1
Section Title: Breakdown
ADJUSTING
A MEAL PLAN
MADE SIMPLE
by: John Meadows and Frank Mingst
Mountain dog diet
2
Section 1: Introduction
Introduction
So you found the perfect diet. Meal frequency fits your schedule. You’re not too hungry or too
full. Your body progress is moving in the right direction. Cruising happily along, you hardly
seem to notice as the quality of your results starts to degrade. It’s slow at first. You barely notice it or hang responsibility on that extra ounce of protein or two here or there. Still, you feel
it there in the back of your mind, the recognition that all is not as it should be. The weeks go by.
Now you’re moving at a crawl. The changes come so slowly they don’t seem to come at all. You
wake up one day and look in the mirror and realize with horror-
You didn’t adjust your diet. So your diet adjusted you.
Don’t panic. It happens to the best of us.
First I’d like to cover some ground rules. These are of significant importance to ensuring progress, so I recommend reading them a la “Fight Club.” That means you read them, and then you
read them again.
Contents
Introduction
Diet Modification Rules
Baseline Examples
Getting Leaner
Strategy #1 - Reducing Calories
Carbs
7
Fats
9
Strategy #2 - Increasing Calorie
Consumption, aka Training and/or Cardio
Steady State Cardio
10
Protein
10
Interval Cardio
12
Training
12
Strategy #3 - Refeed Meals/Days
Muscle Building
Strategy #1 - Adding Calories
Carbohydrates
15
Fats
19
Proteins
20
Strategy #2 - Changing Training Stimulus
and Reducing Cardio
No Cardio
20
Minimal Cardio
21
Eccentricless Training as
Cardio
21
Training as Cardio
22
Strategy #3 - Increasing Dietary Freedom
What to do when it doesn’t go according to
plan
Mountain dog diet
3
Rule #1
Patience
Rule #2
One change
at a time
Getting
Started
Rules #3
Small Moves,
Get the most out
of the least
Rule #1 - Patience
Diet Modification Rules
Pick your cliché. Good things come to those who wait. Patience is virtue. This is a marathon,
not a sprint. Patience is everything. If you don’t have it you will drive yourself bonkers. It won’t
happen overnight no matter how badly you want it to. Accept that now and you will be prepared moving forward. All other rules point back to this one. So read it until you get it.
Mountain dog diet
Section 1: Introduction
First I’d like to cover some ground
rules. These are of significant importance to ensuring progress, so I
recommend reading them a la “Fight
Club.” That means you read them,
and then you read them again.
4
Section Title: Introduction
Rule #2 - One change at a time
Refer to rule number one for the why. Making multiple changes at a time will often create more
problems than progress. On one hand you won’t know which manipulated variable is
producing changes. On the other hand, you skip a chance to extract progress on one variable
alone. On someone else’s hand, you could potentially go too far and face the consequences of
that.
Rules #3 - Small Moves, Get the most out of the least
Don’t make big, drastic changes. You won’t necessarily get drastic results. Why jump from
twenty minutes of cardio to an hour and twenty minutes? You will miss out on the progress
that you could have seen at thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and seventy minutes. Your body will only
become efficient to the new task or work load, and then there is nowhere to go from there. So
make small moves and leave yourself some room to maneuver.
Baseline Examples
For example purposes we’ll be a simplified base template using the macronutrient totals for
each meal. We’ll be assuming four training days and three non training days.
4 days a (weight days)
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Meal 1
60
10
30
550
Meal 2
45
40
0
340
Meal 3
55
10
20
440
Meal 4
45
40
0
340
Meal 5 - Pre workout
55
30
10
430
Meal 6 - Intra- workout
40
90
0
520
Meal 7 - Post - workout
70
75
10
670
Meal 8 - Before Bed
20
10
0
120
Totals
390
x4 cal/gram
305
x4 cal/gram
70
x9 cal/gram
Calories
1,560
1,220
630
Mountain dog diet
Calories
3,410
5
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Dinner
Meal 6 - Last Meal
Totals
Calories
Protein
Carbs
Fat
60
45
45
60
45
70
325
x4 cal/gram
1,300
10
50
45
15
45
80
245
x4 cal/gram
980
30
0
10
15
0
15
70
x9 cal/gram
630
Calories
550
380
450
435
360
735
2,910
2,910
Without the meal breakdown we get this:
Training Day
Protein
390g
1560 cal
Carbs
305g
1220 cal
Off Day
Fat
70g
630 cal
Protein
325g
1300 cal
Carbs
245g
980 cal
Fat
70g
630 cal
Note
For speed of reference this manual is split into two pieces: fat loss and muscle gain. While these
two are not mutually exclusive and can occur at the same time, the focus of most people will be
biased one way or the other. So find the appropriate section and dive in.
