COPYRIGHT
Copyright © Coach Greg Inc. 2021.
All rights reserved.
The intellectual property rights in this eBook belong to Coach Greg Inc.
including all trademarks, trade names, logos, and designs related to
COACH GREG, GREG DOUCETTE, GREGDOUCETTE.COM, CHEF GREG, and
GD. No part of this eBook may be copied, distributed, displayed, posted,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, including by photocopying,
imaging, recording, or using any other digital, electronic, or physical
means. No part of this eBook may be edited, modified, adapted, or altered
in any way without the written authorization of Coach Greg Inc.
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HEALTH & LEGAL
DISCLAIMER
Thank you for purchasing this book from Coach Greg Inc. Here are some
important things for you to know.
The author of this book, Greg Doucette, is not a medical doctor or
registered dietician. This book provides general information related to diet
and nutrition. The contents are intended for your personal use and for
informational purposes only.
Nothing contained in this book should be considered as medical advice,
diagnosis, or treatment. You should always consult with a physician, or
other health or medical professional, before starting any diet or nutrition
regime, especially if you are pregnant, have any pre-existing health
conditions, or are not healthy enough to start a regime.
You are responsible for monitoring your own health and fitness. Coach
Greg Inc. is not responsible for any injuries or adverse health effects
caused by your diet or nutrition regime.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������2
Health & Legal Disclaimer�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������3
Dedication������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 6
Prologue���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7
Introduction������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 9
The Circle Diet is a Lifestyle �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 13
About Coach Greg (Me)!��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 16
The Circle Diet is the last diet you will ever start.��������������������������������������������������20
Spoke #1: Calories In, Calories Out ����������������������������������������������������� 24
Don’t Break the Law!�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25
Calorie Balance������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 26
Data Tracking: Body Weight �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������30
Body Fat Percentage Considerations������������������������������������������������������������������������� 32
Calories and Weight Loss ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 37
Calories and Weight Gain: Muscles, Bulking, and Maingaining����������������������42
Maingaining: The End-Game For Dieting����������������������������������������������������������������45
Calories IN: How Many Calories Do You Need?������������������������������������������������������� 47
Calorie Balance is Dynamic�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������50
Food Tracking���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 52
Do I Need to Count Calories for the Rest of My Life?�������������������������������������������54
What About Macronutrients? �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 56
Calories OUT Considerations����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 63
A Final Word on Spoke #1:����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������68
Quick Summary of Spoke #1: Calories In, Calories Out: ��������������������������������������69
Spoke #2: Minimize Suffering�������������������������������������������������������������� 70
The Role of Suffering��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 71
Willpower vs. Habits���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72
Get Comfortable with Being Slightly Uncomfortable!���������������������������������������� 73
Hunger and Satisfaction������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 74
Maximize Enjoyment IN the Circle �����������������������������������������������������������������������������80
Bring the Less Tasty Foods into Your Circle������������������������������������������������������������� 83
Low Calorie-Dense Foods�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������84
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Bringing a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Into the Circle��������������������������������� 88
Pea-NOT Butter Recipe������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 90
Low Calorie-Dense Substitutions���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 94
Fruits and Vegetables����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������97
Thickeners ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 105
Liquid Calorie Density�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 106
Practical Tips ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 108
Conclusion������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������122
Quick Summary of Spoke #2, Minimize Suffering:�������������������������������������������������125
Spoke #3: Move Your Ass �����������������������������������������������������������������������126
Become a “Better Butter Burner” �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 127
What “Type” of Cardio Should You Do? ��������������������������������������������������������������������� 128
Pace, Frequency, Duration & Progression������������������������������������������������������������������ 131
Additional Notes and Frequently Asked Questions.��������������������������������������������� 138
Quick Summary of Spoke #3:����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 142
Spoke #4: Maximize Muscle������������������������������������������������������������������143
Muscles Matter ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������144
Weight Training ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 146
Building Muscle and PTOR��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 149
When Macros Matter �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 150
Useful Natural Supplements�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������152
Quick summary of Spoke #4: Maximize Muscle: ��������������������������������������������������� 156
Conclusion��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������157
Implementation of The Circle Diet ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 158
A Final Word�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 163
References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 165
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DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to all the
CIRCLES
of the world out there ...
who have been yo-yo dieting their entire lives and have yet to find a
diet that they can stick to for the rest of their life. I know how hard it
is. I’m so glad you’re here.
I’m here to help you.
COACH GREG
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PROLOGUE
You did it.
You probably made one of the best decisions of your life if you are reading this.
Let me make it abundantly clear. THERE ARE NO FRIGGIN’ SHORTCUTS TO FITNESS!
Atkins? DEAD!
Keto? NEVER AGAIN!
Paleo? Snake? Hundreds of other fads? OVER!
They are all short-term, difficult to maintain systems that do nothing but put your
body through immense pressure for short-term win. And don’t get me wrong,
there is nothing wrong with short-term wins. For actual sustainability though, you
need something that is going to stand the test of time and keep you excited and
motivated not just for a week or month, I am talking LIFE here. I want you to be the
healthiest, sharpest and best version of yourself for every decade that comes your
way…
When it came to writing this book, I thought, “what would I want to share with my
circles that they could pass onto the next person?” My entire aim with this book is
to change your mentality around fitness and food if you don’t already know much
about my methods. Once you read this book, your duty is to pass it onto the next
person. Someone you think would benefit from it. At this point it was more about
the message and spreading that knowledge than anything else.
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You know, during hunter-gatherer times, humans would tell each other which
berries to stay away from and where to find the best watering holes and hunting
grounds. This was truly a time of survival of the fittest, a time where having accurate
information meant the difference between life and death.
I believe that today we live in a society where the fun and shiny things get shared a
lot more than actual real information. I’m hoping you see enough value in the book
and feel genuinely excited to tell somebody else about it once you read it. It will
distill decades of fitness and diet knowledge I have gained living life as an athlete
and coach, and how I maintain my fitness even now as I approach my late 40s.
My methods work. There is no need for another diet book. There was ONLY a need
for THIS circle diet book, which is the final book on dieting you’ll ever need to
read. And if you read this book, understand it, apply it to your life, I know you will
be fitter and healthier because I’ve seen it work tens of thousands of times. At this
point it’s less opinion and more fact and I’m hoping very soon you’ll be a part of my
tribe of circles if you aren’t already…
So let’s get moving, (pun intended) we have a lot to cover.
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INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION
This book is for everyone. Really. Everyone. Every person on this planet. Every man,
woman, and circle. All are welcome. All are invited to this party that is the Circle
Diet. Be there or be square. Or be a circle. Be whatever shape you want. That’s what
I keep saying, and I say it because I don’t want anyone to feel excluded.
I want everyone to be their authentic self, and to realize that everyone can lose
weight. Because everyone deserves the best chance to get in the best shape of
their lives and maintain it once and for all. The
Diet gives you that chance if you
will commit to giving it a try. You’re here, reading my book on dieting. So you must
be ready to stop falling for fads, the latest trends, as well as moronic influencers who
only tell you what you want to hear and not what you need to hear.
Say it with me. I can lose weight. C’mon. What are you waiting for? Say it with me.
I CAN LOSE WEIGHT. I CAN LOSE WEIGHT. I CAN LOSE WEIGHT.
Great. You’re ready. Let’s get started.
I chose the name Circle Diet because I like the idea of inclusion, and I can’t stand
exclusion. Most diets tell you what you can’t have. They outlaw foods and ban food
groups. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being told what I can’t do and what
I can’t have. Instead, I like the idea of finding ways to fit foods into one circle. This
“circle” satisfies my hunger and my taste buds while meeting my caloric needs and
my fitness goals. So, I came up with the Circle Diet, which is an easy-to-understand
forever diet that anyone and everyone can follow. It allows you to find a way to like
what you eat, like how you feel after you eat, and like how you look throughout it all.
All foods can be brought into the circle and be eaten in a diet. If the food has too
many calories, remove some of the sugar/fat and make it lower in calories while still
tasting amazing. If you don’t like the taste of something really healthy, make it taste
better and bring it into your
.
I love to bike. I get a rush from going harder and faster than last time, pushing the
pedals and spinning the wheels. It’s one of my favorite forms of exercise.
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Have you ever studied a bicycle wheel? Probably not. I never did either, until I began
thinking about why the circle is such an important shape to us all. If you take a close
look at a bicycle wheel, you’ll notice the array of spokes that look like guitar strings.
These spokes crisscross from one edge of the tire to the other.
They are more than just for cosmetics. In fact, they serve several functions. Spokes
add strength and help transfer power to the wheel. Spokes provide support and
stability. Spokes allow wheels to simultaneously carry weight AND move that
weight.
Think about what I just said. Support AND stabilize. Carry AND move weight.
Do you know of a fad diet that does ALL of those things? Don’t you dare say keto. I’ll
push you out of my circle.
Jokes aside, the Circle Diet has spokes too. These are
the main categories that will support your goals, stabilize your cravings, carry you
through the tough moments, and help you move your body so that you become as
much of a machine as me and the bike I ride almost daily.
What are these spokes of the Circle Diet? I thought you’d never ask! Here they are:
1. CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT
2. MINIMIZE SUFFERING
3. MOVE YOUR ASS
4. MAXIMIZE MUSCLE
Here’s a little diagram of these four key principles (next page):
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FIGURE 1. A diagram with the four key principles or “spokes” of The Circle Diet visualized as a
wheel with four spokes. The four spokes are Spoke #1: Calories In, Calories Out; Spoke #2: Minimize
Suffering; Spoke #3: Move Your Ass; and Spoke #4: Maximize Muscle.
In this book, I will explain the importance of each of these categories—or spokes—
that make up the Circle Diet. I will guide you—be your training wheels—and help
you learn how to ride this bike. I’m sure you know the saying, “It’s like riding a bike,
you never forget it.” My goal is for you to transform what you learn in this book into
a lifestyle that works for you that you will never forget and be able to use for the rest
of your life.
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THE CIRCLE
DIET IS A
LIFESTYLE
The name, “The Circle Diet” really resonated with me. To start, a circle has neither
a starting nor a finishing point. This is a good representation of how you should
approach dieting. Dieting is not about temporary fixes that have a start and
finish. The diet you follow should be one you can maintain for the rest of your
life.
Circles are also symmetrical. They do not have corners, lines, ebbs and flows, peaks
and valleys. This, to me, represents consistency, and evenness all around. Do not
think about your diet as something where you cycle between periods of intense
suffering and periods of relaxing, like periods of extreme restriction and then periods
of bingeing. See your diet as your way of life, something you will always be able to
do and be consistent with.
I also love the word “ .” And, as I often say in my videos, no matter if you are a man,
woman, circle (or square, if you dare), The Circle Diet may be the key to your lifelong
health and fitness journey. It’s not going to take you your whole life to get in better
shape.
This is a diet that has no end. This is a lifestyle. I know that may sound daunting, but
it’s really not. This forever diet can be done forever because it really is that simple
and easy once you know how to go about doing it. If the habits you build have an
end, you will bounce back to your old ways… and your old body, only heavier and
with less muscle. The best diet is the one that you do FOR LIFE. It never “ends.” And
your commitment to yourself and your health should not have an end.
If you can’t maintain the diet for life, you will only be setting yourself up for failure.
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95% of diets fail! Why? Because they are not sustainable. People may be successful
at initially losing the weight, but not keeping it off.1, 2 The
Diet is sustainable. It
is about making changes that you can sustain. In doing so, you will not run out of
willpower. You will never be required to make changes that you cannot handle or
sustain.
Do you want to be fit for a short period of time, or for life?
You’ve got your whole lifetime to get in better shape. Small, better habits that stick
compounded over a long period of time will get you to where you want to be with
less pain and suffering than a fast-track diet.
Hence, the Circle Diet! In this book, you will download my Coach Greg brain and if
you implement these ideas, you will be able to maintain a healthier body and be
more fit for life.
So, now you have a basic overview of what the Circle Diet entails, and you have read
how helpful it has been to others. But how do you know it’s right for you?
Well, let’s see . . .
Do you want to get in the best shape of your life? Lose weight?
Gain muscle? Improve both your mind and body?
Do you want to enjoy the food you eat?
Do you want to stop bouncing from diet to diet?
Do you want to form new habits and see lasting results?
Great. You’re in the right place. You’ll fit right into our circle.
It’s that easy. You belong here. The Circle Diet is for people from all walks of life who
want to lose weight. It can also be used for people who want to gain weight. I’ll
explain more about that later in the book. But professional athletes, bodybuilding
competitors, strongman competitors, or powerlifters may need a more nuanced
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approach that is focused on each athlete’s individual goals. The Circle Diet’s core
principles will hold true for all athletes, but if your goal is to bulk up, I suggest you
look elsewhere.
I also want to express if you do have a history of medical conditions like severe food
allergies or eating disorders, make sure you are also seeking the guidance of a
professional expert in the medical or therapeutic community while following the
Circle Diet.
On that note, I should inform you that I am neither a doctor nor a registered dietician.
But I do know how to lose weight and keep it off while getting in shape.
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ABOUT COACH
GREG (ME)!
Let’s do a little time travel back to young and even shorter Coach Greg days. Back to
a rare time in human existence before Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. (I know,
crazy, right?!)
When I was 10 years old, my dad bought a set of weights. My twin brother, my dad,
and I would lift weights in the basement together until my dad got hurt and quit.
I kept training in secret. I’d sneak into the basement and follow some of the basic
pointers of the Joe Weider Principles. Not long after, I saw a 13-year-old bodybuilder
on the old hit TV show, That’s Incredible! I watched in awe, my jaw on the floor. I
knew at that moment that I would one day become a bodybuilder. I was so sure of
myself. I had a lot of confidence, determination, and knew that if I put my mind to
it, I could be amazing one day.
My dad thought otherwise, of course. He told me, “All you eat is french fries, chicken
nuggets, and desserts. You could never diet like that because you like junk food too
much.” He was telling me the truth and not BSing me the way I do in my videos.
Had I continued to eat the way I did in my early days, I never would have been able
to maintain the physique I have today at the age of 46.
Bodybuilding appealed to me because I didn’t have to rely on anyone else to do
well. It was all on me. I was the one doing it. This affection for individual sports
started when I did a triathlon at the age of 13. I thought a triathlon sounded cool, so
I decided to just do it (as Nike always says to do). On race day, I asked my dad, “How
will I know which bike is mine?” There were 80 bikes lined up by the water, and I
wore glasses and could hardly see. He said he would point out my bike when I got
out of the water.
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When I got out of the water, there was only one bike left… mine. I was in last place.
My dad did not shy away from this opportunity for sarcasm. “That’s your bike right
there!” he said. (I’m thinking, ya I know, I’m in last place, but was still loving every
minute of it). I got more than just my good looks and in-your-face charm from him.
Maybe a hint of that Doucette sarcasm, to go along with that short stature.
The things worth doing in your life take time and effort to master. Your diet is no
different. You cannot master your diet in one day. It takes practice, just like a triathlon.
I got last place in that race, but I never gave up, and I never quit. Many years later, I
managed a podium finish at the provincial championships in that same triathlon.
I did make it to the bodybuilding stage. I started in grade 12 and never stopped from
there. I earned my “pro card” in the IFBB (“International Federation of Bodybuilding”)
in my 50th bodybuilding competition at the age of 35. Notice the pattern, it takes
TIME and to never give up to achieve big goals. I worked as a competition prep
coach, became a bodybuilding judge, and even broke numerous world records in
powerlifting. I also have both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Kinesiology. In
my degree program, I had the highest GPA in my cohort. I also used to teach math,
science, and physical education. (But English is not my best subject, in case you see
spelling or grammar errors in this book.
)
So I work hard, I’m smart, train hard, have muscles, stay lean, wear a Speedo, win
trophies, and absolutely love my diet. But none of that speaks to why I am the right
one to help you lose weight.
I am the right one to write The Circle Diet because I am just like everyone else. I
have done the yo-yo dieting. I’ve tried the fad diets, I’ve starved myself. I’ve suffered
through disordered eating behaviors and have felt society’s pressure to be thin,
whether from sports, peer pressure, or from social media my entire life. So trust me,
I GET IT! And I know it’s not easy.
Check out a few photos of me through the years ...
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Here I am at a dinner with friends holding
some diet pop, bloated but still happy.
Do not let your weight define you or your
happiness.
I tried the bulk-and-cut diet approach to putting on muscle.
I’ve done this many times and can tell you first hand the
toll this can play not only physically but mentally as well. I
learned first-hand that this can cause even more headache
and frustration. I would eventually learn through trial and
error that this was simply not necessary.
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And here’s my current look. 46 years
young with health and longevity
as my priority.
I am not going through the endless cycle of bulking and
cutting to get in good shape. I’m just in shape, and
continuing to stay fit and healthy. I’m enjoying life, have lots of
energy, and am still racing bikes and lifting weights after more
than 30 years.
I am more than what meets the eye. I’m like lasagna. There are many layers to me.
We all know I’m cheesy—low-fat cheesy, that is. But I also have deep thoughts.
I’m more than just a guy yelling and screaming on YouTube. I know that’s what
people see. As a result, people who don’t stick around to watch my videos end up
underestimating how much I truly care about others and how much I want to help.
I want to make a difference in people’s lives.
I want to make a difference in YOUR life. I want to help you learn how to deal
with failure, how to create new habits, and how to escape the jail sentence of body
dysmorphia and disordered eating. I want to show you how to gain control over
your choices. And I can do all of this by inviting you into my circle and giving you the
knowledge that I have acquired through decades of research, trial and error, and
coaching experience.
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THE CIRCLE DIET IS
THE LAST DIET YOU
WILL EVER START.
IT’S A FOREVER DIET.
If you lose weight and are happy, you’ll improve both your quality and quantity of life.3
You know what else I know? There are too many diets out there. And people quit
most of them. People get hungry, bored, tired, irritable. People bounce back like
a rubber band to their old habits or fall off the wagon and binge on everything in
sight. Listen, I get it. There is so much food out there. So many choices. Walk down
any aisle in the grocery store, and you’ll find cereal, candy, cookies, ice cream, chips,
the list goes on. There are so many ways that you can choose to consume high
calorie-dense delicious foods. We live in an age of abundance. And all of that food
tastes so amazing. It’s hard to say no. It’s hard to put the fork down (or spoon, in the
case of ice cream).
You know, humans are hard-wired to fail at diets. Humans were built to survive
famine, to hunt down and gather their food, and to run away from predators. I’m
pretty sure if you are reading this book, you aren’t suffering from famine and you
haven’t had a tiger chase you lately. In fact, you’re probably getting lost in your
phone, or sitting in front of the computer or in meetings every day. Our bodies are
designed to store fat when food is abundant. And so it’s no wonder so many people
fail when it comes to losing weight.
But, just because the human body is designed to fail at diets, does not mean you
should use that as an excuse to be out of shape and do nothing about it. Yes, it
means it’s hard to lose weight and keep it off, and that you need to make an effort
to develop habits to achieve success. But just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean you
can’t do it if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Triathlons and bodybuilding were hard for me too, at first. But I never gave up. I
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kept going. And look at me now. You, too, can be successful.
Let me ask you this: Do you have realistic expectations for your weight-loss goals?
Diets fail for all sorts of reasons. Many diets are too strict, swift, boring, unhealthy, or
just plain stupid. But you are given blame for lacking will power.
A well-known saying is the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and
over again and expecting different results. It’s time to do something different with
your diet!
A forever diet, which is what the Circle Diet is, requires a few important changes
that pave the way for lifelong sustainable habits
1. HONESTY
– This involves being truthful, genuine, and open with
yourself as well as loyal and faithful to your goals.
2. HABITS – These are the actions you do regularly, on a daily basis, both
with diet and exercise.
3. TOOLS – These are the physical things you need in order to carry out
those habits that enable you to reach your goals without falling apart when
life throws you lemons and things are not going your way.
4. ORGANIZATION – This is born out of the systems you put in place
so that your habits remain habits no matter if you are in a familiar setting or
unfamiliar territory, like when traveling or on vacation.
5. MOTIVATION – This involves the energy you create within yourself,
the people you surround yourself with, and the thoughts you generate
before and after your actions and habits. I encourage all of you to adopt a
HARDER THAN LAST TIME mentality. Always try to better yourself. Keep
this front-and-center in your approach not only to your diet and training,
but to your life. You owe it to yourself.
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Throughout this book, I will discuss how to build and maintain each of these five
categories that will keep your spokes inline.
The following is an overview of those spokes, which make up the majority of this
book:
CALORIES IN
CALORIES OUT
This is the foundation of the Circle Diet. In this section, I
will explain the meaning and importance of the calories in/
calories out approach as the only true way to lose weight
and create a lifestyle doing it.
MINIMIZE
SUFFERING
Notice I said “minimize” rather than “eliminate” or “erase.”
But you won’t need to die trying to reach your weight loss
goals. In this section, I’ll explain the concept of “the circle,”
which includes taste and hunger factors that determine
how you dress up or strip down your foods while remaining
in your ideal caloric range for healthy and sustainable
weight loss.
It will be in this section that you will learn tools and tactics
to put the fork down and curb overeating and binging.
An excellent companion to this section will be any of my
cookbooks, which are filled with recipes that minimize
suffering, keep you full, and maximize taste. (Here’s where
you can find all of my eBooks including my cookbooks:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/EBOOKS
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MOVE YOUR
ASS
Yes, this is a “diet” book, but since the Circle Diet follows the
calories in/calories out approach—the one, true approach
to weight loss—adding movement into the equation can
allow for more flexibility in caloric intake. So, this section
will discuss—in general terms—the amount, type, and
timing of cardiovascular exercise to accompany the
Circle Diet.
MAXIMIZE
MUSCLE
For the same reason that cardio will be discussed in
the Circle Diet, weight training will also be covered. The
more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn,
and the faster your metabolism will be. This section
will introduce basic fundamentals, whether you train
at home or in the gym. Of course, for more targeted
information, please grab one of my e-books about
weight training to supplement the Circle Diet. (Here’s
the direct link if you’re lazy:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/TRAINING-PROGRAMS
So, there you have it, folks. Strap on your helmet and let’s go for one of the most
important rides of your life.
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01
CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT
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DON’T
BREAK
THE LAW!
FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS.
Bear with me while I get a little scientific on you for a moment and explain the
premise of calories in versus calories out. To understand this basic premise, you
need to understand some basic energy principles.
First, let me define a calorie as simply as possible. A calorie is a unit of energy
released when your body breaks down food. You need this energy in order to move
and to exist. Without energy, you would die. That’s it! Okay, next.
Let’s talk about the First Law of Thermodynamics, and how it relates to calories. The
First Law of Thermodynamics states that while energy can be converted from one
form to another, energy itself CANNOT be created or destroyed.
The reason why this law matters is, if there is extra weight/fat on your body, it did
not come from nowhere. The fat on your body is stored energy. Stored energy came
from an energy source, and that energy source is FOOD (*and drinks that contain
calories).
So if you are overweight, this is due to eating more calories than you burned off,
without question.
Food contains calories, which you eat (*or drink), which your body uses and stores.
This follows the first law of thermodynamics.
No one can break the first law of thermodynamics. I repeat–NO ONE. (Not even
those moronic YouTubers or TikTokers who try to tell you otherwise).
Now, let’s talk a bit more about calorie balance and why it matters!
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CALORIE
BALANCE
The reason we NEED to eat to live is because we need calories (aka energy) from
food in order for our bodies to have energy to function. Food is how your body gets
energy. Food contains calories. When you consume food, you take in the energy
that the food has in it. This energy is used by the body for its metabolic processes.
Whatever energy is leftover does not simply go POOF and disappear. It is either
used to perform work, for example, or stored away in the body as bodily tissue.
The fat on your body represents energy. It did not get there without energy/food
being consumed. This means that if you are heavier than you want to be, it’s because
you consumed more calories than your body expended. PERIOD!! The excess
calories from the food YOU ATE have been converted to fat stores. The fat stores did
not get there by accident; they got there because of an energy surplus where you
consumed more than you needed to. This is also known as a calorie surplus.
What you need to hear is this: if you eat too many calories and are in an energy
surplus, you will slowly or even quickly gain weight!
By contrast, if you’re in an energy deficit, your body burns more energy than it
consumes. In these cases, your body will convert the energy from its own tissues
towards putting your body to work. This is also known as a calorie deficit.
Whether or not you are gaining, losing, or maintaining your body weight depends
on the calories in vs. calories out equation. If you’re net negative, or in a calorie
deficit, you will lose weight. This is because the body uses its own tissues for energy
in the absence of sufficient calories from food consumed. If you’re net positive,
or in a calorie surplus, you will gain weight. In a weight-gain scenario, your body
stores the extra calories as extra tissue on your body. If you’re net zeerrroooo on the
equation, your body weight will remain the same, aka maintenance.
The “Calories IN” part of the calorie balance equation is the amount of calories you
take in from food and drinks. The amount of calories IN your body on any given day
is based on the amount of calories that you consume every day.
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The “Calories OUT” part of the calorie balance equation is the amount of calories
your body burns for its functions. Calories OUT or calorie expenditure by the body
can be affected by a whole host of factors unique to each individual. The below is
not an exhaustive list of these factors, but they are important ones to know about
that I will discuss further in this chapter:
Thermic Effect of Food - the calories your body burns by digesting food
Exercise - the calories your body burns while exercising
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) - the calories your body burns
during the day through any movement that’s not considered exercise
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - the calories your body burns just to keep you
alive even if you’re not moving and asleep or in a coma
FIGURE 2. A diagram of a balanced scale with “Calories In” on the left side and “Calories Out” on
the right side. “Calories IN” contains one block that represents calories from food, and “Calories
OUT” contains four blocks representing the four main ways that you expend calories: Thermic
Effect of Food, Exercise, NEAT, and BMR.
If your calories IN are greater than your calories OUT, you will gain
weight. This is an energy surplus, or a calorie surplus.
If your calories OUT are greater than your calories IN, you will lose
weight. This is an energy deficit, or a calorie deficit.
If the calories IN is equal to your calories OUT, you will neither gain
nor lose weight. This is maintenance.
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FIGURE 3. A table demonstrating how the relation between calories in and calories out will
determine whether you are in a calorie surplus, calorie deficit, or maintenance, and whether that
will result in weight gain, loss, or no gain or loss, respectively.
AVERAGE CALORIE
BALANCE
Your body weight reflects average calorie balance over time. This means that you
can be in a caloric deficit on one day, but if every other day of the week, you are in a
significant caloric surplus, you will be net overall in a caloric surplus.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in a caloric deficit for one day. The average calorie
balance over days, weeks, months, and years is what truly matters, NOT your calorie
balance on any given day.
This means that you can have days where you overeat and still be in an average
calorie deficit for the week, month, or year. This also means that you can have days
where you undereat and still be in a caloric surplus for the week, month, or year.
Therefore, what’s most important is why your overall average food calories
consumption is over time and not how you eat on any given day. It also means you
could eat in a deficit for 6 days straight but still not lose weight if on the 7th day you
binge eat too much.
There are 3500 calories in one pound of body fat. And there are 7
days in a week. Divide 3500 by 7, and you have a 500-calorie daily
deficit to achieve roughly 1 pound of fat loss per week.4
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You could achieve this 500-calorie average by eating at maintenance one day, then
a 1000-calorie deficit the next, but it’s best to TRY to be consistent.
Some people might strive to achieve an average 500-calorie daily deficit by being
in a 1500-calorie deficit on 6 out of every 7 days, and then binge on a 5500-calorie
surplus on the weekend, but this is not recommended. While this technically works
from a mathematical standpoint, I do NOT recommend this approach from a human
behavior and psychological perspective. Getting into a habit of over-restricting
your calories during the week and bingeing on the weekends is not as healthy
on the mind and body as being consistent. You’re much better off eating foods
you enjoy and keep you satisfied that are close to your daily calorie average
needs, so that you don’t fall off the wagon, so to speak.
