Nutrition is complicated.
But it can be simplified.

Here’s where I would start with your nutrition if your someone that works well with numbers.

Start with Protein

Protein in Greek means of first importance.
Let that marinate for a second… The Ancient Greeks understood how important protein was they literally defined it as the primary source of food!!!

This could be that mic drop blog post done moment…

But I promised you some numbers…

So let’s talk numbers:

Eat minimum 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight/day (this is just your bodyweight minus your body fat)

For example: If you weigh 200lbs and have 30% bodyfat, you have 60lbs of fat and 140lbs of lean bodyweight. You should be eating 140 grams per day of protein.

If you don’t know your bodyfat, you can do a bodyfat measurement on a bioelectrical impedance scale (you may have one at home), or go with something more accurate like a dexa scan or bod post test or just ask Karen or I and we’ll give you an experienced and educated guess of your body fat within a couple percent.

If you are quite active though, have a lot of muscle, not hitting your goals in terms of lean muscle, not eating enough food, and want to take your results to the next level you can increase protein to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight/day.

For example: If you are 200lbs you would eat 200 grams per day of protein.

Protein keeps you full longer. If you eat enough protein, you won’t overeat everything else.

If that seems like a lot of protein, simplify it!

Divide that amount of protein by the number of times you eat in a day.
If you eat 4x per day. Divide your protein total by 4 and you eat that many grams of protein per meal.

So in our example 200lb person, that’s breakfast, lunch and dinner with a piece of protein and a snack with a protein shake. 140-200grams of protein depending on how big your portion size. Done.

Next we look at carbs and fats

Do you run better on carbs?
Do you run better on fat?
Or do you run best on a combo of carbs and fat?

This one is a bit more subjective depending on who you are and how you tolerate food.

So the first question you should ask yourself is if you go 6 hours without eating do you feel ok?
If you feel great this means you are probably more insulin sensitive (which means you tolerate carbs better).
You can probably get away with eating a little bit of carbs in 1-2 of your meals each day.

If you start melting out or freaking out going 6 hours without food, you probably need to work on your insulin sensitivity and should eliminate carbs for the short term and then re-integrate them into your meals post workout so that you have a more even blood sugar.

We dive into how to do this with our 29 day Fat Loss Reset in the Biggest Winner challenge.

For most people this simplified overview will be it. Just be consistent, be aware of your actions, and be consistent! Repetition for emphasis!!!!

If you’re doing this and not moving in the direction you want to go, you can look at immunogenic foods that may bug your gut and/or create a negative cognitive issue or immune response.

Food sensitivities come in symptoms such as water retention, bloated, gassy, skin rashes, etc. The problem is, even though these symptoms are very minor, it can trigger a cascade of inflammation and impair your ability to rest and recover, sleep, digest, lose fat or gain lean muscles. The usual suspect are food you eat regularly, even daily. We often don’t think about it but our nutrition revolves around 8-9 different foods. The key is to rotate your food choices so you don’t develop some form of food intolerances.

You know the usual food suspects…gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, corn, fodmap foods, nightshades…

Not everyone has these things though, but it’s just something to think about it.

Especially if your digestion isn’t great and you’re gassy and bloated all the time, (that’s not normal by the way and you should look into which foods do this to you).

So to summarize in order of importance:
1. Eat protein – start with at least 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight
2. Figure out if you run better on carbs or fat
3. Figure out if there any foods that make you feel bloated or gassy

Committed to your success,
Josh Saunders
BEFIT