In this guide we’ll cover all

the nutrition basics you need

to reach your goals. Included
is all the education you need
to empower you to build
muscle, lose fat and feel
more fit than ever before!

Want to fast-track your results?

While this is a comprehensive guide that will undoubtedly help you get
you to where you want to be, we have a team of pro coaches available
to help you guide you 1-on-1 and fast track your results

If you want to remove the guesswork and leave the heavy lifting
entirely to the pros, click HERE to schedule your FREE 15-minute
discovery call.

Have questions? We’re here for you.

If you have questions at any time, send us a DM on Instagram at
@TeamBiolayne or email [email protected] .
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 CONTENTS

Definitions 04

Calculating Energy Requirements 05

Calculating Targets for Fat Loss 09

Making Adjustments 13

Calculating Targets for Muscle Gain 14

Tracking Macros 16

Weight Fluctuations 18

Choosing a Training Program 19

Cardio Recommendations 19

Supplements 22

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 Definitions
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of how to calculate your energy requirements, we need to
define a few terms:

Calorie
A calorie is simply a unit of energy. One thousand calories yields a kilocalorie, which is also
called a food calorie. In popular culture and for our purposes, anytime we reference calories
we are referring to kilocalories (kcals).

Maintenance Calories - Maintenance calories are exactly like they sound. The number
of calories you must consume in a given day to maintain your weight. This will be equal to your
TDEE

Calorie Deficit - Simply stated, a calorie deficit is when you consume less calories than
is required to maintain your bodyweight. This will, by definition, produce weight loss and
(hopefully) body fat loss. It means you’re using more energy than you’re taking in via food
calories.

Calorie Surplus - The exact opposite of the deficit, a surplus is when you consume more
calories than your maintenance requirements, resulting in weight gain. The usual goal in a
surplus is to make sure that weight gain is mostly muscle tissue and not fat tissue.

Metabolism - The entirety of your body’s utilization of nutrients. Simply metabolism is the
yin and the yang between catabolic and anabolic processes. Catabolism is the breaking down
of large molecules into smaller molecules, and anabolism is the building of large molecules or
structures from small molecules. The digestion, absorption, and utilization of the chemical
energy from food is largely a catabolic process. The breakdown of these nutrients to capture
energy can also provide the substrates for anabolic processes such as amino acids to build
proteins.

Metabolic Adaptation - Metabolic adaptation refers to the change in basal metabolic

rate (BMR) beyond what would be predicted during weight loss or weight gain. In the case of
weight loss, your BMR may slow and during weight gain it may increase. In fact, during 10%
loss of body weight, BMR can be reduced by an average of 15%.

Now that we have some basic definitions, what do we actually do with this information? Let’s
start by calculating your maintenance calories!

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 Calculating Energy Requirements
Whether your goal is to lose fat, build muscle, reverse diet, or maintain your current physique,
the first step to coming up with accurate nutritional targets is to determine your total daily
energy expenditure (TDEE). In this section, we will walk through how to find your energy
expenditure so you can then know what your maintenance calories are (maintenance calories
are the amount of calories, aka energy, that you burn on a daily basis). Maintenance calories
are always equal to your total daily energy expenditure. Once you determine your maintenance
calories, calculating a deficit or surplus becomes easy.

Calculating maintenance calories ‘The Muller Equation’

In order to lose weight, you need to create a caloric deficit. To gain weight, you need to create
a calorie surplus. To do either of these things, you first need to determine approximately
what your maintenance calorie intake is. As you read, you will see us refer to maintenance
calories interchangeably with the term total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). To find your
maintenance calories, you first need to consider the components that make up your TDEE
using the equation listed below.

Your TDEE is the summation of all the energy you expend in a day and is comprised of:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): This is the amount of energy you expend at rest just to exist with
zero physical activity. For most of us this is around 50-70% of your TDEE on a daily basis. The
Muller Equation is going to help you determine your BMR.

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 Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT): This is all the non-exercise related movements
and activity you do in a day. For example: fidgeting, pacing, handwaving, etc. These all fall
under the NEAT umbrella. It’s important to understand NEAT is NON-PURPOSEFUL movement.
If you decide to take the stairs instead of elevator to increase your activity, that is exercise
and NOT NEAT because of the intention. NEAT can encompass around 10-30% of your TDEE.

Exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT): This is just what it sounds like; the amount of calories
you burn in a day from exercise. For most of us this is around 0-30% of your TDEE.

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): This is the amount of energy you body expends in order to
metabolize the food you eat. For most of us this ends up being around 5-10% of our TDEE.

