Tag Archives: fitness

Introduction to Flexible Dieting

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Hello again! 

If you read my first post last week, I want to thank you for taking the time to do so and for returning to read again this week.  If you have not yet read last week’s, just know it is an overview of who I am, where I come from, and what my outlook is as a trainer and fitness coach.  You can find it here: Introducing: Me.

This week I want to dive into something a little more complex: how to set up and begin counting macros.  

I was first introduced to the idea of counting macros in 2006.  We called it flexible dieting back then, and I was taught (by people much smarter than I) that there were “no magic foods”, and that barring some serious medical issue, my body is not special and will breakdown/use foods no matter if they came from some special list of “clean” foods or not.  Last week I briefly spoke about my history of an eating disorder (ED), and I bring this up in this conversation because, for me, the use of flexible dieting was transformative.  I no longer had to think of foods in terms of good or bad.  I no longer had to eat only foods from the clean foods list.  I no longer panicked if we had a family birthday and I had to be subjected to (gasp!) cake eating.  Instead, I began tracking.  I picked a total calorie number and stayed within it.  That’s not to say I did everything right, or that I was immediately recovered, but it was a step in the right direction.  There is much more to that story that I will cover someday in another blog. 

I have been coaching women online since 2012, and since this tool has been something I personally employed for so long, I felt very comfortable using it with my online clients. I am happy to report that the vast majority of those women now know how to diet successfully, understand the process of setting their macros, and utilize it extremely successfully for whatever goal they might have on their horizon.  

Let’s get into it. 

Step 1: Start tracking – Begin by tracking 3 to 7 days of your normal unedited eating.  The ultimate goal here is to get an idea of what your metabolic setpoint is (read more about set point theory here: https://tinyurl.com/y6uppbsb).  Chances are you are maintaining your weight/body fat percentage, and getting a baseline reading for your typical caloric intake will allow you to know what you need to eat to maintain, thus giving you a number to make your predictions with. The bigger the sample size, the more accurate the data is likely to be, so although I know many of us are raring to go immediately when we finally decide to get serious with our diet, this is a CRUCIAL step.  

Here are some helpful hints: 

  1. Eat according to your hunger cues.  
  2. Do not try to eat “healthier” just because you are now seeing just how many calories are in that frappucino, donut, or protein bar you “occasionally” treat yourself to.  We need an accurate number and trying to perform in this way will throw our calculations off.  
  3. Weigh things to the best of your ability (more on that later), so that we can get the most accurate information when possible. When inputting them to your app, mmake sure that you input them the way you weighed them.  For example: If you weigh chicken raw, input it as raw.  If you weigh it once its cooked, input it as cooked in whatever method you used.  
  4. Use an app such as Myfitnesspal (there are others, MFP is just my go-to) to track AS YOU GO.  Do not leave it all until the end of the day. It will take a lot longer than necessary, and you will likely leave out some things and will throw our calculations off. 
  5. If you eat out or eat something you can’t measure, use your best guess.  Yes, you may guess wrong, but the experience is valuable and your best guess is better than none at all.  
  6. Track your alcohol intake.  MFP will not assign macros to alcohol, but it will add the calories into your daily totals, so don’t be confused if you do not have enough macros to account for the calories (we will talk about this later, too).  

Step 2: Average out your intake – Let’s say that our subject, let’s name her Gal (I love Gal Gadot) tracked for 5 days.  Gal would take the total amount of calories, add them together, and divide by 5. 

Here is an example: 

Monday – 1619

Tuesday – 1380

Wednesday – 2021

Thursday – 1450 

Friday – 1808 

1619+1380+2021+1450+1809 = 8279 calories consumed over 5 days 

8279 calories consumed over 5 days / 5 = 1656 calories per day to maintain 

Since most of my clients come to me when they are “stuck”, I am assuming that you too are at a sticking point.  If you are not losing or gaining, that means you are maintaining, so for the purposes of this example, we are assuming Gal is at maintenance.  

If you do not fall under this category, that’s okay! Based on the information we gather, we can project where your metabolic setpoint is at, all we need you to do is weigh yourself the day you begin tracking and the day after you end your initial tracking.  

Next week we will cover what to do with this information. This week, I want you to download a tracking app (link to Myfitnesspal here: https://tinyurl.com/tdz6ycv), order a digital food scale (this is the one I use: https://amzn.to/34jZCn4), and start your data collection! If you have questions, PLEASE comment below! I will absolutely answer them as they come in.  

Introducing: Me.

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Hi! My name is Diana Becker, and this is my very first blog post ever! 

