Setting up a Nutritional Plan
Hey Guys,
As we are now a few weeks into 2014 I thought I would post up a previous article that I did for Love2Fight Magazine.
This is the first part of setting up a nutritional plan. Obviously this is very basic and the magic of any nutrition or diet pleb is in the adjustments of that plan. However this should give you a good starting point for your own nutrition.
Want a full diet plan sorting? Head over to the SITE or grab a BARGAIN!
Here is the article, hope you enjoy it :)
Nutritional basics
Nutrition is THE most important part of your training. Please re read that. If you are getting in the gym regularly for any kind of training then it is nutrition that will make the most of your blood, sweat and tears spent on the mat or under the bar. Take a look at anyone who is at the top of their game in any sport and you will find that nutrition is way up there with their list of priorities. The idea of this article is to cover the basics of nutrition and to give you an idea of how you can structure and adjust your own nutrition to get the most of your gains.
When you ask most people about nutrition they will probably say something along the idea of “calories”. A calorie is basically how much energy your body gets from ingesting foods and liquids. Certain foods have more calories per gram than others (fat being the highest, then carbs and protein). The idea is that if you burn off more calories than you take in you will lose weight and if you take in more than you need you will add weight (hopefully muscle if you are training hard and ingesting the right foods at the right time, but more of that later). However this is in reference to WEIGHT not to FAT. While this is what most magazines would have you believed is a good thing, it can be quite the opposite. I mean, who wants to lose those guns for a couple of pounds on the scale (I know there is more to functional MMA training than ‘guns’ but everyone loves guns...). What we want to achieve is gaining muscle or losing fat depending on what your goals are at the time. How we can achieve this (among other ways) is to manipulate the types of foods we eat at certain times in order to maximise our goals.
This doesn’t mean that calories don’t play a part in nutrition. The first thing that we need to do is ascertain how (and more importantly what) you are eating and when. I highly recommend keeping a food log for a week or two. It will give you a great idea of how much or little you are actually eating. This will give you a great starting point. Lots of people recommend certain numbers for men and women when it comes to how much you are supposed to be consuming. I personally think that it is so individual that a random number can’t be slapped on everybody. The best thing in my opinion is to take a food log so that you can get an average of what you are taking in at the moment, then adjust from there (more on that in a bit).
This article will focus on the basic ways in which to set up a nutrition plan with a following articles on types of food and when to consume them and another on how to make adjustments so you can keep meeting your goals. There are MANY different types of diets from the basics I cover to intermittent fasting and carb cycling. All play their part and I will cover the basics of each off if there is enough interest.
As previously mentioned food can be broken down into protein, carbs (carbohydrates) and fats. We call these macronutrients (macros). It is the manipulation of when and what we eat these that will give us the results that we require. So let’s take a look at them and see what they do specifically to our bodies (guns and gut ladies and gentlemen).
Firstly we have calories. While WHAT we eat is more important than how much we eat, calories still play an important part in whether we are losing, gaining or maintaining our weight. I know there are a lot of plans out there at the moment that say you don’t have to count calories. There is nothing wrong with these plans and some get great results. With my clients I use calories (as well as other variables) to achieve the results of putting people in a cage or on the mat to destroy people. It works for them so it can work for you. Ok so what are the starting points on calorie intake? Let’s have a look;
Losing fat
When learning a new skill from driving a car to learning an instrument and setting up a quality nutrition or weight plan, it is always worth using a professional to help remove the stress and to get you started.
As always I welcome comments in a well thought out manor and questions. Feel free to comment or drop me a line.
Speak next month,
Mike.
Mike Leng is the Managing Director of Unorthodox Nutrition and has clients from local heroes to world champions and UFC fighters. He specialises in getting people into the best shape of their lives perform their best on the ring, mat or in the cage through smart, free thinking nutrition. He can be found at www.unorthodox-nutrition.com, @mike_unorthodox on Twitter and mike.unorthodox@gmail.com
Thanks for reading,
Stay healthy,
Mike
As we are now a few weeks into 2014 I thought I would post up a previous article that I did for Love2Fight Magazine.
This is the first part of setting up a nutritional plan. Obviously this is very basic and the magic of any nutrition or diet pleb is in the adjustments of that plan. However this should give you a good starting point for your own nutrition.
Want a full diet plan sorting? Head over to the SITE or grab a BARGAIN!
Here is the article, hope you enjoy it :)
Nutritional basics
Nutrition is THE most important part of your training. Please re read that. If you are getting in the gym regularly for any kind of training then it is nutrition that will make the most of your blood, sweat and tears spent on the mat or under the bar. Take a look at anyone who is at the top of their game in any sport and you will find that nutrition is way up there with their list of priorities. The idea of this article is to cover the basics of nutrition and to give you an idea of how you can structure and adjust your own nutrition to get the most of your gains.
