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

6 Signs You're Ready to Hire an Online Body Recomposition Coach

How do you know if you’re truly ready for an online relationship with a body recomposition coach?

That’s a wonderful question. Let’s talk about it!

Sign #1: You’re finally ready to invest financially. 

Oh, this is awkward. We’re talking about money on point number one? Absolutely, and I’ll tell you why.

It’s one thing to say, “Shoot. I’m just not sure I can responsibly spend that money on a body recomposition coach right now,” because that’s a reality of life.

I used to walk by the freshest cuts of Wild Atlantic Salmon at the grocery store and think, “Man, I’d really like to buy those cuts, but I’m not sure we can responsibly afford that right now,” for that very same reason. I just simply couldn’t justify paying for it at the moment, and that was completely understandable.

So, what’s the difference?

Well, I don’t have a strained relationship with the fact that I’m not eating the best cuts of salmon on a weekly basis. If I were walking around on a daily basis cursing my non-salmon dinners of ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches while harboring an excessive amount of negative energy toward the lack of salmon in my life, that might be a different story.

What’s my point? If I had wanted the salmon badly enough, I’d have found a way to afford it even if it meant making sacrifices in other areas of my spending.

In short, your spent dollars tend to reflect the nearest and dearest values of your heart, so if you’re not willing to spend a few hundred dollars a month getting fitter instead of fatter, it’s probably a good indication that you’re not ready for an online coaching relationship yet.

Sign #2: Frankly, you’re a little bit pissed off.

You’ve been overweight for years, and you’ve decided that enough is enough.

You’re tired of being that person and being discouraged by the image you see in the mirror.

I even had a client once tell me that they were going on vacation in six months and they were determined not to be the “fat friend” in photos. I will never forget that conversation because it created a renew sense of empathy in me. I couldn’t imagine the shame this person was feeling toward the shape of their body.

Are you sick and tired of being the “fat friend?”

If so, this might be the perfect time to make a powerful investment in yourself.

Now, I’m not saying you have to be angry in order to commit to a successful body recomposition goal, but I am suggesting that you should be experiencing some degree of motivational and emotional restlessness to help you kickstart your endeavor.

If this is you, there’s a very good chance that you’ll be willing to make the lifestyle adjustments necessary to achieve your goal, and a coach might be the perfect fit for you at this time.

Sign #3: Getting a personal coach has been a long time coming and you know it.

You’re probably ready for an online body recomposition coach if you’ve been spinning your wheels aimlessly for years dabbling in all kinds of diets and “training programs.” 

You lost 10 pounds on keto, but then you gained 15 back over Christmas. You lost 15 pounds as a vegan and then gained 20 back once you ate a pizza. Now you’re doing intermittent fasting in tandem with Whole 30, but you’re starving like Tom Hanks on a life raft in the middle of the South Pacific.

When will it stop?

To be fair, there’s nothing technically wrong with this. No one is saying you can’t continue experimenting with new dietary patterns and training styles.

But it might be worth admitting that at this point you have no idea what you’re doing when it comes to dieting and training for an improved body composition.

So ask yourself this, “Is anything really going to change if I keep leaving myself in charge of this process? Do I really have the knowledge to do this on my own?”

If the answer is no, you’ve been blessed with an exciting moment of honesty and clarity.

When you’re able to face that reality openly, there’s a good chance you're in an appropriately humble position to hire a fitness and nutrition coach for the next six months to a year.

Sign #4: You’ve stopped asking questions like, “Am I going to have to run?”

Why is this important?

Because if you are still asking questions like this, it exposes the reality that you’re still keen on keeping things as cozy and non-invasive as possible. That sort of mentality generally doesn’t inspire optimal results.

The key to being successful in this process is to approach all things with an open mind and a willingness to learn.

No, you don’t have to run, but why are you not willing to run? 

The mindset of someone who is truly ready for an online coaching relationship is one that communicates this: “I am ready to trust my coach to guide me toward my body recomposition goal, and I know for a fact that this will mean remodeling old habits, welcoming new habits, and adapting to any adversity that may present itself along the way.”

You should be asking what you get to do to get the results you’ve always wanted - not immediately hoping to shirk as many unpleasant forms of exercise as possible from day one.

If that’s you, you’re probably ready for an online coaching relationship.

Sign #5: You’re excited about the challenge.

If you’re dreading the idea of becoming the leanest version of yourself you’ve ever been, what are we even doing here?

Save yourself the cash! I mean that sincerely. Life is short and there’s no sense in forcing yourself to be something you don’t want to be.

Your legacy is yours for the forging, and no one is asking you to trade in your muffin top keg for a six-pack if you're happy and healthy just the way you are.

But if you are excited about the idea of seeing your body transform in new and motivating ways, you’re probably in a wonderful position to consider hiring a body recomposition coach.

Sign #6: You want to change your body shape for yourself and no one else.

Yikes, this one cuts to the core! But, how true is it?

If you’re considering hiring a body recomposition coach because you want to look hot for Justin Bobby at the pool this summer, you’re essentially looking to hop in a dune buggy at 100mph headed for the edge of a cliff.

Devastation awaits.

Why?

Because I’ve found that the only meaningful and lasting results in body recomposition are the ones that are pursued and accomplished in a spirit of self-respect and love. 

Cliché? Probably. But I’ve found that some of the most cliché things in life turn out to be true.

So, if you want to get lean or jacked, do it for yourself - not to impress a person or earn a meaningless badge of cultural approval.

If you’re in this for yourself - or even selflessly for others in the sense that you know your current body weight is putting you at risk of early mortality - then hiring a coach might legitimately be one of the best decisions you have ever made. 

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As always, I really enjoyed writing this article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to a friend.

Although I no longer run my own body recomposition business, I have joined forces with The Vegan Gym, where you can apply to work with me directly.

Until next time,

-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

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

Keys to a Successful Fat Loss Diet

I thought it might be time that we put some big ideas that we really believe in writing just so we had a list in one place for us and for you all. 

The internet is saturated with posts like these, and often a lot of them miss really big ideas that are crucial for a successful diet. 

So, we decided to set the record straight with what our keys to a successful diet are.

THE ESSENTIALS

The following three points are what we are going to call “essential.” These are three big points we really believe almost everyone should be taking part in while dieting.

Key #1: Be at an Energy Deficit

If you want to lose weight, the golden rule of fat loss is to be at an energy deficit, which means you need to be burning more calories than you consume.

This first point isn’t really a debatable topic as it is, well, true. 

Most people will have to exercise in some fashion along with trying to hit a specific calorie goal in order to achieve this while others will be able to feel it out naturally.

Key #2: Eat Enough Protein

This one tends to be fairly neglected among people who haven’t been floating around the fitness space for very long (including me as little as two years ago).

Thankfully, Andrew has already written a fantastic blog about how much protein you should consume, so check that out here if you want a deeper look into how you could go about calculating your own protein needs.

The reason you might need to consume more protein than you have been is because protein is the macronutrient that aids in muscle recovery. If we want to keep working out and allow our muscles to mend and grow, we need to give them the resources they need to do so.

For those that are trained, eating enough protein can also allow you retain as much muscle as possible as you begin to cut body fat.

Also, for those who have been untrained for a while, the right amount of protein could aid in overall body recomposition as you build a little bit of muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Key #3: Have a Workout and Nutrition Plan That You Can Stick To

Adherence is arguably the most important part of your diet because, if it’s something you don’t want to do or aren’t motivated/disciplined enough to follow through with, then you won’t.

So, the solution to any potential fallout of adherence is to have a workout and diet plan that you know you will be able to continue on with for a long period of time.

This may need to happen in phases in that you may have to slowly adjust your calories along the way as you lose more weight, so it is important to create a reasonable and reachable goal from the onset. 

If you are completely clueless about how to do this, you can check out some of our content on Instagram and learn a ton from that. 

And that’s one great thing about having a coach. We help you create those things if you still feel overwhelmed and confused by the misleading info on the internet.

If you think that would be helpful, give us a shout here!

SECONDARY KEYS

We think that the following points are also important for a successful diet, but they didn’t quite crack the top three. Andrew and I both apply these “secondary” keys as much as the “essentials,” but the previous points probably carry a little more weight.

Key #4: Prioritize Recovery

If you are at an energy deficit and also working out pretty hard, you can potentially put yourself at risk of injury if you are not recovering well enough.

A big piece of recovery is eating enough protein for muscle recovery, which I talked about in point two. 

