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Introduction

Most people interested in fitness are interested in how their body composition stacks up against others.

Essentially, body composition is divided into “fat mass” and “lean mass”. Fat mass is pretty self explanatory, and lean mass is everything else (for example muscles/organs). Body composition is often correlated with the risk of developing certain diseases, and obviously shapes our appearance. Lower body fat levels are favourable for most endurance sports simply because carrying less weight is more efficient. In physique sports, body composition is also important due to the impact body fat and muscle mass have on appearance.

There are multitude ways to measure body composition, each with varying degrees of accuracy. Here’s my take on the two most popular options for at-home measurement of body composition: bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and skinfold measurements.

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)

In a nutshell, these devices (often similar looking to scales) measure the electrical impedance of the body to an electrical current. Fat is less conductive than lean tissue. This will result in a higher level of impedance, corresponding to a higher result for body fat percentage.

Unfortunately, many variables affect the accuracy of a BIA measure…

Differences in hydration status can have a large impact on the variability and accuracy of the measurement and predicted body composition. As can the length of fast leading to the measurement, recent food choices, and recent exercise/activity (2). Also, prediction equations used in BIA devices to predict body composition are based off select populations (eg overweight, young and active, elderly), which can introduce error if you do not fit within the exact framework of the population used in the study validating the piece of equipment. There is also a large difference between required predictive equations for different ethnicities (3).

There is a large amount of variation between how accurate different brands/models of BIA equipment are (2), sometimes errors can be as large as 8-9%. As such (if you care to buy a BIA device) I’d recommend doing your research as to which current models have been scientifically validated with different equations available for different populations (age / ethnicity / activity etc).

A huge difference in appearance exists between 6% and 15% body-fat (relative to comparing 30% and 40%), reducing the worth of a lot of BIA measures when getting extremely lean – they aren’t accurate enough.

If you are using a BIA device to measure your body fat percentage for bodybuilding reasons, the error between measures can really throw things out. Coming into competition, a male will usually want to be between 3-6% body fat. Measuring body fat to the accuracy of 1% is probably not a task for most standard household BIA devices, so picture analysis is likely more useful at detecting when body-fat levels are reaching the “ideals” rather than relying on BIA measures. For an in-season bodybuilder, differences in 1-3% in body-fat look a whole lot more obvious than a difference of 1-3% when at a higher percent; for example comparing 37 % to 40%.

Due to the large error margin, BIA is better to be used over a long period of time to look at trends in predicted bodyfat, rather than one-off bodyfat measurements.

Due to the large variation in quality of BIA products with many not having been scientifically validated, combined with the variation in measurements caused by differences explained above, I do not usually recommend the use of BIA to analyse body composition for at home use, unless you reach all the criteria:

1. The device you use has been scientifically validated and you are using predictive equations relevant to you (age / ethnicity / activity etc).
2. You are carefully controlling hydration status at each measure (to be the same each time).
3. You fast for the same length of time leading into the measure.
4. Recent exercise / activity levels are same between measures.

Skin-folds

Bodyfat conversion tables or formulas based on skinfold measurements turn raw data from skinfold measures (decent information) into confounded data influenced by a predictive error (3). 

Even though I don’t recommend taking skin folds and converting the values into a body-fat % value, I think there is some merit in taking skin folds and using the raw data, as discussed in the following section.

What I recommend to track changes in body composition at low cost:

Does putting a number on body fat percentage really matter? If your goal is to lose fat and you’re losing fat, is putting a % to it really that meaningful? Sure, if you’re a competitive bodybuilder, you’re going to want to get within a certain range of body-fat (eg 3-6%), but measuring to that degree of accuracy is usually out of the picture.

Here are some of my recommendations for measuring changes in body composition. The key to all of these methods of measurements is that it is the trends over time that you should be worried about, not a singular measurement.

Raw data from skinfold measures

One recommendation (if you want some numerical data) is to take skinfold measurements. Just record the raw measures, don’t try and convert it into a percentage. To make comparisons between time points more accurate, ensure:

1. The skinfolds are taken at the same time of day (preferably morning prior to eating).
2. Each skinfold is measured 3+ times and either the mean (average of all the numbers) or median (middle number) is chosen.
3. The same person takes the measures (preferably someone who knows what they are doing!).
4. Ideally having eaten the same thing in the preceding meal (dinner the night before).

Pictures taken in similar conditions

Those being:

1. At the same time of day (preferably morning prior to eating) this reduces the influence that the prior meal can have on bloating & hydration status.
2. In the same room with the same lighting (curtains closed, lights on to reduce light variability).
3. Ideally having eaten something in the preceding meal (dinner the night before).

Trends in body-weight combined with performance measurements

A downward trend of body-weight over a decent period of time (1 month+) will almost always indicate fat loss. If gym performance is maintaining or improving, you can be pretty sure that muscle loss has been minimised therefore it would have been reductions in fat mass that would have contributed mostly to the bodyweight change.

Summary

As interest in the fitness industry grows, so do the number of fitness-related products. A lot of these make products make false claims to entice a sale.

Body fat and body composition analysers, for at-home use, are also often overpriced for how useful they actually are. Many people have the desire to know their own body fat percentage however many popular “at-home” methods are truly inaccurate and unvalidated. Do your research before purchasing any of these products!

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Please contact me here if you are interested in the nutrition and training coaching services I provide!

References

(1) Heyward VH, Wagner DR: Body composition and ethnicity. Applied body composition assessment. Human Kinetics. 2004, 135-172.

