Eating - the other 50% of the Results

[Der Alta]

I'll be posting all of my diets up in here. From my mass building, to my competition diets. I'll also post the stuff I've learned about eating "Clean". Weather it be for weight loss, or weight gain, here's where to ask.

I'm starting with weight loss. That's what I had to begin with. My weight when I began this journey was 240lbs. I was between 30% and 35% body fat at that time. Now, I'm down to 10% at 192lbs.

Loosing Weight.
First, a few "Rule of Thumb" statements.

Toss the bathroom scale out the window, the mirror and your honesty is the better way to do it. If you concentrate on the numbers, you'll likely lose muscle in your quest to get lighter, and it'll likely cause you to Yo-Yo back up. Yes, you can do it that way, but this is the Fitness forum, and it's not the best approach.

Some easy ways to clean up your eating habits and help you start the process.

Drink Water. No, seriously, drink twice as much as you think you need.

Sodium is Evil. Eliminate it from your diet. Eat anything you want, as long as it has very low (to None) sodium. By doing this, you limit your sodium intake, but, and more importantly, this changes what foods you are eating.

Count your Calories. This isn't as hard as it seems, as the sodium change will make this much easier.

Eat More Protein, and Less Carbs. When eating carbs, stick to simple unprocessed foods. Potato, sweet potato, oatmeal. No White Bread or bagels, or english muffins with a spoonful of butter. Protein = Fish, Chicken, or Steak And sometimes Cottage Cheese. No Sausages, porkchops, or hotdogs.

Cheat Meal. Once a week, and preferably early afternoon, eat something you crave. A Big Bowl of Pasta, two pounds of Steak, a plate of chicken wings, whatever. There are varying theories on "Cheat Meals" or "Refeed Meals". I believe in three reasons why you need these. First, your body adapts to everything. Thus you need to change things up and keep the body going. Second, when your body is tweaked up and the metabolism is cranking, this is like throwing a dry pine board onto a fire. It just gets hotter. Third, its a mental break. If you eat the same bland stuff all the time, you're going to crack and fall off the path. This gives you a mental check and helps keep you on the path.

Cardio. the two ways that I've done this are two 20 minute sessions, or one 30 minute session. 20 minutes before your weights and 20 minutes after, or 30 minutes first thing in the morning, before breakfast.

Eat Less, More Often. When loosing weight, I was eating 6 meals a day. 300-400 calories each meal.

That's the start, I'll post up more in the next few days.

 

[NLxAROSA]

I hope it's okay if I post some of my experiences as well. Feel free to correct or discuss.

I'm a bit ambivalent about the bathroom scale. I do agree that weight by itself means nothing, just like BMI. The mirror (and your pants, belt notches, etc.) are way better indicators. But the scale is an excellent way of showing if your diet has enough calories in it. Basically, to lose or gain 1000gr of weight will cost/take 7000 kCal. A good cutting diet means you are losing 500-750gr per week, NO more. The biggest mistake people make when cutting is not eating enough. So if you are losing weight faster than above, you're probably not eating enough and yoyo will kick in very fast (and hard). The scale is a good way to measure this.

As for avoiding carbs: don't eat/drink anything that's high on the glycemic index. The higher it is on the scale, the more/faster energy you'll get from it and the harder it is for your body to use it up (and thus it will store it as fat). Beer (maltose) is the highest on the scale, which means that your body will almost instantaneously store the energy you gain from it, rather than using it up. So NO beer. Only take fast carbs directly around a workout or at breakfast (when sugar is low).

Calorie counting: stick everything (and I mean everything!) you eat and drink on a daily basis in an excel sheet. Look up the calories in a calorie table (many can be found on the internet) and add them to the sheet. Doing this will make you aware of what you take in every day, and usually you can spot what's wrong quite fast. Also, break it down into carbs/fats/proteins, so you can see if you're getting enough of each (e.g. you will spot if protein is too low and carbs too high). Again, you can find this info on the net.

My favorite sources of protein (in no particular order) are tuna, salmon, steak, smoked horse meat and chicken. Stay off pork.

I like the fireplace analogy: if you want to fuel up a smoldering fire, do you toss on 1 big block of wood 3 times a day, or do you start with smaller ones 6 times a day? Also, when the fire is up, it doesn't matter if you throw a big block on it once a week, it will burn up just as well.

 

[Timppaq]

Nice thread 👍 Will be a follower

 

[Der Alta]

Now that I have had a bit more time to collect thoughts, here are a few on Eating to Gain Muscle. Note, I did not say "Gain Weight". If you want to gain weight, hit the Fast Food joints early and often.

As I have not been at this stage of the game as long as the other, I'll note only a few points that I have had working to my advantage. At this stage, I'm eating 5 times a day, with one of those meals being an "Anything" meal.

My metabolism is cranked up, and as such, I've been having a tough go at gaining weight. I did say "Gaining Wieght" here, as I have been hitting the Fast Food. I've been burning it right off, even with only doing 15 minutes of Cardio when I hit the gym. So I'm abusing my body with whatever I want, until I see that scale move.

Eat Protein. When you're eating to the point where you can't stand the taste of Chicken, you're eating the right amount. When you spend more time in front of the grill, than with your lover, you're eating the right amount.

Eat Steak, lots of it. Steak is muscle. Pure and simple. Eat it, often. As you see, I've seperated Protein and Steak into two points. You need Steak. Yes, Chicken, Fish, eggs and small animals are good sources of protein, but steak is the best. Skip the Burgers and go for a big chunk of Red Meat. And No, Roast Beef Sandwiches don't count. They have too much sodium.

Carbs. Essential for powering your workouts. If you don't have the carbs to fuel your workout, the protein isn't getting utilized fully. Potatos, are the best. Simple Clean and easy to ingest.

Protein Shakes. Fast and easy to drink. This is a Supplement, not a main meal. Far too often I've seen people treating these as Meal Replacement. You get your best results from real food. I drink three a day. One morning, one midday, one at night. Every one, taken with real food.

Lift Big, Get Big. Heavy lifts will strain more of your body and supporting muscle structure. Now is the time for power. All that food that you've eaten is going to be burned up. This is the entire reason why you ate all that food.

Rest. Here's where your body takes all that broken down muscle and rebuilds it. On your days off from the gym, you eat the same as you do on all the other days. Except the food goes more to rebuilding, than it does for fueling. Get enough sleep.

Some notes I didn't touch on. "Mass Building Shake", most are not much better for you than fast food. Why drink a thick shake, when you can eat steak? Ease of production? In almost all cases (and my opinion), a good pile of Chicken, Broccoli and Brown rice will be more enjoyable than a 700 calorie shake.


More to come.

 

[Stevisiov]

Great thread, its the first thread I have ever subscribed too. Rather carelessly I've always tended to avoid the dietary side of getting fit, I suspect all the little incremental changes to my diet could add up to a fairly big improvement in my physical performance.

 

[Der Alta]

That's exactly how to do it. When I started on this little journey, I took individual small steps. First, start counting calories, next limit the junk food to certain occasions. After that it was more chicken and greens than burgers and chips. More rice, less bread.

Then eliminate the junk food entirely. Then eliminate the bread and eat oatmeal or potatos.

Then stepping from 3 meals, to 4, 5 and 6 meals a day.

By then, I was in full swing and it was second nature.