**At this stage you are almost there and have done all of the hard work!!

Ok, so lets get cracking with arranging our nutritional plan. Using the example of my friends Nutritional Plan, we are looking to eat 3,100 Calories per day. The macronutrient ratios that your calories come from is very important. My friend is a classic Mesomorph body type. (for more information of body types, please read this article by Brendan). Mesomorphs have an athletic build, broad shoulders and a square jaw. Their bodies respond well to calories but they can be prone to bodyfat accumulation so this needs to be monitored. The best way to ensure you don’t start to put on bodyfat is to eat the same amount of Protein as you do Carbohydrates. This is called a 1:1 ratio of Carbohydrates to Protein. Use this as a starting point. If you are not filling out quickly enough, change the ratio more in favour of carbohydrates.

I have recommended that my friend eat the following:

Daily Nutrition Macronutrient and Calorie Totals:
Total Carbohydrate: 300g giving 1,200 Calories
Total Protein: 300g giving 1,200 Calories
Total Fat: 75g giving 675 Calories
Total Calories: 3,075

Nutrition Breakdown

Pre-Training:
Pint of Water
Optimum Nutrition Platinum Hydro Whey 1.5 scoops (with 1 teaspoon of bcaa powder and 1 teaspoon of glutamine powder)

Post Training:
Optimum Nutrition 2:1:1 Recovery (with 1 teaspoon of bcaa powder and 1 teaspoon of glutamine powder)

11am:
Optimum Nutrition Fish Oils 3 gels
Optimum Nutrition Optimen 2 tabs
Bag of Tilapia Fillets
Basmati whole grain rice (80g uncooked weight)

1pm:
2 x  large chicken fillets
Lettuce
Cherry tomatoes
Honey mustard dressing
2 x slices of wholemeal bread

4pm:
Optimum Nutrition Platinum Hydro Whey 1.5 scoops (with 1 teaspoon of bcaa powder and 1 teaspoon of glutamine powder)
Banana x 1

6:30pm
Optimum Nutrition Fish Oils 3 gels
Optimum Nutrition Optimen 2 tabs
2 x Striploin steaks
Oven cooked home made wedges (made from 1 rooster potatoe) with sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper

10:30pm
Optimum Nutrion Casein shake x 2scoops (with 1 teaspoon of bcaa powder and 1 teaspoon of glutamine powder)

Macronutrient Breakdown

Carbohydrates 300g — @ 4 calories per gram – 1200 calories
Protein 300g — @ 4 calories per gram — 1,200 calories
Fats 75g —  @ 9 calories per gram — 675 calories
Total Calories – 3,075 calories

Water
3 litres per day (not including water in supplements shakes)

So there you have it guys. It really is quite straightforward once you have the correct information. Knowledge is power as they say

I’m sure you all have loads of questions, so please do pop a comment/question in the box below and I will respond directly. If you want a more personalised service, we now offer Personalised Nutritional Plans. Pop me a message below and I will contact you directly with the details.

Brian Howe
FSV.ie

Brendan Sheehan here. I am a personal trainer, owner of sports supplements website www.FSV.ie & Optimum Nutrition sponsored athlete .

My competing history is WFF / NABBA Fitness Ireland winner 2012. Placed 7th in the Mr Universe Just 2012 & 10th at the WFF World Championships Nov 2012.

I am competing in a fitness model show in Ireland March 17th. This video is about my current supplement usage.

Hope it helps, happy to answer any questions.

Yours in Health & Fitness

Bren

What You Will Need:

- Food weighing scales
– Packaging for the different food types that you eat each day
– Computer with internet connection (to search for foods that you don’t have the packaging for)
– A spare 1-2 hours

I find it remarkable when people tell me about the hours and hours of their time each week that they put into training but then they complain and get lazy about putting a couple of hours into calculating nutrition. If you are one of these people, let me tell you that it is the best couple of hours that you will ever spend on advancing your goals. Also, once you have done it properly, one time, you are only really tweaking things from there on in.

