THE BRIDE TO BE SERIES PART 3 – NUTRITION

In part one and two of the bride to be series I covered exercises you could work towards to help you get into killer shape for your big day but the truth is if you don’t keep your nutrition in check your results will be mediocre at best.

For any training program to be effective it needs to be paired together with a good nutrition program to enhance your results. I want to keep this post as simple as possible, I had thought about reviewing some of the most popular diet trends so that you could pick one that is right for you, but I have decided that could be a long enough post on its own.

I will keep it basic and get straight to the point.  I am going to help you create your own daily nutrition habits. This will help guide you into your wedding dress with that lean and athletic body that you desire. 

One of the hardest parts of overhauling your lifestyle is the nutrition side of things. The majority of people I come into contact with have no problem training hard to support their goals, however their problem is putting the fork down at the dinner table.

As the old saying goes you can’t out train a bad diet. 

Heres why:

Calories in vs calories out –

Your body needs a certain amount of calories everyday to keep your body, organs and brain working effectively, this is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Basically if you where to wake up tomorrow and decide to lie in bed all day and rest for a full 24 hours, your body would still burn a certain amount of calories. Check out this calculator for a rough estimate of how many calories your body needs to function without any exercise/activity. Use this calculator to give you a rough idea of the calories you need depending on your specific goals. 

There are nutrition plans out there that believe it doesn’t matter how many calories you consume as long as the food is nutritious and high quality. I do not believe in this at all because at the end of the day if you are eating 2000 calories over your calorie requirements every day you will get fat regardless if it is from grass fed steak and sweet potatoes or ice cream. Its simple maths, you are still on a calorie surplus and 2000 per day totals up to 14000 per week. An important tip to know is that you can gain weight easily by just over consuming 100 calories per day, that little 98 calorie Kit-Kat you have for lunch break 5 days a week could be the one doing the damage. 

Now it can be a headache at the start to count the calories in your meals but after a few weeks it becomes pretty simple as you begin to know exactly what foods contain and how many calories, plus there are a lot of apps out nowadays to help you. I use Livestrong Calorie Tracker which I think is great as it breaks everything down into percentages and macros. 

It is important to note that although it is calories in vs calories out, the type of calories do matter for helping out with your fitness goals and clean calories will be the best choice 90%  of the time. 

If you aren’t assessing you are just guessing!

Shopping List

Probably one of the most important if not the main one to help you with your goals. Your shopping list will help you have the right foods in the house while also letting you make delicious, nutritious and satisfying meals. 

 

If you don’t know what your shopping for though the super market can be a pain as your scouring from aisle to aisle looking for the “Health” foods. 

Below you will find a little table to help you on your next shopping trip:

 

Carbohydates

Protein

Healthy Fats

Any type of veg Focus more on dark green veg	Chicken	Avocado
Sweet/baby boils potatos	Lean Meat	Extra Virgin Olive oil(salads)
Oats	Sirloin/fillet steak	Coconut oil
Apple	Turkey	Coconut milk
Beans	Eggs	Peanut/Almond/cashew butter
Banana	Tuna	Nuts
Oranges	Cod	Fillet steak
Blueberries	Salmon/Mackerel/sardines	Sirloin steak
Strawberries	Lean Mince/lamb/pork	Mince

 

Checklist so far:

• Calorie calculator – How many calories do you need to reach your goals?
• What to put in your shopping trolley
• Last but not least Execution 

Now the bit you have been waiting for, I could have jumped straight into this instead of giving you all the boring stuff beforehand. 

You have worked out how many calories you are allowed per day using the calorie calculator link. 

The great thing about the calculator is it does everything for you, you just select the key figures you want and you are on to something good.

Ok so you will need to weigh yourself and take your height for this part. 

So we are going to pretend the internet is broken and I will give you a quick tutorial on how to set up a quick and easy rough guide to fat loss. (Any queries regarding maintenance or gain just ask me). 

We are going to look at Rosie’s stats.

Rosie’s wedding is in 10 weeks and she wants to get in the best shape of her life. She is training 4 times, weight training 3 days with one conditioning day. Rosie weighs 140lb and is 5ft 4inches, she is 30% body fat and wants to lose at least 5-7% for her big day. 

The goal is fat loss. 

I will work work out Rosie’s calories by multiplyng her weight 140lb x 12 =1680 calories . 

 

Carbs- Now we already know she is going to train 4 times per week so we will put her down as moderately active so I’m going to keep carbs at 1.2g per lb of bodyweight. 

140lb x 1.2 = 168g x 4 = 672 calories

 

Protein – You are going to aim for 1g per 1lb of bodyweight. If you weigh 140lb then you must eat 140g of protein. 

Remember 1g = 4 calories……. 140 x 4 = 560 calories

 

Healthy Fats- Use this simple sum to help work out your fat intake:

Add carbs 672 calories + protein 560 calories = 1232 calories. 

Now we need to subtract this from our starting total which was 1680 calories – 1232 = 448 calories. This is the remaining number of calories. 

REMEMBER: Fats equal 9 calories per gram, simply divide 9 into 448g and it equals 49g of fat. 

 

 

Now that we have it all worked out Rosie’s macro- nutriteint nutrition intake will look like this:

Carbohydrates – 168g 

Protein – 140g

Healthy Fats- 49g

A quick tip if you feel you do better on a lower carb diet be sure not to cut out carbohydrates entirely, keep some in there as you will need them to maintain energy levels. Also if you are reducing carbs make sure to replace them with adequate levels of healthy fats and proteins to bring you up to the required calorie level.  If fats are high keep carbs low and vice versa. 

Now that you have got your shopping done look back over the list and categorise your food and learn about what your putting in your mouth.

Try out different nutrition protocols and see what works best for your lifestyle. Things like:

• No carbs in the morning and higher carbs at night
• Intermittent fasting- 16 hour fast, 8 hour feeding window like the Renegade Diet I use
• Carb and calorie cycling
• Flexible dieting
• Keeping carbs around workout times
• 2 large meals per day, berries for snacks

REMEMBER: This is only a guide to help you get started it is up to you to monitor and assess your progress. 

When I am making recommendations to a clients nutritional plan there are a few things I have to take into consideration such as their lifestyle, working hours, and most importantly their cooking ability. 

The best piece of advice I could give you all is to pick the plan that affects your life the least, that will be the one you will stick to the best.

I hope this helps and if you have any questions or queries about any food items or diets please don’t hesitate to contact me at daniel@nolimits.fitness.

PS If you find the information useful and you would like extra motivation to help you get in shape for your big day please do no hesitate to contact me. I offer a wide variety of services that would inspire you until your wedding day. Book in for your ‘FREE’ consultation now.