Meal Frequency – Part 2

Why meals more isn’t better

In Part 1 we looked at whether there was any logic or reasoning behind this. Basically coming to the conclusion that what may sound good on paper, doesn’t actually come to fruition.

No more following theories like mindless chickens.

This time round we are going to take the nail in the frequent feedings and hammer it in a little further.
Why Frequent Makes No Sense

There are two main reasons:

1. Individuality
2. Impending Doom

Individuality
First up let us consider something that is incredibly important when starting diets or nutritional protocols; The Principle of Individuality. Which in simple terms just means you have to take the persons individual characteristics into account, cookie cutter, just doesn’t cut it. That means their physical characteristics, their environment, their preferences etc. etc.

So when we hear blanket statements about how eating every couple of hours, or eating mini meals, are given, they stamp all over the individual. So what might work for The Rock, may not be very suitable to anyone else.

For example, a small female, weighing in at 140lbs, trying to lose fat, may be aiming for 1400 calories a day. Split that between 6 meals, and you have 233kcal ‘meals’. Not only is it going to be a pain preparing 6 tiny portions of food, but they’re going to feel dissatisfied every time. It would make more sense to split it between 3 meals, making each 466 calories. Enough to actually represent a meal.

I am not saying frequent feeding is bad, but to say it is for everyone is wrong. Heck a 200lb male who is trying to pack on size may need over 4000 calories, he’d probably do well of more frequent meals.

We are all unique and different in so many ways.

Impending Doom
Sounds pretty horrific right? Well because the individual is removed from the equation failure in inevitable.

I remember back when I believed all the ‘theories’ about mini meals. So much so I would always have my tupparware with my food, and just incase I couldn’t take it with me I had a shake replacement. This added a load of stress onto my plate, and at the time I was studying for exams and it made the situation a lot harder.

We all have enough things to worry about during our day, nutrition need not add significant stress. How often do you hear ‘I missed a meal’ and the negative connotations associated with that? All the bloody time.

The person feels ashamed, like they have really done something wrong. This can led lead to giving up, stopping their diet and blowing out. Completely destroying their progress.

The truth is meal frequency does not matter for 99% of people. So trying to abide by some magical number of meals makes very little sense, and as seen above, can be destructive.

My View
We come back to the principle of individuality, and so long as you have the right overall nutrition in place, eat when and as you like. As I have said before, self experimentation is a wonderful thing. Find 6 meals is easy and keeps you fuller and more energised? Great stick to it. Maybe you find 2 meals allows you to enjoy your food more, great stick to it. Stick to what is providing you sustainable results.

Next time I am going to look deeper, into what might be an optimal frequency of meals for muscle gain and fat loss. Remember, optimal on paper may not always work out in practice, however it is still something we can strive for.

Spread facts, not dogma, if you liked this or any of my articles please feel free to share them using the social media icons below #ReviveStronger

Chris Janssen – ‘Your ability to adapt to my hectic lifestyle and stay the course has been the biggest boost to helping me achieve my goals.’

Chris, what were your goals when signing up with me?

Drop fat, gain strength and improve overall aesthetics.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

I was a bit reserved about the time difference, as the only other coach I had worked with was always in my same time zone.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

The time difference actually worked in my favour (maybe not yours), as I would always have an email from you to wake up to on check in day. But regardless, it has never been an issue.

 

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Fat loss with muscle gain with pauses in the deficit.
• Increased strength with an all time PR on deadlift.
• Bodyweight PR on squat and bench.
• Worked around nagging injuries that I no longer have pain in.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

With all of the travel I do personally and for my job, I am often super focused trying to keep up with the demands that pull me in various directions other than fitness. I must pick and choose what I can dedicate my efforts to on a day to day basis and those priorities are often changing.

This means that fitness and my ability to track, check in, and respond to you is not always consistent. Your ability to adapt to my hectic lifestyle and stay the course has been the biggest boost to helping me achieve my goals.

You take a lot of pressure off of me, so that I do not have to worry about training/diet programming, which allows me to utilize that time for work/personal tasks.

