Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha (19 page)

The Man's Guide to Nutrition

W
ARNING:
Read this
carefully
. We have crammed in a lot of information about the types of foods you'll be eating. In many ways, this might be one of the most important chapters because guys are notoriously bad at following diets. We hate the d-word because a diet is really just how you eat. And since everyone has a way of eating,
dieting
is usually an unfairly negative term.

That said, food is a foundational component of hormone optimization, and therefore what you eat is an essential part of engineering the Alpha. We're going to talk about nutrition here, but this is
not
the exact program. So put away your pen and paper, shut down your note-taking app, and continue reading leisurely. Every single detail will be found in part 3, including a customized formula that you'll use for every phase in the program.

That said, if you want to get started immediately and can't wait to see what's in the plan, flip ahead to that part and enjoy.

At the same time, know that we created this section for a reason: we want you to understand
why
you're eating what you are so that you can make your own good decisions. That's part of how you'll be able to gain control and be an Alpha. The more educated you are, the less frustration you'll experience, the more control you'll have, and the better you'll look and feel.

Now that we're on the same page, we've provided a primer on what you need to know about macronutrients—or more specifically carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Arm yourself with this information and no food marketer will ever fool you again. Even better? You'll know how to take advantage of food so you can strategically eat all the stuff you love and still look fucking amazing.

 

 
CARBOHYDRATES

Carbohydrates seem to be the focus of most diets you read about (especially fat-loss diets), so it makes sense to start here. Carbs have taken a real beating in the media ever since some guy named Atkins (you may have heard of him) decided we weren't allowed to eat doughnuts anymore. (Prior to this we were allowed to eat doughnuts, but they had to be reduced fat; this made us feel better about ourselves.)

All joking aside, carbs do get kind of a bad rap, or at least a worse one than they deserve. Carbs come in a variety of forms. Some are good for you, and some are bad. The bad ones are usually highly processed and could barely be considered food other than the fact that they're edible. They may be delicious, but they're also the result of some crazy scientific processes.

Of course, if you process the crap out of anything, it reaches a point where it just isn't healthy anymore. This doesn't mean carbs are evil and to blame for all the ills of the world from the Nazis to the obesity epidemic—it just means processed foods are great at making people fat.

Anyway, carbohydrates are made up of sugar molecules, which your body breaks down into fuel, especially when you're working hard. Sugars, starches, and fiber are all basic forms of the carbohydrate.

There are two main types of carbohydrates: simple and complex.
^*

Simple Carbohydrates

In the most basic sense, simple carbohydrates include table sugar, syrup, and soda. Most of the time, these carbs should be avoided (exceptions include cheat days) and are usually the “bad carbs” that fitness pros talk about. Also included on this list are things like candy, snuggles, cake, beer, puppies, cookies, fun, and unicorn magic. In other words,
the best ones
.
^*

Complex Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates include oatmeal, apples, cardboard, and peas.

For a long time, people believed that complex carbohydrates were universally better for you than simple carbohydrates, but that isn't always the case.

You see, your body takes both complex and simple carbohydrates and tries to break them down into useable sugar energy to fuel your muscles and organs. It's not the type of carbohydrate that really matters, but how quickly your body can break it down and how much it will spike your blood glucose levels.

It's not as simple as dividing complex carbs from simple ones, though. A slightly more sophisticated way to rate carbohydrate quality is something called the glycemic index (GI). The GI attempts to classify foods by how quickly they break down and how high they boost blood sugar levels.

 

WHAT IS LEAN BODY MASS?

LBM is the amount of muscle you have on your body. To figure out your LBM, just use this three-step process:

1. Figure out your body fat percentage.

2. Subtract your body fat percentage from 100. This is your fat-free mass.

3. Multiply your fat-free mass (as a percentage) by your body weight. This result is your LBM.

So let's say you're a 200-pound man with 20 percent body fat.

1. You're 20% body fat.

2. 100 – 20 = 80% fat-free mass.

3. 200 pounds x 0.8 = 160 pounds.

Your LBM is 160. As your percentage of body fat changes, so will your LBM.

We will refer to LBM in several places throughout the book, so keep this formula in mind. Or write it down. Or tear out this page. It's your book, so the choice is yours.

 

 

For a while, the GI was all the rage, and people argued that by following a low-GI diet, you'd keep insulin levels in check even while eating more carbs overall. This has turned out to be only partially true. Which is to say that while it's probably better to eat low-GI foods than high ones, there probably won't be a tremendous difference in your waistline if you're still eating your weight in sweet potatoes instead of Cheerios.

Neither low-carb diets nor low-GI diets are a magic pill for fat loss; the main thing is to eat the right amount of healthy foods that fuel metabolism, which in turn will help you burn fat.

