So, if you read last week’s article Your Guide to Putting on Muscle As A Team Sport Athlete, you now understand that to build the maximum amount of muscle you need to be in a calorie surplus…

 

[If you haven’t read that article yet, find it HERE]

 

In response to the article, by far the most common concern that was expressed to me by the athletes following me was the fear that gaining weight would lead to fat gain.

 

Here’s the thing –

 

Gaining considerable amounts of muscle will likely come along with some degree of fat gain, however, truly noticeable fat gain can be avoided effectively if the process of gaining is done correctly.

 

If you’ve tried “bulking” in the past or you know a friend/teammate that tried packing on the pounds only to end up a heavier, chubbier version of themselves…

 

Odds are, they made three key errors that we’ll cover in today’s article. 

 

ERROR #1 – The calorie surplus was too large.

 

For some reason, there is this belief that you need to eat an inhuman amount of food to make muscle growth happen.

 

Oftentimes, I’ll see athletes go into a 1000 calorie surplus thinking that it is necessary to gain muscle.

 

If you remember from last week’s article, the recommended starting point for a calorie surplus is about 300-500 calories above maintenance. This is usually a good range to aim for when it comes to increasing your weight while minimizing fat gain.

 

At a certain point, providing your body with more calories won’t lead to more muscle growth. It’s important to remember that muscle gain is a relatively slow process. If you add more calories than are needed by your body to facilitate lean tissue growth, your body will just store that energy for later use in the form of fat.

 

So, to minimize that excess fat gain, make it a point to provide your body with what it needs to make muscle growth happen, not more than that.

 

Remember, you should be aiming to gain roughly 1% of your body weight per month. This comes out to 0.25% of your body weight per week.

 

If you notice that you are consistently gaining more than the recommended rate, consider decreasing total calorie intake by 5%.

 

ERROR #2 – Lack of structure in the nutrition plan.

 

For whatever reason, there’s this notion that the only time you have to really pay attention to your nutrition is during a fat loss phase.

 

That could not be any more FALSE.

 

Structure in your nutrition plan is equally as necessary during a muscle building phase, so you can minimize the amount of fat that you gain in the process.

 

A common practice that I see in several athletes trying to gain  is the “see food” diet, where the athlete will just eat anything and everything in sight to try and gain weight.

 

Usually, the athlete will gain weight. However, it’s usually the wrong type of weight.

 

Lack of structure typically leads to the excess calorie surplus that we talked about in error #1.

 

Now, the good thing is that you don’t need to be as strict during a muscle building phase. It’s most important to at least have a rough idea of what your calorie, protein, carb, and fat intake is.

 

I usually recommend to be within +/- 100 calories of your goal and within +/- 10g of each of your macronutrient targets. This recommendation is obviously dependent on the individual, but it’s a good starting point for most athletes to make sure they are structuring their food intake appropriately.

ERROR #3 – You’re too attached to the number on the scale.

 

Eating only to see the scale go up every day is a fast track to gaining unwanted body fat.

 

Your body weight can fluctuate 1-3% overnight, regardless of if you gained or lost any muscle.

 

For example, you could be 200lbs one day and wake up at 198lbs the next.

 

What you do NOT want to do is freak out and increase the calories because you “lost” two pounds. Those two pounds that you lost were mostly water weight. This is completely normal.

 

Making the mistake of increasing calories before you need to is an easy way to end up accidentally eating in a 1000+ calorie surplus and put on a ton of extra body fat.

 

Now, I do recommend that you weigh yourself every day. This is so we can take the averages every single week.

 

The weekly averages of your body weight give us a much more accurate idea of if you ACTUALLY gained weight.

 

So, if after 2-3 weeks your weekly average weight hasn’t gone up, then you’ll want to pull the trigger and make the adjustment to increase your food intake.

 

Also, I’d highly recommend keeping track of your progress pictures and weight room progress. If you didn’t gain any weight over 2 weeks but you LOOK way better and you’re still getting stronger in the gym, consider waiting another week or so before increasing your calorie intake.

 

As always, this situation is very individual so if you have any questions about your specific situation please email me at tclarknutrition@gmail.com. 

 

WRAPPING IT UP

 

This one was a relatively short article, but I hope it got the point across.

 

If you’re going to put in the effort to train hard (even at home during the quarantine), you want to make sure that the weight you’re gaining the type of wait you want to gain – MUSCLE!

 

As always, if you found this article helpful I’d really appreciate it if you shared this with another athlete who you think it would benefit. The more athletes we can help, the better!

