First, do what works not what should work. I’ve learned you have to figure out stuff for yourself, your own preferences, and your own physiology. Listen to everyone, read all you can, learn all you can, keep what works. Principals are more important than specifics. I don’t count calories, I don’t track macros, I really have just developed a style of living. Counting crap every day will always be a temporary diet to me, and I’m not doing that anymore.
From the other thread: "I don’t eat breakfast. eat whenever I get hungry. Make sure to get 200+ grams of protein. Eat limited carbs only peri and post workout (50 to 75). and eat as much fat as I want. During the day I’m eating eggs, sausage, bacon, nuts, cheese, low carb veggies, coconut oil, cream, beef, skin on chicken, est. At night after training it’s full fat yogurt, some fruit, cottage cheese, milk, more meat est.
I also eat organic, grassfed meat and milk, and non GMO as possible. I eat no wheat, refined sugar, or starches.
I lift for an hour most days and play at something else for 30 minutes. Might be a run, stone carries, rucking, bike ride, battle ropes, sled pulling, pump work, complexes, est. Just whatever I feel like. I also stay as active as possible the rest of the day (I now stand at my desk and go on walks and stuff at lunch).
I’m eating 3000-4000 calories a day and still leaning out."
Much of how I eat is by feel. I tend to listen to my hunger. The harder I train the hungrier I get and the more I eat. I also almost don’t believe in carbs. I personally do great virtually without them. I’m low to no carb most days and don’t do and “re-feeds”. Eat animals, just make sure they are healthy.
After reading about the volumes and intensities many different athletes go to (strong man, oly lifters, est.) I almost don?t believe in overtraining. Sure you can be stupid and try to do a widow maker squat set daily while cutting weight and not sleeping, but bar doing some really stupid crap, you can adapt to almost anything. And even then, when you are feeling run down, there is plenty of stuff you can do. Eccentric-less sets, really light really high rep sets, light complexes, est. You can pretty much always work harder than you are.
I’m a big advocate of getting out of the gym. The big lifts are important, but they aren’t everything. I even have an old crappy barbell I just leave outside. I love power cages and plates, but my favorite training journal entries have grass stains on the pages (seriously). I don’t care who you are and how determined you are, you will work harder and do more if you enjoy what you are doing. Yesterday I did an hour belt squat workout in the shade of a tree on a bright sunny day, playing fetch with my dogs between sets. I can guarantee you I did at least 2 more high rep finishing sets that I probably wouldn’t have done in a gym because I’d have been bored by that point. Go do something cool and get some dirt in your callouses.
I also don’t do weekly scheduling. I’ve never understood trying to map your training and recover to a week. I have a rotation of workouts and simply do the next one the next time I train. If I’m feeling good I might train 6-8 days in a row, if not I take a day and maybe do some recovery work. Why should the 7 day week change that?
Currently I’m also experimenting with morning lifting. I get up and do my main lift before work, then the afternoons are play time to go have fun doing cool stuff. Training in the morning like this makes me feel like a million bucks the rest of the day. The loose unstructured evenings are great for flexibility with general life. So far, it’s awesome.