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Transform your body as you build muscle, lose fat, and maximize performance with The New Power Eating. Author Susan Kleiner delivers the proven strategies she’s used with male and female professional athletes and Olympians in one practical, effective resource that gives you the know-how to reach your personal goals.
In The New Power Eating, Kleiner brings together the latest scientific research on nutrition planning and explains not just what to eat but also when and how to adjust eating plans for your body and specific energy needs. Whether it’s a heavy or light training day, in peak season or off-season, you’ll learn how to achieve your physique and performance goals safely, legally, and effectively.
New recipes pack a nutritional punch into every meal or snack, and sample meal plans for each meal of the day help you easily put it all together—you’ll even find a food group template to help you customize your own menus. Plus, updated details on safe supplements guide you through the maze of marketing claims to help you select the best options in view of the scientific evidence. Dr. Kleiner also walks you through how she evaluates products and brands based on testing for purity, potency, digestibility, and absorption.
Based on the author’s research, you’ll also find fascinating facts that explain how your relationship with food and the gut-to-brain axis can affect your physical and emotional health and performance. Both males and females will discover gender-specific guidance and strategies to help you take advantage of your body’s benefits and overcome unhealthy triggers or habits to create and maintain an effective power eating program.
Incorporate The New Power Eating into your training and find out what thousands of athletes already know: The New Power Eating is more than a book. It’s your path to power excellence.
Earn continuing education credits/units! A continuing education exam that uses this book is also available. It may be purchased separately or as part of a package that includes both the book and exam.
Part I. Foundation
Chapter 1. Eating for Strength, Power, and Speed
Chapter 2. Manufacturing Muscle
Chapter 3. Fueling Workouts
Chapter 4. Managing Fat
Chapter 5. Burning Fat
Chapter 6. Hydrating for Heavy-Duty Workouts
Chapter 7. Fueling the Female Athlete
Chapter 8. Tapping Into Brain Power
Part II. Supplements
Chapter 9. Vitamins and Minerals for Strength Trainers
Chapter 10. Muscle-Building Products
Chapter 11. Products for Boosting the Brain and Nervous System
Chapter 12. Botanicals for Performance
Part III. Plans and Menus
Chapter 13. Developing a Power Eating Plan
Chapter 14. Planning a Peak
Chapter 15. Maintaining Physique Menu Plans
Chapter 16. Building Muscle Menu Plans
Chapter 17. Cross-Training Menu Plans
Chapter 18. Fat-Loss Menu Plans
Chapter 19. Getting Cut Menu Plans
Chapter 20. Power Eating Recipes
Appendix A. Three- to Seven-Day Food Record
Appendix B. Restaurant Guide and Healthy Fast Food
Susan Kleiner, PhD, RD, is a titan in sports nutrition. Her seminal research on male and female bodybuilders studied the nutritional needs of muscle building, power, and strength. Her expertise and research have expanded to hydration, and she is passionate about the nutritional needs of athletic women and girls. She is the founder and owner of the internationally recognized consulting firm High Performance Nutrition, LLC. The author of six other popular books, she has written numerous academic chapters and peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, as well as featured columns in all forms of media.
Kleiner has consulted with professional athletes and teams, Olympians, and elite athletes in countless sports. She is currently the high-performance nutritionist for the Seattle Storm and previously served that role for the Seattle Reign FC, the Seattle Seahawks, the Seattle Supersonics, the Miami Heat, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Cleveland Browns. She is a cofounder and fellow of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, a fellow of the American College of Nutrition, and a member of both the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Kleiner is a frequent invited speaker at national and international conferences and is a regular expert presence in online, print, and broadcast media.
Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, PhD, is a leading health and medical writer in the United States. She has authored or coauthored more than 65 books on nutrition, exercise, weight loss, psychological health, and other health-related issues, among them The Biggest Loser, a New York Times best seller that was the official diet and fitness book for NBC’s hit reality show of the same name. Through her many collaborations, she has had 12 other New York Times best sellers, including 20/20 Thinking, Good Carbs vs. Bad Carbs, and Foods That Combat Cancer. Greenwood-Robinson has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including Dr. Phil and NBC’s Dateline. She has also written articles that have appeared in the magazines Shape, Let’s Live, Great Life, American Health, Physical, Muscle & Fitness, and MuscleMag International. Greenwood-Robinson resides in Flower Mound, Texas.
