Diet! Let me say at the outset that the plan I developed was an amalgam of concepts put forth by individuals far wiser than me. Astute readers will recognize the ideas of (in no particular order) John Meadows, TC, CT, Kiefer, Shugart, Stu, and others. All I did was synthesize their concepts in a way that made sense to me.
In addition to the ‘What’ of my diet, I will talk at some length about the ‘Why.’ I do this for two reasons: First, because I assume some people will find it interesting; and second, so those more knowledgeable than I can educate me on the points I get wrong.
I knew the main impediment to the success of my cut would be psychological. Specifically, I knew I was doomed to fail if I started feeling chronically deprived. I don’t have nearly so much trouble with feeling intermittently deprived. For example, if I want to average a 500 cal/d deficit over two days, I find it easier to endure a 1000 cal deficit on one day and no deficit the next, rather than running a 500 cal deficit both days. For this reason, I decided to go with a ‘carb/calorie cycling’ approach, wherein some days I’d eat at (or above) maintenance, and others below.
In addition to running a caloric deficit, I also wanted to manage my endogenous insulin levels so as to preserve muscle and maximize fat loss. As most of y’all know, insulin is a potent anabolic hormone–albeit an indiscriminate one, in that it is just as adept at causing adipocyte growth as muscle hypertrophy. (To comprehend the awesome anabolic power of insulin, consider the size of both the current crop of IFBB behemoths and the massively obese individuals moored at your mall food court.)
However, insulin also inhibits fat mobilization; absent exogenous modification of the hormonal milieu (fancy talk for ‘unless you use PEDs’), fat loss simply won’t occur in the context of elevated insulin. So during a cut, there are periods when you want insulin levels to spike (specifically, the post-workout interval), whereas the rest of the time you want it be low (so fat stores will be mobilized and consumed). Further, chronically elevated insulin levels lead to downregulation of target tissues’ responsiveness to it (aka ‘insulin resistance’); this can culminate in type II diabetes in susceptible individuals.
Finally, of all the endogenous pro-growth hormones (hGH, testosterone, IGF, etc), the only one over which we can exert a meaningful degree of control is insulin. For all these reasons, a secondary consideration in how I set up my diet was with respect to optimizing insulin.
The guidelines for my diet shaped up like this:
–I ate at maintenance on days I lifted weights. (I used 15 cals/pound to estimate my maintenance cals. This ballparked to about 3000 cals.)
–I ate 1/2 to 2/3 maintenance (1500-2000 cals) on days I did not lift. Because of the 1:1 ratio of lifting-to-nonlifting days in my exercise protocol, this produced an average daily deficit in the 500-750 cal range.
Now for the insulin. I wanted to keep it as low as possible, except during the intra/post-lifting period. In that regard, the next guideline is obvious:
–No intentional carbs except intra- and post-weightlifting.
However, carbs are not the only foodstuff that promote insulin release; certain amino acids are also highly insulinogenic (in particular the BCAAs, and especially leucine). Thus, in addition to limiting carbs to the intra/post-exercise period, I did the same with protein (although I was less adamant about it, and would eat protein pre-exercise if the situation made doing so necessary). The guideline:
–Avoid protein except intra/post-exercise.
Obviously, banning carbs and protein leaves only two nutritional options for the pre-workout period–eat fat, or fast. Fasting is tough for me, so I elected to eat fat, in the form of natty peanut butter. It’s a fantastic food–contains good fats, is savory and delicious, and (best of all) is quite filling/satiating.
Putting it all together, a typical lifting day would look (does look) like this:
For breakfast I have 2-3 tbsp of PB along with coffee (which is a great appetite suppressant; I sip on coffee all morning at work). I keep PB and a tablespoon in my office at work, and will have 1-2 more tbsp if I get hungry during the work day. I’m usually at the gym by 3P. I bring a carb + protein intra-workout drink with me, and start sipping it after my first work-set of the day. (Out of respect for our Biotest hosts, I’ll refrain from going into detail about the drink, other than to say it is a poor man’s version of Plazma.) As soon as I get home, I eat some yummy simple carbs–usually a couple of toasted cinnamon-raisin bagels, one with a banana and maple syrup, the other with grape jelly. For the rest of the evening I’ll eat carbs and protein (lean, as I’ve already ingested a lot of fat via the PB) until I hit my macros/cals for the day. I shoot for .9-1g protein/pound, and fill in the remainder of my cals with carbs.
A typical nonlifting day starts the same way–coffee and PB. The only difference is that, post exercise (ie, running or conditioning), I’ll have protein and more fat–no intentional carbs. My protein goal on nonlifting days is lower and more flexible, in the 120-160 g range.
In addition to its salutary effects on insulin, backloading calories in this manner is easier psychologically. I’m usually too preoccupied at work to notice I’m hungry, so I don’t ‘need’ to eat then. And it really helps to have a large number of calories available in the evening, so it feels like I’m eating more like a ‘normal person.’ (This also helps keep me honest about whether I really need that next spoonful of PB during the day, because every spoonful of PB cuts 100 calories from my evening’s repast.)
Diet tl;dr:
- Ate maintenance-level cals on lifting days, 1/2 to 2/3 maintenance on nonlifting days.
- In order to keep the fat-fires burning, noshed (sparingly) on nothing but PB pre-exercise.
- On lifting days, started consuming carbs and lean protein during the workout, and continued until macro/cal goals reached.
- On nonlifting days, started consuming protein post-exercise, and continued until macro/cal goals reached.
OK, that’s about the size of it. I’m sure I left out some key points and butchered others, so feel free to ask any questions that arise.
That being said I’m never timing myself, because I probably do run in the 9/10 min range. At this point in my life. I don’t really care about running fast or gasp looking remotely like a distance runner. Being in good condition is much more important and you have definitely nailed the conditioning part.