Another important piece is sleep. I am all too hypocritical in talking about this and I struggle to get enough sleep myself, but I have found that getting 7-9 hours of sleep is so beneficial for recovery.

At risk of trying to talk as a scientist who studies the subject, your non-REM sleep or “deep sleep” is apparently the key. From what I understand, your brain slows down so much during this state that extra blood carrying oxygen and nutrients goes to other parts of your body to aid in recovery.

So, if you find yourself constantly waking up thinking about work or just unable to sleep, you may be hindering your body’s recovery process. 

In addition to that, stress often can keep us from sleeping too, so another thing to try to help your recovery is to do your best to limit stress throughout the day or find a way to de-stress before bed.

Key #5: Meal Timing Becomes Important

If we decide we are going to eat less and continue to workout, we are still expending the same amount of energy as before, but we are consuming less. 

So, one way to try and keep the intensity of our workouts high is to eat appropriate meals around the workout. 

Something I will do is eat a high protein and high-carb meal about two hours before working out. This gives my body time to digest the food before I begin my workout while also providing plenty of energy to get me through it.

Post-workout, I will try and eat another high-protein and high-carb meal within an hour of my workout, or I will consume some kind of protein within 30 minutes (maybe a protein shake) if I know I will not get a meal within the hour.

This means that a lot of my daily calorie intake is consumed right before and after my workout. So, if I’m planning my diet well, my other meals/snacks will generally have to be lower in calories.

Key #6: Listen to Your Body to Avoid Injury

This one is more geared towards injury prevention, but it’s definitely an important key for everyone. 

If you have been lifting a while, you know what it’s like to be sore in a good way. The feeling that your muscle has used all of its energy and it aches to be fully recovered. 

If you’re new to lifting, you learn relatively quickly (arguably after your first day in the gym) how muscle soreness feels. 

Now, say you are completing a lift or walking on the treadmill and you begin to feel a sharp pain that you feel like causes discomfort and not just muscle soreness. In that case, stop immediately to prevent further injury.

As I said previously, your body is more susceptible to injury while in an energy deficit, and even something like sleeping on your neck wrong can lead to an injury if you try to work through the pain. 

Lastly, it’s almost always a good and safe idea to take a day or two off to let small muscle and joint pains like that heal before you injure yourself and end up out weeks instead of days.

In Summary

If you are just beginning your fat loss journey, trying to follow and remember all of these keys may be hard, but try sticking to the essential keys first:

1. Be at an energy deficit.

2. Eat enough protein.

3. Find a diet and workout program you can adhere to.

The latter three keys can also be very important to help maintain a longer diet and will allow your body to be more efficient throughout the process.

So meal timing, prioritizing recovery, and listening to your body to avoid injury also become an important part of a prolonged fat loss phase.

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If you found this article helpful but feel that you would love the support of an exercise program and nutrition suggestions, we are looking to add clients to our roster! Click here to learn more.

Cheers,

Josh

8 Food Tracking Mistakes That Might Be Duping You Out of Your Caloric Deficit

First of all, why is it even important to be tracking your food accurately?

Well, it might not be. If you’re just trying to “get a decent idea” of what you consume per day, it might not be worth it to you to weigh-out every single morsel of food you consume.

If that’s you, take this article with a grain of salt and remember that it’s not always a worthwhile trade-off to be tracking meticulously 24/7.

On the other hand, if you do have a serious fat loss or body recomposition goal, these really are things you should probably be paying attention to in terms of your tracking accuracy - especially if you’re currently paying a coach your hard-earned cash for their week-to-week macronutrient adjustments.

This article is for you.

I promise you don’t want to be the person who swears they’re eating 1,500 calories when really they’re crushing upwards of 2,000 per day.

So, let’s get into it.

Mistake #1: You’re using measuring cups instead of a food scale.

This is by far the most common error I see.

The classic example of this is peanut butter.

If you’re still measuring a tablespoon of peanut butter with an actual spoon, you’re really setting yourself up for inaccuracy due to the large degree of error you introduce when you opt for plastic utensils rather than your food scale.

In fact, since peanut butter is so calorically dense, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people were actually serving themselves twice the recommended serving size, which could result in an additional 190-200 calories from one simple mistake.

When it comes to eating below your needs for fat loss, those extra 200 calories alone could kick some people out of their daily deficit.

So, plop that jar on the scale, zero it out, and remove 16g of peanut butter if you’re serious about tracking your one tablespoon accurately.

Here are a few other awkward items that emphasize the point:

• Spinach - A serving of spinach in the bags I buy is 3 cups. What does that even mean? How do you put spinach in a cup? How hard am I supposed to squish in the spinach?

  • Although I don’t think weighing your greens to the gram is necessary in most cases, the point stands.

• Berries - Again, how do I measure non-liquid items in cups? Are the berries allowed to go above the rim of the cup? What if one berry is awkwardly shaped and creates a lot of free space in the cup?

  • This is the same idea as the spinach example.

And you get the idea.

Takeaway: Measure your foods in grams or ounces on your food scale for the greatest tracking accuracy.

If you need help figuring out which food scale to buy, I really like the Coffee Gator Coffee Scale. Even though I’m pretty sure this thing was designed to help you weigh your coffee grounds to the tenth of the gram, I’ve found it to be an amazing tool for body recomposition. I use it literally every day in order to weigh out my oats, berries, bananas, hemp seeds, soy milk, and protein powder.

Mistake #2: You’re weighing certain things cooked when you should be weighing them dry.

The most common culprits of this are rice, pasta, and quinoa.

Be sure to weigh these items dry, log them into MyFitnessPal, and then cook them in water.

For example, if you’re weighing cooked rice by the dry weight on the box, you’re actually going to be under-eating by quite a bit.

Don’t do that to yourself - especially if the true serving size would already have had you in a deficit.

Make the quick adjustment and keep your tracking on point.

Takeaway: Weigh and log your rices, pastas, and quinoa dry before cooking them unless you already know the conversion equation.

Pro Tip: If you’re thinking, “Well, wait. What if I want to make it in bulk?” then I recommend doing an experiment to figure out the conversion. For example, the way I make rice, one cup of dried rice comes out to about 135g of cooked rice. Once you have that conversion, you’ll be set for every future meal your prepare that contains rice the way you make it.

Some food tracking apps can actually do this well for you. For example, I use Cronometer and frequently use the “steamed white rice” or “quinoa, cooked” option and experience reliable results.

Mistake #3: You think you are much better at finding your favorite eat-out equivalents in MyFitnessPal than you really are.

For example, if you go out to a local place to get a double cheeseburger slathered in BBQ sauce and mayonnaise and wind up logging the McDonald’s double cheeseburger because that “should be close,” you’re being a silly rabbit and probably just looking for an excuse to smash some extra calories because you “didn’t know any better.” Give me a break, Spongebob.

The burger you consumed could have twice the amount of calories than the version you found in MyFitnessPal, which could easily wipe away your target deficit for the day in a single blow.

For that reason, it’s probably best to limit eating out when it’s really time to get serious about tracking accuracy. Is that inconvenient? Totally.

But, sometimes it’s the price you pay for having a serious body recomposition goal.

And, remember, it’s temporary. There will time for you to enjoy a relaxed, untracked meal of a black bean burger and fries once you’ve reach your goal and are back to maintenance or surplus eating.

Takeaway: Don’t be naive about trying to find calorically equivalent items in MyFitnessPal for food items that are just frankly impossible to track.

Mistake #4: You’re weighing and logging your meats incorrectly.

When you cook meats, their weight goes down.

Keep in mind that when you scan the code on the chicken breasts you bought, that information is logging into MyFitnessPal as the raw weight, which isn’t the same as cooked weight.

Each lean meat has a slightly different raw to cooked ratio, but in my meat-eating days I found that 4:3 was a decent rule of thumb to use - at least for chicken. That means that four ounces of chicken usually cooks down to around three ounces.

If you need practical help on the math side of things, multiply your cooked weight by 1.333 in MyFitnessPal if you’re using the raw meat macros to log.

So, if you put four ounces of cooked chicken on your homemade burrito, log that as 4x1.333, which equals about 5.3 ounces of raw chicken.

Is it perfect? No, but it’s about as close as we can get, and your consistency over time will level out the minor inaccuracies on a meal to meal basis.

Also, I always take the opportunity to use this platform to raise awareness around the benefits of eating a plant-predominant diet.

So if there’s any part of you that is “plant-curious” or tired of being encouraged to eat a ton of meat to support your body recomposition goals, click here to read about the meals I personally eat to build muscle on a completely plant-based diet.

