Beginners guide to dieting

For my 10,000th post I decided to write my own beginners guide to dieting. I see people making logs asking the same types of questions and/or making the same types of wrong assumptions about nutrition/dieting. Instead of answering everyone individually, I can just send them to this guide. In this guide I plan to explain how to properly lose/gain/maintain weight. Keep in mind, all this information is coming off the top of my head. Doing your own research is the preferred method as long as the articles are from credible sources. This guide is intended for anyone who doesn't know where to start dieting. If you ever had any of these questions or think these are good questions, this guide will be beneficial for you to read; do fats make you fat? Isn't the best way to get shredded by eating no carbs and doing a ton of cardio? Shouldn't I switch my rep ranges to very high to get toned? I feel like as long as I eat clean and stay away from bread, potatoes, pasta and bagels I should get my desired results. You get the idea, if you fit this description you should definitely read this.

Why should you listen to me?
For the past 2-3 years I have devoted nearly all my free time to doing my own nutritional research including reading countless articles, books and helping clients. I have spoken directly to people highly respected in the fitness community about dieting such as Lyle McDonald and Alan Aragon. All my recommendations are a mixture from what I learn scientifically, everything I personally experiment with and experience through my clients. We all must believe in scientifically proven facts but not overvalue or misinterpret the data. When I decided that I wanted to be a nutritional coach, I immediately took on 15 free clients at once. It was very challenging because I had to constantly sacrifice sleep in order to help all of my clients. I did it for the experience and there was no better feeling when I got my first client (~50 years old) to hit his goal weight loss goal in 2-3 months. Prior to my program he only did cardio. Post program he had a sound nutritional plan while benching, squatting, and deadlifting.

Along with devoting the past 2-3 years to doing my own research and helping my clients, I have applied them to my own fitness goals. I have gone through a body transformation in a relatively short amount of time within fitness standards. Most of you who are reading this are probably new here so I'll show before and after pictures. Do not use these pictures as a way of setting a goal for yourself but rather use it as inspiration. Keep your goals realistic and attainable.






Goals- Should I bulk or cut first?
Some of you will already have a goal in mind. It may be to lose/gain/maintain a certain weight. There will be specific people who may fall under this grey category of “skinnyfat” which is generally an ectomorph who looks average with clothes on, healthy according to their doctor but when their shirt comes off it is not pleasant. There is a significant distinction between muscle mass and body fat specifically stomach fat while being a healthy weight for their height. These people who fall under this grey category are not limited to these specifics. The problem we see with these individuals is that they are too fat to bulk and have too little muscle mass to cut. What do you do? Here are some general guidelines you can follow. I would recommend making your own fitness log in here and ask for advice.
The most important thing to consider is your reason for dieting. The most popular reason for dieting is a mixture of aesthetic/health reasons. Diving deeper into this general category, some may be doing it because one may be overweight, anorexic, for health reasons only, preparing for a specific event such as a cruise or wedding and some want to achieve a specific bodybuilding/fitness model physique. Everyone has a specific reason and goal in mind. This plays a huge factor to whether you should bulk or cut for those who fall in this grey category. If you are dieting for a specific event you should almost always cut first. If you do not care about muscle mass, cut first. If you want to look more muscular but have a small gut and are new to lifting, you should almost always cut first. If you want to look more muscular but have a small gut and have been lifting consistently for two years minimum, you should bulk first. If you want my opinion for you specifically leave a comment with a picture of your current physique.

How do I set up my diet?
Copy and paste this link to your web browser http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/ and fill out the information to get your TDEE (maintenance calories). Take a look at the goals where it says maintain. If you plan to bulk, click on the option textbook 10% and if you plan to cut, click on the option suggested 15% (based on my recommendations). If you initially maintain your weight the first week or hit a plateau when bulking add 200 calories. If you are cutting and this happens, subtract 200 calories. After you get your new caloric total, find out your new macro nutrients which you will learn how to do next.

