Nutrition Tracking
You’ve heard me say over and over that with these workout programs, the nutrition and supplements are 80% of the results, with the workouts being the other 20%. Why do I say that? Because it’s true!! You can bust your tail on the workouts all you want, but if you fuel your body with the same old junk that you always have, your results will be MINIMAL. Usually, this is the cause of people getting frustrated and quitting the program altogether — they work their tail off on the workouts and think that because of all the excercise they are getting, they can eat whatever they want. Then they see hardly any change and lose the motivation to do the workouts at all.
So where do you start if you want to give your all to the nutrition and supplements? First, pick a plan that will help you reach your specific goals. Are you trying to lose body fat? Gain muscle mass? Lose body fat and gain muscle mass? Tone up? Maintain? I have some great tips on these in the “Dialing It In” section.
Get familiar with your plan, and determine what you will need to do to get to your specific goals. What nutrition plan and what supplements will maximize the results you are busting your tail to get with the workouts? Make a plan and stick to it!
Okay, then what? You’ve got a plan. You know what will get you to the goal. How do you follow through DAILY to make sure you are right on track? You simply MUST track your nutrition. I’ve been doing this for over 2 years and I still track everything, because I don’t want anything to derail me from my fitness goals. If I get off track on my calories or percentages, I will know it instantly! I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with folks who are frustrated because they are “eating healthy” but not getting to the goal they set. Almost without fail, when I go through the tracking system and they actually plug in their numbers, they are off track. Their carbs are too high. Their total calories are too high due to serving sizes. They aren’t getting enough protein. Etc., etc.
So how do you begin tracking your nutrition? This is easy! It takes time, but it’s easy! Start with an app / website like My Fitness Pal. Then use it EVERY DAY to track your total calories, your % protein, your % carbs, and your % fat. Don’t worry about tracking calories burned with exercise — with these workouts that’s a given, and we are doing it daily already. If you actually try to track the calories burned with exercise, you’ll eat MORE to “make up” for the calories you burned, and that will throw off your progress.
You will have to do some work at the beginning to get the nutrition info of your favorite foods. This will require recording the info from nutrition labels and looking whole foods up on google to determine nutrition info and serving size. Many popular foods will already be in the database on My Fitness Pal, but you may still have to look some of them up. Once you have all of your favorite foods entered on your tracking website / phone app., inputing what you eat is a breeze. You just have to commit to doing it!
Some rules of thumb to keep in mind as you develop your database of foods and start tracking:
Protein has 4 calories per gram.
Carbs have 4 calories per gram.
Fat has 9 calories per gram.
(So on a 2,000 calorie diet with fat shredder %, you will want 100o cals from protein, 600 cals from carbs, and 4oo cals from fat. This would mean 250g protein, 150g carbs, and 45g fat).
Try to be as close to your target calories and percentages every day. If you went a little high on carbs at lunch (which you’ll know by tracking it), then guess what you get to do at dinner!!! That’s right! Adjust to hit your daily goal.
And try to keep your calories balanced throughout the day with multiple, small, well-spaced meals. I like 5-6 meals (3 main meals plus 3 snacks). This keeps the body fueled and the metabolism going.
I hope this info about tracking your nutrition not only helps you understand how to get started with it, but motivates you to really do it and give as much (or more) effort to this part of your fitness as you do to the workouts!!!
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Hey Coach Wayne! First, I want to say YOU’RE AWESOME!! I just started month two and feel great; however, I am still a little concerned about my diet. I cannot get the exact 50,30,20 percentages for my 2000 calorie diet. It’s more like 51,31,21, which I know sounds weird, but whenever I track (i use excel), the total calories of prot,carb,fat is a abt 100 cals more than the actual total cals from the labels. Do you know why this is? I think this is why the ratios are a bit off, bcs the ratios are dead on when I total the cals from prot,carbs,fats. Is this a big deal? And I’m curious as to why the total cals on the labels do not add up to the total cals of prots,carbs,fats. Any ideas why, coach?
Hey Andrew. No worries man. That’s plenty close enough. You want to be within 2-3 % on each category, which you are. Your tracking program is just rounding up, so that’s why it doesn’t add to exactly 100%. No worries!
