Fitness In A Nutshell
So you want to lose the freshman 15 (or avoid it), but all you can find online is contradictory information that demands you eat only specific types of foods and ignore others entirely.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
The fitness industry is wildly misleading and will promote whatever new fad diet people will adopt.
As someone who used to believe all the nonsense floating around and never saw any results, I understand how disheartening it is to build up that discipline and have it amount to nothing. Trust me… I’ve been there.
I’m here to simplify fitness because everyone deserves to feel and look their best. Keep reading to see how I went from a discouraged teen (left) to frequently receiving compliments on my physique (right) in a little over a year.
Here’s the thing. The truth hurts, and this is no exception. Most of what causes weight loss/gain is based on caloric intake (how much you eat). As much as people don’t want to believe it, you can’t make energy from nothing.
When someone loses weight, it is because their body is burning or using more calories than it takes in. It’s that simple.
However, some people will just have better genetics than others. I’m not going to pretend I had a bad starting point because I didn’t. While some people have medical conditions that make dieting difficult, the basic principle of energy in vs. energy out still holds true. Their bodies just happen to burn fewer calories by default. This can be changed through strength training, which I’ll cover later.
Caloric Intake
People often see calories on food labels and menus and have a general idea of what they are but usually just think of them as a value that should be minimized. While there is some truth buried in this, it’s only a fraction of the picture. A calorie is a unit of energy and our body, like any system, needs energy to function.
Just like you wouldn’t expect your phone to work with too little or too much electricity, you can’t expect your body to work properly if you are starving yourself or overeating. You need the appropriate amount of energy which can vary depending on genetics, activity level and your goals.
“Okay great, but I’m still not any closer to knowing how much I need to eat”, I can hear you saying. You’re right on time.
Maintenance, Deficits, and Surpluses
There are three main goals when it comes to diet. You can either eat less calories than you burn (caloric deficit) and lose weight. You can eat more than you burn and gain weight (caloric surplus). Finally you can maintain weight by eating roughly the same level of calories as you burn.
The first thing to think about is your specific goals when it comes to fitness. If you are over 25% body fat for men I would generally recommend focusing on losing excess fat first. I have attached a calculator to estimate this. Please keep in mind this is a very rough estimate. Weight loss should be slow. A good rule of thumb is 1 pound a week which is a 500 calorie deficit
Men below 10% bodyfat should attempt to gain weight as their bodies are already very lean and are in the optimal range for building muscle. Additionally losing more fat could cause health concerns. I once cut down way too low (around 6-8% bodyfat) and would routinely have migraines because of it. Surpluses should generally be smaller than deficits so I would recommend only gaining around half a pound a week with a 250 calorie surplus.
If you are between these bodyfat ranges (10-25%) you are generally at a healthy level and could go either direction depending on your own goals. For beginners I recommend eating at maintenance calories which will allow you to build muscle while losing excess fat (to a certain extent). This generally only works for beginners since their body is more willing to put on muscle than a pro bodybuilder
To figure out how much you specifically should be eating you can use this calculator. Once again this is an estimate. Every person is different and you should monitor your weight as you go. Take the average weight from each week and calculate how much your weight changes and adjust by 100 calories or so but be patient. It is best to track results from month to month rather than week to week so don’t get discouraged!
Macronutrients: Give Yourself Good Fuel
Just like you wouldn’t give a racecar cheap gas, you shouldn’t give your body low quality food.
While your caloric intake determines whether you gain or lose weight, the macro and micronutrients decide which type of weight you gain or lose, something far more critical.
One hundred eighty pounds can look significantly different depending on how much muscle mass or body fat a person has in their name. For this reason, many fitness professionals use body fat percentages to measure someone’s fitness (though it isn’t perfect).
Most people want to reduce their fat and add muscle mass. They accomplish this by eating a high-protein diet (roughly 1g of protein per lb of body weight) and balancing their healthy fats and complex carbs intake. Again, it's that simple—not easy, but simple.
