What denotes a high level of activity?

I think it is important to discuss and consider the concept of level of activity being different to merely the amount of activity someone engages in.
In assessing level of activity, I suggest you must consider all of the following:

• Amount of time spent active.
• Frequency and consistency of attendance and participation in training.
• Quality and efficacy of training strategy.
• Intensity of effort.
• Proficiency and prowess at training.
• Activity levels outside of training.

It stands to reason that a more active person has a higher energy intake requirement than a less active person. A more advanced athlete will have a higher energy intake requirement than a beginner. An athlete who turns up to training regularly and puts in her best effort will have a greater energy requirement than one who turns up less often and drags her feet a little, lacking in enthusiasm.

Activity levels outside of training should be considered as well. It is possible to still have a high level of activity despite working a desk job or being otherwise less active outside of training. Moving around a lot throughout the day will contribute to a higher energy requirement than being inactive, and strenuous activity at a physically demanding job will increase them further still.

A higher level of activity should produce better results in terms of a more lean and athletic physical condition, provided energy requirements are being met. Best results will come when meeting a higher requirement, rather than being further into deficit of it.

It should be noted that while an increase in level of activity should be conducive to improved results, this does not necessarily mean more time spent at exercise or adding extra sessions. First ensure that your training strategy is effective and productive.

It is important to consider quality of activity as important, as well as amount. A high amount of low quality activity will not be conducive to best results, and adding more of the same will not improve the situation, especially if level of energy intake is not appropriate.

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New Season, New Strategy: Autumn 2017

It's about to be Autumn locally and Spring is a few weeks away in the Northern Hemisphere.

On a personal note I feel like I've taken my Spring & Summer strategy about as far as it is going to take me, and in all honesty as of yesterday I came within .5 of a kilogram of my predicted weight so I feel like that was pretty successful.

5kg down, after being 9kg up, meaning 4kg of mass gain over the year from the previous summer & still relatively lean. At my age on 1/2 a thyroid & not on gear that's pretty close to as good as it gets.

Having said that, I intend to do a little better this year. I'm thinking back to a couple of years ago when I was highly motivated to prove a point about producing a leaner condition by pushing higher fueling targets... and that's what I intend to do again over the Autumn & Winter this year.

So the Autumn strategy will be to push optimal fueling levels as a minimal target, and I intend to actually do this in a manner to provide more nutritional value rather than just calories. It's easy enough to push higher calorie intakes by adding a couple of chocolate biscuits or something, but I feel like that's really a "last resort" situation for achieving maximal fueling in the Winter. In the Autumn I'm thinking more like, more potato and sweet potato for example.

So, working towards consistently optimal over the Autumn, closer to maximal in the Winter, and that leaves you a good margin to reboot and work to a deficit in the Spring, to be in best condition by Summer. I fucked up the timing of this last year to be completely honest. This year it'll be by the actual season.

Now, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere going into Spring... hopefully you've had a season or two pushing higher levels of fueling to facilitate improvements in performance and condition, and you can now think about a strategic level of deficit from those amounts for your Spring Cut. If not, you want to build to appropriate levels now and then reboot in the Summer.

If you're serious about training you really do need to have a periodised approach to sports nutrition, somewhere along these lines. Going on and off crash diets won't cut it. Attempting your Spring Cut after already restricting to sub optimal or insufficient amounts all year won't get it done either. Old school bulking and cutting is probably not in your best interests either unless you're really trying to be a heavyweight.

Work to an ongoing strategy for best performance and lean condition.
You can learn more about this in the VIP section of my Flexible Fueling website and also get all the details of how to join the new season of my online coaching program.

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Why you failed to see results with your last IIFYM plan.

Even though I have some new followers I’m going to go ahead and assume everyone knows what “IIFYM” means, feel free to ask if you require clarification.

If you’ve done some form of an IIFYM approach in the past and found you couldn’t stick to it or it didn’t work, I’m going to explain why. First though let’s draw some distinctions, as there might be more than one possible situation.

• Scenario (A): Had an IIFYM plan but was complacent about actually working to it, it was more like a vague idea of what I thought I *should* be doing.
• Scenario (B): Had an IIFYM plan but really ate by intuition / appetite / randomly and logged at the end of the day hoping to be on target.
• Scenario (C): Had an IIFYM plan, diligently attempted to work to it with strict adherence, but it was too hard and I kept giving in to hunger and over eating.
• Scenario (D): Actually stuck to it, distracted myself from the hunger, only eat clean foods… still didn’t achieve a damn thing in terms of improved results.

