Post your food diet!

[Brian]

Let's make 2012 the year where we gain muscle AND get a 6 pack!!

As most of you know, diet is probably the hardest thing to maintain. The reason is that most food that are healthy taste like shit. So i made it my way to design food in such a way that it taste good enough for me to do it in a long term basis. Here's a sample of my daily diet:

Breakfast Spinach Smoothies:
• 226 grams of spinach and it’s .75g fat, 8g carb, 7g protein
• 1 Large Banana has .5g fat, 35g carbs, and 2g protein
• 5 strawberries = 3g carbs
• Totals are 1g fat 46g carb and 9g proteins
• 230 calories

Lunch Tofu + vodka Sauce
26g fat, 30g carbs, and 47gram protein

Dinner is also Tofu + Vodka Sauce
26g fat, 30g carbs, and 47gram protein

Total Daily Calories consumption:
53g fat, 106g carbs, and 103g protein

477 fat + 424 carbs + 412 protein = 1313

While the calories looks low, keep in mind i'm going on a weightloss diet. Trying to go from 18 body fat to around 12-13, then bulk up again! This diet taste good enough that i can maintain for a whole week before i bingle on a "cheat meal"

[CHB2]

How much do you weigh and how active are you? 1313 is quite low for most men unless you are quite small and mostly sedentary (or have a very slow metabolism). Going too low will result in you losing a decent amount of muscle mass in addition to fat. 18% bodyfat isn't that high and its winter right now, so you are probably better off eating closer to your maintenance calories and keeping a higher percentage of your muscle mass. Continuing a weight lifting program while dieting will also help this.

Are you eating that same menu every day or was that just a sample? You should probably be getting more diverse protein sources such as beans, cheese, and meat (assuming you aren't vegetarian obviously) Also, consider adding a protein powder to your breakfast shake as your body has just fasted for 8-12 hours and benefits from protein in the morning. Finally, try to have vegetables at least 2 meals a day, not just at breakfast.

Good luck with your diet!

[Brian]

I weight around 146lb and i'm quite sedentary unless i workout lol. Base on the calories counter, if i dont want to lose any fat at all, then i can only consume max 1800 calories, which isnt much more than 1300. If i felt i lose too much muscle with this diet after a month, i'll increase the calories via muscle milk or protein powder. Yes, i am vegetarian. This is a relatively new diet i design. After going on disgusting diet for a year, i realize if i dont make the food taste good, i'm just going to go out and eat junk food. The vodka sauce + tofu combo actually taste amazingly good enough i can eat it indefinitely without desire to eat junk food. The point is consistency imo. Finally, the 2nd spinach smoothie can be a backup plan if i still feel hungry while on this diet. That thing has tons of fiber and will keep me in check from snacking on super unhealthy food at night via chips, soda or ramen noodle lol.

Thanks for the feedback.

[IdEngager]

Typical diet (haven't really done the calorie breakdown) -
Breakfast - half the week, oatmeal or granola + fruit
Other half, generally some sort of ham/turkey/steak & egg & cheese sandwich (wheat), homemade or Subway

Coffee, about a cup, occasionally two, usually in the morning if I'm at work, in the afternoon or evening on the weekends

Lunch - Chicken + vegetables + brown rice most days

Dinner - Chicken + vegetables + brown rice most days, plus fruit after dinner

Fast food, twice a week or so... I feel terrible if I do more than 3 times in a week, but I admit I love fast food and can still get away with it, usually
Desert, try to limit to 1-2 times a week, usually ice cream, cookies, or pie if I'm splurging, though it's been hard over holidays
Soda, almost never, unless using a splash with whiskey
Drinking, too much, usually whiskey neat if I'm chillin' or whiskey with a splash of soda if I'm going out, occasional beer

Currently around 5-8, 140 with 12% body fat... could definitely use more discipline as the weather warms up and it becomes beach season and I get involved in more sports. I'm pretty active though, I play a couple of sports (basketball, ultimate frisbee, I run regularly) and can drop weight pretty quickly, staying disciplined through weekends and while eating out and staying away from junk/booze binges can be a problem on occasion. If I could drop below 10% BF by spring or so I'd be an amazing athlete, winter's been hard though with absurd amounts of sweets available at work (plus holiday parties) and not really being able to sprint outside.

