5 Tips for Getting Back to Basics When You've Overcomplicated Your Body Recomposition Journey

To be honest with you, this article originally began as a personal note to myself I cyber-scribbled into my iPhone one day on a flight from Denver to St. Louis.

For quite some time, I had been making my body recomposition journey way too complicated, and I had become the poster child of self-inflicted paralysis by analysis.

And although ultimately my desire to understand every known detail about evidence-based body recomposition had fueled a lot of personal growth for me, I was starting to realize that it had also prevented me from taking my best strides at times.

I remember rewriting my own training programs over and over again thinking, “Finally! This is the perfect mesocycle for muscle growth,” just to rewrite it once more in a few days.

I remember thinking tirelessly about the “perfect” number of sets I should be doing each week and wondering fruitlessly if I should be counting drop sets as full sets or a half sets.

And I remember being hyper-focused on getting six “hits” of muscle protein synthesis per day to the extent that I was setting 150-minute timers on my phone so I’d know when to guzzle down my next serving of shredded chicken and half of a plain bagel.

I once even bought raw, cartoned egg whites and drank them in the car during a road tip because I was unwilling to miss an opportunity to “stimulate muscle growth.”

As the saying goes, I was missing the forest for the trees.

I had become so entrenched in the details that I had failed to look up and remember the grander narrative of what it meant to improve my body composition sustainably over time.

Does any of this sound relatable?

If so, I want to share with you what I wrote in that small note on my phone that day with the hope of helping you refocus on what matters most for a successful body recomposition endeavor.

5 Tips for Getting Back to Basics for an Improved Body Recomposition

1. remember that Calories matter most for fat loss, but your health and livelihood probably matter too.

It's so easy to overcomplicate this, but it really is true that you can get shredded to the bone while paying attention to calories and nothing else.

Just take a look at anyone who’s ever been stranded at sea on a handcrafted life raft like Chuck Noland and his spherical confidant Wilson circa 2000.

And in some sense, this is both good news and bad news.

It’s good news in that weight loss has now become very simple. If you consume fewer calories than you expend, you’ll lose weight.

But it’s bad news in that it becomes increasingly tempting to think of foods exclusively in terms of their caloric density and nothing else.

So now there’s really no good argument for ever eating an avocado or a handful of almonds over a Rice Krispies Treat because avocados have nearly three times as many calories than their marshmallow friends.

And yet most of us understand that avocados are probably the healthier option when pitted against an ultra-processed dessert made by a curious clan of animated elves.

Are you seeing how this can quickly become complicated?

At some point, the question we all have to ask ourselves is this:

To what extent will we nuance our understanding of calorie balance for a fat loss effort with our best understanding of how to eat for optimal health?

And so even though you could consume brownie batter flavored whey protein, Rice Krispie Treats, and peanut butter toward a leaner and meaner physique, it begs a few questions.

Would that be good for your health? Would you lose muscle mass? Would you be performing at your best on a diet of ultra-processed foods and somewhat “empty” calories?

Would your skin look the same? Would your hair be healthy? Would you be thriving sexually?

Would your sleep quality be high? Would you have energy throughout the day to invest in the relationships that matter most to you?

As I alluded to before, I ignored nearly all of those questions for a very long time in the name of caloric over-obsession and nothing else.

Did I get lean? Absolutely. But did I do so at the expense of my overall health? I believe so.

So to mitigate the risk of overcomplicating my first point in an article written to encourage people not to overcomplicate things, the main takeaway here is this:

Being in a calorie deficit is king for fat loss, but you’ll want to make sure you’ve thought through the health and wellness ramifications of your dietary pattern as well.

In fact, I think it’s similar to playing a game of chess.

In some undeniable sense, the king is the most important piece on the board. You cannot win without protecting him. Your own king, in this case, is your application of calorie balance.

But there are other important pieces on the board as well: the queen, your rooks, the bishops and the knights, and even the seemingly insignificant pawns that can become queens if you shepherd them well and guide safely beyond enemy lines.

We might consider these your overall health, your energy levels, your sleep quality, and your sex drive (among many others).

The key to becoming a great chess player is being able to command all of your pieces toward a unified goal while considering the greater context of the ultimate task at hand.

Will you be able to consider all of the pieces and how they can help you achieve your goal?

Or will you fail to see the bigger picture and miss the forest for the trees?

2. Don’t forget that training quality is the most important thing for building muscle.

I screwed this up for a long time too because I was searching for the “perfect” dietary pattern like it was the lost city of Atlantis.

In other words, I was placing a disproportionate amount of attention on my diet to give me the look I wanted instead of the quality of my training. I was incessantly tweaking something with the hopes of optimizing my physique just that much more.

And in doing so, I neglected my training quality.

In some sense, this this is the overcompensation for my first point in this article, and it’s a great example of how you can make a good thing a bad thing.

If you focus too much on the quality of your diet, you might forget that you actually have to train intelligently and intensely in the gym to build the muscle you want.

The point here is to settle into a dietary pattern that is supported by evidence for positive physique improvements and then eat habitually while you train with purpose.

The less time you can spend overthinking your diet the better.

For example, don’t waste time and energy wondering if eating 20 extra grams of carbohydrates from bananas versus berries during your pre-workout meal is going to yield you an extra 1% of muscle gain over the next five years.

Just get in the gym and train hard!

In summary, if a major component of your body recomposition goal is to grow bigger muscles, be sure to focus on high-quality training above all else.

3. Don’t overcomplicate your protein intake at the expense of other macronutrients.

This is another mistake I was making.

I had gotten overly focused on consuming excessive amounts of protein at the expense of food quality and overall food diversity.

As I mentioned before, there was a time when I would estimate that nearly 80% of my calories were coming from Fresh toast doused in sugar-free maple syrup and bowls upon bowls of teriyaki chicken.

Why?

Because they allowed me to “hit my macros” with convenience and ease.

Not only this, but I was convinced that five protein feeds per day must be better than four, and six must be even better than five. In doing so, I manipulated myself psychologically to believe that I “didn’t want my goals badly enough” when I only made time to eat three times per day.

Do I regret it? Absolutely.

Unfortunately, that season of eating was characterized by low energy levels and overall lethargy, digestive discomfort, and delayed post-workout recovery.

And even more unfortunately, I see now that choosing to eat that way had actually suppressed some of my greater values of health and vitality in favor of a “protein at all costs” mindset.

In short, my encouragement to you here is not to become protein-obsessed at the expense of a more well-rounded nutritional profile.

Instead, focus on eating an adequate amount of daily protein that supports your goal, and then maximize your intake of colorful plant foods as you approach your daily caloric target.

In an attempt to lead by example, I’ve now adopted a completely plant-based diet that is rich in lean protein sources, fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

I feel better than ever, I eat much less protein than I used to (while eating way more carbohydrates and fats), and I’ve only continued to see steady muscle and strength gains since making that change in May 2021.

4. don’t stress about meals you can’t track perfectly.

As much as I enjoy the systematic fat loss outcomes of tracking food, I had come to realize that there were many times in life when tracking a meal just wasn’t worth the cost.

For example, one of my really good friends made me a delicious curry the other night.

If you've been around the macro-tracking block a few times, you know that curry isn't very tracker-friendly.

It's nearly impossible to know exactly how much of this vegetable or that vegetable was in your particular serving, and the sauce is always a caloric mystery.

This can make eating out with a friends a nightmare for people with orthorexic tendencies.

And this can be the case with many homemade meals like pastas, casseroles, and slow cooker meals.

Rather than stressing about it (like I would have in the past), I embraced the meal and simply kept my portion size reasonable and limited myself to one plate.

And I couldn't have been happier about it.

I didn't strain the relationship by being a high-maintenance guest, we were able to enjoy a delicious meal together without distraction, and I left feeling completely in control of my diet and physique.

So remember that not every meal in life will be trackable.

Learn to know when to relax and rely on mindful eating habits like portion sizes and eating to fullness without excess.

5. never forget that Sustainability wins in the end.

I mostly hate the phrase "do what works for you" because it always seems wildly unhelpful and conversationally lazy.

But this is one scenario where I think it works really well as long as we offer a brief explanation of exactly what we mean.

As it pertains to feeling more confident in your birthday suit, you’re still going to have to do all of the evidence-based things I’m always teasing out in all of my IVRY articles, but there are going to be small ways here and there that you can tweak your own lifestyle in unique ways for long-term body recomposition success.

For example, when dieting for fat loss, I used to eat a big breakfast and skip lunch in favor of a small snack in the afternoon and a bigger dinner while other people might prefer to fast until 1PM and then have their first large meal.

We're both generally still playing by all of the same rules of calorie balance, but we're manipulating those rules to our advantage based on our own preferences.

Does that make sense?

In my observations, this is a hallmark feature of all successful dieters - the ability to modify and nuance minor lifestyle behaviors in way that is rhythmic, repeatably, and sustainable for them.

Can I take it a bit further?

To be super frank, I'm not a proponent of transformations that people can't maintain long-term.

After having done this for awhile, I know how to sniff out a transformation photo of someone who crash dieted and destroyed their health to win an online “transformation challenge.”

Most people can starve themselves for eight weeks and "look hot" for a wedding. Most people can do super keto for three months and lose 30 pounds. Most people can suffer through P90X once to reveal a blurry six-pack and a plump, worm-like vein in their left bicep.

But what most people can't do is keep the weight off.

My point? Sustainability wins in the end.

Do yourself a favor and remind yourself to play the long game.

Summary

• When you’re passionate about improving your body composition, overcomplicating things can be an easy trap to fall into.

• Remember that calorie balance is most important for weight loss, but it’s probably a good idea to consider your health and wellness as well. The key is to find a balance.

• Never forget that training quality matters most for building muscle. Try not to let other aspects of the process distract you from executing a well-designed training plan with a high level of focus and intensity.

• Avoid overcomplicating your protein intake. Once you’ve identified an adequate amount of protein to eat on a daily basis, maximize your consumption of healthy carbohydrates and fats within your caloric target.

• Come to terms with the fact that you won’t be able to track every meal to the gram. In those unavoidable situations, eat mindfully and do your best to enjoy the moment stress free. You don’t have to keep a food scale in your back pocket at all times to be lean and muscular.

• Lastly, remember that sustainability is the name of the game. If overcomplicating any aspect of your body recomposition journey is preventing you from getting the results you want, you’d be smart to reconsider your plan in favor of something more sustainable.

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As always, I really enjoyed writing this article.

If you found it helpful, consider sending it to a friend!

Until next time,

-Andrew

Vegan Bulking: My Most Common Meals for Building Muscle on a Plant-Based Diet

Today I'm coming at you with a quick-hitter about which meals I'm eating most often as a plant-based fitness enthusiast with an emphasis on building muscle.

I'm doing this because I’m realizing that more and more people are getting curious about how to consume more of their calories from plant foods while optimizing their fitness and their ability to build muscle.

The problem is that they just don't know how to do it.

And maybe you’re in that very same situation. You love the idea of getting jacked on plants, but you don’t you know where to start and the entire idea seems overwhelming, unpractical, and unsustainable.

I was the same way.

I was mesmerized by the idea of eating more plants, consuming fewer animal products, and getting more jacked than ever. It seemed like a win for the animals, a win for the planet, and a win for my own health, longevity, and moral compass.

And yet I had no practical knowledge of how to make it happen.

Fortunately, all of that has changed!

At the time of publishing this article, I’ve been flourishing on a 100% plant-based diet for 160 days.

In that time, I’ve noticed the following things:

• Dramatically accelerated recovery from weight training in both bodybuilding and CrossFit

• Increased volume capacity in terms of recoverable sets between 0-3 reps in reserve

• Increased cardio capacity

• Better pumps and improved vascularity

• Improved blood flow

• Increased sex drive

• Better day to day energy levels

• Sustained mental focus

• Heightened ability to resist irritability and be more patient

• Improved sleep quality

• Reduced body pain specifically in my sides and lower back

• No “gut clog,” which is what I call that heavy, sluggish feeling I used to get after eating meat or dairy-heavy meals.

• Better poops

• Being happier and more content overall knowing that my dietary choices are in alignment with my desire to be a more compassionate and selfless person

Not bad, right?

And, because I’ve had such a positive experience in my transition to a plant-based life, I want to pay it forward by giving you some specific ideas from my own dietary pattern about what to eat if you're wanting to eat more plants, excel in the gym, and look more muscular in the mirror. 

Let’s get into it.

My Most Common Plant-Based Meals for Building Muscle and Getting Lean 

1. Smoothies with Plant-Based Protein Powder 

I have a plant-based smoothie almost everyday because it's just too easy to smash 30-50g of protein in a single meal this way.

Back when I was a meat-eater, I remember following a lot of vegans who would say, "It's not hard to find protein on a plant-based diet!" And to be honest, it always confused me. 

“How could that be true?” I thought. “All of the most obvious protein sources seem to come from animal flesh. Are you really suggesting that broccoli can be a substantial protein source?”

Being on the other side now, I realize that they were trying to promote their lifestyle in a practical, winsome light, but...

The reality is that it does require a greater degree of intentionality to accumulate 120-170g of protein per day on a plant-based diet.

Sure, beans have protein, but compared to egg whites? Let's be real. You'd have to smash a lot of beans and poop your pants twice to get enough protein from those beans as you would an effortless 300mL pour of egg whites.

But, in my opinion, this is nothing to worry about.

I hope to touch on this in more depth in a separate article, but I’ve actually been challenging how much protein the body really needs to build an impressive amount of muscle mass. In fact, I’ve even dabbled with intakes as low as 80g per day, which is less than half of what I used to consume as an omnivore.

But enough on that for now. Let’s get back to the utility of smoothies for building muscle on a vegan diet.

Assuming you want to follow current evidence-based recommendations for protein consumption in the context of optimal physique outcomes, I would encourage anyone who is looking to gain muscle mass on a 100% plant-based diet to utilize the convenience of protein protein powders as one of the few protein sources that rival the macronutrient ratios of animal proteins.

