Evening Hunger Template Frequently Asked

Questions
1. Won’t I get bulky from eating all of this protein and lifting weights?
Not necessarily. While on a calorie-restricted diet it is extremely hard to build
muscle. What will most likely happen is that you will maintain your lean body
mass as it currently is and will lose a lot of fat, resulting in your arms, thighs, etc.
shrinking in total girth. Also, muscle helps to burn more fat, thus helping to
create the appearance of the “toned” look that most people find appealing.

If you’re on the massing plan instead of the cutting plan, you will absolutely get
bigger, but it largely comes down to calories.

2. What about other supplements?

Multivitamins are ok for general health. Creatine is fine to use, and 5g of
Creatine Monohydrate every day for the duration of the diet (3 months or so at a
time) is effective for almost everyone. Stimulant and pre-workout supplements
are ok, but MUST be used in moderation and in the recommended doses only.
Our recommendations for supplements are at the link below:
http://www.jtsstrength.com/grind-nutrition/
We helped design several supplements and got to choose the ingredients that
went into these to ensure you are getting what you need and not being sold anything
else.
You can use code “rp10” to save $10 on any order through the link above.
If you want a definitive guide on what supplements actually work, please check
out Examine.com through the link below. They are the ONLY reliable and
unbiased source of information on which supplements are actually worth taking
 and which supplements are a waste of money. Their recommendations are
virtually identical to what we recommend to our clients.
http://examine.com/referstack/renperiod

3. Are there optimal meal times each day or an optimal amount of time between meals?
Yes, and those times are written in on the diet templates. Don’t worry about
getting them EXACTLY right… just hit the recommended times within 30 minutes
or so.

4. Can I replace any other meals in the day with a protein shake if I am running short on
time?
Yes, but we suggest only doing this when you need to and sticking mostly to
whole foods. While it is best to have mostly whole-food meals, a whey/casein
blend shake, on occasion, is much better than missing a meal.

5. I take it there is no dairy? Can I have milk in my coffee?

There CAN be dairy on the diet. Just make sure the product you’re eating with
your meal counts towards the carb, protein, and fat recommendations for that
meal as closely as you can. This applies to all condiments that have more than 20
calories per serving, including cheese. Please see the additional note on cheese
in #7 below.

Dairy and whole eggs are really the only exceptions to not just hitting the column
that food is laid out in (ex – only worrying about the protein from the protein
column, etc).

6. Can I eat the same foods for every meal?

Sure, but it seems as if variation tends to help prevent burnout. Also, in regards
to cheese, please vary your healthy fats so as to not over eat cheese (due to it
being high in saturated fat.) Same goes for sausage, bacon, etc… SOME is ok, but
ALL of your fats from such animal sources may not be a great idea for health.
7. Are there salt restrictions?
No. We recommend using salt as you have been prior to beginning the diet.

8. Do you care about calories each day?

Yes we do. However, we find it is easier to list the meals in terms of ounces and
grams for ease of measuring. The number of calories can be calculated from this
very easily, which we do on our end. You don’t need to count calories… all you
need to do is try to follow the diet as closely as possible, and the results will
come.

Because each meal has multiple source options, choosing different foods yields
slightly different calorie and macro amounts depending on choice. Peanut butter
has extra protein, carbs, and calories that olive oil does not. This is why we do
NOT lay out the total calories on a per day basis. These slight variances in food
choices are already factored into the diet design created by us here at
Renaissance Periodization.
The reason for this is SIMPLICITY. If we can simplify the dieting process for
individuals, chances are they will be MORE successful on their diet. Less time
spent worrying about calculations on a diet usually leads to greater diet
adherence.

9. Are the carbohydrate measurements for cooked or uncooked pasta/rice?

The measurements are done after the pasta or rice is cooked. One cup of cooked
pasta/rice = 40 grams of carbs. The measurements are not in the weight of the
actual food, but in the content of carbohydrate, which can easily be found on the
“nutrition facts” labels of most foods.

To help with measuring serving sizes, please refer to the sheet labeled “Serving
Sizes” on the Excel document you now have. Also, approximate portions are
listed at the top of the diet for vegetables (1 cup = 1 serving) and healthy fats
(2tbsp nut butter = 15g healthy fats). If you need further help with measuring,
please consider the following:
1 medium sized apple/orange/banana = 25g carbs
1 cup of COOKED pasta, rice or oatmeal = 40g carbs
 *When in doubt, please refer to www.nutritiondata.com for accurate serving
size nutritional data.

