NUTRITION AND MORE SHIT..

[atrollappears]

Something I found perusing the net:

Nutrition is a vital component and one of the foundational pillars in which the female trainee is built.  I'm going to be very verbose as this is such a complicated topic. I will narrow this down and simplify so that it is relevant to a very specific type of individual (namely a female who is using anabolics), here is how to properly design your diet...

Two of the questions I get asked most often are "what should I eat" and "how much should I eat if my goal is (insert goal here)".  This is a very complex topic and one that I have a tough time answering in casual conversation due to the depth in which I want to take it.  I'm going to try and address this topic in greater depth here, realizing that I will likely only scratch the surface.

When designing any diet, it always helps to understand how much energy intake is required to maintain a stable body composition..  Before we get too far into this, there are some terms I might be using throughout these posts that are important to understand:

BMR (basal metabolic rate) - this is the amount of energy intake required if you were in a coma
NEAT (non-exercise associated thermogenesis) - fancy way of saying all the energy you use living life (think walking, tapping your foot, talking, watching TV, etc)
EAT (exercise associated thermogenesis) - this is the amount of energy used during planned exercise such as resistance training and aerobic activities
TEF (thermic effect of feeding) - relates to the amount of energy required during the feeding and digestive process
TEE (total energy expenditure) - the combined sum of the previous items

It is also worth mentioning at this point that no two individuals will be exactly the same and the intended audience of this article is adults; pubescent teens are out of scope.  Teenagers should largely not focus on minute details such as caloric allowance anyway in most cases.

How would an individual calculate their total energy expenditure so that they have a good baseline figure which will allow them to design their diet to match those requirements (also sometimes called maintenance calories)?  There are many schools of thought but I always recommend creating a baseline intake figure and then potentially adjusting that intake figure as required after a few weeks of careful monitoring.  

Fortunately for us, some smart science-types have already created formulas that allow us to take our first swag at it.  Some of the more popular formulas you'll run into include the Harris-Benedict, the Mifflin-St. Jeor, and the Katch-McArdle.  I'm going to focus on the Katch-McArdle formula as it is the most accurate of the three and what I personally use when helping individuals.  To get an accurate Katch-McArdle figure, you're going to need a reasonable guess as to your current body fat percentage.  For anyone not familiar with calipers, become familiar before reading on....

This post is going to focus on the first steps associated with finding your TEE, using a little bit of trial and error.  To get the process started, I'll be using myself as an example.  If you are following along, you can use the same steps however some of the numbers will likely differ according to your own figures.  The Katch-McArdle formula is as follows: BMR = 370 + (21.6 x LBM) - where LBM = [total weight (kg) x (100 - bodyfat %)]/100.   Fortunately, there is another shortcut available to us so you don't have to do much arithmetic.  I frequently will share this site with folks I'm working with; it just requires that you have a pretty good initial grasp on your current body fat percentage.  As we've already mentioned, calipers are an easy way for beginners to get a rough estimate for our purposes here.

The first choice you will be presented with is asking how active you are.  This is also known as the "activity factor" but I will leave it at "little or no exercise" for this example to keep it somewhat simple.  Hopefully this will accomplish our goal of simplifying things for first time diet designers without adding the extra complexity of exercise.   Next, I will enter my current weight of 190 pounds and my current body fat percentage as 10 percent.  You can also enter your desired body fat level but we will be doing this calculation ourselves so the output would simply be for the sake of seeing how close the calculator tool comes to being accurate, nothing more.

The Katch-McArdle calculator came up with the following output based on the numbers I used:

Caloric Need:

Estimated Base BMR: 2045 Calories.

Estimated TDEE: 2454 Calories.

You now know that BMR is simply the amount of energy the body requires in basically a comatose state but it's the TDEE we're especially interested in here.  This will be our baseline number we'll use for designing phase one of our diet plan; 2454 calories.

Now that we have our TDEE number, we know how many calories we would be required to consume in order to keep weight at a steady figure. - the human body does not necessarily work on a 24 hour clock in the sense that missing your target one day will ruin your diet. That is a great oversimplification of how things work so try not to become focused simply on day-to-day intake goals.  In fact, I often design plans that call for weekly caloric intake goals specifically for more advanced folks as many prefer to do calorie cycling (eating more on days in which they need it - think intense training). 

The next is to track our calorie intake so it doesn't become overly cumbersome to a first time dieter.  I would urge you to read up on the many free calorie counting applications that exist in the market.  Some of the more popular versions that I've used include myfitnesspal, FitDay, Livestrong, and others.  At this point, familiarize yourself with the various apps and choose one that feels the best to you as logging your dietary intake will be one of the most important tasks we'll be doing and these apps do most of the heavy lifting for you.  It's also a good time to mention food scales.  Although advanced folks can usually "eyeball" their food, I'd highly recommend the use of a food scale at this point so that you learn the difference between various weights of foods.  For example, there can be a pretty big caloric difference ounce per ounce of certain foods.  As we dial in our caloric needs, it's good to be as accurate as possible. 

We've calculated our TDEE at 2454kCals/day. In theory, this would be the amount of calories we would need to consume to stay at our same body composition where no other variables change (also sometimes referred to as maintenance calories).  I've also found that it can be upwards of 200-300kCals off depending on the individual.

To find the individual's TDEE we need to design a diet that works out to ~2454kCals/day and begin carefully monitoring both weight and body composition for changes (either positively or negatively). Many folks simply measure weight but I feel that can paint an incomplete picture of what is going on (for instance, simple changes in water weight can cause spikes and drops of pounds per day and give false hope and/or anxiety). For completeness, I would highly urge the individual to grab a tape measure and log measurements in addition to weight. The more data points, the better - but, at a minimum, measure the waist, chest (around nipples), and glutes (at widest point). It would be even better to also measure arms, quads, calves, and shoulders but that isn't an absolute requirement. Just remember, the more data the more complete the progress picture you can paint.

