What the ---- is so Hard about Writing a Basic Diet?!!!

Nutrition
41

“Is it enough to know calorie-values of food items and plan meals that way…Or how about looking at it in terms of energy supply & demand?”

Nonsensical question. In order to tailor the diet for energy supply and demand, you need to know the calorie and nutrient values for foods.

“If demand is nutritional requirements brought about by physical activity, the supply must be tailored to match or surpass the demand (if building muscle).”

Really?

“My point is that if you put a potato in the microwave for 4 minutes, it will burn your soul.”

I didn’t know that, nor has it happened when I warm up my mashed potatoes in the microwave.

“What is a viable alternative to weighing food, for somebody who is used to the American diet?”

Portion control.

42

“(FTP - fu** this post, It’s Christmas)”

Thanks.

43

One of the best threads I have seen lately in the nutrition section.

44

[quote]ritzgooch23 wrote:
Ok, I guess I was unclear. Yes you need to find YOUR starting point. I just got to the point where I eat pretty much the same stuff every day, so eyeballing it is sufficient. And force feeding usually ends up at the right amount of calories. Yes, I am making LEAN gains. I lift heavy carcass’s all day so I need about 5500 cals and don’t have time to be eating 6 meals a day. I eat 3 times. [/quote]
after work when no ones around do you train like rocky , beatin the shit out of the carcass’s while listening to THE EYE OF THE TIGER or LETS GET PHYSICAL by olivier newton john ?

45

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
So we have 300 grams of carbs, 200 grams of protein, and 56 grams of fat to eat each day.

Make things simple: spread the macronutrients out over, say, four meals, considering this isn’t a lot of food[/quote]
Assuming someone eats more than that, will spreading of the macro-nutrients over 3 meals improve digestion/absorption, or worsen it?

Can 70-plus grams of protein on a single meal be properly digested/absorbed/utilized, or is most of it going to waste?
(Hope this isn’t a very trivial question for this thread)

46

[quote]tolismann wrote:

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
So we have 300 grams of carbs, 200 grams of protein, and 56 grams of fat to eat each day.

Make things simple: spread the macronutrients out over, say, four meals, considering this isn’t a lot of food[/quote]
Assuming someone eats more than that, will spreading of the macro-nutrients over 3 meals improve digestion/absorption, or worsen it?

Can 70-plus grams of protein on a single meal be properly digested/absorbed/utilized, or is most of it going to waste?
(Hope this isn’t a very trivial question for this thread) [/quote]

You can spread it out however you like. Two meals, three meals, six meals, whatever.

Eating your protein allotment how you want doesn’t matter. There are people who consume 100 grams of pro at a sitting.

47

Can this be stickied please?

48

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
I don’t count calories as I’ve said before.

I do portion control. This DOES work for body composition and weight manipulation, but it is not as good as counting calories and macronutrients. For many, it’s the best way to go, and it works if people have a clue in what they’re doing.

For example, here’s some of the foods I eat most often:

eggs
egg whites
various fruit, fresh and dried (mostly raisins and craisins for dried fruit)
lean meats (pork, beef, chicken, tuna)
oily fish (salmon and canned sardines)
pasta
rice
potatoes
oils
I know that two egg whites have 7 grams of protein; 1 oz of lean meat has 7 grams of protein; 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes has 15 grams of carbs; 1/3 cup rice has 15 grams of carbs; 1/2 cup pasta has 15 grams of carbs; 1 tbspn of oil has 15 grams of fat; and other contents of those foods listed and others.

So mentally, I know how to construct a meal, but it will not be 100% accurate because I “eyeball” portions. I can use this for weight gain or loss.

Professor X is someone who has built a huge physique without calorie counting but with portion control (whether he calls it that or not). [/quote]

I’m the exact same way. I know we disagree on some things (grains/processed foods/dairy), but this is a well constructed thread with good information.

The T-Nation Engineers should write some back end code that directs all new members to this if they try to create a new thread containing words like “new diet + ok? and review + new plan”.

