A few years back, I took part in a structured 10-week body transformation guided by an experienced professional. The sessions were demanding, the learning curve was sharp, and the results—at least to me—were genuinely impressive.
In just over 70 days, I managed to gain 7kg of lean muscle, only to lose it again within a few short weeks. That experience taught me not only what works for my body, but also what doesn’t—and how difficult it is to create lasting physical change.
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More than anything, it highlighted a crucial truth: the effectiveness of any workout plan is largely determined by what happens in the kitchen. With that in mind, here are three nutrition principles I believe will best support your fitness goals in 2026.
1. Identify Your Daily Calorie Baseline
Whether you’re beginning a new Pilates routine or training for a parkrun, increasing your activity level will naturally raise your nutritional requirements. Understanding how many calories you typically consume is essential to deciding whether your intake needs to go up or down.
As a general guideline, a calorie surplus is necessary if your main objective is muscle gain. On the other hand, weight loss requires a calorie deficit.
When I first started focusing on muscle growth, I realised I was consuming barely 2,500 calories per day. To support daily hour-long gym sessions and build muscle, I had to double my intake.
2. Track Calories Without Letting Them Take Over
Monitoring calories can be an effective way to stay aligned with your long-term fitness goals, particularly if you’re aiming to significantly change your body composition.
However, it’s easy to become overly focused on numbers if you track everything continuously.
My preferred method is to log calories once on a typical workday and once on a typical rest day, such as a weekend. This approach provides a clear picture of how intake varies across the week.
Revisit this process at regular intervals—weekly or monthly—and adjust as needed, especially if your training intensity increases or decreases.
3. Build Habits That Are Realistically Sustainable
One of the biggest missteps I made during my transformation was trying to completely overhaul my diet and training within just ten weeks.
This meant forcing in workouts and calories at an unsustainable pace, filling my days with late-night training sessions, heavy dinners, and unappealing midnight meals.
If I were to start again, I’d move more gradually, giving both my body and daily routine time to adapt.
If your goal is muscle gain or weight loss, aim to adjust your daily calorie intake by no more than 5–10% initially. This makes the process feel far more manageable.
If progress slows, you can make another small 5–10% adjustment. Allow your body time to respond, and approach change with patience rather than urgency.