I don't intend to dive deeply into macro and micro-nutrition however a brief overview will be required at this time. Generally, there are three major recognized macro-nutrient groups and they are Protein (PRO), Carbohydrate (CHO), and Fat (FAT). One could argue that there are more (think water, alcohol, fiber, etc)  Micro-nutrients are generally vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and other essentials required to maintain healthy being. 
As we design our 2454kCal diet, we must focus on macro/micro nutrition and then fill the rest of our intake with intelligent food choices. Of the macro-nutrients listed above, there are two essentials (PRO and FAT) and one non-essential (CHO).

To be considered an essential nutrient, it must meet these two criteria:

- Nutrient is required for survival
- Nutrient cannot be made in sufficient quantities (or at all) by the body

CHOs are actually not required in the dietary sense as the body can convert other nutrients to glucose via a process called gluconeogenesis, Just realize that two of the macro-nutrient families are required via dietary intake and one is not 

The first thing is take care of the essential macros (PRO and FAT). In general, when designing a diet where calorie intake will be restricted then higher PRO intake generally becomes more important. Besides PRO being a very satiating macro, it also has been shown to help retain lean mass during long-term dieting as well as many other benefits. General recommendations would be 0.5-1.0g of PRO per pound of body weight. In my case, continuing to use 190 pounds as our example, this would equate to 95-190g/day of PRO.

FAT is our other essential macro and maintaining FAT intake is crucial as it relates to hormonal processes, protecting against inflammation, etc. General guidelines would indicate that it is optimal to shoot for 0.3-0.8g of FAT per pound of body weight. Again, using the example of 190 pounds, this would equate to 57-152g/day of FAT.

Assuming we hit our bare minimum requirements of 95g PRO and 57g FAT, this puts us at 893kCals for the day; well short of our 2454kCal target. One gram of PRO = 4kCal and one gram of FAT = 9kCal. This leaves us with well over 1500kCals to play with. This 1561kCal bucket can be filled with either more PRO, more FAT, or you can introduce CHOs (which also have a relative value of 1g = 4kCals).

What type of foods make the most sense when designing your first diet. Most likely, you're already well aware that a new fad diet is invented, seemingly, every few minutes - eat this, don't eat this, don't eat at all, cleanse this, detox that, etc. They all range in their level of absurdity but the fact remains that dieting is not a complex endeavor, no matter how hard these celebrities and Internet marketers want you to believe that it is. Eat less than you require (TDEE) and you will lose weight. Conversely, if you eat more than you require then you will gain weight. 

Your goal with food intake should be that the majority of your calories come from whole, minimally processed foods while limiting potentially harmful agents such as trans fats. I've explained it to folks in numerous, comparative ways such as asking yourself "would my great grandparents recognize this food item I'm about to ingest"? Does this mean that you can never have that slice of pizza, cake, or other treat which you thoroughly enjoy? Absolutely not..

As you recall, there are generally three recognized macro-nutrient groups and they are PRO, CHO, and FAT. Two of these (PRO and FAT) are required and the third is a non-essential macronutrient (CHO). The first goal is to ensure that your essential (required) macro requirements are fulfilled and then we can continue filling the rest of our caloric budget largely with whole, minimally processed choices.

The best budget choices in the dietary context are those that allow you to hit macro, micro, and caloric goals while leaving you satisfied, happy, and healthy.

My first phase of the diet will be constructed of predominantly whole, minimally processed food sources while simultaneously being sure to hit both my micro and macro-nutrient goals. My diet will consist of essentially 200 grams of PRO, 200 grams of CHO, and 100 grams of FAT for a total of 2500kCals (remember, these are averages and if you go slightly over or under from day to day that is not a problem). The breakdown of macro-nutrients is as follows:

Protein - 200g x 4kCals/gram = 800kCals
Carbohydrates - 200g x 4kCals/gram = 800kCals
Fat - 100g x 9kCals/gram = 900kCals
2500kCals (total)

Over the course of the week, I try my best to weigh all food selections on a nice digital food scale and log everything in within FitDay. FitDay makes tracking caloric and macro/micro-nutrient goals much easier. 

In parallel to this effort, I've started a detailed spreadsheet and have made sure to weigh myself first thing in the AM once I get out of bed. I ensure that I control variables such as bathroom use and weigh-in times so that consistent readings can be had each day. Obviously weighing myself in the morning and evening could differ by multiple pounds so this is an important step to remain consistent. After the first week, I average my weight measurements over the course of those seven days and see see that my weight has only changed by -0.2 pounds versus the prior week which tells me that the calculated TDEE was pretty much dead accurate.

We simply adjust our dietary intake and continue the weekly process of measuring actual weight loss. It is not recommended to go on crash diets nor use hard numbers for your deficits. I like to stick to a 5-15% caloric reduction strategy, typically starting on the low side and adjusting as necessary. The reduction of calories should primarily come from the CHO macro-nutrient group as opposed to either the PRO or FAT group. If you recall from earlier in this series, CHO is an optional macro-nutrient whereas the others are not. I also recommend trying to keep PRO high when combining a caloric deficit and lower CHO intake. In my specific example, this would reduce my daily caloric intake somewhere between 125-375 kCals/day. Just as before, maintain your food and weight log consistency so you can adjust intake as necessary; strive for no more than a 1-2 pound weight loss per week goal.