There aint (but then again there kind of is) a “one shot” answer that covers all people, all circumstances and scenarios.

Now, Scenario A barely requires explanation. You have to actually DO the thing in order to make it work.

Scenario B… much as per A. Humans are notoriously unreliable at accurately recalling their meals, snacks, portion sizes, and so on. Particularly if you’re prone to grazing rather than scheduled meals and snacks, and PARTICULARLY if you have some guilt/shame type associations with eating. In any case when logging meals retrospectively, you’re subconsciously very likely to fudge the numbers a little to match your targets. So on paper (or more correctly “in the app”) you appear to be bang on target but this may be far from an accurate record & recollection of what is actually happening.

Scenario C & D: your plan was shit.

The plan you have been given, likely paid some chump a few bucks for, it was shit. It was not based on a reasonable or accurate estimation of your energy requirements.

Or to be more fair… it is likely that your plan did not anticipate and account for changes in your energy requirements. This is a disagreement I continue to have with other trainers, coaches & random people who think they understand IIFYM and Sports Nutrition. The commonly held belief is that a client’s energy intake will need to decrease as they see progress in fat loss, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Real quick before we continue and as per the infographic above, lets define “level of activity” as follows:

Not merely the amount of time spent active, but the quality of the activity in terms of a more effective training strategy, intensity of effort, and your prowess at training as well.

Now… on this page you can safely assume that I’m talking about fueling requirements for people who are training with a productive strategy. It is a different matter if we’re talking about merely “being active”. For an inactive person who decides to “get active” by taking a one hour walk to the park and back every evening… that’s a great idea, but an excessive energy intake via inappropriate dietary habits will mitigate the potential benefits. In an active person participating regularly in productive & strategic training, with improving physical prowess and increasing intensity… insufficient energy intake will mitigate the potential benefits and the potential for facilitating those improvements in performance.

Both people in the above examples should practice appropriate eating habits relative to their energy & nutritional requirements, but in each example the focus is slightly different. “Not excessive” vs “not inadequate”.

More often than not, what active people on an IIFYM, or other calorie limited plan, but also while “eating clean” are actually doing is to restrict to an inadequate & insufficient level of energy provision… often due to failing to anticipate an increase in fueling requirement as the quality and level of activity increases and to maintain an increase in lean body mass.

Here’s the danger though, even when heavily restricting energy intake via reducing calorie limits or limiting food choices… when we do not see continuing results in terms of fat loss, we are inclined to, encouraged to, and in some cases instructed to assume that the only explanation must be “still not burning more than you’re consuming” and that the solution is to reduce calorie intake even further. This is likely to have disastrous consequences.

In our earlier examples… the person merely “being more active” with a one hour walk around the park will have a certain fueling requirement or limit which probably won’t change very much. A person participating in more productive training or more intense activity will have a higher fueling requirement. A person progressing from a beginner level of productive training to an intermediate level will have a higher requirement still and can expect pleasing results in terms of body composition and condition provided those requirements are met consistently.

Note also that this increase in fueling requirement may or may not be reflected in the “calories burned” records on your activity tracking devices.
For these reasons, if you start out as a beginner on a level of fueling suitable to a beginner, but you train diligently following your program… after a period of let’s say 12 – 16 weeks you’re likely to find that either (a) progress stalls, (b) you’re extra hungry and unable to continue to adhere to your fueling plan, or (c) both.

Unfortunately most so-called “IIFYM” style coaches will believe that a stall in progress requires a further cut in calorific intake due to now being at a lower body weight. This is incorrect. The client (aka you) will not be able to adhere to the level of energy restriction, and in the unlikely event that they can force themselves to do so, it will only be conducive to a regression of physical condition.

Even at a lower bodyweight, even when continuing fat loss is a required outcome, increases in lean mass and improved prowess and consistency at training will necessitate a higher level of fueling.

A competent coach must anticipate this and have a strategy in mind to keep up with these demands to facilitate on going results.

Most however do not.

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No Excuses, No Apologies. Just Action and Excellence.

Let’s kick off the New Year the right way though, and set the scene with a theme for 2017, as follows! 

No Excuses:

I hate these jerk offs on social media that post those “what’s your excuse?” bodyshaming type memes. That’s not what I’m getting at here. People don’t need an excuse to not do something that’s not something they want to do, and not something they’re all that interested in. You follow?