To wrap this one up, protein smoothies make the #1 slot for a few reasons:

1. They’re quick and easy to prepare and consume.

2. You can pack them with greens, nuts, and seeds that might be less convenient to eat elsewhere throughout your day.

3. They taste delicious when supplemented creatively with bananas, mangos, papayas, dates, and nut butters.

4. They are a good opportunity to consume plant-based EAAs or BCAAs, which are more scarce in the plant kingdom

   1. Although I’m personally skeptical of the importance of leucine in the context of stimulating muscle-protein synthesis to a meaningfully greater extent than the other amino acids, you might be less suspicious than I am. As a bit of an insurance policy, it might be a good idea to buy a protein powder that contains EAAs or BCAAs. As a vegan, I’ve now purchased and used products from Vivo Life and 1st Phorm. I have no affiliation to either.

2. Plant Protein Pasta Explosions

This is another extremely common meal for me because nearly everyone on the planet loves pasta.

In fact, if you come from a traditional perspective on how to diet for building muscle, you’ll know that pasta is rarely to never a part of the conversation.

Why? Because it’s “too high in carbohydrates.” After all, bodybuilding and the pursuit of a god or goddess-like physique is all about protein, right?

I’m not so convinced.

Even though the protein hit from these pastas does come with plenty of carbohydrates, I still find that it's not that difficult to keep my calories in check - especially while bulking.

For example, if you find a plant protein pasta from chickpeas or lentils or even black beans, you can easily get 20-40g of protein per meal. Just be sure to keep your sauces lower in calories and to minimize oil use if you're looking to lose fat.

As a bit of a bonus, I like to sprinkle around 10g of nutritional yeast on top of my pasta bowls for that cheese-like effect while supplementing with vegan meatballs for an extra 16g of protein from soy.

Once you add all of that up, you can easily get 40g or more of protein in a completely vegan mountain of pasta.

Pretty sick, right?

3. Toddler-Sized Burritos

I have become the king of Panchero's.

You can literally get some of the most delicious plant foods out there for the modest price of $9 and some change.

Just in case Panchero's isn't a chain you have in your area, I'm basically talking about anything in the Chipotle or Qdoba category as well. 

And what's particularly cool about burritos is that there usually isn't one obvious protein source. This is one of those things that really perplexed me when I was a meat-eater. I just didn't understand the concept that all of the foods within the dish could work together to provide the accumulated protein dose I needed to stimulate muscle growth.

I thought I needed chicken or beef or tuna or eggs or something to get more jacked! But I couldn't be happier that I was wrong. 

In this case, the combination of the tortilla, the beans, the rice, and the tofu add up to around 46g of protein.

My specific order?

• Tortilla, rice, black beans, pinto beans, grilled veggies, tofusada with an extra scoop, lettuce, corn salsa, and pico

  • Depressing Update: I recently found out that Panchero’s tortillas are not 100% plant-based, which means I’ve shifted to being a bowl man. But Chipotle’s tortillas are 100% plant-based, which means they’re getting more of my business these days.

I also like mentioning Panchero's because it gives some people hope that you can eat on the fly on a plant-based diet. Although the options are skimpy, this is a super solid one. 

In fact, I actually documented the importance of burritos in my vegan bulking diet by naming every single burrito I ate during my first dedicated, vegan bulking phase.

I also named them hurricane-style, which I thought was pretty cheeky. If you want to check that out, you can sink your teeth in here.

4. Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches 

Believe it or not, the combination of some high-protein wheat bread or Ezekiel bread with nut butter and a banana can get you 20g of protein fairly easily. 

It has also not been uncommon for me to eat 2 plain peanut butter and banana bagels post-workout for a wily 932 calories from 27P, 166C, and 19F.

And if you read that and thought, “What in the flying fork?!”…

Calm down and remember that these are tips for plant-based bulking, which automatically assume a caloric surplus.

You also have to consider the context.

• I’m a 190-pound male that trains fairly intensely 5-6 days per week. Because of that, my maintenance intake at 190 is currently 3,500 calories, which makes a modest surplus around 3,800 calories for me.

In short, I need to eat ultra high-carbohydrate meals like this to get the results I want.

Do you? Maybe not.

I’m just giving you an insider look at my diet.

Always make the decision that makes the most sense for you and your goals.

5. Quinoa, Broccoli, and Tempeh Bowls

I really wish more people knew about tempeh!

If you’re not aware, tempeh is made from fermented soybeans.

I can't encourage you enough to try it for yourself if you’ve never dabbled. It's literally as easy as cubing up the block on a cutting board and tossing the cubes into a stir fry with some soy sauce.

For me personally, tempeh bowls really have become the "chicken, broccoli, and rice" equivalent for me from my omnivorous days.

But now, it's tempeh, broccoli, and quinoa.

I choose quinoa because it's actually a fantastic supplementary source of protein. Believe it or not, there are 45g of protein in the bowl you see above. 

All you need to make this dish a success is:

• Quinoa

• Broccoli

• Tempeh

• Garlic powder, onion power, black pepper, iodized salt or pink salt

• Optional

  • Korean Gochujang sauce

  • Tahini

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And there you have it, my friends!

These are the most common meals I’m using right now to build muscle on a 100% plant-based diet. For those who love to know exact macros, a fairly normal day for me might look like 150P, 620C, and 85F (although I routinely utilize the freedom to tweak my carbs and fats depending on training volume and fluctuating day-to-day preferences). This winds up being around 3,700-3,800 calories.

I hope you found this helpful.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member! You never know who in your life might be plant curious, and you could be the catalyst for a major change in the way they view the plant, their diet, and their fitness.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

7 Reminders to Keep Things Simple for Muscle Gain and Fat Loss

The fitness industry is always buzzing with controversy and confusion, which makes it easy to chase headlines and dabble in new ideas while neglecting the fundamentals. 

In light of that temptation, this article is a quick list of how to keep things simple for the long-run while seeing consistent and encouraging improvements in your body composition.

If you are not doing any of these and your goal is to get that lean yet muscular, hard-body look, you'd be smart to ask yourself, "Do I really have a good reason for making this more complicated?" 

There are often good reasons for complexity, but make sure you challenge them thoroughly before you abandon simplicity. 

And if you’ve stumbled onto this article because you’re brand new to the idea of body recomposition, these seven reminders are the perfect place to start.

7 Reminders to Keep Things Simple for Muscle Gain and Fat Loss

1. You need to be getting stronger over time in the main movement patterns to grow muscle.

This is what we call progressive overload.

Transparently, this is probably the one strength training and body recomposition principle I have personally neglected the most, which is a shame considering I’ve given it the number one slot. 

For whatever reason, I have always been more attracted to the pursuit of accumulating increased volume through additional sets over the pursuit of putting more weight on the bar.

And although increasing your work capacity over time can be a powerful driver of muscle growth, most would agree that it should be accompanied by a gradual increase in absolute load over time as well. 

Long story short, keep things simple by focusing on getting meaningfully stronger in some kind of squat, hinge, lunge, push, pull, and row pattern over time. 

If you’re looking for specific exercise recommendations within those categories, I would point you to the following:

• Squat: Heel-Elevated Smith Machine Squat to Full Depth

• Hinge: Romanian Deadlift 

• Lunge/Thrust: Reverse Barbell Lunges

• Push: Barbell Bench Press

• Pull: Weighted Pull-Ups

• Row: Barbell Bent Over Rows 

If you were to consistently add weight to all of those movements over the next five years without doing any other exercise, I’d be willing to bet you’d be a very muscular person assuming proper diet and recovery.

This goes for both men and women. 

2. You need to be doing enough challenging sets of mostly 6-20 reps within a few reps of failure to grow muscle consistently over time. 

In other words, you need to make sure you’re training with sufficient volume.

I think 12-20 sets per muscle group per week is the sweet spot for growing muscle consistently over time, but even I can admit that this seems like a large, ambiguous range.

“Well, is it 12 sets or is it 20? And how do I know what’s appropriate for me?”

In my opinion, the best way to identify the “perfect” number of sets to complete per week per body part is to start conservatively low at 10 sets per week and move upward from there as recovery allows. 

For example, if you want to grow your quads, you could split up your weekly quad volume into three different movements. We’ll use the following exercises for this example. 

1. Barbell Back Squat

2. Hack Squat

3. Leg Extensions

Given our goal of distributing 10 sets sensibly across those 3 movements, I might choose to delegate the volume as you see below:

1. Barbell Back Squat (4 sets) on Monday 

2. Hack Squat (3 sets) on Thursday

3. Leg Extensions (3 sets) on Thursday

Without going into too much detail regarding the “why” behind that distribution of set volume, this would be a logical and evidence-based baseline of training if your goal is to grow your quads. 

“So how do you know when it’s appropriate to add more sets?” 

If you can overload your sessions modestly and progressively while clearing nearly all of your muscle soreness by the next time you train your quads each time per week, I think you would be justified to add more sets. 

For example, maybe I find that the 4 sets of Barbell Back Squats on Monday are actually very fatiguing and soreness-inducing to the point that it takes Tuesday and Wednesday to recover fully. In that case, I would not add sets to that Monday session. But if I felt completely recovered by Tuesday evening, I would consider adding a fifth set of Barbell Back Squats the following week.

3. You should probably be eating most of your calories from whole food sources while keeping processed foods to a minimum.

There is no need to make this one more complicated than it needs to be. 

Although you can certainly enjoy “junk foods” and highly-processed treats from time to time, those who consistently see improvements in their physique and overall well-being over the long-term tend to be those who prioritize basic nutrition practices rooted primarily in a whole food diet.

Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, teas, and lean proteins should probably make up the majority of your diet.

Bonus Reminder: I’d also like to throw in a bonus reminder here that you don’t have to eat meat or animal products of any kind to build muscle effectively, which means the “No Meat No Gains” motto from of old doesn’t need to be a guiding principle in your body recomposition journey.

If you’re curious about how to make the transition to a more plant-based life, email me personally at andrewwesleywhite@gmail.com with the subject line “Let’s Chat Plants.”

4. You need to consume an adequate amount of protein. 

To be honest, I've really been challenging the notion of ultra-high protein diets lately, so I think it makes sense for each individual to experiment with what seems to work best for them. 

In the evidence-based body recomposition community, most people agree that eating around 0.7-1g of protein per pound of lean body mass is sufficient to maximize muscle growth outcomes. 

Within that overall daily target, it’s probably a good idea to spread that protein across 3-6 meals depending on your lifestyle, preferences, and how much protein you need to consume to support your goals. 

Making it more complicated than that likely won’t yield any additional benefits. 

What do I do personally?

You can read more about my own plant-based dietary approach during gaining phases here, but I generally eat 3-4 high-protein meals per day with an emphasis on pre-workout and post-workout nutrition.

5. Your caloric consumption needs to match your goal. 

If you're trying to lose fat, you'll need to be in a modest caloric deficit.

If you're looking to build muscle, you'll need to be eating at maintenance (at the very least) or in a modest caloric surplus. 

If your caloric deficit is too aggressive, you risk burnout, unnecessarily decreased performance in the gym, and muscle loss.

If your caloric surplus is too aggressive, you risk gaining too much fat too quickly and reducing the overall productivity of your muscle gain phases. 

It’s that simple. 

If you need help determining those numbers for yourself, I would highly recommend reaching out to us for online coaching.

6. You need to be taking responsibility for your sleep quality. You can only train and grow as hard as you can recover.

It seems like no one in the fitness industry wants to talk about sleep quality because you can’t monetize it as easily as training programs and nutrition plans.

But you need to let your muscles and systems recover in order to introduce increasingly powerful stimuli over time.

Practically speaking, most research that I’ve seen over the years suggests that most people recover near optimally when sleeping between 7-9 hours per night. 

Although this won’t be possible for everyone in every season of life, its importance is certainly worth mentioning so that you can optimize it when possible.

In other words, there’s a big difference between losing sleep because you have a newborn versus losing sleep because you’re out partying or binging Netflix.

7. You can lose all of the fat you want simply by walking. You can make it more complex or intense than that, but you don't have to. 

As sexy as it may be to design a program that has you rowing on Mondays, biking on Tuesdays, swimming on Wednesdays, and sprinting on Thursdays, anything more complicated than a strategic walking plan is unnecessary for fat loss. 

Can you make it more complicated? Absolutely. 

Is there a place for more complicated methodologies for some people? Absolutely.

I’m just highlighting the reality that, if you want to, you can tailor your diet and training in a way that allows you to walk your way to your fat loss goal.

In fact, I wrote an in-depth article about exactly how to leverage walking to your fat loss advantage, so give that a read if you’re interested in learning more.

Conclusion 

How you get the physique of your dreams can be very simple. 

Does that mean it will be easy? Absolutely not. But the principles are simple and most effective when repeated and manipulated strategically over time. 

In fact, if I had to try to put all seven of those statements into one sentence, it would be something like this:

Getting lean and muscular is the result of progressively overloading the main movement patterns of squatting, hinging, pushing, and pulling while strategically manipulating your food selection, overall caloric consumption, and recovery within periodized phases of varied focus over time. 

Screenshot that for the moment you’re tempted to jump ship for Keto 3000 and Johnny Bravo’s latest Arm Blitz Split to add 6 inches to your biceps in 6 weeks.

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Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

"Which Protein Bar Should I Buy?"

Let's chat briefly about protein bars.

We all know what it’s like to casually stroll into the health market section of a grocery store in search of a protein snack just to be met by a seemingly endless selection of sometimes 50 or more protein bars.

It can be intense, overwhelming, and discouraging, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some people wind up leaving those aisles just as soon as they’ve entered in hot pursuit of a Cosmic Brownie and a bag of chips instead.

So, which protein bars should you buy?

That’s a great question, but let’s first talk about what I mean when I personally use the word “should.”

Every “should” you will ever hear from me will be accompanied by a disclaimer that answers the question, “Why?”

I’m a big believer that anyone telling anyone what they “should” do would be well-suited to have a good reason for suggesting such things. In other words, when there’s a “should,” I always provide a “why.”

