the weight vest experiment are in.. and to be honest, I was surprised by them.

In today’s blog, I’ll break down the exact process I used throughout the weight vest experiment, the results, and how (or if) it should be applied for anyone else in a fat loss phase.

THE SCIENCE & THEORY BEHIND USING A WEIGHTED VEST FOR FAT LOSS

So to understand why I undertook this, you first need to understand the potential benefits of wearing weighted apparel like this during a fat loss phase.

BENEFIT #1: INCREASE CALORIES BURNED VIA NON-EXERCISE ACTIVITY

A large part of your metabolism slowing down or speeding up as you lose or gain weight (respectively) is the fact that it takes fewer calories to move a smaller body through space and keep it alive at rest, and more calories to move a larger body through space and keep it alive at rest. 

A 180 pound version of yourself walking 8k steps per day and training 4x/week will burn more calories both while moving and at rest than a 150 pound version of yourself doing the same amount of activity.

So your metabolism is in a large part a product of your current body size. 

A bigger version of your body burns more calories, and thus has a faster metabolism. 

The problem here is, the goal of dieting is literally to make your body smaller.  

As your body gets smaller, it burns fewer calories/your metabolism slows. So food often must be decreased a few times over a diet to continue to lose fat at the target rate...

...unless you were able to replace the weight loss via fat with weight added by a weight vest.

This is the most clear benefit of the weighted vest (as long as you’re wearing it consistently) - by replacing body weight lost with weight added via a weighted vest, we can decrease the amount metabolism slows - while you’re losing fat, your body doesn’t “weigh less”, so calories burned stay high. 

BENEFIT #2: POTENTIAL DECREASE IN HUNGER & METABOLIC ADAPTATION DUE TO ENERGY FLUX

Fat loss basically comes down to energy. 

Energy (calories) in < Energy (calories) out = fat loss 

Now the energy out side of the equation basically determines whether we can eat a lot or a little while dieting. 

→ People that don’t get much daily movement of course have to eat less to keep energy in < energy out.

This move less, eat less approach to fat loss is known as low energy flux.

→ People that get a lot of daily movement can eat more and still lose fat.  

This eat more, move more approach to fat loss is known as high energy flux. 

To quote James Krieger when describing why energy flux matters:

“There is evidence that your body's ability to naturally regulate its body weight is most effective in states of high energy flux, rather than low energy flux. High energy flux may protect against some of the metabolic adaptation that occurs with weight loss, and may reduce sensations of hunger. For example, endurance athletes who establish an energy deficit through exercise while maintaining a higher calorie intake have a higher resting metabolic rate compared to untrained subjects in a low energy flux condition. Older adults have a lower resting metabolic rate and lower muscle sympathetic nervous system activity when in a low energy flux state compared to high energy flux state. Following weight loss, obese subjects had a higher resting metabolic rate and reported less hunger and more fullness in a high energy flux condition versus low energy flux condition, despite both conditions being in energy balance. Low energy flux also predicts future increases in body fat. 

This data suggests it is better to establish a deficit with a higher energy expenditure and higher calorie intake, rather than lower energy expenditure and lower calorie intake.” (1)

The added weight of the weight vest increases the calorie cost of the movement you’re already doing, pushing you towards high energy flux.

BENEFIT #3: GRAVITOSTAT

Again, pulling heavily from what I’ve learned from James Krieger’s excellent article on this topic. 

Until recently, it was thought that your body weight / body fat was mostly regulated by the hormone leptin.

For most of us, when our body fat dips below our body’s comfortable norm, leptin levels decrease, hunger increases, which tends to cause us to eat more and regain the weight. 

However, some recent rodent studies seem to indicate there could be another mechanism to regulate body fat unassociated with leptin. This mechanism has been dubbed gravitostat.

In this study, scientists implanted rodents in the bellies of overweight rats. Shortly after the implantation, the rodents suddenly lost a considerable amount of weight.

Interestingly, these rodents seemed to lose until their body weight including the implanted weight was the same as their non-implanted overweight counterparts in the control group.

So basically, adding the weight in their bellies seemed to trigger their bodies to drop weight quickly, and return their body weight to it’s previous comfortable norm.  

This fat loss was not caused by an increase in calories burned. Instead, the rodents simply saw a decrease in appetite after being implanted.

