I need to improve my diet.

[somedude81]

I'm currently 31 years old, 5'6 and 163 lbs.

 

I've got a gut that I want to get rid of and I want to get more muscular. Yup, the good ole' lose fat and gain muscle goal.

 

Trouble is, I don't really know how to accomplish both at the same time. I'm pretty sure my diet is a big part of that. I have fast food twice a week at most but I'm sure the rest of the food I eat isn't exactly good. I also happen to love ice cream and have a small serving daily. Probably also not constructive to losing my belly.

 

Anybody know what foods to focus on when I want to lose fat and build muscle?

 

Is it even possible to both at the same time?

[TigerCub]

I'm not even a fitness expect - and I have my own battles losing weight, but I know the answer:

 

- lean protein

- lots of vegetables, some fruits

- whole grains

 

don't have waste of calorie foods like junk food.

 

Drinks lots of water and watch your sugary drinks (eliminate those if you can), go easy on the alcohol as well.

 

Try to have an even split of your protein, fats and carbs

 

and for fats - have good fats - like from nuts, avocado, olive oil, etc..

 

These are the things I know, these are the things I try, and I still have to work out and do cardio and weight lifting.

 

good luck

 

I hope that the experts soon reply to you with more helpful info.

 

ETA: oh and I also heard that its about calories in vs. calories out - so if you want to lose weight you'd have to have a deficit of about 500 calories a day to lose 1lb of fat a week (somethin' like that) - but it depends I think on the person (?)

Edited February 1, 2013 by TigerCub

[veggirl]

Soup. Make a huge pot of homemade veggie soup and eat as much as you want of it for one meal. Very good for you and very low fat. I'm sure one small helping of ice cream a day is not a problem. Avoid white carbs, they do nothing for you except make you fatter and as always, don't drink your calories, don't drink pop, juice, milk, etc. all I drink is water or coffee, unless I'm having wine

[somedude81]

The thing is, my goal isn't just to lose weight. I want to get bigger. I don't want to be a small skinny guy.

 

I also dislike most vegetables. My mom got me into making Stir-fry's and she showed me how it's OK to throw in some vegetables and still have the dish come out good.

[superb]

The thing is, my goal isn't just to lose weight. I want to get bigger. I don't want to be a small skinny guy.

 

I also dislike most vegetables. My mom got me into making Stir-fry's and she showed me how it's OK to throw in some vegetables and still have the dish come out good.

 

Start lifting weights. Along with those other things.

[somedude81]

Start lifting weights. Along with those other things.

Yeah I'm in the gym a few times a week.

 

I was wondering what diet would be the most helpful for matching my goal.

[SmileFace]

Don't over think it.

Don't spend time trying to figure out what to do - trail and error.

Check out bb.com - they have tons of work out plans that include meal plans.

Start there and follow it.

 

How is your schedule?

Do you have the time and place to store pre-cooked meals?

How decent of a cook are you?

 

What are you already eating?

Don't think of it as a diet - since even when I eat 1200 cals or less daily - I eat good food.

However you have the ability to eat more cals.

 

What have you tried before ?

Why didn't it work?

 

You need to find what is right for you.

Edited February 1, 2013 by SmileFace

[tman666]

It is possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, but this mostly happens in overweight people and rank beginners. The more advanced you get, doing both at the same time becomes improbable, especially without "chemical assistance".

 

If I recall correctly, you already lift fairly consistently, so I wouldn't count on gaining a ton of muscle while losing your gut. THAT SAID, the human body isn't an exact machine. It's not like a clock, or a car, and you may surprise yourself with what you can accomplish. The other thing to keep in mind is that the leaner you are, the bigger your muscles look, even if you haven't actually been building muscle per se.

 

For body re-composition, you need to look at your diet, yes, but looking at your training couldn't hurt either. It's not that you have to suddenly start going completely bonkers in the weight room, but streamlining your training will help immensely, especially when you start cutting calories. If you post what you are currently doing with your training (don't just post "I work everything"-post your lifting/exercise schedule, sets, reps, exercises, etc. The more detail the better.) we can help point verify that your training is reasonable or point you in the right direction.

 

As far as diet goes, people tend to get highly wound up about the little details. Little details are fine, but a lot of folks miss the forest for the trees.

