FAT LOSS GUIDE
CAYLEPT
CONTENTS
WELCOME 3
FAT LOSS ABSOLUTES 4
DIET METHODS 5
FAT LOSS TLDR 6
CALORIE EXPENDITURE 7
TDEE 8-9
HORMONES 10
BODY FAT PERCENTAGES 11
BODY RECOMPOSITION 12
"SKINNY FAT" 13
MACRONUTRIENTS 14
PROTEIN 15
THE MOST IMPORTANT PAGE 16
TRACKING CALORIES 17
FOOD CHOICES 18
RATE OF LOSS 19
OUTSIDE INFLUENCES 20
DIET BREAKS 21
FAT LOSS PLATEAU 22
CARDIO 23
SCALE GOALS 24
WEIGHING YOURSELF 25
PROGRESS PICTURES 26
AFTER THE DEFICIT 27
GAINING PHASE? 28
TRAINING CONSIDERATIONS 29
SUPPLEMENTS 30
TRAINING AND FOOD 31
END NOTES 32
HAPPY SCALE AND MYFITNESSPAL 33-60
WELCOME
First of all thank you for purchasing this guide and choosing to
directly support me. I hope that through this I can help you
understand all you need to know to run a successful fat loss
phase. Ideally running one of my programmes in conjunction
with this or the bulking guide will give the most complete
picture of everything around training and diet.
I believe understanding the fundamentals of fat loss and
knowing how to apply them to yourself is dramatically more
useful than just a cookie cutter meal plan. Yes you could
probably eat chicken and rice a few times a day and move in the
direction you want, but how long can you keep that up for?
On that note, I won't be telling you exactly what to eat or
specifically how many calories to eat within this guide - as not
only is that outside my scope of practice as a PT, but it's also not
helpful long term. Instead the goal is to teach you how to figure
these things out and apply them to yourself - no more
confusion.
FAT LOSS
ABSOLUTES
You've probably heard this said before (because it's true): fat
loss is all about calories in vs calories out.
What this means is that for you to be losing fat you need to be
expending more calories than you are consuming. When you
do this you are in a state known as a calorie deficit. You literally
lack the energy for your body to maintain it's current size and
so as a result you lose fat. Think of body fat as stored energy,
you must have consumed more calories than your body
needed to gain fat in the first place, so what your body does is
think "We've got all this extra energy right now, lets store it for
later use"
Any human that has ever successfully lost fat, has done so
because they were in a state of calorie deficit - whether they
realised it or not. All diets that work do so through restricting
caloric consumption in such a way that allows an individual to
adhere to that protocol.
DIET METHODS
Knowing that all diets work through creating a calorie deficit is
your first step to being truly free from fad diets. Some would
say tracking calories encourages a poor relationship with
food. I would argue the complete opposite - knowing that you
can eat any food you like provided that your caloric needs are
accounted for should be empowering. No more thinking you
can't eat chocolate or can never eat carbs. Understanding that
fat loss is all about the calories means that for the rest of your
life you know how to manipulate your bodyweight as you
need to, while still eating the foods that you actually want to
eat.
Lets outline some diet "methods" and how they create a
calorie deficit for those interested.
Keto: Restrict carbs consumption, by cutting carbs you cut
calories, helping create a deficit.
Intermittent Fasting: Increases likelihood of a calorie deficit
because your eating window is hugely reduced, less time to
eat = less likely to over consume calories.
Slimming world: Applies numeric values (Syns) to foods and
allows you eat specific amounts of them within a
predetermined quantity. High calorie foods = big chunk of
your syns.
FAT LOSS TLDR
For those that perhaps want the fast version as to how a fat
loss phase works without the depth of the rest of this guide,
I'll try to condense and make it simple.
Use a calorie calculator to get an estimate for your daily
calories, eat that estimate for a while (accurately) measuring
change. If weight doesn't go down, decrease calories.
Measure change again, and if weight has gone down, keep
things the same until weight loss stalls. Once weight loss
stalls, either reduce calories, increase movement, or
potentially diet break.
Use frequent weigh-ins combined with progress pictures to
quantify if you're moving in the right direction.
Set Protein to 0.8-1.2g per lb of lean body mass.
Track calories, track protein, adjust according to change.
Now for the more in-depth picture.