Mountain dog diet
Section 1: Introduction
3 days a week (cardio days)
6
Section 2: Getting Leaner
Strategy #1
Reducing
Calories
Strategy #2
Training and
Cardio
Carbs,
Fats, and
Cardio
Strategy #3
Refeed Meals
Getting Leaner
There are a few factors that we can manipulate when the intent is to get leaner. These are
primarily your nutrition, training/cardio, and supplementation. I’m going to be focusing on the
diet and the exercise as those two are the most reliable, have better cost to benefit ratio, and are
more universally applicable than supplements.
Mountain dog diet
7
Section 2: Getting Leaner
Strategy #1 - Reducing
Calories
Notice the heading says “reducing.” Not hacking. Not chopping. Not decapitating.
We’re shaving here. Small moves.
Carbs
Your go to macronutrient to shave off is the carbohydrate. But how much to take? The first
move here is to total the weekly calorie intake. This is simply the number of training days
multiplied by the training day calories, plus the number of off days multiplied by the off day
calories. It would look like this:
4 Training Days * (3410 calories) + 3 Off Days * (2910 calories)
13640 + 8730
= 22370 weekly calories
In order to make a small change to stimulate some progress, we’re going to cut total weekly
calories by 5%. Doing some simple math tells us that 5% of 22370 is 1119 calories. 1119 calories
spread across 7 days of the week is 160 calories. Remembering that a gram of carbohydrates has
4 calories, we come up with 40g of carbs. So, we need to cut 40g of carbs per day to equate to a
5% push.
This change will adjust our macros to this:
Training Day
Protein
390g
1560 cal
Carbs
265g
1060 cal
Off Day
Fat
70g
630 cal
Protein
325g
1300 cal
Carbs
205g
820 cal
Fat
70g
630 cal
The meal plan would then change accordingly. But where do you make the deductions?
We advocate that the period around training is the most nutritionally significant portion of a
day. So carb deductions are made opposite of wherever training takes place. If you train in the
evening, lower carbs in your first meal. If you train in the morning, lower carbs in your last
Mountain dog diet
8
Section 2: Getting Leaner
meal. If you train mid day, pull carbs from meals at either end. Once the furthest meals are
zeroed out, the next furthest meal takes the deductions.
4 days a (weight days)
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Pre workout
Meal 6 - Intra- workout
Meal 7 - Post - workout
Meal 8 - Before Bed
Totals
Calories
Protein
60
45
55
45
55
40
70
20
390
x4 cal/gram
1,560
Carbs
0 (-10g)
10 (-30g)
10
40
30
90
75
10
225
x4 cal/gram
900
Fat
Calories
30
550
0
340
20
440
0
340
10
430
0
520
10
670
0
120
70
x9 cal/gram
630
3,410
Using our template above, this 40g cut would look like this:
3 days a week (cardio days)
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Dinner
Meal 6 - Last Meal
Totals
Calories
Protein
60
45
45
60
45
70
325
x4 cal/gram
1,300
Carbs
0 (-10g)
20 (-30g)
45
15
45
80
165
x4 cal/gram
660
Fat
Calories
30
550
0
380
10
450
15
435
0
360
15
735
70
2,910
x9 cal/gram
630
2,910
This is a simple, linear deduction. It is an effective method, but it is not the only option. This
brings us to the non linear deduction, which is a deduction that only effects the non training
day. This is a method that can be employed to create an even smaller percentage change in the
weekly calorie intake, or to preserve the volume of macronutrient intake on training days to
fuel intense training.
Using the above 40g deduction example, we know that if it is only applied to the off days, the
Mountain dog diet
9
This method of calorie reduction will eventually render the off day a zero carb day, and any
additional carb deductions would have to come from the training days. For this reason, it is
generally a good idea to alternate non linear reductions with linear reductions to stay away
from the extreme method of zeroing one macronutrient for roughly 40% of your week.
Remember, small moves.
Fats
This is the secondary macro source for calorie deductions. The method for doing so is not quite
as simple as for carbohydrates, and is not as compulsory either. You only make cuts in fat
intake to preserve the base percentage of fat intake relative to total calorie intake.
Training Day
Protein
390g
1560 cal
Carbs
305g
1220 cal
Off Day
Fat
70g
630 cal
Protein
325g
1300 cal
Carbs
245g
980 cal
Fat
70g
630 cal
Let’s take another look at our base macros.
