A few weeks ago I sent out a series of emails to our lists and decided that it would be a great addition to the site.
These emails were written after the gyms reopened during the Corona Virus Closures and many of our clients gained weight they didn’t want to. This was written to address that, but the tips are highly effective Simple Nutrition Hacks that everyone can put in place right now whether you are reading this during the Pandemic, or at some time long after.
Go ahead and read the emails below and remember, you can’t out train a bad diet. Start making small changes today and be consistent.
These Nutrition Hacks are simple.
Mind numbingly simple.
They are not easy however.
You’ll need discipline and will power to achieve success.
Email 1
Headline:
MUST READ: Have you got the Quarantine 15 or more?
You can’t out train a bad diet.
Body:
I was going to send this email to my TPS Method list only, but decided it was going to be of value to all of you.
Last weekend I attended the Stan Efferding seminar here at TPS and it brought up some things I ‘ve been meaning to discus with all of you.
Simple nutrition strategies for success.
At TPS we have two different businesses with clients having two different types of goals.
The first is our Basic membership clients. Most of you are lifters with a primary goal of doing better at your sport, whether it is Weightlifting, Powerlifting or Strongman (for the most part).
The second is our Premium memberships where the focus is on health, strength and body fat reduction (for the most part).
Both of you should have one goal that is the same:
Getting rid of excess body fat.
Why?
Well, for lifters, excess body fat will not produce a bigger total or improved performance.
For the other group, it’s more about health and appearance.
Losing excess body fat will improve your life, your health, your self-esteem (for many) and it will improve performance in the gym and out. There is no reason to train and bust your ass in the gym and not change your nutrition habits. It will not work. If you are carrying around excess body fat it is most likely there because you are not eating properly and no amount of training will get you to reach your goals.
You can’t out train a bad diet.
It’ that simple.
But!
With a few small changes every few weeks you will see vastly improved performance, health and appearance.
Really.
It’s not complicated. Don’t confuse complicated with easy. Making dietary changes is difficult. If it was easy everyone would look like the fitness influencers we see so much.
To make things worse, we are just coming off the Covid lockdown and many of you have had to reduce training, move less and most likely, you’ve gained a few pounds.
I’m going to give you a simple plan to follow to make changes that you will feel and see in just a few short weeks, if you follow them.
The first bit of information is FREE and will only take a few minutes of your time to learn.
Read my Coaching Log from Elitefts.com here.
Before you watch the video, visit the link to the Murphwatchers article and read it.
Once you’ve done this simply pick one things to change this week.
I strongly suggest that the first change is to increase your protein intake.
I also suggest that you strive to get one gram of protein per pound of body weight. As the video says, if you are not anywhere near that amount, just add some in a little each week until you get there.
As an example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you need about 150 grams of protein daily.
Protein is the most important food category for you to consume for two primary reasons:
-
It builds muscle
It has a very high TER (Thermic Effect of Food)
Let’s look at each.
In order to build muscle, we must have the proper amount of protein. Period. Building muscle improves your body composition and increases your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), which is how many calories you burn at rest. A higher BMR is always better.
Next, Protein has a very high TER. This is how many calories your body uses from the food you ate in the digestion process.
Protein TER is about 30%!
That means that about 30% of the calories you eat from protein are burned just digesting it.
If you eat 100 calories from protein, you burn about 30 just processing it. This makes protein ideal!
It is the most difficult class of food to store as body fat, and it goes to work improving your body composition by building muscle right away!
Compare that to fat which has a TER of about which is about 3% at best, and carbs which is about 10% at best. This shows you that protein is the winner!
We need each class of food for a balanced diet, but basing our meal plan on protein sets us up to succeed. Even if you overeat a little on it, it is much less likely to be stored as body fat in the same quantity as carbs of fat due to the TER.
Watch your email over the next few days for the second part of this series. It will have more strategies to help you make simple changes that will yield huge results.
Remember, it doesn’t matter how much you train if you eat poorly.
I’m the perfect example, and if I can make changes to drop almost 100 pounds, you can too.
(NOTE: I dropped almost 100 pounds-90 to be exact. I have kept 75 of it off for several years and am very comfortable maintaining the weight I am at now.)
Email 2
Headline
MUST READ PART 2: Lose the Quarantine 15
Here are more simple strategies for success.
Body:
In the last email I promised I’d send you simple strategies to get your progress back on track, and I’m going a step over that.
I’m giving you more.
I am going to give you the tools to make more progress than you did before the lockdown.
I also believe that more of you will be open to this information than before.
Why?
Because you now see how fast not exercising and eating poorly will change your body-not for the better.
For many, in just a few short months it may seem that most of all of your gains were lost.
From what I have seen in my over 30 years as a coach, people sign up for a gym, or for personal training, or a group and they bust their asses in the gym. They train hard.
