Image credit: vladounet
More strength is more muscle. More muscle is more calories burned, meaning a lower body fat. Strength training will make you build muscle and lose fat. But nutrition is also important.
- Strength & Energy. You need energy – calories from food – for weight lifting and for daily activities.
- Muscle Mass. Protein is necessary to build muscle & for muscle recovery. Nutrition can also minimize muscle breakdown.
- Body Fat. Fat is emergency storage. Your body holds on to fat when you don’t eat enough calories or don’t eat enough fat.
- Health. Testosterone levels, hydration, vitamins, minerals, fiber, … Your nutritional choices reflect your health.
The next 10 nutrition rules will take care of the above.
1. Eat Breakfast. Sleeping gets you in a catabolic state. Eating breakfast stops the muscle breakdown. Eating breakfast also helps fat loss by increasing the amount of calories you burn at rest.
Some breakfast recipes: scrambled eggs with veggies, oats & bananas, protein shakes, smoothies, etc. If you have problems eating breakfast, read the article on how to build the habit of eating breakfast.
2. Eat Pre & Post Workout. Pre workout so you feel full of energy at the gym. Post workout for muscle recovery & to replenish your energy levels.
- Pre Workout. 1 hour before working out. Proteins, carbs, some fat. Meat, rice, veggies for example.
- Post Workout. Directly after working out. Post workout shake of whey & oats. Or whole meal of proteins, carbs & some fats.
You burn more calories post workout so if you want to eat junk food best timing is post exercise (check rule #10).
3. Eat Every 3 Hours. Boosts your metabolism. Prevents cravings by keeping you filled with healthy foods. Provides you with the calories you need for energy and to gain weight. Example meal plan:
- 7am. Eggs with veggies — more breakfast recipes.
- 10am. Quark cheese with fruit.
- 1pm. Tuna, brown rice & pineapple.
- 4pm. Mackerel, brown rice & apple.
- 5pm. Workout.
- 6pm. Post workout protein shake.
- 7pm. Meat or poultry with potatoes & veggies.
- 10pm. Cottage cheese, berries, flax seeds & fish oil.
4. Eat 1g Protein per Pound of Body-weight Daily. You need protein to build muscle & for muscle recovery. Protein also boosts your metabolism: your body burns 25kcal per 100kcal protein ingested, which is more than for carbs or fats.
Get 1g protein per pound of body-weight. That’s 2.2g protein per kilogram of body-weight. Sources of protein:
- Red Meat. Beef, pork, lamb, deer, buffalo, etc.
- Poultry. Chicken, turkey, duck, etc.
- Fish. Tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, etc.
- Eggs. Eat the yolk, it’s full of vitamins.
- Dairy. Milk, cheese, cottage cheese, quark, yogurt, etc.
- Whey. Not necessary but great for easy post workout shakes.
If you weigh 150lbs/68kg, 1 can of tuna at lunch, 300g cottage cheese as snack, 300g meat at dinner and 500ml milk through the day gets you 150g protein. Check also these protein sources for vegetarians & vegans.
5. Eat Fats. Your body holds on to fat if you don’t eat fats. Healthy fats improve your health, satiate and are a cheap way to get your daily calories. Get about 30% fat from your diet. Balance your fat intake.
- Saturated Fats. Increase testosterone levels. Dietary cholesterol is not bound to blood cholesterol. Butter, whole eggs, red meat.
- Monounsaturated Fats. Protect against heart diseases and cancers. Olive oil, olives, mixed nuts.
- Polyunsaturated Fats. Increase testosterone levels, promote fat loss, decrease inflammation, … Fish oil, flax seeds, mixed nuts.
- Unhealthy Fats. Avoid margarine’s, artificial trans fats or vegetable oils like corn oil and sunflower oil.
6. Eat Whole Foods. Processed foods contain added sugar, trans fats, nitrates, corn syrup, sodium and more chemicals. Processed foods increase your body fat and are bad for your health. Eat whole foods.
