Hey,
Have you ever actually tried to fuel yourself properly?
Have you done a period of at least 2 months where you eat at least
maintenance calories, relatively evenly spread across the day and week, mostly from good food choices?
Most people haven’t.
Even when actively gaining weight, most people either end up eating crappy foods or they end up eating way more food
on certain days (usually the weekend) and thus don’t have an appropriate spread of calories throughout the week.
How much more energetic do you think you would be if you did make good food choices and ate sufficient calories? How would your health improve? How much would your workouts improve? How much would your relationships improve if you were able to show up as
your best self (most people are not at their best self when they are under-fuelled and hungry)?
Imagine having no mid-afternoon crash, no struggling to push through workouts, no brain fog on a Wednesday morning and so on.
You don’t have to
live life on hard mode by being low on energy all the time.
So, how can you start fuelling yourself properly?
- Calculate Your Maintenance Calories
Take the time to figure out what your maintenance calories really are. We have a few calculators on the
website that will help you to get a better idea of how to set up the diet (Ultimate Diet Set Up Calculator, Calorie And Macronutrient Calculator, and Macro Percentage Calculator). These will help to give you a baseline, but for true accuracy, you will need to track your food intake for a few weeks and note any weight fluctuations (this article will walk you through the process). This is an investment in understanding your body's needs that will pay off in
the long run. - Plan for Consistency
A steady intake of calories across the week is key. This doesn't mean perfection, but aim for a consistent calorie range daily. For most people, the weekend is when things go off the rails. Meal prepping or simply planning a few key meals for weekends can help balance this. - Make Good Choices (But Don’t Stress!)
Try focusing on whole foods like lean
proteins, complex carbs, and healthy fats. But you don’t need to be obsessive here! Health and fitness is a long-term game, and there’s room for treats or dining out now and then. The key is to make these choices with intention rather than impulse. - Track Your Energy, Not Just Your Macros
Notice how you feel when you’re properly fuelled. Are you lifting heavier? Thinking clearer? Sleeping better? Tracking these
improvements will help reinforce the positive feedback loop and keep you motivated.
Having coached hundreds of people, I can tell you from experience that if you do this consistently, you will notice improved energy, improved mood, better workouts and generally, life will just feel easier.
If you do this for 2 months, you also set yourself up incredibly well to go on to do whatever you want afterwards. If you want to lose some fat in the New Year for example, you will have spent the last 2 months really understanding how many calories you need to eat to maintain your weight, and you will have instilled some really good daily food habits. As a result, it will be so much easier to drop calories slightly and see fat loss results
quickly.
Anyway, I won’t keep you for long, as I know you are busy. But if you do need help with things, we do have a lot of free content on the website, and we do offer comprehensive coaching too.
Don’t be afraid to reach out either. These newsletters are supposed to help you with all this health and fitness stuff. So be selfish, ask the questions you want to know the answers to!
Chat soon,
Paddy
Gary’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgarymcgowan/
Triage Method Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/triagemethod/
Triage Method Website: https://triagemethod.com/
Triage Method YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TriageMethod
