Kinobody Diet Guidelines On this nutrition program you will be consuming three meals within an 8-­‐10 hour window. I recommend having your first meal 4-­‐6 hours after waking, your second meal 4-­‐5 hours later and your final meal 2-­‐6 hours later, at your preference. Ex: Wake up – 8am Meal 1 – 1pm Meal 2 – 6pm Meal 3 – 9:30pm Fasting During the morning fasting hours you should be drinking plenty of water. No calories should be consumed during the fasting window. I recommend 1-­‐2 cups of black coffee to boost energy, blunt appetite and elevate your metabolism. Coffee/caffeine should be avoided later in the day as it can impair nutrition absorption and may interfere with sleep. If you’re going to be training in the fasted state you will need to take 10g of BCAA, 10 minutes prior to training. This will elevate protein synthesis and reduce protein catabolism. Meal 1 Your first meal will be large in size and high in protein and veggies. Carbs will be kept relatively low to maximize fat burning, alertness and to help control appetite. If you trained before the first meal, there is no need to eat high carbs after training. You are better off saving the carbs for dinner. As long as you replenish liver glycogen with 1-­‐2 pieces of fruit in your first meal you will be anti catabolic. The only time you are required to consume high carbs soon after training is if you plan on working out again that day, which you won’t be. Saving most of your carbs for dinner has been shown to help preserve muscle mass, improve fat loss, improve hormonal markers to a greater degree and limit the drop off of leptin. As well, having most of your carbs at dinner will improve sleep and recovery. Good protein choices for this meal include fattier cuts of meat; ex: sirloin steak, flank steak, extra lean ground beef, salmon, pork chops or lamb chop… As long as you stick to your macros, you can select the foods of your choice. In addition, you will also be consuming cruciferous veggies with this meal. Best choices include broccoli and cauliflower. And finally you will be having one to two servings of fruit, about 20-­‐40g of carbs. Meal 2 Your second meal (dinner) is going to be your biggest and highest carb meal. This will help shift you into relaxation and recovery mode. Having this meal earlier in the day would reduce energy, reduce work productivity and make you too relaxed and tired. Therefore the higher carb meal is ideal for dinnertime. As well, from a psychological standpoint, this set up kicks butt! On rest days carbs will be lower and on lift days carbs will be higher. Best sources of protein for this day are lean cuts of meat including; chicken breast, turkey breast, tilapia and tuna. For carb sources I recommend potatoes and sweet potatoes for maximum fullness. For variety, you can make baked potatoes, potato wedges, rosti potatoes and mashed potatoes, using either russet potatoes or sweet potatoes. Alternatively you can make rice, pasta, oatmeal or quinoa. For this meal you will have several teaspoons of fat to work with. It’s important to add a moderate amount of fat to very lean meals for fullness, hormonal benefits and improved taste. I recommend cooking the protein in some oil and using some fats with the carbs. Best fats/oils here are coconut oil, macadamia nut oil and butter. You will also being including veggies in this meal for maximum health benefits and satiety. Broccoli or Cauliflower works best. Meal 3 Meal three will be your final meal of the day and will be the smallest in size. Think of it as more of a late night snack. We want some slow digesting proteins to provide your muscles with amino acids for several hours. You will also be consuming a small amount of carbs with this meal to help with sleep and satiety. Occasionally this meal might fall outside of your eating window. This is not a problem. The main thing will be hitting your macronutrient totals for the day. Continue the next days as normal. Best sources of protein for this meal include; cottage cheese, eggs/whites or a casein protein shake. Alternatively you can have meat with veggies. You will also be adding some carbs to this meal. Best source of carbs for this meal is going to be fruit. This can be an apple or berries. Tracking Food Intake You will require a digital food scale to weigh foods to get an accurate amount of calories and macros. This can be purchased at a kitchen store, walmart or even a drug/departement store. Don’t overlook this essential device. Without it, it will be next to impossible to hit your calorie/macro numbers with any close proximity. If you’re following the sample meal plan you will not need to record your food intake. However, if you want to play around with different meals and foods then you will need to use some form of calorie counting software. I like to use mynetdiary, an iphone app, which is simple and easy to use. Alternatively, you can start a free account at www.fitday.com. Virtually every food you can think of (including fast food) is built into the database and all you have to do is type it in. Kinobody Diet FAQ Below are some common questions on your diet. Make sure you read all of them. Note: Diet Q: I don’t like (insert random food item here), what can I eat instead? A: Everything in the plan is exchangeable and can be replaced with something else with similar caloric/macronutrient values. Chicken breast may be replaced by another type of lean meat, and potatoes can be replaced by another starchy carb source (pasta, sweet potatoes, rice, oatmeal, quinoa). Volume/quantity of the food need not be the same, but the meals should match calorie/macronutrient wise. If you have a look at the Diet Guidelines above, there is a collection of recommended protein, fat and carbohydrate foods for the different meals. Look here for ideas. Key point is that you stay close to the calorie/macronutrient intakes given for each respective day. Use common sense when trading foods in your sample meal plan. Go with