49

[quote]ritzgooch23 wrote:
Ok, I guess I was unclear. Yes you need to find YOUR starting point. I just got to the point where I eat pretty much the same stuff every day, so eyeballing it is sufficient. And force feeding usually ends up at the right amount of calories. Yes, I am making LEAN gains. I lift heavy carcass’s all day so I need about 5500 cals and don’t have time to be eating 6 meals a day. I eat 3 times. [/quote]

i seriously doubt you only eat 3 times a day. no peri work out nutrition?

50

[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:
Paleo all the way. Commence chant, PALEO…PALEO…PALEO[/quote]

No offense dude, but this seems like another crock of shit to me.

I’m sure it has its benefits and whatnot, but look at the guy teaching it to others in that pic. Certainly not big, not even really athletic looking. I would never even guess that he’s ever worked out before if i saw him.

Read the whole article and it just seems like more BS. Post pics of big bodybulders who dont follow that diet at all and put a caption underneath that says “The XXX diet can help you be bigger, stronger, healthier, grow 4 inches on your wang, and you will stay 25 years old FOREVER”

Cmon.

51

Okay, I’ll stop being “all paleo and shit” for a sec and share my approach:

My approach might make the most sense to me as I am an accountant. It may also work for some of you.

An easier way (aside from the aforementioned learning the basics of what you commonly eat and then using an eyeballing approach), than meticulously counting cals for each meal is to count your calories for the week, or per grocery store trip.

A basic template I use for this approach (when I used it) is:
Step 1) Count calories for TOTAL FOOD purchased per trip to the grocery store(for each grocery store run).
Step 2) Divide the number of cals for the planned number of days you plan the food to last (yes you must at least make a general plan - which requires that you have basic meal ideas or fallback recipes, and you must also have regularly planned trips to the market…
Step 3) Calculating cals:
a) Unless you have ZERO experience, use past experience (and no other mathematical approach) to determine your planned calorie for your CURRENT physique goal.
b) If you have zero experience, go to the beginner section, read the stickes, apply them for a good while until you have the applicable experience, then come back to the nutrition section read the stickies and many of the recommended threads…
(<=== there are a lot of good threads that contain links to such threads, so if anyone can post that thread here in this thread, that would be helpful)… at that point feel free to post questions in this thread and then not in the beginner thread. UNtil that point comes you should probably lay low as a poster and stick the beginner thread with your questions or Brick and others will continue to make threads like this. Caveat lector.

c) Update this amount if your goals change.

For this step to work you must (in advance) CHOOSE A PERIOD. From experience, I do every 4 days, or sometimes twice per week. If you FAIL at this point, you WILL FAIL at this approach…):

Extra (yet simple) Rules that actually make counting cals easy (perhaps only IMHO!!):

  1. Don’t count the cals of dark greens (but do include at least X number of servings daily, where x is at least 1 and up to 3-4 large servings depending on how much you like them… with the only corollary being – if you add oil/butter/cheese/other nutrient dense topping).
  2. For food products (like oil/butter/coconut oil/even fish oil) that last longer than a week(or whatever period you chose above), and divide the total ACTUAL consumption at the end of the period and apply equally over the number of days.

I can’t rememeber if there are other rules I follow when I do this.

Id post a full week as an example but I’m too lazy and can’t find my receipts <= which are an excellent way to track consumption with this method!)

BT

PS I’m sure others use my approach at least partly, but I am not aware of any. If you do, or plan to implement this, then sound off so I don’t feel as much of a geeky accountant, and more like a lifter :confused:

52

Bump

53

Dude, I like your approach, and I’m glad you’re bumping this thread and you like it.

Your approach is great, but I think it would be quite difficult for people who can’t grasp the most simplest of things with training and nutrition.

And these people can’t seem to read a fucking article and apply what they read. A PERFECTLY, DETAILED article will come out by someone like CT and Tim Enriques (two of the BEST, MOST DETAILED fitness writers I’ve ever read) in which everything is laid out for them and they still can’t seem to use COMMON SENSE and need to have dozens of questions answered before stepping foot in the gym or the kitchen or grocery store and writing a diet and program. Granted, I still have some questions myself, and it’s not like I’m the world’s foremost expert on nutrition (even though nutrition is my profession) and exercise. But my questions are few, and they regard material that I TOOK IN and understood fromt the get go or stuff I have difficulty with AFTER TRYING it out!

Oh boy, I made some mistakes in the gym and at the grocery store and in the kitchen!

