One of my first footy coaches taught me a simple rule as a kid… K.I.S.S.
“Keep It Simple, Stupid”, although I feel he added the stupid just for my benefit at the time
Every good dietician follows these simple rules whether you’re a vegan, have allergies or are happy eating every kind of food under the sun.
I’ve created a short summary of these rules, so enjoy…
In order of importance: Calories in/out, Macro counting, Timing, Micro counting/food composition and finally supplementation.
So let’s dissect these a little to understand better.
Calories in vs calories out is not a new principle, it’s old, simple yet highly effective and that’s why it is the most important when you are trying to change your body composition.
If you want to be smaller, eat less energy than you use up.
If you want to get larger, eat more.
To improve those results more you start to look at the breakdown of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
Using the my fitness pal app is super handy at helping you work those numbers out.
Timing comes into play now and while not as important as the above 2 rules, will still help maintain metabolism, energy and more efficient gains/losses at the right times.
Micro nutrient counting will playing a bigger part in your gut health and what I mean by that is…
‘Bread or roast veggies on the side?’
To reiterate, if you’re changing body composition, it’s more important that whatever you choose from those 2 options, it meets your carbohydrate needs for that meal.’
Supplementation has changed the way that people look at food and more often than not, for the worse
You probably don’t need to supplement anything (for weight gain or loss, consult your doctor if you have specific needs)
Once you have gotten the previous 4 rules in place, then we can look at things you’ve heard of like L-Carnitine, creatine, Protein, BCAA’s and the like.
So to recap, Cal in/out, Does it fit your macros, Time that food, Eat your veggies and supplements are not entirely necessary for everyone.
But there’s a 6th rule for any nutritional change
Adherence
Whether Weight watchers, Atkinsons, Paleo, Vegan or any other safe diet.
If you adhere to the stimulus 50% of the time then you will receive 50% of the results.
So take this information and run with it.
It’s a short summary but enough to get started.
As always if you’d like to know more, feel free to shoot us a message.
Coach Vaughn