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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does any of this sound relatable?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are you seeing how this can quickly become complicated?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And in doing so, I neglected my training quality.

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

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

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

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

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

Just get in the gym and train hard!

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

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

This is another mistake I was making.

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

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

Why?

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

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

Do I regret it? Absolutely.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And I couldn't have been happier about it.

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

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

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

5. never forget that Sustainability wins in the end.

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

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

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

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

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

Does that make sense?

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

Can I take it a bit further?

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

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

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

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

My point? Sustainability wins in the end.

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

Summary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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As always, I really enjoyed writing this article.

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

Until next time,

-Andrew

4 Big Mistakes to Avoid for Improving Your Body Composition

If you’re committed to improving your body composition by losing body fat and gaining muscle, there are a few big mistakes you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

In this article, I’ve chosen to highlight four of them.

1 - You’re Being Inconsistent with Your Caloric Intake

Being inconsistent with your caloric intake tops the list because calories are king for fat loss, which means…

You don't have to lift weights to lose fat.

You don't have to run to lose fat.

You don't have to go to group fitness classes to lose fat.

You don't even have to walk to lose fat.

You also don’t have to give up pizza or beer.

But you do have to be in a calorie deficit, which means you can always look to a calorie-controlled diet for fat loss. That one is non-negotiable.

So if you're screwing around with your caloric intake due to a lack of discipline by eating 2,000 calories on Monday, a random 1,400 calories on Thursday because "life got busy," and then 4,000+ on Friday through Sunday because #theweekend, there's a very small chance you're going to be able to make any systematic or sustainable progress toward that lean, hard-body look.

I know a lot of "fitness people" like me like to shy away from saying the hard truths sometimes, but I really think you're wasting your time if you can't find a way to get consistent with your calories.

Do you have to be perfect? Of course not.

In fact, the “perfect” diet doesn’t exist.

But there should be some semblance of consistency when it comes to your dietary pattern if you want reliable results.

Side note: Don’t be the guy or gal who says, “Oh, my diet is consistent alright! I have three Cokes every day and three beers every night like clockwork!”

I’m encouraging you to consistently eat mostly whole foods in modest portions - not excessive amounts of ultra-processed junk foods.

In my opinion, one good way of gauging how consistent your caloric consumption is on a daily basis is to see how well you can answer the question, “So what’s a normal day of eating look like for you?”

If your answer is something like, “I almost always have oatmeal or a smoothie for breakfast. Lunch is usually a tofu salad or a tofu sandwich. And then I usually have some kind of pasta dish for dinner with vegetables. And if I need a snack I tend to grab a piece of fruit or enjoy some peanut butter toast,” then you’re probably doing great.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that you have to be eating those exact foods, I’m just making the point that it’s probably a good sign if you can speak to that question with specificity and rhythm.

In other words, if you eat similar foods or genres of foods in similar daily patterns, there’s a good chance that you’re being adequately consistent with your caloric consumption.

But if you stumble through that question awkwardly because it depends on the leftovers selection in the office refrigerator and whether your significant other bought Twinkies or Nutty Bars that particular week, your dietary pattern might be worthy of reconsideration if you’re really trying to hone in on that lean, hard-body look.

More specifically, f your goal is lose body fat right away, you’ll need to consistently eat a bit less than your current metabolic needs. If your goal is to gain muscle right away, in most cases you’d be best to consistently eat a bit more than your current metabolic needs.

In either case, consistency in context of your caloric consumption when applied strategically to your specific goal is paramount for successful and sustainable fat loss and muscle gain.

So what’s the main takeaway here?

Make sure you’ve tailored your caloric consumption toward a specific goal and then actually consume that number of calories consistently (even if you’re not tracking them meticulously).

2 - You're Not Eating Enough Protein

The path to improving your body shape in a noticeable way is littered with unexpected difficulties, unwanted plateaus, and lots of demanding training sessions, muscle soreness, and a high level of discipline in both the gym and the kitchen.

Why make it any harder by skimping on your protein intake?

That's always the question I bounce around in my noggin when people push back on the amount of protein I recommend that they consume on a daily basis.

Firstly, know that my protein recommendations aren’t unique or unreasonable.

If anything, they’re much lower than the recommendations of popular experts in the fields of bodybuilding and physique enhancement in that I commonly encourage people to aim for 0.7g of protein per pound of lean body mass.

High-protein black bean pasta

For many, this will seem very low compared to the ultra high-protein diets touted by many, but it’s a position I’m happy to stand by.

In fact, I’ve even updated the original content of this very article to better convey my current opinion on protein consumption, which is…

That you need an adequate amount for muscle growth and nothing more.

I used to be of the opinion that protein was the “most important” macronutrient for a body recomposition goal because it:

• Maintains and builds new muscle tissue

• Tends to satiate us more than other foods, which can lead to improved diet adherence

• Has the highest thermic effect of food which means it requires more energy for your body to burn

But now I find that position to be narrow-minded and a bit heedless in context of a bigger body recomposition picture that includes that importance of carbohydrates and fats.

I might compare it to being asked what is the “most important” feature of a car: the engine, the wheels, or the steering mechanisms.

It doesn’t take most people too long to realize that the question is nearly impossible to answer because…

All of those features provide essential value to the overall function of the vehicle.

In this particular example, I think most people would be tempted to think of protein as the engine because it seems to come first in the chain events.

In other words, being able to turn on the engine seems like the “most important” thing because the car can’t go anywhere without the ignition.

At the same time, it won’t do you much good to have the engine running if your car is sitting on cement blocks without wheels or tires.

And, of course, something similar could be said of sliding into the driver’s seat to find yourself without a steering wheel (even though you’re smuggling 500 HP under the hood with a fresh set of tires that would make even the Michelin man blush).

In some sense, everything works synergistically toward the same goal of moving from Point A to Point B, which I how I feel about the relationship between protein, carbohydrates, and fats when it comes to trading in unwanted body fat for lean tissue.

So what’s my point?

Protein is important in the sense that you need an adequate amount to support muscle growth, but healthy carbohydrates and fats are important too (not to mention fiber).

That being said, the focus of this segment of the article is to make sure you’re eating at least 0.7g of protein per pound of lean body mass.

Once you have that in place, you can focus intensely on the quality of your training.

3 - Your Training Style Isn’t Conducive for Muscle Growth

This is a big one for obvious reasons.

If your goal is to lose body fat and build muscle but you aren’t training in a way that supports fat loss or muscle growth, what are you doing?

To be fair, I sincerely believe that most people don’t know any better.

They assume that all kinds of training methods can build muscle, but this is a classic point of confusion between general health, fitness, and “looking hot.”

To spare you the nuance, this is what you need to know in two brief points:

• Lots of training methods are good for building some muscle, but some are much better than others.

  • I think the lowest hanging piece of fruit here is the infamous group cardio class.

    • Need a mental picture? Picture 15-20 men and women in a room with a bunch of mirrors doing half-burpees, half-lunges, and shoulder presses with pink dumbbells. And I’ll admit I feel a bit dirty for positioning it so poorly, but group cardio classes strike a sensitive nerve in my body recomposition brain because they just don’t work very well if your goal is to look lean and muscular, (which is an extremely important caveat).

    • If your goal is improved general health and fitness, knock yourself out! I couldn’t be more supportive of group cardio classes for people with non-aesthetic goals. You’re just very unlikely to see meaningful improvements in your physique by going to “gen pop” group cardio classes.

  • Other examples could be boxing, yoga, or spin classes.

    • All by themselves, they just aren’t going to build you any impressive amount of muscle. Will they help you lose fat, build a small amount of muscle, improve your mobility, and boost your heart health? Yes! But you probably won’t be looking markedly jacked and lean at the pool.

      • Side note: If you’re currently reading this an enthusiast of one of these training methods or fitness activities, please don’t be offended! I love and appreciate exercise of all kinds, but the focus of this article is on how to avoid mistakes for drastically improving your body composition through added muscle mass and decreased body fat.

    • Lastly, if you love boxing or yoga but you want to be more jacked too, just added resistance training into your routine, which brings me to my second point.

• You grow muscle best by weight training within a few reps of technical failure mostly in the 6-20 rep range.

