How to use the Diet Templates
When you receive your diet, you’ll get 4 Excel documents along with some ancillary materials to help you on your way. The 4 Excel sheets are diets for each of the main classes of training volume:
Hard, Moderate, Light and Non-Weight Training Days
The GENERAL recommendations for diet use are as follows:
-Hard Day Diet for BIG workouts like high volume leg training, multiple sets of 10+reps, multiple exercises, and most types of high-workload training sessions that last longer than two hours and leave you broken and sweating puddles. High-level Crossfitters, we’re looking at you here.
-Moderate Day Diet for tough workouts that have you lifting heavy (5-10 reps, usually), but don’t last much longer than about 1.5 hours and don’t completely wear you out. Chest, shoulders, arms, back, and most strength phase powerlifting sessions.
-Light Day Diets are for easier training sessions that either last 45 minutes or less, or are primarily composed of heavy lifts for few total sets and reps (less than 5 reps per set on average). This diet day should also be used for most types of deloads, recovery sessions, and Crossfit MetCons.
-Non-Weight Training Day Diet should be used for days on which no weight training is done. If you do cardio on this day to lose fat, that’s just fine and no adjustments are needed. If you do cardio to enhance endurance performance (see below), use the light, moderate, or hard day diets for this instead.
Classify PERFORMANCE cardio (not fat loss cardio) as follows:
-more than 900 calories burned: hard day
-between 300 and 900 calories burned: moderate day
-less than 300 calories burned: light day
Maintaining Weight
When you open up your diet (be it cutting or massing), you’ll notice that there are 4 total tabs at the bottom of each sheet. The tabs are:
For cutting:
Base, Cut 1, Cut 2, Cut 3
For massing:
Base, Mass 1, Mass 2, Mass 3
If your goals include stabilizing your diet at your current weight, stick to the Base plan the entire time.
The Base plan is calculated on an AVERAGE metabolism, so you may need more or less calories. For all plans, we recommend weighing yourself two or three times a week and taking the average of that weight per week. All weigh-ins should be in the morning FIRST THING on an empty stomach. If week-to-week you’re losing weight on it and don’t want to, increase your fat intake. If you’re gaining weight on it and don’t want to, decrease your fat intake. We recommend subtracting fats from meals with the most carbs and adding fats to meals with the fewest carbs (avoid adding too many fats pre-workout). For those weighing less than 200lbs, adding or subtracting 1 serving of fat per day for each week they are too heavy or too light (off by more than 5lbs from their normal weight) is a good approach. For those weighing more than 200lbs, adding or subtracting 2 servings of fat at a time (per day) is best. After several weeks, you should have a good diet that fits your calorie needs and results in a stable weight. A stable weight is one which doesn’t deviate by weekly average more than about 1-3lbs (1 for those weighing closer to 100lbs, 3 for those closer to 300lbs). Keeping an Excel log may help a lot during the weight tracking process.
Cutting
When you first start your cutting plan, we recommend you start with at least one week on the Base diet, just to get used to the approach. If your Base diet is making you gain weight, adjust it down as described above. If it’s making you lose weight, keep on it until the weight loss is no longer fast enough. After this, you can begin your cutting phase by starting the Cut 1 diet. For those who weigh less than 200lbs, the goal is to lose between 0.5lbs and 1.5lbs per week. For those who weigh over 200lbs, the goal is to lose between 1.0lbs and 2.0lbs per week. If weight loss is SLOWER than those guidelines after 2 weeks of measuring (twice a week bodyweights are best practice, and the first week should be ignored as body water shifts can be largely responsible for weight changes), switch to the Cut 2 diet tab. If the rate of weight loss is FASTER than those guidelines, or WITHIN THEM, please keep the Cut 1 diet running. As soon as the weight loss rate slows to below those guidelines, switch to the Cut 2 diet tab. As soon as it drops below again, switch to the Cut 3 guidelines. If you still want to lose more weight after Cut 3 runs its course (no longer drops your weight within the guidelines), we’d love to help you with a more advanced, one-on-one consulting approach.
