"You eat donuts and ice cream?? but you're ripped!"

Why "Clean" Eating is a myth, and why your diet must be FLEXIBLE in order to be SUSTAINABLE. (and yes, that is a hamburger with donuts for buns)
- By Craven

Oh boy, where to begin with this one. 


 I thought I'd make this particular blog part of the foundation of what I'm trying to get across with this site. 

We've all got those friends, you  know the one who "lift, bro" and feel compelled to take a picture of their "clean" and "healthy" meal (if I had to guess, probably brown rice with some lean chicken and some lame green item) documented on Facebook or Instagram, for the sole purpose of saying (a) check me out, I don't eat the crap you do, and (b) I've been dooped into thinking this is what "healthy' looks like.  


Newsflash. "Healthy" doesn't look like anything. Healthy is but a relative term, one that can only be applied in context and should never be used as a general term.  The misuse of "healthy" seems to go hand in hand with this idea that there are some foods out there that are inherently BAD for you.

Example: A chicken sandwich from McDonalds vs. a piece of chicken breast with half a cup of brown rice. Both meals contain EQUAL amounts of calories and identical macronutrient profiles, but upon first glance, most people are inclined to blurt THE CHICKEN AND BROWN RICE IS HEALTHIER! 

Healthier, how?

They're identical meals on a macronutrient scale. Your body's not going to think "since it's McDonalds we'd better put some of this towards fat storage because it's fast food" and by the same token, it doesn't say to itself "ITS MUSCLE BUILDING TIME" when chicken and brown rice come down the hatch.

The quality of the food in the example is another story, and I'm no way saying to make McDonalds (or any fastfood) the backbone of your life, but in the scope of calories and macronutrients, the MickyD's isn't going to make you any fatter than other foods, especially when frequency is limited.


Now, if you're sick of listening to me and don't want to accept my take on being flexible, at least watch the video below by Dr. Layne Norton (www.biolayne.com) as he's a world wide renown source on the matter of flexible dieting and almost all things training and nurtrion. 

If you like what you've read so far and want to know more about how to apply flexible dieting to your lifestyle, keep on reading and I'll throw some easy-to-do steps and numbers to help you change your diet RIGHT NOW.

Also, here's a fantastic article by Mike Samuels and his thoughts on flexible dieting!Guest BioLayne Blog Post: How to Recover From ‘Clean’ Eating by Mike Samuels

It's not magic. 

It takes conscious effort to work effectively. But that's just like anything else doing in life, so is it really that difficult? And the results you get are worth their weight (or weight lost) in gold.  

Just to make this point clear, flexible dieting is NOT an excuse to eat "junk" and go off the handle eating fast food all that garbage. I've sen guys stuff their faces with Whataburger all day claiming IT FITS MY MACROS, BRO! Only two weeks into the plan and they're increased their bodyfat and don't look any better.

 
You don't want this. 
Rule of of thumb is to try and get AT LEAST 80% of your macronutrients and/or calories from WHOLESOME, UNPROCESSED FOODS.  A grassfed ground beef patty with some bread from your bakery will always be the preferred choice over a Big Kahuna from the Big Kahuna Burger, but grass fed beef isn't always readily available when you're out living your life, so amend your diet accordingly.


There's a phenomenal e-book published called Flexible Dieting by Armi Legge with in depth research and case studies for anyone who really wants to explore this even further, but right here, right now, I'll lay out the simplest methods of what your flexible diet plan should look like, and this is MY actual marco guide that I've used for months up to this day.  174 lbs at 8% bodyfat. I can pull a 545 lb deadlift and 500 lb squat. The numbers speak for themselves.

Here's a link to an online macronutrient calculator, from the IF IT FITS YOUR MACROS plan, if you'd like to jump right into getting some numbers.

MACRO-NUTRIENT CALCULATOR

(Disclaimer: These basic formulas do not take into account individual daily activity levels, and some of the thermodynamics are in a sense "not involved" but this will help you grasp the fundamentals of what it takes to lose body fat.  You can read more about THE ENERGY BALANCE EQUATION that is involved here. 

If you want an in depth description and walk through onflexible dieting, Lyle McDonald published a fantastic book on the subject and has an extremely informative article on his site HERE

The only 'tricky' part about flexible dieting I've come across is accurately measuring portion sizes and amount of serving in foods that aren't pre packaged or weighed individually. But this is something that can be learned once you've been doing it long enough.

I also recommend using a calorie counting app for your phone or computer, they're easy to use and take all the fun math out of flexible dieting.  (Math is fun, guys!)

That's all there is to living a healthy, happy life folks.  Be sure to peep that video by Dr. Layne Norton above and check out some of the links on Flexible Dieting I've attached to this blog.  

I am providing macro nutrient coaching and meal plans if you are interested, my services are inexpensive and reliable. Feel free to contact me via email at [email protected]

Happy eating, and happy training!

Here are some awesome sites to check out!

Lyle McDonald
www.bodyrecomposition.com

Dr. Layne Norton 
http://www.biolayne.com

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