Step 2 Nutrition

Now that you have a set schedule of when you will workout we can take it a step further. This next step gets a lot more into detail but for the simplicity of things I will try my best to keep it basic. If you have made it this far great but realize that other factors play a big role when trying to become fit. Nutrition is a big key when you are trying to loose weight, gain weight, or recompose your body structure. It's great that you workout and all but if you haven't noticed any big changes, this is because you are eating unhealthy. Although statistics show that once you become more physically active, your body will start to crave healthier foods. But sometimes we can get off track and you can not overwork a diet. They say the gym is only 20% of what keeps you fit and the other 80% is in the kitchen. In this step we will talk about nutrition. Now many people get the wrong conception about dieting in which they have to stick to salads and chicken breast for the rest of their lives. Wrong! You can still enjoy plenty of the foods you eat today. The best way is to simply cut out little things such as bread, soda, or other unhealthy beverages or food. If this is too hard then start even smaller, if you like to eat lots of bread, then instead of eating two slices cut down to one. If you love your soda or other beverages, cut down a little bit and once you master cutting down unhealthy foods you will become mentally fit to cut out more and more. That's right this is where the mental fitness comes into play. 

In theory, if your goal is to loose weight you have to be in a caloric deficit. That means eating less food than what your maintenance calories are. If you want to gain mass then you need to be in a caloric surplus which simply means consuming more calories than your maintenance calories. When I mean maintenance calories I mean the amount of calories one eats to maintain their current body weight. If you simply cut out unhealthy foods like soda or bread as I stated earlier then you have put yourself in a caloric surplus! If you want to gain mass the best way is to add more protein too your diet. Easiest way is to consuming 1-2 protein shakes a day on top of what you regularly eat and tadaaaaa!! You have put yourself in a caloric surplus. If you want to be more precise, you can also track your calories. But you have to understand what Macronutrients are. Macronutrients are your fats, proteins, and carbs. These make up your calories thus there is 4 calories in 1 gram of protein, 4 calories in 1 gram of carbohydrates, and 9 calories in 1 gram of fat. That is why it is so hard to loose fat because it is higher in calories! So if you set yourself to 2,000 calories a day the rule of thumb is to have 50% of those calories in carbs, 25% of those calories in fats, and 25% of those calories in protein. So if I have calculated the math correctly, that means that you need to consume 250g of carbohydrates = 1000 calories, 55g of fat = 500 calories, and 125g of protein = 500 calories. There are many ways you can track your Macros and the easiest is by using an app called MyFitnessPal! Above is a short video of how to use this app and start tracking today. Everyone's body is different so thus why they introduce so many different types of diets such as Keto, high protein, vegan diet, etc. Below is a picture of different phases of dieting that I have put myself through. 

Surplus (180lbs) vs Deficit (165lbs)