Further, for being a younger trainer, your professionalism, in depth responses, and quick response times are outstanding no matter how long anyone has been in the business.

I started working with Chris 6 months ago, and we have come a long way. He is a great example of how you can make progress, that is sustainable and livable, so long as you take the right approach. We have gone through holidays, various on-going injuries and work events but managed to make progress consistently. This is largely down to Chris being able to respect that progress might take more time, but it will be much more liveable and will last. This is why we have been so successful.

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.

Mark Newman – ‘I look better, I’m stronger and have a much better understanding of how to do so’

Mark, what were your goals when signing up with me?

Look good & increase strength.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

I didn’t really see how results could be achieved with the approach you took to dieting. Pizza and abs don’t really go together. I also thought that tracking calories and training would be too intense, and that I wouldn’t be able to stick to it.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

Just by being there to answer all my questions, explaining everything clearly. Also the resources you provide in addition to the programming helped me understand everything in a simple way. Plus results came which was evidence enough.

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Significantly stronger.
• Increased lean muscle mass & reduced body fat percentage.
• Massively increased knowledge around diet, training and the human body.
• Improvement in form in all lifts.
• Better mentality.
• A more varied diet with improved cooking skills as a result.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I honestly have had a great time. Although I haven’t grown significantly in size, I look better, I’m stronger and have a much better understanding of how to do so.

 

Mark came to me wanting to look good and get strong, like many of my clients. He was new to flexible dieting and planned training programmes. Initially we cut fat for a month, due to holding a little excess body fat, before then entering a lean gaining phase. This put Mark in the best position possible, able to learn technique and drop unwanted fat in the first month, to then really push forward to gain lean muscle there on. Mark has been a pleasure to work with, always asking questions if he was unsure and really embracing the flexible diet.

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.

Mike Whittle – ‘dropped 30lbs in 4 months’

Mike, what were your goals when signing up with me?

Drop body fat & gain strength.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

Due to being young and relatively new to the industry I was worried you’d lack the knowledge & expertise to get me results.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

The knowledge you displayed on the outset cleared things up pretty quickly. Informing me on my diet and training, and how it was appropriate for me. Plus the private facebook group showed you were working with many others.

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Dropped 40lbs in 3 months.
• Squat, Bench & Deadlift all up, 335kg total to 420kg.
• Improved knowledge and understanding of diet.
• Improved mobility.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Overall very pleased with my experience in being coached.

The progress Mike has seen has been outstanding, dropping weight week to week. This is thanks to his consistency and hard work, however he hasn’t been perfect, there have been days where calories have been higher than guided. However, the key is that Mike understands it is OK and as long as he gets back on track the next day, the damage if any is small. This is evident with Mike due to his outstanding results. Not only has he lost a tonne of weight, but he is stronger than ever.

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.

Billy Collins – ‘dropped my binge eating habits’

Billy, what were your goals when signing up with me?

My goal is one that I feel a lot of people can relate to – drop bodyfat and grow muscle. I want to look good, plain and simple.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

My only reservation was that everything was online and there was no physical side to it. I figured that doing everything online might not be the best solution as Steve wouldn’t actually be there to coach through any of the sessions as some people might expect personal training to be.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

Steve provided me with a wide range of tools and a massive enthusiasm that installed confidence in what I would be paying in to. He is building an extensive training library, and has a vast array of helpful documents which simply meant that I could get on and do what needed to be done – plus, Steve is only ever an email or text away.

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Develop healthy eating habits – 2+ months of no binging
• Droped bodyfat
• Gained massive amounts of strength
• Enjoyment with training once again
• Muscular size and definition

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

If you’re looking for someone who knows their stuff – I’m biased – but look no further than Steve. You won’t regret it.

Billy has been a joy to coach. He didn’t have the best relationship with food and had lost his training mojo. But after a few weeks he was a changed man, and now his personal training business is booming too. I know he is going to help many others and continue to be successful!

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.

Apples are Bad for you!

Everything you eat is bad for you!

