Performance
If your diet sucks youll never reach your true strength potential.
I dont care how effective your training program is, how badly you want to
succeed, or how good your genetics are. If you want to be as strong as possible you
need to get your nutrition dialed in.
This doesnt mean you need to eat clean (I hate that term) all the time or suffer
through every meal. Rather, whatever constitutes the best diet will depend
entirely on the individual and their specific needs, goals, and preferences.
That being said, the topic of this article is strength. Not aesthetics. Not general
health. Simply brute strength. As such, I will only cover the essentials of optimal
nutrition for strength performance.
Want to tone up? Try this instead
Want to get stronger? Continue reading.
How Much Should You Eat?
Before we get into specifics such as meal frequency, timing, and composition, its
necessary to discuss total daily caloric intake.
While strength performance is affected by a variety of factors, I am of the opinion
that total daily caloric intake and macronutrient composition are paramount for
success.
In other words, the total amount and overall macronutrient composition of food
consumed is, in my opinion, the most important nutritional factors related to
strength performance.
That being the casehow much should you eat?
As noted above, it all comes down to your goals. We already established our main
goal of increased strength but, among strength athletes and enthusiasts, there are
three major goal subsets:
Fat Loss
Mass Gain
Weight Maintenance
While our overarching goal is increased strength, the subset goal will determine how
much we eat on a daily basis. As such, below Ive outlined general calorie and
macronutrient guidelines to follow based on the three goal subsets.
Fat Loss
Losing strength during fat loss is unacceptable. If your training and nutrition are in
check then, at the very least, you should be able to maintain (if not gain) strength
during a cut.
To effectively lose fat, though, it is necessary to create and maintain a caloric
deficit. While some professionals advocate creating the deficit through exercise, I
prefer to do it through strategic dieting.
To make things as simple as possible, below Ive provided the general calorie and
macronutrient recommendations that I use for myself, as well as my clients, during
a fat loss phase:
Total Calories per day*
Fats
Carbohydrates
Beef
Fish
All vegetables
Whole Eggs
All fruits
Chicken
Nuts/Nut Butters
Oatmeal
Turkey
Avocado
Rice
Whole Eggs
Olives/Olive Oil
Quinoa
Greek Yogurt
Potatoes
Protein
Unquestionably the most important macronutrient in the diet, protein must be
emphasized at each and every meal. I dont care what sources you get it from (refer
to the table above) but make sure to eat protein at every meal.
Fats
Arguably the most misunderstood and underappreciated macronutrient, fats offer
myriad health benefits. While I dont believe we need to focus on adding more fat
into our diet per se, I do believe we need to focus on emphasizing more high
quality fat sources. In other words, dont focus on adding more fat into your diet;
instead, make a concerted effort to eat fats from a variety of high quality sources
such as the ones outlined in the table above.
Carbohydrates
Easily the most overemphasized macronutrient, carbohydrates are important but
not essential to our success. By all means incorporate carbohydrates into your
routine (especially pre/post workout) but they should never be treated as the most
important component of a well-rounded diet.
Supplements
Supplements have a time and a place but its important to understand that
absolutely nothing (aside from special supplements) will benefit you more than a
well rounded diet. Be mindful and dont allow anyone to fool you into believing that
you can out-supplement a poor diet.
Real food comes first!
That being said, there are some supplements that you may find useful on your
quest to achieving superhuman strength. These supplements are listed below:
Creatine
Wrapping Up
You could train harder than everyone else.You could be the most determined lifter
in the world.You could have the absolute best training program
Butif your nutrition sucks you will never achieve your ultimate strength potential.
Never Minimal. Never Maximal. Always Optimal.