Now think about this: you know that 3500 calories is in 1 pound of body fat. But most
people want to lose more than 1 pound of fat. Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds of
body fat. So multiply 3500 x 10, and you need to achieve a 35,000 calorie deficit over
time to lose 10 pounds.
This is why you need to think of your calorie balance not just as a
daily amount, but as a weekly, monthly, and yearly amount. And
you need to think about how you can build a diet and lifestyle
that you can follow for not only weeks or months, but YEARS!
35,000 calories is a lot when done in a week or a month, but over
time, it’s not nearly as difficult to achieve.
What this also means in practical terms is that calories MATTER. Every friggin’ day of
the week, every month, and every year. They do not stop mattering! (...This is unlike
macros which can change and percentages for each can vary greatly depending on
how you want to eat. I’ll get to that more in a bit). Calories must be consumed in a
deficit in order to lose weight.
The remainder of this section will review how to know whether you are in a calorie
surplus, deficit, or at maintenance. If you’re not, it will show you how to get yourself
there more effectively than last time.
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DATA TRACKING:
BODY WEIGHT
All you need to do to figure out if you are in a calorie surplus, deficit, or maintenance,
is to track your body weight. So, start using a scale. Don’t be scared. I know social
media has a hit out on scales, but scales are actually useful tools that can help you
determine when to increase or decrease your calories.
Here’s how you do it: Weigh yourself naked every day (or at least 5 times per week)
when you wake up after using the bathroom. Track the number on the scale in a
journal, calendar, or the notes section on your phone. Each week, look at your list of
numbers, put them in numerical order, find the number in the middle, and that’s
your median weight. See the tables below for some examples:
FIGURE 4. An example of how you can derive your median weekly body weight if you recorded
your body weight every day of the week. In this case, you would arrange your body weights from
low to high, and eliminate the lowest 3 and the heaviest 3 weights. The remaining weight (in this
example, 149 pounds) is the median.
Your weight will fluctuate from day to day due to factors both in your control (diet,
exercise, water, fiber, and travel) and out of your control (menstrual cycle, stress, heat,
sleep, medications, etc.). This is why I advocate for recording the weekly median
weight rather than the average weight. By using the median weight instead of the
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FIGURE 5. An example of how you can derive your median weekly body weight if you recorded
your body weight for 5 out of 7 days in one week. In this case, you would arrange your body
weights from low to high, and eliminate the lowest 2 and the heaviest 2 weights. The remaining
weight (in this example, 250 pounds) is the median.
average, we are getting rid of outliers in data, allowing you to paint the best picture
of your true morning weight.
It’s crucial to track your weight 5-7 days per week as opposed to one day per week,
such as every Saturday morning. If you track just once a week, you may be tracking
an “outlier” day which is either the highest outlier or the lowest, and this will not be
an accurate reflection of your true weight.
So, track that median number over a 3-week period and see if it is going up or
down or remaining the same. If it is going down, then you are in a calorie deficit
that is working for your weight-loss goals. If it is staying the same, then you need
to consider lowering your calorie intake if your goal is to lose weight rather than
maintain. And if it is going up, well . . . you need to put the fork down as you’re eating
too much. You’re in a calorie surplus.
It’s that simple! Track your body weight. This is how you know if you are in an energy
surplus, deficit, or at maintenance.
Now that you know if you are in a surplus, a deficit, or at maintenance, I’m going to
provide you with more details on how to get you closer to your goals.
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BODY FAT
PERCENTAGE
CONSIDERATIONS
When determining a path forward for your body weight, I recommend that you
take into account body fat percentage. Body fat percentage is the total mass of
fat on your body relative to the total amount of mass on your body. People with
higher body fat percentages have a higher amount of fat on their body relative to
muscular and skeletal mass.
My guidelines for health are as follows: 15% body fat percentage for most men,
and 25% body fat percentage for most women. The typical male will likely find
that, depending on their genetics, that the 10-20% body fat range is where they
are healthy, have energy, feel good, build muscle, and live a normal life. For most
women, 20-30% is most suitable for optimal muscle-building through maingaining
and healthy sustainable living.
This is important to take into account because it should factor into your calorie
goals. Let’s take an example: woman A named Ashley is 5’5” and 150 pounds but
has lifted weights for years and has a lot of muscle mass. Her body fat percentage
is 25%. Woman B named Betty is also 5’5” and 150 pounds with hardly any lifting
experience or muscle on her body. Her body fat percentage is 40%.
Ashley and Betty have the same BMI, or “Body Mass Index”, but vastly different body
compositions. I would recommend that Ashley follow a “maingaining” protocol,
but, if possible, that Betty lose weight while trying to build muscle until she has
achieved a healthier body fat percentage.
This is why you cannot simply look at body weight or body mass index to determine
your goals. You need to consider body fat percentage.
Your ultimate goal with dieting should be to build muscle while slowly getting
leaner until you achieve your ideal body fat percentage (10-20% for males and 2030% for females). Once you’ve gotten there, continue to focus on building muscle
while not putting on additional body fat.
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Keep in mind that the slower you lose weight, the more muscle you will be able to
preserve along the way. If you weight train and eat an adequate amount of protein,
you will be able to preserve or even build muscle while losing body fat, which will
promote an improvement in body composition as you lose weight.
Measuring body fat percentage is quite difficult to do very accurately and
consistently, but being able to make an estimate will be useful for helping you to
determine your goals. You can use tools such as calipers testing, DEXA scans, or
hydrostatic weighing to get estimates. The best way is to hire me for a Laser Eyes
assessment or a custom diet program (which includes a body fat assessment), or
take a look in the mirror and compare your muscle definition and fat mass to some
reference images below.
FIGURE 6. The images in these charts and their associated body fat percentages represent estimates
based on visual assessments of women. They do not represent 100% accurate body fat percentages.
You may, however, use these guides as a way to roughly self-assess your body fat. Keep in mind that
body types vary and a picture can only provide so much information. These diagrams represent
estimates and may be off in real life by a few percentage points.
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FIGURE 6. The images in these charts and their associated body fat percentages represent estimates
based on visual assessments of women. They do not represent 100% accurate body fat percentages.
You may, however, use these guides as a way to roughly self-assess your body fat. Keep in mind that
body types vary and a picture can only provide so much information. These diagrams represent
estimates and may be off in real life by a few percentage points.
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MEN BODY FAT
5-7%
8-9%
10-12%
13-15%
18-20%
FIGURE 7. The images in these charts and their associated body fat percentages represent estimates
based on visual assessments of men. They do not represent 100% accurate body fat percentages.
You may, however, use these guides as a way to roughly self-assess your body fat. Keep in mind that
body types vary and a picture can only provide so much information. These diagrams represent
estimates and may be off in real life by a few percentage points.
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30%
35%
40%
50%
60%
FIGURE 7. The images in these charts and their associated body fat percentages represent estimates
based on visual assessments of men. They do not represent 100% accurate body fat percentages.
You may, however, use these guides as a way to roughly self-assess your body fat. Keep in mind that
body types vary and a picture can only provide so much information. These diagrams represent
estimates and may be off in real life by a few percentage points.
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CALORIES AND
WEIGHT LOSS
If after a body fat self-assessment you’ve determined that weight loss is your ideal
path forward, you need to create a caloric deficit. A caloric deficit is created when
the amount of calories you consume from food is less than the amount of calories
that your body uses for its activities.
When your body does not get enough calories per day from food, it has to get
the rest of the energy it needs from somewhere else. So, it gets the energy from
whatever your body has available. What your body burns depends on a lot of
factors, but essentially, it can derive energy from carbohydrates stored as glycogen
in the liver and muscle, protein stores (aka, muscle like your biceps), or from its fat
stores (adipose tissue).
When your body uses its own tissues for energy in the absence of sufficient calories
from food consumed, this is how you lose weight. It’s preferable for the energy to
come from glycogen and fat and NOT muscle.
People who are looking to lose weight often overshoot their caloric deficit and
wind up losing muscle. The quicker you lose weight, the more likely you are to lose
muscle in addition to fat. If you want to spare as much muscle as possible during
your cut, create a smaller caloric deficit.
(In spoke #4, I will get further into why it’s important to spare as much muscle as
possible. But I’ll stick to the CICO basics for now).
I mentioned in the previous section that there are 3500 calories in a pound of body
fat. With 7 days in every week, you can achieve 1 pound of fat loss per week on a
500-calorie daily average deficit.
This means that if you are a man, woman, or
eating an average of 3000 calories
per day, and you want to lose 1 lb of fat per week, you can start eating an average of
2500 calories per day and expect to start to lose at this rate. If you’re a man/woman/
eating an average of 2000 calories per day, you’d have to drop your daily calorie
intake to an average of 1500 calories per day.
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You can achieve this 3500 weekly caloric deficit by manipulating your calories IN,
or the calories OUT, or BOTH. The calories IN is the amount of calories you take
in via food. The calories OUT is the caloric expenditure via Thermic Effect of Food,
exercise, NEAT, or BMR that require energy expenditure. A simple 3500 weekly
average caloric deficit might be achieved by any of the following methods:
1. Eat less than what you eat on an average day right now. Eating 500
calories less every day compared to what you eat now.
2. Burn more than you do now, to the equivalent of an average of 500 calories
additionally expended each day (or 3500 calories in one week). You can
actively do this through increased exercise. For reference on movement, an
average 155lb person will burn about 500 calories from walking 5 miles. You
may also eat foods that are higher in protein in fiber, which cost the body
more energy to digest (more on that - the “Thermic Effect of Food” - at the
end of Spoke #1). Additionally, you’ll experience higher calorie expenditure
from eating from all four food groups and maintaining a proper hormonal
balance through macronutrients and micronutrients. This optimizes your
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR - more on that at the end of Spoke #1).
3. Eat less and move more than you do now. With this approach, you just
need to eat a little bit less than you eat now, and burn a little bit more than
you do now. With the 3500 calorie weekly deficit, you will simply need to
eat an average of 250 calories less per day, and burn 250 calories more per
day through physical activity. Walking on a slight incline for a half hour
each day at a very slow 3 mph pace could achieve this.
We’re all brainwashed with these shows like Biggest Loser thinking we should be
losing 5-10 pounds per week, and we’re thinking, “1 pound of fat per week will be
way too slow!” But almost all of those people who lose a ton of weight very quickly
will rebound very quickly. They also can easily impair proper hormonal function
through drastic calorie restriction.5
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For people starting out on their weight loss journey, I recommend
losing weight at a rate of 0.5 - 1% of body weight per week. I do not
recommend more than 1% of your body weight per week, because it
makes the diet very difficult to maintain, let alone build muscle.
So take your current body weight and multiply by .005 or .01 to determine an optimal
amount of body weight loss per week.
Then multiply that number by 3500 to know how much of a weekly caloric deficit is
required to drop fat at that rate. Divide by 7 to know how much of a deficit you need
to be in on an average day in order to continue your rate of fat loss.
Here is a table to help you visualize what these numbers look like:
FIGURE 8. This table displays how to calculate the weekly and daily calorie deficit required to lose
weight at a rate of 0.5 - 1% of body fat percentage loss per week for people who weigh 150, 200, 250,
300, 350, and 400 pounds.
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If you weigh 200 pounds, for example, 0.5-1% of your body weight is 1-2 pounds. So
you can build your calorie deficit around losing 1-2 pounds per week, or 3500-7000
calories per week deficit. 3500-7000 divided by 7 is a 500-1000 average daily calorie
deficit.
So, how do you know if you are achieving the caloric deficit? Simple. Track what
you’re eating now and track your body weight. Your degree of body weight
change over time will tell you whether or not you’re losing weight too quickly. As I
mentioned earlier, you need to get into the habit of tracking your body weight daily,
and assessing if your median weekly body weight is decreasing. If it’s decreasing at
a rate of 1% or less per week, you’re in good shape.
Remember, less is more when it comes to weight loss. It sounds counterintuitive, but
I’m telling you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. You want to hear
this will be a quick and easy process. But it’s not. It’s a slow journey, and I suggest
you make the most of it. It really can be an enjoyable and satisfying experience.
If you are starting a weight-loss journey for the first time, you may lose a lot of weight
very quickly. Don’t be overly excited by this. This happens because carbohydrates
stored as glycogen have 3 grams of water for every gram of carb. For this reason,
you may drop a lot of water weight in the first week or two when starting your diet.
(This is not “real” body fat loss. It is mostly water loss).
One very important note is that your calorie requirements to maintain your
deficit will change over time as YOU change. You may eventually need to reduce
your calories IN or increase your calories OUT over time if you want to continue
to lose weight. This is often due to both a decrease in body size and a decrease in
calorie expenditure from NEAT and/or BMR.6, 7 Keep an eye on the scale and track
your data to know if you need to make adjustments.
Also, as you get closer to your goal, it often becomes more challenging to lose
weight. Therefore, it’s best to set realistic expectations. The slower you lose weight,
the easier it will be to stick to your diet and minimize suffering (spoke #2). At first,
losing 1% of body fat per week may be easy, but if you feel hungry and tired all of the
time, you should reduce the rate of weight loss to only 0.5% per week or less. I know
this means it will take longer to get to your goal, but as I’ve stated numerous times,
the diet will only work if it’s something you can maintain for the rest of your life. I
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know I keep repeating myself on this.
Please remember that the slower you lose weight, the better. So don’t worry if you
are only able to lose weight comfortably at a rate of less than 0.5% per week. Even
if you lose weight at a rate of .5% per month, this will still result in long-term weight
loss. It’s better to lose weight and keep it off than to crash diet and gain it all back.
And a final warning on caloric deficits: most women should not eat fewer than
1200 calories, and most men should not eat less than 1800 calories on average
per day to lose weight. This is because most need more than 1200 and 1800 calories
per day to ensure proper macronutrient and micronutrient intake. If you cannot
lose weight on more than 1200 calories for women or 1800 calories for men, then
you will be much better off increasing the calories OUT portion of the equation
through increased movement, such as doing cardio.
Don’t be fooled by the transformation photos you see online. Some of the best
transformations that display before/after images may be aided by PEDs. And the
before and afters do not include the after-afters, aka, after they have regained the
weight due to having a diet they can’t sustain.
The Circle Diet is a forever diet! Pace yourself. There’s no rush. Be the turtle, not the
hare. 95% of all diets fail! If you want to be one of the few who keeps the weight off,
literally try losing the weight slower than last time.
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CALORIES AND WEIGHT
GAIN: MUSCLES, BULKING,
AND MAINGAINING
If you want to gain weight, you need to create a caloric surplus. A caloric surplus is
created when the amount of calories you consume from food exceeds the amount
of calories that your body uses for its activities. This is also known as a hypercaloric
condition.
When your body consumes more food than it needs to sustain its activities, it stores
the extra calories in body tissues. If you’re lifting weights harder than last time,
there is a good chance that at least some of those extra calories will be put to good
use by building muscle tissue as well as replenishing glycogen stores. However,
unfortunately, no matter how badly you wish it was not true, if you eat in too great
a surplus, you will store some of those extra calories as body fat.
I want to be careful when talking about caloric surpluses because people tend to
take this too far. Yes, some people need to gain weight. If you are under a healthy
body fat percentage, have low energy, are hungry, have a reduced sex drive, brain
fog, and so on, it likely makes sense to intentionally put yourself in a caloric surplus,
as you need to consume more energy to maintain important bodily functions. It is
impossible to know exactly how much body fat you need, as it varies from person
to person. But for most men, 10-20% is the target for health, and for most women,
20-30% is the target. This will be even higher for some based on their genetics.
Let me state clearly: I almost never recommend that someone put themselves in a
significant caloric surplus, or what most people refer to as a “bulk.”
The only circumstances where I recommend a “bulk” are where
you are underweight, do not have enough body fat, lack energy
due to caloric restriction, or just dieted for a bodybuilding show
and need to get back up to a healthy body fat percentage. Most
people do not need to bulk up.
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Even if your goal is to build a lot of muscle which requires weight gain, you should
not put yourself in a significant caloric surplus most of the time. This is because
muscle does not grow very quickly. It takes a lot of time to build an appreciable
amount of muscle. Most people who want to gain muscle seem to think that “you
gotta eat big to get big” and you have to “bulk up and then cut.” The reality is, if you
eat big to get big, it will work, but you will get big and fat (and not the kind of big
you were likely hoping for).8
Assuming you want to build muscle, know this: you do NOT need a large surplus to
build muscle, unless you are already too lean. If you are already overweight or are
“skinny fat,” suggesting to “bulk” or “eat big to get big” will only end up making you
big and fat.
Here is the truth: when you consider the rate at which muscle can be built and the
amount of calories in a pound of muscle, you only really need a very small average
caloric surplus to build muscle (about a 30-calorie surplus for most people). So
when trying to add muscle, unless you’re already too lean, simply try to add muscle
while maintaining the same percentage of body fat you currently have. Look in the
mirror, and if you’re getting leaner, eat more. Or, if you’re getting fatter, eat less.
In other words, if you eat close to maintenance, you will still build muscle. In fact–
and this is going to be shocking to hear–you can also build muscle in a caloric deficit.
9
(Not as much as in a caloric surplus, but it can be done). Yes, if you “bulk up” like
many people do, you will likely build a little more muscle than if you were eating at
maintenance or in a deficit. But you’ll also gain fat. Fat that you’ll need to remove
later on by cutting . . . and that is how most people fall into the never-ending cycle of
bulking and cutting. (And while you’re back on that cut, it’s going to be difficult to
build muscle that you could be building if you were just to simply maingain in the
first place. More on that in a bit).
Let me state clearly, you need the following to build muscle: protein, water, and
energy (not including training harder than last time, genetics, sleep, hormones,
etc). If you’re reading this book, get ready to consume an appreciable amount of
protein (more on that later). You should always be drinking ample water (if you are
peeing every 2-3 hours, you’re fine on water intake). The energy you need to build
muscle can come from either the calories you eat, OR from your fat stores. In other
words, a caloric surplus is NOT needed to build muscle.
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So, now that I’ve added all of those caveats, if you still decide you want to slowly
increase your body fat percentage and “clean bulk”, this is how you can do it. For
people who want to gain weight at a reasonable rate, I recommend no more
than a 250-calorie per day surplus. This will create a 1750-calorie weekly average
surplus. Note that for smaller individuals, even half of 250 (125 is more than enough)
will create a surplus. Keep in mind that when you increase calories, your calories
OUT equation can increase as well (your NEAT, thermic effect of food, and BMR),
so it may not perfectly translate to 1 pound of fat gain every few weeks. You can
achieve this 1750 weekly caloric surplus in several different yet simple ways:
1. Eat more than what you eat on an average day right now. Eating an
average of 250 calories more per day compared to what you eat now
would result in a total weekly caloric surplus of 1750 calories, which is just
under half a pound of body fat. Keeping a small surplus keeps the weight
gain slow which gives you the best chance of putting on muscle while
very slowly adding body fat.
2. Move less than you do now, to the equivalent of 250 calories each day
(or 1750 calories in one week). If an average 155lb person will burn about
500 calories from walking 5 miles, that same person will conserve about
500 calories from NOT walking 5 miles. If you walk 5 miles on a regular
day, you could cut that down to 2.5 miles per day to create a difference of
250 calories conserved each day.
3. Eat more and move less than you do now. With this approach, you just
need to eat a little bit more than you eat now, and move a little less more
than you do now. In the 1750-calorie weekly surplus example, you will
simply need to eat an average of 125 calories more per day, and burn 125
calories less per day through physical activity.
Since cardiovascular activity is important for your heart health, if you’re looking
to put on mass, my recommendation would be to simply eat more and not move
less. Cardio is important for you, even if you are not trying to lose weight. So please
follow my minimum 150-minute weekly cardio guidelines as outlined in the Spoke
#3: Move Your Ass.
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MAINGAINING: THE ENDGAME FOR DIETING
If after a body fat self-assessment you’ve determined that you are in a healthy body
fat percentage range, you should “maingain.” I am a huge fan of the “maingaining”
approach as the end-game for dieting. If you are lucky to be in this situation where
you are at a healthy body fat percentage, you can continue to improve your health
and physique by maintaining your body fat percentage at the same level while
slowly building muscle over time, or “maingaining” as I call it.
Notice I said body fat percentage and not body weight. Once you’ve achieved a
healthy body fat percentage, you can continue to train and put on muscle, which
will likely result in you slowly gaining weight over time.
The following chart shows how much muscle you can expect to gain depending on
your genetics and experience level.
FIGURE 9. This chart is adapted from one of my videos on realistic expectations for how much
muscle you can gain by optimizing your nutrition and following a strength training protocol without
any PEDs.10 The red bars on the left are a set of guidelines for those who have genetics that are
favourable to building muscle. The blue bars on the right are a set of guidelines for females and
those who have less-than-favourable genetics for building muscle.
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Once you are maingaining, the goal isn’t to remain the same body weight. The goal
is to gain muscle without putting on fat. Which means your body weight will go UP
over time.
Increasing your body weight in this case is not a bad thing. It could be a good thing
if you are putting on muscle and not gaining fat.
Maingaining is for everyone!!! However, if you are already very lean, you should be in
a small caloric surplus until you’re at a body fat percentage where you feel great in
the gym and can perform well, in order to start maingaining.
Many people do not need to diet or lose weight and are perhaps already at a “healthy”
body fat percentage OR got there by being in a calorie deficit for a while. If you’ve
been dieting and have achieved a healthy body fat percentage, I recommend that
you “maingain.”
From a calories IN, calories OUT perspective, this means your calorie balance on a
weekly basis will remain relatively close to, but just slightly above, maintenance.
You will need to let your body weight creep up very slowly to put on muscle. A rate
of about 0.5 pounds per month is a pretty good target for maingaining for most
people. You can always make adjustments to your calories or cardio for a week or
two as needed, to scale back slightly to a ~250-calorie deficit if you start to notice
you’re gaining a little too much body fat from trying to maingain too aggressively
or as a result of going off the
Diet during that week-long vacation.
As you can see, adding muscle is not a quick process. In comparison, losing fat can
happen 10 times faster or more. It’s best to take your time getting leaner, as it’s
going to happen a lot faster than building a muscular body regardless.
This is why I consider maingaining to be the end-game for dieting. You will get
to very slowly increase calories over time, while gaining muscle and not gaining
body fat. (This is, of course, if you are also following a strength training protocol and
maximizing your muscle mass - see Spoke #4: Maximize Muscle for more details on
this).
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CALORIES IN: HOW MANY
CALORIES DO YOU NEED?
I’ve stated that calorie balance is the most important consideration for your body
weight goals. So, determine right now if your goal is to gain weight, lose weight, or
maintain/maingain weight.
Okay, you’ve picked one. Now you need to figure out how to get yourself on the
correct side of the energy balance / calories in, calories out equation to achieve your
goal.
But, this can get really complicated if you let it be. I am asked all the time, how
many calories do men, women, and circles really need?
The truth is I, Coach Greg, cannot give you a precise number because I cannot
determine how many calories you personally burn. This is because the amount of
calories you burn is unique to YOU. I will never ever be able to precisely state how
many calories you need to eat to lose, gain, or maingain. I can’t dictate an exact
number of calories that will work for the masses reading this book because overall
caloric intake depends on a slew of factors unique to each one of you.
These factors that influence your caloric expenditure include but are not limited to:
•
Age
•
Body weight (more body weight = more calories needed to power larger
bodies)
•
The amount of muscle on your body (more muscle = increased BMR/more
calories burned)
•
The amount and intensity of cardio you do, and how hard you train
(more cardio, more calories burned)
•
How active your lifestyle is outside of exercise (“NEAT”)
•
What drugs you take (PEDs or prescribed)
•
The type of food you eat (hint: more protein + fiber = increased thermic
effect of food. More on this in a bit - some foods with a lot of protein and/or
fiber require more energy to digest than others)
•
And MORE such as genetics, hormones, stress, medical conditions, side
effects from medications (these are much harder to quantify)
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So there’s no way for me to precisely tell you as the reader how much you need to
eat. But that’s OK. I have a method for you instead of an answer.
(Shameless plug: I write custom diet plans for clients for this purpose. My clients
have to fill out a very long personal/athletic/health history questionnaire so I can
come up with a proper calorie target for them. Check them out here:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/ALL-COACHING
If I had more information on you such as your age, body weight, sex, lifestyle, etc.,
then I could get pretty close).
THE METHOD IS TO START TRACKING DATA AND DOING
SOME CARDIO. RIGHT NOW.
Get a notebook or download a food/calorie tracking application
such as MyFitnessPal. Track all the food and beverages you’re
consuming each day to understand (approximately) how many
calories you’re consuming.
Buy a scale if you don’t have one. Put it in your bathroom. Track
your body weight every morning. Log it in your notebook or
some kind of application for tracking your weight.
Start doing 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week
(more on what constitutes “moderate intensity” cardio in Spoke
#3: Move Your Ass, so be sure to finish this book!)
Do this for 3 days including 1 weekend day. After several days, you will have a grasp
on the following:
How much you weigh.
How many calories per day you are consuming. You can do this
by totalling up the number of calories you eat every day over the
course of a few days, and dividing by the number of days.
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With these pieces of information, you will be able to establish a starting point for
your diet. Perhaps your goal is to lose weight, and your body weight has already
started to go down in 3 days, simply because you became more mindful of your
food choices and calorie consumption. Well, that’s a great outcome! Now you have
more information to support your calorie deficit, since you know how much you’re
eating and how much cardio you’re doing.
If you do not want to track your calories for 3 days straight, you can take a guess
for your starting point. For women, simply add a zeerrroooo to your body weight in
pounds, and eat that much to begin your diet plan. For men, add a zeerrroooo to
your body weight in pounds, and then add another 10%. This is because men, on
average, have more muscle mass than women. The table below illustrates how you
might guesstimate your starting calories for your deficit.
FIGURE 10. This chart provides guidelines for how many calories you can start eating per day if you
wish to skip the step of determining how much you currently eat. The guidelines vary based on your
body weight and sex.
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After a week eating this amount, you can then decide if you should increase or
decrease calories based on whether the scale is going up or down.
If your goal is to lose weight, and your rate of body weight loss is about 0.5-1% per
week, you can stay the course and not make any changes… for now.
Perhaps your body weight is staying the same on the amount that you know you’re
currently consuming. This is also useful information. Now, you can subtract 250
calories from your daily calorie average if you’re a woman, or 375 calories if you’re
a man, to begin losing weight at a rate of about 0.5 pounds of fat loss per week for
women and 0.75 pounds of fat loss per week for men.
Ideally, the slower you lose weight, the better. So, start slow. If needed, you can
reduce calories further in the coming weeks.
I hope this is crystal clear by now. You need to track data. The weight on the scale
is just a number. How much you consume is just a number. Numbers do not have
feelings! But they do provide valuable information that will help you in your fitness
journey. So they are important. Just don’t let the numbers dictate your self-worth
or happiness.
CALORIE BALANCE
IS DYNAMIC
I’ve alluded to this several times but want to call it out more clearly: the amount of
calories you need to consume to lose weight can CHANGE over time.
You will need to continuously monitor your intake and your weight in order to see
if you are still progressing at an appropriate rate. Continuously monitoring your
intake and weight will give you the information you need to know if you need
to make adjustments to your calorie intake over time. There are many reasons
that your intake may have to change over time such as: changes in weight, body
composition, your activity and fitness levels, BMR, NEAT (non-exercise activity
thermogenesis), and so on.11
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You may be able to keep up with the same amount of calorie intake and cardio for
several months before weight loss slows or even stops. If your weight loss starts to
slow down or stops, you can adjust either your calories IN or calories OUT, in order to
remain in a deficit and continue to lose weight. The choice is ultimately up to you.
If you don’t want to eat fewer calories, then do more cardio. If you are happy with
your current cardio regimen, then take in fewer calories than last time. Or do a little
of both.
I suggest you allow 3 weeks of bodyweight monitoring before making changes in
calorie intake in order to be sure changes actually need to be made and that you
are in fact eating at maintenance and no longer in a deficit.
