Macro Nutrients: protein, carbs, fat, and FREE custom macro template!!

Today we're going to tackle macro nutrients.

For some, this is exciting, for some it's a hard eye roll, and for some it's just terrifying.

So, what we're going to to is break it down, explain it in pieces, make it simple, and then provide a free self-populating macro template for knowing what your protein, carb, and fat levels should be, as an athlete, regardless of your goal!

For starters, this is for everyday athletes.  What does that mean?  Well, for these purposes we'll call an athlete someone who works out 4-6 days a week, utilizes active recovery days, and has a generally responsible caloric breakdown.  The "everyday" part is that it is assuming someone who is not an athlete for a living.... your life doesn't literally revolve around fitness.

Protein:

Protein levels for everyday athletes can go between 1.2g/kgbw and 1.8g/kgbw (with no positive return above 1.8g/kgbw).  

On the low end, you may see protein suggestions as low as .8g/kgbw (or even lower) but this is for sedentary individuals, not athletes.

On the other end of the spectrum you may hear from your broscience sources that you need up to 2 grams per pound of bodyweight.... no..... just... no.  That number would be nearly impossible to hit no matter what means you employed and 100% impossible to hit while keeping your carbs and fats anywhere remotely close to where they should be.  Furthermore, there has been no scientific demonstration of benefit beyond 1.8grams/kg of bodyweight in protein consumption.

Carbs:

Carbs are.... complicated.  

But first things first, say it with me:  "carbs are our friends"

Again, carbs are a tale of two extremes.  On one hand, many will say that athletes need as much as 6 grams all the way up to 10 grams per kg of body weight.

Not only will most people be able to successfully perform at much lower levels (between 2.5g and 5g per kg of body weight), most will find these lower levels still provide enough glycogen stores for energy, performance, and recovery while maintaining current body weight on the scale.

On the other extreme (super popular right now...) is people suggesting sub-optimal carb levels in order to lose weight.  These plans suggest 65g a day on a regular basis, many opting for as low as 35g per day, some plans even lower.  Here's the thing....  most people can maintain a state of ketosis at 50g of carbs a day and almost everyone will be in a full state of ketosis at 35g per day.

With that in mind, regardless of body weight, 100g - 150g of carbs a day should be considered your bare minimum (this is your "floor") when not in an aggressive, short term cut phase (*note that a cut phase should be no longer then 12 weeks and shouldn't be entered into more often than every 6-9 months).  Furthermore, most people can completely fill their usable carb fuel tank with ~6g-7g per kg of body weight (~500g) - this is your "store".

Fat:

Fat can actually be ignored, for the most part.  As long as you are keeping your protein and carbs where they are supposed to be, your fat will typically fall in line.

That said, your fat intake will vary some, depending on your goals, but should always remain in the .5-1.5g/kgbw range.

For most athletes the sweet spot for fat intake during maintenance will be between 44g and 78g per day.

So, what now?

Everyone will need to play with the carbs and protein a bit to find their sweet spot and this will take a few weeks (you haven't "proven" yourself anything after one "bad" week.....).

Yes, you can check the scale, but remember what a poor overall representation of health weight really is.  

You are an athlete.  

Listen to your body.

How do you feel during the workout?

Did you have enough fuel in the tank to finish Strong?

Do you sleep well at night?

How is your DOMS the next day?

What about on day 2?

What is your mood like?  Are you hangry?

Do you feel like you are depriving or thriving?

Here are some general starting points based on your specialization:

For endurance athletes:  Your protein should be on the lower end of the spectrum (1.2g/kgbw)

and your carbs will be on the higher end (closer to your "store").

For Olympic lifters and power lifters:  Your protein will be the top end (1.8g/kgbw)

and your carbs will be at the lower end of mid-range (2.5g/kgbw).

For Crossfitters and HIIT:  Your protein will be nearer to the top end (1.8g/kgbw)

and your carbs will be fall somewhere in the midline (2.5g-5g/kgbw) depending on how many days a week you workout, how many wods you do per day, and at what level of intensity you operate.