So, the only sense in which you “should” take my advice on which protein bars to buy is if you want to optimize your body composition in the most efficient and sustainable way possible.

I want to be clear that buying and consuming protein bars without a nuanced understanding of the goal behind the behavior is not an automatic ticket to “looking better naked” or even being a healthier person overall.

And, remember I don't write for general fitness or health tips usually - this is about body recomposition, which means gaining muscle and losing body fat over the long term to reshape the integrity of your body.

Sound good?

So if you want to change the shape of your body by ditching body fat and building lean mass over the long term, this is my advice to you regarding protein bars.

Tips for Buying Protein Bars When Body Recomposition Is the Goal

Tip 1 - Try to get 20-40g of protein if possible.

To me, the most important thing to look for is that you're getting at least 20g of protein from the bar or that you're eating the bar with another protein source that gets you to that 20g minimum threshold.

We don't need to get too much into the science, but research tends to show that eating protein in doses of 20-40g per eating event stimulates near optimal muscle growth signaling through muscle protein synthesis.

Basically, if you’re going to eat protein, you might as well eat at least 20g of it per sitting to make it worth your while.

That being said, it's not an on/off switch, so you haven't "failed" if you only get something like 15g or 17g. That is certainly better than no protein at all.

In fact, most mainstream protein bars won't have 20g, which means you’ll probably have to do a bit of searching.

It'll be the ones that seem to be marketed a bit more to the bros that have 20-35g, which actually makes a lot of sense.

Bros want muscle, so bros eat more protein. You want muscle, so now you're a bro by a loose application of the transitive property, which means it’s time to level up your protein consumption per meal.

Why settle for 17g when you go for something more optimal?

So make sure you’re getting 20-40g of protein from your bars if you’re interested in maximizing your lean tissue accumulation.

Tip 2 - Do the calories fit your goal and overall eating strategy?

Make sure the calories make sense in context of your full day of eating, which needs to be tailored to your overall goal.

For example, you might find a protein bar that passes the protein test of 20-40g, but it might also be packing way too many calories if your goal is fat loss.

That means that bar isn't a good fit for you!

I have the perfect, real-life example.

Check out these Super Cookie Crunch Bars from MET-Rx that Josh and I used to pound.

You'll notice that they advertise a robust 32g of protein, which is great, right? It ticks our first box.

But they aren't advertising the calories, which are a hefty 420 calories per bar.

Yikes!

And although I can't offer anyone a magical number of calories that an ideal protein bar “should” contain, I can tell you with confidence that 420 calories per bar is probably going to be too many calories for most fat loss dieters (even men) unless you’re using it as a meal replacement bar as the brand recommends.

Even then though, the numbers just don’t add up well, and I’ll show you how.

Let's take some of my exact numbers for example. At the tail end of my diet when I was peeling back the layers for the photoshoot you see at the top of this article, I was eating 1,800 calories per day, which wasn’t much food for someone who was around 170 pounds.

In that case, spending 420 calories on a single bar would have been 23% of my entire day of eating but only 16% of my protein target.

That’s a meaningful percentage of my caloric allotment for the day from a processed brick of pseudo-Oreo happiness, which means it just probably wouldn't have been a good fit in context of the bigger picture.

In other words, it would have been a better idea to replace those calories with whole food option likes lean proteins, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats for a more complete nutritional profile.

Now, apply this same bar to the life of a 110-pound female who is dieting on 1,300 calories per day, and it's now 32% of her daily calories.

You get the point.

It's probably not going to be a good bet just because it likely won't fill you up as much as whole foods would, which is ultimately a poor overall strategy for sustained diet adherence.

Could you do it though? Absolutely. The key is simply to make an informed decision for yourself.

You have to make sure the calories in the bar fit your goal.

Oh, and one last thing: You're probably realizing how a lot of people can actually gain weight eating what they thought would make them "fit."

Remember Regina George from Mean Girls?

Yeah, perfect example. Don't get duped like Regina.

Tip 3 - Are you okay with the ingredient list from a health perspective?

Some people like the idea of keeping the ingredient list as short as possible for personal preference and health.

If that's you, do it!

Just remember that pursuing general health and pursuing a body recomposition goal aren’t necessarily always intimately intertwined, so this consideration is less relevant when it comes to building muscle and losing fat in a direct sense.

For more on that, check out this article.

And, as a bit of a pro-tip, keep in mind too that protein bars are usually processed by nature, so if you're an ingredient purist you've sort of been kicked in the knee before you ever set foot in the aisle.

As far as I know, protein bars don’t grow on trees next to the bananas nor in the soil alongside the yams.

I would also mention that if you're vegan you'll want to make sure your bar's protein is sourced with a soy or pea protein instead of whey.

Tip 4 - Does it taste good?

If taste matters to you, make sure the bar you are buying on a consistent basis tastes good!

That's probably a no-brainer, but it's worth mentioning as a quick fourth point.

When it comes to a fat loss diet, sustainability and adherence are the most important factors for success, so be sure you at least somewhat enjoy the protein bars you’ve chosen to help you reach your goals.

At the same time, don’t expect them to taste like your favorite childhood Halloween treat.

My Personal Recommendations

I know what some of you are probably thinking...

"Just tell me which one to get, dude! I don't have time to think about this stuff!"

Fine.

Although I have to be honest in that I originally published this article before I adopted a plant-based diet.

So, instead of completing reworking the article to be more plant-predominant, I’ve just sprinkled in a few disclaimers here and there to help nuance my new position.

My Ex-Protein Bar

For a long time, my favorite protein bar was the Pure Protein bar for the following reasons:

1. They pack 19-21g of protein depending on the flavor, which means you could either eat 2 in order to hit the 40g of protein mark or happily settle for just one. First rule checked!

2. The Chocolate Deluxe variety only has 180 calories, which means the macros are really great for body recomposition purposes. Keep in mind that the calories have to go up as the protein content goes up, but that's okay! You want your calories to come from protein when you're eating a protein bar, right?

So even when I would eat 2, I was only eating 360 total calories, which is something I could personally afford even when eating like a peasant for fat loss. Second rule checked!

3. The ingredient isn't impressively short like an RX Bar, but I was personally okay with it. Third rule checked!

4. I personally loved the taste. Fourth rule checked!

5. They were very affordable. Fifth rule checked!

Walmart carries these bad boys if you need to make a sprint after work, and I'm definitely not sponsored by them.

Should you buy this one? If it makes sense for your life and your goals!

My Current Protein Bar

There are only two protein bars I regularly consume now that I eat a completely plant-based diet.

The first and most common one is the Clif Builders bar series.

They’re a bit more calorically dense than they whey-based bars I used to consume, but they make up a very small portion of my diet now, so I simply make it work as needed.

These are still great for busy moments, so I try to keep a few in my gym bag or in my vehicle at all times.

The second bar I utilize from time to time is the NuGo Slim Chocolate Mint bar.

It’s a bit more calorically-friendly than the Clif Builders bar, but I try to eat them in pairs since each bar contains 17g of protein.

Curious about what else I eat as a part of my plant-based diet? I’ve got you covered.

Be sure to click on over to my article called Vegan Bulking: My Most Common Meals for Building Muscle on a Plant-Based Diet.

I hope this write-up helps you think about how to navigate the millions of protein bar options you've probably been presented with when shopping.

If you have any specific questions, just email me at ivry.fitness@gmail.com and we can have a humanizing chat about it.

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Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

How to Look Like Chris Hemsworth from Thor

Just the other morning I met up with a new potential client for coffee at Panera, and I asked him the question I ask nearly everyone when the topic is how to get maximally jacked and lean.

“So, do you have a favorite physique? Maybe a celebrity or something?”

And almost without fail, nearly everyone has that one photo in their phone that they keep coming back to - the one you pull up from time to time and say, “Dang, it would be so sick to look like this dude/gal.”

You’re probably no different.

Over the years, I’ve ebbed and flowed between wanting to look like Brad Pitt from Troy and Zac Efron from Baywatch.

Maybe for you it was Ryan Reynolds from The Amityville Horror (a random genre of movie to be jacked in) or Deadpool.

For this guy, it was Chris Hemsworth from Thor, and who can blame him?

Chris Hemsworth’s physique is absolutely next level - arguably the perfect combination of aesthetics and brute size, which in tandem flawlessly captures not only the heartbeat and admiration of the ladies but the respect and inner applause of the men as well.

In my personal opinion, that unique combination is the epitome of the ultimate physique - the one that captivates all audiences.

My Very Important Disclaimer on Wanting to “Look Like” Other People

Now, as a quick side note, I know a lot of people like to frown upon this idea of “trying to look like someone else,” so I’d like to speak to that briefly.

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when they tell me they want to “look like” someone they admire in terms of fitness or physique.

If you pull up a picture of Ryan Reynolds and say, “Take me here,” I know what you mean.

You’re not asking me to drive you to the nearest plastic surgery facility to reshape your pecs to look just like his…

You’re saying you want to build a similar amount of muscle and shed a similar amount of body fat to get a similar result.

You’re saying, “Let’s move toward this physique in my own specific context,” and I respect that.

It’s not like when I first saw that scene of Brad Pitt in Troy I was thinking about how to grow long blonde hair at the same time. I wanted to know what I would look like if I were carrying that much muscle at that body fat percentage.

Does that make sense?

I just want to be sure to tread really carefully when I speak about wanting to “look like” other people.

It’s not about “looking like” someone else because you’re insecure. It’s about being inspired by a strong, muscular physique in someone you admire and setting a personal goal to achieve similar outcomes in your own context.

It Might Be Easier For Men Than Women

To be honest, I think men are generally better at keeping these distinctions in mind than women.

That’s not a dig at women, I just think women are perhaps a bit more likely to want “hips like J-Lo” or the “ratios of a Victoria’s Secret Angel” - and that's much different than saying you want to be jacked like Thor.

In fact, I think it’s a very dangerous way of thinking for women who are looking to understand their dignity and self-worth, which is want to make it very clear that I would never want to encourage body negativity of any kind.

As you read this article, please understand that “looking like” someone else in the fitness industry should never (in my opinion) come at the expense of dismissing your own self-worth.

So, ladies, if you think you want to “look like” some other girl who you think is the epitome of beautiful or sexy, my encouragement to you would be always to hold your own beauty, dignity, and self-esteem in a precious place.

If you want to build muscle, lose fat, and feel confident in your own skin, I think it’s best to do so out of self-love - not envy or insecurity.

And although this article will most likely attract men looking to get uber-stacked, I wanted to be sure to include that for my female audience. Consider it your daily dose of advice you didn’t ask for.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about what you showed up for - how to get as jacked and lean as Chris Hemsworth was in Thor.

Is It Even Possible to Look Like Thor?

Frankly, it’s probably not possible for most. Ouch!

But I don’t say that to play the “genetics card” (although he certainly seems to have phenomenal genetics for aesthetics).

It’s deeper than that - an impossibility that speaks more to the willingness of the individual.

I say that because most people don’t want his physique badly enough to tailor their entire lifestyle toward that outcome.

Simply put, looking like Chris Hemsworth as he was in Thor just doesn’t happen by accident unless it happens by accident. And if you’re already jacked like Chris Hemsworth by accident, you probably skimmed over this article without a second thought.

But, let’s say you’re crazy enough to attempt it like me.

Here are my top seven tips about how I personally would approach it.

7 Tips for Getting Jacked Like Thor

1. Your Physique Is Now Your Full-Time Job

This first step is more of a mental adjustment than anything. Your food, training, and recovery are now of paramount importance at all times. You have to maximize all of the variables.

Some specific examples of this might be:

• Binging Schitt’s Creek but you know if you watch another episode you’re going to dig into the sleep you need to train properly all week? Turn it off and go to bed. It’s your job.

• Work party tonight but it’s going to be pizza and booze? Eat your own high-protein, macro-tailored meal beforehand and enjoy a sparkling water with your co-workers. It’s your job.

• Long stressful day at work and leg day sounds worse than hell in the moment? Cowboy up, my friend. You’re the one who signed up for this. It’s your job.

This also means no more stupid excuses about “missing breakfast because you overslept” or skipping leg day because you had a “tough day.”

Or only eating 67g of protein on Saturday because you were “traveling.”

Or having a lackluster training session because you “went out for too many drinks” with your friends on Friday night. Stop that.

If you really want to get after a big boy goal like getting jacked like Thor, you have to stop making excuses and starting owning every detail and outcome of your life - both positive and negative.

That’s a mental tweak and nothing more, but in my opinion it is certainly the first step.

2. Figure Out If You Need to Cut First or If You Need to Get Straight Into Bulking

For most people, looking like Thor is going to be a multi-year or even decade-long pursuit depending on how much muscle you want to add to your frame.

That means you need to tap into that idea that your journey is going to have to be phasic for you to see any kind of meaningful long-term success.

The first step is deciding if you need to bulk or cut, and these are my quick tips for making that decision.

People Who Should Cut First

• If you have no semblance of abomination definition, you should probably cut body fat.

  • The only exception I can think of is if you’ve never trained before and you’re not super overweight. But visible abs are probably a good indication that you’re near or below 15% body fat, which is where most people agree you should stop the gain train before your nutrient partitioning becomes more biased to fat gain (and even that’s still highly debated).

  • If you’ve never trained before, there’s a good chance you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time, so you could certainly make that your goal in this unique case.

• This probably goes without saying, but if you’re very overweight or obese, you probably need to cut body fat first before trying to put on muscle size.

  • You can still train for hypertrophy along the way, but you should probably be in a caloric deficit.

People Who Should Get Straight Into Bulking

The hardest part about looking like Thor is going to be putting on the muscle mass.

There’s nothing wildly impressive about his level of leanness, but the size and proportions are what turn heads when mixed with that leanness.

Your best gains are most likely going to come when you’re somewhat lean, which is why I would recommend most people who are any degree of “overfat” cut to a lean place in order to maximize those great gains. If you’re overweight and you go into a further caloric surplus, there’s a good chance that excess energy is going to be stored as more fat rather than more muscle - and we don’t want that.

But there are some people that would benefit from getting straight into bulking.

