Watch and learn how to make your very own version of dog food for humans. Yes, this is a play on words for the title. This isn’t really dog food, its meatloaf. But, I will say that this is the best dang meatloaf you’ve ever had if you are into eating high protein meals. This is a staple meal for me to ensure I consume a high level of protein.

I cycle, lift weights and exercise multiple times during the work week and this food is easy to carry in a backpack to and from work.

The recipe is for 2 bread loaf pans. Which I eat in 4 servings. Each serving is approximately 825 calories, 80g protein, 40g carbs, and 32g fat.

It is a little spicy because of the mixture of ingredients. If you can’t handle the heat, then this may not be the best meal for you. If you change the recipe, it probably won’t taste as good as shown in the video.

Ingredients:

• 2 onions finely chopped.
• White or red. 1.5 cups of rolled oats.
• 4 table spoons of soy sauce.
• 15 ounce can of tomato sauce.
• 4-6 ounces of Sriracha.
• 3.75 lbs of 93% ground turkey.
• Lots of ground black pepper.
• Even more Cajun salt.

Cook for 1:10 at 350 degrees.

What do I mean they lie? Do meats talk and tell you things that are false? Nope. That’s not what I mean. What I’m talking about is the misconception I had about lean meats and what that fancy pants percentage actually means.

Take a common 93% lean ground beef. My first thought was, excellent this is what I need, super lean with low fat calories, I can add this to my stack of components for most food items. Well, that’s definitely true. I can and do add it. Particularly 93% lean ground turkey.

WHAT DOES THE 93%/7% REALLY MEAN??

Let’s be honest, the label should be 7% fat, not 93% lean. But marketing likes to make it appealing, which is especially understandable once you learn about what 93% lean really means.

So, are only 7% of the calories from fat? Or is it that fat is only 7% of the total macronutrient grams and 93% is a mix of carb/protein? Or is the total content of the meat 7% fat and the 93% is muscle and other things? On a pie graph, that slice of fat calories keeps growing with each option…

93% BREAKDOWN

First let’s go over the breakdown of nutrition for 4oz of the 93% ground beef. I used the information from MyFitnessPal – Our Certified – Ground Beef – 93/7 – 93% Lean – Raw.

There are 170 total calories in 4 oz of ground beef. The macronutrient breakdown is 0 grams of carbs, 23 grams of protein, and 8 grams of fat. We know that there are 4 calories in each gram of carbohydrates and proteins, and there are 9 calories in each gram of fat.

The sum of the macronutrient grams = 31 grams (8+23).

The total weight of the meat is 4 ounces = 112 total grams.

So, 7% of the calories are from fat?

Nope. If only 7% of the calories were from fat, then a 4oz serving of 93% lean ground beef would actually have less than 1 gram of fat. 99% lean anyone??

Okay, then fat is only 7% of the total macronutrient grams?

Nope. If you calculate percentages, then roughly 26% of the grams between macronutrients is fat. 26%! Thats not even close to 7%.

Hmm. Is the total content of the meat 7% fat and the 93% is muscle and other things?

Yep. Dang. Wait I’m confused. What does that mean?? Well its really simple: 4 ounces of meat is 112 grams and we have 8 grams of total fat. To find the percentage, we must divide 8 (fat) by 112 (total weight), which is roughly 7%.

Still doesn’t make sense? Well think of it this way, you can’t take 112 grams and break it up into only carb/protein/fat because there are other substances outside of the 3 macronutrients. The sum of the 3 macronutrients is only 31 grams, which means we have 81 grams of “other”.

93% LEAN = 44% CALORIES FROM FAT

Let’s do more calculations of common “lean” meats.

• 99% LEAN = 14% CALORIES FROM FAT
• 80% LEAN = 72% CALORIES FROM FAT
• 70% LEAN = 82% CALORIES FROM FAT

REALISM AND HONESTY

Hello. Be Real.

When it comes to fitness, you need to be realistic. Realistic about your current lifestyle. Realistic about your goals. Realistic about how fast you think changes will happen. Unless you are genetically blessed by the gods, or take supplements of the gods, your chances of getting huge and ripped in 6 months or even a year isn’t realistic.

Realism 1: SHORTCUT FITNESS

Don’t start with the idea that within a few workouts you will be as fit, strong, big, small, or lean as someone that has been actively pursuing a fitness lifestyle for years. Most of the large body builders have been working out for many years. At the time of this writing, Steve Cook is 34. He started working out in high school. He’s lifted weights and focused on nutrition literally half of his life.

