Nutrition Coaching
FEEL LIKE YOU’VE TRIED IT ALL BUT CAN’T GET THE RESULTS TO STICK?
The problem is many people treat food as punishment instead of fuel.
You shouldn’t feel like you have to deprive yourself of nourishment to lose weight or see progress with your fitness goals.
Food is meant to supply your body with the energy needed to carry out basic bodily functions and to give you the energy needed for you to make the most of your workouts.
You need sufficient calories and protein in your diet to achieve these things.
You also need calories to make improvements to your metabolism and body composition, which allow you to see sustainable results.
Our nutrition coaches in Los Angeles and NYC help you understand what the appropriate diet should look like for you to achieve life-long fitness goals and have a healthy mind and body.
We also help you see that with a healthy metabolism and body composition you actually gain more flexibility to eat the foods you love without having it become detrimental to your progress.
HAVE YOU EVER FELT LIKE THIS?
You’re tired of losing weight only to gain it back as fast as you lose it.
You’re critical of how you look, but not knowing how to change it.
You label foods as “good” and “bad,” but aren’t even sure if these labels are correct.
You beat yourself up and feel defeated after eating foods you consider to be “bad”.
You try to eat healthy and count calories, but the scale doesn’t move and you don’t understand why.
You try to “be good” and “eat healthy” during the week only to un-do all your progress over the weekend.
You find that you’re skipping meals because you get too busy or your life is too stressful.
You know you’re probably under-eating, but you never really feel hungry.
IMAGINE IF YOU COULD MAKE THIS A REALITY
You’re not only losing weight, you’re keeping it off even while enjoying more flexibility in what you eat.
You see yourself in the mirror and you LOVE what you see and how even your body shape is changing!
You no longer label foods as “good” and “bad” and instead have learned you no longer need to deprive yourself of certain foods to achieve your goals. ALL foods are meant to be enjoyed!
Cooking no longer feels like a chore or punishment because you learned how easy it can be and how good it feels to know what you’re putting in your body!
You no longer have to deprive yourself and feel miserable to make progress.
You know how to manage cravings and emotional eating!
You never have to diet EVER AGAIN!
You’re able to fit in all your old clothes again that you love!
You know how to shop for groceries, cook and order out with absolute confidence.
WHAT DOES A NUTRITION COACH DO?
A nutrition coach helps you understand mindful eating and dismantle any negative connotations you have around different foods. They also help you get in the best shape of your life by addressing diet changes that need to happen in order for you to gain the most from your exercise program. Having a nutrition coach offers you support and accountability. They also offer you the knowledge and skills needed to create a diet plan that is flexible and sustainable.
A nutrition coach can help teach you how to piece together healthy and tasty meals. This way you know what you’re putting in your body and you get to enjoy cooking and preparing some of your own meals. Figuring out what to eat is no longer stressful once you understand what a macro friendly meal looks like.
A nutrition coach helps you understand macros and calorie consumption and how they effect your metabolism and body composition.
Leading Edge’s nutrition coaching plan covers all of this and more!
When you work with our nutrition coaches you also gain access to a personalized meal plan and support in improving both your metabolism and body composition.
Since our nutrition program is available online you can access our nutrition coach in NYC and LA from anywhere!
HOW IT WORKS
Exercise is only half of the equation when it comes to hitting your fitness goals, diet is equally if not more important.
With our online nutrition coaching service you get to choose between two options for receiving hands-on support with establishing what the correct macro break-down looks like for you to optimize your metabolism and gain the most from your training program!
You can choose to receive assistance with macro-tracking in the app Myfitnesspal. This allows you the most flexibility with choosing your own meals, but requires more leg work with logging.
The other option is to receive a personalized meal plan with hundreds of recipes to choose from that are set to your specific macros that we establish for you. With this approach you don’t have to concern yourself with logging and can instead select from customized recipes of your choosing that are already set to your macro goals.
How it works is you will receive a questionnaire to fill out detailing any food sensitives or restrictions you have as well as dietary preferences. You can also select things like how many meals you receive each day, how your calories are dispersed throughout the day, what types of cuisine you like and how simple you would like your meals to be.
There’s a ton of flexibility offered with our meal plan service so that it’s easy for you to stay consistent.
You’ll have tools to help keep you on track like our grocery cart shopping feature that makes it easy to shop for the ingredients you need for the serving size you need. This way you can shop for just yourself or for the whole family!
Your meal plan and all the additional features are made easily accessible through our app!