  • Really, this is the advice you need to take to the bank and cash-in on.

  • Lift heavy with as many sets as you can recover from as often as possible while getting modestly stronger over time.

So what’s the point here?

Make sure your training methodology is known for producing the physique you’re personally looking to achieve.

4 - You Let Small Obstacles Get In Your Way

One of my favorite mottos with regard to losing body fat is not to let perfection become the enemy of progress, and I mean that sincerely.

Perfection when it comes to dieting for any body recomposition goal is largely a fallacy, but I also think it's important not to give yourself too much grace.

And here I go putting myself at risk of being canceled…

Stick with me for a moment.

In my personal opinion, grace is really good thing to give freely in life. Your spouse needs grace, your friends need grace, and you need grace.

I need grace.

But, there's a difference between giving ourselves grace in moments of true need and making excuses for not doing what needs to be done.

For example, if you're a mother of three and one of your workouts has to be moved because your youngest comes down with a fever and needs some motherly attention, that seems like a legitimate reason to give yourself grace to miss that workout, love and care for your child well, and make plans to do that workout tomorrow instead.

But here is a quick list of three excuses I could see people making.

Are you ready for a series of hot takes?

"All I had on me was a protein bar, so I had to get fast food for lunch."

• First of all, a protein bar is a great option in a pinch! What's wrong with eating a protein bar?

• Secondly, the language here says a lot. You "had" to get fast food for lunch. No, you didn't. You were not the victim of the universe here - you just made a decision that valued your immediate comfort and preference over your body recomposition goal.

• I’m not trying to rip this person’s head off, but this is classic example of an “excuses mentality.”

"I'm having a hard time meeting my step goal on Mondays because The Bachelor comes on at 7PM."

• Girl, I watch the Bachelor too! You just need to plan accordingly. As far as I know, the Bachelor comes on at 7PM every week without surprise. Get up early. Stay up late. Snag 2,000 steps over your lunch hour. Get it done, you know? That's much more of an excuse to me than a legitimate reason to be set back.

"I didn't get groceries this week so my protein has been way off."

• Dude, go to the store! There is such a simple solution here. At the same time, I know what it's like to run out of groceries and be in a pinch when it comes to needing a high-protein meal.

• Me personally? I consider it self-imposed “punishment” for poor planning and laziness, so I'll make myself go buy a nice, protein-dense meal. For me, this usually means hopping over to Chipotle.

Long story short, I find that the people who are constantly eager to let relatively insignificant obstacles knock them off track are the ones who have a hard time achieving their body recomposition goals.

Does it mean you're wasting your time? Not necessarily. But I think it's worth a look in the mirror and asking yourself, "What are we doing here? Are we doing this or not?"

Summary

Firstly, please do your best not to be offended by this article. My intention is purely to help and never to harm, but I’ve been known to have a direct tone at times.

I'm just speaking to trends I’ve seen anecdotally among unsuccessful people: the people who lose 20 pounds and then gain back 30, the people who bounce from fad diet to fad diet, or even the people who mean well but just can't get their habits and behavior in check for long enough to see a difference.

The solution to avoiding all of these things?

Do your best to take extreme ownership of yourself, your lifestyle, your journey, and your results.

In summary, here are the four big mistakes I referenced in this article:

• Avoid being wildly inconsistent with your calories. The key to both losing fat and gaining muscle is eating a strategic amount of food tailored toward a specific goal.

• Avoid eating an inadequate amount of protein. In most cases, it will be more the sufficient to consume 0.7g of protein per pound of lean body mass.

• Don’t make the mistake of picking a primary training methodology that doesn’t support your goal of losing fat and building muscle. Resistance training usually produces the “best” and “most attractive” physical results.

• Don’t make unnecessary excuses for not doing the things you need to do to achieve your goal.

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I really enjoyed writing this article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to someone in your life who finds body recomposition banter just as entertaining as you do.

Until next time,

-Andrew

How to Use Single-Day Fasting to Lose Fat and Build Muscle

You guys remember when Zoolander dropped in 2001 and Will Ferrell’s Mugatu character couldn’t stop obsessing over Hansel’s hotness?

That’s how I feel about fasting right now in the fitness industry.

Some people think it’s an amazing dietary strategy to help with fat loss (and sometimes even muscle gain) while others believe it’s suboptimal to having more consistent protein feedings across the day in order to maximize muscle protein synthesis.

Some people will tell you it improves insulin sensitivity and boosts natural testosterone levels while others would lead you to believe that it’s putting you at risk of muscle loss.

So which is it?

And why does it always feel like the fitness industry is exploding with conflicting claims?

These are good questions, which I hope to address (in part) in this article.

Here’s what you can expect:

• I’m going to avoid speaking about any health benefits of fasting outside of weight loss in order to respect my scope of practice. In other words, I’m not going to be taking a position on whether fasting can help us live longer lives or improve our hormone profiles.

  • So as for all of that insulin sensitivity and testosterone talk, you won’t see me addressing those claims (even though I find them fascinating and worthy of your own independent exploration).

• Instead, I’m going to tell you how to use fasting simply as a form of caloric restriction to help you improve your body composition primarily through fat loss.

• I’m going to provide practical examples of how I’ve used single-day fasting in my own body recomposition effort.

• I’m going to outline the advantages of single-day fasting when compared to other more traditional forms of caloric restriction.

How to Use Single-Day “Semi-Fasting” to Improve Your Body Composition

Although there are several ways to use fasting to improve your body composition, I’m going to focus the attention of this particular article on one specific strategy, which is…

Single-day fasting.

In other words, I think a lot of people would benefit from fasting for one entire day a week.

Sound crazy?

Maybe in context of our modern dietary patterns, but keep in mind that our modern dietary patterns have led 42% of people into a life of obesity, which is why I think a creative reconsideration of our eating habits surrounding the idea of sustainable body composition improvement is a very good idea.

So what’s up with not eating for an entire day? How is that supposed to help anyone with a body recomposition goal?

Simply put, it’s a very basic way of reducing your weekly caloric consumption.

In short, it helps you get into a caloric deficit to help you lose body fat.

We really don’t need to make it any more complicated than that, but we’ll dive into a bit more nuance in the following section.

That being said, if fasting for an entire day seems daunting and overwhelming, you could easily modify your strategy by fasting through the majority of the day and then enjoying one large, nutritionally-dense meal for dinner.

This is what I personally refer to as “semi-fasting” but only in the sense that you’re fasting for most of the day instead of complete 24-hour period. I understand that you can’t technically “semi-fast,” so take that terminology with a grain of salt.

Ultimately, it would be better described as a very low-calorie day relative to one’s normal intake.

When I do this myself, I usually have an 800-1,000-calorie smoothie packed with greens, plant-based protein powder, berries, bananas, nuts, and seeds around 5PM.

Or I might opt for an enormous tofu salad with a plethora of leafy greens drizzled in tahini and sprinkled with hemp hearts and walnuts.

The objective (for me) is simply to eat one nutritionally-dense meal with plenty of protein, which makes smoothies and salads great options given how easy it can be to pack them full of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and lean proteins like protein powders or soy products.

What I like about this modified idea is that I never have to go to bed hungry, but I can still reap the benefits of a restricted eating window.

And, of course, eating once per day tends to be much easier to adhere to (for most people) than an overnight fast.

In fact, this modified “semi-fasting” approach is what you will see illustrated in the upcoming examples as I have applied it to my own lifestyle (as opposed to a full day of fasting).

Why might a SINGLE-day weekly “SEMI-fast” help with fat loss?

As I mentioned briefly above, there doesn’t seem to be anything “magical” about fasting when it comes to losing body fat other than that it serves as a very simple way of reducing your overall intake.

But I think another underrated benefit of single-day “semi-fasting” is that it helps you start thinking of your caloric deficit in the context of one week instead of a single day.

In fact, this is what I do with all of my fat loss clients and it's why things like carb cycling and high/low approaches work for bodybuilders.

As long as the caloric math makes sense at the end of the week, the fat loss is always systematic and exciting.

For example, you may have heard that 3,500 calories equal roughly one pound of body fat.

