TommyFit Practical Implementation of Nutrition
TommyFit Practical Implementation of Nutrition
TommyFit Practical Implementation of Nutrition
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The You Need To Know This Shit (YNTKNS) series was designed for the simple fact
that you really need to know this shit if you care about your health, the way you look
and feel, and if you want the effort and stress you place on your mind and body
every day to be worth it.
The series you are about to dive into is revolves around NUTRITION, and this
second issue of three focusses on the PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION of nutrition,
focussing on how the fundamentals can be adopted in your life to deliver easier and
more sustainable results for your body and mind.
That's why this series was built. To cut straight through the countless hours of crap
you may find yourself digesting, and instead focus on the SHIT YOU NEED TO
KNOW to genuinely build a better body and mind, and to accelerate your progress
towards your health and fitness goals.
Once the above-mentioned topics are covered, your knowledge of Nutrition will
continue compounding into you living and breathing a better lifestyle with less effort
- resulting in you living a healthier, happier, and easier life!
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05 ESTABLISH YOUR FRAMEWORKS
06 MEAL MATRIX
07 FEEDING FRAMEWORK
09 FLEXIBLE DIETING
18 CRONOMETER V MYFITNESSPAL
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PRACTICAL
IMPLEMENTATION OF
NUTRITION
"Knowledge is not power; Implementation is power" -
Garrison Wynn
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BUILD YOUR FRAMEWORKS
Taking on a lifestyle change can be intimidating and overwhelming. That's why
the best athletes, professionals, and high-achievers you'll likely come across all
live by a set of systems and frameworks that ensure basic things like schedules,
eating routines, daily tasks etc., are all set on autopilot. This leaves more room in
your brain to focus on your life and what is in front of you and important to you.
Below are TWO key frameworks that I believe help nearly every single person I
coach or come in contact with when it comes to nutrition and dieting. These
frameworks are super simple to utilise in your own life and make dieting a lot
easier:
Note: Keep in mind that each of these frameworks, and all materials in
this document are subjective. This means you can change, manipulate,
adjust, and pivot just about everything you'll learn to suit your own
lifestyle. In fact, I strongly encourage you to do so. Remembering what
works for me, may differ for you and for the next person. Basically, be
flexible and everything your own!
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MEAL MATRIX
To help you identify, understand, and build your meal combinations each day,
you will be provided with a unique Meal Matrix you can use to construct your
"recommended food lists" comprising of your 85% whole foods, and 15% soul
foods.
The Meal Matrix is designed to categorise your favourite foods into groups so you
can easily choose foods based on your daily macronutrient and/or micronutrient
requirements.
For example, if you were provided the macronutrient goals (150g Protein, 200g
Carbs, and 70g Fats) and you needed more protein in your day to reach 150g, you
may like to choose foods you've previously identified as protein sources from the
Meal Matrix.
In the downloadable copy below, you will find a copy of my personal Meal Matrix
and a blank copy for you to make your own.
NOTE: You can essentially use your Meal Matrix as your "grocery list". This is ideal
for most people who enjoy having parameters on their diets to remain focussed.
INSTRUCTIONS: 1) Download and Make Your Own Copy of the Meal Matrix
in Google Drive here.
2) Build your own Meal Matrix with foods from the
dropdown menus or by creating your own foods.
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FEEDING FRAMEWORK
Your Feeding Structure is the daily frequency at which you plan your meals to
ensure your meals are appropriately spread throughout the day to optimise
digestion and energy. This should be suited to YOUR lifestyle and commitments.
Remember: The goal is to create a structure that YOU can follow on autopilot so
you can plan and execute on exactly what meals you will have on any given day.
This also ensure you are getting enough quality meals to prevent unnecessary
hunger and binge-eating.
Your training session should fall between two meals for performance and
recovery.
