Building a Temple 🛕 Not a Trash Heap

Welcome back to Natty Lyfe, the newsletter dedicated to leveling you up like a well trained Pokemon.

After a frivolous Cinco de weekend consisting of completely ignoring personal goals, diet restrictions, and absolutely blowing through any sort of alcohol regulation, today we are going to be taking a look at:

• Macro Basics - A crash course for the uninitiated

• Building a Diet

• Alcohol - The 4th Macro

Macro Basics

If you are reading this newsletter, there’s a SOLID chance you have at least a cursory knowledge of Macronutrients, or Macros in bro-speak. I am also shocked at how often I find myself talking people through the absolute basics so thought it would be good to level set on everything.

Macronutrients are essential nutrients required by the body in large quantities. There are three types of macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, each of which serves a different role, and ALSO that has a different caloric profile. Before we dive in, I want to make a disclaimer that any sort of advice regarding diet is literally impossible to make completely accurate for each individual. That said, us being directionally correct is going to be a massive improvement for the vast majority of y’all.

First, let’s knock out some warmup sets on the basics of each:

PROTEIN: By far the most likely one to be familiar with if you have ever set foot in a gym. Proteins are essential for building and repairing tissues, and are fundamentally what we are made of, and serves as the main STRUCTURE building macro. Found in foods like meat, eggs, fish, dairy products, nuts, and legumes, ensuring you get enough of this bad boy is step 1 of no longer looking like a pre-pubescent choir singer. While some frankly ancient-ass sources will recommend 0.8 grams of protein per kilo of body mass per day, aim for 1g per lb of body weight. Not getting enough protein is quite possibly the worst thing you can do to yourself diet-wise, both from a show and a go perspective. We’ll get into why later.

TL/DR - Protein: the important stuff

• 1 gram per lb of body weight is the target to maintain muscle mass and healthy body composition

• Absolutely essential building block for gaining lean muscle mass

• Helps with: immune system function, energy, building & repairing tissue and producing toxic farts (iykyk)

CARBS: Probably the most complicated love/hate relationship in any fitness freaks diet is carbs. Carbohydrates are the fuel for the car you’ve built with your protein intake, but unfortunately, unlike your gas tank, when you have enough the pump don’t click, you just store it in fat. This reality is why you will hear those cutting refer to carbs as the enemy, and there is a grain of truth to this depending on goals and diet structure. For the most part though, you need carbs for energy, and good high quality carbs are the way to go (whole grains and fruits > sugary drinks and processed foods). All carbs are derived from plants, and in general, the less processed the better, mainly due to fibre content being aligned. Most North Americans have a diet that is 60% or more carbs, when in reality this number should be roughly the same as your protein intake, or a little less.

TL/DR - Carbs: the important stuff

• Used for fuel - the gas for the engine

• Prioritize complex carbs > processed - IE drink less soda, eat more rice & potatoes

• Don’t sleep on fiber, your b-hole will thank you

FATS: Probably the least well understood of all the macros, mainly because people think eating fat = being fat. Fats are also whack AF in that they serve a dual role in terms of Structure and Energy roles, vs. the fairly well defined roles of Protein and Carbs. While protein is directly seen in terms of your muscle development, fats serve as a crucial component of cell membranes and are necessary for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Moreover, fats are involved in hormone production, nerve function, and insulation. In simple terms - fats are used for both 1) providing energy, and 2) structurally do functional things in your body like insulate your organs and are a core component of cell membranes. When being used for energy, our body can draw fat from our diet or fat stores. However, not all fats are created equal. Luckily, the real bogeyman of Trans fats have been banned by the FDA, with the other 3 remaining types of fat (mono-unsaturated, poly-unsaturated, and saturated) being RELATIVELY on par with each other. Most people neglect fats in their diet but are vital for things like hormone regulation and testosterone production. Mix in some olive oil

TL/DR - Fats: important stuff

• Has two core functions in your body - Energy & Structural

• Energy - can be drawn from fat in diet or fat in your body

• Structural - insulates your organs, supports cell growth

• Other benefits: keeps cholesterol and blood pressure under control, assists hormone regulation, and helps your body absorb vital nutrients

Building a Diet

We’re going to come out the gate with some numbers that may seem overwhelming but we’re going to reduce and simplify as we go - so stay with us.

