On a personal note... goal setting post.

I've been in this sort of "at my age who gives a shit I'm just gonna cruise along doing my thing" sort of mode the past few years, as far not being this super driven "gotta be the most ripped, gotta keep up with and outdo all these guys in the gym 10 or 15 years younger than me so everyone knows I'm the best trainer" sort of guy.

And I'm all about that life. For my clients, for anyone following my on social media... it SHOULD be all about "being happy where you're at, and feeling great about where you're headed, at your own pace". It's not about keeping up with or outdoing anyone else and it IS always about being happy where you are not but heading towards where you'll be happier still.

That's what I believe and what I try to facilitate in people who come to me for help and advice.

HOWEVER... I think it's a possible combination of being inspired by all the amazing athletes I've seen who were here for the Arnold Classic, plus the more pleasant, mild Autumn weather... and throw in that my birthday is coming up in a month as well.

It was at about this time LAST year that I decided I'd stop being complacent and dial in some tight Flexible Fueling targets according to my own system, and work on hitting them consistently. What I set out to prove last year was that you get better results by working towards optimal targets rather than just slashing into deficit of where ever you are starting from, and that even while pushing those higher numbers on intake, you'll still see weight loss while improving performance and maintaining (even adding) lean mass.

If you go creep my instagram you'll see that this worked out exactly like I said it would. Pushing around 2900 - 3100 (and at times even more) calories per day I dropped around 1kg over the winter, if I remember correctly. Maybe it was a little more. I'm not saying it's a massive drop in weight or anything like that, but that wasn't the point.

The point was, and still is, as follows:

If you're an athlete, or anyone training for performance and condition, don't be afraid to push towards an optimal aka maximum usable energy intake. You will not get fat. You will actually see a decrease in fat mass as more of those valuable resources are made available to fuel performance at training, recovery from training, and the creation and maintenance of lean mass as an adaptation to training.

So to recap... I started out if I remember correctly at about 2400 - 2600 calories per day, perhaps less as I had gotten quite complacent. Start pushing 2900 and up throughout the Autumn and into the Winter, and see a gradual reduction in bodyweight. THEN though in the late Spring, I cut back to 2600 and immediately dropped another 2kg. This is all documented on instagram and in fact there is one photo captioned "fuck! This cut has gone too far!" or something like that.

What else you can see on instagram is I didn't let up on the massive amounts of fruit that I'm known for, still ate pizza twice a week, and in fact the only way I could force myself to hit those over 3000 targets was by including a couple of mint slice chocolate biscuits on a daily basis. And I got leaner. Because that's how it actually works.

Anyway.

That's what I decided about this time last year, and I made it happen just like I said it would.

Right now though, I'm fired up after hanging out in the gym with so many amazing athletes. So many people who really seem so happy based on setting goals for themselves and working diligently towards them and reaping the rewards. So what I'm going to do this year is one step beyond what I did last year.

This year I'm going to GAIN weight while still getting leaner.
That's the goal anyway. There's a limit to how much lean mass a mature male should be able to add without use of any steroids or anything like that. It's not a huge amount, sadly enough... so what weight increase there will be will hopefully be a little lean mass plus more glycogen in the muscles. I'm looking at maybe 3kg, realistically. But, I'll come out of it next Summer heavier and visibly leaner.

That's the goal. Watch and see.

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Context Is King, And The King Of All Context Is...

The thing about social media is that ... well, in real life we all know that one guy or girl who thinks they're an expert on EVERYTHING, right? Done nothing, knows everything. Maybe you work with them or something and you get to hear all about how EVERY thing works all day every day from someone who has the same job as you and doesn't even do it as well as you...

That's EVERYONE on social media. Or... that's how it feels at times anyway, am I right?

Therefore on social media you have 9 thousand million unqualified opinions all telling you a bunch of stuff about health and nutrition and quite specifically what YOU aren't doing right and what you need to be doing. And they don't know a god damn thing about you, and for that matter they don't know a god damn thing about a god damn thing.

Listen. When it comes to nutrition advice, context is king.