CALORIE
EXPENDITURE
A big mistake people make with their fat loss efforts is thinking
that whatever calories they eat in a day has to then be burnt off
through activity to create their deficit. This isn't how it works.
The reason is you are always burning calories no matter what,
and your physical activity such as at the gym makes up a rather
small chunk of your daily calorie expenditure.
Your Total Daily Energy (Calories) Expenditure is called your
TDEE and when graphed out it looks like this.
tdee
For simplicity purposes your TDEE is your "metabolism", it's
how many calories you burn in a day through all sources of
calorie expenditure.
BMR: (Basal Metabolic Rate) This is the amount of calories
you would burn in a day at complete rest in a bed with no
movement. Surprisingly this accounts for the majority of your
daily calories. So can you see why using exercise as a means
to create weight loss is inefficient vs controlling calorie
intake? It's much easier to not eat an extra 500 calories than
it is to burn an extra 500 calories off.
NEAT: (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) These are
the calories that you burn through movement that is not
dedicated exercise. So for example, walking around during
the day or fidgeting at your desk. Even me typing this now,
while small, is still considered part of my NEAT. NEAT is the
next largest component and therefore what we usually try to
increase to burn more calories (Hence the typical 10000 steps
a day reccomendation).
TDEE
TEF: (Thermic Effect of Food) This is the amount of calories
your body expends breaking down and utilising the foods
you eat each day. Yes, even your calorie intake requires
calories to utilise. If you've ever heard the advice "eat high
protein it keeps you fuller for longer" it's because of TEF.
Protein as a macronutrient is the most difficult of the three
macros for the body to utilise, it takes longer to break down
and therefore your body expends more calories utilising
protein than carbs or fats. Hence why you stay fuller for
longer.
EAT: (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) Finally we have the
smallest part of the puzzle, this is the amount of calories in
a day that you burn through dedicated exercise. See how
tiny that is? This is why manipulating calorie intake is the
most reliable way of creating a calorie deficit rather than
relying on exercise alone. In real world application this is the
reason why so many people attempt to lose weight through
doing lots and lots of cardio but don't succeed, despite the
amount of cardio, they're just not burning that many
calories compared to the amount of calories they're
consuming.
HORMONES
Okay difficult one here. You'll often hear people talk about
how they can't lose fat because their hormones won't let
them. However here's how hormones play into your TDEE.
Some medical conditions can cause you to expend less
calories than is predicted for your height/weight/activity
levels. This within TDEE would mean your BMR is effected.
It doesn't mean you can't lose weight, it means that the
amount of calories you need to create a deficit might be
different than what it should be. Your calories may perhaps
go lower than otherwise would be comfortable. It's hard and
unfair but these things can be medicated. Never self diagnose
- if you think there's something up, seek medical advice
because there is treatment available for these conditions.
So to put it simply, at the top of the pyramid for controlling
bodyweight is always calories. Calories in vs calories out
(CICO). Your hormones effect your calorie output, so if there's
an abnormality, your calorie output may be lower but it's still
a rule that CICO is how fat loss works.
BODY FAT
PERCENTAGES
Body fat percentage is always a really hot topic, basically the
lower your bodyfat percentage the leaner you are. On social
media this is always viewed as a flex and as such everyone always
wants to know their own. But here's the thing, judging BF% is
pretty difficult and there aren't many ways of doing it accurately.
Bioelectrical Impedance Machines are inaccurate, Dexa scans are
inaccurate, bodpods are inaccurate. What's the most accurate
way to figure out BF%? Autopsy. Chop up your remains and weigh
it all to work out the numbers.
Beyond kicking the bucket and finding yourself on a hard slab,
the most accurate and attainable way is likely going to be
callipers, but even these require a lot of skill to use. You can also
use your eyes to take a guess, but even then, due to different
people holding fat in different places it will be inaccurate.
if you're going to use BF% as a way to track progress, use the
same method of testing every time, because even if it mistakenly
tells you 20% this month, but then 17% next month, but you were
really 18% going down to 15%? You still lost 3% and as such will
be able to see the downward trend. But in reality? If you like how
you look in the mirror? None of this matters.
BODY
RECOMPOSITION
As you lose fat, if you're training hard and progressing in the
gym while eating enough protein, there's a real decent chance
you'll be building new muscle at the same time as losing the
fat - thanks to your calorie deficit. This is known as body
recomposition. It's often something people chase but it
doesn't work for everyone.
