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PHASED CALORIE STEP DOWN PROGRAM
How Do I Put This into Practice?
1. Start this program by determining how many calories you are already eating
in your present diet. You want to keep to this level of calories for this program,
but change your macro nutrient profile as follows:
Protein should be upwards of 1gm per pound of body weight.
Fats should be less than 15% of total calories, or 0.75g per kilo of body weight,
whichever is less.
Carbohydrates should form the rest of your calorie intake.
This level of fats is very low, it would just about cover lean fowl, fish and
meats, plus low fat options in other foods. It also covers you for a couple
of portions of fatty fish per week, plus a tablespoon of olive oil and flax
seed oil per day, these are required to meet essential fatty acid needs.
2. If you are unsure of what your current calorie level is, you can try two
alternatives. 1) Eat as much as you want in the first week, so long as you closely
monitor it for adjustment in the second week. 2) Use our Nutrition Calculator
to determine your maintenance calorie needs.
3. Follow the standard athletes diet for food choices, eating frequency and
number of meals. Exceptions will be highlighted below. In summary this is that
your should eat 6 meals per day, every 2-3 hours. Each meal should be a balance
of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
4. All the foods you eat should come from unprocessed foods, which reduces sodium,
sugar, trans fatty acids and saturated fats in the diet. It will also increases
complex carbs, fibre, essential fatty acids and other nutrients absent in processed
foods.
Typical examples for each macro nutrient group are tabled below:
Carbohydrates Potato, rice, oats, cereals, pulses, beans, fruits, and vegetables.
Protein Chicken, turkey, tuna, white fish, protein shakes, extra lean ground
beef, egg whites.
2-3 times per week one of salmon, trout, mackerel, or sardines (This counts
towards essential fats)
Fats Udo's choice, or GLA tablet, plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil,
plus 1 tablespoon flax seed oil per day.
2-3 times per week one of salmon, trout, mackerel, or sardines (This counts
towards protein intake)
You can substitute a meal with a meal replacement powder, a high calorie meal
supplement, or protein powders and whole fruits/vegetables.
5. During the first week, you should add 3, 30-40 minute cardio sessions per
week to your training program if you currently don't perform this level of cardio
training. It has been demonstrated that performing cardio on an empty stomach,
preferably as soon as you wake up, is best for fat loss. Your second best option
is after not eating for 3 hours.
If you must perform cardio training and weight training together, always perform
the cardio training after the weight training.
6. Each week you are aiming to lose 1-2lb's of body weight, which should ensure
you lose next to no lean mass. If you don't lose 1lb, then reduce carbohydrates
by around 100gm per day, or around 400 calories, for the following week. Don't
reduce fat or protein intake.
For heavier athlete's, these figures may be a little low, so the idea behind
it is to lose no more than 1.5% bodyweight per week, and if you lose less than
0.5% bodyweight, then reduce calorie intake.
Don't make the mistake of reducing any faster than this.
7. As carbohydrate levels drop to low levels, you may choose to increase the
amount of cardio training performed, rather than further dropping carbohydrates.
Typically, you can assume that an additional 30 minutes of moderately intense
cardio is the equivalent of reducing carbohydrates by 50gm.
Click
here to learn a greater depth of information about this program.
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