Realism 2: CHANGES ARE COMING

If you desire to be “shredded”, you will be required to change your life style. If you want to look like the 5%, then you need to stop doing what the 95% are doing. This means no late night parties with booz and fried foods. This also means you must commit to working out 5x a week.

Realism 3: CAN’T DO IT ALONE

Unless you’re a self-motivated beast, you’ll need others on your side to pull you back on track when you think you’ve decided to walk away from fitness. There will be plenty of moments when you think, “not today”. The problem with that thought is that you have a good chance of saying the same thing the next day and before you know it, you’re off the fitness train.

You need an accountability person or group to keep you motivated.

40/30/30 MACRO NUTRIENTS

The magic 40/30/30. Confused about what that means and what order the numbers are? Is that protein, carb, fat? Fat, carb, protein?

Follow me on MyFitnessPal to see what I eat on a daily basis.

When I first started out in the gym, it was all about eating lots of food. Who cares what type or food, just as long as I ate what I thought was enough. I needed to gain weight and had a hard time with putting on any type of weight, fat or muscle. Then came the 30s and too many days traveling, eating out, and drinking beer. My weight gain plan was “working”, in full force!

It is not enough to just count your calories for good gains. At minimum you need to count what type of calories you’re eating. Eating out a lot, “watching” the calorie intake, and not seeing the results you want? Then you will probably be quite surprised to find out that much of the calories you are consuming are carbs or fats and that you are consuming way too many calories on a daily basis. Besides the excess calories, I would guess that only 15-20% of your calorie intake is from protein. You need quality proteins, not an excess of junk fats and quick spend carbs.

START COUNTING THOSE MACROS. YOU WILL SEE RESULTS.

The 40/30/30. What does that mean? Well, it’s a common number used by people that count macros to help as a gauge for how much of each macro nutrient they are consuming. The numbers represent percentages, 40%, 30% and 30% respectively, for a sum of 100%. Which number is which macro nutrient? Well, some people get excited, like me, and use protein as the first number. I think the correct order used is carb/protein/fat.

40 / 30 / 30 = CARBOHYDRATES / PROTEINS / FATS

Pay attention to what you eat. This is important if you want to reach your physique goals.

Preparation is so important! Both in the gym and out of the gym! You cannot get a good workout in if you have not prepped a plan. Nor can you get lean abs if you have not prepped your meals!

FIGURE OUT HOW MUCH YOU NEED

We can talk about healthy foods all day long, but if you have not thought about your intake plan, even healthy foods over indulged will create caloric excess. If you goal is to lose or maintain a healthy weight, then you MUST figure out what you need to eat.

COUNTING CALORIES

DETERMINE WHAT YOU LIKE TO EAT

This is important, because you can likely still eat everything you like. Now, obviously if what you like to eat is cereal all day, then you’ll need to learn to add foods with protein and fat; but for the most part your intake should include things you enjoy.

Many times, you’ll need to modify your current favorites to make sure you reach the appropriate macro split. Each meal can vary, but overall, for the day you should see a consists between 33% each macro and 40% carbs / 30% protein / 30% fats.

Here is an example of how to modify a favorite of mine, pasta. Instead of eating just pasta or pasta with fat meats, I add chicken breast.

MODIFICATION EXAMPLE

High in carbs when eaten by itself, so add some red sauce and chicken breast. Choose whole grain pasta as its higher in fiber. Make sure to equalize the carb calories with plenty of chicken:

• 2oz dry pasta [200 calories, 41g carbs, 7g protein, 1g fat]
• ½ red sauce [74 calories, 12g carbs, 2g protein, 2g fat]
• 4oz chicken breast [136 calories, 0g carbs, 25g protein, 4g fat]

410 calories, 53g carbs, 34g protein, 7g fat. Without the chicken that same pasta dish would only have 9g of protein!

* food density is something I’ll focus on in another article.

MAKE ENOUGH FOR A FEW DAYS

Make it easy on yourself, cook enough of whatever you’re eating to last a few meals, preferably most of the work week! So if you’re eating 8oz of chicken breast a day, then cook 40oz of it.