For people wanting to actively Cut:  Move protein towards 1.5-1.8g/kgbw 

while moving carbs to 2g/kbbw and fat to .67g/kgbw.

If you plateau, you can adjust one step further while still maintaining these median ranges by taking carbs to your "floor" (100g a day) and fats down to .5g/kgbw.

The majority of athletes, regardless of your specialization, intensity, or frequency, can find a successful level of carbs between 2.5g and 4.5g per gram of body weight.

Example:  Maintenance levels for providing excellent energy for 6 days a week of HIIT, while transitioning body comp (dropping body fat and building lean muscle) could look like 

1.2g-1.8g/kgbw in protein, 2.5g-3.5g/kgbw in carbs, and .75g-1.3g/kgbw in fats.

Macro Levels:

Protein:  1.2, 1.5, or 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight.

Carbs:  100 carbs per day, 2.0, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5, 6, grams per kilogram of body weight.  As a general rule, male athletes will approach their "store" at about 6.25g/kgbw and female athletes at 7g/kgbw.

Fat:  .5, .67, .75, 1.0, 1.3, 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight.

Click HERE to get my self-populating template with full instructions (Excel).

All you have to do is click the 3rd tab at the bottom ("Macro Calculator") and enter your weight in Pounds and the spreadsheet will convert everything and give you all of your macros!

Renaissance Periodization : RP

So, in my last 2 posts I talked about my journey out of and then back into fitness and shared some initial before and after photos.

While I said my wife and I used RP  I wanted to share a few more specifics on why we chose RP, what it is, and what we used of theirs, specifically, as well as what we're doing now.

What is RP?

They're a company who is made up of a large board of PhDs, RDs, and current college professors, which is cool.  What's more cool is that they largely agree on everything (which is shocking) and the things they don't all agree on (alcohol consumption, for example) they're open about.  What's even cooler than that is that they are all Olympic lifters, power lifters, endurance athletes, and/or CrossFitters so they understand the needs of athletes and they are not here for your starvation diets (yay carbs!).

Who uses RP?

I mean, other than the super famous me and my wife.... you can go look through the "RP Transformations" group on instagram.  Oh, and they have a few no-name clients too, like Annie Thorisdottir and Rich Froning jr.

What do they offer?

They have nutrition templates as well as workout templates.
They have mass and cut programs, including plans for athletes, non athletes, vegan, gender specific, hypertrophy, etc. 
For nutrition they have a Standard Template, for serious athletes, which is macro counting
A new app that is macro calculating
Then they have what my wife and I used:  The Simplified Template

The simplified template is macro based, but RP has done all the macro counting for you and all you see is a list of foods from each category (protein, fruits and grains, veggies, and fats) and how many ounces (or tbsp) you are to each of each for each meal.  All the meals are the same so you don't have to think about which day it is, which type of meal, or calculate workout times or intensity.  It's.... simple.

For us, the Simple plan worked well for our cut, which is what we were using it for!  I lost 30 pounds in ~90 days and my wife (who weighed much, _much_ less than I did) lost 12 pounds.

It got us back down to fighting weight, got us exposed to thinking about how macros look, disciplined our food choices, and let us practice meal prep.

We are now nearly 7 weeks past completion of our RP simplified template cut and here we are
(the photo was taken on August 3rd, ~4 1/2 weeks post RP):

In the next blog I'll share what macros we are focusing on now, how you can incorporate that into your life, whether you are wanting to cut, mass, or maintain and whether you are a distance runner or a CrossFitter!

Stay tuned!

Transformation Tuesday: Coach Dodd edition, 2019

*Before and after photos at the bottom*

So, in my last blog I introduced my journey over the last few years....

The tale of the tape:
I come in at a towering 5' 6"
I didn't break 100 pounds until I was a freshman in high school.  I graduated high school at somewhere between 120 pounds and 130 pounds.  Yes.. yes... I know... a monster.  "Mammoth of a man" I think is the name you're looking for *flex* #bodybysoccer

Throughout my 20's I stayed between 140 and 165.
31-33 I stayed right at 180.
34 I hit 200 pounds for the first time.
At 36 I was a sloppy 205.

