FNC Diet Builder Guide - No Coach

Welcome to TeamFNC and the guide to using the FNC Diet Builder without a coach. You should have your own copy of the FNC Diet Builder be able to access it through Google Drive, both on your computer and on your phone through the Google Drive App (Android) or (Apple).

A quick tip for video quality for the following guide.

If you are finding it difficult to see the details, you can adjust the quality of the playback.

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+ How do I track coffee?

Black coffee doesn’t need to be tracked. It’s basically Calorie free. What about milky coffee? Provided the coffee has milk only, you only need to track the milk used. A dash is usually 25-50ml and a small cup of coffee usually has 240ml of milk. So track this as your chosen milk in an amount of 25-240g. The diet builders have many different milks under carb and fat dense drop downs.

+ How do I track alcohol?

During a dedicated fat loss phase alcohol should be limited as the Calories are not filling and may actually result in increase appetite with reduced inhibitions.

It can be a good educational tool at some stage in the program to research how many Calories are in your chosen beverage, however having a drink or 2 in a social setting can encourage social health and it's not necessary to attempt to track it precisely. Rather allow yourself a logical alcoholic drink cap and aim to stick to that. In the weekly progress log, you can fill in the number of drinks for the week and that can give you a good indication if it's worth looking more into.

+ What happens when I go over my macro targets?

You will find that you are over on fats, carbs and protein but under on Calories. This is totally normal and to be expected. The most important number is the Calories. After that is clear then understand that it also matters where the Calories come (macros) but this does not matter as much as the total Calorie number.

The macro targets (protein, carbs, fats) are set as minimums. So the aim is to go over each of these, as well as exceeding the fibre and plant targets. After you've exceeded all the minimum targets, you can make up the Calories however you like, more protein and/or more carbs and/or more fats! This was of tracking gives you complete flexibility to ensure you are ticking off the minimums which show enough food variety and healthy habits, whilst also being able to choose foods you enjoy without having to stick to rigid macro targets. At the end of the day, unless you have an athletic goal, your ratios of carbs:fats doesn't matter except for your personal preferences, what helps keep you full and satisfied and really, we want you choosing foods as your priority over thinking about macro numbers.

Here is a video explanation (click the square in the bottom right corner to make the video full screen)

If it makes it easier, you might focus only on tracking Calories, protein and plants, learn how by clicking here.

+ How can you track indulgences in the Diet Builder?

The first thing to think about is are you enjoying indulgences mindfully? Are there any habits and mindset areas that need attention with indulgences? You can read more about this by clicking here. Here is a video explanation of how to add Indulgences to the Diet Builder

(click the square in the bottom right corner to make the video full screen).

Overview of the FNC Diet Builder

A quick look at each of the sheets and how to navigate between them.

Remember: Only BLUE squares should be updated.

Setting up your FNC Diet Builder

In the Setting Up sheet, you need to personalise your Diet Builder and set your targets.

The first video is setting your Calorie and protein targets targets.

The second is setting your carb and fat targets if you wish to add this step.

Remember: Only BLUE squares should be updated.

Setting carb and fat targets (optional)

Setting up for a muscle gain goal

Setting up for an athletic performance goal

This goal is about aiming to ensure you are eating enough Calories and carbs to fuel training, help you recover and perform at your best. The minimum for carbs should be higher, 3 grams per kg of body weight per day is a general minimum.

Check that your targets are realistic and appropriate

This is not a necessarily step, however you can check your targets and expectations are realistic in the NIH Body Weight Planner at this link: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/bwp

Filling out the daily log - Short Version

How to enter the meals you eat and/or plan to eat.

Filling out the daily log - Extended Version

Using the Diet Builder to plan the meals and lifestyle you want to lead first, then using numbers as portion control. In this video Mac explains how you can make the Diet Builder really reflect your lifestyle and he goes through building a day that matches his preferences before then using numbers as a way to work out his portion sizes.

Using the example meals to build a meal plan

If you need a bit of inspiration, we’ve added some example meals to help give you a start. This video shows how you could copy example meals into your own meal plan to give you a start whilst you work out what works best for you as an individual.

What are minimum targets, what if I go over my macros?

The macro targets (protein, carbs, fats) are set as minimums. So the aim is to go over each of these, as well as exceeding the fibre and plant targets. After you've exceeded all the minimum targets, you can make up the Calories however you like, more protein and/or more carbs and/or more fats! This was of tracking gives you complete flexibility to ensure you are ticking off the minimums which show enough food variety and healthy habits, whilst also being able to choose foods you enjoy without having to stick to rigid macro targets.

How do I reveal carbs and fats in my Diet Builder?

You may have a diet builder that is set up to track just Calories, protein and plants. If that is the case and you want to also look at carbs and fats, here is how to do so:

Progress Log - Measuring & Logging Progress

Checking in with yourself, logging your progress and monitoring your progress & overall health.

Food Lists - Adding foods without labels

We prefer using averages, as you will see with plant particularly being averaged to ‘mixed' vegetables’ or ‘fruit’. Values are so similar that it’s generally not worth the effort to track these foods separately so we would encourage you to use those options.

However you might like to add in some food items to make tracking easier for yourself.

This video shows how to add foods and where to find accurate nutrition information when you don’t have a label to read.

Food Lists - Adding foods with labels

This video shows how to add foods that come in packages with labels and how to find information from labels on supermarket websites.

Logging a packaged meal

This video shows how to log a packaged meal or a meal from a prep company such as Youfoodz.

Converter Sheet Explained

This sheet has converters to work out values per 100g if your label doesn’t include that information as well as converting kilojoules to Calories.

Reported Calories Consumed in the Progress Log

Depending on your version of the Diet Builder, you may have a formula which auto-fills your daily Calories into the progress log, or you may have to manually enter them yourself. Either way, this video explains what to do.

If you do have the version with the formula, you will need to copy the formula across each week.

Add Progress Photos

Progress photos are a great way to see progress yourself! Here is how to add them in to the Diet Builder.

Recipe Creator

Work out the numbers behind recipes and bulk meal prepping. Converter the numbers to “per serve” and per 100g easily.

Add another ‘feeding’

There are 5 ‘feeding’ for each daily log. This video shows how to add more, making sure to update the formulas so that the total daily numbers are accurate.

Add another row within a ‘feeding’

You can customise your ‘feeding’ blocks to have more than 2 rows for protein, carbs, fats etc if you need.

Tracking only Calories, Protein & Plants

For a fat loss phase, the most important numbers are Calories, protein and plants. This ensures a filling, healthy base of nutrition whilst aiming for a calorie target appropriate for your goal. How much carbs and fats you eat after looking at these factors are minor, personal preference issues so some people prefer to simplify the Diet Builder to only show Calories, Protein and Plants.

My drop down menu has crashed, what do I do?

Q: if drop down menus crash

A: reload/refresh page, click ‘food list tab’, click random blank cell, go back to diet builder. Drop down menus will work.