Oh, and on many labels, the manufacturers don’t count “insoluble fiber” as calories, even though it’s a carb. So that’s why you will see a different number. I typically just go with the calories on the label, even though some report insoluble fiber as calories and some don’t.
Hey Coach! I’ve started the P90x/Insanity hybrid we talked about a week and a half ago and i’m loving it so far; thanks for the recommendation. I’ve also been counting all of my calories. (since I didn’t do that at all in my first round of P90x.) I’m going to start a new job in two weeks and it seems i’ll be going from one end of the activity level spectrum to the other. Currently I mow lawns, but i’ll be working at a retail store where I’m assuming i’ll be standing around. Is there any way I can slowly ween myself down to a lower calorie intake over the next two weeks, or do I just start eating less calories the day I start the new job? (btw according to the B.B. caloric counter currently I’m supposed to eat 3000 calories to maintain but i’ve been eating close to 2900 calories since I started the hybrid.)
Thanks Coach
Hey Zack, I would drop right down at the time you switch jobs to match the lower exertion level. It will net out the same to your body so you should do fine with it.
Awesome, will do. Thanks Coach!
Coach Wayne,
I just got my iPhone 4S over the weekend and until now i have been writing done everything in a spiral notebook, one of the first things i thought about was tap and track, it is not .99 anymore by the way it is $3.99 now! lol it has a good rating but I saw a free one called myfitnesspal and it has a higher rating than tap and track and its free and it has a larger database of information i.e food, exercises etc than tap and track, have you heard of this one or do you swear by tap and track
Hey Keenan, myfitnesspal is just fine. It’s very similar to Tap and Track.
I am having problems configuring tap and track though coach. Can you give the settings on yours? I am trying to get it to do 1900 calories but I do not seem to be able to force it to set that way. It has like lose .5lb a week etc. Please provide some details as to the setup because I am a new iphone user and it is a bit confusing.
Hey Ray, just click “more”, then “my profile”, and you can adjust your calories, your carb budget, your fat budget up and down to whatever you want. Hope that helps!
Thanks that helped. Do we have a food score setting? And the pie chart to pay attention to is the caloric one or the relative caloric? I only put in one item and it looks like the carbs and fat are done for the day but that does not look right. It says on the caloric ratio
carbs 40/30%
fat 26/20%
Protein 34/50%
Have I done something wrong?
Hey Ray, I ignore the food score. Actually, I set the food score to the amount of protein in grams that I want for the day just to remind myself (since protein doesn’t show up as an actual “budget” on the home screen).
I like both the nutritional info screen (in grams and calories) as well as the pie chart. The pie chart just shows you at a glance what the % breakdown is for the foods you’ve eaten so far that day.
wow! The fitday program made it sooooooooooo easy to calculate my portions for the days. Already have my fat shredder done for 7 days. THANX! I’ll have to add in my Shakeology if I like it but it is a whole bunch easier and then I can just print it out and make up my meals ahead of time.
Question about Phase 3 of P90X. I’m now in week 10 and doing the workout daily. I have had great results in Phase 1 and 2, dropping 18lbs, 5 inches off my waist and 3% body fat(which I have a different question about).
Since starting Phase 3 I have gained 3 lbs and feel heavier, bloated and have been experiencing a bit of a odorific side effect.
With very little protein(3 blocks) I’m basically eating vegetarian for breakfast and lunch and maybe 9 or 10 ounces of protein for dinner.
Is this normal? Any thoughts?
Also, I’m considering starting to do doubles with Kenpo in the evening because Cardio X is way too easy and doesn’t get my heart rate up for more than 5 minutes.
Hey Gary! Way to go! I’m not sure what you are doing on your diet. It sounds like you are referring to the “portion plan” when you say blocks. Read my article “the portion plan” to learn why I HATE that approach. And if you aren’t to your goal body fat % yet, you shouldn’t be on the phase 3 diet at all (read my article “dialing it in” for more info on that).
You don’t need doubles. You just need to get your nutrition right!