(2) Pietiläinen, K. H., Kaye, S., Karmi, A., Suojanen, L., Rissanen, A., & Virtanen, K. A. (2013). Agreement of bioelectrical impedance with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and MRI to estimate changes in body fat, skeletal muscle and visceral fat during a 12-month weight loss intervention. British Journal of Nutrition, 109(10), 1910-1916.

(3) Wells, J. C. K., & Fewtrell, M. S. (2006). Measuring body composition. Archives of disease in childhood, 91(7), 612-617.

Banner image: By JKSJks111 (http://www.bodybuildingacademy.org/Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

My Progress from 79kg to 67kg.

Thought some might find it interesting as to how I approached the nutrition side of dropping a weight class!

February last year (2015) I suffered a lumbar facet joint injury (or something with similar symptoms) that only started to come right about a year later. By January of this year, I had become tired of dealing with the many woes of having an injury, and so decided to drop some body fat to get my mind off the fact that I was going to be unable to squat or deadlift heavy very soon. By late February/March 2016 my back started to feel OK under relatively heavy loads (100kg squats and 130kg deadlifts which was heavy for that time). I had dropped to around 74kg which is my usual competition weight and thought it would be worth a crack dropping to around 68kg to water cut down to compete in the U66kg class in my last year as a junior (23 and under).

Flexible Dieting: I ate whatever food I liked, just (sometimes) not as much as I would like.

How did I achieve this fat loss? Through the forever slandered, calorie-counting. Love it or hate it, energy balance is the most important thing when it comes to long term weight loss or weight gain. It is not the ONLY important factor, but it is definitely the most important. I counted calories, reducing the amount I was eating compared to when I was gaining weight. When weight stalled, I reduced calories further, or added in some light cardio. That’s the most important factor – controlling energy balance (energy in versus energy out).

I also ate more protein. More protein during a weight loss phase is crucial. Protein requirements go up when losing weight to spare muscle tissue. Protein, in general, is also is very filling compared to other macronutrients such as fats or carbs (read more about this here). I made sure to have 2-3 servings of veges per day and 1-2 servings of fruit. I also made sure to eat a good amount of fibre (generally over 25 grams, usually around 35). Having a consistently high intake of fibre helped keep me full during the weight loss phase. Fibre also acts somewhat as a proxy for the micronutrient content of the diet as well. IE if someone has a diet high in protein and fibre with fruits, vegetables, and dairy incorporated, you can be pretty sure that their diet is also sufficient in micronutrients.

Protein, fibre, calories, and cardio exercise, all controlled. Those factors, as well as reasonable variation in food selection and fruit and vegetable consumption, meant that I didn’t have to worry about the recent devil in nutrition: sugar. In fact, looking back at previous Myfitnesspal entries, I probably consumed around ~100g/day (25 teaspoons?). Whether or not a sugar intake is acceptable or not is dependent on context – in a weight-trained individual with a decent amount of muscle mass, and with a diet that contains adequate fibre, protein, calories controlled, sugar intake means moot. 

Due to restricted calories, my intake of sugary/processed foods dropped as I continued (as less processed/sugary foods tend to make you more full on average per calorie), but I did not make a point of avoiding certain foods. Sugar is only a small part of one’s diet. Don’t major in the minors.

Focus on the important factors…: Calories. Protein. Fibre. Fruits/Vegetables (micros)..and water 🙂 You don’t have to track calories forever, but when you have a bodyweight or body-composition focused goal, it sure does help. It keeps you accountable. 

Where to from here? My plan is to hover around 67-69kg for the remainder of this year and continue to compete in the 66kg junior class.

Contact me if you would like help structuring your diet &/or training towards bodybuilding or powerlifting comp prep.

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The most recent craze within the nutrition and health industry is undoubtedly the “low carb high fat” (LCHF) craze. No longer is fat the bad guy, but now it’s carbohydrate: particularly sugar. Self-proclaimed nutrition experts are promoting this extremist diet, in the hope to gain followers, and often have products linked in with the success of their campaign such as books, supplements, or nutritional services.

(Before I start, do you really think it’s a good idea to trust someone’s nutritional advice when they have an entire book promoting an extremist diet? Realise that they have pinned themselves down to some extent. They have a reduced capacity to change their opinion despite what the science says, as they have financial ties to integrity in their position….)

Firstly, a look at the food pyramid:

From reading my previous articles/posts, you should be able to assume that I’m not in favour of labeling foods good or bad and so dislike any form of food pyramid. HOWEVER, I simply can not stand when people bash the current food pyramid, which if you didn’t know, pretty much promotes high carb low fat, and say that it needs to be refurbished as the recommendations are wrong, and use the current obesity epidemic as proof that it doesn’t work. Let me ask you, do you actually believe that the current overweight/obese population ate high carb low fat diets to end up where they are? Or did they eat high carb, high fat, low fibre, (hence) high calorie and not exercise enough? It is strikingly obvious to me that it is the latter.

The food pyramid doesn’t work because people don’t follow it, not because the recommendations themselves are terrible. I agree that the pyramid’s recommendations are not perfect (and doubt any pyramid could be “perfect” for the entire population), but they’re definitely NOT the cause of the obesity epidemic! In fact, the “blue zone” populations (oldest living people in the world) eat a diet which is abundant in carbohydrates without containing excessive calories. This type of diet is similar to what the pyramid recommends.

