Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha (26 page)

Fat has 9 calories per gram, so take your remaining balance of calories and divide by 9. The result is how many grams of fat you eat. Let's look at Steve's workout day example again. After subtracting calories from protein and carbs, he's got 1,308 calories left:

    
1,308 calories / 9 = 145 grams of fat

 

 
THE ALPHA EATING GUIDE

You want to know what to eat? Good, because we want to feed you—and make sure this plan has you feeling free, flexible, and ready to feast. Here is our Alpha-approved shopping list. Stock up on these foods, and then plug and play each option into the meal guides. The foods have been split into categories: proteins, free veggies, fats, and carbs. While we'll provide you with very specific numbers, we'll also show you how to create your own meal plan so every day can offer a menu loaded with your favorites. Dig in.

 

 
THE ALPHA EATING EQUATION: PRIME

Workout Days

— Using the information in the chart, figure out how many calories you need in order to maintain your body weight.

— Subtract 300 from that number. Now we've got your calories for workout days.

— Multiply your lean body mass by 0.8. This number represents how much protein you should eat.

— Based on where you are in Prime, set carbs at either 30, 75, or 100.

— Take your total grams of protein and your total grams of carbs, and add them together.

— Multiply that number by 4. This gives you the total number of calories from protein and carbs.

— Subtract this number from your calories for workout days. This number is how many calories from fat you need.

— Divide this number by 9. This is how many grams of fat you need.

Because numbers can be tricky, let's make sure we're not letting math stand in the way. Let's use Steve as an example. If you remember, Steve is two hundred pounds with 20 percent body fat and an LBM of 160 pounds.

 

 

Total goal numbers for week 1 Prime, workout days:

    
1,940 calories | 128 grams of protein | 30 grams of carbs | 145 grams of fat

Non-Workout Days

We repeat the same process for non-workout days:

— Using the information in the chart, figure out how many calories you need in order to maintain your body weight.

— Subtract 500 from that number. Now we've got your calories for non-workout days.

— Multiply your lean body mass by 0.7. This number represents how much protein you should eat.

— Based on where you are in Prime, set carbs at either 0 or 50.

— Take your total grams of protein and your total grams of carbs, and add them together.

— Multiply that number by 4. This gives you the total number of calories from protein and carbs.

— Subtract this number from your calories for non-workout days. This number is how many calories from fat you need.

— Divide this number by 9. This is how many grams of fat you need.

Example using a two-hundred-pound man with 20 percent body fat and an LBM of 160 pounds:

 

 

Total goal numbers for week 1 Prime, non-workout days:

    
1,740 calories | 112 grams of protein | 0 grams of carbs | 143 grams of fat

That's that.

Now you have a comprehensive guide for your nutrition—just follow the steps and you'll quickly see how simple it is. After all, it's just a little math. And who doesn't love math, right?
Right?

With all that covered, let's move on to the workouts for Phase I.

 

SAMPLE MEAL PLAN (ROMAN'S NUTRITION GUIDE)

To make things as relatable as possible, it's probably helpful if we give you a real world example. This is the exact plan Roman used during the process of writing this book.

Weighing 192 pounds with 8 percent body fat, Roman has 15.36 pounds of fat on his body, leaving him with 176.64 pounds of lean body mass. Using the chart, we multiplied his LBM by 17 to get his maintenance calories of 3,003.

Based on that information, the following two pages show a sample of his diet, as well as a sample of what Steve's diet could look like during Prime.