NEAT, EAT, and TEF fall under a larger banner of “Physical Activity,” or PA.

So, overall:

TDEE = BMR + PA ( NEAT + EAT + TEF)

Looks simple, right? In order to figure out all of this, you have to calculate it. Don’t stress,
there are several calculators out there to help you do just that, however keep in mind that
these are simply estimates. Most of them will get you in the same basic range, but they may
not be 100% accurate. Some of you may already know your TDEE and you can skip to the next
section that explains how to calculate your protein targets.

The Muller Equation

This equation helps us calculate your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, which is just one part of
the TDEE formula. It uses variables such as age, lean mass (LM), fat mass (FM) and biological
sex, which is represented by a 0 if you’re a woman, or a 1 if you’re a man. This equation is our
preferred method because it accounts for most of the variables that have the biggest impact
on metabolic rate (LM, FM, Sex, and Age).

Listed below is the Muller equation:

(13.587 x LM) + (9.613 x FM) + (198 x Sex) – (3.351 x Age) + 674 = BMR

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 To show you how this works, let’s take a look at an example:

A 25 year old moderately active female has a starting body weight of 60kg and is approximately
20% body fat: Here is how she would calculate her BMR

BMR: (13.587 x 48) + (9.613 x 12) + (198 x 0) - (3.351 x 25) + 674 = ~1358 kcals

As you can see, the muller equation is a helpful calculation to help predict your BMR. However
it doesn’t end there, you still need to factor in the energy your body requires from activity,
planned exercise, and unplanned movement (NEAT). Since the Muller requires you to determine
your lean body mass and/or your fat mass, here are some ways to measure your body fat.

Measuring Fat Mass

Fortunately, there are a myriad of different ways to measure your fat mass. Below are a list of
ways you can go about it:

1. DXA scans, which use low energy X-rays to determine body fat (this is preferred)
2. Underwater weighing. Since muscle is more dense than fat (muscle sinks and fat
floats), they can use this to approximate the percentage of body fat
3. Skin calipers, which measure the folds of the skin (most accessible)
4. BIA, which is a handheld device that sends an imperceptible electric current through
your body to measure body fat (some body weight scales can do this now, as well).
5. Bod Pod, which is an air displacement plethysmograph that uses whole-body
densitometry to determine body fat
6. The old-school Navy body fat measurement, which is based off your age and sex, as
well as your waist, hip, and neck measurement

Once you have your body fat percentage, you can calculate your Fat Mass or Lean Mass
interchangeably with this simple equation.

Fat Mass (FM) = Body weight x Body fat percentage

Lean Body Mass (LM) = Body weight - Fat Mass

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 Activity Factors

If you recall, from our TDEE equation described above, you still need to account for the energy
you expend from physical activity

TDEE = BMR + PA (NEAT + EAT + TEF)

Below is a list of activity factors to help you calculate physical activity, ranging from 1.2 all the
way up to 1.9, which you will use to determine your TDEE by multiplying your BMR estimate
times the activity factor

Activity Factor Activity Type Description

1.2 Sedentary You work a desk job and don’t exercise

You work a desk job but do a small m a ount of regular exercise. Oryou don’t exercise
1.375 Light Activity but you work at a job that’s fairly active (a nurse, teacher, etc.) where you’re on your
feet for most of the day.

Most of you will probably fall into this category. Maybe you work a sedentary job, but
you train like a madman/ woman. Or maybe you train only amodest amount, but your
1.55 Moderate Activity
occupation has you on your feet all day. Someone who doesn’t t rain but works a hard
labor job would also fall into this category.

You train hard most days of the week and you also work a job where you’re on your feet
1.725 Very Active quite a bit. Typically, you’re active throughout most of the day.

You train hard and work a job that is physically intense. As anexample, maybe you’re a
1.9 Extremely Active
landscaper who also goes to the gym five days a week.

FIGURE 1. Determining your activity factor

Once you select the appropriate activity factor, multiply it by the BMR that you established
above, and you’ll have your estimated maintenance calories.

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 Putting it all together

To ensure you have your maintenance targets calculated correctly, we’ll use the working
example from earlier. For our 60 kg female detailed above, the activity factor that best
describes her daily activity levels is 1.55 (Moderate Activity). If we then take her calculated
BMR of 1370 kcals, using The Muller equation, if we multiply that by 1.55, we now know her
approximate maintenance calories or TDEE.

1370 x 1.55 = 2123.5

(round that figure up to 2124 kcals)

Calculating Targets for Fat Loss

Calorie targets for fat loss

Now that you have determined your TDEE, you can determine your starting calories based on
your specific fat loss goal.

