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!

"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.

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.