filling foods, first and foremost. You want to maximize satiety throughout your diet, and I have set up your diet with this in mind. But if you find yourself stuffed and bloated/not feeling well eating that much, go for more calorie dense food exchanges (i.e protein shakes instead of whole food protein, rice or pasta instead of potatoes. Q: You only included sample menus for Monday and Tuesday? * A: That's right. One sample meal plan for training days, one for rest days. You hardly need a meal plan for each single day of the week, as you only have two different calorie/macronutrient setups to follow. It is up to you to vary it and swap foods that are more in line to your personal preferences. Q: Can I use condiments and sauces Yes, but I recommend sticking to low calorie condiments and sauces. Salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, hot sauce, salsa, soya sauce and spices are low/no calorie and ideal. If you want more flavor and are going to use higher caloric sauces then you will need to take their calories/macros into account and reduce the serving carbs. Q: What supplements should I be taking? A: Each day, take 500mg of calcium citrate, 4g of fish oils (1tsp or 4 caps), 400-­‐500g of magnesium citrate and 4000 IU’s of vitamin D (if no sun exposure.). Q: Can I have protein shakes? A: You can substitute some of the whole food proteins with protein shakes, but this is generally not something I would recommend doing on a diet. Liquid calories should be minimized as they provide little satiety in comparison to whole foods, and protein shakes are no different in this regard. This is especially important for clients with a low maintenance intake; there’s more leeway for protein shakes for the 225 lbs client, than for the 150 lbs client, for example. Go with whole food protein first hand. Include shakes only if you a) have a problem eating the amount of protein from whole foods in your sample meal plan, or b) it’s needed for practical reasons. Q: Can I have a whey shake instead of (whole food protein) in meal 3? A: For the last meal of the day, you need a slowly absorbing protein to provide you with amino acids for a prolonged time period. Protein from casein and other whole food sources, like egg protein, is absorbed slowly, with rates ranging from 2-­‐5 g per hour. This is desirable for the fast. With whey, absorption is very rapid (10 g/hr), which is far from ideal when you won’t be eating for 16 hrs. Therefore, stick with casein protein, cottage cheese, eggs/whites or meat and veggies for meal 3. If you have to consume whey protein, use it during meal 1 or 2. Q: Why is protein so high? A: Protein is kept high for three reasons. 1) Highest TEF* of all macronutrients; 20-­‐25% of the energy gets wasted as heat, making the true metabolic impact closer to 3,25 kcal/g** (carbs and fat have a TEF around 2-­‐4%, making the effect negligible). 2) Greatest effect on satiety. 3) Spares muscle protein stores. While, 1 g/lb may be adequate assuming energy balance, it is not so during dieting conditions. In a calorie deficit, de novo gluconeogenesis, which is the conversion of dietary protein or muscle protein to carbs, is greatly accelerated. Having an ample supply of protein available from the diet, ample in this case being much more than enough (>1 g/lb), prevents amino acids from muscle being used in the DNL process. A high protein intake will therefore result in faster fat loss, greater satiety and muscle preservation. It’s a key component of an effective diet. Q: There is no way I can eat this much protein. I don't feel hungry. I will go for the protein shakes. As I don't feel hungry, I will be buying whey. Milk proteins are very rare here and the one I found was extremely expensive, same with casein. A: Good. If you're not feeling hungry, fat loss will be a breeze. That's one of the secrets behind the success I've had with so many clients. Remember, you don't need to eat meat and it's ok to sub meat for protein shakes. No need to force-­‐feed, and it's even ok to skimp a little bit on the protein grams until you get used to it. However, I suggest you eat the protein first and try to cut down on carbs and fat if you feel too stuffed. Now, as for protein substitutions, whey is ok, but for the last meal of the day, try to get some slow digesting protein in -­‐ cottage cheese, egg protein or meat with some vegetables (to slow down protein digestion, since meat is considered a fast protein when eaten on its own). Whey absorption is rapid – about 10 g/hour, and you’ll want something slower that will prevent protein catabolism during the 16 hour fast that follows the last meal. You could still add some whey to the last meal, but make sure you add something to slow absorption (i.e veggies). That’s important. Q: I LOATHE cottage cheese. This is the first time I've ever eaten it, and honestly, it's disgusting to my palette. However, I've spent a lot of time trying to find nutritionally equivalent foods, and after some analysis, I can see what makes cottage cheese so healthy. Unable to choke it down for much longer, I need an alternative A: Of course. Meat and veggies is an alternative. Meat is generally a fast protein but the added fiber from veggies slows it down. Egg protein is really slow and perfect -­‐ it's actually way slower than casein. So any other whole food or casein based protein source is basically fine. I use cottage cheese by default since most people like it. You can always add some calorie free sweetener or berries to it. Goes down a lot easier that way. Q: I’m having trouble at some of the meals to eat everything, especially the dinner meal. 500 g of potatoes is on the edge of being too much. How to proceed? I have no hunger problems at all. A: You'll get used to it. You can replace the carb source with something with higher carb density -­‐ rice or pasta, for example. Q: What are your thoughts on maltodextrin/protein shakes post-­‐workout? I usually have 40g protein and 