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FOOD TRACKING
BASICS
"It's not a short-term diet, it's a long-term lifestyle change" -
Unknown
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FLEXIBLE DIETING
THE RIGHT WAY TO DIET
If you haven't been living under a rock for the past 13 or so years, specifically
since the rise of social media, you'll likely have seen, heard, or tried multiple fad
diets on the internet.
Most of these diets are "severe" in nature, meaning you must succumb to very
strict parameters, rules, and sacrifices to achieve a "desired result". Most of the
time, these diets are short-lived and resented.
In my opinion, diets are subjective, meaning there is no right or wrong diet for
anyone. However in my 12 years of training, dieting, and coaching - Flexible
Dieting is the easiest, most sustainable, and simple diet to adopt for
anyone with any goal.
This philosophy basically means that there are no food constraints. Instead
your goal is to stick to the 85-15 Rule where 85-90% of foods are provided from
Quality, Nutrient-Dense, Whole Food Sources and the remaining 10-15% of your
calories can be come from "fun foods" that are not necessarily nutrient-dense or
from whole food sources.
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FOOD TRACKING - WHY?
Think about it -
If you want to gain muscle, you need to know that you are eating enough food to
build mass
If you want to strip fat or lose weight, you need to know that you are eating the
right amount of food to avoid hunger, while still maintaining muscle and energy
If you want better sleep, performance, recovery, digestion etc., you need to
know that the quality of food you are consuming actually delivers the benefits
you are seeking
Therefore we can see that to achieve any goal with precision, speed, and also avoid
insanity, we need a way to track our food consumption quantity and quality.
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FOOD TRACKING - BENEFITS?
It takes the guess work out of eating i.e. most people either under-eat or over-
eat without even realising - you can likely eat more food than you think you can,
even if your goal is to strip fat or lose weight
It broadens your knowledge and repertoire of meals i.e. when you know what
macros and micros are actually in certain foods, you can get more creative and
make magnificent tasting food (without just eating chicken, broccoli, and rice...)
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FOOD TRACKING | BASICS
Note: It's important to not only remember to weigh all foods, but also
keep your weighing consistent i.e. weighing your food cooked vs raw.
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FOOD TRACKING | BASICS
Foods that add taste and flavour should ALWAYS be tracked and eaten in
moderation. These include: Cheese, Oils, Butters, Sauces, Marinades
and most other calorie-containing condiments.
Spices and seasonings are the key to making whole foods taste amazing
and should be included in as many meals as possible when dieting. These
types of condiments have near-to-no calories and do not need to be
tracked. Examples include: Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Chilli, Paprika, Thyme etc.
(My absolute favourite spice is "All Purpose Seasoning" which I use on
almost everything!)
It is unrealistic to expect that every single meal you eat will be prepared
at home. Plus, eating out is a part of like that should be enjoyed, but in
moderation. When eating out, attempt to order foods from the menu
where you can clearly identify the ingredients e.g. Steak, Chips, and
Salad. Meals like this are easier to track and remain on target compared
to a Risotto for example.
Planning ahead is the best way to stick to your nutrition goals and
macro targets. If you know what restaurant/location you are going to,
look ahead at the menu and decide what you will order that remains
within your macros. This way you feel guilt-free when enjoying take
out, and you remain true to your goals.
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FOOD TRACKING | BASICS
As mentioned above, when ordering out your goal is to order foods with the
most simple ingredients that can be easily identified and estimated. Fried
foods, saucy dishes, or anything with a super fancy name are usually very
calorie dense and will catch you by surprise.
When looking at items on the menu, ask yourself "what are they likely
composed of?". Most of the time they will include Protein, Carbs, and Fats in
relatively standardised portions. Next, ask yourself "roughly how much of
each macro do you think will be present and can you fit this in with your
remaining macros?".
Do not be afraid to order food without sauce or to ask for your meal to not
be cooked in butter or oil. You can ask every restaurant or establishment to
substitute something or to customise it to suit your macros targets.