 

Also, if you’d like to learn more about the 4 most common nutritional mistakes that I see athletes make all the time, get your free copy of the eBook HERE.

 

Thanks so much for reading, I hope you found this article helpful. Talk to you next time!

 

-Tommy Clark

I’ve been there…

 

Not big enough to hang with more muscular athletes…

 

Not strong enough to confidently hold my own on defense or drive to the basket without getting bullied (I play basketball, if you couldn’t tell)…

 

Not physically built enough to feel confident in the way I looked. Sure athletic performance was priority number one, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want to put on some muscle just for the sake of putting on muscle…

 

I didn’t know what to do…

 

How much food to eat, what foods to eat, how to recover properly…

 

And it showed, since I stood 6’ 5’’ tall but only weighed 179lbs…

 

 

After a while, I had enough of the frustration and constant inability to play to the best of my ability due to the lack of strength on the court. So, I did some research for myself…

 

Slowly but surely, I began to put the pieces together and figure out how to build the muscle and strength that I sought after…

 

So, over the course of the next several months I put on quite a bit of quality mass (we also want to make sure you’re putting on lean muscle, not fat mass)…

 

My performance on the court improved drastically…

 

My strength, speed, endurance, etc. saw considerable improvement…

 

My confidence skyrocketed on and off the court…

 

And I want YOU to experience that same physical and mental transformation…

 

That’s why I began to coach athletes, run the Next Level Nutrition for Athletes program, and also put together this free guide for you…

 

So, without any further adieu, let’s get into the fun stuff…

 

 

GAINING MUSCLE AS A TEAM SPORT ATHLETE

 

As much as you may want to put on mass quickly and get “jacked,” you must understand that your primary goal as an athlete is performance on the field or on the court. It is not to step on stage at a bodybuilding show (if it is, this is the wrong book). Your approach must reflect that.

 

A very common mistake I see among athletes that finally figure out the principles of muscle gain (more on this in just a second), they go wild and start gaining crazy amounts of weight. Even if this weight is primarily lean mass, it’s still weight. This extra load that you are now carrying around will undoubtedly impact how you move around on the court/field.

 

For that reason, I typically recommend that you gain weight at a slow and steady pace to:

 

1. Avoid unwanted fat gain and maximize the ratio of muscle:fat gained during a gaining phase.
2. Avoid any negative impacts on your performance as an athlete.

 

As I just mentioned, you can accomplish this by going slow and steady…

 

The rate of weight gain is largely dependent on your individual situation and context; however, I can provide you with general guidelines that I’ve found to work well with the athlete’s I’ve coached.

 

Typically, a rate of weight gain of 0.25-0.5lbs per week seems to work very well. Where you fall in this range will be dependent on a couple of things, like:

 

1. What sport you play…
2. What position you play…
3. What part of the year you are in relative to your competitive season…
4. Your training age… 
5. Your personal preferences…

 

For example, an offensive lineman in football will likely be able to get away with putting on weight at a quicker rate than a point guard in basketball. For the point guard, significant weight gain too quickly will likely result in feeling sluggish on the court and lacking the ability to accelerate and/or change direction appropriately.

 

In regards to the time of the year, typically the offseason phase of the periodization cycle (more on this in the Athlete’s Guide to Nutritional Periodization, one of my free ebooks) is when you will want to focus on any body composition changes like muscle gain or fat loss…

 

When looking at training age, newer athletes will likely be able to put on muscle mass at a faster rate. More advanced athletes that have been weight training for some time now will likely need to be on the lower end of that spectrum in order to maximize the muscle:fat ratio…

 

And as for preferences, it’s pretty self-explanatory. If you’d rather remain a bit leaner and are okay with gaining more slowly, then do that. If you’d rather gain a bit more quickly at the expense of some leanness, then that’s cool too.

 

The biggest thing for you to remember is to appropriately examine each of the 4 criteria so you can ensure that this muscle growth endeavor will help your performance, not hurt it…

 

[If you want me to teach you exactly how to navigate these nuances in your own plan, click HERE]

 

One last thing on the topic of rate of weight gain:

 

WEIGH YOURSELF DAILY, NOT WEEKLY.