So, if you can get yourself into a 500-calorie daily deficit, you'll be cruising toward about one pound of fat loss per week because 500 calories multiplied by 7 days equals 3,500 calories.

Boom. Math, right?

But sometimes people get too caught up in the "24-hour-ness" of it all.

In other words, people focus too much on that 500-calorie daily deficit when they could be acting more strategically on a behalf of a 3,500-calorie weekly deficit.

I’ll use myself as an example here.

If my maintenance calories are around 3,300 calories right now, we could say that a daily intake of 2,800 calories might lead to approximately one pound of fat loss per week based on the math we just discussed.

Because of that, I could structure my weekly (non-fasting) eating pattern like this:

Standard static Weekly Calorie Example

The standard static example would look like this:

• Monday: 2,800 calories

• Tuesday: 2,800 calories

• Wednesday: 2,800 calories

• Thursday: 2,800 calories

• Friday: 2,800 calories

• Saturday: 2,800 calories

• Sunday: 2,800 calories

As you can see, this is simply the “eat the same number of calories everyday” approach that many people ascribe to for the sake of consistency and routine.

But a one-day “semi-fasting” example could allow you to eat more during the week while eating much less just once per weekend.

This is cool because you could choose to eat more carbohydrates to bolster your weekday workouts knowing you can rest up and eat less (or nothing) on Sunday.

Here is an example of what that could look like (and what I often do):

One-Day “Semi-Fast” Weekly Calorie Example

• Monday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Tuesday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Wednesday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Thursday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Friday, 3,100 calories (+300)

• Saturday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Sunday: 1,000 calories (-1,800)

In this example, limiting myself to just 1,000 calories on Sunday allows me to eat an extra 300 calories on each of those other six days per week. Keep in mind too that those +300 calories in parentheses are relative to the deficit, which means this entire week of eating is still designed for fat loss.

Three hundred calories may not seem like much, but that's an extra PB&J and a glass of almond milk that you could apply to a important pre or post-workout meal.

But again, this is just one way to do it.

If you really want to be a Level 1000 Fat Loss Ninja, you could nuance your daily caloric intake even further by biasing your calories toward your most intense workouts or even planned, higher-calorie social occasions while utilizing single-day fasting over the weekend.

Check out what I mean in the following example:

Level 1000 Fat Loss Ninja Weekly Calorie Example featuring a One-Day Semi-Fast

• Monday: 3,400 calories for a nasty leg day because you want that peach (+600)

• Tuesday: 3,100 calories for an upper body day (+300)

• Wednesday: 2,800 calories for a rest day (0)

• Thursday: 3,100 calories for a normal leg day (+300)

• Friday: 3,400 calories because pizza with the boys (+600)

• Saturday: 2,800 calories because math (0)

• Sunday: 1,000 calories (-1,800)

Do you have to make it this complicated? Of course not.

I just want to illustrate that you have the freedom to do so if you like the idea of heavily nuancing your caloric consumption based on fluctuations in your training routine and lifestyle overall.

All three of these options add up to 19,600 calories per week, which means the fat loss in each situation would be almost identical while all other factors remain equal.

Pretty cool, yeah?

You could easily do similar math with your own numbers.

Just remember that these numbers were calculated for someone with a maintenance calorie intake of 3,300.

I also have a few opinions on why I think this can work really well for people.

Advantages of “Semi-Fasting” Once Per Week

• It's easy to fast for one day when you know you get plenty of food the very next day.

  • I like to think of this as the "light at the end of the tunnel" effect. For those of you who have never fasted before, this may still seem extreme, but it's really quite doable once you commit.

  • Plus, if you've ever dieted before, you know that the worst part of dieting comes from being randomly hungry on a Monday and knowing it ain't getting any better for the next six weeks. This dieting pattern fights against that drudgery.

• You're unlikely to downregulate your metabolism by fasting just once per week.

  • I don't pretend to be an expert on metabolic downregulation outside of plenty of anecdotal experience from working with my own clients, but to me it just makes good sense that it might be better for keeping your metabolism churning along to duck your calories hard once per week versus committing to a peasant's 1200-calorie diet for weeks and months on end. It's almost like your body senses that there is no need to process energy more efficiently when it knows more food is coming soon. Anecdotally, I have seen this work time and time again. And, although I wouldn’t call it “biohacking,” I do think it’s a creative way to manipulate your caloric consumption.

• It gives your digestive system a break, which I personally think may have some exciting health benefits.

  • In my own experience, it can also create a refreshing feeling of emptiness as the fast goes on, which leaves me feeling acutely lighter.

• It exercises your discipline muscle.

  • In a modern gimme-gimme culture where we tend to complain about anything we can’t have instantaneously, I find it grounding to limit my food consumption once per week.

  • I also personally think this translates well into other areas of life.

• For me personally, my stomach starts feeling noticeably tighter around 1-2PM, but this is of course just my own experience and a small psychological benefit I enjoy.

Disadvantages of “Semi-Fasting” Once Per Week

• Some people will never be able to handle the acute hunger of even a half-day fast, and that’s fine.

  • I’m not here to try to convince anyone to be hungry if you’re not bought into the benefits beyond the hunger (and I mean that sincerely).

• It might be difficult to navigate certain social situations like dining out with friends if you and your significant other are social people on the weekends.

  • For my own lifestyle, Sundays tend to be very relaxed, so this isn’t an issue for me personally in most cases, but I think it’s worth mentioning in case it applies to others.

• Your Monday workouts might feel a bit lethargic if you don’t prioritize a massive, carb-heavy breakfast to replenish yourself from the low-calorie day prior.

  • And again, you obviously don’t have to choose Sundays for your “semi-fast.” This was just the example used consistently throughout this article (and what I do personally).

Summary

• I think single-day fasting is an underrated form of caloric restriction that could help a lot of people lose body fat sustainably.

• Single-day fasting can be a helpful strategy to help people think of their caloric deficits on a weekly basis instead of a daily basis.

• “Semi-fasting” once per week can allow you to eat more food during the week to fuel your most intense training sessions.

• Practically speaking, I personally like to fast through the first half of the day and then eat one large, nutritionally dense meal around 5PM.

  • This is usually a large smoothie or a big tofu salad.

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I really enjoyed writing this short article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to someone in your life who finds body recomposition banter just as entertaining as you do.

Until next time,

-Andrew

What Should I Eat to Lose Weight?

What should you eat to lose weight?

It’s the trillion dollar question everyone is asking because…

If we just knew what to eat to lose weight, we would eat it, right?

I’m actually not so sure.

But before we get too far, I want to let you know what you can expect from this article.

1. I’m going to tell you that losing weight is mostly about calories - not the specific foods you eat, which makes the question, “What should I eat to lose weight?” quite complex.

2. I’m going to help you think through that reality by using a financial analogy that relates calories consumed to dollars spent.

3. I’m going to tell you which foods I think are “best” for fat loss for those who appreciate practical suggestions.

4. I’m going to tell you which foods make up the majority of my own diet when I aim to lose weight on purpose.

MOST PEOPLE ALREADY UNDERSTAND BASIC NUTRITION

In my opinion, most people have a basic understanding of which foods tend to be best for fat loss.

For example, if we gave the entire planet a questionnaire about basic nutrition, I think we’d see that…

• Most people know that oatmeal with berries and a few tablespoons of chia seeds is a fat loss-friendly breakfast.

• Most people know that salads with lean proteins and modest portions of healthy fats are helpful, fat loss-friendly lunch options.

• Most people know that tofu, broccoli, and rice can be a fat loss-friendly dinner combination.

• And most people know that snacking on apples is probably more fat loss-friendly than eating Nutella straight out of the jar.

So where’s the disconnect?

Why are people still typing “what to eat to lose weight” into Google?

I could be wrong, but I think I know why.

In fact, it’s the reason I wrote an entire article called The Single Biggest Mistake You’re Making in How You Think About Fat Loss, but I’m committed to bringing you an updated perspective on the topic of food selection for weight loss.

Are you ready for it?

The problem with focusing exclusively on what you should eat is that there's little to no consideration of how much you should eat.

So the implication is that you can eat all of the “right foods” and yet never lose weight if you eat them in the “wrong amounts.”

This is why thinking of your caloric allotment for the day as a monetary budget can be a very helpful analogy for fat loss.