Context is king and the king of all context is in how that relates to YOU and your unique individual requirements and circumstances.

Individual requirements. 

These are determined in part by your height, your age, sex but even more so by the type, amount and "level" of activity you're in the habit of engaging in. By level I mean, there's a difference in the energy requirements of an advanced level athlete training for an hour a day compared to a beginner training for the same amount of time with a similar approach.

Random fkn know it alls don't get this stuff. They just think some catch phrase or slogan they heard will work for everyone.

Just Eat Clean.

"Just eat clean" is one such slogan. It's nonsense. What does "eat clean" even mean in the first place? I try to remember to wash my hands before a snack just in case they have other people's germs on them some how but I don't think that's what they're getting at.

Just eat clean, or paleo, or... whatever else. In no way does following this advice suggest you'll meet and not exceed your energy requirements. As an active person, the more restrictions you apply arbitrarily to your meal choices, the more likely you are to fall short of an adequate provision and potentially end up under nourished.

IIFYM: Best Macronutrient Ratio.

In IIFYM groups you'll often see ridiculous arguments going on between people espousing a different macronutrient ratio as what's "best". Again, "best for whom?" is the question. In the first place, what is of chief importance is in establishing a consistent total energy provision that is at least adequate, and preferably more optimal. Again this range will be influenced by the type, level and amount of training being performed and these factors will also influence the optimal ratio of macronutrients, and these would be fine tuned on an individual basis subject to assessing the results. To argue for a particular percentage split outside of the context of an individuals total energy requirements is demonstrate a complete and utter lack of understanding of sports nutrition.

Eat Less, Move More.

"Eat less, move more" is another common slogan. It assumes a lot about whoever this helpful piece of advice is directed at. While it would seem appropriate for someone who actually is largely inactive and has eating habits that are extra indulgent... it is hardly helpful to those who are participating in some form of training or other activity and who are paying some (or perhaps too much) attention to their diet. If a client is training for a half marathon and would like to drop 10kg in the process, is it really likely that she needs to "move more"? If a client is "eating clean" or following some other restrictive approach to dieting, is it really likely that she needs to "eat less"?

Eat More To Lose Weight.

However, that's not to say "eat more to lose weight" is necessarily any better advice, and this is another one that keeps popping up lately.

Context is king. If a person is not very active, not very consistent at making it to training, paying little attention to diet... it's extremely unlikely that eating more is going to result in anything other than further weight gain. However, for clients who are already training consistently and following some low calorie, low carb, or otherwise restrictive eating regime, eating more to reach an adequate total energy and macronutrient provision is likely to be exactly what they need.

It's a helpful message to get people away from that "add an hour of cardio and slash 200 calories per day" mentality when they see a stall in fat loss progress, but again... context is king. 

Calorific Deficit.

I used to really loathe what seemed like being needlessly pendantic and quibbling over terms, but the past half a decade or so has made me realise that language & choice of wording can be highly problematic. The intention can be good, the advice generally speaking can be sound... but if there is room for someone to misinterpret it and have it exacerbate already destructive behaviour then this is a problem that we must avoid.

So to clarify the issue surrounding "calorific deficit". It is correct to say "you cannot lose weight or lose fat while in calorie surplus". You do have to be in deficit to lose fat. However, this is not the same as saying "if you are not losing weight, you are not in calorific deficit and so long as you are in deficit you will see progress". 

As people are more consistently active and especially as their performance at training improves, they will require a higher total energy provision in order to perform, to recover, and to maintain lean mass at the expense of fat stores as an adaptation to training. This amount is still "in deficit" of a surplus amount which by definition is in excess of requirements and would lead to fat gain (or failure to lose fat), but again... it is very important that we do not further propagate that "add an hour of cardio and slash 200 calories" mentality especially with clients who may already be over training, underfueling and displaying signs of disordered & destructive behaviour around food and exercise.

Bottom line.

Type, amount and level of activity are determining factors in each individual's total energy requirement and optimal macronutrient profile. All other advice must be within the context of meeting at least an adequate level of intake, and preferably closer to optimal. Those who train quite consistently at beyond a beginner's level of performance and proficiency will have much higher requirements (even when weight loss is a goal) than an inactive person. 