 

Weighing in daily allows you to take weekly averages. Comparing these weekly averages allows us to account for fluctuations throughout the week and get the most accurate picture possible of how you are progressing…

 

For example, if you weigh in every Monday, you could run into this issue:

 

One Monday, you have an upward fluctuation (2lbs) in weight…

 

The next Monday, you have a downward fluctuation (-2lbs) in weight…

 

If you’re only looking at those to snapshots in time, you would assume that you lost 4lbs over the course of the week (not good!)…

 

In response to this catastrophe, you’ll likely overcompensate by increasing calories drastically…

 

But, what if I told you that you actually gaining 0.35lbs that week??

 

If you would have weighed in daily and took the averages, you would have seen that and know to simply stick with the plan…

 

Got it?

 

Good.

 

Now, let’s get into setting up your initial prescription!

CALORIE/MACRO PRESCRIPTION

 

When it comes to calories, the focus in this phase is making sure you are in a moderate

calorie surplus . When you are in a calorie surplus, you are eating more calories than

you are burning on a daily basis. In the vast majority of cases, this is a requirement for

muscle growth to occur. The surplus in calories is going to fuel optimal performance in

the gym and provide your body with the raw materials necessary for growth. The

exception to the rule would be if you are a complete beginner to training (as an athlete,

it is very unlikely that is the case).

 

So, how much of a calorie surplus should you be in?

 

It really depends on the individual and how quickly you wish to put on weight. Like we

discussed, as an athlete you don’t want to put on weight too quickly.

 

The first step to determining what this amount is for you†is determining what your

maintenance calories are. It is a very similar process to what we used during the

in-season phase. Simply take your bodyweight and multiply it by 16 .

 

This estimate, while a good starting point, in real life application it will likely be a bit too

low due to the amount of training and activity that occurs for most athletes in the offseason. However, I’d prefer you start low and work your way up in a systematic

fashion rather than launch yourself sky high into an aggressive surplus.

 

How you’ll accomplish this is through keeping track of your weight over the course of

this process of ramping up calories. Keep increasing calories by 100-200 calories

each week until you hit that tipping point where your weight begins to increase.

 

Ideally, I would like to see the rate of increase at 1% of your body weight pounds per month, or 0.25% of your bodyweight per week. Like we just covered, that is aggressive enough to see noticeable changes, but slow enough to not see any of the negative consequences of putting weight on too quickly. Once you hit that tipping point, you will likely be set at that calorie amount for several weeks unless your level of activity and calorie expenditure drastically changes.

 

Here is an example of how that process would look in application:

 

PROTEIN: During a muscle building phase, I recommend that you

keep protein at 1g per pound of bodyweight. For example, a 200lb individual would

eat 200g of protein.

 

This amount of protein is enough to support optimal rates of muscle protein synthesis,

while also leaving more than enough room for adequate carbohydrate intake to fuel

performance.

 

Technically, the optimal range is 0.8-1.2g per pound of BW, so you could go down as

low as 0.8g/lb if you want to leave room for even more carbohydrates in your daily

calorie allowance.

 

However, I would encourage you to stay at the 1g/lb mark. The reasoning behind this is twofold. 

 

First of all, during a strength-focused phase, you’ll be consuming plenty of carbs. Most of the time, these carb sources will have a residual amount of protein in them (4g here, 5g there…) that will inflate your daily protein total. Yes, the protein from carbohydrate sources still counts towards your daily protein goal; however, residual protein from carb sources are typically not the highest quality proteins. This means that they do not have a complete amino acid profile like meat and other animal products do.

 

By keeping the goal at 1g/lb, you give yourself enough room to get include

more animal products like meat and dairy (if tolerated) which have a more complete

amino acid profile and are more effective in promoting muscle protein synthesis.

 

The second reason behind keeping protein at 1g/lb is that in most cases, as an athlete

you will still be performing skill workouts while in a muscle building phase. Depending

on the sport, these skill-work sessions will be largely cardio-base. This is not necessarily

advantageous for maximum muscle growth. By keep protein a bit higher, we can

attempt to offset this situation and optimize muscle growth even with cardio-based

skill-work sessions present in your training schedule.

 

FAT: When it comes to muscle growth, fat is often overshadowed by both protein and carbs (more on these in a second). However, fat is also very crucial when it comes to maximizing your gains! One of the main ways that it does this is by helping to maintain proper hormonal health. Some of the fat that we eat (specifically cholesterol) is one of the main building blocks for our steroid hormones. The most notable of these when considering muscle gain is testosterone!

 

If you’re not getting enough fat into your diet, you won’t be maximizing hormonal health and your muscle growth will likely suffer. Fat is also very important for managing inflammation and supporting optimal nervous system health.

