Food Choices and When They Matter—A BRO’S Perspective
By: Marc Lobliner, Scivation President
I want to elaborate on my thoughts about calories, food sources and other things. Somehow there is a huge debate on whether food choice matters when prepping for a show, bulking, maintaining (more on what the hell “maintaining” is later), and breeding goats. Okay, maybe not the goat part, but I cannot believe the war going on between the IIFYM people (If It Fits Your Macros) and the “Egg Whites and Oats” crowd. Frankly, I am a hybrid on the issue. If you are expecting me to cite studies or quote Einstein’s formulas or even biblical references, this is not the article for you. If you come at me with science and slam me for writing this, I will simply laugh and pretend to have a California education (Culver City High School for the Win!) and speak in tongues. Therefore, here comes the broscience.
When prepping for a show, food choice matters. My Prep Advisor, Jason Theobald (jason@nattynutrition.com) advised me to switch most of my meals to potatoes from oatmeal about six weeks out. The difference was profound. The reason? Micronutrients. Potassium is abundant in potatoes of all kinds. The limit for potassium pills in 99mg. in one 8oz potato, there are over 400mg of potassium! What it did for water balance was profound and an immediate change took place. Also, you are on limited calories. Thus, I recommend getting them from the healthiest sources possible. Being lean is great, but being lean while sick or dead? Not so great. I refuse to believe that a Hot Pocket® is healthier than Oatmeal and Macadamia Nut Oil. The fiber, healthy, monounsaturated fats…brilliant. Now can you get lean on Hot Pockets? YES! Is it optimal? In my opinion, no. While the main issue is calories in versus calories out, I have seen enough to make up my mind. Case in point, Scivation Athlete Tommy Jeffers.
Tommy was the posterboy for the IIFYM diet group. He looked amazing. Then, I traveled with him precontest as he shoved broccoli in his face all day with Scivation Whey, chicken breast and peanut butter. Per the advice of Doug Miller and our team, he was giving this a try. The result? A slew of overall victories and an ass as shredded as the Shredded Wheat the IIFYM group swears by. His muscle QUALITY was far beyond what he had before with the IIFYM theory with similar leanness. How is this? Heck I don’t know. It just is.
Moreover, there are exceptions so don’t hate on me for thinking I am hating on your peeps, but overall the IIFYM group looks amazing but just lacks what the “egg whites and oatmeal” team brings. Doug Miller, Kurt Weidner, Rob Moran, Brian Whitacre….the quality of their muscles are unreal. They diet HARD, but if the pizza I saw Kurt eat in New York while offseason is an indicator; these freaks aren’t as anal during the offseason. What a segue, huh? Time to rock the offseason….
I was at Gold’s in Las Vegas the after competing and was having issues putting on weight. There was an enormous IFBB Pro there from Europe. HUGE! He noticed my level of conditioning and paid me a compliment. We ended up speaking. I asked his tips for mass gaining (the natural version of the story, so don’t go there). He said, “Get your protein and the rest, just eat and eat.” Although he said it with a much cooler accent than I do, he said it and I took it in. My belief is on the offseason, when trying to gain, as long as you hit your protein and EFA’s, fill in the rest with whatever and hit your calories. I still recommend veggies and fruits to get your vitamins and antioxidants, but if you are hitting those and want to fill in the rest with cake and pie, or Tim Tams for you Aussies and Bangers and Mash for you Brits, then do it! If you start getting too fluffy, cut back. If you gain .5-1lb per week and are staying lean, enjoy life! With that said, I still get most of my calories from chicken, oatmeal, Scivation Whey and Nuts, but if at a wedding or a restaurant, I am getting my grub on and enjoying it.
As for maintaining, what the hell is that!? Muscle either grows or atrophies (shrinks). In my opinion, why go to the gym to maintain? IMPROVE DAILY! Thus I will assume that most people “maintaining” just eat prepackaged kid’s items like Lunchables® and Cheeze Whiz®.