When giving specific individual advice, these requirements must be assessed and taken into account. When giving general advice, we must specify to what circumstances or client profile they apply to. What is good advice to one may be detrimental, destructive or harmful to another.

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The fourth Week In Review post. Whole grain edition.

People seem to be enjoying these so what the hell, I'll keep pumping them out!

This past week... well! I thought the previous week in social media was wacky but this week was off the chain. Let's take a look real quick.

Facebook Drama Of The Week, On My Page At Least:

I made a little post about ketogenic dieting for weight loss and all hell broke lose. Obviously some people do well on ketogenic diets. It's beyond my scope of practice or area of expertise to speculate on what the long term health implications of this might be, but as for weight loss, as always it comes back to whatever approach an individual can stick to in sustaining and maintaining a "not inappropriate" total energy intake.

• Would I recommend keto? Nope.
• Do some people do well on it though? Yep.
• Does that prove keto is the only approach that works though? Of course not.
• So since it works shouldn't I still present it as a valid option? No. Although some people do seem to take to it like a duck to water, I see a lot of people struggling and making themselves miserable needlessly, and failing to see results even though they do stick to all the necessary restrictions. 

Of course if people aren't interested in my advice and choose to do keto all the same, that's their choice so good luck to them. Just stop trying to convince everyone else that there's some reason no other approach can work and extreme carbohydrate avoidance is required for health and weight management, because that's a load of garbage.

More Interesting Stuff In Case You Missed It:

The Dietitian's Pantry shared this post about how great bread is. You might be aware that I've had a bit of an issue for a long time now with random idiots and social media "experts" getting on people's backs with unsolicited advice and relentless pressure to give up bread, cereal, grains in general and gluten in particular.

This week I noticed a couple of new articles on the subject and so here they are:

• Myths Busted: The Whole Grains Council.
• Intake of whole grains is associated with lower risk of myocardial infarction. 

Exposed Scam Diet Of The Week:

The Bulletproof Diet and related nonsense should probably be scam of the week every week, to be honest.

Most epic ensuing drama of the week goes to: 

That study from Melbourne Uni, reported in the press as "paleo food fad results in weight gain" but more accurately (as best I understand it) showing the result of a high fat approach with sedentary subjects, due to reduced energy expenditure. The response from certain high profile markters of LCHF and paleo diets who THINK they are health experts was quite ironic to say the least.

And finally...

A little shout out to Nuts For Life.

I'll tell you why real quick. A while back I made a post about trainers giving out crap meal plans which have instructions such as "none of this stuff ever but as much of this other stuff as you want".

Now, even if that "other stuff" is all really, really good choices that you probably should include... "as much as you like" (of all but the most energy sparse choices of foods) can still put you in excess of a total energy intake that you can put to good use. Regardless of where you're sourcing that energy from there's only so much you can put to use, whether it's from a really wholesome source or a more frivolous choice.

So a while back I made that post and I had in mind a particular meal plan I'd see that had almonds as one of the things you could have in unlimited quantities. Maybe it came across like I was suggesting nuts weren't a great choice (which wasn't my intention), because Lisa came and hit us with a bunch of good facts about the benefits of nuts, of which there are many. As a result I started including 40g of mixed nuts into my plan almost every day, and it has been one of the best and easiest things I've ever done to improve my every day dietary habits. So if you LIKE nuts and obviously if you don't have any medical reason to avoid them... I do recommend 30 to 40g a day within the context of meeting but not exceeding all of your requirements.

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A wacky week in review, the third edition.

What a wild and wacky week of social media it has been the last 7 days or so. Lawd have mercy, where do I even begin?

The SIRT Diet apparently was in the news and as usual, for all the wrong reasons. I actually missed this one at first but Emma at Broccoli & Blueberries has covered it nicely. As usual, it's one more of these diets that claims to be "different", claims to not be about starving or restriction, but rather is about wonderful special properties of certain foods... but then goes and restricts you a 1000 calorie per day starvation ration all the same. SIGH.