Coach,
I know I bombard you with questions, and i always appreciate your help. I’m moving into week 5 starting monday, and i was looking for the tap & track app on my iphone. the only one i see there with that name is 3.99. before i downloaded it, i wanted to make sure it’s the same one that you are referring to. i know you said the one you have is .99 maybe it has gotten more expensive due to popularity? thanks for your input on this.
Hey Jason, it used to be .99 way back when I started using it. I guess it’s more popular now so it’s $3.99 LOL! Probably all the teamRIPPED people using it :-)
Hey Coach;
I am on week 3. I had my chest & Back in the morning.but somehow my body felt cold I pushed myself to do the workout . I did hav emy whey protein 1 hr before th eworkout but somehow felt an energy sap.
I was comparing it to last week where I was able to work out only in the evening as I had to complete my work.That time i really brought it!!
In essence does change in weather since we are approaching winter affect your body’s adaptability and do u need more conditioning time to get it revved up through more warm up time?
Hey Kash, everyone is different. But our bodies prefer to be in a rhythm. If you worked out in the evening all of last week and then tried to workout early this morning, that’s probably why you felt less energy. Try working out in the morning consistently and your body will get in the rhythm of it. There are tons of benefits to morning workouts (see my article “early morning workouts” for more details). Keep bringing it!
Actually my 1st week i did work out in morning as I had read ur article on complete ur workout and get it out of the way :)
It was only last week for my chest/back routine that i worked out in the evening and i again shifted to morning schedule from this week.
Good Kash. Now just stick to mornings and you’ll get more used to it then.
hey coach
i use
1_ Creatine Monohydrate PROLAB
2_ Glutamine 1000 caps
3_ Opti-Men 180 caps
how can i track them
Hey Essa, why do you need to track them? They have zero calories.
Hi Coach Wayne,
Love this site!! An addiction is forming.
Great advice and I am determined adhere to a solid nutrition plan — so thanks for setting me up for success from the start!
I’m 5.4 , 136lbs (female), and am close to 28+% body fat. I am thinking I should stay on the fat shredder plan. Since I want to lose Fat and gain Muscle (fat loss first) I am considering doing a 1000 – 1200 calorie diet.
RMR -1360
* 20% – 272
Energy amount – 1632
I would really prefer to go extreme and do 1000 calorie diet but I don’t want to go into starvation mode. Do you have any thoughts and recommendations?
Hey Charlotte, I’d recommend starting with 1200 cals (because with the added calorie burn of the workouts you’ll be at a healthy deficit). You can try going a bit lower than 1200 if you don’t feel like that’s enough of a deficit, but don’t go below 1000 cals per day. That can be too extreme. Glad you are fired up!!! Go get ‘em!
Hey Coach. I have a few questions. You replied to my post yesterday about my situation and how I’ve finally decided enough is enough and it’s time to get in the game with getting healthy and fit. I seem to try and look things up online about weight loss and eating healthy but always find myself coming back to your articles on these topics because obviously you know what you’re talking about. My main concern is how do I find out what my daily calorie intake is right now to maintain my current weight which is 320 and then how do I find out how many calories I need to really start “burning the fat” off. I do plan to buy an app for my android phone to help track what I’m eating but everything just seems so confusing when I read what you guys are talking about. I’ve already read some of your articles about nutrition and stuff but what are the very first steps I need to take on my journey for a healthy life. I’ve already started eating better and trying to eat normally. By eating normal I mean that I use to get up and go to work and then come how around 5 and eat and that would be my first meal of the day because I just couldn’t find myself wanting to eat in the morning for some reason. I don’t know if this is because I just got use to it or what. So as a result I would eat ” a lot” at night. But now that I’m trying to do my very best I’ve stopped late night eating and trying to eat earlier in the morning because I started taking a simple weight loss supplement called MEGA T. I used it before and it seemed to help. Also talking about supplements what should I take/use to help lose weight. Right now I’m not too worried about building muscle.. or should I be? I feel I should try to lose weight first then try and bulk up because I am a pretty strong guy I walk all day at work and I unload trucks 2-3 times week lifting anywhere from 10-100lbs plus. I am strong but the main challenge I face is repetitions. Last night I tried just doing some simple on my own exercise of about 10+ mins of jogging in place as well as lifting 20lb weights and found my self exhausted at the end. I know that I plan to start with P90 soon once I can afford it but for now I want to try and ” get ready for it” by getting my body used to the exercise because besides work I do very little physical anything. So I understand I may have ranted on a little but I really could use some major help as I’m completely clueless on how to get started and the first things I need to do to start losing weight fast and safely. If you can give me some tips or guidance I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks Coach!
