Getting lean. A practical guide for the CFCCer.

The most important part about losing weight is that you HAVE to eat less calories than you are burning over the course of days, weeks, and months.  Paleo is great and will make you healthy and you’ll likely avoid a lot of modern diseases if you stick to it.  But it won’t necessary make you lean.  Here is a guide to help you figure out what you should be eating each day:

Whether you are trying to get leaner, gain muscle, or stay the same, I recommend that you do the following:

1.  Eat at least one pound of non-starchy vegetables every day.

2.  Take fish oil caps every day.  It doesn’t matter when you take them, just take them after a solid meal.  All at once is fine.  2g/day for women.  3g/day for men.  Carlson’s is a great brand.  Make sure it doesn’t have a lot of vitamin A, like cod liver oil does.  You can potentially overdose on vitamin A because its fat soluble.

3. Vitamin D: Get at least 30 minutes of midday sun, or take a vitamin d-3 supplement.  Get your levels checked and supplement until you’re in the recommended range.  It’s an extremely cheap supplement and proper vitamin D levels affect absolutely EVERYTHING in your body.  Humans produce this in proper amounts when exposed to sunlight, but most people do not get the sunlight that they need.  Oh yeah, and It’s a steroid, not a vitamin.  It was named mistakenly by some scientist a long time ago.  I think his name was Dr. Bunsen something-or-other.

4.  Avoid gluten (the protein found in grain) as much as possible.  It does some funky stuff to most people.  Trust me or look it up.

5.  Eliminate dairy if you are sensitive to it.  Add it back in if you’re not.

6.  Avoid sugar and juices completely.

7. Eat protein at every meal.

8.  Don’t eat more than about 1 piece of fruit per day.  Preferably in the morning.

9.  Drink your coffee black, and keep it to 2 cups per day.

10.  Drink water throughout the day.  You might be thirstier than you think.

11.  Eat a balance of different kinds of fats, except for transfats.  Just because saturated fat in moderate quantities isn’t as bad as we thought doesn’t mean it’s time to make a butter, bacon, and lard sandwich for each meal of the day.  Olive oil, nuts, coconut oil, some animal fats, avocado….spread it out.

12.  Limit your nut intake to a couple handfuls a day at most.  None at all is fine.

If you just did that, you’ll be a lot healthier for it.  Now let’s get more precise, because some of us want optimal results:

1.  Estimate your lean body mass.

A. First, Estimate your bodyfat percentage really loosely.  It doesn’t have to be very precise.

Women:

If you’re really, really lean, you’re probably about 15% bodyfat.  You can see your abs all the time and there are visible veins in your shoulders when you’re training.  Think elite crossfitters.  Don’t get leaner than this if you want to have healthy hormone levels.

If you’re lean, you’re probably about 20% bodyfat.  You can see your abs when you flex.  Not much vascularity, but very fit looking.

If you’re kinda lean, you’re probably about 25% bodyfat.  You’re not ripped but shapely.  Your bicep separates when you flex.

If you’re normal, you’re probably about 25-35% bodyfat.  Not necessarily weak looking, but you have a layer of fat you could lose.

If you’re a bit overweight looking, you’re probably 35-45%.  For our purposes, don’t assume anything over 45% bodyfat.

Men:

If you’re really, really lean, you’re probably about 6-8% bodyfat.  You can see every muscle in your body when you’re just moving around.

If you’re lean, you’re probably about 8-10% bodyfat.  You can see your abs without flexing.  Clear abdominal definition when flexed, and veins in arms are quite visible.

If you’re kinda lean, you’re probably about 11-14%.  You can see your abs when you flex, and at rest, you can usually see some vascularity in your arms.

If you’re normal, you’re probably about 15-20%.  You don’t look fat, but you don’t have the definition mentioned anywhere above.

If you’re a little chubby, you’re probably about 20-25% You can easily see yourself shedding some pounds.

If you’re more than that, you’re probably 25-35%.  For our purposes, don’t assume anything over 35% bodyfat.

B.  Find your weight in fat.  Take your percentage (again, estimate!) and multiply it by your weight.  So if I’m a “normal” guy, using 17.5% as a guess, and I weigh 200lbs, i’m going to estimate myself to be carrying 35lbs of fat (0.175*200).

