Working out is only 1/3 of the process of building your dream body. Years ago when I was just starting to get into fitness. I thought that if I went into the gym and lifted weights for an hour muscles would magically grow. This is only part of the truth. When it comes to bodybuilding there are 3 main areas we need to keep in mind. These 3 areas are resistance training(lifting weights), nutrition, and sleep. I don’t love to put any of these three things on a pillar above the rest, but you cannot outwork a bad diet. What you put into your mouth and fuel your body with is what determines how your body grows and adapts to the goal you have in mind. We become what we feed our bodies. You would not grab a handful of dirt off the ground to put into your vehicle's fuel tank, would you? If you did this your vehicle would have some major problems. 

 Let’s get to the point, when trying to gain, lose, or maintain weight we must track our calories and our macros. 

Our macros are the body’s fuel sources. Your macros include protein, fats, and carbs. We must understand each macro and its purpose. We also, must pay attention to our caloric intake.  

 Protein: 

This is the building block of your body. In my opinion, it is the most important macro of all. When we work out we wear down our muscle fibers. We must then refuel the muscle fibers and build back a stronger base by feeding them the fuel that they need to flourish. It is advised that we get a gram of protein per pound of body weight. For example, if you weigh 180 pounds you must consume at least 180 grams of protein per day. 

 Carbs:

When it comes to getting your carbs in. This is usually not a problem for most people because we live in America, a carb-rich country. Too many carbs = too much-stored fat = white fat = bad, unhealthy, and overweight. Carbs are what give us the energy to live day-to-day life.  Too many bad carbs will harm our lifestyle. Good carbs in moderation are very important to our energy sources. A lot of gym guys will “carb up” before a workout. This means they will eat a lot of their carbs before the workout to ensure they have plenty of energy stored up for their workout. This isn’t exactly necessary but can be useful if you are lean at like a sub-10 % body fat. When your body is deprived of its fat storage and doesn’t have much fuel to burn. 

 Fats:

When it comes to eating healthy fats they can be broken down into two groups unsaturated and saturated fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acids can help promote weight loss, reduce inflammation in muscles and organs, and even lower the risk of heart disease. Fats are necessary to a human’s diet but too much fat just like too many carbs can be unhealthy for the human body. Most food will contain at least a little bit of fat in it. Therefore, we do not have to worry about really trying to get our fats in per day.

 Calorie intake: 

We need to ensure we know what we are consuming in calories. Calories are a sum of all your macros. If you want to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than you burn daily. If you want to gain weight and put on muscle mass you need to eat more calories than you burn. It is quite simply math. If your goal is to put on size and muscle mass and you are burning 2500 calories a day then you need to eat 2500+ (like 3000) calories to be in a surplus of calories. 

This is why we track our macros and calories. If you don’t know what you are consuming per day how will you ever meet your goals? I trained for about 2 years without tracking macros I just thought we had to eat a lot. Therefore, I would work out and eat as much as a could. The problem was I wasn’t tracking so I didn’t know how much I was eating or what I was eating. I still got some progress but it wasn’t until I started tracking calories that I realized how much more progress I made in my fitness journey. 

 So my advice is instead of getting on the next fad diet and trying your best to stick to it. Simply track your macros using our app linked below or another app such as MyFitnessPal and get a grip on what it is that your are eating and why your progress is lagging. Once you realize what you are eating begin to make small changes in your diet and try to hit your macro goals. If you don’t know what your macro goals should be join our app or use other online resources to figure out what your macros should be. 

Hopefully, you guys will be able to get some value from this blog and if you do get value from this blog all we ask you to do is share the blog with somebody you know. A friend or family member that might need to hear it. 

Thank you to all that support our growing brand. 

Keep killing it! You guys are doing great! 

Hayden and Hunter England. Founders of HardHeaded. 

Link:

The HardHeaded Lifting Club