Hey Alex. You’d benefit most from looking at my “nutrition all in one” section (which is in the “nutrition zone”). In it, you’ll see links to my articles “Round 1 diet”, “the p90x nutrition guide”, and “dialing it in”. All of those are keys to starting your nutrition plan.
Hey Coach Wayne and all of Team Ripped. Just wanted to point out that if anyone is having trouble with nutrition tracking or curious about calories in certain foods, go to fatsecret.com . This site has practically every food and drink you can think and breaks down everything in it. This is the site I use and its wonderful. Also if you have a blackberry phone it is a free app. Keep getting ripped!!!
Good tip Rejon. Thanks!
Hi coach,
Just a quick question. Do you log the raw calories or cooked calories. Is there a difference?
e.g. Fish loses alot of it’s weight once its completely steamed.
Do I log the 200g raw or the 150 g cooked?
Cheers
Shaun
When it comes to how you measure your foods, you can track it either way. On myfitnesspal, tap and track, or whatever you are using, you should see “precooked”, “raw”, “cooked”, “with skin”, etc. So choose the way you want to track it and match that to what it weighs. If you put in 6 oz because it’s 6 oz after you cook it, then be sure you are using the “cooked” nutritional info and not the raw nutritional info.
In other words, the nutritional info for 200g of raw fish will be the same as 150g of cooked fish in your example. But the nutritional value of 200g of raw fish is NOT the same as 200g of cooked fish (200g of cooked fish has a lot more cals than 200g of raw fish).
Thanks coach
Hey Coach,
Have you or anyone else on TeamRipped heard of a compatable Tap & Track app from the Android market?
Hey Justin, most android users like myfitnesspal or fitday.
I just downloaded this ap. Thank you for all your info.
Please help me!!! I weigh 186 & am 5’2 & i have a desk job
I’m not sure i understand??? Are u saying portion approach is not good? It looks the easiest with my schedule.
I don’t know where to start?
Help????
Hey Hope, the portion approach is not nearly as accurate as using a tracking app like Tap and Track, Myfitnesspal, etc.
Look at the info in my “nutrition all in one” section to learn more about tracking your nutrition and why the portion plan isn’t very accurate.
http://teamripped.com/my-nutritionsupplements/nutrition-all-in-one
Hope that helps!
This is awesome,when I was in school,math is the most subject that I hate.When I went to college,I have to met my prof for extra 1 hr over the weekend to learn algebra…Now,with doing p90x I learned how to do math thru coach Wayne! With 1200 cal,if I do the 50%,30%,20% fat shredder,I will need 150p/90c/27f…..I am so proud of myself learning here!
Way to go Grace!
Coach Wayne if I do 53/37/10 on a 1800 calorie fat shredder. Is that okay or should I am for more fat?
Hey Carlos, that’s fine, but 10% is the lowest limit on fats so don’t go any lower than that. Healthy fats are essential for bodily functions, including testosterone function!!
Hi Coach, AMAZING results and site! I am very confused, however, I see your percentages equal 100 for protein, carbs, and fats (50+30+20) Where do fruits and veggies fit in? Do we not count those?
Coach W! Plain Genius!!! this is exactly what I have been looking for. I’ve been trying to do a low carb for about a month now and hadn’t seen many results. What I can say is that I feel I’m no longer that dependent on sweets and carbs.
I’m doing the fat shredder diet @ 2000 calories, so your example fits me perfectly! I’m so pumped! Thanks again!
Hey David. Of course you count fruits and veggies! They have calories!
Fruits and veggies are a majority of carbs, along with some small amounts of protein and fats in the case of avocados.
Plug in any fruit or veggie into a nutrition tracker and you’ll see the macronutrient breakdown.