Daily calorie intake for training days is 3410, and non training days is 2910. This makes our fat
percentage 18% and 21% respectively. Approximately 20%. So our goal with changes to fat
intake will be to preserve this percentage. Bear in mind that this will vary from person to
person and diet to diet, so your percentage may be 30%, or even 40%, or it may be different
between types of days. For the purposes of the example, we’ll work with 20%.
So, how do we go about cutting fat intake? Simply by monitoring the percentage. As you reduce
your daily calorie total by reducing the carbohydrates, the fat percentage will rise. You simply
make cuts to keep it in check. Now remember Rule #2, one change at a time. That means you
don’t change carbs and fats in the same week. You only make changes when progress stops.
Let’s use our base macros, then apply our previously calculated linear 40g carb reduction two
times.
Training Day
Protein
390g
1560 cal
Carbs
225g
900 cal
Off Day
Fat
70g
630 cal
Protein
325g
1300 cal
Mountain dog diet
Carbs
165g
660 cal
Fat
70g
630 cal
Section 2: Getting Leaner
overall percentage change goes down. To find out how much, we simply look at the total
deduction, 120g of carbs, 480 total calories, divided by the weekly total of 22370 calories, which
gives us a reduction of 2.1%. This is less than half of the proposed 5%, and would effect a very
small move. If the dieter still wanted to reduce by 5% but only for non training days, we would
need to look back at our previously calculated figure of 1119 calories (5% of the weekly intake),
divide this number across the three off days rather than the full 7 day week. Doing this gives us
373 calories per day, or 93g of carbs cut from the three off days. The same rules for which meals
to pull the carbs from apply.
10
Section 2: Getting Leaner
Now our training and non training day calories are 3090 and 2590 respectively. This puts our
total fat percentage at 20% and 24% respectively. Now the training day fat intake looks fine for
the moment, but the off day fat intake is starting to move away from 20%. So for the next round
of modifications, we can simply snip off that 4%.
So, for the off day in this example, we have established a daily calorie intake of 2590. 4% of this
number is 99 calories. Now, recall that fats have 9 calories per gram rather than 4. So your cuts
to fats will never be as deep on a gram for gram basis. In this case, we’re looking at 11g of fat
from our non training days only. Overall this is not a tremendously significant weekly calorie
percentage deduction. But overtime small changes like this will add up.
Where do we take the fats from? Pull them from your fattiest meals first. This will generally
mean breakfast, so make your first cut there. Beyond that, shoot to pull evenly from all meals
that contain added fats. This means meals that have nuts or nut butter, or some type of oil
(olive, coconut, macadamia, etc) added to them. Avoid zeroing out the fat content in your meals.
So you’ll want to start pulling added fats from meals that also include some sort of animal
protein as those meals will have an inherent fat content in addition to the added fats.
Over the course of dieting, you should rarely need to make deductions in fats. This is as
designed. Don’t ever completely zero out the fats in your diet. Doing so can have adverse
metabolic and negative general health effects.
Protein
There is almost never any reason to reduce calorie intake from protein. So don’t.
Strategy #2 - Increasing Calorie Consumption,
aka Training and/or Cardio
Depending on your goals, you may or may not be doing any cardio. Use these guidelines to
implement cardio if you are trying to get leaner.
If you are shifting your focus from muscle building to getting leaner and wish to incorporate
some cardio, start with the baselines provided here.
Steady State Cardio
We’ll start with fixed cardio as its application is a bit simpler. If you are not currently doing any
form of cardio during a fat loss diet, its addition can help move you along. At the onset it is a
Mountain dog diet
11
If you are not currently doing cardio, 20 minutes of walking added to your non training days is
a good place to start. This is walking at a brisk pace, not casual meandering. You shouldn’t be
dying or sticking the landing on a face plant from fatigue, but you should have a sweat going.
After implementing the initial cardio, things get a wee bit more complicated. Bumps in cardio
should always follow changes in nutrition, but only after progress slows again. So if you cut
some carbs out, progress again for a few weeks, then stagnate again, now you can bump cardio
a bit. If you do not see results from making a nutrition change, be it carbs or fats, then the
following week you can make a change to cardio. Just be cognizant of the fact that the goal is
not to make changes every week. We want to make as few changes as is absolutely necessary.
Cardio increases are in the range of 20%-33% of total weekly time, and increases are made
inversely proportional to the quantity. So as the total weekly volume of cardio you are doing
increases, the percentage increase upon making a change decreases. There is no hard set of
rules here. Just remember that making small jumps is better than big ones. Once you make a big
jump and your body adapts to it is difficult, if not impossible, to take it back and continue moving
forward! We don’t want to be doing cardio every waking hour, so keep the jumps small.