EXAMPLE
You may look ahead at the menu of the restaurant and order Steak, Potatoes,
and Salad. Meals like this will likely have a significant amount of Protein, Carbs,
and Fats so make sure you have sufficient macros remaining in your day, or seek
to order a lighter meal such as Grilled Chicken and Seasoned Veggies.
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READING FOOD LABELS
Understanding how to read food labels is incredibly beneficial to your ability to
diet. When purchasing food from a grocer, you need to be able to interpret what
the calorie, macronutrient, and sometimes micronutrient profile of each food is
to ensure you have the greatest success both in the kitchen and within your body.
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ESTIMATING PORTION SIZES
Sometimes tracking your calories accurately can be
difficult or near impossible - especially when getting take
away or eating out at certain establishments. However you
can use the palm of your hand to "eyeball" and "estimate"
your portion sizes when scales are not available.
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ESTIMATING PORTION SIZES
VEGETABLE portions are typically harder
to account for a universal "size" as beans
vs carrots vs cucumber clearly weigh
differently.
Fats are much harder to estimate portion sizes due to their large
caloric density compared to the actual mass of the food. A fair rule of
thumb is that approx. 15g (1 Tbsp) of most liquid oils, butters etc. will
be approximately the size of a regular sized thumb from base to tip.
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CRONOMETER vs MYFITNESSPAL
We now know how incredibly beneficial tracking our food is for achieving our health
and physique goals, but how do we actually track our food? Easy. With food
tracking applications available on mobile and desktop.
There are a myriad of food tracking applications available, however the most
common app people have heard of is MyFitnessPal (MFP). Below I compare MFP to
the best tracking app available on the market in my opinion - Cronometer.
MYFITNESSPAL (MFP)
MFP has been around forever and is widely marketed as the "go-to" tracking app
being owned by the universal brand, "Under Armour". MFP is a free-to-download
tracking application that covers basic tracking needs.
However after tracking food myself for many years, there are incredible flaws with
MFP that most people don't know about that I discuss on the next page.
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CRONOMETER vs MYFITNESSPAL
MYFITNESSPAL FLAWS
This basically means that every single food tracked in MFP has been added by a
random user somewhere in the world. This random user has entered the
calories and macros themselves, meaning that the entire food data could be
wrong
These user-generated-entries are then saved in the MFP database for all other
users to access, meaning you may track "200g of Pasta" and be forced to choose
someone else's interpretation of that particular food item
This leaves incredibly large margins for error in tracking, which can cause you to
completely blow out your calories or macro targets based on inaccurate data
MFP only displays and tracks the quantities of the foods you are eating, and
makes no mention of the quality of each food
For example, if your goal was to "increase energy", you would ideally seek to
maximise the amounts of Vitamin D, Chloride, Magnesium, Potassium,
Manganese, and the broader range of B Vitamins (B1-B12) you obtain from
foods - which MFP does not provide any data for
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CRONOMETER vs MYFITNESSPAL
MFP does not allow you to choose the unit of measure to track foods
In Australia and most parts of the world, we weigh food in grams (g) as a
consistent unit of measure. MFP does not let you choose your measuring metric,
instead only displaying the metric used by the random user who originally
created the entry
This means you may wish to weigh out 200g of Pasta, but may be forced to
choose "cups" or "fluid ounces" because the previous random user before you
used these metrics
This makes tracking food extremely difficult when trying to be efficient, accurate,
and seamless when tracking
Your particular goals are unique, therefore so are your required calories and
macronutrient goals. In order to ensure you're actually eating in accordance
with your goals, setting your daily caloric/macro goals in your tracking
application is essential
MFP does not let you manually adjust your calorie/macro targets to suit you
MFP only allows you to derive a percentage (%) ratio of your macro goals,
leaving most users either confused or misaligned, resulting in poor tracking
efforts
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CRONOMETER vs MYFITNESSPAL
CRONOMETER
Now that I have sh*t all over MFP, it's probably time I introduce you to my tracking
app of choice - Cronometer.
