Pages

Friday, February 27, 2015

Food Friday: Spinach Artichoke Blender Dip

Another new weekly installation from TAT.  For someone like me that strive to follow a Bulletproof-esk diet all week and eat plenty and eat well I still get those cravings to go ahead and cheat a little bit.  What we hope to do with this installment is give you some fantastic ideas for food over the weekend that allows you to do something different without blowing your hard earned results out of the water.  Enjoy the recipes and if you have ideas or want to see something specific please contact us at info@totalathletictherapy.com.

Recipe:
Artichoke and Spinach Blender Dip
 
Serves 2-3
-1/2 yellow onion
-3 gloves garlic, chopped
-1/2 Tbsp olive oil
-1/2 bag baby spinach
-1 can artichoke hearts or 4 fresh artichoke hearts, cooked and quartered
-1/2 container Boursin cheese (French herb cheese) or herbed cream cheese
-1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
-Pita chips or baked tortilla chips

Place a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and olive oil, and cook until light brown. Add spinach and stir until wilted. Add artichoke hearts, Boursin and mozzarella; stir lightly until cheeses melt. Pour mixture into a blender and pulse until well chopped, adding a splash of water if it doesn’t blend right away. Serve immediately with pita chips or backed tortilla chips

Nutrition Facts
-274 Calories
-14 g protein
-20 g carbs
-19 g fat
-8 g fiber
-0 g sugar

-457 g sodium


*After doing the Bulletproof Diet for about 5 weeks (usually 4 days good, 3 days with some "cheating") I'm down 11+ pounds of pure fat (muscle mass stayed the same).  Been a pretty good ride so far and feeling much better.  Any questions please contact us and we can fill you in on the Bulletproof Diet as well.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

When Did the Fitness World Get So Complicated?

During a time when obesity rates continue to rise and general health declines there are more scientific publications and medical breakthroughs regarding optimal strategies to improve our health.  With science and technology at the forefront you would think we would be trending the opposite direction, to better health.  So one must step back and wonder what the hell is going on? What's missing? If we know the answers then why can't we fix the problem?

In a great guest post by Jonathan Goodman on the BioLayne blog page he describes how fitness professionals are failing at their jobs.  In the article he explains why quick fixes, bio-hacks and fat diet/fitness trends don't work:

"...I believe that one major reason that the fitness industry is falling is because almost all the information is being presented the same way. It is being presented with a finite state of mind - that is "here's a goal: go get it," versus "you're in this for life so here's how you make a meaningful habitual change that starts with small steps..."

He goes on to talk about where personal trainers fall short and how they need to SIMPLIFY things rather than making the lives of their clients more complicated than they already are....

"...The problem isn't that people don't have enough information. Quite the opposite; it's that they have too much.... there are a lot of experts spouting conflicting theories claiming that they have discovered the best way and therefore it's impossible for the public to know what to do..."

This really lends to our Mantra here at Total Athletic Therapy. Instead of presenting the latest ground breaking research and bombarding clients with specific numbers, ranges and magic formulas, we take a "Back to Basics" approach. We acknowledge the fact that information overload doesn't help anyone and sometimes starting at the beginning and getting back to the basics is going to be more beneficial. We provide our clients with the tools necessary to make educated decisions for themselves and help them develop a lifestyle of healthy habit-forming choices. Dr. Layne Norton is famous for saying: "...if I do my job correctly, you won't need me anymore." Again, this is our goal. We want our clients to become educated and advocates for their own health & wellness versus relying on a fitness professional to make the decisions for them.

We are even offering a lecture series this spring which we discuss various topics relating to exercise, mobility and nutrition and how to take a "Back to Basics" approach for success.

Article  Link: The Fitness Industry is Failing -Jonathan Goodman
Personal Trainer Development Center
BioLayne

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Have You Been Dating the Wrong Diets?

By: Andrew Jagim

Our world seems to have a romantic infatuation with food. People opt for chocolates as an aphrodisiac, use diets to get a six pack with the hopes of landing a date and Darcy Sears from Varsity Blues forever made whip cream an acceptable item in the bedroom.  But if we take a step back and look at how people cycle through diets, one might mistake it as the lifestyle of a serial monogamist.  People tend to try a new diet out for awhile, have fun with it or in this case lose weight & feel better but once things become boring or they hit a plateau...then its time to move on to the next best thing and thus the evolution of the phrase: "Diet Dating" 


If you are like any other hopeless romantic, then chances are you date people with the end goal of finding THE ONE. That one person who you can see yourself being happy with and someone who would make a suitable partner for the rest of your life. In the diet world people should use the same mentality and try to find a suitable eating or diet-lifestyle that they can sustain for a lifetime and one that will provide them with long-lasting fulfillment. 