This table might be of some assistance in visualizing the process:
If you’re UNDER 200lbs:
If loss between 0.5lbs and 1.5lbs per week
- Keep Current Diet
If loss slower than 0.5lbs per week
- Move on to next Cut tab
If loss faster than 1.5lbs per week on Cut 1
If loss faster than 1.5lbs per week on Cut 2 or 3
- Go back to previous Cut tab
If you’re OVER 200lbs:
If loss between 1.0lbs and 2.0lbs per week
If loss slower than 1.0lbs per week
If loss faster than 2.0lbs per week on Cut 1
If loss faster than 2.0lbs per week on Cut 2 or 3
Massing
When you first start your massing plan, we recommend you start with at least one week on the Base diet, just to get used to the approach. If your Base diet is making you lose weight, adjust it up as described in the maintenance instructions above. If it’s making you gain weight, keep on it until the weight gain is no longer fast enough. After this, you can begin your massing phase by starting the Mass 1 diet. For those who weigh less than 200lbs, the goal is to gain between 0.5lbs and 1.5lbs per week. For those who weigh over 200lbs, the goal is to gain between 1.0lbs and 2.0lbs per week. If weight gain is SLOWER than those guidelines after 2 weeks of measuring (twice a week bodyweights are best practice, and the first week should be ignored as body water shifts can be largely responsible for weight changes), switch to the Mass 2 diet tab. If the rate of weight gain is FASTER than those guidelines, or WITHIN THEM, please keep the Mass 1 diet running. As soon as the weight gain rate slows to below those guidelines, switch to the Mass 2 diet tab. As soon as it drops below again, switch to the Mass 3 guidelines. If you still want to gain more weight after Mass 3 runs its course (no longer raises your weight within the guidelines), we’d love to help you with a more advanced, one-on-one consulting approach.
If gain between 0.5lbs and 1.5lbs per week
If gain slower than 0.5lbs per week
- Move on to next Mass tab
If gain faster than 1.5lbs per week on Mass 1
If gain faster than 1.5lbs per week on Mass 2 or 3
- Go back to previous Mass tab
If gain between 1.0lbs and 2.0lbs per week
If gain slower than 1.0lbs per week
If gain faster than 2.0lbs per week on Mass 1
If gain faster than 2.0lbs per week on Mass 2 or 3
How long to diet?
From a health, sustainability, long term progress, and psychological perspective, we don’t recommend losing or gaining weight for any longer than 3 months at a time. After 3 months of weight loss or gain, at least two months of stable weight conditions are highly recommended.
After the Diet
After you’re done cutting, please do the following:
- Slowly (over weeks) raise your carbs and fats until you’re stable at roughly around your new weight. Try 25g-50g jumps in daily carbs and 15g-30g jumps in daily fats each week. Your end diet should have about the same amount of protein as your original base, but proportionately less carbs and fats based on how much weight you lost. So if you started at 150lbs and lost 25lbs, eat only 125g of carbs for every 150g in the base diet and a similar fraction for fats. This new base diet will need fat-level adjusting as before to get it right.
After you’re done massing, please do the following:
- Slowly (over weeks) lower your carbs and fats until you’re stable at roughly around your new weight. Try 50g-75g reductions in daily carbs and 15g-30g reductions in daily fats each week. Your end diet should have about the same amount of protein as your original base, but proportionately more carbs and fats based on how much weight you gained. So if you started at 150lbs and gained 25lbs, eat 175g of carbs for every 150g in the base diet and a similar fraction for fats. This new base diet will need fat-level adjusting as before to get it right.
Video
If you want a quick, less technical rundown of how to use the templates, please put check out this video: How-To Video Guide
Contacts and Questions
We wish you well on your fat loss, mass gain, and performance goals. We’d love to be able to answer direct questions about the templates, but simply don’t have the resources to do so. If you’d like direct diet coaching from one of our uber-expert diet coaches, shoot us an email and let us know!
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