Note on Calorific intakes and muscle growth/fat loss nutrition
Working out my calorific intake requirements for rest days and workout days.
I'm of the opinion that if I can get away with less calories and still feel like I have energy, then that just helps speed the process along.
I'm using an "A+B+C= Daily calorific requirements" formula taken from this article on macrobiotic nutrition.
It's mainly about bodybuilding nutrition, and whilst I've decided to do some level of bodybuilding, I'm not aiming for huge size; I'm going for an athletic physique appropriate for a martial artist, which I feel would help me in my general health as well as with my development as a combatant. (The link is taken from a source which is more about that sort of physique than the bodybuilding physiques shown on the document). The ebook is largely about getting huge (without doing cardio, but doing weights instead; which is not my goal, as I need to up my aerobic recovery times, so the extremely cardio centered activity of running is a fairly large part of my workout arsenal) but the nutrition information is still appropriate to anyone wanting to shed the fat and/or gain muscle (or in fact, just gain muscle without shedding fat).
A = Bodyweight in lbs (sorry, couldn't be bothered to work out the conversion in to kg) multiplied by the value X, where X depends on your goal.
X = 13 if you wish to gain muscle AND bodyfat
X = 10 if you wish to gain muscle and maintain bodyfat
X = 7 if you wish to gain muscle and burn bodyfat
X = 6 if you wish to gain muscle and burn a lot of bodyfat.
I went with a value of 6, because I'm impatient and want results to be sooner rather than later. I think it depends on the sort of person you are, but I see no point in going with X= 7 if you are able to cope with X = 6 unless you are simply fine tuning and only have an extremely small amount of bodyfat to drop. A good guide I'm told is that if when you put both hands behind your head and look in the mirror, if you can't see the top two abs and you wish to burn it all off, then you should be using the C = 6 value.
B = Bodyweight (once more in lbs) multiplied by the value Y, the value of which is determined by your lifestyle.
Y = 3 for a sedentary lifestyle
Y = 5 for a moderate lifestyle
Y = 10 for a very active lifestyle (e.g. your work is a physical labour profession , or you are a professional athlete etc)
You might want to fine tune (e.g. you may feel that your lifestyle is pretty active, but it's not at the level of a professional athlete, or someone who is lifting and carrying heavy weights all day, so you can use a value of 7) but only you can be the judge of that.
The value C relates to your workouts.
C = length of workout (in minutes) multiplied by Z, where Z depends on the type of workout you are doing.
Z = 10 for weight training and low intensity cardio.
Z = 12 for high intensity cardio... like running.
Add those figures together, and you can work out how much you need to eat on training days (A+B+C= Calories required) and on rest days (A+B= Calories required).
For me that comes to 1926 calories per rest day, with an extra 300 calories on top per half hour of weights, and 360 calories per half hour of running (more or less).
Of course, it's not all about the calories, because you can eat a diet of rice cakes and chow down all the multivitamins and cod liver oil tablets you like, and you won't be in good nick. Those calories need to be balanced, with plenty of fruit and veg (mainly fruit and veg actually, with the emphasis on the veg) and a proper balance of Carbs to proteins and fats.
Try to make your diet consist of the following
42-48% Carbs
32-38% Protein
17-24% Fat. (Keep the saturated fat to a minimum)
Which just about covers it.
The ebook has some recipes in it, but I'm not completely convinced by them. They use eggs, but only the egg whites for the most part which seems counter intuitive to me; the yolks may well contain the cholesterol, but on the other hand they actually contain the highest concentration of nutrients in the egg.
I'm still a fence sitter on the eggs issue, and to make matters worse I've been made even more confused on the matter of whether it's better to be eating eggs raw than cooked... but for the most part I think that you just have to accept that everything is bad for you if you have too much of it, and that if you are one of those people who does the raw egg thing (Rocky style or otherwise) then you have to be careful with where your eggs come from, and inspect each egg carefully before consuming it raw.
Anyway, in the end it mainly comes down to just eating healthily, and getting educated on exactly what healthy eating actually consists of.
P.S. Eat whole/natural foods over the boxed and processed stuff. Wholemeal bread and pasta etc, much better for you than the processed stuff.
