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Female-Specific Training and Diet for Physique Development 

Part II - Nutrition and Diet

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Just when you thought you were done, not quite. The training is only one part of the puzzle.

You'll variably hear people talking about diet as being various percentages of your results. I think this is stupid, because diet is both everything and nothing.

If you lift but don't eat properly, you won't do very well. If you diet properly but don't exercise properly, you won't do very well. To discuss either element as independent of the other is frankly dumb. Both have to be done, and done properly, for the best results.

Nutrition, much like training, has a ton of myths surrounding it. Also like training, most of what you'll hear is bullshit.

The biggest and by far most extensive is the idea of so-called "clean" eating. The premise of "clean" eating is that some foods are good and healthy, aka "clean", while other foods are artificial, processed, and bad, therefore they are not clean.

To the clean dieter, there is no other means of controlling the diet. You either eat clean, or you do not. There are good foods and there are bad foods.

Now, to the unknowing, this can sound like a pretty good idea. To the average person subsisting on the typical American diet of junk food, the simple switch to "clean" foods can often have quite a dramatic impact. However, this has little if anything to do with the actual quality of the food.

The fundamental tenet of nutrition relates to the concept of energy balance. In thermodynamics, energy cannot be created or destroyed in a closed system. It simply changes form. The body, being a closed system, adheres to this law as well. Unless you somehow violate physical laws, this means that calories, being the units of energy derived from food, must be conserved in your body just as in anybody else.

To translate this into simple terms, if you take in more energy than you use up, then you gain weight. If you take in less energy from food than you use up, you will drop weight.

The magic of clean eating then is not because of the quality of the foods, but rather the simple fact that "clean" foods on average have less calories for any given amount. The "clean" dieter has thus reduced his or her calorie intake simply by changing food choices.

The average formula given for maintenance calories, that is the calorie intake that balances with calorie usage, is 15 * bodyweight. In order to gain weight, values at or above this would be used. To lose weight, values at or below this would be used. In practice, 12 * bodyweight tends to be the highest value used for weight loss, with some having to go as low as 7-8 calories/pound. A 100 lb woman would likely need around 1200 calories or less in order to see weight losses, as an example.

Bear in mind as well that this is simply a starting point. Simply because “the formula says” something does not make it fact. The formula is a place to start, and you will likely have to adjust your actual diet based on your results. If you're trying to lose weight and the scale isn't budging at 12 calories per pound, then you will have to drop calories further in order to lose.