The Process:

- Weigh “ALL OF THE FOOD” that you eat throughout a typical day. Don’t leave anything out, no matter how small you might think it is
- Be completely honest. Remember, cheating here defeats the purpose of the exercise and you are only cheating your own results
- Once you have weighed the food, look at the back of the packet and note the amount of grams of Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat per 100g/100ml of the food
- Use this information to calculate the number of grams of Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat in each meal and snack that you eat
- From the above, calculate the number of calories for each meal and snack that you eat

**Remembering the following: 1g Carbohydrate = 4 Calories, 1g Protein = 4 Calories, 1g Fat = 9 Calories

Breakfast Example:

110g of Porridge Weighed

My porridge has 69.9g Carbohydrate, 4.68g Protein, 2.76g Fat per 100g serving

- The Total Carbohydrate in my 110g serving is: 76.89g. Multiply this by 4 to get the Calories which gives: 307.56 Calories
- The Total Protein in my 110g serving is: 5.15g. Multiply this by 4 to get the Calories which gives: 20.6 Calories
- The Total Fat in my 110g serving is: 3.04g. Multiply this by 9 to get the Calories which gives: 27.36 Calories

150ml Full Fat Milk Added to the Porridge

My milk has 4.7g Carbohydrate, 3.3g Protein, 3.5g Fat per 100ml serving

- The Total Carbohydrate in my 150ml serving is: 7.05g. Multiply this by 4 to get the Calories which gives: 28.2 Calories
- The Total Protein in my 150ml serving is: 4.95g. Multiply this by 4 to get the Calories which gives: 19.8 Calories
- The Total Fat in my 150ml serving is: 5.25g. Multiply this by 9 to get the Calories which gives: 47.25 Calories

39g Serving of Optimum Nutrition Platinum Hydro Whey with Water

- The Total Carbohydrate in my 39g serving is: 2g. Multiply this by 4 to get the Calories which gives: 8 Calories
- The Total Protein in my 39g serving is: 30g. Multiply this by 4 to get the Calories which gives: 120 Calories
- The Total Fat in my 39g serving is: 1g. Multiply this by 9 to get the Calories which gives: 9 Calories

Totals for Example Breakfast Meal:
Total Carbohydrate: 85.94g giving 343.76 Calories
Total Protein: 40.1g giving 160.4 Calories
Total Fat: 9.29g giving 83.61 Calories
Total Calories: 587.77

So, using the example of my friend from last weeks article where I explained how to accurately calculate your daily calorie level. Last week we calculated that, given his height, weight, age and number of training sessions per week, he needs to eat 3,100 Calories daily for Lean Muscle Gain. If he was to eat 6 meals per day, he should be eating about 516 Calories per meal. The above sample meal is pretty close to that so there are 2 options: (1) He can make a few tweaks to bring this meal down to the required Calorie Level OR (2) He can simply eat less Calories in a later meal.

It is highly likely that when you go through your current eating plan you will find “BIG DIFFERENCES” between what Calories you should be eating and what Calories you are eating

Using the example of my friend who I am helping with a nutritional plan. He loved to add almonds to his porridge each morning. When I asked him “how many almonds do you add?”, his answer was “a handful”. When we weighed the handful, it turned out that he was adding just over 100g of almonds to his porridge!!

Almonds are a fantastic food type but, like all foods, you need to know their Calorie Levels so you can work them into your eating plan. 100g of almonds for example gives you about 25g Carbohydrate, 25g Protein, 50g Fat (good, essential healthy fats). This works out as: 650 Calories!! If you add this 650 Calories to the Total Calories we calculated for the Example Breakfast, you get a very “CALORIFIC” 1237.77 Calories, which is far too high for one meal.

Homework Before Next Weeks Article:

(1) Calculate the Total Carbohydrate, Protein, Fat and Calories you eat for each meal and snack (including supplements)
(2) Compare this to the Calorie Level you calculated using last weeks article
(3) Are there any surprises? Is your calorie intake currently higher or lower when compared to the level you calculated using last weeks article?

