Nutrition is equally as important in training for fitness goals. You can lose weight through nutrition without proper training, but you can't lose weight by training without proper nutrition.

If you don't believe me, you don't understand thermodynamics. But that's okay - that's what this article is for.

To start off, you need to understand basic thermodynamics and caloric maintenance. Don't worry its super simple:

• Basic Law of Thermodynamics:

• In a day, you burn and consume calories. If you burn more than you consume, you lose weight, and vice versa. Weight gain and loss is literally as simple as calories in VS calories out.

• Calculate Caloric Maintenance: Click here to use my calorie calculator to find your maintenance calories

Calories and protein tracking are highly sufficient, with carbs and fats tracking being not so important to track unless you plan on stepping on a bodybuilding stage.

With that in mind, let's jump into it!

1) Eating for Cutting (Fat Loss):

• Calorie Deficit: Subtract 500 calories from your maintenance to lose one pound a week.

• Protein: 1-1.2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

• Carbs and Fats: 0.5-1 grams of carbs per pound of body weight

• Fats 0.25-0.45 gramsof fats per pound of bodyweight

2) Eating for Bulking (Muscle Growth):

• Caloric Surplus: 250-500 calories above your maintenance

• Protein: 0.8-1 gram per pound of bodyweight

• Carbs: 1.5 to 3 grams per pound of bodyweight

• Fats: 0.25 to 0.45g per pound of bodyweight.

3) Eating for Recomposition (Build Muscle & Lose Fat):

• Caloric Intake: Eat at caloric maintenance.

• Protein: 1-1.2 grams per pound of bodyweight.

• Carbs: 1-1.8 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight

• Fats: 0.25-0.45 grams per pound of bodyweight

4) Eating for Maintenance

• Same as recomp!

5) The Importance of Micronutrients and Whole Foods

Whole, unprocessed foods contain essential micronutrients to support cognitive funciton, cell protection bone health, immune function, metabolism, and overall health.

While you don't have to zero out processed foods, its important to note that a lot of processed, chemical ingredients are being linked to illnesses like cancer, alzheimer's, parkinson's, diabetes, obesity, and plenty more.

6) How to Track Progress

Two ways to track progress: Photos and Weight.

If you're doing body recomposition, your scale/weight won't drastically change compared to your body since you're staying at maintenance, so take those 'before' pics even if you don't want to because once you get to the 'after' photos, you'll be happy you did. It's also just awesome to see the gains.

If you're cutting or bulking, you can be more quantitative with your data and progress. Weigh yourself daily and track weekly changes to see whether your cut is cutting and bulk is bulking. Once you stop seeing progress, increase/decrease by another 200-300 calories and keep bulking/cutting.

Just don't jump the gun. If you don't lose weight for 3 days, don't assume you need to increase or decrease calories. But if your weight has stalled for 1-2 weeks, then go ahead and adjust your caloric intake. It's important to note that your caloric maintenane changes when you lose or gain weight, but for your purposes you don't really need to retest maintenance unless your cut or bulk is going haywire, just add or subtract 200-300 off your intial caloric targets depending on your goal.

7) Conclusion

Whether you have a bodybuilding goal of losing fat or gaining muscle or are a strength athlete looking to get stronger, nutrition is a critical part of your fitness regiment than can make or break results.

I tried my best to provide easy-to-use guidance for the general audience, but there will always be individual variance that only you or your coach will be able to recognize.

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Sources:

1. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand on Nutritional Recommendations for Bodybuilders.

2. Carbohydrate Needs for Athletes

3. Sports Nutrition: A Practice Manual for Professionals

4. Body Recomposition in Older Women Performing Resistance Training

5. Exercise Training and Protein Metabolism: Influences of contraction, protein intake, and sex-based differences.