Let go of the one size fits all approach you’ll get your results.
Weight loss, muscle gain, maximising your energy or continually improving your health.
Your body is smart and adaptive; If a protocol or diet plan worked at the start unfortunately it’s not going to work forever. Nutrition and training should always be dynamic; the trick is not to surprise it with the next fad diet or what mainstream media tells you to do. Instead work with it specific to where you’re at and where you’re going
In its current situation your body knows exactly what it needs to get to your goal. It’s up to you to provide it with the right amount of nutrients and a training plan that’s going to keep you engaged and compliment the nutrition.
E.g.
Goal – Weight Loss (10kg)
Current Training – 0-2 X week
Injuries – Nil
Previous Nutrition – Relaxed
# Months 1-2
A low carb high fat nutrition protocol will most likely benefit this person; they’re going to be increasing their training frequency; training a little bit harder and utilising their stored carbs (glycogen) as energy. Low carbs and high fats also help to reduce inflammation as higher carb sources of food tend to promote more inflammation.
They’re going to get initial results both in performance and health. Weight down, inflammation down, health and performance up.
# Months 3-4
This person is now highly engaged and motivated with their nutrition and training. They’re training more frequently 3-5 X week and the low carb, high fat nutrition has been working ace; until of course it doesn’t. Training performance down, stubborn fat still there or increasing, tired and stressed.
The body has adapted and it expects to train more frequently; the easiest energy source for our body to utilise is carbs. More training with less carbs in the tank or it not being available for use and the body can become very stressed. Not good for results! Give it what it needs and it will become less stressed (create a perfect environment for results).
A change in protocol is what’s needed to support the demands of the body; introduction of more carbs around training time (maybe even some gluten free cereal or pasta). BOOM energy is readily available for training, performance and recovery.
Daily energy is up even more and they feel great. To their surprise because they’re able to keep training harder and recover better their body composition is improving whilst eating more carbs than in the previous months.
# Months 5-6
Results plateau and weight isn’t dropping like it use to. It could mean many of things; more stored glycogen/less insulin sensitive; more stress and inflammation from workload or training; more attention to detail is needed.
Here they determine their stress load is too high with their current work situation; they’re not getting the time to eat their meals to recover from training and sleep hasn’t been as on point. This is not a bad thing (life happens) and it’s good to know as once again nutrition and training can be manipulated to keep moving forward.
Decrease training load to make training less stressful on the body (without compromising strength); less carbs than before as situation has changed; increase fats as a source of energy. Implement a nutrition tracker (such as MyfitnessPal) to ensure on high workload days they’re still getting in their daily nutrient targets (not eating enough is a stress).
Results start going in the right direction again and as workload stress decreases nutrition and training can be ramped up again for continued results.
# NOTE
This is an example of how nutrition and training can be dynamic with a general population lifestyle with no deadline goal; in cases where you’re training for a specific deadline goal (comp, sporting event, wedding, photo-shoot or holiday) you do what’s required and learn to get better at handling your overall stress. You may have to create time, whether that’s for training, preparing your meals or for resting (You’ll get your time back with achievement after the event has finished).
# Nutrition Protocols
Low Carb
High Carb
Counting Calories
Counting Macro’s
Carb Cycling
Intermittent Fasting
Re-feeds
Paleo
We have no bias to 1 method; from experience everything works somewhere. It’s about choosing the right method for the right person, at the right time according to their specific needs and goals.
If you have plateaued I encourage you to experiment as there’s no 1 magic bullet for nutrition and training.
Cheers,
Gordon – Founder