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+layout: post
+title: Nutrition, Nutrition, Nutrition
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+
+##Eat, eat, eat
+
+When I started my 5x5 program, Tyler, a gym regular doing the same program, told me the biggest mistake he made when he started was not eating enough. He made some gains but then firmly plateaued. His advice to me was, "Eat, eat, eat. Eat more than you think you need to." So I ate. I saw nice beginner gains. After a few months the eating became laborious and stopped eating enough. With that, the gain train screeched to a halt.
+
+Tyler wasn't kidding. So I increased my food intake again and sure enough, the gain train steamed down the tracks once again. All aboard!
+
+##Numbers meet egos
+
+After several months, I was feeling really good about my progress. I was scheduling active recovery weeks following by a 10% deload. My numbers were going up and I was hitting new PRs. Eventually, I was moving pretty decent weight and every workout was a good, hard grind. The beginner gains were well behind me but my numbers were still slowly climbing and I was feeling good and strong.
+
+My training partner, Mo, and I decided to go in for a body composition analysis (BCA) via the Fly-esque chamber called the Bod Pod. More than anything, it was for curiosity's sake. Our focus was on building strength, not aesthetics, so we figured it would be an interesting experience and wouldn't bruise our egos too badly.
+
+I am a 5'10", 37-year-old male and my body fat percentage came in at 20%. Not terrible. "Moderately lean" but at the top end of that range. I thought it was interesting information but I didn't sweat it much because my goals were still to gain strength; I didn't mind continuing down the path I was on, since I needed to eat at a surplus to do so.
+
+Six months later, Mo and I went for a second scan. Again, it was more out of curiosity. We had continued to make strength gains and had set new PRs, so we thought it would be interesting to see what changed in six months.
+
+Our body fat percentages had gone up. I crept from 20% up to 21%, which nudged me into the less-desirable neighbourhood of "Excess fat". My focus was still on building strength but this poked at my ego. In that six-month span, I gained half a pound of fat and no new muscle mass. Ouch. Curiosity killed the cat.
+
+Six months. Half a pound fatter. No muscle gain. What to do with this information? My strength went up measurably, even though I gained no new muscle, so my attention to clean form translated into me using my muscles more efficiently throughout my exercises. Despite the new fat, that's good.
+
+At [2110 Fitness](http://2110fitness.com/), where we had the analysis done, Cole (one of the owners) talked to us about our nutrition: what and when we were eating what. He recommended tracking caloric intake with MyFitnessPal, which is an application on one of those nifty phones the kids have. I have one of those nifty phones, so I downloaded the app. I started tracking my eating that day.
+
+Counting calories is something that I have never wanted to do. It doesn't interest me in the least. When someone starts talking about macros, micros and cyclones, I go cross-eyed. So I was not looking forward to this. I just wanted to lift, eat, sleep and see strength gains. As it turns out, it's not that simple.
+
+The BCA results provided us with not only the breakdown of our body stuff but with the estimated total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) required for the current state of our bodies (at various levels of fitness). That seemed a bit intimidating; my eyes started to cross. First: I'll just start tracking my current food intake. Easy.
+
+I started using MyFitnessPal to track my caloric intake. The app actually makes it very easy. It does take a little extra time but it's manageable. After a few meals, it's barely an interruption. But when setting up my details in the app, it wanted me to set a weight-loss goal. Hm. I just wanted to track my intake… it's the body fat percentage that I'd like to address. But that isn't an option; it has to be a weight goal. So I decided on an arbitrary ten-pound loss. This put my daily intake at 2,720 calories. This meant nothing to me and my eyes started to cross again. Onward.
+
+Day One was messed up because of the Bod Pod. You cannot eat or drink a few hours prior to the analysis and our appointments were at 10am. So on Day One, I didn't eat anything until around noon. Fewer eye-crossing numbers to worry about. Fine by me.
+
+Day Two, a workout day, was pretty good until about 3pm. I was hungry. I was really hungry. I was hungry enough to text Mo about how hungry I was. According to the BCA results, the daily calorie goal that I was aiming for via MyFitnessPal is the TDEE required for a "Low Active" daily activity level. I work hard three days a week in the gym for a couple of hours. I walk a lot, I occasionally cross-country ski and run, but I work a computer job five days a week so I'm not really sure where I fit in terms of "daily" activity level. It's all over the place. Do I average it out? I don't know. I decided to just go with it. I'd shed some fat, I knew that.
+
+Day Three, a rest day, was pretty good. I think my body was getting used to the idea that we were planning to take in about 2,700 a day. My eyes pointed straight ahead. I bought a scale.
+
+Day Four, another rest day, was fine. What was interesting on this day is that I was consuming my usual kinds of things but when I looked at my macro-nutrients in the app (hey, my eyes didn't cross!) I saw that my protein intake lagged way behind. Armed with my new-found power of information, I just made sure to up my protein for the day. Bob's yer uncle. I didn't have that information before, so I would have just carried on with that protein deficit and would have been none the wiser. But I was doing that several times per week before I started paying attention. Eureka.
+
+Day Five was a workout day. I weighed myself on my new scale and was down 0.5 pounds. I decided not to increase the weight on any of my lifts, to see how things would go after four days of eating less. I start with squats and on my last warmup rep, at 305 lb (138.35 kg), I was delighted and bemused by how well the barbell was moving. I loaded up my work weight and took a three-minute rest, cautiously optimistic. I did my 3x5 work-weight sets at 330 lbs and they felt great. I was kind of stunned. This is from a more balanced diet?
+
+Next was the overhead press, which was a PR repeat. I banged those out and even had enough to squeeze out an extra rep. What is happening? Deadlifts. Boom. Chin-ups. Blammo. I believe, I believe!
+
+##Eat, eat, eat
+
+After just four days of tracking everything that I intentionally consumed, making sure I balanced my macronutrients and was getting sufficient protein, I noticed a clear improvement of performance in my lifts. Yes, I am eating less now, I think around a 400-calorie deficit, but I'm eating smarter. I'm better spiking my carb intake after my workouts. I'm optimizing my nutrition and I really felt the benefit of that in that workout. Eat, eat, eat smartly.
+
+The goal is still to build strength. I am understanding how vital proper nutrition is to build strength effectively. You can fine-tune your form until the cows come home but you also need to fine-tune your nutrition to really leverage it well.
+
+I will go for another body composition analysis at 2110 in about six weeks to see what that body fat percentage looks like.