THINK OF YOUR CALORIC INTAKE AS A MONETARY BUDGET

We’re going to start thinking about calories like dollars.

To start, let’s use an example of someone with a maintenance calorie intake of 2,500 calories, and let’s say their goal is to lose weight.

We’ll also use a direct conversion of calories to dollars for the sake of making this analogy as easy to understand as possible.

So now, instead of eating 2,500 calories per day, we’re going to think of our example person as spending $2,500 per day.

Sound fun?

Just pretend our example person is Warren Buffet for a moment.

The first thing we need to do is tailor their new budget to their goal.

In this analogy, think of saving money as losing fat.

So, if we want to lose fat by 10%, all we need to do is reduce their daily spending by 10%, which would shift their current budget of $2,500 per day to a more prudent $2,250 per day.

Over the course of a week, they would save about $1,750. And, over the course of a month, they would save about $7,000, which is about two pounds of fat once we abandon our analogy.

And this is essentially exactly how weight loss works.

It’s like you’re a little kid being given an allowance of $2,250 per day and you can spend it however you want, but…

Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

To further the analogy, that means that spending more than your allotted $2,250 per day means you’ve put yourself in debt, and debt (in this particular analogy) negates any weight loss attempt and could even lead to weight gain depending on the magnitude of that debt.

The more debt you accrue, the more unwanted body fat you accumulate.

Interestingly enough, buying things on credit is a thing when it comes to dieting for fat loss, but credit (in this analogy) is stored body fat.

And finally, perhaps one of the most important implications of this analogy is that it really doesn’t matter how you spend your money as long as you stay within the budget.

Hear me out.

Some might be tempted to think it’s “better” to spend your budgeted money on things like your mortgage, utilities, food for your family, and clothes to put on their backs, but you technically could go spend it on strippers and cocaine as long as you can afford it.

Stick with me.

But it’s only “better” in the sense that it’s better for your overall wellbeing. Most people would probably agree that the way to flourish in life probably isn’t to spend your evenings frequenting seedy nightclubs and “doing lines” off of Tiffany’s lower back.

But it’s technically not “better” if the goal is simply to stay within your budget (at least in the short-term).

That being said, if you have a goal of staying within your budget and living a responsible life, then you would be smart to consider your purchases as more than “just pennies.”

So I’ll say it again.

It really doesn’t matter (much) how your spend your money if your only goal is to stay within the budget.

And this is the essence of flexible dieting, which is a popular dietary pattern that communicates this very same idea within the context of food.

WHAT’S FLEXIBLE DIETING?

Flexible dieting or the “If It Fits Your Macros” (IIFYM) movement says that…

If your caloric budget for the day is 2,250 calories, you really are free to consume those calories from whichever food sources you please if weight loss is all you care about (which is an important caveat).

Jelly-filled donuts? Yep.

Pizza? Yep.

Burgers and fries? If you must.

Cake and ice cream? Yes!

However, if you want that lean, hard-body look that we help people achieve here at IVRY, you’ll need to make sure you’re ticking a few more important boxes within your flexible dieting routine.

After all, there’s a big difference between weight loss and body recomposition.

It’s probably good to mention too that a flexible dieting approach doesn’t take your health into consideration either, which is why I prefer to encourage people to eat a whole food, plant-based diet as much as possible.

So what’s the takeaway from this section of the article?

Calories matter most for weight loss. Consume them however you please within your caloric allotment.

The Truth about Which Foods Are “Best” for Weight Loss

Once you understand that weight loss is mostly about the manipulation of your overall caloric intake, you’ll slowly realize that the only intelligent answer to the question regarding which foods are “best” for weight loss is…

That there are no specific foods that you should eat to lose weight.

I hope this is powerful and illuminating!

But, there are, of course, foods that tend to make weight loss much easier and more sustainable due to a few reasons:

• They're naturally lower in calories.

• They're voluminous.

• They're satiating, which means they leave you feeling full for longer.

• They’re usually plants.

• They work really well for your own personal preferences and lifestyle.

In my opinion, the following list of foods fit most of these categories I’ve just mentioned.

Do you have to eat them? No.

Should you feel limited to only eat these foods? Not at all.

If anything, I’m just giving you a brief peek into my own life and the foods I personally choose to consume on a regular basis in order to maintain my lean, hard-body physique.

And, if you didn’t already know, I do eat a 100% plant-based diet, which means you won’t see any animal products in the list below (although you certainly can use them to lose weight).

FOODS I EAT MOST often FOR FAT LOSS AND MUSCLE GAIN

• Oats

• Berries like strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries

• Other fruits like bananas, mangos, and cherries

• Plant “milks” like soy “milk” and almond “milk”

• Nuts like walnuts, pecans, and pistachios

• Nut butters like peanut butter and almond butter

• Seeds like hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, and pumpkin seeds

• Enormous salads made primarily with a spring mix or spinach

• Tahini

• Tofu and tempeh

• Sweet potatoes

• Vegetables of all kinds

• Rice (or quinoa) and bean combinations

• Burritos

• Chickpea and lentil-based pastas

• Nutritional yeast

• Chilis

• Plant-based protein powders

• Plant-based protein bars

And there are certainly many more, but this is just a list of the major players.

Remember, the reason it's good to focus on foods that are low-calorie, voluminous, and filling is because being in a caloric deficit is what drives weight loss, and foods with these qualities make it easier to maintain being in a caloric deficit for as long as it takes for you to get rid of your unwanted fat.

That being said, you can totally enjoy less “traditional” dieting foods like pizza or ice cream or brownies as long as you stay within your caloric budget.

At the end of the day, calories matter most for weight loss.

You don't need to make it any more complicated than that unless you’re interested in optimizing your weight loss effort and your health.

Summary

• There are no foods you should consume for weight loss since calories matter most for weight loss. It’s primarily a discussion of “how much” versus “which foods.”

  • That being said, I personally think everyone would benefit from a health perspective from eating most of their calories from whole or minimally-processed plant foods.

  • It’s important to remember that weight loss and improved health are not always synonymous.

• It can be helpful to think of weight loss in terms of a monetary budget.

• It’s probably easiest to lose weight when you consume the majority of your calories from plant foods that are naturally low in calories, voluminous, and satiating.

  • This also probably leads to better health outcomes, but this is outside of the scope of this particular article and beyond my expertise.

• Certain foods like pizza, burgers, fries, and ice creams can be difficult to incorporate into a weight loss effort due to their caloric density, but it’s still doable when your overall caloric intake is kept in check.

  • This is commonly referred to as flexible dieting, and can be a very useful strategy for many people.

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I really enjoyed writing this short article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to that person in your life who seems eternally perplexed about why they can’t ditch their muffin top for a trimmer midline.

Until next time,

-Andrew

How to Improve Your Body Composition Without Tracking Calories

Once upon a time, I wrote an article about why caloric deficits are overhyped, and the summary was generally this:

Most of us want to have leaner and more muscular bodies, and yet a disproportionate amount of enthusiasm and marketing in the fitness space go toward calorie deficits instead of modest caloric surpluses or eating at maintenance.

And I'm really no one to talk. I find myself tooting the caloric deficit horn much more than the surplus horn.

Why?

Because most people are chubby and like the idea of losing some fat immediately as a boost of confidence that they're moving in the right direction.

Right! That makes a lot of sense, and that approach is still going to work really well for most people.

But there's another way for another crowd that you just might fall into, and it’s likely why this article piqued your interest in the first place.

You want to know how to improve your body composition without tracking calories.

Personally, I think that’s wonderful.

In fact, if I had it my way, everyone would be working toward how to eat an abundance of nutrient-dense foods while pursuing a healthy bodyweight and body composition.

Why do I say this?

Although tracking calories meticulously for fat loss can be extremely effective, it’s not all rose petals and bubblebaths.

In fact, it can be quite the opposite when done poorly.

To illustrate that point, let's start by briefly addressing a frustrating yet very common reality for a lot of people who plunge headfirst into the “deficit or die” mentality when it comes to tracking calories.

WHY TRACKING CALORIES FOR improved body composition can be frustrating

Tracking calories works, but...

• The problem with tracking calories is that you start to think about food as just calories.

