Nutrition Hierarchy BBP PDF

THE NUTRITION HIERARCHY:
YOUR GUIDE TO SETTING UP A SUCCESSFUL NUTRITION PLAN 2
CONTENTS
Preface.................................................................................. 3
Preparing Yourself (Mindset and Materials)................................. 5
Part 1 – ENERGY BALANCE .................................................... 6
Calories in vs. Calories Out....................................................... 7
The Next Step: Finding Your Maintenance.................................. 8
Creating Your Deficit or Surplus................................................ 11
Rate of Weight Loss................................................................ 12
Rate of Weight Gain................................................................ 14
Lose Fat First or Build Muscle First?........................................... 15
Part 2 – MACRONUTRIENTS................................................... 18
Why Are Macronutrients Important?.......................................... 19
“What if I don’t care about how much I lift................................. 21
Protein.................................................................................. 21
Fats...................................................................................... 22
Carbohydrates........................................................................ 23
Calculating Your Macros........................................................... 25
Fiber..................................................................................... 29
Part 3 – MICRONUTRIENTS ................................................... 32
Minerals................................................................................ 33
Vitamins................................................................................ 33
2 Scenarios You Need To Worry About....................................... 34
Part 4 – MEAL TIMING & FREQUENCY.................................... 38
Meals Per Day........................................................................ 38
When Meal Timing does matter................................................. 40
Meal Planning and Stratefy....................................................... 41
Pre-Workout Nutrition.............................................................. 42
Post-Workout Nutrition............................................................ 44
Muscle Protein Synthesis & Satiety............................................ 46
Carb Cycling........................................................................... 47
Refeed Days........................................................................... 49
An Ideal Day Of Eating:........................................................... 50
Part 5 – SUPPLEMENTS ......................................................... 52
Quality and Purity................................................................... 52
Effectiveness.......................................................................... 53
Recommended Supplements..................................................... 53
My Go To Supplements............................................................ 58
www.boomboomperformance.com
PREFACE
When it comes to setting up a successful diet, one that will not only help you
drastically change your body composition but also improve your performance and
help optimize your health… There is a hierarchy.
There are “levels” that must be followed. An order of operations, you could say.
This is important for a few reasons…
The first being that this is exactly what this ebook is about. In the next 5 chapters, I
will be teaching you each of those sequences, in order, so that you can master them
one by one – bridging the gaps and avoiding the common misconceptions that come
along with most diet protocols.
The next reason is because level 2 doesn’t matter much, at all, if you haven’t
mastered level 1 yet. It’s like beginning to build a house without a blueprint or
setting off on a road trip without a map to get you there.
Yet this is exactly what 75% of people end up trying to do. They attempt to jump
right into things, skipping the foundational principles and going straight for the
advanced concepts and protocols that are irrelevant to where they currently stand.
Last but not least, because this is the key to sustainable results.
Fat loss is simple. Not always easy, but simple.
And so is getting a results in 60-90 days, specifically a fat loss goal.
Now keeping that goal… that is a different story. That is also where thousands if not
millions of people fail.
But with education, patience and committing to learn the actual process associated
with proper nutrition – we cannot only get the results we want, we can keep those
results year after year.
That’s what this is about.
So, without further ado, I give you the first and most important part of,
“The Hierarchy Of Nutrition:

Your Guide To Setting Up A Successful Nutrition Plan”…
PREPARING YOURSELF
(MINDSET AND MATERIALS)
Before we get into the details and specifics of what energy balance really means and
why it’s so important, lets first touch on what you’ll need in order to even head down
this path of tracking calories, planning your macros, and determining exactly what
your nutrition plan should look like.
The first thing you’ll need is the mental preparation to make this work for you. When
considering calories, macros, micronutrients, and everything else within the pyramid
of importance (made famous by Eric Helms of 3DMJ) – you’ll need to consider and
realize the fact that things are becoming a bit more “real”.
But you’ll also need to understand that though these metrics allow us to dial things
in to a much more specific level, they also allow us to create more flexibility within
this structure.
See, if you become so rigid that you worry about being off by 1 single gram or
that you end up prepping 6 meals a day of broccoli and ground turkey… you will go
insane. I’ve seen it, in fact – I’ve lived it!
With that being said, you need to be disciplined enough to track everything you
eat inside of a food tracking software like MyFitnessPal and as neurotic as that may
seem, it works really well for not only transforming your body composition – but also
for allowing more flexibility within your diet plan.
See this can actually allow you to fit in that beer or burger on the weekend, so you
don’t become so rigid that you never attend social events or enjoy yourself. It also
allows you to fit the amount allowed within your caloric intake, making it easier to
lose weight in the long run.
The percentage of people I’ve worked with that see better results because we have
this system of numbers for them to eat health WHILE fitting in the foods they enjoy,
is beyond the majority. Which is why I’m a huge proponent of it, also exactly why
I’m writing this for you now.
So again, it’s a balanced approach of extreme discipline and more flexibility all
wrapped in one system – as impossible as that may sound.
The main reason it was created or discovered was to allow bodybuilders to still get
stage lean without having to only eat a list of 6 foods and drive themselves crazy
mentally while creating nutritional deficiencies during prep.
And whether you’re getting ready for stage or just the general folk looking to strip
that unwanted belly fat, this way of eating simply works and allows us to steal the
exact system the leanest guys in the world use to become the leanest guys in the
world…
The next thing you’ll need to fully appreciate is the power of consistency.
In order to truly transform your body and witness drastic results through fat loss
or muscle gain is to be patient and trust the process. Unless you have 50-100lbs to
lose, you likely will not see drastic results right out the gate.
Your body needs time to adapt to the new lifestyle and eating system you’re
throwing at it. Another reason for this is because things need to be adjusted along
the way. I doubt I’ve ever created a starting baseline of calories and macros for
someone and seen them get to their goals on those numbers. It takes tweaks,
adjusting, and much more along the way to make sure these things keep working
week after week.
And last but not least, we need the tools necessary.
In our case, there a few measuring tools you’ll need for this to work:
• A Scale – If you don’t weigh in and track your progress, you won’t know
if things are working (using a mirror for this helps a lot too).
• A Gym – If you’re looking to change your body, you need to train. But
especially in the case of building muscle, the weights you’re lifting are a
key indicator of the progress you’re making.
• Food Measuring Tools – Things like cups, tablespoons, etc…. But the
most important, is a digital food scale. Nothing is more accurate and in
the case of dialing in your specific nutrition plan, accuracy is key.
• Tracking Software – My suggestion is MyFitnessPal, but any app or
software that allows you to track your calories and macros will work just
fine.
Ok, now that you’ve been able to prepare yourself mentally and with the necessary
tools for this system – now we can get onto the actual pyramid.
Part 1 – ENERGY BALANCE (A.K.A. Calories)
So first let’s define what calories and energy balance is and really means…
Calorie – “The energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water
through 1 °C, equal to one thousand small calories and often used to measure the
energy value of foods.”
Now that you know what a calorie means according to your high school science
teacher, lets move on to the meat and potatoes – the things that really matter.
A calorie is a way to measure your food and totally daily intake. It’s also a metric we
can used to see how many calories we’re expending through daily activities, whether
that’s exercise or non-exercise oriented activities (things like breathing, eating,
walking, talking, etc…).
So what does this really mean for you?
It means you now have a way of tracking, determining, and controlling the outcomes
you see with your body composition according to this specific number. It’s a powerful
tool that can help you dial in your nutrition enough to visibly see differences in your
body almost immediately.
See what we’ve learned over the years studying calories and energy balance, is that
if we can manipulate our intake and expenditure, we can change the outcome we see
– whether that’s losing body fat or building muscle mass.
In other words, Calories in vs. Calories out will determine 75-90% the
results you see.
This is the exact reason that this is the foundation of the pyramid. It’s the base
and the first thing we even touch on because it’s the biggest influence on what we
see with our body composition. If we ignore this, it’s going to be very tough to see
results.
Now you may be thinking, “I know plenty of people who do not track their calories
and they’re lean as hell! What gives there?”
Well, it could be multiple things. Here are some examples:
• They tracked once upon a time and can be successful with intuitive
eating now. I’m a great example; I tracked for 2-3 years almost every
single day. It taught me everything about what I was eating and what
my body needs, allowing me to maintain my weight without using a
tracking system. But if I want to see changes, this system is the first
thing I’ll go to.
• They’re genetic freaks. Have to get this out there because the industry,
and social media in general, are full of genetic freaks who are born with
abs yet preach about their systems and programs. Some have great
info and others don’t, sometimes it’s hard to tell. But one thing we can
do for ourselves, is realize that genetics play a huge roll and instead of
complaining about ours not being super human – we can use systems
like this to take control.
• They’re habitually in control of their eating. Many people can monitor

eating and practice moderation very easily. My guess is that you’re not
one of them, since you’re reading this. My guess is you have an extreme
goal to get lean (this is for you) or you do struggle with your eating
habits and want to change (this is for you).
THE NEXT STEP: FINDING YOUR MAINTENANCE.
The first and most important step in order to figure out where your calories should
be at and successfully use this system, is finding where your maintenance level is.
See, calories are like a GPS for changing your body composition. It’s going to guide
you down the exact path needed to find the result you’re looking for. But here’s the
deal, if you don’t put in the place you’re starting from – there’s no way in hell you’ll
find the destination waiting for you.
So that’s where finding your maintenance calories comes in and plays such a big role
in starting this process.
There are 2 main ways to go about this; the first is simply using a calculator.
This isn’t as accurate or favorable as the way I’ll explain here soon, but it’s simple
and can be used immediately so I’ll knock it out first – Remember that this is more
of an estimation than anything else, so if you can be patient enough I would suggest
spending a week or 2 using the way I’ll explain soon enough…
1.) Baseline Multiplier (Before Activity) – Bodyweight x10 = Theoretical

