A Year Of Eating Correctly (Sort Of)
Dan on December 10th, 2006
Last year I posted my goal of forming a diet and nutrition plan based on Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. I wish I read it years ago! It gave me a complete understanding of how to properly organize meals and eat correctly. I’ve followed it now for a bit over a year and I’ve never looked back. Sure, there have been plenty of days that saw the consumption of foods from the list of things you should never eat. However, even on those days I still followed most of my meals.
So what does my current diet look like? I eat 6 meals a day for a total caloric intake of about 2350 kcal. Over the past 2 months I’ve raised and lowered my total intake. For over a month I was eating 2500+ kcal a day. That was a bit much so I lowered it to 2350 kcal. For my current activity level I find this to be just right.
This isn’t to say that I’ve been very strict. I was strict from when I started in November 2005 to the end of March / beginning of April. At that point I was reintroduced to my nemesis: jellybeans. Jellybeans are one of my favorite food products. Easter is prime jellybean time. I had decided that I would enjoy a few of the little balls of sugar since I had been so strict for so long. The problem was “a few” meant an entire bag in one sitting, and multiple bags per week. I had gone for so long without sugar I forgot how good it was and over compensated. That goes to show how important cheat meals can be.
From that point on I continued to follow my nutrition plan but cheated a lot more than I should have. I’d go for a few weeks without any cheating and then I’d hit the candy hard. Over the past few months I’ve gone way overboard, eating all kinds of junk food. I have developed the bad tendency of eating an entire package of something in one sitting. I never used to do that but for some reason I do now. I knew I would gain fat with the plan of losing it again before spring. At this point I think I’ve gained enough fat. I started at about 140 lbs and about 10% body fat at the end of summer. I’m now about 150 lbs and 18% body fat. Those body fat numbers aren’t necessarily accurate as they came from a scale and not calipers, but they illustrate how eating the wrong foods in excess can impact your body.
I’ve begun figuring out how I’m going to get rid of this excess weight, my “cutting plan” so to speak. For the next two weeks I’ll be sticking to my current 2350 kcal diet with some minor cheating allowed. I’ll be visiting my parents the week of Christmas. As such, there will be travel, Christmas dinners, Christmas junk foods such as candy and cookies, etc. I will still stick with my meal plan but won’t be strict. I want to spend that week enjoying myself, my family, and food. January is when the fun begins…
January 1, 2007 will be the beginning of my cutting plan. My diet will be reduced to 2200 kcal with very restricted cheating, limited to one meal per week and only within my total 2200 kcal guidelines. Those calories will be distributed as 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat. I will continue to follow the Max-OT workout plan that I’ve been following since February. I’m currently hitting the gym 5 days a week with 2 days off. That will be changing, with 5 days of lifting and 2 days of cardio as I was doing over the summer. If after 2 weeks I don’t notice much loss of fat I’ll cut my diet to 2100 kcal. That should be plenty low enough to see results. If not, I’ll continue cutting out 100 kcal a week until I see what I want. I’m aiming at losing at least 1.5 lbs of fat each week, with a total loss of 15 lbs of fat. My overall goal is 8% body fat. While I could lose it quicker than that there would be greater muscle loss, which I want to avoid as much as possible.
One thing I haven’t discussed much is my supplementation plan. I’ll be writing an article about supplementation in the future but I’ll cover my current and future plans here. Currently I’m taking a cheap multi-vitamin, a fish oil cap (for Omega 3s), 2 green tea caps (EGCG and antioxidants), 2 500mg Ester-C caps (immune system boost and antioxidants), 3 CLA caps (promotes greater muscle gain vs fat gain), 4 Z Force caps (ZMA + test boosters, questionable), and 2 25mg DHEA tabs on workout days (test booster). I always make sure to research supplements before I try them. Pubmed is your friend. I was taking Diesel Fuel before as a thermogenic and metabolism booster, but they recently changed it and added a lot more caffeine and Yohimbe. I didn’t want to take it regularly because of that, but I’m considering adding it back in at least a few days a week.
So that’s where I stand today. I watch my diet closely and know what everything I put in my body will do. Measuring and tracking everything comes naturally now. I’m not sure how I managed without doing either for 23 years of my life.