While this style of pyramid is certainly not perfect (I’m not sure a perfect food pyramid could exist), I don’t believe it deserves the hatred it receives.

So, are LCHF diets ultimately superior for weight loss, health, and longevity, as some claim?

Rather than cherry-picking journal articles, I will provide a few recent reviews on the topic. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis of the research are usually the best, unbiased sources of up-to-date information around nutrition (and other topics in science). They analyse and summarise the trends in the research. The review by Johnston et al. (2014), examined the research on weight loss in overweight and obese adults following different style diets. Their was no difference in weight loss between low fat and low carbohydrate diets. Another review by Naude et al. (2014), revealed that in obese subjects either following a low carbohydrate diet or a balanced diet, weight loss was the same between groups, as well as improvements in health markers such as blood pressure, LDL, HDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting blood glucose. And another huge review by Hu et al. (2012) comparing low carb to low fat  concluded “Reductions in body weight, waist circumference and other metabolic risk factors were not significantly different between the 2 diets. These findings suggest that low-carbohydrate diets are at least as effective as low-fat diets at reducing weight and improving metabolic risk factors.” 

Johnston et al. (2014) recommends practitioners to prescribe a style of diet which their clients prefer & as such have a higher chance of adhering to long term. Whether it be low fat, low carbohydrate, or moderate intakes of both macronutrients, the key for long term weight loss is a caloric deficit over a long period of time.

If the research doesn’t show a supremacy of LCHF, why are there so many great anecdotes by people using LCHF?

This great chart by Antonis Damianou of Smart Training and Flexible Dieting illustrates it quite nicely.

Simply put, an initial drop in water weight caused by low carbohydrate intake, results in a positive feed back loop whereby the person believes fat loss is occurring rapidly, meaning that short term adherence to the diet is increased.  There is also a big confounding variable: protein. Foods that are often promoted in LCHF diets such as fatty meats, whole fat milks, nuts, cheeses, eggs, etc, are high in protein. This elevation in protein intake has multiple positive effects for weight loss and body composition: higher thermic effect of food (protein requires more energy to digest/absorb than most carbs or fats), increased muscle gain (or at least increased muscle retention during weight loss). Higher satiety (feeling of fullness) also occurs, resulting in reduction in total calorie consumption, resulting in a caloric deficit and fat loss. The high satiety per calorie induced by LCHF diets due to the inherently high protein and low sugar content is the main upside of this style of dieting in my opinion.

Ok, so this chart shows LCHF diets can work for fat loss?

They absolutely can and do work for fat loss. At least for the short term. The general push for the population to consume less “refined” foods and more “natural/whole” foods is good in general. It will improve protein intake and reduce overall caloric intake, which would improve population health. However, the recommendations often made by LCHF gurus to the general public are extremely misleading. Copious amounts of coconut cream, butter, or lard, or anything high in fat and low in protein for that matter, are not going to be extremely helpful for fat loss. Foods high in fat and low in protein and fibre can lead to over-consumption of calories more easily than foods high in carbohydrates and low in protein, as discussed in Chambers et al., 2015. Feelings of satiety and weight loss can be achieved in other styles of dieting by eating a diet high in fibre and protein (Chambers et al., 2015) without excluding any food groups. Read my article about this here.

In my opinion, the main downside of LCHF diets is how unsustainable they are. If you can see yourself eating low/next to no carbohydrates for the rest of your life, then go ahead – try it. But why would you? For no additional benefit to the LCHF approach compared to a moderate approach, I for one (and I’m sure most of you), would rather still incorporate higher carbohydrate, tasty foods into my diet while achieving optimum results. With appropriate calorie, fibre, and protein control, you don’t have to exclude any of your favourite foods. Read this to learn more.

Side note: An aspect the LCHF approach I’m a bit confused about is, what happens when weight loss stalls? Do you eat more fat? With flexible dieting it’s pretty simple, increase activity or reduce caloric intake slightly. But considering a lot of LCHF advocates don’t even track calories or recommend it, I wonder what adjustments are made to “keep the ball rolling”? Hmm…

Summary

Why must their be “good foods” and “bad foods” and why do we have to demonize either fat or carbohydrate? Why does it either have to be high carb, low fat, or low carb, high fat? Where’s the middle ground?

What about a moderated approach to include all macronutrients in reasonable quantities according to preference, without having to shy away from any foods/food groups in particular? In my opinion that is more sustainable. I think extremist style diets are promoted simply because the public will listen, and so there is money to be made. The average Joe doesn’t want to hear “everything in moderation” or “calories are of number one importance when it comes to weight loss”. That’s boring. They want to hear about the most recent/trendy diet, no matter how sustainable.

If you are interested in inquiring about my online nutritional services whether it be for general fat loss and health, or sport-specific, please contact me here.

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The following articles are great reads and I highly recommend them:

Eric Helms “The Myth of Good and Bad Foods”

Layne Norton “The Science of Sugar and Fat Loss” 

Joy Victoria “Your Problem with Sugar is the Problem with Sugar” 

James Krieger “Good Calories, Bad Calories: The Mythology of Obesity, or The Mythology of Gary Taubes?“

JC Deen “If You Want To Lose Fat, and Keep It Off, Don’t Fall For The Low-Carb Trap”

If you are a client and/or have read my previous articles, you’ll know that I’m against labelling a single food as “good” or “bad” and that the whole diet and context of the situation needs to be considered.

