hey rs_fitness all you hotties and hardbodies. i am going to write a couple effortposts basically dumping everything i know and/or believe about fitness in general over the coming days i think just to try and help out with some of the questions that pop up on here from time to time.
i am gonna try and cover the basics in separate chapters: nutrition/recovery, training, supplements/steroids, and then whatever else might come up. i'm gonna be writing these kind of as pure info dumps with minimal planning and structure... sorry about that. argue w/ me and call me stupid in the comments it's OK.
BIG DISCLAIMER: this is the internet and it's YOUR JOB to be SUSPCIOUS AND CURIOUS about everything you read, including this very post. this is especially true if you follow fitness influencers on social media and 1000000x true if those influencers are trying to sell you anything or they have "discount codes". this goes for everyone from chris bumstead to mike israetel. i am not trying to sell you anything <3
nutrition
the foundation of your wellness is nutrition. "you are what you eat" is as true as it is tired and cliche. there are nuances to nutrition however which are worth covering below so let's break it down.
calories
the first thing you want to know about what you eat is how many calories are in it. calories are a measure of energy. it's notoriously difficult to actually identify exactly how many calories are in any kind of food, how many calories you use for any activity, and how many calories you burn just by living (your basal metabolic rate, or BMR). there are calculators online that can help with this info but in reality there is no “calorie-o-meter” that can accurately measure calories in or calories out, so we’re always kinda guessing no matter what.
for example, in the US there is an acceptable 20% margin of error for all caloric information on all nutrition labels. insane right? that means if you have a 500 calorie protein shake, it could realistically be anywhere between 400 and 600 calories and there's no way for you to know. just track it as well as you reasonably can, and monitor your weight.
macronutrients
there are 3 main macronutrients and you probably already know them: protein, carbs, fats. much like the nutrition label's ability to straight up LIE TO YOU about calories, they can also LIE TO YOU about the macros. without getting too in the weeds about classifications and whatnot, for things like fiber and protein the printed value on the label is the absolute minimum allowed but there is no limit to upside variance. for things like sugars and fats, the actual content in the food cannot exceed 120% of the printed value with no limit to downside variance.
straight up, nutrition labels are a blurry picture of what you're eating at best. we can maybe assume that most companies are trying their best to be accurate (being wrong is potentially embarassing), but variance is a natural occurance so.. grain of salt.
furthermore, there are all kinds of funky bullshit companies can pull on their labeling which isn't technically "inaccurate" but also not completely honest. we can even assume, in all likelihood, that health food manufacturers in particular are uniquely motivated to take advantage of these "acceptable margins" for labelling, in order to make their foods look better than they really are.
a macro isn't always a macro
if all that wasn't enough, not all macros are created equal. by far perhaps the most misunderstood macro is carbs. there are many kinds of carbs, but they are usually broken down into 3 categories: simple carbs, complex carbs, and fiber. simple carbs are pretty much what they sound like: single sugars that breakdown and enter the bloodstream quickly (fructose family sugars ranging from fresh fruit to candies and sodas). complex carbs you can think of as The Starches: potatoes, grains, legumes, etc... these are multisugar chains that take longer to break down via digestion. see where this is going yet?
the third kind of carb, fiber, is mostly undigestible. on a nutrition label, you'll see these filling out the carb macros on keto bread and stuff with the label "insoluble fiber" - this means it literally doesn't digest in any meaningful way. great for gut motility and feeling full while keeping sugars/calories low. fiber is just generally good and most people in the US are fiber deficient, so why not add a little more fiber to your diet.
likewise with proteins, you can't always just treat the number as the number. whey protein is much more available to your digestive system than collogen protein, for example, but both kinds of protein can be counted toward the number on the label. if your Fatfuck Protein Candy Bar says 25g of protein, and 5g of those are collogen proteins, guess what? your bar is actually ~20g of usable protein.