 

The first thing I'd recommend you do before you change anything in your diet is keep a food log for a week. Record macronutrients (grams of protein, carbs, fats, alcohol) and types of food. It's a big pain in the ass, but if you're accurate with your measurements, this will help give you a sense of what your current diet looks like. If your body fat and weight has been consistent for some time, you can probably assume that the calories you're taking in, on average, represents your "maintenance level caloric intake".

 

For cutting down, you can subtract 500 calories from maintenance levels to get your total daily intake. Let's say that you are maintaining your current body composition on 3,500 calories per day. To cut down, shoot for a daily caloric intake of 3,000 calories. I wouldn't recommend going too far below that at first due to possible satiety issues.

 

From there, figure your protein macro daily goal by assuming 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight. Sometimes Lean Body Mass (LBM) is used for this, but since you're trying to retain as much muscle as possible, 1 gram per lb bodyweight is fine. So shoot for 160-165 grams per day of protein.

 

Since protein contains 4 calories per gram, you will then subtract the calories from protein out of your total daily intake (660 calories for 165 grams of protein). This will leave you with - going back to the earlier example of 3,000 cal/day- ~2300 calories left over. These can be broken up between fat and carbs as you see fit. I personally like to emphasize carb intake on training days and fat intake on non-training days. Keep in mind that 1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories. Alcohol can be figured at 7 cal/gram.

 

As long as you're in a caloric deficit from maintenance levels, you should *theoretically* lose weight. Heavy resistance training and an emphasis on protein intake will help this weight loss be, hopefully, primarily from fat mass while helping you retain the muscle you have.

 

The above is how I would do things if you're in the mode of closely tracking what you're eating.

 

Personally, I do not really track macros, other than protein. Even then, I just shoot for getting roughly 200 grams of protein per day. I ball-park this number. It's a giant pain in the butt to track this stuff, however, it can be a good first step for learning how to visualize how much food to be eating.

 

In my experience, it's vastly easier to underestimate how many calories you're taking in versus overestimating them. It wouldn't surprise me if those two fast food meals you're taking in per week are putting you at a 1,500 calorie surplus for each of those two days. In addition, the ice cream is extremely calorically dense. Look at the label. Their serving size is usually like a half cup. Get out a half cup measuring cup from your kitchen and fill it with ice cream, and put it into a bowl. It's amazing how little it is for ~200-300 calories.

 

That said, you don't have to become a complete teetottaller with the sweets and goodies. If you can fit it into your macros for the day, then you're still going to lose fat (assuming your macros are correct). However, I think you'll find, especially after eating cleanly for a while, that this kind of high-grease, simple carb, high salt food is not conducive to feeling full (feeling hungry is the number 1 killer to your efforts) and performing well.

 

I personally eat "cleanly" about 90 percent of the time. Over time, you'll learn ways to make your clean food taste better. I used to be a nightly ice-cream eater as well, and I still enjoy a dessert each night. However, most nights now, I will have a cup of greek yogurt with cinnamon/splenda/blueberries on top instead. About half the calories and a much more favorable macronutrient profile.

 

Another tip that was already mentioned but bears repeating is to emphasize leafy green veggie intake. Foods like spinach, kale, celery, bell peppers, broccoli, etc. should become a staple. These foods will help you stay full, provide fiber (highly essential, haha), and provide a lot of good nutrients without the heavy caloric load.

 

Fat intake is essential for your health and hormonal profiles, but since it's so calorically dense at 9 cal/gram, it's very easy to push yourself into a caloric surplus with fatty foods. To combat this, purchase lean meats over fatty cuts, choose balsamic vinegar/EVOO on salads rather than creamy dressings, and don't go overboard with nuts. A small handful per day is fine, but snacking on nuts is a good way to put on the pounds.

 

The other thing to keep in mind are carbs. Carbs have been needlessly vilified. The trick is knowing how your body responds to them. Simple carbs (found in processed foods, fruits, desserts, soda, alcohol, etc.) are broken down into glucose very quickly and produce a large insulin spike. These large insulin spikes, over time, can lead to insulin resistance and even diabetes. Diabetes aside, insulin resistance isn't good if your goal is to gain muscle and lose fat. As such, it's generally good practice to avoid such "fast carbs" and focus more on slower digesting carbs, i.e. "complex" carbs. Good sources include potatoes (especially yams), veggies, brown rice, and quinoa. These foods contain long-chain sugars that take longer to break down into glucose. As such, insulin response is more sustained and regulated. This will also help avoid "blood sugar crashes".

