Fitness plan and information pack

Contents

Introduction
1.0 Nutrition, weight loss, gaining muscle
1.1 The simplicity of weight loss and weight gain
1.2 Macronutrients
1.3 Adherence
1.4 Micronutrients
1.5 Supplements
1.6 Cardio for weight loss
1.7 Intermittent fasting
2.0 Gaining muscle
2.1 Why is gaining muscle important?
2.2 Calories, Macros, and Training
2.3 Case study: me
2.4 This is so complicated!
3.0 Training
3.1 Frequency
3.2 Progressive overload
3.3 Exercise selection
3.4 What would this look like?
3.5 What about abs and cardio?
3.6 A sample week
4.0 Wrapping up
4.1 Overwhelmed?
4.2 A note on expectations and weight

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 Introduction
This document contains a spread of information covering the essentials of nutrition, losing weight,
losing fat, gaining muscle, and cardiovascular exercise. Whilst it might be easier to put together a
rigid plan which caters to these components, I think it is more valuable to (as well as doing that) to
also explain some of the key concepts surrounding how these processes work, equipping you with
the knowledge to make changes and to overcome some of the common misconceptions. This way,
if you wish to deviate from a set plan, wether that be due to boredom, redundancy (you’ve become
more advanced), a change in goal posts, or a routine-change now incompatible with your plan, you
should be able to do so. Diet, in particular, is an area in which me providing a specific plan would
be reckless at worst, and ill-advised at best since I’m a) not a dietitian and b) don’t know any
specific nutritional requirements you might have. Nevertheless, this document comes with
important fitness-related information, alongside an exercise routine template that you could use for
yourselves.

1.0 Nutrition, weight loss, gaining muscle

1.1 The simplicity of weight loss and weight gain

Weight loss gets really overcomplicated, you’ll have heard of millions of diets like Keto, Paleo,
80/20 etc. They all do the same thing, and that’s creating a calorie deficit. If you consume fewer
calories than what you’re burning you will lose weight; it’s literally the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
For example, if your calorie maintenance (the calories your body uses to maintain itself everyday)
is 2500, and then you eat 2000 calories every day, you will lose weight. Conversely, if you ate 2500
calories everyday, you would not gain or lose weight, you’d stay the same; there are no excess
calories or a calorie deficit.

So, in terms of ‘what is the best diet?’ (A question I get far too often), the answer is: there isn’t one.
The answer is what you enjoy, and can therefore adhere to for an extended period of time
(because real change requires long term commitment). As long as you create that calorie deficit,
you’re going to lose weight. It makes sense, therefore, to do it with a diet that you enjoy (and is
healthy of course!1)

Some people take this knowledge and abuse it. For example, if you ate 2000 cals of purely
McDonalds everyday you’d still actually be losing weight — remember, it’s literally just calories in
versus calories out. Of course, this isn’t exactly very healthy, so still eating your 5-a-day is still
strongly advised. Also, fruit and vegetables, generally, are less calorie-dense and contain lots of

1I’m not going to go into vast detail in what constitutes a ‘healthy’ diet, mainly because I am sure that is something you
will have heard of (and been lectured about at school etc) before. In essence, a diet that is well-rounded (i.e. includes
ample amounts of protein, carbohydrates, fats, and plenty of servings of fruit and veg. Not rocket science.
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fibre which make you feel a lot fuller — so eat lots of them it’ll make life easier. It’s healthy of
course, too.

What’s my calorie maintenance? There are plenty of TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)
calculators online. It won’t differ that much from the expected value anyway, for an adult woman it
will be ~1800-2000, and for an adult male it can be from ~2500-3000, all depending on things like
activity levels, age etc which the calculator considers. If you’re worried about meticulous tracking,
don’t worry. More to come on this later.

1.2 Macronutrients
Okay so getting into more detail. Before we were talking about the quantity of food, now this is
talking about the quality (not as in how fancy it is, but as in the type). So calories can get broken
down into macronutrients:

So, you’re probably thinking ok great, what do I eat now? Unless you’re a professional athlete,
adhering to specific ratios of macros doesn’t really matter a whole lot. When it comes to training,
the important thing really is that you eat sufficient protein. Specifically, this is 0.8-1g/lb of
bodyweight. E.g. I weigh ~180 pounds, so I eat a minimum of 145g per day. This doesn’t even
need to be tracked: if I ensure that there is a decent portion of protein in each of my meals (e.g.
chicken breast, greek yoghurt, peanut butter, mince beef, protein powder etc.) I know that there is
no way I won’t be reaching this number.