Choosing a weekly weight loss goal

This section contains quite a bit of math, so we have done our very best to make this as
simple as possible. Of course, if it all feels too difficult, which we fully understand, we highly
recommend reaching out to our amazing Team Biolayne coaches for one-on-one nutrition
coaching. Schedule Your Free Consultation Here

In order to find the amount of calories to consume for weight loss, we need to figure out how
much weight the person would like to lose per week. We typically recommend between 0.4-
1.2% of bodyweight loss per week but no more or no less as a target. Let’s say our example
wants to target 1% of body weight loss per week, that is equivalent of 0.6 kg per week

If she wanted to target a goal of 0.6kg per week we need to determine what calorie amount is
equivalent to the weight we want to use. As detailed in some of my books, we can assume 1kg
of weight has approximately 6500 calories in it on average. So if she wants to lose 0.6 kg per
week, that means we take 0.6 kg 6500 = 3900 kcal. If we divide that number by 7 days per week
we get ~557 kcal as her daily deficit. If we then subtract that deficit from her maintenance

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 calories, we get a daily calorie target of 1,567 kcal (2124 kcal - 557 kcal).

Macro targets for fat loss

Calculating protein

Now that you have determined caloric intake, the next most important step is determining
your daily protein needs. Protein is the key macronutrient that will help you not only build
muscle during a building phase, but retain it during fat loss. This is most accurately calculated
using your lean mass, as lean tissue is more metabolically active than adipose tissue. Setting
your protein should also give some consideration to your personal food preferences and
training goals. We recommend choosing an amount of protein within the range of 2.2 - 3.0g
protein per kg of LM.

More is not always better

If you can’t stick to your protein target, consider adjusting your protein goal to an amount you
can adhere to within the recommended range. If you are pursuing fat loss and your calories
are becoming more challenging to comply with, and your protein target is currently set at the
upper end of the prescribed range, lower your protein intake to give you greater flexibility
for carbohydrate and fat containing foods. This is a great strategy for improving adherence.
Remember that adherence is the number 1 predictor of dietary success

Using our earlier example weighing 60kg with 9kg body fat, 51kg of LM, if we set her daily
protein intake at the middle of the recommended range, 2.5g/kg LM, her calculated protein
requirements will be 127.5g per day (rounded to 128g).

Calculating carbohydrates and fats

How you approach this final step completely comes down to personal preference. Research
has shown that when it comes to fat loss, how we distribute the remaining calories once protein
has been set makes little difference to fat loss outcomes. While carbohydrate is the preferred
macronutrient for glycolytic exercise such as resistance training, the same principles apply
as those previously mentioned regarding adherence. If you enjoy eating carbohydrate based
foods, set a greater percentage of your remaining calories towards carbohydrate. If you prefer
fats, allocate more to those. Ultimately, compliance to your daily calorie and protein targets
are by far the most important consideration. Stressing over some slight differences in calories

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 from fat vs carbs is not all that important in the grand scheme of things.
For those of you who hate math, we developed a quick and easy reference table for you to help
you choose a carb and fat target based on your personal preferences. This table is based on
daily calorie intakes from carbohydrate and fat, after protein calories from protein have been
deducted.

If we use our example of a female who is targeting fat loss at 1567 kcal per day and consuming
128g protein per day (128 4 = 512 kcals from protein) we need to deduct her calories from
protein to find her calories remaining from carbohydrates and fats. 1567 - 512 = 1055 kcals
remaining from carbohydrates and fats. If she is someone who wants to have a more balanced
intake (we recommend 60/40 carbs/fats for a balanced intake for those who aren’t sure what
they like) and reference the table below we can determine what her carb/fat intake should
be. At 1000 kcal remaining that is 150g carbs and 44g fat, at 1100 kcal remaining that is 165g
carbs and 49g fat. Since her calories remaining from carbs and fats are 1055 we can just go in
between those numbers which could be 158g carbs and 47g fat for example.

Final Macros = 128g protein, 158g carbs, and 47g fat

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 Table 1. Distribution of remaining calories from carbohydrate and fat after protein calories
have been subtracted. The column on the far left is the calories remaining to distribute to
carbohydrate and fat. Each column thereafter shows the breakdown of grams of carbohydrate
and fat provided by each particular breakdown at each remaining calorie level.

