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The goal now (read: not tomorrow, not next week, now) is to just make better food choices and improve your daily eating habits. There's no need to get cute or technical with things. There's no need to count calories daily, nor is there any need to worry about macronutrient percentages.
Instead, I want you to follow these simple rules for the next six to twelve months. In doing so, I can guarantee you'll feel and look better.
1. Eat Breakfast Every Day!
This is simple. There's no excuse not to eat breakfast every day. It takes no more than two minutes to whip up a bowl of oatmeal or blend a protein shake with a piece of fruit. Anyone who says they don't have time to make breakfast in the morning is being flat-out lazy and just doesn't want to make the effort to change. Get up fifteen minutes earlier if you have to.
Studies show that people who eat breakfast on a consistent basis tend to be significantly leaner than those who don't. Additionally, breakfast is a great way to stunt the release of cortisol (a hormone that tells your body to store fat). Start each day with breakfast, no excuses.
2. Eat Every 2-3 Hours, No Matter What!
Never skip a meal to "save calories." In doing so you're more likely to overeat later in the day. One of the worst things you can do is to go for prolonged periods of time without eating. You should eat to prevent hunger, not because you're hungry. Even if you're not hungry and it's been three hours, eat something. A protein shake with a handful of mixed nuts would suffice.
Strive for five to eight "feedings" per day. Doing so will go a long ways in keeping blood glucose levels in check and providing some arbitrary improvements in overall metabolism.
It's simple math really. If you're awake 15 hours out of the day, that equates to at least five meals (15/3 hours = 5). So if it's 9 PM and the last time you ate was 6 PM, it's time to eat again. Granted, what you eat during this time will make a difference (I wouldn't suggest a bowl of cereal or a bagel), but it stands to reason that you can and should eat a small meal prior to bed.
The Perfect Pre-Bed Meal:
Half to 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1 scoop chocolate Metabolic Drive
1 oz raw almonds
Half a serving of a quality "greens" supplement
3. Eat Lean Protein With Every Meal
Protein has the greatest Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF) compared to fats and carbohydrates combined, which translates to more calories being burned during digestion.
Simply put, the body will burn more calories (upwards of 30%) assimilating and digesting protein than carbs (6%) and fats (3%). So for every 100 calories of protein ingested, the body will burn 30 calories just digesting it.
Additionally, protein provides essential (and non-essential) amino acids, which are the building blocks of precious lean muscle. Protein also takes longer to digest which will give you a greater feeling of satiety and prevent hunger pangs.
4. Eliminate Calorie Containing Beverages
Alcohol is basically a poison to the body, and when it's ingested the body's main objective is to get rid of it. Fat loss is impossible or at least stunted when alcohol is present in the body. The liver must metabolize and excrete all the alcohol before it can go on doing anything else.
I'm not saying a glass of wine here and there is a bad thing, but I will say that if your goal is fat loss, alcohol should be limited (if not eliminated entirely).
Other beverages on the hit list:
Soda: Nothing but sugar and/or artificial sweeteners
Fruit juice: Highly processed and devoid of the "good stuff" (fiber)
By eliminating calorie containing beverages from your daily diet, you're essentially reducing your daily caloric intake by quite a bit, which will equate to fat loss.
Rule of thumb: Drink at least a gallon of water per day if you're a woman, 1.5 to 2 gallons if you're a man. A great way to judge if you're drinking enough water is the color of your urine. It shouldn't be yellow; it should be clear with a hint of off-yellow tone. If it isn't, you're not drinking enough water.
5. Ingest Vegetables And/Or Fruit Every Time You Eat
Remember, that lone leaf of lettuce you have on your sandwich doesn't count. You need to be eating vegetables and/or fruit with every meal and plenty of them.
6. Save "Starchy" Carbs For After You Train
Use your carbs, don't wear them. When it comes to starchy carbohydrates (think pasta, rice, and potatoes), your best bet would be to save them for only after you train. Please read that again. Save your starchy carbs for only after you train (which for most is three to four times per week). The rest of the day, focus on protein, veggies/fruit, and healthy fats.
After you train your body will actually put those carbohydrates to good use: replenishing depleted glycogen stores, aiding with shuttling nutrients to muscle cells, and shutting down cortisol production (a very catabolic hormone which breaks down muscle). Your body will handle the carbs much more effectively in the hours after a workout than at any other time during the day, so save them for that time only.
7. Eat Fat
Let's say this together: dietary fat does not make me fat. We need to focus on the quality of the fats we eat, not necessarily the quantity.
There are three types of fat – saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. Eating all three kinds in a healthy balance can dramatically improve your health and even help you lose fat. Sounds like an oxymoron (you need to eat fat to lose fat), but when you concentrate on the "good" fats, that's what happens.