[Tobias]

... except for diary and sugar that are on the following list but I avoid them because experience have taught me that I have a clearer skin without them: http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

[CHB2]

@Brian

I still think you should try to diversify your protein sources. Getting all of your protein from tofu is definitely not ideal. Beans are easy, cheap, and tasty. Also occasional cheese and nuts are good too, especially in your breakfast meal which currently has essentially 0 fat. Fat is important for many body functions and contributes significantly to the feeling of fullness, so you should consider having at least some with your breakfast.

@IdEngager

Why do you want to be below 10% bodyfat? Generally maintaining that low of a bodyfat requires an extremely strict diet - its a lot less effort to stay between 10% and 12% than it is to get below 10%, and outside of beach season it makes almost no difference. If you exercise regularly and have a fast metabolism ("can drop weight pretty quickly") I don't see why you need to maintain such a strict diet over the winter. Do you lift weights? Try putting on some muscle and then when spring rolls around go back to a stricter diet and you will be bigger, stronger, and lean by beach time.

[Brian]

Beans have way too high in carbs. Most beans have something along the line of 40 grams of carbs per 10 grams of protein. See how it will mess up the ratio i'm going for above?

Cheese and nuts have way too much fat. Cottage cheese are good but taste like shit and i get diaherra from it due to lactose intolerant. I could eat more eggs, but from a moral stand point, i watched a video recently and decide to cut that out of my diet as well lol.

I'm thinking of eating sietan. I heard the ratio of protein vs carbs are pretty good. Going to see if i can make it taste good though. I realize with my personality, if it doesnt taste good enough, it's not sustainable.

[FirstAidKit]

I stick strictly to the Brian Butterfield Diet.

[video=youtube;wtF3_ybJJ50]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtF3_ybJJ50[/video]

[IdEngager]

CHB2 Wrote:@IdEngager

Why do you want to be below 10% bodyfat? Generally maintaining that low of a bodyfat requires an extremely strict diet - its a lot less effort to stay between 10% and 12% than it is to get below 10%, and outside of beach season it makes almost no difference. If you exercise regularly and have a fast metabolism ("can drop weight pretty quickly") I don't see why you need to maintain such a strict diet over the winter. Do you lift weights? Try putting on some muscle and then when spring rolls around go back to a stricter diet and you will be bigger, stronger, and lean by beach time.

Ya, I've always generally had this attitude. Unfortunately, I am neither a professional model nor professional athlete, so why stay so strict? That's pretty much why I still enjoy a nice Double Double or carnitas tacos a few times a week. The 10% BF thing mostly comes from being curious to see if I can do it. I actually don't really care too much about BF%, my thing is if you can do what you want to do athletically and you like what you see in the mirror, you should be OK... the only reason I actually know my BF% off the top of my head is cause I had a physical fairly recently and was happy I was down from the 20% or so I was in high school. Also, I'm still active with club ultimate frisbee and rec league basketball (the Ultimate is probably more serious than the basketball though I enjoy basketball more) and my game is pretty much based on speed and quickness (sure as shit ain't based on my superior size or skill level) so dropping a bit more weight would probably help me a bit.

Definitely could get back into lifting more regularly... what I would give for regular access to a power cage! Apparently not the $30 or so for gym membership. I used to be a beast on the squat rack. If anyone knows a cheaper recommendation (preferably with locations in the LA area), let me know.

[Brian]

Now wether you want to go below 10 percent body fat has totally to do with your genetic. Some people are blessed genetically and their face looks good even at 15 percent body fat, so outside of beach season, it doesnt matter.

Unfortunately, i'm asian and our face doesnt get define until one digit body fat. Having a chubby face has always consider by most people to be less attractive.

[CHB2]

@IdEngager

Yeah a power cage is really good to have, but you can get by without it. Deadlifts, power cleans, lunges, etc. are really effective and don't require a cage to perform safely.

