WHAT SHOULD YOU EAT?
So you’ve understood how to set up your diet, and you’ve probably even worked out your own intake. But now you’re staring at these numbers and probably wondering – what the hell do you eat?
More on that in a second, but first: let’s quickly address two common dietary locutions.
• “Just eat clean” –the problem with this line of thinking is that it creates a black and white, good and bad, neurotic mentality toward food. You should eat clean (good) while avoiding junk (bad). But the truth is that no food is inherently ‘bad’. Do some foods have more of a likelihood to be ‘bad’? Sure.
Hyperpalatable foods that can trigger overeating can fall under this category. But, trigger foods can vary person to person. What triggers one person to overeat will differ from somebody else. If you find you can stop eating at one or two slices of pizza but can’t control yourself around chocolate, does it make sense to avoid pizza? Of course not.
• “If It Fits Your Macros” – this is the polar opposite of the eat clean maxim. Eat whatever you like as long as it “fits your macros”. While the intent behind this message was to prevent the neurotic mentality of ‘eat clean’, as is bound to happen, people bastardised the term and began eating all sorts of junk and weird food combinations to ‘hit their macros’.
While there isn’t one ‘best’ way to eat, here’s a general guideline: the DBADF rule.
THE “DBADF” RULE
When it comes to food, don’t be a militant dietary fucknut running around telling people certain foods are “good” and certain foods are “bad”; this isn’t nursery, you’re not getting sent to the “naughty chair” because you ate a slice of pizza. Fuck, man, chill. But, at the same time, you probably – definitely – shouldn’t be eating like a fucking 10 year old let loose in Willy Wonka’s factory.
And this is where the “DBADF” rule comes in:
The, “Don’t Be A Dumbfuck” rule can be applied to pretty much every facet of your life — dating, business, relationships, and of course, your nutrition. It’s super simple: you know when you’re about to do something stupid and there’s that tiny voice in the back of your head that whispers “Hey, asshole, don’t be a dumbfuck”? Well, basically that.
I want to believe that most of you have some semblance of what ‘healthy’ foods are, and if you don’t – please refer to the pretty picture I painstakingly drew below (because apparently olive oil bottles don’t give a fuck and are impossible to draw). There, you’ll see that some foods should be limited while other foods should make up the bulk of your diet.
A simple rule:
70-80% of your diet should consist of whole, nutrient-rich foods and the remaining 20-30% can be filled with whatever the fuck you want.
So the next time you’re wondering what to eat, just use the DBADF rul
What you eat will also be influenced by your goal and personality type.
• If you’re a Restrictor personality type: While no foods should be off limits, some foods should be limited. For example, for the restrictor type personality, foods that you have trouble controlling yourself around should be kept out of the house. The more the temptation is there, the more likely you are to break down and overeat. This becomes even more important when you’re dieting and hunger and cravings are at an all time high.
• If you’re in a caloric deficit: you’ll be better off choosing foods that are low in energy density and high in nutrient density. These foods will help keep you full when calories are low. Energy-dense foods like cereal, chocolate bars, ice cream, Pop-Tarts, etc. are less filling and thus less satiating. This is why you can eat a chocolate bar and be hungry again ten minutes later, while a [calorically] comparable meal filled with protein and veggies will keep you fuller for longer.
• Some people don’t want to ‘fit’ in tiny amounts of treats on a daily basis, and would rather have a day on the weekend where they can consume more calories. This is totally fine.
BUT, AADAM, WHAT ABOUT SUPPLEMENTS?
The fitness world is rife with innumerable supplements claiming to help you burn fat and build muscle. Unfortunately, as sexy as these claims are, there are very few supplements that actually work and even then, these only work if your diet, training, and lifestyle are in order.
So, if you do have your diet, training, and lifestyle in order – here are some supplements that might be beneficial.
NB: Most people should stick with the low end, unless you mainline caffeine on a daily basis, in which case go with the higher end. Just take the requiredamount 30-60 minutes before training.
But wait, I heard 15 minutes before training?