Building muscle is difficult, the body doesn't really want to do
it, and training hard and progressing is also difficult. These
two reasons are why we need a calorie surplus to give
ourselves the best chance of building new muscle. So if you're
able to build muscle despite the deficit you've beaten the
odds.
Understand though, that this doesn't last forever. If you were
already someone with years of training experience, lots of
pre-existing muscle and are already quite strong, it's very very
unlikely you'll build new muscle while in a deficit - but that
shouldn't stop you trying. This is the reason that after a diet,
people who want the most muscle will enter a gaining phase
to try to gain more muscle.
"SKINNY FAT"
Having a decent amount of body fat while not having very
much muscle is known as being skinny fat. Likewise if you
appear skinny in clothing but softer and potentially pudgier
outside of clothing.
The solution to this is usually enter a calorie deficit for a while
to remove some of the fat, then enter a prolonged gaining
phase to add new muscle. This way when you next diet, you'll
be much leaner.
Something to be wary of, is looking skinny fat as a result of
losing muscle. Usually if you lose muscle during a diet, it's
because you allowed your training intensity to slip while not
eating enough protein and being in a large calorie deficit.
Sometimes people who diet end up losing so much muscle
they end up looking skinny fat because they tried to rush the
process by dramatically slashing calories and neglecting
protein. Then as a result, performed worse during training.
BUT, provided you're aware of your training intensity, are log
booking and at least trying to progress while eating enough
protein, you should be able to get away with even a steeper
deficit. It's all about whether you have it in you to keep
training hard even when doing so becomes difficult
MACRONUTRIENTS
All food contains calories, and all calories are then broken
down into carbohydrates, proteins and fats. For every one
gram of protein or carbohydrates you eat, you consume 4
calories. For every one gram of fat you eat, you consume 9
calories. Knowing these numbers is how we work out the
calories in our food. If a meal has 800 calories total, 50 grams
of protein, 50 grams of carbs, and 44 grams of fat, we can
then do the math with the above calorie values to see that 50
grams of protein and carbs = 200 calories (each) and 44
grams of fat = 400 calories.
Knowing this explains why it's easier to overconsume calories
from higher fat foods. Not only do they usually taste the best,
but you're consuming more than double the calories per
gram of fat you eat vs carbs or protein.
As always though, when calories are equal, how it breaks
down into macronutrients is irrelevant when it comes to fat
loss. The easiest thing to do is set an amount of calories to eat
and set a protein goal. This means less work than tracking all
macros and makes a diet more personal to an individual
because they can manipulate carbs/fats within their caloric
goal by preference.
PROTEIN
Protein is arguably your most important macronutrient.
It's highly likely you want to build muscle or will at least
want to have some muscle be visible once fat has been
lost. Your protein will do that for you. The general
recommendation for setting up a protein goal would be
0.8-1.2 grams per pound of lean body mass. We use lean
body mass rather than total bodyweight because if
someone has a lot of fat, this is tissue that doesn't need
protein to support, whereas lean mass (muscle) does. If
you use total bodyweight rather than lean body mass you
often make your protein requirement lots higher.
To work out your lean body mass, you estimate your body
fat percentage, work out that percentage as a number of
your total body weight and take it away. When you take
total bodyweight and deduct estimated fat weight, you get
lean body mass. Multiply that number by 0.8-1.2 and you
get a protein goal.
Click here for a calculator for an estimate on lean body
mass
THE MOST
IMPORTANT PAGE
This is the one you've probably wanted to get to. You now know
that calories need to be controlled to lose fat. "So how many
calories do I need to eat?" you ask. Well there's no incredibly
precise way to answer that. It's trial and error.
Let me explain the process of what you need to do.
Step 1: Use a calculator to get an estimate. Doesn't matter hugely
which you pick. I prefer ones that utilise the "harris benedict
formula" A quick google will find you many
Step 2: Accurately consume estimated calories over a decent
period of time (around 3 weeks)
Step 3: Measure the changes. By weighing yourself, keeping an
eye on how you look in the mirror and how your clothes fit you'll
know whether you're losing fat or not.
Step 4: Adjust based on the result. If your bodyweight has not
decreased and you are sure you accurately ate your estimate, the
next move is reduce calorie intake again, maybe 200-300 calories.