…However, there are certainly foods which are more favourable within a diet than others, when trying to lose weight. For a simple reason: satiety per calorie. Satiety per calorie means how much of a feeling of “fullness” a food gives you per calorie of the food. It is of utmost importance to focus dieting around foods which give you a good amount of satiety per calorie, to reduce hunger and improve adherence to the diet.

What makes a food filling?

Foods high in fibre,  protein, fat, or a combination of these, tend to be filling. Foods high in fibre and/or protein while being low in fat and carbs tend to be more filling per calorie. As such, we should focus on eating and drinking a large amount of protein and fibre during our weight loss phases; protein has more benefits than simply synthesising into muscle tissue! Foods high in water content, or other calorie-free liquid, also make us more full for a low amount of calories. This is why I recommend low calorie-soups or large amounts of liquids during meal time, when dieting.

The image on the left was obtained from http://nutritiondata.self.com/topics/fullness-factor. This website is a great resource for checking out nutritional data of foods and seeing which foods will be more satiating per calorie. As you can see, many fruits and vegetables are high on the list of satiety per calorie and so should be eaten in abundance if we are having hunger issues. Some fruits are more filling than others though: for example watermelon has a fullness factor (FF) of 4.5 (due to the huge liquid content) whereas bananas only has that of 2.5. Lean meats also have a high FF. As we have higher protein requirements when we are in a weight loss phase, AND we are more likely to be hungry which can reduce diet adherence, we should increase lean meat consumption.

Within the table, all of the foods at the top of the chart are those typically considered “healthy” foods whereas those at the bottom are often labelled “unhealthy”. This supports why we should focus the majority of our diet around lean meats and fruits/vegetables, to hit protein, fibre, and micronutrient targets, AND stay full, and then work in tastier foods around these.  Inevitably, you will get hungry when you have been dieting long enough and have reached low body fat levels, but having an understanding of satiety per calorie will make your weight loss journey a whole lot easier to bear.

Key point:

• Focus the majority of your diet around foods with a high fullness factor if you suffer from hunger during weight loss phases.

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Before I start, this article is not to debate the evidence surrounding the safety of various artificial sweeteners. For that I suggest you go to the website examine.com. If you are worried about any specific ingredients in anything you consume, search it up in their to receive and objective, scientific view point (nutrition is a science, remember).

The Appeal to Nature

Artificial sweeteners get an unfounded bad reputation among many who assume that “unnatural” foods are the devil, and as such, any food with a long name must be bad for your body. This is called the naturalistic fallacy/appeal to nature. A bit about that..

“An appeal to nature is an argument or rhetorical tactic in which it is proposed that “a thing is good because it is ‘natural’, or bad because it is ‘unnatural'”. It is usually an invalid argument, because the implicit (unstated) primary premise “What is natural is good” typically is irrelevant, having no cogent meaning in practice, or is an opinion instead of a fact” – Wiki

It is possible to become obese and unhealthy through consuming only “natural” foods. I will admit that a diet aimed at weight loss will probably contain more “natural” foods like lean meats and vegetables, simply because they are usually more filling per calorie and contain great amounts of  micronutrients (& protein & fibre, respectively). However, there is still room for heavily processed, refined, man made, whatever-you-want-to-call-it, food products within our diet, and they may actually help us reach our goals in some cases.

Foods High in Sugar can be Positive or Negative within a Diet

From personal and coaching experience, I have learnt that when transitioning from a bulk (weight gain phase) to a cut (weight loss phase), the first foods to be emitted from the diet are usually those high sugar, low fibre, low protein: eg soft drinks, donuts, ice cream, lollies, etc. These foods can be useful for some individuals who need a lot of calories to put on weight (3000+), as these foods make it easier to reach desired carbohydrate and calorie intake without making you full. When the cut begins, calories/carbs need to be dropped, and so it makes sense that these foods are dropped. They also don’t offer much protein, which requirements increase as you lose weight (in order to spare muscle tissue).Whether foods high in sugar are positive or negative to a diet is dependent on context.

Consumption of these can be useful for SOME individuals struggling to consume enough calories to gain weight.

Easing the Transition into Dieting 

I recommend slow weight loss phases, whether you are prepping for a bodybuilding show or simply trying to drop some unwanted fat, a rough guideline is no more than 1% of body weight, weight loss per week. Taking it slow will help to conserve gym performance, and therefore muscle mass. It will also make the diet more sustainable, with less cravings & bad moods. Artificial sweeteners ease the transition from the weight gain phase to the weight loss phase. Replacing higher calorie deserts with options like sugar-free jellies, and soft drinks with diet drinks, our dieting attempts may actually feel less like dieting. We still get to taste the sugary taste which our instincts are wired to crave. This easy transition should increase dietary success through sustainability, so long as we still track our food intake to some extent as suggested in previous articles.

Key points:

• Just because a food does not appear in nature does not make it unhealthy.
• Keep dietary changes small to improve sustainability & long term adherence.
• Replace sugary foods with calorie-free substitutes when transitioning into a weight-loss phase.

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In the first part (here) I gave an introduction of flexible dieting. In this article I will show you an example of how flexible dieting is implemented in the offseason of a drug free bodybuilder, and compare it to a few weeks before competition. A bit of background: Tehezib (T) started contest prep (weight loss-get lean phase) for the 2015 season in March. He competed in five competitions between early August and late November.

