The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Building Your Dream Physique"
INTRODUCTION:
When it comes down to getting in shape, it's all relatively simple. Work out, eat right, and stay consistent.
But if it's so simple, why do you feel like you can't get the results you want?Well, let's start from scratch and go over the things you should keep in mind when trying to build your perfect physique. MAIN TOPIC:
First things first, let's go over nutrition. Now, this is probably the most tricky one to nail down. The reason being is everyone's caloric and macronutrient needs are going to differ. But one way to simplify is to take your goals into consideration. If you want to lose weight, stay in a caloric deficit. If you want to gain weight, stay in a caloric surplus. Now, although that might sound easy, there are a few things you need to keep in mind, like what's your body's caloric needs.
So first, let's talk about your BMR, which stands for your basal metabolic rate. This is your baseline amount of calories your body requires to function if you did no activity, like laying in bed all day. Now you want to add your activity on top of your BMR, which will tell you how many calories you need to ingest to maintain your current body weight.
I know what you're thinking: how the hell do I track all my activities throughout the day? This is where a TDEE calculator comes in. With some simple information, it will give you your caloric needs to maintain your current body weight and give recommendations for calories and macros depending on your goal. Now, it might not be that accurate or work perfectly, but it's a good starting point.
I went ahead and pulled up the TDEE calculator, and you'll notice that it's going to want some questions answered. These will be your age, height, weight, body fat percentage, and activity level. Not everyone's going to know their body fat percentage unless you get it tested, which will give you a more accurate estimate. I just guessed mine at around 15%.
Once you get all those questions answered, it's going to pull up a different page showing a bunch of numbers. It’s going to start off with your maintenance calories. As you see for me, it's around 3500 calories a day, which I feel like is a little bit high. But it's also going to detail different macro splits. Do you want moderate carbohydrates? Do you want lower or higher carbohydrates?
You'll also notice that it shows your BMI, which is your body mass index. Now, this is something I would ignore. It's really just showing where your weight should be at compared to your height. You'll notice that being 225 lb at 6'2", I am overweight, and it recommends I should be around 167 to 189 lb. It does not take your muscle mass into account, and they even specify that on the page, saying, “If you lift weights, ignore this,” and I recommend doing the same.
You can also choose your goals, like we talked about in the beginning. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to gain weight? They have cutting and bulking tabs as well, which detail what your calorie intake should be depending on your goal. I think that's pretty cool.
Going into the cutting tab, trying to lean out, it says I should be around 2900 calories a day. Choosing the 40/40/20 split, I would say this macro split and these calories are pretty spot on.
Now that we got that out of the way, let's go over what macros are, or macronutrients, and some things to take into consideration, including benefits and drawbacks. For those new to the whole nutrition thing, the main macronutrients are fats, carbs, and proteins.
Fats are the most calorically dense macro, with 9 calories per gram. Carbs and proteins both have 4 calories per gram. A macronutrient split is how you divide those macronutrients in your meals throughout the day.
We’re at the grocery store now, and we have a list of foods we want to be picking up. We're going to start with foods that contain a little more fat first. I remember growing up, the big diet trend at the time was fat-free foods, in contrast to today, where it's more about low-carb foods. When I was growing up, it was all about staying away from fats. Fats were considered unhealthy for you, but thankfully, that's changed.
Now, fats are looked at as something essential for a healthy diet. They're the most concentrated source of energy in food, providing, as we found out earlier, 9 calories per gram. They can also help the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, support cell growth, and are used as the building blocks of hormones. Of course, fats also make food taste more flavorful.
However, there are some downsides. Eating too much fat can lead to an increased risk of diabetes, cancer, and other health conditions. The American Diabetes Association recommends including more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats over the common saturated or trans fats found in processed foods. Some great, easy food choices that contain healthy fats are avocados, eggs, salmon, and nuts like almonds and walnuts.
The DGA (Dietary Guidelines for Americans) recommends getting around 20 to 35% of your daily calories from fat, which is around 44 to 78 g of fat if you're on an average 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.
Next, we’re on to our carbohydrate sources. There's usually a handful I stick with — sweet potatoes, whole grain breads, oatmeal, brown rice, and fruits like bananas and blueberries. One thing’s for sure — carbs are an excellent source of energy.
Carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of energy. They provide energy for the brain, which is recommended to have up to around 50 to 135 grams of glucose or carbohydrates a day. They also provide energy for your heart, kidneys, and central nervous system. Glucose from carbohydrates is also stored in the liver and muscles for future use. As you work out, you'll use and lose that glucose or energy stores. That’s why you'll see marathon runners, bodybuilders, and powerlifters prioritize carbohydrates for better performance or to look more pumped.
Some of the health benefits of carbs include digestion — fiber, a type of carbohydrate, helps with digestion and can keep cholesterol levels in check. Mood — some research suggests that carbs may help produce serotonin, a brain chemical that can improve your mood. Weight loss — quinoa and beans are high in fiber and protein, which can help you feel fuller longer, and in turn may aid in weight loss.
There are two types of carbohydrates: simple and complex. Simple carbs are digested quickly and provide a quick burst of energy, while complex carbs are digested more slowly and provide a more sustained release of energy.
Sugars are a simple carbohydrate, and although sugars can make things taste nice and sweet, there’s a downside to having too much sugar — especially with foods that contain added sugar. Consuming too much sugar can lead to a number of health problems, including weight gain, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay, kidney disease, fatty liver, acne, premature aging, and cognitive decline. As you can see, staying away from added sugar is very important.
Added sugars are usually found in more processed foods in the form of sucrose and syrups, like high-fructose corn syrup. Make sure to take a quick look at the ingredients list on the back of any pre-made food to find out what's truly inside. But your safest bet is to stay with whole foods, or at least ones that contain very few ingredients.
The DGA recommends having around 45 to 65% of your total daily calories coming from carbohydrates, which is around 225 to 325 g of carbs if you're on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet.
Now we are on to the protein sources, and I typically stick with around the same sources — chicken, salmon, cod, eggs — and especially living an active lifestyle, working out a lot, I have to prioritize protein to make sure I get enough. Protein is extremely important.
Protein is a powerhouse. It's a fundamental component of bones, muscles, skin, cartilage, hair, and nails. The body uses protein to repair and build muscle tissue, helps regulate hormones, makes enzymes which help digest food, creates new cells and chemicals, and aids red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body.
Protein is made up of amino acids, which are chemical building blocks. The body uses amino acids for various important tasks, including repairing and building muscle tissue, which is why it’s so important to ingest extra protein if you're active. But as you can tell, protein isn't just for bodybuilders — it's for everyone.
A study done by Harvard suggests that the base amount of protein we need is 0.36 g of protein per pound of body weight, which for me weighing 225 lB is only around 82 g of protein per day. This is why it can get a little confusing. Who do you listen to?
I'll tell you one thing — I didn’t get the physique I have today by following recent Harvard studies and the DGA recommended macros per day. I listened to my own body, how it responded to my nutrition, and how I felt, logging my food, taking progress pictures, and making small adjustments as I learned what worked and what didn’t.
This is why you might feel like you aren't getting the results you want. I'm not saying science and research are invalid, but remember — everyone is different, and you're going to need your own unique requirements.
Now that you have a better understanding of nutrition, let's go over a few steps you can take to help you understand how your body is responding to your nutrition.
The first step is to start tracking your food every day by downloading a calorie and macro tracking app. There are a lot out there, so try a few and see which one you like best. Prepare your food ahead of time. This doesn't have to be anything crazy. It could just mean cooking extra meat and rice instead of your normal serving size for dinner so you have some left over for the next few days. Take progress pictures, weigh yourself, and log how you feel.
An easy way to implement this is to schedule taking pictures every morning each week so you'll have a catalog of how you look physically. Weigh yourself every morning before eating or drinking anything and log it in your app or notebook. As the months pass by, you'll be able to average how much weight you've lost or gained, and by comparing it to your calories and macros, you'll see what your body's responding to best.
Track how you feel. This is optional but important in knowing if what you're eating is making you feel good. Do you feel fatigued? Unfocused? Energized? This might be a sign that you need to change your macro split or calorie intake to feel and perform your best.
By doing these steps, you'll be able to find out how your body is responding to your nutrition and, over time, make small adjustments so you'll continue to get results.
Although it might be tempting to jump on a popular diet plan like intermittent fasting, keto, or carnivore, I recommend starting slow and sticking to a healthy, whole food diet before trying anything extreme.
There you go — a quick beginner's guide to nutrition. I hope this helped you out in some small way. If you're curious about fitness programs or need personalized.