Mistake #5: You’re forgetting about butters and oils and dressings.

Just because you go to Addison’s and get the steamed broccoli on the side doesn’t mean your boy in the back didn’t bathe your broccoli in butter or oil.

Remember, chefs don’t care about your fat loss goals. They care about food tasting good so they don’t get fired.

Another culprit? Oils in pastas and on fish like salmon.

Olive oil, although widely touted as a healthy fat, is one of the most calorically dense foods on the planet. Just one tablespoon packs 14g of fat.

And, if you need context to make sense of that number, know that I’m a 185-pound male and eat around 60g of total fat per day when dieting for fat loss. Just two tablespoons of olive oil would account for 46% of my daily needs.

But this is no reason to be afraid of olive oil. It just means you should be educated about olive oil.

The same mistake can be made with something simple like a Cobb salad, which plenty of people order thinking they’re making the “healthy choice.”

And really, they’re not technically wrong. Most of the foods in a salad are technically healthy, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to support your fat loss goal. Why?

Because Cobb salads typically come with bacon, avocado, egg, cheese, and dressing, which are all high-calorie tack-ons to keep your tastebuds happy.

If those portion sizes get loose at all, you’re looking at a 1,500+ calorie salad, which is what plenty of my female clients eat in an entire day to support their fat loss efforts.

Worth it? Maybe, but I doubt it unless you really like Cobb salads.

Takeaway: Don’t be a noob when it comes to being oblivious about butters, oils, and dressings - especially when you’re not preparing your own food or eating out. When in doubt, pass on unnecessary high-fat add-ons or limit yourself to one modestly-portioned, plant-based fat source like avocado.

Mistake #6: You’re putting too much faith in the caloric numbers some companies put on their menus or online nutrition guides.

Think about it.

How can some nutrition expert at Chipotle headquarters guarantee that every random bro working the burrito line is going to give you the exact serving size of steak, black beans, rice, and guac to make that 700-calorie burrito bowl you designed on their website exactly 700 calories?

That burrito that the website technically says is 700 calories could easily be 1,000 or more - especially if fat sources like cheese and sour cream are involved.

And, what about the chips and queso?

What if you get the guy with tiny hands versus the girl with huge hands? Or the guy who is feeling generous versus the girl who shorts you so bad you ask to speak to the manager?

The caloric differences can be massive.

Takeaway: Again, don’t be green. Just because the website says what you ordered is 700 calories, keep in mind that it could be 500 or 1,000 calories (or anywhere in between) depending on which random college kid happened to be working that day.

Mistake #7: You aren’t tracking alcohol.⠀

I don’t know why this happens so much, but a lot of people just don’t track their booze.

Alcohol has quite a few calories, so if you’re not tracking them you’re really doing yourself a disservice.

Personally, my favorite fat loss friendly beverages are either gin and tonics or diet sodas with a bit of rum or whiskey.

You’ll find my two favorite combos below with accompanying moods:

• Diet Sprite and Malibu (if I feel like listening to Taylor Swift by the pool)

• Diet Coke and Whiskey (if I feel like pressing into masculine stereotypes)

• Alcoholic seltzers like Truly or White Claw can be low-calorie options as well.

Booze to be careful with

You’ll probably want to be careful with wines and beers (especially IPAs or stouts) as they tend to pack a hefty caloric punch.

“But, I thought red wine was good for you?”

Maybe it is, but it still has a boat-load of calories if you and the girls starting getting wily with your pours during The Bachelor premier.

And for the beer drinkers, even just two cans of your favorite IPA can contain nearly 500 calories - and, let’s be honest, that’s just the beginning for some people on the weekends.

Takeaway: Track your booze, and make sure you craft enough space in your diet for them if you’re passionate about enjoying an alcoholic beverage from time to time.

Mistake #8: You justify going hog wild with your calories when you’re away from your food scale.

For some people, life falls apart when they don’t have their scale, which means on the weekends they go bananas when out with friends.

Let me encourage you not to do that. Those extra calories really do matter.

It’s like being a good kid during the week and then throwing a total banger of a house party on Friday night and burning your parents’ place down in true Project X fashion.

Fat loss is pretty similar. Even though one “bad day” probably won’t ruin the consistency of weeks and months, it can certainly slow down the fat loss process and leave some people feeling set back and discouraged.

And, to be fair enough, if you go hard enough on the weekend, you can absolutely undo an entire week’s worth of disciplined dieting toward your gal.

My opinion? Try to strike a balance and rely on good habits when you’re separated from your food scale.

If you need something concrete, here are some strategies I implement:

• Prioritize whole foods.

• Focus on consuming plenty of vegetables and fruits.

• Try to get your fats from healthy sources (or keep them to a minimum).

• Enjoy one modestly-portioned sweet treat if you really want to participate and enjoy the moment.

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So there you go! Hopefully highlighting these easy-to-make mistakes will help you tidy up your food tracking methods and get the results you want.

As always, thank you for engaging with my content! If you feel like this blog was helpful, I would love it if you sent it to a friend who might be struggling to make sense of all this calorie talk. It can certainly be overwhelming.

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

Later, friends.

-Andrew

Why "Doing Fitness" Is Easier When You're Rich (and How I Would Personally Go About It)

Over the last few months I’ve come to a semi-unfortunate realization.

Getting into incredible shape really is much easier if you’ve got a lot of money to throw at the cause.

But, before all of our non-millionaire Joes and Janes throw in their physique towels due to their “average” bank accounts, I want to be clear that you can, of course, get into phenomenal shape at pretty much any level of socioeconomic status - it just might take more planning, strategy, and effort if your finances are tight at the moment.

Why though?

Why is it easier to get lean if you’re rich and willing to spend your money on your goal?

I’m glad you asked.

Reason 1: You can buy the most convenient, high-quality, and macronutrient appropriate foods available without stress.

As someone who specializes in fat loss, believe me when I tell you that your overall caloric intake is the number one thing you should be prioritizing when it comes to losing body fat.

It’s the biggest thing people fail to understand when it comes to a successful body recomposition effort.

Because of that, one huge obstacle for a lot people is simply being able to purchase, prepare, and consume nutrient-dense, high-protein meals multiple times per day that fit into their prescribed caloric targets on a sustainable basis.

And, guess what?

I totally get it. It can be a bit of a chore to execute a grocery haul each Sunday with enough foresight to ensure you’re going to be able to hit your protein and caloric targets everyday for the coming week.

On top of that, it’s no secret that eating higher-quality, healthier foods can be more expensive than eating their ultra-processed or fast food equivalents, which creates a troublesome combination of inconvenience and financial stress.

Well, “being rich” eliminates the inconvenience and stress of eating the right foods for three reasons:

1. You either have more money in the food budget in the month to buy and prepare high-quality foods yourself (if you’re a good cook and enjoy making your own food), or…

2. You use a high-quality, physique friendly meal delivery service like Trifecta, or…

3. You hire your own personal chef that prepares meals tailored specifically to your goals and you never have to think about it.

So, if you’re wondering how I personally would do the food portion of my physique pursuits if I had a money tree in my backyard, this is exactly what it would look like:

I would have a plant-based meal service on speed dial.

Seriously, if I were rich, I’d be eating a minimum of 21 pre-packaged meals per week centered around lean proteins, nutrient-dense carbohydrates, healthy fats, and plenty of well-seasoned vegetables.

If you’re serious about your body recomposition goals and you have the money in the bank to support it, using a macro-friendly meal delivery service is an absolute no-brainer in my opinion.

My quick note to rich folks who are unhappy in their own skin?

Open up your refrigerator, throw out the junk foods, and restock it with your first round of delivered meals to kickstart the fat loss process.

Reason 2: You could literally hire your own highly-personalized physique coach to be your best friend 24/7.

If you’re rolling in the dough, it’s no problem at all if you have no idea where to start when it comes to getting jacked and lean because you can pay for someone to show you the way.

But, if you’re not able to afford a coach, you’re left to figure it out for yourself, Sherlock.

I say this because one of the reasons I personally spun my wheels for years when it came to my physique was due to the fact that I just couldn’t afford to put any money toward a coach.

As a result, I was left to the internet - a place mostly known for its fitness mythology and hyper-scammy marketing deception - and the tabloid-esque claims got the best of me for the majority of my twenties.

You don’t have to be that person when you’re loaded.

As I like to say, the ambiguity of exactly what you should be doing is offloaded completely when you have a personal coach.

And, you have the freedom to execute your diet and training plan without thought-fatigue, which is monumentally important when it comes to long-term adherence.

