Offseason Training: Nutritional Troubleshooting and FAQ Section

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Stanley Cobb
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2 Offseason Training: Nutritional Troubleshooting and FAQ Section Before we get anything started with the trouble shooting aspect of this manual I m going to actually have to ask you a few questions first. Unless you meet a certain criteria, it is best you stay to your current plan and continue the process. #1: How are you measuring your process? Methods and frequency of measuring your weight can lead to unnecessary changes to the current system which might be a successful system already, you just haven t given it time yet. If you re one of these guys who is measuring and weighing himself everyday you re going about it the wrong way. You have to move yourself backwards and start looking at the big picture instead of zooming in on the little details. For example, if you want to gain weight and you weigh yourself 2 days after you started your meal plan and you re the same weight so you think you need to change up your meal plan you are dead wrong. Weight gain doesn t (and shouldn t) happen that fast. Not to mention daily fluctuations in body weight can be anywhere from 0 8lbs depending on your size. Likewise, if you re looking to drop body fat and you think you re going to go from 15% body fat to 10% body fat in 3 weeks it is not going to happen, and if it did happen, you probably lost a bunch of muscle as well.

3 The take home rule here guys is to give it 2 weeks until you decide you need to increase or decrease your daily amount of food. Even if you weight yourself every day, which you shouldn t, give it a minimum 2 weeks before deciding to change anything up. I find this is long enough to begin to see a trend in results but also short enough that we don t waste any time. #2: Are you honestly following the diet at least 90% of the time? If this isn t on track then we have no grounds to make educated decisions from. Only if you know for sure if you are taking in a certain amount of nutrients can you make decisions from that. For example, if you re following a meal plan that is 2500 calories and you re on it at least 90% of the time, then there is a great chance you are either at or hovering closely around 2500 calories on a daily basis. So if you re goal was to gain weight and you re not gaining, or if you re goal was to lose weight and you re not losing, we know exactly what to do because we know exactly what you re taking in. It makes the decision making process very simple. Either more food, or less food. But in the scenario where you re cheating on your diet, or you re missing meals, or you don t follow in on the weekends or whatever the scenario might be, then we really have no idea what to do because we don t know what your current true number is. If we don t know where you re at, how are we going to know where to go? Following the plan to the T not only brings about the best results, but it also lays down the foundation for getting the best results in the future as well because you will have an obvious route to take.

4 ADJUSTMENTS + FAQ If you are looking to make big adjustments and you have not met the above criteria and you fell short of honestly asking yourself one of those questions, then simply continue the process as is and keep kicking ass. But, if you have met all the above criteria and things still aren t going your way, check out the adjustments below. What if I m not gaining weight? Eat more food! There is simply no way around this. Energy in vs. Energy out will determine your weight. You need to take more calories in then you re expending during the day. You are not special, you cannot make calories disappear into thin air. Eating more in always the answer to this question. But there s a smart way to go about it and a not so smart way to go about it. I recommend anywhere from calorie increments in daily intake. For example, if you re currently eating the 2500 calorie meal plan and your goal is to gain weight and after two weeks of following it you have not gained any weight. From here, we would take in an additional calories per day, preferably in the form of fats. If that meal plan was chosen for you that means ideally your carbs and your protein are already on point so the variable that is smartest to incorporate would be your daily fat intake. For the 250 calorie jump, add some healthy fats in, wait two weeks and go from there.

5 Or, if you re ready to jump straight to the 500 calorie increment, simply choose the next meal plan up. So in this scenario you would go from the 2500 to the 3000 calorie meal plan. What if I m not losing fat? The methods for the scenario where you re not losing fat is oppositeidentical to the gaining weight strategy, you just simply need to take less in. Energy in vs. Energy out is going to determine ultimately what your weight is. So if you re not expending more energy then you re currently taking in, then you re weight is going to remain stable. There are two main ways to go about creating a caloric deficit. You can either: 1. Exercise more. Which will burns more calories and allow you to eat more because you are burning more off 2. Eat less. This is more often than not the main cause of peoples plateauing fat loss. Both options effect the Energy in vs. Energy out equation effectively on different ends. The problem is, how do we do it? Once you have picked a desired fat loss meal plan you simply train your butt off for 2 weeks, follow the plan a minimum 90% of the time and assess from there. If you have not dropped any weight at all, it s time to initiate a new deficit. The main difference between meal plan adjustments for weight loss and meal plan adjustments for weight gain is that you want to make your adjustments smaller for weight loss. 250 calorie difference in daily intake maximum.