100 g of carbs (maltodextrin) in my post-­‐workout shake. Can I still have this? A: No, definitely not! Maltodextrin is unnecessary and completely counterproductive when dieting. The only time you need fast absorbing carbs is if you’re going to be doing multiple training sessions in the same day, which you’re not. Maltodextrin won’t have much effect on satiety so you’re better off saving the carbs from whole foods than wasting them in a shake. Therefore I recommend staying the hell away from post workout carb shakes. Q: What are your thoughts on using creatine during dieting? A: If you’ve been taking creatine then you can continue taking it. If you haven’t taking creatine yet, I recommend saving it after you finish your cut. Creatine will cause you water retention, which may make it difficult to track fat loss and may mess with you head. As well, it’s better to save it for when you can really focus on building muscle. As in a lean bulk or recomposition phase. Q: When I log the foods in the sample meal plan into FitDay or MyNetDiary, I get slightly different values than the ones you have. What should I do? A: Depending on factors like brand name, food database and cooking/preparation, values will be slightly different. This is also true for basic foods like meats, fruit and potatoes. Stay close to the calorie intake and macronutrient amounts I’ve given in the sample meal plan and you’ll be fine. Q: I couldn’t eat my last meal until 11:300pm yesterday, even though my feeding window is set to 1-­‐10 pm. Does this mean I should fast until 3 pm tomorrow? A: No, you stick to 1-­‐10pm as usual. Sometimes life happens and your feeding window will be longer, your fast shorter, or whatever. This is to be expected and you shouldn’t stress or think too much about it. Do not be rigid or neurotic about keeping an 8 hr feeding window and 16 hr fast every single day. Key point is you stick to your calorie/macros for the day and break the fast at 1 pm as usual the next day. You do not move the feeding window just because you had a meal outside your feeding window. Q: I’m going to dinner with a few friends in the weekend. Any advice on how to handle social situations like this without breaking the diet? A: If at all possible, try to keep it similar to what you normally would be eating. Go for lots of lean meat/protein and filling stuff like veggies, potatoes, and so forth. No, it won't be exact with regards to what you should be eating on your diet, but that's how you have to do it to keep your sanity and not alienate yourself just because you’re on a diet. Key point is you don’t use the dinner as an excuse to pig out. You know what constitutes good dieting foods, and you know what you should be eating. Adhere to that as good as circumstances allow. For occasions involving alcohol, I recommend sticking to low calorie alcohol beverages. Your best bet is vodka and club soda, although wine is okay as well. Limit the number of drinks to 3-­‐4 maximum. You should then reduce the serving of carbs in your dinner meal to ensure you don’t go over in calories. Q: My weight has dropped 4 lbs this week. Does that mean I am going too low in calories? A: No, not necessarily. Switching from your regular eating to this eating plan can cause a rapid drop in weight, initially. This is due to lower carbs and lower calories causing a reduction in water and glycogen. After this initial weight loss, it should stabilize at about 1-­‐
1.5 lbs per week. The same thing is seen when going on a lean bulking plan. The first week you may gain 2-­‐4 lbs but then it will stabilize. Q: When and how should I weigh myself? A: Weigh yourself first thing in the morning, after emptying your bladder/bowels (if you have the need). Do this as often as you can. Add the numbers together, divide by occasions, and you get the mean weight. This is the number I’m interested in. Q: a) I haven’t lost any weight this week. Is it time to drop calories? or b) I have gained 1 lbs this week and I’m really freaking out! How can I gain weight when I’m dieting? A: There are some cases where you might find yourself not losing weight linearly – or even gaining, in spite of dieting. I see this all the time, but just because the weight isn’t moving down on the scale, it doesn’t mean that you’re not losing fat. This is more common the leaner you are, and the longer you’ve been dieting. For example, while having initially lost on average 1 lbs per week the first five weeks, you might lose zero lbs week 6, but 2 lbs week 7. Which is why I am not too quick to change things, and only revamp plans when body weight is unchanged across a 2-­‐week span. Basically, some weeks might look like this (let's assume the prognosis is set to 1 lbs/week) Week 5: 185 lbs Week 6: 185,2 lbs Week 7: 183 lbs ("catch up" weight loss occurs, also referred to as the "whoosh"-­‐effect). Lyle McDonald has written about this phenomenon, though no one knows for sure why it occurs. “What’s going on? Back during my college days, one of my professors threw out the idea that after fat cells had been emptied of stored triglyceride, they would temporarily refill with water (glycerol attracts water, which might be part of the mechanism). So there would be no immediate change in size, body weight or appearance. Then, after some time frame, the water would get dropped, the fat cells would shrink. A weird way of looking at it might be that the fat loss suddenly becomes ‘apparent’. That is, the fat was emptied and burned off days or weeks ago but until the water is dropped, nothing appears to have happened. For nearly 20 years I looked for research to support this, I was never sure if it was based on something from the 50’s or he just pulled it out of thin air as an explanation. Recently, one paper did suggest that visceral fat can fill up with water after massive weight loss but that’s about it.” More here: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-­‐loss/of-­‐whooshes-­‐and-­‐squishy-­‐
fat.html