• If you’re that classic skinny dude who can’t put on weight to save his life, you should absolutely get straight into bulking, which probably means a modest calorie surplus.

• If you identify as skinny fat, I might also recommend getting into a very modest caloric surplus that might be mistaken for maintenance from time to time. You’re qualified to maximize that whole “build muscle and lose fat at the same time” idea, so why not press into it? Plus, cutting when you’re already sort of deflated and squishy can be a big shot to the ego, so why not set yourself up for more positive vibes by putting on some muscle beneath the flubber instead?

3. Get Your Calories Straight and Track Them

Talk to a trusted person in the industry about what your calories should be and get after it.

If you decided you needed to cut, make sure your caloric deficit is appropriate.

If you decided you needed to bulk, make sure your caloric surplus is appropriate and actually working. Wait, what does that mean? Metabolic adaption, folks. Your metabolism is not static.

If your surplus should have you gaining in theory, but it doesn’t have you gaining in practice, guess what? It’s not enough.

Add calories from carbohydrates (if possible) until the scale starts ticking upwards. If it becomes too unbearable to eat more carbohydrates, grab some extra calories from healthy fat sources to help you out.

Beyond that, make sure you are gaining at the proper rate per week, which most experts in the field would agree is around 0.5-1% of body weight gained per week.

Don’t want to track your calories? That’s fine, but that’s like saying you want to brew the best beer of all time but you’re simultaneously not interested in paying attention to the quantities and qualities of the ingredients.

You probably can’t do both if you want to maximize the quality of the outcome. You either get convenience and suboptimal outcomes or you get discipline and optimal outcomes.

If the glory of Thor is your end goal, suboptimal sure isn’t the word I would use to describe it.

4. Get Your Protein Straight and Track It

Within those calories, eat protein at least 3x per day in doses of somewhere between 30-50g each from high-quality sources, and get most of those calories and protein from whole food sources if possible.

In terms of overall daily amounts of protein, that’s going to vary from person to person, but this article I wrote should get you headed in the right direction.

As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to be consuming about 0.7-1.0g of protein per day pound of lean body mass to optimize your muscle-building efforts from a protein perspective.

Also, supplementing with whey protein or a pea protein blend is probably a good idea for convenience and adherence purposes - especially if you are vegetarian or vegan.

Curious about how to do this on a completely plant-based diet? Click here.

5. Make Sure Your Training Program Is Top Notch and Train Like a Freak for Years

Make sure your training program is hypertrophy-based and well-rooted in proven methods.

This means training with the right amount of volume, a sensible array of movements (meaning the right blend of compound moves to isolation moves), and utilizing intelligent progression and overload schemes from week to week.

I can’t outline what that would look like in a single post, but this probably means hiring a good coach.

Trying to DIY your training to Thor status is probably a fool’s errand.

Also, remember that putting on an impressive amount of muscle mass takes years, so be ready to train relentless for a long time before you take on an endeavor like this in ignorant bliss.

6. Sincerely Consider Hiring a Coach If You’re Anything Less Than an Expert or Super-Enthusiast

Funny - I was just talking about hiring a coach!

This truly isn’t even a shameless plug for our own coaching services. Although we would love to have you, this tip makes the list because it’s genuinely probably the quickest road to Rome.

As much as it would be amazing if everyone were as educated in building muscle and losing fat as Dr. Mike Israetel, that’s simply not the case.

Having a coach provides you the peace of mind that your program is incredible and your nutritional strategy is appropriately tailored to the goal.

It also saves you precious time and energy that would be an epic shame to have lost in the stubbornness of your own unwillingness to invest in a coach.

7. Manage Your Recovery Like a Superhero

Although sleep is most likely the most important aspect of recovery on a macro level, there are other ways that recovery can oftentimes be overlooked.

• Minimize high-impact activities that might prevent your muscles from recovering on time.

  • This might be recreational basketball or soccer or even Spike Ball. You can do all of that fun stuff once you already look like Thor, but until then it might be time to lock down your recovery. Or if you must do it, do it sensibly and only on occasion.

• Nap when you can.

• This hopefully goes without saying, but don’t stay up late for no reason like a dumb-dumb. If you can bag an extra hour or two of snooze, do so.

• Drink plenty of water and get as much of your diet from high-quality, whole-food sources as possible.

• As a bit of a bonus consideration, you could consider sipping on a nighttime ashwagandha drink. Personally, I use KOS’ Organic Calming Blue Spirulina Blend once or twice per week to help wind down before what I hope becomes an epic night of sleep. Anecdotally, I have found it does exactly what it claims to do: It calms me down and leaves me crawling into bed with a warm and fuzzy sensation that usually leads to a bit more restorative sleep according to my Whoop.

8. Take Around 5g of Creatine Monohydrate Per Day

Although I don’t take creatine right now for personal reasons, the science on creatine monohydrate is pretty convincing in terms of improving strength output and muscle gains.

It is by far the most researched and well-supported supplement in the fitness space alongside whey protein, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer if you’re serious about rivaling Thor.

Just be sure to stay hydrated as creatine monohydrate does pull water into your muscles to aid in its beneficial effects.

Summary of How to Blow Up Like Thor

And there you have it, friends!

My top seven tips on what it would look like to really dig into the idea of pursuing a Thor-like physique as optimally as possible.

1. Realize that tending to your physique is now essentially a full-time job.

2. Decide whether you need to cut or bulk first.

3. Determine the right number of calories to eat and track them.

4. Identify a daily protein target and hit it consistently.

5. Be certain your training program is hypertrophy-focused.

6. Consider hiring a physique coach.

7. Manage your recovery as optimally as possible

8. Take creatine if desired.

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Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Lastly, I want to disclose that I do earn from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

The Single Biggest Mistake You're Making in How You Think About Fat Loss

Are you ready for it? Because I’m going to hit you with the entire summary of this write-up in this very first sentence.

The single biggest mistake you’re making in how you think about fat loss is...

You still think fat loss is something you achieve through eating a specific menu of foods instead of a specific caloric density of foods consumed strategically through an optimal distribution of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. 

Now, if you wanted to, you could make that sentence a little easier to digest and say something like, “Fat loss is all about how much you eat and not the specific foods you eat.”

While that’s not necessarily false, I think it misses some important nuance that can actually help us all shape the way we think about the entire fat loss process.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that you can easily fix this mistake by doing three simple things.

1. Be Careful Dabbling in Omission Diets in Search of an Effortless Fat Loss Experience

I honestly don’t know if an “omission diet” is already a term, but if it’s not I’d like to coin that right now. 

What I mean by an omission diet is simply a way of eating that is predicated upon the removal or extreme restriction of one major category of food. 

The most obvious of these in this camp would be any “no carb” diet, the ketogenic diet, the carnivore diet, or even your stereotypical “clean eating” diet.

“But Andrew, don’t you eat a 100% plant-based diet?” I do!

And you could absolutely make the case that a plant-based diet is an omission diet.

However, I think the main difference here is that I’ve adopted an exclusively plant-based dietary pattern in attempt to reduce animal suffering.

In other words, I didn’t “go vegan” hoping to lose fat and build muscle effortlessly, which is what I’m encouraging people to be cautious of in this particular article.

So what’s the concern with omission diets?

Diets like these tend to thrive off of getting ignorant people into a caloric deficit by insinuating that carbohydrates or sugar or processed foods are the driving force behind their inability to lose weight.

And although such approaches can work, it’s the calorie deficit that initiates the fat loss - not the foods or the particular nuances of the dietary patterns themselves.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with aiming to limit certain food groups in an intelligent effort to improve your body composition.

I’m merely encouraging people not to be mislead in thinking that there’s any one food or group of foods that are solely responsible for their increasing waist circumference.

The first take-home point here is this: You have to start believing that excess calories relative to your current metabolic needs are what “make you fat” - not any specific food. More pointedly, that means your love handles are an “energy issue” - not a “food category issue.”

2. It’s Not Quite as Simple as “Eating Less” and “Moving More”

If you get it into your head that “eating less” is all that it takes to lose fat, your fat loss success is now at the expense of whatever your diet was before you came to this conclusion in terms of the foods you consumed on a regular basis. If that’s confusing, let me explain.

If you just start “eating less,” you’re probably not going to change the foods you’re eating, which means the food selection remains the same but the amounts change.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say your normal breakfast is a large bowl of cereal and a handful of blueberries.

You’ve just been told by a friend that losing body fat is just about “eating less” and “moving more.” Easy enough, right?

So what do you do? You take your bowl of cereal that was 100g and reduce it to 50g and half the number of berries you add.

In some sense, you’d certainly be on track to losing body fat due to your simple math equation for caloric reduction, but you’d also be failing to consider one massive piece of the body recomposition puzzle, which is the consideration of whether those calories are coming from protein, fats, or carbohydrates and in which ratios.

Eating a peasant’s serving of cereal and toddler’s handful of blueberries is essentially a meal made up of pure carbohydrates.

We’ll get to this in point three, but that’s just simply not an evidence-based diet strategy for optimal body recomposition.

Can you eat cereal and blueberries for breakfast each morning and live to see another day? Of course. I’m just saying it’s not the most effective approach for optimizing your body composition.

So, the second take-home point is this: It very much matters whether you are getting your calories from proteins, fats, or carbohydrates when it comes to “looking better” even when overall calories are equated.

But, this brings me to another great point worth addressing before we move on.

What the Heck Does It Mean to “Look Better?”

When people say they want to lose body fat, they also usually mean that they want to “look better” in the process. 

Without harping on the subjectivity of what it means to “look better,” let’s just all assume for our purposes right now that “looking better” probably means trading unwanted body fat for shapely muscle in all the “right places.” Right?

People want to look good and feel good in their own skin.

So, if you just take your current diet and start reducing calories, you will most likely lose weight! But, will the “look” be what you thought it would be? 

Will you start to take on that harder, leaner look that we all seem to be so drawn to these days? Or will you start to look like a melting ice cream cone?

A person who eats a 2500-calorie diet from an optimal distribution of macronutrients (namely adequate daily protein consumption) would not look the same in a parallel universe if they were eating a 2500-calorie diet from a suboptimal distribution of macronutrients (namely inadequate daily protein consumption).

In short, eating morning pastries and sipping orange juice all day isn’t going to lead to the same results as if you were to eat 3-5 servings of protein in 20-40g doses spread evenly across the day.

And now we’re talking about protein, which leads me into my third and final point.

3. Make Sure You’re Eating an Adequate Amount of Protein If You Want That Hard and Lean Look

This might be a bit direct, but I honestly think you are wasting your time if you’re claiming to be serious about getting lean while neglecting your protein intake.

If you’re wondering how much protein you should be eating per day, I highly recommend you reference my article where I tackle that topic in-depth. 

How much protein do I eat personally? As a 6’ male at 187 pounds and around 12% body fat, I eat around 150g of protein per day and here’s why:

• The general rule of thumb in protein consumption for physique development is to eat around 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM).

• Personally, I’ve seen no meaningful differences in terms of muscle gain when eating more than 150g of protein per day. In fact, I’ve experimented with even lower protein intakes of 80-120g per day for short periods of time and observed no apparent difference.

  • For those of you who don’t know, I used to eat upwards of 200g of animal protein per day before I adopted a fully plant-based diet.

My third take-home point is this: If you’re serious about getting in shape, get stategic about your protein too.

Summary

The biggest mistake you might be making in terms of how you think about fat loss is focusing on specific foods over the caloric density of those foods. 

In short, calories and macronutrients matter most when it comes to body recomposition, which means you can “get fat” on avocado toast just like you can “get fat” on ice cream.

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I had a blast writing this article, so if you enjoyed it, do me a favor and send it to that one friend in your life who’s still looking to the Super Keto 9000 Diet to bring them the six-pack of their wildest dreams. You know who I’m talking about.

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

Deceptively "Healthy" Choices That May Hinder Your Fat Loss Goals

It’s funny how my concept of “healthy” has evolved and grown over my lifetime. I can remember grouping foods into “healthy” and “not healthy” in my head for a long time. For example, I used to think of the following foods and food groups like this:

• Fast Food = “Unhealthy”

• Salad = “Healthy”

• Pizza = “Unhealthy”

• Fruit = “Healthy”

And, you can probably see where I’m going with my list.

This is how I thought about “healthy” and “unhealthy” for a long time. To be fair, learning to categorize foods to some extent is a great educational place to start, but as I personally learned more about nutrition, my definition of “healthy” evolved into something much more specific (for the better).

The reason that my view of “healthy” vs “unhealthy” foods evolved is because:

1. Whatever I had been practicing for my nutrition for a long time was not working. How did I know that? Because I wasn’t getting the results I wanted.

2. I wanted a more wholistic view of the word “healthy” from an educational perspective.

3. My goals became more specific, and thus my nutrition had to be more specific as well.

What I learned about my assumptions between “healthy” and “unhealthy” was striking - especially regarding some of the apparently “healthy” choices I had been making that actually turned out to be setting me back in a powerful way.

My goal with this write-up is this: I want to present a consideration of a handful of diet choices we commonly make that appear “healthy” on the surface but might actually be a hindrance to our diet goals when misapplied.

#1: Ordering or Buying Products that Contain “Superfoods” or are Ambiguously Thought of as “Nutritious”

This was a big hurdle for me personally.

When I was in high school, I remember starting to care more about my diet choices for the first time. I was an athlete and I wanted to make choices that wouldn’t “slow me down” on the field.

At least that’s how I thought about it.

So, I would put avocado on everything when given the option because the internet said avocados contain healthy fats, which they do, but that was my only thought about avocados at the time. Healthy foods will make me a better athlete, right?

I had also heard that nut butters were a good source of healthy fats, so I gave myself the green light on those as well.

Now, this increase in fat intake was great for me in high school because I looked like a scrawny alien twig, but if I were to implement that same viewpoint now as an adult while making a focused effort to lose body fat, it would most likely be setting me back due to the excessive caloric intake alone.

For that reason, it’s always a good idea to know the macronutrient content of your foods along with the micronutrient breakdown that may qualify a food as nutritious.