10. Can I mix carbohydrate sources to get the total I need?

Absolutely!

11. How much water do you want me to consume each day?

Continue as you normally have before the diet. As a general guideline, just
drinking to thirst is usually just fine. If you’re consistently peeing clear or off-
yellow, you’re very likely well hydrated, and don’t force-hydrate yourself... there
is no advantage in consuming more water than you need.

12. Can I eat foods that are not on the list?

Yes, but please make sure they are fitting. Lamb chops are NOT lean meat,
neither are sausage or bacon. Potatoes are a carb, NOT a green veggie. Coconut
oil MIGHT be good for health, but we’re not sure, so we don’t recommend using
it too much. It’s still a good idea to get MOST of your fats from the healthy fats
listed and to limit your consumption of saturated fats like coconut oil, grass-fed
beef/butter, and whole eggs.
Basically, if you want to add a food into your diet and it fits the general
guidelines (it’s a healthy carb and you want to use it as a healthy carb in your
meal), please feel free to do so! Just look up the nutrition facts in
www.nutritiondata.self, factor in the macros to that meal, and eat up!

13. Is caffeine or diet soda allowed?

Plain black coffee, DIET soda, sugarless gum and Crystal Light are all fine while on
the diet. It’s likely a good idea to use these in moderation though.

14. Can I add herbs and spices to add flavor when cooking?
Absolutely. Any calorie free herb or spice can be used on your foods to help
improve the taste. If it has more than 20 calories, count the macros that make up
those calories into your meal and subtract out other foods to make the fit. We
recommend not going too crazy with this as most of your nutrients should come
from whole foods, not Kraft ranch dressing!
 Be aware, however, that increasing the tastiness of your food will usually make
cravings WORSE and not better. Eating bland foods the deeper you get into your
fat loss diet is our best recommendation.

15. Is the protein amount for raw or cooked meat?

The protein amount is to be measured in the raw amount of the meat. Thus, a
6oz raw steak has 35 grams or so of protein, but if you cook it down enough, it
might only weigh 4oz, but still has just as much protein.

16. What about grass fed butter, coconut oil and egg yolks?

These types of fats can be consumed, however we suggest eating no more than
1/3 of your daily fat requirement from these sources. The reason is that they are
saturated fats and the best idea is to consume MOST of your fats from the
healthy variety.

With egg yolks, the protein and fat content from them must be factored into the
meal allotment as well.

If you do eat egg yolks, be sure to count the protein and fats from the yolk into
the meal allotment of macronutrients.

So for example, if your meal says 40g protein from lean meat, 30g carbs and 15g
fat from healthy fat, once you eat two whole eggs (12g protein, 0g carbs, 9g fat),
then the rest of your meal should only contain about 28g protein, 30g carbs and
6g fat.

17. What about “cheat meals?”

The more cheat meals you have, the WORSE your cravings will usually be. This
means that while it feels like a good idea to cheat, the cheating usually just
means more cravings will come back even stronger down the line. Our best
advice is to cheat as little as possible or not at all, and especially not towards the
latter half of the diet.

The more often you cheat, the slower your results will be. We typically
recommend NOT having cheat meals while dieting to reduce cravings AND to get
your results faster. If you can reach your goals faster, then you can return to a
more normal way of eating quicker and not delay/extend the dieting process.

18. I have a conflict in my schedule; What should I do about the timing of my next meal?
 You are free to move the mealtimes around a bit to fit your schedule. So long as
you’re eating about every 3-6 hours, you will be fine.

19. I’m busy all day, what can I do to get in a meal?

Using something like a quest bar or a protein shake can be a suitable meal
replacement. If you can take some nuts with you, a protein bar or shake (or even
some jerky) and, say, an apple (if carbs are needed) that’s a fairly easy to
consume and portable meal on the go. Waximaize is actually a low-glycemic
carb, so you can make olive oil, waximaize and whey/casein shakes work for you.
ZERO guarantees on the taste!

20. How do I know if my workouts are light/moderate/hard?

There are detailed guidelines in our book, The Renaissance Diet, as well as
template FAQ, but here are some much simpler filters:

 Light: Workout under 45 minutes (NOT including warmup), you hardly

break a sweat in normal gym temperature. The workout might be heavy
but you don’t feel super tired afterwards.
 Moderate: Workout between 45 min and 1:30 long and you work plenty
hard and sweat a bunch. You’re pretty tired afterwards but you could do
more if push came to shove.
 Hard: Your workout is longer than 1:30 of actual hard training and you
sweat like you just stepped out of a pool. After the workout, there’s no
way you’re capable of any more hard training for the next couple of
hours.