• And being in a calorie deficit usually implies eating fewer calories than you might like.

• So to maximize food volume, you start doing weird things to eat fewer calories like making Frankenstein French toast with low calorie bread, sugar-free syrup, and egg whites.

• And then your energy starts to decrease because you're depriving yourself of energy on purpose (and eating weird foods that might be void of any real nutritional value).

• You become afraid of bananas because they're the "highest calorie fruit!" Gah!

• And peanut butter is the devil because fat! Gah!

• And then all of sudden you’re the weird guy or gal who eats weird things in the name of “fitness.”

• And then going to the gym becomes a real pain in the bum because "you just don't feel like it."

• And then your training starts to suck. You're not getting stronger. You’re actually getting weaker. And you've maybe lost a few pounds, but you're still soft, chubby, and unhappy.

• And then you order 47 Papa John's pizzas and a birthday cake to yourself on a Friday night and never see the gym again.

That last bullet point is a bit of a joke, obviously, but hopefully you see the truth in the comedy.

Let me just pause briefly and remind you that doing the above absolutely works if all you care about is losing fat.

And that's not me trying to passively shame you into being "that person.” It’s totally fine to care about losing the fat above all else.

In fact, that above list is exactly what I did to lose 31 pounds and land myself the physique you see here.

So it definitely works. And I'm not taking a dig at it at all. I'm just being objective about the pros and cons while trying to make a specific point.

But again, we’re here to talk about how to avoid tracking calories while still making meaningful progress in improving our body compositions.

Are you ready for it?

Here it is:

Start training really hard while eating an abundance of whole foods without tracking a single calorie.

Some of you may be thinking, "That sounds reckless! All of this banter about how calories matter most for looking like Ken and Barbie and now you're telling me to eat in abundance. Lies!"

Let me explain.

Why not tracking calories for improved body composition might be better for some people

• From day one there is no notion of unnecessary restriction. In fact, the only restriction in this game is that you're bound only to whole, minimally processed foods. In other words, this is "clean eating" for lack of a better term. Vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and lean proteins.

• That's cool because being restricted is annoying. But I've found that being restricted to certain categories of food is more fun than being restricted to certain quantities of food. You might be different, and that would be totally fine. I'm just making that point.

• It's also cool because now you get to focus on your health instead of math. You're only eating whole foods, so there's a really good chance the nutrient density of your diet goes way up! That's great.

• You're also probably eating much more fiber now because you may have traded in a microwavable Lean Pocket for a bowl of oats with berries and soy milk.

• You're also probably not binging anymore because you can't really binge on "healthy food," you know? Seriously, grab yourself a bowl of brown rice, steamed veggies, and tofu and see how wild things get. I doubt they get very wild.

• So now you just have to train hard and effectively! If you need some direction on what that means, click here.

• Training hard is more fun now because you actually have energy to push around big weights. Yes, I am suggesting that a diet of oats and berries for breakfast might make you feel better and more energetic than frosted donuts and a whey shake.

• In fact, maybe you really start to enjoy training because you're seeing the numbers go up. Good vibes!

• And you're catching pumps in the gym. Ladies, the legs and the glutes are growing! Fellas, you just noticed a juicy new bicep vein in your right arm.

• And then you move from 3x per week in the gym to 4x to week in the gym because it feels like medicine and you're actually learning to love the process.

• And then all of a sudden you've been crushing your gym sessions for a month without having tracked a single calorie.

• Maybe you weigh the exact same, but you've built muscle underneath!

• Or maybe you weigh less "on accident" because you started fueling your body with pure goodness instead of occasional junk, and the sum effect of it all was a reduction in scale weight.

• Or maybe you weigh more because you're building muscle while eating like a beast.

• And slowly but surely you get leaner and more muscular through the simple practices of eating exclusively nutritious foods and then using that energy to fuel your increasingly productive training sessions.

That's what a life without calorie-tracking could look like.

CONS OF NOT TRACKING YOUR CALORIES

The obvious cons to this strategy might be:

• That you're not guaranteed any systematic fat loss results. I want to make this very clear. You can absolutely eat more than you need to even while eating a whole food diet, but it's just less likely to happen than in the context of a diet littered with pizza, burgers, ice creams, and donuts. This could be frustrating to some people with a very specific goal, but my guess is that some people would actually enjoy the freedom of the motto, "Eat in abundance. Train like a freak." I know I sure do.

  • The key here is not to make obvious mistakes like sitting down to watch a TV show with a jar of peanut butter or a back of pistachios. We all know nuts and nut butters are healthful food choices, but they are also very calorically-dense, which means you need to be careful to consume them in moderation.

• You also have to actually train hard and intelligently. The caveat here is that you might gain some unwanted fat if you only adopt the eating portion of this framework. Or you might not! I still think it would be a great step in the right direction regarding your overall health, but if you think that's a con, this approach might not be for you.

PROS OF NOT TRACKING YOUR CALORIES

The pros (in my opinion) are:

• You're free to eat foods without looking at them like numbers! That can be so freeing for a lot of people.

• You then start to see your dietary freedom as a motivator for training hard! Speaking personally, I’ve gone through phases when I was eating 4,000 calories per day (which I never thought would be the case), which means I was able to show up to the gym with purpose every day. It's like, "Okay, 4,000 calories per day? I literally have no excuse not to wreck this workout. Game on." What a fun way to train!

• You have an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset.

• Your health and fitness get top priority instead of the mirror and/or the comments from friends and co-workers.

• It's suited well for people who are willing to embrace habits-based change and long-term improvements.

The question then becomes, “How do you want to live?”

If you decide you would prefer the systematic results of a tracking approach, that’s great! Seriously, it’s amazing approach for a lot of people (including me in certain seasons of training).

On the other hand, if you decide you like the idea of focusing purely on the consumption of nutrient-dense whole foods while training with purpose, that’s also great!

I have done both and will continue to utilize both as needed depending on my specific goals.

Similarly, the point is to make an educated decision about what is most likely to work best for you.

How to Take Action If You Don’t Want to Track Calories

• Commit yourself to eating only (or mostly) whole foods.

  • This means getting nearly all of your calories from vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, avocados, and lean proteins.

• If you like to snack aimlessly, try to snack mostly on vegetables and fruits instead of fats like nuts and seeds.

  • Nuts and seeds have amazing health benefits, but you’ll always want to consume them in moderation to help minimize the risk of caloric overconsumption.

  • Some good options would be carrots and celery or apples and oranges.

• Drink mostly if not exclusively water with maybe black coffee or tea.

• Make sure you have a great training program. If you don’t know where to start, click here.

• Try to sleep and reduce stress as much as you can.

  • We didn’t discuss these in this article, but these two in tandem seem to be the mostly commonly neglected step-children in the context of successful body recomposition efforts.

Summary

Remember that you don't have to put yourself in a specifically-calculated calorie deficit from day one.

You can keep it very simple by eating lots of nutritious whole foods and training effectively and with purpose.

I can almost guarantee that the results in due time will come and that you’ll be happier than ever.

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Thanks for reading! I really hope you were able to take something meaningful away from this article.

If you feel like it brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone whose lifestyle just simply doesn’t allow for a life of food scales and perfectly-tailored macro splits.

Later, guys.

-Andrew

Why Caloric Deficits Are Overhyped

I think caloric deficits are overhyped.

No, this is not clickbait, and I'm prepared to explain why through a series of observations.

Why Caloric Deficits Are Overhyped

Observation 1: We All Want to Look Better Naked.

Most people in the fitness industry share a very similar goal in that they want to look better naked and feel more confident in their own skin.

Usually this means building muscle in certain areas and losing fat in other areas.

Most women want strong legs, plump glutes, and a flat tummy while most guys want broad shoulders, big arms, and six-pack abs.

I say this because these are by far the most commonly referenced physical attributes when I ask people about their goals.

Simply put, people want to look “hot.”

So we could summarize this point by saying that most people, by their own admission, believe that their bodies would appear the most attractive with the following characteristics:

• An appreciable amount of muscle mass

• Relatively low body fat

Observation 2: We All Want to Eat Plenty of Food.

My second observation is that most people also want to eat a good amount of food and enjoy life abundantly.