When starting a diet, most people don't have a hard time losing weight... they have a hard time maintaing the weight they lost.  A lot of that can be a result of the diet they selected to elicit weight loss.  Sure, there may be some diets out there that may result in rapid weight loss and seem to work for awhile...but just like that fling that seems fun for a while, some things are just too good to be true.  After a while the diet becomes difficult to sustain and the "no-carb" or Paleo, or dairy-free everything diet becomes too much to handle. So, you break up, go back to your old ways and wait for something better to come along. And the all-so appropriate eating a pint of ice-cream stereotype actually fits both scenarios and will likely lead to the same result of being miserable and gaining extra pounds. Furthermore, when people come off of a diet their body is "hungry" (pun intended) to the lack of calories that it has been exposed to and is primed for fat-storage once food becomes readily available again which is another reason to avoid restrictive diets that aren't sustainable.




So, how to choose THE ONE and avoid this vicious cycle of diet-dating? When choosing a diet, taking a card out of the "how to find a spouse" playbook  (Disclaimer: this is not an actual book) may just be the right path to take: 

1) Choose a diet that you can see yourself with in twenty years. Dr. Layne Norton is famous for saying if you can't see yourself eating in five years what you are today, than your diet is not sustainable and therefore pointless to try to maintain as it is just setting you up for failure and re-gaining any of the weight you initially lost. Therefore, you should select an eating lifestyle that is maintainable for the rest of your life so you don't have to continually look for the next best thing.

2) Choose a diet that you can bring home to meet your friends and family.  Your relationship with food should also be one that coincides with your social life as we are social human beings who eat food and meals, not calories and macronutrients. Therefore your nutrition lifestyle should allow you to occasionally go out with friends for dinner or go home and enjoy a family meal for the holidays. If your diet is restricting you to eating chicken and broccoli alone every 3 hours when an alarm sounds than you are not likely to have a healthy relationship with food or be able to adhere to the diet for very long.

3). Choose a diet that you can see yourself raising kids with.  As was previously mentioned, we are social beings and for some people  that means having a family and raising kids.  You want to select a diet and nutrition lifestyle that sets a good example for kids and teaches them that healthy eating is important for fueling our bodies and minds.  Food should be treated as something that is positive and helps us grow, recover and perform better not something that is classified as good vs. bad, or clean vs. dirty.  

4) Last but not least, choose a diet that makes you happy! Sure eating pizza and ice cream all day may make you happy in the short-term but in the long-run it may not allow you to live a long healthy and fulfilling life; one filled with a high self-esteem, confidence, a positive body image and a good relationship with food. So select an eating plan that allows you to feel better about yourself and feel better physically.  It's important to note that the right diet should also allow you to eat pizza and ice-cream occasionally to help keep you sane and on the right track.  This way you are less likely to go through binging periods in-between break ups...if they happen.


What does this diet look like? Well that's for you to decide and a lot of it comes down to your lifestyle, goals, and physical needs.  I highly recommend checking out the "flexible eating diet" as a place to start!

OverTraining or Under-recovering?

Overtraining or Under-recovering?
By: Andrew Jagim


It is well accepted that the list of positive benefits from exercise are practically endless but is there such thing as too much of a good thing?  For the most part, people who exercise do so recreationally and at relatively moderate intensities. However, there is that small fraction of the population who train at such a high level that it actually begins to be detrimental to their health.  This phenomenon of “training too much” is commonly referred to as overtraining.  Symptoms of overtraining can include: decreased performance, decreased strength, abnormal blood pressure and heart rate, suppressed immune function, decreased body fat, fatigue, loss in motivation, loss of appetite, hormonal imbalances and sleep disturbances.  These are just a few of the symptoms commonly associated with overtraining and people may suffer from one or several of them. 



Traditionally, overtraining symptoms are thought to arise as a result of the type of exercise involved, the volume and/or intensity of training.  For example, endurance athletes who participate in aerobic types of activities over long periods of time often suffer from overuse symptoms such as chronic fatigue, decreased immune function or stress fractures.  On the other hand, strength and power athletes who are training at much higher intensities but for shorter periods of time often suffer from strength decrements, chronic soreness, tendinitis, or muscle strains and tears. Regardless, the main cause seems to be an imbalance between training and recovery.  Symptoms of overtraining are sometimes difficult to detect until it's too late and the damage is already done before any preventative strategies can be implemented. 