Caloric Intake
So for example: I weigh about 170lbs, meaning my theoretical caloric intake would
be 1,700.
After this, we multiple that given amount by an activity multiplier. This means
everything we do on a daily basis, not just training or your active labor job.
This includes NEAT as well (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). Which means
everything we do outside of activity, from walking to standing to everything else

causing some kind of caloric burn.
This is important because many people will burn more calories than most, from
having a high NEAT. These are people you see talking a lot or fidgeting constantly (I
have a high NEAT, because I can’t shut up or sit down. Gift and a curse I guess…).
But this also comes into play when we diet because as energy (calories) gets lower
during a diet, we naturally have less energy to move and burn. This usually results in
significant drops in NEAT along the way.
2.) Using The Activity Multiplier
Lifestyle/Training Frequency Activity Multiplier/Number
Sedentary + 3-6 Days Training/Week 1.3 – 1.6
Light Activity + 3-6 Days Training/Week 1.5 – 1.8
Active + 3-6 Days Training/Week 1.7 – 2.0
Very Active + 3-6 Days Training/Week 1.9 – 2.2
Baseline Multiplier x Activity Multiplier = Estimated Maintenance Calories
So lets bring my weight back down for example again.
170lbs x 10 = 1,700 calories
I’m active + 3-6 days a week of training (I use this graciously, even though I’m a
coach – majority of my day is creating content, communicating with clients, and
programming on my computer).
1,700 x 1.7 – 2.0 = 2,890 – 3,400
Now that we have that covered, there are a few things to consider and look at…
One is that this is a wide range and who knows how close I actually am to that
currently. In fact, in many cases clients will come to me in need of being at a much
higher caloric intake than they currently are at. For example, someone should be
maintaining their weight at 2,500 and they’re more consistently eating 1,600 –
1,900.
This means that if I immediately bump them up to their “maintenance” of 2,500,

they’ll likely gain weight pretty rapidly. Usually that is not what they’re hiring me for.
This is exactly why I prefer the following method more when it comes to finding your
personal maintenance – Tracking and Finding an Average.
With this method, you would track your daily intake of food as well as your daily
weight on the scale. This will allow us to look at how much food you’re truly eating
on a day to day basis, along with how your bodyweight is reflective of that.
We may see that you’re consuming 2,000 calories on average and your weight isn’t
budging or that it’s slowly climbing up.
Let’s look at an example of this:
Days Calories Bodyweight
1 1,790 165.8
2 1,900 166
3 1,995 165.8
4 1,650 165.6
5 2,010 166.2
6 1,895 166
7 1,950 165.5
Week 1 Average ~1,885 Week 1 Average ~ 165.8
1 2,010 165.6
2 2,150 165.2
3 1,800 165
4 1,910 166.5
5 1,795 166
6 2,050 165.8
7 1,850 165.8
Week 2 Average ~1,935 Week 2 Average ~ 165.7
So after 2 full weeks of tracking, we know that on average you’re consuming 1,900
calories daily and that amount of food is actually maintaining your weight (there was
a 0.1 increase which is not significant enough to call it weight gain).
So what does this tell us? It tells us that your maintenance level calories are truly
1,900. Nothing will give you as accurate of an equation as real life metrics, which is
why this is the protocol I recommend when starting this system.
So again, here is our starting point. This gives us the starting line for our journey to
results.
Creating Your Deficit or Surplus.
As we now know, this is your maintenance calorie intake and if we want to change
our body composition we’re going to need to change this intake. Simply put, we’re
not trying to maintain – we’re trying to either lose or gain.
Studies and science will tell you that 3,500 calories is a pound of fat, so if we wanted
to lose 1lb of fat per week we would cut 3,500 calories which ends up being about
500 calories per day.
In the example above, taking the average caloric intake, that would only allow 1,400
calories per day. This could be an issue for hunger, cravings, flexibility, energy/
performance, and muscle retention.
In the example of the calculations, this wouldn’t be an issue at all because we’d still
have about 2,900 calories to consume daily… See how this can cause confusion or
wonder as to why people are tracking calories, yet not seeing results?
Again, this is a baseline. Adjustments will need to be made. My experience has

shown me that keeping the client at that maintenance caloric intake for a couple
extra weeks, while implementing a smart training program, is the best route to take.
[If you’re tired of going to the gym aimlessly without a solid training
program or plan that will actually show you results, click here now.]
So my advice to you is wait before you adjust. The accountability of tracking in

general usually provides enough change to make body composition shifts and if it
doesn’t, the training will.
The next thing would be looking at your macronutrients within those calories, which
unfortunately for you I wont be talking about until the next blog – part 2.
The reason I say that, though, is because many people over consume fats and/or
carbs while under consuming protein. So keeping calories the same, while making
the shift on their macros, can cause drastic body comp changes by itself.
So lets say you do need to make a change, because your protein is on point and you
know your average caloric intake is keeping you where you’re at (duh, because it’s
your maintenance…).
Then drop calories, but in a less drastic approach. Shoot for 150-300 calories instead
of 500 while increasing your NEAT or cardio in general, which will likely lead to the
500 daily total needed for 1lb of fat per week.
But let’s pause for a minute… Should we all be striving for 1lb per week?
Rate of Weight Loss.
The next step, is determining what a healthy rate of weight loss is for you to aim for.
Most people will say 1-3lbs is a healthy weight range to aim for per week, which is
true most of the times.
The problem with that number is that it isn’t relative to the individual depending on
where they’re currently at in their weight loss journey.
For example, if you only have 5lbs to lose – this is an unrealistic number to shoot
for, not too mention unhealthy, as you will be risking hormonal balance and muscle
tissue.
When the goal is purely fat loss, we need something that works for a wide range
of individuals and because of that, we’ll use percentages of total body weight as a
weekly weight loss target.
For pure fat loss, my recommendation to you is to strive for 0.5 – 1.0% of
bodyweight per week.
This can be pretty simple and relative for just about any individual, as it changes
depending where you’re at in your fat loss journey – while never truly harming
muscle gain or hormones, assuming you’re doing things properly and following a
realistic timeline.
Individual’s Bodyweight Rate of Loss Per Week
250 1.25 – 2.5 lbs.
225 1.1 – 2.25 lbs.
200 1 – 2 lbs.
175 0.8 – 1.75 lbs.
150 0.75 – 1.5 lbs.
135 0.6 – 1.3 lbs.
As you can see, the smaller you get the smaller the rate of loss becomes. This is
because you very likely do not have nearly as much fat to lose as someone at a
higher weight.
Or you have less fat and more muscle, which again is not a place where we want to
be pushing our results too quick as we will sacrificed hormonal health and muscle
tissue.
My suggestion is always to lose your weight or body fat via nutrition as it’s much
more controllable and way less taxing on your body’s hormonal and nervous system.
But because I know someone reading this will be curious about how to implement
cardio for extra caloric burn, I’ll throw in a table for it.
Cardio Type 120 lbs. 160lbs 200lbs.
Light 24 kcals/10 Min 32 kcals/10 Min 40 kcals/10 Min
Moderate 54 kcals/10 Min 74 kcals/10 Min 90 kcals/10 Min
Hard 84 kcals/10 Min 112 kcals/10 Min 140 kcals/10 Min
Even though cardio is good and you will likely need to include some at some point in
your fat loss journey, do not be quick to add it in.
Always remember that at some point, you will need to stop doing it because it’s
unrealistic to continue doing cardio forever. Because the body is a very adaptive
species, our metabolic rate will grow accustomed to the amount of cardio and that is
where issues arise.
So once again, add it in sparingly and only when you’ve come far enough that you
have no other choice – i.e. you don’t want to or cannot take any more calories out.
Rate of Weight Gain.
When it comes to gaining weight, good weight, things are so easy.
Unfortunately for the natural lifter, it is much more difficult and takes much longer to
put on quality muscle mass than it does to burn off body fat.
That being said, I’m going to be very black and white about this section.
• You need to be in a surplus, period. Body “recomps” are practically

impossible for anyone who is not the beginner in the gym.
• You need to train hard, eat right, recover enough, and be patient. You will
not grow overnight. So commit to a 6-8 month period and solely focus on
gaining size, nothing else. Lose fat later.
• Don’t get fat. This isn’t an excuse to “bulk bro”. So the goal should be to
maintain your body fat level, maybe add a little bit of fluff. But in no way
should you get fat because that will negatively effect your health and your
ability to actually put on more muscle tissue. As you put on fat, you’re more
prone to adding even more as you eat.
So unlike a pound of fat, which has 3,500 calories, muscle has far less; only about
800 calories.
“So should we be in a 800 calorie surplus per week in order to gain 1lb per week?”
Maybe, it depends (I know, you hate that answer).
It really just depends on where you’re at in your lifting career. See an advanced
individual won’t put on a pound per week and to be honest, most beginners wont
either.
Most people will burn much of those extra calories, but they will put on quite a bit.
So the process of this is pretty simple…
The more advanced and/or longer into your training career you are, the less calories
you add into your surplus because the less muscle you can actually build.
See we have a genetic potential, without drugs, and the closer we get the more
our bodies resist adding muscle. So the further along you get, the slower you build
muscle. I know, pretty messed up… We get smarter and better at this stuff, but we
don’t get rewarded for it.
This is exactly why I encourage so many newbies to the gym to get a coach right
form the get go, because it will save them so much time and frustration down the
road.
So let’s make this easy, with another table:
Calories Above Calories Above

Training Career &
Maintenance at Maintenance at
Experience Level
180lbs 130lbs
Beginner 1-1.5% BW/Month 1-1.5% BW/Month
(First 1-2 Years) About 200-300 kcals/Day About 150-225 kcals/Day
Intermediate 0.5-1% BW/Month 0.5-1% BW/Month
(3-4 Years In) About 100-200 kcals/Day About 75-150 kcals/Day
Advanced Very Little…. Very Little….
(5+ Years In) Up to 100 kcals/day Up to 75 kcals/day

So as you can see, unless you’re just getting into the gym – and if you are, kudos
to you for reading this and researching REAL info on how to improve right from the
start – you need to be patient when it comes to building serious muscle.
Lose Fat First or Build Muscle First?
This is a question I see pretty often and again, it depends.
It depends on where you want to be in 1-2 years and where you’re at now.
So for example, if you’re 250lbs at 6 foot and want to be lean, muscular and athletic
looking. I would focus on losing as much body fat, while lifting heavy weights, over
the course of the next year. That would allow a lot of fat loss, but at a slow enough
pace to maintain all your muscle mass.
Then on year 2, focus purely on building muscle and maintaining your body fat
levels. Throw in a couple mini-cuts to make sure you’re staying lean and you’re
there.
[*Side Note* - The clients who get the best results with me, commit
to a year or more of the work. It’s a process, but their end result is
unbelievable and never goes away.]
Now on the other end if you’re about 165-175lbs, 6 foot, and 12% body fat, as a
male, but cannot see your abs… I would highly recommend you do not try to get
shredded, because if you built some serious muscle and ate properly – you’d look
leaner.
So as you can see, it really depends on where you’re at.
My advice is to take me up on my offer above – sign up for a free strategy call to get
assess and learn exactly how you should be programming your diet and training to
see the results you want to see.
Or… keep reading! There’s more to come, because remember – this is only part 1!
We still need to go over macronutrients, micronutrients, meal timing/frequency/ and
supplements.
Now that we’ve covered the biggest part of the pyramid, the foundation that truly
determines the results we see with our nutrition – Energy Balance, a.k.a. Calories
– We can dive into “Macros”, which is likely the most popular topic of the entire
pyramid. For some reason, at some point in time, every person trying to get in shape
decided they needed to track macros in order to get in shape…
Is that completely true? Probably not.
Is it true that if you understand where your macros should be and how to adjust
them along the way, that you’ll likely perform better and see better body composition
changes? I believe so, yes.
That’s why I am writing this, but before I go any further… Let’s just do the damn
thing!
Part 2 – MACRONUTRIENTS (A.K.A. Macros)
So what are macronutrients?
Mac•ro•nu•tr•ent – A substance required in relatively large amounts by living

organisms, in particular.
A type of food (e.g., fat, protein, carbohydrate) required in large amounts in the
human diet.
In other words, it’s the nutrients that build up our caloric intake. See Vitamin-B and
D are important, but they’re “Micronutrients” because the size of them is literally
smaller than macronutrients. Add to that, they do not have any caloric value to
them.
Macronutrients contain calories and when we add them up, they equal our total daily
intake.
Protein has 4 calories per gram.

Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram as well.
And Fats have 9 calories per gram.
(Alcohol has 7 calories per gram)
Now, alcohol is NOT a macronutrient… but most of us will argue and claim that it is
our 4th macro. Because of that, I’m going to break this down in one simple line and
if it’s not enough for you – click here and check out my article all about alcohol and
staying lean.
Alcohol is a chemical nutrient called ethanol, which is metabolized and processed

in the body similar to fat. It has calories in it and those calories can add up quick,
because it’s liquid form and it’s fun to drink. Because of this, it’s not recommended
to drink too often when trying to drastically change your body composition nor is
it recommended if you’re attempting to achieve maximal health – but some in low
quantities is fine.
When tracking alcohol, you should still include it within your caloric intake, or as
closely as possible. The best way to go is to remove some fats from the diet that day
to make room for the alcohol itself – because fats have more calories per gram and
alcohol gets metabolized similarly to it.
Now that we’ve covered alcohol, which took me longer than 1 line, we can move onto
the important stuff (not that alcohol isn’t’ an important consideration to make here).
Why Are Macronutrients Important?

Can’t I Just Track Calories?
Well technically, yeah you can. As we know from part 1, energy balance is the
biggest mover in fat loss or body composition changes in general which means
if you’re in a deficit you will lose body fat and if you’re in a surplus you will gain
weight.
But when we consider performance, optimizing recovery, creating hormonal balance,

and building muscle – Macronutrients become very important.
For most people reading this, you’re interested in more than just losing weight…
You probably have some kind of interest in building more muscle, lifting more weight,
performing at a higher intensity or level (whether that’s crossfit or competitive
basketball), or maybe you just know that you want to have some dense muscle on
your body when you do strip off all that body fat.
Well in that case, you need to consider macronutrients.
Case Study Example:
Meet John, he wants to lose weight and just “get rid of his belly”. He commits to
tracking calories but not macros, because he doesn’t want to over complicate things
and he really doesn’t care about how much weight he lifts or how big his guns are.
He’s 5’ 10”, weighs 198lbs, 32 years old, and trains 4 days a week.
Now, meet Matt. He wants to lose weight too, but he also wants to build more
muscle mass in the process so he can perform better in his pickup games and in the
gym (he wants to build his bench up, like most guys).
By coincidence (not really) he is the same height, weight, and age as John! And he’ll
also be training 4 days a week.
The difference here is, he tracks his calories and macronutrients. So we have full
control over his entire intake, versus just his daily calories.
6 months later, they both reach their goals.
John has lost 33lbs! He’s down to 165lbs now, got rid of his belly and is much
healthier than he once was. He consistently trained, but didn’t see any remarkable
strength gains. He’s happy and healthy, that’s all that matters.
Matt has lost 27lbs! He’s down to 171lbs now, got rid of his belly and is also much
healthier. The difference here is that he added #’s to all his lifts across the board!
He’s now playing better than ever in his pickup games, added ½ inch to his arms,
and build up his chest, back and shoulders significantly.
So what was the difference here?
Matt lost about just as much body fat as John, but he added 6lbs of pure muscle in
the process, which may not seem like much but is actually a significant amount of
meat to slap on your body (think of steaks).
Matt was a little more disciplined with his tracking, because he did pay attention to
every single macro vs. just his calories. John only looked at one number, which fit his
lifestyle, personality, and goals better.
So the question to ask yourself, is which do you fall under? Both are fine, they just
build different physiques by the end of things.
See when we dial in the ratio of proteins, fats and carbs – we can have more control
over how much muscle we build over time, which will allow us to not only burn more
body fat and increase our metabolism, but it will also increase longevity and improve
hormonal balance.
So in my personal opinion and experience, tracking all the macros makes more
sense.
“What if I don’t care about how much I lift, but I do want to live
longer and fix my hormones in the process of dropping body fat?”
This is common and there is a simple answer for it, one that meets both ways in the
middle.
For these folks, you’re going to want to dial in your calories and your protein intake.
Then just let your carbs and fats fluctuate, based on how you feel and what you
crave more often. That way you get the benefits of protein being higher and still
have your calories dialed in.
So how do you figure out where to set your personal macros? Before we can do that,
you need to know about each macronutrient so you get a full understanding of why
we set things the way we set them.
PROTEIN.
Protein is debatably the most important macronutrient there is. The reason is simple;
is an essential nutrient, which means you literally cannot survive without consuming
it.
Protein is what helps us rebuild tissues and keep systems running, from the muscular
and skeletal system to the nervous system and the immune system. Almost every
function of the body needs at least some protein to function, manage and continue
working.
We need protein for enzymes in our body, skin and hair growth, and many hormones
like metabolism, adrenaline, testosterone, and growth hormone.
The point is, you need protein and when it comes to changing your body composition
the biggest reasons are:
• Protein rebuilds muscle tissue which allows us to recovery, train hard again,
and build more muscle. The more muscle we build, the more fat our body
will burn.
• Protein has a very high TEF (Thermic Effect of Food), which means it takes
more calories to digest it. Yep, you actually burn calories just digesting
protein! This is because it’s harder to break down and utilize than other
nutrients and because of this, it’s smart to have a high percentage of
calories coming from protein.
• Protein is very hard to store as body fat. It’s smart to burn fat while
consuming as many calories as possible, which makes having protein higher
even more valuable because it is damn near impossible to store as body
fat. Now there is clearly an upper limit, you can’t just keep consuming more
and more as you will have issues in your gut and possibly other organs of the
body. But we do know that it’s necessary to have a larger percentage of
calories coming from protein (~40%).
• Protein is the most satiating nutrient you can consume. In other words, you
stay more full when consuming it and as anyone who has ever been on a
“diet” before knows, this is a very good thing. If we can keep you full and
satisfied during a diet, adherence and consistency becomes much easier.
So as you can see, you’re going to need to prioritize protein if you plan to drastically
change your body composition – whether that’s for less fat, more muscle, better
performance, or all the above.
FATS.
Fats are another essential nutrient, which is why we’re discussing this right after
protein – you can’t live without it.
So technically you could just eat protein and fats for the rest of your life and you’d
be fine. That’s why the ketogenic diet has become so popular as of late. But in my
honest opinion, living “fine” isn’t good enough and I know with a balance of all
macronutrients I can thrive.
That’s not a knock on keto diets, some people do function much better on them but
from my experience and knowledge, the majority of people work better on a balance
of all three macros.
So why are fats so important?
• Fat is crucial for hormonal health, which is one of the biggest and most
recognized reasons to consume an adequate amount of fat. This is one of
the reasons why this is an essential nutrient, one you cannot live without.
• Fat is primer for the nervous system and the axon, which is a major part of
the nerve that transmits electrical signals from the brain throughout the
body to initiate all functions, is made up of 80% lipids (fats). This means for
full neurological capabilities and optimization, we need adequate fats in
our diets. This, in my opinion, is the most underrated benefit of fats because
when we look at building strength in any movement, it’s 80-90% neurological
and without a primed nervous system strength is just not an option.
• Fat is a secondary energy source. When we look at low intensity activities,

things like walking or any other slow physical movement, and even daily
activities, things like deskwork and moving around the house, fat is our fuel
source. It’s not great for explosive energy, but it’s great for daily energy
needs when glycogen doesn’t need to be utilized.
Hopefully by now, you’re starting to see the benefits of considering more than
just calories. There is so much to this macro game and when you can create an
individualized approach to your nutrition, you win in the game of reaching results.
CARBOHYDRATES.
We’ve discussed how important protein is and we’ve broken down how crucial fats
are… So why do we need carbs?
“Because they’re tasty and I crave them, all the time….?”
No, not quite. Although that statement holds a lot of truth to many of the people
reading this right now, it’s not why we should be consuming carbohydrates in our
diet.
It’s because it creates balance and allows us to thrive. Each macronutrient has
benefits and “duties” in our bodies, which allow us to live life at a much higher level.
Which is why I don’t think we should neglect any of the macros. But here are some
specific examples as to what carbs help with:
• Performance, first and foremost. Carbohydrates aren’t technically needed

to survive and go about daily tasks and activities, but if you want to
perform… then carbs are your fuel. Carbs are the body’s primary fuel source
when it comes to higher intensity activities and muscles being able to
actually work for us.
• Recovery is another huge reason and although protein is the number one
source for this, carbs help replenish muscle glycogen for future performance
and actually can help rebuild muscle tissue when protein isn’t available or is
scarce.
• Hormonal health. Even though fats are known as the big mover for hormonal
balance, if we do not consume enough carbs we risk negatively impacting
hormones like leptin, ghrelin, the thyroid, and even the adrenals. Mainly
hormones revolving around metabolism and energy/fatigue (adrenal

glands). Now you can keep those regulated and balanced on a low carb
diet, it just becomes a bit harder and if you’re in a situation where your
adrenals are already in pretty bad shape... you want to make sure you
include a decent amount of carbohydrates into your diet. The biggest
regulatory factor with keeping hormonal health high, is making sure you’re
not in a serious caloric deficit for too long - so all the macros matter!
• It is the easiest way to get enough fiber in your diet, because 75% of fibrous
foods are also carb dense foods. Whether that’s from veggies or fruit or
whole-wheat grains, typically more carbs will lead to more fiber. Fiber is
essential for health… But we’ll get to that later.
• Carbs are practically everywhere… And as much as that’s kind of a joke,