Because in my opinion, the last thing you want to be doing when trying to lose body fat is eating foods you think should be helping you when they are actually slowing down your progress or even pushing you in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, plenty of well-intentioned people unknowingly make that mistake all the time.

On a coaching note, part of what Andrew and I do with our clients is educate them on basic nutrition while providing structured macronutrient goals so that we can be as optimal as possible with their body recomposition goal. In other words, we try to guide you through a calorie-controlled approach to your goal without ignoring the overall importance of eating nutrient-dense foods.

#2: Blindly Ordering Salads at a Restaurant as Opposed to Another Entrée

Back when my novice definition of “healthy” sat on the nutrition throne of my brain, I began to order salads out at restaurants.

Because salads are healthy, right?

Actually, yes! Salads can be amazingly healthy for us, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get fat from eating too many nutrient-dense salads.

Think about it. When most of us order salads at restaurants, we cover them in things like:

• Croutons - Mostly carbs and extra fat

• Cheese - Contains protein, but generally an equal amount of fat or more

• Fatty Dressings - Most salad dressings contain a LOT of fat.

• Avocado - High fat content, even though they are nutritious

• Fatty Meats - A lot of salads (especially Italian salads) can pile on heaps of salami, pepperoni, bacon, prosciutto, etc.

• Nuts (especially candied/glazed) - While nutritious, these nuts contain a lot of fat. And, if they are candied or glazed, they will also include a lot of sugar which equals extra carbs.

Realistically, if you have a caloric plan in mind or are keeping a mindful eye on your macronutrient intake, you could add a few of these to your salad and still reach your goal.

But, these toppings become a problem if you decide to add three or four of these to one salad because it dramatically changes the caloric total of the entire meal. It’s the cumulative calorie effect that results in weight gain.

Some things to add to your salad instead of some of the ingredients above to add another element could be:

• Grilled Chicken - high in protein and will help fill you up with a much needed macronutrient, especially if trying to hold onto hard-earned lean muscle tissue

• Vegetables - For me personally, texture is a big deal, so adding veggies with a little crunch to them is great! You could even try chipped cucumbers, celery, broccoli, carrots, and/or peppers next time.

• Egg Whites - Whole eggs can be great as well, but I prefer hard-boiling an egg and then chopping up the whites for some easy extra protein

• Beans - Rinse out a can of your favorite beans and add some extra protein to your diet. This is a great option for those that eat plant-based diets.

• Fresh Herbs and Spices - Talk about taking flavor to another level without adding any unwanted fats! Try using some basil, mint, dill, or cilantro with your salad. Just make sure you know the herb you choose will pair well with your other flavors.

• Lemon Juice - I like using just a little bit of oil and then squeezing fresh lemon juice onto my salad as a dressing. As it turns out, a little bit of citrus can go a long way.

Again, depending on your goal, any of the options above could be a good substitution or mindful addition.

#3: The Misapplication of Intermittent Fasting

I have been effectively using intermittent fasting in my current fat loss phase, so I’m certainly not making intermittent fasting the enemy here.

I still consume three to four large meals during my “eating window” (which is 10 hours for me instead of the commonly recommended eight-hour window), and I also consume several high-protein snacks.

But, where does it go wrong for some people?

In my opinion, here are two common ways intermittent fasting is frequently abused:

1. You’re narrowing your eating window to less than eight hours and only giving yourself time for one or two large meals.

   • When we do this, we can sometimes negotiate with ourselves and eat foods that are less nutritious or have unfavorable macronutrient compositions since we are sacrificing an entire meal. In other words, we lose sight of nutrition in favor of a game of calories and calories alone. Just because you could eat a plate of nachos and cheese for 1500 calories doesn’t mean that is going to lead to the body recomposition outcomes you want.

   • I’ve also found that intermittent fasting can lead to more snacking, and generally the snacks we tend to pick aren’t as nutrient-dense or macro-friendly as something we might cook for a proper meal.

   • Eating one large meal can also make people feel sluggish and lethargic.

2. Your protein consumption might not be as optimal as it could be.

   • If your goal is to lose fat while maintaining lean muscle tissue and you choose to enter the intermittent fasting world, you may not be able to eat all of the protein you could benefit from according to most evidence-based guidelines.

     • And, as I mentioned above, typical snack foods tend to be high in carbohydrates and fats and generally low in protein. So, if you tend to be a snacker while practicing intermittent fasting, your snacks may be a limiting factor in your progress.

     • If you need more clarity about how you could go about calculating your own protein intake, check out this blog.

Again, intermittent fasting doesn’t have to be the enemy, but it is often touted as a very healthy diet strategy even though it can easily be misapplied.

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Feeling Motivated?

Like I said at the beginning of the article, it’s probably a good idea to be very careful about making sure that the “healthy” choices we are making are actually choices that help us move toward our goals rather than push us further back.

I also mentioned that part of a coaching relationship with an IVRY Fitness coach is a personalized macronutrient goal to help you reach a specific body composition goal. So, if you have always wanted to make a change but have continuously felt stuck because nothing you have ever tried in the past has worked, consider reaching out to us.

We have open coaching slots and are looking for highly motivated clients that want to make a significant change in their body composition.

Click here to learn more, The journey always has to begin somewhere, so why not here and now?

9 Sneaky Ways to Get More Protein Into Your Diet

Let’s talk about how to get more protein into your diet.

If you’re reading this article, it probably means you’re in one of three positions:

1. You’re either skeptical about how high the evidence-based protein recommendations are for athletes/trainees who want to maximize their muscle growth response, or…

2. You’re already bought into the idea of eating a higher-protein diet, but you’re not sure how to practically eat that much protein on a daily basis, or...

3. You’re the parent of a young athlete and you’re trying to figure out how to cook and prepare food at home to support their goals.

In any case, this blog is for you.

But I have one quick disclaimer before we get started:

ONE QUICK DISCLAIMER

These tips and tricks only apply if you know that you are currently eating less protein than you could be eating for optimal muscle retention and/or growth. 

I just want to be clear that there’s no meaningful benefit to eating excess protein if you’re already eating plenty in the first place. That makes sense, right?

But, how do you know if you’re already eating enough protein? 

How to Know If Your Protein Intake Is Adequate

To start, you’ll need to track your food for a few days.

I recommend tracking your intake for 3-5 “normal eating days” using an app like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer and a food scale for ensured accuracy.

Once you have a few days of data collection, you’ll need to reference this article I wrote on how to determine an appropriate protein target.

But just as a brief summary, I think eating between 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) is sufficient for nearly all of the muscle growth most people are hoping to obtain.

Then, when you know for sure that you’re under-eating protein relative to your goal, you can start digging into these tips like a grizzly bear in a picnic basket.

Now let’s get into a few tips and tricks on how to get more protein into your diet.

A SECOND QUICK DISCLAIMER

I originally published this article as a meat-eater, but I no longer eat meat or any other animal products (including fish, dairy, or eggs).

Because of that, this article has been heavily updated to reflect my own personal preference toward eating a plant-predominant diet.

9 TIPS FOR EATING MORE PROTEIN

Tip #1: Stop Being Bashful about Protein Shakes.

If you’re looking to get more protein into your diet as simply as possible, consider adding a plant-based protein shake to your daily routine. 

Or, consider doing a shake with a double scoop of protein or making your plain shake into a smoothie with berries and your favorite nut butter.

Why the double scoop though?

Well, not to get too geeky on you, but when it comes to building muscle, the muscle protein synthetic response appears to be optimally activated in doses of 20-40g of protein (with diminishing returns between 40-60g per dose).

You could, however, easily achieve this by using a higher-protein plant milk like soy milk to bolster the protein content of your smoothie.

Either way, consuming 40-50g of protein from your shake would be giving you an excellent hit of muscle protein synthesis to support the hard training you’re executing in the gym.

The key here is to stop associated protein shakes with “being a bro.”

Drinking protein shakes doesn’t make you a “bro” any more than wearing a pair of basketball shoes makes you LeBron James. 

So, if you’ve been avoiding protein shakes due to your ego, I would highly encourage you to drop the stigma and press into the bigger picture of achieving your body recomposition goal. 

What I Do Personally: I generally drink one plant-based protein smoothie a day for my first meal that contains one scoop of pea/rice protein blend, 300mL of high-protein soy milk, hemp hearts, and powdered peanut butter for a hit of 40-50g of protein.

For more details on my morning smoothie, click here,

Tip #2: Double Your Lean Protein Portions.

There’s no need to overcomplicate this one.

Instead of eating one chicken breast for dinner, you could eat two.

But as plant man myself, I’d love to see more people choosing plant proteins like tofu and tempeh over poultry.

Rather than eating one portion of seitan for dinner, you could serve yourself two.

Or, as crazy as this may seem, you could even make yourself two servings of chickpea pasta instead of one (if your caloric goals allow for this).

And, really this applies to any kind of lean protein you might be eating.

Just remember that it’s very important that your calories still be kept nice and tidy if you’re focusing on a body recomposition goal - especially if your goal is to lose body fat. 

For example, if your goal is to lose body fat, but you’re eating 600 calories worth of chickpea pasta each night because you took my advice to double your protein serving, that might actually be the wrong choice contextually because it’s knocking you out of the caloric deficit you need to lose fat.

In other words, make sure you account for calories above all else. It’s an easy mistake to make, which is why I wrote an entire article on it.

Tip #3: Sprouted Bread

Wait, bread has protein? Yes, it does!

In fact, sprouted bread in particular is a complete protein source, which means it has a fuller amino acid profile than some other plant-based products (which is a common critique of plant-based diets for muscle growth).

Practically speaking, if you start making your lunch sandwiches with a sprouted grain like Ezekiel bread, you’ll be able to sneak an extra 10-20g of protein into your meal. And although 10g may not seem like much all by itself, it can certainly add up across the entire day. 

You could also supplement a morning breakfast of oatmeal and berries with a slice or two of toasted Ezekiel bread for a protein-heavy start to your day.

What I Do Personally: I like to buy the Ezekiel bread you find in the refrigerated or even frozen sections at the store. People don’t think to look for bread there, but those products need to be kept cold since they’re typically made without the preservatives that allow for a longer shelf life.

Tip #4: Bagels

While we’re on the topic of how grains can get you more jacked, let’s touch on bagels.

Bagels are hands-down my favorite post-workout carbohydrate source. For whatever reason, there’s just nothing quite like a freshly toasted wheat bagel from Aldi with a plant-based protein shake after grueling training session.

Fortunately for me, the bagels I eat contribute 9g of protein per bagel. That’s a hefty bump, especially if your goal is to gain muscle while eating in a moderate caloric surplus.

To be fair, bagels are fairly calorie dense with around 260 calories per bagel, but if you’re a big person training to be even bigger - spending 520 calories and 108g of carbohydrates post-workout (with an added bonus of 18g of protein) might be a great idea.

The downside of bagels is that they aren’t particularly fat loss friendly for those eating calorically restricted diets, so I will admit that these will mostly often suit bigger people a bit better than smaller people.

Again, just make sure that the way you approach your protein intake is calorie-controlled for your greater goal.

What I Do Personally: One of my classic post-workout meals is almost exactly what I mentioned above: a whole wheat bagel, 20-40g of nut butter, 20-40g of raspberry jelly, and a plant-based protein shake for roughly 631 calories comprised of 43g of protein, 79g of carbs, and 19g of fat to jumpstart the recovery and growth process. 

Tip #5: Hemp Hearts

You may have never heard of hemp hearts, but they have been an absolute game changer for my oatmeal and salad game.

Plus, a full serving of hemp hearts packs 10g of plant-based protein and 13g of healthy Omega-6 fats. 

Just be careful not to get carried away with your calories from hemp hearts if you’re dieting for fat loss.

You don’t need to be scared of them, but it’s definitely worth noting that a full serving packs 170 calories, which can be more than 10% of your daily caloric intake if you’re a smaller person looking to consume less than 1,700 calories per day.

What I Do Personally: I spike my oatmeal with hemp hearts for a small protein bump and the added bonus of knowing I’m consuming my fats from healthy plant-based sources. If you want my go-to bowl of oatmeal, check out the graphic on the right. Just keep in mind that I would, in this case, supplement this particular bowl with a pea/rice protein shake to get within that optimal amount of 20-40g of protein per meal.

Beyond that, I used to drink a fully plant-based shake each morning with 30g of protein without the use of a plant-based protein powder when I was dabbling in veganism. So, if you’re vegan, hemp hearts might be a phenomenal way to increase your protein without the use of animal products.

Tip #6: You Could Use Egg Whites.

Although I no longer personally recommend the consumption of egg whites due to the disclaimer I gave at the beginning of this article, I do think it’s most transparent to mention that I consumed them heavily in the form of French toast from 2019-2020.

Why? Well, they’re essentially pure protein - and they are a complete protein, which means their addition to your diet will absolutely support your muscle building goals.

Just one serving of egg whites packs 5g of protein and only 25 calories.

If you’re new to tracking macronutrients, just know that that’s a really good bang for your caloric buck in terms of protein return.

Back in the day, I would typically eat them in servings of 300mL at a time.

What I Do Personally: I don’t eat them anymore due to ethical reasons, but they are a very common protein source for many physique enthusiasts.

Tip #7: Broaden Your Horizons with Seitan.

I know it sounds like the devil, but it’s really not unless you have a gluten sensitivity.

What is it?

Seitan is just wheat gluten prepared in a way that makes good sense of its “wheat meat” nickname. For a deeper dive, I felt as though this article was helpful in learning more about this ancient yet seemingly unknown plant-based protein source.

Fortunately, store-bought seitan seems to be increasing in popularity as plant-based diets gain more traction in the consumer space, which means you don’t need to stress about making your own.

Just go buy some at the store!

What I Do Personally: I like the chorizo variety of the Upton brand because it’s goes brilliantly in homemade Mexican dishes. When I’m in a hurry, I will literally just throw together a bed or rice, black beans, 1-2 servings of chorizo seitan, a dabble of nutritional yeast, and a spoonful of salsa for an extremely simple yet physique-friendly meal.