When your cardio starts to pass beyond 30-35 minutes on your off days, you can start adding it
to your training days as well. Start with the least taxing training day (ARM DAY) first, and then
work up from there. Keep cardio off of the leg day.
You can also progress the type of cardio you are doing as your body adapts. Start with walking,
move on to other forms like the elliptical, the step mill or stair climber, the rowing machine, the
dreaded Versa-climber, or sled dragging. Cardio doesn’t have to be a snooze fest, you can and
should change it up to keep it fresh. It is also not the time to be doing your nails, reading the
paper, shaving, talking on the phone casually, or any other type of activity that requires focus.
You should be working hard enough that you can listen to or watch something, but not actively
participate. No, you can’t play Candy Crush.
Here’s an example progression path:
Steady State Cardio Example Progression
Activity
Walking
Walking
Walking/Elliptical
Walking/Elliptical
Elliptical
Elliptical
Time
20
20
20
25
25
30
Days per week
3
4
2/2
2/2
4
4
Mountain dog diet
Weekly Total Time
60
80
80
100
100
120
Section 2: Getting Leaner
good idea to implement a bare minimum of cardio prior to implementing any nutrition
changes. So before you make that first cut to carbs, add some off day cardio.
12
Section 2: Getting Leaner
Interval Cardio
“What about interval cardio?” you may be thinking. Interval cardio has its place, but its
implementation is not so simple as steady state, as it is directly related to your ability to recover
and, for many people, the quantity of carbohydrates in your diet.
If you want to implement interval cardio make sure that your training day carbs are above 30%
of your daily calorie intake, and your off day carbs are at least 30%. From there, treat them like
habanero pepper sauce, i.e. a little bit goes a long way. If you’re doing no other cardio,
implement intervals on your off training days starting at 10 minutes per session. These are
10/50 intervals, which means 10 second sprint backed with 50 seconds rest. From there,
increases are made in 2-3 minute iterations, or by adding additional days, and occasionally by
increasing the sprint to rest ratio. Do not increase that one facet of interval training at a time.
You can also back up your intervals with steady state cardio if you wish.
Here’s an example progression path:
Interval Cardio Example Progression
Sprint:Rest Ratio
10/50
10/50
10/50
12/48
12/48
12/48
15/45
15/45
Time
10
12
12
12
14
14
14
15
Days
3
3
4
4
4
5
5
5
It is important to note that if your recovery starts to falter, your strength gains begins to
stagnate, or your strength actually begins to decline, you may need to dial back interval work or
remove it all together. The best way to determine if it is the culprit is to eliminate it for a week
and see if there is an improvement in recovery and strength. From there you can adjust the
frequency of your intervals or make the decision to switch to less recovery diminishing
alternative.
Training
Adding additional training days follows additional rules as interval cardio. If your recovery is
spot on and you feel bullet proof, you can add training days. When doing this, be aware that
these are not high intensity training days. You want to get in, get a decent pump, and get out.
The purpose of the additional training day is not to obliterate the muscle. The goal here is to get
some additional blood flow and metabolic stimulus from additional weight training. Ideally,
Mountain dog diet
13
Now, we all know one doesn’t just jump into the ring with Ali because one thinks they can box.
We also don’t just jump into training seven days a week without first verifying that the ability
to recover is up to speed. So don’t get ahead of yourself. When adding training days, we do it at
a rate of one day per two week period. This will provide optimal time to analyze how well your
recovery is holding up before piling on more work.
If, in the course of dieting, your recovery starts to falter and you can’t get it to recover, start
pulling those extra training days.
Strategy #3 - Refeed Meals/Days
As you progress with your fat loss, you may notice that you begin to look and feel “flat.” Looking
flat means that your muscle bellies have no roundness or fullness to them. You may even get
so flat as to look like you don’t even train at all. This is a symptom of glycogen depletion and is
easily remedied. If you’re feeling flat, you may notice that you have an increased desire to take
multiple naps throughout the day and you don’t get excited about much of anything except food
commercials on TV.
The feeling of “flatness,” may also be accompanied by diminished performance in the gym. You
may notice you begin to fatigue earlier in a set with a given weight, or that your lifts seem to
have declined a bit. You’ve got no, “pop.”
These are all symptoms that can be fixed with refeeds. Refeed is just a goofy word that means,
“eating some carbs.”