A few things to hear me out on:
1.  Weight alone is a terrible indicator
2.  I despise BMI.  It's stupid.  No, I do get it.  Yes, I still think it's 90% useless at best, detrimental more often.

I could be 205 if I was a powerlifter, CrossFit games athlete, body builder, etc.  But I wasn't... I was just an out of shape 205.  You can be cut up at what BMI says is "morbidly obese".  You can also be obese at that same weight.  The scale is not a good primary indicator of health.  It can be a tool, but just one small tool in a very large tool chest... full of tools... other tools.... better tools.

My wife:  over the last 25 years my wife has been a 4 1/2 foot tall 160 pound overweight adolescent, a competitive gymnast, an anorexic madly in love with "Ed" at 87 pounds (zero muscle mass, hair falling out in clumps, digestive issues, hiatal hernias, faint, etc), and she has birthed 2 children that included gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and emergency c-section.  She has tried every crash diet, fad diet, pill diet, starvation diet, and pay-for-pounds diet you have ever heard of.  All the bad ones, that is.  She has believed what most girls are taught:  All food is bad, carbs are bad, fat is bad, calories are bad, it's all bad, and the only way to lose weight is to starve your body to the point of misery. 

We both were fed up.  We both got "done" at the same time.  So, we tried what some good friends suggested.  A crazy program that we had never heard of:  Renaissance Periodization.  Crazy name, but we liked what we saw.  I'll do another post specifically about RP in the next few days (what it is, what it isn't, who it's for, why we chose it, what we thought, how we did it, tips and tricks, etc.), so look for that.  Also, I'll detail what we're doing now and how things are going!

In the meantime, here were our before and after photos (before photos taken the first day of our cut and the after photos taken on the last day of our cut, which was 7 weeks ago):

30 pounds down

12 pounds down

My weight loss numbers each week (notice the up and down)

"What's the Point?": 3 Deadly Words and A New Lease on Life

5 years.

That's how long it's been since I was actively taking care of myself, on a daily basis.

2 years.

That's how long I completely let myself go and allowed myself to fall into full on "screw it all" mode with my fitness.

If you've been a blog reader here and or have read my book  then you know I've had a _lot_ of knee surgeries over the years.  2 years ago I was hired to lead a conditioning and skills camp for a high school boy's soccer team.  Most of the time I'm hired to operate a "hell week" to run people off.... which I love ;)  During this week, while I was out of shape and had already let myself get too far out of bounds, I still had to play.  I. Can't. Help. It.  Much to my wife's chagrin.... but that's for another blog, lol

Anyway, there rolled a 50/50 ball and my foot met the ball at the exact same instant as one of the kid's foot met the ball.  Standard fare.  Only my knee cap slid out to the side of my leg and hung... it got stuck.  So, there I was, on the field, with my knee cap locked to the outside of my leg, decisively where it was _not_ supposed to be.  I grit my teeth, grabbed it with both hands, rolled hard one way while I pulled with hands the other, all while trying to relax the muscles (ha!), and I was able to pop it back into place (about 15 minutes later).  The physical damage sucked, it scrambles everything around when this happens and then "freezes" your quad as well.  The psychological damage is what I let take over, though.  I was done.  I told myself that was it.  I was washed up, I was old (I wasn't), and what I let ring in my ears over and over again was the death nail of "what's the point?"

What's the point?  What's the point of rehab if you're just going to do it again?  What's the point in getting your mileage back up if you're only going to get hurt again and have to start all over?  What's the point in pushing in the gym when you're going to inevitably have another surgery that will cause you to lose all your gains and go back to square one, again?  What's the point?  Those three words froze me in time.  It wasn't pretty.

I lost my engine, lost my gains, lost my drive, lost my fire, lost my desire to run, lost my push to workout, lost my ability to write this blog, and I gained about 30 pounds of pure body fat.  All from 3 little words.  My words, in my own head, my three deadly words: "What's the point?"

In my next blog I'm looking forward to detailing a bit of how I came out of that 3 word hole and where I am now (pics included...)

