Hey guys, Sean Nalewanyj here of SeanNal.com and BodyTransformationTruth.com and in this
video I want to cover a somewhat strange topic, and discuss why you really need to handle
your nuts with care, and why if you get too reckless with them it could very easily throw
your entire muscle building or fat burning program off course.
Now nuts and natural nut butters have always been considered a staple source of healthy
fat in bodybuilding and fitness diets and I certainly think that they are a worthwhile
to include in your overall plan.
However, this is one food source where portion control is of the utmost importance.
As I've said many times before, if your primary goal is to alter your body composition, then
it really makes no difference at all how "healthy" you're eating if your total daily calorie
intake does not fall within the proper range based on your goal.
If you're aiming to lean down but you aren't maintaining a net calorie deficit over time
(15 to 20 percent below your maintenance would be my recommendation) then you're not going
to lose any body fat at all.
And if you're aiming to bulk up and your net calorie surplus shoots too high (again, 15
to 20 percent above maintenance would be my recommendation there) you're still going to
gain muscle, but you'll also be putting on excess body fat at an excessive rate.
It's really as simple as that, and the plain fact is that nuts and nut butters, although
they are a healthy source of fat, are also very calorie dense.
You can only eat a very controlled amount of this stuff before the total calories begin
shooting too high without you even noticing it.
Sit down with a bag of mixed nuts and just start snacking away or start aimlessly piling
peanut butter onto your toast or into a protein shake, and in combination with a few other
small dietary choices that you're making throughout the day, you could very well be completely
sabotaging your results altogether.
For example, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter alone contains around 100 calories.
Most people end up scooping out far more than this at once though and end up with 200 or
even 300 calories just from one serving of peanut butter alone, and that's a lot of calories
for such a small amount of food.
Peanuts, almonds, cashews and other nuts are really no different.
For example, just one quarter cup of almonds equals out to 207 calories.
Go out and measure a quarter cup of almonds and you'll quickly see what a small amount
that actually is.
It might sound crazy but a half cup of almonds per day alone could literally make the difference
between consistently losing a significant amount of body fat every single week, and
making zero progress whatsoever.
So the moral of the story here is simple and that is, treat your nuts with respect.
If you're going to include nuts and natural nut butters in your diet, that's totally fine
and even recommended, but just make sure that you measure out your portions carefully and
that it does fit into your total daily calorie intake as a whole.
In fact, for items like this, a food scale is probably going to be the ideal choice.
It might sound obsessive, but it really doesn't take any more time to weigh them out than
it does to put them in a measuring cup, and it will ensure that you're not going overboard
and that what you consider to be a tablespoon of peanut butter really is a tablespoon of
peanut butter.
Hard training is important, making the proper food choices is important, but if your total
net calorie deficit or total net calorie surplus is not properly in place, your results will
definitely be compromised, or even worse they'll be non-existent.
So thanks for watching this video lesson.
I hope you found the information useful here today.
If you did enjoy the video, as always, please make sure to hit the like button, leave a
comment and subscribe to stay up-to-date on future videos.
Also make sure to check out my complete step-by-step muscle building and fat loss programs over
at BodyTransformationTruth.com.
The link for that is in the description box below, and make sure to join the Facebook
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Talk to you again soon.