it’s also somewhat true. Often when we look at social settings or eating with
friends/family, carbs are included. So if we remove them completely, normal
life just gets harder. Having a balanced diet with carbohydrates included in,
allows us more freedom and flexibility that more importantly leads to more
adherence and consistency.
That about covers it for carbs, but I do want to go back and reflect on something a
bit more…. Performance.
Performance is the number one thing that will lead to body composition changes,
from a strength and muscular standpoint. See nutrition is by far the biggest mover
for fat loss – if you don’t focus on it, you’re not going to get far. But if you’re not
training, hard, then you’re not going to create long-term results or a body that you
truly can be proud of.
So if we can utilize carbohydrates in our diet in order to train much harder, then we
will build more muscle, burn more fat, and even just burn more calories per session
– because we have more energy!
That is why the term, “Eat less move more” makes sense from a technical and
scientific basis. Because yes, less calories in and more calories out means you will
burn fat – but after a certain period of time, your body will not work as efficiently
because it’s energy is beginning to be tapped out (this is going to effect hormones
and a gang of different things).
The term I instil and try to preach to my clients is “Eat more, train more”.
This way, everything is thriving and although it may take a little longer for fat and
weight to start falling off your body… the results will last MUCH longer and they will
be MUCH more prominent.
(When it comes to building muscle, eat more train more is the ONLY way to go…)
For example, ever enter your info into a calorie calculator (maybe you did on part 1
of this article series) and the number you saw, seemed to be really high?
Maybe it actually was way above what you were currently taking in?
Well, it’s because in an ideal world you would be losing fat or even maintaining
weight at the number you received.
We need to be aware and always remember that losing weight or body fat at the
highest amount of calories is always going to be ideal. In fact, we pretty much
always want to practice the “minimal effective dose” principal when it comes to
cutting calories or adding in cardio.
Because again, going at it too hard and to fast can have detrimental effects to
your health and will cause weight loss to stall shortly after it starts. This is why so
many struggle to lose weight or transform their bodies on their own. Patience and
consistency take accountability.
Calculating Your Macros
So now you know everything you really need to know when it comes to what macros
are and why they’re important, together and individually. So what’s next?
Next is breaking down where you should be at with each macronutrient.
So for easy math, we’re going to go back up to our client example Matt and base our
calculations off his stats.
He was 198lbs and as you remember in Part 1 Energy Balance, we should multiply
his bodyweight by 10 to get his estimated maintenance (remember that this isn’t the
way I do this nor recommend most, but since we don’t have his food logs from the
past 2 weeks it’s what we’re going to use).
So his maintenance is 1,980 and we’re going to round up to make things easy (you
can do this too, round up or down to the closest 50) and give him 2,000 calories.
Besides Matt’s pick up games a few days a week, he’s pretty inactive so we’re going
to use 1.3 (low end) as his activity multiplier.
2,000 x 1.3 = 2,600 calories
We’re going to cut 500 calories per day, in hopes of getting a 3,500 weekly caloric
deficit to lose 1lb of fat per week, which leaves us with 2,100 calories.
The reason I broke this down first is because we cannot determine macros without
calories being determined first, which is a big reason why part 1 was all about
calories and energy balance.
First thing to calculate is protein.
We’re always going to set this first because it’s most important in terms of having
a set number. It also changes a bit depending on where you’re at with your goals,
cutting or gaining (fat loss or muscle gain).
Studies have shown time and time again, that having a higher percentage of your
diet coming from protein will help aid muscle preservation while dieting – which is
massively important if you want to retain muscle while losing body fat.
Studies also showed that there isn’t much difference in the results of body
composition change occurring between 0.72g/lb. to 1.09 g/lb. (both which are higher
percentages than most diets). But what they did find is that the athletes on higher
protein noted less fatigue from training and did not store extra body fat despite the
extra calories coming from protein.
The big take away is simple… If you like to eat some extra protein, do it. It really
can’t harm you and there is a possibility it actually may benefit you, especially if
you’re in a serious deficit for a period of dieting.
My recommendation is to set it at your 0.7-1.2g per lb. of your bodyweight

depending on where you’re at in the weight loss spectrum (see below).
Protein Requirements For Cutting/Fat Loss
50+ lb.’s or More 0.7g x BW
30-50 lb.’s 0.8g x BW
15-30lb.’s 0.9 – 1g x BW
0-10lb.’s 1 – 1.2g x BW
Protein Requirements For Gaining/Muscle Gain
Beginner 0.8g x BW
Intermediate/Advanced 1.0g x BW
Ok let’s get back to Matt…
He’s consuming 2,100 calories, his goal was to lose body fat, and as we saw in the
example earlier on – his weight loss goal was about 20lbs.
So that puts him in the 0.9-1g per lb. category. So how do we determine the exact
number? Ease, adherence, and preference. I just ask the client or base it off what I
feel would suite them best.
In his case, because he wants more muscle mass at the end and he can eat a good
steak, we’re going to base it off 1g per lb. (and because simple math is always best).
198 x 1g = 198g -> Rounded Up For Easier Math – 200g of Protein.
This means -> 200g x 4 (calories per gram of protein) = 800 Calories.
This leaves us with 1,300 calories to spare for fats and carbs.
We’re going to tackle fat first because even though it doesn’t directly impact
his performance in the gym or on the basketball court as much as carbs do,
it’s crucial for life.
We’re going to set his fat at 25% of his calorie intake. 20% is the bare minimum for
healthy fat loss and any higher than 35% takes away from carbs and/or protein a
bit too much. So 25% is plenty for hormonal health and dietary flexibility, but allows
wiggle room in case we need to adjust down the road.
(15% is the absolute lowest I suggest allowing fat intake to reach and that is when
you’re on an extreme fat loss protocol or have 50+ lbs. to lose)
2,100 calories x 0.25 = 525 calories
525 calories ÷ 9 (calories per gram of fat) = 58.333333… Lets call it 60g, which is
actually 540 calories and not 525.
540 calories + 800 calories = 1,340 calories
2,100 – 1,340 = 760 calories left
Carbs are always the most simple to figure out; because whatever we have
left… we give to them!
760 calories ÷ 4 (calories per gram of carbs) = 190g of carbs.
So Matt’s macros are:
Daily Calories Protein Carbs Fats
2,100 200g 190g 60g
Now let’s be difficult for a minute, since I know many of you reading this out there
are just that… Difficult.
What happens if Matt keeps going over his carb intake and/or feels like his
performance is suffering a bit?
We can adjust his carbs and fats, to help him optimize adherence and performance.
We know that 20% of calories from fat is the bare minimum, which would be 46g of
fat in his case. So we can strip some fat and add some carbs.
2,100 200g 210g 50g
What happens if he is performing just fine, but actually struggles to hit his carbs? He
keeps going over his fat and is fine being well under 210g of carbs.
2,100 200g 155g 75g
As you can see, there are a million ways to skin a cat. There is really no “best ratio”
or macro number to follow, it comes down to how you personally feel on the given
macros and exactly what you can adhere to easiest in the long run.
Low carb works, high carb works, an even balance works… They all work! Remember
that calories in vs. calories out is king, macros just allow us to fine tune things to get
you performing better and following the diet more consistently.
This is where having a coach who has experience and expertise in which macro ratios
seem to work best for the given individual and the specific goal seems to always
work out best.
It can be confusing, it can be overwhelming, and it can be hard to determine what
you individually need – but if you can manage the math and be patient, your results
will speak for themselves.
If you want a chance to have your macros created specifically for you, without you
having to worry about which ratio to choose and how to adjust along the way, Click
Here Now and Apply for a Free Consultation Call. We’ll discuss what would be best
and how we can create a straight path to results, without the confusion and stress.
Here’s a table to summarize the above calculations:
General Macro
Recommendations
Protein Fats Carbs
Cutting 1 – 1.2g Per lb. 15-25% of

Whatever is left!
(Fat Loss) of Bodyweight Total Daily Calories
Gaining 0.8 – 1g Per lb. 20-30% of
Whatever is left!
(Muscle Gain) of Bodyweight Total Daily Calories
So what’s left?
FIBER.
The last thing to touch on is fiber, which is really important for gut health and overall
satiety because it is filling – again, something we want to utilize when on a serious
diet.
A healthy intake for daily fiber is generally 20g for an average sized female and 25g
for an average sized male. Another easy way to calculate it would be to give yourself
10g for every 1,000 calories; so 20g for 2,000 calories or 15g for 1,500 calories.
This is general and you’ll have to play with things. For example, I consume roughly
2,500 calories daily and I easily hit 45g of fiber per day.
As long as I feel ok with this and it’s not causing any gut issues, I’m absolutely
safe to consume this amount. If I decide to cut calories, it’ll likely lower as my
carbohydrate intake lowers because fiber is a part of your daily carb intake.
If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve officially completed the 2 most crucial parts in setting
up your diet for body composition changes – Calories and Macros.
We still have much to cover but I will say that you’ve gotten through the biggest
parts of this whole “diet thing” we’re all so interested in.
Stay tuned for parts 3-5…
We’ve literally laid out the foundations of body composition change and
transformation when it comes to nutrition, so if you missed Part 1 or Part 2 I’d
suggest jumping back and reading those first – Energy Balance (Calories) and
Macros.
And now, we’re moving on to a smaller part of the pyramid – but not much smaller in
the size of importance, more so smaller in the sense of weight, measurement, etc…
See most people focus so much on calories and macronutrients because it gives you
a quick and direct change when you adjust or alter them. And it’s true, those 2 are
the most important to get the scale moving and seriously cut fat from the start.
They’re also the big movers when it comes to slapping on serious muscle mass or
immediately improving recovery and performance.
“Ok ok… so why do we even need to worry about the rest? You sold me on calories
and macros man!”
Let’s find out…
PART 3 – MICRONUTRIENTS
So let’s break down what micronutrients truly are.
Mi•cro•nu•tri•ent – A chemical element or substance in trace amounts for the

normal growth and development of living organisms.
This essentially means “the small formed nutrients that living things actually need in
order to survive, grow, and develop from day 1”.
And there you go! The reason why you need to focus on these is because you won’t
survive long without them. That’s not a scare tactic but the reality of the matter is
you really do need to pay attention to them in order to feel good, stay healthy, live
longer, and maintain the body composition you were able to change through focusing
on calories, macros, and training.
Because if your goal is to not only get a result, but keep that result for the long run –
then micro’s come into play and need to become a priority.
See as you diet and train, you deplete fluids, nutrients, and calories and as you can
imagine, that means you should be replenishing not only the fluids and calories but
also the important nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.).
We’ll get to all that soon, because I need to not only tell you that you deplete these
nutrients but also which ones you’ll need to focus on the most and how to make sure
you’re getting enough in.
“So why Macro and Micro?”
Really simple… Macro means big and Micro means small. Macros are needed in much
greater quantities from a measurement standpoint, where as Micros are measured in
much smaller quantities.
Grams vs. Milligrams (sometimes even smaller).
Defining Your Micros.
There are really just two main micronutrient categories that we need to worry about
and that’s ‘Vitamins’ and ‘Minerals’.
This is not going to be a major list of all the vitamins and minerals out there, you’ll
need to do a Google search for that or maybe check out your nearby science class
for a periodic table
But I will give you the basic definitions as well as a few key micronutrients I think
you should probably be focused on including into your diet.
MINERALS.
There are two types of minerals that we consume on a regular basis; these include
macrominerals, which our body needs in bigger doses, and trace minerals, which our
body needs in smaller doses.
The macrominerals include potassium, calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, sodium, chlorine,

and magnesium. Most of these are electrolytes, which directly link to our fluid intake,
and if we don’t have balance with these, hydration and performance become a big
issue.
The trace minerals include iron, copper, iodine, selenium, zinc, molybdenum, and
cobalt (there are more, but these are the big hitters). Even though these are needed
in much smaller quantities, these are just as important to get in your diet as the
macrominerals are.
VITAMINS.
Vitamins come in two different types, just like the minerals do, but it’s related to
how they’re absorbed and utilized in the body. We have fat-soluble and water-soluble
vitamins.
Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed and utilized with the assistance of fat through
the small intestines and tend to stay in the body much longer than water-soluble
vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins, as you probably imagined, are absorbed with the
assistance of water – but this is also why we don’t hold onto these vitamins as long,
because they get excreted through urine and sweat pretty regularly.
A, D, E, and K.
Fat-Soluble Vitamins (“ADEK”)
All 8 Forms of Vitamin B.
Water-Soluble Vitamins Vitamin C.

