Random Nutrition Tips for Beginners

[ironwill2008]

I previously posted this thread in the 'nutrition' forum. Considering it's now that time of year when many beginners join this website as the New Year approaches, I thought it might be appropriate as a repost in this forum:






Random thoughts, in no particular order, that might help clear away some of the fog that noobs seem to have when dealing with nutrition:



*Eat the whole egg. The yolks are not silent killers. Trust me on this.


*You're not an 'ectomorph,' 'endomorph,' 'putzomorph,' or whatever; you're a human, and are subject to the same basic rules of nutrition as every other human. If you're too fat, eat a little less. If you're too skinny, eat a little more.


*Eating at night won't make you fat unless you eat past your daily calorie limit all the time.


*Eating a lot of protein won't cause your 'kidneys/liver/pancreas/name-that-internal-organ' to explode.


*Number of meals eaten in a day don't really matter. It's really just up to you. Really.


*The only 'dirty' food is food that you dropped on the floor. And even that might still be edible if you just pretend the specks of dirt are black pepper.


*Supplements are what their name implies, nothing more, nothing less.


*Eat with a slant towards good health. A few portions of fruit and veg every day won't kill you even if you don't really like them.


*'Hardgainers' exist only in the minds of those who think they are one.


*Sugar/salt/sat fat/alcohol are not necessarily the enemy; lack of moderation is.


*The biggest, most-ripped guy might not be the best source of nutrition information.


*The skinniest or fattest guy might not be the worst source of nutrition information.


*Second-guessing yourself and making constant changes on multiple fronts will only leave you chasing your own tail. Make a decision, then abide by it.


*Whenever the topic of building mass/strength comes up, it seems that too often, common sense takes a hike. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.


*Exclusionary eating plans or diets are dumb. Remember; common sense.


*Nobody can tell you exactly how many calories you need to eat every day in order to reach your goal. Use the info in the stickies, apply some basic math skillz, make a reasonable estimate, and then stick with it for 3-4 weeks.

[baker]

This should be a sticky.

[Jbizzlechizzle]

Excellent thread idea and advice! I'd tell any newcomer that most members are here to help, but please search for the answers you want BEFORE creating a thread that has been created a million times in the past.

[EjnarKolinkar]

Well I agree with everything, except I think I used to qualify as a putzomorph

[drudixon]

Op negged for common sense. There's no place for that here....

[Casedogg43]

Most of those are pretty straight forward.
I do however suggest that you eat what fits in your Nutritional Program, calories lined up etc.
Example: Yolks may make a significant difference if you eat 8 of them at breakfast, and are limited to 1800 calories a day, etc. Would be much better to eat Whites only.
Number of meals can make a difference depending on your daily schedule. Time you workout etc.

So many of these points are valid and should be understood for Noobs. Great idea.

Experience is always what works best. Learn your body and match your workouts, nutrition to meet YOUR goals and body's needs.

Can you add:
**Working out the 1st two weeks of January, then quitting, will not be a life changing event. You will only be getting in our way! LOL

[OutOfStep]

Very nice ID. New members should be forced to read this before they can create an account and start posting.

[Optimus88]

Never take advice from a red. Most of the time their advice is an attempt at trolling.

[Silvercock]

A great summary, but most new-year-resolutioners need flashy graphs, glossy doctored b4-after pics, a promise of 350% increase in testosterone, 75% off & a money back guarantee*

*Results may vary.

[Maverick2015]

How about... There is not a magic number for the amount of water to drink. Just make sure to get enough liquids in the day to avoid being thirsty (even liquids in food count).

[lucky5331]

I am new. Thanks a direct appraoch

[mirroroferised]

this should be a sticky.

qft

[banjoman23]

A great Alan post for a bump.

Many of these are principles, and not commandments per se. I grabbed them from various interviews & stuff. I'll add more if I can think of any. Enjoy...

• Keep your eyes on YOU. It's fine to get inspired by others' physiques, but you have to set your own personal standards. People tend to fixate on their weaknesses, while at the same time obsess over the strengths of others. That's a surefire way to stay eternally frustrated. It's a healthier approach to acknowledge your own strengths, and use them as benchmarks by which to bring up your weaknesses. Learn to give yourself a pat on the back for the improvements you make. Keep your eyes on YOU, don't let the achievements of others dictate your obsessions.
  
  
• March to your own beat. Everyone has advice to give, and it's important to listen, but ultimately, you have to adapt and mold all advice to your own sensibilities. Although it's not always easy, I try not to be inflexibly dogmatic about what I teach. In many cases, what's known pales in comparison to the sprawling expanse of the unknown. Over time, you'll get to know your body better than anyone else, and what some might sell as natural laws should really only be ideas or options to consider.
  
  
• On these lines, training and nutritional programs pulled from the "experts" shouldn't always be followed to the letter, especially for advanced trainees. Beginners without a clue may need to follow a script with zero deviation, since the alternative might be tripping over their own feet. But with more advanced trainees who have a more highly developed sense of individual response, there should always be a margin for personal intervention and adjustment. The best programs out there are at best good guidelines from which to morph better stuff for the individual situation.
  
