Body Comp Basics.pdf

Body Composition Basics

When it comes to improving your physical appearance, your individual goals can be

broken down into two major categories. These are either getting leaner, or getting bigger.

Getting a little bit bigger and a little bit leaner at the same time is generally either known

as “toning” or “recomposition.” Regardless of the terminology used, depending on your

training experience and genetics, it is possible to build a little bit of muscle while

shedding a significant amount of fat, but it is virtually impossible to build a whole lot of

muscle while also shedding a whole lot of fat. Here’s why:

1. In order to lose fat, you need to consume less calories than you burn (negative

energy balance)

2. In order to gain muscle, you need to consume more calories than you burn

(positive energy balance)

People who build muscle and lose fat at the same time tend to compromise between

building more muscle or losing more fat, so they get a bit of each but not a whole lot of

both. They get the extra calories needed for muscle growth from the fat that they burn

and lose their body-fat on a small caloric deficit. This often means the fat is lost slower

then it could be, and muscle is built slower then it could be. For that reason, if you have a

significant amount body fat to lose (I would define "significant" as anyone with a body

fat level greater than 12%), you need to concentrate on getting relatively lean before you

attempt to gain substantial muscle mass. As you will see later, some fat accumulation

(although this can be minimized) is usually unavoidable for optimal gains in lean muscle

mass gains to occur. So first focus on getting your body-fat down under 10%, then focus

on eating to build muscle mass.

Part I – Getting Lean

Now, I’m gonna start off talking about getting lean. In order to shed body-fat you’re

going to have to make some changes in your diet. So where do you start? It’s best to

start making simple, easily implementable changes, rather then trying to do a complete

overhaul all at once. Take baby steps and make slow changes in your diet instead of

trying to change everything at once. Making too much of a change often just leads to

frustration and mental burnout, not to mention lots of physical deprivation. Here are a

few easy steps you can begin to take.

Change the structure of your diet and timing of your meals - I’ll get into this more

later, but you’ll need to begin paying more attention to what you eat, when you eat, and

how often you eat. Ideally, you’ll want to increase the frequency and number of your

meals and decrease the volume of food in those meals. Going all day without eating and

then having a large meal fit for a king before bed is not optimal for changes in body

composition. You’ll need to focus more on eating more nutrition protein and natural

carbohydrates while cutting back on non-nutritious junk. You can gradually start to

eliminate or replace junk foods in your diet and do so without feeling overly deprived.

First you’ll want to start to limit or avoid the 3 C’s. Cokes, Candy, and Cakes!

The 3 C’s

Cokes - The average American teenager drinks about 30 ounces of pop per day. This

is equivalent to more than two 12-ounce cans per day. Each 12-ounce can or serving

of pop supplies an extra 150 calories and 16 teaspoons of sugar with zero nutritional

value. If you drink as much pop as the average teenager you could theoretically lose

about 1 pound of fat per week just by giving up this habit. Do this. Go in your

kitchen and take an empty glass, jar of sugar, and a teaspoon. Take your teaspoon

and pour 16 teaspoons of the sugar into the empty glass and look at it. Now that’s

what you’re consuming every time you drink a pop, soda, or even fruit juice! If you

were to drink a big 44-ounce pop you’d be getting about 56 teaspoons of sugar!

Candy - Just like soda, any candy is made up of sugar along with fat and offers

nothing but empty calories with zero nutritional value.

Cakes- Donuts, pastries, etc. definitely are tempting but offer no nutritional value and

are high in both fat and sugar.

Gradually pay attention to your consumption of the 3 C’s and any other sugar

consumption. If you’re like most people, you’ll probably find that simply cutting back on

consumption of those items will pay immediate dividends. You’ll be eliminating a lot of

unnecessary, highly dense, junk calories, so you’ll lose body-fat. More importantly,

you’ll also have much more stable energy levels. Sugar wreaks havoc on your energy

levels and blood sugar levels. It often will give you a quick burst of energy, however,

this is quickly reversed and 30 minutes to an hour later you end up feeling hungry and

tired.

Also pay attention to other food and beverage choices.

Avoid “drinking” calories - Anytime you drink calories you’re taking in highly

concentrated nutrition that does not do much to contribute to filling. Think of this. What

fills you up more, eating 2 whole apples or drinking a big glass of apple juice? They both

contain the same amount of calories and carbohydrates but the apple has more density.

This gives you more filling. Whenever you need to watch your daily caloric intake it’s

better to avoid consuming calories that don’t fill you up. Anytime you “drink” calories

through beverages, you generally also take in a lot of sugar, which should be limited

when trying to lose body-fat. Even so called “healthy” drinks, like fruit juices, sports

drinks, energy drinks, etc, are nothing more then sugar and won’t do much besides

quench your thirst and add inches to your waistline.

For the guy or gal focused on dropping body-fat, the only time you’ll ever want to take in

any calories through beverages is with your post-workout drink, which we’ll cover later.

Instead of consuming pop and fruit juice make a concerted effort to consume more water.

You can also drink iced tea, coffee, sugar-free lemonade, and diet soft drinks in

moderation.

Cut down on all other sweets- Sugar sweetened cereal, ice cream, milkshakes, etc. are

all very high in sugar and don’t do much else besides supply empty calories and stimulate

appetite.

Choose more whole foods over processed foods

Processed foods are foods that have been chemically treated to store longer. Today,

probably 80% or more of the foods you find in a grocery store are processed. Processing

tends to cause a given food to behave in your body more like sugar would. Most foods

contribute less nutritional value after processing. The processing causes the food to be

absorbed quicker and contribute less to a feeling of fullness. Common processed foods

include chips, crackers, cereals, and many types of breads. For the most part, anything

that crackles, crumbles, or crunches is processed . Take a look at the following foods to

give you an idea.