The above statement isn’t quite true, it should read everything you eat CAN be bad for you. But, in the same way it can be bad for you, it can also be good for you. That’s right! EVERYTHING you eat can be good for you.

What’s good and what’s bad? 
To answer this you don’t look at the micronutrients the food provides, nor do you look at the macronutrients, you don’t even consider whether it is homemade or not. The key feature to making a food good or bad is looking at it within the context of the entire diet. 

Without context you cannot say something is healthy, unhealthy, good or bad. So if you ask me, ‘is this a good thing to eat?’ I will say, ‘it depends on the rest of your diet’. It seems annoying at first, can’t their just be good and bad foods. Those good foods cannot make us fat, they make us big, strong, lean, toned and all that great stuff we want. This simply isn’t the case.

Take an apple, apples are good right? They’re high in fibre, micro dense and contain few calories.

How an Apple can be bad for you
That’s right, I am going to tell you how an apple can be bad for you, yes an Apple! Right so to make this qualification you know what we need? Context.

Take Alex, he is looking to drop some fat before his holiday. Alex likes apples and he has been told they are good for him, so he grabs one whenever hungry.

In Alex’s eyes apples are always good, they can’t stop his progress. Well that is where Alex thought wrong. Sure maybe 1 or 2 apples were fine, but if Alex ate enough they would take him out of a calorie deficit and even take him into a surplus.

If Alex did this consistently apples could literally be stopping him losing weight, and could even make him gain fat, and in that case for Alex’s goals those apples were bad.

Apples can stop you losing fat and even make you gain it.

How Ice Cream can be good for you
No way, ice cream, processed, full of sugar and fat, ice cream can never be classified as good for you? Wrong. It can, given the right context. This is where what at first seemed annoying, is actually a blessing.

Take Michelle, she is also trying to drop weight. Michelle knows that she needs to be in a calorie deficit to do this. Michelle also knows that micronutrition is important, she makes sure to eat mainly wholesome, nutritious food. 80% of her diet consists of that typically ‘good’ stuff.

Michelle also knows that if she restricts herself from certain foods, she ends up breaking her diet and binging. Michelle has a sweet tooth and loves ice cream. Each day she consumes a small bowl of ice cream with berries, enough to satisfy her sweet tooth, but not so much to take her out of calorie deficit or deprive her of micronutrition. That ice cream is good!

Ice cream allows Michelle to be consistent, and is in the context of a calorie deficit and micronutrient dense diet. Ice cream can allow you to drop fat.

The Bigger Picture
Don’t miss the entire diet and lifestyle for the one off meal choices or foods. Or in other words, don’t miss the forest for the trees. That means look at the bigger picture and this means viewing these things in context. Given the right context any food can be described as good or bad, as shown above.

The Bottom Line
To make sure you are eating only foods that are good, you need to make sure they are taking you towards your goals. Everyone should be seeking to be healthy, that means you want to get in sufficient micronutrient dense foods. Once you have eaten enough of these, so long as you remain within your overall nutritional limits for your goals, you can eat anything you like.

To get a better idea about how much your body needs and what exactly each macronutrient does for you be sure to check out my articles Need to know nutritionPart 1 and Part 2.

How to [Eat Pizza Daily] & Stay Lean

Achieving Adaptability

The person who can eat anything they like, and often does, without any problems, can consume the most amazing food combinations without any issues.

This individual must have amazing metabolic health and adaptability. Everyone has this ability (bar those rare few with dietary misfortunes) to eat everything and anything, yet remain healthier than ever.

Achieving Amazing Metabolic Health

Your metabolism is a wonderful thing, it is incredibly adaptable and will change according to what it is given. It’s simply the total sum of energy burnt by our bodies. Whether it be brushing your teeth, digesting food, lifting weights or keeping you warm, all of these things add up to be your metabolism.
So how do we make our metabolisms amazing, so we can eat pizza daily? The most important thing you can do is to not restrict food intake needlessly. If you are constantly eating less than your body needs, your metabolism, being the adaptable bugger it is, will adjust downwards, meaning you will burn less total energy. So make sure to eat well, and by well I mean do not needlessly restrict intake.