When you ask most people about nutrition they will probably say something along the idea of “calories”. A calorie is basically how much energy your body gets from ingesting foods and liquids. Certain foods have more calories per gram than others (fat being the highest, then carbs and protein). The idea is that if you burn off more calories than you take in you will lose weight and if you take in more than you need you will add weight (hopefully muscle if you are training hard and ingesting the right foods at the right time, but more of that later). However this is in reference to WEIGHT not to FAT. While this is what most magazines would have you believed is a good thing, it can be quite the opposite. I mean, who wants to lose those guns for a couple of pounds on the scale (I know there is more to functional MMA training than ‘guns’ but everyone loves guns...). What we want to achieve is gaining muscle or losing fat depending on what your goals are at the time. How we can achieve this (among other ways) is to manipulate the types of foods we eat at certain times in order to maximise our goals.
This doesn’t mean that calories don’t play a part in nutrition. The first thing that we need to do is ascertain how (and more importantly what) you are eating and when. I highly recommend keeping a food log for a week or two. It will give you a great idea of how much or little you are actually eating. This will give you a great starting point. Lots of people recommend certain numbers for men and women when it comes to how much you are supposed to be consuming. I personally think that it is so individual that a random number can’t be slapped on everybody. The best thing in my opinion is to take a food log so that you can get an average of what you are taking in at the moment, then adjust from there (more on that in a bit).
This article will focus on the basic ways in which to set up a nutrition plan with a following articles on types of food and when to consume them and another on how to make adjustments so you can keep meeting your goals. There are MANY different types of diets from the basics I cover to intermittent fasting and carb cycling. All play their part and I will cover the basics of each off if there is enough interest.
As previously mentioned food can be broken down into protein, carbs (carbohydrates) and fats. We call these macronutrients (macros). It is the manipulation of when and what we eat these that will give us the results that we require. So let’s take a look at them and see what they do specifically to our bodies (guns and gut ladies and gentlemen).
Firstly we have calories. While WHAT we eat is more important than how much we eat, calories still play an important part in whether we are losing, gaining or maintaining our weight. I know there are a lot of plans out there at the moment that say you don’t have to count calories. There is nothing wrong with these plans and some get great results. With my clients I use calories (as well as other variables) to achieve the results of putting people in a cage or on the mat to destroy people. It works for them so it can work for you. Ok so what are the starting points on calorie intake? Let’s have a look;
- For losing weight I recommend 10 calories for
every pound of body weight. So a 165 pound (75kg) person would take in
1650 calories every single day and then adjust from there.
- For gaining muscle, I recommend 20 calories
per pound of body weight. So our 165 pound client would ingest 3300
calories a day then adjust depending on results and other factors (quality
of gains etc).
- For maintaining what you have I recommend 15
calories per pound. So a 165 individual would take in 2475 calories a day.
Losing fat
- Protein is a minimum of 1g per pound of body
weight. So our 165 (75kg) pound individual will take in 165g of protein
EVERY SINGLE DAY.
- Carbs will be set at 0.5g per pound. So the
165 pound person will take in 82g per pound.
- With fats, the 165 pound person will take in
1g of fat (165g every day).
- Protein is a minimum of 1.5g per pound of
body weight. So our 165 (75kg) pound individual will take in 247g of
protein EVERY SINGLE DAY.
- Carbs will be set at 1.5g per pound. So the
165 pound person will take in 330g per pound.
- With fats, the 165 pound person will take in
1.5g of fat (247g every day).
- Protein is a minimum of 1.5g per pound of
body weight. So our 165 (75kg) pound individual will take in 247g of
protein EVERY SINGLE DAY.
- Carbs will be set at normally 100 – 150g
everyday
- With fats, the 165 pound person will take in
2g of fat (330g every day).
When learning a new skill from driving a car to learning an instrument and setting up a quality nutrition or weight plan, it is always worth using a professional to help remove the stress and to get you started.
As always I welcome comments in a well thought out manor and questions. Feel free to comment or drop me a line.
Speak next month,
Mike.
Mike Leng is the Managing Director of Unorthodox Nutrition and has clients from local heroes to world champions and UFC fighters. He specialises in getting people into the best shape of their lives perform their best on the ring, mat or in the cage through smart, free thinking nutrition. He can be found at www.unorthodox-nutrition.com, @mike_unorthodox on Twitter and mike.unorthodox@gmail.com
Thanks for reading,
Stay healthy,
Mike