C.  Subtract your weight in fat from your total bodyweight.  So if I’m 200lbs with 35lbs of fat, I have a “Lean body Mass” or “LBM” or 165lbs (200-35=165).

REMEMBER THIS NUMBER!!

2.  Setting up a “baseline” diet using your LBM.

A.   Set Protein intake

This is the first macronutrient we set.  Because it’s most important.  And that’s why it was named “protein”.

Set protein intake, in grams, to equal to pounds of LBM.  So our 165lbs of LBM prescribes 165g of protein per day.

B.  Set Carbohydrate intake

Even if you aren’t active, your brain is using anywhere from 110-130g of carbs per day.  If you don’t get them from your diet, your body is using protein (either dietary or from your precious muscle) to make them.  So let’s start there:

120g carbs for the brain.

Now we need some carbs to fuel our exercise for the day.  If you’re training hard, as you are at crossfit, you could probably use an extra 25% of your lean bodymass, in carbs,  for each workout that you’re performing.  This is assuming you’re training at CFCC.  Again, it’s an estimate, but that’s all we’ve got here.  So our 200lbs male with 165lbs LBM is requiring an extra 40g of carbs per day.

40g carbs for the exercise.

Put em together and we’ve got….120g+40g=160g carbohydrates per day.

A large percentage of these carbs should be eaten in the meal prior to your workout.  That’s the best time to have starchy carbs too, as a spike in insulin levels is ok and will help you gain muscle and recover.  If you have a dainty little stomach don’t eat so close to your workout.  Find what works for you.

In general, keep your other meals lower in carbohydrate, or at least not super starchy ones (like potatoes and white rice, which would be fine pre-workout).

Good carb choices to be spread out for the rest of the day:  Oats, wild rice, beans, quinoa, buckwheat, etc.

C. Set Fat intake

Fats are going to help you recover, and they help your body do a whole lot of other important things.  You need a minimum amount here.

If you’re trying to lose weight:

Set your fat intake to 50%, in grams, of LBM.  So our 165lbs LBM guy gets 80g of fat.

If you’re trying to maintain weight:

Set your fat intake to 65%, in grams, of LBM.  So our 165lbs LBM guy gets 105g fat.

If you’re trying to gain weight:

Set your fat intake to 75%, in grams, of LBM, so our 165lbs LBM guy gets 125g fat.  He could take in a few more carbs too.

3.  Monitoring your diet and making changes.

If after 3 weeks, you are losing more than 3-4lbs per week (1.5-2lbs for women), your fat intake is too low.  Increase your fats by about 20g (15g) per day.

If after 3 weeks, you are losing less than 1.5lbs/week (1lb for women), check your intake or numbers again.  Make sure you’re not cheating and having binges or treating yourself here and there.  It adds up.  You don’t have to diet forever, just suck it up for now.   Try to move around more during the day.  Walk places.  Stand.  Fidget.  DO NOT ADD “CARDIO”.

4.  Workout Supplements (OPTIONAL).

Here is what I feel is the best way to time my supplements for maximum strength gain and recovery :

30m preworkout and finished during the strength part of my workout:

25% of my daily carbs in a “fast-digesting” form.  Starchy.  I use waxy maize starch personally.

+

25% of my daily protein intake in the form of whey protein isolate.

During metcon (if there are any rest periods, which usually there are not.  more for muscular endurance metcons):

10% of my bodyweight in BCAAs mixed with water.

Immediately following my workout:

One scoop whey protein, no carbs.

60m post workout:

A balanced meal of meat, carbs, vegetables, and fats.

If you are trying to just not get really sore, but not gain too much muscle, a small amount of carbs with some BCAAs with water before and during your workout, and a plain scoop of whey and water after will probably be fine.

Putting everything together:

If this is too confusing, just go back to the top section of this post.  Follow those rules for 4 weeks and see what happens.

THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE, ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE MAKING DIETARY CHANGES.  THIS IS JUST WHAT I WOULD DO.

-Greg

Tags: Nutrition