EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

Welcome to Eat to Perform. I started writing the content on the Eat to Perform website two years ago.

At the time I just really wanted my friends and family to benefit from all of the research I was doing.

Since starting the Facebook page and blog in March of 2013, it has now grown to over 200,000

followers and I have added other team members to make it even better! In order to address more

specific questions and individual issues, we then started the Science Lab.

As a member of the Eat to Perform Science Lab, you have many resources at your fingertips:

Unlimited seminars with Paul Nobles, James Barnum, Julia Ladewski, and other special guests

Private Forum for members only, currently located in Facebook (note: we are moving to

separate forum in the coming week). In this forum, the Eat to Perform team takes on your

individual questions so that you can dial into the nutrition plan that works for your body, your

workout level, your life.

For four payments of $19.95 or one $49.95 annual payment, you’ll also receive Metabolic

Flexibility by Mike T. Nelson, PhD(c), the first and only guide to eating that takes into account

the athletic rigors of High Intensity Weight Lifting, Olympic Lifting, and Powerlifting. This

includes monthly updates!

We are growing every day, and have some exciting things on the horizon!

We hope you enjoy your experiences in the Science Lab. Do not hesitate to contact any of our team

with feedback or suggestions!

Paul Nobles, Owner

www.eattoperform.com

WELCOME

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

The biggest question I get is “what and how much should I eat”? Most people finding their way to this

site are coming from a relatively low carb way of eating and are typically under eating to their level of

performance.

Here is where I think you should start because in the end you are creating "your plan" this is not my

plan, or THE plan or THE WAY. What I am teaching you is what I learned to create the optimal path of

health for myself (and I am pretty sure I can help you guys do it as well).

Eat to Perform Calculator

So first place to stop is the Eat to Perform Calculator. The calculator isn't here so you learn how to

count calories, it is simply here so you can compare how much you are currently eating and adjust up

for your athletic performance. That probably does mean for a few days you should know what those

amounts look like but over time it becomes intuitive. For guidance as to what values to use, make sure

you check out the blog entry TDEE/BMR Calculator Explained.

Body Fat % - The best measurements are typically from a DEXA scan, BodPod test, or hydrostatic

testing. Most major universities have a BodPod testing machine, so call around. Otherwise, post your

location in our forum and maybe another member knows of a close location.

Carbohydrates

In regards to how many carbs you should eat, I recommend the following to start:

Women:

If your body fat percentage is over 25% start at your weight in pounds in grams. So if you are 155

pounds, 155g. If your weight exceeds 200 pounds use 200g as a place to start. You should really

consider taking more rest days (control days, more on that later) as a way of keeping fat under control

and stress low.

If your body fat is under 25%, start at your body weight in grams and gradually add carbohydrate, not

extreme amounts but enough to support muscle maintenance and potentially aid protein turnover to

build a small amount of new muscle. We promise, you won't end up looking like a man you will end up

looking great and performing better as an athlete in the end. The added carbs will really get your

metabolism rolling.

WHERE TO START

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

Men:

For those with body fat of 15% and above, start at your weight in pounds +50g. So if you are

200 pounds, start at 250 grams. The one caveat is that if you are over 300 pounds start at 300g on the

days you are eating carbs and you should really consider taking more rest days (control days) as a way

of keeping fat under control and stress low.

For men under 15% start at +100g, so for a 200 pound male you would start at 300 grams of carbs.

Remember, you have to do what feels most right and this is likely a bit of mindset change for some of

you. Just remember that carbs aid in muscle maintenance and will get your metabolism moving better.

I refer to “control days” a lot. They’re part of developing a flexible, intuitive style of eating, as well as a

high-functioning metabolism. At the most basic level, control days are days where you rely mostly on

fats; it’s that simple, yet people tend to over-think the subject quite a bit.