Some people find that they need to continuously monitor their weight even when
they’ve achieved their goal weight / body fat percentage in order to maintain their
new low body weight. In general, I recommend continuing to weigh yourself 5
times per week for as long as you can keep up with it. It’s so easy to gain 10% of
your body weight very quickly if you become less mindful and let go of some of
the weight loss-promoting habits you slowly adopted.
For example, you can easily regain weight in winter months if you go outside less
and move less. Or, if you end up having several weekend benders or binges on
high calorie-dense foods and alcohol and don’t monitor your weight, you can very
easily unknowingly gain several pounds of body fat (and then when you do end up
weighing yourself, be shocked at how much weight you’ve put on).
In my opinion, it’s better to weigh yourself regularly to have an ongoing understanding
of what changes may be happening to your body. This small habit keeps you mindful
and could help you be proactive if there are weight changes happening in your
body that you don’t want or that you want to minimize. In most cases, this is better
than not stepping on the scale and pretending you’re not gaining weight.
Being mindful of scale weight and keeping track of your weekly median may help
you to sustain your weight loss in the long-run. It’s not that hard to weigh yourself
daily. It takes just a few seconds every monrning, and offers you valuable, concrete
information as to what your diet is doing to your body.
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FOOD TRACKING
As I mentioned above, it is a great exercise to add up the calories from food and
beverages you currently eat. You will start gaining experience in counting calories
in food, and you’ll also start learning about the calories in all the food you eat.
Some people will argue that we should not track calories and that we should just
eat.
I would argue that knowledge is power, and knowing the
calories in the foods that you eat gives you the power to make
educated choices regarding the foods that you’re eating.
I am a huge advocate for tracking your food because it not only makes you aware
of your calories IN, but it also makes you more mindful of your food choices in
general. With time, you will start to notice which foods have higher calories than
others. You’ll notice how certain foods make you feel compared to others.
Over time, you will be a more mindful eater and be able to make the best possible
food choices to help you reach and maintain your goals.
Figuring out which foods are preferable for you to eat to be able to stick to your
caloric goals is a key part of the Circle Diet. This will be discussed further in Spoke
#2: Minimize Suffering.
The issue with tracking your total calories from food and drink on a daily basis is
that it’s HARD to be precise. On average, most people underreport calorie intake
by 30% and even as high as 50%.12, 13 For example, a person who thinks they are
eating 2000 calories is often consuming 2600 to 3000 without even realizing it.
This is partly due to the fact that labels often lie and also because people fail to
accurately measure portion sizes, or remember every little thing that they eat. They
might remember to track the fries, meat and bun in the hamburger, but not how
much ketchup they used or the mayo or cheese, or the handful of chips they snuck
in while cooking.
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Here is what you need to do to most accurately track your calories from food:
Buy a food scale. Weigh your food in grams whenever
possible to be the most accurate. Weigh the food before
you put it on your plate (or as you are preparing recipes). I
prefer to measure cooked meats, poultry, and fish, because
when the food is cooked, there is less water weight in it.
Be sure to consider if the food item is cooked vs. raw, as
calories will vary considerably due to dehydration.
Read labels (but keep in mind Labels LIE - they are allowed
to be off by 20%!)14. If a label has both cups and grams, use
the GRAMS whenever possible. Food settles, so measuring
by volume is often way off.
Look up calories online for foods that you don’t have a label
for (such as a banana).
Refer to calorie charts in this book or in my cookbooks
(Spoke #2: Minimize Suffering contains charts on fruits and
veggies).
Add up the calories for all the food you’re eating. Don’t
forget about the extra BBQ sauce and ketchup and salad
dressing or the oil you may have used to cook your veggies,
as they really do add up fast!
Some people use fancy apps such as MyFitnessPal or MyMacrosPlus. Others just
track their food in a notebook or in some kind of notes application on their phone.
Now, even though I will stress that it is impossible to track with 100% precision how
many calories you eat on a daily basis, you should track calories consumed to the
best of your ability in order to have some clue about how many calories you are
consuming. Yes, you will be off by a little, but that’s okay. The actual numbers in
the end don’t have to be perfect, because weight loss is ultimately achieved by
eating less than what you’re currently eating. Even if you are a bit off, you can make
adjustments and stay on track with your goals. And over time, you’ll get closer to
counting accurate calories.
Even if you’re off by 100 calories every day, it would still take you over a month to
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gain a single pound of fat. So, not to worry. Just do your best.
The bottom line is, if you are not losing weight, it’s because you’re not in a calorie
deficit. Regardless of calorie intake, you need to either eat less or move more.
I am going to plug my own cookbooks here because I can promise you that the
calorie values there are much more accurate than in most other places. Want to eat
mouth-watering delicious foods that are adherent to the Circle Diet and get into
the best shape of your life?
BUY MY FREAKING COOKBOOKS! Here’s where you can find them:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/EBOOKS
Even without doing any calorie tracking whatsoever, if you replace the meals you’re
currently eating with the recipes in the cookbook, you will have a much easier time
losing weight, as they are lower-calorie recipes that make it easy to eat in a deficit.
DO I NEED TO COUNT
CALORIES FOR THE REST
OF MY LIFE?
With time comes experience and mastery. You will not have to religiously track your
calories on pen and paper or on an app for you Millennials for the rest of your life.
Sure, this is how you will start, but you do not need to do this for the rest of your life.
You will need to track for as long as tracking is serving you.
Once you become more mindful, most people will no longer have to track, as they
are able to make smart food choices instinctually. And if over time your weight goes
up, you can easily go back to eating less or moving more.
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Tracking calorie intake may no longer serve a purpose when you are able to
accurately estimate your intake without logging all of your food in a notebook or
application. With time you will get better at estimating the calories in food and
keeping mental notes of approximately how many calories you’ve consumed for
the day. You will also identify your favorite foods as part of the Circle Diet that you
will tend to eat more often than not, and have a good idea of how much you can
eat of them.
I personally no longer track my calories. But I can instinctively guess how many
calories I’ve consumed in a meal or a day with high precision from having done
so in the past. I now simply go by the mirror. If I notice I’m gaining more fat than I
would like, I just eat a bit fewer calories at night by eating more protein ice cream
or more salads. It’s really that easy for me at this point. But remember, I also lift
weights and bike ride, so my metabolism is much faster than most people. I can get
away with eating about 3500 calories a day without gaining weight.
An example of this: let’s say you know that 3 pieces of anabolic French toast with
sugar-free syrup contains 400 calories. You eat 3 pieces of anabolic French toast on
many mornings, so you know that’s 400 calories, regardless of whether or not it’s
noted in an app or a notebook. This will happen over time with more food, meals,
and beverages.
When you were a child, you learned the alphabet and how to count to 100. It was
hard at first, and now it’s easy. SAME GOES with calorie counting. With time, you
will have memorized the calories in most of the foods you’re eating.
So, clearly, the answer is NO. You do not need to count calories for the rest of
your life. But, doing so at the beginning will help you learn about the calories in
various foods and beverages, and help you to make better choices with time.
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WHAT ABOUT
MACRONUTRIENTS?
“Do I need to track macronutrients?” This is a common question that I want to talk
about. Many people get caught up in making sure that their total average calories
contain a certain percentage of each macronutrient.
So let’s talk about what macronutrients are and how they matter and don’t matter
in terms of food tracking. The macronutrients I will discuss are the ones that
provide energy: protein, carbohydrates, fat, fiber, and, believe it or not, even alcohol.
These macronutrients vary in their properties and calorie content which have large
implications for the Circle Diet followers.
Many diets will tell you that you need to count the amount of grams of each
macronutrient that you consume each day. I believe this practice is excessive and
overcomplicates dieting for most.
It’s not that macronutrients aren’t important. They matter when it comes to
creating a well-rounded diet. But they don’t really matter when it comes to
counting calories. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie.
Think about it. It doesn’t matter whether your calories come from fats or carbs or
protein. In the end, it still boils down to calories in vs. out. So please don’t add up
your macros each day and panic, because you were supposed to have 250 grams
of carbs and are only at 200. It’s okay, you don’t have to eat 6 rice cakes before
midnight to make up for it.
Just because you’re eating a certain ratio of fats, proteins, and carbs does not mean
you’re going to lose weight. Whether or not you lose weight depends on how many
calories you are eating vs. how much you’re burning–or, “Calories In, Calories Out.”
That said, macros ARE important for your health and bodily functions. It’s important
to eat enough healthy fats for hormonal balance, and enough protein to build
muscle. But you do not need to obsessively count your macronutrients. There can
be a good amount of variation in macronutrient intake in your day-to-day life to
achieve what’s needed for your hormonal balances and muscles. If you are eating
a balanced diet from all four food groups, you are likely to get the macro and
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micronutrients you need.
So let’s talk about these macronutrients and why macros are important.
PROTEIN – THE MEAT OF THE MATTER
There are 4 calories in every gram of protein. High-protein food examples include
egg whites, protein powders, chicken breasts, and white fish. When you get into
fattier protein sources, like beef, chicken thigh, or salmon, then you’re getting
calories from two different macronutrient sources: protein AND fat. So, be mindful
of the calories in the foods that you’re eating. Fatty fish is very healthy, but the
calories add up more quickly. So it’s important to weigh and track your calories so
you get used to the portion sizes and the calories you’re getting from them.
Protein benefits you soooo much. Here are three key benefits to protein:
1. It aids in satiety–the feeling of not being hungry.15 Protein does not trigger
and stimulate appetite as much as other nutrients, making it easier to
stick to your diet. So by eating protein, you’re able to stay full longer and
more easily put the fork down, as it does NOT trigger you to want to
overeat in the way that other high-sugar/high-fat, highly palatable foods
like ice cream do.
2. Protein is needed to build muscle. Consuming protein spaced 4-5 times
throughout the day has been shown to be optimal for maximizing muscle
protein synthesis.16, 17 (But 3 times a day is a great place to start if you’re
currently eating protein 1-2 times a day). Some studies have shown that
consuming 0.8-1 grams of protein per pound of body weight every day
should be your target amount for maximizing muscle growth.18 More
muscle on your body has many positive effects including more calories
burned at rest which I’ll get to later in this book.
3. Protein has a high thermic effect. This means that, in order for your
body to digest protein, it requires more energy to do so than other
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macronutrients. It takes more energy to convert protein to fat than
carbohydrates or fats to be converted to fat. Hence your body has to burn
more calories to digest protein. This means that if you get more of your
calories from protein sources, your calories OUT will be higher because
your body has to expend more energy to digest it. Just think about it:
fat is already fat, so it takes less energy to turn fat into adipose tissue
stored on the body than it does to convert protein into body fat, because
protein is chemically more different.
The moral to this story? Just think of protein as the nucleus of your meal. The head
honcho. The king of your plate. You should strive to eat protein at least 3 times
but preferably 4-5 times per day. This will help you not only to minimize hunger
throughout the day, but also to help you maximize muscle protein synthesis and
build muscle optimally.19
CARBOHYDRATES
Carbs are not evil. Do not be a carbophobe. Carbs can be your friend and definitely
have a place in a healthy well-balanced diet. They keep your brain functioning, your
muscles moving, and your mood uplifting. Many diets out there try to pin carbs as
some sort of demon macronutrient that is the reason you can’t lose weight. Those
diets are wrong!
Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram.
Carbohydrates should be an important part of your diet. Regardless of whether you
are trying to lose, gain, or maintain your weight. This is because carbohydrates are
stored in the form of liver and muscle glycogen, giving you energy so you can train
hard, and thus burn more calories when training. (This means that the calories OUT
will be higher from you consuming carbs… you’ll be able to train harder, and burn
more calories through exercise).20
Since carbohydrates help you train harder than last time, you can end up building
more muscle mass over time simply through training with a higher intensity, which
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will also help you burn more calories over time.
Many sources of carbohydrates are also high in fiber and are low calorie-dense
filling foods such as from fruits and vegetables. So be sure to eat plenty of fruits
and veggies as they are more satiating and make you less hungry, which is what
this book is all about!
FATS
Fats are funny. You need them. Your hormones need them. You need them to get
micronutrients Vitamins A, D, E, and K which are fat-soluble vitamins. You want
healthy skin, nails and hair, right? You want your memory thriving and your libido
jiving, right? Okay then. You need fats as they are essential.
But fats carry the heaviest load of calories out of all the macronutrients. At 9 calories
per gram, you’re getting less bang for your buck when you think about calories in/
calories out. When eating foods that are high in fat, the calories add up very quickly.
So you need to be very conscious of portion control when consuming fats. It’s very
easy to consume more calories than you want to when you’re choosing foods that
are high in fat content. They’re more calorie-dense and do not fill your belly as much
as carbs and protein do.
Fats, especially when combined with carbs, make foods highly palatable while not
being very filling, making a very dangerous combination and extremely difficult to
put the fork down.
Not only does it make it hard to put the fork down, but fats such as in oil or butter
quickly add up when cooking. That 100-calorie veggie stir-fry can easily become
500 calories with the added oil. That 300-calorie salad can become 800 calories, or
that 200-calorie pancake becomes 400 calories with the oil used to cook it. This is
why you need to be cautious when it comes to cooking with fats.
That said, we can’t throw all fats out of the circle because healthy fats are important.
But when consumed in excess, they can make it difficult to eat in a calorie deficit.
We just need to make wise choices about which fats we want to invite into the circle
because they are very high in calories.
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I recommend you consume some healthy fats at least 3 times per week if possible.
Choose fats from sources like salmon, trout, and other fatty fish as well as flax seeds,
chia seeds, and to a lesser extent, avocado and whole eggs. If you’re not consuming
enough healthy fats from food, consider regularly taking an omega-3 fatty acid
supplement rich in DHA and EPA.
FIBER - A SUBSET OF CARBS
I swear this is the most boring topic in the world. Still, I’ll hope to find a way to make
it explosive. I may in fact eat more fiber than everyone in the world. I am the King of
Fiber. Seriously, just ask my girlfriend Ally just how often I visit the washroom.
What is fiber and why is it so important? There are two kinds of fiber: soluble and
insoluble fiber. They both come from plants and are a very important part of your
diet. Unfortunately, most people only eat about half as much fiber as recommended.
Soluble fiber has only about 2 calories per gram, which means it’s like a
carbohydrate, but with fewer calories. It is water-soluble which means that it absorbs
well in water. Because it mixes with water, it forms a sh!t ton of bulk, pun intended.
Foods with a lot of soluble fiber expand in your stomach and slow the absorption
of nutrients, which makes you feel less hungry as well as allows for more stable
blood glucose levels. Many of my recipes call for using ingredients such as guar and
xanthan gum for this very purpose. I discuss this further in the Spoke #2: Minimize
Suffering when I talk about tricks of the trade to minimize suffering when achieving
a calorie deficit. So, don’t put this book down—unless it’s to pick up my cookbook to
find recipes where I teach you how to use guar gum and xanthan gum.
Insoluble fiber also adds bulk, but you can’t break it down, so most of it goes right
through you and adds volume to your poop. It keeps your pipes regular.21 We’re not
friggin’ cows that can munch on hay all day. We are human and need food. But get
this: there are ZERO calories in insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber food sources include
the skins of most fruits and vegetables.
You can’t know exactly how many calories are coming from fiber in any food because
food labels will not tell you if the fiber is soluble or insoluble. And, it’s impossible to
know exactly what proportions of different fibers your food contains. So, to keep
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it simple, try to count fiber as 2 calories per gram, even though some labels will
literally lie and pretend all of the fiber in it has zero
calories, making the food look “keto-friendly” or questionably low in calories.
So what are the benefits to fiber? I’ve got 8 to share with you.
1. Lowers cholesterol
2. Reduces risk of heart disease
3. Maintains bowel health
4. Helps control blood sugar levels
5. Reduces cancer risks
6. Aids in satiety 22
7. Adds volume to meals
8. Helps you poop
Fiber is awesome! Add more fiber if you want to be healthy. Add more fiber if you
want to be shripped year-round.
ALCOHOL
I’m including this in here because most people are not going to give up alcohol
entirely for their Circle Diet life. Alcohol is not vital to your life (well, to some it might
be ), but it is considered to be a macronutrient. Therefore, I want to go over it with you.
Alcohol is very calorie-dense, containing 7 calories per gram. Keep this in mind
when you’re about to have a night out drinking. Alcoholic beverages containing
lower percentages of alcohol will tend to be lower in calories simply because there
is less alcohol in them.
Don’t forget that alcoholic beverages often contain carbs as well as alcohol, so be
mindful. Wine and beer have added calories stemming from carbs, and so these
choices will add up quicker than hard liquor alone towards your daily calorie goals.
When consuming alcohol, avoid mixing with high-calorie mixes like regular pop
and juice, as these calories will add up faster than last time. So please don’t forget to
include the calories from your night out at the bar! You may have had 2000 calories
on Friday, but also 1000 extra calories from alcohol. If you don’t count the calories
from alcohol, you might be a moron who thinks that CICO does not work.
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Don’t be fooled by words like “skinny” when buying vodka or other alcohol. If a
bottle lowers its percentage of alcohol from 40% to 30%, for example, it may have
fewer calories because it contains less alcohol. With less alcoholic content, you
would need to drink more of it to get the same level of impairment (aka drunk). And
so it does not make a difference in the end. Low-carb beer, on the other hand, has
fewer calories because it has both lower alcohol and carb content, and so it does
make sense to consume these if you’re trying to reduce the calories in your diet to
lose weight.
“BUT DON’T I NEED TO
TRACK MY MACROS?”
NO!!!! You don’t need to precisely count your macronutrient intake to change your
body weight. Your total calories at the end of the day is what matters MOST. As
long as you adhere to the following rough guidelines, you don’t need to track the
amount of grams per macronutrient you consume on a daily basis:
Track total calories.
Ensure you’re eating protein at most meals, preferably up to 5 times
per day.
Consume healthy fats especially from fatty fish and flax seeds at
least 3 times per week if possible. If you’re consuming a low-fat
diet, consider adding a fish oil supplement to your diet.
Most meals should have some fiber source in them. You can’t go
wrong with adding more fruits and veggies to your diet.
Avoid eating high fat/high sugar combinations as they are highly
palatable and difficult to eat in moderation, especially if they are
trigger foods to you (more on this in Spoke #2).
Minimize your intake of butter, oil, fatty cuts of meat, full-fat
dressing, full-fat ice cream, and so on.
Prioritize carbohydrates from vegetables and/or fruits in your
meals.
Minimize alcohol consumption.
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Tracking your macros takes a lot of extra time and isn’t needed if you’re consuming
a balanced diet. It will simply not make a meaningful difference in your life. Follow
the recommendations above and your macronutrient intake WILL align within
optimal limits. Calories are what matter most.
CALORIES OUT
CONSIDERATIONS
I’ve talked a lot about calories IN, and briefly touched upon calories OUT, but here
are some more facts for you to consider.
Let’s go back to that chart of the four key components of Calories OUT:
FIGURE 2. A diagram of a balanced scale with “Calories In” on the left side and “Calories Out” on
the right side. “Calories IN” contains one block that represents calories from food, and “Calories
OUT” contains four blocks representing the four main ways that you expend calories: Thermic
Effect of Food, Exercise, NEAT, and BMR.
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THERMIC EFFECT OF FOOD
The thermic effect of food refers to the amount of calories it costs your body to
digest the food you eat. Quite simply, it takes less energy to convert fat you eat into
stored body fat than it takes to convert protein or fiber you eat into stored body fat.
A calorie is still a calorie. You just burn off more of those calories digesting protein
and fiber than you would digesting fats or even carbs.
One of the benefits of a higher protein/fiber diet is that you will increase
the calories expended and therefore the calories OUT portion of the calorie
balance equation.23, 24
This is one of the reasons people think they are breaking the laws of thermodynamics
when we all know this is impossible.
Let’s say your daily calories IN are 3000. If you can increase calories OUT by 50
calories a day just from eating more protein and fiber and change nothing else, you
can burn an extra pound of body fat in 10 weeks. It might not sound like much but
that’s equal to a 155-pound person walking 35 miles… all from just a small change
in your diet caused by the thermic effect of food and without restricting calories.
Small changes add up over time.
CALORIES BURNED BY EXERCISE
The most obvious way to burn off extra calories is by burning them off via exercise.
While you’re exercising, you can and should be getting better/faster, in other words
going HARDER THAN LAST TIME. By improving at cardio, you will become a “better
butter burner,” as Covert Bailey once said in the first diet book I ever read at age 16
titled Fit or Fat?25 It was this book that piqued my interest in diet and exercise and
led me on my path to being a physical education teacher and now YouTube fitness
coach.
I generally split up exercising into cardio (Spoke #3: Move Your Ass) and weight
training (Spoke #4: Maximize Muscle). Both should be considered important parts
of your life and fitness journey. You should try to do both if possible, if your goal is to
maximize health and fitness.
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If you get better at cardio over time, you will burn more calories doing cardio,
and thus be able to eat more, or burn more fat. SIMPLE AS THAT. Don’t listen to
morons who tell you that you get “desensitized” to cardio. It’s not uncommon to
hear that “you will become more efficient at cardio and therefore will not burn as
many calories.” The truth is, if you do cardio, you become better at cardio, and can
therefore exercise harder and faster and burn more–not fewer–calories in the same
length of time. You will burn more calories doing it, because you can go HARDER,
FASTER and LONGER!
For example, when I first started back up with bike riding four years ago, I struggled
to burn 300 calories in 30 minutes. But now I can burn 500 calories with the same
level of effort because I’m better at it and have a much improved cardiovascular
system. In other words, I can ride much farther in 30 minutes now than before.
I developed a calculator that guesstimates how many calories you burn during
exercise depending on your fitness level. Don’t take this as 100% accurate. You can’t
rely on ANY calculator, even mine, to tell you how much you burn doing anything.
But you can get a good idea of how many more calories you’d burn during exercise
if you increase your fitness level through training over time. I’ve got this calculator
on my website, check it out here:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/PAGES/CALCULATE
If you get better at weight training, you will slowly build muscle tissue over time.
Muscle tissue is living tissue that costs your body calories to maintain. The more
muscle on your body, the more calories you will burn in a day. (See Spoke #4 for
more details on this).
NEAT: NON-EXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENESIS
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis refers to all the calories you burn in a day
that are NOT from existing or exercising. For example, the calories I am burning
right now from typing this sentence or the fidgeting I’m doing in my chair to get
comfortable or when I get up to go to use the bathroom (after all, I am the King of
Fiber). In short, the more you move around doing ANYTHING in the day that is not
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directly considered exercise, the more calories you burn through NEAT.
The amount of calories that you burn through NEAT can vary from person-toperson and can easily account for a 500-calorie difference if you are a very hyper
and energetic person versus someone who lays around all day watching TV.
Your body may compensate for your reduced calorie intake by reducing your NEAT.
This is another reason why people get confused by calories in calories out. If you
are in a caloric deficit for a prolonged period of time, or in a big caloric deficit, your
NEAT can go down dramatically. You may even notice this in the form of you feeling
less energetic than normal. For example, you might feel a bit lazier, a bit more likely
to sit on the couch and watch TV than you are to go outside or do chores. This is
normal, and something to account for when dieting if you are getting deep into a
diet and your body fat stores are low.
Remember, your body is a survival machine. Your body doesn’t care about your fatloss goals. If your body is in a caloric deficit for a long time, it will compensate by
saving as much energy as possible as a survival mechanism.
You may eventually find that what you thought was a caloric deficit no longer is
because you are compensating by burning fewer calories, and are now eating at
maintenance. This does not mean CICO doesn’t work. It just means you aren’t in
a deficit because your body compensates by slowing down on NEAT (or slowing
down on BMR, or exercise). Tracking your body weight will help tell you if you are
still in a caloric deficit, or if you are back at maintenance and need to make changes
in order to continue to lose weight.
BMR: BASAL METABOLIC RATE
Quite simply, your basal metabolic rate is the total amount of calories your body
burns per day just by being alive, as if you simply laid in bed for 24 hours. This is
completely separate from any calories you burn by getting out of bed and doing
any kind of movement at all.
So, in other words, it represents the calories needed to keep the lights on and
be considered a living and breathing person. The caloric burn comes key bodily
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functions such as supporting your brain function and beating heart, feeding your
muscles and organs with nutrients needed to sustain them, growing your hair and
nails, and replenishing skin.
Even if you were asleep all day or in a coma, your body still needs calories to sustain
life. But when you hit that alarm clock, you require additional calories which are
considered part of your NEAT and not your BMR. This shows that everyone can lose
weight. Even if you do not move, your body still requires energy. If eating in a deficit,
you can and WILL lose weight. The next time someone tells you that they can’t lose
weight and that they have tried everything, tell them everything except the 1 thing
they NEED to do which is to eat in a calorie deficit.
Generally speaking, your BMR will go up and down with your body weight and
muscle mass. So as you lose weight, your BMR may go down.26 Your BMR is difficult
to calculate, although many online calculators will try to estimate. So please
remember that BMR calculators used to determine your BMR are simply guessing
how many calories you require and can therefore be just as inaccurate as a scale
used to guess what your body fat is.
Also, BMR calculators often include an estimate to predict calories needed to eat
to maintain body weight. The calories listed include BMR + thermic effect of food
+ NEAT + exercise, and so you can see why the degree of error can be high. It’s
a measurement which includes many factors. The calculator does not know how
much muscle or fat you have, or how much you fidget, or if you are a hyper person,
for example.
As a 46 year-old bodybuilder who races bikes, these calculators consistently greatly
underestimate the calories I burn. I always have to consume more than what these
calculators say I need to consume.
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A FINAL WORD ON
SPOKE #1:
Ultimately, you must keep calories in versus calories out at the forefront of your
diet because, no matter your food choices, macros, muscle mass, or activity level,
you still need a calorie deficit to lose weight. That’s why you’re reading this book. To
learn how to lose weight and get into the best shape of your life!
Remember, your caloric needs are not set in stone. They will change over time
as you get bigger or smaller, improve at cardio, gain muscle, lose muscle, make
better or worse food choices, or increase your daily movement (NEAT). You’re on this
journey for the long haul, and you will need to make adjustments to your average
daily calorie intake as you go. Focus on small adjustments over time and on what
you can control, which is the amount you eat, and the amount of time you spend
moving (more on that in Spoke #3).
Remember, it is next to impossible to out-exercise a bad diet forever! I love exercise
more than most, but I don’t even kid myself about this. You can’t just eat Twinkies
and cheesecake all day and walk or bike ride all of it off in the long run. Of course, if
you exercise more, you can eat more, but there is some truth to the saying “you are
what you eat.” That’s why creating sustainable eating habits for life is crucial.
There is some scientific evidence to support genetic predispositions to body weight.
Some people are predisposed to obesity more than others. Set Point Theory is the
concept that your body tends to “settle” at a certain body weight range. While it is
true that this happens, there is evidence that you can change your set point through
diet and exercise. Building habits like consistently making better food choices,
tracking your calories, and consistently doing cardio can help you to overcome your
body’s set point. Don’t believe you are hopeless because of where you are now. You
can always change your body.
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill or magic spell. I’m not a doctor, nor am I a
wizard. I’m not trying to spin a tale or tell you what you WANT to hear. I’m just a
who wants to help you be the best version of yourself–to be better that last time!
There’s only one trick of the trade you have to learn: how to achieve this calorie
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deficit without hating your life or falling off the diet wagon. Lucky for you, I’ve got
loads of information about how to maximize taste, minimize suffering, and manage
your caloric intake.
Time to turn the page—in this book and in your eating habits.
QUICK SUMMARY OF
SPOKE #1: CALORIES IN,
CALORIES OUT:
If you are fat, regardless of the reason (bad genetics, choosing the wrong parents,
can’t put the fork down), it’s because you eat too much (or move too little, but since
it’s too hard to out-exercise a bad diet forever, let’s start with “you eat too much”).
