Whats your daily meal plan?

Hey guys,

For the next month, im trying to cut quite a lot of fat off my body, so really need to improve my diet.

Ive been doing a lot of reading on the net - too much to digest (pardon the pun) at times. Im not on a specific diet (Paleo, Vegan etc) so im open to all food sources..

Ive found one source in particular of use (even though this guy seems like a gigantic douche)

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... -exercise/

... not that i agree with the "without doing any exercise" lol

but for example, there is just little to no variety in these meal plans. Is this just something i have to get used to?! '

Does anyone agree/disagree with this "one day off" idea of "dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fat loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate (thyroid function, etc.) doesn’t downregulate from extended caloric restriction."

Anyway, i thought it would be cool if maybe we could mention the average daily outline of our meals and what we eat?

What do you start the day off with?

What do you have for the rest of the day?

No pre-post- workout nutrition necessary there is already an amazing thread for that by slizz

I sure as hell would appreciate the variety!

You can't go more than 48 hours without metabolism starting to slow down. The two simplest ways to do this are A) intermittent fasting and B) Feast/famine protocols. You can actually do them together, which should work the best by far.

I'm actually doing this right now, it's been 3 days and it's been quite easy so far. Also saves at least 20-30% on grocery bills!

So, one day I eat normally and the next day I eat around 30% of my basal metabolism. In reality what that means is that my maintenance calories are around 3400 Calories a day. I do NOT count calories because I eat nothing but whole foods. I have found that when your diet is 100% home cooked meat, veggies, cheese and fresh fruits there is no need to count calories because A) It's nearly impossible to over-eat and B) your body can actually use what you are giving it for a lot more than just making fat, and it seems to a great job of not being fat. Anyways, I'm about 100% sure that I am never getting more than 3400 calories a day. It is hard to eat that much whole food. Really hard, actually.

On the next day I limit myself to 1000-1200 calories. This involves a lot of broccoli, water, some protein powder, and fruits and other non-starchy veggies. Salads would also be great cheap bulk, but I find that this is fairly easy to do without it. It's hard to go past the 1200 mark when the bulk of what I eat is broccoli and greens. I have maybe 3 scoops of protein across the whole day, and that seems to be plenty. That's like 75g, not a lot.

This is fairly low stress and rather easy. You also see and feel the results rather quickly. I am doing the feast famine on an IF meal protocol. They do in fact work beautifully together.

This way is a good bit less restrictive, as I sometimes have a whole gallon of milk on my regular day like yesterday. I feel fine, good actually and no fat gain. Pretty sweet.

Just so you know, Tim Ferriss is a fairly good source of practical information. He may come off as a douche but he tends to talk about legit stuff.

For meal variety, herbs and spices are your friend. Have savory days, cinnaminy days or meals, spicy days, and so on. You can get an enormous amount of flavor variety this way.

I don't want to hijack this thread but just a question for Slizz...

How do you do what you have prescribed in the "Perfect Pre,MId, and Post Workout Nutrition" thread with this current method you have described? Or do you not mix them and are just experimenting with this since you said its only been three days?

I'm just curious because this summer I am hoping to maximize my performance gains, but also would not mind saving some grocery money

Thanks!

Thanks Slizz...

i didnt even think about fasting or what you mentioned! very interesting concept!

What i meant by the "one day off" thing.. if you read that link i posted, basically what Tim Ferris talks about (which i do like his articles - his youtube videos is where he comes off like a douche ) was that, you eat structured for the whole week following his meal outline, then say Saturday you basically eat all the shit that you have cut out of your diet. chocolates. alcohol.. crap. whatever your guilty pleasures lie in. Is the science behind what he has said sound?

I was talking to my friend at the gym last night, who is as cut as anything and quite bulky for his height. His breakfast entailed some oatmeal - a can of tuna - a protein shake and a fruit!!! Not quite sure i could do the tuna for breakfast! And he drinks around 3-4 Litres of water a day with an extra litre for each hour training.

So at the moment im working on increasing my water consumption and sodium intake to decrease my bodies water retention! a good first step i hope.. but man ive been pissing like a racehorse today!

LOL@Niko!

Ah. I haven't watched any of his videos so maybe he seems different on video! You are much better off having a cheat MEAL than a cheat DAY, but yes there is a reasonable bit of science behind that. The science is basically that it keeps people on track for the vast majority of the time, so they literally can't consume enough calories to undo the weeks work OR screw up the next week's gains. This is meant to still be on some kind of a reasonable scale, and things that Ferriss might forget to mention in some of the videos are having .25 to .5 teaspoons of cinnamon at every feeding on this day (and every other day) to maximize the insulin response and keep sensitivity as good as possible. Little things like that make a huge difference.

You don't have to have tuna, it could be any lean protein source. The water is key dude! Water + sodium at the right concentration = major booster.