As a 165 lb. male, I have two personal versions of the control day: A “low carb” day that comes in

around 125g of carbs, and another day (which I use very sparingly) where I modify down to 75g of

carbs. The 125g day comes up fairly often, but I might only utilize the 75g day after holidays or (as an

example) weekends in Vegas. I have been eating like this for almost three years now, so my body is

relatively flexible as it relates to moving from one energy system (fats) to another energy system

(carbs). As someone who CrossFits and stays pretty active, I’m never very concerned about “spillover”

or holding too much water due to excess carbohydrate consumption. In truth, men have it a little bit

easier as far as back-loading goes, but women need to be a bit more cautious. As an example, my

wife’s control days are pretty similar to mine, but she uses 100g of carbs. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule

where we are counting calories, but more of an intuitive approach where the goal is to simply eat

fewer carbs.

How to Schedule Control Days Around Your Training

Hopefully, you take a few rest days here and there. I am talking to way too many people that have

active recovery days in an attempt to screw themselves into the ground and lose that last bit of

abdominal fat. Not only is this ineffective, but it’s counter-productive and it puts you at risk for injury.

If you want to get rid of that last bit of fat, there are two ways to do that: add more rest days (which

will add more control days) and start focusing on building/maintaining your muscle. Allow

performance to be the driver and stay away from very low carb, extreme deficit dieting. It’s a trap!

CONTROL DAYS

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

The logic behind implementing control days goes like this: When you’re not deliberately trying to gain

weight, or if you feel “watery”, you use your training days as control days.

Why You Still Need Carbs on Control Days

This is a cyclical approach, and if you can dial it in, basically have the secret to optimal health. There

are no “reefed” days because at no point are we limiting carbohydrates in an extreme manner. We’re

never dropping to 15-30g of carbs. CrossFitting usually doesn’t require a tremendous amount of carbs,

but going very low carb is a recipe for disaster. If you need a “guide” or a place to start, I suggest that

women go with 1g of carbohydrate per lb. of bodyweight. Men can start at 1g/lb. and add 50g. That’s

usually a pretty safe place to start, and then you systematically adjust it to what feels most right. That

is different for each person, but I will caution you: you should be adjusting up (not down) in most

cases. I talk a lot about how underfeeding affect things like thyroid function (Pimstone). Artificially

lowering your carbohydrate intake will more than likely result in under-eating. Compounded with

extreme exercise, this is almost always bad for your health.

My recommendations are not extreme; I prefer to take a moderate approach in both directions. I

believe that relying mostly on fats, most of the time, is the way to go. However, I rarely prescribe

fewer than 75g of carbohydrate, even for women. If you think it’s kind of outlandish for me to suggest

that athletic people eat 150-200g of carbohydrate on training days, I’d like you to take a look at the

FDA’s Daily Values. You’ve probably seen them before, but please, refresh your memory. Most of us

can agree that 300g of carbohydrate, as a baseline recommendation, is pretty ridiculous. To make

matters worse, most of the people eating a “Standard American Diet” are sedentary; they’re not at the

gym burning up glycogen all day, and they certainly aren’t CrossFitting 5x a week. There’s a reason it’s

abbreviated as S.A.D.; these recommendations have failed the majority of us and that’s why we’re

having this conversation. I hope that clears things up.

Low Carb Does NOT = Low Calorie

The biggest mistake a lot of people make with control days is that they lower their overall intake too

dramatically. This is a surefire way to lower your work capacity and subject yourself to illness as well

as stalled fat loss. When you decrease your carbohydrate intake, you need to make up for the calories

with a concomitant increase in fat or protein. Here’s how I suggest you approach this: on control days,

eat a bit more protein. Do not be obsessive about tracking, but keep the amount a lot closer to 1 gram

per lb. of body weight. On higher carb days, you can often go as low as 1 gram per lb. of lean body

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

mass. Tracking this should take all but 5 minutes of your day; it’s a general rule. You’re not obsessively

counting, you’re just getting yourself in the right ballpark. To round out my calories, you add in more

or less fat. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-50g on your lower carb days should make up the

difference.

Can you expect your weight to go down or up as you cycle carbs and fats? Yes, and this is a good

thing! You’ll tend to weight in lower on the control days, but not by a lot. Having full muscles is not

the same thing as having inflamed muscles. People on excessively low carbohydrate diets

systematically render their cells inflexible as it relates to using carbohydrate as an energy system. This

is why when someone goes on vacation after being relatively low carb for a long time, they gain ten

pounds and panic. While there may be some fat gain, the majority of this extra weight comes from

simply rehydrating the cells and replenishing glycogen.

