TLDR; Look at this picture and promise me to stop focusing on the latest supplements but rather on calories in vs calories out, your macros, eat more plants while finding a plan that sticks with you.
You've probably seen some variation of this on the internet as you were scouring the ends of the earth looking for information. Correct me if I'm wrong(because I might be) but I think Dr. Helms was the first one to create the nutrition pyramid. I'm telling you he's a genius and so is pretty much everyone else on Team 3DMJ. So if you haven't already and I highly suggest go follow them because they are probably the forefront of the whole natty bodybuilding community.
In today's blog, I'll be going over the levels of the nutrition pyramid in detail, adding my own pizazz(not sure if I spelled it right) and why it's so damn important for everyone to understand this because it's not the questionable supplements that get you jacked, it's your diet.
NO. SO LONG AS PEOPLE ARE BEING BAMBOOZLED ABOUT BUYING EXPENSIVE ASS SUPPLEMENTS AND PRIORITIZE SUPPLEMENTS OVER EATING BETTER THIS ARGUMENT WILL FOREVER RAGE ON.
Behavior and Lifestyle aka Adherence
It sounds like common sense but I cannot stress how important this is, definitely the most important step before the most most important step of understanding calories in vs calories out.
I think many people starting out have this assumption that they need to start eating like competitive bodybuilders in the 1980s, 4 weeks out before Mr. Olympia. That is, they think they have to eat chicken and broccoli with ice cubes for dessert for 6 months to look decent jacked. Well, it's 2020, and fortunately our understanding of nutrition has changed dramatically over almost 30 years. You really have no reason to eat like a competitive bodybuilder if you're not trying to compete and get to single digit body fat. My point is to not make the mistake of changing your diet into something unsustainable. Start by just seeing how you're currently eating for a few weeks to a month. After you get a baseline of where you're at, think about what foods to substitute. I firmly believe choosing a diet that you can stick to and slowly changing out "unhealthy" foods(food that isn't micronutrient dense) for "heathier" alternatives would be your best bet.
When you start on your fitness journey, you want to make sure your program or plan is something you can stick to for a long time. Especially if you're aiming for certain aesthetics or big numbers on your totals, then realistically we're talking a few years. Even though I'm a huge proponent of lifting weights and I believe everyone should lift doesn't mean it's for everyone. If you don't like to lift then at least figure out what type of sport/activity you do like and go from there. Once you do it for a while and your interest begins to grow more, you'll most likely try to figure out how to be better/faster/stronger in it. Maybe it'll be a few months, maybe a few years but eventually you'll ultimately end up lifting weights because it indeed has carryover in pretty much any sport/activity you do lol. Don't believe me? Tell me which sport doesn't involve running/jumping/sprinting because squatting and deadlifting improves your jumps/sprints. So remember, pick some kind of physical activity you like/love to do so you can stick to it.
Pro tip: When hiring a coach, make sure they prioritize this when setting up your training/diet protocol. If they don't, then consider getting another coach because you need someone who needs to be more empathetic and realistic to their athletes.
Ok, now that I've covered adherence, let's actually move on to the first topic:
Energy Balance or Calories in vs calories out:
Sure calorie counting has a 30-40% inaccuracy and sure it is probably oversimplifying the human metabolism which is incredibly complex BUT it works. It works because you can quantify it and put some kind of numerical value on it while also being able to adjust easily. The famous words of Peter Drucker said it best, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." You can look at calorie counting in a few different ways but in this blog I'll examine them for you. Calorie counting is a chore at times BUT it is also liberating. It's quite a bit of a hassle to input food in MyFitness Pal and weigh it out on a food scale but it also keeps you in check, putting a daily limit of how much calories you can eat. Where's the liberating part of this equation? You're free to choose pretty much anything you want to eat, depending on your fitness goals. You'll lose weight if you eat under your total daily calories and you'll gain weight if you eat over your total daily calories. For example, let's say you went to www.TDEEcalculator.net and it says that you need to eat 2000 calories to maintain the current weight you're in. If you eat over 2000, you'll gain weight. If you eat under 2000 calories, you'll lose weight. Understanding this gives you a new superpower you have over your body; the ability to manipulate your eating to lose/gain weight, something many people wish to do am I right? This, my friends is liberating in itself because you no longer have to cry about why you can't lose/gain weight.
Macros:
If you prioritize fixing your adherence, energy balance and macros, your diet and aesthetics surpasses most casual gym-goers. You've won the diet game. All you have to do is now stick to it and make minute changes from time to time. For those of you who don't track or haven't dialed in on your macros, this is the next step to get that physique and/or strength you've always wanted. The natty way to achieve the half-natty results. To go Super Saiyan. To unleash your Bankai. Whatever anime you choose to relate it with, this is the next level up you need to do.
Wait, aren't you not supposed to see him?
