“Eat iron and lift food.”
On this program, you’ve got to eat. If you are skinny and weak, you need to eat a ton of food. And don’t just tell me that you “eat a lot.” I get this answer from many kids, and when I take one look at what they really consume, it turns out to be nothing more than a few slices of Elio’s Pizza and some cereal all day long.
If you plan on skipping this section because you think you already eat enough and eat well or you don’t have time to eat, pack it up right now and just forget the whole thing because you are fooling yourself. You will never reach your potential no matter what program you use. You’ve got to eat more food, plain and simple.
This means even you fat kids. You’re not only eating crappy food, but you’re not eating enough or as frequently as you should. An example of a typical fat kid’s diet looks like this:
- Breakfast: Cheerios and skim milk
- Lunch: Taco Bell’s grande cheesy chalupa (hold the sour cream)
- Snack: a lean Hot Pocket and diet soda
- Dinner: Spaghetti O’s with hot dog pieces, purple Kool Aid and cookies
CAPTION: “Either YOU eat that or I WILL!”
From the meal plan above, you would think this kid would be skinny because he barely eats all day. However, the truth is he’s fat because he’s malnourished. I don’t have time now to go into the reasons why eating too few empty calories per day makes you fat, but trust me. If this kid ate even 2,000 more calories per day, on my program he would not only build massive muscle, but he would lose fat. When you eat more food, your body also responds by releasing greater amounts of growth hormone and testosterone, yet another form of natural steroids.
Chances are you or your athletes are either skinny and weak or plain old fat. And that’s why I thought it was important to write this section. Also, many athletes today are severely prone to injury. This has to do with the fact that their bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles are literally made up of Twizzlers and Coca Cola.
You become what you eat. Every cell in your body has to be made of something, right? Well every 30–90 days, billions of cells are replaced with new ones, and they are made up of the foods that you have been eating. So if you’ve been eating chips and soda, guess what your ACL is made of? Look at it this way. If you lift weights and expect to get stronger, but the building blocks for that muscle are garbage, how strong can you expect to get?
Eat more and eat higher quality foods. In fact, just eat food! This may sound strange but most of what you eat is not even considered food. What the heck is a “Hot Pocket” anyway? If you answer with meat and bread, I urge you to read the labels. This is NOT food. In my opinion, if it wasn’t here 10,000 years ago, it isn’t food. Chicken, rice, and spinach all come from the earth. Even hamburgers, peanut butter, and milk can all be traced back to something that was here 10,000 years ago. Also, don’t be fooled by the term “all natural.” Monkey balls and dog feces are all natural, but I wouldn’t eat them if I wanted to get stronger.
“OK Elliott, so what the heck should I do?” Here is a list of my favorite nutrition principles as they relate to getting jacked and strong for football.
#1 Eat like a man
Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist in the late 1930s, documented the most comprehensive study ever of the primitive man and his diet/lifestyle in his groundbreaking book, Nutrition & Physical Degeneration. In this documentary, he recounts the nutrition and lifestyle habits of several “uncivilized” tribes in order to uncover the means for their extraordinary strength and health. Among the 14 different tribes he observed were the North American Indians.
The Native American’s lived for thousands of years completely isolated from “the white man.” These folks have adapted to their given environments and have learned how to live WITH the land, not just on it.
CAPTION: Native American chief thinking over his grocery list before shopping at Walmart.
They ate meat, meat, and meat with some meat on the side. Every part of the animal was eaten. Of greatest importance were the organs of the animals that they ate. These wise people knew that it was in the organs that all of the potent nutrition resided, not in the lean meat. In fact, if the meat wasn’t fatty enough, it was fed to the dogs!
Think about that the next time some puppet tells you to eat only lean meats, chicken breast, and fish. I make this point only to bring to your attention the blatant disconnect between what is commonly called “good nutrition” and what man is meant to thrive on. When choosing foods, always choose those foods that most closely resemble what primitive man would eat (and I don’t mean Fruity Pebbles).
#2 High octane fuel
The quality of what you eat is just as important as how much you eat. Remember, you are what you eat. From the moment that you put something into your mouth, your body begins using it to create new cells somewhere in your system. Are you going to be made of Cheese-Its and Pop Rocks or are you going to be made of a robust, free range, organic turkey and unprocessed milk? The choice is ALWAYS yours!
Here is a short list of pointers to consider with regards to food quality:
- Eat whole food: The soil that organic food is grown in is much more nutritious than that of conventionally raised crops. If the nutrients aren’t in the soil, they can’t get into the plant. If the nutrients are not present in the plants, they will not be present in you when you eat it. It’s as simple as that.
- Avoid processed food: I am appalled at what people think is food these days! Just look at some of the garbage that we are feeding our children. What the heck is a hot dog anyway? Nothing on the labels of any of these foods even resembles a food. I guarantee that you can’t even pronounce over half of the “stuff” on the ingredient labels! It looks more like a label for nail polish remover than a food. If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it!
#3 The mighty calorie
The calorie has received such a bad reputation lately, and it’s a shame. “Low calorie” this, “low calorie” that, “cut calories”…blah, blah, blah! In my program, the mighty calorie has made a comeback! We eat tons of this stuff, and it makes my football players super strong, jacked, and fast. In fact, with my incredible “high calorie breakthrough,” kids gain as much as ten pounds in the first two weeks at my gym (while at the same time improving relative body strength).
Below is the groundbreaking, earth shattering, never-has-been-seen-before, super brand new formula that I use to calculate calories for my athletes!
Total daily calories for getting jacked for football:
Body weight X 20 (18 if you’re a little chubby) = total daily calories
(Total calories/number of meals per day or 6) = calories per meal
Next, we need to calculate your nutrient breakdown. This mass building diet will consist of 30 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrates, and 30 percent fat.
First, we calculate your total amount of protein in calories. Simply multiply 2,430 (total calorie intake) by 0.30 (30 percent). This gives us 729 total daily calories of protein. Next, we need to determine how many grams of protein these 729 calories should contain. Because protein is 4 calories per gram, we just divide 729 by 4. This gives us 182 g. Now, we know that we need to eat 182 grams of protein each day. To find out how much we eat at each meal, just divide that by the number of meals or 6. This gives us 30 grams. So to get 30 percent of my total calories from protein, I have to eat about 30 g at each meal.
To get the total calories for fats and carbohydrates, we follow the formulas below.
Carbohydrates
Total daily carbohydrate intake in calories: (2,430 x 0.40) = 972 calories
Total daily carbohydrate intake in grams: (972 / 4) = 243 grams
Amount of carbohydrates needed at each meal: (243 / 6) = 41 grams
Fat
Total daily fat intake in calories: (2,430 x 0.30) = 729 calories
Total daily fat intake in grams: (729 / 9) = 81 grams
Amount of fat needed at each meal: (81 / 6) = 14 grams
So, at each meal, we will eat roughly 30 g protein, 41g carbohydrates, and 14 g of fat. Remember, this is just an overview to help you understand how to spread your calories through the day. Also, in my football strength system, I provide actual meal plan breakdowns that you can follow to the letter without all of the mind-boggling calculations. Stay tuned for part 3 of this series—“Lift, Jump, Drag, and Win!”
“Elliott, does this stuff really work?” Well, why don’t you just ask the parents of the kid pictured below? Under my watchful eye at my gym in Florida, Hunter has been following the program outlined in my football strength system for less than 50 days.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.