Your saturated fat should come from animal products. You can even toss in some butter or coconut oil for cooking. Your monounsaturated fat should come from mixed nuts, olives, and olive oil. Your polyunsaturated fat should come from flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, fish oil, and mixed nuts.
8. Don't Worry About Minutia
Minutia: small or trivial details. Setting diets up based on percentages just doesn't make sense. When someone places protein, carbohydrate, or fat requirements in terms of percentages for a diet, it doesn't necessarily have any relevance to what that person actually needs. A diet consisting of 30% protein may be too little for one person (ingesting only 1000 kcals per day) and too high for someone else (ingesting 5000 kcals per day).
Using the above example, someone who "needs" 150 grams of protein would only be ingesting 75 grams of protein per day on a 1000 kcal per day diet (half of what he actually needs), and 375 grams of protein per day (more than double what he needs) on a 5000 kcal per day diet (again, assuming 30% protein).
Additionally, many diets are often labeled "high carbohydrate or high fat" when a specific macronutrient is over a certain percentage. Most dieticians would be quick to label a diet consisting of 35% fat as "high fat." However, if we were to take a 2000 kcal diet (with 35% of calories coming from fat) and add 200 grams (800 kcals) of carbohydrate to it without changing anything else (total calories are now 2800), a "high-fat" diet all of a sudden becomes a "low-fat" diet because the percentage of fat dropped from 35% to 25%, even though total grams of fat stayed the same.
Save your energy for time under the bar. No need to worry about trivial minutia such as macronutrient percentages.
9. Have 10% Foods
Berardi has stated numerous times that 100% nutritional discipline is never required for optimal progress. The difference in results between 90% adherence to your nutritional program and 100% adherence is negligible.
Weekends tend to be the time when people are tempted to stray from their normal eating habits. As long as you're strict 90% of the time, those three slices of pizza you ordered on Friday night won't be the end all/be all of your success. Planned cheat meals are actually quite beneficial to fat loss in general and have actually been shown to help people get out of their fat loss plateau.
10. Food Preparation is Key
The hardest part about eating well is making sure you can follow the rules above consistently. I can't stress enough how important food preparation is for your success. This should be your first priority!
It takes time and discipline to prepare the foods you need to be eating. Sure, it's more convenient to order fast food rather than cooking a few chicken breasts and steamed veggies for dinner. But you need to look at the food you eat as either bringing you one step closer to your goal or two steps back!
Cooking and preparing meals ahead of time will ensure that you're eating the right foods and not eating for convenience. If the good food is already there in your fridge, you're less inclined to eat the bad stuff. Make a grocery list every week and go shopping for all the foods you'll need to succeed.
Instead, I want you to follow these simple rules for the next six to twelve months. In doing so, I can guarantee you'll feel and look better.
1. Eat Breakfast Every Day!
This is simple. There's no excuse not to eat breakfast every day. It takes no more than two minutes to whip up a bowl of oatmeal or blend a protein shake with a piece of fruit. Anyone who says they don't have time to make breakfast in the morning is being flat-out lazy and just doesn't want to make the effort to change. Get up fifteen minutes earlier if you have to.
Studies show that people who eat breakfast on a consistent basis tend to be significantly leaner than those who don't. Additionally, breakfast is a great way to stunt the release of cortisol (a hormone that tells your body to store fat). Start each day with breakfast, no excuses.
2. Eat Every 2-3 Hours, No Matter What!
Never skip a meal to "save calories." In doing so you're more likely to overeat later in the day. One of the worst things you can do is to go for prolonged periods of time without eating. You should eat to prevent hunger, not because you're hungry. Even if you're not hungry and it's been three hours, eat something. A protein shake with a handful of mixed nuts would suffice.
Strive for five to eight "feedings" per day. Doing so will go a long ways in keeping blood glucose levels in check and providing some arbitrary improvements in overall metabolism.
It's simple math really. If you're awake 15 hours out of the day, that equates to at least five meals (15/3 hours = 5). So if it's 9 PM and the last time you ate was 6 PM, it's time to eat again. Granted, what you eat during this time will make a difference (I wouldn't suggest a bowl of cereal or a bagel), but it stands to reason that you can and should eat a small meal prior to bed.
The Perfect Pre-Bed Meal:
Half to 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1 scoop chocolate Metabolic Drive
1 oz raw almonds
Half a serving of a quality "greens" supplement
3. Eat Lean Protein With Every Meal
Protein has the greatest Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF) compared to fats and carbohydrates combined, which translates to more calories being burned during digestion.
Simply put, the body will burn more calories (upwards of 30%) assimilating and digesting protein than carbs (6%) and fats (3%). So for every 100 calories of protein ingested, the body will burn 30 calories just digesting it.
Additionally, protein provides essential (and non-essential) amino acids, which are the building blocks of precious lean muscle. Protein also takes longer to digest which will give you a greater feeling of satiety and prevent hunger pangs.
