
Shred Diet:
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Weigh yourself first thing in the morning on an empty stomach (This is your starting point.) I also like to take a weekly measurement of my waist (try to do this on the same day each week, also in the morning on an empty stomach.) Weigh yourself once per week at the same day/time. Don’t get hung up on checking your weight constantly, as this number will fluctuate constantly. It’s not uncommon to have a 5-7 pound swing throughout the day.
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Determine maintenance caloric needs. (There are many calculators on the web to help with this, but a good starting point would be body weight x 14-16 depending on activity level BWX14 if you are generally not active (desk job), BWX16 if you are fairly active (on your feet job) EX: John has a desk job and weighs 175 pounds so 175x 14= 2450 maintenance calories per day.
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If your goal is to lose weight, simply subtract 200-250 calories from your maintenance. If your goal is to maintain, eat at maintenance calories. If you want to gain weight, simply add 200-250 calories over your maintenance.
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Try to get close to one gram of protein equivalent to your bodyweight or desired bodyweight. Each gram of protein is 4 calories, so John from the above scenario would want to get close to 175 G or 700 of his calories from protein. Say he is looking to maintain and needs 2450 calories 2450-700 calories = 1750 calories to work with in fats and carbohydrates. I do want to add that if you don’t hit your protein goal for the day it’s not the end of the world. The body doesn’t know that it’s Monday and it needs X amount of protein by midnight. Relax and think of diet in terms of weeks not so much in terms of days and don’t get too hung up on it. In fact, there will be times you want to indulge in pizza, donuts or some other treat. Food is meant to be enjoyed, so just make up the difference on the days surrounding your indulgence. EX. John has 7350 calories to work with Friday, Saturday & Sunday (3 days x 2450 per.) He wants to hang out with friends and eat pizza on Saturday, so Friday he consumes 1675 total calories, Saturday he has 4000, and Sunday he has 1675. Monday he is back to his regular 2450 calories. Keep it simple!
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If you are interested in employing Intermittent Fasting (IF) I would suggest to simply omit breakfast. There are all sorts of ratios (fasting/eating 16/8, 18/6, 20/4) out there and they are all effective for some, but I like to take a more organic/intuitive approach and listen to my body. Generally my fasts last anywhere from 12-14 hours, sometimes up to 16. It does take a few weeks to get used to not eating breakfast if you are used to having a morning meal, but once you try it for a while I think you will enjoy the benefits.
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I like to train in a fasted state. When I first considered training fasted I thought that there was no way I could perform heavy strength training with no calories to work with but soon realized that not only was my strength at least as good as when training after a meal, it actually seemed better. Plus, I seemed to have better focus as my system wasn’t working on digesting food, only the strength work I was performing. Everyone is different, but I suggest giving fasted training a real try. (You may want to consume 10-12g of BCAA’s, or branched-chain amino acids, just before fasted training to eliminate any possible muscle-wasting.)