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I’ve been lifting for years, it’s made me an animal,
There’s rules to this sh*t, I wrote me a manual.
A step by step booklet for you to get,
Your gains on track, and build a huge, strong back.
– Biggie (probably)
If you’re the first person to respond and correctly tell me know the Biggie song I’m parodying, I’ll send you a Free Anyman Fitness t-shirt from our Swag Shop, on the house!
If you wish, you can grab the N.W.A. Newsletter Playlist on Spotify here, all of the songs that have been featured in the newsletter are on the playlist.
Happy Friday, Coach J here from Anyman Fitness – and welcome to the latest edition of The N.W.A. Newsletter.
Each Friday’s N.W.A. Newsletter will have 3 parts:
- A Nutritional Tip to help make your diet healthier and easier to stick to.
- A Workout Tip to help make your training sessions more effective and fun.
- An Attitude/Mindset tip to help you strengthen your greatest asset – your mental toughness.
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I will also give you my single favorite piece of social media content from AF over the past week and link to it on either Instagram or Twitter.
Without any further ado… let’s get started, shall we?
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N.W.A. Nutrition Tip of The Week
“Carbs make you fat, fat doesn’t make you fat.”
What do you think of this statement?
I hear and see it all the time on social media.
I occasionally get clients that join our program and they get worried about a few hundred grams of carbs we tell them to eat…
They’re convinced all carbs will make them gain weight, and they should be avoided if you’re trying to lose fat.
Never mind how silly that is… literally every single one of the transformations you see here ate carbohydrates.
Every single one, no matter how much weight they lost (and some of our clients have lost well over 100 pounds in our coaching program).
So, we know that carbs don’t “make you fat”, but that’s not the part of the statement I want to focus on.
I want to focus on this part – “fat doesn’t make you fat”…
Recently, someone replied to one of my Tweets with this gem, and I had to set him straight:
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As you can see right here, there’s a LOT of people out there who are convinced that “fat doesn’t make you fat”.
These people likely have some confirmation bias – they’ve tried Keto or Carnivore and had some success with it, and they’re convinced they’ve found the “secret hack Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know about”.
I get it.
I’ve been there before.
I’ve done the whole “Keto thing”, and I must admit, I lost fat doing it and got caught up in “low carb dogma” for a bit.
But let’s dive into that “fat doesn’t make you fat” statement… what actually does make you fat?
How about protein? The heralded “king of the macros”?
Interestingly enough, super high protein diets have been studied before.
In this study, 40 highly trained men were asked to double their protein consumption and keep everything else the same over the course of 8 weeks.
To be clear, these men were already eating 0.6 – 0.9 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.
They were asked to increase that to 2 grams per pound of bodyweight (and keep all other dietary and training factors the same).
Before you try this, please understand this is an enormous amount of protein.
I eat 225 grams per day. I cannot fathom trying to eat 450 grams of protein per day.
It should also be noted 10 of these men dropped out of the study due to gastrointestinal distress… yikes…
But the results are interesting.
Nobody gained any additional body fat, or lean mass.
Their baseline numbers for both metrics remain unchanged.
This lines up with what biochemistry says about protein – it’s virtually impossible to convert protein into body fat.
A number of studies have been conducted showing excessive protein will cause scale weight increases, but those increases are universally in lean body mass (and not body fat mass).
What about carbohydrates?
Does eating excessive carbohydrates make you gain body fat?
Recent nutritional biases would point towards yes… but what does biochemistry actually say?
The process of converting carbohydrates into body fat is called de novo lipogenesis.
Once our bodies have digested carbohydrates and converted them to glucose, and our cellular glycogen levels reach their threshold, any additional carbohydrates do turn into body fat.
But the number of carbohydrates required to add body fat to your frame can be staggering…
The Mayo Clinic, for example, recommends between 225 and 325 grams of carbohydrates per day for an ordinary, healthy person.
That’s higher than I would personally recommend – our highest numbers, carb wise, with dieting clients is around 250 grams of carbs per day.
And that’s for big, tall men with a fair amount of weight to lose…
Now let’s move onto dietary fat…
Dietary fat is converted to body fat in a process called lipolysis.
This is a process the human body is incredibly efficient at.
If you eat over your maintenance, nearly all of the dietary fat you consume over your required daily calories will be converted into body fat.
The biochemistry is clear on this – most of the time, when you eat over your calorie maintenance, it’s actually the dietary fat that gets converted into body fat, not the carbohydrates or the protein.
This is a big reason why bodybuilders often eat very low-fat diets that are rich in protein and carbohydrates.
They want to add size to their bodies, but they don’t want to add any additional body fat in order to appear lean on stage.
(It’s worth noting that fat consumption helps to regulate hormones, and super low fat diets aren’t recommended for you – bodybuilders tend to have “assistance” in this area via performance enhancing drugs.)
So, what are our take-aways?
Think of it like this…
If you’re eating protein and carbs, with no dietary fat consumed, you will gain very little or no body fat, even if you eat over maintenance.
If you’re eating protein, carbs, and fats, and you eat over maintenance, the fat that is “over” your daily maintenance will be quickly and efficiently turned into body fat.
Does this mean you should eat super low fat?
Or super low carb?
Each macronutrient has its place in an overall, healthy diet.
Protein fills you up, builds/protects your muscle, and gives you a metabolic boost.
Carbohydrates give you energy, promote active recovery, and are our body’s preferred source of fuel.
Fats regulate your hormonal profile, help with the absorption of vitamins and minerals, and make your food taste amazing (very important!).
Our suggestion for you is the same suggestion we give to our clients:
Eat a high protein diet, and split up your fats and carbs based on your preferences.
Some people prefer higher carb, others prefer higher fats.
Studies have shown time and time again, both approaches will work, assuming you maintain a proper calorie deficit.
Once again, consistency, and eating less calories than you need daily over time is your #1 ally when it comes to winning the battle of the bulge.
Nothing beats the customization and personalization of a 1:1 program.
When you have a hand created, tailor-made gameplan for success, and a Coach checking in on you and holding you accountable, you’ll be shocked at how quickly you make progress.
Think a 1:1 program might be something you’d be interested in this Fall?
Tap here to learn more about how we can help you lose the weight – for good.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
If you want to get into shape, you’re going to need to learn how to be different.
Hit the gym instead of happy hour.
Pack/eat your own lunch instead of getting take out daily.
Say no thanks to crap food at parties.
Your identity is going to need to change, and you may lose friends along the way.
But your true friends won’t mind, only the “fringe” friends will stop asking you to hang out.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Anyman Fitness N.W.A. Newsletter.
I’ll be back next week.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best,
Coach J
Anyman Fitness
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