CHO/Fat % 10/90 20/80 30/70 40/60 50/50 60/40 70/30 80/20

2200 55/220 110/196 165/171 220/147 275/122 330/98 385/73 440/49

2100 53/ 210 105/187 158/163 210/140 263/ 117 315/93 368/70 420/ 47

2000 50/200 100/78 150/156 200/133 250/ 111 300/89 350/67 400/44

1900 48/190 95/169 143/148 190/127 238/106 285/84 333/63 380/42

1800 45/180 90/160 135/140 180/120 225/100 270/80 315/60 360/40

1700 43/170 85/151 128/132 170/113 213/94 255/76 298/57 340/38

1600 40/160 80/142 120/124 160/107 200/89 240/ 71 280/52 320/36

1500 38/150 75/133 113/117 150/100 188/83 225/67 263/50 300/33

1400 35/140 70/124 105/109 140/93 175/78 210/62 245/ 47 280/ 31

1300 33/130 65/ 116 98/101 130/87 163/72 195/58 228/43 260/29

1200 30/120 60/107 90/93 120/80 150/67 180/53 210/40 240/27

1100 28/ 110 55/98 83/86 110/73 138/61 165/49 193/37 220/24

1000 25/100 50/89 75/78 100/67 125/56 150/44 175/33 200/22

900 23/90 45/80 68/70 90/60 113/50 135/40 158/30 180/20

800 20/80 40/ 71 60/62 80/53 100/44 120/36 140/27 160/18

700 18/70 35/62 53/54 70/ 47 88/39 105/31 123/ 23 140/16

Calculating Dietary Fiber

Fiber is one of the most important considerations for both losing weight and long term health
outcomes, such as substantially decreasing the risk of cancer and heart disease. Benefits to
fiber include that it is nearly as thermogenic as protein, helps to add bulk to your food, aids
digestion, and can increase satiety. While there are few precise calculations for dietary fiber,
we recommend targeting between 10 to 15 grams of fiber per 1000 calories. If your diet is
low in fiber, it’s unlikely to be very satiating, and this can cause issues with bowel movement
frequency, leading to constipation. Further, having a low fiber diet minimizes the opportunity
to lose body fat, since fiber is significantly more thermogenic than carbohydrate and fat.
Protein and fiber are estimated as having a thermogenic effect of food (TEF) of ~30%, whereas
carbohydrates and fats are estimated at a much lower 5-10% and 0 -3% respectively.

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 Should we subtract fiber calories?

Don’t be fooled by food labels - there are still calories in dietary fiber. Fiber is not digested the
same way as a typical carbohydrate; much of the fiber you eat is fermented by the bacteria in
your digestive tract and re-absorbed as short chain fatty acids, which still gives you a good
amount of calories. The calories from fiber can range from near 0 to 4 kcal/g depending upon
the specific source of fiber (there are many). This makes it almost impossible to track each
individual fiber source, not to mention how it may change from individual to individual based
on their unique gut microflora. For this reason, we recommend tracking fiber just like you’d
track any other source of carbohydrate: at 4 kcal per gram. Better to be safe than sorry, as
well as consistent, in our opinion.

Like protein, more fiber isn’t always better. In fact, too much fiber can cause gastrointestinal
pain, bloating, constipation and malabsorption of some vitamins and minerals. Consuming a
kilogram of broccoli per day may mean a greater TEF and less overall energy intake, however
it won’t do you much good if you can’t exercise due to feeling bloated. Further, if you are trying
to build muscle which requires you to increase calories, too much dietary fiber may become
detrimental to your gains if you are unable to meet your calorie requirements. Vegetables and
fiber, especially soluble fiber, adds bulk which is great for hunger, however fiber will also pull
water into the GI tract. While this can improve feelings of fullness, it can also make you feel
very bloated if you have too much. This is one of the reasons we recommend keeping your
fiber at 10 to 15 grams per 1000 calories as mentioned above.

Example:

Let’s use a practical example to determine your daily fiber. We recommend 10-15g fiber per
1000 kcal. So, for our previous example, she is consuming 1557 kcals per day. As such, she
should target 15- 23g fiber per day intake

Making Adjustments
Adjusting calories for fat loss

After 7 days of tracking your macros and taking your body weight daily (we recommend
doing this first thing in the morning, in a fasted state, no food or fluid for the most consistent
weighing conditions), calculate your weekly average weight and compare it to your previous
week’s weekly average. If you are not losing at least 50% of your goal weight loss target on
AVERAGE then we recommend reducing carbohydrates and fats by 10% and then spend

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 another week seeing how your body responds. If you do not lose weight we recommend
decreasing by another 10%.

What if you lose too much weight?