Don't give up.  It's worth it.  You will get hurt.  You will get injured.  You will have setbacks.  You will start over.  And, most importantly, you will have Life.

2017 Race season is here! Spartan season passes and new medals!

With December upon us, and only ~3 weeks left in 2016, it's time to start planning for next year!  

Luckily, Spartan has started listing their races really early - they've already got in the neighborhood of 75 races confirmed, listed, and ready to be registered for for 2017!

Spartan continues to be my favorite race series for the brand new beginner all the way through the professional because of how they innovate and lead.  Next year is already proving to be no different, adding more military runs, stadium runs, championship series, and more.  Additionally, crazy Joe is promising more new obstacles (and new course layouts). 

One of the BEST things Spartan is doing next year (3 things, actually) is the race passes.  Starting right now, you can register for any of their 3 season passes:

The Tri-fecta season pass, which gives you 3 race codes + some other goodies for $299.  To put this in perspective, the last tri-fecta I ran cost $431.

The Open-season pass, which is UNLIMITED open heat races for $649.

The Elite Season pass, which is unlimited races valid for All heats for $799.

The tri-fecta season pass is a no-brainer for Anyone going to race the trifecta.  As a matter of fact, it's actually good for any three races, so you could run 3 beasts for $299 if you want to (which would be a savings of close to $250).

Also, of course, one of the things I really like that Spartan does is the proverbial carrot-on-a-stick approach to their medals, constantly innovating their tiers and I really like how they now provide all new medals each year.  The coolest medal in my collection, currently, is last year's military base race medals.  That said.... check out what's coming - then go buy your tri-fecta pass!

Spartan Fit and the transformation of one of America's finest

Last year I got to run a Spartan race with a group of America's finest.  Before the race, one of the LEOs who had signed up for this particular chest thumping torture test was a guy named Nate.

I didn't know Nate's story at the time but was able to learn a bit of it over the next year and the story was so inspiring that I wanted to take a moment to share.

First off, Nate was a college athlete and, as such, a big strong guy.
Nate was also diagnosed with diabetes and the medical condition began, over the years, to take a toll on his body.  Now, as an adult, a dedicated husband, a devoted father, and a fulltime sheep dog (with a K-9 partner of his own), Nate didn't have a lot of time to devote to himself.  Long hours, long nights, changing shifts, a four legged partner, a baby, and the extra jobs that our Law Enforcement officers have to take in order to support a family didn't allow Nate much remaining focus to take care of his diabetes or, therefore, his overall health.
One day, God gave Nate a serious wake up call.  Nate knew, that day, that it was time to change.... everything.

Most people would start small and verify results before making any big plunges.  That's what gets "most" people into trouble, often times.  Nate?  Nate, before his journey back to a healthy lifestyle even started, he got a call from a fellow officer inviting him to come with them on a Spartan race several months out.  That was all Nate needed - that was his motivational goal, that would be his measuring stick, he signed on the dotted line, and went to work.

Remember that first picture?

After several months, the day arrived (the day I met  Nate) and Nate, like thousands before him, toed the starting line of the biggest OCR brand in the world.

Also like thousands before him and thousands more to come (myself included), as soon as he finished the race, he was hooked.

In the next year, Nate would continue to trim down his waist, build up his strength, bore out his engine, and would run several half marathons and several more Spartans (even entering - and fairing quite well - in his first Competitive heat).

Nate didn't buy into any gimmicks.  There were no "super pills", no "detox" drinks, no fad videos, just clean eating and dirty training.  As the pictures show, Nate's dedication to his health, through diet control, protein consumption, HIIT, running, and support from his wife, Lauren, Nate was able to transform his life.  To beat back against the weight of his diabetes, and to make sure he keeps his ability to serve and protect the rest of us with the best of his ability, while being around for a very, Very long time for his beautiful family.

Nate, from the whole Spartan family, "AROO!"

Congratulations on all your accomplishments this past year.


Joe D and the Spartan family are proud to present you with a FREE RACE CODE good for Any open heat Spartan Race this year!

