Recently, the New York Times wrote about the best time of day to train for fat loss. I’ll save you searching the article and let you know that it’s the morning on an empty stomach.

These sorts of articles have wide appeal to the common fallacy that ideal body composition is a result of optimizing our depletion strategy.

A far more effective approach is to look at the quality of your Core Nutrition.

What is “Core Nutrition?”

Core Nutrition is what you put in your body on your easy days and your recovery weeks.

Your long-term athletic performance, and your capacity to manipulate your body composition, will have a strong link with the quality of your Core Nutrition.

What the “skip-breakfast” articles overlook is the fat gain side of our lives. While a certain portion of the population (anorexics) can effectively starve themselves, the rest of us overcompensate from periods of depletion — specifically eating too much of the wrong sorts of foods.

Who hasn’t been “dangerously hungry” from going too light on calories during the day.

It’s far better to develop a strategy where you always have frequent input of real food.

What’s real food?

• Food without a label
• Whole fruits
• Veggies
• Lean protein
• Nuts, avocados

The quickest way to make the quality of your Core Nutrition visible is via a food journal during an easy week. Don’t waste time weighing your food! Simply, write down what you eat.

Pay attention to:

• Sports nutrition
• Alcohol
• Highly-processed snacks
• Bacon, cheese, milk fat
• Bread, cereal, starch
• Added sugar (on food with a label)

None of the above are a requirement for your Core Nutrition.

Replace them all with real food.

This advice is far more effective than any depletion strategy.

Simple, not easy.