I'm of the opinion that if I can get away with less calories and still feel like I have energy, then that just helps speed the process along.
I'm using an "A+B+C= Daily calorific requirements" formula taken from this article on macrobiotic nutrition.
It's mainly about bodybuilding nutrition, and whilst I've decided to do some level of bodybuilding, I'm not aiming for huge size; I'm going for an athletic physique appropriate for a martial artist, which I feel would help me in my general health as well as with my development as a combatant. (The link is taken from a source which is more about that sort of physique than the bodybuilding physiques shown on the document). The ebook is largely about getting huge (without doing cardio, but doing weights instead; which is not my goal, as I need to up my aerobic recovery times, so the extremely cardio centered activity of running is a fairly large part of my workout arsenal) but the nutrition information is still appropriate to anyone wanting to shed the fat and/or gain muscle (or in fact, just gain muscle without shedding fat).
A = Bodyweight in lbs (sorry, couldn't be bothered to work out the conversion in to kg) multiplied by the value X, where X depends on your goal.
X = 13 if you wish to gain muscle AND bodyfat
X = 10 if you wish to gain muscle and maintain bodyfat
X = 7 if you wish to gain muscle and burn bodyfat
X = 6 if you wish to gain muscle and burn a lot of bodyfat.
I went with a value of 6, because I'm impatient and want results to be sooner rather than later. I think it depends on the sort of person you are, but I see no point in going with X= 7 if you are able to cope with X = 6 unless you are simply fine tuning and only have an extremely small amount of bodyfat to drop. A good guide I'm told is that if when you put both hands behind your head and look in the mirror, if you can't see the top two abs and you wish to burn it all off, then you should be using the C = 6 value.
B = Bodyweight (once more in lbs) multiplied by the value Y, the value of which is determined by your lifestyle.
Y = 3 for a sedentary lifestyle
Y = 5 for a moderate lifestyle
Y = 10 for a very active lifestyle (e.g. your work is a physical labour profession , or you are a professional athlete etc)
You might want to fine tune (e.g. you may feel that your lifestyle is pretty active, but it's not at the level of a professional athlete, or someone who is lifting and carrying heavy weights all day, so you can use a value of 7) but only you can be the judge of that.
The value C relates to your workouts.
C = length of workout (in minutes) multiplied by Z, where Z depends on the type of workout you are doing.
Z = 10 for weight training and low intensity cardio.
Z = 12 for high intensity cardio... like running.
Add those figures together, and you can work out how much you need to eat on training days (A+B+C= Calories required) and on rest days (A+B= Calories required).
For me that comes to 1926 calories per rest day, with an extra 300 calories on top per half hour of weights, and 360 calories per half hour of running (more or less).
Of course, it's not all about the calories, because you can eat a diet of rice cakes and chow down all the multivitamins and cod liver oil tablets you like, and you won't be in good nick. Those calories need to be balanced, with plenty of fruit and veg (mainly fruit and veg actually, with the emphasis on the veg) and a proper balance of Carbs to proteins and fats.
Try to make your diet consist of the following
42-48% Carbs
32-38% Protein
17-24% Fat. (Keep the saturated fat to a minimum)
Which just about covers it.
The ebook has some recipes in it, but I'm not completely convinced by them. They use eggs, but only the egg whites for the most part which seems counter intuitive to me; the yolks may well contain the cholesterol, but on the other hand they actually contain the highest concentration of nutrients in the egg.
I'm still a fence sitter on the eggs issue, and to make matters worse I've been made even more confused on the matter of whether it's better to be eating eggs raw than cooked... but for the most part I think that you just have to accept that everything is bad for you if you have too much of it, and that if you are one of those people who does the raw egg thing (Rocky style or otherwise) then you have to be careful with where your eggs come from, and inspect each egg carefully before consuming it raw.
Anyway, in the end it mainly comes down to just eating healthily, and getting educated on exactly what healthy eating actually consists of.
P.S. Eat whole/natural foods over the boxed and processed stuff. Wholemeal bread and pasta etc, much better for you than the processed stuff.