“If you want to understand the impact that food can have on performance in power sports and learn how to design your own plan like a pro, there is no better resource than The New Power Eating.”
Jose Antonio, PhD, CSCS, FISSN, FNSCA
CEO and Cofounder of the International Society of Sports Nutrition
“Dr. Kleiner’s advice has made all the difference in helping me improve and extend my playing career. I’ve never felt, played, or looked better! The New Power Eating will also help you transform your physique and elevate your athletic performance.”
Sue Bird
Point Guard for the Seattle Storm (WNBA)
Member of Two WNBA Championship-Winning Teams (2004, 2010) and Four Olympic Gold Medal Teams (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
Member of Eleven WNBA All-Star Teams and Eight All-WNBA Teams
Fan Pick for the WNBA's Top 15 Players of All Time
“Dr. Kleiner showed me how to focus my food and fully fuel my body. I feel better, play better, and I know I’ll be able to stay in the game longer. Add The New Power Eating to your training program and achieve your physique and performance goals.”
Megan Rapinoe
Midfielder/Winger for the Seattle Reign FC (National Women's Soccer League)
Member of the United States Women's National Soccer Team—Gold Medal in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Gold Medal in the 2012 Olympics, and Silver Medal in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
“Dr. Kleiner’s athlete-first approach to sports nutrition makes all recommendations and guidelines practical and easy to customize for any athlete. Use The New Power Eating to get all your sport nutrition questions answered by a pioneer and respected leader in the sport nutrition profession.”
Keenan Robinson
Director of Sports Medicine and Science for USA Swimming
“Dr. Kleiner has decades of experience working with athletes of all levels to show them what works and what doesn’t in their quest to develop power for their performance. With The New Power Eating you can reap the benefits of that experience and take your game to a whole new level.”
Daniel Shapiro
Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Los Angeles Clippers (NBA)
“The New Power Eating is a MUST for every athlete. I have used Dr. Kleiner’s information for years with the athletes I coach. In fact, I recommend her book to every high school athlete who reaches out to me. Athletes who want to get a leg up on their competition should study and apply Dr. Kleiner’s principles. The book is written in a way that is easily understood, and the concepts are very simple to follow. Dr. Kleiner is simply the best sports nutritionist the United States has ever produced.”
Jed Smith, MS, CSCS
Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for University of Northern Iowa
USA Weightlifting National Coach
USA Track and Field Level 1 Track Coach
>
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
Creating your diet plan
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet.
Once you have calculated your daily nutrient and calorie needs, use the Nutrients per Food Group Serving table that follows to design your diet. This table shows the amount of nutrients in one serving from each food group. Make sure that you include choices from all of the food groups to ensure a well-balanced diet. Add liquid supplements to meet additional carbohydrate, protein, and calorie needs. To simplify periodizing your diet to align with your training program, put your exercise-specific fueling into snacks before, during, and after exercise. These snacks can be eliminated on rest days and low-volume training days. Refer to the serving size charts in the next section to learn about serving sizes for each food group.
Fat intake recommendations for active people
If you’re an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake.
If you're an exerciser, bodybuilder, or strength trainer trying to stay lean, you should control your total fat intake to control your total calorie intake. For reasons around both physical training, health and emotional well-being, I like my clients to hover around 25 to 35 percent, of their total calories from fats, depending on their total calorie intake and specific training goals at the time. There are reasons that you might alter this percentage, and we will discuss those below.
There are many strategies for accomplishing this fat intake level. One less-structured way is to follow the AHA guidelines for food choices. If the majority of your food choices are plant-rich from a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, and you add in animal protein-rich foods from fish, meat, and dairy to round out your diet, your total fat intake is most likely to be in a well-controlled zone of about 25 to 35 percent of calories each day. I want to emphasize the word “variety.” If you neglect variety and choose a majority of high fat plant foods, like avocados, oils, nut butters, and seeds, you will have created a high-fat diet. Or, if you include dairy but avoid meats, and eat a high volume of cheese, you are also creating a high-fat diet. So the label that you put on your diet doesn't protect you from less healthy choices. You have to ensure the variety in your diet, which promotes health and performance.
Your diet should contain much more unsaturated than saturated fat: 5 percent saturated, 10 to 15 percent monounsaturated, and 7 to 10 percent polyunsaturated.