The next section is selecting your nutrition plan. This section is definitely controversial because none of the scientific studies are black and white. For beginners, it is important to follow general guidelines and not get caught up in the details. First, let’s review protein requirements because it is the most controversial. There is research suggesting only .55g-.77g of protein per pound of body weight is needed for endurance and strength athletes (ADA/DC/ACSM Position Stand, 2009). Getting more than that does not mean you will gain more muscle or damage your liver. Other studies indicate 1.04g-1.40g of protein per pound of body weight is needed for lean, resistance-trained athletes in hyporcaloric conditions (Elms et al, 2013). Lyle Mcdonald recommends 1.50g of protein per pound of body weight for strength and power athletes. Lastly and certainly not least, Alan Aragon recommends his own protein theory of "target body mass", setting the grams of protein to your goal weight. Since I started dieting, I have done 1.25g-1.75g per protein per pound of body weight. After reviewing these studies and highly regarded nutrition guru's (obviously not me), that probably leaves you being extremely confused. While I could write multiple papers on this topic, I am going to keep this short and concise. As a general guideline intake 1g of protein per pound of body weight if you weight train and intake .75g of protein per pound of body weight if you only do aerobics or no physical activity. Take me for example, I weigh roughly 160 lbs so if I was a beginner who decided to weight train that would equal 160g protein per day, whereas if I did aerobics or no physical activity (160x0.75) that would equal 120g protein per day. If you choose to go with my recommendation, click on custom and write in either 1.00 or 0.75.

The remaining macro nutrients are fats and carbs. These basically fall into the same category because for most people they are interchangeable. There is generally going to be very little body composition changes based on ratio split you use. My recommendation for fats is to select .40 per pound of body weight. After this, click on the red button that says calculate. Under the last step (view your results section) you can view each macro nutrient and your total calories.

Some of you might be thinking, what does all this mean? Enough with the numbers and information, I want to know what I am going to eat every day! Before we get into what you eat, I want you to download myfitnesspal or some calorie counter application. Please take the time to watch this instructional video on myfitnesspal (or youtube search the calorie counter you downloaded for an instructional video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu9RKqlmD1Q. For those who are potato head impatient, remember to use the bar code on the top right so the specific item comes up opposed to using the search option and choosing a different brand of the same food/drink. Do not pay attention to their calories and macro nutrient ratio/amounts they provide for you. Stick to my guidelines and only use the program to view your total calories and macro nutrient for each day.

Your specific macro nutrients/overall caloric intake will dictate how much you can eat. As long as you hit these macro nutrients (fats/carbs/protein) throughout the day, you are following the plan. As a beginner, as long as you hit these macro nutrients you can eat whatever you want. It is recommended to eat at least one fruit and two servings of vegetables per day. During the day, enter in the exact food items you are consuming as well as the number of servings. There is a high possibility, you will begin to notice that you need to cut down on some carbs and fats while raising protein intake for each meal. There are protein supplements such as whey protein shakes to help you meet your protein requirements.

Meal timing
I'm sure most of heard of various statements about meal timing such as, every two hours you need to eat to grow. While this statement has been scientifically proven to be false, eating this frequently will not increase or decrease muscle growth or overall body composition. As I mentioned before as long as you hit the total calories/macro nutrients, you are following the plan. This means whether you eat 1 or 8 meals, it generally will not make a difference and everyone typically goes with their preference. Due to many meal timing factors I have seen with my clients, I refuse to set anyone up for failure. My recommendation is to eat 4 meals each day when you are hungry and having ample time to eat. If you feel 4 meals is too many meals based on your low calorie intake then reduce it to 3 meals. If you feel 4 meals is too few meals based on your high calorie intake then increase your meals and add some snacks. Overall, it's about knowing yourself based on your preference, body and self-control.

Questions/comments/concerns
This guide is intended to help beginners form their own diet while gathering some valid information in the process. No question is stupid and the only way to learn the right way is to ask. I would rather you ask here then blindly search for a quick answer on a search engine like google. Give me some feedback and I hope this guide will make a difference for those who need it the most.

I got to the the too fat to bulk and too skinny to cut part. And then it was too long. Sounds okay. Can you take three more clients for free? The names are Saw, crunchy, and YTF. They a bit soft and need guidance.

It is long but I wanted to cover all the topics I thought were necessary to get someone started on their own diet. So much information is repeated over and over in new logs.

Lol the only problem is that Saw has all the knowledge.

I read it all, thought it was a pretty nice beginning primer, and hopefully a lot of the new posters on the forum can get a lot out of it.