INTRODUCTION:
When it comes down to getting in shape, it's all relatively simple. Work out, eat right, and stay consistent.
But if it's so simple, why do you feel like you can't get the results you want?
Well, let's start from scratch and go over the things you should keep in mind when trying to build your perfect physique.
MAIN TOPIC:
First things first, let's go over nutrition. Now, this is probably the most tricky one to nail down. The reason being is everyone's caloric and macronutrient needs are going to differ. But one way to simplify is to take your goals into consideration. If you want to lose weight, stay in a caloric deficit. If you want to gain weight, stay in a caloric surplus. Now, although that might sound easy, there are a few things you need to keep in mind, like what's your body's caloric needs.
So first, let's talk about your BMR, which stands for your basal metabolic rate. This is your baseline amount of calories your body requires to function if you did no activity, like laying in bed all day. Now you want to add your activity on top of your BMR, which will tell you how many calories you need to ingest to maintain your current body weight.
I know what you're thinking: how the hell do I track all my activities throughout the day? This is where a TDEE calculator comes in. With some simple information, it will give you your caloric needs to maintain your current body weight and give recommendations for calories and macros depending on your goal. Now, it might not be that accurate or work perfectly, but it's a good starting point.
I went ahead and pulled up the TDEE calculator, and you'll notice that it's going to want some questions answered. These will be your age, height, weight, body fat percentage, and activity level. Not everyone's going to know their body fat percentage unless you get it tested, which will give you a more accurate estimate. I just guessed mine at around 15%.
Once you get all those questions answered, it's going to pull up a different page showing a bunch of numbers. It’s going to start off with your maintenance calories. As you see for me, it's around 3500 calories a day, which I feel like is a little bit high. But it's also going to detail different macro splits. Do you want moderate carbohydrates? Do you want lower or higher carbohydrates? You'll also notice that it shows your BMI, which is your body mass index. Now, this is something I would ignore. It's really just showing where your weight should be at compared to your height. You'll notice that being 225 lb at 6'2", I am overweight, and it recommends I should be around 167 to 189 lb. It does not take your muscle mass into account, and they even specify that on the page, saying, “If you lift weights, ignore this,” and I recommend doing the same. You can also choose your goals, like we talked about in the beginning. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to gain weight? They have cutting and bulking tabs as well, which detail what your calorie intake should be depending on your goal. I think that's pretty cool. Going into the cutting tab, trying to lean out, it says I should be around 2900 calories a day. Choosing the 40/40/20 split, I would say this macro split and these calories are pretty spot on. Now that we got that out of the way, let's go over what macros are, or macronutrients, and some things to take into consideration, including benefits and drawbacks. For those new to the whole nutrition thing, the main macronutrients are fats, carbs, and proteins. Fats are the most calorically dense macro, with 9 calories per gram. Carbs and proteins both have 4 calories per gram. A macronutrient split is how you divide those macronutrients in your meals throughout the day. We’re at the grocery store now, and we have a list of foods we want to be picking up. We're going to start with foods that contain a little more fat first. I remember growing up, the big diet trend at the time was fat-free foods, in contrast to today, where it's more about low-carb foods. When I was growing up, it was all about staying away from fats. Fats were considered unhealthy for you, but thankfully, that's changed. Now, fats are looked at as something essential for a healthy diet. They're the most concentrated source of energy in food, providing, as we found out earlier, 9 calories per gram. They can also help the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, support cell growth, and are used as the building blocks of hormones. Of course, fats also make food taste more flavorful.
