…so I asked my clients and they delivered!
There is a reason why I do Q&A’a and Facebook Live for you.
I want to answer your questions and help you achieve the kind of goals you feel are so far away from achieving.
I get it…this isn’t the typical mainstream info you’re used to seeing. I go against all you thought you knew. And guess what?
I’m super glad I am that way.
There is so much nonsense and fear-mongering when it comes to training and nutrition and it’s not fair to you.
Why does this need to be difficult for you?
Why can’t you just eat your food, train, and see your results?
Truth is – you can.
You should not be slaving away trying to drop body fat. You shouldn’t be feeling like it’s unobtainable. You shouldn’t be getting your nutrition info from these ignorant Netflix docs.
You shouldn’t feel like you have to lose your social life and you damn sure shouldn’t let your family life suffer.
So my goal is to answer the questions my clients raised and if you have any questions of your own, drop them below!
Here are the questions (and answers) for this post:
“How do you feel about bread? (I’ll admit I got a stomach virus this weekend and ate toasted bread, crackers and had Gatorade galore) 2 slices of wonder bread 120 calories 4g of protein. obviously not meeting my macro requirement.”
Bread is fantastic! I love bread. Who doesn’t love bread? That said, it’s simply a carb source. So that’s fine.
The only people needing to worry about bread are those with celiacs disease. This is an auto-immune disease that can literally kill someone. If you have celiacs, gluten-free is your option (which I don’t need to remind you).
Remember, at the end of the day, it’s about hitting your protein goals and not overeating your calories. That said, you probably are just trying to not vomit anything because of the stomach virus. Get in your fluids and for the sake of a stomach virus, I’d probably have saltine crackers. They always make me feel better.
“Does it matter if you weigh your veggies and meat pre-cooking provided your cooking them without any type of sauce (e.g. baking or steaming)? Or is it better to weigh and log the finished product?”
When weighing veggies, it makes sense to do it before you cook (dry). The reason is once you add water (steam) or other fluids, you add to the density of the veggies. So for instance, if you had carrots and dried, they weigh 100g, adding steam will make them denser so they may end up at 120g or 130g. Better to play it safe.
Meat is similar. If you are weighing raw, do so before you add marinades, etc. If you are weighing cooked, do so before adding anything to the meal.
Example: If you want spaghetti with chicken and sauce, you’d weigh your pasta dry (because when you add water you add density) then cook it. Assuming the chicken is cooked, just weigh it out measure you sauce and then when the pasta is ready, mix it all together.
**At the end of this post, I will show you how you can convert dry/raw to cooked**
“Weighing raw vs cooked was on my mind this morning… I’ll think about it some.”
It’s truly preference but that said, when it comes to proteins (ex: chicken breast, beef, fish, turkey), bulk cook it. It makes a WORLD of a difference.
“How bad is it really when you have to guesstimate on calories, protein etc, while eating out. Should one really stress over it? I don’t stress as much as I did when I first started tracking. I just track it all separately.”
It’s not a “problem” unless it’s a frequent thing. One meal in one week isn’t going to necessarily harm progress but when it’s more than one meal and a bit more frequent, that’s when the issue arises…and it makes it even the smaller you are as your deficit just isn’t that large.
Here’s a photo semi-depicting the two scenarios
If it’s once in a while, not a big deal. If it’s happening often, then you’ll need to pull back and start coming up with a better plan.
“I feel like I have a fairly good idea of this one, but –> exercise vs nutrition – what is weighed as more important, or are they both absolutely necessary? I’ve read so many things that raise one so high above the other and kinda write the other off.”
Nutrition at first glance. I remember reading a post by Alex Viada years ago where he stated (paraphrased), “It’s not that you cannot out-train a bad diet, it’s just most people don’t train that much to out-train it”.
Sure, if you were eating 4000kcals/day of whatever the heck you wanted but were training 8 hours/day, then you may be able to eat whatever but you don’t.
There’s also a huge issue with people underestimating how much they actually eat and overestimating how much activity they actually do.
So it’s in fact neither either or, it’s both.