Another simple addition to the above can be to move. It doesn’t need to be a load, but please avoid being sedentary for long periods of time. The largest component of our metabolic burn is our Non Exercise Activity Thermogensis or NEAT. This is the energy used for all movement outside of formal exercise, so it is the walking to the shops, cleaning our rooms and getting down in the bed room. That stuff really adds up! Stop laughing…

To take it a step further you can further ramp your metabolic rate up by implementing a few dietary changes. Protein out of all the macronutrients takes the most energy to be digested. So by changing the macro composition of our diet we can increase our metabolic rate. Also make sure you’re eating in a balanced way, that means not restricting any foods unnecessarily. Our body loves carbs, they provide the best fuel for us to perform exercise. You should be eating them if you want to get the most from your training.

And finally there is exercise, most people think that this has a dramatic impact on our total energy burn, but as I said previously NEAT is the biggest factor. However, it is an important aspect of having amazing metabolic health. I am going to start with the exercise to avoid, and that is slow, utterly boring, steady state cardio. That stuff really aint going to to do much for your metabolism. Our bodies will adapt to it in a jiffy, one month you might be burning 300 calories doing an incline walk for 30 minutes at 5mph, the next month you will definitely be burning less.

You want to be purposely increasing the intensity, volume and or distance of your chosen exercise. This way your body is continually adapting upwards, and you’ll be getting stronger and fitter. However, this is where the catch 22 comes in, now you’re fitter and stronger, that means you’ll burn less energy doing day to day activities. BUT, you can now perform at higher intensities, recover faster and handle more work all of which leads to burning more calories. Don’t over think it, do exercise, make sure to get outside of your comfort zone. 

So now you have the knowledge of how to get amazing metabolic health, how do you go about achieving amazing adaptability?

Amazing Adaptability

Remember how I said our bodies are incredibly adaptable? This can work against us, I am going to show you how. If you eat an all vegetable diet, you will adapt to that, if you eat an all meat diet, you’ll adapt to that. If you eat an all raw food diet, you will get sick if you consume cooked food. If you want to consume wonderful worldly combinations of any food and remain healthy, you need to adapt to the modern food environment and be able to handle pretty much anything.

Do you really want to feel like crap when you eat out, or go to a friends for dinner because you’re not eating your special diet food? On the other hand, do you want to get stomach ache when you eat any sort of vegetable, due to only being used to eating processed food? No of course not. You want to be healthy, and have it all.The number of people who can eat whatever they want without becoming fat or ill doesn’t need to be just a ‘lucky’ few.

How do we get to that point? It really is simple; be sure to eat a diet that is varied, that means it includes processed foods, high fibre foods, calorie dense foods, low GI carbs, high GI carbs, you get the picture.

Now You are an Adaptable Metabolic Animal

If you follow the above, you will have the digestive and metabolic machinery to annihilate anything. You want to do your best to feed yourself well, be active and eat a varied diet that consists of mainly wholesome nutritious foods but with the occasional meal out, bowl of ice cream and take away pizza.

Go eat some great food, get out of breath, enjoy life and #ReviveStronger

Further Reading:

• Body Fat set point – fact or fiction?
• 2 Rules to a getting a 6 pack
• Why we suck in the short term

The Supplement All Hardgainers Need

Struggling to gain weight? You need to consume more calories. Simple fact is, if you are not consuming more than you are burning, you ain’t gonna put on size son. I have found the ultimate solution to every hardgainers problem; sugar laden soft drinks. Fruit juices, ‘full fat’ Coke, none of that ‘diet’ sugar free rubbish.

If I catch any dude in the gym who says ‘I eat loads but never put on weight’ I am gonna hand them a coke. Why?

1) Sugary soft drinks contain a lot of calories. As said before you need to consume more calories than you burn if you want to gain weight. Liquid calories such as those from fruit juices or even better lucozade are very easy to consume and they are macronutrient dense.