Tip #8: Chili

Chilis are nutritional powerhouses when it comes to dieting for body recomposition.

And although I’m well aware that the majority of my readers won’t be “as plant-based” as I am, I personally add a bag of Gardein’s be’f crumbles made from a textured soy protein for an extra 18g of protein for 120 calories per serving.

That being said, I know there are plenty of people out there who are scared of soy, and I empathize with you. And although soy is still heavily-debated, I found this resource featuring Simon Hill and Dr. Matthew Nagra extremely helpful in clearing up my own personal confusion.

But back to chili.

As an added bonus, throwing tons of beans in your chili is an amazing way to get a meal packed with fiber and extra plant-based protein.

It’s also a cheeky way to get a ton of herbs and spices you might be missing out in other areas of your diet.

Lastly, chilis are amazing for meal prep because it’s an all-in-one meal that you can toss into a single Pyrex dish for a simple heat-up.

What I Do Personally: When the weather isn’t too hot, my wife and I make a large batch of chili in the crockpot and eat high-protein dinners for a full week.

If you’re curious for the recipe, send me an email at ivry.fitness@gmail.com and I’d be happy to hook you up. 

P.S. Mix in 16g of nutritional yeast per serving of chili for an extra 8g of protein and enough B12 to last you a trip to Mars and back.

Tip #9: High-Protein Soy Milk

In my opinion, this stuff is almost too good to be true. Why did I make this number nine?

Silk’s version of this product packs an outstanding 20g of protein per 240mL, which is basically a protein shake all by itself given the known protein quality of soy.

How do you use it?

• Throw it in smoothies.

• Drizzle it into your oats.

• Use it as the milk for your cereals.

• Or even mix it into red pasta sauces as a thickening agent.

What I Do Personally: I drink about two cups of soy milk a day. Most often, I’ll have one in the morning as the base of my plant-based protein smoothie, and then I’ll sometimes drink a cup on the side of a peanut butter and jelly bagel post-workout.

Bonus Tip: The “Pre-Dinner Shake and Dine” Maneuver

What if you’re that person who is already annoyed at the idea of having to design every single meal around a protein source?

Well, I come to you with this final tip as a peace offering for a bit of added “normalcy,”

If you’re going out to dinner with friends and you don’t want to order the rubbery grilled chicken salad or settle for the hummus plate appetizer, just drink a low-calorie protein shake at home right before you leave and enjoy literally any meal on the menu assuming it fits the caloric needs you’ve established for your goal.

This is actually pretty genius for a few reasons:

1. Most importantly, you get to order the pasta you really want even though it’s basically a carbohydrate and fat explosion. Life is worth living (in my opinion), so if you want the pasta, why not pull a fast one to make that happen?

2. Secondly, you don’t have to look “uncool” socially. Although it doesn’t bother me personally, some people don’t like having to order the “high-protein option” in front of their friends because it just feels “uncool.” And trust me, I get it. You want to be jacked and lean and be able to order the pizza when you’re out with friends. It’s sexier and more mysterious that way. I’m tracking 100%, and this is an easy way to do it.

3. And lastly, the protein from the shake you consumed before you left the house might even curb some of your hunger and leave you more satiated before you even make your order. What does that mean? It means you might wind up eating even less at dinner and keeping your fat loss goals a bit more intact due to the added liquid volume and satiating properties of the high-protein drink. 

So, don’t be afraid to keep that trick up your sleeve the next time it’s time to have a meal out with the squad. 

And that’s that, friends! I had a blast writing this article, so if you enjoyed it, do me a favor and send it to a friend who might benefit from learning a few new tips and tricks about increasing your protein intake across the day.

Until next time,

-Andrew

"How Much Protein Should My High School Athlete Be Eating?"

You’ve got a smaller-framed high school athlete that needs to put on muscle, and you’ve finally made the decision to get serious about their weight gain goal.

Congratulations! Now you just have to wade through all the hype surrounding diet.

And, if you are at all like most parents, you probably have a lot of questions about protein in particular.

• “Does my athlete really need to be eating a lot of protein to put on muscle?” 

• ”If so, how much? Is there a magical number?”

• “And does this mean I should have them drinking protein shakes after their workouts?”

We hear you and we’ve got answers for you. Let’s get into it.

How much protein should your athlete be eating per day?

We’ve found that aiming to consume around 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) per day seems to be one of the most commonly accepted practices for athletes that want to achieve that lean, athletic physique. And, to be honest with you, most people aren’t really taking that LBM stipulation to account at all.

In other words, in most cases it’s going to be a decent idea to simply use their bodyweight instead of that LBM figure for the sake of keeping things as simple as possible.

It’s also worth nothing that while some experts recommend a bit more protein per day (1.2g or more per pound of LBM) and other researchers and gurus allow for a bit less (as low as 0.7g per pound of LBM), this “1g per Pound Rule” still seems to be the most popular pick. 

But, why?

I think it’s because that 1:1 ratio of grams of protein to bodyweight is just a really easy way to calculate your daily protein intake. And, let’s be honest: “Easy” works really well for most people because “easy” is usually adherence-friendly and sustainable long-term.

Think about it this way. People like basic math, and basic math is easy.

If your athlete weighs 125 pounds, they’d eat around 125g of protein per day.
If your athlete weighs 150 pounds, they’d eat around 150g of protein per day.
If your athlete weighs 175 pounds, they’d eat around 175g of protein per day. Simple, right?

I think you get the point.

What does it look like to eat that much protein?

Depending on the size of your athlete and their protein target, it essentially comes down to eating 20-40g of high-quality protein every 3-5 hours.

Just because I know people like specifics, take a look at how I would personally split up my protein meals throughout the day if I were a 180-pound high school athlete with a traditional high school schedule.

SAMPLE DAILY Protein SCHEDULE as a Student-Athlete

6:30AM - Breakfast: 2 whole eggs and 140g of egg whites with oatmeal and toast for 38g of protein

9:30AM - Morning Snack: 43g of whey isolate and an apple for 35g of protein

12:30PM - Lunch: 6 ounces of lean protein, rice or potatoes, and a vegetable for around 36g of protein

3:30PM - Pre-Practice Meal: 43g of whey isolate and a bagel for 44g of protein

7:00PM - Dinner (Post-Practice Meal): 6 ounces of lean protein, a high-carb source, and a vegetable for around 36g of protein

This entire day of eating would yield about 190g of protein from mostly high-quality sources, which would be an amazing start to most 180-pound high school athletes’ pursuit of optimal muscle gain.

But as a quick note, you and your athlete can’t only think about protein and get the results you want. Protein, after all, is just one piece of the bigger puzzle. For a hearty write-up on all the things you’d need to consider, we’ll have a full description of that coming out soon.

Also, if your athlete is smaller than 180 pounds, be sure to tweak those protein quantities to fit their adjusted goal. On average, female athletes will probably need a bit less protein simply due to the fact that they will likely weight less than their male peers. If you’d like help making those decisions for your athlete, don’t hesitate to email us and ask about coaching.

Lastly, keep in mind that this is just how I would structure my own eating. If your athlete has food allergies or preferences against any of the foods mentioned, know that there are plenty of other meal options we could discuss with you.

Although we are not registered dietitians, we can certainly help provide resources to guide you in the dietary choices you make (including those who are vegetarian or vegan).

Does everybody need to be eating that much protein?

Of course not. I want to be clear that these recommendations aren’t for everyday Joe’s and Jane’s – they’re for high school athletes who really want to start taking their muscle gains seriously.

In other words, I’m not suggesting your sweet Grandpa Bob should be shotgunning 60g of whey protein after his mid-morning gardening session to support optimal hamstring and glute development. That would be, well, quite unnecessary (and also hilarious) because Grandpa isn’t trying to get a scholarship as the future star running back of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Protein recommendations for people less interested in getting jacked and lean are, of course, much lower because they aren’t loading up their bodies with heavy loads with the focused intent of developing the size and density of their muscles.

Since proteins are widely considered the buildings blocks of muscle repair and growth, it makes sense to be eating more protein if you want to be more muscular.

Simply put, if you have an athlete that wants to get jacked and lean to support their sport performance, they are going to need more protein relative to the person that doesn’t.

So, let’s just make sure we’re clear about that.

What does it mean to be “taking things seriously” as a high school athlete?"

I’ve come up with the following checklist to help you make sense of that question for yourself.

Your son or daughter is probably ready to take their physique development “seriously enough” if they are:

1. Willing to train intelligently with resistance for hypertrophy 3-6 (or even more) times per week as a supplement to their sport specific weightlifting at school.

2. Willing to eat purposefully in a caloric deficit, a caloric surplus, or at maintenance for the desire body recomposition outcome.

3. Willing to prioritize their protein intake across 3-6 meals per day if/when possible.

4. Willing to get the majority of their calories and protein from nutrient-dense foods while saving “junk foods” for treats and special occasions.

5. Willing to optimize their rest and recovery as much as possible.

Is that your son or daughter? If so, you might give hiring a personal coach some serious consideration.

Playing sports in college can be a lot of fun, and - in my opinion - there’s no need to let your athlete’s lack of attention to diet and nutrition in high school be the difference between continuing the love of the game and letting it go forever once they graduate.

If they have a real chance at playing in college, why not optimize the odds?

So, what’s the takeaway here?

1. We think it makes the most sense to keep your young athlete’s calculations of protein intake as simple as eating 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day if you’re hoping to look as lean and mean as possible this summer assuming you aren’t considerably overweight or even obese.

2. Remember that there is no “one size fits all” amount of protein your athlete should be consuming, but there are evidence-based ranges that are likely to optimize your progress toward your physique goal. These ranges are calculated on an individual basis based on your current level of leanness. For more detail on that, check out this article of ours.

3. And, just as a bonus takeaway, no, your athlete doesn’t necessarily need to be drinking protein shakes, but it sure does make hitting their protein targets much easier on a consistent basis. I would personally recommend utilizing shakes once or twice a day if you have a serious goal to build muscle - prioritizing them pre-workout and post-workout when possible.

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If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to another parent of a promising high school athlete. And, of course, we encourage you to take the time to flip through some of our other recent posts for additional content as well.

You can also find a different set of semi-daily content being posted to our Instagram at @ivry.fitness.

Lastly, we do have coaching spots available if you’re interested in hiring a coach to guide your high school athlete toward their muscle building goal. If that’s you, reach out. We know it’s a lot to wade through as a parent, and we’d be happy to walk you and your entire family through the process.

Until next time,

-Andrew

13 Must-Know Terms and Concepts for Body Recomposition

This is going to be an overview of the terms and concepts you’ll need to be aware of before you commit to a fat loss journey, a muscle building endeavor, or even just a slow but steady pursuit of looking a little bit better naked.

If you’re like me, you like specifics, which means you’ll want to know that all of the following goals would fit into this category of “things you should probably know before getting started on your journey” - just to make sure you’re not wasting your time before you even begin..

Who do these terms and concepts apply to?

• The normal guy who just wants to look a little bit better through hitting the gym sensibly a few times a week and getting more active overall.

• The guy in his mid-twenties or thirties who wants to get super jacked and look like Brad Pitt from Troy (or Brad Pitt from Fight Club)

• The mom who wants to lose 10-20 pounds and build some muscle along the way.

• The college chick who wants to develop her legs and glutes.

• The 30 year-old female who wants to compete in the bikini division someday.

• The skinny 15 year-old kid who wants to put on some muscle - either for sports or just to catch the attention of the cute girl in his class.

• The person who is 100 pounds or more overweight and wants to lose it all for the sake of being a healthier and more active person.

And, if you’re wondering how these terms and concepts could possibly apply to all of these goals at the same time, it’s simply because the fundamentals of body recomposition from an evidence-based perspective are the fundamentals for a reason.

Any deviation from the basics is just a more specific application and manipulation of those fundamentals in order to achieve your desired goal.

So, let’s get into it. What do you need to know before you get started?

Must-Know Terms and Concepts for Body Recomposition

1: You Need to Define Your Goal.

I’ve already written in-depth about this, so if you need a detailed outline of my preferred way of setting a proper goal, I encourage you to check out this blog I wrote entitled Five Really Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before Embarking on a “Fitness Journey.”

In short, just pick a specific yet realistic goal and write it down on a napkin.

Why a napkin? Because that’s what J.K Rowling did when she started writing the Harry Potter series, and it turned out well for her.

As an example, you could say something like, “My goal is to lose 10 pounds while maximizing muscle retention by September 1.”

It’s specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and totally awesome. 

Plus, there’s just something gritty about a napkin.

2: Calories

Thois may seem overly elementary, but there are actually plenty of people out there who don’t realize that calories are what dictate the majority of your “overweight-ness” or your “underweight-ness.” 

That means if you’re overweight, it’s primarily because you’ve eaten too many calories for too long. If you’re thinner than you’d like to be, it’s primarily because you’re not eating enough calories to gain the weight that would make you look “less thin.”

Calories are simply the unit we use to measure the energy that foods hold, so why all the fuss and confusion?

The nuance tends to present itself in which foods you get those calories from.

Can you really eat Pixy Sticks and protein shakes all day or is it “better” to get your calories from brown rice, mung beans, and tofu?

Is a calorie just a calorie? Well, it’s tricky.

For now, just make sure you’re fully on team “Calories Matter Most” before you get started, and you’ll be fine.

Otherwise you’ll be back to ripping Dr. Oz magazines off the tabloid shelves in desperation before you know it.

Sorry, Doc. But that headline about dropping 16 pounds every week is silliness unless we’re talking about 16-pound dumbbells.

3: Energy Balance

Literally every goal I mentioned in that list at the top of this write-up is going to require you to manipulate your energy balance in favor of your long-term goal in a periodized fashion.

When people say energy balance in the body recomposition space, they’re talking about the idea of calories in versus calories out, which is often abbreviated CICO.

In other words, we’re talking about how many calories you consume from food (calories in) and how many calories you expend through exercise (calories out).