The truth is, knowing the ADEK acronym and trying to memorizing a part of the
periodic table really doesn’t do you much justice in transforming your body or even
trying to cure deficiencies for the most part.
Because even then, you’d still likely need to search up all the different foods
containing those nutrients so that you could try and include them more often.
But what is really important to realize, is that you do need to focus on getting 80-
90% of your calories from whole foods and practice variety inside your diet. Doing
this will allow you get all that you need, without the stress.
So unlike cutting calories, this takes a different mindset. This takes an “Inclusive
Mindset” rather than an “Exclusive Mindset”. So start focusing on adding things in
rather than constantly worrying about taking things out.
2 SCENARIOS YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT.
There are really only two times we really need to be concerned about becoming
deficient and/or not getting enough of these micronutrients.
Those two times are when we’re starting to get really lean (1) and when we’re
simply excreting a lot of fluids (2), which could be simply training hard and drinking
a lot of water (75% of you reading this). In other words, you’re peeing and sweating
a lot.
First this is because fat-soluble vitamins can store in the fat cells of our body, making
them become more readily available without constant consumption of them. Which
is why at the start of a diet you’re very unlikely to be depleted or deficient in any of
those vitamins.
Second it’s because when we’re excreting more fluids than normal, by training hard
and urinating frequently, we’re removing those water-soluble vitamins from our
bodies.
Again, rather than taking a bunch of supplements and vitamins you can simply focus
on getting more variety and whole foods into your diet. 9 times out of 10, that is
more than enough to provide the nutrients you need.
Most Commonly Deficient Nutrients

By Training Athletes and Bodybuilders
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Iron
Calcium
Vitamin-D
Magnesium
So what’s the worry with this and how do they relate to your training and body
composition goals specifically?
• A Zinc Deficiency can lead to negative metabolism impacts.
• An Iron Deficiency can lead to a negative strength impact.
• A Calcium Deficiency can lead to a negative bone health impact.
• An Omega-3 Fatty Acid deficiency can lead to a negative hormonal

impact.
• A Vitamin-D Deficiency can lead to a negative hormonal impact.
• A Magnesium Deficiency can lead to negative impacts on the nervous

system and muscle recovery, hydration, and more.
So as you can see, it can’t be all about macros and calories – whether they play the
biggest role or not, there is a place for each and every piece of the nutritional puzzle.
If you want more information on exactly how to incorporate some of these possibly
deficient micronutrients directly through your diet, click here now and check out my
article “The Top 3 Most Commonly Missed Micronutrients”.
As you can see, there’s much less to cover here then there was in parts 1 and 2.
That’s because there is much more individuality needed in order to achieve drastic
changes in your body composition than there is for general health.
This is also typically why most people ignore the importance of this section, because
health is boring and it won’t change your body composition immediately like having a
specific macro plan can.
But I’ve experience what it looks like to ignore the micro, personally and over the
years working with so many individuals. I’ve seen countless people ignore this and
then come to me for coaching, hoping to break the plateau they’re stuck in and
finally just feel better.
The case with many of them was simply getting them to focus a little bit more on
what they’re eating, rather than just how much.
So here’s a table to break down exactly how to cover your bases:
HEALTH & MICRONUTRIENT RECOMMENDATIONS
Water Intake 2/3 of Bodyweight in Fluid Ounces
Servings of Fruit Per Day 1 Serving Per 1,000 Calories

Servings of Greens or Fibrous
2+ Servings Per 1,000 Calories
Veggies Per Day
Percentage/Ratio of Whole Foods
to Other 80-90% or “The 90/10 Rule”
(General Recommendation)
Want to apply for an opportunity to have your nutrition completely designed for you,
making sure that every aspect is individualized and optimized for results? Click Here.
This is the part where people start to get excited, because things like “meal timing”
and “feeding frequency” sound sexy in the nutrition industry.
But the truth is, this topic is coming 4th in the line up for a reason – it’s not nearly
as important as dialing in your calories, tracking your macros, and keeping your
micronutrients on point to stay healthy.
So before we dive into this topic, I have to say one thing.
If you haven’t locked down parts 1-3 yet, don’t worry about this one for now.
Go back, read part 1 and part 2 again, and then once your progress stalls or you
reach a plateau – come back and apply what I’ll be covering in this section.
PART 4 – MEAL TIMING & FREQUENCY
What exactly is meal timing and frequency?
Meal Timing & Frequency – A specific strategy or plan around when you will be
eating each specific meal and how many meals you will be consuming on a given
day.
This is really just your meal prep strategy, not to make this boring or anything… but
that’s the truth and before I break down science, I’d like you to consider taking a
simplistic approach so that you do not overthink this subject.
That being said, we’re going to break this down starting with the fundamental basics
that 75% of people can implement and then dive into the more advanced strategies
like diet breaks and refeed days.
MEALS PER DAY.
This is where many people get confused, because it matters about half as much as
you once believed.
See for a long time it was believed that the meals you eat in a given day determines
your metabolic rate and as we all know, a fast metabolism allows for faster fat loss
and a longer life span.
But the issue here is that belief has been disproved many times now. Our metabolic
rate has far less to do with how many meals per day we eat and far more to do with:
• Our Total Caloric Intake.
• Our Activity Level and Types Of Activity Being Done (i.e. training, cardio, etc.)
• Our Recovery Capability (Better Recovery = Better Metabolism)
• Our Current Muscle Mass (Muscle Tissue Is Energy Taxing)
• And Lastly, Our Specific Hormonal Profile (Things Like Thyroid, For Example,
Need To Be Healthy For Our Metabolism To Be Good)
But nowhere in there did we see meals per day. As you may have heard before, “You
need to stroke the metabolic fire”.
This basically meant that the more often you eat, the more you’re “Stroking The
Fire” and in turn you were constantly boosting your metabolism. And this actually
makes sense, when we consider what actually matters…
See these guys in the bodybuilder world were eating massive amounts of calories
and they were able to be healthy, build muscle and burn calories. When eating these
high amounts of calories, they needed to consume 6-7 meals per day – because if
they only ate 3, they couldn’t eat enough in order to reach their caloric intake for the
day.
Now the issue was that many people were taking this advice, yet were in different
shoes… A 300lb bodybuilder is in a different place than a 150lb women; therefore as
he may have needed to eat 6 meals per day, where as she could’ve gotten away with
only 3.
The big takeaway from this is that we need to make sure we’re training properly, not
over doing cardio, eating enough food, and recovering properly. All of that will lead
to a faster metabolism and less body fat.
So the best way to set up your meals, is actually going to be based off of what you
personally can adhere to best. That way you can stay consistent, because that’s
actually what matters here.
Now if you need to dial in your caloric intake, go back to part 1.
If you’re struggling to hit the rest of the key bullet points, you can apply for a
strategy call where we can determine exactly how your nutrition would be set up for
success – right here.
“So it really doesn’t matter, at all?”
I would never say, at all.
I would say for 50% of people out there just looking to cut some belly fat, it really
doesn’t matter. But there are many circumstances that it can pay off to split up your
meals properly. So if your macros are dialed in, you’re plateaued with your fat loss,
you need to focus on muscle maintenance during a fat loss cut, or you specifically
are looking to build muscle…
Pay attention to this next part…
WHEN MEAL TIMING DOES MATTER.
Performance – as you’re probably well aware of, there are many athletes who
have to train, practice or play multiple times per day. The same scenario happens
with weight lifting athletes as well and in these cases, timing your meals for optimal
performance is a big factor.
So in the cases of these athletes, the goal is simple to rehydrate and replenish fuel in
order for the next competition or match. Whether that’s 1 hour away, 5 hours away,
or 1 day away.
Competing at any high performance event will deplete most of your fuel and if you
do not replenish that fuel before your next event, you risk performance and your
placement at competition.
In this guide, I’m not going to go into details about which nutrients or sources to
use, how much you need to consume between, or timing it simply because it’s so
individualized.
[ For more GREAT Free Resources on Plateau Busting Strategies, Click Here Now ]
Aesthetics – this is regarding bodybuilding or physique athletes and anyone who

is training and tracking their nutrition to see better results from their hard efforts,
which is likely 75% of you reading this right now.
This part right here is less to do with “meals” and more to do with “nutrients”.
Timing your nutrients across your day is a strategy that can help you deliver the
right nutrients at the right time, to enhance specific things allowing you to adhere to
a diet better or just see better results in general from that diet.
This is where we will cover the following: Meal Planning and Strategy,
Pre-workout Nutrition, Post-Workout Nutrition, Muscle Protein Synthesis and Better