But they don’t see the results they came for as fast or some, at all.
I’m gearing this towards our clients in the Premium programs (Personal Training, TPS Method, 531, Awesome Camp), but our Basic members and lifters will all see massive benefit from it, so read it tall please!
In a nutshell, people come here and meet with me for consults and they explain their goals.
Most want to lose body fat as a primary reason for starting training.
I explain that exercise alone WILL NOT DO IT.
You must change your eating habits.
Period.
Then we see some get success because they took the advice that paid for, and some don’t.
The ones who don’t make the progress they wanted all share one simple commonality:
They eat like shit whether they realize it or not.
At the Efferding seminar, Stan said one thing he sees all the time is that even highly motivated people that follow his plans often don’t make the progress they want because they underestimate total caloric intake.
In the end, it really doesn’t matter what nutrition plan you follow as long as a few rules are adhered to:
-
(This is for losing weight, but more importantly for losing fat)
You must be in a caloric deficit-eat less calories than you burn
You must have adequate protein intake
Yup.
That’s it.
It’s simple.
It’s not easy.
Now, knowing what I have told you, I’ll reiterate and make it crystal clear.
The single most important thing you can do for fat loss/weight loss is to control your calories.
Next, get 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.
If you do those two things magic will happen.
Your performance and health will improve as well as your appearance, and for many, your self-esteem.
How do you do it?
Well, this could be a book. Wait, there are about a million books on it.
I’ll try to sum it up quickly.
Start with small changes.
Refer to the Coaching Log I linked in the last email and read it again.
Make one small change such as increasing your protein. Then, pick another one such as getting processed food out of your diet.
And then another.
When it comes to caloric control, you need to eat less than you burn.
And it doesn’t need to be a lot.
If you burn 2000 calories a day, and you eat 2500, you will not lose FAT or WEIGHT.
BUT!
A simple reduction of 100 calories this week will spur a change. Pair that with and extra day of activity/exercise and you are now burning more calories than last week, therefore losing more fat.
You do not need to be in a 500 or 1000 calorie deficit. And as a matter of fact, that may be worse than a small deficit most of the time.
Your body need fuel. Without adequate fuel for activity and recovery, it WILL burn muscle mass thereby increasing your percentage of fat.
Another huge thing that people overcomplicate is what to eat.
I’ll try and make this simple.
Once your protein needs are met, you simply make up the other calories your body needs with fat and carbs.
The percentage of each doesn’t really matter for the most part. Just don’t exceed the calories you burn and you will have success.
Here is an example.
Let’s assume that you are a 170 pound female and we decide that you should start at 12 calories per pound.
NOTE: There are many formulas to determine caloric needs, and the simplest one (not the most scientific) is 8-12 calories per pound for fat loss. I like to start on the high side and work down.
A small caloric deficit is best to begin.
Let’s do some math:
12 calories per pound at 170 pounds is 2040 calories a day.
If we need 170 grams of protein per day, and protein has 4 calories per gram, we need 680 calories from protein.
Now, follow me here; take your total caloric needs: 2040 and subtract the protein, 680 and you have 1360 calories left over per day.
Get them from whatever amount of carbs and fats that suits your palate.
Carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9, so you’ll need to do some arithmetic.
I suggest more carbs on days you lift weights and less carbs on days you don’t, but it doesn’t really matter to get started. Just be mindful of the total amount of calories you are eating and don’t go over.
If after about two weeks you are not seeing ANY changes, reduce the calories per pound by 1, go to 11 calories per pound.
You must remember that it is not a fast process and you will not lose a ton of weight in two weeks.
You may not even lose any because you may be building muscle while losing fat.
The best way to tell if things are working is to watch your abs and waist. If it is getting smaller and the abs are more noticeable, it is working.
Another area is to look at the arms. Many people see their arms getting leaner first.
Small changes are hard to notice so you may not see a lot from day to day or one week to the next, but you will see them in a few weeks.
Take pictures!
Remember, this is a super basic guideline for those with limited nutrition knowledge to get started.
And it works.
100% of the time if you follow it and track the calories properly.
Do you want more information on how to make progress?
OK.
Let me know.
Email me and I’ll write more.
Until then, start making small changes today.
In a few weeks you will see it, and feel it.
END EMAILS
I sincerely hope that you take the advice here because it works!
Small changes are not difficult to implement and when you stack a series of small changes together over a few months they add up to big changes that you never would have made if you tried to do it all at once. Implementing small changes every few weeks adds up and you might not even notice them if you do it right!
But!
In two or three months you will notice things happening and you will like them!
Get after it.
Take some before and after pictures too.
Post them in the forum and show your success to other TPSMethod.com members and be a built in support system for each other too.
Leave A Comment