Notice the missing hardware in that 3rd picture!


For everyone else who wants to follow Nate's example and get on board, follow a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) program, love protein, HIIT is your friend, follow this blog, look for daily Spartan Workouts, daily Spartan Meals, and check out Joe DeSena's new book (releasing August 2nd) called "Spartan Fit!"

Spartan Fit book provides excellent whole life skills.  This is not a "get fit quick" strategy.  This is a book to get you to change your life, your habits, your thought process.  The lifeskills are great, the motivational stories will get you fired up ready to run through walls, the Hero Workouts are very cool, but the 30 day "do THIS" fitness program included in the book will be what most people find invaluable.

Cardio: You're doing it wrong (try boxing!)

If we aren't careful we can find ourselves in a bit of a rut.  Ironically, most people say their "rut" is in cardio.  

Here's why this doesn't make sense:  Cardio possibilities are nearly endless.

Too often people hear "cardio" and (after they cringe, weep, gnash teeth, and maybe die a little inside) they think only of a treadmill.  

Let me tell you something, if a treadmill were the only source of cardio, I would just have to kill myself.  There is nothing worse than the treadmill.  All you treadmill heroes, bless you, and... you can have it.  "But" no.  Just... no.

Cardio can be running, biking, a thousand different sprint variations (400s, gassers, fartleks, ), burpees, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, and the list literally goes on for thousands more.  For that matter, almost any workout movement you do can be cardio if simply done rapidly and in chains where you don't allow your heartrate to completely recover between each 

I love distance running (in the woods), but in all honestly, "just" running long distances at a near constant pace is pretty terrible (inefficient) form of cardio.  Your body is so efficient that it just learns to complete to task with the least amount of effort possible and so you don't get the heart rate training or weight loss you think you're working so hard on.  Then, if you couple long distance runs with a treadmill, not only do you not get the training benefits, but your quality of life just goes into the toilet as the digital distance readout sucks the happiness right out of your soul.  No, really.

So, pick something else (anything else) and make cardio fun again.  After all, what you're trying to do is spike your heart rate, bring it down (some), spike, fall, up, down - you're training your heart rate to rise slower and recover quicker.  

I basically stood on the soap box there to remind you (or introduce you) of a fantastically efficient cardio (and full body - if done correctly) workout that actually IS a lot of fun (news flash:  hating life while doing it doesn't actually make you better at cardio):

Spice up your training with the Heavy Bag.  Knuckle up.  Throw some blows.  take out some aggression.  Burn calories while you burn aggression.  Have some fun.  

There's nothing quite like laying into a heavy bag.  Your arms get a workout, your shoulders get roasted, you rotate your hips, use your legs, tighten your abs, your lungs are screaming, your heart is taxed, and in seconds you are sweating like crazy.  

Ever laugh when you heard boxers talk about how heavy their gloves feel?  After a few minutes of speed work you'll swear those 8oz-16oz gloves weigh 5 pounds a piece.  

Find a bag at your gym, or just buy a bag - you can get a nice heavy bag for not a lot of money.  Same goes for gloves.  Get a nice, padded pair of gloves ("training"/"bag"), your knuckles will thank you.  I bought a new 100# heavy bag last week on sale for $65 from WalMart (the one in the picture above), then I bought a nice pair of synthetic gloves off Amazon on sale for $18 and a really nice genuine leather pair off Amazon for $40.  

"What weight bag should I get?"  Nothing less than 70, get the 100 if you can find it.

"What weight glove should I get?"  Are you an actual fighter?  If so, you don't need my advice and you're getting 16oz-20oz already.  If not, I would suggest 12oz.  They're heavy enough to add a little weight, to be available in nice gloves (with good padding/protection), but not too heavy to take some of the fun out of it and ruin your form.  Just my 2 cents.

"I got some gloves, how do I punch?"  The gloves take care of your hand form, mostly, but some things you need to think about are keeping loose until you land the punch, then after it lands, go loose again.  Throw snapping punches, not pushing punches (watch this youtube video).  Keep your wrist solid on the impact.  Twist your punch on impact.  Keep your hands up and move.  Yes, even if you aren't fighting, you don't plan on ever fighting, and the bag isn't moving or hitting back, keeping your hands up and moving is a big part of the workout - maximize your efforts.