I knew that would get your attention. Now that I have you hooked, you may be thinking, “How
do I go about this intriguing concept sir? Do tell.” It is accomplished quite simply. You’re going
to calculate 20% of your daily calorie intake, convert that number into grams of carbs, and then
spread those carbs across the day of your existing meal plan. So you’ll be taking in an additional
20% of total calories worth of carbs for one day only.
Mountain dog diet
Section 2: Getting Leaner
you will do the bare minimum amount of work needed to get a decent pump and then go home.
14
Section 2: Getting Leaner
Strategy #1
Adding
Calories
Strategy #2
Changing
Training
More Macros,
Less Cardio
Strategy #3
Increasing
Dietary
Freedom
Muscle Building
Just like getting leaner, there are a number of different tweaks that can be made to nutrition
and to training to propel muscle growth.
Mountain dog diet
15
Carbohydrates
Once again, your go to macro for nutritional changes is the carbohydrate. You will generally
have a bit more room for error when adding calories for muscle growth, especially if coming off
of a period of calorie restriction. It is still a good idea to play it conservatively with your
changes. So once again, we’re going to shoot for changes in the neighborhood of 5% of total
calories at a time. You can opt for 10% in the beginning, especially if you’re coming out of a
successful fat loss diet, but you’ll eventually need to reign the changes in closer to 5%, so we’ll
just start there.
Once again, we have our base template:
4 days a (weight days)
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Pre workout
Meal 6 - Intra- workout
Meal 7 - Post - workout
Meal 8 - Before Bed
Totals
Calories
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Calories
60
10
30
550
45
40
0
340
55
10
20
440
45
40
0
340
55
30
10
430
40
90
0
520
70
75
10
670
20
10
0
120
390
305
70
x4 cal/gram x4 cal/gram x9 cal/gram
1,560
1,220
630
3,410
3 days a week (cardio days)
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Dinner
Meal 6 - Last Meal
Totals
Calories
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Calories
60
10
30
550
45
50
0
380
45
45
10
450
60
15
15
435
45
45
0
360
70
80
15
735
325
245
70
2910
x4 cal/gram x4 cal/gram x9 cal/gram
1,300
980
630
2,910
Mountain dog diet
Section 3: Muscle Building
Strategy #1 - Adding Calories
16
Section 3: Muscle Building
Training Day
Carbs
305g
1220 cal
Protein
390g
1560 cal
Fat
70g
630 cal
Protein
325g
1300 cal
Off Day
Carbs
245g
980 cal
Fat
70g
630 cal
We also know that we need to work out the weekly calorie total, like this:
4 Training Days * (3410 calories) + 3 Off Days * (2910 calories)
13640 + 8730
= 22370 weekly calories
So, 22370 calories for the weekly total, 5% of this number is 1119 calories. 1119 calories spread
across 7 days of the week is 160 calories. Remembering that a gram of carbohydrates has 4
calories, we come up with 40g of carbs. So we’ll be adding 40g of carbs per day at the onset.
Where are we going to put this 40g? The rules for additions differ somewhat to the rules for
deductions. You’ll want to add the carbohydrates around the training period first, and then in
successive additions to each layer of meals moving out from training. Once you reach the
farthest layer, you start over at adding to the training period again.
For non training days, make the additions uniformly or split evenly across a few meals. If
splitting across 2-3 meals, when making the next addition, add to the meals you did not add to
previously.
