What if I told you that just about everything magazines and trainers teach you about dieting is wrong?
- What if restricting all types of food to “eat clean” isn’t the key to rapid fat loss?
- What if you could enjoy “naughty” foods every week without getting in the way of your progress?
- What if low-carb dieting isn’t necessary for getting lean? And what if you actually want to keep your carbohydrate intake quite high, instead?
- What if you didn’t have to spend an arm and leg on supplements just to make your diet work?
- What if you didn’t have to eat food every couple of hours to “stoke the metabolic fire” and could just eat on a schedule you like?
- What if you didn’t have to gorge yourself just to gain some muscle and didn’t have to put on pounds and pounds of ugly fat, either?
In short, what if I told you that proper dieting—whether you want to maximize fat loss or muscle growth—is much simpler and more enjoyable than you’ve been led to believe?
Imagine eating delicious, filling meals every day...never feeling starved or stuffed...having great energy levels and workouts...and watching your body respond exactly as you desire, dropping fat or adding muscle each and every week.
And imagine finally understanding how proper dieting really works, never again falling for the BS, tricks, and gimmicks pushed by “gurus” and other shysters.
Well, I have good news. All these “fantasies” can be a reality...if you know how to do a bunch of “little” things correctly.
You see, when you know how to diet properly—and this doesn’t mean learning to eat boiled chicken and raw broccoli six times per day—getting lean becomes simple, convenient, and dare I say... enjoyable.
Don’t believe me? Well, keep reading…
Are You Making These 3 Common (and Disastrous) Diet Mistakes?
If you feel stuck in a rut or just aren’t happy with your progress in the gym, then chances are you’re making one or more of the following mistakes...
MISTAKE #1
Eating an improper amount of calories every day
According to some “experts,” losing weight and staying lean isn’t about controlling caloric intake, but controlling the types of foods you eat. Certain foods, they say, “clog” your system and create hormone imbalances that lead to weight gain. Others “clear” the system and result in weight loss.
This is like music to millions of people’s ears who have tried and failed at some weight loss regimen that involved counting calories, or who just don’t want to have to worry about planning or tracking anything they eat.
Vilifying calorie counting and telling people they can eat more than ever and still lose weight sells books and pills, but is it scientifically honest and accurate? Absolutely not.
Ironically, most people that have told me “calorie counting” doesn’t work couldn’t actually define the word. All they knew is counting them didn’t help them lose weight.
Well, in case you don’t know, calories are nothing more than measurements of stored (potential) energy.
The “calorie counts” of various foods are simply letting you know how much potential energy the foods contain, and some foods are more energy dense than others. For instance, a tablespoon of olive oil has about 100 calories’ worth of energy, whereas a tablespoon of protein powder has about 30 calories’ worth of energy.
After asking people that swear calorie counting doesn’t work what a calorie actually is (and hearing their…interesting definitions), I usually follow that up with another question: What do you think your body does with calories?
Most people just say they don’t know or think it “stores them as fat.” Well, ironically, “it stores them as fat” is actually kind of correct. But there’s a lot more to it than that.
You see, your body requires a certain amount of energy to stay alive. Every cell in your body needs a steady supply of fuel to do its job, and it must ultimately obtain this fuel from the food we eat.
If we regularly feed our body more energy than it burns, we will gain weight in the form of body fat.1 This is known as creating a “calorie surplus,” and the larger the surplus, the more fat we’ll gain and the quicker we’ll gain it.
While a calorie surplus sounds like it should be avoided at all costs, there’s more to the story. When the goal is to maximize muscle growth, you actually want to keep your body in a calorie surplus because it accelerates the rate at which we can build muscle...but not so large that you gain fat much quicker than muscle.2
On the flip side, if we regularly feed our body less energy than it burns, we will lose fat.3 This is known is creating a “calorie deficit,” and it’s the key to weight loss.The larger the deficit, the more weight we’ll lose and the faster we’ll lose it. Unfortunately, however, if you eat too little, you’ll start losing muscle as well, which we want to avoid.4
It doesn’t matter if you count your calories or even where those calories come from. This is why Professor Mark Haub was able to lose 27 pounds on a diet of protein shakes, Twinkies, Doritos, Oreos, and Little Debbie snacks.5 If you know how to keep your body in a moderately negative energy balance over time, your total fat mass will go down. Period.
When it comes to weight loss, it’s only a numbers game. WHAT you eat doesn’t determine whether you lose weight or not…HOW MUCH does.
So, whether your goal is to lose or gain weight, the first thing you need to ensure is that you’re not eating too much or too little.
This isn’t as simple as you might think because many calculation methods promoted on the Internet are just plain wrong. More often than not, the numbers they produce are just way too high and have you eating too much to lose weight steadily or build muscle without adding a bunch of fat as well.
MISTAKE #2
Obsessing over eating “clean” foods
The cult of “clean eating” is more popular than ever these days, and it commands strict adherence to arbitrary eating do’s and don’ts.
While I’m all for eating nutritious (“clean”) foods for the purposes of supplying our bodies with vitamins and minerals, this guarantees nothing in the way of building muscle or losing fat.
You can be the cleanest eater in the world and still be weak and skinny fat.
Why? Because “clean” calories count just as much as “dirty” calories when it comes to gaining or losing fat and building muscle. Claiming that one food is “better” than another for losing weight is misleading because it misses the forest for the trees.