Now that you've cleaned up about 80% of your diet via choosing a diet and training regimen you like, understanding calories in vs calories out and tracking macros, let's cover how to get the rest of the 20%.
Micronutrients:
If I could sum up what they are in two pictures, it would be these:
Gainz.
All kinds of gainz.
Micronutrients is a fancy way to say the other vitamins which we as humans need albeit in smaller amounts versus carbs, fat and protein which are again the macronutrients. There's two types, water soluble and fat soluble. Water soluble ones dissolve in water and you urinate it out whereas the fat soluble stays in your fat for future reasons.
Vitamin A, D, E, K are your fat soluble micros.
All the vitamin Bs(there's like 8 of them or something) and Vitamin C are your water soluble vitamins.
Then we have the other minerals such as macro minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and trace minerals like iron, zinc and copper.
Before I continue any further, let me define the term plants in this article as any fruit or vegetable.
Since everything needs to be politically correct these days, when you hear the term healthy or healthier, it usually means the food it typically very micronutrient dense. That means it has a shit ton of micros and eating them will make your body happy.
For some reason, people like to focus on dialing in on their micros, probably because they feel like some kind of scientist and it's fun to be able to enunciate words with more than 3 syllables but unfortunately it won't give you the gains you oh so desire. It's quite a bit of information a person has to retain to figure out which all of these micros do to the body so instead, it's easier to just take a multi-vitamin while eating a generous portion of plants daily and hope for the best. 9 times out of 10 you'll hit most if not all of your daily micro needs.
Generally speaking, eating a total of 8 ounces of plants daily is a very doable goal. The more the better of course since vegetables are super low in calories while being micronutrient dense and the food volume is much greater. What I mean by this is that you have to eat a huge amount of broccoli to reach 100 calories versus eating ice cream. On top of that, fruits and vegetables in your diet will keep you satiated which is really important when cutting. During my most recent cut, I lowered my overall carb intake and replaced it with eating more vegetables. Towards the end of the cut I was eating 16 ounces of vegetables daily while feeling less hangry and curb cravings. Since fruits generally have more carbs than vegetables, I ate strawberries and blueberries during my cut. Typically any berry will have less carbs compared to other fruit. Lastly, don't be a smart ass and count rice and potato in your plant count.
I do believe in spot dosing any possible micronutrient deficiencies if you think you have any. I think for women, because of menstruation, iron could be a good supplement to take if you're anemic. I just recently read a MASS article about iron and how taking it every other day instead of daily helps with adherence to reduce the nausea.
We could honestly have a huge circle jerking mental masturbation about some fruits and vegetables are "healthier" than others but that fact that you're actually eating plants on a daily basis makes you automatically healthier than most Americans. Fun fact: you don't know how many times in the ER I've come across people with chronic constipation. These people are typically the ones who also don't take care of their bodies, eat like shit and don't stay active. I fortunately never have been constipated in my life and having administering countless enemas and doing quite a bit of fecal impactions(look it up) I don't think I EVER want to be constipated like that in my life.
Micros do play a considerable role in sports performance. Much of it is anecdotal because there really isn't much research into it so feel free to take it with a grain of salt. For powerlifting, I've noticed more power every since I've drank milk and ate something very salty prior to sessions. The calcium in milk helps with muscle contraction since your muscles rely on calcium to facilitate the actin and myosin during contractions. I'm not entirely sure if this has actually been proven but theoretically it makes sense. That extra sodium not only helps you retain water but it helps also with muscle contractions. Do you remember in physiology how they focused so much on the sodium/potassium pump in neurons? Well I kind of do. The transmission of signals from neuron to neuron is dependent on these electrolytes, especially sodium because it's typically the first electrolyte to leave your body via sweating. You ever wonder why people cramp sometimes during exercise? Because the delicate balance of your electrolytes(sodium, postassium, chloride, bicarbonate) is tilted. I think increasing sodium intake has been proven to work since many athletes do this, especially marathon runners.
Nutrient Timing:
You're going to miss the AnAbOLiC WiNdOw.
Do you guys remember when all the bros were saying to eat 6 meals a day, spaced apart 2-3 hours each to "stoke the metabolic furnace?" Well, it's 2020 and it's been debunked numerous times. Assuming you're in a caloric deficit eating 2000 calories, spaced out in 3 meals vs 6 it doesn't really matter. What may matter is spacing out your protein intake. Eating protein causes an anabolic response and muscle protein synthesis is acutely spiked for a short period of time then it just goes back to normal. They haven't proved yet whether or not to chase the acute spikes of muscle protein synthesis since there hasn't been any long term studies to prove its efficacy. Bros and science say to eat 30 - 50 grams of protein per meal, spaced out every few hours so then your body can have a constant supply of protein to have your body be in a longer state of muscle protein synthesis(which it most likely is even if you're not chugging protein shakes every 2 hours since your body is always working so long as you're alive and reading this blog). Your priority is just to make sure you reach your total daily protein.
