GLADIVS

Dynamic Nutrition - Maximal Results

Operation Werewolf
by Seth Waggener
GLADIVS
Dynamic Nutrition - Maximal Results
 Table of Contents

Uh, What’s a Macro? -4

How Many of These Macros Should I Be Eating? -6
Yeah, There’s An App for That -8
Tetris Isn’t Just a Video Game - 11
Meal Prepping - 12
No, You Can’t “Eyeball” It - 14
“I’m way over on my fat, and under on my protein!” - 16
Keeping It Flexible – But Not Cheating - 17
Hey You, Keto! - 19
When to Hire a Coach - 20

Writing by Seth Waggener

Assembled by Maher Sagrillo
Copyright © All Rights Reserved

www.operationwerewolf.com
www.wildstrong.net
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 Uh... What’s a Macro?
It sounds super complicated and scientific – and using this term around your less
educated friends can make you seem really smart – but it’s actually super simple.
Macronutrients, or macros for short, are just protein, fat and carbohydrates. Each
gram of protein or carbs contains 4 calories. Each gram of fat contains 9 calories.
Macros are not separate from calories – they are what make up calories.
For example, I’m eating yogurt right now and it has 5 grams of fat, 25 carbs
and 10 protein. I don’t have to look at the total calories to know that the fat equals
45 calories, the carbs equal 100 and the protein 40, for a total of 185 calories.
Now, the science behind logging your food is also simple – calories in, calories
out. If your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or TDEE (the estimation of how many
calories you burn per day with your exercise factored in) is say 3000 calories – and
you eat 2000 calories a day, you will lose weight. That’s science. However, what will
your body look like and how will your workouts feel if you are consuming nothing
but olive oil for your daily calorie intake? I have serious doubts that any of you want
to look like that.
We’ve all seen the clickbait bullshit articles like “How did this man eat noth-
ing but Twinkies and lose 20lbs?” Well the answer is very simple – he restricted
his calorie intake. But you’re here because you want to get jacked, you want to lean
out, you want abs, you want veins running through your arms. You want to look like
me…trust me, I get it. I was a soft piece of shit for years – I was overweight for many
of those and for the rest I was big, muscular…and had a soft stomach. Then I start-
ed logging my food and using a macro-based approach to my nutrition. Now I have
veins in my legs, and I can see my abs. I’m not some massive bodybuilder, but I don’t
want to be. I favor performance over aesthetics – but aesthetics are pretty cool
too when you take your shirt off at the pool.

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Counting your macros and hitting a predetermined number, ensures you are fuel-
ing your body the right way. You wouldn’t drive around in a car with a broken fuel
gauge, and just put random amounts of gas in it, because eventually you’ll overfill
the tank or run out of gas. Your body is the same way. So let’s start treating it that
way.
People who tell me “I eat clean” – can go play in traffic. I don’t know what that
means. What’s clean food? What’s dirty food? Carbs are carbs, protein is protein, fat
is fat. Your body doesn’t care if you get carbs from Skittles or rice, it’s just carbs. Yes,
carbs have different glycemic index values and impact your body in different ways
– but from a losing weight standpoint – and for our purposes here, they are
basically the same.
Foods have different benefits. Vegetables are loaded with additional micronu-
trients that you should be taking in as well. There’s also a distinct trade-off between
some of these “junk” foods and veggies. You can eat a lot more broccoli than you can
skittles (starting to pick up on the fact I love skittles?)
If you are very hungry, a handful of skittles is not going to placate your hun-
ger the way half a pound of broccoli will. Plus you will get the added benefit of the
micronutrients in the broccoli. Again, it’s all about learning the trade-offs.

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 How Many of These Macros Should I Be Eating?
So you’ve realized you should be logging what you eat, you realize you should be
fueling your body the right way. So what does it take to fill up YOUR tank? That’s a
tough question to answer, but there are formulas out there that can ballpark it for
you. These are not exact, but they are a far cry better than just running blind. They
take into consideration your age, height, weight, exercise program, job etc.
While there are a number of formulas for estimating your TDEE and then
your macro needs, these are all only good at that, estimating – but we are talking
about beginning this process and getting you started. Of all the calculators out there
that estimate these numbers, the only one I recommend if you are going to go this
route, is the one at IIFYM.com (if it fits your macros).
These calculators also fail at figuring out something important that is different
for all athletes I have coached. Every single one of them processes fat and carbs for
energy a bit different. I can go over on my carbs and not see a real change, but even
a slight overage over a couple weeks on my fat and I can see it in the mirror. Figuring
out what works for you is something a coach can certainly help with - again, this
calculator is just an estimate and for my clients who have been using one of these,
we generally change their numbers quite a bit – but it’s what you need to get started.