What About Carbs? Keep Em In.
Many dieters subscribe to a low-carb or no-carb diet, believing that carbs make someone gain body fat. I’m here to debunk this. Don’t worry you can (and should) eat bread.
Carbohydrates are the first thing your body wants to use as fuel because they are the easiest to turn into energy. By robbing your body of this energy source, you slow down your metabolic rate (the rate at which your body burns calories) to maintain homeostasis and use less energy.
Homeostasis is your body wanting to resist change and maintain a stable condition.
Rather than eliminating a food group from your diet, it is better to consume complex carbs such as oats, fruits, and other fibrous sources of carbohydrates. These carbs take more energy to break down but still give your body the energy it needs.
This, in combination with strength training and an appropriate caloric intake, results in fat loss and muscle gain. To make tracking calories and nutrients easy, I recommend using a fitness tracking app such as MyFitnessPal or MacroFactor.
These will not be perfect, but they should provide an estimate of the calories and nutrients your food contains.
Consuming A Balanced, High-Protein Diet Will Help Control Your Urges To Eat.
Protein takes more energy to break down and is more fibrous, making it much more filling. Once you make these changes to your diet, you may eat the same amount of calories but more than double the volume of food. Because of this, it can sometimes become difficult to eat enough food, which is why your diet should be tailored to your goals.
Strength Training = Getting Strong.
Strength training is also vital to your success on your fitness journey. To build muscle, your body needs a stimulus, such as weightlifting. As I mentioned earlier, your body wants to maintain stability and, therefore, will only build muscle if it has a reason to do so.
When you lift weights, you create tension in the muscle, resulting in microscopic abrasions that your body repairs and turns into stronger muscle.
Many weightlifters don’t see results because this stimulus must increase over time and be high enough in intensity. If the stimulus is not intense enough or does not increase over time, the body does not need to adapt to it.
To get the best results, I recommend lifting weights 3-6 times a week (depending on experience) and following a Push-Pull-Legs schedule (simple and practical).
This schedule is the most straightforward and effective for all levels of experience. It groups muscles by function into Push (Chest, Shoulder, Triceps) and Pull (Back, Biceps) while dedicating another day to the legs. I’ve attached a basic plan for beginners below. Workout Routine
Strengthening muscle will cause your body to burn more calories, making losing fat easier. The added muscle will contribute to the calories your body burns passively. Additionally, the stress on your muscles will require energy to repair, which gives the calories you eat somewhere to be used, causing less of those calories to be added as fat, even if you are eating above your caloric maintenance.
That's why you don't see many bodybuilders who don’t seem to do much cardio, eat exuberant amounts of food, and remain relatively lean.
They hold more muscle in their bodies, and their body is constantly repairing itself.
Because of this ongoing energy expenditure, they can eat more than someone who does not lift weights while maintaining a stable body fat level. In an ideal situation, their excess calories go directly towards building muscle, though this is only true for a relatively small caloric surplus.
While this may seem complicated, the vital thing to note is that you have the best shot of reaching your fitness goals by:
Determining your caloric maintenance (and eating according to your goals)
Lifting weights with a high level of intensity
Ensuring you are receiving adequate nutrients and sleep.
Yes, it is that simple.
Most people are shocked that they eat much more than they initially thought.
The moment I started tracking calories and following a progressively more intense lifting routine, the results quickly followed. I lost about 20 pounds over 4 months and built substantial muscle. Since then, I’ve maintained a <10% body fat unless intentionally trying to gain weight during specific periods.
In this new endeavor, I hope to make my knowledge and the results I received accessible to anyone, so please subscribe if you wish to learn more.
Additionally, feel free to reach out. I am open to giving free consultations during the initial process of starting this organization. I wish you all the best of luck with your fitness goals!
-Keeping Fitness Simple
Tom Maldonado
Editor: @DanielCuesta007, DanielCuesta007.com
Related Posts