There is no need to excessively restrict calories when you eat in a manner similar to this. Every now

and again, I have days where it just becomes inconvenient to eat. My energy levels are high so I just

roll with it. Typically this is a rest day. Once I get hungry, I have a small fat/protein meal, and then that

night I have carbs to prepare for the next day’s workout. Overuse of low carbohydrate diets, or even

these “control days”, leads to a form of insulin and leptin resistance, and that is a contributing factor to

a repressed hormonal system. Please, don’t turn control days into a version of the “Eat Less Do Less”

diets I often admonish.

Can I Use Control Days Before I Work Out?

Training without loading carbs the previous night can suck, but if you do it right, you can use these days

to deplete glycogen and accelerate fat loss. I was tempted to say “No.” when I asked myself this

hypothetical question, but the reality is that on occasion, it works. Here is what I suggest, especially

for people new to this with relatively inflexible bodily systems: on days you WOD without a back-load

the previous night, modify your workouts down and get in some metcon. For men, do the women’s

weight. Women should drop the weight about 25%. Remember that without fully replenished

glycogen stores, your performance may suffer. Be cautious and approach the situation with my

Eustress Training article in mind. Get in a good workout and don’t stress yourself out.

Here’s an example of what this could look like:

o Sunday: Rest. Eat fewer carbs.

o Monday: WOD. Modify the workout down so that it’s more of a metcon than anything. Eat

fewer carbs tonight.

o Tuesday: Rest. Eat lots of carbs for tomorrow’s WOD.

o Wednesday: WOD. Eat fewer carbs, rest tomorrow.

o Thursday: Rest. Eat lots of carbs for tomorrow’s WOD.

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

o Friday: WOD. Eat more carbs for tomorrow’s WOD.

o Saturday: WOD. Eat fewer carbs since you rest tomorrow.

There Are No Big Mistakes

When you are recovering from a repressed endocrine system brought on by chronic underfeeding,

seeing the scale going up is frightening. Sure, it was easy to keep the scale down when you sucked all

of the water out of your body and your hormones were broken, but that way of life wasn’t getting you

where you wanted to go or you wouldn’t be reading this article. Think of your body like a lawnmower

that’s been sitting in the garage all winter long: the first few pulls of the cord are tough, and you may

need a new spark plug, but it’s not broken. The next few pulls are easier, and by the end of the

summer, all is well.

That is what the “gradually awesome” approach is like; there are no big mistakes. In short time, you’ll

see that the fear of eating carbohydrates (and for a lot of people, appropriate amounts of food) to fuel

your athletic performance is unjustified. Your anxiety was based on limited experience with a new

approach to eating that is quite easy to implement, and you can always control whatever minor

mistakes you’ve made. Contrary to what you may have been taught your whole life, it’s really hard to

mess up a diet. As an athlete (and yes, if you CrossFit you are an athlete) you need to take the reins

and do some self-experimentation. In the end, that’s the path to health and an optimal hormonal

profile.

Works Cited

Pimstone, Bernard. “Endocrine Function in Protein-Calorie Malnutrition.” Clinical Endocrinology (1976):

83-84.

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

So how long exactly have you been on the fat-loss roller coaster? Most people think they are on a

weight-loss roller coaster, but in fact the weight-loss roller coaster is a fat-loss roller coaster. And most

people find themselves getting on the same ride, over and over, without reaching their goals.

Either way, you are where you are now and you are reading this article, so that’s a good thing. This is

my response to a friend who read one of my articles and said, “well sure, but how does a person at

30% get to 20%”? That answer is “she probably doesn’t, but a person that gets to 25% might have a

good shot at getting there”. One of the problems that people encounter is that they set unrealistic

goals and when those goals require patience it sets them up for failure. So a person wanting to get

lower than 30% would be much better off mentally trying to get to 28% as an example, which is an

achievable goal anyone can get.