In terms of what you now do with fat and carbs, it doesn’t really make a huge difference. The
quality of life you’d be losing by tracking all these precisely for the marginal gain you’d receive isn’t
really worth it. I’d recommend you reach your minimum fat intake (~50g), and just make sure that
you’re hitting your calorie target with the foods you enjoy eating. For example, I love fattier foods
(Salmon, avocado, peanut butter, pesto, chocolate, cheese etc.), so although it might be slightly
more optimal to be eating a higher proportion of carbs due to exercise performance related
reasons, I eat more fat in order to reach my calories because that’s just what I like.

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1.3 Adherence
You might be thinking: ‘okay: so do I track my cals everyday and become a slave to MyFitnessPal?’
No. Of course, you’re free to track religiously, but you don’t need to in order to make progress. I do
recommend roughly tracking on MyFitnessPal for a given time to at least get an idea of what x
number of calories looks like. I’ve been tracking for so long now, I’m not super religious with it
anymore since I have a good idea of how many calories I’ve eaten just by eyeballing it.

As long as you’re roughly reaching your macros, and that your calorie deficit is still reached, it’s not
a big deal. If one day the deficit is 700, but another it’s 300, doesn’t matter. As long as the weekly
calorie deficit is reached. Similarly, the occasional day going out for a meal isn’t going to ruin
anything long term; you’ve got to enjoy yourself from time to time.

1.4 Micronutrients
As long as you eat your 5-a-day, and you eat a well-rounded diet, you will almost certainly reach all
your micronutrient requirements (e.g. vitamins, minerals etc). If ever in doubt, a daily A-Z vitamin
from any supermarket will ensure your bases are covered if you’re particularly concerned.

1.5 Supplements
Supplements, again, is massively overblown. No supplement is some magic pill that massively
accelerates progress. The only ‘supplement’ I might recommend would be protein powder.
Disclaimer: protein powder is not some powder that works akin to steroids; as far as your body is
concerned, it’s the same as eating a bit of chicken. E.g. If you ate 30g of protein from a scoop of
powder instead of from chicken it would make essentially 0 difference long-term. Protein powder is
just for people who might find it hard to eat enough protein as part of the diet — hence the
‘supplement’ part. I very rarely use it because I eat a lot of meat anyway.

Pretty much every other supplement, despite what it claims to do, will either have 0% impact or
maybe 1%. You can build a great physique without using any whatsoever.

1.6 Cardio for weight loss

Wait, so I don’t have to exercise to lose weight? Technically…yes. But this is not a ticket to sit on
the sofa and simply watch your food intake and subsequently lose weight. We will go into more
detail later of the enormous range benefits that exercise has to offer, but, for now, purely within the
context of weight loss, I would strongly recommend doing some sort of cardiovascular exercise.
This is simply because if you are burning e.g. 300 cals from a run/walk/etc, that makes your calorie
deficit much easier to achieve.

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1.7 Intermittent fasting
Similarly with supplements, fasting is dramatically overplayed in the media. I’m sure you will have
seen some bogus claims about things like growth hormone increases and these ultra fat-burning
effects. Realistically, intermittent fasting is just a tool one can use to ensure a calorie deficit.
Sometimes, I might only eat within a ~8 hour window during the day (e.g. 2pm-10pm), since it
becomes harder to overeat in a shorter timeframe2 . Of course, if it you don’t find this useful then it
is by no means necessary. Personally, I just find it useful sometimes but not everyone enjoys it.

2 The whole breakfast is the most important meal of the day is nonsense, by the way. That phrase actually originally
stems from a very successful marketing campaign for, you guessed it, breakfast food. Even as an anthropologist, I know
that it makes no sense for our bodies to be hardwired to process food at specific times of the day since for the majority of
human evolution our meal times have been sporadic.
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 2.0 Gaining muscle

Okay, now it’s getting exciting. So you should understand how weight loss/gain is simply calories in
versus calories out, and that realistically speaking, as long as you are hitting sufficient protein, the
specific ratio of your macronutrients isn’t a huge deal — just hit your minimum fat (there isn’t a
minimum carb requirement) and you’re fine.

2.1 Why is gaining muscle important?

You might be thinking: ‘well, you’ve told me how weight loss works and that’s all I am interested in
doing, so this section isn’t important’. As well as the insanely long list of health-benefits resulting
directly from exercise stimulating hypertrophic response (i.e. exercises specifically done to causes
muscles to grow, not just raising your heart rate) and cardiovascular exercise (exercise that gets
your heart rate up and works your cardiovascular system)3 , gaining muscle also has an important
role for ‘getting into shape’.

Without getting too gritty into the details, and perhaps going down a more vain line of enquiry, a
good looking physique involves substantial muscle. I’m not saying you need to look like the next Mr
or Mrs Olympia, but having a decent amount of muscle mass is what gives the athletic, toned, and,
for some, that muscular look people so often desire.

Is this section just for men? No! Training to gain muscle is an important activity that transcends
gender. A very common concern that I hear from my female friends is that they are afraid to go
near weights as they are worried they will look ‘bulky’. For 99.9%4 of the female population, gaining
muscle results in a ‘toned’ look. I can guarantee that virtually all the top influencers with outrageous
physiques all do barbell squats, for example. I can also guarantee that nobody got bulky by
accident.