Repeat steps 2-4 until bodyweight is doing what you want it to be
doing.
In all honesty you should really only ever need to use a calorie
calculator once just for initial estimates. Beyond that through trial
and error your calorie intake becomes specific to you.
TRACKING
CALORIES
This is potentially an unpopular opinion, but I truly believe to
give yourself the absolute best chance of the best results you
should be counting your calories.
This doesn't mean you have to track if you don't want to, or
that you can't see results without tracking. It just means that
from a numbers point of view, tracking your calories allows
you control as many variables as possible and take guess
work out of the equation - making the most educated
decisions possible.
With that said, if you're going to track your calories I'd say
MyFitnessPal is your best choice in terms of apps due to it
having the largest food database. At the bottom of this guide
you'll find another guide on how to use all the MFP features
that matter.
FOOD CHOICES
Knowing CICO rules fat loss means you can eat whatever you
want within your calorie amount and you'll lose fat. But that
doesn't mean you should eat junk all the time. Because Health
and weight aren't the same thing, you can lose fat and still be
unhealthy as a result of your food choices.
On top of that, if you always choose higher calorie junk foods
it means that the frequency and size of your meals each day
won't be that plentiful. You want to look for foods you enjoy
that aren't calorically dense. An example would be most fruits
and vegetables, you can eat lots of these for very few calories.
Making smart food swaps can also be the difference between
eating something or cutting it out more often than not. For
example, rather than thinking "I can't eat this cheese" simply
look for a lower calorie alternative. Often the majority of
foods we eat on a day to day basis have lower calorie swaps
that could be made that have maybe 50% the calories while
tasting maybe 70% as good as the real thing.
For example, store bought pizzas are often around 800
calories, that can fairly easily be fit into someone's allotment,
where a 2500 calorie Domino's pizza may not.
rate of loss
Now you know how to lose fat, lets talk about how fast you
can lose fat. Luckily this is speedier than Bulking. Building
muscle is a much slower path than losing fat. As a general
guide you can typically look to lose around 1% of your
bodyweight per week. This will sometimes be more or less
depending on the individual.
To control your rate of loss you control the size of your
calorie deficit. Simply put, the bigger your deficit, the more fat
you will lose. If your daily needs are 3000 calories to stay the
same weight and you eat 2000 calories a day, that's a deficit
of 1000 calories per day. This will have you lose faster than if
you ate 2500 calories per day for a 500 calorie deficit.
A mistake people often make however, is trying to be too fast,
they slash their calories hugely creating such a big deficit
they're unable to adhere and sustain it for long enough. If
you're constantly starving and having to cut out foods you
enjoy because your calories are so low you can't fit them in,
you're unlikely to sustain that.
So for the majority of people, a slower approach is
recommended - yes you'll lose fat slower, but you're more
likely to sustain it, and actually keep it off.
outside influences
Something overlooked are the societal factors that influence
your dietary habits. Many people understand calories in vs
calories out, and yet are still unable to control their weight
due to their mental or behavioural states. For example:
someone may save up all of their calories for late at night,
while on paper this will work down to the calorie math, in
actuality they just spent their entire day undereating, and as
a result were tired all day, felt awful and if they went to the
gym probably trained poorly.
Another example is someone can be awesome at their calorie
control throughout the week, then as soon as the weekend
rolls around they go out drinking and eating and completely
undo the deficit they created through the week. Some people
may try to factor these weekends into their calories, however
even then, we can argue it may not be very accurate. Even if
the menu has calories on, how precise is the ingredient and
cooking process every time that meal is cooked? We cannot
answer that.
Another example? You may be trying to control your calories
to lose fat but live with a parent or a partner who has huge
influence over the food you eat. See how that could cause
issues? This is why while CICO is absolute, real life can often
get in the way.
DIET BREAKS
If you've been in a calorie deficit for a while you may start to
feel constantly tired, or hungry and we know how this can
negatively impact so many other things within our life. As
such, occasional diet breaks can be a good idea. Within your
fat loss phase, plan in designated periods of time where you'll
purposfully eat more calories to attempt to regain that sense
of normality, and give yourself a physical and mental break
from being in a deficit. Doing this can help with your
adherence both during and after the deficit - if you know
every 8 weeks you're going to have a week with higher
calories, you're more likely to stick to the calorie deficit
through those weeks vs just going for an undefined period of
time.
