Tank: Lululemon Arise Tank | Leggings: Lululemon Align Pant | Shoes: Adidas NMD Sneaker | Watch: Polar A360 {with polar strap} | Earphones: JayBird X3 Earphones | BCAAs: Scivation Xtend BCAAs | Pre-Workout: C4 Original {w/ creatine} or Ripped {w/o creatine}

Photography by Erin Trimble Photography

For today’s fitness post, I’ve decided to skip my weekly workout routine and talk about nutrition instead, because we all know living a healthy lifestyle is 80% nutrition. Abs are most definitely made in the kitchen.   Nutrition is one of the main topics and questions that I always receive when it comes to fitness, so here’s my Nutrition 101 for y’all.

BUT — If you’re looking for a weekly workout routine to do this week, I definitely recommend this one from last year! It’s killer! Don’t forget to check out #FitWithASD for some workout videos, as well!

Moving on, most of y’all know that I count my macros.  There are three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fats.  1 gram of fat equates 9 calories {kcal}, 1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 kcal, and 1 gram of protein = 4 kcal. So, if you eat 140 g carbs, 60 g fat, 150 g protein, that would be a total of 1700 calories.   140*4 + 60*9 + 150*4 = 1700.

Counting macros isn’t for everyone.  Many people can eat intuitively {and overall healthy}, and to be honest, I’ve been counting my macros long enough that I could probably eat intuitively and be pretty accurate.  I can look at a piece of chicken breast and know how many ounces it is without using a food scale.  I just personally love counting my macros, because it keeps me on track and there are some days where I either don’t eat enough or am about to eat too much, and if it weren’t for MyFitnessPal, I would have been totally off.

There are plenty of free macro calculators online, like this IIFYM calc or this bodybuilding.com one! Just input all of your info and it’ll spit out the amount of protein, carbs, and fats that you should be hitting everyday.  You can calculate your macros under three different circumstances: maintenance, fat loss, or muscle gain.  Many people increase their macros {and thus, calories} during the winter so that you can gain some muscle {lean gains}.  To maintain the current weight you have, you would choose maintenance, which means you have no caloric increase (muscle gain) and no caloric deficit (fat loss) so you’re just maintaining your weight.

It’s a good idea to recalculate your maintenance calories every so often to be up to date with your current weight.  Your maintenance calories will be different at 150 lbs vs 135 lbs.  Most people who want to lose weight choose fat loss on the calculator, creating a caloric deficit.  Once the weight/fat is lost, they recalculate their macros for maintenance so that they can maintain that weight.

I also always get asked how many grams of protein I eat per day.  I recommend eating 1 g of protein per lb of body weight.  It might be difficult to consume at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature.  I always hit my protein now without even trying.  Some easy ways to do this is to introduce egg whites into your diet, lean meats like ground turkey or chicken breast, and of course, protein whey.

The amount of meals I eat differs every day.  It just depends on what I’ve got planned — if it’s a busy day where I’m not home a lot, I eat less snacks, but on average I try to eat 3 main meals and 2-3 snacks.  I also always consume protein or a protein shake within 30 minutes post-workout.

Water is definitely a key part to any diet.  I try to drink 100-120 oz of water every day.  I try to avoid sugary sodas and drinks — although, I do love a good coke zero here and there.  I try to stick with wine if I’m indulging on the weekends, or if I’m drinking hard liquor, I typically choose lime juice and soda water.  Oh, and I  have one cheat meal a week {usually on the weekend}.

Also, I know fasting and keto diets have been hot topics recently, so I wanted to give y’all my thoughts on them.  I personally don’t do intermittent fasting {IF} or do a keto diet {high fat, low carb}.  I’ve actually tried intermittent fasting.  It’s quite appealing because you only eat 2 meals a day {less meal prepping}.  You have a 16 hr fasting window.  I would fast through breakfast, do my workout in the morning fasted {which burns more fat because your insulin levels haven’t spiked since you haven’t eaten anything}, have a huge lunch post-workout {you’re still eating the same amount of calories, just split between 2 meals and not 5, so the meals are larger}.  Then, I would eat dinner around 6…and then do it all over again the next day.  IF isn’t a diet.  It’s just the time frame you’re eating your meals in.  So, if you do a low carb diet, you would still do low carb but just fast for 16 hours and consume your macros within your eating window.  Intermittent fasting is nice because you get to eat larger meals, but I had a hard time working out on an empty stomach {especially on leg days}.  I also find it a little bit harder to have a normal social life when doing IF, because you’re limited to eating to twice a day and fasting for the rest.

As for the keto diet, I have never tried it and I’m not really into eating that much fat. It works for some people because it fits their personal taste and training schedule, but I don’t prefer it.  The keto diet is a high fat, low carb diet.  You eat a crazy amount of fats {like 150 g of fat} and your body utilizes the fat as energy instead of carbs.  When you first start this diet, you may suffer from the ‘keto hangover’ because your body is trying to get used to the change.  You’ll get headaches, etc. but it will only be temporary until your body acclimates.

If y’all have any more questions that you’d like me to answer, just let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them to this post!

P.S. Check out my Nutrition FAQ & What I Eat in a Day blog post from the beginning of the year!