You have to feed your muscles to grow; you can’t diet your way to bringing up a weaker body part. After all, as you lose body fat you’ll only further reveal the weakness in that muscle group, while making it more difficult to grow that muscle group. For these reasons, you’ll be bumping up calorie intake a bit on your Shattered! program.
It’s crucial to consume both the correct ratio of macronutrients and the proper quantity. Here are my guidelines for what you should consume on every training day while you’re on this 12-week program:
PROTEIN
Get in 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight on each training day. That means if you weigh 200 pounds, then you should consume about 300 grams of protein, split over about 6 meals a day, including the protein in your Kaged® supplements.
Good sources: Chicken breast, turkey breast, cod, tilapia, pollock, sardines, salmon, organ meats such as liver, anchovies, lean cuts of steak, elk, bison, egg whites and whole eggs, low-fat cottage cheese, tofu, tempeh, plus Kaged's RE-KAGED®, Micropure® Whey Protein Isolate and Kasein supplements.
CARBOHYDRATES
You’ll get in 2.5 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight on each training day. That means a 200-pound bodybuilder should consume 500 grams of carbs on every training day. For carbs you’ll mostly emphasize slow-digesting forms such as yams, brown rice, oatmeal, buckwheat pancakes and whole-grain breads. Around your workouts, you can go with starchy and faster-digesting carb-sources. Starchy carbs include baked potatoes and pasta. Faster-digesting carbs include white rice and foods with sugar (which should be avoided at other times of day). However, getting in sugar before or after workouts helps fuel activity and replace glycogen stores burned during workouts.
Good sources: Yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice, oats and oat bran, quinoa, ezekiel bread and grits.
DIETARY FATS
Because you’re consuming a large amount of carbs to help fuel growth, you’ll keep dietary fats relatively low—only going with about 0.25 grams per pound of bodyweight. This means a 200-pound bodybuilder will get in a total of about 50 g per day on training days, and this total includes both healthy and saturated forms.
Good sources: Omega-3s, fatty fish such as salmon and sardines, avocados, olives, and oils such as canola and olive; you can also get in saturated forms that come with meat and eggs.
FIBER
To make this diet as well-rounded as possible, you should also consume plenty of fiber from sources such as leafy green vegetables, broccoli and squash. Fiber helps your body stay regular while processing the other foods you’re consuming on Shattered! Most foods that are high in fiber are very low in calories, essentially making some of them “free food” on Shattered! What this means is that you don’t need to be concerned about the calories some of them contain—either the quantity or how they affect your macros ratio. Limit your “freebies” to leafy green vegetables but be sure to count all others.
Good sources: leafy green vegetables, fruits, beans and legumes. Many grains are also high in fiber.
RATIOS
Hitting these numbers on your training days will help support overall growth, especially the muscle group you’re emphasizing. After all, that’s the day where you’re performing your most intense workout—regardless of the size of the muscle group. These are the ratios you want to hit on training days, which my macro recommendations (in grams) achieve:
Protein: 33% of all calories
Carbs: 55% of all calories
Dietary fats: 12% of all calories
In terms of hitting these on a per-meal basis, a 200-pounder who consumes six meals a day will strive to get in about this quantity at each meal:
Protein: 50 grams
Carbs: 83 grams
Dietary fats: 8 grams
Of course, you’ll consume more of some macros at one meal compared to another, but keep these averages in mind as you put together your nutrition program on Shattered! This may sound like a lot of food, but your body will crave the calories and nutrients, especially as it becomes more stressed from the intense workouts.
Remember that you should emphasize foods that are high in micronutrients, focusing on quality as you strive to hit your quantity metrics. And don’t forget that many Kaged® supplements such as RE-KAGED®, Micropure® Whey Protein Isolate and Kasein™ provide both quality and quantity calories to help you reach daily intakes.
NON-WORKOUT DAYS
You can cut back on calories on non-workout days unless you’re feeling depleted. Keep protein high and reduce carbs. You can go as low as 1 gram of carbs per pound of bodyweight throughout the day. That means a 200-pounder will drop from 500 to 200 grams of carbs on rest days. At the same time, include a little more than double the amount of dietary fats you’re consuming on training days (go with .55 g per pound of bodyweight). That means a 200-pound bodybuilder will get in about 110 g of dietary fats on rest days. Ratios for rest days are:
Protein: 40%
Carbs: 27%
Dietary fats: 33%
Total calories on non-workout days should be about 3000 for a 200-pound bodybuilder as compared to about 3700 for the same-size person on training days. If your bodyweight differs significantly, then include a little more than a 20% reduction in calories while adjusting your macros to low carb and higher fat while keeping protein fairly high and consistent.
BODY-PART SPECIFIC DAYS
On your Shattered! training days, the ones where you emphasize your weakest body part, you may feel the need for more calories to fuel and recover during what will be the most intense workout of your week. Here are my recommendations for bumping up calories if you feel you need more than what the regular workout days provide. You don’t need to add in all of these, pick and choose those that support you at the time of day when you need it most:
Late-night meal
Add one scoop of Kasein® to the one you always take, and another piece of fruit such as a plum, apple or peach. Rather than fruit, you can also add about an ounce of nuts. That adds about 200 calories. Get this in the night before your Shattered! body-part training day.
Breakfast:
Take in one slice of whole-grain bread or about two more ounces of oatmeal. That adds about 100 calories.
Lunch:
Get in about 2-3 ounces more of brown rice. That adds about 100 calories.
Dinner
Go with a very large sweet potato rather than a medium one. That adds another 100 calories.
SAMPLE DAILY MEAL PLAN
Here’s how you can put together a daily meal plan for your training days, going with the quantities that are appropriate for your bodyweight.
MEAL ONE—Before cardio
Egg whites with spinach, oat pancakes
MEAL TWO—Late breakfast/mid-morning snack
Chicken breast, yam, leafy green salad (balsamic vinaigrette or lemon as dressing)
MEAL THREE—Lunch
Salmon, quinoa, kale, mixed peppers.
PRE, DURING, AND POST WORKOUT SUPPLEMENTS—Workout
Pre-workout: Get in a serving of PRE-KAGED® *
During workout: Take IN-KAGED® *
Post-workout: Immediately a serving of RE-KAGED *
* I’ll explain more about each of these in my Supplement Overview video.
MEAL FIVE—Dinner
Lean steak, broccoli, cabbage, zucchini
MEAL SIX—Bedtime
Kasein, one medium peach or an ounce of nuts