- Whole Foods. Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, veggies, legumes, fruits, rice, oats, quinoa, …
- Processed Foods. Bagels, pizza, cookies, cakes, chips, fruit bars, cereals, hot dogs, bologna, sausages, fish sticks, frozen dinners, …
Breads, fruit juice, yogurts and many more are considered healthy but contain sugars, corn syrup, etc. Frozen veggies are processed but don’t have additives. Avoid what comes out of a box, cook everything yourself & read the labels.
7. Eat Body-weight in lbs x 18kcal Daily. Fat is emergency storage for your body. If you don’t eat enough calories, your body holds fat & burns muscle. You need muscle to increase your metabolism. And you need food for energy.
Eat your body-weight in lbs x 18 kcal daily. BW x 16 if you need to lose fat. BW x 20 if you need to gain weight. Don’t worry, you’re eating healthy foods, not junk food, makes a difference. And you workout, you burn more calories.
8. Eat Veggies and/or Fruits with Every Meal. Necessary for vitamins, fiber, minerals, … Green veggies have zero calories, which helps fat/weight loss. Some Super Foods are spinach, broccoli, pumpkin, berries, apples & tomatoes.
- Keep it Simple. Raw veggies work fine. Chopped chicory with rice. Raw carrots as snacks. Tuna salads.
- Learn to Cook. Check for recipes online. Learn to use spices. Practice, you’ll learn to make veggies taste good.
- Mind over Matter. You’re not a child anymore. Eat your veggies, you need them. Worst case make smoothies.
9. Drink 1 Gallon Water per Day. Strength training causes water loss through sweating. Hydration is important for muscle recovery. It also prevents water retention: your body holds on water if it doesn’t get enough.
Drink 1 US gallon water daily, that’s 4 liter. 2 glasses of water with every meal brings you close to 1 gallon. Drink the rest during your workout. Green tea is also good, but watch out with the caffeine content.
10. Aim for 90% Perfection. 6 meals per day is 42 meals per week. Eat 4 junk meals per week. Same rule for beverages: 90% of the time water, 10% of the time alcohol and soda. This gives you variation & helps fat loss.
What always worked for me is eating the same thing from Monday to Saturday. Friday/Saturday alcohol (social, not to get drunk). Saturday evening dinner out. Sunday afternoon junk food.
When you’ve applied the above 10 rules for at least 6 months, then you can try the Anabolic Diet, the Ultimate Diet, Intermittent Fasting, etc. But first learn the basics – apply these 10 nutrition rules.
Mehdi, can you please explain why sunflower oil is bad? Seeing as it is very low in saturated fat and has a fair amount of vitamin E…
Russ.
@Russ
Sunflower is not “bad” per se, it’s just omega 6. Better to get your omega 6 from animal fats.
But it’s catagorised under ‘Unhealthy fats’? I can see what you mean though, just think it’s a little misleading. :o)
Can you explain what you mean under #5 Eat Fats. - “Get about 30% fat from your diet” Do you mean 30% of daily calories from fat?
This is great info, very bookmarkable
Dont forget avocados! Great Mono-unsaturated fats, i eat them with cottage cheese in the middle. Plus their cheap and don’t need to be cooked.
Anyone looking for a more detailed breakdown of Fats should check this post from Mark Sisson.:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fats/
He gets into Omega 6 vs. Omega 3, what fats to avoid, etc. I’ve read it multiple times, there’s a ton of good info in there.
@Terry
About 30% of daily calories from fat yes.
@Brendan
Great link, thanks for that one.
Great article filled with what really works. The 90% rule is a great one to follow, avoids burnout for people who aren’t ready for the 100% commitment while still giving great results.
#1 & #2, dubious.
See the research on intermittent fasting.
#3, no.
Eating boosts metabolism because digestion costs calories. The caloric cost of digestion is relative to the type and quantity of calories consumed. There’s no prolonged thermic effect beyond simple digestion and storage like there is with exercise.