Satiety, Carb-Cycling, and Refeed Days.
MEAL PLANNING AND STRATEGY.
This is going to be our first and most important key regarding meal timing. Why?
Because, like I’ve mentioned many times in this series thus far, adherence is number
1 and because of that – planning is key.
When someone has a specific strategy or plan of when and what they will be eating,
it drastically increases adherence and consistency. At the end of the day, this is the
most important thing because if you can stick to your nutrition plan… than your
nutrition plan is failing you.
This is also a big factor because you’ll need to be fully aware of what feels best,
to you personally. For some individuals, 5-6 smaller meals per day will work best
because they get hungry often, they’re “snack-eaters”, they have trouble digesting
large meals, or maybe they just simply prefer to eat more often. They feel best this
way and that’s the important thing, because again – adherence.
Whereas some individuals are going to do much better on 3-4 bigger meals per day;
this may be because they don’t like to stop and eat so frequently or maybe their
schedule literally doesn’t allow for it, they don’t get satisfied from many tiny meals
per day, their gut can handle a bit more digestively speaking, or maybe they just
enjoy a big feeding!
At the end of the day, the amount of meals doesn’t matter.
But what does matter is having a system around it and letting your body adapt and
get used to the amounts of meals you consume each day.
Studies have actually shown that inconsistency with meal timing and frequencies
(changing up when and how often you eat, regularly) can actually decrease energy
expenditure and insulin sensitivity. Now obviously at times it’ll need to change, but
as often as you can I suggest you make a plan and stick to it. Your body and results
will thank you for it.
Big Key Point: Planning is a major piece to this game and it’s now been shown that
it can actually benefit you, not only from being able to stay consistent but also on
a fat loss perspective. So whether you eat 3 or 7 meals per day, make a choice and
commit to it.
PRE-WORKOUT NUTRITION.
Studies have showed us over time, that there is a lot of mixed evidence in the
literature. At the end of the day, it’s all individually based. Some people thrive on
having carbs pre workout and others seem to crash.
But there are a few key points we do need to touch on, because we do have proof
that certain things are important and we also have decades of experience from many
top level athletes and strength coaches to show that certain things do work better
than others (how much carbs, protein, timing it all, digestion, etc….).
Protein.
This is one thing we do know; we should be taking in some form of protein within
1-3 hours prior to training and the closer you are to your training, the more easily
digestible the protein source should be. This is essentially what made whey protein
shakes and powders so popular, because it was a quick and simple fix to help people
get the protein in that they needed without disturbing digestion too much if at all.
But regardless of the source of protein, you just need to get it in. One of the most
important things to consider are that your protein is coming from a leucine rich
source (a very important amino acid) and that it agrees with your gut because you
cannot focus on training if you’re focused on digesting (your body will send blood to
the gut to work, instead of the muscles to work).
Big Key Point: Protein prior to training allows your body to have the right amino
acids in store to avoid excessive breakdown and aid proper recovery. We want your
body to work hard and use the right fuel source for training, while being ahead of the
game with recovering. So whether your goal is performance, strength, muscle mass,
fat loss, or general health and longevity – this applies to you.
Carbs.
This is completely independent on the individual’s personal fuel source preference,

which many people actually do not know. So in most cases, we’ll test this out to see
where they’re at. Try training with a protein + fat based meal and then try training
with a protein + carb based meal, then take notes and determine which felt best.
As simple as that sounds, it’s really the best way to go about it. You can also look at
your typical dieting history – where do you tend to naturally go too? Fats or carbs?
That may tell you a lot about what your body craves and thrives on. But it may not
be enough, to be honest. Because in many cases, you can alter what your body uses
by choosing one and letting your body adapt – this is called metabolic flexibility.
So what do we know?
We do know that carbs are the primary fuel source for the body when it comes to
intense training and fats are the primary fuel source for very low intensity activity.
There for in my experience, usually carbs win here.
Big Key Point: Anything will work; the key is you need some kind of fuel. Food
is fuel and fuel is what allows your body to not only survive, but truly thrive and
function at an optimal level. But in 75% or more of cases, carbs tend to be the best
choice and just like protein – you should consume some 1-3 hours prior to training.
Carbs have slow digesting sources and fast digesting sources, so it’s important to
match the timing to the digestion rate. If it’s a higher fiber, protein and fat carb
source, push it out a bit. If it’s something that is pure carb, like white rice, it can be
much closer to training and actually may help your energy levels for that session.
Fats.
Fat’s don’t play a big role here, but figured I’d add them in order to make this
complete and keep confusion at bay.
Many will tell you not to eat carbs and fats together, I’ll just be real and let you know
that’s a myth and you really don’t have to worry about it – unless you’re eating
excessive amounts together and they’re coming from majorly processed sources.
In most cases, a little bit of fat is actually really beneficial. For a couple reasons;
first because we need fats in our diet, so what else can we do besides add a bit in
each meal? It’s never great to have all of one macronutrient in a single meal. Second
because it slows digestion down, keeping insulin levels steady and actually allowing
the carbs and protein consumed to be spread out for a much more even and long
lasting energy.
Big Key Point: Fat is more important on a daily intake spectrum, but you don’t need
to completely leave it out when considering your pre and post workout meals.
Pre-Workout Nutrient Requirements

Protein Carb
GOAL: Fat Requirements
Requirements Requirements
Doesn’t Matter. 5-15g With Your
Gaining 25-45g You’ll be consuming enough Meal
(Muscle Growth) 1-3 Hours Prior daily overall that this (Too Much Can Slow Down
shouldn’t be a main focus. Digestion Too Much)
10-20% of Total
Cutting 25-45g 5-10g
Carbs 1-3 Hours
(Fat Loss) 1-3 Hours Prior With Your Meal
Prior

POST-WORKOUT NUTRITION.
There’s really only 3 debates or reasons to consider post workout nutrition. The
first being glycogen replenishment (restoring carbs post training), the second being
insulin sensitivity being higher (allows for better storage of carbohydrates), and the
third being the hormonal response of consuming food post workout.
Let’s tackle the first one, first… because Glycogen Replenishment is the only
one that really isn’t worth worrying much about. In 90% of cases, the person
training will not need to worry about replenishing glycogen storage immediately post
workout.
The reason being is simple, you’re just not doing that much.
And that’s not me calling you a wimp or saying you don’t train hard, it’s just the facts
behind what actually causes true glycogen depletion. The truth is, even some of the
highest-level bodybuilders really don’t tap out their glycogen stores until they’re 4
weeks out from being on stage.
Extremely glycolytic training is rare to come by. It’s usually really high-level crossfit
athletes, ultra-marathon or extreme endurance athletes, and people who are
performing multiple high intensity training sessions per day.
But when it comes to just generally building muscle or burning body fat, you won’t
really be in this realm.
Add to that, you will get full glycogen replenishment within a 24-hour period after
your training session, even on a regular or moderate carbohydrate intake.
Insulin Sensitivity is something I would consider and in my own coaching, I do
implement strategies around it.
Insulin sensitivity is essentially a term used to represent our body’s ability to intake
calories and carbohydrates. When we’re insulin sensitive, we tend to absorb nutrients
more easily into the muscle, rather than store as body fat. Which is why many
enhanced athletes (steroids) use a synthetic version of insulin.
What studies have proven is that our insulin sensitivity becomes higher and more
responsive around training – specifically resistance training and full body strength
training. This means training our muscles, the more the better, allows our body to
store nutrients easier.
For that exact reason, it makes sense to take advantage of this and consume a good
amount of your carbohydrates around your training sessions. Both pre, during and
post – but in 90% of people’s circumstances, pre and post is all we need to worry
about. Pre is for those extreme athletes who made need fuel as the event goes on,
to perform at the highest possible level.
Hormonal Responses are another reason to consider keeping a post workout meal
routine on point.
When we train, there is a hormonal cascade going on in our bodies. Because training
is breaking homeostasis and forcing our body to adapt to serious and possibly
threatening events – sounds scary but this is good, if we adapt we build and if we
build our physique changes.
During and after training, our body is experiencing higher levels of testosterone,
growth hormone, insulin, metabolism, and many more positively affected hormones.
But it also creates a massive cortisol response, because when our body is in threat
that is the hormone that allows us to spike adrenaline and “fight to survive” so-
to-speak. Although this is a positive during training, because it may help intensity,
it’s also a potential negative because cortisol is a catabolic hormone (catabolism is
breaking down of muscle).
So how can we take advantage of this? Simple. Feed our body nutrients that will
compliment the positive hormones and negate the negative.
Consuming a protein-based meal will allow you to do both of those things, as long as
it’s within about 1-3 hours. So it’s pretty easy to accomplish this.
As for the cortisol response, I’d actually suggest getting carbs in for this one to
negate. But you only need to worry about it, seriously at least, if you’re training in
a very intense fashion. This is why when I have a crossfit athlete who is training at
a very high level, I will have them supplement with fast absorbing carbohydrates
pretty rapidly after their workout – then save the rest for 1-3 hours later.
Post-Workout Nutrient Requirements

Protein Carb
GOAL: Fat Requirements
Requirements Requirements
10-30% of Total
25-45g 5-15g With Your
Gaining Carb Intake
1-3 Hours Meal (Too Much Can Slow
(Muscle Growth) 1-3 Hours
Post Workout Down Digestion Too Much)
Post Workout
10-30% of Total
25-45g
Cutting Carb Intake 5-10g
1-3 Hours
(Fat Loss) 1-3 Hours With Your Meal
Post Workout
Post Workout
High 25-45g 15-40g 1-3 Hours Later
Intensity 1-3 Hours Immediately 5-10g With
Athlete Post Workout After Session Later Meal
& 10-30% of Carb Intake