 

With all that being said, as an athlete trying to build muscle you don’t want to go crazy with the fat. This is because it’s not as optimal of a fuel source for your muscles when comparing it to carbs. Fat takes more time to break down and utilize, and during high intensity activity you do not have that luxury!

 

To balance the benefits and the drawbacks, I recommend that you have your fat intake set at 25-30% of your daily calorie intake. This will be plenty to support overall health, while leaving more than enough room for adequate protein and carbohydrates in your diet.

 

You can go below 25%, but I would not recommend going below 20% since it seems that going lower than that will negatively impact testosterone levels.

 

CARBOHYDRATES: Much like in-season, during a strength-focused phase in your

offseason carbs are your best friend. Carbs are your body’s primary fuel for performance.

 

In a muscle building phase, fueling performance is paramount because it allows you to

perform more reps at heavier weights during your training sessions. This means more

volume, and more volume typically means more muscle growth (within reason, of

course).

 

Also, taking in adequate carbohydrates allows you to recover and bounce back more

effectively from one training session to another by blunting the cortisol response to

training.

 

To determine the amount in your daily intake, simply take the calories you get from both

protein and fat and subtract it from your total daily calorie goal. Then divide that number

by 4, since carbs have four calories per gram.

 

For example, if your calorie goal is 4000cals per day, your protein goal is 200g, and your fat goal is 110g, the calculation would look like this:

 

200g P x 4 = 800 calories from protein

 

110g F x 9 = 990 calories from fat

 

4000 – (800+990) = 2210 calories leftover for carbs

 

2210 / 4 = 552.5g of carbs per day

 

Round this to 555g of carbs per day

 

Feel free to direct message me if you have any questions about the specific calculations, or click HERE to have me build your plan for you!

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS

 

Your body is an adaptation machine…

 

Whatever you throw at it, it will adapt accordingly. This is how our species has managed to survive for so long…

 

So, how does your body adapt to being in a calorie surplus?

 

Well, a couple of things happen…

 

One of these adaptations that occurs is muscle gain. This is the desired adaptation that we are trying to achieve through the stimulus of the calorie surplus…

 

Your body is smart though…

 

When it comes to muscle gain, your body doesn’t really want to go crazy with it. That’s because muscle is an “expensive” tissue. It costs a lot of calories to maintain…

 

Back in the good old caveman days, this is not necessarily advantageous and can actually be dangerous. In a situation where food is scarce, the last thing your body wants to do is burn crazy amounts of calories on the daily. It would much rather be stingy with calories and save as much energy as possible…

 

Unfortunately, your body doesn’t quite understand that there’s a market around the corner and that there is actually no imminent danger of starvation…

 

What does this have to do with your muscle gain?

 

Well, as you increase amounts of lean tissue (muscle), your metabolism actually increases and your burn more total calories on a daily basis.

 

So, what was once a surplus for you may now be your maintenance calories or even a deficit…

 

This is one of the reasons why we see plateaus in muscle gain…

 

So, what do you do?

 

If you’ve been stuck and the same weight for more than 2 weeks and your appearance in the mirror has not changed either, then increase calories by 5%…

 

This increase will likely come through carbs, fats, or both (for team sport athletes, carbs are typically most optimal but this is largely up to personal preference).

 

Then, continue to monitor your progress over the next 2 weeks and see if anything changes. If you see the needle move again, then stick with that new prescription…

 

If you are still stuck, then increase by another 5% of total calories…

 

Wash, rinse, and repeat until you begin to see progress again…

 

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS TO MAKE BEFORE ADJUSTING

 

Have you been hitting your macros?

 

If you haven’t been hitting your number within 5g on a daily basis, then do not adjust. Before adjusting, focus on hitting your current numbers.

 

Think of this like a GPS. If you try to get directions to a destination without a set starting point, the GPS won’t work. If you try to make an adjustment to your plan without having a consistent baseline to start from, it won’t work!

 

Trust me on this, I’ve seen it time and time again in my experience as a coach. You can try adjusting, but unless you have that consistency first, it ain’t going to work…

 

Have you been seeing strength gains in your training?

 

Remember, your number one goal is improving athletic performance. If you’ve been seeing those improvements, then the plan is working regardless of whether or not you’ve seen an increase in scale weight!

 

While increasing calories likely wouldn’t hurt, I’d advise patience here especially if you’re not working with a coach.

 

Have you been sleeping/recovering optimally?

 

I don’t care what your macro prescription is; if you’re not sleeping and recovering enough, then you are NOT maximizing your results.