So our initial addition would look like this:
4 days a (weight days)
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Pre workout
Meal 6 - Intra- workout
Meal 7 - Post - workout
Meal 8 - Before Bed
Totals
Calories
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Calories
60
10
30
550
45
40
0
340
55
10
20
440
45
40
0
340
55
35 (+5g)
10
430
40
120 (+20g)
0
520
70
90 (+15g)
10
670
20
10
0
120
390
345
70
x4 cal/gram x4 cal/gram x9 cal/gram
1,560
1,380
630
3,410
Mountain dog diet
17
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Dinner
Meal 6 - Last Meal
Totals
Calories
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Calories
60
10
30
550
45
50
0
380
45
50 (+5g)
10
450
60
45 (+30g)
15
435
45
50 (+5g)
0
360
70
80
15
735
325
285
70
2,910
x4 cal/gram x4 cal/gram x9 cal/gram
1,300
1,140
630
2,910
4 days a (weight days)
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Pre workout
Meal 6 - Intra- workout
Meal 7 - Post - workout
Meal 8 - Before Bed
Totals
Calories
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Calories
60
10
30
550
45
40
0
340
55
10
20
440
45
60 (+20g)
0
340
55
35
10
430
40
120
0
520
70
90
10
670
20
30 (+20g)
0
120
390
385
70
x4 cal/gram x4 cal/gram x9 cal/gram
1,560
1,540
630
3,410
3 days a week (cardio days)
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Dinner
Meal 6 - Last Meal
Totals
Calories
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Calories
60
10
30
550
45
60 (+10g)
0
380
45
60 (+10g)
10
450
60
55 (+10g)
15
435
45
60 (+10g)
0
360
70
80
15
735
325
325
70
2,910
x4 cal/gram x4 cal/gram x9 cal/gram
1,300
1,300
630
2,910
Mountain dog diet
Section 3: Muscle Building
3 days a week (cardio days)
18
Section 3: Muscle Building
Now, our next addition would look something like this:
4 days a (weight days)
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Calories
Meal 1
60
10
30
550
Meal 2
45
40
0
340
Meal 3
55
50 (+40g)
20
440
Meal 4
45
60
0
340
Meal 5 - Pre workout
55
35
10
430
Meal 6 - Intra- workout
40
120
0
520
Meal 7 - Post - workout
70
90
10
670
Meal 8 - Before Bed
20
30
0
120
Totals
390
425
70
x4 cal/gram x4 cal/gram x9 cal/gram
Calories
1,560
1,700
630
3,410
3 days a week (cardio days)
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Meal 4
Meal 5 - Dinner
Meal 6 - Last Meal
Totals
Calories
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Calories
60
20 (+10g)
30
550
45
60
0
380
45
70 (+10g)
10
450
60
55
15
435
45
60
0
360
70
100 (+20g)
15
735
325
365
70
2,910
x4 cal/gram x4 cal/gram x9 cal/gram
1,300
1,460
630
2,910
Our third addition would look like this:
You get the idea.
Now, we don’t have to add carbs across both days. You can deviate one way or the other.
Add carbs on training days only to supply intense training, and retain lower carb days on your
off days to preserve some insulin sensitivity and help minimize fat gain. Keep in mind though,
that eventually you will have to add carbs to your off days. There is no free lunch, you’re not
going to pile on muscle mass rapidly without eating some food. Maximum muscle gain comes
with some added body fat.
Mountain dog diet
19
If you want to bias nutrition towards one day or the other, you need to once again calculate
your weekly calorie intake, then your percentage increase. Using the same figures as the
previous example, we get 22370 calories for the weekly total, and using 5% as our percentage
increase, we get 1119 calories. Now, instead of dividing the calorie increase by 7 days, we are
simply going to divide it across the number of days we intend on adding it to. If that is our 4
training days, we divide by 4 and come up with 280 calories per day or 70g of carbs per day.
Then we would distribute these carbs the same way, but on training days only.
Fats
Fats are added into a muscle building diet secondarily to carbohydrates. The idea here is to
preserve the overall percentage of fats in the diet, and possibly increase it to increase overall
calorie intake.
Protein
Training Day
Carbs
Fat
390g
1560 cal
305g
1220 cal
70g
630 cal
Protein
Off Day
Carbs
Fat
325g
1300 cal
245g
980 cal
70g
630 cal
Taking a look at our initial macro breakdown:
Now if we calculate the total percentage of daily calories from fats on training and off days, we
get our fat percentages of 18% and 21% respectively. Approximately 20%. Your fat percentage
may differ from this, it is important to recognize that the 20% is not a universal, it is just the
target of this example.
Moving forward, when adding fats to the diet, it will only be to preserve this percentage, or stay
fairly close to it. As we add carbohydrates and proteins to the diet, the percentage of total
calories from fats will fall. So calculate it every so often and if its 5% or more outside of the
target percentage, add those calories in as fats.
When adding fats to your diet, start in meals that have an animal protein component to them
first. After hitting the meals with animal protein, you can bump the meals that do not have an
animal protein component, i.e. shakes and what not. Avoid adding fats to the post training meal
and the pre/intra/post training window in general.
If you are having issues with satiety while on a muscle building diet, or you are after increased
body weight as well as increased muscle mass, you can add fats above the previously
mentioned percentage. Stick to the 5% of weekly calorie intake to make your fat increases, and
keep your total weekly calories from fat under 40%. Just remember to make small moves, and
maintain self awareness with how your changes are making you feel.
Mountain dog diet
Section 3: Muscle Building
Add carbs on non training days only if you are coming out of a dieting phase and your off days
are already very low carb. This will help keep your glycogen stores from decreasing on your off
days ensuring that you’ll have fuel for muscle stimulating training on your next training day.