  
• Question fitness advice given to you by others. "why" is one of the most powerful words you can put in your vocabulary. Investigating the reasoning behind the advice will often reveal that the answer is "just because", rendering the advice anywhere from helpful, to dangerous, to just a plain waste of time and resources. I encourage my clients, students, and colleagues to question everyone's advice, including mine. I firmly believe that the better you can sharpen your thinking, the better you can continue to sharpen your physique.
  
  
• Scientific research is not bias-free. It's not free of financial interests. It's not free of study design flaws, and it's not perfect. However, it's the best tool that we have for getting closer to understanding the way the body works, the way that nature works. As imperfect as science is, it beats the **** out of hearsay and gym dogma.
  
  
• Many folks into fitness & bodybuilding have this unproductive tendency to think in black & white extremes. They'll scapegoat certain foods, while glorifying the magic bullets. They rarely see the integration of how various components comprise the big picture.
  
  
• Maintenance of a given level of progress is indeed a legitimate goal. In fact, people should consciously build plateau phases into their programs. Everyone hates to hear this, but the plateau phases should get progressively longer. When you step back and think about it, isn't the ultimate goal a plateau of sorts? It makes good sense to give your body regular practice at maintaining. Everyone is so hell-bent on perpetually pressing forward with their goals, that it actually holds them back.
  
  
• A major training mistake I've made in the past - one I think that we've all done - is go more by the numbers than by the feel, letting the numbers dictate the workout rather than letting the muscles do it. I was overly concerned with the quantitative awareness of load progression, rather than what one of my old training partners called "finding the pump". This might be more of a bodybuilding thing than anything else, but people should work up to a point where they are indifferent towards the number stamped on the iron. Trainees should practice developing a sense of optimal resistance for the given goal of any set, even if you're completely unaware of the actual weight. Blindfolded sensation-based training, so to speak.
  
  
• Don't be overly cheap with your time off from training. Athletes' careers are notorious for being slow-motion train wrecks. There are 3 main ways your body lets you know that you need a break: Fatigue, illness, and injury. Fatigue is a bit more insidious, manifesting itself as persistent stalls or decreases in strength or endurance. Most trainees out there wallow in fatigue most of the time, which is a damn shame. Illness and injury are the classic agents of forced layoffs. The best strategy is to stay not just one, but a few steps ahead by taking a full week off from training - I'm talking don't even drive near the gym - about every 8th to 12th week.
  
  
• No one's physique ever fell apart as a result of a periodic week of rest. On the other hand, there are plenty of folks whose great physiques won't last very long, due to bad shoulders, elbows, and knees.
  
  
• Fad diets and fad diet practices should be avoided (and laughed at). Carbs will send you to hell. Sugar is worse for you than *******. Fat is no longer the bad guy, so now it's time to drink a pint of fish oil after every meal. Protein is your savior, eat as much of it as you can. If it's isolated from food and put in a pill, it's GOTTA be better for bodybuilding. C'mon now. A mix of patience + realistic progress expectations is typically the best cure for the compulsion to adopt fad practices or try fad diets.
  
  
• Stop splitting hairs over the "rules". The beauty of food is that, unlike drugs, its physiological effects have neither the acuteness nor the magnitude to warrant extreme micro-management, especially when it comes to nutrient timing relative to training. A half an hour difference here or there really isn't gonna make or break your physique.
  
  
• The first law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets by consuming a predominance of minimally processed foods is FAR more important than nutrient timing. The second law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets by consuming a predominance of minimally processed foods is FAR more important than nutrient timing.
  
  
• Bodybuilding is a breeding ground for obsessive-compulsive behavior. The irony is that many things people worry about simply have no impact on results either way, and therefore aren't worth an ounce of concern.
  
  
• Worrying about how much fat is burned while doing cardio makes about as much sense as worrying about how much muscle is built while lifting weights.
  
  
• If you have to chew it, it ain't anabolic. [/sarcasm about postworkout nutrition]
  
  
• The better someone's genetics are, the more of a dumbf*ck he is.
  
  
• Avoid food avoidance.

[Brackneyc]

Very nice ID. New members should be forced to read this before they can create an account and start posting.

If that happens, there will never be any new threads, and we already have a cat thread.

[SleeperService]

Excellent advice. This one in particular stands out:

Second-guessing yourself and making constant changes on multiple fronts will only leave you chasing your own tail. Make a decision, then abide by it.

If I could have all the time back I spend trying to serve two masters - fat loss and strength gain - I'd... err.. have a lot more time.

[ironwill2008]

Bump for resolutioners.

[hmmmm16417]

Bump for resolutioners.

what's a resolutioner?




LOL jk



good tips! at least when these questions are asked in new threads, we can just copy and paste the link to this thread

[highiso]

1% of resolutioners succeed. Good luck with your 2015 no fat-loss, no muscle-gain fitness goals.

[BiomedDood]

Solid advise.

I do my street runs on Mon/Wed mornings and pass by 24 hr fitness. Last week, I noticed place was virtually empty. I did my run this morning and noticed the parking lot was full at 6am :-).

[JungleBoots]

I agree with the possible exception on the yolks - for those of us who have to watch our cholesterol, those yolks suck.

[banjoman23]

I agree with the possible exception on the yolks - for those of us who have to watch our cholesterol, those yolks suck.

Not true.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16340654

[quietchef]

Bump for 1/1

Happy New Year's all!