**Post your feedback using the comments section below and we will help you with any questions that you may have

Next week, I will help you create a balanced nutritional plan, using the work that we have done so far to create the perfect nutritional plan.

Until Then.

Brian Howe
FSV.ie

To set the scene a little, this guys goal was Lean Muscle Gain with a Reduction in Bodyfat. He is 6ft4″, weighs 14st7lbs and trains 3 times a week. The first thing that struck me when I spoke to him was that he had NO IDEA how many calories he should eat per day to achieve his goal nor did he have any idea how many calories per day he was currently eating.

“Without knowing the correct daily calorie level based on his height, age, weight and training frequency, how could he possibly expect to achieve any results!??”

The first thing that you should always do when creating a nutritional plan is calculate your “Maintenance Calorie Level (MCL)”, that is the number of calories you need to eat per day to neither lose weight or gain weight. I calculated this for my friend using a very simple, free online calculator found here:  http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Instructions On How To Use The Calculator:

- Enter Age, Gender, Weight, Height, Exercise Level
- Click “Advanced Options”
- If you know your correct BodyFat%, choose “Katch-McKardle”, enter your BodyFat% and click “Calculate”
- If you don’t know your correct BodyFat%, choose “Harris-Benedict” and click “Calculate”

As a rule of thumb it is recommended to cut your MCL by up to 15% when cutting or increase your MCL by up to 15% when bulking. For more of a Lean Gain you can pick a smaller percentage increase in calories.

In my friends case, the calculated MCL was 2883 calories. We decided to increase that by 7% for Lean Muscle Gain giving a Daily Calorie Level of 3100 calories.

My friend now has an accurate Daily Calorie Level which is going to make a HUGE DIFFERENCE to his results. He will have to monitor his body and tweak the Daily Calorie Level where necessary (this is because everybody has a slightly different metabolism) but the fundamental point here is that his starting position is accurately calculated, giving him a great chance of success. The next step is deciding on what foods to eat each day and when to eat them. I will cover this in next weeks article.

All The Best In Fitness and Results

Brian Howe

FSV.ie

Friday 21/12/2012:

Weight: 90.1kgs

Week 10 – Progress Pics
Hi everyone. Firstly let me apologise for the lack of updates on my 10 Week Transformation over the past few weeks. It has been crazy here in work with a few things we needed to sort out that had to take priority. I have been training away though and have not let anything get in the way of completing my challenge.

This really has been one of the most enjoyable experiences that I have ever undertaken. When you throw yourself into the spotlight it really does make you focus on doing things properly and my knowledge of training and nutrition (which were already strong) are now sooooo much greater!

“I recommend that you follow all of the entries of my 10- Week Transformation this January to get yourselves in shape for the New Year”

Today I am entering my final progress pics. Nothing shows progress like a picture. I can give you all the numbers and figures in the world but the real proof is in my ohysique and the changes that I have been able to make to it over the 10-Week Transformation. Check them out below.

My Progress Pics:

- 

**NOTES ON MY PICS **

I am delighted with the progress that I made over the course of my 10-Week Challenge. There are clearly huge improvements made in both Body Fat% and Lean Muscle Gain all across my body.

“With knowledge, some dedication and a definite goal you too can transform your body”

Like all things in life, there are still huge improvements that I can make and I am really excited about relaxing for Christmas and coming back early January with a new 10-Week programme.

It would be great to hear your feedback on my progress. Leave a comment below. Have you used the programme? How do your results compare? Any advice and/or questions?

 NAVIGATION LINKS

Read Brian Howe – Week 4 – Progress Pics: Click Here

Brian
FSV.ie
FitnessSupplementsVitamins.ie

Monday 05/11/2012:

Weight: 87.0kgs

Week 4 – Progress Pics
So, today I am uploading some progress pics. A picture tells a thousand words, as the saying goes.

So, why are pics important for your progress??