Why cook only enough for one or two days? You’ll end up losing track of time and not prepping anything for the following day. If that is the case, though, don’t eat fast food, but instead read my article on No Prep Does Not Mean Fast Food!

WEIGH YOUR FOOD OR USE KNOWN CONTAINER SIZES

This is key to ensuring your getting the correct macro intake! Weigh each and everything you eat. If its a recipe you made, then add up all of the ingredients and calculate a serving size based on the summary of those items.

Known containers are also beneficial because they ensure you do not overpack your foods. If it doesn’t fit in the container, then don’t eat it. This only works if you don’t stuff butter into your container as that’s one heck of a dense caloric food!

LEARN CONTROL

If you cannot control your intake for items where you store large amounts of something, like a huge bag of delicious peanuts, then make sure you weigh and bag your servings separately. Take those little bags with you. Don’t bring the big bag or you’ll over eat because you either don’t care at the moment or you weren’t paying attention while shoveling in ounces of peanuts in a 5 minute period! 3oz of peanuts would fit in your hand and it’s like 450 calories!!

Cheers!

Geekhead

Back when I first started my gym focused fitness journey, I was seriously confused on what to eat. I’m sure I still have quite a bit to learn, but my path is definitely more defined today than it was previously. I used to eat out most of my meals during the day and either drank sugary coffee drinks in the morning or drank beer at sports bars in evenings.

Let me be blunt, if you’re at that state…you will never be lean and fit until you change your intake.

But that’s not the point of this post. I wanted to share one of my common substitutes for the times that I do not prep my lunch the day before. Typically I eat high protein meals during my lunch, such as my HDF Meatloaf, which many fast food joints never provide. Well if they do, they also bring on heavy fat calories…which are probably bad fats.

HIT THE GROCERY STORE

Forget the fast food joint with rancid, oily french fries and greasy, fatty cheese burgers! Go to the grocery store and buy some items to make a sandwich. Buy some carrots. Don’t buy a bag of chips. Here is an example of what I’ll buy:

• 1 loaf of bread
• 1lb of lean turkey or ham lunch meat
• 1 package of sliced cheese
• 1 bundle of carrots
• 1 cucumber
• Peanuts or Almonds

I make a sandwich, eat about 3 large carrots and 1 cucumber. Which totals roughly 850 calories, of which is 97g carbs, 27g fat, and 59g protein! Excellent balance of macros for zero prep. Then to add to the cool factor it’ll cost you around $6 a day. Maybe go big and top it off with a nice flavored seltzer water.

850 CALORIES!

Yes, I know that packaged breads, cheeses and lunch meat have their downsides. If you do not mind the extra costs, go your meats and cheeses at Sprouts or Whole Foods. Just remember that nutrition facts will be harder to track if it’s not a labeled package. Or even better yet, prep your food at home instead. This wasn’t supposed to be a post about the best food options. This was about options other than fast food.

READ THE LABELS

Last quick note. Read the labels. As an example, if you buy the Land o Frost lunch meats like I do at Fry’s Groceries, then you’ll notice that the turkey lunch meat has twice as much fat as the Black Forest Ham. Who would’ve thought??

Figuring out your actual required calorie intake is a fairly easy process as long as you understand the language your body speaks when it comes to food needs. It starts with a good guess by using a calculator like found on calculator.net, then maintaining that calorie intake and watching how your body responds to the calories. The calculator factors exercise, so make sure you exercise accordingly.

STARTING POINT

This is merely as an example of where I started, use your own numbers. I’ve adjusted my intake to roughly 3100 calories a day to maintain ~205lbs with my ~4-5 days weekly exercise schedule.

Visit the Calorie Calculator on calculator.net now to figure out your starting point.

Think Quality Over Quantity

ONE; Using your daily calorie estimate, start tracking your intake daily using MyFitnessPal. Don’t lie to yourself while tracking; its not beneficial to anyone to lie, especially not you and your goals.

TWO; Once you have a grasp on maintaining calorie intake, you will need to start focusing on maintaining proper macro-nutrient levels, such as using the 40/30/30 breakdown.

WHY TRACK IT?

Intake tracking is simple; it means watching what you eat to ensure you don’t eat too much. Some people call this a diet. I call it appropriate eating habits. Some people think its an illness to track your food, like its some type of sin to eat only good things. It isn’t a mental illness to track your intake any more than it is to track your financial income and expenses. In my opinion it just means you’re being smart. It isn’t smart to spend more money than you make, nor is it smart to eat more food than you use.