“How to set up an effective training plan. Most times people think more is better and train 5 days a week. I think people are still very confused that you need to train smarter not necessary harder. how can someone come up with a simple yet effective training program. when is it time to change your training.”
I’ve touched on this plenty times (and it’s the premise on which this group was founded). An effective training plan is one that stimulates the body, works it, and provides it rest. You can’t keep going and going and wonder why nothing isn’t happening.
I made a infograph on this.
You should make sure you are getting enough volume per muscle group per week.
Research shows that a good starting point is 10 sets per muscle per week.
So an example of this would be chest: Mon – 3 Sets, Wed 3 – Sets, Fri – 4 Sets
“I think you may have articles about this already, but how to determine your calories and protein requirement for fat loss vs maintenance.
When I’ve done the formula to determine my macros I come up with higher calories and also higher protein than what you have me on. I’ve always read it’s 1g per body weight.
Also drive the message of what a true protein source is. Sometimes people get confused thinking that peanut butter, almonds, or cheese are protein sources. I have a good friend who puts cheese on his salad and tells me it’s protein. I want to scream.”
1g/lb protein is certainly not a bad place but depending on how lean a person is or not, it may be more than necessary (and we know protein is the most expensive of the macronutrient group)
If you are heavier or don’t like as much protein, you can start with .8g/lb
Person A
Weight: 150lbs
1g/lb = 150g protein
.8g/lb = 120g protein
When I set protein, I do it based off of lean body mass (LBM). So for instance, if you are a male 5’8″ weighing 260lbs, sure, you can have 260g protein and be fine but again, not necessary and it takes away from carbs and fat. Now if said male is 170lbs of LBM, we can set it just above that level (1.2g/lb/lbm) and it would be 200g protein. That more manageable and leaves more room for carbs and fat.
In regards to a true protein source (or any other macro source), the highest macro in that food makes it that kind of source. For instance, peanut butter is NOT a protein source. It is a fat source. It simply has high traces of protein. In fact, in most peanut butter, there is less protein than there is carbs as well.
Here is a solid list of proteins (fat and carbs).
“I’ve been thinking about this since last night and here’s my opinion. It doesn’t matter so much what you say as how you say it. Your brand (excuse the nerdery, I work in marketing) is how authentic, real, no BS you are with a good dose of dancing or silliness which helps with the realness even more. It’s a given that whatever topic you choose you will blow its face off because you know your stuff. There are some great suggestions for topics above, but the most important thing for you is going to be keeping the tone of authenticity. I know that’s why when I found you I was like – Whoa this guy is the real deal. It was so refreshing after ALL the bullshit fitness/nutrition programs I’ve paid for over the last 15 years.”
This wasn’t a question…but a testimonial posted under the question. LOL. LOVE <3
Converting Raw Weight to Cooked Weight
Here is a step-by-step method to make it easy for yourself so you do it once, you’ll never have to do it again (for a particular food).
Step 1 – Take the standard raw serving (113g raw)
Step 2 – Without adding anything else, toss the meat into a heated pan.
Step 3 – Cook thoroughly then drain.
Step 4 – Reweigh the meat. Now the same nutrition stats for the raw measurement is the same for the smaller cooked version.
Step 5 – Go into MyFitnessPal and create an entry.
Brand Name – Put in “generic”.
Description – This is where you enter what you just made. You need to be specific. So if you cooked chicken breasts, you would enter ‘Chicken Breasts, cooked, g”. Why? Because it’s chicken breasts which is cooked and what you’re measuring, and g for grams so it’s easy to find.
Serving Size – This number is the measurement of the cooked serving you just made. So if 113g raw changed to 100g cooked, your serving size is 100g.
Servings per container – Just enter ‘1’ here.
In the next screen where you enter the macros/calories, you will enter the info from the nutrition label because that doesn’t change because you cooked it. What changes is the quantity of the serving from raw to cooked.
I also made a post about how to convert other foods to grams HERE
There you have it. The questions from some of my clients and the answers to them.
If you have any questions, drop em below!