Image result for overtraining
Exercise is not the sole factor involved in the onset of overtraining; rest days, proper nutrition and sleep are just as important in preventing overtraining and promoting optimal recovery.  For example, if a person consistently consumes fewer calories than they expend throughout the day and continues to train at a high level, their body will begin to breakdown and not be able to maintain their current training program. I would make the argument that it isn't necessarily overtraining but more so a matter of under-recovering; for most people that is.  There is absolutely a breaking point where the body can only withstand so much for so long.  However, as I mentioned previously, I think overtraining is more a case of an individual not recovering properly whether it be through active recovery, proper nutrition or rest.  Furthermore, as we learn more about soft-tissue plasticity and how improper movement-related and sedentary body positions or mechanics can lead to symptoms of chronic pain it seems as though ergonomics and soft-tissue work may be just as important.  Similarly, exercise technique and principles of biomehanics may also play a role in the onset of "overtraining"-like symptoms. For example, if someone is improperly squatting over and over and over again, eventually the connective tissues in their knees may be exposed to unnecessary stress and become prone to injury which may be perceived as overtraining but it's really just poor movement mechanics. 

The time frame need for recovery from overtraining syndrome can vary from person to person and typically depends on the severity of symptoms.  The most common prescription for recovery is REST! Clearly if too much exercise is the problem, than proper rest and recovery should help fix the problem. Furthermore, a sound nutrition program and sleep will also help speed up the recovery process.  However if mechanics and mobility are the problem then you need to address those areas first before you progress anymore with your training program (for more on this topic, I highly recommend (How to be a Supple Leopard by Dr. Kelly Starrett).



For Further Reading on Overtraining:

Kreider, RB., Fry, AC., O’Toole, Mary. Overtraining inSport.  Human Kinetics Publishing, Inc. Champaign, IL. 1998.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Monday Mobility: Clean up your Lats

There is a lot of problems out there with head forward position and closely followed behind that with rounded shoulder posture.  With plenty of the credit going to to the pecs when it comes to rounded shoulders and internally rotated upper arms the latissimus dorsi is an often unblamed culprit.  This muscle stretching all the way from your low back up to the anterior medial side of the upper arm (humerus) and that is where it can be cause for blame.   It isn't just a back muscle but helps feed that internal rotation and shoulder forward posture.

Things It Fixes: 
-Tight anterior shoulders
-Rounded Shoulder Posture
-Shoulder Impingement



Credit to Mobility WOD

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Save the Bros

Quite possibly the best protein commercial ever created by our friends at Organic Valley and their product Organic Fuel.  Buy One, Bro One.

Enjoy.


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Is There Room for Women in the Weight Room?

By Andrew Jagim, PhD, CISSN, CSCS

Some of the biggest misconceptions, apprehensions and myths seem to surround the idea of women participating in strength training. A lot of my female clients initially seem to have a lot of confusion about when I tell them they need to focus more on strength training.  A common phrase seems to be "I don't want to get big and bulky...," or "I don't know what I'm doing in the weight room..' however once educated on the topic they come to realize that if anything strength training is a more efficient training style to help them achieve their fitness goals.  Unfortunately even though the knowledge and understanding may sometimes be there a lot of women still seem to have some apprehensions about picking up the weights with the rest of the guys and gettin after it.  


I'll be the first to admit that there is sometimes a lot of merit to these apprehensions as a lot of gym environments may not be the most welcoming to females.  Luckily this trend seems to be changing for the better but many a times females are either scrutinized for attempting to lift weights or are treated like a piece of eye candy when they do lift and therefore I can't blame them for lacking confidence or feeling self-conscious.

Luckily the ladies at Girls Gone Strong are on a mission to lead this movement and set the record straight that females have every right to not only be in the weight room but be treated as equals.  The founder Molly Galbreath is no stranger to the weight room herself.  She has an advanced training background and could certainly hold her own, if not put a few guys to shame, in many a gym environments.  According to the website, the mission of Girls Gone Strong is:

"Our mission is to educate and inspire women of all ages to maximize the strength of their body, mind, and character. This site is the culmination of decades of real-world knowledge and features training and nutrition information, workouts, recipes, advice, motivation, and more."