It’s because you can’t put the fork down. More food/calories = MORE FAT. That’s the
LAW. You can’t argue against this. (Well, you can, but of course, you will lose). Don’t
be a moron and think this law doesn’t apply to you. It applies to everyone on this
planet. So, unless you’re Kale-El from Krypton (Superman fans, anyone?), you must
eat in a deficit to lose weight!
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MINIMIZE SUFFERING
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THE ROLE OF
SUFFERING
It seems odd to introduce a section called “Minimize Suffering” by talking about the
role suffering plays when working towards a goal. But as you know, I’m not here for
the likes; I’m here to spread truths. I tell you what you need to hear, not what you
want to hear. So let’s get started.
“To suffer” means “to undergo or experience something bad or unpleasant.” This
section will be about bridging the gap between mindless intake of food and
successful habit-building so that incorporating tasty food into your day is NOT a
bad or unpleasant experience, but rather, good and/or pleasant. Just think about
this for a minute: imagine liking your diet and imagine losing weight WITHOUT
SUFFERING! You can do this, but even so, the
Diet requires an acclimation period.
It is meant to be a lifestyle, not a temporary fix. You’re going to have to take the time
to get used to these new habits. And that’s the slightly uncomfortable part. But
don’t worry, it’s easier than you think! Period.
Think about it this way. You know how people always say they need a vacation
from their vacation? Really what they need is extra time to bridge the gap between
the extraordinary days of snorkeling, snoozing, drinking, and suntanning, and the
regular weeks of work, family routines, and responsibilities. Getting used to a diet
requires that same bridge.
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WILLPOWER VS. HABITS
Whenever someone loses weight, the average person assumes that the person who
achieved the weight loss has a tremendous amount of willpower. That willpower
was the force that carried them through the entirety of their weeks, months, or
even years of dieting.
But let me let you in on a secret: your willpower can only last so long as it is a
fleeting resource. Some days you’ll have it in abundance, and other days you will
have zeerrroooo. That person you look up to who has achieved lasting weight loss
has not simply battled willpower on a daily basis for months on end. That is damn
near impossible for the average person who has a lot of life stressors like work, kids,
paying the bills, and having to argue with neighbors over where to stop mowing
the lawn.
This is why I talk about the importance of habits. It’s not about willpower!
Okay, well maybe it is a little bit. You do have to have the will to change. You have to
be willing to change in order to change. So say it right now. I want to change. I can
change. I will change!
But ultimately, you need new habits.
You need to have just enough willpower to be
willing to change your current set of habits.
Habits over willpower. But just enough willpower to take on new habits. Okay.
Onwards.
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GET COMFORTABLE
WITH BEING SLIGHTLY
UNCOMFORTABLE!
So, the first thing you need to do is become comfortable with the idea that you
will have to shift some of your patterns and habits in order to achieve your goals.
Whatever you are doing right now is keeping you squarely where you are. (And we
are Circles here. You want to be a Circle
, not a square)!
If you want to achieve a leaner physique than what you have now, if you want to get
healthier, you’re going to have to change your ways. And you’re going to have to get
out of your comfort zone in order to do that. And you will need to get comfortable
with getting out of your comfort zone and into the circle and staying there.
After all, what you have been doing is not working, or you would not be looking for
a new way to eat or to help you lose weight.
Discomfort can arise in the forms of measuring portion sizes, swapping out
ingredients, habit changes, cooking meals differently at home, learning about the
calories in some of the foods you’re eating, ordering online to purchase some more
Circle Diet-friendly ingredients, and maybe ordering something different on the
menu at a restaurant once in awhile.
There will be some discomfort that arises from having to make some changes in
your life. But you can do those changes one at a time so they stick. I recommend
that you begin with the changes that are easiest to do first.
You have to be willing to be uncomfortable, but you can minimize your discomfort
and suffering. Don’t go for maximal suffering. This is not a dieting contest to see
who can suffer the most, as is often the case with bodybuilding diets. Stop thinking
that in order to diet successfully you need to starve or suffer from eating boring,
bland food while hating your life! Those days are over.
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HUNGER AND
SATISFACTION
Did you know that most diets fail because of three main reasons?
1. They don’t address hunger. You feel hungry all the time, and you
quickly run out of willpower and indulge.
2. Too many food restrictions. You crave what your diet says you’re not
allowed to eat.
3. You did in fact lose weight but whatever you did was not sustainable!
You stopped doing what you were doing to lose weight in the first place
and gained it all back. For example, you followed a keto diet and started
eating carbs again, or you got sick of intermittent fasting every day, and
wanted to enjoy breakfast or lunch for a change.
These 3 reasons listed above are the primary reasons why nearly every friggin’ diet
out there is not sustainable. You only have so much willpower to fight hunger and
your desire to eat foods you friggin’ want to eat! Furthermore, most people who go
on a “diet” do so with an end goal in mind. They may hit their end goal, but then, due
to the diet not being sustainable for life, they rebound HARD, often gaining back
more weight than they lost in the first place. You don’t deserve this! So please don’t
resort to extreme dieting, only to end up in the first place you started, or worse due
to trying to stick to a diet that was doomed to fail from the get-go.
“You can’t have this!” “You can’t eat that!” Those diets make us feel like we’re being
policed or parented. As a result, we feel starved and bored. Then we have an intense
urge to break free and escape into a pickle pizza, bag of chips, container of ice
cream, or whatever your trigger food is. This partly explains the yo-yo dieting that
many of you may have experienced in the past. Basically, you try a diet that puts
you into a severe calorie deficit, or outlaws an entire food group or bans eating after
dark. And suddenly, all you want to do is eat everything in that banned food group
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or stuff your face like a gremlin after midnight or a vampire as soon as the sun sets.
Any crumb of success you may have found from the fad diet quickly becomes
nothing but crumbs left on the plate after a pizza binge because the mind and
body weren’t satisfied.
Fortunately, the Circle Diet provides solutions for both of these problems.
The body has evolved to survive. Hunger is that feeling you get when your body is
signaling to eat! If you’re really hungry, you should eat. It’s a normal state of a
human being. We’ve evolved to feel hunger when there is a need to eat. And you
need to eat to live! Unfortunately, some people have evolved to feel more hunger
than others and this makes it more difficult for these
‘s to lose weight.
The first thing you need to realize about hunger is it can vary immensely depending
on what, when and how much you eat. You can go from stuffed to full to satisfied
to hungry to starving on any given day. Starving is sort of like when your stomach
turns into a cannibal and gnaws on your intestines like a dog attacking a T-bone.
This kind of hunger sucks! You should try to never reach this level of hunger. EVER!
You also don’t want to reach the opposite extreme of the hunger levels (feeling
stuffed). You should try to never eat to the point of being stuffed.
Stuffed, for example, is when you go to a buffet and decide to go back for a 3rd or
4th plate, or decide it’s a good idea to order dessert even though you are already
full. As I’m writing this, my girlfriend Ally says she disagrees as there is always room
for dessert even if you’re stuffed (especially if it’s cheesecake ). I’m not making
this up. But, in all seriousness, it’s what happens when you go to a restaurant and
enjoy an appetizer followed by your entree, which is plenty of food to make you feel
full. Then the dessert menu comes out. The foods on there are cheesecake, pie and
ice cream, churros, and triple chocolate layer cake, all of which are irresistibly tasty
and palatable. So, you end up ordering the cake and find yourself at home in pain,
sprawled on the couch, regretting many of your life choices (especially when it’s
sushi or pizza Ally wanted me to add)
.
Neither starving nor stuffed is ever a safe place to be. On any given day of your life,
you want to be hovering somewhere between the three middle levels of hunger:
hungry, satisfied, and full, with feeling “satisfied” as the ultimate best place to be.
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FIGURE 11. A visual representation of four levels of hunger from most hungry to the opposite of
hungry: starving, hungry, satisfied, full, and stuffed. Whether in a setting where you are eating or if
you are in between meals or snacks, you should ideally find your hunger levels between hungry and
full. For optimal weight management, you should strive to not be more than full or more hungry
than just “hungry.”
Your hunger level at any given time is going to affect what you are willing to eat.
When I was bulking and overweight, I only wanted to eat foods that tasted a 10/10
amazing to me because I was beyond satisfied and often full. The body was sending
signals that I needed to stop eating. Because of this, only the most highly palatable
foods were of interest to me. I stopped eating salads and started eating more and
more high calorie-dense foods. Increased body fat levels combined with being
more full increases levels of the hormone leptin which tell the body “it’s okay now,
you can stop eating, you did good, you ate and can survive for awhile and can stop
eating.” This is evolution doing its job.
On the other end of the spectrum, when I‘m dieting and at 5% body fat, I’m pretty
much always starving, so I want to eat anything and everything. Trust me, when
you’re starving, foods that don’t normally taste any good suddenly start to taste
amazing. I don’t like plain tuna, but when I’m 5% and dieting, a can of plain tuna
sounds like a delicacy.
Heck, even bird feed looks appealing at 5% body fat. This is because with decreased
levels of body fat and an empty stomach, the hormone ghrelin is amplified
and causes you to feel hungry to the point of starvation. In this state, your body
desperately wants you to eat in order to ensure your survival.
So what is my point here? Well, when you’re extremely hungry, anything tastes
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good. When you’re extremely full to the point of being stuffed, only 10/10 palatable
foods like the triple-layer chocolate cake is appealing. Anyone who is perpetually
full won’t care about eating a less-than-appetizing can of tuna, salad, bird food, or
things that are less palatable. And these less-than-appetizing foods are oftentimes
the ones that are lower in calories and rich in micronutrients, such as fruits and
vegetables. This creates a vicious cycle of eating high calorie-dense, delicious, highly
palatable, high-sugar, high-fat foods that are so very common in today’s modern
society.
Below is a simple diagram to illustrate how hunger levels influence the foods you
are willing to eat. I use a 10-point scale to describe the taste of foods. A 10/10 food
might be pizza, burgers and fries, doughnuts, chips, cake, ice cream and candy. A
1/10 food might be a plain can of tuna, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, or anything you do
not enjoy eating.
Y
10
9
TASTE 8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
DESIRED APPETITE RANGE
POTENTIAL TRIGGER FOOD
IDEAL FOODS
STARVING
HUNGRY
SATISFIED
DESIRED TASTE RANGE FOR
OPTIMAL WEIGHT MANAGEMENT
FULL
STUFFED
X
FIGURE 12. A chart with “Taste” on the x-axis and “Your Appetite/Hunger” on the y-axis. The higher
the taste rating, the more likely a food is to be a “trigger food.”
The sweet spot for feeling content with your day-to-day diet is to target foods that leave you
somewhere in the middle of the hunger ratings, and that taste good enough for you to enjoy but
not overconsume. So try to eat foods that are in the taste range of 5-8, as indicated in the diagram
by the green highlight. This will allow you to not overeat trigger foods, but also to not force you to eat
foods you don’tlike. 5-8 is “pretty good” but not “over-the-top, mindblowingly good” where you will
struggle to control yourself. Minimize foods that are below a 5 and above an 8, and you’ll minimize
the misery that comes from eating untasty food as well as food that is so tasty that you will struggle
with managing your portions.
This chart was adapted from one of my YouTube videos where I introduced these Circle Diet
concepts.27
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For most people, the 5-8 taste range is the sweet spot for optimal weight
management. This allows you to eat foods you enjoy while minimizing the risk
of overeating. You can, of course, still eat foods that are a 10/10 in taste. But you
should eat these in moderation. These are the high-risk foods where you’re likely
to binge on them because they’re so friggin’ palatable. If you’re going to pick up
the fork for a 10/10 taste bite, try to control portion sizes. And be mindful of the risk
you’re taking.
As foods begin to taste better, they are more likely to “trigger you” to want to eat
more. For example, if you ate and are satisfied and the foods in front of you are at
a taste level of 8 or lower, it will be a lot easier for you to control your appetite and
“PUT THE FORK DOWN” at the appropriate time for you. With too many 9 or 10
foods in front of you, the need to rely on willpower becomes too strong and this
willpower is likely to end at some point in a binge.
Unfortunately, most of the foods that are 10/10 on the taste scale are going to be
foods that are very high in calories and you will not be able to stop eating after a
few bites. Extremely tasty, palatable foods are typically the ones that are highest in
calories.
Chips, candy, and chocolates are very good examples of food that might be a 9 or
10/10. For many people, these are nearly impossible to stop eating. Their palatability
is so high that most people simply cannot control themselves around them, and
will completely forget about their daily calorie requirements and wind up lost in a
binge. When you open up a bag of chips, you’re very likely to blow way past your
daily calorie targets for your caloric deficit. Because of this, does it make sense to
have them sitting in front of you all day while you work? Of course not! Yet, people
often do this, setting themselves up for failure.
The more tasty and palatable the food is, the easier it will be to exceed your daily
calorie targets, overeat, and become stuffed, rather than eat until you are satisfied
or full, and stop.
So how do you deal with the fact that you want to eat the tasty food, but the tasty
food is super high in calories? Not to mention it is damn near impossible to stop
yourself from overeating.
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Remember how I said the 2nd reason I said diets fail is because they are restrictive?
Telling yourself you can’t have something is the quickest path to craving that very
thing.
If you’re looking to have a leaner physique, you need to strive to strike a balance
between taste and hunger satisfaction from your regular food choices.
Of course I’d LOVE to live in a magical fantasy land where ice cream and doughnuts
are the low-calorie foods that are impossible to overeat, and plain tuna and broccoli
are the high-calorie foods that we have to eat in moderation.
I can’t promise that I can get you to this imaginary land where everyone gets to
eat as many Krispy Kreme doughnuts as they want and be lean, but I can help you
to get half of the way there. Especially with my amazing cookbooks which feature
recipes that will help you achieve your weight loss goals the Circle Diet way! (Hint:
there’s donut recipes in there)! Check them out here:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/EBOOKS
The Circle Diet doesn’t tell you what you can’t have but instead shows you how to
compromise and have what both your mind and body want.
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MAXIMIZE ENJOYMENT
IN THE CIRCLE
In the introduction, I talked about inclusion as the driving force behind the name
“The Circle Diet.” That’s because the whole goal of The Circle Diet is to find ways
to bring all foods INTO your circle. Your circle is defined by your current body
composition, your goals regarding your weight loss or gain, your activity levels,
and your genetics. We spent time in the first spoke creating guidelines to help you
determine your calorie range. And I spent a good amount of time in this second
spoke explaining how you will have to adopt new habits and how the tastiest foods
you love to eat are also the foods that are going to be easiest to overeat. Now, we’re
going to work on figuring out how to get all foods INTO your circle. This method is
what makes The Circle Diet a successful set of habits that you can, in fact, LIVE with
for the rest of your life!
Let’s go back to that taste-hunger diagram. I mentioned just a few minutes ago
that you want to strive to feel satisfied or somewhere between hungry and full on
the hunger spectrum. Let’s draw a circle around the curve on the diagram.
TASTE
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
STARVING
HUNGRY
SATISFIED
FULL
STUFFED
HUNGER
FIGURE 13. A more simplified Taste/Hunger chart with “Taste” on the Y-axis and “Hunger” on the
X-axis. The circle on the diagram is the approximate sweet spot between feeling both satisfied from
a taste perspective as well as from a hunger perspective. This chart was adapted from one of my
YouTube videos where I introduced these The Circle Diet concepts.28
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You can see that the sweet spot on the chart is between about a 5-8 on the taste
scale, and a “satisfied” on the hunger scale. Most people are able to curb overeating
by consistently eating foods that are an 8/10 or less on the taste scale with foods
that score higher being progressively more difficult especially when they are trigger
foods.
So let’s say you place pizza as a 10/10 on the taste scale, but when you eat pizza you
simply cannot stop yourself until you are full or stuffed. You end up eating three or
four slices, or maybe the whole thing. You can’t keep yourself from eating past the
point of being full and wind up being stuffed.
The Circle Diet calls for “bringing food into the circle.” The circle is that sweet spot
between hunger and taste. You still eat pizza, but modified to the extent that it has
fewer calories while still tasting 80% as good as the high calorie version. Doing this
allows you to stop yourself from eating too many calories even if you do not eat until
you’re full. Perhaps you eat a pizza that has cauliflower as the crust instead of the
pizza dough, or you eat pizza that has vegetables on it as well as lower fat pepperoni
and sausage, or a vegan alternative, or chicken. You eat some kind of modified,
lower calorie, more filling version of the pizza that satisfies your craving for pizza,
but you can stop eating before you’ve eaten past your calorie requirements.
Although this altered pizza doesn’t taste quite as good as the unadulterated pizza,
you’re able to stop eating it once you feel satisfied or full, and the calorie content is
lower. You get to have your cake and eat it too.
You get to have pizza and be full
and still in a calorie deficit. No, it’s not your absolute favorite pizza in the world. But
it’s still pizza! And just like sex, even half-ass sex is still better than none at all. The
only pizza I’ve ever eaten that I never liked was pickle pizza, and so by making small
sacrifices in taste, you get to have your pizza and eat it too (and often even more of
it) while still keeping your calories in check.
We all have our favorite foods and tastes that we can never imagine giving up.
And I will never force you to give up your favorite foods. Making you give up your
favorite foods will only make you crave them more, and perpetuate your feelings of
dissatisfaction with your diet. We’re not here for that! We’re here for you to not just
lose the weight, but LOVE your diet enough to keep following it for life.
Many of your favorite foods that you love are currently “out of the circle” if you’re
trying to lose weight. But, you can bring them into the circle just like how I explained
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about the pizza. To bring food into the circle and to be successful on the Circle
Diet, eat foods you love and modify them slightly to be more filling and have fewer
calories. This might involve adding some lean protein or fiber source (veggies and
fruit) to your dish, or adding a thickening agent such as guar or xanthan gum. This
might be swapping out sugar for artificial sweeteners, regular pop to diet, and so
on. The result is, you eat the foods you love but with fewer calories, most of the taste,
and are able to control your eating and stop when you are satisfied and full.
These very small changes quickly add up, and over time can make huge
improvements to your diet, resulting in easy life-long and sustainable weight loss.
These small sacrifices in taste–going from a 10/10 to 8/10–will quickly become easy
to accept, and before you know it, your taste buds will adapt and you will love your
diet while maintaining a lean and healthy body. It’s not uncommon for someone
who loses weight to start to enjoy foods that they previously did not enjoy. The
same modified pizza that tastes like a 7/10 at 30% body fat may taste like a 9/10 at
20% body fat.
The little bit of suffering you will have to endure is accepting that you won’t always
be able to eat food that is 10/10 on your taste scale if your goal is to lose weight.
However, I’m not here telling you to eat foods that you don’t enjoy. No one would
last eating foods that they rate as unappetizing on a daily basis. You can achieve a
taste rating of about a 5-8 out of 10 and still adhere to your calorie targets.
For those with unrealistic goals like having single-digit body fat and looking like
your favorite fitness model, you may have to accept that you will be hungry and
not able to eat as many delicious recipes to reach your goal. In my opinion, starving
to achieve single-digit body fat is not worth it! As I often say, close your eyes, and
imagine your dream physique. OPEN them… you’re not getting it. So, please set
realistic goals and try to get halfway to your dream physique. After you achieve this
halfway milestone and feel you can improve even more, then absolutely go for it.
Set another goal and try again to get halfway there. As long as the diet is working
and you’re not suffering, keep on trucking.
The key to the Circle Diet is to modify your favorite foods so that you can still enjoy
them while satisfying your need for great taste. In addition, it will leave you in a
place where you feel satisfied or even full and can easily put the fork down after
having a delicious and satisfying meal.
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BRING THE LESS
TASTY FOODS INTO
YOUR CIRCLE
One more tip regarding improving the taste of food is to take a food you may not
like very much and dress it up with some deliciousness.
Shameless plug: my cookbooks do this for you! Check them out here:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/EBOOKS
If pizza is a 10/10, on the other end of the spectrum are those low calorie-dense
foods that may normally be much lower than an 8/10 on taste, maybe even a 1.
These are foods that you can eat a lot of to fill up, but may be more like a 1/10 to 4/10
on taste so you just don’t want to eat them normally. Some basic examples include
plain fish, chicken breast, protein powder in a shaker cup, vegetables, fruits, salads,
plain rice cakes, etc. Most people can agree that eating plain tuna, salads, plain rice
cakes, and fresh vegetables is “healthier” than pizza, but they would also say that
they’d get sick of eating those bland foods. It would be harder to overeat on plain
tuna and veggies than it is on pizza, and that is the whole point! Most people can
agree that eating plain tuna, plain rice cakes, and fresh vegetables is “healthier”
than pizza, but they would also say that they’d get sick of eating those bland foods.
It would be harder to overeat on plain tuna and veggies than it is on pizza, and that
is the whole point!
The KEY here is to bring your plain tuna or chicken breast and veggies and plain rice
cakes into your Circle . This way you can eat a lot of them, be satisfied, and enjoy
yourself, but not overeat! You can do this by enhancing the flavor. You can do things
like add spices, seasoning, and low-calorie dressing. You can also turn it into a wrap.
There are many ways to spice up those normally boring, bland foods.
For an even more dramatic example, let’s take a can of tuna. A can of tuna splattered
on a plate like what I feed my cat Baby Nakey is straight up unpalatable. If I had to
eat a can of tuna several times per day, multiple times per week, I’d lose my friggin’
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mind. A can of tuna by itself is maybe a 2 at best on the taste rating scale. Given
the chart earlier, this would mean it’s only going to be appealing to people who are
starving. But tuna is a food that you CAN stop eating once you feel satiated. It has a
high hunger rating–it’s not a trigger food and is very unlikely to result in a binge, or
cause you to overeat on calories. So, tuna is a great food for dieting because of how
it helps manage your hunger.
In The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook 2.0, I have a few recipes where I show you how
to bring tuna into your Circle by making it tastier. Here’s an example: mix your tuna
with low-fat mayo, add some low-calorie spicy sauce such as Sriracha, add black
pepper, and serve it on an open-face rice cake with sliced lettuce and tomato. And
voila. I turned my otherwise unpalatable lean protein serving into a meal I would
enjoy. Now the tuna–which was previously out of my circle because the taste rating
was too low–is now IN my circle. It’ll satisfy my hunger, provide me with a healthy
serving of protein, and taste good enough for me to want to eat it again and again.
Instead of eating fruit by itself or plain 0% fat Greek yogurt, you can blend them
together with some sweetener, guar gum, and protein powder to make protein ice
cream, which has an 8-9 taste rating (it can’t be a 10; it’s not quite Ben & Jerry’s).
Even if you eat protein ice cream until you’re stuffed, it’s so low in calories that it
doesn’t matter, as it’s still easy to eat in a deficit and lose weight.
So now that you know a thing or two about what we are prioritizing here in the
Circle Diet - minimizing suffering by managing hunger, preventing cravings, and
enjoying some taste while you’re at it - let’s get back into the meat of the matter,
which is food selection.
LOW CALORIE-DENSE
FOODS
When you feel hungry, it’s because a hunger hormone called ghrelin is punching
you in the face making you want to eat. (OK, not literally “punching,” but you get
the idea). Your stomach lining is not full enough to signal to the brain that you can
slow down your eating. So you need to fill up your stomach with high volumes of
food that will signal to your brain to not release as much of the hunger-activating
hormone, ghrelin. Leptin is the opposing hormone to ghrelin which also plays a
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role in hunger management. Leptin is the hormone that gives you the feeling of
fullness. When your stomach distends and you feel full, that is because your brain
reduces the secretion of ghrelin–the hormone that tells you to eat because you’re
hungry–and increases the secretion of leptin–which is why you eventually get to a
point where you don’t feel like eating anymore.
Let’s talk about “satiety.” If you put this word in your Google search bar, it will state
precisely, “the quality or state of being fed or gratified to or beyond capacity: surfeit,
fullness.” Thanks Merriam-Webster for that precision (as if anyone actually gets
that explanation). Look, no matter how you pronounce it, the meaning is simple:
FEELING FULL!
Basically, there are some foods that will make you feel more full than others by
eating them.
This is where high-volume, low calorie-dense foods come into play and replace
those low volume, high calorie-dense foods that leave you feeling hungry even
after consuming many calories. What are high-volume, low-calorie dense foods?
Glad you asked! High-Volume, Low Calorie-Dense foods are simply foods you can
eat in high quantities and feel full without consuming gobs of calories.
FIGURE 14. High Volume, Low Calorie-Dense Foods versus High Calorie-Dense Foods. Foods that are
higher in fiber and water volume appear under the “high volume low calorie dense foods” half (to
the left), while foods that are higher in fat and sugar/carbohydrates and contain less water content
are under the “high calorie dense foods” half (to the right).
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High-volume, low calorie-dense foods are the holy grail of managing your hunger
while creating and maintaining a calorie deficit. High-volume, low calorie-dense
foods typically will be higher in protein, fiber, and water content relative to fats.
They will take longer for you to eat and will allow you to feel satiated while eating
fewer calories than low-volume, high calorie-dense foods.2930
There are a few basic reasons why foods may be low calorie-dense:
1. They are higher in volume and lower in calorie density because of the
macronutrient makeup of the foods, aka, typically lower in fat and higher
in protein, carb, and fiber content.
2. They have a high percentage of water content. Think grapes versus
raisins. Both are grapes, but a normal grape has a high percentage of
water content. Watery foods will fill up your stomach and make you feel
satiated. (In other words, avoid dried fruits and vegetables, and stick with
fresh fruits and veggies).
3. They are fluffy/airy or otherwise full of air that will take up space in
your stomach. Think of a protein shake that you blend on high that gets
fluffed up with air.
4. They contain fiber or thickening agents such as guar gum or xanthan
gum that cause them to thicken up and digest more slowly.
5. They take a long time to eat a lot of calories - such as soup, popcorn,
veggies, fruit, or even egg whites.
More often than not, you should opt for foods that are relatively lower in fat and
higher in protein and fiber. This does not mean you should eliminate fats! Your body
needs fats, in particular omega-3 fatty acids that are found in fatty fish like salmon,
flax seeds, or even avocado. But fats are very calorically dense, not very satiating,
and have a lower thermic effect than protein, carbohydrates, and fiber. So try not to
add a bunch of oil to the pan when cooking (use spray Pam) and be mindful of the
fat in things like meats, dairy products, as well as chips, pizza, desserts, and so on.
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Choose foods that make you feel full to manage your hunger!
Feeling fuller than last time on lower calorie-dense foods
is a cornerstone of the Circle Diet.
Here is a simple hypothetical example: let’s say you have to eat 2000 calories today
and your only two food options are peanut butter or egg whites. Would you have a
harder time eating 2000 calories of peanut butter or 2000 calories of egg whites?
You’d struggle to eat 2000 calories of egg whites compared to 2000 calories of
peanut butter. This is because the egg whites are a much lower calorie-dense
option than the peanut butter. The protein content relative to fat is also much
higher in egg whites compared to peanut butter, which makes it also a food with a
high thermic effect.
Here is another example. Think again about grapes versus raisins. 50 grapes might
take up a whole breakfast bowl. But 50 grapes dried into raisins with extra sugar
added may fit into the palm of your hand. You can eat 50 raisins in 1 minute, but it
will take you several minutes to sit there and eat 50 whole grapes. You’ll feel more
full from the 50 whole grapes than from eating 50 raisins, despite the fact that they
may contain the same number of calories. You will also find it easier to eat fewer
calories and stick to your forever
diet.
One last example: look at popcorn kernels or corn versus popped popcorn. The
difference is staggering. This is why I warn people to be careful when eating peanut
butter, nuts, fatty meats, cheese, and so on. It’s not because they are not healthy.
It’s because most people have a hard time not overconsuming them and avoiding
a calorie surplus.
My point here: when implementing the Circle Diet principles into your daily life,
you should aim to add more high-volume, low calorie-dense foods into your
diet. You can do this by modifying recipes of foods you love so that they are
lower in calorie density and higher in volume (or both), or by simply adding
more high volume, low calorie-dense foods to your diet.