I have to be honest here, because I have done a LOT of different diets in my time and to me the feast/famine is by far the easiest and gives excellent results. I don't know if I can say the BEST results yet since it's only been 4 days now but it sure seems pretty ridiculously good. To be leaning out like I am at 207 lbs is pretty crazy since I am doing practically no cardio. I mean, I get out and do drills with the football team but there's no practice this week so I'm not even doing much of that. This is happening with minimum effort. Starting after the seminar I'll be more serious so we should see some interesting pictures.

nikosg said:

Not quite sure i could do the tuna for breakfast!

Haha, I eat tuna for breakfast with eggs quite a bit! It's not so bad! I do make most of my office gag though! Cans of chicken are good too.

slizzardman said:

The water is key dude! Water + sodium at the right concentration = major booster.

Slizz, I thought sodium is something you should avoid (especially according to paleo)?? I have always wondered why, I at least thought that it makes you RETAIN water. Why would this be good for leaning out?

Also, should we be eating the cinnamon at every meal or primarily cheat meals? Possibly with the immediate post workout meal?

Every meal is good, but it is especially important with cheat and PWO meals.

Like I said, it's all about the concentration. The ideal is 600mg/liter of water. This is isotonic, meaning it is the exact balance that your body keeps. This allows you to absorb the water without upsetting the electrolyte balance (for sodium at least) which in turn allows you to stay hydrated and not retain water below the skin.

Edit: There are new studies showing that people getting over 6g of sodium per day are having the FEWEST health complications. Once again, it may turn out that traditional medical advice is way off base. Think about the fact that all meat was salted for a long, long time as the only way to keep the meat preserved. If sodium was so bad that would have caused a noticeable effect on people.

Also, it is well established that athletes need, at minimum 2-4g of sodium per day. The more you do, the more sodium you need.

Poliquin also says salt has an undeserved bad reputation. Salt should have a colour though, apparently the minerals in the coloured salts have better absorption and retention rates. Also white salt contains a neurotoxin, don't remember its name, I'd have to look in my notes.

Sweet! Thanks! I never did listen to the salt thing mainly because I don't have time to cook every piece of meat I eat. I utilize can tuna, can chicken, and pre-cooked rotissorie chickens alot and they have salt in them. I am probably getting a little too much, but I never add salt to anything else, and my main goal is avoiding fructose, grains, and doing the best I can with keeping the salt intake low. Thanks for the tid bit, I didn't know this!

There's almost no such thing as having too much salt. It's like cholesterol in eggs, a big misunderstanding.

Razz: I'm glad you mentioned that about the white salt! I'm going to get a big ol' block of the pink stuff at whole foods next time I go and pick up more grass-fed beef fat.

slizzardman said:

Think about the fact that all meat was salted for a long, long time as the only way to keep the meat preserved. If sodium was so bad that would have caused a noticeable effect on people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy --> The "Life expectancy variation over time"-table

LOL oh lord, I hope we don't credit fear of salt for the increase lol!

actually what i meant Slizz was reducing my sodium intake.

I thought the higher sodium intake you have, the more water is retained in order to keep hydrated. For example - after you eat some salty nuts or chips, you have that need for water.

And by drinking 4+ litres a day and keeping my body super hydrated, its meant to reduce your bodies water retention because it doesnt feel the need to hold any excess water because its getting such a large supply....

have i been misinformed?

Im also starting to chuck in some green tea bags or black tea bags in cold water for some added antioxidants etc... good?bad?

If you have higher sodium and not enough water to go with it you can retain fluids because your body will have to put the extra sodium somewhere besides the blood to maintain the desired concentration, and THAT sodium will attract water from the blood and cells, which can dehydrate you if you don't drink enough water with it.

If you have too little sodium and too much water the sodium can get thinned out. This can lead to poor hydration simply because the body thinks it has too much water and is afraid to absorb it all because it might super-dilute the sodium to some dangerous level. This is why some people die from drinking too much water... it isn't the water, it is the electrolyte dilution. You take in the salts with the water and there's no such thing as too much.

Ironically packaged foods always have plenty of salt, so switching to a more natural diet may require some deliberate light salting of foods or water.

I´d like to hear more about the benefits of getting enough salt, since i just realized i wasnt getting enough. Went and bought pink/orangeish himalayan crystal salt. I think rest of my diet which is a kinda mix of low carb / paleo / primal -style is on a good solid base, but the soon i got out of the store and took ½tbs of that pink stuff, i could almost hear my brain waking up. Ive been walking some of the excess fat off on a slow schedule, and taking long walks and of course sweating alot so i guess i was out of salt. I actually "felt" my body screaming for some salt.

So how much would be enough on a daily basis? some pre WO, and with meals?

Ominous said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy --> The "Life expectancy variation over time"-table

I see your point but I think that might have more to do with the timing of the development of antibiotics than anything else. People tend not to appreciate how recent this was, and what a game changer. People used to die from shaving cuts!

Salt: You always want around 600mg per liter of water. That's plasma isotonic. If you're dehydrated you will want a little less per liter, maybe 300-400mg. If you want really exact measurements for dehydrated concentration, check out what the emergency packets the Red Cross distributes have in them, I don't know the exact numbers.