The important thing to remember is that your body needs carbs, even if some of the fad diets tell you otherwise. Without carbohydrates, your body will begin to break down your muscle tissue to fuel your body, which will sabotage your efforts.

Carb lovers lament low-carb diets, and anti-carb crusaders posit that you can avoid carbs for the most part and still do well. The truth is a bit of middle ground. So yes, speaking generally you should avoid simple carbs and high-GI foods, but that doesn't mean you can eat complex carbs or low-GI foods all day either.

We do not think that carbs are the devil; however, we find that our clients do better in terms of fat loss on low(er) carbs. But low carbs does not mean no carbs. As a general rule, we like to set daily carbohydrate intake at around 0.5 to 0.75 grams per pound of lean body mass (LBM).

Most importantly, the problem with carbs is eating them alone. Instead, you should try to have carbs with protein. Eating carbs and protein together slows the rate of digestion of the carbs, lowers the glycemic/insulin response, and can generally offset some of the negatives that come with carbohydrate consumption.

 

 
FATS

For a long time, fats were like carbs—blamed for every damn health problem possible. It's the reason that for nearly twenty years,
low fat
was synonymous with
healthy
. And for many people—maybe even several of you reading this—that's still how you determine whether something is safe to eat. If it's low fat, it has to be good. Or if it doesn't have saturated fat, then it's okay.

Lies piled on top of more lies. As our nation's fat consumption decreased, its obesity increased, according to CDC data. This was due to a variety of factors—the frequency of meals and snacks, the size of meals, and the consumption of sugar.

So what is the bottom line on fat? For starters, it's a
necessary
component of your diet and something you're probably not consuming enough of. Fat is good. It's good for testosterone. It's good for your heart (yes, you read that correctly). And it's good for your muscles.

Fat plays an important role in helping the general functioning of your body. Fat is a critical coating for nerves. This coating serves to speed up conduction down the nerve so that every time a neurochemical signal is sent through your body (any time your brain wants to tell your body to do something), it happens efficiently.

Fat also serves as a substrate for a whole set of hormones known as eicosanoids. While we're bordering on becoming too geeky, eicosanoids are essential for numerous functions that regulate things like blood pressure, inflammation, and even blood clotting. This kind of fat is needed for basic human physiology, which is reason enough to include it in your diet.

Now that you know why fats are needed in your diet, here's what you should know about the different types of fats—and why each
needs
to be included in your diet, with the exception of trans fats.

Monounsaturated Fats

Monounsaturated fats are found mostly in high-fat fruits such as avocados as well as nuts like pistachios, almonds, walnuts, and cashews. This type of fat can also be found in olive oil.

Monounsaturated fats help lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol. They've also been proven to help fight weight gain and may even help reduce body fat levels.

Polyunsaturated Fats

Like monounsaturated fats, these good fats help fight bad cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fats stay liquid even in the cold because their melting point is lower than that of monounsaturated fats.

You can find polyunsaturated fats in foods like salmon, fish oil, sunflower oil, seeds, and soy. Polyunsaturated fats contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which have largely been processed out of our food.

Omega-3s and 6s are very important and are oftentimes referred to as essential fatty acids, or EFAs. These
cannot
be manufactured by our bodies, and so it becomes essential to ingest them. And because your body needs these sources to function optimally and remain healthy, it's your job to make sure your diet has enough of these fats to avoid problems and breakdown.

Saturated Fats

Saturated fats might be the most misunderstood substance you can eat. And for good reason: there have been studies linking high intake of saturated fats to heart disease.

The idea that saturated fats have been proven to be anything other than delicious goes back to a pretty flawed research study from the 1950s in which a scientist named Ancel Keys published a paper that laid the blame for the worldwide heart disease increase on dietary fat intake.

However, there were major flaws to his study. For one, in his conclusions he only used data from a small portion of the countries where data was available on fat consumption versus heart disease death rate. When researches have gone back in and looked at the data from all the countries where data was available, there actually was no link between fat consumption and heart disease deaths. In retrospect, it seems that Keys jumped the gun here and landed on conclusions that didn't really have a basis in fact.

In a more modern-day context, books like
The China Study
and movies like
Forks Over Knives
have pointed the finger at saturated fats—and all animal fats—as the reason for all health problems. And yet, these studies all took a very slanted bias toward the saturated fat hypothesis and
completely
ignored populations that were incredibly healthy despite diets based on saturated fats. In fact, people who live in Tokelau (a territory off of New Zealand) eat a diet that is
50 percent saturated fats,
and they have cardiovascular health superior to any other group of people, and yet this data and information is ignored.