Choose whole fruits over fruit juice. Nut powders instead of nuts. Egg whites instead
of whole eggs. Low carb wraps over regular wraps.
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BRINGING A PEANUT BUTTER
& JELLY SANDWICH INTO
THE CIRCLE
Take peanut butter. Peanut butter in the purest form is friggin’ delicious. Everyone
and their dog loves peanut butter. And many “health food” nuts will tell you that
peanut butter is “healthy” because it’s a “natural” or “organic” food and isn’t heavily
processed.
But a calorie is a calorie is a friggin’ calorie. And two tablespoons of peanut butter
will cost you about 200 calories. Who in the world is full after eating 2 tablespoons
of peanut butter? Definitely not me, and I would imagine, not you either.
Peanut butter is a high calorie-dense food that tastes amazing but doesn’t make
you feel full or very satisfied after eating it. Yes it contains some healthy fats, but
you can get those elsewhere. Regular peanut butter is therefore not a Circle
Diet-friendly food. Being a 10/10 tasting trigger food that is so high in calories makes
it very hard to eat without overdoing it for most people.
You love the taste of peanut butter, so I’m not going to tell you that peanut butter
has to be removed from your life. Rather than peanut butter, you can use powdered
peanut butter instead, and mix with water. Powdered peanut butter has 85% of the
fat removed, resulting in half the calories. You can eat 4 tablespoons rather than 2
for the same calories, which results in you consuming more protein and volume,
allowing you to feel more full.
For those even more adventurous types, I have personally developed a low-calorie,
higher protein homemade peanut butter called “Pea-NOT Butter” that I like even
more than the real thing. (The original recipe was developed for my The Ultimate
Meatless Anabolic Cookbook which you can purchase on my website www.
gregdoucette.com).
Seeing–or in this case, tasting–is believing, so I’m including my recipe right here for
you to try. It’s recipes like this which you can create on your own or elsewhere (like
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in my cookbook) that will allow you to lose weight with little to no effort. You don’t
need to starve, and you don’t need to go without the foods that you love. But you
do need to make the effort. It’s not as easy as opening up a jar of peanut butter, but
a little effort goes a long way.
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PEA-NOT BUTTER
VEGETARIAN
PREP TIME
10 MINUTES
READY IN
~15 MINUTES
NUTRITION
MAKES 10 SERVINGS
Batch = ~500 g / ~2 1/2 cups
Calories:
Fat (g):
Carbs (g):
Fiber (g):
Protein (g):
905
17
118*
24
138
SERVING
~50 g / ~1/4 cup (~4 tbsp)
Calories:
Fat (g):
Carbs (g):
Fiber (g):
Protein (g):
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INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
150 g canned white kidney beans
(washed and drained)
1. Add all the ingredients into a blender and
blend for 30-60 seconds on high speed. With
a spatula, scrape the sides of the blender
and push the mixture down to ensure all the
ingredients are well blended.
96 g (3 scoops) HTLT Vanilla PB Whey Protein
Powder (or whey of choice)
72 g (3/4 cup) powdered peanut butter
45 g (~1/3 cup) FibrO IMO Powder
(or IMO of choice)
150 g (~2/3 cup) unsweetened vanilla cashew
milk
45 g (~3 tbsp) low-calorie maple syrup
2. Blend for 30-60 seconds on high speed, and
repeat the scraping process.
3. Repeat step 2 (if desired).
4. Once your Pea-NOT Butter is lighter in color,
thick and glossy, it is ready to serve.
1.5 g (1/2 tsp) guar gum
5. Allow to cool in fridge for best results. as
Pea-NOT Butter will thicken over time.
1.5 g salt (to taste)
NOTES
•
Dip your favourite fruits and vegetables or thin it out
to make your own savory peanut butter saute sauce.
CLICK TO PURCHASE
HTLT VANILL A PB WHEY
PROTEIN POWDER
•
Best if used within 1 week.
•
For an even smoother/softer Pea-NOT Butter, use 180
g (~3/4 cup) of unsweetened vanilla cashew milk.
•
*IMO Powder contains only 2 calories per gram. This
explains why the calories don't appear to add up,
CLICK TO PURCHASE
FIBRO IMO POWDER
when they in fact do.
•
As time passes, the Pea-NOT Butter will thicken. Add
1-2 tbsp of nut milk to re-soften it again.
•
For thicker Pea-NOT Butter, use a whey+casein blend
or reduce nut milk to 120 g (1/2 cup)
•
You can eat on rice cakes with fruit/veggies, or in
sandwiches as seen throughout the book.
•
To make extra anabolic, use a plant-based protein
nut milk (I use unsweetened vanilla Silk 8 g plant
protein almond & cashew).
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So you can enjoy your childhood favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwich with
powdered peanut butter OR pea-not butter! And while I’m at it, we can address the
jelly and bread parts of the sandwich too. Choose no-sugar-added jelly to reduce
the calories from the jam.
And as far as the bread goes, just eat whatever kind of regular-ass bread that you
want. You don’t have to change everything in your diet. You can still eat the majority
of the foods you are already eating. The change in jam and peanut butter is more
than enough to make the sandwich a low calorie-dense food item.
Here’s a nice visual showing how this works with a simple peanut butter and jelly
sandwich. You’ll notice that I was able to double up on pea-not butter for extra taste,
and still save on calories!
FIGURE 15. A simple diagram illustrating how you can enjoy a peanut butter & jelly sandwich taste
but make the sandwich more “Circle Diet-friendly” by substituting 2 tbsp peanut butter with 4 tbsp
Pea-NOT butter and 2 tbsp full-sugar jelly with 2 tbsp sugar-free jam.
To the left of the illustration is a regular PB&J sandwich with total calorie, protein, and fat information
as well as by ingredient, and to the right is a Circle Diet-friendly Pea-NOT Butter & Jam Sandwich
with total sandwich information as well as breakdowns by ingredient.
You can see that you can add protein, reduce fat, and reduce calories to your sandwich with double
the amount of peanut taste by choosing Pea-Not butter instead of peanut butter, and sugar-free
jam instead of full-sugar jelly. Small changes like this add up and make your Circle Diet lifestyle
enjoyable.
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This new Circle Diet-friendly sandwich has more protein, less fat, and 170 fewer
calories per sandwich, even with twice the amount of pea-not butter! This means
you could eat 1.5 sandwiches for 435 calories and still be in a relative calorie deficit,
or have the sandwich and eat nuts or a dessert on the side, or eat the additional
calories you saved later, or don’t eat them and remain in a calorie deficit. You can
even go crazy and add a couple of more tablespoons of whichever peanut butter
substitution you decided to go with. This will make the sandwich more filling.
And that’s what the Circle Diet is about. The sandwich started as a food that was
outside of the Circle. You changed a few of the ingredients and substituted with
lower calorie-dense ingredients. The taste is different from its original form, but
you’ve satisfied your craving for the PB&J. So it’s only a very small change, but over
time, can result in a very major change in body composition and health without
feeling hungry or deprived. It might not be your 10/10 meal, but it’s close enough,
and close enough should satisfy that sweet tooth of yours while allowing you to lose
or maintain your weight.
If you’re choosing to be leaner, you have to be willing to make a few sacrifices.
Remember, I told you this at the beginning of this section: there may be a little bit
of suffering (such as changing peanut butters), and you have to have the desire to
make a few changes. But those changes should not terrify you. They can be small.
Small changes compounded over days, weeks, months, and years will add up to
fewer pounds of body fat on your body and a realistic and sustainable life-long diet.
Maximize your enjoyment! That’s how you will stick to this long-term. If you love
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The
sandwich that fits into your daily calorie targets may not taste quite as good as
the sandwich you ate for middle school lunch. But you can get used to this tasty
variation knowing that it means you get to remain in your calorie deficit and achieve
your goals.
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LOW CALORIE-DENSE
SUBSTITUTIONS
On the next few pages you will find tables that show a bunch of substitutions you
can make with everyday foods to make them more low calorie-dense. These food
substitutions can come in the form of ingredients for recipes, or as foods that you
eat by themselves. These foods taste similar to the food you normally eat, so you’ll
get to satisfy the taste you crave, while sticking to your calorie deficit. This is how
you bring the food you like into your Circle.
For example, I am no stranger to eating a piece of cheesecake. But rather than
eating regular cheesecake which has so many calories, you can choose to eat a
version you prepare at home that is lower in calories and higher in protein. Same
goes for chocolate bars. I love chocolate bars, but will settle for a homemade Skor
protein bar instead any day (and quite literally do as I have made this swap nearly
every day for years)! I’ll choose homemade blueberry or chocolate chip or apple
protein muffins over high-sugar, high-fat muffins bought from your local grocery
store or Costco.
Another plug–my cookbooks have hundreds of recipes where this thinking is done
for you. Check those out once you’ve finished reading through this book.
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CATEGORY
YOU EAT/DRINK/COOK
WITH THIS
CIRCLE DIET –> TRY THIS INSTEAD
Baked Goods
Muffins
Protein Muffins (see The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook 2.0)
Baked Goods
Cookies
Protein Cookies (see The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook 2.0)
Baking Products
Sugar
Any of the following: Stevia, Splenda, Erythritol, Cellulose,
Aspartame, IMO Syrup/Powder or FibrO (click to buy)
Baking Products
Simple Syrup
No sugar-added syrup
Baking Products
Jell-O
Sugar-free Jell-O
Baking Products
Icing Sugar
Swerve Icing Sugar
Baking Products
Granulated Sugar
Swerve Granulated Sugar
Baking Products
Brown Sugar
Swerve Brown Sugar
Baking Products
Bread Crumbs
TVP Textured Vegetable Protein
Baking Products
Chocolate Chips
Lily’s No-Sugar-Added Baking Chips
Condiments
Ketchup
No sugar-added ketchup
Condiments
Pancake Syrup
Sugar-free Syrup
Condiments
BBQ Sauce
Sugar-free OR low-calorie BBQ sauce
Condiments
Salad Dressing
Low-calorie salad dressing OR fat-free salad dressing
Condiments
High-calorie sauces
Mustard, low-calorie versions of regular sauces
Condiments
Jams & Jellies
Sugar-free Jam or No sugar-added Jam
Condiments
Sour Cream
Fat-free sour cream
Condiments
Mayonnaise
Light or fat-free mayonnaise
Dairy
Regular Milk, 2% Milk
Skim Milk or No sugar-added nut milk, Joyya milk
Dairy
Cheese sauce
Nutritional yeast
Dairy
Cheese slices
Fat-free cheese slices
Dairy
Regular shredded cheese
Fat-free OR reduced-fat shredded cheese
Dairy
Cottage Cheese
Fat-free cottage cheese
Dairy
Plain yogurt
Fat-free yogurt
Dairy
Fruit-flavored Greek yogurt
No sugar-added Greek yogurt with artificial sweetener or
real fruit
Dairy
2% fat Greek yogurt
0% fat Greek yogurt
Dairy
Butter
Sugar-free applesauce (when used in cooking)
Dairy
Cream cheese
Fat-free or low-fat cream cheese
Dairy
Cream for coffee
Fat-free half-and-half
Drinks
Orange juice
Actual orange
Drinks
Apple juice
Actual apple
Drinks
Regular pop/soda
Diet pop/soda
Drinks
Beer
Light beer
Drinks
Coolers
Sugar-free coolers
Meat & Poultry
Ground beef
Ground turkey OR extra-lean ground beef
Meat & Poultry
Whole eggs
Egg whites
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YOU EAT/DRINK/COOK
WITH THIS
CIRCLE DIET –> TRY THIS INSTEAD
Meat & poultry
Chicken thighs
Chicken breast
Meat & poultry
Ribeye steak
Filet mignon
Meat & poultry
Bacon
Soy bacon bits or turkey bacon
Meat & poultry
Canned Tuna in Oil
Canned Tuna In Water
Meat & poultry
Deli slices
Turkey Slices (99%), veggie ham slices, veggie bologna
slices, veggie salami slices
Meat & poultry
Pepperoni Slices
Veggie Pepperoni Slices
Meat & poultry
Hot Dogs
Low-fat Hot Dogs or Veggie or Tofu hot dogs
Fish
Sushi
Sashimi
Nuts
Peanut butter
Powdered Peanut Butter or Pea-NOT Butter (click for
recipe)
Nuts
Almond Butter
Powdered Almond Butter
Nuts
Cashew Butter
Powdered Cashew butter
Cooking Oil
Spray Oil
Recipes
Mashed potatoes
Cauliflower mash (see The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook
2.0)
Snacks
Chips
Popcorn
Snacks
Chocolate bars
Some kind of protein bar, or Coach Greg’s chocolate bars
(see The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook 2.0)
Snacks
Chips
Protein chips (see The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook 2.0),
SmartPop Popcorn, or Baked Lays
Snacks
Candy
Artificial sweetener candy
Snacks
Gummies
Smart sweet Gummies or other brands
Weight gainer protein
powder
Whey protein, whey isolate, or vegan or casein protein
powder (click to buy from HTLT Supplements)
Sweets
Jello
Sugar-free Jello
Sweets
Pudding
Sugar-free Pudding
Sweets
Ice cream
Frozen yogurt or protein ice cream
Sweets
Whipped cream
Light or fat-free whipped cream/Cool Whip
Sweets
Popsicles
Proteinsicles (see The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook 2.0)
Wheat & Grains
Pasta
NuPasta OR Other Low-calorie pasta OR zucchini noodles
Wheat & Grains
Nut bread
White bread (“regular ass bread”) or low-carb bread
Wheat & Grains
Wraps
Joseph’s Lavash Wraps or La Tortilla Factory wraps or lowcarb wraps of choice
Wheat & Grains
Crackers
Rice cakes
Alcoholic Drinks
Rum & Coke
Rum and Diet Coke
Alcoholic Drinks
Vodka & Orange Juice
Vodka and Low-Calorie Mix
CATEGORY
Oil
Supplements
FIGURE 16. A table of low-calorie dense substitutions you can make for common foods and
ingredients. Choosing Circle Diet / low calorie-dense foods will make your diet both enjoyable and
sustainable, as you’ll be able to manage both taste and hunger this way. Although it may seem
obvious, by simply making a few substitutions, most people would lose a significant amount of
weight without any other changes in their diet or activity levels. Any small change over time can
make a significant difference in your ability to lose weight and keep it off.
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FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
I want to specifically call out that any diet that tells you NOT to eat fruit or veggies is
NOT a lifelong sustainable diet for 99% of people. It’s a friggin SHAM! You eat fruits
and veggies to satisfy your health with their antioxidants and micronutrients and to
keep your gut functioning well. Plus, who wants to look at a plate of food that is void
of color? Booorrring! Throwing in some green spinach leaves to your egg whites
and some red raspberries to your oatmeal can do wonders for your brain to enjoy
eating healthy.
Eating the whole fruit will always be better than consuming fruit juice or dried
fruit.31 The whole fruit is higher in volume, lower in calorie density, and higher in
fiber than fruit juice or dried fruit. Don’t get me started on your fear of fructose in
fruit. It’s baseless! Yes, fruit contains sugar, but sugar is not inherently unhealthy.
Perpetually being in a calorie surplus on the other hand, is! You’ll feel more fullness
from the volume and the fiber in the whole fruit than in the fruit juice.32 Trust me
on this one.
Fruits and vegetables in the whole raw form are, generally speaking, great for Circle
Diet followers. Most fruits and vegetables are high in volume and low in calorie
density. There are, however, some fruits that are more Circle Diet-friendly than
others. Some are higher in volume and lower in calorie density than others. These
are my top five fruits to eat (next page):
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FIGURE 17. My top 5 favorite fruits!
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If you want more options than this set of bullets, please refer to the fruit and
vegetable charts on the next few pages. They will tell you how much a 100-calorie
serving of that fruit or vegetable is in grams.
The top of the charts contain the fruits and vegetables that have the best rating
in terms of volume to calorie density. The highest volume and lowest caloriedense fruits and veggies are on top. So go down the list and you’ll get to fruits like
avocados, which are very high in fat, and thus higher in calorie density.
(It doesn’t mean that avocados are BAD for you! It just means that you should be
more mindful when consuming them, because they are higher in calorie density).
I’ve also provided a bonus chart where I sort veggies and legumes in order of highest
protein to lowest protein by 100-calorie servings.
Use these charts when determining which fruits and veggies you should prioritize
in your diet.
Here are those tables.
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100-Calorie Fruit Servings
Sorted from Low- to High-Calorie Density
FIGURE 18. A table of fruits including the amount in gram weight per 100-calorie serving, as well
as the fiber and protein content per 100-calorie serving. The fruits towards the top of the table will
make you feel more full because they are more voluminous and lower in calorie density than the
fruits towards the bottom of the table. Prioritize fruits towards the top of the table to support weight
loss. (This doesn’t mean don’t eat avocadoes! It just means be more mindful of calories when eating
them).
Fruit
One serving (~ 100 calories)
Fiber
Protein
Watermelon
330 g
2g
2g
Starfruit
320 g
9g
3.5 g
Strawberries
300 g
7g
2g
Cantaloupe
290 g
2.3 g
2.5 g
Honeydew
280 g
2.2 g
1.5 g
Peaches
250 g
3.8 g
2.5 g
Nectarine
250 g
4g
2.5 g
Grapefruit
240 g
3.8 g
2g
Papaya
230 g
3.9 g
1g
Blackberries
230 g
12.2 g
3g
Pineapple
220 g
3.1 g
1g
Plums
210 g
2.9 g
1.5 g
Apricots
210 g
4.2 g
3g
Red Cherries (Sour)
200 g
4g
2g
Tangerines
190 g
3.4 g
1.5 g
Apple
190 g
4.6 g
0.5 g
Raspberries
190 g
12.4 g
2.5 g
Orange
190 g
5g
2g
Blueberries
180 g
5g
1.5 g
Champagne Grapes
170 g
2g
1g
Pears
170 g
6g
0.5 g
Mango
170 g
2.7 g
1.5 g
Red Cherries (Sweet)
160 g
3.4 g
1.5 g
Kiwi
160 g
4.5 g
2g
Lychee
150 g
2g
1g
Guava
150 g
8.1 g
4g
Grapes
140 g
1.3 g
1g
Pomegranate
120 g
5g
1.5 g
Banana
110 g
3g
1.5 g
Passion Fruit
100 g
11 g
2g
Plantain
80 g
2g
1g
Persimmon
75 g
3g
0.5 g
Avocado
60 g
4g
1g
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100-Calorie Vegetable (Raw) Servings
Sorted from Low- to High-Calorie Density
FIGURE 19 (continued on next page). A table of vegetables & legumes including the amount in
gram weight per 100-calorie serving, as well as the fiber and protein content per 100-calorie serving.
The veggies/legumes towards the top of the table will make you feel more full because they are
more voluminous and lower in calorie density than the veggies/legumes towards the bottom of the
table. Prioritize veggies/legumes towards the top of the table to support weight loss. (This doesn’t
mean don’t eat split peas! It just means be more mindful of calories when eating them).
Vegetable / Legume
One serving (~100 calories)
Fiber
Protein
Watercress
900 g
5g
20.5 g
Nappa Cabbage
800 g
8g
12 g
Bok Choy
775 g
8g
11.5 g
Lettuce
700 g
8g
8g
Cucumber
650 g
3g
4.5 g
Celery
650 g
10 g
4.5 g
Radish
625 g
10 g
4.5 g
Endive
600 g
19 g
7.5 g
Bitter Melon (Bitter Gourd)
600 g
17 g
6g
Chayote Squash
600 g
10 g
4.5 g
Zucchini
600 g
5g
7g
Tomatoes
550 g
7g
1g
Asparagus
500 g
11 g
11 g
Swiss Chard/Beet Greens
525 g
8g
9.5 g
Green Peppers
500 g
8.6 g
4.5 g
Rhubarb
475 g
8.6 g
4.5 g
Spinach
450 g
10 g
12.5 g
Rapini
450 g
12.2 g
14.5 g
Mushroom
450 g
4.7 g
12 g
Cauliflower
400 g
10 g
7.5 g
Eggplant
400 g
14 g
4g
Sprouts
400 g
5g
10 g
Green Cabbage
400 g
11 g
5g
Arugula
400 g
6.4 g
10.5 g
Pumpkin
380 g
1.9 g
4g
Red/Yellow/Orange Peppers
375 g
4.3 g
4g
Turnip
360 g
6.5 g
3g
Chives
330 g
8.3 g
11 g
Broccoflower
325 g
10.4 g
9.5 g
Red Cabbage
325 g
6.8 g
4.5 g
Spaghetti Squash
325 g
4.9 g
2g
Collard Greens
320 g
11 g
9.5 g
Fennel
320 g
12.6 g
4g
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100-Calorie Vegetable (Raw) Servings
Sorted from Low- to High-Calorie Density
Vegetable / Legume
One serving (~100 calories)
Fiber
Protein
Green Onion
320 g
8.2 g
6g
Broccoli
300 g
8g
8.5 g
Green Beans
300 g
8g
5.5 g
Okra
300 g
11 g
6g
Fiddleheads
300 g
20 g
13.5 g
Rutabaga
275 g
7g
3g
Red Chili Pepper
250 g
3.8 g
4.5 g
Carrot
250 g
7g
2.5 g
Acorn Squash
250 g
3.8 g
2g
Onions
250 g
4.3 g
3g
Snow/Sugar Snap Peas
240 g
6g
6g
Yellow/Wax Beans
230 g
9g
7g
Beets
230 g
6.5 g
3.5 g
Brussels Sprouts
230 g
8.9 g
7.5 g
Butternut Squash
220 g
4.4 g
2g
Dandelion greens
220 g
7.7 g
6g
Artichoke
210 g
10 g
6.5 g
Kale
200 g
4g
8g
Moringa (fresh leaves)
150 g
3g
14 g
Potatoes
140 g
2.4 g
2.5 g
Peas
130 g
7g
7g
Parsnips
130 g
6.5 g
1.5 g
Yam (Sweet Potato)
120 g
3.5 g
2g
Corn
120 g
2.3 g
4g
Edamame
80 g
8g
10 g
Cassava / Yucca
65 g
1.1 g
1g
Dry Lentils*
30 g
9g
9g
Dry Split Peas*
30 g
8g
7g
*Beans/legumes vary so much that you absolutely must be cautious and look at the
label to see how much you can eat. Every can/package is different and you MUST be
careful about how the beans/legumes are cooked and in what sauce.
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100-Calorie Vegetable (Raw) Servings
Sorted from High to Low Protein
FIGURE 20 (continued on next page). A table of vegetables & legumes including the amount in
gram weight per 100-calorie serving, as well as the protein content per 100-calorie serving. The rank
is based on protein content per 100-calorie serving. The highest ranked vegetable is watercress with
20.5 grams of protein per 100-calorie serving. In this table, Green indicates that a 100-calorie
serving has 10 or more grams of protein. Yellow indicates that a 100-calorie serving has
5-9.9 grams of protein. Orange indicates that a 100-calorie serving has less than 5 grams of
protein.
Rank Vegetable / Legume
One serving (~100 calories)
Protein
1
Watercress
900 g
20.5 g
2
Alflafa Sprouts
450 g
18 g
3
Rapini
450 g
14.5 g
4
Moringa (Fresh Leaves)
150 g
14 g
5
Fiddleheads
300 g
13.5 g
6
Spinach
450 g
12.5 g
7
Napa Cabbage
775 g
12 g
8
Mushrooms
450 g
12 g
9
Bok Choy
775 g
11.5 g
10
Asparagus
500 g
11 g
11
Chives
330 g
11 g
12
Arugala
400 g
10.5 g
13
Bean Sprouts
325 g
10 g
14
Edamame
80 g
10 g
15
Swiss Chard/Beet Greens
525 g
9.5 g
16
Broccoflower
325 g
9.5 g
17
Collard Greens
325 g
9.5 g
18
Dry Lentils
30 g
9g
19
Broccoli
300 g
8.5 g
20
Lettuce
700 g
8g
21
Kale
300 g
8g
22
Endive
600 g
7.5 g
23
Cauliflower
400 g
7.5 g
24
Brussels Sprouts
230 g
7.5 g
25
Zucchini
600 g
7g
26
Wax Beans
345 g
7g
27
Peas
130 g
7g
28
Dry Split Peas
30 g
7g
29
Artichoke
210 g
6.5 g
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Rank Vegetable / Legume
One serving (~100 calories)
Protein
30
Bitter Melon (Bitter Gourd)
600 g
6g
31
Green Onion
320 g
6g
32
Okra
300 g
6g
33
Snow/Sugar Snap Peas
240 g
6g
34
Dandelion Greens
220 g
6g
35
Green Beans
300 g
5.5 g
36
Green Cabbage
400 g
5g
37
Cucumber
675 g
4.5 g
38
Celery
650 g
4.5 g
39
Radish
625 g
4.5 g
40
Chayote Squash
550 g
4.5 g
41
Green Bell Peppers
500 g
4.5 g
42
Rhubarb
475 g
4.5 g
43
Red Cabbage
325 g
4.5 g
44
Red Chili Pepper
250 g
4.5 g
45
Eggplant
400 g
4g
46
Pumpkin
380 g
4g
47
Red/Yellow/Orange
Bell Peppers
375 g
4g
48
Fennel
320 g
4g
49
Corn
120 g
4g
50
Beets
230 g
3.5 g
51
Turnip
360 g
3g
52
Rutabaga
275 g
3g
53
Onions
250 g
3g
54
Carrots
250 g
2.5 g
55
Potatoes
140 g
2.5 g
56
Spaghetti Squash
325 g
2g
57
Acorn Squash
250 g
2g
58
Butternut Squash
220 g
2g
59
Yam (Sweet Potato)
120 g
2g
60
Parsnips
130 g
1.5 g
61
Tomatoes
550 g
1g
62
Cassava / Yucca
65 g
1g
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So you see it? Fill up your plate and your stomach with fruits and vegetables. When
you choose fruits and vegetables based on calorie density, you’ll fill up on fewer
calories. If you are really struggling with your diet, give some of the fruits and
vegetables especially at the tops of these tables a try. You don’t need to eat a whole
friggin’ bowl of watercress, but you can add some to your next dinner meal and see
how it helps you to curb your hunger (but do try a whole bowl, you may like it ).
THICKENERS
Many of the recipes in my cookbooks featuring high-volume, low calorie-dense
foods contain thickening agents that hardly have any calories and are mainly fiber.
The point of these thickening agents is to increase the volume of the food or recipe,
so that it expands and gets thicker, allowing you to feel full after eating it.
I love to add thickening agents such as guar gum or xanthan gum to basic blended
foods such as protein shakes, protein pudding, and other baked goods and desserts
to expand their overall volume and help me to feel satisfied. Both of these gums
make things really thick. Basically, these two gums gel up in the recipe and in
your stomach and slow down absorption. It can make you bloated for a while after
eating, but these two thickeners are really useful when it comes to controlling your
hunger. They add more bulk to your food and make your food more filling, both
during and after you eat it. I have a massive sweet tooth and ice cream is a “trigger”
food for me.
Protein ice cream is an example of a food that contains thickening agents that
make it super filling. I’m able to eat a lot of it and not consume too many calories.
My cookbooks have many delicious protein ice cream recipes that I’d love for you to
check out. Check them out here:
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So I, Coach Greg, use thickeners and sweeteners to both manage my hunger and
allow me to satisfy sweet cravings. When you can eat what you like and not feel as
hungry, that is obviously going to minimize your suffering while dieting.
You can try some experimentation yourself to see how you can make some of your
favorite foods more voluminous and lower in calories with thickening agents while
also using sweetener to help them to be sweet. I’ve got plenty in my cookbooks.
LIQUID CALORIE DENSITY
Did you know that calorie density applies to liquids as well?