And if, as some people say, the body could only absorb so many calories at a sitting, then you must be able to lose more weight by eating the same number of calories in fewer sittings.
You’ll want to read this as well:
http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/full/21/1/55
#4, dubious.
Entirely aside the piss poor methodology of most anaerobic exercise studies, the body has a limited ability to integrate protein. Meaning the remainder is either converted to glucose in gluconeogenesis, or pissed out entirely. Neither of which is particularly dangerous in healthy individuals, so all the studies show is that the body is capable of handling that much protein without shutting down. But protein is expensive, so over-consumption is just a waste of money. For most people, it’s likely better to go with the minimum that produces results. 1g/kg lean body weight is an adequate starting point, though most healthy people’s bodies can self-regulate protein intake if their diet is good.
Re: #7, no.
You can’t get around thermodynamics, but it isn’t simply calories and activity that determines body composition. You’re going to want to pay attention to this:
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/event_details.php?webcastid=21216
#9, no.
Have you heard of hyponatremia?
1L water per 1000 cal consumed is the correct number for a training athlete. That includes ALL moisture content in ANY food or beverage consumed. Caffeine is a MILD diuretic and so is irrelevant to the quantity consumed. Alcoholic beverages were used for centuries for adequate hydration because they were the only source of clean water and so is also irrelevant. Both of these are true because a healthy body is more than capable of self-regulating thirst so drinking when thirsty is adequate for healthy populations.
Additionally, intentional large and frequent water consumption can mask symptoms of certain renal and metabolic diseases that present with frequent urination and irregularly strong thirst. Diabetes, for example.
@Chris
#1&2. I’ve done intermittent fasting in the past. I even mention it at the bottom. Different game, different rules.
#4: sure.
#7: check rule #5 & #4.
#9: Person weighing 150lbs (light-weight) that workouts eats 3000 kcals/daily for maintenance. Add 1l for hydration for working out. 1 gallon/day.
This is the sort of thing I like about stronglifts.com.
Mehdi isn’t posting to the latest research, fads or trends. Nothing he says is dangerous, or counter productive, so why question it? It works for him, and many others through _practical experience_.
1gal of water is safe, keeps you full and will help control appetite. If you drink it cold, it burns calories as your body warms it up. I think it would be incorrect to try and cater to diabetics as suggested above.. or even suggest that sort of thing should be rationalized. That’s what a doctor is for, not a strength blog.
None of the advise is harmful, its not always “trendy” like everything else in the fitness world. Sound advise as usual met with an unusual amount of criticism.
If you drink it cold, it burns calories as your body warms it up.
LOL . You sound like a anorexic 12 year old girl. Too much water is bad for you. There is alot of water in the food that you eat.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/question447.htm
So how many carbohydrates should we be eating per day? You didn’t mention it in your article. What percentage or how many grams?
@Mutt
Thanks.
@A.J
You’re right, but no need for flaming. Thanks.
@O.J.
Body-weight in lbs x 18 kcal, 1g/lbs protein, about 30% fat. The rest you fill in with carbs to get your total calories.
Hm.. two against one I guess.. lol, I guess I sound like a 12 year old girl.
Mehdi, what do you thing about Intermittent Fasting? Im really tired of my 4 hours meal pattern. I need a break.
http://www.fatlosstroubleshoot.com/if.html
@Pedro
I didn’t plan it well when I tried it. What I can say: after the 2nd/3rd day hunger disappears, you’re more alert, heavy workouts on empty stomach are no problem at all.
This is a very helpful post. I’m no expert, but it seems smarter to *start* developing these habits — then, once you’ve got the basics down, try more restrictive diets (e.g. anabolic diet) if you want to.
I have made the mistake of trying to apply highly specific/restrictive diets without the basic healthy habits down. It’s tough and you just don’t know what you’re doing.
You aren’t an anorexic girl and that is a very helpful fact for people who are trying to lose weight I will now only drink warmer water thanks for letting me now mutt.