When in a diet break I would add in 300-500 calories per day
than you've been used to. Expect to gain some weight on the
scale but this is very normal. This is mostly just refilling lost
water weight and glycogen - remember the number on the
scale is not solely representative of how much fat you have.
On top of the mental and physical benefits, a diet break could
even help you lose more fat if fat loss has stalled.
FAT LOSS PLATEAU
Up to now you've lost fat and all has been going well, but all
of a sudden things seem to have come to a halt and you're
not sure what to do next or how to get past this.
Here's what to do and why.
As a result of the lack of energy that being in a calorie deficit
ensures, our bodies often down regulate TDEE, meaning
we're burning less calories. Your BMR is naturally going to
decrease because, as you become a smaller person, you
simply need less energy to maintain your new smaller size.
Your NEAT downregulates due to lack of energy, you're less
likely to fidget or be energetic and this is your body's way of
trying to conserve some calories.
Basically, what was previously a deficit before, is no longer a
deficit now - because if it was, you'd still be losing weight.
Here are your options, you can either further decrease
calorie intake, or you could increase calorie expenditure
through cardio or more general movement, or you can diet
break. Often a period of higher calories before we dip back
down can often help us "reset" and restart the fat loss.
CARDIO
Thinking back to TDEE, we know that dedicated exercise is only
a small part of our daily calorie burn, however it IS still a part
and therefore something we can manipulate.
My recommendation is that beyond basic cardio for health
purposes, cardio can be a tool to help burn more calories
when needed. It probably shouldn't be utilised at the start of a
dieting phase - at this point creating a deficit through diet
alone should be doing the vast majority of the work.
But if your fat loss is beginning to stall and you'd prefer to not
reduce calorie intake any further, then your only remaining
option is to increase calorie expenditure through movement.
You could choose to ramp up your daily steps intentionally. If
before the stall avergaged you 10000 steps a day, perhaps
now you'll do 12000. We can't know how many extra calories
that burns, but we do know that 12000 will burn more than
10000.
You may also implement true difficult cardio such as jogging,
biking, rowing, stairmaster etc. It honestly doesn't matter
hugely what you pick, because here your adherence is going to
be most important. Choose the one you hate the least. Again
managing your cardio via altering duration. We can't measure
calorie burn accurately but we can measure time. If you start
with 30 mins every other day of cardio and move to 45 mins?
We know that's more calories burned
SCALE GOALS
Honestly this is a big one. Depending how much fat you
have to lose, or how lean you want to get is going to
determine how hard and long this process is going to be.
Once you've been in a deficit for a while it's going to become
harder. Reducing calories as a result of stalled fat loss isn't
fun, neither is increasing cardio when needed either. But
these are the only two options out of a plateau. When
you've got more fat to lose you can get away with more
calories each day and less movement and still be in a deficit
because you're a larger person. The leaner you get the
harder the process is going to be.
I often don't recommend setting a scale goal, because even
if you do get there you'll change it. Instead, go off how you
look in the mirror. You probably don't need to be as lean as
you perhaps want to be. A ripped six pack year round for
most people is unsustainable without some rather big
sacrifices. You don't need to be shredded to look good.
Understand it's very normal to be hungry or tired when in a
deficit because by definition you do not have enough
energy. Social media has glamorised losing fat while always
feeling absolutely amazing and that just isn't the permanent
reality for most people. It's not easy, but that's normal.
WEIGHING YOURSELF
The best way to track your fat loss phase progress is by
weighing yourself first thing in the morning after waking up,
before eating or drinking and after going to the toilet. If over
time your scale weight isn't lowering then you're probably not
losing fat because you're not in a deficit. I would recommend
frequent weigh-ins. It's very normal for over a week your
weight to fluctuate up or down, but that's fine because we're
looking for the downward trend over time. By weighing more
frequently, you can learn to see through these fluctuations
and even predict them.
Lots of factors can impact your scale weight but have nothing
to do with bodyfat - such as when you last went to the toilet,
how much you slept, whether you've been on a flight
recently, how much salt you ate yesterday, how many carbs
you ate yesterday - the list could truly go on. As such,
weighing in once per week can be unreliable, you may eat
later than usual Sunday and then weigh in heavier Monday
and feel like your entire week has been ruined if you only
weigh in once per week on a Monday morning.