Oh boy, everything hasn’t been perfect in getting in shape and being healthy!

Oh boy, everything hasn’t been perfect in life, and I didn’t have my fellow e-nannies to dictate my every action in life as a whole.

Tiger: There are still people trying to fuck around with the most complicated supplementation and and exercise and diet plans to get into decent shape and add a 20 pound base of muscle and the most mediocre strength levels (eg, 2 x BW squat, 1.5 x BW bench press, and 2.5 x BW deadlift)!

I appreciate the Livespill they have now but it never ceases to amaze me how much guidance people need before they do something with fitness. And I’m always surprised why this sort of behavior is nearly exclusive to fitness for these people. After all, these people earn degrees and hold down jobs; if they exhibited this sort of shit at work or in school, they’d be booted the fuck out in no time! Imagine after EVERYTTHING assigned by a boss, the employee responds, “yeah, but like… I see what you’re saying… but I was thinking,” and, “yeah, but like… so you’re saying… ?” and, “I know you need that done, but I need you to show me again (hundredth time).” Or imagine fi a professor had to repeat and re-explain EVERY fucking thing s/he teaches? Professor states something, student raises hand every time and says, “Could you over that again,” and, “Yeah, I see what you’re saying, but isn’t it…?”

54

I think newbs are destined to over-analyze things. I was even guilty of this when I first started learning about nutrition and trying to “lean out” a few years back. There really is a lot of merit to the 80-20 rule. I find that if I eat right (most of the time) and continuously lift heavier weights I get stronger and leaner It really is that simple.

55

I think sometimes we forget that were beginners.

I know I did, after 3 months of reading everything I could find on nutrition I thought I was “da shit” but there was three massive problmes

1)I was still,and am still a total fucking noob

  1. I didnt learn a thing about lifting,so while I had the nutrition part kinda down I was all diet and no exercise which seriously fucked me up, thus causing me to thing my diet was the problem etc etc etc.

Like Cosgrave says “Skinny guys think its their program and fat guys think its there diet, Usually skinny guys need to look at their diet and fat guys need to look at their training”.

And 3) While I did become quite well read on nutrition, there was no fucking point. I was still a noob and therefore learning all this advanced and complicated shit got me no where.

56

Being as I just made a thread that was basically a ‘critique my diet’ despite the fact that I’ve read a lot about different diets on forums, I thought I’d write a quick defense. I know that no posts on this thread were specifically directed at my thread or anything, but I’m just writing from the perspective of someone who wrote such a thread.

First, I really like that the T-Nation community exists. The reason I say that is that in most gyms, I end up being surrounded by people laughing, goofing around, etc. The people on this site are not of that variety, which is nice to be reminded of when you can make a post, ask a question, and get some intelligent (if a tad belligerent) responses.

Secondly, people often feel that their particular considerations might make some difference. I felt that might be the case with me, so I write down my circumstances. Moreover, there’s a cathartic element to it–I’m just coming back to weightlifting, and my first days have been disappointing when I think about what I was doing just three months or so ago. It was nice to write a post where I just felt reengaged with what I was doing–making progress.

Thirdly, people who criticize the making of posts such as mine forget about the fact that the engagement is reciprocal. Some people like giving advice to others. I suspect that’s why a lot of old hats stick around. They often do it so that they can know that the information and experiences they carry can have an impact on others.

Fourthly, it can help with experimentation. E.g., I’m trying low carb right now. I’m an adamant, albeit casual (pace-wise), and I will be lifting an hour after I finish jogging. I’m not sure how this will turn out. Whether I might need to finally give up my running. I thought I’d make a post about it.

So, I don’t really feel badly at all about having made my post. I understand that the constant “Hey guys, is creatine bad for you?” or “What if I get fat???OMG???” posts are tiresome, but I think that posts which explore individual aspects of a situation can be helpful to others and productive, even if it does involve some repetition.

57

So after reading this thread I broke down my macro’s and actually calorie counted for once.

Bricks model came out with a PFC ratio of 225/81/439

My daily by feel diet is 231/92/398 at 3660 calories a day.

However it does vary busy days can drop to 2500 cals a day and weekends can be as much as 5000+ cals.

Right now I’m 184 lbs and 14% bf the diet was calculated at 180lbs