It's great to see companies like this take the initiative and help build the confidence levels of females out there and prove to them that they have every right to be in the weight room as anyone else. And this means starting early. Girls should be encouraged to be just as active as the boys and be allowed to participate in the same activities growing up. As they grow older they should continually be encouraged to stay active and use fitness as a tool for building confidence in order to develope a healthy relationship with their body image and lifestyle habits, particularly with food. Otherwise if they are held to impossible standards they may take a turn towards self-doubt and may not feel comfortable exercising in a public setting.


During a recent podcast interview with Onnit Academy, the founder of Girls Gone Strong joined with Fitness Journalist Jen Sinkler, mention that one of their goals or missions in life is to instill the idea that "Fitness is something to want to do, not have to do," into the minds of females.  I think this statement is so important, especially for females as often times it seems as though females use exercise as a punishment for indulging in a sweet craving or are trying to "work off" their lunch that they shouldn't have eaten. Over time this can lead to an unhealthy relationship with exercise AND food. They go one to mention that instead the focus should be on exercising and working out because you enjoy it, it makes you feel better about yourself and is good for the mind & body. Molly and Jen say to focus on the best body you can achieve for yourself and not just what others think about you. In addition, food and nutrition should then we used as a tool to facilitate recovery from workouts, improve health and work in conjunction with training goals.  Check out the rest of the podcast to learn more about what these great workmen are up to and how they are changing the fitness world.

Podcast With Onnit Academy

Moral of the story: Watch out weight rooms, women are on their way and they have every right to be there.


Monday, February 16, 2015

"Can I get a bag of ice?" Can you tell me why?

After a long and great conversation with Gary Reinl about alternative recovery methods for the general exerciser to the elite athlete he told me about his best approach to getting people to not use ice as a recovery method or a treatment option for injury.

It all starts with a simple question, "You want to ice?  What's your intent?" -Gary Reinl

He talked about how this will often catch them off gaurd as they probably have never thought about it before and honestly have no idea what their reason is.  He has found that people typically come up with one of four answers:

1. Controlling Inflammation
2. Reducing Swelling
3. Promote Healing
4. Reduce Pain

All seem like reasonable options for utilizing ice until you dig into each answer a little deeper and realize that none of them actually make all that much sense.

1. The inflammatory response is a highly complex (ask anyone who has taken physiology) and a very fluid process that works to clean up all the dead tissue following injury and then move on to repairing that same are of tissue to return it a pre-injury state.  With this amazing system in place why would we want to slow it down and possibly hinder it but introducing cold as a treatment option?  If you were to ice you may slow the inflammatory response temporarily but it will inevitably start again once the tissues have been rewarmed, so why slow it down in the first place.

2. This is another area that most clinicians have admitted that ice doesn't have the ability to reduce swelling and while it may slow down the process of inflammation as we talked above it will have a problem in trying to completely stop it.  There is one system that allows your body to remove waste from an injured area, the lymphatic system.  The waste that gets created post injury is to large to be reabsorbed by the venous system to get returned through the body and the only option is has is to enter the lymph channels.  While the lymphatic system is great because it clears out all the waste it is only a passive system and cannot do its job without muscle contraction.  This is where moving as much as possible with the injured area and the surrounding musculature will help clean out the waste where ice does not have this ability.  We do not want to "freeze" out the tissue that we need to make these contractions happen so save the time and get started with the healing process by moving.

See the other reasons below:

Thursday, February 12, 2015

What is a Pre-Workout Supplement and What Can it Do?

          
                By: Andrew Jagim, PhD, CISSN, CSCS


What is a pre-workout?
Pre-workout supplements are becoming increasingly popular among strength training individuals. So what's all the hype about? Well most pre-workout supplements fall into a class of dietary supplements referred to as multi-ingredient pre-workout supplements (MIPS). In other words, they are supplements that contain a WIDE variety of individual ingredients and herbal extracts to be taken together prior to a workout. They are purported to improve the overall quality of a workout or training session by potentially increasing your strength, power and muscular endurance during a single workout. In theory, over time these improved training sessions would lead to enhanced training adaptations (i.e. Bigger, Stronger, Faster). If we look at the individual ingredients in these products, a lot of them have shown promise when consumed individually. Typically the "core" list of ingredients includes some combination of caffeine, beta-alanine, creatine and brand chained amino acids in some formulation.

