We can all agree that nutrition for athletes can be complicated. There are a million sources of information, most of which are conflicting in their advice. Eat paleo, no ketogenic is the way to go, but don’t forget carbs! This article is going to cut through all that nonsense, and provide you with a spreadsheet that will automatically calculate your calories, macros, and body fat, as well as put you on the right path to achieve your nutrition goals. Did I mention that it’s also free? Keep reading to get this awesome tool.

Before I give you the keys to my favorite nutrition tool we need to cover what exactly this tool is designed to do. It makes calculating the details of your nutrition easy. It will give you calories and macro splits depending on your goals.

These are great baselines from which you will have to do some slight tinkering because we are all slightly different in our nutrition requirements. Some folks do very well on high carb diets, some not so much. Some need to eat much more to gain muscle etc.

Without further ado, let’s get into the best nutrition tool for athletes!

Click Here to Download the Ultimate Fitness Nutrition Calculator

Using the Document

First things first, you need to download the spreadsheet and open it up. You should then read the first sheet titled, “Read Me.” This will briefly cover what we are going to explain below, and is a quick reminder for future use.

When you see a red box, that is something that you will need to put some input into, either height, weight, age, etc. It should also be noted that all measurements are in American Standard Freedom Units.

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Other Resources

If you like this tool and want to learn more about nutrition, especially as it pertains to gaining muscle and losing fat, you need to check out this book, “The Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy,” by Brad Schoenfeld. Brad is a PHd researcher and world renowned expert on muscle hypertrophy and nutrition practices.

Calculating Your Body Fat Percentage

This is a key metric that serious athletes should track. Honestly, it’s much more important than your weight. I often remind new athletes that if you lose 10lbs of fat and gain 10lbs of muscle, the scale says you’ve made no progress, but the tape doesn’t lie.

The calculator uses the Navy Body Fat method, and is generally considered to be nearly as accurate as a DEXA scan and other more expensive methods. I mean you could get a full body MRI if you have that kind of cash. If you do you should also make a donation to us!

As a side note, try not to cheat while taping. If you are strangling your waist or hips to get better measurements you really aren’t getting anything accurate. I generally pull the tape until it starts to indent the skin and use that measurement.

You will also see that there are some sweet graphs that will show your progress as you remeasure. I like to measure once a week. Twice a month is also fine, especially if body fat isn’t huge issue for you.

Maintenance Nutrition for Functional Athletes

This sheet covers the amount of calories, and corresponding macro’s that you need to neither gain or lose weight. The baseline equation I’ve chosen to use is the Harris-Benedict equation which has been shown to be most accurate.

The sheet will give you your BMR, or your basal metabolic rate, as well as your calories on a day you go to the gym, and days you don’t. I’m assuming that you are doing a normal 1 hour session with a warm up, strength portion, and a WOD of 10 or so minutes in length.

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Fat Loss for Functional Fitness Athletes

This section uses the same equation with some modifiers that I have used throughout years of coaching. They will allow for the appropriate fat loss for most athletes. To really lose body fat successfully you will need to read this article where you will a step by step method for losing fat.

This sheet is designed to put you at a 300-500 cal deficit which should allow you to lose about .5-1% of your bodyweight per week. Research has shown this to be the best, and most sustainable fat loss rate.

Muscle Gain for Functional Fitness Athletes

This is for those that are looking to get jacked and tan without turning into a porker. I’m going shoot you straight here. You will gain some fat when building muscle, but you should not gain too much! This sheet is designed to keep you from getting mobility scooter fat.

You will also need to read this article covering what 200 researchers recommend for gaining muscle. There is also an included bodybuilding split at the bottom of the article.

Modifying the Sheet

I’ve left the sheet unlocked so you can modify it if you are nerdy like me. If you don’t want to bother with that just do a little mental math and add some calories, or subtract depending on goals.

Adding or subtracting calories should be done in 200-300 cal increments until you see the desired results. I cannot stress this enough. If your nutrition is working currently then DON’T CHANGE IT! Changes are only needed when you plateau.

Now get out there and start working on your customized nutrition plan. If you have any questions put them in the comments section. I get notifications for those and I can answer them much quicker.

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