Calculator URL: https://www.iifym.com/

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 Yeah, There’s an App for That
Actually there are hundreds of apps for logging your food and counting your mac-
ros – but in my opinion, one stands head and shoulders over the rest. I have tried as
many of these apps as I can and My Fitness Pal is the best in my opinion.
The paid version is $9.99 a month and it allows you to put in your macro goals
to the precise number you like. The free version only allows you to put in your per-
centages of total calories, so if your breakdown was pretty close to 40-40- 20 (40
percent carbs, 40 percent protein, 20 percent fat) that’s fine, but it wont get you
precisely to the goals you set or your coach sets for you.
Once you input your goal macros – you are ready to get started logging. When
you wake up in the morning – you open the app and your “day” is in front you. The
dashboard shows you your remaining calories and macros for the day. It breaks it
down by meal, so you as you’re cooking your 2 eggs, 4 ounces of egg whites, toast
and salmon – you click in “breakfast” and hit “add food.” Using the search button
you type in “eggs” and a number of options come up. One of them might say “large
egg” and you select that, then change the servings to “2” and it automatically logs
2 eggs for you, logs the 14 grams of protein and the 10 grams of fat and subtracts
those from your total for the day.
My Fitness Pal is also responsive and the next day when you go to log your
breakfast, it will show you your commonly logged foods and you can simply tap
each of the items for a quicker process.
IF you prep your meals ahead of time like I do, I will go into the menu and se-
lect “add meal” and will input all my lunch ingredients. 10 ounces of chicken breast,
one cup of rice, two servings of green salsa and an egg. I’ll title it “Seth Lunch” and
then I can add that to my entire week for lunch, clicking over to Tuesday, Wednes-
day etc and adding it in, so my prepared lunch is already logged every day for the
week.
That brings me to another fun way to sort of “hack” (yes I know, I hate that
term too) this process. I love eating ice cream and so does my woman. If we have
plans to hang out on a Friday night and I know we are going to eat ice cream, when
I wake up Friday morning, I logged half a pint of Ben and Jerry’s before I even eat
breakfast. That fat and carbs are now gone from my dashboard.

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Sure it means less fat for breakfast, lunch and dinner – but if the numbers are al-
ready gone, I’ll just subtract one of my eggs at breakfast and add a few more ounces
of egg whites instead. Boom, I just saved 5g of fat. I’ll eat chicken breast instead of
thighs for lunch for a savings of probably 20g of fat, sirloin steak at dinner instead of
pork, you get the picture. It’s actually quite easy to save up 40g of fat or so, if you
have ALL day to do it.
Fast forward to 10pm and I’m enjoying half a pint of ice cream, and I know
that even as I’m eating it, I’m still hitting my numbers dead on for that day. No “Cheat
Meal” needed.
That’s one of the beauties of this way of looking at food. It’s about making
trade-offs. Sure you can eat a bag of Skittles at the gym, and Lord knows I do it, a
lot…but that also means I’m eating veggies with my chicken at dinner instead of rice
because I don’t have the carbs left…thanks to me eating an entire bag of candy like
a fat piece of shit earlier in the day.

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 Tetris Isn’t Just a Video Game
Anyone who has ever logged their food knows what this chapter title means – and
you will soon enough. We have all been there…11pm, done with all your meals and
you look at the app.

“Hmmm, I have 35g of carbs left, no fat and 60g of protein.”

Now I look at that and see a number of different options. Mostly I see two scoops
of protein powder and a handful of Skittles. But when you begin logging, you will
be faced with this on a regular basis. We call it Macro Tetris. In my first month of
logging, I can remember eating sandwiches made of egg whites on hamburger buns
to hit my numbers.
Just remember, this will happen. Also remember, don’t be a dipshit and post
on public forums “what should I eat when I have 20g of protein and 64g of carbs and
2g of fat?” First of all, we all hate that person, second of all, read a fucking nutrition
label you idiot. You have numbers, there are numbers on the labels, make it work.
Generally eating the same things for lunch and dinner corrects most of these
issues. You learn to dial in your numbers – if you are consistently under on protein
but are having a hard time going over on carbs – the answer is relatively simple.
Cut some carbs out of your earlier meals and add some protein. This is not rocket
science, it’s just basic math.