Liquids can be very high in calories. But when was the last time you felt full from
drinking a beverage? Why anyone would drink a fully loaded sugary drink when
dieting is besides me. It won’t make you feel full and you just get all of those empty
calories. Yes, it can taste good, but at what cost? Just ask yourself if those calories
could be better put to use elsewhere.
One 12-ounce can of regular Coke has about 150 calories. Now let’s control for
volume for a second and you’ll see how this works. I can also take a 12-ounce can
of Diet Coke. That has almost 0 calories. Does Diet Coke taste as good as regular
Coke? Probably not. But that can of Diet Coke will give you about 80% of the flavor
for a 150-calorie savings. And you won’t feel any difference in terms of fullness. You
don’t really feel any more full from the 150 calories in the fully loaded Coke than you
do from the sugar-free Diet Coke. So why would anyone ever drink the full-calorie
Coke? Because they think artificial sweeteners will give them cancer or make them
hungrier or fatter. But this is “pish posh,” as another Greg, Greg O’Gallagher would
say.
As you may or may not know, I am NOT against artificial sweeteners. So it stands to
reason that I am NOT against diet sodas. In fact, if drinking diet soda helps you put
the fork down, keeps you from binging, and tricks your stomach into feeling full, I’m
all for it.
Did you know that there are studies that show that diet soda is more favorable to
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dieting than water?33 It’s true. I did a video on this specific topic here:34
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In a controlled study, those who were told to drink 2 cans of diet soda per day lost
more weight and kept more weight off over the course of a year than those who
only drank water. They also reported feeling less hungry than those in the water
group.
Don’t give in to the hype of “chemical” fears surrounding artificial sweeteners.
Frankly, I see artificial sweeteners as very useful tools for bringing foods and liquids
into your circle. Sodas are the perfect topic to explain this. If you have been suffering
from a high-sugar soda addiction, then switching to the diet soda version could in
fact change your life. Feel free to drink as much diet pop or sugar-free drinks you
desire as part of your diet. Unless you’re drinking 50 cans a day for decades, you
really have nothing to worry about. On the other hand, please don’t try to drink
loads of regular pop, as all that sugar and extra calories can easily result in a calorie
surplus which can eventually lead to obesity and a greater risk of cardiovascular
disease.
Don’t forget about Spoke #1: Calories In, Calories Out. Everything in this second
spoke about minimizing suffering is about helping you to achieve your calorie
deficit in the most comfortable way possible.
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PRACTICAL TIPS
I’ve got several more practical tips for you to keep in your back pocket so that you
don’t find yourself fishing the pantry for junk at any given moment of the day. These
practical tips are intended to prevent you from getting to the point of massive
suffering that will cause you to binge and significantly deviate from your diet.
1. MINIMIZE SUFFERING WITH SLOW CHANGE
I hope that by now you have a pretty clear vision on how to manage hunger with
high volume, low calorie-dense foods and other methods, and how to address
your cravings by choosing foods and ingredients that are more Circle Diet-friendly,
and how to make them fit into your “Circle” by making substitutions. However, I
advocate for pacing your changes. Not everyone can be a superhero athlete and eat
food that tastes like dirt in order to lose weight. For most people, one or a few habit
changes at a time is all they can or need to absorb to allow them to lose weight. You
need to be honest with yourself about how much change you are willing to adopt…
for life.
Remember, these are changes you need to know you can do. Don’t change
your entire diet tomorrow. You can change 1 thing, and let that change settle in
for a bit, and then change another.
You must be honest with yourself about how much change you are willing to take
on. If you know that you absolutely cannot get through your day without your
cream and sugar in your morning coffee, find other areas of your diet that you are
willing to modify first. You will soon find out that there is not 1 single thing you are
doing that is preventing you from losing weight, but rather the combination of
everything. Any single positive change that you make can help you on your journey
to lifelong sustainable weight loss.
Your diet doesn’t need a complete overhaul tomorrow. The overhaul can take
a year, or even decades. Take it slowly. The slower you go, the fewer dramatic
changes you make, the easier it will be for these new habits to stick, and the
less likely you will be to rebound after losing the weight.
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Keep stepping on the scale once daily and recording your median weight to see
if your bodyweight is moving in the right direction. If it’s moving at a pace you’re
happy with after just one small change (for example, switching over to diet pop),
then you don’t change anything else just yet. Only add more changes when your
weight has stabilized and you want to progress further.
You can start by swapping out one meal per day for a healthier meal, such as
anabolic French toast in my cookbook for your breakfast every day. Or swap out
sugary drinks for cans of diet pop. Or change a daily peanut butter sandwich to a
lower-calorie peanut butter sandwich. Or add a lower-calorie creamer to your coffee.
Keep it simple and stick with whatever the easiest change may be.
I recommend that you try swapping out the easiest meal for you to change each
day. For many people, changing their breakfast or lunch is easiest since they’re
typically not as hungry during the morning/early afternoon than in the evenings.
For example, the whole eggs and bacon with a muffin and coffee with heavy cream
and sugar could change to using fewer whole eggs with more egg whites, turkey
bacon, and a lower-calorie protein muffin and coffee with lower-fat creamer. Don’t
change everything. Just change whatever is reasonable for you. If you can’t do
without your bacon, then don’t change it. But if using more egg whites and using
lower-calorie creamer is manageable, then start there.
Changing 1-2 meals per day to more high volume, low calorie-dense options adds
up to fewer calories consumed over time. Making these SMALL BUT SUSTAINABLE
CHANGES ARE THE KEY to your long-term successful weight-loss management!
Following my discussion in Spoke #1: Calories In, Calories Out, this also means you
should not lose weight too fast. You can lose one pound of weight per week with
just a 500-calorie daily deficit.
Bodies do not like drastic, quick change. Slow and steady wins the race here. The
Circle Diet is a forever diet, so keep it top of mind that the changes you implement
today are the changes that you want to follow for the rest of your life in order to
maintain the physique changes you’ve accomplished.
If you make only one change per month, in 1 year, that will be 12 total changes.
Just imagine the difference in your diet if 12 changes took place. It would
revolutionize the way you eat.
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The beauty of the
diet is its simplicity. The problem is, too many people think it
can’t be this simple. Sadly, false myths continue to be shared and people no longer
know who or what to believe.
2. KEEP “TRIGGER FOODS” OUT OF THE HOUSE, AND KEEP HIGH
VOLUME, LOW CALORIE-DENSE FOODS IN THE HOUSE!
In all my extensive experience helping my clients achieve their goals, I have come
up with a theory. My theory is this:
FOOD IN YOUR HOUSE IS IN YOUR MOUTH.
What does this mean? It means don’t have pizza and doughnuts in the house if you
don’t want to eat them.
Seriously. Anything that is highly palatable (for you) that is in your house is going
in your mouth. If you love chocolate chip cookies, don’t buy a box of chocolate chip
cookies to have in your house. Just DON’T. You can keep telling yourself until you’re
blue in the face or morbidly obese that “it’s for the kids” until it’s 2 am and you just
polished off the entire box.
If you want to go out and have chocolate chip cookies, go out of your house, eat
your cookies, and don’t bring them home. Seriously, I know people. “Out of sight,
out of mind” WORKS when it comes to trigger foods. If you don’t have cookies in
the house, you will be far less likely to eat or crave them. I never said you can’t have
a cookie. You just don’t have it in the house. Looking at and smelling your favorite
trigger foods all day will increase your stress when dieting. It will make it HARDER.
Make dieting EASY for yourself by simply keeping them out of the house, or at the
very least, keep them out-of-sight, so that it’s at least temporarily out-of-mind.
Remove the candies from the candy jar sitting on your office desk. Remove the jar
of peanut butter from your pantry. Get rid of the Haagen-Dazs ice cream tub in the
freezer. Keep all of that crap AWAY from arms’ length.
Don’t forget the saying, “out of sight, out of mind.” If you don’t see the food, you’re
a lot less likely to crave it. So, if you do keep trigger foods in the house, at least try
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to keep them from your sight. Every time you see your trigger food, you will have to
rely on willpower to not eat it. And willpower can only last for so long. Eventually it
will run out, and on that day, WATCH OUT.
I know this is a difficult subject matter for those who share a living space with people
who do not care about the Circle Diet. (You can ask me… I live with someone like this)!
This is a tricky space to navigate because it means that you have to communicate
with whoever you are living with that you are trying to lose weight and in order to
do so, you would like their help in keeping trigger foods out of your SIGHT whenever
possible. If they like to eat chocolate bars and chips, you could ask them to store
them where you won’t see them. I know some people who literally give a lock to
their housemates so they can’t access their trigger foods. Workarounds can be
done. It does not have to be complicated. Just having them keep some food in their
room or a drawer and not right in front of you can make a big difference.
I am not a marriage or couples’ counselor, but what I can say is that you should
surround yourself with people who respect your goals and want you to be the best
you you can be. You should try to communicate your needs to them.
Maybe the best thing to do is to buy them a copy of this book, or send them to my
YouTube channel so they can adopt the ways of the Circle Diet themselves! If they
refuse to help, all you can then really do is have lower-calorie alternatives present
so that when you get really hungry looking at their food, you have a healthy lowercalorie alternative nearby. When my girlfriend orders pizza and garlic fingers every
week multiple times a week, I have other lower calorie-foods available for me to
eat instead so that I don’t feel the need to steal her food (not that she would let me
anyway)!
It’s not that I cannot eat what she orders. I can, and sometimes do. But I eat it, I eat
it in moderation and have other foods to keep me satisfied that I still love to eat.
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3. DON’T SKIP MEALS.
Many people subscribe to the idea that there are certain times of day when you
shouldn’t eat. This goes back to my point that people fail at diets that are restrictive.
Restricting when you eat is restrictive! And we are about inclusion here. The Circle
Diet doesn’t tell you to go for as long as you can without eating on a daily basis. This
is unnecessary suffering. And we’re here to minimize suffering.
Intermittent fasting is one of the fastest growing fad diets of our time. Can
intermittent fasting actually work? Yeah, sure . . . if you eat in a caloric deficit while
doing intermittent fasting. If you do not track your calories, and you do intermittent
fasting, and you lose weight, it is because you’re eating in a deficit, not because of
the magic of intermittent fasting.35 I also see all the time people using intermittent
fasting as a means to binge during their four- or eight-hour eating window. Most
people can easily eat into a caloric surplus in a 1-hour eating window let alone 4-8 if
they are stuffing their faces.
Food is food, and a calorie is a calorie. So it doesn’t matter if you squish your eating
into large or small time frames. What matters is whether or not you are in a calorie
deficit.
Try to not skip meals. Eat breakfast. And don’t get me started with fasted cardio.
You will not burn more fat by switching to doing fasted cardio.36 Fasted cardio
could, in fact, be worse than fed-cardio if you lack the energy to go harder than last
time due to not eating. If you think you don’t have time to eat breakfast, I recommend
that you make time! Get up earlier and go to bed earlier. It’s not rocket science.
Skip breakfast, and I guarantee that ghrelin is coming for you later in the day to
punch you in the face and exclaim, “EAT!” And while I’m talking about breakfast,
I’ll mention that muffins–a traditional “breakfast food”–are simply pieces of cake
disguised as something you think is healthy. Unless it’s a high-protein muffin that
you brought into your circle by replacing some of the sugar and butter with artificial
sweetener and lower-fat alternatives. And consider adding vegetables for breakfast.
Most people don’t have veggies for breakfast, but they can add much-needed fiber
to your diet while helping you to stay full.
Don’t get me started on night eating. Yes, you can and should eat before bed. Look,
the time of day you eat will not matter in the long run. There is no magic fat storage
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that happens due to the time of day you happen to eat. Do I need to say it again?
Food is food. Calories are calories.
Speaking of eating before bed... eating protein before bed allows you 1 more
opportunity for muscle protein synthesis to occur. Your body can use these nutrients
to help you build muscle while you sleep. Keep in mind, if you fasted or underate
during the day, it can come back to haunt you in the evening with a voracious
appetite. This combined with eating “trigger” foods you have in your house can
easily result in a binge and a net calorie surplus for the day, resulting in weight gain.
So, it’s not the night eating per se, but what and how much you eat during the
entire day that really matters.
4. EAT A SERVING OF PROTEIN 4-5 TIMES PER DAY.
Since protein is a high-satiety macronutrient, I recommend that you have a serving
of protein approximately 4-5 times per day. This will help you to feel less hunger
throughout the day. Protein consumed 4-5 times per day is also the optimal
frequency of protein consumption for muscle growth, which I’ll discuss more about
in Spoke #4. So with protein several times per day, you get the double benefit of
reduced hunger and the best chance at growing and/or maintaining your hardearned muscle mass.
As a general rule of thumb, I suggest taking in one gram of protein per pound that
you weigh. Once you figure out that number, I then suggest spreading out your
daily protein intake amongst four or five meals a day, though I think five meals a
day is your best bet for optimal muscle growth (although the difference in benefit
is only a few percentage points better when going from 3 to 4 to 5 meals per day).
For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, then strive to take in 200 grams of protein
per day. Since we know that each gram of protein contains four calories, 200 grams
of protein equals 800 calories. Spread out those 200 grams of protein over five
meals, and you have 40 grams of protein per meal on average. It’s perfectly OK to
get more or less protein than needed at any given meal. If your average is 40 grams
per meal, you can take in 20 grams in one meal and then 60 grams the next meal
without worry.
As you can see, you don’t have to evenly distribute your protein throughout your
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meals. You can take in 50 grams of protein three times in the day and then take in
25 grams of protein two other times in the day. It’s up to you. Just know what your
goal is for your daily intake of protein and figure out your distribution from there.
Keep in mind, it’s okay to not eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Most
studies have shown no additional benefit to consuming above 0.8 g per pound of
body weight in terms of building muscle for most people. However, more protein
in your diet means more satiety, which will enable you to stay on your diet with
greater ease. Nobody needs to be perfect. Just do your best. Even halfway to 1 gram
of protein per pound of body weight is still going to be good. So, if you want the ideal
diet to stay lean and build muscle, simply try to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of
body weight per day in order to live a leaner, healthier, and longer life.
Lots of people may find it easier to simply add protein supplementation to their
diets. If you’re not a vegan, whey and casein protein are good choices for this. There
are also vegan protein powder options as well. I actually have numerous options for
protein powder both for vegans and non-vegans on my supplements site, which
you can find here:
HTTPS://WWW.HTLTSUPPS.COM/
5. GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP, CONSISTENTLY.
Don’t shut your eyes on this next tip. Sleep is one of the most underrated variables
when it comes to losing weight. According to Matthew Walker, a neuroscience
professor at University of California, Berkeley, “Sleep is your superpower.”37 If you
don’t sleep, ghrelin rises. Ghrelin is the hormone responsible for increasing your
appetite. It prepares the body for food. How does it do that? Well, when the
stomach empties, it secretes ghrelin and releases the hunger hormone into your
bloodstream. Ghrelin then shoots straight up to your brain and tells your body that
you need to eat more food to survive. Ghrelin is a raging raven, a hungry monster,
a greedy gremlin that gnaws on your sanity, making you want to eat your face off.
And one way to keep ghrelin asleep is by, well, you guess it... sleeping. Fascinating,
right?!
Sleep also plays a role with the opposing hormone to ghrelin, leptin, which is
responsible for telling you that you are full! Studies have shown that, when you
regularly don’t get an adequate night’s sleep, your ghrelin levels will be elevated
and your leptin levels will be reduced.38
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As I always say, if you’re sleeping, you can’t be eating. And this is quite literally true
unless you are a sleepwalker. People who stay up all night and can’t get to sleep are
much more likely to binge eat. So, the more time you spend sleeping each night,
the less likely you are to binge.
How much sleep is enough sleep? I’m no sleep doctor nor do I have a PhD in
neuroscience, but I can tell you the ideal amount of sleep to aim for each night
for most people is between 7-8 hours. You might say you don’t have time to sleep
for that long but listen to these benefits: Deep and lengthy sleep each night helps
you to recharge, reset, and regenerate. By sleeping seven hours or more, you help
to keep yourself younger, more energized, fresher, sharper, quicker, and smarter.
When you don’t get enough sleep each night, your body enters a state of survival,
causing stress which is not good for your health. So, please try to sleep more and
reduce stress in order to live a leaner, healthier, and longer life.
And how do you know if you’re sleeping enough? Well, if every time your alarm
rings you want to smash it against the wall, and it takes you 2 cups of coffee and
an hour before you feel normal, there is a good chance you don’t get enough sleep.
So, try going to bed a little bit earlier. Every bit can make a difference. 15 minutes of
added sleep each night can pay dividends as to how you feel.
One more thing I keep telling people is that sleep is the most underrated
consideration when it comes to supplementation. Approximately 30% of adults
suffer from insomnia.39 I just have to plug my “sleep aid” supplement which I use
almost daily and makes an incredible difference. I’m not telling you that you need
it, but it may in fact help.
Follow @htltsupps on Instagram and check out www.htltsupps.com for my sleep
aid supplement.
If you are having serious sleep difficulties, please go see your doctor and see what
methods they suggest to help you with this seriously overlooked and underrated
problem.
What are you waiting for? Get your butt to bed! Oh, wait. There’s still more of this
book for you to read. But you can pick it back up tomorrow. Don’t let it stress you
out.
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6. DRINK LIQUIDS THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
Thirst is a sneaky bastard and sometimes sits in the sheep’s clothing of hunger.
There will be times that you think you are hungry but you are simply just thirsty.
I am not one of those fitness gurus who will tell you that you need to go carrying
around a gallon of water and drinking so much water that you pee every 20 minutes
throughout the day. This is just nonsense. Drink when you’re thirsty. My general
guideline is that if you are not peeing every 2-3 hours, you’re likely not consuming
enough water or liquids. You can get your liquids from actual beverages and also
from fruits and vegetables.
If you’re like my girlfriend Ally and rarely drink fluid and only pees 2-3 times a day,
you would likely benefit from drinking a little more. Don’t overcomplicate things
and act like a specific amount is needed for each person. It depends. So just count
how often you pee, and if you notice you hardly ever do, then make it a goal to add
in a little more.
Water works as a natural appetite suppressant.40 This is because water is
voluminous. It takes up a lot of space in your stomach, which causes the hunger
hormone ghrelin to stop sending hunger signals.
You don’t want to be dehydrated (Right, Eddie Hall?
). Your body needs water
to function properly, and being properly hydrated will help you to manage your
appetite. This is another one of those “minimize suffering” tips because your body
will naturally feel less hunger simply by being more hydrated.
Don’t just take my word for it though. Do some self-experimentation around this
concept. Next time you’re hungry and ready to open up the pantry and rip open
your giant leftover Halloween candy bag, crack open a can of diet pop and take
a few minutes to enjoy the sweet carbonated beverage. You may find that your
hunger or craving for candy may resolve itself.
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7. EAT BEFORE GOING TO A PLACE WHERE
THERE WILL BE FOOD.
Have you ever gone to the grocery store after having not eaten for several hours?
When I’ve done this in the past, every single friggin’ thing on the shelf makes me
salivate.
If you go to the grocery store when you’re hungry, you’re way more likely to make
poor decisions. You’re going to see the chips, the candies, the cookies, and you’re
going to want all of them.
If, on the other hand, you just recently ate, you’ll be able to resist the temptation of
these high calorie-dense foods. You won’t bring them home and stick them in your
pantry for you to binge on later at night when you’re starving because you never ate
enough during the day.
This also applies to parties and social gatherings. If you show up to a party having
not eaten for several hours, you may be in trouble. You’re going to go to the party
and likely unable to control yourself. On the other hand, if you’ve eaten HVLCD foods
beforehand, you’ll be able to show up to the party and not overindulge as you will
already be satisfied from what you previously ate. Eating high calorie-dense foods
when you’re starving is a recipe for disaster, as it’s nearly impossible to puthe fork
down and therefore overeat calories.
You see? You can still go to the party when dieting. You don’t have to avoid social
settings with food just because you’re on a diet. The
Diet allows you to live a
normal life. You can go to the party, make your cake and eat it too, while enjoying
the company of your friends and family.
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8. COOK YOUR FOOD AT HOME.
Make your food at home rather than ordering from a delivery service or getting
take-out. When you order food from a restaurant, all they care about is that the
food tastes amazing. They want repeat customers, repeat business. They don’t
care about the calories! They only care that it tastes good. If you order food from a
restaurant, expect that it will be higher in calorie density than if you were to make
the same food at home.
Restaurants are also more likely to use cheaper ingredients to increase profit
margins. Sugar, butter, and flour cost a lot less than lower-calorie alternatives, and
so expect to find less protein and more calories in meals where you “order out” than
those you make at home.
9. EAT LOW-CALORIE SNACKS.
There is NOTHING wrong with snacking! If you are hungry or starving, pick up the
fork and start eating.
I typically will recommend eating snacks that are 100-300 calories depending on
your daily calorie requirements and hunger levels. I recommend choosing lower
calorie-dense snacks like veggies, fruit, 0% fat Greek yogurt, popcorn, protein bars,
and so on over high calorie-dense snacks like regular peanut butter or candy as
they are simply less filling.
Choosing these low-calorie more voluminous foods will allow you to stay more full
and stick to your diet more easily without suffering.
10. DRINK COFFEE AND/OR TEA.
I am not a coffee or tea connoisseur. But I can definitely tell you that coffee and
tea can be healthy and support your weight-loss goals, as long as you don’t turn it
into a crappuccino by adding tons of sugar and cream to it.41 Coffee and/or tea will
decrease the amount of ghrelin secreted, which, if you have been paying attention,
signals your brain to eat. Now, don’t go crazy and wonky on me and drink ten cups
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of coffee in a day (unless they’re caffeine-free). I recommend no more than 4 cups
of coffee per day, which is in line with most expert recommendations. The added
benefit of this caffeine is it will elevate your NEAT, and burn more calories that way.
You’ll fidget a bit, raise your heart rate a little, and feel more alert.
If you don’t like black coffee, dress it up and bring it into your circle by stirring in
some sugar-free flavored syrup, an artificial sweetener, a low-calorie creamer, or a
splash of unsweetened almond milk. Just don’t start making any CRAPPUCCINOS
(or at least try to limit them if you can.)
Finally, don’t consume coffee (or pre-workout, for that matter) too close to bedtime
(unless it’s decaf) because it might make it harder for you to get to sleep. My general
guideline is don’t drink caffeine within 6 hours of bedtime. And we just talked about
the importance of a good night’s rest when it comes to losing weight and building
muscle, so don’t ruin it by taking in caffeine too late at night. Basically, know your
body and know what you can handle when it comes to caffeine. If you don’t do well
with caffeine, then obviously, make your coffee decaf. It really is that simple.
11. KEEP YOUR MEALS FAIRLY
SIMILAR IN CALORIE CONTENT.
I typically recommend that you don’t have a tiny breakfast and a huge dinner.
There’s no need for that, and it reinforces habits that are unfriendly to your diet, like
bingeing. Instead, opt for all your meals to be roughly similar in calorie content. If
you are eating 3000 calories a day over the course of 5 meals a day, you do not need
each meal to be exactly 600 calories, but you do want them to be close enough in
calories to each other - for example each meal should be between 450-750 calories.
What you should NOT try to do is have 4 meals of 250 calories, and one of 2000 as
this would place too much emphasis on bingeing after 1 specific meal.
And don’t get pedantic on me. You could also have 4 meals of 700 calories and
1 snack of 200 calories. Just remember, spreading out your meals is better than
eating most of your calories all at once.
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12. MINDFULLY MODERATE YOUR
CHEAT MEALS.
Are you allowed to “cheat” on your diet? Well of course you are! You will have
social events where there will be food and that is OK. Just try to have balance. Just
because you’re at a restaurant or a buffet does not mean you need to have 2 days’
worth of calories in one sitting.
Most of my diet plan clients are able to have 7 cheat or “off-plan meals” per week,
aka one a day. The key word here is cheat MEALS, not cheat DAYS. Those cheat
meals are intended to be in moderation. Try not to have an all-out binge where you
end up stuffed on LVHCD foods. It can be a burger and fries and a diet Coke. It can
even be a burger and fruit or salad on the side instead of fries. Try not to make it a
16-inch pizza and wings and 5 alcoholic drinks and a liter of ice cream. Moderation
is key. This requires a little mindfulness and willpower.
As a rule of thumb, a respectable “cheat” is equal to the amount of calories in 2 of
your meals. If you eat 5 meals a day for 3000 calories and average 600 calories per
meal, a respectable balanced cheat would consist of about 1200 calories. On that
day, you could then eat only 4 meals instead of 5 and still remain exactly at your
daily calorie goal.
13. HAVE A PLAN WHEN GOING
ON VACATION.
One form of life happening is going on vacation where you will not have access
to your normal cooked foods and grocery stores. However, just because you’re on
vacation, doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to continue to progress on your diet (or,
at the very least, to not take 10 steps backwards… sometimes being at maintenance
while on vacation is the way to go).
There’s a lot you can do during your vacation to keep progressing on your diet.
It is ultimately up to you how seriously you wish to adhere to your diet while on
vacation. You may wish for your vacation to simply be a diet break where you will
get back on track once you come back. You may also wish to visit your vacation spot
while progressing on your cut. Decide this in advance so you have a strategy when
you go on vacation.
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If you do wish to keep progressing on your diet while vacationing, one thing you
can do is reduce the total number of meals you usually eat. If you normally eat 4-5
full meals per day, while on vacation you can reduce this to 3 per day. If you normally
eat 3-4 times per day, while on vacation you can reduce this to 2 full meals and a
snack option each day. This is a good strategy because it accounts for the fact that
your meals will likely have higher calories than your normal meals due to them
being from restaurants and whatnot.
When on vacation, you can still incorporate many Circle Diet principles into your
daily eating. Continue to drink diet pop instead of full-calorie pop. Choose lean
sources of protein and fruits and vegetables as sides as opposed to fatty cuts of
meat and high-calorie sides such as French fries and onion rings. Eat as much fiber
and lean protein as you can. When drinking alcohol, choose light beer over heavy
beers and low-calorie mixers such as diet Coke instead of regular Coke. Stay away
from fruit juices and “traditional” breakfast foods such as muffins which are really
just cakes. While you’re at it, if you’re eating hotel breakfast, avoid the scrambled
eggs. Choose hard boiled eggs or egg whites instead.
You may find that the vacation is a good opportunity to see how many Circle Diet
principles you can apply. The vacation doesn’t have to be centered around food. It
can be centered around the sights and people-bonding.
If there is some very high calorie-dense food you really want to eat, such as pie or ice
cream, you can have them, just be mindful that they are calorie bombs which will
likely result in you over-consuming on calories. Try to eat a small portion whenever
you go for something that is very high in calorie density.
I always try to make training a priority as well when on vacation. If you go somewhere
with a beach or that is very walking-friendly, get some cardio in by going on a long
walk each day. If you have access to weights, keep to your weightlifting regimen. Do
whatever you can to keep your healthy habits going while on vacation. If it matters
to you, you will find a way to get it done.
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CONCLUSION
Let me reiterate that the Circle Diet is a lifestyle approach to weight loss, not a
punishment or a competition. The goal is to accomplish your body weight goals
in an easy and manageable way that is enjoyable and sustainable. It is not a
short-term competition to see how much you can suffer and endure to make the
most dramatic transformation. Keep in mind that when you see huge weight loss
transformations in a short period of time that they almost always result in the
person regaining the weight.
Spoke #2: Minimize Suffering is the biggest spoke of the Circle Diet. It’s also the final
spoke regarding food. So let’s take a moment to quickly summarize what we just
learned:
1. Willpower is a finite resource. Some have a ton of it, some have
a-zeerrrooo of it. Some of us will have a ton one day and then none the
next day. The key is to not rely on willpower, but rather, habit changes
that are easy and that stick.
2. You need to get comfortable with a small degree of suffering. I know
this is the minimize suffering chapter, but there will be suffering in some
form if you are going to be making some life changes that will last a
lifetime. Your suffering might look like habit changes such as having
to cook and think about how you’ll make substitutions for your favorite
foods, as well as some compromise on taste. Get used to a bit of
discomfort. It’s not that bad!