But, when the weighted implants were removed, the rats gained back the weight.

So the theory behind all of this… 

Osteocytes are bone cells that sense loading on bone to stimulate increases in bone density. An increase or decrease in osteocyte loading sends a signal to the brain to decrease or increase hunger.

By this theory, adding weight via a weighted vest would increase osteocyte loading and decrease the amount of hunger experienced on a diet.  

To sum up, rodent studies indicate your bones may help regulate body weight/fat by sensing load. Increased load could =  decreased hunger signal.

BENEFIT #4: IT’S BEEN PROVEN EFFECTIVE BEFORE 

James Krieger actually documented one of his clients prepping for a bodybuilding show while replacing weight loss via weighted apparel (check out his write up on the process here). 

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This client went from 165 lbs to 145 lbs in 15 weeks. 

Normally, he would have had to drop down to 1400-1500 cals to reach 145. But instead, with the addition of the weighted apparel he was able to…

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→  Keep calories at 2300/day the entire prep 

→ Keep steps at 9500 per day and never had to increase cardio 

⠀ 

The bodybuilder, Eric, was able to get stage lean on significantly more calories and less cardio than ever before, and noted that it was the easiest bodybuilding show prep he’d ever done.

THE APPROACH I USED TO LOSE FAT WITH A WEIGHTED VEST

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to start wearing the vest until I was seven weeks into my thirteen week diet. 

But, once I decided to take it on, here are the guidelines my coach and I created: 

1. The vest must be worn for 6 hours daily

2. The entirety of these 6 hours, you must be standing or walking - this meant that while I was working in the vest, I’d use my standing desk. We hypothesized standing was necessary to reap the benefits of gravitostat.

3. ½ my daily 10,000 steps must be accomplished wearing the weighted vest - For me, this usually meant that I would put the vest on first thing in the morning. I’d take it off ~ 1-2 hours later to train, and then wear it again at my standing desk until my back/hips got tired (this usually meant wearing it in ~1-2 hour chunks), when I’d take it off and sit for a bit (again, usually 1-2 hours).  

I’d repeat this process until I hit the “six hours worn” mark. I really tried to be done with my six hours by the time my girlfriend got home from work, as she didn’t seem to be as entertained by this whole process as I was.

THE RESULTS OF THE WEIGHTED VEST EXPERIMENT

As mentioned, I only wore this vest in accordance with the above guidelines the final 6 weeks. 

I didn’t realize what a large undertaking this would be when I initially committed to it. My feet, hips and lower back were wrecked for the first week of wearing the vest - this first week seemed to be the “adaptation period”. 

After this, my body got much more used to the vest, and it was much more manageable.

I also failed to think through the fact that I would also be wearing this vest for 6 hours on the weekends… which was quite a bit different than just wearing it during my weekday at my home office. 

Fortunately, we didn’t travel too much during this timeframe, and I was still able to make it work on the weekends (albeit, with a lot of weird looks from others). 

So to get into the results...

After spending a year focusing on eating more food and building muscle and intentionally gaining weight, it was time to cut off the fluff I’d added. 

Hence, my 13 week diet started. 

Over the course of my 13 week fat loss phase (3/28 - 6/29), I went from 232.4 to 203.9 (for a total of 28.5 pounds lost).  

I wore the weighted vest the final six weeks. During this time, I went from 215.2 to 203.9 (11.3 lbs lost).

AVERAGE RATE OF LOSS PER WEEK:

→ First seven weeks (no weight vest): 2.46 lbs per week 

→ Last six weeks (wearing weight vest): 1.88 lbs lost per week

With this breakdown, it looks like the rate of loss slowed just a bit when adding the weighted vest… but really, I was surprised with how high the rate of loss stayed, considering:

1. Steps stayed very similar throughout this process - The final three weeks of the diet, we bumped my step goal to 10k per day (I was averaging 9k before this). So a slight increase, but not a large jump by any means. 

2. We only decreased macros once (before I started wearing the weighted vest), and just by 25g of carbs - to start Week 5 of the diet, we decreased calories from 2100-2200 to 2000-2100.

Admittedly, this is a pretty aggressive diet for a 200 lb+ dieter. But as you learned earlier, as your body gets smaller, you burn fewer calories and metabolism slows. 