 

Nutrition is obviously a science unto itself, and there's no way a person could pick it up from one post or probably even one book. I recommend that you read Alan Aragon's book "Girth Control" for a good crash-course in nutrition.

 

If you want to keep things simple, focus on eating less, training harder, hitting 165 grams of protein per day, limiting yourself to 1 "cheat meal" per week, eating more veggies, and drinking more water.

Edited February 1, 2013 by tman666

[somedude81]

Cool, lot of stuff I can work with.

 

So I need to keep track of the calories I intake, and the serving sizes.

 

I'll also keep a log of the workout's I do.

 

As for how regular I lift, I was pretty lazy about it last year and recently got back into it. New Year's resolution and all. I definitely noticed that I lost strength.

 

Sweet. Found an easy site to track calorie intake

 

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Edited February 1, 2013 by somedude81

[tman666]

Yeah, it's definitely helpful to know exactly where you are in order to determine the steps to take to get where you want to go.

 

If you share your training approach, we can help with that too.

 

Regarding goals: your goal to lose fat and gain muscle is great, but it might be better to focus on performance goals rather than physique goals. Physique changes will follow performance changes. What I mean is that if your currently bench 225, squat 275, deadlift 250 lbs, can do 8 pull ups, can run 6 50 yard sprints before you're gassed, etc., you're going to look a lot different when you can bench 315, squat 435, deadlift 405, bang out 15 pull ups, and run 12 50 yard sprints before gassing.

 

(Obviously that's all for the sake of example)

 

I think if you focus on increasing your gym/athletic performance stats and combine it with a decent diet approach (it doesn't have to be perfect; you're not prepping for a bodybuilding contest here) and establish consistency (think in terms of years), you'll find that you'll look a lot differently a year from now than you do now.

 

You might consider purchasing the e-book LRB 365. It might be 10 bucks well spent for someone like you who has some experience in the gym, but it looking for an all encompassing program that includes nutritional guidance. Basically, it tells you what to do training and diet wise for a year. While I haven't done it myself (since I have my own methods, goals, and things that work for me), I have read it and believe it to be a solid system.

[superb]

Cool, lot of stuff I can work with.

 

So I need to keep track of the calories I intake, and the serving sizes.

 

I'll also keep a log of the workout's I do.

 

As for how regular I lift, I was pretty lazy about it last year and recently got back into it. New Year's resolution and all. I definitely noticed that I lost strength.

 

Sweet. Found an easy site to track calorie intake

 

Free Calorie Counter, Diet & Exercise Journal | MyFitnessPal.com

 

THey have an app for that too, don't they?

[somedude81]

THey have an app for that too, don't they?

Yup, putting it on my phone right now.

[fortyninethousand322]

For lifting: just an FYI, google or youtube different workouts. Try different ones just to change things up, don't just do the same routine over and over. That's a path to plateau. But, you being a lifting veteran I'm sure you already know this.

 

As for diet, my advice is limit the number of "non-green" carbs you eat. Broccoli, green beans, salad (lettuce), green bell peppers, etc. Those are all good for you. Eat as much as you like whenever you like.

 

Meat and eggs are good for you it's very hard to overdose on them (and expensive I might add). As long as it's not breaded or fried. Cheese is good, unsalted nuts are good. Olive oil is good to cook with (very tasty). And personally I would eat salads without dressing and instead sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on it. If you like eggs, try to eat them for breakfast as often as you can stand it (I eat 3 eggs everyday..unless there's 4 left in the carton then I eat 4 so to not leave any stranded eggs) the protein fills you up more than grains will.

 

Oh and read labels. You'd be surprised what kind of crap they put in "healthy food".

 

I've tried many different nutritional plans and this is the best one that left me feeling full and healthy.

[somedude81]

Just got back from the gym.

 

What I did today.

 

It's been a while since I did lower body so I was mostly just figuring out where my strength was at.