I was really hoping this post would awkwardly go without a reply for a full day.

PM fakeb for editing help on your ebook. Good info but could use some cliffs.

Cliffs:

Fat; cut.

bunch of like, your opinion, man, and the same info you get from the bq in three sentences. gjge.

EV 10k Post - Beginners guide to narcissism

Appreciate it Monte. Thanks for taking the time to read it.

Shut the **** up, Donny.

skimmed thru,

a) could use some rephrasing and a whole bunch of condensing but overall - K.

b) lol servings.

c) have a fiber intake minimum imo and that should automatically lead to people choosing 'better' carb sources (read veggies and wholegrain stuff)

d) change your dietary fat intake recommendation from a strict figure like that to a daily minimum you want to hit imo, same with protein. at least underline that they're minimums you want to hit within your calorie budget.

e) internet is exploding but there is apparently still always room for a few selfies, good job sneaking them in.

Agree with all the wordiness remarks. Kind of an awkward mixture of "here's the basics for beginners" + extreme wordiness/scientific justification. I think if someone's seriously reading this post as their guide, they're not looking for the justification.

ETA: Or maybe have a summary at the top and put all your citations and explanations at the bottom so people can read at whatever scope they care about.

Try to split up paragraphs a bit better, use bulleted lists, etc. Make it a little bit easier on the eyes than a wall of text. I think those things would drastically improve the rate of information you get to your readers.

Agreed, it is long but I think you underestimate how many questions these people generally have and want some kind of justifications. Fiber intake is not needed as long as they are following my guidelines or are in a big surplus. I went over protein and fats, I don't go by minimums.

I think the questions would be a good way to see which people actually want to learn. I'd be wary if no questions were asked.

Sticky this please

I feel ashamed to be a part of a H&F forum where someone like EV can claim to be a nutritional coach and people just let it fly, esp in a 'beginners guide to dieting' thread. Throwing numbers into a iifym calc. does not make one a nutritional coach. Has anyone actually seen what EV eats day to day? Looks more like EV advertising his skills as a nutritional/health expert than a guide, which is fine with me as long as it is recognized as that and not a general guide to dieting.

for example EV fails to mention that most nutritional experts would advice the opposite of the monotonous meals he eats, esp. in the long run. Not to mention his belief that all burgers are junk food and that sweet potatoes can pass for a serving of veggies.. He also fails to recognize the boundaries within which his regimen could be considered good. It is definitely not a healthy or sustainable regimen or one that would encapsulate 'general dieting' as it's foundational pillars.

And tbf EV's transformation isn't even that groundbreaking. He was neither fat before becoming extremely lean, nor has he gotten stronger wrt even the most lenient fitness standards, in that time. You can open his log to confirm this.

I thought sweet potatoes were pretty legit?

Isn't pizza a vegetable?

Actually for someone mostly who eats rice and chicken, sweet potatoes are a pretty legit source of all kinds of goodness

If more people feel this way then I will delete this thread. These were not my motives and I actually spent a lot of time making this guide. My motives are to help others. I took time to write this up to give back to this community.

I find this specific post offensive and out of line. You don't know what I eat. You make assumptions based on pictures I post. Would you like me to give you a run down of specifically what I eat on a given week? Just ask. I think your problem is that you do not realize when I am trolling and when I am being serious.

lol

You are not a nutritional coach. Your claiming so and supporting it with name throwing etc. is non-pertinent, stupidly boastful and ultimately lol worthy in the context of starting a general dieting for beginners thread and that is what makes me question your motives.

Also big lol at claiming all your wrong assertions were just trolling. What a cop out.

It's totally fine imo. He's as much of a nutritional coach as we're "bodybuilders." the calculator is just to give someone a starting point for calories (which we always tell people to do anyways), and he presents his opinion on each of the macros afterwards.

It's not a doctor's guide on how to be healthy. It's a starting point for a noob wanting to cut. I think you need to chill out a bit ss.

definitely think calling himself a "nutritional coach" is a bit of a joke.
It's something that is fairly standard in the nutrition sector though btw, attend a few seminars and can call yourself "nutritionist", very confusing for the average Joe who expects them to actually know that they are talking about.

I don't want to speak for SS but I'm pretty sure that's exactly his point.