21. What if I ate normally, but then ended up not training at all?

Just switch to an off-day of eating as soon as you find out you’re not training that
day.

22. Can I drink alcohol on this diet?

Drinking alcohol while on the diet should be kept to a minimum. Drinking has no
positives for body composition. Just be aware of the tradeoffs involved with
deviating from the diet; the more you go off the plan, the less certain we can be
of the final outcome.

For obvious reasons, we will never recommend drinking alcohol on a diet.

23. How flexible is the diet?

The RP Diet has lots of flexibility to it; you’re free to use any of the food choices
from the acceptable foods list at any meal. Variety is a good thing on a diet!
 However, there are limits to this and everything is written on the diet for a very
specific purpose. If you sub in candy or doughnuts instead of healthy carbs, this
is NOT ideal. If you sub in whole grain bread instead of brown rice, that is totally
fine. We’d love to list the macros for the diets, but they vary quite a bit based on
particular food choices. You can calculate your own macros based on the foods
you choose, just be consistent and don’t replace all of your 90/10 beef with fat-
free chicken breasts for a week and wonder why your weight is going down!

24. Can I eat veggies that are not on the list?

Yes, you probably can. The veggies listed under that column are there because
they have a very low net carb content. Brightly colored veggies can be eaten, but
they would be counted towards the healthy carb allotment at that given meal. If
a meal calls for no carbs, please try and use veggies from the list provided. There
is an abundance of veggies listed to help provide a lot of flexibility with choices.

A general rule is if a serving of veggies has more than 5g net carb, then just count
it towards the healthy carb column. All of the veggies listed are lower carb, thus
the carb content is low and we factor those trace amounts into the initial
calculations when we designed the templates.

25. I want a food item that’s not on the food options list, but I can’t tell if it’s a veggie or
healthy carb (spaghetti squash is a great example).

No problem. Just look up the nutrition facts for your serving size on this amazing
website: www.nutritiondata.com. If your item has more than 5g of non-fiber
carbs, then you’ve got to count it in healthy carbs. If it’s got less than 5g of non-
fiber carbs, you’re golden!

26. I’m very hungry the first week on the cutting diet. Is that normal?

It can be quite normal for clients to be a bit hungrier than normal during the first
week or so. This is usually a result of having certain meal times listed and not
being able to eat or snack whenever they’re hungry. This usually goes away for
most clients after their bodies adjust to the schedule. However, as more and
more weight is lost, calories have to be restricted at some point to continue that
weight loss, so being hungry is an unfortunate side effect of losing weight. This is
likely going to be true at some point as you progress through the cut phases,
though with the design of these templates, evening hunger in particular should
be much lower than most other effective cutting plans.

27. I’m on my menstrual cycle and I’ve gained weight. Do I adjust the diet?

No. Wait a week for the cycle to abate before making any decisions about tissue
loss. Menstrual cycles increase weight due to water retention, thus we need that
water to come off before making a reasonable conclusion about bodyweight
 changes that actually reflect tissue loss rates. Also know that it is perfectly
normal. Stick to the diet you’re doing and don’t bat an eye. Most diet changes
are tracked through WEEKS of changes in weight, not days. Don’t let the bloat
get you down… it goes as fast as it comes.

28. My weight has gone up quick over the last couple of days but I haven’t changed my
training or eating.

If you actually haven’t changed anything and your weight just jumps up by
several pounds all of a sudden, chances are it’s water weight. Sometimes salty
foods make us hold water. Sometimes it’s female hormones. Some supplements
like creatine can do that too. Summer heat leads some people to over-consume
fluids and put on a couple of water weight pounds. This is no big deal at all and
nothing to worry about. Weeks of changes are what really inform us about
calorie balance and fat/muscle loss and gain.

29. What if I unintentionally skip a meal?

If you’re on the cutting diet, just eat the next meal as if nothing happened. If
you’re on the mass or maintenance, try to combine the missed meal with your
next one or spread it over the next several meals. In any case, don’t make this a
regular thing!

30. I ate too much at my last meal. What should I do?

If you eat too much at a meal, subtract the food amount you ate extra from the
next meal or several meals. It is worth repeating; to maintain a stable psychology
of eating, we recommend not doing this too often and doing your best to stick to
the meals as-written.