 

I'll post about the nutrition stuff later.

[Els]

IMO fast food twice a week and a 'small' (you really do mean small, right?) serving of ice cream a day is not going to ruin you. It's what you eat MOST of the time that matters. What is that?

 

I have no personal experience with building muscle, but I've heard that you want to be taking more lean meat than the average dude if your goal is to lose gut AND build muscle, as opposed to solely losing weight.

[Eclypse]

Start eating fish. It's a great source of protein and Omega 3 fatty acids. And fish is way lower in carbs than a lot of other foods. Should help with the gut. For me, smoked salmon is heavenly and I could eat it all day. However, remember the old saying: everything in moderation. Too much of anything can be bad.

[iris219]

Start eating "clean." That means whole foods with ingredients you buy yourself and can pronounce.

 

Start cooking. Google "healthy recipes."

 

Start eating more veggies, even if you don't them. Try roasting veggies like broccoli and kale. They are SO good this way. I'm a firm believer that we can retrain our taste buds and learn to like foods we don't think we like. My whole life has been about learning to like healthy food. I was raised eating typical Southern food, and can't imagine eating that way now.

[FitChick]

Soup is very healthful and filling. I just made a large pot of minestrone, packed with all sorts of veggies. I sprinkle a bit of parmesan on top and it's a full meal for me. The fiber and water fill you up.

 

I had half an avocado on half a multigrain English muffin spread with a tablespoon of almond butter and it really filled me up.

 

Google local places to see how far they are from your home. Then walk to those places and back and you've burned some calories and gotten to know your neighborhood a little better.

 

If you like ice cream, stay away from the premium brand sold in Vons and Pavilions. I ate a pint of Baklava in the blink of an eye! You can have your daily dish of ice cream but add it into your daily calories. Perhaps have a large green salad for dinner followed by 1/2 c of ice cream.

 

Buy some measuring cups and spoons so you know exactly what you are eating. Log your food into an online calorie counter. They usually list fast food but if not, google the company and they have the calorie count on their website.

[sgarstan]

dinner is the place to cut corners. Cooking a meal at the end of a long day sounds daunting, but it may not be as challenging as you think. A study out of UCLA suggests that putting together a home-cooked dinner on average takes only about ten minutes more of hands-on time than using mainly prepackaged dishes. If you go to the store with a few recipes in mind, you'll have what you need at your fingertips each evening. A dinner of grilled fresh fish with a light citrus marinade (orange juice, olive oil, and dill), steamed green beans, whole grain bread with herb-infused olive oil for dipping, mixed green salad, glass of wine, and a square of dark chocolate for dessert would actually take less time to prepare than a frozen pizza.

[somedude81]

Heh, I was counting my calories for a couple of days and eating OK, then Super Bowl Sunday hit and well...

 

Today is a new day.

 

I'm going to read over everything in this thread and see what I can apply.

[tman666]

I almost forgot to tell you about one of the programs that I used to do that changed how I trained completely. It's called ABBH-1 by a guy named Chad Waterbury. It's a well balanced program that's very good, in my opinion, for building a well balanced base of strength, size, and conditioning, especially in beginner and early intermediate lifters (even though the principles are applicable to advanced trainees as well).

 

I can honestly say that training with ABBH-1 was a turning point for me in my early lifting career. Before that, I probably spent 1.5-2 hours in the gym per session, banging away at endless sets of direct arm work, chest and pressing work, and maybe some leg work dabbled throughout. My "training" was completely aimless, and my lack of results was the proof in the pudding.

 

ABBH-1 helped me develop a much more balanced physique and strength base, which was a huge leg up in helping me progress from being a clueless beginner to a point where I was able to finally start making some real, noticeable progress. The other big plus is that I was spending way less time in the gym, feeling more in shape, and finding time to do other things other than live in the gym.

 

Here's the original T-Nation article on the program from way back: T NATION | Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy Program - Part 1

 

I disagree with Chad's stance on direct arm work and time under tension (to be fair though, the article is pretty old), but that aside, the program he lays out is simple and effective for building size and strength. If you implement short rest periods like he recommends, you'll be getting in some pretty decent conditioning as well.

Edited February 4, 2013 by tman666