As far as bodyfat, its really up to you. I personally sit around 11% most of the time, but I don't really keep my diet strict at all (Chipotle burritos and Ben and Jerrys come up a lot on my food log, haha), I just exercise a ton. Were you around same weight at 20% bodyfat or heavier?

[IdEngager]

Life is too short not to enjoy ice cream and burritos. I was a bit heavier in high school and college, usually in the 150s, the heaviest I got was in the 160s my freshman year of college (damn freshman 15) despite the fact that I had to walk hills for 20 minutes to get to and from class. Cutting back obviously bad food habits (tons of sweets, sodas, eating til you're stuffed full every meal) and upping the intensity of workouts got me most of the way there. It's easy to bullshit at the gym or the track if you don't really know what you're doing. Now I still have my vices like never sleeping enough and my love of beer, but I have enough good habits 75% of the time to make up for it.

I actually have enough gear at home to deadlift and lunge, I've just been bad about keeping up with it during the winter!

[bwong]

Does anyone cook their meals for a whole week? I've been trying to find someone to talk to about this and want to know how they do it.

[Dan]

@ Brian, I have to agree, 1313kcal is far too low, even if you are trying to lose some body fat. I'd up the protein and fat a bit and also cycle between lower calories on the days that you are sedantary, lightly active and higher calories on the days that you lift or do any intense activity.

@ bwong, I cook up a bunch of food every Sunday. Its not every meal for the whole week but its a solid percentage of them. I cook up maybe a dozen chicken breasts, boil a dozen eggs, brown a pound or two of ground beef, and sometimes cook up some veggies although I've lately been trying to eat my veggies raw as often as possible. I'm in the midst of working on a three-part diet series of posts for my site and one of those will be on planning ahead and building a system for getting your diet in. Pre-cooking is a huge part of that. Saves a lot of time too.

[Falkner]

For the muscles gain you should focus on more natural protein foods.
Take eggs, milk, yogurt, and cheese in breakfast.
In lunch take chicken breast, green vegetables, and fish.
In snakes take nuts, and protein shakes.
In Dinner take soups, meat, and fried vegetables.

[Dulst]

My idea of "healthy" is based on the paleo diet.

The problem is saying this leads to keyboard jockeying about the true nature of prehistoric hunter gatherers, when in reality no one knows exactly how they ate or behaved.

So now I go with plants and animals = healthy, everything else = research it first.

This mantra, along with some specific research, has lead me to the following diet.

Breakfast:
Oats, milk (8% fat), blueberries.

Lunch:
Meat (normally pork loin steaks, if I have money it could be beef, lamb, venison, chicken, turkey or salmon)
Roasted/Steamed veggies
Sweet potato

Dinner:
Same as lunch but with the addition of eggs.

twice a day I take a kids multivitamin, 15mg zinc and cod liver oil.

Finances permitting I also like to juice. My go to juice is carrot, apple, ginger, kale, lime/lemon and beetroot.

Supplements I'd like to experiment with in future: BCAA, protein shakes with breakfast, creatine, zinc megadoses, red krill oil and piracetam.

I'll have sugary drinks as mixers when I go out, but otherwise it's just water, milk and various kinds of tea.

[Alastair]

FROZEN BERRIES, GRAPES OR BANANAS: Frozen fruits are refreshing, satisfying, nutritious - and taste ‘smooth’ like many fat-filled desserts,
BEANS: They're low in fat, and packed with protein, fibre, and iron - nutrients crucial for building muscle and losing weight...

[Tarous]

I am lossing weight so i like to eat low calories food in my diet. Vegetables and fruits both are perfect diet food for me so i eat these food only and avoid oily and fast food items.

[FirstAidKit]

I have a question for the guys here who follow such a strict diet - do you not miss food variety? I eat pretty healthily most of the time but I'd go out of my mind if I had to eat chicken breast, brown rice and veg every day.

[alex2]

I am totally agree with you all and appreciate you for your post. I think there is no issue what you eat but if some kind of food is harmful for you than you should not take it. Usually i take a cup of tea with two piece of bread and an egg. In my lunch i have take some rice or burger or pizzas etc. Eat very light food in dinner. That is my meal plan.