"Okay, I got a bag, I got some gloves, now what?"  Start out based on your ability.  If you're in terrible shape, you might start with 1 minute rounds, moderate try 2 min rounds, and I wouldn't recommend anyone doing more than 3 minute rounds.  If you're good and 3 minutes is good, instead of going up in minutes, just add rounds.

"Okay... what's a round look like?  Just float like a butterfly?"  Try alternating 30 seconds of hard power punching, 30 seconds of speed.  In the beginning you might try 15 seconds of left hand power punches, 15 seconds of right hand power punches until you get comfortable.

"I've got that down pretty well - what next?"  Keep the rounds to 3 minutes, keep the 30 sec power/30 sec speed, add rounds.  During the power 30 seconds, hit Hard, always combos, (touch, power, power - touch, power, power, power, etc.), and keep them coming (don't throw 1 hard punch then dance around for 10 seconds and throw another).  In the speed, move up from just playing pattycake with those 7 pound hands to actually making the speed punches pop.  In both speed and power, swap striking location often (head, body, ear, groin, kidney, etc).

It will be a TON of fun... AND crushing.  You'll love it.

20% OFF + FREE Shipping Discount code for TOPO ATHLETIC!

You read it:  Topo is celebrating the beginning of the summer season by offering 20% off and Free shipping on ALL Topo Athletic shoes!

So if you're in the market for a new pair of road shoes, trail shoes, or gym shoes, head on over:

Product Review: Topo Athletic Halsa

I wasn’t familiar with (fairly) new–comer Topo Athletic until I did I got my hands on their first gen “Gym” shoe, but while the brand may sound new, Topo’s staff is anything but:  See, Topo athletic’s founder and CEO is Tony Post (TOny POst = ToPo) and Tony was the president and CEO of Vibram USA for 11 years – specifically the 11 years of the FiveFingers. 

After Vibram, Tony set up his own dream company of Topo and continued his passion for healthy, minimalist shoes built for athletes. 

Today I’ll be reviewing the The Topo Halsa

The Halsa is Topo’s newest shoe in their “Gym” category that is specifically tailored for the functional fitness/Crossfit community.  It’s  Zero drop, wide profile, low to the ground (16mm total stack height),
and weighs less than 7 ½ oz.   

I’ll abandon my usual “wait to the end for final thoughts” model and just go ahead and tell you… I love this shoe.  Here’s why:

I started testing this shoe over a month ago at the gym and my workout routines consist of heavy barbell training (Olympic and power lifts), agility training, kettlebells, tires, dumbbells, the works. 

Additionally, every day will have a run aspect and the running will consist of straight line, lateral work, cuts, sudden stops, turns, etc. and it all happens on a myriad of different surfaces, including pavement, rubber gym floors, tile, gravel, grass, wooden lifting platforms, and turf.  I have yet to encounter a surface or a movement where these shoes didn’t shine.  Heck, one day our running portion was done on the turf soccer field which still had a soccer ball laying around (which I couldn’t help but snag) and I dribbled it through my running portion and fired off a couple shots as I approached each end of the pitch and they even did great with that!

They stuck with their midfoot strap, which I was excited to see as this is a staple for a platform shoe and a feature that is unique to Topo.  Currently, outside of Topo you have to choose either a lifting shoe Or a functional shoe and Topo has the best answer to a true double duty platform.

The Halsa is solid, flat, light, wide, flexible, and low, while maintaining excellent anchor points and lateral stability.  As such, the Halsa provides a solid platform in the bottom of heavy lifts with no rollover at all, flexible for box jumps, poses, and sprints, and light and wide enough for running – Topo truly nailed this one as a great all around training shoe.  

I’ll put it to you like this: 
as you can imagine, I have a _lot_ of shoes. 
Since I received the Halsa in the mail I have not worn another shoe to the gym.