 

Lack of recovery encompasses over training, not getting enough sleep, under eating, too much lifestyle/emotional stress, etc.

 

Often times, simply shifting your focus to sleep and recovery rather than the “go hard or go home” mentality that so many athletes have will serve you much better when it comes to building muscle.

 

When it comes to sleep, I recommend a minimum of 7 hours per night, but honestly it should be closer to 8-9 hours per night if you’re really serious about maximizing lean muscle gain…

 

I’ll likely put together another guide entirely on sleep since it is such an extensive topic, but feel free to reach out personally if there’s any way that I can help you out!

 

FOOD QUALITY

 

This is a severely overlooked topic when it comes to nutrition for muscle growth…

 

People love to focus only on calories in vs calories out, and by down so they are missing a great opportunity for advancement. Let’s see why…

 

Well, a major component of being able to build maximum muscle is the ability to accumulate volume (lifting heavier weights, doing more reps, etc)…

 

In order to do this, you need to be consistent in the gym for a considerable amount of time…

 

If you’re constantly dealing with nagging injuries and illnesses, it becomes difficult to create that consistency and as a result, your progress comes to a screeching halt and you might even regress…

 

What does food quality have to do with this?

 

Well, if you’re constantly stuffing yourself with s****y foods in order to hit your calories, you’re going to be allowing inflammation to run rampant. This is a big no-no when it comes to recovery….

 

Also, these types of foods tend to lack micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) which your body needs to recover to the best of its ability and to support basic metabolic processes. If you’re getting most of your calories from low quality sources, you’re missing out on these vital nutrients…

 

Instead, focus on getting 80-90% of your foods from whole, unprocessed sources. Sure, there’s room for flexibility and it’s important that you include your favorite treats as well. It just needs to be in moderation (moderation is HUGE). There’s nothing wrong with having a piece of cake, but if you’re downing half a cake each day because “it fits,” it’s no wonder your feel like crap all the time (and it shows in your lack of results).

 

A good rule of thumb to follow when it comes to getting in plenty of vitamins and minerals throughout the day is to aim to have 1-2 “fist sized” servings of veggies/fruit with each meal. This is a great and easy way to cover your bases with your needed micronutrients.

 

One exception to this rule would be your pre and post workout/game meals. During these meals, you’ll want to minimize fiber intake so your body is able to utilize those nutrients very quickly.

 

When choosing your fruits and veggies, try to get a wide variety of different colors. This is because specific colors tend to signal the presents of specific micronutrients. For example, if spinach is the only veggie you ever eat, you’re likely missing out on nutrients from produce of other colors!

 

PERIODIZING YOUR APPROACH

 

As this guide comes to a close, we must discuss this topic. If you’ve read The Athlete’s Guide to Nutritional Periodization, you’re already familiar with this concept (if you haven’t read it yet, get on that!!!).

 

The concept is nutritional periodization…

 

As much as I would love for the gainz to be eternal, that just can’t be the case…

 

Eventually, your body will adapt so much that we simply cannot continue to compensate by ramping up calories. Insulin sensitivity will be impaired and your body will not even be able to properly utilize the additional carbs that you are pumping in…

 

So, what’s the solution?

 

Simply move to a different phase!

 

Typically, after a muscle building phase, we want to move into a brief maintenance phase. This way we allow your body to get used to this new state as its “new normal.”

 

This maintenance phase typically lasts for 3-4 weeks. To determine your new maintenance, I would recommend using a formula like the Harris-Benedict equation. If you do a quick Google search, you’ll be able to find a calculator to use for this.

 

After this phase, the next phase really depends on where you are in your year…

 

As a team sport athlete, you’re likely running this gaining phase during your offseason. Because of this, you likely won’t have time for a full-blown fat loss phase, nor is it necessary…

 

If you feel good and your biofeedback is on point, then I would be good with you sitting at maintenance or in a slight surplus going back into your preseason and then in-season phase. Then just focus on insulin sensitivity and recovery in the postseason phase…

 

If you feel sluggish, a little too heavy, and/or you have hard numbers from a blood glucose monitor that shows insulin resistance then I would recommend going into a quick “mini cut” for 3-6 weeks (dependent on your timeline). This brief, aggressive decrease in calories will help to restore insulin sensitivity and improve biofeedback. If you need help with this, just click here to get on a call with me so I can personally help you!