Why Your Paleo Challenge Failed You

The gym I go to had a Paleo Challenge and asked me what I thought. My first thought was “I want no

piece of that”. This is how a typical Paleo Challenge works–they start right after the first of the year

and people atone for their holiday eating and drinking sins by depriving themselves of food for thirty

days. Folks, that model is broken, especially if you do Crossfit. Why on earth would an athlete choose

to eat less than their energy output? So when I was asked how we could make it better I said “a year-

long challenge feels about right”. I then heard a loud thud and it was about 20 seconds before my gym

owner picked up her phone. “YOU WANT PEOPLE TO EAT 100% PALEO FOR A YEAR?!” My response

was simply, “I want them to eat 80% Paleo for a year. I want them to re-think the word challenge, I

want the challenge to be How can they change the way they think about eating and have it affect their

athleticism positively“. In the end she decided on a 3-month and a 6-month challenge, (which was

probably better than my idea truth be told but between you, me and the other 126,000 people on here

I was negotiating high).

The challenge was based on one thing, how much fat you lost. Period. No bullshit weight numbers,

journals, or progress pictures that only tell part of the story. Fat loss. Period! In Crossfit we measure

everything, our Fran times, our PR’s, but for some reason when it comes to fat loss we are scared to

know. Want to know why? Because we secretly know that if the scale isn’t better, and the mirror isn’t

better, we aren’t making gains. That can’t be explained away. That’s where data matters, data is our

path to enlightenment because data tells us if we are on the right path or need to explore another

path. So 50 people caravanned to the University of Minnesota Athletic Department to be tested with a

BodPod machine.

THE FAT LOSS ROLLER COASTER

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

In The End Two Stood Tall

Maggie Martin and Matt State (this is the link to Matt’s story in his own words). You guys probably

know Maggie because she is my business developer, currently business development means she is in

charge of most of the backend stuff for Eat To Perform. The two that won had one thing in common,

they listened to me and mostly ignored others. My basic advice was simple, don’t change how much

you eat, change what you eat. While others in the gym were getting better at some of the cardio stuff,

Maggie and Matt just started looking different. Just fit and strong as hell.

When the numbers came in Maggie lost 18 pounds of fat and Matt lost 20 pounds in three months. No

one else was even close. (Note: Maggie continued on with her plan and three months later re-tested;

she lost an additional 7 pounds of fat for a six month total 25 pounds of fat lost, and over 7 pounds of

lean muscle gained)

The Next Part of Their Journey

This brings me to the next part of their journey, the part of their journey that confounds most people.

Paleo when done correctly is extremely positive for health and by done correctly I mean 80/20, 20%

being eating for joy occasionally, otherwise known as stuff that isn’t Paleo (it also happens to be Loren

Cordain’s recommendation from the original book). Mentally it just makes things easier in the long

run, and is more sustainable. If you have ever seen one of these articles before you probably know

what is coming now, the math. Like the title suggests we are going to take a person that is 30% body

fat and turn them into a person with 24% body fat. In this fictitious example, we will use a 150 pound

woman and she will be checking her body fat at a facility that does Dexascan, Bodpod, or Hydrostatic

measurement. We will be doing this in four stages, each being three months long. In her first stage we

need to get her to 28.5%, so she needs to lose 2.25 pounds of fat, not 2.25 pounds. 2.25 pounds of

fat. Here is how she is going to do that:

o For most of the three months she will be maintaining her weight, so the goal is to hover around

150 pounds.

o In that time she will be using Creatine to support her muscle mass and will be eating a

minimum 150g of carbs to aid muscle turnover from the workouts, pushing that number

upwards as it feels more correct. The scale will fluctuate more but those extra carbs will add up

in the end.

o She will be getting adequate rest. So no 5 or 6 day workouts, 4 days is the most she will do.

She won’t be doing two-a-days either. She needs to be fresh so that when she shows up at the

gym she is able to give it 100% every single time.

o She will have lowish carb control days as they are needed, but we will be monitoring the scale

to make sure she hovers around 150 the whole time. Five pound swings up are almost

irrelevant for women. If the scale doesn’t go up sometimes you are doing it wrong.

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

o Then the last week of the stage she will eat 75-100g of carbs per day and lift only three times.

The last day of lifting will be deadlifts and then eat 200g of carbs on the evening before she

body fat tests.

o On that day she will test at a weight of 147.75.

Seems pretty doable right? She will then repeat this process 3 other times until she is 24%.

