The 2020 version of The RippedBody Nutrition Setup Guide is finally here.
It combines an ebook, macro calculator, and 7-day email course guiding people through all the ways people commonly screw it up.
Think of it as the less-advanced cousin of The Muscle and Strength Nutrition Pyramid book.
The original guide I made in 2015 has been downloaded by close to 100,000 people. To say it did better than my wildest expectations would be an understatement.
I’ve learned a lot since then, and it was due for an update.
First, everything is brand new. I originally started thinking that I would make edits, but it turned into a complete re-write.
There are too many changes to write up everything, but I’ll cover the main ones here.
Character Additions
I’ve added four new characters to help explain what principles I apply given their unique situation, as I set up their diets.
References
I chose to not add references to this book for the same reason that I don’t on the rest of the site — I want to keep things casual, minimize clutter, and I know that 99% of readers will not use them anyway. The Muscle and Strength Nutrition Pyramid has 301 unique references. It this interests you, please consider purchasing it.
Calories — WHAT’S NEW AND WHAT’S CHANGED
1. I swapped to the Harris-Benedict formula for calculating BMR as it doesn’t require a body fat estimation.
2. I changed the recommended rates of fat loss to be a percentage of body weight, rather than body fat percentage.
Also, despite saying people are free to choose between 0.5–1% of body weight loss per week, I’ve set the macro calculator to 0.75%, knowing that 0.5% is going to be the most sustainable rate for most, and also knowing that if we calculate for 0.75, the actual weight loss rate will be lower, due to metabolic adaptation.
3. I’ve removed the talk of the three methods of bulking (relaxed bulk, controlled bulk, and lean gain) as I felt it unnecessarily complicated things. Frankly, I think everyone should go for the middle option. I’ve left the nuance to be covered by my bulking article.
4. I decided to split the trainee categories into four levels: beginner, novice, intermediate, and advanced. The “beginner” level is not present in The Muscle and Strength Nutrition Pyramid, but I felt necessary, as this will reach a broader audience.
Macros — WHAT’S NEW AND WHAT’S CHANGED
1. Protein intake is now calculated based on body weight rather than by lean body mass. This is much easier than asking people to estimate their body-fat percentage first, and the results are roughly the same anyway.
2. As protein intake based on body weight will lead to unnecessary high intakes in those who are overweight or obese, I put a quick line sketch in the guide so people can simply read off the recommended intake for their height.
3. The guidelines for macronutrients now align with those in The Muscle and Strength Nutrition Pyramid.
4. I moved fiber intake guidelines to the micros chapter to put it with the vegetable intake section, as fiber is a type of carb, not a different macronutrient.
Micros — WHAT’S NEW AND WHAT’S CHANGED
1. I managed to remove half the text of this chapter while retaining all the necessary information.
2. I added a section noting special populations at risk of deficiencies, based on the content of The Muscle and Strength Nutrition Pyramid.
Nutrient Timing — WHAT’S NEW AND WHAT’S CHANGED
This section is around the same total word count, but it’s much easier to read, understand, and implement. This is mainly thanks to the addition of multiple sketches, but also because I’m a much better writer now than I was then.
The main technical difference is that I swapped the BCAA recommendation to whey protein prior to training fasted. This now matches the recommendation in my article on the subject. (Training Fasted? Take Whey, Not BCAAs.)
Supplements — WHAT’S NEW AND WHAT’S CHANGED
In the previous version of the book, I allowed my personal hate for the supplement industry to get in the way of providing the kind of nuanced detail I should have. You’ll see that I have expanded heavily, but the main message remains the same — fix your diet before worrying about supplementation.
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