Late January 2015 (80kg)

Mid September 2015 (72-75kg)

The lighting is different, but that’s besides the point. He obviously got shredded and contest-lean. He did this with no restriction on any foods. He ate whatever food he wanted, it just wasn’t always as much as he wanted. He tracked his calories, macros, and fibre and this along with appropriate cardio and training planning facilitated him to get this lean while retaining his muscle mass. For interest’s sake, I’ll give you some examples of his Myfitnesspal dietary entries from the off-season and from deep in prep:

This example MFP entry was from in the off-season prior to the weight loss phase (prep). Calorie intake was around 1000kcal higher/day than in the depths of prep. During this time, there was far more flexibility in quantity of foods eaten. This calorie intake was around 200-300 above maintenance, and enabled a weight gain of roughly 250g/week. Controlling calories around this amount (±200) ensured that T did not gain excessive amounts of fat, while also maximising rates of muscle gain. As you can see, he was eating all types of “unclean” “bad” foods yet still remaining at his calorie target, hitting ample protein to maximise protein synthesis, and eating enough fibre to maintain digestive health. More dairy products could have been incorporated as it looks like calcium was a bit low for this day, but this is only a small snapshot of his overall diet. His health, body weight/muscle gain, mental health, was all good following a diet like this without any crazy restrictions on particular food groups or foods. Note that his sugar intake on this day was 94 grams. This is above typical recommended daily intakes and far above guidelines of radical sugar restriction diets, but his health was completely fine. He is an athlete with improved blood glucose regulation, due mainly to an abundant of insulin-sensitive muscle tissue which can quickly soak up excess glucose from the blood stream. CONTEXT is important with diet, you simply can’t say sugar is bad for everyone.

This next snapshot of T’s diet was in the depths of contest prep where we were aiming to get him to stage-ready leanness while maintaining as much muscle as possible, and doing as much as we could do make him mentally sane and remain as healthy as possible (although it is unlikely to remain hormonally/mentally healthy during an extended period of leanness/calorie restriction.. simply what natural bodybuilding entails). His calories had dropped quite a lot since the bulking period. Note these dietary changes were not all made in one go, rather it was a gradual drop from ~3250 to ~2350. He was still consuming foods that he enjoys (just in lower quantities), while getting shredded. As you can see, sugar intake has dropped. This is because high sugar foods are often micronutrient, fibre void foods that don’t keep you full for the amount of calories that they have in them, which can lead to overeating calories (this is the main reason why excess sugar is associated with weight gain, and context is important). As T was restricting calories and getting extremely lean, his hunger was elevating. Thus, inherently he opted to eat more filling foods with his allocated calories and macros, which typically means less sugar.

Hopefully this gave you a good insight as to how a diet of a competitive natural bodybuilder changes from the offseason to contest prep. This particular diet is not intended to be copied and followed by anyone, as each individual often requires different calorie and macronutrient targets to get to their desired goal.

If you are interested in bodybuilding prep while still eating your favourite foods, or simply want to lose weight, please check out the services  page and get in contact with me.

-Jeremy

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  Most diets fail because of unsustainability. This is often because of particular food restriction or restrictions on entire food groups. In an instance where an individual doesn’t follow every rule laid out by a fad diet, they have no idea how to adjust the rest of their diet to accommodate the earlier muck up, and this can lead to a chain of binge/purge cycles. For example: worrying that the small bowl of ice cream you ate will completely stop your chances of weight loss for the day so you might as well go all out and eat the whole tub. This type of black and white thinking about nutrition can impede people’s ability to maintain a healthy weight once achieved (1). 

To give you a bit of background, flexible dieting AKA IIFYM (if it fits your macros) is a dietary strategy which has a main focus on reaching target macronutrient and calorie numbers by the end of the day. It does not directly discriminate between “good” and “bad” foods or “clean” and “unclean”. To do so is missing the bigger picture. These macronutrient and calorie targets are often set through trial and error as to how training performance and body weight/composition responds. If planned with health in mind, a dietary fibre target will also be present. Reaching a daily fibre target of around 25-40g/day (depending on caloric intake) will aid in gastrointestinal system health and help blood sugar levels stay relatively stable. It will also indirectly ensure that you are consuming a large amount of some of the micronutrients.. as most foods that are high in fibre are also high in micronutrients.

Flexible dieting means you don’t have to eat this for meal #2,3,4, and 5.

One huge misconception that people have about flexible dieting is that it gives you permission to eat junk food all day so long as it “fits the macros”. There is something inherently wrong with that idea. Suitable macros ESPECIALLY when someone is trying to lose a great deal of body fat, like during bodybuilding contest prep, will not allow a large intake of calorie dense, unfilling, “unhealthy” foods. For example, if you are eating 2000 calories per day of about 150g protein, 250g carbs, 50 fat, and 30 fibre, you simply won’t have enough room in your macro quota to fill it with pure junk. You would end up not reaching the protein or fibre target.

Thus, flexible dieting often involves eating a decent amount of typical “bodybuilder” foods like chicken and broccoli, just because these foods are of low caloric density and make you full for the amount of calories that they have in them. When you are on 3000-4000 calories however, there becomes a lot of room to fit in a wider range and quantities of foods you desire, just be sure to still hit the calorie, protein, and fibre quota for the day, eat some fruits and vegetables, and your health will be just fine. Remember, look at your diet and lifestyle as a whole to determine whether it is healthy or not, rather than nit-picking at smaller details in your diet like if you should put a teaspoon of sugar in your coffee or not. 

Big Mac(ros). Still possible to fit this into a diet of 2000 calories, but not recommended as it will use up a large chunk of your fat and calories for the day.