The reason I prefer this application is it basically fulfils all of the flaws in MFP, plus
also has extra features that are incredibly useful for a client:coach relationship.
Cronometer offers a mobile and desktop application you can check out here. There
is a free version that will likely cover most of your needs as a food tracker, although
there is a premium (Gold) version which provides unparalleled data customised to
you and your goals.
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CRONOMETER vs MYFITNESSPAL
This means that if you are going to make the effort to track your food, you would
ideally want this process to be easy, the data accurate, and ultimately - sustainable!
Cronometer has all of the features of MFP and more - including a free barcode
scanner which MFP is going to start charging people a monthly fee to use!
In saying that, you should not solely rely on the barcode scanner in Cronometer
either as foods scanned via barcode do not display useful micronutrient data.
The biggest strength of Cronometer is that 99% of whole food choices have
verified nutritional data associated with each food entry. This means that the
macro and micro information of the foods in Cronometer are incredibly
accurate, plus Cronometer verifies all the nutritional information before user--
added data is accepted into the database
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CRONOMETER vs MYFITNESSPAL
Being able to customise your own tracking goals means your Cronometer
account is personalised to you
For example if you wished to target a daily macro goals of 170g of Protein, 240g
of Carbs, and 70g of Fat - you can literally enter those numbers and Cronometer
will compute the calories automatically and allow you to track these targets
extremely closely
Understanding what vitamins and minerals are in the foods you eat is incredibly
beneficial to your overall health
This allows you to ensure you not only avoid deficiencies in any nutrient, but can
actually optimise your nutrient consumption to deliver even better holistic
results
On the free version of Cronometer you can see a simple summary of nutrients
in your diet, as well as the individual nutrients in each food you eat; while on the
premium version, you can see absolutely every available detail and data point
associated with each and every food within the 2 million+ Cronometer database
Cronometer also allows you to run reports over different time periods to see
your nutritional performance and adherence
The platform even will inform you of different foods you can adopt in your diet
should you be deficient or lack any specific macronutrient or micronutrient
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FOOD TRACKING | ACCURACY
2. Use generic entries 99% of the time: As mentioned above, you should
seek to use generic food entries from NCCDB and USDA databases only, and
avoid using the CRDB source unless you have no other options.
3. Find foods with as many nutrients as possible: If you track a food and it
only has "10 or so" listed nutrients, try and find a generic replacement with
more nutrients (up to 80 nutrients for NCCDB). It doesn't matter if your
chicken breast is Coles or Woolworths brand, chicken breast is chicken
breast so just search "chicken breast cooked or raw" and use this food entry
as it will have 78+ listed nutrients.
4. Use nutrient data to discover the true quality of your diet: This goes for
mainly whole food sources i.e. meats and fish, fruits, vegetables, potatoes,
various rices, and even types of bread. Using NCCDB and USDA data entires
will provide is with the most robust picture of your overall diet.
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
"You are what you eat - so don't be fast, cheap, easy, or fake."
- Unknown
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
Below are a variety of Sample Meal Plans you may wish to adopt should you require
inspiration or simply want to gauge what different daily calorie/macro targets could
look like. As YOU will be constructing your own meals and food combinations for
your diet, you can choose whether the below are applicable to you or not.
Remembering that these meals are ideas only and can be altered to suit your daily
feeding structure, individual requirements, preferences, and availabilities.
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
NOTE: 120P stands for 120g Protein, 205g of Carbs, and 60g of Fat
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
POST WORKOUT
MEAL 4 (DINNER)
1 x Scoop Peptide Protein
150g Porterhouse Steak (Cooked)
(Choc Honeycomb)
200g Sweet Potato (Cooked)
5g Creatine
100g Broccoli (Cooked)
5g BCAA's
50g Mushroom Sauce
1 x Apple
1 x Dairy-Free Magnum Ice-Cream
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SAMPLE MEAL PLANS
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QUICK PREP IDEAS
"People who love to eat are always the best people."