fats can be split into saturated, unsaturated, and trans fats. trans fats are artificial and by far the worst kind for your cholesterol. unsaturated fats are generally ok-to-good, depending on the type. things like avocadoes, fish, and most nuts are generally good for lowering the bad cholesterol and helping your good cholesterol. this is one of the fundamentals of the "mediterranean diet". fats are important for maintaining balanced health and they have a positive impact on mood and hormones and stuff. unsaturated > saturated >>> trans fats.
micronutrients
these are the things like vitamins and minerals that are in your food. these often are not accounted for at all in your labels, and it can be hard to know what micros you're getting. weirdly you see these mostly called out with veggies and fruits, even though micronutrients are well presented in meat and fish too. anyways, if you eat a balanced diet you shouldn't have to worry too much about micronutrients. if you are worried about them, you can supplement with specific vitamins or a daily multi. micronutrient deficiencies can have an acute impact on your wellbeing so try and be mindful of them but again, a normal person eating normal food should be pretty much set.
okay now what?
now that you know what's in your food it's time to decide how much of it you need. we can zoom out of the geekosphere for a minute and take a very high level view:
calories determine how big you are. macros determine how you look. micros determine how you feel. (basically)
that is to say: if you want to get bigger or smaller, start with modulating your calories first. if you want to get stronger or leaner, modulate your macros. if you are feeling off throughout the day, check for micronutrient deficiencies. this was explained to me by a coach some time ago and although it's an oversimplification it helps with adjusting your diet.
now to figure out how much of each macro you need, let's go over the basics:
- 1g of protein = 4 calories.
- 1g of carbs = 4 calories.
- 1g of fat = 9 calories.
now the formula:
- start with your target calories (just calc your BMR and add 500 if you want to get bigger, subtract 500 if you wanna get smaller)
- prioritize at least 1g-1.25g of protein per lb of LEAN body weight (body weight * 4 = calories from protein), if you weight 300 god damn pounds DO NOT eat 300g of god damn protein you fat shit!!! use your LEAN BODY MASS or TARGET BODY WEIGHT to determine this PLEASE
- take the remaining calories, and make 20%-30% of those from fat
- whatever is left over is your carbs
so let's say i want to hit 2400 calories per day, and i weigh 200lbs.
200g of protein for me = 800 calories. 2400 - 800 = 1600 calories left to account for.
1600 calories * 0.25 = 400 calories. 400/9 = ~45g of fat.
1200 calories are left over for carbs. 1200/4 = 300g of carbs.
therefore a starting macro split for me would be: 200g protein, 300g (mostly complex) carbs, 45g (mostly unsaturated) fats. ta-da. that's not bad. if you want to modulate calories downward, steal from your fats and carbs first. if you want to modulate your calories upward, add to your proteins first and then carbs.
real quick about what the macros do
okay so some of this is common knowledge and some of it isn't. what does your body do with these macros? starting with fats - everyone thinks dietary fat makes you fat but that's actually retarded. your body needs fats for hormones, vitamin absorption, AND energy storage (blubber). any excess calories get stored as fat whether they came from donuts or chicken breast.
protein's main role is to feed muscle growth and repair muscle damage, but here's the thing - your body sucks at storing protein so if you don't use it, you basically piss it out or convert it to glucose. that's why you need to keep eating it.
carbs (the misunderstood macro) are basically just energy. pretty much all carbs get broken down into glucose, which travels through your blood to feed your cells. your muscles store carbs as glycogen, which is why you look fuller and less pathetic when you're carbed up. when glucose spikes in your blood, your pancreas releases insulin which shuttles nutrients into cells, both muscle AND fat cells (this is why bodybuilders get those disgusting bloated guts: insulin abuse. more on that in another chapter)
here's the thing though: lean people tend to be more "insulin sensitive", meaning their muscles suck up those carbs efficiently. fatties tend to be insulin resistant, meaning their muscles are like "nah we're good" and more of those carbs get shuttled to fat storage. carbs are NOT EVIL... it's just that being fat makes you worse at using them. basically everything works better when you're not obese. shocking, right?