It IS possible to eat this and still lose weight and be healthy, just be smart and calculated with your dietary strategy.

Where it trumps other styles of diets is the flexibility that it has. It means you don’t have to be a social outcast and bring tupperware out to lunch with your friends. Not to hate against anyone who does that, just saying that it is unnecessary suffering. You can eat what you like when you go out, as long as you have a decent estimate of the macronutrient profile of the meal. Once you have used flexible dieting for an extended period of time, you will have a greater understanding for the nutrient profile of select foods, and will be able to eat intuitively without having to track calories/macros. That is the end goal.

In the next article I will provide a case study on a bodybuilder transitioning from deep in the off season, to late in contest prep, as an example of how a flexible diet changes when calorie and macronutrient targets change. Stay tuned!

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Nutrition for fat loss and muscle retention

Basic nutrition for bodybuilding/powerlifting

References

• (1) Palascha, A., van Kleef, E., & van Trijp, H. C. (2015). How does thinking in Black and White terms relate to eating behavior and weight regain?. Journal of health psychology, 20(5), 638-648.

This article is written in the context of a weight trained male or female with a decent amount of muscle mass, trying to lose fat.

I felt this topic was worth writing about as I see countless people thinking that they have to make drastic dietary changes in order to see results. This often involves adoption of an extremist style diet such as paleo, keto, 0 sugar, or some other diet that involves a list of foods which you can and can’t eat. While these types of diet can and do work, for the short term, they are often unsustainable and so make long term progress difficult.

I do NOT advocate separating foods under “acceptable” and “unacceptable” labels like this!

Exclusion style diets are especially difficult to make continued progress with if quantitative (countable) calorie and macronutrient goals aren’t present. Why this is important is because energy and macronutrient content of a diet are the most important factors for weight change and body composition, NOT eating a select bunch of foods, or certain foods at certain times. This means tracking calorie and/or macronutrients (carbs,fats,protein) is important for continued progress. This article is not about arguing fundamental concepts of nutrition, though. I would advise everyone to watch the entirety of the Eric Helms’ Nutritional Pyramid series on Youtube if you haven’t already, it will inform or refresh you about what factors of a diet are worth paying attention to.

What Do I Recommend?

Firstly, before you attempt to lose weight, start to track every food you eat in a free online database such as Myfitnesspal. Do this for a week and average the data. This is in an attempt to gauge what your diet is made up from on average in terms of calories, carbs, fat, protein, and fibre.

The same week, weigh yourself at the same time of day (at least 3x per week but preferably every day) in the same conditions. Ideally in the morning after visiting the bathroom and in the same clothes/naked. This will give you a base weight to work from. Keep your caloric  and macronutrient intake similar for the week following this, and keep weighing yourself. Now, average week 1 weight and week 2 body weight and compare them. Over these two weeks keep activity & training consistent (ie don’t suddenly increase cardio by 2x during the 2nd week). You now should have some rough data about what a certain caloric intake does to your body weight.

For fat loss periods while maximising muscle retention, weight loss should be kept within ~0.5-1.0% of total body weight per week. More than this and you risk losing too much muscle, and a slower rate than this means you can probably get away with more fat loss without sacrificing much muscle. Now, in terms of macronutrient content of the diet, shoot for around 1.8-2.7g/kg of protein/day (1). The lower end of this range is applicable to most people. The upper range of this becomes more applicable when you are extremely lean, and are losing weight quickly (to maximise muscle retention). Fibre should be around 10-15g per 1000 calories consumed, which usually falls into 25-40g/fibre day. Carbs and fats can be whatever you prefer (within total calories). There can be arguments made for dropping one or the other more. Higher carb may help to spare performance while in an energy deficit and therefore preserve muscle, and higher fat will help with satiety (feeling of fullness) and so might make the weight loss phase easier. Your intake of one or both of these macronutrients will very likely need to drop throughout the weight loss phase, so drop whatever you prefer but keep fat at least 30-50g/day minimum for health reasons.

The food you eat doesn’t matter, it is the total caloric, macronutrient, fibre, and micronutrient intake at the end of the day that is important.

Cardio

track your cardiovascular exercise as well as your nutrition. The most replicable way to do this is to use a cardio machine and have a set goal per week of how many calories you want to burn through cardio. The calories burnt on these machines is not always accurate with what the machine says, but it’s usually consistent which is what matters. This makes tracking weekly cardio quantifiable, and you can adjust calories burnt per week through cardio upwards or downwards depending on what weight loss is doing. Do cardio post training or on rest days, low to moderate intensity is usually what I advocate so training is not affected. High intensity cardio can be useful too but space it away from leg training days. Remember cardio is this context is just a tool for expending more calories. Different forms of cardio don’t offer special magic fat burning properties over the other. You don’t have to do cardio, but it allows you to eat more and lose the same amount of weight compared to if you didn’t do it at all.

Track body weight changes with a graph. When your weight loss stalls (weight loss <0.5% of total BW each week for two consecutive weeks), add more cardio for example 500kcal/week extra, or reduce calories by another 100-200 through carb and or fat reductions.

Weight gain rather than loss, but an example of how weight should be tracked over time so accurate macronutrient changes can be made.

Hopefully you have a good grasp of how to effectively lose weight and remain healthy. Eat what you want within reason, hit suitable macronutrient and fibre goals, and eat 5 serves of fruit/veg day and that’s 95% of the dietary picture you need to worry about.