31. I cheated on the diet. What should I adjust?

Nothing. Go on like it didn’t happen and keep following the plan as-written.
Cheating on the cutting diet is likely not a good idea, but cheating and adjusting
constantly tends to form disordered eating patterns, so we highly recommend
just moving on with your next planned meal if you cheat. Cheating on Mass is
OK, SO LONG as you get in all your programmed food AND you’re ok with risking
a bit more fat.

32. I’m going to <insert fun event here>, what should I do?

Do your best to eat your meals before and after the event. If it’s a long event,
consider packing shake materials, drinking a casein shake before, or even
packing a cooler or baggie with foods during the event (nuts and beef jerky don’t
go bad!). If you are going to be eating the event food or drinking alcohol, do as
much of that as you’re comfortable with. It’s your call on the tradeoffs.
33. I only train 2x per week (or 3,4,5,6,7)…

If you only train 2x per week, then all other days will be the non-training day
option. Yes, that stinks because it’s so little food. Working out more (up to the
point where you have trouble recovering) is almost always a good idea. That way
you can get better results AND eat more!

34. Is the amount listed on the spreadsheet the TOTAL weight or just the amount to get
the macro breakdown?

In this example for whey protein, the total amount of the scoop is 32g, however
there is only 26g of protein. If it is listed on your spreadsheet to have 25g protein
with that meal, you would only use 1 scoop to get the 25g worth of protein (the
total weight is more than 25g to account for fats, carbs, etc). If you needed 15g
of protein for the meal, you would just use about 2/3 of a scoop.

This same rule applies to carbs or fats as well. If you need 40g worth of carbs,
that means you measure just the carb amount and NOT the total weight.

A great example is sweet potatoes. About 100g TOTAL weight of sweet potatoes
yields about 25g or so WORTH of carbohydrates. Remember you’re aiming for
the CARB amount, NOT the total weight for carbs.

35. I’m starving! I thought this was an anti-hunger diet!

While the Evening Hunger Templates are designed to limit your nighttime
cravings as much as possible, they are not likely to completely eliminate them.
When calories are low (and as they get lower and lower with each cutting
 phase), some hunger is inevitable. The templates reduce your hunger as much as
we at RP are capable of, but some hunger will still persist. If you come into the
templates expecting a mild reduction in hunger, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. If
you come into the templates expecting no hunger at all, you might be quite
disappointed.

At the end of the day, this is still a fat loss diet and that means SOME suffering is
still required.

36. Aren’t some of the meals too far apart? I thought eating every 3 hours was a must?

There is a consensus of research that eating up to 6 hours apart is optimally

effective for body composition. On the other hand, it is by no means clear (and in
fact, unlikely) that eating any more frequently than that carries major
advantages. It turns out you can get great results eating as far apart as 6 hours
between each meal. So long as you stick within that framework, muscle loss
should not be a major concern.

37. I’m super hungry in the mornings. Can I space my meals out more evenly?

You can, but please be aware that by spacing out your morning meals more
frequently, you will also have to space out your evening meals LESS frequently.
This puts you at a higher risk for evening cravings, so be on the lookout. We
designed these templates particularly for people who have trouble with evening
hunger pangs, so we recommend spacing the morning meals either as indicated
or as far out as you can tolerate.

38. “It’s one of my first low carb days and I feel like crap!”

Many people don’t feel their best on lower carbs, but most get used to this
crappy (sluggish, brain-dead) feeling and some even lose it completely after
several weeks. It may sound harsh, but we just have to learn to deal a bit…
dieting can be tough!

39. When I’m on maintenance or the New Base, can I cheat on the diet on occasion?

Yes. In the first 2 weeks of maintenance, we don’t recommend cheating so that

your body can adjust to the new calorie levels. After that, you can cheat up to 2x
a week by replacing one of your programmed meals with a cheat meal,
preferably one of the later meals in the day.

Once you’re on the New Base, you can cheat up to 4x a week if your bodyweight
is stable. You can replace one of the programmed meals with your cheat meal
and possibly reduce the daily fats on the diet to keep your weight stable with
cheating.

40. I have some questions about the diet not covered in these materials, what do I do?
Your best bet is to post in the RP Clients group on FB.
For theoretical questions about WHY the diet looks as it does, please check out
our book “The Renaissance Diet,” which dives very deeply into the physiological
mechanisms behind the design of our plans:
http://renaissanceperiodization.com/shop/the-renaissance-diet/