But do they work?
These products are relatively new to the market but initial research shows a lot of promise.  Early reports suggest that MIPS ingestion may enhance the overall quality of a workout. This has ranged from improvements in muscular endurance, 1 repetition maximum strength and feelings of energy & focus throughout a single training session. Essentially it appears as though consuming a pre-workout may in fact get you pumped up for your workout.  However will these benefits continue for future workouts? Will you build up a tolerance? Are the benefits just due to the caffeine content in the products? Unfortunately these questions have yet to be answered. Limited research is available regarding the long-term effects of these products with the exception of one study completed two years ago that looked at the effects of consuming Dymatize's XPAND2X in conjunction with a bodybuilding training program for 8 weeks (see below)..


Continue Below:

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Which to do first, Mobility or Stretching?

Flexibility is the amount of motion we can create through a joint and there has long been the debate as to what is the best way to increase our flexibility and therefore our ability to move. As babies and young children most of us started out with full range of motion throughout our body and the ability to move anywhere and anyway we wanted.  As we grew a little older to the infant stage we still had phenomenal motion and could perform the "perfect squat" and didn't have to think about it. Knees pushed out, feet stayed flat on the ground, below parallel and with an upright and stable spine.  Then as we moved our way through grade school and beyond, things changed for most of us.  We weren't able to touch our toes anymore, we lost our ability to sit on the ground cross-legged and we generally became very stiff from sitting too much and wearing thick heeled shoes causing a shortening of our posterior chain.

As we were losing our ability to have full use of these motions our tissues were beginning to get very tough, beat down, knotted up and generally not the healthy texture they should maintain.  We were often taught the best way to be flexible was to continue to stretch, take up yoga, pilates or any other form of stretching to help lengthen out your muscles and tissues.  While I have nothing against any of these movement practices and think they are useful I think we are skipping an extremely important step in regaining and improving range of motion.  Mobility and soft tissue work.

Very similar in muscles
Think of it this way, if you have a tightness in your hamstring caused by knotted and beat up tissue compare it to having a knot tied into the middle of a piece of rope.  When we are stretching we are taking the insertion points of that hamstring and moving them further away from each other to increase that motion.  If we re-enact that same process with our piece of rope and pull both ends away from each other what will happen to the knot?  It's going to get significantly tighter and be even more resistant to becoming untied.

This is where mobility work needs to play a significant role. We need to utilize soft tissue work
Untie and break up knots before stretching and realigning fibers.
whether it be massage, foam rolling, or any other type of mobilization tool to "untie" the knot.  If we continually stretch and make that knot tighter it will get more difficult to undo.  If we get to the knotted tissue early we can have a better chance of getting it to loosen up without as much pain.

A recommendation for tissue work would be as follows: start with it post any activity, this is when your body will be at it's warmest and you'll get the most benefit out of this work.  Myofascial release, however you choose to do it, would be your first area of work to break down and loosen up the knotted tissue.  A good goal would be 10-15 minutes.  If you have the option afterward to use vibration therapy it can clear out any congested material in your muscles and help with the recovery procress.  At the end include all your stretching to help with the elongation of the muscles after all the knotted tissue has been given a chance to loosen up.

Take care of your tissues, it will make your body feel much better and help you many aspects of your life.

Fix It Early, Fix It Often.

"The resting state of the human body should be pain free."  -Kelly Starrett.

Metabolic Flexibility: Should you stretch your metabolism???

In a world where there is plenty of confusion about whether or not carbohydrates are good or bad for you the concept of metabolic flexibility seems to have emerged. There isn't an exact definition as the idea is relatively new however if we take a look at the general theory, it's importance emerges. Metabolic flexibility is the ability of an individual's metabolism to efficiently change fuel sources both at rest and during exercise.  In this case, the primary fuel sources of interest are carbohydrates and fats. If you have taken an exercise physiology course chances are you learned the concept of fuel utilization from the classic George Brooks Textbook: Bioenergetics.  At the time fuel utilization was thought to be based on a continuum that was intensity dependent.  Looking more closely, it was thought that at rest and during low intensity exercise you burned primarily fat as a fuel source and as the intensity of exercise increased, you shifted from primarily fat burning into more carbohydrate utilization after a "crossover" point was reached. And that was basically it, bioenergetics and fuel utilization at it's finest.  Recently we are finding that this idea of fuel utilization might be more complex then we thought and might even be dynamic in nature; meaning we can "improve" it or enhance our metabolic flexibility.

Why would we want to become more metabolically flexible?
By being more metabolically flexible you would be able to switch from burning fat to carbohydrates and back again depending on the situation. This could have significant health AND performance implications.  If you're an endurance athlete, this phrase glycogen depletion may haunt your dreams as you know once you reach the point during a competition or race when you are glycogen depleted fatigue and declines in force or power output are likely to follow.  If you are able to transition to fat utilization sooner during exercise, you could ultimately spare your muscle glycogen and rely on your near endless supply of energy from fat stores.