- Pictures are motivating and show you progress that you have made
- They also show you areas that need improvement
- Sometimes the weighing scales does not tell the full story
- DONT go crazy taking pics every day. Take them every few weeks so you can give yourself time to create some real changes. Too frequent and you might as well just be looking in the mirror each day
- DO make sure you take a pic on the day before you start your New Programme. This pic is your starting point and will really show your progress when compared to later pics

My Progress Pics:

- 

**NOTES ON MY PICS **
I had let myself go big time in the run up to the transformation. Blame pic nd mix, ice cream, zero cardio and plenty of alcohol for this!! You will see from my pics that I have already made huge improvements in body fat and lean muscle. REMEMBER that this IS NOT a gain mass programme. My goal is lean, dense muscle gain.

I have discovered from my Week 1 pic that I put on fat quite easily, particularly on my stomach. I have also discovered that with correct training and nutrition I grow muscle quickly enough and can definitely drop bofyfat. This is my unique metabolism and it is within these parameters that I must operate to achieve my goals. I need to be very careful with carbs and I need to ensure frequent cardio sessions. Also the number of reps for my workout exercises will generally be in the high 10-15 range.

So there you have it guys. I am very happy with my progress so far but still have a lot of work to go. I really want to work on the love handles area and body fat in general. In addition I will keep targeting lean muscle growth across my body. The great thing is that I still have 7 weeks to go on my transformation journey as I am only just starting week 4!!

It would be great to hear your feedback on my progress. Leave a comment below. Are you using the programme? How do your results compare? Any advice and/or questions?

 NAVIGATION LINKS

Read Brian Howe – Week 10 – Final Pics and Summary: Click Here

Read Brian Howe – Week 3 – How To Keep Your Body Growing: Click Here

Brian
FSV.ie
FitnessSupplementsVitamins.ie

Friday 02/11/2012:

Weight: 86.6kgs

Week 3 – Training Session 3:
Wednesday and Thursday were CRAZY days for me this week. We were launching changes to our deals website to cope with extra Christmas visitors. This took longer than I had anticipated and affected my eating schedule. As a result, my weight is down from 87.2kg on Tuesday to 86.6kg today. I’m not overly concerned with the weight loss but it does lead nicely into what I want to cover today which is….“How to Keep Your Body Growing“.

I have lost count of the amount of times that customers have contacted me to say, “Brian, I am doing a training programme, my nutrition is spot on, it was going great, I put on some kilos but now I cant gain anymore”. This is such a common problem for so many people and can be extremely de-motivating for you when you are putting so much of your time into training and eating. But, alas, the answer to this problem is REALLY EASY. Eat more!!!

So, what has happened??
- At the start of your training programme you weighed, for example, 80kgs
- You worked out your daily calorie intake based on your training levels, age, height and weight
- BUT, you now weigh 85kgs. Your body now needs a lot more calories each day than it did when you began. It is VERY important to regularly check your weight and adjust your caloric intake. Once a week is perfect. Just pop your new details into the calorie calculator here: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm and buy whatever extra food you need!

It really is that simple guys but so many people get this part so very wrong. As a result, they plateau way to early, become de-motivated and stop training. There are other reasons why gains can slow down. It is very important to keep changing your training routine and of course everyone has a genetic limit but, trust me, the vast majority of the time the gains slow down or stop altogether because you haven’t updated you daily calorie intake calculation to match your new bodyweight.

DO it now and start growing!!

Training (7am)

I have updated my food intake and am feeling big and strong again! Today I followed training day 3 on my downloadable training programme so focussed on Hamstrings and Biceps. I’m getting really great pumps now and am monstering through each training session, Bring on the GAINs!