- Julia Child
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QUICK PREP IDEAS | PROTEIN
1. Rotisserie Chicken (BBQ Chicken). Almost all grocery stores have hot
rotisserie chickens ready and available to go. These are an awesome
protein-filled meat for around $10AUD which is great. I recommend not
eating the skin as it can be full of fat or sugar.
2. Low Fat Plain Greek Yoghurt. Greek yoghurts that are "plain" flavour
normally have high protein content with limited sugar and fat. Trying to aim
for the low fat option, these can be topped with fruit, peanut butter, or any
other toppings of your choice for a healthy snack on the go.
3. Canned Tuna. These super simple and easy to grab cans are packed with
protein and also provide around 95% of daily omega-3 RDI. My
recommendation is "John West" or "Sarina" in spring water or olive oil
(drained) topped with salt, pepper, and hot sauce.
5. 1% Fat Cottage Cheese. 114 grams packs of 1% Fat Cottage Cheese ~14
grams of protein. You can also use this as an evening "treat." Mix in a 10-15
grams of protein powder and some fruit and you have something sweet and
not awful for your macros.
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QUICK PREP IDEAS | CARBS
3. Rice Cakes. These super low-calorie carbohydrate snacks are a staple for
whenever I am away from home. They come in many flavours, although for
simplicity I always choose "thick brown rice cakes" as they are the lowest GI
source of rice cakes. Add avocado, tuna, or peanut butter for some
protein/fat toppings of your choice.
4. Potatoes: You can easily roast or microwave potatoes of any kind in about
40mins or 10mins respectively. These carb sources are very low calorie for
the volume of food you get per potato. My approach is always to wrap thick-
cut pieces of potato in alfoil and bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 40mins.
No oven? Microwave it is!
5. Plain Quick Oats. One of the best breakfast or pre-exercise meals on the go
I have found. I prefer these because you don't actually have to "cook" them
like Rolled Oats. Just pour on boiling water and you'll be good to go in 60
seconds. Throw in some berries and cinnamon for flavour.
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QUICK PREP IDEAS | FATS
1. Avocados. Slice it up and put it on top of rice, eggs, or mix into a bowl type
meal. Although seasonal, you can always keep avocados in the fridge in a
bowl of water to keep them ripe for longer.
3. Chia Seeds / Ground Flaxseed. Very high quality fat sources. Both go great
on top of your oats. Hemp seeds are also another similar option.
5. Hard Boiled Eggs / Other Cooked Method. This is a protein and fat combo
of roughly 6g of Protein and 5g Fat. I would leverage the other fat sources
however before resorting to hard boiled eggs as a “quick fat source.”
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QUICK PREP IDEAS | VEGGIES
1. Pre Cut Veggies Packs. Most grocery stores will have some variation of pre-
cut vegetables for you. Most common is fresh, pre-chopped broccoli florets
in a bag. Sometimes you can find stir-fry mixed vegetables with 6+ different
veggies ready to go so you just have to stir fry/steam them quickly.
2. Spinach Bags. This is how I always buy my spinach. You can easily use this
for a quick side salad or saute in a pan with some olive/avocado/coconut oil
spray to add as a side. For breakfast you can also saute the spinach in an
egg scramble (my personal favourite!)
3. Raw Veggies. What's nice about some vegetables is you can just eat them
raw! The ultimate option for no-prep veggies are carrots, red/yellow/orange
capsicum, zucchini, celery, and cucumber are all options that can easily be
eaten raw! Best option when raw is in salads or can also eat just as a single
ingredient.
4. Steam Bags. You can usually find certain vegetables ready to go in simple
steamer bags. You throw in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and they're ready
to eat. I wouldn't rely on this frequently however because of cooking them
inside the plastic. However can very useful given certain time constraints.
5. Frozen Vegetable Packets. You can typically find frozen mixed stir options
in most grocery stores for quite cheap. These are great to buy in bulk for
when you either run out early or need them in a pinch. Freezer to the
rescue!
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