Beyond vanity and common misconceptions, gaining muscle also has utility. As we mentioned
before, weight loss is calories in verus calories out. However, if, now, your body contains more
muscle mass — which requires more energy for your body to maintain — that means your calorie
maintenance is now higher. That is, you can eat more without gaining weight now. For example,
when I started training ~4 years ago I distinctly remember 2500 cals being my calorie
maintenance. Now, 3100 is the approximately my calorie maintenance. The only difference being
that, since then, there is more muscle tissue attached to my skeleton, which requires more energy
to maintain. More food for me!

2.2 Calories, Macros, and training

3 Exercise can be both of these at the same time, by the way. They are not mutually exclusive.
4 I omit 0.01% because there do exist individuals who have exceptional bodybuilding genetics who gain muscle quickly.
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At the end of the day, the only things that are required for muscle to grow is 1. Energy 2. Protein 3.
Water and 4. Training stimulus. The last 3 are pretty straight forward; eat sufficient protein, stay
hydrated, and train hard. The first however — energy — people often get confused.

You’ve probably heard the terms ‘bulking’ and ‘cutting’. Bulking is basically eating on a calorie
surplus (e.g. eating 3000 cals everyday whilst having a 2500 cal maintenance) and cutting is
eating in a calorie deficit (e.g. eating 2000 cals everyday whilst having a 2500 cal maintenance).
Contrary to popular belief, you can put muscle on whilst in a calorie deficit — as long as it’s not too
extreme a deficit (which it shouldn’t be, anyway.)

Now, putting on muscle would be faster if you did it in a calorie surplus (literally excess calories
flying around it can use for muscle). The surplus doesn’t have to be big at all — the whole ‘turbo-
bulk’ thing of eating millions of calories everyday is a bit of bro science that will just make you gain
lots of excess fat. But, it is normal to gain fat on a bulk — just the way the body works. Your body is
hardwired to use at least some excess calories for fat. A 200-300 calorie surplus is fine if you’re
content with your body fat levels and really want to focus on putting on muscle.

If you wanted to ‘cut’ (eat in a calorie deficit) and train, you could do that. This would result in body
recomposition, where you’re gaining muscle (albeit at a slower rate than bulking) and losing fat
simultaneously.

2.3 Case study: me

Maybe this might gel it together a bit. My calorie maintenance is ~3300 cals (yes, very high —
mainly due to my genetics, activity levels, and having more muscle — muscle is an energetically
expensive tissue to maintain). For the past few months, I’ve been in a small calorie surplus to build
muscle but limit fat gain. This has been about 3500-3600 cals. I roughly track my cals and my
macros and I ensure that I’m eating my fruits and veg and hitting my protein. So at the least, on an
average day, I’m consuming ~3500-3600 healthy cals, and getting my necessary protein for
muscle protein synthesis.

2.4 This is so complicated!

There’s a lot of information here, especially about all this bulking and cutting malarky. At the end of
the day, as long as you are training hard, and eating appropriately (a manageable deficit of
calories) you will achieve results.

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 3.0 Training

3.1 Frequency

As being a part of a ‘natural’ lifter (no steroids), you need to train with high frequency. This
involves training each body part at least 2x per week5 . This is done by splitting your workouts to hit
multiple body-parts in one session. E.g.:

• Push/Pull/Legs <- 6 days per week

• Upper/Lower <- 4 days per week

• Fullbody <- 2-3 days per week

These are all great training programmes which would result in gains. I personally do Push (chest
shoulders and triceps) Pull (back and biceps) Legs because I enjoy training 6x/week. Doing a full
body workout 2-3x would still work fine. I will provide a sample of these later.

3.2 Progressive overload

This is essentially the most important thing for making progress. You could have a poor diet, or a
bad workout plan and you could still make gains (of course, at a slower rate), but if you don’t do
this, you basically won’t progress. This is literally just the slight, incremental increase in workout
‘volume’ each week. This could be doing more weight than last time or doing more reps than last
time. This gradual increase in volume/stress is what drives your body telling it to grow. It might look
something like this:

3.3 Exercise selection

A lot of novice lifters care way too much about how much they curl. Realistically, a lot your gains
come the main compound exercises which involve lots of muscle groups (e.g. rows, bench press,

5 The reason for this is because when you train you undergo muscle protein synthesis for 36-48 hours afterwards. Once
that’s over, you are not synthesising more muscle. Therefore, training 2x per week instead of 1x, will result in making
more gains.

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squats, pull ups etc). If you ensure you’re gradually improving at these sorts of exercises, it will be
a great base to make gains from and progress.