Consider how often we find ourselves in social situations centered on food and drink.

Fellas, have you ever had a jacked friend who seemed to be able to show up to a night out, crush a pizza, down a few beers, and stay as lean and muscular as ever?

Ladies, have you ever been jealous of “that one girl” whose body always seems to be perfect even though she can eat seemingly whatever she wants?

Most of us have, and I would argue that it’s a wildly enticing state of being.

It’s the desire to be able to eat without restriction while looking as amazing as possible, and it’s essentially the crux of my second point.

So, combined with that first observation, you're left with someone who wants to build muscle, lose fat, and eat in abundance.

I actually refer to this as the “golden zone” with my clients.

The “golden zone” is when you’ve trained and eaten strategically for long enough to be confidently lean while eating plenty of food on a day to day basis.

It’s the combination of being lean and have a high maintenance-calorie intake.

Now let’s move onto my third observation.

Observation 3: We’re All Being Told to Eat Less.

Most people in the fitness industry are obsessed with getting shredded or unsustainably lean, which has lead to a disproportionate level of attention given to caloric deficits.

Maybe you see where I'm going with this.

The problem here is that building muscle optimally actually requires most people to be eating in a slight surplus - not a deficit.

But the confusion comes from a very understandable place.

Most people are overweight or even obese when they begin, which means a caloric deficit is absolutely an appropriate first step (usually) in terms of burning some fat.

Let me make that very clear. I’m not saying that caloric deficits are overhyped because they don’t work. They definitely work when understood and applied properly and consistently.

The problem is that too many people never properly transition out of a caloric deficit into other phases of dieting (like maintenance periods and strategic weight gain periods).

In fact, I would argue that most of your body recomposition journey should be spent eating slightly above maintenance if you want to get increasingly muscular over time.

Why?

Because aside from very early beginnings in fitness, you don't really build a meaningful amount of muscle while eating beneath your body's needs.

Plus, it’s well known that the quality of your training dictates the quality of your fitness and physique outcomes.

Low quality training? Less exciting physical adaptations.

Extremely high quality training? Maximally exciting physical adaptations.

You can only grow your chest so much as a man who eats 1,500 calories per day just like you can only grow your glutes so much as a woman who eats 1,000 calories per day.

Long-term, the fuel simply will not be there to support the quality of training required to produce the quality of outcomes you desire.

This leads me to my next thought.

The “Chasing Two Rabbits” Analogy

It's much like the analogy of chasing two rabbits and catching none.

Let’s say you have two adorable rabbits in an open meadow. You set them both down to run freely and enjoy themselves, but then you realize you miss cuddling them and want to pick them up again.

In the beginning, you can actually clone yourself and chase both rabbits and catch both of them. It's super cool!

But after a while, you lose your superpower to clone yourself and you have to pick one or the other.

You can chase the fat loss and muscle retention rabbit or you can chase the fat gain and muscle gain rabbit.

To be fair, you can still choose to chase the recomposition bunny once you’ve lost your cloning superpowers, but it’s a far slower pursuit that many find discouraging.

The idea here is that you can’t eat in a caloric deficit indefinitely and while continuing to build more and more muscle mass.

At some point, you will probably have to choose between eating more and gaining more muscle or eating less and severely limiting your muscle gain.

What’s the Takeaway Here?

Here's the point.

Caloric deficits are overhyped in the sense that the fitness industry spends too much time talking about how to get into them and not enough time talking about how to get out of them and onto more glorious and healthful muscle-building endeavors.

If you're overweight right now but someday you want to be jacked and lean, think of your initial fat loss phase as a bank robbery. Get in and get out.

Once you've lost an appropriate amount of initial body fat, start eating more food, training harder, chasing performance improvements and strength gains, and improving your metabolism.

I fear that too many people are under the impression that eating in a caloric deficit is a permanent endeavor rather than a means to an end.

Let me say that again. Eating in a caloric deficit should always be a means to an end.

In other words, get into your caloric deficit, lose the fat, and then move on to strategic phases of maintenance eating and even eating in a modest surplus.

In time, you'll be eating way more, sporting a thriving metabolism, flourishing in the gym, and looking leaner and more built than you ever have before.

And that's a really good feeling.

Fortunately, I know this is possible because I've done it myself.

In 2019 I was a very unflattering 200 pounds and eating 2,300 calories per day.

Now, I can maintain a much leaner and muscle-bound 190-pound physique while consuming upwards of 3,000 calories per day.

Which would you prefer?

It's safe to say I prefer the latter, but the choice is yours.

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As always I hope you found this article helpful!

If you feel like this brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be struggling with the despair of living life in a perma-deficit.

Later, guys.

-Andrew

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

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

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

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

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

I was the same way.

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

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

Fortunately, all of that has changed!

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

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

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

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

• Increased cardio capacity

• Better pumps and improved vascularity

• Improved blood flow

• Increased sex drive

• Better day to day energy levels

• Sustained mental focus

• Heightened ability to resist irritability and be more patient

• Improved sleep quality

• Reduced body pain specifically in my sides and lower back

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

• Better poops

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

Not bad, right?

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

Let’s get into it.

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

1. Smoothies with Plant-Based Protein Powder 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Plant Protein Pasta Explosions

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

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

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

I’m not so convinced.

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

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

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

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

Pretty sick, right?

3. Toddler-Sized Burritos

I have become the king of Panchero's.

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

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

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

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

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

My specific order?

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

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

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

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

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

4. Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches 

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

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

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

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

You also have to consider the context.

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

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

Do you? Maybe not.

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

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

5. Quinoa, Broccoli, and Tempeh Bowls

I really wish more people knew about tempeh!

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

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

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

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

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

All you need to make this dish a success is:

• Quinoa

• Broccoli

• Tempeh

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

• Optional

  • Korean Gochujang sauce

  • Tahini

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And there you have it, my friends!

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

I hope you found this helpful.

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

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

"Should I Eat Low-Carb to Lose Fat?"

The tabloids and internet advertisements have us all wondering:

Should you eat low-carb or low-fat if you want to lose body fat and look lean and jacked?

Which one is it?

This is an immensely loaded question, but I'm going to keep it short and sweet.

Do What Is Sustainable and Feels Best

My extremely unsexy yet honest answer is that I think you should probably do what makes you feel best in context of your day to day energy, dietary preference, and performance in the gym.

Second to that, make sure this is something you do long-term. In other words, set your own adherence up for success in choosing a macronutrient distribution that you’re confident you can maintain for months and years.

But why? Shouldn’t there be a more definitive answer to this?

Not really, and this is why:

Looking lean and jacked is about having lost enough body fat to look lean and having built enough muscle to look jacked. And, since you can lose body fat and build muscle on both low-carb and low-fat diets, it doesn’t make much to heavily bias one over the other for most recreational lifters.

That being said, most physique and bodybuilders would agree that a high-carb, low-fat approach is best if you’re interested in building the most muscle possible due to the anabolic benefits of carbohydrates.

But this may not be you.

You might not be interested in “optimally jacked,” but you are interested in losing some body fat and building some muscle in a sustainable way because you don’t want to be a fluffy father or a mushy mommy.

So this brings me back to my initial point. It’s probably a good idea to do what allows for long-term adherence and feels best to you on a daily basis.

Questions to Ask Yourself

For example, these could be some helpful questions to ask yourself:

• Do you feel really good when you eat a higher carb diet?

• Do you naturally enjoy eating more carbs than fats?

• Do meals heavy in fat make you feel sluggish?

Or is it the reverse?

• Do fats keep you noticeably satiated and energetic throughout the day?

• Does eating fat give you a great mental clarity in the morning?

In my opinion, it might be as straight-forward as paying attention to the answers of those simple questions and acting accordingly.

As long as you are respecting essential levels of healthy fat consumption per day, which most experts in the field define as around 0.35x your body weight (in pounds) in grams of fat per day, I don't think it's worth overcomplicating your macronutrient distribution beyond that.

In practical terms, I think a conservative lower end for most men is around 50g per day while women can eat a bit less around 35-40g per day.

So to be clear, I think most people should distribute their macros in a way that allows them to enjoy their diet maximally while feeling and performing optimally. 