The reality is that we all only have so much energy to give, which means the task of researching how to create an intelligent diet and training program, then actually creating an evidence-based diet and training program, and then executing that diet and training program sustainably while making the appropriate adjustments along the way due to your body’s response can become overwhelming in approximately five nanoseconds.

With a coach, you just do what you’re told and learn along the way.

Could it be any easier?

If that sounds appealing, apply for coaching with us.

Reason 3: You can afford the best gyms (and maybe even your own home gym).

For some people, the cost of membership to a well-equipped gym can be a financial obstacle (or even out of the question completely).

Fortunately, you can still get a great workout at-home even if you’re limited to your own bodyweight and a few creative objects around the house, so there’s no real excuse per se.

But, having access to the best gym in town does give you the ability to overload your muscles through all planes of motion via traditional and newer-age machine movements.

There’s no question about that.

And, since quality training is the catalyst for muscle growth, that makes having access to great equipment a pretty big deal when it comes to pursuing a goal of getting leaner and more muscular.

Some people might even be able to afford their own home gym set-up, which adds another level of convenience to the mix.

When you think about it, going to the gym presents its own unique set of friction points that could potentially pose as a detriment to your physique goal.

The Downsides of Not Having Your Own Home Gym

• Firstly, you have to drive to the gym.

  • Obviously, that’s not a huge deal, but it does take time, effort, and planning that could be spent in other valuable ways if you’re a driven and successful person.

• You have to share the equipment with other gym goers.

  • If you’re forced to go to the gym at peak hours, this really can be a detriment to your workout both physically and mentally.

    • If you’ve been progressing week to week on the hack squat, but you walk in and see two or three people waiting to use the hack squat machine, that’s a problem. If you really care about overload, you’d be best to wait for the machine, but what if you only have 45 minutes to workout? In this case, you’d be better to substitute another exercise for the sake of maximizing your work output. In other words, it just wouldn’t make sense to waste 20 precious minutes of your time slot being legalistic about your workout. But, it’s still a bummer and certainly not ideal.

    • And, what about the mental aspect? Fighting for equipment is stressful and discouraging, which can absolutely ruin the vibe of a workout you were looking forward to all day.

As you can imagine, having a home gym eliminates all of these issues because your equipment is onsite and exclusive to your private use and pace.

As a bonus, you can even customize the littler things like which genre of music is playing in the background and the temperature in your lifting space.

All in all, having plenty of money in the bank allows you to optimize your exercise experience in ways other people can’t enjoy.

Reason 4: You can afford regular physical luxuries like deep tissue massage therapy.

I know for a fact that if I had the money, I would probably get 2-4 deep tissue massages per month.

The fact of the matter is this…

When you’re training toward a body recomposition goal, you’re going to develop some muscle tightness, aches, and pains along the way if you’re training as intensely as you should be.

And, if you can afford to have someone release the tension a few times a month (maybe even in the luxury of your own home), you’re going to have a slight edge over any regular Joe that has to “play through the pain” and be a bit more disciplined with his own stretching and foam rolling routine.

“Healing up” through massage from time to time is probably going to keep your body performing at its best while preventing acute and chronic injury - another luxury not everyone is blessed enough to enjoy.

As a side note, if you live in Columbia, Missouri and are looking for a top notch deep tissue massage experience, I highly recommend visiting Liz at Iron Muscle Massage. The woman has hands of fire and brimstone and I promise you will not be disappointed.

And, no, she is not paying us to say that, she is just that good.

A Quick Recap

1. Being wealthy allows you to buy the foods you need to support your goal without inconvenience or unnecessary stress.

2. Being wealthy allows you to hire your own fitness and physique coach.

3. Being wealthy allows you to workout in the best gyms with the best equipment - some of which may even be a part of your private at-home gym set-up.

4. Being wealthy allows you to take care of your body long-term through massage and other therapeutic services.

How Exactly I Would Do Fitness If I Were Wealthy

Nothing would make me happier than for someone to read this final piece of the blog and awkwardly whisper to themselves, “I could actually do exactly what he’s saying. What have I been waiting for? I literally have no excuse.”

And, that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make here.

The more disposable income you have, the fewer excuses you have when it comes to your body recomposition goals - it’s just that simple.

But anyway, this is how I would do it personally:

1. I’d hop on a plant-based meal delivery service and buy my first week of meals and make it a regular habit.

2. I wouldn’t hire a coach right now because I’m really enjoying the experimental freedom I have with both my nutrition and my training, but at some point I would hire someone just to learn from their years of experience and success.

   • But, if I were loaded and needed quick help getting lean and jacked, I’d hire a full-time trainer to support me in my goals 24/7. This could be anywhere from $200-1,000 per month or more depending on your needs and preference of online versus in-person.

3. I’d make sure I have access to my favorite gym in town.

4. I’d buy a few sweet pieces of equipment for my home set-up immediately: a treadmill, leg press, hack squat, Pit Shark, machine bench press, assisted pull-up machine, and a rack of dumbbells up to 100 just to start. Don’t get me wrong though, that would be a pretty penny.

5. I’d get a 90-minute deep tissue massage once a week from Liz.

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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 Leverage Walking to Your Fat Loss Advantage

When it comes to walking and its relationship to fat loss, we’re all looking for a quick and easy answer to one particular million dollar question:

Exactly how much should I be walking to lose fat and get lean?

To be honest with you, I’ve found that one of the biggest problems with trying to put out information regarding body recomposition in general is that individuality almost always gets lost in favor of one conservative (yet heavily nuanced) take-home point for the masses.

Walking is no different, but let me do my best.

What’s the magic amount of walking we need to get summer shredded?

As much as I hate to tell you this, there is no specific amount of walking we could prescribe to any given person if the goal is to leverage walking as a tool for fat loss.

Sorry, folks. I know that would be much easier than wading through another duly nuanced write-up about the inner-workings of body recomposition, but that's just not how it works for one simple reason: Every single person embodies a uniquely different combination of lifestyle factors that affects their body’s immediate “walking requirement” for fat loss.

In my experience, those lifestyle factors include your caloric intake, your daily activity levels, whether or not you resistance train (and how much if you do), and the current state of your metabolism, but what all of this really comes down to is getting yourself into a caloric deficit.

And because of that, there is no “one size fits all” recommendation unless you want to be a moron and recommend we all do two hours on the treadmill everyday (and even that might not “work” if you’re not monitoring your caloric consumption).

Let’s take a few examples.

I’m personally losing fat on 13K steps a day at the moment, but I have a client losing on 10K and another on 8K. So, what gives?

Again, when it comes to walking, the amount you need for fat loss is simply “whatever it takes” given the remaining context of your life.

Therefore, what it takes for me might not be what it takes for you or anyone else for that matter.

So, if you’re not losing body fat living the lifestyle you’re currently living, the answer to how much you need to be walking is just “more.”

But, how much more?

Practically speaking, I would recommend walking sustainably more.

In other words, don’t get overeager and say, “Alright, I’m going to walk 20K steps a day until the fat is gone.” It’s unlikely you’d be able to stick to that for more than a day or two. In fact, you’d probably get to 16K the first day and then fall off the wagon all to have gained nothing but discouragement and frustration when you could have made a more conservation and long-term move in the first place.

Instead, it’s probably a better idea to increase your daily step count average by 1,000 steps per day as a starting point.

How i coach my clients toward walking more

This is how I usually guide my clients in their first weeks with me.

• For the first two weeks, I will tell them to live life normally and track steps accordingly.

  • This is helpful because it gives us a baseline. Just as an example, let’s say they track their steps without altering their behavior for 14 days to reveal that they average around 5,389 steps per day.

• As simple as this sounds, I’ll most often just prescribe a new weekly average of 6,000+ with the caveat that I don’t want them exceeding that on purpose.

  • You might be wondering why, and I would be happy to explain.

    • One huge problem that I see time and time again in the body recomposition space is that people will fail to get more out of less. If I had to give it a name, I might call it the “Go Hard or Go Home Fallacy.”

    • It’s the idea that you must be doing as much as humanly possible in order to get the desired results. And, as the name suggests, it’s a fallacy.

    • In other words, I would rather see my clients sustainably walk more and more in a progressive fashion until it’s no longer suitable for their lifestyle rather than jump straight to something unnecessarily aggressive.

    • This way we’re able to accumulate weeks and weeks of increased walking habits, which inevitably leads to fat loss when paired strategically with the right amount of calorie consumption and other lifestyle factors.