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Section 3: Muscle Building
Proteins
As long as your strength is holding or increasing there is no real need to add protein to your
diet. In the event that your strength gains begin to stagnate for more than a few weeks or begins to decline, you may need to add protein calories. You may notice that you look flat, have
little to no muscle fullness, and that your muscles feel soft. If this is the case follow the same
guidelines for adding carbohydrates, 5% at a time. Stick to increasing protein from lean animal
sources first, rather than adding protein powders.
Additionally, keep an eye on the ratio of grams of protein per pound of body weight. In the
event that you gain significant amount of body weight as well as muscle mass, you can increase
protein as well. Strive to keep a 1g-1.4g per pound of body weight ratio. Once again, make small
moves. If you are at a 1g per pound ratio, do not immediately jump to 1.4g. More protein is not
necessarily better and may not necessarily be what your body needs to grow. But it is an option.
When
making adjustments to this ratio, understand that a tiny bump creates a relatively big change
calorie wise. So stick to 0.05g/pound increments. Yes, that is ZERO point ZERO FIVE.
Strategy #2 - Changing Training Stimulus and
Reducing Cardio
You may or not have cardio programmed with your diet currently. In the event that you do,
follow your base cardio program at the onset and use these guidelines should you decide to
make any changes later down the line. If you are in the process of transitioning from fat loss to
muscle building you can follow these guidelines to get your cardio in line with your goal.
Cardio
Option 1 - No Cardio
This is a bit of an extreme option. This option is also not for those of you who are
transitioning over from getting leaner. Sorry. The idea here is that if you are doing a minimal
amount of cardio, i.e. 20-30 minutes 3-4 days a week of steady state walking, you can cut it
altogether to try and stimulate some muscle growth.
Now, understand this is a double edged sword. Your ability to train with intensity and ferocity
hinges upon your ability to breathe. Like most things do. You have to keep your cardiovascular
system conditioned to some degree to prevent long duration periods of wind sucking between
sets that might actually just be classified as warm ups. So consider this option with caution.
Mountain dog diet
21
Option 2 - Minimal Cardio
Minimal cardio is 20-30 minutes of steady state walking 3-4 days a week. Understand, this is
not the, “I’m walking to the pretzel stand while I wait for my wife to finish trying on shoes at
the mall,” walking. You need to be walking with sufficient fervor that you get a light to
moderate sweat going. You can also engage in other activities, as long as the intensity is
roughly the same.
In the event you are currently doing more than this, if you would like to transition down to
this you can do so in increments. Reduce your total weekly time in minutes by 20% weekly
until you arrive at “minimal cardio levels.” For example, if you are doing an hour a day, 6 days
a week, that is 360 minutes of cardio weekly. 20% of that is 72 minutes, making for a new total
of 288 minutes per week, spread across 6 days that works out to be about 48 minutes, call it 45
minutes per day. Alternatively, you could cut down to 5 days, making 300 minutes total. You get
the idea.
Option 3 - Eccentricless Training as Cardio
This is cardio that is done with a weighted sled and mimics common training movements. The
difference is that there is no eccentric portion to the movements. The eccentric portion of a
movement is also known as the “negative.” This is what happens when a muscle is contracted
while simultaneously being lengthened. The opposite is the concentric, or “positive” portion of
the movement. This is when a muscle is shortening and contracting at the same time.
Eccentricless movements are done because they have a minimal impact on recovery, can be
done as a form of cardiovascular training, and
have a positive training stimulus when coupled
with appropriate nutrition. So if you’re already
eating and training to grow, why not cardio to
grow as well.
Unfortunately this topic has a bit too much
breadth to be covered here, but recognize that
it is an option for cardio to maintain cardiovascular health while simultaneously increasing
training stimulus to increase muscle growth.
When adding sessions of eccentricless work,
start at one session replacing one of your
existing cardio sessions, and only increase the
number of eccentricless sessions at a rate of
one per month, and only if your recovery is
holding fast.
Mountain dog diet
Section 3: Muscle Building
That said, it is an option that you can implement in an alternating fashion, meaning take a
week or two off from cardio, and then add minimal cardio back in.
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Section 3: Muscle Building
Option 4 - Training as Cardio
This is another option that must be worked up to dependent entirely upon your recovery. You
can add additional training days, up to training seven days per week, as long as your recovery
holds up for it. When doing so, you will switch the new training day’s nutrition to your
training menu. This will serve to increase your total weekly calorie intake as well, without
making any additional nutritional changes.
Just like the option above, adding training days should be done one at a time, and with at least a
few weeks between additions. Don’t just jump in to training seven days a week up from 4 days.