The reality is that many foods available today are dense in fat or carb calories and quite frankly they taste amazing. It’s honestly very easy to over eat with all of the options for processed crap food being less expensive and more readily available. Why is this a problem? Well, there are 2 problems here: 1) processed foods high in fat and carbs are not good for you; and 2) those foods are more likely to make you over weight. Oh come on, its the truth. Don’t be offended by reality. It’s a heck of a lot easier to eat Doritos and Donuts than it is carrots and cucumber.

HEALTH & FITNESS

In my mind, Health and Fitness go hand in hand. For the body building competitor, that might be slightly different as they focus on the best physique possible and might, during prep, focus more on fitness than health. I’m not a competition body builder, so my opinion there is what it is. I’m a father of 4 with a busy life and career. I need balance and longevity.

Eating and tracking healthy food options, while performing good workouts on a regular basis, will produce balance for a fit lifestyle. The goal is to create a balance between the two, where they augment each other. Don’t punish yourself with harsh workouts because you ate poorly all weekend. Don’t eat poorly. Reward yourself after a workout with nutritious foods that produce natural levels of energy and replenishment.

CHANGE YOUR MINDSET

You simply cannot keep returning to poor life decisions in any area of your life and expect better outcome. Being healthy is no different. Don’t expect great things from poor decisions. Don’t expect great health from fast food and sugary coffee drinks. Don’t feel guilty about it either. Just make the conscious decision to no longer think that way. The past is the past. Be different now and tomorrow.

I hope this has encouraged you to live differently. Don’t freak out on yourself. Make small changes daily in your life, every day, that will push you towards a better, healthier, and more fit lifestyle!

Cheers!

Geekhead

1 DAY QUICK WORKOUT

This is my go-to 1 day repeatable workout plan that I use with my youth. It uses only dumbbells and can be repeated every single day of the week.

I’d recommend this workout for any youth looking to start their fitness journey. It touches on some of the basic workouts and covers many muscle groups. The workout is easy to do daily and takes no more than 15-20 minutes a day.

WORKOUT

Day 1:

Full Body			Sets	Reps

Super Set 1: Pushups		4	10

Super Set 1: Prayer Crunch	4	10

Super Set 2: Curls		4	10

Super Set 2: Front Raise	4	10

Super Set 3: Bent-over Rows	4	10

Super Set 3: Squats		4	10

4 DAY BASIC WORKOUT PLAN

This is a go-to 4 day workout plan we use on occasion. A few of these works require the necessary equipment, such as the Lat Pull Down and Leg Extensions, but those can be interchanged with other workouts.

I’d recommend that you do each group roughly every other day. Although this doesn’t quite fit into a 7 day week, so you can do it something like this instead: Monday Group 1, Tuesday Group 2, Thursday Group 3, and Saturday Group 4. Then pick a day or 2 with no group workout assigned and do some type of low intensity cardio, such as cycling or running with the intent of maintaining a fat burn heart rate, such as 125 bpm for a 40 year old male.

The calculation for fat burning zone heart rate is simple: (220 – {your age}) * 0.8 = {approximate fat burn heart rate}

WORKOUT GROUPS

Group 1:

Chest and Back		Sets	Reps

Flat Bench		4	10

Lat Pull Downs		4	10

Flat Flyes		4	10

Kneeled Rows		4	10

Incline Bench		4	10

Seated Rows		3	10

Incline Flyes		4	10

Pushups			3	20

Group 2:

Legs			Sets	Reps

Leg Extensions		4	14

Stiff Leg Deadlifts	3	12

Close Knee Squats	3	10

Weighted Lunges		3	10

Kick Backs		3	10

Leg Curls		4	12

Lunges			4	10

Group 3:

Bi and Tri		Sets	Reps

Alternating Curls	3	10

Tricep Pushdown		4	10

Bent Over Curls		3	10

Overhead Dumbbell	3	10

Ez Bar Curl		4	10

Overhead Ez Bar		3	10

Single Arm Tricep	3	10

Light weight Burn Out	3	*

Group 4:

Shoulders and Traps	Sets	Reps

Front Lateral Raises	3	10

Front Raises		3	10

Seated Dumbbell Press	3	10

Upper Back Rows		3	10

Standing Ez Bar Press	3	10

Shrugs			3	10