    • An ideal progression might look like this:

      • Week 1: 6,000 steps on average

      • Week 2: 7,000 steps on average

      • Week 3: 8,000 steps on average

      • Week 4, 9,000 steps on average

      • Week 5: 10,000 steps on average

      • Week 6: Just live life normally as a deload.

How to Walk Sustainably More

If you’re up for tracking your steps with a Fitbit or even your iPhone like I do, this is super easy.

Using that ideal progression I mentioned above, consider the following:

Assuming you keep all other lifestyle factors steady from the prior week (most importantly your caloric intake), you’ll know if that each daily step average is sufficient for fat loss if you see a slight dip in your morning weigh-ins.

But the trick here is consistency and control of data collection.

So, let me be clear when I say this: You cannot look to a step goal to be your fat loss saving grace if you are being willy nilly with your caloric intake.

This is why I cannot recommend tracking both your caloric intake and your daily step count consistently if you are serious about achieving predictable fat loss results.

But, if you’re not up for tracking your steps, you’ll probably have to create structure in a different way. For example, you could say, “I’ll walk for 20 extra minutes each day over my lunch break.”

Now, that sounds like a lovely behavior for the broader category of overall physical well-being, but the problem with this way of going about things is that you’re still a bit subject to “seeing what happens” because you still don’t really have any hard data on your current energy balance (calories in versus calories out).

Plus, we’re talking about getting leaner here - not just being a bit more active because your doctor said so.

Those are two very different things.

If you walk for 20 extra minutes a day over lunch but you’re otherwise lazier throughout the day, then you haven’t netted any extra calories out to ignite the fat loss you’re after.

Or, on an ever more realistic level, if you walk for 20 extra minutes but you went to a social gathering and had some pizza, two glasses of wine, and split an ice cream brownie with your friend, you’ve probably way overcompensated for the few extra calories you burned over lunch with the calories you consumed while socializing.

Does that make sense?

At the end of the day, leveraging walking for fat loss outcomes is all about math.

In Summary

So, let me wrap this all up as concisely as I can.

1. Before you even think about implementing walking as a fat loss strategy, make sure to get your calories and protein in check first. You can absolutely start walking more for general health, but there’s no guarantee of fat loss until all of the variables are accounted for.

2. We didn’t touch on this much in the article, but resistance training is what gives most people that hard, lean look a lot of us are longing for deep down. But you don’t have to train with weights to lose body fat, it just tends to improve your body composition outcomes when matched with a proper diet plan.

3. Once your calories, protein, and training are in order, pick a daily step goal and stick to it using a Fitbit or even just an iPhone you can carry in your pocket all day. Remember, consistency is key.

4. Monitor your bodyweight a few times a week if possible and take note of any downward trends. If you’re losing scale weight, chances are you’re losing body fat due to your self-imposed caloric deficit. If not, you’ll either need to lower your calories or increase your steps.

5. If you choose to increase your steps, do so in a sustainable manner. Think 1,000 step increases in daily averages across a week of time.

And that’s the gist of 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

What Should You Order at Las Margaritas (or Any Mexican Restaurant) for Fat Loss?

Summer is right around the corner, which means we’ll all be sipping margaritas and stuffing our faces with chips and queso before we know it.

The question is: Is it possible to eat at your favorite Mexican restaurant and still stay on track with your physique or fat loss goals?

Well, it’s definitely possible, but I’m not going to sugarcoat the truth.

If you think you can order the jumbo peach margarita, smash two baskets of tortilla chips drenched in queso, and then move on to demolish the Franzia Special (which is a plate of rice and chicken soaked in even more queso) as a part of an effective fat loss plan, you just might be dreaming.

In fact, I would argue that eating at a Mexican restaurant while trying to lose body fat is kind of like trying to play soccer in a mine field. But don’t let that scare you away.

It can be done, but how?

Let’s cut to the chase.

The chicken fajitas are probably your best bet - especially if you’re willing to omit a high fat option from the side plate like sour cream. If you’re really tight on calories, you could even pass on a carbohydrate source (or two) like Mexican rice, beans, or the tortillas.

In my personal opinion, this is the way to go for a host of reasons. But really, the “power” in chicken fajitas is simply the fact that they’re a low calorie, high protein option that is likely to leave you feeling full without food baby bloat and an intense bout of caloric regret a few hours later.

Now, if you just crash-landed on this blog wanting the quick answer of ordering the chicken fajitas, there you have it. But, if you’re interested in knowing the why behind it, I highly encourage you to keep reading.

The reasons might be eyeopening.

Why the Chicken Fajitas Might Be Your Saving Grace for Fat Loss

We’ll get back to the specificity of the chicken fajitas later, but I want to start from ground zero when it comes to thinking about the entire dining experience at most Mexican joints.

The whole experience is set up for your fat loss failure, and here’s why:

1. The calories start accumulating in chip and dip fashion from the moment you walk in the door.

As soon as you sit down, you’re presented with a lovely basket of Mexican chips. Chips seem harmless, right? Totally! Except they aren’t harmless.

Some chips can have up to 150 calories and 7g of fat per seven-chip portion size. Oof, that’s literally a gram of fat per chip.

I don't know about you, but I can think back on plenty of occasions when I smashed at least a full basket myself - not to mention the queso. And I’m fairly certain there were more than seven chips.

Oh, and then there’s the queso, which is another high fat add-on. Remember, each gram of fat has 9 calories, so the chips and queso duo can be a calorically catastrophic start to your dinner out if you’re not careful.

Let me show you an example.

As you’ll see below, the non-large serving of chips and white queso from Chipotle packs a brutal 780 calories and 43g of fat. If you’re not familiar with calorie and fat talk, that’s quite a bit of both.

If you order the large chips and large queso, it jumps up to 1290 calories and 75g of fat. That’s more fat than I personally eat in an entire day as a six-foot, 185-pound male.

My approach? I skip the chips altogether because I know that once I get going I just won’t stop.

If, however, you’re set on eating the chips, consider opting for the salsa since salsa usually only has around 10 calories per two tablespoon serving, which is much more fat loss friendly than her Cousin Queso.

You can even see that demonstrated in the Chipotle graphics above.

Some of you might be wondering, “But, how does this relate back to the chicken fajitas?”

Well, it’s simple. The chicken fajitas are probably going to be the lowest calorie (yet still high in protein) option on the menu. Keeping your entree low calorie gives you the best chance of walking out having eaten between 500-800 calories instead of 2,000+ in a lot of cases.

2. Margaritas and beer can be caloric explosions.

What do you get to drink at a Mexican place? The margaritas! Or maybe a beer if that’s more your style.

The problem with margaritas is that they are absolute sugar bombs. Now, I’m not against sugar for sugar’s sake, but I am skeptical of blowing 500-1,000 calories on a peach flavored drink before my actual entree even arrives. They might look light and dainty, but calorically they sure aren’t.

Fortunately, beer isn’t nearly as calorically dense if you stick to light varieties. Most light beers have around 100 calories, but a local IPA or heavier beer can carry up to 240 calories or more per can. Drink if you want to, but be wary of the caloric cost.

My approach? I drink water. Boring? Maybe, but water is the most obvious beverage option for anyone with a fat loss goal, and my fat loss goal matters more to me personally than a little salt and lemon on my tongue. I’ll just chomp on the ice cubes for fun.

3. Portion sizes at most Mexican places are out of control, which means the calories are out of control.

So we’ve conquered the chips and the drinks and now it’s time to order the “real” food.

If you haven’t noticed, most menus at Mexican restaurants are essentially unnecessarily long lists of about a thousand different shapes and combinations of the same basic foods: beans, rice, meats, lettuce, pico, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and tortillas.

And the portion sizes are typically huge.

Now, it’s not that beans and rice and tortillas and guacamole are inherently terrible for you, it’s just that when you eat anything in enormous portions you’re going to accumulate quite a few calories. And unfortunately, excess calories beyond what your body needs to maintain your current bodyweight are what lead to unwanted fat gain.

Practically speaking, one small to medium-sized tortilla is probably around 75-150 calories. Two would be 150-300, and three would be 225-450. Do that same math with additional servings of everything on your plate, and the calories continue to pile up.

So, the tip here is this: If you don’t want to waste food by limiting your portion sizes, just order a lower calorie option to begin with.

If you’re not excited about the chicken fajitas, consider a fish taco option with the dressing brought on the side.

4. The sour cream and guacamole in particular can wreck your daily caloric intake.

Ideally, at this point you still haven’t ordered (unless you’ve already committed to the chicken fajitas), so it’s the perfect time to discuss sour cream and guacamole briefly - two frequent add-ons to plenty of Mexican dishes you’ll be perusing on the menu.