 NAVIGATION LINKS

Read Brian Howe – Week 4 – Progress Pics: Click Here

Read Brian Howe – Week 3 – Post Halloween Update: Click Here

Brian
FSV.ie
FitnessSupplementsVitamins.ie

Wednesday 31/10/2012:

Weight: 87.2kgs

Week 3 – Training Session 1:
Ok so Halloween happened last weekend guys and I was out in full force. Saturday night was fancy dress night which was a great laugh I kept things under control though and restricted my alcohol intake big time and stayed away from the take away after the nightclub. That was supposed to be the end of it as far as going out was concerned but I got the itch on Sunday night and met another group of mates. This turned out to be a LONG….night that finished up at 7am!! Again I kept the drink under control but needless to say I was shattered. As a result I missed training on Monday but will make up for it over the week. Again, “life will happen and has to happen guys” so roll with it, get your training sessions in and don’t be too critical of yourself. We are trying to set good habits for life here with emphasis on the word “LIFE”.

Training (7am)

I am following my downloadable training programme and followed training day 1 (shoulders and back) today. Feeling really strong now and this is starting to show on the scales too! Again the focus here has to be lean muscle growth so I am scheduling in for a body fat test next week to ensure that I am keeping my body fat levels on a downward path while increasing my lean muscle mass. I will let you all know how that goes for me!

 NAVIGATION LINKS

Brian Howe – Week 3 – How To Keep Your Body Growing: Click Here

Read Brian Howe – Week 2 – Downloadable Training Plan and Calorie Calculator: Click Here

Brian
FSV.ie
FitnessSupplementsVitamins.ie

Tuesday 23/10/2012:

Weight: 84.0kgs

Week 2 – Training Session 1 and 2:
I have changed my training split after learning some lessons from last week. Starting this week and running until the end of the programme I am going to train: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The training programme is going to be:

Monday: Shoulders + Traps, Back, Core, Cardio
Tuesday: Quads, Triceps, Core
Thursday: Hamstrings, Biceps, Core
Friday: Chest, Calves, Core, Cardio

Training went well monday and tuesday. Feeling strong now with not the same fatigue as in week 1. I am really focussing on training the muscle group so I am trying to visualise the muscle as it moves through each exercise. I had a training session with Brendan who recommended closing my eyes to really help this process. GREAT ADVICE!! **note: this is not recommended for some movements – be safe.

I really want to use this article to explain some essential information to you all along with giving you a downloadable training plan that you can print off and use.

Lets Talk Nutrition and Calories:

The key figure to know when working out your daily calorie intake is your “Maintenance Calorie Level (MCL)”. This number is different for each person and factors in your age, weight, height, activity level and bodyfat percentage. Your “MCL” is basically the amount of calories you need to eat daily to neither gain or lose weight factoring in the number of days you train each week. Once you know this number you can then safely either (a) eat less calories than this to cut weight (b) eat more calories than this to gain size. As a rule of thumb it is recommended to cut your MCL by up to 15% when cutting or increase your MCL by up to 15% when bulking. For more of a lean gain you can pick a smaller percentage increase in calories.

**The key thing to remember is that everybody has a different metabolism, but once you know your MCL you can then add or remove calories from this and monitor your progress until you have it tweaked to the level of cut or bulk that you require

To calculate your MCL a number of formulas can be used. The  ”Katch-McKardle” formula is considered to be the most reliable.

Calculate your MCL using this very useful calculator (remember to choose the Katch-McCardle option under “advanced options” and enter your correct bodyfat %):
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Downloadable Training Programme:

dum da da dum dee dum dummmmm … meant to be introductory music So yes guys, here it is, your very own downloadable, printable, scan-able, shareable, enjoyable, valuable “Training Programme”. Enjoy!

Download Training Programme here

NAVIGATION LINKS

Read Week 1 – Blog Entry 3: Click Here

Brian
FSV.ie
FitnessSupplementsVitamins.ie

Saturday 20/10/2012:

Weight: 84.2kgs

Week 1 – Training Session 3:
I was absolutely shattered on Friday after training Legs on Thursday.  Serious fatigue, extreme muscle pain, generally finding it difficult to walk! Lesson learned here guys, I basically trained my whole lower body in one training session while I spread out my upper body over 2 sessions. In hind-sight, it doesn’t make sense and I am changing this big time next week.  To add to this, I got that major “Friday Feeling” after work on Friday. I have a great social life and find it essential to blow off some steam each weekend. Its always a great laugh meeting my friends for some weekly banter Alcohol is like a sugar bomb in your body and is NOT GOOD so what I did is this: Met my mates at 11:30 (they had been out since after work), stayed out until 5/6am but during that time I drank 1 pint and 2 bottles of beer. Let me tell you that going out in Dublin is a real eye opener when you are essentially sober. Its like a train wreck with people stumbling and staggering blindly all over the place. And don’t get me started on drunk people burning the ear off me with pure scutter flowing from their mouths! Im not going to be the hypocritical judge here though because that has been me on sooooo many nights so in the end I just tried to see the funny side to it and ended up having a great laugh

So, back to training. The great thing about not drinking is that I am quite fresh today (Saturday). I did miss some earlier meals but that is no problem as I just played catch up on the throughout the day spacing each meal out by a couple of hours.

Today I am training Chest, Back and Arms. Because I have missed a training session, and I am not available to train on Sunday, I have had to put a lot of muscle groups into this training session. I will be re-structuring my training routine next week and training Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Training (12pm)

Warm-up
5 minute warmup on treadmill (12.5 setting)
Stretching – Full body stretching

Chest & Back

**Superset These 2 Exercises
-          Palms Facing Incline Dumbell Press (4 x 12reps)
-          Lat Pulldowns (4 x 12reps)

**Superset These 2 Exercises
-          Cable Crossovers (4 x 12reps)
-          Seated Machine Rows (4 x 12reps)

**Superset These 2 Exercises
-          Machine Chest Press (4 x 12reps)
-          1 Arm Dumbell Rows (4 x 12reps)

**Superset These 2 Exercises
-          Incline Bench Press (4 x 12reps) (very tired at this stage so light weight is used and training until failure)
-          Barbell Rows (4 x 12reps) (very tired at this stage so light weight is used and training until failure)

Arms

 Triceps

-          Kneeling/Lunge Position Cable Tricep Extensions (4 x 12reps)
-          1-Arm Cable Cable Pushdown with Knuckles Facing The Ground (4 x 12reps)
-          Tricep Rope Pushdowns (4 x 12reps)

Biceps

-          Barbell Hammer Curls (4 x 12reps)
-          Barbell Curls (4 x 12reps)
-          Seated Incline Dumbell Curls (4 x 12reps)

Core
-          Hanging Leg Raises x 20
-          Hanging Knee raises x 20 (10 each side)
-          The Hundred (pilates exercise)
-          Criss-cross x 20 (pilates exercise)
-          Leg Raised Crunches x 20
-          Crunches x 20
-          Lower Back Hyper Extension machine (3 x 20)
-          Back extensions x 20
-          Land swimming x 20

Cardio

16 minutes interval training (HIT)

**RPE means ‘Rate of Perceived Exertion’. It operates on a scale of 1-10 where 1 = ‘Extremely light, barely strolling pace’, 5 = ‘Moderately Jogging, easy to talk whilst going at this pace, quite comfortable’, 10 = ‘This is as hard as I can physically work, I cant maintain this for long’.

** This can be done in a gym, on a treadmill or any cardio machine, or on a road/track etc…

Warm-up – 2 minutes – RPE = 4/10

Rest Set – 3 minutes – RPE = 5/10
Work Set – 1 minute – RPE = 6/10
Rest Set – 3 minutes – RPE = 5/10
Work Set – 1 minute – RPE = 7/10
Rest Set – 3 minutes – RPE = 5/10
Work Set – 1 minute – RPE = 8/10
Rest Set – 3 minutes – RPE = 5/10
Work Set – 1 minute – RPE = 9/10

Cool-down – 2 minutes – RPE = 1/10

 NAVIGATION LINKS

Read Week 2 – Blog Entry 1: Click Here

Read Week 1 – Blog Entry 2: Click Here

Brian
FSV.ie
FitnessSupplementsVitamins.ie