What this means for you is that there are going to be times when you need to be eating fewer calories than your body needs (if your goal is to lose overall body fat), and there are going to be times when you need to be eating more calories than your body needs, which would be the case if your primary goal is to build muscle as an already-lean individual.

If you’re still confused about why we call it energy balance, remember that calories are a measured unit of energy. 

As Andy Dwyer once said on the television series Parks and Recreation, pizza and nachos - in some sense - are full of energy. And it’s true! But too much energy (calorically-speaking) leads to unwanted fat gain.

Negative and Positive Energy Balance

If someone is in a negative energy balance, it means they are eating fewer calories than they need, which leads to fat loss.

If someone is in a positive energy balance, they are eating more calories than they need, which can lead to muscle gain and fat gain depending on this person’s training habits..

One final thing to remember here is that everyone’s caloric needs are different depending on genetics, muscle mass, fat mass, training style, and overall activity level.

They can even change within the same person depending on your current dieting phase.

For example, 2,700 calories might be a deficit for me when 190 pounds but a slight surplus when 175 pounds.

4: Protein

Getting that lean, hard look might require you to eat a bit more protein than you are used to unless you are a naturally lean and muscular person.

For details on that, I’ve written extensively about how you can calculate your own protein needs here.

But, in broad strokes, know that an extremely easy way of making sure you’re getting enough protein to support your body recomposition goal is to simply take your goal weight in pounds and multiply that by 0.7-1 to find your daily protein intake in grams.

So, if you’re 150 pounds and you know you’d be a lean version of yourself at 120 pounds, it might be a good idea to start eating between 84-120g of protein per day.

You can see the math here:

• 120 pounds x 0.7 = 84g of protein per day

• 120 pounds x 1.0 = 120g of protein per day

5: Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS)

Muscle protein synthesis in easy-to-understand terms is the body’s process of building new muscle tissue.

In my opinion, all you need to know is that most researchers agree that MPS can be stimulated every 3-5 hours with a dose of 20-40g of protein at a time.

So, if you have a goal to get optimally jacked, the current science would suggest you’re probably best to eat 20-40g of protein 3-5 times per day every 3-5 hours within your overall daily protein target.

Practically speaking, that means if your protein target for the day is 120g, you could eat the following amounts of protein per meal in order to optimize the muscle protein synthetic response (as the experts I respect currently understand it):

• 25g of protein for breakfast at 7 a.m.

• 25g of protein for lunch around 11 a.m.

• 20g of protein as a mid-afternoon snack at 3 p.m.

• 30g of protein for dinner and after your workout at 6:30 p.m.

• 20g of protein as a bedtime snack at 10 p.m. 

If you’re curious about what I do personally, most days look like this when I’m eating 140-150g of protein per day:

• 50g of protein for breakfast around 8 a.m. (my pre-workout meal)

• 30g of protein for my second meal around 1:30 p.m. (my post-workout meal)

• 30g of protein for my third meal around 4:30 p.m.

• 30g of protein for my fourth meal around 7:30 p.m.

For more examples, Josh posted on this very topic as well in more detail. 

6: Carbohydrates and Fats

The war between carbs and fats is real, folks. 

But, I’m here to simplify it as much as possible so you can walk away feeling confident about your diet choices.

All you really need to know is that your overall calorie intake and your daily protein intake matter much more than how you consume the rest of your calories from carbs and fats.

Seriously, there is absolutely nothing to be gained from overcomplicating this unless you're a highly competitive bodybuilder.

The only caveat here is to make sure your fat consumption never represents much less than 15-20% of your total calories since having some healthy fat in your diet is essential for proper hormone function.

Practically speaking, I can fully admit that I’m biased toward higher-carb, lower-fat diets simply because they’ve proven to work extremely well for me personally over the years - especially when dieting for fat loss. Preferentially, I also love carbohydrates, which makes diet adherence much easier when I allow for a higher-carb bias.

On the other hand, I am very aware of the fact that there are plenty of people who prefer higher-fat or even ketogenic diets. In my eyes, there isn’t a “right way” and a “wrong way” insofar as the diet quality is supporting your individual health.

My advice is to find what works best for your health, preference, long-term adherence, and perception of desired outcomes. If you like a certain way of eating, you can adhere to it sustainably, and you’re getting the results you want, you’re probably setting yourself up for success.  

7: Macronutrients or “Macros”

Macronutrients are simply the three categories of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. And, some people call alcohol the “fourth macro.”

Proteins and carbohydrates each have 4 calories per gram while fats have 9 calories per gram. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, and the sum of all of your macronutrients results in your total caloric intake.

If you hear someone say they “track their macros,” that just means they structure their diet in a way that allows them to eat a specific number (or range) of each macronutrient.

For example, my macros at the moment are roughly 150g of protein, 430g of carbohydrates, and 55g of fat per day. That would be 600 calories from protein, 1,720 calories from carbs, and 495 calories from fats for a total of 2,815 calories per day.

It’s also important to remember that your macros will change depending on which phase of dieting you are in.

If you are eating to lose weight, your macros will be lower. If you are in a phase designed to add body weight on purpose, your macros will be higher. 

For a deeper look into macronutrients and our experience tracking them, check out this post we made on Instagram. 

8: Flexible Dieting (IIFYM)

Speaking of counting your macros, what’s up with flexible dieting?

Basically, flexible dieting is a dieting strategy that allows you to eat pretty much whatever you want as long as it fits within your given macronutrient allotment.

That means if you have 150g of protein to eat in a day, it doesn’t matter if you get it from 5 servings of high-protein soy milk, a diverse mix of 5 different protein sources, or 5 plant-based protein shakes with PB2. Just “hit your macros,” and you’re “good to go” when it comes to body recomposition.

The prized perk of the IIFYM movement (which stands for “if it fits your macros”) is that you can technically eat ice cream and pizza in moderation while losing body fat if you want to.

And you really can! If this is breaking news to you, remember that calories really do matter most for fat loss.

Although I will say that most responsible advocates of flexible dieting still recommend you eat about 80-90% of your calories from whole food sources while enjoying that remaining 10-20% of calories from “unhealthy” foods you enjoy.

My biggest warning against flexible dieting is that it doesn’t account for your health. It only considers your immediate fat loss outcomes, which can lead to unhealthy, longer-term dietary habits that may prove difficult to break if dieting for health and longevity should ever become the primary focus.

9: “Clean” Eating

“Clean” eating could be considered the opposite of flexible dieting, which means you eat all of your calories from “clean” sources.

Now, the term “clean” is certainly up for debate, but what people are saying is that you should stick to the foods your mother told you were healthy and resist the temptation to have a KitKat before bed each night - even if it fits your macros.

A sample day of “clean” eating could look like this:

• Breakfast: sprouted whole-grain toast, avocado, and a plant-based protein shake  

• Lunch: leafy green salad with crispy tofu and a drizzle of tahini

• Snack: an apple

• Dinner: chickpea pasta with steamed broccoli

• Dessert: berry-based protein smoothie with soy milk and powdered peanut butter powder

You get the point.

For thoughts on a few potential risks of “clean” eating, give this Instagram post a look. 

10: Periodization

Periodization simply means that you don’t do the exact same style of training or dieting at all times during your journey.

If you’re looking to lose a considerable amount of body fat, you’ll probably need to eat below your needs for a while and then transition into a period of eating slightly more to give your body a break from the energy deficit.

It’s generally not thought of as a good idea to just lose 100 pounds in one go - especially if you’re interested in keeping the weight off once you get there.

Building muscle is the same way. Although a majority of your time should be spent in a caloric surplus, there will be times when you need to eat at maintenance or even in a deficit in order to support the bigger picture goal of putting on as much muscle as possible.

Think of periodization as the phases of your body recomposition approach.

As a side note, I think this is probably the most under-considered concept on the list, which is why most people go on their starvation diets, lose 50 pounds, and then gain back 60 once they realize that their starvation diet of chicken, broccoli, and lemon water wasn’t super sustainable after all. 

11: Hypertrophy vs. Strength

Hypertrophy is the style of training that is pretty much exclusively targeted at getting you “more jacked.” So, if you’re just out here trying to be the biggest dude at the nightclub, you want to be training for hypertrophy. That’s a good term to know.

On the other hand, some people will want to train for strength. 

Here’s the thing though: Training for strength and training for size are not the exact same thing.

This isn’t the place to discuss the nuances of those differences, but I highly recommend this video featuring Dr. Mike Israetel, Chief Sport Scientist at Renaissance Periodization, if you are looking for further explanation.

12: Supplements

Supplement conversations can get hairy, but most evidence-based folks in the industry agree that the only ones worth your time and money are the following:

Protein POWDERS or a Protein BARS

Hitting your daily protein needs is important for optimizing your body recomposition results, so if utilizing shakes and bars is a way to make your journey more sustainable, it’s probably a good idea.

I personally utilize both protein shakes and protein bars (plant-based) on a daily basis as a part of my diet, and you can read more about that here.

If you plan on opting for a plant-based blend, soy and pea/rice blends have been shown to offer the most competitive amino acid profile to its whey protein frontrunner.

If you’re looking for a specific brand, I’ve had great success with MyProtein’s Vegan Blend in the past.

Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine exists naturally in the body, but adding a dose of 3-5g each day is a common practice for people who really want to increase their performance capacity - specifically in terms of weight training. A lot of people even consider creatine monohydrate a “no-brainer” in terms of its effectiveness and cost availability - and it probably is. 

Even though I do not personally take creatine, I certainly used it in my early twenties and - for those who are wondering - I would personally buy this particular kind if I were to hop back on the train in the future.

Caffeine

Although caffeine isn’t going to make you any more lean or jacked all by itself, plenty of people enjoy its stimulative benefits before a hard workout. I only use caffeine occasionally, but not as a boost for my workouts. Frankly, I just enjoy a cup of coffee a few times per week because I like the taste.

If you’re curious about pre-workout products for their caffeine benefits, I personally think they’re mostly a waste of money.

And, if you’re not careful with your servings sizes and the rest of the caffeine you consume throughout the day, you risk flirting with unhealthy doses. Make your own choices, but that’s not something I’m interested in toying around with.

That being said, I do enjoy pump products from time to time when training purely for hypertrophy.

Multivitamins and Omega-3 Fish/ALGAE Oils 

If you’re not sure you’re getting all your vitamins from your diet, a multivitamin can be a good idea for some people. The same can be said of fish oils or algae oils if you’re unable to incorporate fatty fish into your diet or choose not to for personal reasons.

That being said, I am not a registered dietician, and I highly encourage you to do your own research on the matter before making an educated decision about what is appropriate for you.

13: Cardio

Cardio just refers to cardiovascular training, which normally means walking on a treadmill or using some other kind of walking or cycling device to elevate your heart rate.

In practice though, cardio simply becomes one of the two modalities we tweak to ignite further fat loss.

So, if someone tells you, “Ugh. I have to go do my 60 minutes of cardio,” they’re saying their coach has identified that doing an hour of treadmill walking is what is necessary for this person to continue to drop body fat at the appropriate rate to achieve the goal.

Or, maybe they’re coaching themselves and think that cardio is a good way for them to achieve their goal. They may or may not be right (given that cardio seems to be one of the most misapplied tools in the body recomposition toolbox), but at least you’ll know what they mean now.

Conversely, if your goal is purely to gain muscle, doing cardio probably isn’t necessary for the goal at hand, although plenty of people choose to implement a small amount of cardio for health reasons as a trade-off for more food in their diet. 

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Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

What Eating 200 Grams of Protein Looks Like

I’ve gotten several questions about what it looks like to eat 200 grams of protein in a day, which is my current goal, and this is my attempt to show you what I am doing by explaining an entire day of eating.

Before I go into all of the details, I am choosing to eat 200 grams of protein because that is my “goal weight.”

If you refer back to this article from Andrew, you can see different ways to calculate what your protein intake should be.

Example Day of 200g of Protein

BREAKFAST

This is one of my normal variations of oatmeal that I will have for breakfast.

I love mixing my protein powder with oatmeal and much prefer milk over water to aid in the mixing process for taste and a little protein boost.

I usually just buy whatever berries are on sale to throw on top.

Here is another variation of my morning oats if this doesn’t look as tasty to you.

LUNCH

This lunch might be a little higher in fat than I would like, but right now it works for me and it is super tasty!

I am getting all of my protein here from natural sources which is always nice; sometimes three protein shakes a day gets annoying. If you want to limit the fat as well, you could switch to using only egg whites or remove the cheese altogether.

AFTERNOON SNACK

Nothing special about this snack other than I really love pretzel sticks. Also, shoutout to a friend who shared these specific pretzels with me. They are the absolute best.

DINNER

As boring as it sounds, chicken and rice in some form is a pretty common combination for me.

I try to spice things up by using different recipes and cooking the chicken different ways and using different vegetables each meal prep.

Boneless, skinless chicken breast is one of my personal staples for my current fat loss diet.

The spinach here was sautéed in a fat free spray, which caused it to taste a little more sad than if I had used olive oil, but I have to cut out things here and there for my goals!

EVENING SNACK

As you can see, I finished off my day by drinking another protein shake (with water this time) and also treated myself to a spoonful of almond butter for desert.

The idea of having a spoonful of almond butter for desert might not excite most people, however, it is a really great compromise for me to get something that is very sweet and enjoyable into my diet.

Looking Back At My Day

Overall this was a very good day in regards to how much protein I ate, and where my calories were coming from. I am always happy to have a day where I can limit the amount of processed foods in my diet, and I always seem to feel better after a day of eating like this.

The adjustment of coming from a bulking diet to a fat loss diet was tough at first, but the human body is pretty incredible.

For example, I was eating almost twice as many calories as what this entire day shows when I was bulking and there is no way I would’ve thought this amount of food would have filled me up.

After a few weeks of dieting, my stomach has adjusted to what I am feeding it, and this amount of food kept me satisfied all day.

Also, keep in mind that you don’t have to track your calories meticulously to achieve exciting fat loss outcomes. This is just the methodology I’ve chosen based on what works well for my own lifestyle.