Not to be negative, I’ll just concentrate on the downsides and not the upsides of which there were many.
But as far as I’ve read the research, PUFAs (polyunsaturated fats) _lower_ your testosterone, they don’t increase it. They are also very susceptible to going rancid and creating free radical damage within the body. That could explain why there’s a strong link with PUFAs and cancer. (See eg. Taubes’s Good Calories Bad Calories)
I would concentrate on saturated fats and monounsaturated fats, both of which are good for you and benefit your hormone levels. Saturated fat also has antiviral and antimicrobial properties:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/3/550
30% fat I would definitely consider a low fat diet, since most people consume more than that (Americans around 35% on average nowadays, historically more, very much like traditional hunter-gatherers). Low fat diet’s are so eighties…!
@JK
Fish oil increases testosterone levels. You’re right about flax seeds which contain phytoestrogens. I don’t recommend flax oil, unstable oil, goes rancid fast, etc Better are flax seeds, and their fiber content will keep you from consuming too much.
And you’re right, low fat diets are 80s.
Great article, a lot of it is common sense, but to have it listed out really makes it easier to follow.
Off I go to eat a good breakfast!
How do you compare your rules to John Berardi’s 10 rules?
http://www.harrowdrive.com/precison-cricket-nutrition/
AMEN AMEN to all of the above.
it is a lot of work but so worth it in the end huh?
now, to convert the MASSES
MizFit
ive filled in all the macro ratios according to these rules (1g pro/lb and 30% fats) but this leaves me with about 325 rams of carbs through the day, which is almost 65 carbs each meal accross five meals. I’m greatly worried this amount will puff me up big, is there anything im plugging in wrong?
Not all polyunsaturated fats are anti-inflammatory.
Omega-6 fatty acids are the opposite: Inflammatory.
This is the whole reasoning behind supplementing with Omega-3’s. To balance inflammatory and anti-inflammatory fatty acid intake.
eat breakfast. I’ve told my readers to have breakfast, and they mail that eat breakfast will take time, get more calories, and they are too lazy…. Oh my god. We all know breakfast is very important. Thanks for sharing this post.
Why am I finding it hard to accept that I would require 3200 calories to lose weight? Right now I’m at 205 LBS, 20% BF, and I’m working out six days a week, lifting, etc. I have been on about 1600 calories a day, 40/40/20 ratio for about 8 weeks. In that 8 weeks, I gained a pound of muscle and lost about 30 pounds of fat. I fear that if I threw myself up to 3200 calories, I’d gain fat like there is no tomorrow.
Body-weight in lbs x 18 kcal
What does this mean? Please explain, and what is this for? Is a kcal a calorie?
When you talk about eating tuna, do you mean to eat it straight from the can? On the daily eating schedule above where it says tuna and rice…are you mixing the two together?
Thanks for your great blog!
On an average day, i eat around 1400-1500 calories. I eat 4-5 times a day.. small healthy meals, nothin bad or anything. I currently weigh 155 and i wanna get up to 175. I workout 4 times a week and run 3 times. any suggestions?
[...] Ideas / links for nutrition Welcome to the forum Mase ! I’m not an expert (by any shape or form)… but the very experienced & very helpful folks here on this forum will ask you to post up the stuff I’ve bullet-pointed below (it’s an all over picture needed please) : - Your goals (I think you’re after strength from your other thread? Want to get strong) - Your typical day’s worth of eating in your diet (inc. where possible amounts in grams/mls, e.g. XXXgrams Porridge + XXXmls of whole milk… it will help if you can approximate them). Also, does your diet vary from training-days… to non-training days please? It may seem a lot of stuff to type… but the more info. you give the better a picture people can get of you, your goals, where you’re at now and can then offer advice on how to get where you wanna be. From your other thread I can see you’ve been recommend to take a look at the StrongLifts 5×5 routine. That same website also has some nutrition articles:-StrongLifts.com’s 10 Nutrition Rules for Building Muscle, Losing Fat & Getting Stronger [...]