Each macronutrient provides a different number of calories per gram: carbohydrates and proteins provide 4 calories per gram, while fats provide 9/g. These are good to keep in mind when you’re mapping your daily macros. The most basic of bro-diets and definitely what most people trying to improve their gainz is the 40/40/20 diet.

A 40/40/20 diet is a macronutrient ratio that suggests consuming 40% of daily calories from carbohydrates, 40% from protein, and 20% from fat. This diet is popular among bodybuilders and athletes, as it helps you maintain the protein levels needed to build and maintain muscle, while also having the energy needed to get your lifts in. While it may not be EXACTLY optimal for some, its a great starting point when you have been crushing pizza and hoping for the best the last decade.

So taking the info from before, we can work out what we should be eating starting with what we need from protein, and calculating from there. If you weigh or are aiming for 200 pounds, you’d be looking at:

• At least 200 grams of daily protein

• About the same 200 grams of carbs (remember, equal or less)

• About 44g of healthy fats (fat has 9 cal/g remember)

Not a mathemagician? Luckily, you don’t need to run these calcs yourself brother, and there are plenty of calculators out there on the interwebs, such as this one I have used a ton before. Disclaimer that they may sometimes recommend a lower protein. They are wrong and probably

For some, tracking all your macros can sound intimidating. Here’s a few basic rules & tools that’ll help simplify things:

• In general, hit your protein target every day. As a 200lb man, aim for 200g of protein a day (1g:1lb)

• Don’t worry so much about hitting your fat and carb targets, focus more on hitting your calorie goal. Do not go over if you’re cutting. Do not go under if you’re bulking.

• Try using My Fitness Pal to track your food for a few days. I usually do it once a quarter to have a mental gauge of where I am at. It has most grocery store items and even common restaurant menu items to make it easy.

• I try to stay within range Monday - Friday and my weekends are a little more relaxed. Test things out and see what works for you.

Alcohol - The 4th Macro

You’ve likely noticed that we have left the piss out of the above equation, and you may have also heard in the past alcohol referred to as empty calories, so what is going on here? Well, turns out the liquor is its OWN Macro, and honestly the most sinister of them. The reason being is because it serves no purpose in the human body (other than a good time). Now before we come off sounding like a puritanical pearl-clutching downer, please note we are the LAST people with any foot to stand on as beverage enthusiasts. And while we absolutely recognize it’s negative side effects, it absolutely is something we indulge. And as most of you do to, it’s important to cover the topic and just how much it can crush your progress.

Alcohol is an empty calorie source because it provides calories without any significant nutritional value. It is metabolized by the liver and converted into acetate, which the body uses for energy instead of fat or carbohydrates. However, alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, which is almost as much as fat. Drinking alcohol in excess can contribute to weight gain and other health problems. Additionally, alcoholic beverages often contain added sugars and other unhealthy ingredients that can be detrimental to overall health. Therefore, you are going to have to take any deleted beers into account when figuring out a caloric deficit.

Beyond just being a caloric wasteland, anyone who’s ever been on the piss knows you are about 10x more likely to decide ordering 3 large pizzas and a side of wings is a great idea after 10 beers. Not to mention the cratered willpower the next day and hankering for greasy food can basically completely undo a weeks worth of work.

Perspective: Take a look at the numbers

• To lose 1lb of body weight a week, you must burn ~3,500 calories of energy - implying a 500 calorie deficit per day x 7 days = 3,500

• If you decide to consume 12 Coronas (@150 cals each) that’s about 1,800 calories, or 3,000 calories if you’re drinking heavier beers like IPA’s.

• Add on a late night shawarma (conservatively 800 cals) and you’re looking at wiping out your entire weeks worth of progress - literally.

By no means is this us telling you not to indulge yourself. We love a good evening on the lash as much (if not more) as anyone else. But if you're looking at getting shredded for the summer, maybe try switching to vodka sodas, and a protein oriented midnight snack like chicken fingers instead of crushing fat tug IPAs and a bowl of poutine. It might literally save you a weeks worth of progress and you’ll probably feel less hungover in the morning.

Stay tuned for more tips on getting lean for the summer and low calorie degenerate lifestyle hacks.

Till then,

we are J & H, stay classy Natty Lyfe.