There are a ton of different recommendations for what you should do with your workouts. There are probably 100 times as many recommendations in the nutrition world. Quite frankly, trying to keep up with all the nutrition recommendations is absolute chaos, and it’s no wonder that people feel stuck with their eating.
But I’ve got a concept that, if you take the time to understand it, will change the way you look at nutrition advice forever.
You need to understand principles vs. tactics.
Tactics are very specific recommendations, like don’t eat this food, eat this food, don’t eat after this time, start eating at this time of day, you should do fasting or low-carb or keto or Paleo or whatever else people are recommending at the time.
Those are all tactics.
Can they work for some? Yes, absolutely.
Will they not work for others? Definitely.
So what’s the secret?
The secret is that there is no secret tactic, but there are essentially laws you have to follow, just like the law of gravity.
I call these five nutrition principles.
These are like the guardrails on the highway. There are a lot of different lanes you can travel in, and you can pick the lane that you like the best, but you’ve got to stay on the road. You’ve got to stay within the guardrails.
I’ve identified five nutrition principles that, if you follow them, you will definitely see great results!
Principle #1
Eat mostly real foods (you know, the single-ingredient foods that God made Himself! Not the stuff that was made in a lab).
Principle #2:
Eat the right amount of food for your goals.
This means you have to eat the right amount of calories. It does not mean you have to track those calories, but your calorie intake absolutely matters and will determine whether you’re losing weight.
Principle #3
Eat the right amount of protein for your goals.
Just like with calories, this doesn’t mean you have to track, but it does mean you need to eat the right amount of protein for your goals.
Protein is super important for building muscle and also keeping muscle as you lose weight. It’s also important for helping stabilize energy levels, blood sugar, and so much more.
Principle #4
Don’t eat foods that make you feel bad.
So if a food is constantly making you feel bloated, lethargic, gives you brain fog, etc., then don’t eat it.
Even if it’s the world’s best superfood according to someone’s Instagram reel, your body is trying to tell you something.
Principle #5
Make sure to eat in a way that you enjoy.
Technically, you can violate this principle if you are robotic when it comes to eating, lol, but at the end of the day, 99% of humans need to enjoy what they eat, or they won’t stick with it.
Now, I dive into how many calories and how much protein you should eat in other pieces of content, but just like with my training recommendation, when in doubt, err on the side of aiming for numbers that feel doable and then adjust as needed.
So if you struggle to get enough protein in, when in doubt, start with a lower recommendation and then once you’re hitting that consistently, see how your results are.
If you’re getting great results, then don’t change anything.
And if you’re not getting the results that you want, then you can try bumping it up.
Same thing with calories.
If you’re trying to lose weight, start with an amount that feels doable and see how your progress is.
If it’s good, then don’t change anything, but if the weight loss is slower than you want or it’s just not happening, then you can reduce calories.
Once you understand these five nutrition principles, you can eat pretty much any way that you want, and you’ll see great results.
So at that point, whether you do low-carb or high-carb or two meals per day or six meals per day, none of that really matters other than finding something that you enjoy, and that makes you feel good so that you’ll actually stick with it.
And that’s why a tactic might work for one person versus another.
For one person, that tactic might help them stick with the five nutrition principles, but for somebody else, it might make it harder for them to stick with the nutrition principles.
And that’s the key.
It’s all about the principles.
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— Coach Nate