Processed

Non-processed

Wheat crackers or bread

Whole-wheat flour

Potato Chips

Potatoes

Fruit juice

Fresh fruit

How do you determine if something is processed or not ? This is very simple. If you can

shoot it, grow it, cook it, and eat it, without any additional steps, it tends to be less

processed. Your body was meant to survive on fresh, natural foods, not foods that have

been treated with hundreds of chemicals and preservatives to make them taste better and

last longer. Vegetables, fruits, and meats all fit the bill. Spend more time getting to

Cereal

Whole oats

know the produce section of your local grocery store. I recommend you place an

emphasis on green, non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, salads, and a host of other foods

that fit this bill. These foods are excellent for losing body-fat and staying healthy. They

provide a very high ratio of nutrients and are usually very low in calories. All fresh

meats, produce, and veggies are for the most part, fair game. If you eat like this you

won’t have to worry about counting calories because the more natural foods you eat, the

more difficult it becomes to take in more calories then you burn.

Here are more sample foods that you should begin getting more of:

All fresh meats, eggs, cottage cheese, veggies, fruits, dairy, natural cereals such as

oatmeal, cream of wheat, and cream of rice, whole wheat bread, beans, sweet potatoes,

salad greens, beans, nuts, seeds

What about fat?

Fat is far from the evil it has been made out to be. It turns out sugar is much more of a fat

gaining culprit. If we take a look at the many diverse groups of people and societies

throughout history one thing keeps coming up. Whenever sugar is introduced into society

that society consistently starts to develop problems like obesity, heart disease, diabetes,

and dental problems. Today over 2/3 of the United States population is overweight and

it’s only getting worse. In the last 10 years people in the US have been led to consume

less fat and more sugar, yet the weight problem continues to get worse. Nearly 25% of

the US population either has, or is at high risk of having, diabetes, a disease of blood

sugar metabolism that is affected more then anything else by the amount of sugars and

processed carbohydrates in the diet. When people eat more protein, more natural and less

processed carbohydrates, and MORE fat, these problems tend to alleviate.

Certain fats, such as those coming from deep-water fish and certain vegetables, are highly

beneficial and should be consumed in abundance. The fats to avoid are the hydrogenated

fats, and trans-fats. These fats do nothing to improve health and in fact do much to

contribute to ill health. These fats are man made so that they will stay solid at room

temperature. This allows them to be added to packaged and processed foods. The

combination of processed carbohydrates and trans-fats/hydrogenated fats, is deadly and

should best be avoided

Reading Labels, Understanding Macronutrients, and Counting Calories

The only way you can be certain of the energy you are consuming daily is by becoming

more aware of the number of calories you ingest.

What is a calorie?

A calorie is simply a measure of heat. We use calories to describe how much energy we

take in. Caloric balance is energy in versus energy out. If you take in more energy than

you burn then you gain weight. If you burn up more energy than you take in you lose

weight. There are a lot of other things like hormones, activity levels, and nutrient timing

that help determine energy balance but simple calories in vs calories out is the basic gist

of it.

The Macronutrients

First, we need to talk about the three primary sources from where we consume our daily

energy: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. These are known as the macronutrients. Their

caloric value is as follows:

Protein: 4 calories per gram

Carbohydrates: 4 calories per gram

Fat: 9 calories per gram

As you can see, a gram of fat contains just over twice the energy of both protein and

carbohydrates. Because of this, fat has been labeled as a dietary evil. Despite its negative

reputation, adequate fat intake is necessary to promote optimal hormone levels, central

nervous system function, and overall health. Consumption of certain fats like omega 3

fish oils, have even been correlated to a loss of body-fat! Therefore, although the majority

of your dietary focus should be on protein and vegetable sources of complex

carbohydrates, you shouldn’t fear eating some fat as well. In fact, you should be getting

between 20-30% of your calories from fat, regardless of your goals.

Lets use an example to see how to figure up your daily macronutrient intake. Lets take,

for example, Joe, who will be consuming 2800 calories daily, 30% of which is fat. 2800 x

.30 = 840 calories from fat. Since fat is 9 cal/g, you simply divide the total calories from

fat by 9 to give you your daily gram total. For Joe, this would be 840/9 or ~90 grams of

fat daily.

Now, for optimal results I also recommend you consume between 1.25-1.5 grams of

protein per pound of lean bodyweight per day. Lean bodyweight is your total

bodyweight minus your fat weight. How do you figure this? Since Joe weighs 185 lbs

and is 10% body fat, his lean body-weight is 185 x .90 or 166.5 lbs. Now, to get his daily

protein intake, we simple multiply his Lean bodyweight(166.5) by 1.25, which equals

roughly 208g of protein daily. Since protein is 4 calories per gram, Joe will be consuming

832 calories (208g of protein x 4cal/g) from protein daily.

The last macronutrient to calculate is carbohydrates. We can do this by simply

subtracting the calories already accounted for by fat and protein from the daily total.

Remember the daily total for Joe was 2800. We already have 832 (calories from protein)

plus 840 (calories from fat) = 1128 calories left over for carbohydrates. Since

carbohydrates are 4 calories per gram, this individual will be consuming 282g (1128/4) of

carbohydrates daily.

Now we have established Joes daily gram needs for each macronutrient. Here they are

again:

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