Let's Talk Nutrition (Part 2)

Setting up a plan & targets?

‘What diet to follow that will give me quick results?’

The answer is not that easy. Even though there will be people who will make you believe in the theory that a type of dieting or cutting out carbs or fats or whatever will get you faster results in fat loss or eating anything and everything for muscle gain, it does not work that way.

Based on what we have learned so far, we know that you need to eat in a calorie deficit to lose weight and a surplus to gain weight. Adding more perspective, you have to be eating lesser or more than your TDEE consistently. Lesser by how much, and what about the macronutrient split?

A pound of?adipose?(0.45 kilos) tissue is roughly?3500 kcal. A pound of?muscle?(0.45 kilos) is just?~800 kcal. It is more like ~2500 kcal,?but one pound of muscle is only a third protein. Rest is minerals and water. Thus the?3500 kcal?rule per lb. is a simplified yet good guideline for fat loss or muscle gain.

Now you might ask,?why not?2500 kcal for muscle? The reason is that your body can easily store a pound of fat without any metabolic cost but synthesizing a pound of muscle comes with a metabolic cost.

While cutting down body fat, if you reduce?500 kcal?on a daily basis, you lose a pound of fat per week. But should you be losing that much? It depends.

It depends on your?starting?point. Let me put numbers to it and explain why:

The reason that I recommend these targets is that there is a limit to which you can lose fat per day (or per week). If you go faster, sure, you would be happy to see the number dropping on the scale in the short run. In the long run, it would mean lean body mass losses, strength loss, or saggy loose skin.?I would never want that with me or anyone else.

The leaner you are, the slower you’d want to go.

When it comes to muscle gain, the rate you’d want to go is usually a lot slower because muscle gaining takes time, and you do not wish to gain a lot of fat while gaining muscle.=

Now there might be people who would say that they want to gain muscle without any fat gain. This may be possible, but the pursuit of it will leave you frustrated. Expect some fat gain along with muscle gains.?Usually, a 1:1 ratio of muscle to fat is an ideal situation.

Also, I would like to stress the starting point and ending point of muscle gaining for both men and women. You should target muscle gain when you are around 8-12% body fat (for men)?and stop trying to gain once you hit the?15-16% body fat.

The reason you’d want to stop at a point before trying to hold on to the muscle and lose the fat is after those fat% ceilings, your body is primed to store more fat than build muscle. It is because nutrient partitioning is not optimal or the body’s insulin sensitivity.

This table will give you a fair idea of what should you be targeting in terms of a bulking phase.

In terms of macronutrient setting, we will not be using a combination of multiplicationand ratios to make the plan optimal for an individual.

The following table will give you a good guideline into how to set your macronutrients while coming to a cutting or a bulking phase. As much as I would love to get into detail for the basis of these recommendations, it is a topic for another day. I would also like to keep this eBook/guide as crisp as possible and not bore you out.

Let’s take an example of each:

Sample cutting: Rahul weighs 90 kilos and is at 20% body fat Now as his fat% is 20, the lean body mass = 90 – (90*0.20) = 72 kilos. As per the Katch-McArdle formula, his BMR = ~1900 kcal.

He exercises 4 to 5 times a week. Thus, TDEE = 1900 x 1.55 = 2950 kcal.

As he is in the range of 12 to 25% body fat, we can target 1% of body weight per week. That is around 900 grams of fat (2 lb. of fat).

If you take a deficit of 500 kcal. per day, you lose one pound. So to lose two pounds, we reduce 1000 kcal. per day.

Target daily calories = 2950 – 1000 kcal = 1950 kcal

Now again, there will be adjustments he has to make over the course of time as his weight drops and his NEAT will vary.

In terms of calorie setting, it will be:

Protein = 2.2 grams per kilo of lbm. = 72 * 2.2 = ~160 grams. Fats = 25% of calories = 1950*0.25 = 487.5/9 = ~54 grams. Carbs = 1950 – (145*4) – 487.5 = 884 calories/4 = ~206 grams.

Again, this is just an example of how you would want to do it. For some people, it is a good idea to burn some extra calories with a few sessions of cardio than eating lower calories.

This would be the starting plan of action. This will definitely need adjustments time to time.

Sample meal plan for Rahul:

Sample bulking: Ritika weighs 60 kilos and is at 18% body fat Now as her fat% is 18, the lean body mass = 60 – (60*0.18) = 49 kilos. As per the Katch-McArdle formula, her BMR = ~1450 kcal.

She exercises 4 to 5 times a week. Thus, TDEE = 1900 x 1.55 = 2240 kcal.

She is relatively new to training and has been lifting weights since 3 to 4 months. Considering her status, we can roughly target gaining 1% body weight per month.

As she is 60 kilos, we will target gaining 600 grams (~1.35 lbs per month). We know that 3500 kcal would be roughly a pound. So to gain 1.35 lbs., it will be 3500*1.35 = 4725 kcal surplus over the month.

Daily surplus = 4725/30 = ~160 kcal per day Target calories = 2240 + 160 kcal = 2400 kcal

You see, for gaining muscle, you do not have to add a LOT of calories as you think. Now again, there will be adjustments he has to make over the course of time as her NEAT will vary (usually shoots up in a surplus).

?In terms of calorie setting, it will be:

?Protein = 2 grams per kilo of lbm. = 49 * 2.2 = ~110 grams. Fats = 30% of calories = 2400*0.30 = 720/9 = ~80 grams.

Carbs = 2400 – (110*4) – (80*9) = 1240 calories/4 = ~310 grams.

?Again, this is just an example of how you would want to do it. This would be the starting plan of action. This will definitely need adjustments time to time.

Sample meal plan for Ritika:

Progress tracking

“I am doing everything right, following a proper diet and training schedule, but still my weight is almost the same. What is going wrong?”

You probably have found yourself in the above position many times. Pulling your hair out and on the verge of quitting. Hold on! What if I tell you that you are tracking your progress wrongly?

First things first, relating progress to just change in weight is a sure shot strategy forfailure. Surprised?! You should be.

Weight depends on a lot of factors like hydration levels, bowel movements, humidity, carbohydrate intake, fluid intake, electrolyte balance, periods (women), etc. It is quite natural for your body weight to fluctuate up to 3% on a daily basis without any change in body composition. Well, so how do we even track progress?

Firstly, take measurements. If your weight is stable but you are losing inches, you are doing good. These cases could be of raised cortisol levels and your body holding water due to that. Thus, inches are reliable. Do this once every week.

Secondly,?average weigh-ins. Make sure you check your weight at the same condition (preferably an empty stomach) first thing in the morning. But wait, isn’t that counter-productive? Not if you do it the following way:

As you can see, there are fluctuations in weight and, at times, higher than the previous day. But when you compare the weekly averages, there is a weight loss of 0.9 kg.

?Losing?0.5-1% of your body weight per week?is usually a healthy pace for almost every individual.