3. You will have to find your sweet spot of foods that satisfy your taste
needs while not causing you to overeat and exceed your calorie deficit. The
“sweet spot” is your Circle. It will likely be somewhere in the taste rating
scale from a 5/10 to an 8/10 (keeping in mind that as you reduce your body
fat percentage, your taste preferences may change). You can bring foods
into your Circle that are extremely tasty by reducing their calories, or you
can increase the palatability of untasty foods. Maximize your enjoyment
IN the circle. Bring foods that are otherwise not Circle Diet-friendly into
the Circle by making quality substitutions. You can still have your favorite
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chocolate pudding, but maybe the next time you prepare it, you can use
skim milk instead of whole-fat cream. There is a table earlier with some
recommendations for substitutions. Your satisfaction with your diet is
crucial for sustaining it. Cravings can be minimized by not completely
eliminating foods you love.
4. High volume, low calorie-dense foods are the holy grail of the Circle
Diet. Strive to manage both your hunger and your cravings by replacing
some of your favorite foods with lower-calorie and/or higher volume
substitutions. Some key tips:
Macronutrients play an important role in food selection. Foods with
higher protein and fiber and lower fat content should be prioritized
due to the thermic effect of food and the fact that you will feel more
full at the end of your meal.
Eat whole fruits and vegetables instead of juices and dried fruit.
Reference the tables earlier in this section to determine which fruits
and vegetables are higher in volume and lower in calorie density.
Use thickening agents such as guar gum, xanthan gum, and
cornstarch to make some of your favorite foods higher in volume.
There is nothing wrong with artificial sweeteners. Diet pop is a great
tool to help you satisfy your sweet tooth and get some liquids in to
curb hunger.
5. This spoke also provides a host of miscellaneous practical tips to
prevent suffering.
Minimize suffering with slow change. You don’t need to overhaul
your entire diet overnight. You can pace yourself. This is not a race.
If you race, you’re going to bounce right back to old habits, and be
back on the yo-yo dieting train.
Consider starting by substituting 1 meal per day that you think will
be easiest to change. For many people, this is either breakfast or
lunch.
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Keep foods that are unfriendly to the Circle Diet out of sight, out
of mind. Keep your cereal and chips hidden in the pantry and your
cookies and candy out of the cookie jar or bowl sitting on your
office desk.
Don’t skip meals. Eat breakfast. You can eat at night before bed.
Eat a serving of protein at least 3 and up to 5 times per day for both
hunger control and maximizing muscle growth.
Get a good night’s sleep consistently to regulate hunger hormones.
Drink liquids throughout the day. If you feel hungry, drink a glass of
water or a can of diet pop. It might fix your hunger. (Just try to not
drink regular pop if possible).
Eat low calorie-dense filling foods before going to the grocery store
or to a social outing where there will be food.
Try to cook your food at home, because no one cares as much about
your diet as you do!
Eat low-calorie filling snacks.
Don’t shy away from caffeine or tea. They’ll reduce your hunger.
(But try not to drink crappuccinos… they’re filled with calories that
won’t make you feel full).
Keep your meals about the same size rather than eating 1 massive
meal per day.
Mindfully moderate your “cheat” meals.
When on vacation, you can still incorporate Circle Diet principles.
Decide how you want to enjoy your vacation, and you may find that
you can continue to progress or remain at maintenance while on
vacation with a few habits such as walking a lot and eating fewer
meals throughout the day.
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The first two spokes of the Circle Diet focus on the calories that go into your
body. Now it’s time to turn your attention to learning how to burn off or exercise
calories out of your body. Remember, a personalized equation of calories in versus
calories out is the foundation to weight management. And the best way to get rid of
calories is to exercise. There is no magic wand, no magic spell, and no magic pill
that will miraculously manage your weight. You have to do it. You alone. Hard work
and consistent effort are required. It’s that simple.
QUICK SUMMARY OF
SPOKE #2, MINIMIZE
SUFFERING:
Eat in a way to minimize your suffering while reaching your goals. If you eat pizza
or other 10/10 palatable trigger foods, you will inevitably eat too much because they
are so damn delicious. On the other hand, if you eat nothing but bland and boring
“diet” foods, you will inevitably fall off your diet due to cravings, boredom, and so on.
Be sure to bring your favorite foods into your circle by modifying them to be lower
calorie versions of the original. They may be 80% as good as the original, but you
won’t overeat on them. Eat a lot of high volume low calorie-dense foods and bring
those less palatable foods UP into your circle by dressing them up to make them
more palatable. Low-calorie toppings, sauces, spices, and clever food combinations
can turn what was boring and lacking in taste into something that you truly enjoy.
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MOVE YOUR ASS
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BECOME A “BETTER
BUTTER BURNER”
To lose weight, to achieve your goal physique, to be fitter, healthier, happier - you
need to MOVE MORE. How much more? Quite literally, “more than last time!”
One of my favorite things to do is cardiovascular exercise, which is a crucial
component to any weight-loss or weight-management program. Don’t love cardio?
YOU CAN LEARN TO LOVE IT.
So what is cardiovascular exercise? Basically, it is sustained, continuous, physical
activity that requires the work of your heart and lungs. One amazing benefit of
adding regular cardio to your daily routine is that by doing some type of cardio on
a regular basis, you become a “Better Butter Burner.” Author Covert Bailey coined
this phrase in his 1978 bestselling book, Fit or Fat. What does being a “Better Butter
Burner” even mean? Well, the more fit you are, the better you become at burning
fat, or as Bailey put it, you’ll “release the grease” more efficiently and effectively.
Sure, the 1970’s were in a whole different century, and technology has completely
morphed since then, but the human body is still the human body. By doing cardio
on a regular basis, you not only reap its protective health benefits, you also get
better at it. It becomes easier and you can burn more calories in the same amount
of time, because when you are fit, you can exercise at a faster pace.
For example, compare a marathon runner to Grandma Josephine. Who do you
think burns more calories in an hour, the runner or the slow walker? Also, studies
have shown that people who are fit burn more calories through NEAT when not
exercising due to the fact that they are less exhausted from the cardio sessions.
Case in point: if the marathon runner and Grandma Josephine go for a slow jog
for an hour, Grandma Josephine will likely end up on the couch the rest of the day,
feeling like she got run over by a bus. She’ll feel so sore and tired that she will not
move much the rest of the week, let alone that day. The marathoner, on the other
hand, would feel fresh and have plenty of energy to go about their regular day.
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So as you can see, the benefits of doing regular cardio extend well beyond just
the calories burned during the activity. The fact remains: continuously doing
cardiovascular exercise burns calories both during exercise and after (due to elevated
NEAT), bolsters the heart, and boosts your mood. Also, the more fit you are, the less
likely you are to suffer injuries and the quicker you’ll bounce back from any injuries
you do incur. Cardio really does make a night-and-day difference no matter what
your goals are.
Also, in case you’re wondering, going from unfit to fit has been shown to decrease
mortality risk by threefold. And going from fit to more elite levels of fitness
decreases mortality by up to 5 times as much. This is, in fact, a greater extension of
live expectancy than would be seen by somebody who were to quit smoking. So, to
really hammer this home, getting in good cardiovascular shape not only helps you
to burn fat–it will most likely enable you to live a longer life.
Let me just say this: If I had to choose between weightlifting or doing cardio, I’d
choose cardio any day of the week. I know there are fitness coaches out there who
are trying to make a quick buck by promising you a fairy tale of zero cardio. Sure,
there are genetically blessed individuals out there who can achieve a caloric deficit
or be lean with little to no cardio. Most of us are not genetic freaks. Besides, as I
explained earlier, cardio is good for your heart! It aids in quicker recovery, which
helps you in the weight room too. You have nothing to lose by doing cardio, except
body fat.
So, cardio is a win-win!
WHAT “TYPE” OF CARDIO
SHOULD YOU DO?
Okay, now that I’ve convinced you cardio is an excellent tool for weight management,
health, and longevity, you want to know what type of cardio is best? Well, the best
cardio is the cardio you will do. Seriously though, you should choose the type of
cardio exercise that you enjoy the most. Liking what you do always helps when
building a solid, steady habit or regimen. There are so many activities to choose from:
jogging, hiking, cycling, dancing, Zumba-ing, rowing, stairclimbing, and swimming
are all examples of activities that require sustained, continuous movement. You can
choose to do your cardio indoors or outdoors. It doesn’t matter! Just remember,
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weather doesn’t always allow for a safe environment to do your cardio, so if you
choose outdoors, make sure you have a back-up option during rain or snow days or
cold spells.
Ultimately, the best form of cardio to do is the one you enjoy doing the most, as it is
not the type that is as important as the consistency in doing it.
Here’s me on my indoor bicycle. I get on my bicycle almost every day, not because I
need to burn the calories or for my health, but because it’s fun! It’s something I can
do both outdoors in good weather as well as indoors when going out isn’t safe or
convenient. All you need to do to ride your own bike indoors is a bike trainer.
FIGURE 21. Just a picture of me on my indoor bike, likely in a Zwift race!
That being said, you also have to consider the health of your joints when choosing a
cardio option. If jogging hurts your knees, don’t jog. If rowing sparks shoulder pain,
don’t row. Remember, minimizing suffering applies to cardio as well. You want to
choose a cardiovascular activity that you don’t dread and can consistently enjoy. If
you don’t like it, you will eventually stop doing it.
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Warning: unfortunately, running is a form of cardio that will make it harder to build
muscle. It’s great for the heart and for burning calories, but makes it more difficult
to recover from both weights and running. If you are more focused on building a
massive physique, try choosing cardio that has less impact, like cycling, walking on
an incline, stepper, elliptical, and so on.
If you’re new to cardio, I suggest starting with walking outdoors or on a treadmill.
Walking is a familiar activity for your body, so it’s a good introduction when building
your cardio habits. It is low-impact, which means you will have a very low chance
of causing damage to your joints. This is different from jogging, which is highimpact and can jar your knees and hips. We don’t want that since you need to keep
your knees and hips sturdy for your weightlifting sessions. We’ll talk more about
weightlifting in the next session.
I will tell you that walking on a treadmill offers a greater chance for challenging
yourself to go harder than last time. This is because you can change the incline and
create a tougher cardio session. For example, on a treadmill, you can start off at a
flat/0% incline and increase in increments all the way up to a 15% incline (or even
to 30% or higher if you have a super fancy treadmill). Walking on a treadmill at a
15% incline WILL challenge you. Trust me! In fact, walking on a 15% incline will burn
double the calories as walking on a flat surface, due to the fact that you’re carrying
your body weight uphill, which requires double the calorie expenditure compared
to a flat incline (assuming you’re walking at the same speed). While walking outside
is great too, when walking outside, you can’t find steep hills to climb 100% of your
time walking.
Just remember, the best type of cardio is the cardio that you will
be able to sustain so you can improve your heart health and have
one more tool in your weight-management toolbox. Consistency
and practicality are the name of the game.
I care about your longevity and your ability to sustain a workout plan for life. You
can’t go harder than last time and do cardio effectively if you keep injuring yourself.
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PACE, FREQUENCY,
DURATION & PROGRESSION
Now, how often should you do cardio? And for how long? How fast or slow should
you go? When should you do cardio? Morning, noon, or night? Should you eat or
should you fast before doing cardio? Isn’t it funny how answering one question
leads to so many others? Lucky for you, I’ve got the answers.
Let’s start with figuring out your pace. The two main types of pace are a) highintensity interval training, also known as HIIT, and b) LISS (low-intensity steady-state).
High-intensity interval training involves alternating short periods of extremely high
intensity activity with longer periods of recovery. Just think, fast-slow, fast-slow,
fast-slow. Okay, it’s a bit more complicated than that and can incorporate multiple
variations of work-versus-recovery periods, but since I’m going to recommend
somewhere in the middle “moderately-paced steady-state” or “MISS” cardio for the
general purposes of your weight-loss management goals, I’m not going to dig into
the details about HIIT in this book.
(Note: I am not completely knocking the value of HIIT cardio. I do see HIIT as a great
tool for high-level athletes, rather than something to help you lose weight).
You do not need to do HIIT cardio to burn more fat. In the real world, you will
actually burn more calories overall doing MISS than HIIT cardio. Even a 30-minute
moderately paced walk will burn more calories than the most extreme 15-minute
HIIT cardio session you could ever complete. And not only will it be less calories
burned, but it will likely be harder to recover from and more likely to cause burnout
or injury.
Instead, let’s turn our focus to moderately-paced, steady-state (MISS) cardio.
What do I mean by that? Well, performing at a steady-state means moving with a
consistent and even pace throughout the cardio session. Moderately paced means
that you are performing at a speed that you could sustain for 1-3 hours if you wanted
to, though I am not recommending you go out and start doing two-hour cardio
sessions right off the bat (nor will you ever need to to be healthy).
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Moderately paced means that you are still able to talk—with a little effort—while
performing the exercise. It’s not super easy but also not so hard that you feel you
need to slow down. If it’s a moderate pace of cardio it should not feel easy. Easy is
easy, and moderate is harder than easy (get it?), and hard is harder than moderate.
So, whether you’re doing 15, 30, or 60 minutes of cardio, some days, depending on
energy levels, that pace may be a bit slower or bit faster than usual. In general, go as
hard as you want to during steady-state cardio, as long as it feels good to you and
you’re not sore and can recover from it.
This mindset has “go harder than last time” built into it. If this is your mindset going
into cardio, you will naturally attempt to improve at cardio as well, which is a hallmark
of becoming a better butter burner. If you used to burn 200 calories in 30 minutes
of cardio and a month later now burn 210 calories in 30 minutes due to sustaining a
faster pace, you have officially become a Better Butter Burner. But why stop there?
Keep doing cardio and over the course of several months or years, you might be
able to burn 300, 400, or even 500 calories in that same 30-minute time frame.
Keep in mind that your pace when starting out on a cardio program will vary from
your pace once you have reached six months, a year, or five years of consistency
with cardio. As you improve your fitness and endurance levels, the pace you can
maintain will quicken. For example, let’s say that during your first weeks of walking
on a treadmill at a flat/0% incline, you might only be able to walk at a 2.0 miles-perhour pace. Two months later, you will be able to increase that pace to 2.2 miles-perhour and even increase the incline to 5%. A year later, you will probably find yourself
increasing your pace to 2.5 miles-per-hour and walking on an incline of 10% or even
15%, all the while exerting the same amount of effort you used when you began
doing cardio. But get this: You’re burning more calories than you were before in the
same length of time. See, that’s the “better butter burner” effect in full force. When
walking on a treadmill, any amount of increasing speed and increasing the incline
will result in burning more calories. This is why I preach to do year-round cardio for
sustainable weight loss and not just do cardio while dieting.
It might help you to know that when I was a beginner at bike riding, I was much,
much slower than I am now. Just because I have large muscles does not mean I’m
actually fit. Seriously. My pace was slow. And that’s the pace I went at. But soon,
I was able to step it up a notch . . . or spin the wheels faster. So I did. Week after
week, month after month, year after year, I incrementally increased my speed and/
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or my resistance. One percent here, one notch there. I went harder than the last
time while still making sure I had enough energy in the tank to last for the whole
cardio session. Over time, I got better, stronger, faster. Guess what that means? I’m
a better butter burner. I burn way more calories now because I’m exerting more
force and using more energy. I burn almost 50% more calories in the same length
of time. And I also recover from these rides faster. I’m rarely sore after a ride. I got so
good that I decided to start racing on Zwift. I burn more calories, recover faster, and
have more energy, all from the best prescription of all: exercise and a healthy diet.
This example demonstrates that you can inch your way along the spectrum of
working harder than last time simply by keeping track of your speed and consistently
increasing it little by little over time. For all of you geeks, this technique is called
“progressive overload,” which also applies to weightlifting.
Moral of the story? Building your cardio habits, working on them consistently, and
improving over time helps you burn more calories and makes you a healthier, more
efficient machine. As a result, your body composition improves because you are in
a larger caloric deficit. As a result, you might even get to eat more, depending on
what your goals are.
Keeping in mind you can’t out train a bad diet in the long term, most people would
still love to be able to eat more calories and not get fat! Would you like to be able to
lose weight faster eating the same food, or just be able to eat more food? Then do
your cardio and get better at it!
See why cardio is cool and always gets my vote of approval?
You don’t have to take your cardio progression as far as I did, but every bit counts.
So please don’t take doing cardio for granted.
FOR HOW LONG SHOULD YOU DO CARDIO?
Now, let’s go back to the question of how much time you should spending doing
cardio. My typical recommendation for my clients who are starting a cardio program
is to do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio over a week’s time. That may sound
like a lot, and if it does, that’s okay. If you need to, start with less. Whatever you can
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commit to is how much you should do. If you choose to commit to 150 minutes per
week with 5 of those days as cardio days, that is 30 minutes of moderate cardio
every day you do cardio (divide 150 minutes by 5 days). That’s not so bad, right?
Better yet, if you do some cardio every day of the week, it could just be a 50-minute
walk twice a week and a very short 10-minute walk the other 5 days. Break it down
the way you WANT. Just don’t neglect it. Here are some examples of how you might
break down your cardio throughout the week:
FIGURE 22. This table provides 3 examples of how one might divide 150 minutes of cardio throughout
the week.
It’s really up to you where to fit in your 150 minutes. You can space it out over 7 days.
You can also feel free to get your weekly 150 minutes done with three 10-minute
cardio warmups before you lift and two 60-minute sessions per week. In the long
run, it really doesn’t matter how many minutes you do on any given day. Just make
sure you’re doing it with consistency.
Note: If you decide to do an extended period of cardio on a weightlifting day, you’re
best off doing the brunt of the cardio after you lift weights. I do not recommend
doing a bunch of cardio prior to lifting weights. For example, you can do 10 minutes
of warm-up cardio prior to lifting weights and then do 20 to 30 minutes of cardio
after lifting weights. You can do more than 10 minutes of cardio before lifting
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weights, but you ideally don’t want your pre-weightlifting cardio to cause you to
lose energy for your weight-training session. It’s preferable to start with 10 minutes
of cardio as a warmup.
Just to lay this out a little differently, here is an example of how you might structure
your week based on 150 total minutes of cardio per week, spread throughout three
lifting days and three cardio days per week:
Monday: 10-minute cardio warmup + weight training
Tuesday: 40 minutes of cardio, no weight training
Wednesday: 10-minutes cardio warmup + weight training
Thursday: 40 minutes of cardio, no weight training
Friday: 10-minute cardio warmup + weight training
Saturday: 40 minutes cardio, no weight training
Sunday: Off
I will reiterate this key point: you do not need to split out your cardio evenly
throughout the week. The schedule above is just one example of what you might
do. You might do 80 minutes of cardio on one day and then entirely skip doing
cardio the following two days. The point is, start somewhere and make sure you
track how much total cardio you are doing per week. I do recommend splitting it up
throughout the week so that you minimize “catch-up” cardio by the end of the
week. Things come up, you get busy, it rains, it snows, etc. So if you “save” doing
cardio until the last minute, you may not end up doing it. My experience with
coaching has shown me those who start cardio early in the week often end up
doing the 150 minutes with ease and often are asking if they can do more. The
answer is, of course you can do more! As long as you are recovering and feel
motivated to do so. Ultimately, you have to determine what works best for you, your
work or school schedule, and your sleep schedule.
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So, when should you do your cardio? When it works for you. After all, you have
to create a sustainable plan. If the plan doesn’t work for you, then it won’t work
for you. So you have to create a plan of action that fits your schedule and will be
enjoyable. If doing cardio first thing in the morning works for you, do it first thing
in the morning. If doing cardio directly after your weight training in the evenings
works for you, then do the cardio directly after your evening weight training.
Whenever I’m asked if someone should eat before they do cardio, my answer is
“yes, you should eat!” Doing fasted cardio on an empty stomach is not better in any
way. You don’t burn more calories that way. You don’t get more ripped, shripped, or
shredded. If anything, you might burn fewer calories if you are too depleted because
you haven’t eaten enough and don’t have the energy to train as hard while fasted.
The whole goal is to train better, harder, and smarter than the last time. In order to
do that, you need fuel. You need food. If you do cardio after your first meal of the
day, you will typically perform better, which means you’ll burn more calories, which
means you’ll meet your weight-loss goals quicker.
If you think you don’t have time in the mornings to eat before doing cardio, I have
a few ideas for you.
Get up earlier (genius idea, right?
)
Eat on the drive to the gym
Prep your food the night before
Grab something really easy but Circle Diet-friendly such as
an anabolic protein bar from my cookbook or your local store
with a piece of fruit.
Just be proactive and make excuses to eat breakfast rather than to skip it.
You don’t have to eat a lot before you do your cardio. Just get hydrated, get a little
food into your system, get in the car and drive to the gym (or shuffle down to your
garage or living room). Keep in mind that this is your first opportunity in the day
to build muscle through muscle protein synthesis, as your body needs the amino
acids from protein to build muscle in the same way that a carpenter needs wood
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and nails to build a deck. Then hop onto the treadmill or bike or stair-climber and
get to moving. Consider this as your reward for the day, because exercise is a reward!
To sum up, cardio is crucial. Why? It turns you into a better butter burner. I love
this phrase by Covert Bailey because of the alliteration. But I really love this phrase
because it means you become better at burning fat and calories. At the end of the
day, weight-loss management comes down to calories in versus calories out. You
either have to eat less or move/burn more. Some might need to do a combination of
both. Remember, this is a holistic approach, and every piece of the puzzle matters.
As a result, cardio plays a major role in the calories in/calories out equation.
Cardio is a driving force in body recomposition. This is because when you are more
fit, you will burn more calories and use more fat throughout your movements in
life. Not only that, but people who are fit on average burn more calories even when
at “rest” through NEAT, as they have more energy to move more during regular
daily activities. (For example, compare the daily activity of a couch potato versus a
dancer, crossfitter, or most athletes). Some might tell you lifting weights is enough.
But it’s really not. You should do cardio if you really want to annihilate those excess
calories. Forget about the common myth that cardio tears down your muscles.
Regular cardio doesn’t do that. I’ll squash that nonsense now. You can walk and talk
and keep your muscles too. Just look at me as proof.
If you want to preserve muscle mass, don’t go overboard with cardio. If you start
running marathons or do cardio at very high intensities for extended periods of
time, of course it will affect muscle growth. This is why I advocate for moderate
intensity steady-state cardio. It is the most balanced approach to cardio.
The key to success with cardio is to do it year-round. Remember the three Bs: Better
Butter Burner. Be smart and consistent. As a result, you’ll become better at burning
calories. You’ll become better at recovering, in the gym, in life and you will improve
your heart health and minimize mortality risk factors.
And how does living not only better but longer sound to you? Do you now
understand why doing cardio should be a necessity?!
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ADDITIONAL NOTES AND
FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS.
1. Can I do more than 150 minutes per week?
Of course you can! 150 minutes per week is a great starting point and will be sufficient
to burn plenty of extra calories during the week, but is not a hard and fast rule. Quite
simply, if you wanted to eat the same amount of food and lose weight FASTER, you
could gradually up the cardio to 200 and then to 250 or more minutes per week. It’s
really up to you and how much cardio you can sustain doing. I recommend you first
start with 150 minutes, and if you recover from that and are still motivated, then add
50 minutes per week until you are happy while still able to recover. Take your time
and don’t forget it takes time for your body to adapt. Slower increments that you
can sustain are way more beneficial than being overzealous and then later giving
up.
Some fit people simply love cardio. Cyclists, triathletes, and others are on intensive
training plans in order to get as fast as possible without worrying about the calories
burned. If that sounds like you, of course you can do more than 150 minutes per
week!
2. Can I go out for a walk and count that as my cardio?
Yes and NO! Is walking for you easy, moderate, or hard? If it feels too easy, then my
rule-of-thumb is to double up on the amount of minutes. For example, walking on
level ground is very easy for me and never feels like moderate-intensity. So, rather
than counting 150 minutes from 150 minutes of walking on level ground, I would
count half of that–or, 75 minutes–towards my weekly cardio target. I could also
do 300 minutes instead and count 150 minutes towards my weekly cardio goal.
However, if walking on level ground outside feels like moderate intensity to you, you
can count 150 minutes of walking as 150 minutes towards your weekly cardio target.
My rule of thumb on “easy” cardio is that half the time counts towards your weekly
goal.
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On the other hand, if I walk on a 15% incline, then it becomes moderately difficult,
and therefore does count as moderately paced cardio.
If you are a couch potato, older, obese, or if you find walking not very easy, then yes,
count your walks as moderately intense cardio.
3. Does HIIT cardio count towards my weekly cardio goal?
Of course it does. But trust me, you do not have to do HIIT cardio to reap the
benefits of cardio. Sure, it looks cool and may tire you out, but you will burn plenty of
calories doing steady-state cardio, and, most importantly, not burn out from doing
it. HITT cardio is very difficult to do for extended periods of time, and most people
who think they are doing HIIT cardio are actually doing MIIT (“moderate intensity
interval training”) cardio. Save HIIT cardio for once you become very fit or if you are
an athlete.
4. How many calories can I burn doing cardio, or how do I know how many
calories I burn doing cardio?
It is impossible to know exactly how many calories you burn when doing cardio. So
long as you are following the above recommendations, you are going to be burning.
However, a decent amount of calories to start but as you continue to get more fit,
this number will continue to increase as you can cover more distance in the same
length of time. I use the total weekly minutes of cardio as a proxy to increase the
“calories out” part of Calories In Calories Out. The three key things to track to figure
out if you are in a caloric deficit thus are your food intake, total weekly minutes of
cardio, and weekly median bodyweight. If I wanted to increase calories out but not
touch calories in, I would simply increase total minutes of cardio per week.
See the chart on my website to ESTIMATE total calories you likely will burn based on
your fitness level. The link is here:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/PAGES/CALCULATE
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ca lo ries
If you don’t feel like making your way over to my website, you can reference this
chart below for approximations. But I do want you to check out my website for your
estimate. You’ll be able to indicate your gender, body weight, and estimated
fitness level and see how many calories you burn during one hour of cardiovascular
exercise. You’ll also be able to toggle fitness levels to see how your calorie
expenditure would change if you increase your fitness level.
1250
1125
1000
875
750
625
500
375
250
125
0
125 lb
150 lb
175 lb
200 lb
UNFIT
MODERATELY
ACTIVE
FITS
UPER FIT
FITNESS LEVEL
FIGURE 23. This chart is adapted from a YouTube video where I explained how your calorie
expenditure in 1 hour of “moderate effort” cardio exercise will vary based on your bodyweight and
cardiovascular fitness level.42 It is meant to be used as a rough guide to show how an increase in
body weight as well as an increase in cardiovascular fitness level increases the amount of caloric
expenditure during exercise. The intent of this chart is to demonstrate how you should strive to
improve your cardiovascular fitness to become a “Better Butter Burner.” You may access the calorie
calculator at https://www.gregdoucette.com/pages/calculate.
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5. But I heard that you get too efficient at cardio over time and cardio stops
working!
That is simply moronic and not true. You do not get desensitized to cardio and
burn fewer calories. You get better at cardio, which means you can go faster, which
means you burn more calories. Calories are a unit of energy. Work is measured by
Force X Distance. If you are going faster than last time, you will end up going a
longer distance, and thus do more work, and burn more calories. If you increase the
incline on the treadmill, you are increasing force, which will translate to more work,
and more calories burned.
There are two caveats to this. If you are deep into a diet, your caloric deficit is too
large, and/or you feel like garbage and have low energy, then you will go slower
than last time on cardio. You will feel lazier and more lethargic, generally not be
able to move as much or as fast. That will cause you to burn fewer calories. So, if
you notice that you’re getting slower at cardio, it may very well be an indicator that
you are either overtraining, overdieting, or trying to maintain a body fat percentage
that is too low for you. For example, when I diet below 8% body fat, I actually lose
energy and can’t exercise at the same level of effort. This percentage is different for
everyone based on your unique genetics, so always remember, not everyone was
meant to have single-digit body fat.
