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- What's up Muscle & Strength.
I'm Kyle Wilkes with Team Pro FX,
and I'm here today at Iron Revolution Gym
in Howell, New Jersey.
I've been a contest prep coach for numerous years now,
and I've had plans created
for individuals based on various needs.
Today I'm gonna be going over how I assess a client
and create a nutritional plan for them.
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So a misconception with bulking is people will just
think they can kind of eat whatever they want.
And, at the end of the day,
that's just gonna get someone fat.
So what I believe is the best approach
is, again, still having that plan to go off of,
and then implementing other things,
such as maybe cheat meals and things of that nature
that will spike your metabolism in certain instances.
Again, this does not mean you should dirty bulk
because the word dirty bulk to me
is someone who is just eating garbage every single day.
Are there individuals and anomalies in this world
that can get away with eating a cheat meal every day?
Yes, but for the greater good, from what I've seen,
there are people that always need to still be
on a nutritional plan that's, most of the time,
includes cardio for heart health and also appetite reasons.
And from there, again, we tailor the plan,
as needed, based on progress.
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"Should you bulk or cut?"
Seems like a complex question to some,
but to me it really depends on what the person's been doing.
So if an individual comes to me and they've been
eating junk once or twice a day for weeks on end,
the first thing I'm going to do is understand
that that person's health markers
are probably not where they need to be
so basically they need to resensitize.
So the first thing I'm going to do is give them a diet
that's probably a little lower in calories,
and that's gonna push them to a new baseline and a time.
So, after a few weeks, sometimes a month even,
they'll have a new baseline and that will then
give me the ability to push them
to more of a bulk or cutting phase.
And then from there, it's really individualized.
There's no set plan.
So when individuals come to me and say,
"I see so-and-so doing this, can I also do this?"
My answer is simple.
"You can do it if it works for you, but if it doesn't,
"we need to then tailor the plan correspondingly."
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"Should you get shredded every year?"
Super common question.
And that answer really depends on what your goal is.
If your goal is to compete,
then obviously we're gonna have to shred down.
But if you're looking to become an IFBB pro,
and you're at a physique in which, I believe,
would take two to three years or more of building muscle
then there's really no reason to get shredded.
Also, let's consider what shredded really means.
Shredded, to me, is a lot different
than shredded to the average person.
So taking that into consideration,
that really lets us know how far we need to push.
But at the end of the day,
if you're trying to put on muscle,
getting bone peeled is not going to really be your answer
if you don't have enough muscle to begin with.
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So another common misconception, I guess you could say,
is when it comes to maintenance.
What is maintenance, first of all?
To me, maintenance is basically
the caloric intake you would have that is needed
to establish and keep you where you need to be.
However, through anecdotal evidence over the years,
if I keep someone's diet the exact same week one
as week 10, there's a great chance,
even if they were in a great spot,
by week 10, things are gonna look different.
So that's why it's important to assess how the client's
responding and tailor the diet from there.
If somebody's coming just off a bulk diet
or they put on some more body fat over that process
than originally intended, they often want to cut down.
However, sometimes just implementing different tools other
than changing the diet, such as putting some cardio in,
if they weren't doing any cardio,
is the route you should take first.
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Protein intake.
Is it a set value that you need?
No.
The first question would be,
"Is the person enhanced or not?"
Depending on that answer will dictate things,
such as protein synthesis.
So they will be able to intake a little bit more protein.
However, when it becomes,
I don't take out a calculator to tell someone
how much protein they should be intaking.
The reason being, if we just go off body mass,
if someone is 300 pounds and not in good shape,
that doesn't mean they need 450 grams of protein
because 1.5 is the value in which we dictate that they
should be using to build muscle.
What I look at is someone's lean body mass
and, again, how the plan is working for them.
There are some individuals that I can give them more protein
and they do extremely well with it.
And then there are other individuals that,
when I increase their protein,
they start having some digestive issues.
So, at the end of the day,
protein is something I try to keep constant,
and I only raise or lower
based on how the person is responding.
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Another common question I get is,
"Coach Kyle, do you do If It Fits Your Macro meal plans?
"Or do you give me a set plan
"in which I have to eat certain foods?"
And, for me, I have clients in both worlds, so to speak.
There are some individuals, based on their goals,
macros do work for them.
Maybe it's the way their schedule is built.
Maybe it's the fact that they're really not
looking to be a competitive bodybuilder.
However, I want to make it clear
that most competitive bodybuilders, most IFBB pros,
they're not following a flexible macro approach.
It really depends with the individual.
Some people are having a hard time following
if it says they have to eat a certain meal.
In cases like this, again, if they are trying to be advanced
so to speak and reach that IFBB status,
I kind of tell them sometimes not what they want to hear
but what they need to hear.
So I will give them that plan,
and then I will work things in that are somewhat desirable.
Let's just say, I know an individual has a hard time
on a weekly basis following a meal plan,
and they're in off-season.
They're gonna have cheat meals on their plan,
things they could look forward to.
And even as prep starts, just because prep starts,
a lot of times, this also comes into another question I get.
"What changes from off-season to prep, Kyle?"
And basically what I tell these individuals,
"I removed the cheat meal."
That doesn't mean their food has to automatically
get lowered because sometimes someone's cheat meal
might be twice a week.
So me simply controlling that meal now lowers our calories.
In addition, there are also treats
that I found are highly useful
to keeping people adherent to a meal plan.
Those are things such as rice crispy treats,
something that's fast digesting,
has a little bit of sugar in it,
and it's easily digestible.
That before a workout, for example,
is something that people really look forward to.
Those are incentives for individuals to not just train hard
but they look forward to working out
because they know post-workout when they go home,
they're gonna have whatever they're looking forward to
when it comes to a cereal.
If that's in their plan.
That concludes our nutritional assessment.
I hope you were able to learn a thing or two.
If you guys have any questions for me,
please just shoot me a message at my Instagram handle below.
Thanks for watching.
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