Last week we discussed how important tracking your nutrition is going to be in order to get meet your goals. It’s more than just seeing how many calories you eat in a day. We break it down to the Free advice and what percentages we need. Personally I have tracked my calories before and never really seen amazing results. I did lose over 36 pounds with P90X/Insanity and Shakeology but not the lean cut look that everybody wants. After putting some of the weight back on I have been working out hard to get back to my goal weight but I just couldn’t drop the weight as easy as before. I’ll be honest, even though I was working out hard and “eating right” I wasn’t doing any tracking of what I was eating. Fast forward a little bit, now I have been tracking my nutrition religiously and shooting for the 50-30-20 macronutrients percentages. What I discovered was that I was WAY OFF before I started tracking. I wasn’t taking in nearly enough protein and I was eating way to many carbs. It took a little adjustments here and there but now I have a good routine down. But was the weight starting to coming off?

Absolutely, in fact I’m dropping weight quicker than I had ever before, including inches and body fat. And I can tell you I’m not dropping weight at a unhealthly rate either. The goal here is that it’s coming off consistently and efficiently. At this point I’m working out about 30-40 minutes a day five days per week. Taking the weekend off is important to me so I make sure I can recover. Other than doing my workouts I’m pretty much sedentary the rest of the day. As a full-time Beachbody Coach and stay at home father, I answer calls and emails so it doesn’t take that much energy, unless I’m doing the dishes, laundry or cleaning and we know those don’t burn a ton of calories. The reason I’m telling you this is I want you to understand why I have my calorie intake where it’s at.

My Calorie Goal

Right now I have a goal of 1700-1800 calories per day. If you are doing P90X or something that requires a longer workout you may want to start somewhere around 1900-2000 calories. The best part about keeping track of your nutrition is you’ll know exactly where you need to adjust. Let’s say you are meeting your goals of 50-30-30 at 2000 calories and you are not dropping weight or inches, then we can simply adjust and drop your daily calories by about 200 and go from there. Track your nutrition for the next week and see if that helps drop the weight, simple enough right. No more dieting for weeks on end while seeing zero return on investment.

Starvation Mode

I’m sure you’ve read about going into starvation mode before and that you want to avoid it. Just in case we aren’t sure, starvation mode is where you eat so little calories that your body goes in to a defense mode and will store fat thinking it will need it to survive. Our bodies are designed to survive so it will do what it has to do to live. How do we combat starvation mode? First we need to make sure we are taking in enough calories. You can get an idea of the calories you need for your body type in the tools section over at Team Beachbody under the “Get Fit” tab. You’ll need to create a free account real quick first which you can do by clicking here. The second thing you need to do to combat starvation mode is to eat more often. Generally a good idea is 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. This will keep your metabolism running.

My Example Diet (1700 Calories)

So I figured it would be a good idea to share a day or two of my 1700 calories diet. If 1700 calories is to many or to few simply add or subtract to meet your own goals. I’m not saying this is a “perfect nutrition” but it will show you that it is possible to meet your goals. The goal is to hit 50% Protein 30% Carbs and 20% fats if you are trying to cut body fat and weight. There are a lot or other things I’m eating but this will give you an idea. Later in the week I’ll post about good carbs and bad carbs, you’ll only want to consume “healthy carbs” but make sure you track them as they carry a lot of carbs per serving.

H20

You don’t see it in the above sample diets but I drink A LOT of water. The easiest way for me to keep track of my water intake is by drinking 1 large glass of water at each meal which is 7 for me. Each glass is at least 12oz so just with that I hit 84oz on the day, but I drink in between meals as well. If you have a big problem drinking water try starting with a glass at each meal. There are so many benefits to drinking water that you don’t want to skip this step.

Meal Timing

Timing your meals is just as important as eating them. When you eat every 2-3 hours you’ll probably feel like all you do is eat all day, I know I do. I wanted to show you how I schedule my daily nutrition. Again you can adjust to your lifestyle. My tips here is that you’ll want to eat within 20 minutes of waking up and you’ll want to include a good amount of protein.

7:00 Breakfast

9:30 ((Workout))

10:00 Post Workout Protein Shake

12:00 Snack 1

2:00 Lunch

4:00 Snack 2

6:00 Dinner

8:00 Snack 3

This is just the beginning of a series of nutrition posts that I’ll be adding in the coming weeks as I continue my fitness journey. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything. Also feel free to chime in the comments section with any questions or ideas of your own. I’d be happy to hear them.

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