 

The biggest thing for you to remember is to take a bird’s eye view of your progress and your game plan going forward. It’s easy to get caught up in what the next week will look like, when you should be looking at the next year. As a coach, I take this responsibility off of my athlete’s shoulders and do the planning for them. If you’re doing this on your own, you simply need to be that much more diligent…

 

I really hope this guide was helpful for you and you now have a solid understanding of how to go about building muscle as a team sport athlete!

 

Be sure to stay on the lookout for other free guides that I’ll be putting out in the future, and if you know another athlete who would benefit from this, it would mean the world to me if you shared it with them!

 

Lastly, be sure to reach out on Instagram (@tclarknutrition), Facebook, or via email (tclarknutrition@gmail.com) if you have any questions or would like to learn more about the coaching program!

 

Good luck on your muscle building journey, and keep me updated on your awesome progress!

 

BULLETPROOF YOUR RESULTS

 

To learn more about the Elite Nutrition Coaching program where I build your Individualized Nutrition Prescription for you and guide you through the process of creating phenomenal results, click HERE.

 

If you’re reading this article, you are hungry to improve….

 

You also might be somewhat stuck and confused about what to do…

 

By far, this is the best way to bulletproof your progress, and I wanted to make sure you had the opportunity to join.  Click HERE to apply for a free call!

 

Talk to you soon :)

 

Your coach,

 

Tommy Clark

 

Who would have thought that when s*** hit the fan, people would go out and fight to the death for toilet paper?

 

Seriously though, if you need that much toilet paper to get through a ~4 week (more or less) period at home, you’ve got other issues besides COVID-19…

 

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of today’s blog, remember:

 

For actual information on the virus itself and the overall situation, please refer to the leading health authorities such as the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and WHO (World Health Organization).

 

And whatever you do, please do NOT get your COVID-19 gameplan from Karen down the street who did in fact buy 19 pallets of toilet paper…

 

Now, for the fun stuff…

 

If you’re like me and the rest of the athletes and general population clients that I work with, you’re probably worried about how you’re going to make progress during this time. Also, for my basketball and football players out there, you either just started or are in the middle of your offseason (the best time to improve as an athlete)…

 

So, how can we put you in a position to get stronger, faster, more athletic, and overall better at your sport, even if you’re stuck at home…

 

Well, there are a number of things that we can focus on; but, one of the biggest factors that will play a role in facilitating adaptations as an athlete is NUTRITION (surprise, lol)

 

When it comes to nutrition, the number one priority for nearly every athlete should be meeting your daily calorie needs. If you don’t already know this, your body takes in calories via food and burns calories through a number of different factors (topic for a different post).

 

If you’re goal is to get stronger, in better shape, build muscle, etc. then you’ll want to be at caloric maintenance (eating as much as you’re burning) or in a surplus (eating more than you’re burning).

 

[For a step by step breakdown of how to calculate your calorie needs, check out my FREE eBook here]

 

Ok, cool…

 

But, there’s a really big elephant in the room that we need to address:

 

How are you going to get your calorie needs in if your local Karen is clearing off the shelves at the grocery store as if the apocalypse is coming?

 

Also, what if we end up at a point where we can’t leave the house?

 

Now, to implement these tricks, you’ll have to brave the grocery store at least once. But, you should be able to stock up on foods that will keep you well supplied while you remain at home and practice social distancing.

 

Tip #1 – Buy fresh, and freeze later.

 

At this point, it’s likely that the frozen section of your grocery store has been completely ransacked. Frozen meats, fruits, veggies, all gone…

 

You may think that hope is lost, but think again…

 

What you can do is buy fresh meat, fresh fruit, fresh veggies, and put them in the freezer to freeze them yourself if you know that you’re not gonna use ‘em right away.

 

Here is a list of foods you can freeze to help guide your decision making in the grocery store:

 

-Blueberries

-Strawberries

-Raspberries

-Banana (peel it first, then freeze)

-Avocado

-Spinach

-Kale

-Broccoli

-Meat (beef, steak, etc)

-Poultry (chicken, turkey, etc)

-Fish

-Shrimp

-Bread

 

Most any fruit and veggie will work, and I’m sure there are foods that weren’t included here that could be used to. If you have questions about a specific food that I missed, just shoot me a text at 818-210-4351 and let me know or join my email community here.

 

Tip #2 – Stock up on dry goods, even if they are a different brand than usual or a food that you wouldn’t have considered eating before.

 

In an ideal world, stocking up on dry goods would mean your usual rice, oats, etc. These foods have a longer shelf life and can be a great way to get your calories in, even when you’re stuck at home.