2) They have no impact on our appetite. Studies have shown that people who drank full fat variety soft drinks didn’t compensate by eating less later on. That means they ate what they normally would and had these drinks on top of that. For the hard gainer this is mega handy, it means you can effortlessly increase your calorie intake.

3) Sugar sweetened soft drinks can increase our consumption. Yup they can actually make you eat more than you normally would, a double whammy for weight gain. Studies have even shown that if you feed people the same number of calories in sweet form rather than sugary drink form you’ll compensate and eat less. So as a hard gainer you are better off drinking your sugar than eating it.

So there you have it, sugary drinks are not just easy to consume in addition to our diet, they actually make us eat even more. Hence why they are the hardgainers solution, they ultimately will lead to weight gain.

What can we learn from the above?

Sugary drinks if awesome for hardgainers, those actively seeking to put on weight, who have a hard time eating enough, are therefore pretty awful for the rest of us.

1) They are ’empty calories’. They provide zero micronutrition, unless of course you opt for a fruit juice, but you would still be better off eating the whole fruit. Plus by eating the whole fruit you get fibre, which is very important for a healthy digestive system.

2) We don’t get any fullness from them. I suspect due to the lack of fibre and the ease of digestion our bodies don’t compensate for their consumption. This means we could easily end up over consuming total calories for the day and putting on weight.

The Solution

Right now I hope if you are a hardgainer you are sipping on a can of Coke, but anyone else reading this you are hopefully thinking sugary drinks are a no no. However, there are some ways around this fact.

1) If you track your nutrition they can be incorporated. The fact is our bodies might not be good for compensating for the sugary drink, but if you actively track your calorie intake then you will force a compensation. This is how a lot of my online clients drop fat, gain muscle and get in terrific shape, we track our nutrition. This also means we can enjoy everything and everything, just not always the amount we want. This approach to dieting is called flexible dieting or some know it as IIFYM (if it fits your macros).

2) Milk does get compensated for. Any liquid drink that contains milk or milk proteins has shown to be the equivalent to food. So our bodies do compensate for those calories by eating less. So please do not stop drinking milk.

3) Drink diet drinks. In the video below, that I made years ago and probably look and sound like an idiot, I explain how the current scientific studies don’t show any reason why we cannot drink diet sodas in moderation. Personally I drink a can of Pepsi Max once or twice a day. This also gives us a solution to those who currently drink sugary drinks and want to lose weight. Switch to a diet variety. A simple switch of 2 cans of Coke vs. Diet Coke would save you around 300 calories, if you drank 2 a day, over the course of a week that would save you 2100 calories, enough to spur weight loss.

Further Reading:

– If you want to gain Lean Muscle mass effectively or Lose Fat guaranteed then these two articles will get you in the right place Need to know nutrition Part 1 & Need to know nutrition Part 2 Practical Application.

– If you want to know how anything can be health or healthy given the right context then this article is for you The Importance of Context.

The Oatmeal Series – The Cherry Bakewell

Almonds, oats and cherry a great mix of flavours and textures. A bit cherry bakewell tart esq. but something you could probably eat on a more regular basis. I introduce to you Cherry Bakewell Oats!

What you’ll need:

70g Oats, 2 Cups of water, tsp almond essence, tsp vanilla essence, 12g flaked almonds, 30g Cherry Fruit Spread, sweetener of choice.

How To Do It:

1. Cook the oats and water on a high heat on the stove until simmering for a few minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and almond essence.
3. Once incorporated cook until desired thickness.
4. Serve in a bowl and stir in your Cherry Spread and top with the Almonds!

What You’re Getting From It:

• 11g Protein, 59g Carbohydrates, 12g Fat (9g Fibre) – 423Kcal
• Oats – more protein than popular cereals, damn cheap, high in fibre and full of vitamins and minerals.
• Almonds – rich in monosaturated fat, shown to be beneficial for heart health and cancer reduction.

Remember whether or not the above is healthy or not depends on the context of your diet and your goals. It could be within a fat loss diet, a bulking diet or someone just looking to maintain. What matters most is whether it fits within your calorie and macronutrient needs. You can learn more about you Macro’s here where I talk about your Macro Budget.

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