NUTRITION!

80/20 Rule
The ‘80/20 rule’ essentially encourages a balanced and realistic incorporation of foods in to the diet. 80% of our diet should be comprised of minimally processed nutrient dense wholefoods such as lean protein, grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and dairy. The 20% is made up of more processed, refined or ‘fun’ foods such as alcohol, chocolate, lollies, fast food and packaged foods. Now we don’t want to fall in to the trap of labelling foods ‘good’ and ‘bad’ here but we can agree that we don’t always consume the healthiest foods for our bodies – and that’s okay! Social events and soul foods can still be included in to your life and in fact create a greater adherence to your plan long term. Knowing you can include foods you love and still see progress mitigates the feeling of restriction but remember, portion control and moderation are key.


Eating Out
Eating out when on a health journey can be a bit tricky sometimes, but this doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t. If you’re tracking macros, making an educated guess on the foods and amounts is better than not entering anything at all. Better still, if you’re getting food from a well-known establishment like Subway or Starbucks, you can find the nutrition information on their website. Considering the staff won’t prepare everything exactly to the gram, still take the nutritional information with a grain of salt. In this case, close enough is actually good enough. Whether you’re using the hand plan or tracking macros, some tips to eating out include:

• Stick to leaner cuts of meat (fish, steak, chicken breast) that are grilled rather than fried, battered or crumbed. Have this with a serving of steamed vegetables or salad if fat loss is your goal.

• If you choose a salad, ensure to ask for dressings and sauces ‘on the side’. These can have a large number of calories and it’s easier to add a little than to take it off. Add a lean protein to your salad if it doesn’t already have one.

• Where you can, research the menu prior to eating out. This way you can decide what you’re going to eat in advance when you’re calm and potentially log your macros roughly beforehand so you know what to consider for the rest of your day’s intake.

• If you don’t know what you’re going to be eating prior to an event, it is best to consume higher protein foods throughout the day and keep your carbohydrates and fats lower. This will stop you from being overly hungry when you arrive and keep a bank of calories to enjoy at the
  event.

• Also monitor portion sizes when eating out. It can be hard to leave behind food you have paid for but consider your goals and make the best decision for yourself.

Supplements
Supplements are exactly that – to supplement. They are there to fill holes that cannot be covered by food in the diet. Food preferences, specific diet choices (vegetarians for example), lack of access or socioeconomic status can be some of the reasons why deficiencies in the diet may occur and potential supplementation may be of benefit. Always seek professional advice before supplementing as there can be serious consequences when negligence occurs. It can be as simple as a full blood examination from your doctor which can give you a good idea of what deficiencies you may have or a diet analysis from a relevant nutritionist or dietitian to review dietary RDI’s for both macronutrients and micronutrients. ‘Gym’ supplements including pre-workout and fat burners are not necessary. Protein, creatine and beta-alanine are the only well studied supplements worth considering but again, it will only give you the 1% extra after all your diet, training and recovery rations are met.


Carb Cycling
In a nutshell, carb cycling is a method where carbohydrates (and as a result calories in total) are higher on some days and lower on others. This method can be used for a number of reasons. Often, people will prefer to carb cycle based on their training scheduled and have a higher carbohydrate goal on a training day to help support their output and lower on rest days. Over the course of the week, you would still hit your total weekly calorie amount, just the disposition is adjusted. This is not essential, and you can still achieve results without carb cycling, but it may be something you want to experiment with or already do instinctively.


Weekends Matter
At some point, most people have eaten well ‘Monday to Friday’ only to overconsume on the weekends, whether intentional or not. If we have the mindset of ‘I’ll just eat healthy and exercise during the week’ allowing free reigns on the weekends and still hoping to achieve our goals, we are sadly stuck in a hamster wheel of no progress. The total calories of the week will still add up and you’ve put yourself in a 5 day grind for no reason. Firstly, ask yourself how serious you are about your goals and whether going free for all on the weekends is helping. Secondly, premeditated approaches to social outings on the weekend can help in this instance. In the aforementioned, guesstimating your caloric intake is better than nothing. In addition to this, we can ‘bank calories’ which is saving calories to consume later or potentially limit the intake the following day with a sensible approach. Think of calories as money – some foods cost more than others and sometimes you want to save up your money to spend on something special!


Frequency and Timing
Meal frequency refers to how many meals a person will eat throughout a day. Often, we hear that 6 meals spaced every 2 – 3 hours works the best but it’s not necessarily true. Yes, it may help with regulating blood sugar or stop you from over eating at times, but it is important to note that meal frequency does not add any potential benefit to improving metabolic rate when macros and calories are equated. The total calories and macronutrients consumed over a whole day is more important than meal frequency in many cases is down to the preference of the eater. Whether you have 5 x 400 calorie meals or 2 x 1000 calorie meals, it’s still 2000 calories consumed. The same goes for eating at night, I can promise you the calories don’t suddenly double if it’s after 6pm.

Timing refers to consuming a specific meal or food types at a certain time in a day. In terms of the research, there is no potential benefit metabolically or improving body composition when timing your nutrients. Again, personal preference should take precedence when deciding what to eat and when for most people. Yes, recommendations are a good source of carbohydrates for energy pre workout and protein post workout, but this is not the be all and end all.


FINAL NOTE!
At the end of the day the best diet is the one you can follow. There are no magic foods that will give you 6 pack abs and no foods that will make you fat. You also can’t out train a bad diet. It’s simply a smart approach to energy in vs energy out. Whether you go vegan, clean eating, keto, intermittent fasting, paleo, IIFYM or the hand plan, any method that is adhered to and yields fat loss results is a caloric deficit.