Sour cream is basically pure fat. Guacamole is basically pure fat.

To be clear, I’m not against fat by any means, but when you eat a lot of fat (even nutrient-dense fats), the calories skyrocket because a gram of fat contains more calories than a gram of carbohydrates or a gram of protein. In some sense, you get a better bang for your caloric buck when you opt for carbohydrates or proteins instead.

For example, two tablespoons of sour cream tend to pack around 5g of fat while two ounces of guac are about 100 calories and 9g of fat.

But again, when is the last time you stuck to that portion size?

Be careful with ordering dishes that you know will be bombed with sour cream or guac.

5. You’re probably getting duped by cooking oils and you don’t even realize it.

Oils are one of those things people rarely consider because they doesn’t come burbling and gurgling in a side cup when they bring out the rest of your entree.

Basically, we can’t really see it so we don’t really think about it. Invisible calories shouldn’t count, right?

Unfortunately, oil is extremely calorically dense, and most cooks of popular restaurants care way more about you liking the food, paying for that food happily, and coming back a few days later than they do your waistline. Their job depends on the satisfaction of your palate - not the crispness of your abdominal crevices.

In fact, just one tablespoon of olive oil has about 140 calories and 14g of fat, and you know the cooks aren’t back there measuring things meticulously for you so you can pop it into MyFitnessPal later.

So, what happens? A lot of your meats and veggies are going to be soaked in high fat oils, which can very easily sabotage your caloric target for the day.

Don’t get duped by oils.

The Takeaway

So, the takeaway here is this: Chicken fajitas are low in calories, high in protein, and you can easily omit a few of the add-ons if they’re typically served with a side plate of beans, rice, pico, and sour cream, which make them a wonderful pick while dieting for fat loss.

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Thanks for reading! If you feel like this blog was helpful, we would love it if you sent it to someone you know who might benefit from it as well! You (and your friends) don’t have to be sidelined from your fat loss endeavors because of one uninformed night out to your favorite Mexican place.

And, of course, we encourage you to take the time to flip through some of our other recent posts for additional content.

Finally, if this is your first time interacting with evidence-based fat loss and you’re thinking, “Wow, I didn’t know fat loss was actually that simple”, we do have coaching slots open for the summer months and it’s not too late to apply. Josh and I really can guide you into a non-fad diet journey toward a leaner, more muscular version of yourself.

You just have to be brave enough to send the first email. Seriously, you’ll thank yourself later. Just do it.

Happy summer shredding, 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.

11 Things You're Getting the "Most Wrong" about Fat Loss

1: You’re dismissing the importance of overall calories in search of a quick-fix diet with a sexy name.

As obvious as it becomes once you’re following the right crowd of experts in the fitness industry, the simplicity of getting into a caloric deficit for fat loss really feels like a tabloid’s best-kept secret.

But to be fair, the marketing for these diets like keto and carnivore and even the IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) movement is so good that most well-intentioned people fall prey to the quick-fix claims of “shedding 16 pounds of body fat in one week by switching to the (fill in the blank) diet!”

That’s just not how it works.

But, I promised myself I’d keep this blog short and sweet: Your fat loss results depend almost solely on your ability to eat a little bit less than you currently need while supplementing that lowered food intake with strategic training and exercise to expedite the process.

Let me encourage you to quit diet-hopping and become a student of energy - a student of calories and how those calories (both consumed and burned) dictate whether or not you lose the body fat you want to.

2: You don’t realize how important eating an adequate amount of protein is for maintaining muscle mass while losing fat.

This one speaks for itself, and there’s no use beating a dead horse because that’s a terrible expression in the first place.

Looking back on my own dieting history, I bet there were seasons of life when I was eating less than 50g of protein per day while trying to “get huge” because I thought training was all that mattered.

And although your training is certainly the most important aspect of improving your body composition, your nutrition is extremely important as well - particularly when it comes to protein.

Nowadays, I eat about 150g of plant protein per day, and that makes a big difference for someone trying to optimize their body composition.

Some of my favorite sources are soy milk, Ezekiel bread, chickpea pasta, tofu, tempeh, seitan, plant-based protein powders, and hemp seeds.

If you need guidance on figuring out your own protein needs, click here.

3: You think that carbs “make you fat.”

Carbs don’t make you fat. Too many calories relative to your current metabolic needs make you “fat.”

Eating too many carbs can certainly make you “fat,” but carbs are not an evil fat-gaining entity all by themselves.

You could “get fat” eating nut butters or guzzling beer just as easily.

4: You think that lemon juice “makes you skinny.”

Lemon juice doesn't make you skinny, but if you trade your typical breakfast sandwich and choco-mocha-frappa-latte with 27 pumps of honey and a tower of whipped cream from Starbucks for a glass of tap water with lemon juice (all else being equal), you just might lose some body fat.

Why?

Well, you’d be consuming way fewer calories in that scenario.

Again, your ability to stay in a caloric deficit matters most when it comes to losing body fat, which means your attention to your overall caloric intake is paramount.

Yes, I said paramount.

Lemon juice may have some unique health benefits, but the only “fat-burning power” it has in its superhero repertoire is the fact that it’s essentially zero-calorie.

5: You think that intermittent fasting was invented by magical fat loss leprechauns.

I definitely like intermittent fasting as a fat loss strategy, but I’ve personally not seen any super compelling evidence that something on a Disney level of magical is happening when you skip breakfast.

Does it help a lot of people get into a caloric deficit? Totally.

Have tons of people had fat loss success incorporating intermittent fasting? Absolutely.

Have I personally had success with it in the past? Yes!

Is there even some emerging research on the potential benefits of extended longevity? Apparently!

But it isn’t magical in the sense that it’s automatic.

You can absolutely out-eat your restricted eating window by smashing pizza and beer.

Intermittent fasting worked for me because it more easily allowed me to eat within an overall caloric deficit.

6: You’re unaware that walking can get you shredded.

Setting a step goal is probably the second most powerful bit of methodology you could apply to a fat loss goal.

And yes, I would rank walking above actually lifting heavy weights in the gym. Do I have your attention now?

Better yet, walking can be done doing everyday life tasks like parking farther away from your destination on purpose, taking the stairs, or even setting an alarm on your phone to get up and walk every two hours or so.

Sometimes my wife and I even walk the stairs a few times before bed just to hit our step goal for the day because we know that walking is a powerful tool for fat loss.

If you want further data on that, I encourage you to read the blog I put out revealing my exact numbers for Summer Shredding 2020.

Walking - and no, I don’t mean on a treadmill - was a huge part of the reason I was so easily able to lose my first 10 pounds.

And for an even deeper dive on the powerful benefits of walking, check out this article I wrote called How to Leverage Walking to Your Fat Loss Advantage.

7: You’re convinced you have to lift weights to lose fat.

You don’t.

Obviously, I lift weights and do CrossFit because I enjoy that kind of exercise and have physique goals centered around building muscle, but I realize that’s not for everyone. And it doesn’t have to be!

You don’t even have to go to the gym period to lose body fat.

Don’t overhype lifting weights for fat loss if you don’t like lifting weights.

Keep in mind, however, that you do have to lift weights if you want to build muscle, and it will certainly boost your metabolism over time as you continue to put on lean tissue.

Walking alone won’t be able to accomplish that aspect of the mission for you, but it can be implemented powerfully for fat loss.

8: You think that high-intensity exercise and “lots of cardio” are non-negotiables for getting diced.

They aren’t.

Before I started doing CrossFit, I hated both of those things, but I still lost 31 pounds of fat while obtaining the best physique of my life.

Pretty cool, right? You don’t have to do cardio or HIIT (high-intensity interval training) to get leaner.

Now, does doing a bit of cardio-based exercise for the sake of promoting a healthy heart do a person good? Of course!

To be honest with you, I think just about the healthiest life you can live is one that mixes a predominantly plant-based diet with CrossFit training systems, but this article is about fat loss.

And we’re not talking about general health here. If you’re thinking to yourself right now, “Aren’t being healthy and looking good pretty much the same thing"?” let me point you to another article I wrote called Are Being Healthy and “Looking Hot” the Same Thing?

Here we’re just talking about what it takes to lose body fat, and doing formal cardio just doesn’t have to make the list if you don’t want it to.

9: You’re convinced you can target reduce your belly fat or underarm flab if you do crunches and tricep pushdowns.

Friends, this idea that you can target fat loss from any specific area of your body is not true, and it’s probably one of the most misleading and widely-believed fitness myths out there.