For losing 28.5 lbs, the rate of fat loss barely decreased.

You also have to consider that my body was getting smaller, so the percentage of total body weight lost stayed very similar across the diet:

→ At 230 lbs, losing 2.3 lbs per week = losing 1% of my body weight per week

→ At 200 lbs, losing 2 lbs per week = losing 1% of my body weight per week

Percentage of total body weight lost is what we adjust our online clients nutrition based on, and is a much better way to determine how well a fat loss phase is going than total weight loss (losing 1.5 lbs per week would be a large amount for a 110 lb individual, but a small amount for a 250 lb individual). 

Relative to diets I’ve done in the past, I was pleasantly surprised at how consistent my rate of loss stayed while keeping macros and cardio very similar through the entire diet. 

I really didn’t notice a difference in hunger from previous diets (although this is very hard to measure). As a whole, if there’s one benefit I’m more skeptical of with the weight vest, it’s gravitostat.

SHOULD YOU USE A WEIGHTED VEST FOR FAT LOSS? (OUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CLIENTS)

So the real question here… 

Should you wear a weighted vest during your next diet? 

→ The weighted vest did seem to yield a much more consistent rate of loss (with minimal adjustments to macros and movement) than I’d seen before.

→ That said, it is also really a pain in the ass to wear for 6+ hours every day, for weeks on end. 

If you don’t work from home, it’s likely frowned upon to wear an armored vest to the office, and many people simply won’t want to be the person explaining why they’re wearing a weighted vest at every social event on the weekends.

A client that didn’t want the hassle of wearing a weighted vest could achieve the same by simply adding in a few more cardio sessions per week, dropping calories a small amount more, or bumping steps by 2k per day - and really, I think most people would prefer these over wearing the weighted vest constantly. 

But, using it as more of a supplement (i.e. worn 2-3 hours per day in the morning and/or evening, and on all of your walks/as many of your daily steps as possible) could be a much more realistic option for most of our clients, and would likely yield most of the benefits from above.

In summary, if you view it as a supplement to your weight loss (and realize that it won’t make a massive difference in your progress), replacing body weight lost with a weight vest while dieting can help you make a bit faster progress. 

If you feel that wearing a weight vest consistently would significantly hamper your lifestyle… or just annoy the hell out of you, it’s likely not worth wearing.

If you're sick of spinning your wheels in the gym and making these same mistakes over and over, click here now to apply for Online Coaching with our team.  

You'll get fully customized training + nutrition protocols fit to your specific goals & lifestyle, and expert guidance and accountability through every step of the process. 

Flexible dieting doesn’t work for a lot of people. 

Neither do meal plans. 

A trend that Coach Andrea (the other half of our coaching team) and I have noticed over the years… 

Even though the fitness industry is constantly pushing flexible dieting harder and harder… many people who set out to lose fat with a “flexible dieting” approach see very little progress, and give up after a few weeks.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have meal plans. 

Most people who follow meal plans see very quick initial progress… but then a large rebound in weight post-diet (or as soon as they deviate from the meal plan). 

Here’s the problem with each:

→ FLEXIBLE DIETING: Usually fails because there’s not enough structure. People take it as “if it fits your macros”, just eat whatever through the day and hope it works out, and chaos ensues.  

But really, once a client understands flexible dieting, it allows for long-term sustainability.

→ MEAL PLANS: Work great in the short-term because they provide tons of structure, and remove a lot of thinking from the fat loss process. You simply eat your foods, hit your steps, and lose fat. 

Meal plans fail people long-term (and often set up some nasty body fat rebounds) because they don’t traditionally allow for much flexibility. 

If you don’t know what to do when that ½ bottle of wine you want to split with your significant other isn’t on your plan… or have no idea what to eat after the diet is over, you’ll probably regain the weight. 

We’re obsessed with giving our online clients the best results possible (and the knowledge to keep their results on their own). 

So after some time pondering the problems we typically see within the nutrition industry, we created our own unique solution we’ve found to be effective with more and more online clients…

THE FLEXIBLE DIETING MEAL PLAN.

Basically, we’re teaching you as an online client how to combine the structure and easily repeatable nature of a meal plan for most of your week… while also taking advantage of the freedom and sustainability that flexible dieting provides when needed. 