Big Key Point: Post workout nutrition is similar to pre workout nutrition, but may
actually not be as crucial if you’re not a seriously high level athlete. But it may be
something to look into in order to better absorb the nutrients and calories you’re
taking in.
MUSCLE PROTEIN SYNTHESIS AND SATIETY.
Don’t let the fancy words confuse you, it’s not that complicated, I promise.
MPS (Muscle Protein Synthesis) in the simplest form is the anabolic response
our body has from both training and consuming protein. When we do either of these
things, our body responds by spiking MPS. When we get this spike of MPS, our body
will replenish and build tissue (muscle).
So for this exact reason, it’s important to spike MPS often enough. This is going to
allow you to recover faster and more efficiently, which will help your performance
and general ability to build new muscle tissue.
The best way to make sure you’re doing this is to eat protein every 3-5 hours, which
goes hand in hand with my recommendation of how many meals you will be eating –
because technically you could consume 3 or 6 meals and still accomplish a solid level
of MPS. My recommendation, from what I’ve seen to work best with the hundreds of
clients I’ve worked with, is to eat 4 meals per day.
“What if my goal is fat loss? I don’t care about muscle mass!”
By now you should know, but I want to make it clear because it’s a common concern.
The best answer to this is that training for more muscle is likely to be the best
training for fat loss, because you will likely burn more calories during it and if you do
build any muscle tissue that will also cause you to burn fat and lose weight.
At the end of the day, nobody is going to build enough muscle to be shocked with
how big they’re getting (assuming you’re natural) – especially if you’re in a caloric
deficit! It’s scientifically impossible!
Satiety is another really important thing to consider when we look at meal timing
and nutrients per meal, because if we can tweak things to increase our satiety rate
we can more easily follow a diet plan (nothing is easy when you’re hungry all the
time).
So how can we tweak to make this more beneficial for us? Simple – eat protein more
often!
This is the other reason it’s important to eat protein in every meal and shoot for 3-5
meals per day. Protein is the most satiating nutrient of all three macronutrients. It
has a higher thermic effect, meaning it burns more calories to digest, and will leave
you much fuller for the low amount of calories it contains.
Big Key Point: 3-5 meals per day, containing protein in each meal (25-45g
depending on bodyweight, to be exact) is going to be ideal for just about anyone
who wants to be healthy, lose fat, build muscle, or perform better. This one is an
important key!
CARB CYCLING.
This is a really fancy way of saying, “Eat more calories on training days and less on
rest days”.
But as simple as that sounds, it can work depending on where you’re at in your
fitness journey – but probably not for the reason you think.
Fat loss is mainly predicated based off of your daily and therefore weekly caloric
intake. So if you need to be in a deficit, it doesn’t matter if you have high and low
days as long as your weekly caloric intake is in check.
Which is why the main reason this would makes sense for some, is purely to increase
adherence and consistency. In other words, if it’s easier to stick to your diet when
you have some high carb days and some low carb days, rather than 7 moderate days
each week, then I think it’s a great idea. Anything to get a client following their diet
for longer is an excellent decision in my experience.
“What about having more carbs to fuel harder training?”
This is very likely a possibility, because there are studies to show that more calories,
carbs specifically, can enhance recovery and performance. Which is why while on a
low calorie diet, having high days on your training days makes a lot of sense.
But if you’re not dipping into low calorie range or you’re on a lean-gaining phase of
your diet and training, it makes more sense to have even numbers across the week
for the following reasons:
• It’s easier from a number perspective, why confuse yourself with altering
days.
• Easier for consistent planning.
• Can be easier on the gut and digestion.
• You can more easily build a routine around the meals and foods you eat.
• It may help you with your personal body-nutrition awareness.
• Remember that growth happens during recovery and recovery happens on

rest days too… So if you strip calories to low on those days, you may actually
hurt your recovery potential.
When you should implement carb-cycling:
• When you’re on a low calorie diet or have been dieting for a while, it feels
good to have high carb days and it may help you perform better on those
important sessions down the road in your cut.
• If you’re serious about your results, want to maintain as much muscle as

possible, and are looking to cut fat quick (dropping carbs low on rest or LISS
cardio days may be an advantage to you, but not a long-term strategy).
• If your normal carb intake just isn’t enough to satisfy you, drop them lower
and have a few higher days to keep you consistent week to week.
• If you have a weak or lagging body part, throw higher days on the days you
train that body part as it may help growth and improvement.
Exactly how you do this can vary, but an easy way to do so is to take 10-25% of
your total carb intake, subtract it from 2-4 days per week, and add it onto 2-4 more
difficult training days each week. Your weekly caloric intake must stay the same,
though.
Big Key Point: Carb-cycling can work, but it’s not all that it’s hyped up to be and
the main reason it works is if it just makes you more adherent and consistent on
your diet plan. Overall calories and macros being consistently hit will always trump
these strategies.
REFEED DAYS.
No… not a “cheat day!!”
I don’t like to use that term simply because it implies that you’re doing something
wrong and it never ends well, physically and psychologically. For that reason, I prefer
refeed days.
Refeed days are absolutely necessary during a fat loss phase and should be
implemented in most peoples diet plans for multiple reasons.
Sanity is the first and most important reason to discuss. This is simple… Dieting is
tough and after a while, you want to throw in the towel – which usually looks more
like eating a tub of ice cream or downing a 12 pack of beers.
So how do we stay sane, trust the process, adhere long-term, and not ruin our
progress from binging when we’re tired of eating like this? Refeed day(s).
This is really just a day where you would bring your calories up to maintenance or
just slightly above that, depending on the person and their metabolic capacity, and
do so purely from carbohydrates specifically.
The reason for this is simple; they’ll be more likely to go to work for you rather than
against you. If you’ve followed this system this far you should be eating plenty of fat
to optimize hormones and get by just fine, so if you added more they may get stored
as body fat (we don’t want that). But if we add carbohydrates, it may help digestion,
metabolism, performance, and most likely aids in whatever you enjoy eating most.
Boosting Metabolism is something that many have talked about for years, because
studies showed that the big increase in calories and carbs increased the hunger
hormones leptin and ghrelin temporarily, which in turn stimulated metabolism more.
The issue with these studies, being done on rats, is that one meal is equivalent to
1-2 days for a human… So the response is much more radical for a rat, than it would
be for someone like you or me.
More studies were done and they determined that a 24-hour period of increasing
calories or carbohydrates just isn’t enough to truly boost your metabolic rate.
So what does this tell us? It tells us that 1 day refeeds absolutely have their place,
for better adherence – which is the #1 priority in any fat loss phase or program.
It also tells us that if someone is suffering from a low metabolism or any other
hormonal down regulation, we should possibly add 2 back-to-back refeed days per
week. With this, we can keep the weekly caloric intake in check and also improve
this metabolic issue they’re struggling with. Total weight loss week to week may
be less than the other individual whom we can be more aggressive with, but when
metabolism and health are something we need to seriously pay attention to it’s
worth the slower and more patient route.
Big Key Point: For fat loss, refeeds make sense. If you’re trying to gain, it doesn’t
really serve much of a purpose because you should just be in a surplus daily anyway.
If you have no hormonal issue, one day per week is fine. If you have any hormonal
issues, 2 days in a row or a full week every 8-12 weeks makes the most sense for
repairing the hormones and reaching your long-term goals. If a day of eating more
food would trigger a binge response, my suggestion is to not have a refeed at all and
focus on having a more moderate deficit while just being patient with your fat loss.
An Ideal Day Of Eating:
MEAL: Protein Carb Fat
Meal 1 25-45g Veggies 5-20g
Meal 2 25-45g Veggies 5-20g

Meal 3 25-45g Starchy Carb 5-20g
(Pre Workout)
Meal 4 Starchy Carb

25-45g 5-20g
(Post Workout) + Veggies

We’ve broken down just about everything there is to know about creating a specific
diet plan for serious results, regardless of your specific goal. But there is always this
one last topic that everyone wants to talk about.
And I put it last for a reason; it’s the least important of all. Therefore you should
never put all your focus on this one thing, because without any of the rest it’s just
splitting hairs.
Part 5 – SUPPLEMENTS
Let’s actually define this, because it only clarifies my statements above.
Sup•ple•ment – Something that completes or enhances something else when

added to it.
The big key to look at there is where it says, “Enhances something else”. What is
that something else? Parts 1-4 are exactly what the something else is!
Which is why we’ll still be getting into this, because at the end of the day
supplements can and will help your results out as long as you truly are following the
systems laid out previously (calories, macros, micros, and meal timing).
QUALITY AND PURITY.
Before we can get into what supplements actually work and which are worth
investing in, depending on your specific goals, we need to touch on the fact that
there are a lot of scams out there that should leave you cautious of purchasing on a
whim.
So there are 4 things to check for first or avoid completely:
• USP Label – most general vitamins and supplements may be verified from
lab studies and if they have, they should have a USP label on the bottle. This
is a simple and easy way to be sure the supplement is not only a legit source
but also truly contains what it claims to contain.
• Labdoor.com – this is a free website (check it out here) you can actually visit
and search products, because not all will have the USP label (it’s expensive
and tedious). But this gives you a way to research what you’re about to
purchase and see what’s actually inside that bottle, so you can make the
right decision on brand.
• Brand New and Unknown Products – when the new Kreatine Alkaline hit the
shelves, we stayed clear of it. Why? First of all, they spelt creatine with a K
and I don’t trust any brand with misspelled labels. And secondly because it’s
just too new to trust, which is the main reason for this. It’s unfortunately easy
to get into the supplement game and because of that, we should all be
very cautious. My suggestion is to trust the brands and products that have
stood the test of time.
• Make sure you understand what the supplement is – There’s so many people
giving advice out there who just do not know enough of the science to
truly be providing that advice, so my suggestion is to do your own research
before popping another pill from the local muscle shop. Even if you trust the
supplement, it helps to know the what’s, why’s, and how’s before doing so.
Check out Examine.com and do your research, they have everything you’ll
need to know.
EFFECTIVENESS.
Something to touch on briefly is the actual effectiveness and results seen when
taking supplements. The reason I bring this up is because marketing hypes things up
way more than what reality actually shows.
So unless you’re taking an illegal steroid or something of that caliber, do not expect
to see results that will wow you overnight.
Most supplements, ones that truly have benefits and are worth the investment,
take patience and consistency. After weeks and weeks of taking them, you begin to
perform better, recover faster, get bigger, lose more fat, or become healthier.
It’s crazy that anyone would expect otherwise… If it worked that well and that quick,
we’d all be jacked beyond belief by now.
RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTS
The list below is a list of supplements that I either personally take, suggest my
clients to take, or I have done extensive research on in order to be able to and feel
completely ok recommending to you all.
But before I get into the specific supplements, I have to let you know that I do
believe you can, and that I have seen many do so, get results without taking any
supplements at all. With proper nutrition, sleep, and training, results will come
without all the extras.
That being said, once you’ve dialed in training and nutrition – this can be a big help
to make your body go from good to great. And because of that exact reason, these
are the supplements we’ll recommend to you depending on your specific needs.
(In other words, some will apply to you and others will not)
[Links to purchase the recommended supplements at the bottom. And I am not