A second caveat is that yes, if you lose 100 pounds, you will be moving around a
much lighter body. That would mean that you would be using less force to do work
at the same speed. But you would compensate for that by going faster. What may
have been difficult to walk at 15% incline at 1.5 miles per hour may now feel easy at
2 miles-per-hour due to the weight you have lost and no longer have to carry. So,
as you lose weight, be sure to exercise at a faster pace, or you can also choose to go
farther.
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QUICK SUMMARY OF
SPOKE #3:
Become a better butter burner by adding cardio into your lifestyle for the rest of
your life. Do MORE than what you are doing now. If all you do now is walk from the
bed to the couch and back, start to walk around the block. For those who have some
training background, you can start by finding a way to do at least 150 minutes of
steady-state cardio per week. Do your steady-state cardio at a moderate pace (not
too easy and not too hard). Remember that it should feel like you could sustain this
pace for 1-3 hours if it’s at a moderate pace. Get better at cardio over time to improve
your heart health, fitness, and to burn more calories than before. The better you are
at cardio, the more calories you will burn, the more fat you can burn off, and the
more you can eat once you aren’t in a fat loss stage.
And a final note: doing steady-state cardio burns way more calories than a typical
weightlifting session, and it’s recommended that you do the 150 minutes on top of
or in addition to your weights.
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04
MAXIMIZE MUSCLE
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MUSCLES
MATTER
Putting on as much muscle as possible whether in a caloric deficit, surplus, or
maintenance is highly recommended if you are looking to improve your body
composition and get healthier. Not only does having more muscle on your body
make you look better and prevent age-related illnesses such as osteoporosis43, but
by building muscle, you build your ability to burn more calories than someone who
does not weight train.
Even though muscle takes up less real estate in your body than fat does, muscle
actually requires more energy to exist than fat does. The more muscle you build,
the more your resting metabolic rate increases. This means a more muscular body
burns more calories while at rest.44 This might even mean you can expand your
circle and increase your caloric intake, depending on your body composition goals.
Muscle tissue is also more energetically costly for the body to maintain than body
fat. You have to actually try to have muscle mass on your body in order for it to be
built and to remain on your body when you’re manipulating your energy balance.
And that’s why muscle mass is so relevant in the context of dieting.45 The more
muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. This is known as your Basal
Metabolic Rate, or BMR. If you want to eat more calories, it would serve you well to
increase the total amount of muscle mass on your body over time, so you will be
able to increase your caloric intake to maintain the same body fat. Age, gender, and
genetics will also influence your basal metabolic rate. But, by lifting weights, you
will add on more muscle and increase your metabolism.
It is important to bear in mind that it takes a long time to build muscle, and that the
amount of muscle you can put on your body (and the rate at which you can put on
that muscle) is mostly determined by your genetic profile. However, just because
you may be someone who struggles to put on muscle, doesn’t mean you should
give up or not try at all. It just means that you will not notice a significant increased
in gains compared to those who “chose the right parents.” So be patient! The gains
will come, just at a slower pace.
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Here is a chart which I included earlier in the book to keep in mind regarding the
rate at which you can put on muscle mass. Always note that the people you see
in movies and on Instagram who look like action figures are likely enhanced with
performance-enhancing drugs and/or have the top tier of genetics for muscle
building. As I always say, take your dream physique and strive to get halfway there.
Women and ectomorphs tend to struggle more to put on the same amount of
mass as mesomorphs, endomorphs, and men. That doesn’t mean you CAN’T put on
muscle if your genetics aren’t favorable.
FIGURE 9. This chart is adapted from one of my videos on realistic expectations for how much
muscle you can gain by optimizing your nutrition and following a strength training protocol without
any PEDs.46 The red bars on the left are a set of guidelines for those who have genetics that are
favourable to building muscle. The blue bars on the right are a set of guidelines for females and
those who have less-than-favourable genetics for building muscle.
Now, without further ado, let’s talk about weight training.
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WEIGHT
TRAINING
Including information about cardio in a diet book probably makes sense to you,
especially if you have absorbed the concept of calories in/calories out. But you
might question why a section on weight training would be included. When you
realize that having more muscle also makes you a better butter burner, then you’ll
understand why weightlifting also plays a crucial role in the Circle Diet. Now, this is
not a weightlifting book, so I’m not going to give you an entire program or discuss
which exercises to add to your training program or explain how many sets and reps
you should do. For that level of information, check out my other e-book series, Harder
Than Last Time! In this book, I will give you a high-level overview of what weight
training is, how it helps you with your weight-management goals, and where it fits
into the equation of calories in/calories out.
Weight training is the activity of lifting heavy objects. Weightlifters pick things up
and put them down. To build muscle, you need a training stimulus, which is a reason
for the muscle to grow. You need to force the muscle to do something it doesn’t
want to do so that it has to adapt. That is the whole idea of weightlifting.
The benefits of lifting weights outweigh the excuses you might come up with to
avoid weightlifting. Whether the goal is to gain strength, relieve stress and tension,
add years to your life, look more attractive, face new challenges, make new friends,
get leaner, or feel more confident, weightlifting is for every man, woman, and circle,
no matter the age and no matter the size.
I generally recommend the following regarding weight training:
1. Train each muscle group twice per week
By training each body part twice per week instead of once, you allow your body to
train 104 times in a year, in comparison to 52 times per year if you were to only train
each body part once per week.
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This means that if you go to the gym only two times per week, you should strive
to train your entire body twice per week. If you go to the gym four times per week,
you can split your training such that you train half your body on two days and the
other half on the other two days. If you train an odd number of times per week such
as three times per week, you can get a little more creative on your training split.
2. Strive to do 10-20 sets of lifting with each muscle group per week
If you are a newbie lifter, start out very easy and get used to the exercises using
proper form. Do not train to failure until you become more advanced and are
able to train without getting very sore.
If you are someone with lifting experience who is adapted to training, 10 working
sets per week of each muscle group is a good place to start. If you’re training just
two times per week, this means that you should strive to have two full-body training
sessions per week where you do 5 working sets of each muscle group. If you’re
only training two days per week, you would best accomplish this by focusing on
compound movements that recruit a lot of muscle to perform them, such as squats,
bench presses, and deadlifts, instead of bicep curls and leg extensions.
If you are a more advanced lifter, you can strive to complete 20 working sets per
week for each muscle group.
3. Train harder than last time!
The more technical term for “train harder than last time” is “progressive overload.”
You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again at the same intensity with
the same weight and expect your body to get better. Your body needs a stimulus
for growth. It needs encouragement. It needs a signal. It needs to lift heavier, to
go longer, to train harder. It doesn’t need to be every day, but over time, you need
to provide a greater stimulus, something to encourage the body to keep getting
bigger.
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So don’t expect to get your dream physique by following a program you got on
Bodybuilding.com where you’re training half-assed.
If you train half-assed, expect to get half the results.
If you want to improve your physique with more muscle and less fat, you need to
progress over time.47 You can progress by increasing the total number of repetitions
you do with a weight over time, the amount of weight that you lift, by slowing down
the speed of the movement, pausing the weight, using better form, not using
momentum, or by developing a better mind-muscle connection.
I go very deep into this topic of progressive overload in my book, Harder Than
Last Time! The Complete Muscle & Strength Training Manual which contains 12
different training plans for you to follow depending on your individual preferences,
abilities, and how often you plan to train in the gym. You can check that out here:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/EBOOKS/
PRODUCTS/HTLT-TRAINING-PROGRAMS
The point is that you need to get better at training in order to create a stimulus for
your body to adapt to. This stimulus is how muscle is built over time.
Unless you have the best genetics in the world, if you don’t resistance train when
losing weight, your body will be less likely to spare your hard-earned muscles.
Losing those muscles will also reduce your basal metabolic rate. This means that
if you lose weight without doing any kind of strength training to minimize your
muscle tissue loss or hopefully add to it, your rate of calorie expenditure at rest will
be reduced. Which means that it will require you to eat even less than last time
to lose weight. So it’s a lose-lose if you are in a caloric deficit without doing any
resistance training as it can likely lead to muscle loss, especially if trying to lose
weight quickly as many dieters often do.
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BUILDING MUSCLE
AND PTOR
A note on “building muscle:” You may have seen me talking ad nauseum about
building muscle on my YouTube channel. Even though I have a lot of muscle on my
frame already and I’m not technically getting any bigger, I am still always thinking
of building muscle. No matter if I am maingaining or cutting for a show, I am always
thinking about building maximal muscle in the gym. Why, you ask? Why should I
think about building muscle when I already have plenty of it? The answer to that
lies in a concept known as protein turnover rate, or PTOR.
The muscle on your body is not just there permanently once you acquire it. In
fact, you are constantly either burning off muscle (catabolism) or building muscle
(anabolism). When the rate of building muscle is greater than the rate at which you
burn it off, you are net gaining muscle. When the rate of building muscle is equal to
the rate of burning it off, that is what we call maintaining your muscle mass. When
the rate of building muscle is less than the rate of burning it off, you are net losing
muscle. If I am in a large caloric deficit, the rate of catabolism or burning off of
muscle may go up. I have to counteract that by continuing to train hard in the gym
and consuming protein 4-5 times per day.
The hard training, protein, water and energy consumed or taken from body fat
stores help create the signals my body needs to receive to convince itself that this
muscle is necessary. Otherwise, the body would rather not hold onto all this muscle
as it’s expensive to have from a survival perspective. This is to maximize my muscle
building in order to be at a net equal rate of building muscle as I burn it off.
What does this mean for you? Building muscle should never stop, even when you
already have a lot of it. Even if you are cutting. You should always strive to build
muscle. Once you’ve put on a lot of muscle mass which takes a lot of time, you don’t
have to train as hard to maintain your muscle as you did to build it in the first place,
but the building never stops!
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WHEN MACROS
MATTER
In order for muscle to grow, it doesn’t just need resistance in the form of barbells,
dumbbells, and machines in the gym. It needs water since muscle consists mostly
of water. So stay hydrated throughout your day and throughout your workout.
Muscle also needs protein in order to grow. We talked about protein earlier. Your
protein consumption needs to be high enough to “maingain.” This means in order
to maximize your muscle maintenance and experience muscle gains, you must
eat protein.48 This is because protein gives you the amino acids which provide the
body raw materials to build muscle. It is needed to fuel muscle synthesis, which is
basically the repair of damage done to the muscle during the weightlifting session.
Protein aids in building new muscle and recovery of the muscle, which is necessary
in order for the muscle to grow.
Back in Spoke #2: Minimize Suffering, I mentioned that you should strive to eat a
serving of protein 4-5 times per day. This is for more than just managing hunger
throughout the day since protein is a high-satiety macronutrient. Protein consumed
approximately 4-5 times throughout the day has been shown to be the most optimal
for muscle-building. So eat meals with a portion of protein in them for every meal
of the day. It’ll leave you feeling both satiated and satisfied with the fact that you’re
eating what you need to maximize the amount of muscle you’re building.
You likely want to know how soon before lifting weights you should eat protein?
Here’s my answer: It Doesn’t Matter! Just make sure you don’t skip a meal and end
up training fasted. For optimal muscle growth, training fasted and skipping meals
can be detrimental. If you are happy with your current physique and prefer lifting
fasted, it’s still okay, but not likely to yield optimal muscle growth results. Listen, the
protein you eat before you hit the gym will be pre-digested. So, the amino acids will
be in your system for when you need them. There is no reason to train fasted as it’s
not going to result in your burning off more fat. As you must know by now, it is CICO
that will determine if you burn off or store fat at the end of the day.
As recommended previously, you should strive to eat 4-5 meals a day with protein.
Your meals should be relatively close to each other in size. For example, if you eat
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3000 calories over 4 meals per day, although each meal does not need to be exactly
750 calories, they should be in the ballpark of 500-1000 calories per meal. All your
meals should have relatively high protein. Eat about 1g of protein per pound of
bodyweight per day. The protein in your 4-5 meals should add up to roughly that in
a day. In other words, eat a normal meal before you train. Not immediately before,
but not so long before the gym that you’re struggling with hunger. Eating one of
your normal meals 1-3 hours pre-workout is fine. You may also opt for a snack right
before training if that fits your schedule better.
A little protein will go a long way. Can you eat immediately before the gym? Well
yes. You don’t want to chow down on a big meal immediately before training hard.
For one, you might end up puking it up on the gym floor when the blood rushes
away from the digestive process and toward the muscle group you’re training. More
likely, you may just feel a bit sluggish, nauseous, and hampered by the meal you just
ate.
A side note: you likely burn far fewer calories lifting weights than you think. Lifting
weights for an hour only burns on average 150-300 calories. It’s really not as much
as you think. So, you don’t need to overthink your pre-workout meal. It can be a
normal meal, or a smaller meal. Whatever makes you feel the most energetic and
ready for the gym. Forget thinking you need to have a massive carb-up and have
a large cheat meal at McDonald’s or Wendy’s just because it’s leg day. Even your
hardest leg day will burn fewer calories than your moderate-pace cardio.
Now, does the type of protein matter? Egg whites, fish, chicken, turkey, whey protein,
or a homemade Skor protein bar. . . nah, it doesn’t really matter. Just get it in! If you
eat from all four food groups and take in close to 1g of protein per pound of body
weight, you will almost certainly get in all the amino acids you need.
Protein supplementation in the form of whey or casein protein (or vegan protein
if you’re vegan) is never a bad choice. I now have protein powder for sale on my
supplements website which you can check out here:
HTTPS://WWW.HTLTSUPPS.COM
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And what should you eat after the gym? And how soon? Well, just eat normally.
There really isn’t an anabolic window. You do not need to quickly rush to slam back
a protein shake the moment you rack your weights and walk out of the gym. You
can take your time. You can stretch, drive home, take a shower, walk the dog, and
then eat. If you are eating 4-5 meals per day and you just ate meal 3 and then
trained 2 hours later, eat meal 4 at a reasonable time after meal 3. It really is that
simple. It’s not like you just rode a bike for 3 hours and are low on muscle glycogen.
USEFUL NATURAL
SUPPLEMENTS
If you improve both your diet and your training and stick to this for many years, you
will put on muscle. You can do plenty without the use of additional supplementation.
I always say that if you are new to embarking on a diet and training journey, that
you do not need to take supplements in order to achieve positive health and fitness
outcomes. Supplements are, as implied by the word itself, supplemental. They are
not essential, but they can be helpful and support maximizing muscle mass, even if
you haven’t fully optimized your diet and training.
Ideally, you are working towards building a foundation of good dieting and training
habits. Adding supplements to the mix can be part of your good habit-building.
Here are some supplements that I believe can hep most people (if you’re a teenager,
please don’t use until you’re an adult):
Protein Supplementation
Protein supplements in any variety whether that is whey, vegan, or
casein can help you to achieve your daily protein goals. I’ve discussed the
value of consuming enough protein throughout the day ad nauseum,
so you should know by now that anything that will help you achieve
your protein goals will help you to build muscle and keep it on during
any phase of your diet whether that is a deficit, surplus, or maingaining
phase.
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Sleep Aid
I’ve mentioned the value of sleep aids earlier in this text, but I will
do so again. Sleep is necessary for recovery from exercise as well as
managing hunger signals. The more you can improve your sleep, the
more adherent to the Circle Diet lifestyle you can be. Most sleep aids
contain an ingredient known as melatonin, which has been shown to
help many people get better, more restful nights of sleep, resulting in
improved muscle recovery from training hard without any unwanted
side effects.49, 50 Some sleep aids also contain additional ingredients
which can promote better sleep by reducing stress hormones (cortisol)
and helping you to relax.
If you want to maximize your gains and you struggle with getting an
adequate night’s sleep, a sleep aid could make a world of a difference
for you. On my supplements website www.htltsupps.com, I have a sleep
aid supplement which contains several ingredients that can help you
get a better night of sleep. And since sleep is so important for recovery,
a sleep aid can be a valuable tool to help build muscle.
Creatine
Creatine is a very safe and arguably one of the most well-researched
natural supplements that has been shown time and time again to be
great for anyone who wants to recover well from training and build
muscle. I personally have been taking creatine for more than 25 years.
Creatine has many performance-enhancing effects, despite not being
characterized as a “PED.” Although it’s found in food, you typically won’t
get enough creatine just from a balanced diet to reap all the benefits
creatine has to offer. If you want to maximize your lean body mass and
build strength, consider adding a creatine supplement to your routine.51,
52
Creatine has even been shown to have cognitive-boosting effects in
aging populations.53
You simply can’t go wrong with a basic creatine monohydrate
supplement if your goal is to maximize the amount of muscle on your
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body and to improve your body composition. 5 grams a day taken at any
time of day should be plenty to experience these beneficial effects.
Beta-Alanine
I am a rather large proponent of beta-alanine supplementation. Betaalanine is a common ingredient in pre-workout because it is known to
boost performance in training. It does so by acting as a buffer to lactic acid,
which enables you to have more anaerobic endurance in the gym.54 If you
feel less fatigue during training, you will train harder and longer, which can
produce a heavier stimulus for your body to adapt to, which can result in
more muscle growth.
Beta-alanine is naturally found in fish, poultry, and meat. But, similar to
creatine, you likely do not ingest enough beta-alanine from a normal
balanced diet to enjoy the full performance benefits. So, I do recommend
supplementing with beta-alanine if you want to perform better in the gym
and maximize gains. Research shows that supplementing with 3 or more
grams of beta-alanine per day can result in optimal improved benefit from
this compound.55
I will caution that beta-alanine can cause people to have itchy skin while
taking it for a brief period of time (it will go away). Depending on the
individual, this may seen as either a positive or negative side effect.
Turkesterone
Turkesterone is making waves as a natural supplement that has been
shown to support muscle-building. Supplementing with turkesterone
could be valuable if you are indeed trying to maximize muscle protein
synthesis (aka, build muscle).56, 57
Turkesterone is a type of ecdysteroid primarily derived from plants. It is not
an anabolic steroid and does not bind to androgen receptors. The current
research on turkesterone suggests that it is safe to use and could provide
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performance-enhancing benefits without any unhealthy side effects. As
far as we know, it should be considered healthy; however, only time will tell
before we can fully understand this compound. It does not have decades
of research behind it showing the long-term effects (unlike creatine,
beta-alanine, etc.). Until many long-term studies on thousands of people
supplementing with turkesterone have been performed, it is impossible
to know for certain if turkesterone is as safe in the long run as, say, regular
supplementation with creatine monohydrate. If you are comfortable with
this level of risk, turkesterone may be a natural supplement that you can
add to your repertoire in order to help you build muscle.
My sister, girlfriend, and I personally supplement with turkesterone and
are experiencing positive results without any side effects. However, I don’t
recommend teenagers to use it. If you’re a grown-ass man, woman or
and you’re looking to optimize performance, you may want to give it a try.
If you want to know more about turkesterone, I did a video on the topic
here: Turkesterone || Answering YOUR Questions - Who? What? Where?
When? Why? How? 58
I sell quite a few of these supplements on my supplements website. You can feel
free to try them out and see how you might benefit from them:
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QUICK SUMMARY OF
SPOKE #4: MAXIMIZE
MUSCLE:
Become a better butter burner by adding weight training into your lifestyle for the
rest of your life. Go to the gym at least 2 times a week for life. Lifting weights will
provide the stimulus for your body to build muscle tissue. Get better at lifting weights
over time by going harder than last time! Muscle tissue is living tissue that requires
calories to keep on your body. The more muscle in your body, the more calories you
burn throughout the day, the more fat you can burn off, and the more you can eat.
Supplements can help you to maximize your performance and recovery from the
gym, and, thus, help you to maximize your muscle. And buy my friggin’ training
books if you want super straightforward training plans!
CUSTOM PROGRAMS
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TEMPLATES
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CONCLUSION
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IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE CIRCLE DIET
At this point, if you’ve gotten this far, congratulations! You read a lot. That’s fantastic.
You’re reading the right material by reading this book. I’m proud of you. Good
friggin’ job.
Now, you might be thinking, “Coach Greg, I’ve read everything up until this point,
and I’ve learned so much, but I don’t know where the heck to start. I’m overwhelmed,
and there are so many things in my life I need to change and start doing. AHH!
What should I do first?”
I’m going to try to use this section to help you prioritize and focus your efforts on
your body weight goals. It will be a rather prescriptive solution. So, here goes.
The first thing you need to do is determine your goal. Is your goal to gain weight,
lose weight, or maintain weight? Pick one. I can’t decide for you what you want
to do with your life. If it’s to gain weight, you need to be in a calorie surplus. If you
want to lose weight, you need to put yourself in a calorie deficit. And if you want to
maintain weight, you need to make sure you are neither in a surplus nor a deficit
and eat at maintenance. Okay, you’ve picked your goal. Now, you need to make a
few more changes.
Remember how I said to minimize suffering, but suffer a little bit? Suffering in this
case may be simply implementing a few new habits at first. Hopefully they are not
too much.
Let’s go back to Spoke #1: Calories In, Calories Out. This is the most fundamental
of the spokes. So let’s get started here. I recommend that before making any
significant changes that you simply begin to gather some baseline data. Here’s the
protocol I recommend:
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For the first 2 weeks, do the following three things:
1. Weigh yourself every day and record your weight in a notebook or an
app. MyFitnessPal is a very common choice for recording your weight.
2. Record what you eat and track your calories. You can also do this in
a notebook or an app such as MyFitnessPal.
This will get you into the habit of learning how many calories
are in different foods.
You will start to slowly understand how you feel really full after
a large, low calorie-dense voluminous salad when compared to
a Snickers bar.
You will likely start to make progress just from being more
mindful of your food choices.
You will develop a good sense of your calories IN.
3. Work your way up to doing 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio
each week. If you can’t do 150 minutes, that’s okay. Try to build towards
that goal. I always recommend finding cardio that you enjoy doing, so
you keep doing it. If you are already doing 150 minutes of moderateintensity cardio per week, congratulations, keep doing it and don’t
give up.
After 2 weeks, you may already start to make some progress just from these 3 new
habits. Since you are tracking your weight, you will be able to see if your median
is going up or down or not moving at all, in alignment with your weight goals.
Depending on how your weight is changing, do the following:
1. Start a weight training regimen. Lift weights in the gym at least 2
days a week. Don’t know where to start? Pick up my book Harder
Than Last Time!.
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2. Choose one or a few food-related habits you would like to
improve. Again, go with your comfort levels. The objective is to
not take on more than you can chew–literally and figuratively.
You know yourself better than anyone. Be honest with yourself.
How many habits are you willing to adopt right now? You’re
already weighing yourself daily, writing down what you eat,
and doing some cardio. Perhaps 1-3 food habits is doable for
you. You know yourself and your capabilities better than I do.
I. Perhaps you don’t eat enough protein. If that is the case,
change your daily breakfast meal to my Anabolic French Toast
recipe. Or, change your daily dessert to a protein ice cream.
II. Perhaps your snacks are very calorically dense. If that’s the
case, change a daily snack to include fruits or vegetables.
III. Perhaps your pantry is full of foods that are unfriendly to the
Circle Diet that you binge on regularly. Get rid of those foods
and replace them with non-trigger foods. Or, at least take these
foods and place them somewhere out-of-sight.
IV. Perhaps you consume too many liquid calories. This is a
good opportunity to swap out regular pop for diet pop, or to
find a lower-calorie way to enjoy your coffee in the morning.
V. Perhaps your daily breakfast is particularly calorically dense.
Go ahead and swap out your regular breakfast for something less
calorically dense. I say breakfast because from my experience,
most people are less hungry in the morning and have an easier
time changing their breakfast compared to other meals. You
do not need to change every meal. Just 1 meal change can in
fact make a huge difference.
VI. Perhaps you eat out too much. You can try to eat out less perhaps 1 or 2 fewer times per week. This will make a difference
in your average weekly calorie balance. Choose a pizza recipe
from my cookbook instead of going out for pizza one night!
(HINT: BUY MY FREAKING COOKBOOK!)
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As you get used to the new changes you have made, you can adopt 1 new habit as
needed to help you to continue with your weight loss journey. If you are still losing
fat, you don’t need to make any more changes. But if your fat loss plateaus and you
are prepared to take on more changes, then please do so.
Keep adding one or two new habits at a time every couple of weeks until they feel
second-nature. Go with the low-hanging fruit and do what is easiest for you to
adopt first. Then, as you gain confidence in your ability to adopt new habits, try
taking on more and more habits so long as they are habits that you can
maintain for the rest of your life. Believe in yourself, you can do it! But, if giving
up the cream in your morning coffee is the last thing you want to do, then do
everything else first, and then maybe you can keep that in your diet if your body
weight and physique continue to move in the direction you want.
The end goal looks something like the following:
You are in the gym at least 2 days a week and on a training plan using
progressive overload/”harder than last time” principles. You are making
progress in the gym (or maintaining in the gym if you are at your genetic
limits for muscle and strength). You have more muscle on your body
than when you started, so you can eat more food. You like to weight
train at this point. It’s just something you do for fun and for your health.
You do at least 150 minutes of cardio per week. Your cardio abilities are
better than they were when you started. You experimented a bit and
found cardio you like to do, and it’s something you just do for fun and
for health.
You are leaner than last time or have achieved 15% body fat for men or
25% body fat for women and comfortably sustain yourself at that level of
body fat. You’re no longer in a caloric deficit
because you’re maintaining at this point.
You don’t have any trigger foods in sight or in your house. You don’t even
care to have them around anymore.
You eat 4-5 meals per day adherent to the Circle Diet.
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You comfortably have 1-7 cheat meals or off-plan meals per week
without going overboard and without feeling guilt while comfortably
maintaining your weight.
Fitness becomes easier over time. It becomes a lifestyle. Your day-to-day
effort and thought dedicated to diet and exercise goes down. It’s just a
lifestyle you LIVE.
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A FINAL WORD
Woo, that was fun! Shouting at the computer screen and sharing with you my
entire philosophy on dieting and fitness has been a good time.
So, I hope you get it now! The Circle Diet is not purely about dieting, and it’s not a
short-term thing like a summer fling that leaves your texts on read by the end of
September. It’s a set of principles and habits that you can adopt for your life, under
your own terms, depending on how much you want to change your physique and
lifestyle.
Even if you implement just a few habits explained in this book, you can improve
your quantity and quality of life.
I am not calling for an overhaul of your entire existence so you can follow the Circle
Diet. The Circle Diet is about accommodating changes that you are willing to make
in your life, and minimizing your suffering while you are at it so you do not revert
back to your old pre-diet ways. Even a few changes compounded over a long period
of time will add up. I won’t judge you for living your life on your terms.
You don’t need to look like your favorite actor or actress or fitness star in order to
be considered in good shape. Most people with their genetics will never be able to
achieve the ideals they see on social media and in the media.
Improving your fitness and healthy by just 10% can make a world of a difference in
both your life expectancy and quality of life. You are worth it. You’ve only got one life.
Don’t give up. You can do it.
I wish you the best of luck on your health and fitness journey. If you read this book
and now want to pick up one of my cookbooks or training books, or purchase a
custom diet or training plan, here are the links to do so:
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COOKBOOKS &
TRAINING BOOKS:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/EBOOKS
COACHING PLANS:
HTTPS://WWW.GREGDOUCETTE.COM/COLLECTIONS/ALL-COACHING
SUPPLEMENTS:
WWW.HTLTSUPPS.COM
@HTLTSUPPS
SOCIAL MEDIA:
@GREGDOUCETTE
@GREGDOUCETTEIFBBPRO
@THEREALCOACHGREG
Until next time, I’m OUT.
COACH GREG
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www.gregdoucette.com
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171 Transaction: 00074511
Prepared
exclusively for Distepfano Calderón distepfano@gmail.com
www.htltsupps.com
COPYRIGHT COACH GREG INC. 2021
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