When we combine the best elements of both flexible dieting and meal plans, we have a fat loss method that is much more effective for the majority of people trying to get lean. 

Let’s dig in to how we've started building this for clients.

PART ONE: THE MEAL PLAN

For many new online clients, we’ve started helping create structure around building their own example meal plans.

[ *It's important to note that these are not specific prescriptions for exact portion-sizes/foods that must be consumed. Clients typically find the example structure helpful, and then put their own spin on things from there OR create their own structure and then ask for our input.]

This is because flexible dieting fails when people interpret it as… 

“I go into my days with no structure to my food/meals, and just hope I hit my macros when I plug them in at the end of the day.”

This rarely goes as planned. Usually... 

a.) You plug your macros in at the end of the day and realize you’re well over your targets. 

b.) The constant variety and randomness of your food choices leave a lot of room for measurement error (they’re hard to track accurately, and it’s easy to forget a few foods you ate through the day) - it looks like you’re hitting your macros in your tracking app, but you’re actually eating many more calories than you estimate. 

...but either way, you’re not losing fat.

And this is where the example meal plan is most helpful. 

If you really consider the meals you eat throughout the week, most of us aren’t extremely present for the majority of them. 

Most of our meals Monday - Thursday are simply a box to check before moving on to the next important task of the day.

So for these meals, most people are best of making them as mindless & easy to repeat as possible. 

This is where we help our online clients create a “meal template” for most of your meals through the week (i.e. most weekday breakfasts, lunches, and many dinners).

CREATING YOUR MEAL PLAN

→ STEP 1: The template 

We’ll usually start by chatting with clients how much diversity and flexibility they need within their weekday meals.

The majority of online clients seem to prefer just having 1-2 template days that they can easily repeat.  

EXAMPLE:

Say we’re working with a 150 pound woman, who’s fat loss macros are:

1800 Calories / 150g Pro / 165g Carb / 60g Fat 

We’d work together to create two sample days, that could look something like…

She’s planning to eat this mon/wed/fri this week, all of these foods she’s cooking herself, but once to have a glass of wine 3x/week with her husband. 

DAY 2: 

Her office caters in Chipotle 2x/week, and she prefers a bit of variety with her dinners.

So already, you can see that while this is an “example meal plan” we’ve helped the client create... it’s not just chicken and broccoli. 

There’s already flexibility planned in with the wine and meals out.  

It's key that your planning ahead for the week is done over the weekend, so that you know what your upcoming week needs to look like.

Also, it’s ok to keep things the same week-to-week. Most clients will find that one meal is getting a bit old, and will swap it out for another option, but all meals don’t have to change weekly.

→ STEP 2: Meal prep as needed.
We have an entire blog devoted to helping you achieve meal prep mastery. Check out The Meal Prep Guide here.

CREATING YOUR OWN MEAL PLAN

Now, if you’re not working with our coaching team but still want to create your own “meal template” for the week, here’s the gist of it: 

1. CHOOSE HOW MANY DIFFERENT “TEMPLATE DAYS” YOU’LL NEED FOR THE WEEK:

Again, usually 1-2. From here, you’ll simply be plugging foods into MyFitnessPal (or your macro tracking app of choice) to create a plan for these days that aligns with your macros. 

2. CHOOSE YOUR PREFERRED NUMBER OF MEALS: 3-5 meals/snacks daily works best for most. Choose times you can consistently eat each meal, and stick to those - this helps prevent cycles of under/overeating, or playing “macro tetris” too often.

3. PLAN YOUR PROTEINS: Choose a primary protein source for each of your meals, & adjust the serving size until it gives you 25-50g protein, OR add another protein source to reach the 25-50g range. (We want to divide protein evenly between meals, most will hit their goal with 25-50g at each meal.)

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4. PLAN YOUR CARBS: Now you'll know what carb sources will pair well with your proteins - choose 1-2 carb sources for each meal, and adjust serving sizes to fit your macros. (Making the meals around your workouts more carb heavy is more optimal.)

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5. PLAN YOUR FATS: Your protein (and some carb) sources will have fat, so we're waiting until last to add fats as needed to meals. (Timing these further from your workouts is more optimal.)