Also, think of spacing out your meals as a way to distribute your calories (and maybe protein but like I said, it hasn't been proven just yet) throughout your day rather than trying to reap any possible benefits from nutrient timing. Some people have huge stomachs and can eat a lot in one sitting. Others don't and so they probably need to have more small frequent meals to reach their target calories.
Me personally on the days I'm working, I eat breakfast which is usually around 0500, then I eat another breakfast at 0900, then lunch at 1300, and a snack at 1600ish. I've pretty much ate most of my calories during breakfast and lunch because that's when it's the busiest. Lunch carries me over to 1600ish which I then eat fruits and/or chug a protein shake, keeping me satiated so my fat ass doesn't end up snacking when I get home from a long day(which I low key do sometimes but we're all human). I also make sure I have at least 30 - 50 grams of protein per meal/snack but like I said, it's not definite that it will give me the extra slight benefit of getting more gains.
Supplements:
I saved the best for last. You know why? Because supplements make up about 5% of your total gains. You heard me right.
I know, it's a hard pill to swallow.
I do have empathy for people who still believe that having the latest supplements is the make or break factor for the gainz because I was one of them too. In fact, I used to be those dudes who buys BCAAs so I can flavor my water and have it turn into different colors. Not going to lie though, BCAAs do taste pretty damn good.
I really think it's the ingenious marketing of the fitness industry using jacked dudes and toned girls holding a tub of mysterious powder, subconsciously promising buyers gains galore. If you really think about it, do you really believe drinking protein shakes, taking "natural" testosterone booster pills(by the way, the only testosterone boosters that actually work are the ones that actually have testosterone in them. If you really wanted to take it the next level, you might as well injecting it lol) and making your skin tingle with beta-alanine can ever substitute eating real food? If you do then congratulations, you've been bamboozled by the fitness industry.
To this day, I still have friends who prioritize supplements over cleaning up their diet which, like I've stated before make up only 5% of your total gains vs eating enough. For whatever their reason and yours, it is what it is. Your body, your rules am I right?
Me personally though, I do take supplements though I'm very well aware they are called supplements for a reason. That is, I don't rely on them and they don't take up much my money, performance and mental space, trying to decipher which supplement can legally give me not natty gains BECAUSE IT ONLY COMPRISES OF 5% OF YOUR TOTAL GAINS. With that said, here are the supplements I take that have been backed by research and that actually allegedly work:
Whey Protein
We all can agree that whey protein is probably the most useful tried and tested supplement out there. It's probably the first supplement we've all tried. I always have tubs of this stuff because it's a very convenient way to reach your total daily protein. There will be times where I meal prep a fattier cut of meat and fall short of protein. Well say no more because I can mix it with some milk, do my shaker dance and chug it down. Could you get most if not all your protein source from drinking protein? Yes you can. Although I don't recommend it because I believe there's so many ways to get your protein from eating food that you're just being lazy. Remember, your body is a temple guys. I'll also have people debate about this protein being better than the competitor blah blah but again these people would rather focus on topics that give them the least results compared to eating clean, training dirty and never giving up. I find it really hilarious tbh.
Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine is a naturally occurring molecule in your body, specifically in your skeletal muscles to help retain water and glycogen. When you supplement with it, the water and glycogen stores get bigger. That means your muscles can access more water and carbohydrates than usual. This means you can do more reps without fatiguing as much. More reps for Jesus means he'll grant you more gains. The increase in water and glycogen storage in skeletal muscle gives some lucky bastards the fuller muscle look.
If you haven't checked out the creatine article already, I suggest you do so even though it's very dense. If not, I'll list out some key points:
Apparently 30% of us are non-responders which means those non-responders already produce a shit ton of creatine in their body so they don't benefit from supplementation.
Take Creatine Monohydrate, not the other blends since they haven't been well researched yet and haven't proved better than monohydrate.
Creatine's efficacy disintegrates quickly when mixed with water. Therefore, it would behoove you guys to take 5 grams of creatine powder, put it in your mouth and then chase it with water. I've been doing creatine wrong all these years and anecdotally when I started doing this, I started noticing my muscles becoming fuller and my mind sharper(a lesser known side effect of creatine which I'll discuss below) which means it's actually working!
Allegedly creatine is good for the brain as your brain has creatine in it as well. Your brain uses a lot of carbohydrates and water of course. So it makes sense that it has creatine in it and supplementation could improve brain function. Pretty sure it's placebo for me but after taking creatine the right way, I feel sharper and can think sharper.
Caffeine
Do I need to elaborate with caffeine and how it works?
Welp, you've reached the end of the blog. I know I just gave you so much damn information to swallow but rest assured, it's for the gains. With that said, thank you guys for reading my blogs and I'll see you all in the next one!
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