More information found below.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Ankle Impingement: Fix Your Form

The posture and form you create while your moving has a paramount impact on how you feel and so of the nagging injuries you might endure.  Kelly Starrett does a fantastic job explaining here how not having your hips in the correct position and also your foot screwed in causes ankle impingement, loss of range of motion and over time the general breakdown of tissue to injury.

Creating the proper forces and generating externally rotated torque at your hips and feet can save you from ankle problems as well as recreate your arch.  If you have problems with chronic ankle pain or loss of dorsiflexion this is a fantastic place to start.



Fix It Early, Fix It Often.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

The Hottest New Diet Isn't Even a Diet

By: Andrew Jagim Phd, CISSN, CSCS

It seems as though any time you scroll through your Facebook or Twitter feed you become bombarded with some new diet fad or a hot new weight loss secret guaranteeing instant success. Unfortunately most of them are either filled with empty promises or short-term fixes. However lately a new "diet" has gained a lot of popularity within the fitness community and when you look at it more closely it really isn’t a diet at all and it may the answer you've been searching for. This new diet trend I'm referring to commonly goes by the name of “flexible dieting." As people learn more about flexible dieting and it's simplicity it usually becomes a favorite amongst weight conscious individuals.  The idea of flexible dieting gained a lot of popularity when Dr. Layne Norton became and advocate of the dietary strategy after finding success using it with his own bodybuilding pursuits and nutrition coaching career.

Why is it becoming so popular? 
Answer: It is becoming popular mostly in part because it works so well (if done properly). 

Why does it work? 


Answer: It works because people can actually stick with it and not lose their minds trying to eliminate carbs or have an emotional meltdown because everything on the menu has gluten in it and their new diet says they can't have it.  

What is flexible dieting?

Flexible dieting is an eating strategy that focuses on eating the right AMOUNT of calories and nutrients, specifically macronutrients, throughout the day versus restricting certain food groups, ingredients or carb-centric snacks. Now, some people have taken this concept and completely gone to the opposite end of the spectrum with it and believe that it's okay to eat Pop tarts and gummy bears as long as you chase it with a steak and protein shake all while using the mantra "if it fits your macros."  Now, the occasional “junk food” is fine and is sometimes even encouraged in order to help with adherence to the eating style as one of the most important components to a diet's success is whether or not you can even stick with it in the first place. Sure, there are all kinds of really good diets and biohacks out there that may help you drop pounds fast but more often than not those pounds will come rushing back and they're going to bring their fat friends.  With flexible dieting it's more about developing a nutrition lifestyle and finding foods that you like, aren't terrible for you and at the end of the day provide you with a caloric total that is appropriate based on your metabolism, goals and daily activities. 

In addition, not only is the daily calorie total of importance but probably even more important is the makeup of those calories, specifically the macronutrient content.  In other words at the end of the day if your macronutrient totals are appropriate then you should be in “energy balance” or at a relatively stable weight, if that is your goal. If you want to lose weight, then theoretically you should decrease your total calorie intake and readjust your macronutrient totals.  Again, some people have gone to the extreme with this eating strategy and proclaim that as long as the content of the foods you eat match your recommended macronutrient totals for the day that is all that matters. Based on this rationale hitting your macronutrient totals with candy, pizza, protein shakes and bagels would be perfectly acceptable….In terms of "energy balance, sure it may work however in addition to energy balance and macronutrient content it’s almost important to take into consideration the micronutrient content of one’s diet. Although micronutrients do not have a “caloric value”, they are still incredibly important as they provide essential vitamins and minerals. This is why nutrient rich foods should be the focus of an “if it fits your macros” type of mentality as you will then be fulfilling your macro and micronutrient requirements for the day.  But this way, you are still eating more or less what you want, you aren't limiting or restricting a certain food group and there is still room for the occasional indulgence or sweet-tooth craving as long as you account for it in your daily macronutrient intake and plan accordingly.  And there you have it, a sustainable dietary lifestyle that won’t drive you crazy, is very reasonable and should provide a long future of success.


Stay tuned for future tips on how to determine your calorie and macronutrient needs based on your training goal. In the meantime, BE FLEXIBLE! Eat the foods you want as long as you account for them in your daily macronutrient intakes and consume enough vitamins & minerals to go along with them.