If you want to make your arms a little less flabby, you’re going to have to do the same thing as someone who wants to get a six-pack or a less jiggly bum: Get into a caloric deficit either by reducing your food intake or increasing your energy expenditure.

As depressing as this may be, everyone has a different genetic predisposition to hold and distribute body fat in different areas and different amounts.

This is why being “genetically blessed” is very much a term in the fitness space.

Some people simply hold their body fat in more visually appealing ways.

For example, my body fat likes to hang out on my love handles. Do you think I would choose for it to be that way if I could pick? Probably not.

But it is what it is, and I just have to be patient with the process and know that the squishiness on my sides is going to be one of the last places for the chub to fall off. I can’t change my genetics (as far as I know) and neither can you.

The good news, however, is that getting lean is the great equalizer, so if you’re bummed out about your flabby arms - just keep losing body fat!

Eventually, you will be lean, and if you’ve been training with weights and eating an adequate amount of protein while eating an otherwise healthful diet, chances are you’ll be sporting a strong, aesthetically-pleasing frame underneath it all once the hard work is done.

10: You think fat loss happens a lot faster than it really does.

I was very guilty of thinking this for a long time.

In college, I literally thought I could get lean in probably two weeks, but the reality is that a true fat loss phase should probably last anywhere between 8-16 weeks when you lose at expert-recommended rates of 0.5-2 pounds per week.

Think about that. Using those numbers, it could take you up to 20 weeks to lose 10 pounds when done properly and sustainably.

Are you willing to be that patient?

Long story short, it takes commitment, consistency, and patience to get leaner, and this is why so many people give up on their fat loss goals.

They just don’t give their bodies enough time to change.

11: You’re not aware that your metabolism is adaptable.

This one is complex, but it’s important for you to know that your metabolism can be up-regulated or down-regulated depending on a host of factors including your muscle mass, caloric intake, exercise habits, sleep/recovery, and stress levels.

So, try not to be the person that wields their “terrible metabolism” as an uneducated excuse for an unhealthy lifestyle unless you’ve been diagnosed by a medical professional with a legitimate medical condition.

Summary

So, there you have it! These are my top eleven picks for the most common ways we’ve been wrong about fat loss.

Have you been caught being wrong about any of these things?

If so, don’t sweat it. I was wrong about literally all of these things at one point or another in our early twenties. In fact, it’s a huge reason we launched IVRY in the first place.

We wanted to help honest people achieve exciting body recomposition goals without all of the fitness mythology and fat loss lore we fell prey to for years.

So, just learn and move on like we did.

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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

Creating Healthier Eating Habits When Dieting

If you have ever struggled to diet consistently well or to have a healthy mindset while trying to lose weight, this article is for you. I’m going to provide some insight into how I approach the shift from a bulk to a cut, then provide some tangible practices that may help your relationship with food become healthier when dieting.

Struggling to Find a Healthy Relationship With Food

I felt inspired to write this article because it is really hard for me to transition from bulking to cutting, mainly from the mindset of my relationship with food. The same principles apply if you are coming from poor diet habits to beginning a fat loss diet.

When I am bulking, there are so many calories and foods to be consumed throughout the day that it sometimes feels like a chore to eat. 

Anyone who has tried to bulk can probably relate.

Eating a ton of food always sounds awesome at first, but it gets tiring quite rapidly. I might take some flak from bro culture for saying that, but it is truly quite a challenge for me. 

So when I initially shifted to my current fat loss diet, I carried over some bad habits from bulking that were really impeding my progress:

• My meals were way too big.

• I did a lot of late night binging (habit from bulking to try and get my calories!)

• I ate a lot of fast food for quick and easy calories.

I needed to change these habits if I wanted to lose weight and live healthier.

Creating a Healthy Mindset

So now enter the fat loss diet. This is where it is important to really set the correct mindset for dieting and how you treat food. 

During my bulk, when calories were in excess, my mindset for food was more like a chore. It was something that needed to get done to reach my goals, and so unfortunately my outlook on food sort of became soured. 

So the first couple of days when I cut calories (arguably the harder days), I kept some of those bad habits. I tried to fast until a certain time of day, or drink lots of coffee to try and fill myself up just so I could save my calories for a couple of large meals later in the evening. 

It was seriously almost like I was torturing myself to make it to a point of the day where I could torture my stomach with way more food than it could handle. 

It is honestly a little bit hard to admit that, but it’s true. 

So it finally hit me that what I was doing was not only unhealthy, but not working very well as far as the scale was concerned either. So I really sat down and examined how I was treating food and my diet and tried to be mindful about ways to combat a negative mindset. 

Here are some things that helped me have a more positive mindset when it comes to dieting.

Ways to Build Healthy Eating Habits When Dieting

1. Put Your Fork Down Between Bites

If you really spent some time watching people eat, you might be a little grossed out. I can only imagine what my mom thought of me when I was in high school; I probably looked like Joey Chestnut at a hot dog eating contest.

So something I have been doing to try and monitor fullness and satisfaction is just to set my fork down between bites. If you aren’t using a fork, same idea! Set the slice of pizza down between bites, I promise it won’t sprout legs and run away.

If you really want to take this practice to the next level, just be thankful for every bite. 

You don’t have to verbally acknowledge it, just in your head think about how you are thankful that you get to eat in a way that can help meet your goals and realize how blessed you are.

2. Don’t Stuff Yourself Full Every Meal

This one is hard because I don’t know how everyone really approaches food and their meals. 

I think psychologically, somewhere in our brains, there is that primitive voice saying “eat until you are full because you don’t know when you will eat again.”

Well, guess what? You aren’t a primitive nomad, and you more than likely know when your next meal is and probably even have options for what to eat.

So since we know we have another meal coming, try to eat in such a way where you don’t stuff your belly until you can’t fit anything else. 

Arguments can be made that you may be forced to do that when bulking, but when we are cutting, we don’t need to stuff ourselves. 

Outliers exist, such as doing some crazy intermittent fasting diet where you have to eat all of your calories in 4 hours, but for the most part, this is a safe and helpful practice.

A tangible way to try and think about this is to eat until you feel satisfied, not painfully full. If we want to put a number to it, eat until your stomach is at about 80% capacity. 

Eventually you start to figure out the amount of food it takes to get you to that ~80% level and then you can be more efficient with your cooking and preparation. 

3. Drink a LOT of water

I need to listen to myself with this one, but I cannot stress how important water is for the health of our bodies. 

I am no scientist, but there are way too many pieces of evidence out there pointing to why we should all be drinking more water. 

Now how you do this is totally personal, and how much you drink depends on many factors.

You could be the gallon jug person.

You could be the one who slams two full glasses upon waking up in the morning. 

It really doesn’t matter to me, but drinking more water will not only benefit your body, but also how you feel in general and how full you feel.

4. Find the Balance Between Food as Enjoyment and Fuel

After growing up in a house with a lot of diversity in the foods we would cook and eat, I have a great appreciation for the different flavors, combinations, and creations that people share.

I don’t know how that experience differs from others, but what I learned from my experience is that I may have learned to enjoy the food a little too much.

I rarely thought about how food was fueling my body and giving me the energy I needed for all of my sports, lifts, etc…

I mean we all know that food is fuel, but do we all actively think about that?

A simple way to rationalize your thoughts before you think about your next meal might be: “Will my body appreciate what I am about to give it, and will this help me reach my goals?”

Now don’t go all food nazi on me here. If you need to grab a McDouble on a road trip or settle for some Kraft Mac in a bind, it’s okay! 

I think it’s just important to be aware that healthier and more nutritious foods are probably going to fuel your body more efficiently than highly processed and fast foods. This is mainly due to the usually lacking nutrient profile in fast and processed foods.

Finding fun and tasty recipes that are full of healthy and satisfying ingredients that can both fill you up and make you feel well may take a little work, but is totally worth it.

Takeaways

It can be hard to set the correct mindset when trying to begin a diet, especially if there are pre-existing bad habits.

Try these to practice healthy eating habits: 

1. Put your fork down between bites

2. Don’t stuff yourself full every meal

3. Drink lots of water

4. Find the balance between food as enjoyment and fuel

These may not be anything groundbreaking, but practicing these habits personally has helped me on my current fat loss journey. 

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If you found this article helpful it would be amazing if you shared it with friends and family! Andrew and I both love creating content and helping others, and we have been really putting in the time recently to pump out quality content.

We post a lot of quick hitters and thoughts that require less explanation than a blog might on our Instagram page @ivry.fitness. Give us a follow if you like what you see because there will always be more to come!