When it comes to making calorie subtractions, there is a point at which we will advise you
not to continue making any further calorie reductions. This is known as your “calorie floor”,
where calories consumed in lower amounts can put you at risk of malnutrition and other
micronutrient deficiencies, not to mention unsustainable targets. Pay attention to your body’s
biofeedback, including sleep, fatigue, performance, hunger and libido. If these begin to suffer
dramatically, it is probably time for a diet break where you spend a few weeks at maintenance
calories.

Calculating Targets for Muscle Gain

When it comes to adding calories for muscle gain, things are slightly different and there is far
less overfeeding literature available to make specific calculations like we have for fat loss.
When it comes to gaining weight, the rate of weight gain is also VERY crucial. If you push the
rate of weight gain beyond a certain point, it’s very likely that virtually all of the excess gain will
be stored as fat in adipose. Now, I want to point out that not all weight gained during a build
is fat mass, this is even without resistance training. In the absence of resistance training,
overfeeding studies have shown increases in LM in the range of 30-50% of the total weight
gained in non-resistance trained individuals. For those who do resistance training, that range
can be much higher, and in some cases LM has been reported as being up to 100% of the total
weight gained.

Setting your calorie surplus

How much of a calorie surplus you start out with to maximize muscle gain will depend on how
quickly you are able to add LM. This is influenced by a range of factors, from the energy cost
of building new tissue, your training volume and intensity, as well as your genetics. Another
major factor is your training age, for example a novice lifter will be likely to add LM much at
a much faster rate than folks with 5+ years of consistent resistance training. One key point
we do recommend when it comes to a building phase is that you should be willing to allow at
minimum, a 30% increase in your relative body fat percentage. That is, if you started at 10%
BF, you are at least willing to go up to 13% during your gaining phase. This isn’t meant to be a
hard rule, but a rough guideline when it comes to setting expectations.

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 Based on the available research, we have compiled a quick reference guide for you below, to
help determine your starting calories for your muscle building phase.
These percentage increases are based on your experience level, as well as your muscle
building goal, i.e. a conserative, moderate or aggressive build.

Table 2. Recommended caloric surplus (% above maintenance) for lean mass gain based on
training status.

Beginner Novice Intermmediate Advanced Elite

(no training) (<1year training) (1-2 years training) (2-5 years training) (>5 years training)

Conservative 20% 15% 10% 5% 5%

Moderate 25% 20% 15% 10% 7.5%

Aggressive 30% 25% 20% 15% 10%

Example:

Let’s use the same subject we had for our fat loss phase. Our 60 kg female with a maintenance
calorie level of 2124 kcal per day. Let’s assume she’s intermediate in her training experience
and wants to be conservative to limit fat gain. If we add 10% to maintenance calories that =
(2124 kcal/day 0.10) = 212 kcal/day calorie surplus. We then add 212 kcal to her maintenance
calories of 2124 kcal to get her calorie target of 2336 kcal/day.

Recall that her protein was calculated at 128g/day. 128 g protein 4 kcal/g = 512 kcal for protein

2336 - 512 = 1824 kcals remaining for carbohydrates and fats. You can then calculate specific
carb and fat amounts using the previous table

Adjusting calories for Muscle Gain

After 7 days of tracking your food intake and taking your body weight daily, you should then
calculate your average weekly weight, then compare that to your previous weekly average. If
you fail to gain weight, increase your carbohydrate and fat intake by 5-10%.

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 Tracking Macros
Now that you have determined your calories and macro targets, let’s discuss the basics of
tracking macros and some other useful information about meal timing and calorie cycling.

Nutrition Coaching / Tracking Apps

The most familiar food tracking app for many of you is likely MyFitness Pal, as it has the
most diverse food databases globally. While it is a great food tracker, we highly recommend
downloading our very own nutrition coaching app called Carbon Diet Coach. Carbon Diet
Coach has many more useful features that will enable you to achieve even better results. Not
only does it have an awesome list of advanced features, it is also a fully functioning nutrition
coach! If any of these equations sound too overwhelming, and you aren’t in a position to work
with one of our Team Biolayne coaches, then allow Carbon to do it for you!

Download Carbon Diet Coach here.

Tracking alcohol

As one could expect, we don’t routinely give out alcohol targets, so alcohol is not listed as a
macro group in food trackers. That said, alcoholic beverages and their calories can easily be
accounted for by creating a custom food in your food tracker.