Exposed Frauds & Scammers Of The Week:

This time by "exposed" what I actually mean is "convicted" so chalk this up as a big win for the forces of good in the world. Robert O Young was convicted on two counts of practicing medicine without a license. This is the guy who dreamed up the "pH diet" aka "alkaline diet". As we discussed in this popular post on my facebook page, it's odd to me that others who (one assumes) honestly believe that they are not quacks and charlatans still push this pH nonsense which has absolutely no basis in science, even though the guy who invented it has been charged with multiple offences and convicted of practicing medicine without a license.

What You Might Have Missed Elsewhere This Week:

In response to some of these ridiculous & unrealistic (aka I'm saying they just make up fancy sounding shit thinking everyone is going to be impressed by it for some reason) "day on a plate" things going around, Alex at The Dietitian's Pantry shared her own Unapologetically Boring Day On A Plate with some added commentary.

I did mine too as you can see on the right or on facebook here. I was actually a little disappointed I didn't get more criticism from clean eating types trying to convince me that 16% body fat isn't good enough, and I need to cut out a bunch of stuff that I like and get down to 12% like some other male they can probably produce a photo of. It would have been a good chance to make a point about body positivity.

Speaking of which, this nice piece of news was brought to my attention via Mike from Lean Minded: Acceptance Is Killing The Diet Industry, and also this week Body Positive Australia teamed up with Special K with their #OwnIt campaign.

What Else You Might Have Missed On My Facebook This Week:

• CSIRO looks at low carb diets for type 2 diabetes, usual quacks pretend it proves whatever nonsense they've been selling for however long.
• My thoughts on the 28 minute workout fad.

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Last Week In Review: Second Edition

Selfie Of The Week featuring choice of attire that was
not at all suitable to the warm & humid conditions that day.

This is actually more like "the past two weeks" in review since I missed last week due to some reasons.

I didn't publish any new blog entries, but I did re-share a couple of my best classic entries, from the vault.

Here: 1200 Calories, Zero Results.
And here: Observations On Involuntary Binge Eating.

Those are links to where I shared the links on facebook, and the subsequent discussion.

Also On My Facebook This Week:

The running theme this week was that it's not really that hard to make small but significant improvements to your diet, and that probably the best advice I can give you is to just do your best and don't listen to jerks who want to make you feel like it's still not good enough. That post proved most popular.

The previous week was all ridiculous arguments with people who don't accept that too long and too far into deficit can be a bad thing for fat loss and that it is preferable that we advise people that they will see good results by reducing the level of deficit, rather than going further and further into restriction an attempt to starve weight off. All of which culminated in this video, in addition to some other good posts on the subject here and here.

Elsewhere On Facebook:

This seemed to be my most popular comment elsewhere. Yes, I was being facetious!

We were discussing "the food diary that makes Pete Evans' Day on a Plate look normal". Sigh.


Another Great Article I Recommend You Check Out If You Haven't Already:

• I'm Hungry, So My Body Must Be Broken. 

Great article from Dare Not To Diet, brought to my attention by my friend Joanna at Everyday Nutrition. I've written and talked a lot about this in the past. With my approach, I start people on some baseline fueling targets that are usually more than they're used to, but actually still significantly below their optimal requirements from a sports nutrition for best results from training perspective. We increase from there, and all is well. Better results, less stress about food choices, and so on. But then all of a sudden people find they are getting HUNGRY even though they are eating more than they have in a long long time, and often it seems to scare the hell out of them at first.

The thing is though, your body is adaptable and after periods of restriction people may find that they just don't get as hungry any more. But this does not necessarily mean that they are eating enough and don't have a use for any more. For people who are in training, who have gone from restricting, to adequate fueling, and towards more optimal fueling, hunger is your body's way of letting you know "this is great, but if you give me more I can do even better".

For people in training, hunger is actually a very, very good sign. Your body wants to do better, to produce greater and greater results. You need to listen to the messages it is sending you, and trust and respond to them.

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