My recommendation would be find out your moving average
weight. Use an app that allows you to input your weigh-ins
that will then tell you your average, seeing through those
fluctuations for you. (At the end of this I include a guide for
the app I personally use)
PROGRESS PICTURES
So of course we know that the scale is a massively useful tool
through our fat loss phase, but it isn't the only tool.
You should also be taking progress pictures. By keeping an
eye on how your body looks over time you'll be able to see the
changes taking place. Sometimes you'll feel like you're seeing
a change before it's even aparent on the scale.
When it comes to taking progress pictures you want to take
them under the same circumstances everytime. Usually upon
wake, after going to the toilet, at the same time of day so the
light is the same and in the same type of clothing for fair
comparisons.
Speaking of clothing, that's another way to measure your
progress. Sometimes you'll feel a change in how your clothes
fit even though you may not see a change outside of clothes in
the mirror.
Between the scale numbers, your progress pictures and how
you fit your clothes, you'll know exactly whether you're
moving in the right direction with your fat loss phase.
AFTER THE DEFICIT
A big part of fat loss phases that people often neglect is the
exit strategy - you're not supposed to diet forever. There is
going to come a point where its time to stop. This can be both
physically and mentally stressful.
Here's what to expect:
You WILL gain some scale weight back. Don't expect to
maintain your all time lowest weight, it's likely that after you
bump your calories up, the scale number will increase, but
this shouldn't be a problem. Remember, your scale weight is
not how much fat you have. If you increase your calories
(Which you are going to post deficit) you're eating more food,
that food has weight to it. You're eating more carbs, the more
carbs you eat the more water weight you'll maintain. Again
this is nothing to worry about and you should expect it.
In terms of the numbers, once you're at a weight you're ready
to maintain, I'd spend some time slowly reversing calories
back up. Start by increasing for say 300 calories above what
your deficit was, hold that new calorie allotment for a couple
of weeks, then increase again. This slow increase will help you
get used to eating more again and ease your mind. With the
scale usually altering slowly in tandem.
GAINING PHASE?
If you're one of my followers there's a real decent chance
that you probably want to build some new muscle. Postdeficit, once you've gotten leaner is the perfect chance for
this to happen. The next move is typically moving into a
gaining phase, attempting to put on new muscle. I have
another guide specifically for this on my website.
But some general tips?
Don't gain too quickly, while you can lose around 1% your
bodyweight each week, if you gain 1% per week? You're likely
just getting too fat, too quickly.
Commit to it being boring. With fat loss phases results come
much sooner, and week to week you may see visible positive
changes in your body. With a gaining phase it's a much
slower process. It's a case of training hard, progressing in the
gym, and eating enough calories to see your bodyweight
slowly rising over time. Trusting and commiting to this boring
process long-term gets you much further than trying to
"maingain".
TRAINING
CONSIDERATIONS
When in a deficit it's going to be difficult to progress within
the gym and therefore difficult to build new muscle.
Difficult does not mean impossible.
Despite the deficit, you're still going to want to train your
absolute hardest in the gym. While dieting you're at risk of
muscle loss, so you want to give your muscle every reason to
stick around - that's your training and protein consumption.
The only thing that may need to change in the gym when in a
deficit is your volume and exercise selection. A deficit means
your recovery is going to be worse so you're unlikely to get
away with as many sets per session as you may have done
during a period of higher calories. Keep an eye on your
logbook, if your sets aren't progressing you should know
about it.
Your exercise selection may change because as you become
lighter you'll be physically less stable, and therefore
movements like free weight presses and rows may become
less efficient, and it could make sense to utilise externally
stabilised machines instead.
SUPPLEMENTS
When it comes to your diet, supplements should be your final
thought.
Here's what I would do:
I'd get a protein powder for convenience of hitting your
protein target.
I'd get a stim based pre-workout for sessions that are harder
due to less energy, thanks to the deficit.
I'd be using creatine. Because as you're training year round,
creatine should be used year round.
I'd look into supplementing micronutrition through a multi
vitamin. If calories are lower you still should try to get your
vitamins from actual food despite the deficit. But when that
gets difficult, supplements can do the job.
TRAINING AND
FOOD
If you want to get the most out of your training despite being
in a deficit, it may make sense to look at optimising your preand post-workout nutrition.