5 Reasons I Prefer High-Carb Dietary Patterns for Looking Better Naked

But, what do I do personally? What helped me lose my 31 pounds?

My bias is 100% toward high-carb, low-fat dieting, and here's why:

#1: All of My Favorite Foods Are Carbs

I freaking love carbs. I used to eat up to 6 bowls of Honey Bunches of Oats before bed each night. In fact, most days I'm actually trying to figure out how to add more fats into my diet to get to 50-60g of fat per day. 

So this first point comes down to preference and nothing else.

All of my favorite foods are carbs: sweet potatoes, white potatoes, oats, rice, quinoa, pasta, beans, bananas, berries, cereals, etc.

And now that I’ve made the transition to eating a predominantly whole food plant-based diet, it’s easier than ever to bias my macronutrients heavily in favor of carbohydrates over fats. 

#2: Carbs Make My Muscles Look Like Big Balloons 

Carbs create that full muscle effect that makes your guns look like freshly inflated balloons due to intramuscular water retention. 

When I keep my carbs low, I just look deflated. I don't like looking deflated. I like filling out my t-shirts.

If I enjoyed looking deflated all of the time, I’d probably take up marathon running. That’s no shade thrown at my long-distance brothers and sisters, but let’s call it how it is. There aren’t too many marathon runners out there experiencing restricted blood flow to their forearms because the sleeves on their t-shirts are inadvertently functioning as a tourniquet. 

Here’s a professional photo of me on more than 600g of carbohydrates the day of the photoshoot.

#3: Carbs Give Me Nasty Pumps at the Gym

High-carb dieting gives me sick pumps in the gym due to topped off glycogen stores. I like sick pumps in the gym, so I eat high-carb. Makes sense, right?

I also think there is a powerful psychological component here.

There’s an old adage that goes something like this: look good, feel good, play good. And as simple as it may sound, I think there’s quite a bit of truth there.

If you’ve ever had a skin-splitting pump in the gym, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. When you catch a pump, you feel invincible. So what happens? You really start to connect both mentally and physically to the session. With each curl, you drive more and more blood into the biceps until you can’t help but sneak off to the group classroom and snatch a shameless selfie like I did in the photo you see here.

To summarize, I really think half of the fun of lifting weights is chasing the pump and feeling confident in your own skin, which is bound to produce other positive outcomes in both your psychology and your physique.

#4: Carbs Keep Me Feeling High-Energy

I just feel generally low energy when I eat high-fat and restrict my carb intake. Even when calories are equated, I just don't feel the same. 

There’s really no better feeling to me than smashing an enormous salad with berries, hemp seeds, and Italian dressing. Or even a Mexican-inspired bowl of rice or quinoa topped with a medley of beans, corn, tomatoes, and just a touch of avocado.

But again, this is just personal to me. You may not feel the same way, and there are plenty of intelligent people in the industry pushing for a higher-fat, ketogenic approach.  

#5: Carbs Seem to Help Me Stay Focused

I have a great mental focus when I'm eating carbs. I know some people swear by fat (and good for them), but I swear by carbs. Pick your poison.

I’m really not trying to tell you what to do. I’m just telling you what I do and what I’ve found success in over the years. 

For example, smash an enormous 800-calorie bowl of oatmeal in the morning can oftentimes sustain my mental focus through the lunch hour (without food) and well into the late afternoon.

If you need inspiration, check out this recent upload from my phone because you know I take pictures of my oatmeal like first-time parents take photos of their children.

"What does high-carb mean though? Give me some numbers!"

I do like giving people specific numbers, so when I talk about high-carb dieting I'm essentially talking about maximally high-carb dieting. In other words, I keep fats as low as possible (while maintaining general health parameters) to maximize the anabolic benefits of carbs.

My Current High-Carb Diet

Right now, my macros are 120-150P, 50-60F, and 500-600C, and you can check out this recent full day of eating in Cronometer for a more in-depth look.

But keep in mind that this comes in context of my personal body, my personal metabolism, my personal phase of training, my personal phase of dieting, and my personal preferences. 

Do not take my macros and try to implement them into your own life with the hopes of achieving the same success I have had.

That’s just not how it works.

If, however, you are interested in calculating your own macros for fat loss or muscle gain, send us an email and let’s set up a consultation call. If that sounds too scary, I highly recommend this article I wrote about how to know if you’re ready to hire an online body recomposition coach.

Lastly, if you want an additional “non-me” resource on the benefits of high-carb eating, check out this article by Dr. Mike Israetel.

I love Dr. Mike, and even though this article is written in the context of massing (or bulking), the ideas apply across all phases of training and dieting assuming no outstanding medical issues. It's an absolute smash of a write-up, so I highly recommend the read. 

Summary

• Which style of eating makes you feel good and perform well? Do that probably.

• Eating high-carb instead of high-fat tends to be more popular among physique sport enthusiasts and bodybuilders.

• I am personally biased toward high-carb, minimal fat approaches.

• I personally lost 31 pounds eating high-carb in context of a caloric deficit.

  • I just toss that in there to say that I was still maximizing carbs (although much lower than usual) while dieting for extended fat loss.

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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

"Which Protein Bar Should I Buy?"

Let's chat briefly about protein bars.

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

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

So, which protein bars should you buy?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sound good?

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

Tips for Buying Protein Bars When Body Recomposition Is the Goal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have the perfect, real-life example.

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

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

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

Yikes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You get the point.

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

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

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

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

Remember Regina George from Mean Girls?

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

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

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

If that's you, do it!

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

For more on that, check out this article.

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

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

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

Tip 4 - Does it taste good?

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

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

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

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

My Personal Recommendations

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

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

Fine.

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

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

My Ex-Protein Bar

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. They were very affordable. Fifth rule checked!

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

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

My Current Protein Bar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How much protein should your athlete be eating per day?

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

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

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

But, why?

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

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

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

I think you get the point.

What does it look like to eat that much protein?

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

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

SAMPLE DAILY Protein SCHEDULE as a Student-Athlete

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does everybody need to be eating that much protein?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, what’s the takeaway here?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time,

-Andrew

Exposing the Silliness Behind the Excuse of "Not Having Time to Eat Healthy"

Have you ever heard people talk about how they just “don’t have time to eat healthy?”

For whatever reason, I hear that all the time, and I’m going to be honest with you: It drives me a little crazy on the inside.

So, I decided to write this article to put a stop to the madness.

That means the next time you hear someone leveraging their extreme busyness as justification for their terrible diet (and probably an unhealthy body composition), you can blast them with this write-up.

Because, let’s be honest, it’s probably something they need to hear.

Just kidding. Don’t be a jerk.

Only pass it along if they’re genuinely feeling discouraged about what they are perceiving as a lack of time needed to eat in a way that supports their goal rather than carrying them farther and farther away from it.

You’ll come off a lot nicer that way, and compassion is cool.

But, let’s get into it.

Why You Really Do Have Time to Eat Healthy

The excuse of not having enough time to eat healthy is super silly for one main reason: You have to eat something just to exist as a human being, so why not put forth the effort to make it good for you?

That’s kind of like saying you don’t have time to breathe clean air. You have to breathe some kind of air, but you’re trying to make the point to me that there’s no time to breathe the clean air - just the dirty air.

What?

On top of that, it takes roughly the same amount of time to prepare a bowl of oatmeal with berries and almonds as it does a microwavable Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich loaded with enough calories to feed your favorite six year-old’s entire kindergarten class.

So, what gives?

What are people really getting at when they say they don’t have time to eat more nutritious foods?

Here are my theories.

Theory 1: You genuinely don’t know that eating healthier foods can still be quick and easy.

In other words, I want to give the benefit of the doubt to anyone out there who just doesn’t know any better.

Some people just non-negotiably associate quick and easy foods as “bad” foods.

For example, if you’re a busy corporate person who rarely has time to eat a proper sit-down lunch due to the high volume of sales calls you have to make each day, you might assume that eating the seemingly never-ending supply of leftover junk food in the workroom really is the only option - purely on the basis of convenience.

And, to be fair, I totally understand where you’re coming from.

Time is precious, and the last thing you have time for is to pop home, air-fry a block of tofu and some lightly seasoned asparagus, and chug 40 ounces of water when your paycheck is on the line.