The Secret is Actually Pretty Simple

What if I told you the secret to all of your problems as it relates to weight lose is pretty simple? It’s my

belief that diets fail most people because they don’t understand the “why’s” of what they are doing. In

fact, most diet authors don’t know what they are doing. In the end they are just re-packaging the

same old standard “eat less do less” bullshit diets. Which is why Crossfit is so magical, we have it

almost completely right but we screw it up when we start eating less! The goal needs to be building

almost all of the time with occasional control days (in the last example a week of them).

In the example above, the person is not actually dieting; she is simply eating more fats and preserving

her muscle. She is mostly building and feeding her metabolism. She is also strategically saving her

muscle which is a big part of what makes this way flourish. It does require patience though, patience

that the “lose 30 pounds in 30 days” diets don’t teach you. Those diets simply empty out your fat cells,

so that Paleo Challenge you did to atone for your holiday sins on February 1st becomes a cheesecake

challenge and a lot of people rebound.

The patient/building/maintaining approach isn’t just the right approach, it’s the only approach that

truly works in the end. Sure it requires some thought and a small amount of discipline, and in the end

it requires you to be in charge, not some diet author or even me.

Want to know what makes someone reach a goal? Firstly they need to believe they can achieve it.

Anyone can lose 2.25 pounds of fat in 3 months and the number gets lower in the corresponding 9

months (because the next 3 months her 1.5% is based off of 147.5, then 145 and ultimately 143.5 in

the last phase). So the achievable part I think we can agree is there. So what’s stopping you from

finally reaching your goals? In the end it comes down to drive, patience, and understanding. You have

one year to gain all of those things. Good luck and hopefully the Science Lab will go a long way to

help you reach these goals.

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

Lab Rats have the ability to attend an unlimited number of seminars where they can ask Paul Nobles

and special guests questions, to dial in their nutrition and programming. Basically, you sign up and

you’re put in a class with other people in a similar boat to yours where everyone can ask questions.

The seminars are held virtually through Cisco WebEx. No additional hardware or software is required,

but if you’d like to communicate with the group, a webcam and microphone are needed.

If you are interested to know what the class schedule looks like, log into your Mindbody account and

select the “Classes” tab. (You may need to scroll to the next week to see the full schedule.)

You can also view all of the previous seminars here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EatToPerform/videos?view=0

Creatine

Progenex

EAT TO PERFORM SEMINARS

Supplements

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

As you big to dial into your nutrition needs, you’ll likely find yourself in one or more of our challenge groups at

Eat to Perform.

We currently have a variety of groups. Click on the links to each of them below to learn the details.

Men - Getting Jacked (Gain Muscle) https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#!/groups/etpsciencelab/doc/381930715255259/ Confused, but Willing to Do Whatever It Takes https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#!/groups/etpsciencelab/doc/382756775172653/ Ladies - Lean Out Group (Lean, Gain Muscle) https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#!/groups/etpsciencelab/doc/378170425631288/ Double Control Day Challenge https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/etpsciencelab/doc/375314342583563/

Ladies Docs https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/etpsciencelab/doc/375315152583482/

Men’s Docs https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/etpsciencelab/doc/375315289250135/

Extreme Fat Loss – One Year Challenge (ongoing) https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/etpsciencelab/doc/377729912342006/

All the groups track relatively the same stats, it is

just helpful to have our Lab Rats grouped by goals.

This spreadsheet was developed by one of our

members and you can use it as a template (will

need a Google account). ETP Challenge Group

Template

Once you open the template, click on File in the

upper left hand corner and select “make a copy”

SPREADSHEET TEMPLATE & HELP GUIDE

Challenge Groups

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

Rename the File

Your file will open. Select the “Share” button:

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

Then click the Change link

Select the “Anyone with the Link” button.

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

Then select the “Can view” drop-down:

Change it to “Can comment” and then click “Save”

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

Then, copy the link.

Go to https://bitly.com/, paste your link in the box, then click shorten.

EAT TO PERFORM – Start Guide

Copy the shortened link

Finally, go to your appropriate group (see list above) and add your spreadsheet via the link. Update accordingly. If you want Paul, James, or Janelle to review your spreadsheet, please tag them and ask for a review.