Nutrition crash course. Start here.

[R.C]

Alright, so you wanna stop being a blob? Good for you. Here's what you need to know:

1) The internet is full of pseudo broscience and about 90% of the information out there, while tangent to being correct, is infact factually incorrect. There is no one type of food that will make you lose weight and there is no magic solution either. Just like in PU.
2) Your diet is 80% of the results. Working out is about 20%. And if you've ever had friends that have been "training" with no results, well, that's why.
3) There's no such thing as a "healthy food". This is a personal pet peeve of mine, but nothing in isolation of itself is healthy. A salad is only healthy if you combine it with other foods such that the OVERALL result of that particular day is healthy. Eating strictly salads every day, 3 times a day will lead to you blacking out at your workplace in 72 hours time.




What's a calorie?
In short, calories are the fuel on which your body runs on. Every type of food has a specific number of calories that can be found on it's caloric label. If it has no such label (which is illegal in most countries around the world) then avoid it. To give some rough estimates, the average adult male will require between 2000-2500 cals to function correctly and maintain his weight. The average adult female will require between 1250-1750. These numbers are highly influenced by external factors and will vary extensively. Don't worry, we'll go over how to figure out your numbers with as much accuracy as possible.

If you eat over those values, you will gain weight.
If you eat less than those values, you will lose weight.
It really isn't rocket science. 

Calories themselves are a mix of macro and micro nutrients.


Micros
We won't go extensively into micros, because, well, they're micro. That doesn't mean they're entirely negligible, but they are not nearly as important as your macros. Micros are essentially various kinds of vitamins and minerals. You'll get them from everywhere, mostly fruits and vegetables, and as long as you include those into your eating habits, you'll do alright.


Macros
It's here where it gets cute. If we already stated before that calories are the fuel of your body, the macro nutrients of which those calories are composed of are the quality of your fuel. The holy trinity you are required to know is this: Carbohydrates, Lipids (fats) and Protein.

1g of Carbs = 4 cals
1g of Protein = 4 cals
1g of fats = 9 cals

So you can see right off the bat that fats are the most caloric consistent of the macronutrients. It also tends to be why fast foods will ruin your diet and lead to obesity, as they have very high lipid values, and in turn, very high caloric values.


Carbs
These are divided in two categories. Simple and complex. High carb foods are usually sugary foods like chocolate, fruits, some vegetables, wheat products and so on. Difference lies in their absorption rate.

Chocolate will have a high degree of simple carbs, which are absorbed rapidly. That's why it's recommended to have on your person if you go hiking, skiing, or pretty in every other situation where energy boosts might be required. It's also what leads to hyperactivity into children, because boost.

Complex carbs are found in oats, grains, potatoes and so on. Reason why oatmeal is a decent choice of breakfast, is because complex carbs need to be broken down gradually and absorb overtime. So instead of a energy boost, you'll get sustained energy throughout the course of a good few hours.

It's a matter of right tool for the right job. However, in most cases complex carbs should be your go to.
Carbs, in general, are exceptionally easy to get. They are your energy.


Fats
Counter intuitive as the name suggests, fats are not the reason people get fat. As I've stated before however, these are the most caloric dense and can lead to caloric surpluses very easily. The bad news is that almost every food you like will be very high - too high - in fats.

Chips? check.
Chocolate? check.
Everything fried in oil ever? check.
Steak? check.
Fastfood? check.
Pizza? check.

These also comes in two "flavours". Unsaturated (poly and mono) and saturated. Try to stay away from saturated/trans fats. If anything can at least somewhat reasonably be tagged as an unhealthy food, these are it. Processed foods will usually have these.

You can get your good fats from fish oils, any kind of nuts, avocados, olive oil, and any kind of seeds. Yes, seeds are ridiculously fatty. You can also include them in just about anything so there's that.
Same as carbs, these are very easy to get and go overboard with.

Fats are crucial to your body and fitness goals. Do NOT get distracted by their name. They are the catalyst.


Protein
The elusive one. In some fucked up way, food culture in our society has evolved to a degree where more than about 80% of the global population does not get enough protein in their diet. To be fair though, proteic primary foods are generally speaking meats, which you usually need some form of preparation for. As opposed to entire aisles in regular supermarkets.

This will most likely be the biggest and most important change in your diet.
Proteins are the building blocks of your muscle mass.

[R.C]

Ok, let's learn about calculating your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), aka caloric maintenance. Now truth be told there are a LOT of such calculators. Each claiming top accuracy, but in reality none are actually accurate. So here's an easy to use one: tdeecalculator.net/
Keep in mind that this is a rough estimate and you will need a month to experiment. Eat the suggested numbers for two weeks and weight in every week, early morning. See how your weight changes (if at all) and then adjust. Deduct or add based on your goals. 20-25% of the TDEE should be used in both cases. 