Caffeine is absorbed from the stomach within 15 to 45 minutes, however, it doesn’t reach it’s peak stimulatory effect until 30 to 70 minutes, so somewhere between 30-60 minutes before you workout will be most optimal.
Some exceptions:
• Fasted training: If you train fasted, supplementing with BCAA’s can offset any potential muscle loss. Anecdotally, people tend to perform better when they consume BCAA’s during their workout, especially if training early in the day. But is it absolutely necessary? No. If you do train fasted, aim to consume some protein (20-30g) post workout and you’ll be fine.
• IBS: If you have IBS, consuming protein powder can be difficult (if not impossible). In this case, using a BCAA product pre- and post-workout can be beneficial.
Also, this.
– Multivitamins
Ok, I’m tired of drawing. Let’s wrap this shit up.
A multivitamin can be useful when you’re dieting and calories are low to help cover any nutritional deficiencies. Outside of that, don’t worry about them.
MAKING ADJUSTMENTS TO THE DIET
MAKING ADJUSTMENTS TO THE DIET
Every diet will need to be adjusted as you lose weight and get leaner. Here are some suggestions on how to do that.
On starting your diet don’t make any adjustments for the first 4 weeks. The body takes some time to ‘catch up’ to the deficit and waiting 4 weeks from when you first set the deficit will allow enough time for you to gauge what’s happening.
Alright. Let’s assume you’ve done all of the above – you’ve set the deficit, waited 4 weeks, and fat loss really has come to a halt. How do you make the adjustment?
Easy: Reduce calorie intake by 5-10%.
So, if you’re starting calorie intake was 2500 calories, you’d reduce this by 125-250 calories.
Where should the adjustments come from?
This is where people get confused: should you cut carbs, fats, or protein?
- Don’t touch protein intake or you’ll die. Ok, you won’t but seriously – leave protein as it is.
Carbs or fats?
This is going to be your call. But here are some suggestions:
- If you’re following a higher carb diet, reduce carb intake. This reduction would be anywhere between 30 to 60 grams of carbs (1 gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories. 125/4 = ≈30, 250/4 = ≈60)
- If you’re following a higher fat or ketogenic diet, reduce fat intake. There are 9 calories in a gram of fat, so the reduction would be anywhere between 10 to 30 grams of fat.
After your first adjustment, keep an eye on your weekly average weight, measurements, and progress photos. Wait 2-3 weeks, If things look like they’restalling, make another 5-10% reduction.
The Blue Box of Read This Shit: if you want to learn more about how to track your progress, read point number 2 in this.
HOW FAST CAN YOU LOSE FAT?
HOW FAST CAN YOU LOSE FAT?
Here’s the thing: You can’t force fat loss. The only thing you can do is coax your body to drop fat by eating in a calorie deficit and complementing it with training. So, firstly:
Calm the fuck down and be patient. You didn’t get out of shape in a week, you’re not getting in shape in a week. The people who have this “fast fat loss” mentality are also the ones who tend to gain it back after the diet ends, or quit entirely after a few weeks. Not because aggressive dieting doesn’t work, but because this mentality encourages the use of fad diets that, a) won’t be sustainable in the long-term, and b) doesn’t help you build the habits that allow you to maintain the loss in the long run.
Now that’s out the way, the second thing we should probably discuss is how fast you should be expecting to lose fat. This depends on how much fat you have to lose. The higher your starting levels of body fat, the faster you can expect to lose; conversely, the leaner you start, a slower rate of loss will be best to minimise muscle and strength loss.
With that in mind: set fat loss targets between 0.5 – 1% of your total body weight per week. The benefit of using percentages is the rate of loss automatically scales with your body weight.
For example
WHAT ABOUT TRAINING FOR FAT LOSS?
Fat loss is all about efficiency. You shouldn’t be “training for fat loss” because you can’t out train your diet – rather, you want to train for muscle and strength gain and retention, while letting your calorie deficit handle the “fat burning”.
And this is where most go wrong. When it comes to losing body fat, there are some things that take precedence over other things as illustrated in this image.
You’ll note that strength training comes before cardio in this hierarchy.
Why though?
For the reasons I’m about to outline below in an easy-to-read, bullet-point format.