This is a cost-effective way to get knowledge and support from a nutrition coach, a comprehensive meal plan and the tools you need to heal your metabolism, improve your body composition and gain the most benefits from your exercise program.
Whether you are looking to lose weight, build muscle or just get in the best shape of your life, what you eat matters. In our experience you’ll see far greater results when you utilize our comprehensive diet and exercise approach.
SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS) ABOUT THE MEAL PLAN
The meal plan is made available to you in both a PDF file and on a user-friendly app.
You will receive 4 recipe options per meal and you can choose to swap out the recipes at anytime for new ones. There are hundreds of recipes available in our database.
The recipes will be filtered to satisfy any dietary restrictions or food preferences you select in your questionnaire.
We like to call it flexible dieting because it’s not designed to be restrictive. Our meal plans are designed to satisfy your macronutrient (protein, carb and fat) and calorie goals that we establish for you while still being able to enjoy all the foods you love!
Yes, starving yourself should never be the goal because it’s not healthy or sustainable. You just need to be in a healthy deficit of 500 calories per day to lose weight, but if your calories are already low you should first focus on reverse dieting yourself to a high enough calorie intake (ideally above 1800 calories per day) so that when you put yourself in a cut you’re not dipping your calories below 1200 per day. You should not stay in a deficit long-term either, otherwise your metabolism will adapt and it will hinder your ability to keep the weight off, decrease your appetite and negatively affect your workouts.
Yes, all of our meal plans are customized to satisfy your dietary restrictions and lifestyle preferences. Our meal plan is a great option if you are vegan and struggle to get enough protein in your diet.
Yes, all of our meal plans can be adjusted to any health related dietary needs you may have.
NUTRITION GUIDANCE
These are the 3 main components of your diet that are used to provide your body with energy: proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
Protein is responsible for building, maintaining, and repairing body tissue. Physically active people require more protein in their diet to aid in the constant need for muscle repair. All enzymes and hormones in the body are also proteins, which aid in other important biochemical body processes. Protein plays a wide role in our growth, development, and everyday functioning. The recommended daily intake for protein is between .6-1 gram per pound of your body weight. For example, if you weight 130 lbs you should be averaging between 78 and 130 grams per day. This equates to approximately 30 percent of your daily caloric intake.
Fat is needed for our bodies to function, and our body can’t produce it on its own. Triglycerides, cholesterol and other essential fatty acids are used to store energy, protect our vital organ and insulate us. Fat is also vital in the digestion and absorption of vitamins. You want more of your diet to consist of healthy un-saturated fats. Saturated and trans fats should be avoided as much as possible. Approximately 30 percent of your daily caloric intake should come from un-saturated fats.
Carbohydrates are broken down and absorbed into the body as glucose, the body’s preferred source of energy for physical activity, brain functioning and organ operation. Most foods contain carbs, but you should try to avoid processed foods as much as possible and opt for healthier options like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, which we will get into later. Approximately 40 percent of your daily calories should come from carbohydrates.
Some of these foods will contain more than one of these macronutrients. For example, meats and fish are a source of protein and fat; legumes and nuts are a source of protein, carbs and healthy fats. This is also not a comprehensive list, but just to give you a good starting point.
Complete proteins: fish, lean beef, turkey, ham, pork, chicken, egs, low-fat cottage cheese, lowfat greek yogurt, fat-free cheese, fat-free cream cheese, milk
*Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Diets that include all 20 amino acids are considered complete proteins. Nine of these twenty amino acids are considered essential because our body can not produce them on its own, so we must obtain them in our diet. Complete proteins are found in animal products such as meat, eggs and milk. If you are vegan it’s important to note that you can also obtain a complete protein by combining legumes (beans, lentils or peanuts) with a grain (wheat, rice or corn). A simple example is peanut butter on whole wheat bread, which provides all essential amino acids and a plentiful amount of healthy fats. Here is a list of other examples of vegan-friendly complet protein options.
Fat: nuts, oils, nut butters, avocado, mayo, salad dressings, marinades, coconut, fat from eggs and meats, salmon
Carbohydrates: pasta, popcorn, fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, seeds, nuts
DON’T recommend tracking using an app because it will be very “cookie-cutter” instead of tailored to your specific body so your results will be limited.
1. First track all consumption (what you eat and drink) for 1-2 weeks in grams using a food scale, which you can order for cheap on amazon. The easiest place to store this information is to use a free app on your phone like My Fitness Pal. It’s important to note that while tracking you MAINTAIN the same level of activity you were doing previously, and continue eating the same way you were previoulsy so as not to way your results.
