Finding the best diet to build muscle can seem like an impossible task but it is not. It will require a bit of legwork but so worth it in the end. Shall we?

I’ll summarize it once more.BEWARE: This will be a more “tough love” style newsletter, so if you’re feeling a bit on the sensitive side you may want to stop reading now. First and foremost, let me break down what matters or why people fail:

Problem 1: I watch what I eat… I am sure you do. You watched the cake and then ate it. Now in all honesty, if you do not prep and weigh your own food you are shooting in the dark

Problem 2: I eat healthy. Many people believe that organic or whole foods do not have calories and then douse their salad in extra virgin olive oil. Well that oil is still 9 calories to the gram and all excess calories will be stored as fat, without exception.

1. First things’ first, calories matter more than anything.

As we have learned from the Snickers diet, when subjects ate nothing but 3 Snickers bars a day and lost weight whilst bettering their cholesterol, you must consume fewer calories than you use up. Period. So why bother with organic eggs and milk or hour long cooking sessions; just give me three shakes a day and I am good to go?

The truth is that you would lose weight but you would be miserable due to hunger pangs and cravings. Let’s face it, despite all the advances in science, We still have not figured out all the phytonutrients in food, so cutting them out will deprive your body of many benefits.

Whole foods are also more filling, which is a God send when dieting. In order to make your meal plan sustainable (I despise the word diet as it implies being temporary), you need to learn about foods and how to prepare them in a way that fits YOUR life. So here is the rule of thumb:

•  80% of your caloric intake should come from whole foods prepared by you or someone you trust.
•  10% can be from supplements such as protein powder and bars.
•  10% can be processed awesomeness such as Gummy Bears or licorice, especially after a demanding leg workou

3. How often should you eat?

 

You have heard it before” eat every three hours or else!” That is nonsense, the number of meals is directly correlated to the amount of calories you are ating. So someone consuming 10000 calories simply needs more meals that someone ating 1500 calories. Try to avoid eating breaks bigger than six hours.

4. Food quality and supplmenents matters very little.

 

If you want to have micro nutrients and whole foods I recommend to buy locals and what is in season. The shorter the transport is the more nutriients. A locally grown blubeberry will provide you with a multiple of nutrients compared to some exotic berry from the Himlalayas at a fraction of the cost.

5. Supplements: 5%Most trainees are overly focused on points 4 and 5, thereby setting themselves up for failure.

TO REITERATE: if you do not count your calories you will gain body fat even if you only eat organically grown nuts, that when harvested by happy, unionized farmers and from sustainable trees. The end.

4. Calculating your macros

It is not as demanind as it looks

1. Do you want to get leaner or bigger meaning cut or bulk?

2. From there on you decide on a goaldecide on goal weight, do not use bigger increments than 10 lbs. This means if you are very heavt and havea lot ofweight tolose, you should go in 20 lbes steaps. As an example we have someone at 400 lbs wanting to weihgt 200lbs, the fomrolual ouql be to get to 380 lbs, then 360lns etc. By the same token the marcos then should. be adjusted by a trained progfessional as they fall outside the range of this calculator.

2. cutting= goal weight x 10 if female male x12

3. Bulking= goal weight times 13 female 18 male. if you do not gain at lesst one perscent of body weioht per month, increase by 500 calories.

4. Figure out your total calories

5. Set protein at 1 gram per lbs. This also goes for bulking, oftentimes when people try to put on weight they do increase the amount of protein to a level that is 2 grams per lbs of bodyweight

). There is no need to do that, simply increase fat and carbs.

6. Take that number x 4 subtract from total

7. Set carbs at 1x bw or 2x if bulking, multiply by 4, substract that from remaining total. The cabrs should be about 80% from complex carbs such as rice, bread, potoatoes, quinoa or pasta, 20% can be on the more processed side such as gummi bears or honey

9. Take remaining number, divide by. 9= your fat alloawnce. Fats can be divided in saturaed (egg yold, red meat, butter)and unstatated ( olive oil, avocado, nuts, sunflower oil, all the liquid fats). Try to keep a 30/70 ratio between saturated and unsaturated fats.

Example

I am 180lbs but want to weigh 200, so I am in bulking mode

200x 18= 3600calories

Protein is 200 grams, since it has 4 calories per gram we multply by four- 200×4= 800

Now we susbstract 800 from the total number of calories 3600-800=2400 calories

Carbs at 400grams which is twice my goal body weight. Carbs alsohave for calories per gram so 400×4= 1600 cals

We take that off from the calories2400-1600= 800 cals

800 divided by9 will be my number of fats = about 89 grams

Off you go!

Conclusuion

All the work in the gym will be for nothing wif you do not follow a proper diet. I can not stress this enough: nobody can outwork a poor diet. You will have nothing to show for, just to be clear.

Things to remember

1. Focus on the big rocks such as calories and macros, these will constitute 80%+ percent of your succsess

2. By the smae toke, do not stress the little rocks such as meal timing and supplmenets

3. try to purchase local foods in order to get as many nutrients as possible.

4. aboslultely use the macro caculutaor to set up your plan.

5. Watch this video for all things’ nutrition!

Let’s gain some muscle!

Maik