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Reference

• (1) Murphy, C. H., Hector, A. J., & Phillips, S. M. (2014). Considerations for protein intake in managing weight loss in athletes. European journal of sport science, (ahead-of- print), 1-8.

Being big and strong doesn’t mean you need to grow a big gut just to lift heavy weight. It’s becoming more and more common now days to see lean weightlifters and powerlifters who look like bodybuilders but also lift a tonne of weight. Ever wondered how they do it?

There’s a science behind the nutrition required for getting stronger. Sure, eating loads will get you results, but it will get you a belly along the way. Here’s the 6 most important tips if you want to optimise your nutrition to gain as much strength (and size) as possible while also keeping fat gain to a minimum.

1. Tracking your energy intake & expenditure

TRACK?! You mean get a little food scale and be one of those compulsive freaks?! Well yes and no. While you don’t need to be accurate to the T, knowing roughly how much energy you require on an average day can help you to easily manipulate your weight while not going overboard. This means slow gains/cuts which result in optimal strength gain and fat loss.

The way to lose or gain weight is determined by your overall energy intake in relation to energy expenditure, but lets dive a little deeper.

Energy intake

There are two common measurements for energy intake. These are kilocalories (kcal) and kilojoules (kJ). We’ll go by kcal as this is the most commonly used measurement.

Your overall energy intake is made up of macro-nutrients:

• Carbohydrates (CHO) (4kcal per gram)
• Protein (4kcal/g)
• Fat (9kcal/g)
• (& Alcohol (7kcal/g) (will not be discussed in detail in this article))

These are important to consider as each macro-nutrient type has a different effect on the body (as you can probably already tell based on their caloric values per gram). We’ll explain these a little later into the article.

Energy Expenditure

Many factors make up energy expenditure, but typically the only one we can manipulate is physical activity. This obviously includes any exercise or weight training you do, but can also include activity we don’t necessarily think about such as fidgeting you do throughout the day. These all add up to make a fairly significant difference to your overall energy expenditure.

So, how to I determine my own energy intake?

• Assess average energy intake through inputting an average day of your diet into a food diary (like MyFitnessPal)
• Weigh yourself every day under the same conditions (for example in the morning before eating/drinking)
• Compare the average week to week weigh ins

Following this, adjust energy intake slowly (increase or decrease 100-200kcal per couple of weeks) to get the desired rate of weight change.

2. Protein Intake

As I mentioned earlier, different macro-nutrients have different effects on the body. So lets start by analysing protein why it is important.

Adequate protein is required to recover from training and support growth/adaptations. Protein is also useful to keep you full (has a high satiety value per amount of energy they provide) so high intakes are particularly useful in a fat loss phase.

Remember, even though it is important to get “optimal” strength/muscle adaptations, it’s not as important as total energy intake!

So how much protein should you be having in a day? The recommendations are dependent on whether you are in an energy deficit or not:

• Balance (maintenance): 1.4-1.6g/kg (2)
• Surplus: 1.5-1.7g/kg (2)
• Deficit: 1.8-2.7g/kg (8)*

*Note: the upper end of the deficit range is highly speculative and not necessary unless extremely lean and in a large energy deficit. The lower to mid end of the range will be applicable to powerlifters/bodybuilders in a weight loss phase.

Surpassing protein recommendations may displace CHO (carbohydrate) intake to a level not optimal for supporting training and recovery (10), especially during an energy deficit.

Thus, it is important to have a protein intake around the range just discussed. Given the same energy intake, too much protein can be a detriment to training performance due to CHO displacement!

Assessing Protein Intake

Weighing out foods out and observing nutritional labels for each individual food is the most accurate option but can be tedious when you aren’t accustomed to it.

• Alternatively, you can estimate serving size and link it with the nutritional label (or tables such as below)and remember that serving size for future consumptions

3. Fat and CHO

Now lets discuss the other two important macro-nutrients: Fat and CHO (carbohydrates).

Fat and CHO for Strength Athletes
Fat and CHO, like protein, both contribute to total energy intake, thus their benefits will largely be a function of total energy intake.

The rough recommendations are for CHO intakes to be between 4-7g/kg (9)

Fat recommendations: a general population recommendation of between 20-35% of total energy will reduce likelihood of eating too much saturated fat, as well as allowing sufficient intake of essential fats (7).

There is a large amount of research regarding this area. We’ve just touched the surface as these general guidelines are really all you need to know for optimal strength training.

4. Nutrition around Training

Now that we’ve got overall energy intake out of the way, lets discuss the infamous pre & post workout nutrition.

Implementing scientifically based pre & post (in some circumstances) workout nutrition strategies may be helpful in maximising training performance and adaptation.

Total daily CHO intake is key, however some research shows a moderate to high amount of CHO consumed pre-workout may be useful in improving performance (1).

Like with CHO, total daily protein intake is key, BUT 0.4-0.5g protein per kg of lean body mass (will fall between 20-40 grams) in both pre and post workout meals is a fail-safe general guideline (1) to increase protein synthesis and reduce muscle protein breakdown. These meals should be consumed within 3-6 hours of each other (higher end of the scale if pre-workout meal is large) (1).

A pre-workout meal should be consumed between 1-2 hours before training. If the pre-workout meal is consumed 3+ hours before training, 25g+ of protein should be consumed immediately before training if possible.

If you are training following an overnight fast, a meal of protein and carbohydrates should be consumed post-workout.