- If you’re wanting to lose fat and change the look of your physique, you need to lift weights. Note I said you need to, not, “If you want to”. The muscle definition is going to come through progressive resistance training. So make that the focus of your training
- The ‘lean’, ‘toned’, ‘ripped’ look is predicated on how much muscle you have built and retained – and strength training will help you do that.
- You can’t “spot reduce fat” – selectively lose fat from a certain place on your body. But, you can “spot increase muscle” – selectively increase muscle on certain parts of your body. This, in turn, will help you “tighten up”.
- The stronger you are – increased muscle and connective tissue strength and bone mineral density – the more resilient you become to injuries. Sure, this isn’t directly linked to fat loss, but, I mean, do you want to die? Exactly.
- If you’re really unfit or have a lot of fat to lose, cardio – like running – can be difficult and put a lot of stress on your knees. And for most people, it won’t be sustainable.
- I understand this is perhaps because of my inherent bias, but strength training tends to be more enjoyable, and as you master complex movements and watch your lift numbers go up, this can act as a powerful motivator.
SOOO…CARDIO’S BAD?
No. That’s not what I’m saying. Cardio isn’t bad – quite the opposite. Everyone should do some form of cardio; swimming, walking, running, hiking, playing a sport – whatever. The point I’m trying to impress upon you is that most people resort to ‘cardio’ when trying to lose fat but it’s of the least importance when changing your body composition is the goal.
WAIT, WTF IS NEAT?
NEAT stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and is all the activity that isn’t intentional exercise; fidgeting, walking, playing with your dog, etc.
Ok…Why Should I Give a Fuck?
NEAT is one of the most underrated tools at your disposal if you’re wanting to lose fat. Let me explain why.
There are 24 hours in a day (actually it’s 23 hours and 56 minutes, but I digress), most people who, uh, you know, have a life will only be training for around an hour a day.
That’s ~5% of your day.
Now, there are 168 hours in one week. If someone trains for an hour, 3-5x per week, that’s 3-5 hours of intentional exercise versus 163-165 hours of no exercise.
I’m sure we can all agree that what we do in those 163-165 hours is going to have a far larger influence on our fat loss than what we do in the 3-5 hours in the gym.
And that’s where NEAT comes in.
The graph below shows the difference in calories expended via different jobs.
Note how much of a difference there is in calorie expenditure between being seated all day (seated work – no option of moving) and standing work.
Point: simply being more active throughout the day – walking, interspersing periods of sitting and standing, light stretching etc. add up – everythingcounts. A really simple way to do this is to aim for 10k steps per day.
The Blue Box of Read This Shit: I wrote an entire article on how to program your strength training while in a calorie deficit to prevent muscle and strength loss, you can read that by clicking here.
THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. Do I need to eat six times a day to stoke my metabolism?
Out of the many nutrition myths that are prevalent today, this is perhaps one of the most pervasive.
The claim: Eating more frequent meals spread throughout the day will keep your metabolism ‘stoked’ and in turn will help you burn more fat (and store less fat).
Whether intentional or not, this idea stems from a misunderstanding of what’s actually going on. When you eat there is, in fact, an increase in metabolic rate but this is due to the thermic effect of food. The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) is the number of calories your body burns digesting the food from the meal you ate.
However, while there is an increase in metabolism via TEF when you eat a meal, the idea that this increase is meaningful enough to burn fat (and/or prevent fat storage as we’ll discuss later) is not only wrong but can lead to people gaining even more weight.
The difference is that the person eating more frequently will see more ‘spikes’ in metabolism throughout the day due to TEF while someone eating less frequently will see fewer spikes throughout the day.
But, there’s somewhat of a paradox to the 6 small meals for better fat loss claim. Here’s why.
Let’s assume we have three different people consuming 2000 calories per day split into three different meal frequencies. One consumes the 2000 calories in 5 meals per day; one consumes the 2000 calories in 3 meals per day; one consumes the 2000 calories in 2 meals per day.
We can represent this in a graph like so.
– Green: 5 meals per day – Red: 3 meals per day
– Blue: 2 meals per day
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