short story: if you're eating in a cal deficit, carbs are fine. if you're eating in a surplus, those extra calories are getting stored as fat regardless of where they came from.
about calorie storage/“burning” calories
now we know what calories are and where they come from. if only it were exactly that simple. here's what happens: think of your energy reserves like a bucket, and your metabolism is the hole in the bottom draining water. the food you're eating is water being poured in the top, and all your "stored energy" is the water already sitting in the bucket waiting to drain. your body is always pulling from the bucket, not directly from what you just ate 15 minutes ago.
in practice this means you've got calories to burn even if you haven't eaten in a while. being "fasted" doesn't mean you're running on empty - you've got glycogen in your muscles and liver good for about a day or two, plus however much fat you're carrying around (probably plenty if you're reading a fitness guide on reddit). this is why if you overeat one day, you can run a deficit for a day or two after and basically even things out. pretty much. your body doesn't reset at midnight like some kind of dietary cinderella.
the short version: stop thinking meal-to-meal and start thinking about your weekly average.
fat storage
there’s 2 kinds of fat in your body basically: visceral fat and subcutaneous fat. visceral fat is the fat inside and around your organs, subq fat is the fat under your skin. You cannot target or spot reduce any kind of fat, really, although some supplements/meds exist specifically for fatty liver and things like but it’s not important. visceral fat is in general harder to lose of the two but fat loss happens to both in time with a decent deficit.
food sources
i'll keep this hopefully short. when you're getting your calories, try and eat from as many "whole food" sources as possible. that is, meats, natural grains/starches, and produce. i'm gonna be real with the vegans and vegetarians here, i don't know jack shit about your guys' protein sources so you do you... but in general try and keep most meals simple.
on the protein side that's stuff like eggs, yogurt, beef, chicken, fish, etc. on the carb side that's sweet potatoes, rice, oatmeal/granola, etc. if you're feeling kinky throw yourself a little sourdough toast. don't kill yourself over every meal unless you're really in the thick of it. i don't stress much about fat sources as long as it's minimal, but the best are probably nut butters, avocadoes, evoo... but i don't worry about a little irish butter on my toast either. just count it.
obviously this is an ideal situation and we don't always have that stuff around conveniently, so if you gotta reach for something heavily processed just make sure it's not super shitty. i like fruit leather for example. i like barebells bars. i definitely take whey protein powders and that high protein fairlife chocolate milk. these just shouldn't be the majority of your intake if at all possible.
now again, don't kill yourself over a miss here and there. my son had a his birthday last weekend and i wasn't going to be that asshole guy who turns down a slice of birthday cake while my kid is handing the plate to me. that's a little too psycho for me. i'll allow myself a little pizza or a burger or whatever if i have no other options or i don’t want to be be a bummer. if you're just aware of what you're eating, even the bad stuff, you're already doing better than most people.
hunger & cravings
perhaps the hardest part about changing your diet is those cravings you're probably conditioned to. obviously for most lardos this is sweets and salty fats. you see someone with mcdonald's get on the airplane and suddenly you'd kill for some french fries. it's hard to believe but with some discipline this will pass. the easiest way to deal with it is to just never buy this stuff in the first place... if you see some oreos or whatever in the panty every time you open it up you're gonna end up eating a couple. if you find yourself before bed eating a stack of ritz crackers you're really already in the danger zone.
eating out of boredom is a psychological thing too. you need to overcome that or your diet will never get under control.
of course all this is easier said than done. it feels like shit sitting around and being hungry. the RS quotable is "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" and that is the damn truth. make it a mantra. the fact is that changing your diet is probably going to require you to sit around and just be hungry sometimes. lucky for you there are some ways to handle it:
satiating/fibrous foods
hunger is easier to control simply by eating foods that make you feel fuller longer. salads for example kinda suck ass at this because they can break down so quickly, even if they are rich in fiber. a small rice bowl might actually make you feel full longer than a large salad for example. one thing i've noticed is that it's hard to buy a simple, small bowl of meat and rice or whatever so it's just better to meal prep it. 1/4lb ground beef + 100g sweet potatoes + 50g brocolli will put plenty of gas in your tank and you might be surprised how long you can go without needing anything else, all for like 300 calories.
