Despite kicking-off prep with good intentions and immense excitement, there are a number of reasons why a competitor’s journey can quickly go south if they aren’t prepared…

Jack Radford-Smith

June 22, 2024

Your Macro Cheat Sheet: Build Your Perfect Plate Every Time

Jack Radford-Smith

June 22, 2024

Is your diet lacking diversity? Explore these food suggestions tailored to specific macros!

Jack Radford-Smith

May 7, 2024

The Role Of Protein: How Your Body Uses Protein to Build Muscle & Fuel Performance

Jack Radford-Smith

May 7, 2024

The journey of protein within the body!

Featured

Why Habits Beat Motivation for Diet and Training Consistency

Motivation rises and falls with sleep, stress and life, which makes it an unreliable foundation for consistency. Here is why habits beat motivation, how they actually form, and how to build ones that keep your nutrition and training on track even when motivation dips.

How to Recover From Comp Prep: A Post-Show Guide

The phase after a bodybuilding show can be harder than prep itself. A practical guide to restoring energy availability, managing weight regain, choosing between a recovery and reverse diet, and rebuilding training, cardio and flexibility around food.

Which Carbs Are Most Filling Per Calorie?

Some carbohydrate sources keep you much fuller per calorie than others. Here is how carb sources compare on food volume and fibre per 100 calories, and how to use that to choose the most filling carbs for fat loss and around training.

How to Set Your Macros for Fat Loss, Muscle Gain or Recomp

Setting your macros works best as a sequence rather than four separate guesses. Here is how to set your calories first, then protein, fat and carbohydrate, with the numbers adjusted for fat loss, muscle gain or body recomposition.

Saturated Fat and Heart Health | Why the Debate Needs More Context

The saturated fat debate usually gets reduced to saturated versus unsaturated, but the type of fat, its food source, and what replaces it in the diet all shape its effect on cardiovascular health. Here is what LDL cholesterol and ApoB show, what the outcome evidence from a 2020 Cochrane review found, why the food source of saturated fat matters, and the practical approach it all points to.

Six Nutrition Facts You Probably Don't Know (But Should)

A second set of nutrition facts worth understanding more precisely than they usually get: why whole nuts provide fewer absorbable calories than the label says, what a 1,000mg fish oil capsule actually contains, why lactose-free milk tastes sweeter, what elemental magnesium means on a supplement label, how cooling rice changes its starch, and why protein costs more energy to digest than carbohydrate or fat.

The Skills That Make Dieting Easier (and How You Build Them)

The first time you diet is the hardest, because you are learning how you respond while also trying to get a result. Dieting is a skill that improves with experience, not a fixed set of rules. Here are the specific skills that make fat loss easier, from managing hunger to recognising your own patterns, and why each phase you complete makes the next one more manageable.

The Cost of Convenience: How Much Extra Are You Paying for It?

Pre-cut chicken, single-serve yoghurt, microwave rice, and instant oats make eating well easier, but the convenience often carries a steep price premium, from around 1.4 times the basic price up to more than twenty times for some pantry items. Here is how much extra you pay, when the nutrition changes and when it does not, and how to decide where the premium is worth it and where a little preparation saves a lot.

Simple vs Complex Carbs: What Carbohydrate Structure Means

Carbohydrates are classified by how many sugar units are linked together, from single sugars through to the long chains that make up starches and fibre. Here is the carbohydrate hierarchy explained, why complex carbs are still built from sugars, and why a food's structure and what comes with it matter far more than whether it technically contains sugar.

Convenient High-Protein Meals | No-Cook Options

When time is short, eating well is less about knowledge and more about what is easy to execute. Here is how to build balanced meals around four anchors (a protein, plant matter, a carbohydrate, and a fat) using convenient, pre-packaged foods, with ready-to-assemble examples for each meal and why this matters most for consistency on busy weeks.

How to Keep Muscle in a Calorie Deficit | Four Key Factors

How you diet determines how much muscle you keep. Here is what each factor does, how they interact as a diet gets harder, and why the leaner you already are, the smaller the margin for an aggressive approach.

Which Creatine Form Is Best? Every Type Ranked and Rated

The supplement industry has produced a long list of creatine forms, each marketed as an upgrade on monohydrate. Here is every common form ranked on whether its claims hold up in research and whether the price is justified, and why plain or micronised monohydrate remains the recommendation for almost everyone.

The Pre-Prep Phase: How to Set Up a Successful Contest Prep

A pre-prep phase is the 4 to 12 week block that sets up a successful contest prep. Here is what the phase is, why skipping it costs you the early weeks of prep, how to run one across body composition, systems, mindset, and health, and the few variables that should be left to shift once prep actually begins.