3.4 What would this look like?

Sample full body split (2-3x/week)

Dumbbell bench press 4x8-12 Italics means supersetted (means back to

back and a bigger rest after)
Dumbbell row 4x8-12
Squat into dumbbell shoulder press 4x12-15

Barbell squat 4x6-8

Bulgarian split squat 4 x12-15

Sample upper/lower split (4-5x/week)

Upper
Dumbbell bench press 4x6-8
Dumbbell row 4x6-8

Lat pull down machine 4x8-12

Dumbbell shoulder press 4x8-12

Shoulder lateral raise 3x12-15

Tricep extension 3x12-15

Bicep curl 3x12-15

Lower

Barbell squat 4x6-8

Romanian deadlift 4x6-8

Leg extension 3x12-15

Ham curl 3x12-15

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3.5 what about abs and cardio?
So, abs are way overblown by fitness media in terms of the attention that they require. I imagine
this is mainly due to the misconception that in order to get abs you must do ab exercises; the
reality is that abs are made in the gym, but revealed in the kitchen. Want abs? Maintain a calorie
deficit for a long enough period of time until your body fat % is low enough for them to appear.

In terms of the necessary training stimulus, some athletes don’t even train their abs (!), they insist
things like squats and deadlifts necessitate a strong core anyway, removing the need for specific
exercises. In reality, if you were to do a couple of sets of ab exercises a couple times a week that’s
plenty of stimulus for growth. I see way too many people doing hour-long ab blast routines
unaware of the fact their abs will never show if they don’t start lowering their body fat levels.

Therefore, I recommend picking 2 ab exercises that you enjoy (or, perhaps, hate the least!), and do
5 sets of each of those 1-2x a week tagged on at the end of a workout. This will only take 10 mins
or so, especially if you superset them.

Cardio takes a similar tune. As mentioned, cardio is a great tool to aid maintaining a calorie deficit
and has plenty of health benefits. I would suggest tacking on some cardio 1-3x a week after any of
these sessions for 10-30mins. This could be longer (30+mins), lower intensity (e.g. incline walk), or
shorter (~10mins) higher intensity (e.g. a fast row). I would recommend doing the cardio you enjoy
the most, since at the end of the day bettering adherence is the most important thing.

3.6 A sample week

Here is an example of what a week of training might look like, if you decided to do a full body and
an upper/lower workout split:

Monday FULLBODY + ABS Monday UPPER

Tuesday REST Tuesday LOWER + ABS
Wednesday FULLBODY + CARDIO Wednesday REST
Thursday REST Thursday UPPER + CARDIO
Friday FULLBODY Friday LOWER +ABS
Saturday CARDIO + ABS Saturday REST
Sunday REST Sunday CARDIO

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 4.0 Wrapping up

4.1 Overwhelmed?
This is probably loads of information, and a lot to digest. It’s not like you won’t make any gains if
you don’t follow this to a T. At the end of the day, if you progressively overload you will make gains.
Lots of people make decent gains in their first year of training (most gains are made in first 1-2
years) without knowing any of this stuff. They just go the gym and keep improving. I once met this
guy in Barcelona who had an outrageous physique and he said how he’d never counted macros
and hardly understood them. Of course, he might have had amazing genetics, but it shows you
don’t have to be religious about this stuff; fitness is supposed to enhance your life not detract from
it. I would probably recommend tracking a little to get an idea of what x grams of fat/carbs/protein
looks like or what x cals looks like in a day to start of with, however.

Train hard in the gym, don’t eat extremely high or low calories, and enjoy the process.

4.2 A note on expectations and weight

You might find people on social media or in real life appear to have a) have made more progress or
b) make progress way faster than you. I cannot emphasise enough how genetics does actually
have a really big role. There will be some people who might have excellent genetics for being
ripped and putting on muscle than others. At school I knew some very gifted athletes and it was
very frustrating not understanding why their gym-numbers and physiques were exploding and why
I was a lot slower. The reality was they simply had bodies that naturally responded to training
better and stored less fat naturally. This shouldn’t even matter anyway: the only worthwhile
comparison is the previous version of you. For virtually all people however, muscle-building is slow.
It takes much longer than losing fat. It requires some patience.

On that note, it’s worth noting that often-times tracking your weight isn’t always the best measure
of progress. Firstly, unless you’re tracking your bodyweight daily at the same time everyday, and
then taking weekly averages, it’s not really a good representation of your progress. This is because
your bodyweight fluctuates quite a lot on a 24hr basis, due to water, waste, food in the stomach,
hormonal changes, glycogen storage etc, and therefore it may not reflect the direction your weight
is actually going.

Additionally, since you will be putting on muscle, that may counter-weigh the fat that you’re losing.
This is described as body recomposition. In fact, in my first year of training I didn’t gain or lose
weight, but I rather the composition of my body had changed.

As long as you are improving, it doesn’t matter.

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