But I’m talking to people who ARE interested in pursuing their goals through fitness. To those people… be looking for ways to make it happen, not reasons why you can’t. Don’t cheat yourself like that.

So it means you’ll have to get up early to train? So be it.

So it means you have to train in the evening after work and there’ll be days when you’re tired and tempted to just zonk out in front of the tv instead? Go fucken train.

But you don’t like the right foods? That’s not a thing. Do some form of IIFYM.
Too busy to eat regular meals and snacks? Bullshit. Schedule your meals and have a plan based on choices you like, to meet your requirements. As a living organism you need to eat, and you inevitably WILL eat… so do it with a plan to meet your requirements and facilitate health, happiness and results. Any variation on “but I can’t” is bullshit.

Some of us will find this more challenging than others… but try your best. Even a small improvement is worth making, and the situation is never hopeless unless you refuse to try.

No Apologies:

You need to eat and you’re passionate about training.

Lock training into your schedule. Plan and eat stuff that you like.

Anyone has a problem with it? thinks they get to have an opinion on it? wants to distract, derail, or discourage you from doing what YOU want and what is in YOUR best interests? They can go fuck themselves. They can zip it.

Action:

Not just “action” but RIGHT ACTION.

Strategic action. Productive training and fueling for results rather than restrictive eating and destructive fatigue chasing “calorie burning” approaches. Train with an enjoyable and strategic approach that is conducive to your goals, whatever they are.

And Excellence:

We’re here to have a good life and be a version of ourselves that we’re proud of. Not thinking “I wish I could, if only… & if not for all these reasons”. Find a way. Find all the ways. It doesn’t have to and probably never will be perfect but do what you can, as well as you can, as often as you can, and be proud of yourself.

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Mindset Coaching

This was supposed to be a video but the camera kept screwing up so I decided to come home and eat instead. Then I posted it as a facebook post... but facebook did that fun little thing where it detects that you put a lot of thought into something and therefore refuses to show it to any of your followers. Thanks for that.

This is important stuff though! Too important to go to waste... so I'm moving it over here to blogspot for prosperity.

Now though; mindset.

Mindset is important, but a lot of people talk about it as if it is ALL that matters. "If you just have the right mindset and be positive and love your self" blah blah blah. Sadly, nope.

If you want to be successful at ANY goal in life, it comes down to consistently taking the appropriate action. Not just "take action" either, that's another thing, that is. Consistently taking The Appropriate Action.

That might be described as working to an intelligent strategy, periodically assessing your progress, and then revising the strategy as seems best indicated.

MINDSET is a great influencer in how likely you are to adopt that correct course of action, vs some other course of action or inaction instead.

So IMO you can "believe in yourself" all you like and that's great, but if you're not also working consistently to an appropriate strategy, that belief is likely to dry up as you fail to see any progress.

On the other hand though... not believing in yourself or in your potential for success is likely to be a self fulfilling prophecy as you resign yourself to some other course of action (or inaction) other than the one someone would take if they declared to the world, "this is what I want, I believe in myself and I know I can be successful, and here's how I'm about to make it all happen, just you watch".

That's how you want to be thinking. Although even if you WEREN'T so upbeat and optimistic, but you did it that way anyway, you'd get where you're trying to go.

So, mindset matters. But here's what else...

If you really, REALLY insist upon success... it's not enough to want, hope, or even intend to be successful. You need to make a decision, and decide that you will ensure success.

In our training related goals we do this by having a plan. Not merely the intention to make it to all of our training sessions, but a schedule we have decided upon at which time training IS gong to happen. Not merely the intention to log our meals at the end of the day and see if we were within range of our fueling requirements, but a plan based on choices we have decided upon in advance in serving sizes that we KNOW will bring us to the right balance over the course of the day.

Not just knowing what needs to be done, but actually have a plan and a schedule we will work to, that ensures that was needs to be done does in fact get done. Anything else... hoping for the best, seeing how things turn out... that's all still leaving a lack of success as an acceptable option.

At least in the early in stages until it becomes second nature, you must DECIDE to be successful and then set up a plan in advance that ensures success.

What's next?

If you have decided that your training & condition related goals are important to you, and that success is the only outcome that you can accept... now's the time to drop your email address into the box at the top right of the page, to gain access to a whole stack of free resources and learn how to join my Flexible Fueling Online program where we'll work together on a custom strategy.

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