4. Eliminate Calorie Containing Beverages
Alcohol is basically a poison to the body, and when it's ingested the body's main objective is to get rid of it. Fat loss is impossible or at least stunted when alcohol is present in the body. The liver must metabolize and excrete all the alcohol before it can go on doing anything else.
I'm not saying a glass of wine here and there is a bad thing, but I will say that if your goal is fat loss, alcohol should be limited (if not eliminated entirely).
Other beverages on the hit list:
Soda: Nothing but sugar and/or artificial sweeteners
Fruit juice: Highly processed and devoid of the "good stuff" (fiber)
By eliminating calorie containing beverages from your daily diet, you're essentially reducing your daily caloric intake by quite a bit, which will equate to fat loss.
Rule of thumb: Drink at least a gallon of water per day if you're a woman, 1.5 to 2 gallons if you're a man. A great way to judge if you're drinking enough water is the color of your urine. It shouldn't be yellow; it should be clear with a hint of off-yellow tone. If it isn't, you're not drinking enough water.
5. Ingest Vegetables And/Or Fruit Every Time You Eat
Remember, that lone leaf of lettuce you have on your sandwich doesn't count. You need to be eating vegetables and/or fruit with every meal and plenty of them.
6. Save "Starchy" Carbs For After You Train
Use your carbs, don't wear them. When it comes to starchy carbohydrates (think pasta, rice, and potatoes), your best bet would be to save them for only after you train. Please read that again. Save your starchy carbs for only after you train (which for most is three to four times per week). The rest of the day, focus on protein, veggies/fruit, and healthy fats.
After you train your body will actually put those carbohydrates to good use: replenishing depleted glycogen stores, aiding with shuttling nutrients to muscle cells, and shutting down cortisol production (a very catabolic hormone which breaks down muscle). Your body will handle the carbs much more effectively in the hours after a workout than at any other time during the day, so save them for that time only.
7. Eat Fat
Let's say this together: dietary fat does not make me fat. We need to focus on the quality of the fats we eat, not necessarily the quantity.
There are three types of fat – saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. Eating all three kinds in a healthy balance can dramatically improve your health and even help you lose fat. Sounds like an oxymoron (you need to eat fat to lose fat), but when you concentrate on the "good" fats, that's what happens.
Your saturated fat should come from animal products. You can even toss in some butter or coconut oil for cooking. Your monounsaturated fat should come from mixed nuts, olives, and olive oil. Your polyunsaturated fat should come from flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, fish oil, and mixed nuts.
8. Don't Worry About Minutia
Minutia: small or trivial details. Setting diets up based on percentages just doesn't make sense. When someone places protein, carbohydrate, or fat requirements in terms of percentages for a diet, it doesn't necessarily have any relevance to what that person actually needs. A diet consisting of 30% protein may be too little for one person (ingesting only 1000 kcals per day) and too high for someone else (ingesting 5000 kcals per day).
Using the above example, someone who "needs" 150 grams of protein would only be ingesting 75 grams of protein per day on a 1000 kcal per day diet (half of what he actually needs), and 375 grams of protein per day (more than double what he needs) on a 5000 kcal per day diet (again, assuming 30% protein).
Additionally, many diets are often labeled "high carbohydrate or high fat" when a specific macronutrient is over a certain percentage. Most dieticians would be quick to label a diet consisting of 35% fat as "high fat." However, if we were to take a 2000 kcal diet (with 35% of calories coming from fat) and add 200 grams (800 kcals) of carbohydrate to it without changing anything else (total calories are now 2800), a "high-fat" diet all of a sudden becomes a "low-fat" diet because the percentage of fat dropped from 35% to 25%, even though total grams of fat stayed the same.
Save your energy for time under the bar. No need to worry about trivial minutia such as macronutrient percentages.
9. Have 10% Foods
Berardi has stated numerous times that 100% nutritional discipline is never required for optimal progress. The difference in results between 90% adherence to your nutritional program and 100% adherence is negligible.
Weekends tend to be the time when people are tempted to stray from their normal eating habits. As long as you're strict 90% of the time, those three slices of pizza you ordered on Friday night won't be the end all/be all of your success. Planned cheat meals are actually quite beneficial to fat loss in general and have actually been shown to help people get out of their fat loss plateau.
10. Food Preparation is Key
The hardest part about eating well is making sure you can follow the rules above consistently. I can't stress enough how important food preparation is for your success. This should be your first priority!
It takes time and discipline to prepare the foods you need to be eating. Sure, it's more convenient to order fast food rather than cooking a few chicken breasts and steamed veggies for dinner. But you need to look at the food you eat as either bringing you one step closer to your goal or two steps back!
Cooking and preparing meals ahead of time will ensure that you're eating the right foods and not eating for convenience. If the good food is already there in your fridge, you're less inclined to eat the bad stuff. Make a grocery list every week and go shopping for all the foods you'll need to succeed.