So, you opt for the cold pizza and the leftover birthday cake in the workroom. I get it.

But, there are actually plenty of quick and easy snacks that you can grab in a pinch if time is really your greatest concern.

Here are my best practical tips for busy folks.

1. Meal Prepped Lean Proteins and Vegetables

Just commit to bringing your healthy meals to work.

And if you’re concerned about the time spent prepping your food as a reason not to do it, learn to fall in love with bulk meals.

During the right seasons, my wife and I will make a big batch of plant-based chili that we can eat from all week.

Also, remember that you don’t have to go day by day in terms of preparing your food.

Prep all five lunches on Sunday for a full week free of fat loss thought-fatigue.

You could also easily do this with a chickpea pasta or even Mexican medleys featuring exciting new products like chorizo seitan with beans, rice, avocado, and salsa.

2. Protein products, oats to go, or smoothies

Protein bars are a no-brainer unless you’re too proud to be “eating like a bro” at work in a pinch.

But, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve smashed one (but usually two) protein bars as a meal replacement on days when “life was busy.”

Or, if you’re an on-the-go breakfast person, you could toss 40g of oatmeal into a cup of soy milk with a scoop of plant-based protein the night before so that once the morning comes you literally just snag that bad boy out of the fridge and sip it in the car.

Better yet? Make yourself a full-blown smoothie with soy milk, plant-based protein powder, frozen berries or mangos, 1-2 bananas, and some hemp seeds for nutritional flare.

What could be easier?

Whether you’re 120 pounds, 250+ pounds, or anywhere in the middle, these are both quick and easy meals/snacks that can fit literally anyone’s macros.

Theory 2: You’re really just saying you’re a little too lazy to put forth the effort.

My second theory regarding why people are convinced they don’t have enough time to eat healthy is simple because they’re lazy and don’t want to admit it.

Why are you slamming Oreos during your 3PM lull when you could be eating an apple or a modest handful of heart-healthy nuts?

Now, it’s totally cool if you’d just rather eat your Twinkies and be left in peace because body recomposition isn’t a priority of yours, but let’s not be hiding behind the guise of “not having the time” to eat healthy when really you’re just being a lazy sack of potatoes.

The same goes for the snacks you choose to have around the house. What’s the difference in buying Doritos versus hard pretzels or even a less processed option like apples or carrots?

Sure, Doritos are delicious. I realize that.

But taste has nothing to do with time.

Even small adjustments like that can be a step in the right direction toward reorienting the way you think about quick foods and their nutritional makeup.

Theory 3: You’re unwilling to choose healthier eat-out food options even when they’re just as easy to order as the unhealthy options.

I’ve heard this one from “important business gurus” - you know, the types that are always flying around first-class and joining other important guys and gals for happy hours and luxurious meals in high-dollar restaurants.

For this group of people, it really just comes down to coming to terms with the seriousness of your goal.

Because the bottom line is this: You can get a leafy green salad with a lean protein and a low-calorie dressing on the side just about wherever you go.

You just have to make the choice to order it over the burger and fries or the house steak with loaded mashed potatoes and cheesy biscuits.

And don’t forget about your liquid calories when you dine out. There’s a big difference calorically between ordering a tall glass of water and opting for a few starter beers or a tasting of their finest whiskey.

Again, the choice is yours, but this certainly isn’t a time issue - it’s a choice issue.

And, I encourage all of my clients to take extreme ownership of their choices.

Summary

• Remember that quick and easy foods don’t always have to be unhealthy foods. Although it’s convenient to eat frosted mini donuts, it’s almost equally convenient to make a quick bowl of oatmeal with berries and nuts.

• Your “time issue” might actually be a laziness issue. If that’s you, be honest with yourself and take ownership of that reality rather than blaming it on a lack of time.

• Almost every restaurant has a healthiest option on the menu. Be willing to choose that meal if you’re serious about improving your body composition.

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And there you have it!

As always, thank you for engaging with our content! If you feel like this blog was helpful, pass it on to someone else who might enjoy it, and don’t forget to flip through some of our other recent blog posts for additional content

You could even give us a follow on Instagram for a completely different set of informational posts should it interest you.

And finally, if this is your first time interacting with evidence-based body recomposition and you’re considering hiring a coach, we encourage you to take the plunge.

You just have to find the courage to send that first email and say hi - no one is going to do it for you. Seriously, you’ll thank yourself later.

Happy eating, people.

-Andrew

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

What Eating 200 Grams of Protein Looks Like

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

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

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

Example Day of 200g of Protein

BREAKFAST

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

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

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

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

LUNCH

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

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

AFTERNOON SNACK

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

DINNER

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

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

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

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

EVENING SNACK

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

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

Looking Back At My Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 Nerdy Ways to Calculate Your Protein Intake

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

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

What is lean body mass?

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

How do you measure lean body mass?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The “Goal Weight Method”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Important Stipulation

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

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

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

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

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

The “True Lean Mass Method”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let me explain.

WHY EYEBALLING YOUR BODY FAT PERCENTAGE IS DIFFICULT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

157.25 pounds of lean body mass

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

The first one is a real-life anticipation of what I might weigh if I lost all the body fat I want to lose, while the True Lean Mass Method is a prediction of what I’d weigh if I had no body fat at all (which is impossible).

So, by the True Lean Mass Method, I would be eating around 158g of protein at 185 pounds and an estimated body fat percentage of 15%.

Getting Cheeky with Your Manipulation of the True Lean Mass Formula

Interestingly enough, you could easily adjust that formula to reflect what you might weigh at any given “aesthetically pleasing” body fat percentage you might desire.

For example, in the physique space, people tend to consider that 6-8% body fat range (for men) to be the “golden zone” of looking pretty darn lean.

And for women, you can generally bump those numbers by 7-10 percentage points as a general rule.

Given that we’ve already got an equation in place that allows for the manipulation of body fat percentage, it’s easy to make a calculation that lands us specifically in that golden zone for looking like a movie star on the beach.

I call this the 8% Method.

The “8% Method”

If I wanted to set my sights specifically on being 8% body fat by the end of my fat loss phase, I would do the following:

185 pounds x (0.85 + 0.08) = 172 pounds of lean body mass

If you’re wondering how that equation works, let me break it down for you quickly.

The 0.85 figure represents my predicted LBM based on my estimation of being around 15% body fat.

100% - 15% = 85%, which is the LBM figure here.

Eighty-five percent reflected in decimal form is 0.85.

Now, to add back that 8%, we simply adjust the decimal from 0.85 up to 0.93 by adding the 0.08, which leaves us with the configuration you see above.

And that’s that! You get an estimation of being 172 pounds at 8% body fat.

You could, of course, do this calculation based on any desired body fat percentage. Here, 8% just functions as a common example of what would leave most men looking pretty diced.

And, if you wanted to bring all of this information back around to protein intake, our calculations from the 8% Method would have me eating around 172g of protein per day at 185 pounds.

Let’s wrap it up.

We’ve now got three numbers here to compare.

1. The “Goal Weight Method” – 175 pounds of lean body mass

2. The “True Lean Mass Method” – 157 pounds of lean body mass

3. The “8% Method” – 172 pounds of lean body mass

Which one do we pick then?

For the sake of keeping things simple, I would just aim to consume between 157-175g of protein per day since it reflects the range of all three of these calculations.

In fact, this is exactly what I do.

One Last Disclaimer

Remember, however, that all of this protein talk still assumes a proper training program for hypertrophy – we’re just not discussing the training piece of the physique puzzle at this time because our focus is on daily protein intake.

Apart from brilliant genetics, you can’t only eat protein and “get jacked” without working out to initiate the growth. If you can, congratulations! You are a genetic anomaly.

Curious about the training portion of how all this works?

Skip on over to this article about seven simple rules of thumb when it comes to training for maximal muscle growth.

“HOW DO I EAT THIS MUCH PROTEIN?”

Ah, yes! The next logical question as we think about the big picture of building muscle…

Fortunately, I’ve got you covered with a list of 9 Sneaky Ways to Get More Protein Into Your Diet.

So check that out and get to eating!

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

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

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

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew