CaliforniaLaw:
I agree with you 100%, as I have been doing this since I became serious about adding muscle. Experience has showed me that there is little, if any difference between (y)our definition of a clean meal and the whole grain/chicken breast crowd when it comes to body composition/mass building.
With that being said, I believe the confusion comes in when people are concerned about cholesterol and other non-body comp health concerns. Although I’m not an expert on cardiovascular health, I have always thought that there is a significant correlation between diet and lipid profile, etc; especially pronounced in the non-exercising population. If someone was at risk of having a heart attack, it’s probably safe to say that there are “cleaner” meals out there than a krispy kreme donut with flax sprinkled on top.
With that being said, this shouldn’t be a concern for most of the people on this site who are looking to get “swole”. For body composition purposes, one should focus 95-100% of their attention on macronutrient breakdown and getting enough calories.
Sorry if my post doesn’t read so well, I’m not feeling great today.
[quote]kevbo wrote:
Experience has showed me that there is little, if any difference between (y)our definition of a clean meal and the whole grain/chicken breast crowd when it comes to body composition/mass building.[/quote]
It would be interesting to track the results of people who think eating a slice of pizza, milled flax, and protein powder is sacrilege (or, at the least, may only be done one a week); and compare their results with people more enlightened about food choices. The problem is that the “chicken breast/brown rice” crowd doesn’t seem to stick around this site for very long.
I take it they’re not making any gains and get bored with lifting. Thus, they sign off.
My point was that just because the rest of the meal is good doesn’t mean the crappy item wasn’t there in the first place.
I don’t think the words associated with the meal matter all that much. You do the things that help achive your goal. If getting your calories from pizza does that, more power for you, and good idea about adding flax and/or protein powder.
Should it matter if it be deemed “clean” by the masses if it works?
“They see me eatin’, a pizza
They’re postin’ ‘n tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
My arms are so big
And yours aren’t
They’re tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me eatin’ dirty”
CaliLaw,
I think you had a good idea posting this. The problem, once again, is that people want to be validated. They follow everything any author here says as if it were spoken by Moses. Don’t get me wrong, T-Nation has some of the smartest nutrition people, and I think it is the best SINGLE resource on the internet for bodybuilding.
That doesn’t mean that everything else out there is complete crap though. I remember recommending Ross Enamait’s stuff to a certain poster, and someone claimed that Ross was a chump, and that he wasn’t good because he didn’t write articles for T-Nation. Pure crap.
Anyway, I will say that I mostly agree with you. Your flank steak/pizza meal sounds delicious, and dare I say nutritious. I don’t think pizza would be the BEST choice when trying to seriously diet. However, if I only wanted to lose a couple pounds a month, I don’t think I would throw out the thin crust pizza.