Please Critique my Diet

Diet and Nutrition
1

Whats up guys, I’m looking for a little critical analysis of my diet if anyone could do me the favour id really appreciate it.

Right now I’m 5’9 175lbs, my main goals are to get my weight to the 180-185lbs range, while losing 2-3% of my body fat (not sure probably around 6-8% right now).

I’m currently training for performance (football) and train UB twice a week along with LB 3 times a week (twice weights, once running) with core exercises mixed in. Here is what a general day of eating looks like for me:

Breakfast:
-Oatmeal,Plain Bagel, 100g eggwhites (sometimes 4-6oz of steak mixed in)

Lunch:
-Not sure of the quantity but a giant serving of pasta with tomato sauce. Generally before I train and then…
-Postworkout shake (60g of protein+skim milk)

Dinner:
Usually a giant serving of rice or pasta with tomato sauce, with some source of protein, either a couple of chicken breasts or a can of tuna or two.

Before bed:
A can or two of tuna along with a bowl of cottage cheese

Snacks:
And throughout the day ill generally have a couple cans of tuna mixed throughout, yogurt with granola or All Bran/Raisan Bran cereals.

Supplements:
-8 BCAA tabs (4 before, 4 during w/o)
-Multivitamin (one 3 times daily)
-CLA Tonalin (2 3 times daily)
-B-Complex Vitamin (once daily)
-Fish oil tabs (2 3 times daily)

Thats generally how I eat throughout the day, a lot of repetition in what I eat I know but being a university student I can’t afford much nor do I have a significant amount of time to cook. But considering this could you let me know what you think I should change, add or subtract? Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate it.

2

Your diet sucks.

Start reading every article by John Berardi and you’ll learn how to eat for your body comp goals and for overall health and fitness!

3

Wow you like tuna. Push would be proud.

The only problem I saw was your PWO is crap. If you are going to drink milk- at least drink chocolate milk. You need the sugar.

4

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
Your diet sucks.

Start reading every article by John Berardi and you’ll learn how to eat for your body comp goals and for overall health and fitness![/quote]

Your diet doesn’t SUCK, but you may consider some of Berardi’s articles to see how he incorporates nutrition plans for his athletes (and his list of athletes IS quite impressive). Remember though, Berardi himself preaches individualization. Try giving his approach to nutrient timing (you’ll see what this is after rifling through his articles) a try and see how it works for you, adjusting to your needs.

5

Your diet is fine, but it can definitely be improved.

Drop some of the starchy pasta you have in there. Eat most of your carbs for breakfast and PWO. Carbs should be spared throughout the rest of the day. Get plenty of fiber (25-30g/d) as well.

I love when guys say something sucks but won’t offer any advice.

By the way, if you’re 6-8% bodyfat you are already ripped as is…but most people think they’re much lower in BF. If you think you can STILL lose fat and gain muscle NATURALLY you will probably be slightly disappointed.

If I were to tell clients one resource to use to advance their overall health and athleticism or even a better life…I would tell them to read T-Nation.com every day.

It is seriously that informative. Get to readin’ brother…you will advance in a major way. Good luck.

6

You’d likely benefit from adding a lot more vegetables and fruits. I buy spinach, kale, romaine, cucumber, red and green peppers, mint, and onion. Chop it all up, squirt it with lime and sprinkle with salt, store in large tupperware in the fridge. Lasts 3 or 4 days depending on how much I make.

7

[quote]ovalpline wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
Your diet sucks.

Start reading every article by John Berardi and you’ll learn how to eat for your body comp goals and for overall health and fitness!

Your diet doesn’t SUCK, but you may consider some of Berardi’s articles to see how he incorporates nutrition plans for his athletes (and his list of athletes IS quite impressive). Remember though, Berardi himself preaches individualization. Try giving his approach to nutrient timing (you’ll see what this is after rifling through his articles) a try and see how it works for you, adjusting to your needs.

[/quote]

Really? It doesn’t suck? Please explain.

From what I see, he is lacking serious variety in his diet and almost a complete lack of fruits, veggies and good fats (besides the fish oils).

He also lacks protein in most meals, and his carb choices are extremely poor (pasta, rice and bagels).

If that’s a good diet, then maybe your idea of good is completely distorted.

His diet is what I thought I had to eat when I was 18 and reading the muscle and fitness magazines. All it did was lead to fat gain no matter how much I busted my ass.

It wasn’t until I added more high quality protein, fats and fiberous carbs and restricted the simple carbs that I made good progress. I thank John Berardi for being instrumental in setting the record straight when it comes to eating properly for body comp and for health reasons!

Now, I follow Precision Nutrition, and am glad I know what good eating is all about. If you follow what the bodybuilding mags and fitness sites preach, you’ll be stuck eating rice, tuna and pasta and wondering why you can’t get leaner or make better progress.

8

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
ovalpline wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
Your diet sucks.

Start reading every article by John Berardi and you’ll learn how to eat for your body comp goals and for overall health and fitness!

Your diet doesn’t SUCK, but you may consider some of Berardi’s articles to see how he incorporates nutrition plans for his athletes (and his list of athletes IS quite impressive). Remember though, Berardi himself preaches individualization. Try giving his approach to nutrient timing (you’ll see what this is after rifling through his articles) a try and see how it works for you, adjusting to your needs.

Really? It doesn’t suck? Please explain.

From what I see, he is lacking serious variety in his diet and almost a complete lack of fruits, veggies and good fats (besides the fish oils).

He also lacks protein in most meals, and his carb choices are extremely poor (pasta, rice and bagels).

If that’s a good diet, then maybe your idea of good is completely distorted.