I realize I am late to the blogging party and that social media is the way of the future, but I find that I have more to say than can be contained in a caption for a post.  I plan to integrate my blog posts into my captions for Instagram (where I am most active), but always link back to my blog so that all of you can read all of what I have to say if you wish to.  You can follow me on Instagram by finding my handle: @dianabecker12

I will be writing posts on subjects from how to get (and stay) motivated to what is happening physiologically in our bodies, and I am open to not only hearing your feedback but also hearing what you want to know!  

I want to dedicate this first post to telling you about myself.  I do not want to be just more noise in the world of fitness, and I aim not to be that by drawing on my 16 years of experience + education to have physiologically correct and real-world applicable advice.  

Before I became a trainer 16 years ago I had been an athlete.  I grew up playing various sports and participating in a myriad of physical activities.  I was never the best at anything, but always worked really hard to be among the top of everything.  I was the 5th or 6th runner (depending on the week) on a nationally ranked, 2nd in state, cross-country team as a freshman in high school.  My sophomore year I tried out for cheerleading, made it, loved it, and it carried me through the next few years of my life.  As a junior in high school I set out to learn how to backhandspring so that I could tumble for competitive cheerleading and joined our high school’s gymnastic’s team eventually winning the “most improved” award at the end of the season.  I cheered both competitively at a private club and for my high school in my senior year, then went on to be a part of a co-ed stunt team for the Seattle Supersonics immediately following high school.  These were the days that laid the foundation for the grit that I would need to pursue bigger goals and overcome large obstacles as an adult.  

During my senior year of high school I developed anorexia.  As it often does, my anorexia slowly developed into bulemia and I began to excessively exercise.  It would take me well into my 30’s to identify that anxiety was the underlying trigger that held me captive to these debilitating behaviors.  Someday, I will write a blog post about my eating disorder journey and how I overcame it.  Today, just know that I have been there and come out the other side.  It is an important collection of experiences that shape the way I coach and the way I see “fitness”. 

At 20 I became the mother to a son (Braden, now 15!).  I have been doing the “fitmom” thing damn near my entire adult life. I know what it is to balance motherhood, school, work, and personal goals.  I know what it looks like to “get back in shape” postpartum and I am also excited to share that with you.  

During my mid-twenties I began competing in the NPC (National Physique Committee) and set my goals high! 

They were: 

~To become an IFBB Pro

~To sign with the management group FMG

~To win an IFBB Pro Show 

~To compete at The Olympia

~To compete in The Arnold Invitational 

~To be a Sponsored Athlete with a large company

At Junior Nationals in 2011 I won my class, came in 2nd overall and turned pro.  I’ll never forget that night because not only did I accomplish that goal, but I was approached backstage by J.M. Manion to sign with FMG.  Two big goals accomplished! The very next weekend I competed in my first Pro Bodybuiling event.  It was called the PBW Tampa Pro Show and I won that too.  I am one of only a few bikini competitors who won their pro card and first pro show in the very same week. My win qualified me to compete at The Olympia, which I did, and I placed 11th that year.  Just before the Olympia, I signed with GNC to be a sponsored athlete and got to represent the company at a variety of events all over the United States.  In late 2011 I was invited to compete at The Arnold Bikini International and I did that in early 2012 where I placed 7th. This is not the whole story of my IFBB career, but it is a summary of the highlights, and I love sharing my experience and unique insight with the clients I train to compete in NPC shows far and wide. 

In the past 5 years I have coached women from all over the world.  These women have been beginners, they have been new moms, they have been experienced exercisers and they have been accomplished competitors.  Together we have achieved more goals than I could ever count and they have provided my life with an incredible amount of purpose and meaning. I am excited to share more of their experiences under “Success Stories”. 

At the same time that I have been coaching women, I have been in school.  I went back to school at 32 years old with no real idea of what I wanted to study.  As I continued further into my courses, I found that I loved science and learning about our bodies.  These two loves propelled me down the nursing track and I graduated with my AA in Pre-Nursing in Spring 2018.  I am now about 3 quarters away from graduating with my Bachelor’s of Health Studies which is an arm of the Nursing Program at The University of Washington.  Through school I have developed an even stronger ability to stay disciplined.  I have learned to apply that same grit that drove me physically to my studies, and now I reap the benefits in the form of excellent grades. 

16 years in the making, and I finally feel as if I have valuable and noteworthy things to say.  I hope you will join me by checking back here frequently, leaving your questions or comments, connecting with me on Instagram, and sharing if you feel so inclined.