You have to maintain a solid recovery or you won’t grow.
The caveat here is that you can add training days, but if your cardiovascular efficiency within
those training sessions begins to fall, you need to scale back and do some standard cardio.
Strategy #3 - Increasing Dietary Freedom
When you’re on the upswing, you will gradually be increasing your calorie intake. You can
additionally add more dietary freedom in the occasional meal, within the basic framework of
your diet. What this means is that if you are making progress and looking tight, you can swap
the occasional clean meal for something less clean and more calorie dense. An example would
be rather than your grass fed beef and rice, you might go for a burger and fries. Chicken and
sweet potatoes? Maybe a nice italian chicken sub. Try to shoot for fairly similar food structure,
i.e. a meat and one or two carb sources, rather than all pizza all the time. This is not a license to
cheat all the time. It is also not a license to eat bad food. Keep the poor quality fast food to a
minimum. You still have to keep a handle on your diet or you can slide too far into fat gain
mode. So as long as you are maintaining the “tight” look and not getting bloated, sloppy, and
watery, you can indulge in the occasional calorie dense meal. Doing so will stimulate your
metabolism and push even more growth. I would also caution you to keep meals like this to
after training. You don’t want to be squatting with a double burger and fries sitting in your
stomach.
Unfortunately there are no real rules for this strategy, it goes very much on how you look and
how you feel. Start yourself off at one “free” meal a week to see how your body reacts. Stay
away from foods that are going to cause tremendous amounts of bloating or water retention. If
you know you will turn into a water whale after eating pizza, stay away from pizza. Also, make
sure to drink a significant amount of water around your free meals.
If you wake up the next day and you look tighter, you did it right.
What to do when it doesn’t go according to
plan
Mountain dog diet
23
Here are some examples:
Cutting carbs did not increase leanness.
First, how long did you monitor the change? Sometimes you must give changes time to work.
This means more than a week. If no positive progress was made, but no negative side effects
occurred, it may be beneficial to ride out the changes for another week. Beyond this, you
have other directions you can move in. How much cardio are you doing, and when was it last
bumped? What kind of cardio are you doing, have you experimented with different forms?
How is your strength and your recovery, perhaps you need a refeed meal? Are your fat
percentages in line?
All of these variables are interchangeable with one another. If any one of them is implemented
and you see no results, you have the rest to fall back on.
Increasing calories caused fat gain.
You have many options here as well. How many free meals are you having? You may need to
scale back there. Are you doing cardio? What kind, how long, and how often? Evaluate your
variables and look at your performance indicators. You may need to scale back calorie
increases or tighten up free meals for a period of time until your body catches up. Or the
solution may be as simple as reversing your most recent change, then monitoring your
performance indicators and making new changes when appropriate.
I’m not growing any bigger.
What has the quality of your training been like recently? Do you feel stronger? If yes, then you
*are* getting bigger, and I would suggest riding it out. If you are not getting stronger, I’d suggest
trying to evaluate the cause of that. Do you need to add calories? Cut cardio? Increase or change
training stimulus? Take an objective look at the whole picture.
No matter what I change, I can’t get any leaner.
If you find yourself in this position, where you have cut significant calories and added
significant cardio and have seen no results whatsoever, you may need to change gears and try
to push your metabolism up by gradually increasing your calorie intake. Continue training and
doing everything else that you are currently doing, but gradually begin increasing calories by
5% increments using the guidelines in the muscle gain section. Monitor your body weight. As
Mountain dog diet
Section Title: Breakdown
There will always be bumps in the road and progress may not always go the way you believe it
should. When you encounter situations like this don’t panic.
First and foremost, assess the situation. What change did you make and what was the result?
You must identify these two factors before you can do anything else. You always have several
options at your disposal. When you can’t move forward directly, you may need to move
laterally until the path forward becomes clear again. Evaluate the other variables under your
control and how your body has reacted to changes to those in the past. If you have untried
variables, then try them.
24
Section Title: Breakdown
long as it does not go up and stay up consistently, continue adding calories. You may
eventually find that your body composition begins to change. If this is the case, ride this trend
out and then start again moving either up or down in calories.
Closing
Following these guidelines will help you get the most mileage, efficiency, and variability out of
your diet as is possible without interacting directly with a nutrition coach. Best of luck to you
and we hope to continue to be a source of knowledge and innovation for you in the future.
Good luck in your journey, and should you need a more personalized plan, please contact us via
the website at http://mountaindogdiet.com/
You can also “retain” Frank or myself to ask questions by simply joining our member website!
John and Frank
Mountain dog diet