Welcome to the good life!: How to eat right

I’ve noticed an amazing trend in the last year or two. During this time, I was constantly going to the gym 3 times a week, training for about an hour and a half each time, always trying to get stronger. During the first few months, I ate basically whatever I felt like, and it showed! I was nothing but a fat slob; people were surprised when I told them I was working out, girls didn’t seem to like talking to me too much, people were telling me how unhealthy I was, etc. So I decided to do something about it, started reading about nutrition, metabolism, nutrient biochemistry, all the good stuff! Next I started incorporating the things I studied into my life, all while keeping the same workouts, three times a week for about an hour and a half each time. In about a year, I lost a TON of fat and people started to take notice. I was now considered by most people to have an athletic body type, pretty muscular but still around 12%-13% body fat so I just looked big, not big and lean. Now when I told people I worked out, they weren’t surprised, hell some of them even asked me for advice! Girls now seemed to like talking to me a bit more now too. The last 6 months, I tightened up my diet a bit more, brought my body fat percentage down to about 8% or 9% all while keeping most of my muscle by following my three times a week heavy training for about an hour and a half each time. Now the reactions I get from people are totally different than before. Random people come up to me and say “So you workout, Huh?” and ask for advice with training and losing weight. Most girls seem happy to be with me now, and a lot more have been smiling at me, looking me in the eyes, and hell some of them even come up and start talking to me now! Older women usually ask me if I have a girlfriend or if I am dating anyone, and if I say yes, they reply with “She’s so lucky!” or if I say no, they either try to hook me up, or say “If I was only 15 years younger!” This might not seem like a big deal to some of you guys, but let me tell you the difference now and when I was fat, is like night and day. People just seem to respect me more and I feel like I am a part of the community now.
But enough rambling, the reason I started this post was to show just how easy all of this is to achieve! I am going to start with a diet post, because I believe that is where most people go wrong, it was where I did for sure! I will post my general thoughts on training and perhaps supplements too if people want me to elaborate. But let’s begin, shall we?

I don’t like to discuss diet in great detail, because I'll be here until I’m 45 years old (I’m 20 now)...I talk like a women when it comes to this stuff!
But In general if you want to look better naked:
1. Protein with every meal, no exceptions. (Aim for 40-60g for guys/ 20-30g for girls depending on goals and bodyweight) -> Protein is needed to build muscle and also increases metabolism through thermic effect of feeding.
2. Eat every 2-4 hours. This keeps the metabolism revved to help you burn calories when you’re doing nothing.
3. Eat Veggies/fruits with every meal. Green Veggies when trying to lean out. -> This is primarily for fiber and vitamins, plus all the roughage in the stomach keeps you from overeating.
4. Include some type of healthy fat with every meal. -> Health reasons, such as better joint health, cholesterol levels, etc. Also manages insulin levels throughout the day and helps promote a healthy endocrine function.
5. After you workout: Go for protein and carbohydrate meals. ie: chicken + rice or steak and potatoes, all other meals should be Protein + fat + veggies/fruits -> Your carbohydrate tolerance is best right after you workout, so you want to take them in primarily here when trying to stay lean.
Ill include a food list to help with food choices and shopping below:
Protein
Chicken (skinless)
Turkey (skinless)
Beef (Lean cuts i.e.: round, sirloin, rinsed ground beef, etc)
Pork (Lean cuts, i.e.: tenderloin, fat trimmed off of chops, etc)
Seafood (Salmon, tuna, shrimp, lobster, etc.)
Eggs (Note that the white contains protein, while the yolk contains protein and fat)
Protein Powder (whey, milk, gemma, soy, egg, etc.) -> http://www.trueprotein.com (Discount: Chb519)
Cottage Cheese
Yoghurt (No sugar added)

Fat
Olive Oil
Flax Oil
Fish Oil -> numerous benefits, including joint health, better body composition, etc.
Natural Peanut Butter
Avocados
Cheese
Egg Yolks
Nuts
Dressing –Fatty ones like Ranch/Caesar for salads, mayo,
etc.

Vegetables (included with any meal)
Broccoli
Spinach
Cauliflower
Asparagus
Celery
Cucumbers
Green Bell Peppers
Lettuce
Green Beans
Etc. (Most vegetables are good, just keep starchy ones such as yams, potatoes, etc, at post workout)

Post Workout Carbs

Oatmeal, Rice, Potatoes, Yams, Sweet potatoes, Grains (Breads, Cereal, Bagels, Wraps, Muffins, etc.), Post workout Drink (Usually A high carbohydrate beverage with some protein in it, i.e. Gatorade mixed with whey protein.), Corn, Rice cakes, Grapes, Bananas, Kiwi, Berries, Etc

So a typical day would be:
Meal 1: Protein + fat + veggies 8am
Meal 2: Protein + fat + veggies 10am
Meal 3: Protein + fat + veggies 12
Meal 4: Protein + fat + veggies 4pm
WORKOUT 5pm-630pm
Meal 5: Protein + Starchy Carbohydrates 7:30pm
Meal 6: Protein + fat + veggies 11pm

Modifications To Diet

To Gain Muscle:
1. Increase Calories, add a couple extra grams of protein and fat to all the meals.
2. Switch meal 1 from Protein + Fat + Veggies to a Protein + Carbohydrate meal.
3. Add a Pre/During/Post workout shake to your diet. This should include high glycemic carbohydrates such as waxy maize starch or even Gatorade, fast acting protein such as whey.