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 Using the example of a Skinny Mojito, a quick search on google tells us it contains 1 - 1.5 oz of
rum, a calorie free lemon lime soda or soda water, mint and freshly squeezed lime juice. 1.0 oz
of rum and most clear spirits for that matter, contain about 64 calories. These calories should
be allotted to either carbohydrates (4 kcal/g) or fats (9 kcal/g) or a blend of both since alcohol
can function kind of like a carb or fat in terms of it’s metabolism. So you could track one Skinny
Mojito as 10g carbs (40 kcal) and 5g fat (45 kcal) for a total of 85 kcal.

Tracking for best results

While it is nice to think we should all be able to track everything perfectly, the reality is, we are
all human, not robots. For this reason we suggest sticking to your targets within a 5% range.
If you can do this, you will do very well. If you don’t hit your targets within this range, consider
taking another week on the same targets before adjusting your calories. The last thing you
want to do is make an unnecessary adjustment.

Meal timing

We often hear people talk about intermittent fasting or completely opposing nutrition
strategies, i.e. eating 8 times per day. Well folks, we have great news; neither one is better
than the other when it comes to fat loss (or muscle gain)! What is likely the most important
factor for choosing a diet strategy is opting for an approach that works best for your personal
food preferences and schedule. While there are some small additional benefits to spreading
out your protein intake over the course of the day, for example, eating >25g of protein every
3-4 hours achieves greater muscle hypertrophy outcomes when compared to more infrequent
eating schedules, if you are someone who is struggling to be consistent with your daily protein
target, then meal timing is hardly where your attention should be.

If you are someone who is already very consistent with your daily protein intake, and you have
the means to spread out your protein intake as described above, then you may have slightly
better outcomes than having more irregular meal timing, such as leaving large windows 4hrs
or more and with low protein amounts <25g.

When it comes to carbohydrate timing and fats, this is really personal preference. There
are some folks who can’t train on an empty stomach, while others cringe at the thought of
working out with a belly full of food. Time your carbohydrates based on your needs and food
preferences. The only time I would consider being more intentional with your carbohydrate
intake is if you are someone who is dieting and your intake is getting low. For this reason I
would suggest having a greater percentage of your remaining calories from carbohydrates
than fats, and consider some calorie cycling for your training days to ensure you are in a
position to give your best effort.

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 Weight Fluctuations
Daily fluctuations in weight are TOTALLY NORMAL. There are many factors that can contribute
to day-to-day fluctuations in weight and we have listed a few to consider below:

Dietary Fiber

Weekly fluctuations in fiber intake can significantly impact your weight, leading to skewed
weight data. Soluble fiber, in particular, has significantly more physical mass than most other
foods. Soluble fiber is highly osmotic and draws water into the digestive tract. If you are
constantly changing the amount of fiber you eat from one week to the next, or your fiber type
is fluctuating by quite a bit, it can cause weight fluctuations in either direction of up to 2% of
your total body weight, and potentially more if your fiber intake is high. Aim to keep your fiber
intake within a 5-10 g range from day to day, as well as week to week to minimize the amount
of scale fluctuations caused by changes in food mass and water in the digestive tract.

Changes to exercise routine

If you are someone who is not tracking your steps consistently or following a structured
workout routine, it’s highly likely your energy expenditure is fluctuating from week to week. If
your energy balance is changing, the amount of weight you lose or gain will change.
For the most accurate weigh-ins, try to stick to a consistent exercise plan and weekly step
count. The last thing you want to do is make unnecessary calorie adjustments. Be consistent.

Hydration

Water demands vary based on overall body mass and activity levels. In general, the
recommendation for 64oz/2L per day is a reasonable amount of water to consume. There
are many ways you can hydrate; it doesn’t have to be strictly water. H2O alternatives include
liquids like sports beverages, soda (sugar containing or diet), tea and coffee, and other liquid
based foods like milk, juice etc. Like your fiber and exercise routine, try to keep your liquids
fairly consistent for consistency in weigh-ins.

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 Choosing a Training Program
We understand that choosing a training program that best supports your goals can feel
overwhelming at times, especially with all of the bogus information circulating the internet.
We have made it our mission to provide our clients, customers and followers with products
and services that are supported by science. Check out the Biolayne Workout Builder,
complete with 50+ evidence-based training programs. All of our programs were designed
with 3 scientific principles in mind and those 3 principles are: specificity, progressive overload
and adaptation.