The conclusion? If competing, don’t leave anything to chance. Drop the pie and eat the dry ass chicken. Pack your meals and look like a jackass. Even if it makes a .02% difference, in my opinion, it is worth it. If bulking or maintaining, get your protein and EFA’s and ENJOY! Try to be as “healthy” as possible, but if your wife or mommy makes you some Pecan Pie covered in Whipped Cream and an edible figurine of Carrie Underwood, EAT IT! There is no right or wrong way, but these are my BRO-THOUGHTS. If you have nice things about this to say, please do. If you want to make fun of me or say mean things, please direct all anger toward Scivation VP Rob Moran.
Marc, nice read. Good to see another big name commenting on the IIFYM concept.
ReplyDeleteWhile I mostly agree with what you're saying, the target audience for IIFYM isn't competitive body builders - it's for those starting out or those with a lack of understanding of nutrition/training who think their entire workout is ruined because they didn't have a fast-digesting liquid protein 30 minutes after training.
I absolutely agree that food choices matter when dieting for a show; although possible to cut on calorie-dense foods such as chocolate bars and kid's cereals, it simply boils down to a case of optimal vs. sub-optimal. Eating a diet in which 30% of total calories are coming from a chocolate bar is not necessarily ideal nor healthy.
However, for those individuals who are cutting or dieting down to reach their personal goal of leanness (ie. not for a show), IIFYM really shines. These people generally seem to think that if they are not on a monotonous, bland diet, they will not see results and this simply isn't the case. IIFYM allows people to attend social situations, continue eating the foods they want, and thus [usually] results in a stronger compliance with the diet. I understand you are not one of these people - you may even see these people as not important - and that when you cut, it's a cut to win a show, but these people make up the majority of the body building community, and the best approach to get them 'started' is to;
i) Hit macros
ii) Eat foods you enjoy whenever it suits you
So they can reach a level that they can compete with in which case they may or may not choose to begin adopting specific food choices, nutrient timing, etc.
All in all, good read, I'm praising the fact you didn't blindly shoot down the concept like many others.
I'd just like to point out that IIFYM isn't all about fitting in 'junk' foods such as Hot Pockets as you say in your post. I myself eat many bro foods - brown rice, lean steak, broccoli, spinach, oats etc.
If I walk into the kitchen one night and I'm out of brown rice, I can simply fit some white pasta into my macros - it's not all about B&J and kid's cereal.
To put it simply, the IIFYM Crew and the "Egg Whites and Oats" people (as you put it) are two different groups with two different goals. They need to realise this and accept each other for what they are, and I think this post is a good start to that.
-YeomenKek
Hey, GREAT POST! I agree with you, and mywas geared toward competitive bodybuilders. I DO care about the general population, BUT do feel that the general population, with LESS or NO overall exercise should focus even more on food choices. Think about it, McDonalds + Training = not too terrible. But, McDonalds + sitting on your ass = BAD! :)
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is, the average person doesn't care about a shredded ass, the competitor does. For the mainstream I preach an 80/20 rule. 80 "clean" food, 20% WHATEVER GOES!!!
Thank you for reading and posting!!!
Great job as always ML. Love the "send hate mail to Rob" note too!
ReplyDeleteDr.
ReplyDeleteIf you have issues with anything in life, please bug Rob. He enjoys it!
Great post Marc - appreciated it.
ReplyDeleteThis issue is widely growing with the IIFYM'ers and is being brought up all over social networks and forums. Glad you had input on it. And I feel the same way brother, no need to sit and count out all that garbage just to enjoy a prep. Enjoy yourself in the offseason and instead of cutting your snickers bar into 20pieces and individually weighing them so you can "enjoy" yourself in prep is just insane to me, not to mention WAY too much work.
ReplyDeleteAnd again I am firm on the belief, If you eat bad quality food, you're going to look bad quality on stage.
^ Now there are exceptions, and few athletes that I can name that pull off the IIFYM in prep and look outstanding, Alberto Nunez being one of them. But then again everyone is different and have different genetic makeups and metabolisms, its probably very easy for him to metabolize things of that sort and he rarely has to drop carbs to the extreme, whereas right now im 15 weeks out and im already in the 100g carbs/day area, our metabolisms are highly different.
Marc Lobliner is Not natural.
ReplyDeleteHere you go: http://nattyornot.com/marc-lobliner-steroids/