Ideally you'd have a carb and protein biased meal around an
hour or so before training. You should pick carbs because
they're the body's most easily utilised energy source within
training. Protein because for maximal muscle protein
synthesis we want to be taking in protein every few hours, so
eating a protein serving before and after the gym means
that's two protein windows covered.
You may even want to look into intra-workout, depending on
how your sessions are feeling deep into your deficit, typically
this would usually be some sort of fast acting carb powder
shake with EAAs for more MPS - but this absolutely less
important than managing actual diet first.
END NOTES
Thank you for reading this whole guide.
It's not quite as long as the programme ones however that's
because in all honesty fat loss phases are quite simple. In a
nutshell, you figure out how many calories is going to make
you lose fat, set your protein goal as well, hit those day inday out as best you can. Then if you stop losing fat, make
adjustments. It's pretty simple stuff but I've attempted to
cover anything I think would be helpful within these guides.
Again, the best case scenario is match these bulking/cutting
guides with a programme for the best results.
Beneath this page are guides on using the apps I use for
calorie counting and weight tracking. Both of these are
included in the programmes too but they're essential here as
well.
Over the coming months I'd love to see any results people
obtain through following my guides and programmes so feel
free to share those on Instagram and tag me @CaylePT
HOW TO USE
MY
FITNESS
PAL
COACHED BY CAYLE
HOW TO USE
MYFITNESSPAL
This guide will get you to grips with using
MyFitnessPal to track your daily calorie
intake.
By the end of this guide should be able to
use the app confidently to help you reach
your goals, be able to track your foods,
and create lisitngs for foods, meals and
recipes.
Don't be scared! There are lots of pages in
this guide but the app is easy to use and
you'll be a MyFitnessPal pro in no time.
The goal of this guide is to answer any
MyFitnessPal related questions you may
have, and you can refer back to this later
if you forget how to do something
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Download the 'MyFitnessPal' app from your
respective app store to your phone.
ACCOUNT AND SETUP
Open the app and select how you would like to
create an account, I suggest using your email.
The app will ask you questions about you, your
goals, and your lifestyle.
The answer to this will determine how many
calories per day the app will set you to achieve
this goal.
Most people want to lose as much as possible,
as quickly as possible, and will select 2 pounds
per week - giving them a super low and
unsustainable calorie target. Sustainable long
term weight loss should be around 1% of your
bodyweight per week.
Don't worry about this as I will be setting your
calorie target for you. Select 0.5 or 1lb.
Your account will now be created and your
calorie target set.
Again, don't worry about the number the app
gives to you.
EXERCISE CALORIES
As you track your food and move throughout
the day your 'Remaining' calories will change.
Here, although I have tracked 1,371 calories of
food. I have done 92 calories worth of steps,
and MyFitnessPal says that in order to reach
my calorie 'goal' of 1,500, calories, I need to 'eat
back' those 92 calories.
I want you to ignore all of the numbers except
for 'Food'. I will set your calorie target already
taking your daily activity level into account.
GOING UNDER OR OVER
ON CALORIES
You should try your best to hit the calorie target
I have set for you every day (remember to
ignore what the app sets for you).
But some days, the food you are eating or have
tracked in advance may leave you under or over
on your calories.
This is okay, it's all about the bigger picture and
one day shouldn't make a difference to your
overall progress.
Tracking all your food at the begining of the day,
or the day before can help as you can be
prepared in advance if you need to eat more
calories to reach your target, or make sure you
stick to what you have tracked if you are on
target or slightly over.
TRACKING FOOD
To track food, select the meal of the day you are
tracking, or snacks if thats what you are eating.
HISTORY
When you go to track a food item, the app will show
you this page which includes your history.
You can filter this by most recent or most frequent.
Which makes adding your most eaten foods or
tracking leftovers from last nights dinner even easier.
On a new day the app will ask you if you want to track
yesterday's breakfast as well, as most people eat the
same every day.
BARCODE SCANNER
Select the barcode
scanner next to the
search bar and position
the barcode of your item
in within the icon on the
screen.
The app will show you the matching listing.
You can also manually enter the barcode number if
the barcode won't scan
Make sure the listing matches the nutrition
information on the packet. If the listing is incorrect,
you can search for a product that matches the label,
or you can create your own food and input the in
formation from the nutrition label (I'll show you how
to do this later)
Make note of how the nutrition on the packet is
calculated - cooked or as sold. I recommend tracking
all food as uncooked as it is more accurate, but make
sure the listing you then use is for the uncooked item.