Cardio Recommendations
Step Targets for Muscle Building

If your goal is to build muscle, we recommend holding your step count steady throughout your
muscle building phase. Adding purposeful cardio to your routine during a muscle building
phase won’t assist in your muscle building endeavors, as it will contribute to your daily energy
expenditure. If you enjoy cardio, however, there is no reason for you not to include a small
amount. If you choose to incorporate short bouts of cardio, keep it consistent from week to
week, aiming to stay within a 10% range of your typical weekly average. Ie. If your daily step
average is 10k, then you have a range of +/- 1000 steps.

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 How much is too much?

For most people, it’s unlikely a few cardio sessions here and there will have any significant
negative impacts on your hypertrophy goals. However, like most things, too much of anything
can become a problem. Research has shown that too much, especially high intensity forms of
cardio, can directly interfere with the muscle building process. Not only will additional cardio
increase your energy expenditure, it may also negatively impact your recovery and, as a result,
negatively impact your resistance training sessions.

Step targets during fat loss

If you are beginning a fat loss phase, you will likely need to add more forms of cardio to your
weekly average step count over the course of the diet. Walking alone will contribute towards
your total daily energy expenditure, however the amount is likely to be low. Humans adapt
quite quickly to exercise so, for many, only adding steps may not be enough. How much and
what type of cardio is recommended? There is no ideal form of cardio, and the amount will
vary from person to person, depending on their goals.

Making adjustments to cardio during fat loss

Undoubtedly, there will come a point in time during your fat loss phase where your weight loss
begins to plateau. Don’t worry, this is normal. You can and will break through those plateaus by
continuing to make decreases to your calorie targets, but there may come a time when your
calorie targets become rather uncomfortable, and taking them lower may be setting yourself
up for failure. At this point, you may need to consider increasing your activity levels instead.

Some practical weekly cardio additions can include increasing your daily step count by 10-
15%, or adding an extra 30 – 60 mins of HIT/HIIT per week. The modality is less important than
the duration, so choose a form you enjoy, and opt for convenience cardio based on what’s
available at your local gym. We like 1 minute hard x 1 minute easy intervals on the stairmaster
or treadmill, taking a group fitness class, or a light full body circuit. The ideal scenario is to
diet on as high of a calorie target as possible, with as little planned cardio as possible, while
still achieving your weekly weight loss target!

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 What if I am already doing a lot of cardio?

“A lot” is quite subjective, so for definitive purposes we’ll define “a lot” as being >7 hrs planned
cardio per week. If this is you, this will likely need to be your baseline cardio, making it difficult
to increase cardio before running out of hours in the day. This can be incredibly frustrating
and difficult to maintain, so at this point we would recommend pausing fat loss for now and
transitioning into a reverse diet.

The importance of consistency

Let me say just one more time how important it is to be consistent with your training! This
goes for both your cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. If you are someone who is
frequently changing your workout program or your weekly step count, and your cardio routine
is all over the place, this will reduce the likelihood of you achieving your goal. All of these
variables influence your total weekly energy expenditure.

If you fall behind on your step goal one week, or you expend fewer calories due to inconsistent
training intensity or cardio frequency, you may end up expending significantly less energy
which takes you out of your calorie deficit. And guess what - this is when weight loss stalls.
Couple this with a week of poor dietary adherence, untracked bites, licks, and tastes, and the
next thing you know you are in a caloric surplus. To put it simply, make sure you are consistent
with your steps and your workout program, log your weights, and stick with your week to week
cardio routine for the best results.

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 Supplements
What supplements are helpful?

It’s important to note that supplements are NOT necessary to achieve great results. Many
supplements are overpriced and ineffective. That said, there are a few that have performance
benefits and can help support proper training. We have tried to limit our list to those that have
a direct impact on body composition, strength, or performance.

Layne Norton developed his own evidenced-based supplement line called Outwork Nutrition
to support his training goals. To learn more, click here.

Whey Protein
Dose: As needed to meet protein needs (please refer back to section on protein).

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of published research studies demonstrating the
effectiveness of whey protein. Whey protein is very high quality, very bioavailable, and very
high in essential amino acid content. It has also been demonstrated to increase lean body
mass, strength, and performance. Whey concentrate is the cheapest form of whey protein,
but it is not tolerated well by many people. Whey isolate is slightly more expensive, but it is
virtually lactose free, lower in carbohydrates and fat, and well tolerated by most people. Some
individuals may have sensitivity to the lactalbumin in whey protein and for these folks, they
will want to use a whey hydrolyzate. Whey hydrolyzate is predigested whey that is extremely

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 well tolerated, but more expensive than whey isolate.