A post-workout meal can be consumed between the time-frame of immediately following exercise up to the top end of the 3-6 hour separation range without a likely difference in anabolic (muscle building) response.

So is pre & post workout nutrition really necessary? Well it depends. It may have benefits in some circumstances, but it certainly isn’t REQUIRED.

5. Fluids

Fluids are important for survival and general health, but can also have a pretty significant effect on your strength training.

So what are we talking about here? Fluids, include plain water, as well as water derived from drinks and foods. That includes your large soda you got from McDonald’s (lucky for you).

Dehydration has been shown to significantly impair resistance exercise performance (6) .

Australia & New Zealand Recommendations (7):

• Men: 3.4L/day
• Women: 2.8L/day

These recommendations will obviously vary depending on amount of exercise and training you do since you will induce a greater amount of breathing and sweating.

An easy way to tell if your dehydrated is to look for urine which isn’t clear, however this is just a general guide and isn’t always accurate as urine colouration can be affected by a variety of things (even by the foods you eat).

6. Fibre and Micro-nutrients

An often neglected area of nutrition is fibre and Micro-nutrient intake.

Fibre

The main role of fibre is to keep the digestive system healthy. Fibre has also been shown to benefit diabetes, blood cholesterol levels and weight control.

Australia & New Zealand Recommendations (7):

• Men 30g/day, or ~38g/day to reduce chronic disease risk
• Women 25g/day, or ~28g/day to reduce chronic disease risk
• OR 10-15g per 1000kcal eaten

Increasing dietary fibre is linked with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

Source of fibre include: wholegrain foods, fruits and vegetables.

Like protein, high fibre intakes can assist with satiety making it more difficult to overeat, so can be extremely useful when attempting to lose fat.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, in the situation where appetite is a barrier to weight gain, an amount of low fibre low satiety value foods should be eaten in order to ensure total energy intake targets are hit. i.e. it is OK, and even a good idea in some circumstances, to eat your favourite “unhealthy” foods in order to hit your caloric and macronutrient targets, so long as you are not ignoring the importance of fibre and micronutrients (as discussed below). No, eating ice cream, lollies, or chips will not have a negative effect on your performance or body composition goals, so long as you are still achieving daily energy intake, macro & micro-nutrient goals!

Micro-nutrients

Micro-nutrients are vitamins and minerals you get from the foods you eat. Some food are more micro-nutrient dense than others, like fruits and vegetables.

Micro-nutrients give you many benefits depending on the vitamin or mineral, but to keep it simple, will maintain your overall health.

A diet aimed at maintaining optimal health and therefore performance should incorporate fruits and vegetables as well as a suitable intake of wholegrain foods within your energy goals.

An example of micro-nutrient importance: a low calcium intake can cause bone density to be lost, particularly when the diet is high in protein such as the diets of strength athletes. (3)

Summary

So hopefully, with these 6 important nutrition tips, you are now convinced that it’s possible (and pretty easy) to gain muscle & strength without growing a big gut. It’s not about nit-picking at little details in your diet, it’s about having a holistic view point and understanding what’s most important. Be a new age strength athlete, and optimise you nutrition using science for the best results possible!

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References

• (1) Aragon, A. A., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2013). Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 10(1), 5.
• (2) Beals, K. A., & Mitchell, A. (2013). Recent Recommendations and Current Controversies in Sport Nutrition. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 1559827613513410.
• (3) Dawson-Hughes, B. (2003). Interaction of dietary calcium and protein in bone health in humans. The Journal of nutrition, 133(3), 852S-854S.
• (4) Helms, E. R., Aragon, A. A., & Fitschen, P. J. (2014). Evidence-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: nutrition and supplementation. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 11(1), 20.
• (5) Helms, E. R., Zinn, C., Rowlands, D. S., & Brown, S. R. (2013). A Systematic Review of Dietary Protein During Caloric Restriction in Resistance Trained Lean Athletes: A Case for Higher Intakes. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism.
• (6) Judelson, D. A., Maresh, C. M., Farrell, M. J., Yamamoto, L. M., Armstrong, L. E., Kraemer, W. J., … &Anderson, J. M. (2007). Effect of hydration state on strength, power, and resistance exercise performance. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 39(10), 1817.
• (7) Ministry of Health. (2005). Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. Canberra, Australia: NHMRC, Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Health.
• (8) Murphy, C. H., Hector, A. J., & Phillips, S. M. (2014). Considerations for protein intake in managing weight loss in athletes. European journal of sport science, (ahead-of- print), 1-8.
• (9) Slater, G., & Phillips, S. M. (2011). Nutrition guidelines for strength sports: sprinting, weightlifting, throwing events, and bodybuilding. Journal of sports sciences, 29(sup1), S67-S77.
• (10) Tipton, K. D. (2011). Efficacy and consequences of very-high-protein diets for athletes and exercisers. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 70(02), 205-214.
• (11) Turocy, P. S., DePalma, B. F., Horswill, C. A., Laquale, K. M., Martin, T. J., Perry, A. C., … & Utter, A. C. (2011). National athletic trainers’ association position statement: safe weight loss and maintenance practices in sport and exercise. Journal of athletic training, 46(3), 322-336.
• (12) Volek, J. S., Forsythe, C. E., & Kraemer, W. J. (2006). Nutritional aspects of women strength athletes. British journal of sports medicine, 40(9), 742-748.
• (13) Zourdos, M. C. (2012). Physiological responses to two different models of daily undulating periodization in trained powerlifters.