His diet is what I thought I had to eat when I was 18 and reading the muscle and fitness magazines. All it did was lead to fat gain no matter how much I busted my ass.

It wasn’t until I added more high quality protein, fats and fiberous carbs and restricted the simple carbs that I made good progress. I thank John Berardi for being instrumental in setting the record straight when it comes to eating properly for body comp and for health reasons!

Now, I follow Precision Nutrition, and am glad I know what good eating is all about. If you follow what the bodybuilding mags and fitness sites preach, you’ll be stuck eating rice, tuna and pasta and wondering why you can’t get leaner or make better progress.[/quote]

have you never read a Dave Tate article?.. if you eat enough rice and tuna you will make great progress

pasta, rice, bagels, noodels dohnuts fast food all of it is good for bulking

9

Awesome, thanks for the input guys… true I am 18 lol but I dont get my info from muscle fitness magazines. I eat a lot of the things I eat because I can afford them, I do understand that there are better options out there in many cases though. Thanks again though and i’ll come back with something revised when I’m done reading.

10

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
Your diet sucks.[/quote]

Why? Because John Berardi says so? He is one person. His word is not gospel. A lot of people eat like the OP eats and make terrific gains. (Oh, and if I ate as much as Berardi suggests in his articles, I would get fat as hell. So his methods do not work for everyone.)

People tolerate different foods differently. Not everyone needs to subsist on fruits and veggies. Most people need to focus on eating ENOUGH food before they even begin to focus on food choices.

If you eat 2,000 kcals of “perfect” foods, you’ll still look like a weenie. Most powerlifters have “suck” diets but look very strong - and, in fact, they are very strong.

Maybe more of us should have diets that suck?

11

[quote]MAV07 wrote:
Awesome, thanks for the input guys… true I am 18 lol but I dont get my info from muscle fitness magazines. I eat a lot of the things I eat because I can afford them, I do understand that there are better options out there in many cases though. Thanks again though and i’ll come back with something revised when I’m done reading.[/quote]

Dude, no one call tell you whether your diet sucks without knowing how your body responds to your food choices. If you’re making progress in the gym, then your diet does not suck. Period.

Real-world results, not words written on the Internet, are what matter.

12

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
He also lacks protein in most meals, and his carb choices are extremely poor (pasta, rice and bagels).
[/quote]

While I agree that he could definitely use more fruits and vegetables in his diet I can’t say that he lacks protein in most of his meals:

[quote]Breakfast:
-100g eggwhites (sometimes 4-6oz of steak mixed in)

Lunch:
(60g of protein+skim milk)

Dinner:
some source of protein, either a couple of chicken breasts or a can of tuna or two.

Before bed:
A can or two of tuna along with a bowl of cottage cheese

Snacks:
And throughout the day ill generally have a couple cans of tuna
[/quote]

To the OP,
Actually, with that much tuna in your diet, you may sprout gills…have you considered joining the swim team?

13

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
Your diet sucks.

Why? Because John Berardi says so? He is one person. His word is not gospel. A lot of people eat like the OP eats and make terrific gains. (Oh, and if I ate as much as Berardi suggests in his articles, I would get fat as hell. So his methods do not work for everyone.)[/quote]

Berardi isn’t the only one who has preached lean meats, fruits and veggies, good fats and restricting starchy carbs to the post-workout window.

The people that make gains on diets like the OP are usually very skinny bastards looking to get bigger. However, it’s not a long-term approach to overall health and fitness. And in this case, he should consider eating to be healthy and explore other food choices and holes in his current plan.

Also, Precision Nutrition is based on individualization. Berardi may suggest a lot of calories and for some people, it may be too many. Thus, you cut back on the total calories. But the overall idea behind eating correctly remains in place.

I agree. If you’re not eating enough, you obviously need to eat more. But everyone can benefit from increased fruit and veggie intake. It doesn’t mean you exclude other stuff in place of them, but that they should be eaten in addition to the food necessary to meet the calorie recommendations. Also, you can eat enough food while on PN.

[quote]If you eat 2,000 kcals of “perfect” foods, you’ll still look like a weenie. Most powerlifters have “suck” diets but look very strong - and, in fact, they are very strong.

Maybe more of us should have diets that suck?[/quote]

You just said that if you followed Berardi’s recommendations, you would get fat as hell.

Are you saying that PN and Berardi’s methods are not going to supply the calories and nutrients needed for someone to gain weight? Or that it is considered a suck diet because it requires clean foods?

14

Just from continued reading, I do understand that eating better carbs at different time and eating more fruits and vegetables are the two most important things to adjust my diet. I read all of his nutrition articles (was most intrigued from Tailor Made Nutrition I,II,II) But I still have some questions. To me it seems he mentions exactly what to include, but I didn’t pick up on how much…

now I know he said don’t worry about how much at first BUT I wouldnt mind knowing generally how much good fats to ingest on a daily basis, thats somewhere I really wouldnt want to go wrong. Also the idea of carbs only after a workout, can someone explain why to me, I didnt quite understand? Lastly it seems to me that his nutrition, although designed to overall improve your general health, it kind of target elite athletes, now I’m an athlete and do train but not thrice daily like the ones he mentions…

how would this change the diet? Is there a need to consume as much good fats and even sugar from the fruits if your training once daily? I see that if your eating 6 healthy meals its hard to go wrong, but at the end of the day the fats,sugar and carbs would add up, and if your training once a day is all of this necessary (the quantity is a cost issue as well) especially considering my goals of improved lean muscle mass with a small loss of body fat? If someone could help me out with those chief concerns i’d really appreciate it, I’m just trying to give myself a little clarity on the issue, and perhaps tweak what he prescribes for elite athletes in order to apply best to my situation.