Right. Now that we've settled the importance of each macronutrient, let's talk about ratios. On a technical level, you could say that if your TDEE is 2000, you could eat chocolate worth of 1500 cals and, well, lose weight. Or McDonalds. Or KFC. Or whatever fits that range. And you'd be right. However, here's the catch. When you gain weight, you always gain fat mass and muscle mass.
When you lose weight, you lose fat mass and muscle mass. Your diet will determine the ratios in which that happens.

A very protein deficient diet meant for you to lose weight, as in the exaggerated example of chocolate, will end up in you losing weight. But you'll be losing 60-70% muscle mass and 30-40% fat mass. The result of this kind of eating is usually the skinny fat archetype.

Proper ratios
These depend on your goals and there is A LOT of speculation on what is the most efficient. However, what has worked best for me (at least from a practicality point of view) is making sure that I get my protein daily, and then filling in the rest as I see fit.

Bulking up
If you're on this path, you should be fine with 0.7-8g of protein per lb of bodyweight. Or 1.5-1.6g per kg if you're using the metric system like literally the rest of the world.

As an example, we'll take the classic 2000 cals maintenance treshhold. If you're trying to gain weight, you'd be starting off at a 2500 cals per day, which is a 25% surplus. If you weight 80 kgs or 176 lbs, that would mean assuring a total of about 135g of protein per day. Compared to what you're probably getting now, that is A LOT. On good days the average person would be getting maybe 80. Maybe.

At any rate, 135g * 4cals(the energetic value of protein) = 540 calories. If you're a big fan of steaks or whatever, you can go higher as well. It won't do much in terms of muscle gains beyond this point, but it won't do harm either. The 2000 remaining calories should be divided between fats and carbs. I'd suggest a 70-30 ratio in favor of carbs but it can be 50-50 or really whatever you want. These is a minimum however. In the case of the person weighting 80kg(176lbs) you should really never go lower than 50g of fats.
The high amount of protein you're getting in a diet like this would ensure optimal muscle gains with minimal fat gains. You'd be in the 85%-15% zone.


Cutting down
Same rule as above applies. You'll be eating a caloric deficit, but you'll be needing more protein. You're now looking at 1500 instead of 2500. Instead of 1.5g/kg or 0.8/lb you'll be doing 2-2.2g/kg and 1/lb. So instead of 135 you'll be going for close to 170. That in turn means 680 calories, and about 800 left to divide between fats and carbs. 
You want to preserve as much muscle mass as possible as you're losing weight and get rid of as much fat, so higher protein intake is a necessity. 


Again, please keep in mind that these are guidelines. They should be respected, but they can vary based on the individual. So experiment. 

[R.C]

Supplements
For a lot of uninformed and borderline ignorant people, protein powders equate to steroids. Aside from one being a supplement, and the other a literally illegal substance, the latter is also injected. Either way, there are only 2 supplements that you want, and really only one that you need.


Protein powder:
Protein powder is the god sent gift to mankind. 100 grams of chicken breast will yield about 20-25g of protein, depending on it's breed. To reach you goals of, say, 160g of protein, you'd have to eat ridiculous amounts of chicken. Ofcourse other products, specially whole wheat ones, will also aid in that journey, but if you have any kind of activity that requires you leaving the house on a daily basis, like a job or school/college, you won't afford the luxury of cooking as often as you'd probably like to.

Now a scoop a good protein required in a shake will, alone, yield about 24gs of protein. You can combine it with 300mls of water or milk, and if you choose milk that's another 12g. You'd be getting 36g of protein from one shake that takes 1 minute to mix and then another to clean your shaker. Personally, I can't go without it. I just don't have the time to spend on cooking.

You can have one or two per day. You're choice really, but I limit myself at one.

Good brands are Gold and myProtein. I use Gold, because flavour variety.

This is optional, but extremely helpful in quality of life terms.


Creatine
This is the holy grail of fitness. It is probably the most scientifically backed up supplement. Tried, tested and proven. I won't go into the technical details of what it does but I do suggest you read up about it. You get it naturally from primarily red meats, but the average male would need about 3ish grams per day. And you probably never in your life have gotten that from food alone in any given day, let alone daily.

What I will say however, is to drink a lot of water. Drink it in general, water is another hugely overlook resource that people simply don't get enough of. You're supposed to have about 8 glasses a day minimum. Very few people do that.

Aside from that, you'll want Creatine Monohydrate. It's extremely cheap and will last you quite some time. In terms of fitness goals, creatine will be that secret weapon that will help you do that final rep on those final sets. This is the one you really need. You simply cannot get enough out of regular food unless you eat red meats 3 times a day, and I won't even get into the costs. A 20$ creatine container will last you months.

