Nutrition is the Key to Unlock Your Best Body
What provides the greatest visible improvements in a physique transformation, diet or training?
If given a choice of picking only one, hands down it's dieting. The fact is that you can't out-train bad eating. But we don't have to choose. We get to (and should) do both.
Even if you look at the greatest bodybuilders in the world, the difference between walking around with a heavy/semi-smooth off-season physique or a ripped on-stage one is in the diet, not the training. I don't care how scientifically precise your training strategies are or how hard you train, if you don't have proper and consistent eating habits, your levels of building muscle and burning fat will not be optimized.
Whether you want to compete or just want to look good on the beach or in your clothes, the concept is the same. If you want to maximize your results as well as the efforts you put into your training, you MUST pay attention to how you feed yourself. It doesn't matter if you want to look lean, tone, muscular, and/or ripped, you absolutely have to put the highest priority on the dieting facet of physique transformation.
When I competed, I paid extra special attention to the way I ate:
- I took the advice of great leaders in the field such as Dr. Scott Connely, Bill Phillips, and Lee Labrada - - it was more about nutrients than calories.
- Being that I wanted to grow lean muscle mass as well as stimulate the greatest in fat loss, providing the nutrients as well as controlling insulin levels were of utmost importance.
- There is common ground in those that are in the pinnacle of their growth (infants) and the those that need to control their insulin (diabetics) - - they both need frequent feedings.
The end result was a diet that was filled with smaller, more frequent feedings spaced evenly through the day (every 2-3 hours). And each meal was a nutrient dense feeding balanced in quality carbs for energy, protein for rebuilding, and enough healthy fats to meet my requirements.
Consistency is Key
Only two things contribute to your metabolism - - Exercise and Diet. A missed meal is as bad as a meal filled with sugar, saturated fat, and calories. To be our best, we must consistently create an ideal environment to burn fat and build muscle. Even when I want to get into top shape, I still provide a buffer for a cheat meal or a missed meal (the 10% rule - meaning in a week filled with approximately 50 meals, I allow myself 5 meals to either cheat or miss a meal. This could all be done in one day, aka - cheat day, or spread across a couple of days). Regardless, the bulk of my week is filled with quality feedings stacked 2-3 hours apart, each and every day.
Who Has the Time to Eat That Frequently?
You read that correctly. Two to three hours apart. That's 7-8 meals a day. How d0 I have the time to eat that much? It's not because I have a lot of time on my hands. Quite the contrary. I have a very busy schedule. If I tried to do it with whole food alone, it would be impossible. But 3-4 of my feedings each day come in the form of a quality protein shake or meal replacement. About 2-3 hours after each of my "real food meals" I would have a shake with an aim of 35-40 grams or protein, 20-25 grams of carbs, and 10 grams or less of fat. Again, 2-3 hours after each of these shakes I would have a real food meal. So the real food meals are spaced 4-6 hours apart...very manageable.
Note: At the time of typing this, I am back to my contest-like dieting. After all, it's almost beach weather. I like to mix my supplements up fairly frequently, always trying new ones on the market and ultimately going back to a few proven staples in between. The shake I am using right now between meals is a combination of 1 scoop of BSN's Syntha-6 with a 1/2 scoop of Syntha-6 Isolate mixed in water. This shake provides me with:
- about 275 calories,
- 7 gms of fat,
- less than 19 gms of carbs,
- 5 gms of sugar,
- 6 gms of fiber,
- and, most importantly, over 36 gms of protein.
I'll be back next time to talk about the heavy importance I am putting back into my protein intake.
Until then, you can check out all my training and diet tips on the Cutting Edge Facebook Page. I post daily!
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James Cipriani
Cutting Edge Personal Training
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