Basic Guidelines for a good body composition

Hi guys, 

Sorry i have been inactive on here for a while, been pretty busy with rugby and university studies. 

As summer is creeping up i thought it would be good to give you some basic guidelines to achieve the goals you are looking for. 

A diet basically has three levels:

1. The amount of calories you require in accordance with your activity levels and your body comp goals 
2. The calorie breakdown of your diet- i.e. your protein/carbohydrate/fat ratio in relation to your goals 
3. What foods you eat to make up these calories 

People tend to put emphasis on only one or maybe two of these factors. The more advanced you get with your diet the deeper you will go into ensuring you are taking on exactly what you need. 

Today I am going to give you a very brief introduction into number 3- What foods you should eat, as i believe this is the most important. 

Here are some very brief and basic rules to follow:

Let’s start with what you can eat:

If you can hunt it or fish it

If you can grow it/ pick it 

Basically if it is natural/ it has not been tampered with… eat it.

Go for quality, locally produced organic foods 

Good carbs to eat- sweet potato, butternut squash, oats, quinoa. 

 

What you should avoid:

anything artificial- bread, sweets, cakes, coca-cola for example.   

 

It really is as simple as that… It is basically the paleo diet. Eat whatever was available to the caveman. I truly believe from personal experience that if you go natural, not only can you eat loads of it, you will shred fat and feel so energised! Load up on green vegetables and keep it natural! 

I will go into more detail of what exactly are the best natural foods to eat and for what purpose etc in posts to come. 

 

Stay tuned… Let’s get in shape 

Nutrition vs Exercise

Hi guys,

So this is my first post… here goes!

Today I will be blogging about the importance of diet in gaining a great physique and excellent body composition

Six weeks ago I started to get pains down my right leg immediately after a speed endurance session followed by a heavy leg session. I went for a scan on my spine and I have a bulging disc, which is interfering with the nerve route to my right leg. For this reason I have not been able to do any physical exercise since then and for another month following my surgical injections on Tuesday.

Anyway, that’s enough of the doom and gloom. After receiving the news that I would not be able to train for a while, I was determined to still do everything in my power to be the best athlete and best rugby player I could be throughout my rehabilitation process. One of my goals was to eat clean. The point is that I have managed to keep my muscle mass up and my fat percentage down during this six-week period of no exercise solely through eating a clean diet. So this leads me to the question; “what is more influential on our body composition, exercise or nutrition?”

Don’t get me wrong exercise is of course paramount in achieving performance goals for athletes, improving general health and of course in gaining that aesthetic physique every man wants these days. Being an athlete myself I love the gym and all aspects of conditioning. I am in no way recommending you stop exercising or train any less than you currently do. I am merely making the point that a clean diet results in a better body composition (fat mass against muscle mass) far more than most people realize. From my experience over the last six weeks I have experienced this first hand. I have been astounded at the shape I have managed to get into without exercise just from eating clean organic foods and ensuring my daily intake of macronutrients has been bang on. In the ideal world “eating clean and training mean” is the best method, but for those who have little time to exercise or at present like me cannot exercise for whatever reason, I am proving that diet is instrumental in achieving your fitness goals. That old cliché “abs are made in the kitchen” is evidently true.

To sum up, it is fair to say then that you can make improvements to your body composition just from eating clean even if you are not exercising. You will not achieve your fitness goals as quickly or at all if you exercise but have a poor diet. A combination of the two is of course the best way to get in shape and achieve your goals, however I believe that diet is the biggest factor in having a good body composition. Moreover, not only have I kept in shape, my skin has got better, my immune system is strong and I feel full of energy!

The long-term benefit of eating healthily is that it helps to prevent diseases and illnesses such as coronary heart disease, but I will save going into detail on this topic for another day.    

I will be posting various meal ideas along with their recipes, which have kept me in shape for the last six weeks even without doing any exercise. I will also be posting a weekly juice recipe in my “weekly juice” section.