affiliated, so no… I do not make money if you purchase anything – just helping you
out!]:
Multivitamins and/or Greens Powder
I typically do not promote or suggest multivitamins, because most people will rely on
that and think that their bases are covered. But the truth of the matter is far from
that.
Vitamins and minerals will be absorbed and utilized MUCH more efficiently coming
from a real food diet, therefore this is a last resort type of supplement. This is for
people who are dieting down for a show and are on low calories, therefore taking
the risk of some malnutrition. It’s also for individuals who are deficient in specific
vitamins, which may or may not be within their own control.
As for a greens powder supplement, I’m a huge fan of this and recommend it to
damn near every person I talk nutrition with.
Why? Well for one, it creates a positive habit. I’m a firm believer that the way you
start your day determines your production of that day. This is why I personally, and
have many clients, drink a greens drink with breakfast.
It’s also very low in calories and has a ton of nutrients that you may be missing on
throughout your diet or could use an extra boost in. Some being enzymes, probiotics,
and other vitamins and minerals that can help improve your gut health.
So at the end of the day, if you’re missing on any vitamins and minerals or could use
a very positive and healthy morning habit – a multivitamin or greens drink may be
for you.
Essential Fatty Acids – (EPA & DHA)
Of the essential fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaeonic acid
(DHA) have been shown in many studies to have plenty of benefits to not only health
but also fat loss and performance.
The easiest way to find an abundance (really just enough) EPA and DHA is in fatty
fish or a fish oil supplement. If you do not eat fish, you can also get this from an
algae supplement.
Whether you’re looking for health and longevity, to build more muscle, to run faster,
or to cut as much body fat as possible – I would recommend you supplement with
some form of EPA/DHA.
Ideally you’d be consuming 1.5-3g of combined EPA/DHA per day, usually this means
you’re getting about 5 servings (5 servings = 2g and there are 1,000mg per gram).
By taking this supplement, it may help with the following:
• Reduce total body inflammation (joints, brain, gut, etc.)
• Enhance mood
• Improve insulin sensitivity
• Improve the muscle protein synthesis response
• Reduction of disease risks
• Possible metabolic improvements
Vitamin D3
As many know, the more sunlight we get the more Vitamin D we get. Seems easy
enough right? Yeah sure, but unfortunately as time goes on we get less and less time
under the sun.
If we think back to ancestral times, we lived in caves and huts. Meaning we were
not working on our laptops indoors or “Netflix and Chillin” very often. Because of
that, today’s society, no matter where you live, doesn’t get enough direct sunlight to
produce the amount of vitamin d we need in our bodies.
This can impact our hormonal levels, muscular performance, immune function, and
more. So it’s pretty important to pay attention too. The best recommendation out as
of now is about 9-36/IU/lb/day. I know, math… This usually is somewhere between
3,000-6,000 IU’s daily.
Probiotic and Digestive Enzymes
Unfortunately there isn’t a ton of solid evidence or research studies that have been
done on probiotics or digestive enzymes, simply because they’re just not as popular
of a supplement (although probiotics are getting there).
But from my experience and what the little literature we do have will tell you, is that
it will help with the digestion and absorption of nutrients coming from our diets.
The reason I’m an advocate, is because our gut is the second brain and if we don’t
strive to optimize it we’re failing to invest in a big player in this game of the body.
With a healthy gut comes better performance, less disease, more fat loss, and better
brain cognition and production.
So again, in my opinion and from my personal experience – it’s worth it, because it
does help.
Digestive enzymes can be taken with your daily meals and are for anyone who
struggles to fully digest their food or feels generally bloated and gassy after eating
any given meal.
Probiotics are for anyone who just wants to optimize their guts, struggles with any
digestive/gut issues, or has any specific immune intolerance. Probiotics can also
be found in natural foods like kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut, some yogurts, and other
fermented foods.
Caffeine
Caffeine may be the most studied and proven supplement when it comes to
enhancing performance and helping burn more fat and/or build more muscle and
strength.
What it is from a science-based perspective, is a CNS Stimulant (Central Nervous

System). And when we stimulate the CNS, we allow our body to tap into sympathetic
mode – aka fight or flight. This is good when we’re training, because it allows us to
go a bit harder than we’d be able to normally.
What also happens when we stimulate the CNS is we allow our bodies to tap into
more muscle fibers, on demand so-to-speak. Think of it like an activator for our
muscles… Or like a key to start the ignition, which gets the engine to fire up and
therefore get the wheels turning a bit more.
This allows us to perform harder and burn more fat. So don’t look at caffeine as a fat
burner, look at it as a performance enhancer. Because you need to eat well and train
to burn the fat!
Anywhere from 200mg up to 500mg will work for a pre training stimulator, it really
depends on your tolerance. Tolerance is adjusted by bodyweight, history with
caffeine, and some other individual factors.
The best way to practice this is to test the waters before jumping to a massive
amount and make sure that if you’re consuming caffeine on a daily basis to cycle off
of it every once in a while as your body will adapt to it and it will lose it’s affect.
Creatine
I spoke too soon… Creatine may be the most studied and proven supplement out
there!
Creatine is not a steroid. It is not a magic drug. It will not make you “bulky”;
overeating will make you bulky.
Creatine is produced in our bodies; therefore we all actually already have it within
us. As do animals, which is why foods like red meats are a great source of natural
creatine. But in order to benefit, above average, from creatine – we need to consume
more than we produce naturally and most likely get from our diet.
Creatine will help hydrate and replenish the muscle, making recovery a bit more
optimal and faster. This, in turn, allows us to perform better. How much better? Not
much… but enough to care. We’re talking about cranking out 1 extra rep on a given
set, which over a week may actually be 50-100 extra reps and that will contribute to
more strength and muscle.
Getting creatine stores in your body up can help benefit your strength, force and
power production, muscle fullness, ability to recover, and essentially your ability to
build more muscle tissue – which benefits us all.
The best part about it all… It’s cheap! Creatine is known to be a cheaper supplement
that is great. You’ll only need 5g daily (about 1 teaspoon – training and non-training
days).
Protein Powder
Protein powder isn’t “needed” for building muscle, but it can help hit your daily
totally intake. That’s really it.
Protein powder is easily absorbable, quick and convenient, is relatively low calorie
because it’s pure protein in most cases, and it can save you when you struggle to
reach your protein intake day to day.
In 95% of diets, it will benefit you more to get this from real food. Not only from
a digestive standpoint, but from a satiety standpoint as well. But again, if you’re
struggling to hit your macros – I recommend having some in your kitchen for when
the situation arises.
Collagen and Bone Broth
This is a new one to hit the scene of supplements, but it’s been around since the
dawn of time. Bone broth and collagen are great supplements for general health, but
have direct correlations to improving performance.
They’ll help your gut health, digestion, muscle tissue repair, skin, hair, nails and so
many more cellular functions on your body. I highly recommend consuming this on a
weekly, if not daily, basis.
[LINKS FOR MY GO-TO SUPPS]
• Greens Powder
• EPA/DHA (Fish Oil)
• Creatine
• Caffeine
• Vitamin D3
• Probiotic
• Digestive Enzyme
• Protein Powders
• Collagen and Bone Broth
If you’re stuck with your nutrition and want expert guidance on exactly how to dial in
your meals, daily intake, and overall nutrition to finally see better results
– Click Here Now and Apply for a Strategy Call to learn more about the coaching
program helping people around the world get better results
(Expert Coaching, Non-Stop Accountability,

100% Individually Tailored To You).
References and Resources:
• Part 1: Introducing the Pyramid and Level 1 – Calories
• Part 2: Pyramid Level 2 – Macronutrients and Fiber
• Part 3: Pyramid Level 3 – Micronutrients, Vitamins….
• Part 4: Pyramid Level 4 – Nutrient Timing & Frequency
• Part 5: Pyramid Level 5 – Supplementation
• Eric Helms, PHD (3DMJ)
• JISSN – https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles https:/
• examine.com/
• PubMed – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
Copyright © 2017 Cody McBroom
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical
methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The information in any of our handouts, e-books, written material,

whether provided in hardcopy or digitally (together ‘Material’) is for
general information purposes and nothing contained in it is, or is
intended to be construed as advice. It does not take into account your
individual health, medical, physical or emotional situation or needs. It is
not a substitute for medical attention, treatment, examination, advice,
treatment of existing conditions or diagnosis and is not intended to
provide a clinical diagnosis nor take the place of proper medical advice
from a fully qualified medical practitioner. You should, before you act
or use any of this information, consider the appropriateness of this
information having regard to your own personal situation and needs.
You are responsible for consulting a suitable medical professional before
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Nutrition Hierarchy BBP PDF

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THE NUTRITION HIERARCHY:

YOUR GUIDE TO SETTING UP A SUCCESSFUL NUTRITION PLAN 2

This is important for a few reasons…

Fat loss is simple. Not always easy, but simple.

And so is getting a results in 60-90 days, specifically a fat loss goal.

That’s what this is about.

“The Hierarchy Of Nutrition:

And last but not least, we need the tools necessary.

Part 1 – ENERGY BALANCE (A.K.A. Calories)

Calorie – “The energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water

So what does this really mean for you?

Well, it could be multiple things. Here are some examples:

• They’re habitually in control of their eating. Many people can monitor

THE NEXT STEP: FINDING YOUR MAINTENANCE.

1.) Baseline Multiplier (Before Activity) – Bodyweight x10 = Theoretical

everything we do outside of activity, from walking to standing to everything else

2.) Using The Activity Multiplier

Lifestyle/Training Frequency Activity Multiplier/Number

Sedentary + 3-6 Days Training/Week 1.3 – 1.6

Light Activity + 3-6 Days Training/Week 1.5 – 1.8

Active + 3-6 Days Training/Week 1.7 – 2.0

Very Active + 3-6 Days Training/Week 1.9 – 2.2

Baseline Multiplier x Activity Multiplier = Estimated Maintenance Calories

So lets bring my weight back down for example again.

170lbs x 10 = 1,700 calories

1,700 x 1.7 – 2.0 = 2,890 – 3,400

This means that if I immediately bump them up to their “maintenance” of 2,500,

Let’s look at an example of this:

Days Calories Bodyweight

Week 1 Average ~1,885 Week 1 Average ~ 165.8

Week 2 Average ~1,935 Week 2 Average ~ 165.7

Creating Your Deficit or Surplus.

Again, this is a baseline. Adjustments will need to be made. My experience has

So my advice to you is wait before you adjust. The accountability of tracking in

Rate of Weight Loss.

bodyweight per week.

Individual’s Bodyweight Rate of Loss Per Week

250 1.25 – 2.5 lbs.

225 1.1 – 2.25 lbs.

175 0.8 – 1.75 lbs.

150 0.75 – 1.5 lbs.

135 0.6 – 1.3 lbs.

Cardio Type 120 lbs. 160lbs 200lbs.

Light 24 kcals/10 Min 32 kcals/10 Min 40 kcals/10 Min

Moderate 54 kcals/10 Min 74 kcals/10 Min 90 kcals/10 Min

Hard 84 kcals/10 Min 112 kcals/10 Min 140 kcals/10 Min

Rate of Weight Gain.

When it comes to gaining weight, good weight, things are so easy.

• You need to be in a surplus, period. Body “recomps” are practically

Maybe, it depends (I know, you hate that answer).

So let’s make this easy, with another table:

Calories Above Calories Above

Lose Fat First or Build Muscle First?

This is a question I see pretty often and again, it depends.

So as you can see, it really depends on where you’re at.

Is that completely true? Probably not.

Part 2 – MACRONUTRIENTS (A.K.A. Macros)

So what are macronutrients?

Mac•ro•nu•tr•ent – A substance required in relatively large amounts by living

Protein has 4 calories per gram.

Alcohol is a chemical nutrient called ethanol, which is metabolized and processed

Why Are Macronutrients Important?

But when we consider performance, optimizing recovery, creating hormonal balance,