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 Meal Prepping
(And Why You Should Stop Using That Term)
This is another over used term that I hate, but I’ll use it here because most of you
know what it means. You are putting food in a Rubbermaid container so you can
take it to work with you instead of eating out – so stop making it sound like you are
Rachel Ray’s skinnier half-sister. You cook dinner, you make enough for leftovers,
you put leftovers in the fridge. It’s the same thing your parents did – they called it
cooking and then called it eating leftovers. You don’t sound like an athlete when you
use this term, you sound like a self-important douche.

Ok, so I got a little sidetracked there. Planning ahead is important, whatever you
choose to call it – but seriously, stop calling it food-prepping or meal-prepping.

Once you get a feel for what numbers you need to hit at lunch, that’s when this prac-
tice becomes really valuable. I know I need about 10 ounces of chicken thighs and a
cup and a half of rice or some noodles at lunch to make sure I don’t have a big defecit
to deal with after the gym and dinner. So I typically will just play around with some
different vegetables or sauces to give my meals a little variety during the week. I’ll
cook it all up on Sunday afternoon, put the meals in containers and if I’m feeling re-
ally ambitious, I’ll use a piece of tape and mark the macro breakdown of each meal
on the top of the container (if you are logging your prepared lunches ahead of time
like you should be, this is notnecessary, but if you like logging the day of for some
reason, then put those numbers on the lid).
I also find that having a few containers in the fridge during the week with just
one macro source can be helpful with hitting your numbers later in the day, so I will
weigh out portions of fruit and make a mixed fruit bowl worth about 25g carbs and
stash those in case I get a sweet tooth during the week.
Preparation is key to having a successful week – so remember, plan ahead,
and don’t call it prepping, because you aren’t stashing MRE’s in a cellar for Y2K, you
are just putting food in a container.

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 No, You Can’t “Eyeball” It
Just like you couldn’t guess that girl’s weight at the bar last night (she was 254lbs)
you also can’t guess how many ounces of chicken you just threw in the frying pan.
Trust me – you’re off and probably by a decent amount unless you’ve been logging
for quite a while. You need a food scale. It makes things so much easier and more
accurate, so go get one before you get started.
A chicken thigh is ABOUT 4 ounces – so you grabbed 3 of them and threw
them in your lunch. Here’s the problem, one of them was 2.5 ounces, the other was
3 ounces and the last one was 3 ounces. You just logged 12 ounces of chicken thighs
in your app – that’s 32g fat and 77g protein. What you actually ate was 27g fat and
about 45g protein. That’s a significant difference – but hey, you can eye-ball it!

Weigh your food – once you’ve been logging for a year or more, if you want to start
eyeballing it, be my guest, you’ll still be missing, but at least you won’t be nearly as
bad at it as you are right now.

Scales are cheap. Buy one that weighs in grams, ounces and pounds – or just break
out the one you used to use when you sold weed – same thing, if it still works.

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 “I’m way over on my fat,
and under on my protein!”
The number one first week (for some first year) issue. You have been educated to
believe ribeye steaks, eggs, cheese, yogurt etc are all sources of protein. They are,
but a lot of them are also sources of fat…a lot of it. So let’s just take a look at my
numbers for example. I try to hit 205g protein every day. My fat right now sits at
82g. If I eat 5 eggs with my breakfast – great, 35g of protein, plus whatever I get from
my toast, maybe some bacon or salmon etc. I’m off to a good start, right? *record
skips* Wrong. Those five eggs contain 7g of protein per egg AND 5g of fat per egg.
Do the math – you cannot afford to make that trade-off if you are looking for 200
plus grams of protein and only 80 plus grams of fat. The numbers won’t add up. You
just gave up 25g of fat for the day, more than a quarter of your total – in exchange
for about one sixth of your protein. Not gonna cut it. Oh you also had two pieces of
(center cut) bacon? You also had some butter on your toast? Sorry, you’re fucked
and you’re now sentenced to eating nothing but egg whites and chicken breast like
some insecure, cat petting bodybuilder for the rest of your day.
Now let’s see what my breakfast looked like because I didn’t just start slam-
ming egg yolks like Rocky this morning. I had one egg, mixed in with 8 ounces of egg
whites. 39g protein, 5g fat. I had a piece of center bacon, two pieces of bread and
used some greek yogurt butter. Total numbers for my breakfast: 50g protein – 20g
fat – 44g carbs. Notice my protein number is about a quarter of my daily total…and
would you look at that, so is my fat! Now I can eat real food for lunch and dinner
because I didn’t just choke down some paleo-ish breakfast with 65g fat in it.
This the single biggest issue people face when they start logging. Unlearning
bullshit about their food sources. Dr. Oz is a functional retard – so don’t listen to him
when he tells you peanut butter is a good source of protein – it’s FAT.
It’s not about eating a low-fat diet, it’s about not eating an ALL THE FAT diet.
Small changes like the ones I laid out above will have you deftly hitting those num-
bers every day – without playing macro Tetris at 11pm every night.