If you are unsure what to do or what listing is
accurate have a search of multiple sources on google
and choose what is most accurate or ask me for
guidance.
Generic foods such as plain rice, pasta and raw
vegetables are going to be the same no matter
where they are from - 75g of raw fusilli is going to
have the same nutrition as 75g of raw penne.
If you find an accurate uncooked listing for pasta
for example, you can use this going forward rather
than scanning the barcode from each packet.
This is the listing I use for raw pasta, regardless of
where I buy it from or what shape pasta it is.
As long as you are consistent and use the same
listing each time, exactly which listing you use
shouldn't matter - as long as you can accurately
track and report your calories. Which again is
easier to do when using raw and uncooked food.
Change the serving size to 1g, weigh out your
food on a digital kitchen scale and change the
number of servings to how many grams you are
eating.
SEARCHING FOR A FOOD
If you know what you want to track but don't have
the barcode handy, or have thrown away the
outer packaging on a multipack, searching for the
product can help you find what youre looking for.
Type what you're looking for into the search bar,
including brand name, product and flavour, to
find matching listings.
Choose the one which matches the nutrition on
the packaging and the serving size you are
consuming.
Don't forget to adjust the serving or number of
grams if you need to.
CREATING A FOOD
If the barcode won't scan, typing in the number
doesn't work and you can't find the correct lisitng
through search, you can create a listing for the
item yourself using the nutrition information on
the packaging.
To do this select the 'More' icon at the bottom of
the screen and then select 'My Meals, Recipes &
Foods'. Then go to the 'Foods' tab.
CREATING A FOOD
Select 'Create a Food' at the bottom of the screen.
Input the brand name, description (product name),
the serving size, and how many servings the
container or item has. For example, Heinz, Baked
Beans, 415g can or 1 can and 2 servings.
Then input the nutrition from the packaging. Input all
fields given on the packaging to help other app users.
DAILY SUMMARIES
To view a daily summary of your nutrition, tap on the
'Calories Remaining' bar at the top of the page.
You can then tap between the tabs to view a breakdown
of your calories across each meal, how much of each
nutrient you've consumed, and your macronutient profile
.
CREATING A MEAL
In 'My Meals, Recipes & Foods' you will also find the
'Meals' tab. This enables you to combine foods you
commonly eat together.
This can make tracking things like your everyday
breakfast or daily protein shake easier as they can
appear as one item in your food diary rather than
several.
Select 'Add Food' and add foods to the meal from
your history, search or barcode. The meal will then be
stored in the 'Meals' tab.
CREATING A RECIPE
In 'My Meals, Recipes & Foods' you will also find the
'Recipes' tab. This enables you to import recipes from
the internet or create your own.
This is good for batch cooking or when you are
making a meal such as lasagne, with several servings.
Select 'Create a Recipe' and choose to import or enter
manually.
Name the recipe and indicate how many
servings it will have, you can also edit this later.
CREATING A RECIPE
Add each ingredient for the recipe or change the
ones added when importing recipes to the specific
items you are using. You can then see the nutrition
for each serving and save or log the recipe.
If you dont know how much you want to eat, you can
weigh the total weight of your cooked recipe and
input this weight in grams as the number of servings.
Then when you track the recipe, weigh your portion
and input this as the number of servings in your diary
HOW TO
USE HAPPY
SCALE
COACHED BY CAYLE
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
This guide will show you how to use the app
Happy Scale to track your bodyweight
change over time using moving averages.
Unfortunately this app is only available on
iOS but the app 'Libra' for Android has very
similar features.
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
Here is the front page of the Happy Scale app
where you can view all of your data.
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
To add your weight for today, tap the '+' at the
bottom of the screen.
You can then log your weight.
To change the units of measurement, tap the
'settings' tab, and then 'Calculation methods'
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
To view all of your weigh ins, tap the 'Logbook'
tab, and you will see this view.
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
To set yourself goals within the app, tap 'Settings'
and then 'Weight Goals'.
Customise these as you like, however I don't
recommend committing to a certain amount per
week
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
You can keep track of your moving average and
the resr of your data in the 'Summary' tab
THE END
THANK YOU ALL AND GOOD LUCK!