However, there are some downsides. Eating too much fat can lead to an increased risk of diabetes, cancer, and other health conditions. The American Diabetes Association recommends including more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats over the common saturated or trans fats found in processed foods. Some great, easy food choices that contain healthy fats are avocados, eggs, salmon, and nuts like almonds and walnuts. The DGA (Dietary Guidelines for Americans) recommends getting around 20 to 35% of your daily calories from fat, which is around 44 to 78 g of fat if you're on an average 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. Next, we’re on to our carbohydrate sources. There's usually a handful I stick with — sweet potatoes, whole grain breads, oatmeal, brown rice, and fruits like bananas and blueberries. One thing’s for sure — carbs are an excellent source of energy. Carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of energy. They provide energy for the brain, which is recommended to have up to around 50 to 135 grams of glucose or carbohydrates a day. They also provide energy for your heart, kidneys, and central nervous system. Glucose from carbohydrates is also stored in the liver and muscles for future use. As you work out, you'll use and lose that glucose or energy stores. That’s why you'll see marathon runners, bodybuilders, and powerlifters prioritize carbohydrates for better performance or to look more pumped. Some of the health benefits of carbs include digestion — fiber, a type of carbohydrate, helps with digestion and can keep cholesterol levels in check. Mood — some research suggests that carbs may help produce serotonin, a brain chemical that can improve your mood. Weight loss — quinoa and beans are high in fiber and protein, which can help you feel fuller longer, and in turn may aid in weight loss. There are two types of carbohydrates: simple and complex. Simple carbs are digested quickly and provide a quick burst of energy, while complex carbs are digested more slowly and provide a more sustained release of energy. Sugars are a simple carbohydrate, and although sugars can make things taste nice and sweet, there’s a downside to having too much sugar — especially with foods that contain added sugar. Consuming too much sugar can lead to a number of health problems, including weight gain, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay, kidney disease, fatty liver, acne, premature aging, and cognitive decline. As you can see, staying away from added sugar is very important. Added sugars are usually found in more processed foods in the form of sucrose and syrups, like high-fructose corn syrup. Make sure to take a quick look at the ingredients list on the back of any pre-made food to find out what's truly inside. But your safest bet is to stay with whole foods, or at least ones that contain very few ingredients. The DGA recommends having around 45 to 65% of your total daily calories coming from carbohydrates, which is around 225 to 325 g of carbs if you're on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet.
Now we are on to the protein sources, and I typically stick with around the same sources — chicken, salmon, cod, eggs — and especially living an active lifestyle, working out a lot, I have to prioritize protein to make sure I get enough. Protein is extremely important. Protein is a powerhouse. It's a fundamental component of bones, muscles, skin, cartilage, hair, and nails. The body uses protein to repair and build muscle tissue, helps regulate hormones, makes enzymes which help digest food, creates new cells and chemicals, and aids red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. Protein is made up of amino acids, which are chemical building blocks. The body uses amino acids for various important tasks, including repairing and building muscle tissue, which is why it’s so important to ingest extra protein if you're active. But as you can tell, protein isn't just for bodybuilders — it's for everyone. A study done by Harvard suggests that the base amount of protein we need is 0.36 g of protein per pound of body weight, which for me weighing 225 lB is only around 82 g of protein per day. This is why it can get a little confusing. Who do you listen to? I'll tell you one thing — I didn’t get the physique I have today by following recent Harvard studies and the DGA recommended macros per day. I listened to my own body, how it responded to my nutrition, and how I felt, logging my food, taking progress pictures, and making small adjustments as I learned what worked and what didn’t. This is why you might feel like you aren't getting the results you want. I'm not saying science and research are invalid, but remember — everyone is different, and you're going to need your own unique requirements.
Now that you have a better understanding of nutrition, let's go over a few steps you can take to help you understand how your body is responding to your nutrition. The first step is to start tracking your food every day by downloading a calorie and macro tracking app. There are a lot out there, so try a few and see which one you like best. Prepare your food ahead of time. This doesn't have to be anything crazy. It could just mean cooking extra meat and rice instead of your normal serving size for dinner so you have some left over for the next few days. Take progress pictures, weigh yourself, and log how you feel. An easy way to implement this is to schedule taking pictures every morning each week so you'll have a catalog of how you look physically. Weigh yourself every morning before eating or drinking anything and log it in your app or notebook. As the months pass by, you'll be able to average how much weight you've lost or gained, and by comparing it to your calories and macros, you'll see what your body's responding to best. Track how you feel. This is optional but important in knowing if what you're eating is making you feel good. Do you feel fatigued? Unfocused? Energized? This might be a sign that you need to change your macro split or calorie intake to feel and perform your best. By doing these steps, you'll be able to find out how your body is responding to your nutrition and, over time, make small adjustments so you'll continue to get results.
Although it might be tempting to jump on a popular diet plan like intermittent fasting, keto, or carnivore, I recommend starting slow and sticking to a healthy, whole food diet before trying anything extreme. There you go — a quick beginner's guide to nutrition. I hope this helped you out in some small way. If you're curious about fitness programs or need personalized.
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