Outwork Nutrition Build is a high quality whey protein isolate:

https://outworknutrition.com/products/build-whey

Creatine Monohydrate
Dose: 5g daily

Creatine is the king of all supplements. There are thousands of research studies on creatine
demonstrating its clinical effectiveness. Creatine has been demonstrated to increase lean
body mass, reduce fat mass, increase strength, improve exercise performance, and may also
confer cognitive benefits. It has also been demonstrated to be extremely safe for both male
and females. Only use creatine monohydrate. It is safe, effective, and the most tested form
of creatine. All other forms of creatine exist so that supplement companies can attempt to
justify charging you more.

Note: It is perfectly normal to see a small 1-2% increase in body weight while supplementing
with creatine. This is due to the way in which creatine is stored. Have no fear, it isn’t body fat! It
is simply an increase in the total amount of water inside your muscle cells.

Betaine
Dose: 2.5g

Betaine has been demonstrated to improve exercise performance, power output, and increase
lean body mass. Much like creatine, you must take it consistently to see results.

Ashwagandha
Dose: 300-600mg

Ashwagandha is a relatively new supplement, however it has several studies indicating that
it may increase lean body mass, strength, testosterone, and decrease cortisol levels. It also
may improve sleep as well.

Outwork Nutrition Recovery contains creatine, betaine, and ashwagandha:

https://outworknutrition.com/products/recovery

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 Caffeine
Dose: 1-6 mg per kg ~30mins - 1hr prior to exercise

Caffeine is another supplement that belongs in the tier with whey protein and creatine
monohydrate. Caffeine has been demonstrated to improve exercise performance, fatigue
resistance, improve power, speed, and strength. It also has been demonstrated to improve
alertness and cognitive performance. Caffeine may be unpleasant for those who are sensitive
to its effects. We recommend starting with a low dose of caffeine to assess tolerance and
then gradually increase. Some downsides to caffeine are that you can develop a tolerance
where you need a greater and greater dose to get the same effect. It also can disrupt sleep if
taken within 6 hours of going to bed.

Citrulline malate:
Dose: 6g

Citrulline is a supplement that has been demonstrated to improve exercise performance and
possibly increase muscle protein synthesis. It appears to function by being a source of blood
nitrates which have been demonstrated to improve performance and fatigue resistance.
Citrulline is converted to arginine, which can be used to synthesize nitric oxide and improve
blood flow.

Beta-Alanine
Dose: 3200mg

Beta-Alanine can improve exercise performance for intense exercise lasting longer than 45s
consecutively. It works by increasing muscle carnosine levels, which acts as an intracellular
buffer to reduce the accumulation of metabolic byproducts.

Outwork Nutrition Pre-Workout contains caffeine, citrulline malate, and beta-alanine:

https://outworknutrition.com/products/pre-workout

Multi-vitamin
A multi-vitamin certainly is not needed, but if you are concerned that your diet is not diverse
enough to get all the vitamins and minerals you need, or you are in the depths of your diet
phase and your total calorie intake is low, then consuming a multi-vitamin may be of use to
prevent developing clinical deficiencies.

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 Fish / Krill oil
Dose: Use a brand that gets approximately 1800mg EPA per day

The omega 3’s from fish oil EPA and DHA have been demonstrated to improve blood lipid
profiles, decrease inflammation, and possibly increase muscle protein synthesis. There is
some evidence that they may also increase lean body mass.

Melatonin
Dose: 1-5 mg an hour before bed

Melatonin has been shown to improve sleep scores, sleep quality, latency to sleep, and a host
of other sleep metrics. In one study, giving melatonin actually helped increase lean body mass,
likely a secondary effect due to the subjects getting better sleep, recovering better, and being
able to train harder. Further, a lack of sleep has been demonstrated to dramatically increase
hunger, decrease energy expenditure, and impair exercise performance.

Outwork Nutrition Sleep contains melatonin:

https://outworknutrition.com/products/sleep

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 Conclusion
Whew - well that was a lot of information! Our mission is to empower people to make
healthy, sustainable, lifestyle choices by way of education and we hope that you will take this
information with you in the years to come. While there is no doubt that the physical results
that can be achieved by applying this knowledge are incredible, we believe that even more
importantly, you will be transformed mentally and emotionally, as well; there is nothing quite
like discovering exactly what you are capable of.

Have questions? We’re here for you.

If you have ANY questions or need advice, please send us a DM on
Instagram @TeamBiolayne or email [email protected], we are
here to help you.

Book a FREE discovery call

If you’re interested in working 1-on-1 with one of our pro coaches,
CLICK HERE to schedule your FREE consultation.

We cannot wait to see your results - now let’s get to work!

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