Secular Perspectives on Food
I like to say that I stay away from the religious aspects of nutrition. I don’t care if you’re vegan, paleo, or whatever else is out there. I’m not here to debate moral concerns regarding nutrition (though there are many) because that’s not my job. My job is help you achieve the physical adaptations that you tell me you want: strength, endurance, lower body fat, etc.
I work with nutrition-for-performance, not nutrition-for-longevity. There are certainly nuanced conversations worth having around the latter, but I’m not qualified to make recommendations there. Regarding the former, the good news is that we can take a simple, numbers-based approach to help fuel you toward your physical goals.
There are 2 ideas we need to look at regarding eating for various physical goals: daily caloric intake and macronutrient ratio. I’m going to quickly cover these, and then I’ll explain the steps you need to take to start being analytical about what you eat.
Photo by amirali mirhashemian on Unsplash
Daily Caloric Intake
This one is simple enough, “how many calories do you eat per day?”
Just a few years ago, this was a nightmare to tabulate. I’ve got old notebooks on the shelf with handwritten nutrition logs, and I remember taking notes on the labels of everything in the pantry. Not cool. Good news—now you can just download an app (like My Fitness Pal), and just type the first few letters of whatever your about to put in your mouth, and you’ve got the info.
If you don’t know how many calories you are consuming on a given day, it will be very helpful to find out. Whether your goal is fat loss, muscle building or pumpy sport climbing, we need to know this number.
Macronutrient Ratio
There are 3 macronutrients that make up your daily caloric intake: protein, fat & carbohydrate. There are lots of opinions about these macronutrients (macros). For the last few years, carbs have been evil. When I was a kid, my parents had fat-free everything. Lately, even the venerable protein has come under fire as the Macro Wars wage on. So it goes.
Contrary to what various fad diets would have you believe, all three macronutrients are valuable. The distinction is in the ratios. So we need to know how many grams of protein, carbohydrates and fat you are consuming each day. More good news: if you’re entering what you eat in an app, you will have all of these numbers at your fingertips.
See the trend?
What To Do
1. Track What You Eat
You don’t have to do it forever. We just need you to track your intake for about a week so we can get a sense of what you’re currently doing. After that, you’ll probably want to track for a couple more weeks to practice eyeballing things. Eventually, you’ll be good at this! Maintaining whatever weight you desire will be simple, because you’ve actually taken the time to learn something about food.
I feel like this goes without saying, but during the 7 days, you’ll track everything except calorie-free beverages like water and coffee. Eat what you want, but be honest about it.
2. Weigh Yourself
I get it, nobody want to do this. But we need to know if you are gaining weight or losing weight for the next step. Don’t worry about the number right now, just weigh yourself every morning and record it somewhere. If you don’t have a scale, go get one.
3. Analyze The Data
Here’s where the money is at. Now that we have some data, let’s answer some questions.
Did you lose weight?
If you lost weight over tracking period, then this means you were in a caloric deficit. You burned more calories than you consumed, and therefore you lost weight.
Did your weight stay the same?
If your weight stayed the same, then you were at caloric maintenance. You burned the same amount of calories as you consumed, and therefore you maintained the same weight.
Did you gain weight?
If you gained weight, you were in a caloric surplus. You ate more calories than you consumed, and therefore you gained weight.
It’s actually that simple. Now I’ll tell you what to do.
4. Make A Plan
Now that you have some information that’s actually about you, we can make some informed decisions about your nutrition.
Step 1: Set your calories
Lose weight: small deficit (~250 daily calorie deficit)
Maintain weight: set calories at maintenance.
Gain weight: small surplus (~250 daily calorie surplus).
Step 2: Set your macros
Don’t use the macro recommendations from whatever app you’re using to track your intake. Instead, do the following
Protein: .75-1g per pound of bodyweight
This one is not really negotiable. If you’re training with me, then you are training hard, and you need protein. .75-1 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. Every day. Even on rest days. Especially on rest days. If you’re above 25% body fat, use .6-.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Carbohydrate: it depends
Your carbohydrate needs will vary based on your goals. For fat loss, it usually helps to lower your daily carb intake to 100-150 grams. However, if you’re in the middle of a grueling power-endurance training block, you’re going to want to increase carbohydrate intake. Likewise if your goal is to gain muscle mass.
Fat: at least 20%
Of the 3 macronutrients, it is most important to make sure the fat you consume is of the highest quality you can afford. I know I said I was going to stay away from the religious aspects of food, but do me a favor and try to make sure your bacon is pasture-raised and your oils are from olives or avocados. Make sure that at least 20% of your daily calories are from fat.
Conclusion
At this time, I’m not worried about how you arrive at your daily numbers. If I ever become a nutritionist (probably not), then I might have more to say. But until then, just hit the calories and the macros that this article has led you to. The wonderful thing about this approach is that through this process, you’re going to learn about what works for you. You won’t ever need to worry about “which diet is best,” because you are in control of your nutrition.
Hey look, bullet points!
Track what you eat for 7 days. Weigh yourself every day during that time.
Did you gain weight, lose weight, or did your weight stay the same?
Set you calories based on your goal and the information you gathered.
To lose weight, set your calories at a small deficit.
To maintain weight, set your calories at maintenance.
To gain weight, set your calories at a surplus.
Set Macros
Protein: .75-1g per pound bodyweight.
If over 25% body fat: .6-.8g per pound bodyweight.
Carbohydrate: Negotiable, but 100-200 works well for most applications.
Fat: Negotiable, but make sure that at least 20% of your daily calories come from fat.
Have a questions? Leave a comment!