If the thought of tracking your calories is overwhelming to you, I highly recommend you check out this article called “How to Improve Your Body Composition Without Tracking Calories.”

And finally, we do offer online body recomposition coaching for anyone who is looking to enter into that next level of commitment and accountability.

If that has your curiosity piqued, click here to learn more about how it works and how to apply.

3 Nerdy Ways to Calculate Your Protein Intake

As a general rule of thumb, the easiest and most common way to go about calculating your protein needs is simply to play by the "1g per Pound of Bodyweight Rule” - assuming you’re within striking distance of being somewhat lean.

But, also I know that there are plenty of analytically-minded people out there that might enjoy a slightly more mathematic approach, so I’ve thrown together three additional ways you could go about calculating your protein needs on a more granular level - the one common theme here being that these methods give greater consideration to this idea of your lean body mass (LBM) rather than your overall bodyweight.

What is lean body mass?

Although most people think of their LBM as just “how shredded you are underneath it all,” your lean body mass is actually the sum composition of all of your non-fat bodily structures including your muscles, bones, organs, tissues, and even water.

How do you measure lean body mass?

Well, if you want the most accurate number possible, you’d probably have to get what’s called a DEXA scan, which stands for dual energy x-ray absorptiometry.

But, don’t drown yourself in the alphabet soup.

All you need to know is that it’s a fancy machine that some high-level athletes and fitness influencers utilize from time to time to measure their body fat percentage and lean body mass.

But, this isn’t typically what “regular” people do (although you totally could).

Practically speaking, the best way to figure out your lean body mass is to crunch a few numbers based on your estimated body fat percentage, but we’ll explore that idea in more detail a bit later.

Now that we’ve defined a few terms, let’s get into the methodology of how you might calculate your protein based on your estimations of LBM.

The “Goal Weight Method”

The first method you could use to calculate your protein intake based on your LBM is to think about your LBM loosely as your goal weight if your goal is to lose body fat.

In other words, how much would you weigh if you were beach lean with visible abs?

To use myself as an example, I’m currently 185 pounds, but I know that getting beach lean would require me to be weighing in around 175 pounds.

That means my goal weight in this case would be 175 pounds, which takes the place of this LBM number in that it represents a very lean (but obviously not completely fat-free version of myself).

It’s “close enough” for our purposes - if you will.

In my case, it also helps to know that my driver’s license when I was a skinny 16 year-old soccer player listed me at a weight of 172 pounds, so I know that 175 is probably a decent number to aim for as a fat loss goal.

So, by this “calculation,” striving for a maximum of 175g of protein per day would be a pretty good idea based on what the whole of evidence-based research seems to indicate at the moment, which is that eating between 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of LBM per day is a great way to optimize a lean physique.

One Important Stipulation

Note, however, that this method doesn’t apply if you are a leaner individual who is trying to gain weight. Why?

Because in this instance, your goal weight and your lean body mass would no longer be similar numbers.

In fact, they drift farther and farther apart as you gain both lean tissue and body fat in a gaining phase.

So, if you are already lean and your aim is to bulk up, it makes more sense to use your current bodyweight in pounds as your target protein intake (in grams per day).

And although some hypertrophy experts might encourage leaner individuals who are trying to mass to bump their protein intake to 1.2g of protein per pound of LBM, I personally think this is unnecessary.

The “True Lean Mass Method”

The second method actually requires you to do a bit of math using your estimated body fat percentage to identify your true lean body mass.

This method, however, can easily be overwhelming, so use it with caution.

Truthfully, I only recommend using it if you are the type of person that actually enjoys crunching numbers (which I personally do).

If that’s not you, you might consider skipping it altogether and sticking with The Goal Weight Method for the sake of simplicity. 

Here’s how this one works: Being 185 pounds right now, my best estimate of my current body fat percentage is probably around 15%.

This is based on pictures and opinions of trusted friends, but I openly admit this is a bit of a fool’s errand.

Let me explain.

WHY EYEBALLING YOUR BODY FAT PERCENTAGE IS DIFFICULT

Body fat percentages are extremely difficult to eyeball because everyone holds their body fat in different ways.

Some people can appear leaner than they are while others can appear heavier than they are simply based on where how your fat is distributed across your body.

For example, some guys can sport a raging six-pack all the way up to 15% body fat while some guys have blurry tummies around 12%.

Similarly, some women can appear leaner or “look hotter” because they store their fat in the breasts and their bums instead of on their stomachs.

For a little visual help, I think the graphic you see here from Legion Athletics is the best graphic on the internet for this sort of thing.

Nonetheless, this method does a good-enough job of providing a ballpark estimate that you can adjust in practice as you see fit.

In practice, if my estimated body fat percentage is 18% right now, that means 82% of my body composition should (in theory) be lean body mass. Then we just do a little math to figure out what my lean body mass since we now have a decent guess of what my fat mass is.

185 pounds x 0.85 (as a percentage of estimated lean body mass) =

157.25 pounds of lean body mass

Right away, you can see that this number is quite a bit different from the number we got from The Goal Weight Method, and this is for good reason.

The first one is a real-life anticipation of what I might weigh if I lost all the body fat I want to lose, while the True Lean Mass Method is a prediction of what I’d weigh if I had no body fat at all (which is impossible).

So, by the True Lean Mass Method, I would be eating around 158g of protein at 185 pounds and an estimated body fat percentage of 15%.

Getting Cheeky with Your Manipulation of the True Lean Mass Formula

Interestingly enough, you could easily adjust that formula to reflect what you might weigh at any given “aesthetically pleasing” body fat percentage you might desire.

For example, in the physique space, people tend to consider that 6-8% body fat range (for men) to be the “golden zone” of looking pretty darn lean.

And for women, you can generally bump those numbers by 7-10 percentage points as a general rule.

Given that we’ve already got an equation in place that allows for the manipulation of body fat percentage, it’s easy to make a calculation that lands us specifically in that golden zone for looking like a movie star on the beach.

I call this the 8% Method.

The “8% Method”

If I wanted to set my sights specifically on being 8% body fat by the end of my fat loss phase, I would do the following:

185 pounds x (0.85 + 0.08) = 172 pounds of lean body mass

If you’re wondering how that equation works, let me break it down for you quickly.

The 0.85 figure represents my predicted LBM based on my estimation of being around 15% body fat.

100% - 15% = 85%, which is the LBM figure here.

Eighty-five percent reflected in decimal form is 0.85.

Now, to add back that 8%, we simply adjust the decimal from 0.85 up to 0.93 by adding the 0.08, which leaves us with the configuration you see above.

And that’s that! You get an estimation of being 172 pounds at 8% body fat.

You could, of course, do this calculation based on any desired body fat percentage. Here, 8% just functions as a common example of what would leave most men looking pretty diced.

And, if you wanted to bring all of this information back around to protein intake, our calculations from the 8% Method would have me eating around 172g of protein per day at 185 pounds.

Let’s wrap it up.

We’ve now got three numbers here to compare.

1. The “Goal Weight Method” – 175 pounds of lean body mass

2. The “True Lean Mass Method” – 157 pounds of lean body mass

3. The “8% Method” – 172 pounds of lean body mass

Which one do we pick then?

For the sake of keeping things simple, I would just aim to consume between 157-175g of protein per day since it reflects the range of all three of these calculations.

In fact, this is exactly what I do.

One Last Disclaimer

Remember, however, that all of this protein talk still assumes a proper training program for hypertrophy – we’re just not discussing the training piece of the physique puzzle at this time because our focus is on daily protein intake.

Apart from brilliant genetics, you can’t only eat protein and “get jacked” without working out to initiate the growth. If you can, congratulations! You are a genetic anomaly.

Curious about the training portion of how all this works?

Skip on over to this article about seven simple rules of thumb when it comes to training for maximal muscle growth.

“HOW DO I EAT THIS MUCH PROTEIN?”

Ah, yes! The next logical question as we think about the big picture of building muscle…

Fortunately, I’ve got you covered with a list of 9 Sneaky Ways to Get More Protein Into Your Diet.

So check that out and get to eating!

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Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

"How Much Protein Should I Be Eating to Maximize My Summer Body?"

Summer is almost here, and you’ve finally made the decision to get serious about your physique goal. Congratulations!

Or maybe it’s some other random time of the year and you’re looking to get peeled like a banana for some other warm-weathered trip.

Either way, that’s awesome and I’m excited for you and your new goal.

Now you just have to wade through all the hype surrounding protein.

And, if you are at all like I was when I first started, you probably have a lot of questions.

“Do I really need to be eating a lot of protein to look lean and toned?” 

”If so, how much? Is there a magical number?”

Trust me, I hear you and I’ve been there, so let’s get into it.

How much protein should you be eating per day?

I’ve found that aiming to consume between 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) per day seems to be one of the most commonly accepted recommendations for people who want to achieve that lean, summer-ready physique.

If you’re in a time crunch, feel free to let that last sentence be your practical takeaway from this article and get back to your regularly-scheduled life.

LEAN BODY MASS VERSUS TOTAL BODYWEIGHT

But for those who want more nuance, know that most people aren’t really taking that LBM stipulation to account at all.

In other words, most people simply use their bodyweight instead of that LBM figure for the sake of keeping things as simple as possible (and this is totally understandable).

Why?

Because estimating your LBM isn’t always easy unless you have access to a DEXA or an InBody scan.

So, while some experts recommend a bit more protein per day (1.2g or more per pound of LBM) and other gurus push for a bit less (as low as 0.7g per pound of LBM), this “1g per Pound of Bodyweight Rule” still seems to be the most popular pick. 

Did you catch that detail? What I’m saying is that although using your lean body mass in your calculation is probably a bit more accurate, most people will use their total bodyweight instead.

But, why?

Well, I think the most obvious reason is because that 1:1 ratio of grams of protein to bodyweight is just a really easy way to calculate your daily protein intake.

And, let’s be honest with ourselves.

“Easy” works really well for most people because “easy” is usually adherence-friendly and sustainable for the long-term, which is extremely important.

Think about it this way. People like basic math because basic math is easy.

If you weigh 125 pounds, you’d eat a maximum of 125g of protein per day. Easy.
If you weigh 150 pounds, you’d eat a maximum of 150g of protein per day. Simple, right?
If you weigh 175 pounds, you’d eat a maximum of 175g of protein per day.

You get the point.

So, although I do think it’s slightly better to calculate your daily protein intake using your lean body mass, I think it’s also fine to use your total bodyweight in most (but not all) cases.

For a deeper dive on this, I’d encourage you to reference this article I wrote on a very other ways to calculate your protein needs.

Does everybody need to be eating that much protein?

Of course not. I want to be clear that these recommendations aren’t for everyday Joe’s and Jane’s – they’re for people who really want to start taking their body recomposition effort seriously.

In other words, I’m not suggesting your sweet Grandma Margaret should be shotgunning 60g of whey protein after her mid-morning gardening session to support optimal hamstring and glute development.

That would be, well, quite unnecessary (and also hilarious) since Grandma probably isn’t trying to look jacked and lean at the pool by mid-June.

Protein recommendations for people less interested in getting jacked and lean are, of course, much lower because they aren’t loading up their bodies with heavy loads with the focused intent of developing the size and density of their muscles.

Since proteins are widely considered the buildings blocks of muscle repair and growth, it makes sense to be eating more protein if you want to be more muscular.

Simply put, if you want to get jacked and lean, you need more protein relative to the person that doesn’t.

So, let’s just make sure we’re clear about that. If you’ve decided you want to be more jacked and lean, you’re in a different category of recommended protein intake now.

But, what does it mean to be “taking your body recomposition effort seriously?”

I’ve come up with the following checklist to help you make sense of that question for yourself.

You’re probably taking your body recomposition effort “seriously enough” if you are:

1. Training intelligently with resistance for hypertrophy or something like CrossFit 3-6 (or even more) times per week.

2. Eating purposefully in a caloric deficit, a caloric surplus, or at maintenance based on the specific goal at hand.

3. Prioritizing your protein intake across a minimum of 3 meals per day in most cases.

4. Trying to get the majority of your calories and protein from nutrient-dense foods while saving “junk foods” for treats and special occasions.

5. Optimizing your rest and recovery as much as possible.

6. Minimizing or eliminating alcohol consumption.

But back to protein and how much you should be consuming per day.

As wonderfully as the “1g per Pound Rule” works in most cases, there is one semi-exception worth mentioning.

An Exception for Very Overweight or Obese Folks

As we just discussed, that “1g per Round Rule” is based on your lean body mass (LBM), which isn’t the same as your total body mass (bodyweight).

So the implied exception is this:

The more overweight you are, the more important it is to calculate your daily protein intake based off of your lean body mass rather than your total bodyweight.

For example, if you’re a 180-pound female but you’d probably be a lean, healthy version of yourself at 130 pounds, I would argue that eating 180g of protein a day just isn’t necessary unless you really love eating protein.

But even then I would make the argument that those calories would be better spent on nutrient-dense carbohydrates or fats to aid in both day-to-day energy availability for quality training and optimized recovery.

And just to be clear, in this example, the 130 pounds represent a number that would be a much closer estimation to your lean body mass based on the Goal Weight Method, and thus a better figure to be using in your calculation.

The bottom line is this:

You don’t get bonus gains for eating more protein once you’ve met the evidence-based requirement, so make sure you aren’t consuming unnecessary amounts of protein as person who might be considered overweight or obese.

In fact, it can even be a detriment to your overall dietary pattern if your protein consumption starts to crowd out other important foods that provide macronutrient and micronutrient diversity.

So, what’s the takeaway here?

1. I think it makes the most sense to keep your protein intake as simple as eating between 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) per day if you’re hoping to optimize your body recomposition effort. I like this approach because it accounts for people of varied amounts of body fat due to the use of the lean mass figure. I regularly consume toward the 0.7 multiplier of LBM and continue to see great progression in strength, performance, and muscle mass.

2. Remember that there is no magical amount of protein you should be consuming, but there are evidence-based ranges that are likely to optimize your progress toward your physique goal.

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Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew