Nutrition & Fuel

Eat like it matters, because it does.

You don't need a perfect diet. You need a repeatable one that doesn't require willpower every single day.

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Macros — what they are and how to actually use them

Protein, carbs, and fat all matter — none of them is "the enemy." Weight and body composition come down to overall balance more than which macro you're eating.
Protein is what actually rebuilds and holds onto muscle, and it keeps you fuller for longer than carbs or fat do gram for gram. To start: don't try to hit an exact number, just build every meal around a protein source first (meat, fish, eggs, dairy, tofu, legumes) — roughly a palm-sized portion — then add everything else around it. Once that's a habit, you can get more precise if you want to.
Carbs aren't the villain TikTok made them out to be — they're your body's fastest, most accessible fuel, especially for anything intense (see Fitness & Strength). Quality carbs (whole grains, fruit, veg) beat quantity restriction every time. Before training, try to get a decent amount of carbs in — a rough rule some people use is roughly a minute of digestion time per gram of carbs eaten, so plan your pre-workout meal or snack backward from your session with that in mind.
Fat isn't just "extra calories" — it's essential for hormone production and helps you absorb some vitamins. It's just calorie-dense, so portion matters more than avoidance. Olive oil, nuts, fish — easy wins, no need to fear them.

Meal timing

The "6 small meals to boost metabolism" thing isn't true — total intake matters way more than how often you eat. Eat in a pattern that actually fits your life and keeps you full.
A real first meal with protein in it tends to cut down on snacking and energy crashes later — worth testing on yourself.
Timing around training matters less than people think beyond the carb point above. Having some food in you beforehand and refueling afterward covers most of the benefit — you don't need to nail it to the minute.

Hydration

Everyone needs a different amount depending on activity level, body size, and heat — there's no single magic number that applies to all of us.
The easiest habit that actually works: get a large water bottle, keep it with you, and sip on it steadily through the day rather than smashing it in a few big gulps. Steady input beats bursts.
A rough, free way to check you're on track: your urine shouldn't be dark yellow. Pale is the target — no need for anything fancier than that.
Electrolytes can genuinely help, especially if you're sweating a lot (long or hot sessions, or you're just someone who sweats heavily) — they replace what plain water doesn't. But they're not something everyone needs daily, and the products add up in cost fast. If you're not training hard or losing a lot of sweat, plain water and normal food already cover it.

Coffee & pre-workout

One coffee, had after breakfast and some morning hydration, can genuinely be a good thing — better energy through the day, no crash, and it's linked to a number of long-term health benefits.
Worth delaying that first coffee for a bit after waking rather than reaching for it immediately — roughly 90 minutes to 2 hours gives your body time to naturally clear the grogginess-causing chemical that builds up overnight (adenosine). Drink caffeine straight away and you're just masking it, which is a big part of why the afternoon crash happens. Even pushing it back 30-60 minutes makes a noticeable difference if the full window feels like too much to ask.
Pre-workout is popular because it works — but a lot of it is loaded with extreme amounts of caffeine, and that catches up with you. More than one coffee's worth of caffeine (or a heavy pre-workout on top of your normal coffee) tends to hit recovery hard — see Sleep & Recovery for why sleep quality matters so much.
The pattern to watch for: relying on more and more caffeine to feel normal, or training late in the day fuelled by a big dose and then struggling to sleep that night. If that's happening, the caffeine's costing you more than it's giving.

Consistency

If you're consistently lazy and eating badly, one "good" meal isn't going to undo that — it's not a magic reset button. But the flip side matters just as much: if you're consistently eating well, one bad meal every couple of weeks isn't going to undo your progress either. It's the pattern that counts, not any single day.
Cooking and eating well is a lot easier when it's not just you doing it in silence. Family, a group chat with mates, whoever's around — for anyone in the Herd, that's another spot where people are swapping what's actually working for them.
Prepping a few meals in advance removes the moment-by-moment willpower decision — the hard work happens once, not three times a day when you're tired and hungry and most likely to cave to whatever's easiest.

Minimising processed food (realistically)

In the modern world, it's basically impossible to avoid plastics and processed food entirely — don't chase perfection here. Just aim to minimise where you reasonably can.
Try to eat as minimally processed as you can while still hitting your macros and keeping overall nutrition quality high — the two aren't in conflict, and whole foods often make both easier at the same time (a chicken breast and rice hits your protein/carbs and is minimally processed; a protein bar might hit the macros but not the second part).
Small swaps add up: filtered tap water over bottled, glass/metal containers where practical, whole foods over ultra-processed versions of the same meal. None of it needs to be all-or-nothing.

Supplements

Creatine is one of the most well-researched supplements that exists — it helps with strength, power output, and recovery between hard efforts (see Fitness & Strength), and there's growing evidence for cognitive benefits too (focus, mental fatigue, especially under sleep deprivation or high stress).
Dosing varies person to person — most people land somewhere between 3 and 10 grams a day. Worth experimenting within that range to find where you personally feel the best benefit rather than copying someone else's exact number.
Beyond creatine and the electrolytes already covered, most supplements are chasing the last 1-2% — food, sleep, and training consistency (see the rest of this site) account for the vast majority of results.
Same rule as electrolytes: only worth spending on if it's solving an actual gap, not because a TikTok told you to.

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Macros — what they are and how to actually use them

Protein, carbs, and fat all matter — none of them is "the enemy." Weight and body composition come down to overall balance more than which macro you're eating.

Protein is what actually rebuilds and holds onto muscle, and it keeps you fuller for longer than carbs or fat do gram for gram. To start: don't try to hit an exact number, just build every meal around a protein source first (meat, fish, eggs, dairy, tofu, legumes) — roughly a palm-sized portion — then add everything else around it. Once that's a habit, you can get more precise if you want to.

Carbs aren't the villain TikTok made them out to be — they're your body's fastest, most accessible fuel, especially for anything intense (see Fitness & Strength). Quality carbs (whole grains, fruit, veg) beat quantity restriction every time. Before training, try to get a decent amount of carbs in — a rough rule some people use is roughly a minute of digestion time per gram of carbs eaten, so plan your pre-workout meal or snack backward from your session with that in mind.

Fat isn't just "extra calories" — it's essential for hormone production and helps you absorb some vitamins. It's just calorie-dense, so portion matters more than avoidance. Olive oil, nuts, fish — easy wins, no need to fear them.

Meal timing

The "6 small meals to boost metabolism" thing isn't true — total intake matters way more than how often you eat. Eat in a pattern that actually fits your life and keeps you full.

A real first meal with protein in it tends to cut down on snacking and energy crashes later — worth testing on yourself.

Timing around training matters less than people think beyond the carb point above. Having some food in you beforehand and refueling afterward covers most of the benefit — you don't need to nail it to the minute.

Hydration

Everyone needs a different amount depending on activity level, body size, and heat — there's no single magic number that applies to all of us.

The easiest habit that actually works: get a large water bottle, keep it with you, and sip on it steadily through the day rather than smashing it in a few big gulps. Steady input beats bursts.

A rough, free way to check you're on track: your urine shouldn't be dark yellow. Pale is the target — no need for anything fancier than that.

Electrolytes can genuinely help, especially if you're sweating a lot (long or hot sessions, or you're just someone who sweats heavily) — they replace what plain water doesn't. But they're not something everyone needs daily, and the products add up in cost fast. If you're not training hard or losing a lot of sweat, plain water and normal food already cover it.

Coffee & pre-workout

One coffee, had after breakfast and some morning hydration, can genuinely be a good thing — better energy through the day, no crash, and it's linked to a number of long-term health benefits.

Worth delaying that first coffee for a bit after waking rather than reaching for it immediately — roughly 90 minutes to 2 hours gives your body time to naturally clear the grogginess-causing chemical that builds up overnight (adenosine). Drink caffeine straight away and you're just masking it, which is a big part of why the afternoon crash happens. Even pushing it back 30-60 minutes makes a noticeable difference if the full window feels like too much to ask.

Pre-workout is popular because it works — but a lot of it is loaded with extreme amounts of caffeine, and that catches up with you. More than one coffee's worth of caffeine (or a heavy pre-workout on top of your normal coffee) tends to hit recovery hard — see Sleep & Recovery for why sleep quality matters so much.

The pattern to watch for: relying on more and more caffeine to feel normal, or training late in the day fuelled by a big dose and then struggling to sleep that night. If that's happening, the caffeine's costing you more than it's giving.

Consistency

If you're consistently lazy and eating badly, one "good" meal isn't going to undo that — it's not a magic reset button. But the flip side matters just as much: if you're consistently eating well, one bad meal every couple of weeks isn't going to undo your progress either. It's the pattern that counts, not any single day.

Cooking and eating well is a lot easier when it's not just you doing it in silence. Family, a group chat with mates, whoever's around — for anyone in the Herd, that's another spot where people are swapping what's actually working for them.

Prepping a few meals in advance removes the moment-by-moment willpower decision — the hard work happens once, not three times a day when you're tired and hungry and most likely to cave to whatever's easiest.

Minimising processed food (realistically)

In the modern world, it's basically impossible to avoid plastics and processed food entirely — don't chase perfection here. Just aim to minimise where you reasonably can.

Try to eat as minimally processed as you can while still hitting your macros and keeping overall nutrition quality high — the two aren't in conflict, and whole foods often make both easier at the same time (a chicken breast and rice hits your protein/carbs and is minimally processed; a protein bar might hit the macros but not the second part).

Small swaps add up: filtered tap water over bottled, glass/metal containers where practical, whole foods over ultra-processed versions of the same meal. None of it needs to be all-or-nothing.

Supplements

Creatine is one of the most well-researched supplements that exists — it helps with strength, power output, and recovery between hard efforts (see Fitness & Strength), and there's growing evidence for cognitive benefits too (focus, mental fatigue, especially under sleep deprivation or high stress).

Dosing varies person to person — most people land somewhere between 3 and 10 grams a day. Worth experimenting within that range to find where you personally feel the best benefit rather than copying someone else's exact number.

Beyond creatine and the electrolytes already covered, most supplements are chasing the last 1-2% — food, sleep, and training consistency (see the rest of this site) account for the vast majority of results.

Same rule as electrolytes: only worth spending on if it's solving an actual gap, not because a TikTok told you to.