A much more structured way to monitor your fat intake is by counting the grams of fat in your diet each day. To be honest, counting calories and macronutrient grams daily is probably my least favorite way to live life. I prefer that you plan a food template, perhaps monthly, of what you will include in your diet each day using food groups, with the knowledge of the macronutrient content of the foods in those groups. Then you can choose from within those groups as they fall in your plan each day, without constantly counting, and know that you are on your plan. This gives you so much more freedom to choose as life presents itself in your day, rather than structuring and restricting your life around your food plan. And you can be more comfortable with your diet at the same time. In all the menu chapters in The New Power Eating, you will see how I use a food group template down the left column of the page to fill in a daily menu of food choices.
You can calculate your own daily fat intake by using the following formulas:
Total Fat
Total calories × 30% = daily calories from fat / 9 = g total fat
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.3 = 600 / 9 = 67 g total fat
Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)
Total calories × 5% = daily calories from SFA / 9 = g SFA
Example: 2,000 calories × 0.05 = 100 / 9 = 11 g SFA
Following the Power Eating plan, first determine your protein and carbohydrate needs. All of your leftover calories are fat calories—most of which should be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Be sure to read food labels for the fat content per serving of the foods you buy in the supermarket. The grams of fat are listed on any food package that provides a nutrition label.
Fat Substitutes and Fat Replacers
Many low-fat foods replace the fat with starch, fiber, protein, and other forms of fat. But why even bother with fat substitutes and fat replacers when you need the right kinds of fat in your diet? Go ahead and continue to enjoy healthy fat in foods such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, and nut and seed oils. Your body needs and deserves them.
What's more, we don't yet know what effect artificial fat has on health. Some nutritionists and other health advocates are concerned that consumers may get so carried away with eating fat-free foods that they won't obtain enough of the healthy fat their bodies truly need.
The gut-brain axis
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis.
Your gut (stomach and intestinal tract) and brain are tightly connected and in constant communication with each other in what scientists call the gut-brain axis. The brain talks to the gut, and the gut talks to the brain—bidirectional communication that plays a key role in physical and mental health, according to an accumulating amount of research compiled by scientists.
You have collections of microbes in your body (about a trillion), referred to as microbiota. In total, the microbiota weigh about twice as much as your brain. The brain influences gastrointestinal and immune functions that control the populations of good and bad bacteria in the gut, and these same good and bad bacteria influence the creation and regulation of brain neurotransmitters that affect brain function, mood, and behavior. For example, a study published in 2015 in Biological Psychiatry involved the transfer of gut bacteria from the intestines of obese mice to normal-weight mice. The recipients, whose weight remained unchanged, developed neuropsychological symptoms characteristic of obese mice, such as anxiety and changes in cognition and behavior.
Studies in humans have suggested that introducing certain foods and restricting others can help change the microbiota and reduce levels of anxiety or depression. Many of the dietary changes they suggest—which mirror the new Power Eating recommendations you will find in this book—are generally healthy overall and offer a way to protect and enhance brain health. Overall, these studies suggest that you can positively affect the health and diversity of good gut bacteria by taking the following actions:
- Avoid a high-fat, processed, and sugary Western-type diet. This appears to boost levels of unhealthy gut bacteria and significantly increases the risk for inflammation and depression.
- Focus on whole foods. These include plenty of fiber-rich whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, all of which have been linked to the promotion of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Eat fermented foods. These foods contain probiotics, which are living microorganisms that improve health by adding to the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Research suggests that regularly consuming the probiotics found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles, or taking probiotic supplements, may alter the nature of the microbiota in the gut, resulting in the production of compounds that are associated with positive brain changes. An important study published in 2013 in the journal Gastroenterology found that women who ate a cup of yogurt containing probiotics twice a day for one month reacted with less stress and anxiety to images of angry or frightened faces than did similar women who did not eat probiotics.
- Eat soluble fiber. This naturally contains “prebiotics,” dietary fiber that stimulates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in your gut. Good sources of prebiotics include whole grains, flaxseed, onions, bananas, and garlic. Among other beneficial effects, preliminary research suggests prebiotics may help you better manage stress. In a study published in 2015 in Psychopharmacology, three weeks of prebiotics consumption significantly suppressed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and shifted volunteers' thought processes from a negative focus to a more positive focus.
- Always combine your training with a healthy diet. This is another way to keep your intestinal bacteria in balance. A 2014 study comparing healthy nonathletes with 40 Irish soccer players revealed that the soccer players had about twice as much diversity in their gut microbiota; in other words, a higher ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria, a sign of good health.
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