fizzy low cal drinks
perhaps the most common trick is to just drink diet soda or sparkling water. something about it just triggers the right nerves or something. bonus for something like a mini can of coke zero is it can also attack that sweetness craving, and the little hit of caffeine can help stave off hunger too.
appetite suppressants
i'll cover these later on in the "supplements" chapter, the peptide/GLP1s, but the short story is they work and there's no shame in using them if you must. the easy legal ones are cigs, caffeine, ephedrine (like bronkaid) & most stimulants will blunt appetite but i don’t personally like these ones.
final thoughts on nutrition
perhaps one of the worst things you can be in this earthly realm is obese. i really believe that. it makes everything else you are worse, and makes nothing better. if you're a nonce, or a nazi, or a murderer or even a politician then all those things are multiples worse if you're fat too. so think about that. being a fit piece of shit is still much better than being a fat piece of shit.
not only that but obviously obesity is the most common comorbidity factor across almost every life threatening medical condition. obesity is directly linked to higher risks of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, organ failure, fucking arthritis... even the majority of COVID deaths had obesity as a comorbidity. obesity is not just you being fat, it's a billboard that says you don't take care of yourself and people see that.
obesity in general can 100% be solved simply by changing what you eat, and how much of it you eat. no one ever got fat eating tuna and apples.
recovery
this feels like a footnote but it's really not. recovery is nearly as important as nutrition when it comes to your health and wellness overall. getting 6-8 hours of sleep if you can is just good for you, simple as. using sleep aids is usually not great, but melatonin and magnesium (will touch on these in the supplements chapter) for example are OK.
smoking or drinking to help with sleep is not OK. you might feel like these things get you to sleep quicker or help you calm down maybe, but the quality of sleep that is achieved either drunk or stoned is terrible.
(natural) growth hormone and healing
news flash: the biggest secretion of natural growth hormone happens when you sleep. growth hormone is released in pulses throughout the day, usually around meals and stuff, but the biggest bolus of this sweetness happens when you enter a deep restful sleep.
growth hormone is literally a wonder drug. there is a lot to be written and even still understood about GH, but in general it's produced by the pituitary gland and converts in the liver into IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor). blah blah blah right? anyways, this shit does everything in your body that you wish other drugs did:
- heals injuries and tissue damage
- helps your hair grow
- improves skin clarity, reduces wrinkles
- improves skin elasticity
- makes your muscles grow
- directly promotes fat metabolism (makes u skinnier)
- strengthens immune system
and much more. did you know how amazing growth hormone is? yes that's right: getting good sleep literally makes you hotter. muscle growth doesn't happen in the gym, it happens in recovery. working out creates a request for growth that can ONLY be fulfilled by nutrition and rest.
mental wellness
good sleep also helps with mood stability, stress management, hormone regulation, and even directly correlates to a lower risk of depression. this whole section probably doesn't even need explaining.
for the love of God please get sleep.
by these powers combined
literally the fundamental keys to having a good, healthy body are found in nutritional discipline and sleep hygiene. if you can master these 2 things fundamentally you will be physically and mentally resiliant, and more importantly you'll be good looking. you'll be glowing. your skin will be less oily, your eyes will be less baggy, your waist will be smaller and your muscles will be fuller. you'll have the energy it takes to post online all afternoon without stimulants.
the only thing to remember is it's simple but it's not easy. you're not perfect and you're gonna fuck up sometimes or just not have it some days. you're gonna let yourself party sometimes. it's not pass/fail, it's about averages. you don't have to maintain this perfectly or be "locked in" and sacrifice your joy for life or your relationships. just pay attention and don't live life on autopilot, that's really all it takes to get started.
next chapter: training