 

However, now is not the time to be picky. In many locations, it’s going to be tough to find the ideal options here. If they are available, by all means get what you would normally get. With that being said, do not be afraid to try a different brand or even venture out and try a food you would have overlooked in the past.

 

For example, if you’ve never tried quinoa before but all the rice is sold out already, now might be the time to try it!

 

Here are some options for you to think about buying:

 

-Oats

-Rice

-Brown rice

-Quinoa

-Pasta (whole wheat, regular, black bean pasta, lentil pasta, etc. Get what is available)

-Lentils

-Chickpeas

-Beans of all varieties

-Nuts

-Nut butters

-Seeds

-Canned fruits/veggies

-Canned tuna

-Canned sardines

-Canned soups

-Protein powders

-Protein bars

 

If you have a tough time finding anything in your local grocery stores, you can also order quite a bit of food online through resources like Amazon, Thrive Market, Butcher Box, and many more. The biggest key is to take action NOW, because the situation is changing at such a rapid rate.

 

Tip #3 – Look for more calorie dense foods

 

You want to make hitting your calorie targets as easy as possible.

 

While fruits and vegetables are great for overall health/support your immune system, and I would 110% recommend that they be on your grocery list during this pandemic…

 

You’re going to need some extra help when it comes to meeting your calories needs.

 

Here’s where being a bit of a nutrition nerd is helpful:

 

Remember the three macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. 

 

We know that protein has 4 calories per gram, carbs have 4 calories per gram, and fat has 9 calories per gram. This means that fat is more calorically dense than protein and carbs.

 

We also know that protein is crucial for building lean muscle and maintaining it. So, we don’t really want to sacrifice that if we can help it.

 

We also know that carbohydrates are your body’s fuel for high intensity exercise. While you may be training at home (and you should be training at home) during this time, it is reasonable to assume that the duration and intensity of the training will be lower. This means that your need for carbs will likely be lower as well.

 

So, our priority becomes meeting your calorie needs and protein needs (if feasible with your given resources).

 

In the current situation, eating a diet that is slightly higher fat than usual and lower carbohydrate than usual can be helpful in accomplishing the goal of reaching your calorie target.

 

Some higher fat foods that can make this easy to accomplish are peanut butter, almond butter (any nut butter, really), nuts, seeds, oils, fatty cuts of meat, etc.

 

Notice that I did not say that you HAVE to do this. It may just be something that you want to think about, especially if your training intensity has gone down and you’re spending most of your day without movement (i.e. playing video games when you normally would be walking to and from class). If you have the resources to eat your normal amount of carbs and you still plan on training at a high intensity, then you may just want to keep your plan as is.

 

Another way to get more calorie dense foods into your diet is to include some lower fiber carbohydrates. Think about white rice versus fruits/veggies. White rice is much more calorie dense than fruits/veggies. This is NOT saying to exclude fruit and veggies (we all know how helpful they are for keeping you healthy, which is the #1 priority right now). What I am saying is to look for calorie dense options to eat in conjunction with nutrient dense options.

 

Something else you can do to get your calorie intake up is to consider stocking up on foods that you wouldn’t normally think of as “healthy.” Things like chocolate, candy, etc. are very calorically dense and typically have a longer shelf life. During a time like this, you will also be very likely to find them still on shelves in the store since most buyers will overlook them while stocking up on more standard foods like oats, rice, meats, etc.

 

SUMMARY

 

Tip #1 – Buy fresh, and freeze later.

 

Tip #2 – Stock up on dry goods, even if they are a different brand than usual or a food that you wouldn’t have considered eating before.

 

Tip #3 – Look for more calorie dense foods

 

Whatever plan you have, it’s not going to be perfect.

 

Accept that, and do the best you can with what you’ve got!

 

I truly hope these tips helped make navigating the madness a little bit easier, and I will be continuing to put out related resources over the coming days and weeks in the form of blogs, podcasts, guides, lists, etc.

 

The best place to get first access to any resources I put out is in my email community. You can join it for free by clicking HERE!

 

Lastly, please be sure to reach out and let me know of any nutrition questions or concerns that you have during this time! I will do my absolute best to help you as best as I can.

 

It’s a time for us to get better together.

 

PS – Remember to play your part and practice social distancing!

PPS – Join the free email community HERE!

Get your priorities in check.