[R.C]

Finally, here's some myths that you should not fall victim to.

1) Fruits are healthy because they're fruit.
Everyone seems to be an expert when preaching about fruit. And yes, they're good. In moderation, just like everything else in life. An average banana has about 25 grams of carbs. That means 100 calories. And if you're trying to cut at 1500, that banana you eat every day counts to almost 10% of that goal. Should you eat it? Sure, make room in your diet for it. But that's just it. Include it and treat it as any other kind of food, and count it.

2) Eating 5-6 smaller meals a day will help you lose weight. 
It won't. You could divide those 1500 cals into 5 small meals. Or you could eat one big meal totaling to 1500. Your body does not care. At all. Just like you car doesn't care whether you fill the tank all the way up in one go or stop at 5 gas stations. What it does help with is your mental strength. It's well known that going to the supermarket half starved will lead to you buying 3 entire different aisles and then binge eating the junkiest of foods. So dividing your foods into smaller meals helps with keeping the urges in check. It is something that can be entirely substituted by willpower, but also entirely up to the user. It's a tool. No more, no less. It's also quite time consuming, so there's that.

3) Fasting is magic. 
It's not. But it also it, for the exact same reason above. Regardless of which fasting protocol you chose, allowing yourself only certain feeding windows per day will have side benefits that are completely irrelevant from a physiological standpoint. If you wanna go for an 18/6 protocol (18 hours of fasting and 6 of eating), then you need to fit those 1500 calories within 6 hours. That, in turn, means you will turn down any kind of caloric drink and/or snack for the remaining 18 hours throughout the day. Just like the example in the previous point, what this accomplishes is no less than another tool to prevent yourself from going over your goal. 
People snack relentlessly over the day and don't even know it. One orange now, one biscuit later, one soda in the afternoon. Yeah, it adds up. Fasting is a great way of shutting that down.

4) Alcohol is not a real calorie. 
True, but untrue. It has no macro nutrient values. Alcohol is virtually "empty calories". Useless, but still calories. It will hinder your progress, so take it into account. If you're planning a party or just going out, eat less during the day to minimize the impact. And if you're like me and get hungry when drunk, well, good luck. You'll need it.

5) x food is a miracle food that does this and that.
It isn't. And it doesn't. 

6) You can reach your body goals without counting calories.
You can't. Plain and simple. You might be able to wing it once you've been counting for a good year or so, because by now you know most foods by heart. And you'll still be inefficient at it even then. So count. 

[R.C]

How much weight should I lose/gain to be efficient?
0.5kg/week (or 1.1lb per week). Gain any more, and you're gaining too much fat for pretty much the same amount of muscle. Lose any more, and you're losing too much muscle for the same amount of fat. So regardless of your fitness goal, this should be your weight variance target.

As we've already clarified, you must count calories. For that you need two things. 1 kitchen scale, and a free account on myfitnesspal. Google it, it's really easy to use. Set your own macronutrient goals manually after you've done the math. The autogenerated suggestions are not very accurate, at all. They also have a TDEE calculator as well. Have a look, you'll know what I mean once you do. 

[dyneira]

Thanks for this section as well. Looks rrally similar to an article I read recently and the points that come accross really make sense.

One question I have is the creatin. I've seen conflicting advice online on how ot should be taken. Would you recommend loading it then having a break, or maintaining it consistanly on a daily basis. Thanks

[chocolatepua]

Exceptional thread! It's a lot to take, but I'll be reviewing this on a regular basis.

[R.C]

Jun 5, 2018 19:03:32 GMT dyneira said:

Thanks for this section as well. Looks rrally similar to an article I read recently and the points that come accross really make sense.

One question I have is the creatin. I've seen conflicting advice online on how ot should be taken. Would you recommend loading it then having a break, or maintaining it consistanly on a daily basis. Thanks

There have been studies showing virtually no difference between creatine loading and consistent daily intake. There are probably studies that show a difference as well.
I've had breaks and tried both. Personally I see no impact worth mentioning.

It's largely irrelevant too. You're supposed to load in order to reach a baseline need faster. So even if loading did work, you'd be reaching the baseline your body would need in 2 weeks and then you'd be back to a normal portion. The alternative is to start on normal portions and you'd be in the same place after what? 4 weeks?

When you've been going to the gym for 2 months, whether or not you've loaded is irrelevant anyway.  
My point is, it's much more important to be consistent than to try min/maxing for results. Let the people who do this for a living worry about increasing their results in single digit % ranges. 

Take it from me, focus on your macros and don't even worry about anything else.