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 Keep It Flexible - But Don’t Cheat!
The most common term for this type of eating is “flexible dieting” or “flexible nutri-
tion” – so let’s keep it that way. Yes, I want you logging every day and yes you should
be shooting to be within 5g of your goal macros every day – but this is about being
flexible – so enjoy those good foods – and if you plan ahead like I showed you in an
earlier chapter – you can enjoy your favorite foods without hating yourself after-
wards. In the more than two years since I started logging – I have logged every day.
My Fitness Pal keeps a counter for you on the app so you can see how many days in
a row you have logged.

In those two years – I had one day where I said “fuck it” and ate an entire pizza and
didn’t log it. Now, I have had other days where I simply went way over on my num-
bers, but I always still log those days.

Here’s why I think “cheat meals” and even worse “cheat days” are fucking stupid.
You are following a nutrition guideline where you can make trade-offs to eat the
foods you want. If you were one of my clients and you were trying to lose weight –
I might have you on a daily total calorie number that is 250 calories UNDER your
TDEE. So at the end of the week, you were 1750 calories under for the week. You
logged every day and hit your numbers.

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Sunday rolls around and you want to watch the big game with
your boys so you say “fuck it” and don’t log. You eat pizza and wings during the
game, slam a couple of beers – well the day is shot, so on the way home you hit the
drive-thru, because hey, it’s a cheat day, you earned it. Boom, a couple McDoubles
and a shake and you go to bed.
So the weeklong deficit we ran for you of 1750 calories – you just destroyed
in one day and now looking back on your week, that deficit is actually an overage
of about 3500 calories. Congratulations on your hard-earned cheat day. Your week
is ruined, and you gained a pound. Thankfully for you, all your friends are fat asses
who watch football and slam pizza all day too, so you’ll fit right in.
Cheat meals can happen every so often, but I say, you still log it – it will keep
you a little more honest and disciplined. Cheat days are not a thing – so stop it.

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 Hey You, Keto!
Flexible nutrition, logging your macros, whatever you want to call it – is not a nutri-
tion or meal plan, or even a diet. It’s a lifestyle and it’s one that can go hand in hand
with however you fuel your machine. I am not telling you to only fill your car with
Super Unleaded from Conoco. I am simply telling you to use a fuel gauge and make
sure you put the proper amount of fuel in the tank.
I have clients who follow a strict paleo diet – despite me thinking the Paleo
Diet is the Nickelback of athletic nutrition. Intermittent fasting, Keto, whatever you
want to follow – you should be logging your food and hitting a specific calorie/mac-
ro count every day.
In this day and age of clickbait articles, horribly misguided Netflix nutrition
documentaries and bro-science research – you can find a “study” to back up what-
ever idea you have come up with when it comes to food. The very few things we
should all agree on however – we need food, we need a certain amount of food and
if we have more or less than that certain amount – our body will make changes and
will perform differently. The only way to gauge that amount is by logging your food.

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 When Do You Need a Coach?
There are a number of reasons why you may need a coach to hire nutrition coach to
help you with your flexible dieting:

1. You have been logging consistently for more than a year and you want to make
sure your numbers are correct.
2. You need the oversight and accountability of weekly check-ins from a coach
3. You want your numbers updated as you make progress and lose weight, rather
than just winging it.
4. You are intimidated by all the information you have to process at the beginning
and you’re more likely to get started with someone guiding you step by step through
the process.

Number 4 I hope I have addressed here. My goal is not to make a bunch of money
off people from teaching them these basics. My goal is for more people to learn how
to eat properly to perform well. Even my clients, I teach them for a 6 week course
with the goal being that they learn how to do this on their own. I only continue to
work with clients after the initial 6 weeks if they request it for reasons like 2 and 3.

Reason 1 is the only time I have ever hired an outside coach to work on my numbers
with me. It was nice to finally have someone holding ME accountable instead of the
other way around and I learned a lot from the process.

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