Finally, we have coaching spots available for this summer if you are still thinking about taking your goals seriously and want a coach to help get you there! We are very confident in our past successes and can’t wait to work with you in the future.

-Josh

"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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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

Revealing My Exact Numbers for Summer Shredding 2020

I’m putting this blog out for one main reason.

When I was first getting interested in how to train and eat toward a physique goal, all I wanted was to know the exact calorie and macronutrient numbers of people who had walked the walked before.

But everyone I followed would say the same thing. “My numbers shouldn’t matter for you,” and - to be fair - that’s absolutely true. But, that wasn’t the point. I was curious, and I had all these questions running through my mind that only the granular details could truly satisfy.

So here we go. I’m taking you behind the curtain and giving you the exact numbers that I’ve used up until this point in my attempt to get relatively peeled by late summer 2020.

Where I Started

I’m a big fan of weekly averages, so my highest weekly average in February was 198.3 pounds. So we'll say I was 198.3 pounds on February 24, 2020 after working my calories up to about 3,450 per day over the course of months of steady yet intentional gaining for optimized muscle growth. If you want details on that, hit me up in the comments, but my guess is most of us are more interested in the fat loss portion. No one really needs any help gaining weight, do they?

Part I: My Primer Phase Before the “Diet Before the Diet”

My first move after that was to deload for one week and then move into a three-week primer phase (or maintenance phase) to lower training volumes in preparation for higher training volumes that would come once the cut had really begun. I dropped calories from 3,450 to roughly 2,900 in an attempt to identify my new maintenance calorie intake. As it turns out, I was essentially spot-on, and my weight stabilized around 196.5 during those three weeks while averaging 2,900 calories a day.

And that was that.

This happened from March 2-22 - just a quick (but helpful) three-week period to set myself up for better success in the next phase of the diet. As you’ll read in the following paragraphs, it worked like a charm.

Part II: My “Diet Before the Diet”

Now, if you’re wondering what in the world a “diet before the diet” is, it’s a term I’ve stolen from Steve Hall and the Revive Stronger brand, which is a major source of influence for me in terms of how I think about structuring my training and diet.

The “diet before the diet” is essentially that very first phase of your longer fat loss diet when - let’s just call it what it is - things don’t really “suck that much” yet. In other words, the fat comes off well because you’re coming off a high amount of calories. This is the honeymoon phase of the day.

The “diet before the diet” also allows you to approach a lower body fat percentage before really pressing into the more difficult aspects of the fat loss process.

For this phase, I dropped myself to 2,750 as an initial caloric target, and it actually worked better than I ever could have imagined.

On week two I adjusted slightly down to 2,700.

On week three I adjusted slightly down again to what I wrote in my spreadsheet as “sub 2,700.” But, I don’t think there was any magic in any of these adjustments. Truthfully, I was just experimenting with smaller reductions in calories on a week-to-week basis. In hindsight, I probably should have just kept them static around 2,700.

Basically, in five weeks eating between 2,650 and 2,750 calories per day, I went from 196.4 pounds down to 189.4 - a seven pound drop in five weeks, which put me at an average rate of loss of about 1.4 pounds per week. I can make another post about this later, but losing between 1-2 pounds per week at this stage of the diet is very much what I would consider the sweet spot for me personally. And this time period occurred between March 23 and April 26, 2020.

For the week of April 27, I deloaded and bumped calories slightly up to my new perceived maintenance of 2,800 to prepare for the actual diet, which officially started on May 4.

“But, What about your macros?”

If you’re curious about my macronutrient distribution, I generally only hold myself to eating between 180-200g of protein a day while staying within my overall caloric target. I personally bias more of my calories toward carbs due to preference, but I encourage everyone to do their own research and find what works best for their lifestyle and their own convictions about eating habits.

I don’t follow any labeled diet, but I do try to consume the majority of my calories from whole food sources while saving processed items for small treats and special occasions.

In other words, I’m not “paleo” or “vegan” or “keto” or doing Weight Watchers. I just eat within two very simple dietary parameters: calories and protein intake (assuming a minimal amount of healthy fats for hormonal health).

A very normal day of eating during this phase would be 190g of protein, 60-70g of fat, and around 300-350g of carbohydrates.

For an easier-to-read version of everything I’ve said up until this point, check out this screenshot from my nutrition log.

Part III: My “Actual Diet”

This is the phase of diet when the majority of the fat loss will occur.

Even though I’m still technically losing on 2,650 calories per day, 5 lifts per week, an average of 12,000 steps per day, and no formal cardio, I’m no longer losing quite as quickly as I would like. Because of that, I’m going to drop calories to 2,450, increase steps slightly, and ride that wave as far as it takes me.

Once my bodyweight plateaus for one to two weeks, I’ll adjust, but I’ll post about those specific changes when the time comes.

And that’s the plan for now: 2,450 calories as a per-day weekly average, 12,500 steps as a per-day weekly average, 4-5 hypertrophy-based workouts per week, and no formal cardio.

SUMMARY

As one last parting note, remember that blindly replicating these numbers for yourself will not work. This plan has been designed uniquely for me and no one else.

Everyone has a different goal, a different set of genetics, a different metabolism, and a different lifestyle, which means that no two plans should ever be the same.

The point of this blog is simply to reveal all of the non-sexy details to the approach that I am personally using - to expose the driving principles behind those details - and to remind (and encourage) our readers that fat loss can be systematic and intelligent.

If you have any question, don’t be bashful! Hit me up in the comments or send me a message on Instagram. I absolutely love talking shop and would love to hear from you.

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If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to someone you think might benefit from it as well! And, of course, we encourage you to take the time to flip through some of our other recent posts for additional content.

Finally, if this is your first time interacting with evidence-based fat loss and you’re thinking, “Wow, I didn’t know fat loss could be that simple”, we do have coaching slots open for the summer months and it’s not too late to apply. Josh and I really can guide you into a non-fad diet journey toward a leaner, more muscular version of yourself. You just have to be brave enough to send the first email.

Seriously, you’ll thank yourself later. Just do it.

Happy summer shredding, everyone!

-Andrew

"Why Am I Gaining Weight While Quarantined?"

I’m not sure how many of you ended up in the same boat as me, but as I said in one of our posts, I gained five pounds in two days. The only real lifestyle difference was a reduction of how active I was during the day (easiest to measure by tracking daily steps). When I saw what was happening on the scale it was a very shocking moment for me, but then when I think about how many steps I was taking before being quarantined versus now, it makes a ton of sense. 

If you change how active you are in your daily life and do not change anything about your nutrition, you will most likely gain weight. 

There is nothing profound about that statement, and it probably makes sense to most of us. This is one of those things though that sort of sneaks up on people when they have so many other things changing in their lives, and most of us won’t even register how our personal health and wellness is changing. Needless to say, one of the easiest things we can all do during this time is to better monitor food and alcohol consumption.

A big problem with being quarantined is that there seems to be this natural tendency to be a bit lazier when stuck at home (at least for me there is!), and then things sort of snowball from there….

“Ordering takeout sounds nice because I’d hate to mess the kitchen up again…”

“Is 1:00 PM too early for an alcoholic beverage?” 

“I’m hungry again, but I just ate!”

I bet some of these statements sound familiar, and I think a lot of this boils down to boredom. A lot of people tend to eat or pour a drink when they get bored, and a lot more people are currently bored due to sitting at home most of the day. 

So a practical way to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle would be to try to keep track of all of the snacking you are doing, and drinks you are enjoying and ask yourself, “Do I need all of these snacks and drinks?” It’s a pretty simple question, but don’t hear what I’m not saying: I am not telling you to eat one meal a day and completely cut out alcohol from your diet, I am just encouraging you to be mindful about how much food and alcohol you are consuming and maybe consider limiting it a bit.

The scientific reasoning for this is that your calorie intake is probably now going to be much higher than your calories burned given these changes, so extra snacks and alcoholic beverages are going to increase your overall caloric intake. Paired with this idea, if you choose (or are forced) to limit your physical activity as well, expect to see the number on the scale to go up. Health and well-being are certainly more than a number on a scale, but the scale can be a nice indicator of how you are treating your body!

For me personally, as I mentioned in a separate post, since the difference in the number of steps (calories burned) had dropped so dramatically, I’ve had to purposefully arrange to go on a few more walks to burn some calories. I’ve also had to decrease the number of calories I am consuming daily. Doing those two things has gotten me back on track to complete my goal of trying to lose weight and get “shredded” for the summer. 

Cheers