When it comes to nutrition, I see a lot of athletes spending way too much time worrying about the minutia when they could be getting far more benefit from simply mastering the fundamentals…

And it pains me so much to see this because I know you’re working hard in the gym…

But remember, over here we work hard AND smart…

In today’s blog, I’m going to teach you how to know what will actually matter in your journey and what you can disregard…

A good way to visualize this is as a pyramid. At the base of the pyramid is what’s going to get you the biggest bang for your buck. As you move higher and higher up the pyramid, those things still matter to some extent, but not nearly as much as the fundamentals at the base of the pyramid…

At the base of your nutrition period is adherence, or how well you can actually stick to your plan. This one is quite straightforward. I don’t care what your plan is; if you can’t actually stick to it, it sucks and you need a new one.

[If you want to learn exactly how to build your own nutrition plan for YOU and your goals, click HERE]

A step about adherence on the pyramid is energy balance, or “calories in versus calories out.” A calorie is literally a unit of energy. Much like adherence, energy balance is relatively straightforward…

As an athlete, you must ensure that you are taking in enough energy to support your training and competition demands. This is the first place I look when working with an athlete in my private coaching program. If you’re not consuming enough energy from the food that you eat, your are undoubtedly leaving performance on the table (not good)…

Now, I’m not going super in depth into how to figure out how many calories you need in this blog (more on that in my free eBook), but generally you’ll want to be at maintenance or in a slight surplus to support your performance. Just please, don’t put yourself in a calorie deficit when performance is the top priority (i.e. during your in-season phase)…

Next up in the pyramid are macronutrients, or “macros” for short. Macros are the building blocks of the food that we eat and the are actually where your body gets calories from.

There are 3 macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Each of them have a certain number of calories per gram and each of them have a VERY important function in the body. Whatever you do, do not exclude any particular macro from your diet!

Macros are important because they give us a concrete tool to determine where you are getting calories from. This has major implications on your performance because, like I said, each of the macros have different functions. For example, carbs are a great source of fuel for high intensity activity, whereas fat isn’t as great of a fuel source in that scenario. So, we need to make sure you’re getting plenty of carbs in as an athlete to fuel your training and likely don’t want to rely on fat for this purpose.

Now, fat is very important for other reasons, like hormonal health, nervous system health, and more. So, like I said before, we don’t want to exclude it from your diet. We simply want to be aware of the different functions of each macro in order to maximize your performance and recovery as an athlete.

[To learn how to set up your own macro prescription for optimal performance, click HERE]

Moving on to the next step up the pyramid, we have micronutrients. Micros are vitamins and minerals that your body needs for a number of different functions. Unlike macros, your body doesn’t actually get calories from micros. But, that doesn’t mean that they’re unimportant!

Yes, food is fuel for athletes. However, you don’t want to force your body to run on low quality fuel…

Think of your body like a Lambo. Sure, it could probably run on low grade fuel, since fuel is fuel. But, is it going to last for very long without issues popping up? Probably not…

It’s the same for your body. Can it run on low quality, nutrient-sparse foods? Yes, it can. Calories are calories. But by relying on low quality foods, your setting yourself up for suboptimal recovery and potential injury/illness.

So, long story short, get your fruits, veggies, and whole foods in to support your recovery as an athlete!

Next, we have nutrient timing. This refers to how you timing your meals and how you time specific macros throughout the day.

For the typical general population client, this would be starting to get into the minutia. However, as an athlete, I would still consider this part of the fundamentals. Knowing how to time your meals around your training and competition will go a long way in supporting optimal performance and recovery.

Like calories, I’m not going to go too deep into how to set these meals up; for more on that, click here to access my free eBook that lays it all out for you.

In this blog, I simply want you to understand the importance of this!

Lastly, we have supplements. This section of the blog is gonna be relatively brief because I would much rather you focus on the other things that we discussed. For the most part, you’ll get much more bang for your buck by focusing on things like calorie intake, macros, food quality and timing, etc than you will by stressing over which supplements to take.

With that being said, there are some foundational supplements that are helpful for athletes and I do recommend these to the athletes that I work with. They include, Vitamin D, fish oil, creatine, magnesium, and a multivitamin.

Now, you do NOT have to take these. But you have nothing to lose by doing so. For a deeper breakdown of how to set up your supplement regime, read more in the free eBook!

WRAPPING IT UP

Hopefully you now have a better understanding or where your priorities should be placed! I promise you, if you master the fundamentals laid out in this blog, your performance as an athlete will improve drastically.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the free ebook for a deeper dive into exactly how to set up your own nutrition plan (the same techniques I use with the athletes I work with inside of the Elite Coaching Program). Click here to get your copy!

And as always, be sure to reach out and let me know if there’s any way that I can help you out!

Talk soon!

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