2. Then after you’ve tracked for 1-2 weeks weigh yourself first thing in the morning without clothes or shoes. If your weight has a tendency to fluctuate a lot you may want to weigh yourself everyday for this first week at the same time and same place and then take the average of all of those weigh ins. If your weight has stayed the same you have identified your maintenance calories, which we need for tracking weight loss. If your weight drops by 1-2 pounds then we can safely assume you are approximately 10% under your maintenance and likewise if you gain 1-2 pounds we can assume you are approximately 10% above your maintenance calories.
3. If you lost 1-2 pounds then take the average of your total weekly or two week caloric intake and this is your NEW daily caloric intake amount. You can split up these calories for each week in 1 of 2 ways. The easiest way is to take your weekly caloric goal and divide it by 7 and this is the calorie amount you should be consuming each day. The other option is to preplan your week and you can split up your calories each day however you want as long as you can hit your weekly caloric goal. For example: Let’s say you lost 1 pound and your weekly caloric intake was 13,300. You an either divide that by 7 and have to hit 1,900 calories per day or you can split that up and have low calorie days and high calorie days as long as you hit your weekly number.
If your weight stayed the same you need to deduct approximately 10% from your weekly caloric intake. For example, if your weekly intake was 13,300 calories you need to multiply that by 10%, which equals 1,330. Your NEW weekly caloric intake amount is 11,970 (13,300-1,330).
If your weight went up by 1-2 pounds you need to deduct approximately 20% from your weekly caloric intake. If we are using the same example above you would need to now deduct 2,660 calories from 13,300 for your NEW weekly caloric intake amount.
4. Next you need to divide your calories into fats, proteins and carbs using the 40/30/30 rule. In other words,
approximately 40% of your calories should be carbohydrates, 30% should be fats and 30% should be protein. The best way to calculate this is to start with figuring out how much protein you need. For every 1 lb of body weight you need approximately 1 g of protein. For example, if you weight 135 lbs you need approximately 135 grams of protein per day. There are 4 calories in each gram of protein so 135 grams equals 540 calories of protein.You can then divide your remaining calories into fats, and carbohydrate based on your level of activity and how well your body responds to carbs. Keep in mind that fats are very caloric so you don’t want to go over-board. The easiest rule of thumb if you aren’t sure is to stick to the 40/30/30 rule so 30% of your total daily calories will be fats and 40% will be carbs. For example, if your daily caloric goal is 1,900 you would need 570 calories from fat. There are 9 calories per gram of fat so you would need approximately 63.5 grams of fat per day. Your daily caloric intake of carbohydrates is again approximately 40% of your total daily calories so assuming your daily caloric goal is 1,900 it would be 760 calories. There are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate so you would need approximately 190 grams of carbohydrates each day.
5. To summarize, now you know if your caloric daily intake goal was 1,900 calories you would need approximately 760 calories from carbs (190 grams), 540 calories from protein (135 grams), 570 calories from fat (63.5 grams).
If you use up your carbs too quickly you may need to avoid dairy sources of protein, and for your fat you may need to stick to eggs, meats, and oils.
If you use up your fat too quickly you my need to use egg whites, fat-free dairy protein sources or fish as your source of protein. For carbs most fruits, vegetables and grains will be good.
Most people usually don’t run out of protein for the day.
Macro tracking gives you the benefit of flexible dieting. This means you can be flexible with what you neat as long as you hit your macros. You can have your “cheat meals,” aren’t limited to a meal plan, don’t have to deprive yourself entirely from the foods you love AND will still continue to loss or gain weight depending on your goals. This makes your diet more personal making it much easier to maintain. You also don’t have to worry about hitting your macros EXACTLY as long as you are consistently tracking and are coming within a close margin of your goals each week. The longer you track the easier it becomes to start estimating portion sizes, which really comes in handy when you’re dining out.
The easiest way to track meals that you order out is through your app that you’re using to input, store and track your macros such as My Fitness Pal as mentioned earlier. Many restaurants are searchable within the app and from there it will pull the macros for you once you click on that food item. Now, if the restaurant is not in the app you can easily Google what you ate and find the macros. If you can’t find exactly what you had do not stress. Simply find a few choices that are close to what you had and take the average of their macros.
It’s important to note that your macros will change as you lose or gain weight. These numbers are always based on your weight, which is why it is helpful to have someone help you continue to adjust these numbers for your body as you come closer and closer to hitting your goals. This is a service that we offer.