6 So take the example of a guy trying out fat loss on a 2000 calorie diet following it to the T and in 2 weeks nothing happened, you would drop down to 1750 calories per day and try again. It s important to have smaller decreases when losing weight to: Ensure you re getting as much possible food in you as you can while still losing fat. Food brings energy for hard training and has a lot of support nutrients for health and fat loss that we don t want to miss out on such as vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. You always want to be eating as much as you can while still dropping body fat. Going too low in intake is both dangerous for your health and deleterious to your performance Prevent any potential muscle loss Prevent too much hunger / cravings Ensure you re getting enough in to support the tough demands of the Offseason Training The 250 calorie deficit should preferably come from fat until you hit a maximum low point of 20g of healthy fats per day. This should be your minimum intake. If you have decrease your fat and got to this point and are still looking for further fat loss after several weeks and assessments have been made, start to decrease your carbohydrates from here.

7 In any case, you should never be below your body mass x 12 in total caloric intake. That is low enough to get somebody absolutely shredded. If you re at this and are not losing weight, check all areas where calories may be sneaking in under the radar or where the deficit may not be totally true. Such as: Juice Alcohol Various sauces (ketchup, mayo, salad dressings, bbq sauce, etc) Overdone cheat meals Poor estimation of daily intake You re not training hard enough What if I miss a meal? This is no big deal at all! Simply make up for it later on in the day. The talk of You have to eat every 2hrs or You can t combine two meals in one shot, your body can t absorb it is all complete crap and unsupported by research. If you miss a meal, simply make up for it later in the day by adding it in at some point or combining it with another meal and you ll be good to go. But at the same time, if you miss meals on a regular basis you re doing yourself a disservice. Be prepared and be on track. If it s the same meal being missed all the time maybe you need to go back to the drawing board of your meal frequency schedule and see how you can make it work better.

8 Do I get any cheat meals with this plan? 1 cheat meal per week is acceptable. But like I said, it is a meal. It is not a cheat day, or a cheat weekend or a cheat 3 hours. It is a cheat meal. It s also not advised to go crazy with it either, you guys are athletes and you should be eating like athletes. A cheat meal should simply be something that s not totally on schedule but still a normal meal. This excludes buffets, eating a whole pizza and ridiculous orders at fast food restaurants. Do I have to take all the supplements? Nope! The supplements are there to support the diet, not guide it. They are there to give you that last bit of edge that pushes performance that little bit further. By no means are they a make or break for you. Training and diet are make or break, supplements are a tiny detail in comparison to a diet. If you re going to invest your money into something to get serious results, make it the meal plan. But if you re already on the meal plan and you re a serious athlete looking for every edge he can possibly get, then by all means the supplements will help push you further to your potential. What if I m gaining too much fat? Then you are in too large of a caloric surplus, plain and simple. You are not expending enough energy to deal with the amount of energy you are taking in. The good thing is, getting fat doesn t happen overnight. Nobody ever went to bed lean and woke up and said Holy crap I m fat! thankfully it doesn t work like that. Gaining fat happens gradually and overtime

9 so if you see yourself putting on too much fat tissue, you need to cut back on your calories a bit. People often overestimate how many calories are necessary for building muscle mass so they go in a huge caloric surplus and gain both muscle and a bunch of fat in what is called a bulking cycle. Getting fat is in no way an advantage to putting on muscle, it s actually a pretty big handicap to putting on muscle. I want you to be lean so if you see yourself sliding above 12% body fat, it s time to creep down the calories. An initial 250 per day calorie deficit can normally solve the problem. You want to be eating the highest amount of calories possible while being able to remain at or under 12% body fat.

Muscle Monsters LLC 2015

Flexible Dieting How to Track Macros Muscle Monsters LLC 2015 www.musclemonsters.com 1 Let s face it, on occasion, you may not want to follow your meal plan. That is completely fine. BUT Flexible Dieting