You see, foods don’t have any special properties that make them better or worse for weight loss. What they do have, however, are varying amounts of potential energy, as measured in calories, varying amounts of vitamins and minerals, and varying amounts of protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
These two factors–the calories contained in foods and how those calories break down into protein, carbohydrate, and fat–are what make certain foods more suitable for losing weight than others.
And I have good news for you: the “best” foods for losing weight include just about everything you could want to eat...
The truth is if you know how to regulate and balance your food intake properly, you can eat your favorite foods every day and lose weight safely and healthily.
And what about when you’re focusing on building muscle?
Well, as you know, when you want to maximize muscle growth, you need to ensure you’re eating enough to place your body in a slight calorie surplus. The types of foods you eat to accomplish this isn’t nearly as important as the amount you’re eating every day.
What that means in terms of actual numbers varies from person to person. Some people’s metabolisms are extremely fast and they require vast numbers of calories every day just to gain .5 to 1 pound per week, whereas others don’t require nearly as many.6
Part of the process of learning proper dieting is learning your body’s “sweet spots” for losing fat and building muscle, and we can help you do this with a custom meal plan.
MISTAKE #3
THINKING "A CALORIE IS A CALORIE"
We’ve all heard that “a calorie is a calorie,” and while there’s truth in this statement, it can lead us astray in our quest to build a great body.
You see, when we’re just talking about mere weight loss or gain, it doesn’t matter where these calories come from. So in this way, a calorie is a calorie.
When we’re talking about improving body composition, however (losing just body fat and not muscle, or maximizing muscle growth while minimizing fat storage), we must not only follow the principles of energy balance, but we must do so with a proper balance of macronutrients.
A macronutrient is any of the nutritional components of the diet that are required in relatively large amounts: protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
How you balance your intake of these macronutrients has profound effects on how your body responds to the foods you eat.
For example, protein is the most important macronutrient to get right when you want to optimize your body composition.
The research is crystal clear. A high-protein diet…
- Is vital for preserving lean mass when dieting for fat loss.7
- Is vital for maximizing muscle growth when dieting for muscle gain.8
- Is effective for reducing body fat levels, including abdominal fat in particular.9
- Increases satiety, helping you avoid hunger pangs and cravings.10
A high-protein diet is even more important if you’re exercising regularly, as this further increases your body’s demand for amino acids.11
Despite what you’ve been told, carbohydrates aren’t the enemy. They don’t make you fat or unhealthy.
In fact, there are big benefits to keeping carbohydrate intake as high as possible, even when dieting for fat loss, including...
- Better workout performance.1213
- Improved retention of lean mass.14
- Better thyroid function.151617
- More satiety.18
- Better mood.1920
Trust me–low-carb dieting sucks and is completely unnecessary for the vast majority of people looking to lose weight, and is downright detrimental to those trying to put on size.
The bottom line is a proper meal plan not only provides the proper amount of calories but breaks them down into the optimal amounts of macronutrients as well.
Truly Custom Meal Plans Tailored to Your Goals and Dietary Preferences... No Copy and Paste “Chicken, Brown Rice, and Oatmeal” Plans Here...
If you want to take all the thought out of dieting and get a meal plan built specifically for you, that is guaranteed to work if you simply follow it, then you’ve come to the right place!
The first thing I want you to know is when I say “custom” meal plan, I mean it.
Nothing is more frustrating than paying for a meal plan from a "guru" and receiving a bland, copy-and-paste job that doesn't take into account foods you like, dislike, your schedule, training times, and lifestyle. Who really wants to eat nothing but chicken, brown rice, oatmeal, eggs, and tuna every day? (Yes, this is the type of "custom" meal plan many coaches sell.)
That’s why we do our custom meal plans differently.
Not only do we build each and every one from scratch, we can work with any and all budgetary and dietary needs as well: vegan, vegetarian, Paleo, food availabilities, sensitivities, and allergies, and any other food preferences or restrictions.
However you need or like to eat is how we build your meal plan.
Want to see some examples? Check these out…
What this means is you’ll actually enjoy your diet. You’ll look forward to every meal, every day, which works wonders for compliance. It’s easy to stick to a diet full of foods you love!
We don’t just shoot you a plan and send you off on your way, either. We’re always available to help via email to make sure you actually get results.
Here’s How the Process Works…
Step 1
You complete your order, and then fill out a detailed questionnaire on your goals, schedule, eating preferences, and more.
Step 2
We use your answers to create your meal plan and upload it to the Website within 7 - 10 business days of receiving your completed questionnaire.
Step 3
You’re notified via email that your meal plan is ready and you access your account to download it. You check it out and let us know if any tweaks are needed. If not, you get rolling.
Step 4
If, at any time along the way, you run into any issues, we’re always available via email to answer any questions you might have and ensure everything goes smoothly for you.
Free Bonus! My Two Bestselling Cookbooks!
120
RECIPES
100
RECIPES
When you order your custom meal plan, you’ll also get access to my bestselling cookbooks The Shredded Chef and Eat Green Get Lean!
And if you want, we can even include recipes from it in your meal plan! No boring, bland meals allowed! :)
So, how much fat would you like to lose? Or how much muscle would you like to build?
Working out isn't enough. Let me show you exactly how to eat to get there!