...and you now have a template day planned out. Figure out how many times you’ll be repeating it this week, so you know how much food to get while prepping.

PART TWO: THE FLEXIBLE DIET

Even though our clients following this strategy do usually have an example meal plan... they’re still tracking their macros. 

On days you do stick to the plan, it’s as easy as hitting “copy from date” in MyFitnessPal, and pasting yesterday's meals over to today.

But here’s the thing… you won’t always want to stick to a meal plan exactly (again, that’s why meal plans usually fail).  

Maybe it’s a surprise date night, or donut… when opportunities like that come up, continuing to track your macros allows you to still say “yes” instead of “it doesn’t fit my meal plan”.

HOW TO USE THE FLEXIBLE APPROACH WHEN RANDOM FOOD EVENTS COME UP

To make sure you fully understand how to use flexible dieting to your advantage, let’s say that it’s Wednesday. 

You had planned on sticking to your meal template today. 

But at 1pm, your significant other texts you… 

“Hey babe, let’s go to that winery tonight for dinner.”

…here’s what to do:

1. Make sure you plug in the meals you’ve already eaten for the day. This will show you how many macros you have left to work with in your evening at the winery. 

2. Plug in your best estimate of what you’ll eat & drink at the winery. This doesn't have to be perfect, but we need a rough estimate so you know how to adjust the rest of your day so you can have both the date night and keep progressing towards your fat loss goals. 

I would plug in here what you’d like to have… even if it’ll push you over your macros as they are now.

3. Adjust the rest of your day. From here, you’ll need to adjust (or cut out) your pre-planned meal template meals to make the winery trip work. 

The most important things here:

a.) You still need to hit your protein goal by the end of the day. This means you’ll likely still need to eat a few servings of protein before going to the winery. 

Protein is very important for building a great physique, so this is always a priority for our online clients. 

b.) You don’t want to be absolutely starving when you go to the winery (so again, it’s probably a good idea to eat beforehand). When you’re hungry, inhibition is lower. When you’re drinking, inhibition is also lower. 

The combination of these two things means it’s a lot more likely that you’ll say “screw it” to your macros once you get to the winery and have a few drinks in you.

Now, to "save up" more calories for later, we basically want to focus on eating leaner protein sources (ones that are primarily protein), while trying to keep fats & carbs low to “save” more calories for later. 

EXAMPLE:

Say you'd planned to have four rice cakes, a banana, some peanut butter, and a protein shake as a pre-workout snack before your afternoon workout, and a chicken stir-fry on a bed of rice for your final meal of the day.

Instead, you could do something like...

→ PRE-WORKOUT SNACK: 2-3 rice cakes and the protein shake only (and eat a bit closer to your workout as this will digest much quicker than your typical pre-workout meal).

→ MEAL: Keep the chicken & stir-fry veggies, drop the rice - the lean protein and veggies will fill you up and push you towards your protein targets. Dropping the rice gives you more calories to play with later.  

With these two simple tweaks, you’re still adequately fueling your physique goals, but also have a lot more calories to work with later in the evening. 

4. Adjust your winery food/drink. Now that you’ve adjusted the rest of your day around the boxes you need to tick to continue to make good progress with your body composition goals, go back and adjust the food/drink you have planned at the winery until it fits your macro goals. 

This might mean that although you initially wanted 4 glasses of wine, you’ll have to drop it to 3... or maybe cut that charcuterie board in half.

But you now know exactly what you need to do to continue to be successful with your fat loss goals and enjoy your date night. 

THE BEST FLEXIBLE DIETING STRATEGY FOR THE WEEKENDS

Again, this is where the “flexible dieting” and tracking macros side of this system we've created is so important. 

There are a few different common scenarios here… 

SCENARIO 1: You have a planned social outing at a specific place and time during the day.

Steps to make this work with your macros:

1. Plug your estimate of the total calories you think you'll eat and/or drink at the event into MyFitnessPal first. 

This doesn't have to be perfect, but we need a rough estimate so you know how to be smart with the rest of your day.

2. From here, plan out what protein sources you need throughout your other meals of the day to hit your protein goal. 

Basically, just choose a protein source for each meal, and adjust the portion-sizes as needed OR add another protein source as needed to get 30-50g at each meal.