To Lose Fat:
1. Drop Calories. But nothing too drastic, maybe 200 calories per week.
2. Drop Carbohydrates. Starchy ones should be the first to go from breakfast, and then gradually switch your fruit intake to green vegetables.
3. Drop the Pre/During/Post workout shake.

Some Final Thoughts
Habit and Consistency is all. The more you can adhere to the 5 diet tips I posted above, the better you will look naked, which will translate into how you feel about yourself. I see some people approaching this with an all or nothing mentality. Which usually never works, or if it does, you end up looking like a Greek God naked, but you aren’t happy, because you end up having no life striving for perfection. What these people do is not eat out at all, just eat foods that they bought, hell even breaking out the scale to weigh their food! The others fate: they come to a breaking point and totally blow off their diet for weeks, hell months!, at a time and end up looking no better then they did one year ago. The people who are successful are the ones who try to follow this as best as possible, while still living a life. What this means is incorporating your diet into your life, NOT setting out your diet and then trying to incorporate your life. For example: Your out on a dinner date with a stunning woman, you can:
A) Totally throw off your diet, order whatever you want and have a good time.
B) Try to follow the rules and still have a good time and a good body after words!
C) Eat your perfect meal before the date, and show the girl how fun you are when you are eating your breath mints and drinking water at the restaurant.
So order that chicken Caesar salad or that steak and steamed asparagus instead of that chicken cordon bleu or the Fettuccine alfredo and have fun with this stuff!

Cool, I like your guide.

What do you think about liver? I love it and I've read on many sites that it contains lots of proteins.

Added to the Vault.

4. Include some type of healthy fat with every meal. -> Health reasons, such as better joint health, cholesterol levels, etc. Also manages insulin levels throughout the day and helps promote a healthy endocrine function.

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All fats are healthy except transfats.

There's no reason to remove the skin from chicken and turkey.

Great.. But i need to ask how much should i eat? I am 22 my weight is 65 kg , height 5'7". Like how many eggs in morning.. Actually i am a beginner. For fat what do i eat? How much protein should i mix to gatorade.. I need to know quantity for my weight. Thanks.

I know this is different for everyone. Considering you are me..! What would be your diet as a beginner , telling each quantity... Thanks in advance

Hey

Hey I was wondering if you could give me a sample meal plan, for some reason I cant ever figure it out.

Great.. But i need to ask how much should i eat? I am 22 my weight is 65 kg , height 5'7". Like how many eggs in morning.. Actually i am a beginner. For fat what do i eat? How much protein should i mix to gatorade.. I need to know quantity for my weight. Thanks.

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It depends on your goals. Obviously if you're looking to gain muscle mass, you're going to have to eat more than if you were going to shed some body fat.

It's not this simple, but a good start would be 1lb of red meat, 6-18 whole eggs, a serving of some other solid protein source(chicken, fatty fish, etc), a couple protein shakes around workouts, and ground carbs(potatoes, etc) tailored to your goals. More carbs for more mass gain, less to nil carbs for fat loss.

The best thing for a beginner to do--or anyone for that matter--is to experiment. Use the fundamentals of a solid diet(high protein, high fats, carbs to suit) and tweak the numbers till you come out with a diet that is getting you closer to your goals.

Cook with natural unsalted butter, virgin olive oil, and ocassionally some coconut oil and alternatives.

Stick to unprocessed carb sources, obviously none of the usual suspects(coke, candy, etc).

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I know this is different for everyone. Considering you are me..! What would be your diet as a beginner , telling each quantity... Thanks in advance

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You're right, it is different for everyone and as such its wrong to just make blanket statements. There's a thread in the Sticky that goes over sample meal plans.

A basic outline would be:

meal 1 - red meat/veggies
meal 2 - raw eggs in a protein shake, add carbs here
meal 3 - same as meal 1
meal 4 - same as meal 2, add carbs here
meal 5 - alternative protein(chicken/fatty fish/tuna/etc)/veggies

As far as quantity goes, start with 6-12 eggs a day raw or cooked, and 1lb of red meat. Get down 50-300g unrefined carbs per day depending on your goals, and eat veggies whenever you can.

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Hey I was wondering if you could give me a sample meal plan, for some reason I cant ever figure it out.

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Same as above, a general guide to follow is this:

Meal 1 - Protein, fats, carbs
Meal 2 - Protein, fats
Meal 3 - Protein, fats or carbs
Meal 4 - Protein, carbs
Meal 5 - Protein, carbs or veggies
Meal 6 - Lean Protein, veggies

Start your day with the "heaviest" meals, load up with protein fats and carbs. Keep stacking your dietary fats in the first half of the day, then transition to carbs. Generally cut carbs and fats a few hours before bed, so a viable final meal would be: chicken breast w/ veggies.
Ie. stack the bulk of your calorie intake in the morning and early afternoon, then taper off towards bedtime, with a decent calorie spike post-workout, whenever it is that you do that.

cheers guys, a lot of these questions can be answered by browsing through the sticky at the top of the page though.