Fat Loss for the Naturally Lean

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

I’ve done a year-long 26 kilogram bulk, and have been maintaining weight for about a month now. Not sure how much fat I’m carrying as I’ve never measured, but I’m slightly leaner than in my profile photo. Top two abs are visible, bottom four are not - so maybe 15%? I’d like to get back to being as lean as I was before I started training. This would be about 8-9% body fat.

Before the bulk I’ve always been that lean, even over the age of 30, working a desk job, eating everything I wanted, drinking beer every day and avoiding sports. I know there’s a lot of nutrition and workout advice aimed at achieving my goal, but I’m not sure how much of it is overkill for those of us who are naturally lean.

Here’s a typical day of my maintenance diet:

7:30 - a few handfuls of nuts, a banana
9:00 - liter of milk
12:00 - about 200 grams of sausage, bread
14:00 - liter of milk
17:00 - meat or fish, maybe vegetables, beer
19:00, 21:30 - meat or fish, maybe vegetables

I usually end up eating a half kilo of meat a day, sometimes more. On days I train I also drink another liter of milk afterwards. Since this is winter I drink a lot of tea during the day, water in the evening. No supplements - they’re expensive here relative to food. No clue how many calories I eat but whatever it is, it’s maintenance.

What diet adjustments should I make? I’ve been thinking of eating a bigger breakfast and replacing the second liter of milk with something else… nuts, maybe.

2

[quote]DSmolken wrote:
I’ve done a year-long 26 kilogram bulk, and have been maintaining weight for about a month now. Not sure how much fat I’m carrying as I’ve never measured, but I’m slightly leaner than in my profile photo. Top two abs are visible, bottom four are not - so maybe 15%? I’d like to get back to being as lean as I was before I started training. This would be about 8-9% body fat.

Before the bulk I’ve always been that lean, even over the age of 30, working a desk job, eating everything I wanted, drinking beer every day and avoiding sports. I know there’s a lot of nutrition and workout advice aimed at achieving my goal, but I’m not sure how much of it is overkill for those of us who are naturally lean.

Here’s a typical day of my maintenance diet:

7:30 - a few handfuls of nuts, a banana
9:00 - liter of milk
12:00 - about 200 grams of sausage, bread
14:00 - liter of milk
17:00 - meat or fish, maybe vegetables, beer
19:00, 21:30 - meat or fish, maybe vegetables

I usually end up eating a half kilo of meat a day, sometimes more. On days I train I also drink another liter of milk afterwards. Since this is winter I drink a lot of tea during the day, water in the evening. No supplements - they’re expensive here relative to food. No clue how many calories I eat but whatever it is, it’s maintenance.

What diet adjustments should I make? I’ve been thinking of eating a bigger breakfast and replacing the second liter of milk with something else… nuts, maybe.[/quote]

You should change your breakfast. Try to shift some lean protein (e.g. lean meat) from one of the later meals to breakfast, and try to get much more complex carbs (e.g. oatmeal, whole grain bread etc).

Breakfast should be your biggest meal (protein and calorie-wise)

Save the nuts (fats+protein) for evening meals.

Try not to mix carbs and fats as a source for calories in the same meal too much (either carbs/protein or fats/protein)

Also, you should try to get more fruits/vegetables.

Finally, i would try to mix the protein sources somewhat. Instead of drinking a whole liter of milk and a few hours afterwards eating a portion of meat or fish, take half a liter of milk with half of the meat/fish/etc twice.

3

Thanks, that’s some good advice. Most of the milk (except for the PWO milk) I steal from the coffee machines at work.

I do eat fruit in the evening between or after meals, especially when they’re in season (I have a grapevine and a few fruit trees). Forgot to mention that.

4

In addition, you have to clean up your lunch. Sausages and bread is really junk food. Yeah I love them too, but make it an occational thing. Bring leftovers from yesterday’s dinner for lunch.

Make sure that you eat veg at every meal. Fill up on them.

How much of your meals are outside the house? You have a 5PM meal and then a 7PM meal. That sounds like stopping by the pub on the way home and eating dinner when you get home. Be careful about how your food is prepared, no deep frying, and french fries don’t count as a vegetable. How much beer do you drink?

Stu

5

Breakfast and everything from 5PM on is made at home. I’d hate to bring leftovers to work, though, considering that I usually cook one thing and split it into three parts over the evening, or roast a lot of meat and eat it over two-three days. So about half my diet is leftovers already… but I could rearrange things so it won’t be too monotonous.

Sausages… well, I do tend to eat the drier ones like horse sausage, raw cured pork etc. (I know, Americans don’t eat horses and this is mostly an American forum…) And proper traditional bread. Not the cleanest meal but not that bad.

Beer is a half liter a day, usually Baltic porter (so pretty heavy). Occasionally a liter, but then I’ll drink regular lager. I could easily do without it but it is an easy source of calories and helps digest a big meal.

6

I’m Canadian. They eat horse meat in Quebec but I can’t say I’m eager to try it.

My concern was the amount of greasy fat but you seem to have that under control. 1/2 litre of beer is not unreasonable but beer and bread are good sources of calories but they will put fat on the abs. You probably need to carb cycle if you want to clean up the mid section. That means more veg and less beer and bread. Any sausages are likely to be high in fat. You should start looking for leaner sources of meat. Get your fats from fish oil and olive oil.

7

Wanna lose fat? Eat less.

8

Eating less is the easiest thing in the world… for me it just means being slightly less militant about stuffing myself.

I’m just looking for ways to be smart about it.