3. From there, you'll see "Ok, now that I've for sure hit my protein goal, I have ____ calories to fill with carbs and fats." 

Add in carb sources and fat sources as desired with each meal, and adjust portion sizes as needed to make it work with your calorie goal.    

And that's how you plan ahead for an event like this.

Now here, to "save up" more calories for later, we basically want to focus on eating leaner protein sources (ones that are primarily protein), so you'll notice we drop a lot of the fats, and reduce carb source sizes as well in the example day below.

EXAMPLE DAY:

→ MEAL 1:

Here I would opt for something like an egg white omelet (no fat) with spinach & salsa, paired with a non-fat greek yogurt + protein with a bit of fruit mixed in. This will still give you your protein goal, but you're saving a lot of calories via fat, and eating less overall carbs.

→ MEAL 2:

Here, I would do something like a chicken or ground turkey stir-fry. The protein source is obviously your meat. Lots of stir fry veggies will help keep you full, and you can realistically add in a smaller serving of a carb source and be fine here.

→ SNACK:

Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, jerky, deli meat, tuna salad, etc. Low-fat cottage cheese + tuna pouches are money in situations like this, super easy way to get lots of protein and little else.

→ MEAL 3:

This is your meal out - using our strategy, you have lots of calories saved up from the rest of the day, but also shouldn’t be absolutely starving going into the evening. 

SCENARIO 2: You have no idea exactly what you'll be eating, but the day is likely to involve "flexible foods".

We’re following pretty similar guidelines to the above, but with a bit less planning, because you’re basically just taking it meal by meal here. 

For example, let’s say that most Saturdays you know you’re going to eat/drink at a restaurant at some point during the day… but typically won’t know where until 30-60 minutes before. 

Here, you simply want to be proactive about keep calories lower, while getting in plenty of protein, filling fruits & veggies, and adequate fuel for your training.

EXAMPLE: 

Say your breakfast/pre-workout meal on Saturdays is typically… 

- Greek yogurt 

- Oats 

- Berries 

- Peanut butter 

- Whey protein 

...you could swap it for just the whey, greek yogurt, and berries. You’ll still be getting in the protein + some of the carbs you need to fuel a solid training session, but also saving calories.

If your post-workout meal is typically... 

- Sweet potato

- Ground beef or chicken

...you could swap it for another 1-2 scoops of whey and a piece of fruit. Or you could use the ground beef or chicken on a bed of greens to make a salad instead. 

Again, you’re still getting the protein you need for recovery, and plenty of fullness to keep your appetite low from the meal, but are also saving lots of calories. 

The examples we used from your trip to the winery could also apply here. 

Now, at some point you’ll know where the restaurant or bar is you’ll be eating/drinking at...

HOW TO USE FLEXIBLE DIETING AT RESTAURANTS & BARS

1. Scan the menu upon arrival and look for my best options. These are usually in the "entrees" section - a big chunk of meat/fish/poultry with a carb source like veggie, a potato, or rice

2. Do your best to estimate those calories and plug them into MyFitnessPal before eating. You can usually do this right after you order.

3. From there, you can rework the rest of your macros for the day and determine something like...

"Ok, I can eat ~3/4ths of the food I ordered here, and still hit my macros for the day".

In total, this only takes ~3-5 minutes to do, and allows you to enjoy your meal while also hitting your goals.

For most of our online clients following this diet protocol (who are also currently in a fat loss phase), this is a perfect example of what 1-2 days of their week typically look like. 

We’ll also typically program these as “flex days” for online clients. Whereas normally our clients are focused on hitting macro goals (protein, carb, and fat targets) to optimize their body composition, on flex days you’re simply going to focus on hitting your protein and calorie targets, and let carbs and fats fall where they may. 

Doing this 1-2x/week won’t negatively impact your results, but will give you a lot more dietary flexibility.

And that’s how our online clients bridge the gap between flexible diet and meal plans in a system that does allow you to have the best of both worlds - structure/fat loss results & a flexible, sustainable nutrition approach. 

If you’ve been trying to transform your physique, but have been stuck in the same frustrating place for years... it’s time to ask for help. 

Click here now to apply for online coaching with our team. Our individualized coaching helps you transform your body (and keep your results for a lifetime) through science-based methods, non-stop education, and real human connection.