Ok, but what do you actually eat?
And I'm
Since my post about the anabolic window, I received quite a lot of questions about what my diet looks like and I have been asked to show how a typical day in my diet looks like.
In this post, I will proceed to tell you what I eat on a daily basis and how I organize my diet to be optimized for lean gains while being efficient to cook and enjoyable to eat.
If you are on a healthy diet, it doesn't have to suck. And it doesn't have to be IIFYM either.
You can enjoy the pleasure of the foods you love while removing the hassle of having to decide every day what to eat.
I'm a big proponent of having a meal plan (vs. the IIFYM model) because it takes your willpower out of the equation and what food to eat becomes another thing not to worry about.
Remember, the most successful people, be it in bodybuilding or in business, are creatures of habit. Habits create the ground on which to rely on while doing more important things and not being bothered with trivialities (as what food to eat).
Let's see what my diet looks like.
Macros
Macros are bullshit as you might know by now.
I just try to eat 1.8g of protein per kg of bodyweight per day.
Honestly, tho, I always end up eating more than that just because the food I love is rich in protein. Usually, I happen to go 25% above that.
As for carbs, I set my threshold to 200-250g/day and the rest comes in form of fat (my most favorite macro).
Calories
At the moment of this writing (1st September 2016) I'm in an awesome bulking phase. I'm bulking at 5% which means that I'm eating 5% more calories that I need over maintenance because I want to build some mass. I'm an intermediate-advanced lifter so there isn't that much mass I can build therefore I don't need a crazy surplus to bulk. If I push them higher, I just get fat.
In a traditional sense, you could say that I'm eating around 2400 kcal per day. But this is not true. If you read my ebook or my post about the anabolic window, you should know by now how I organize my calories.
On a training day, I actually eat almost 3000 kcal. Yes, that's 600 kcal more than I should.
Are you crazy? Won't you get fat?!
No, because on the days I'm not training I'm eating around 860 kcal. Yes, that little.
It doesn't make sense to eat at maintenance when I'm not training. I "bulk" on training days (caloric surplus) and "cut" (caloric deficit) on rest days.
If you just make sure that you are eating enough protein to hit your protein target, in this way you will be building muscles also on cut days.
But, since I'm a nerd, I push it even further. I actually cut also on a training day.
Let me explain this better because I know it sounds confusing.
I train 5 times per week at around 4.30-5 PM. All my meals before the workout are cutting meals. Each meal has between 150-400 kcal.
I do that because I'm outside the anabolic window in that time so it doesn't make sense to give a lot of food to my body since it wouldn't be used to build a crazy amount of muscles anyway. During the meals before the workout I just eat enough protein and that's it.
Most of my calories, come in the post-workout (anabolic window) where I eat 2000+ kcal as you can see in the videos here or here.
To make it clearer, I'll show you some example of what I actually eat every day.
Training Day Meals
BREAKFAST
Zucchini, spinach, and cheese frittata (click here for the recipe)
- Carbs 8g
- Protein 18g
- Fat 23g
- 311kcal
LUNCH
Sardines with broccoli, onions and red pepper (click here for the recipe)
- Carbs 17g
- Protein 29g
- Fat 21g
- 380kcal
PRE-WORKOUT
Strawberries, cocoa powder and quark cheese
- Carbs 24g
- Protein 20g
- Fat 2g
- 193kcal
DINNER/POST-WORKOUT
This is variable as I like to experiment new recipes, new kind of fruits, meats or whatever. This is my "IIFYM" sortof part of the diet. Yet, it is scheduled in advanced so that I know exactly what to eat and in what amount.
It has a general template as main dish (some form of meat + starchy carb) + quark cheese + nuts/seeds/nuts butter + fruit.
To make an example I'll tell you one post workout that I had this week.
Risotto with minced meat, tomato sauce, onions, olive oil, cheese and sour cream. Quark cheese + yogurt + almond butter + avocado + seeds + mango + blueberries + cocoa powder + goji berries.
- Carbs 125g
- Protein 80g
- Fat 137g
- 2110kcal
As you can see, it's a huge dinner. Therefore I try to wait at least 2 hours before going to bed.
Most of my carbs are here, not only because that's the best time to eat carbs but also because carbs at night promote the production of melatonin which helps you fall asleep (study).
Planning and Mealprepping
FRIDAY MORNING
Every Friday or Saturday I do my grocery shopping at both the local market where I can buy delicious fruit (in summer is really incredible cheap and delicious), vegetables and sometimes meat (I buy here beef liver for instance).
At the supermarket, I buy all the rest. I make sure to have a grocery shopping list beforehand on Evernote so I can always put in items from my phone or computer.
I store everything in the fridge or freezer (frozen vegetables and excess meat).
FRIDAY EVENING
On Friday evening I cut all the vegetables so I am ready to cook in batch on Saturday.
I store them in lunch boxes in the fridge.
SATURDAY MORNING
On Saturday I take the cut vegetables from the fridge and I cook the frittata and the vegetables to go with the sardines in bulk. To not waste time I don't wash the pan in between meals.
I divide each serving in lunch boxes and store them in the fridge (they last for more that one week refrigerated like this).
DAY BEFORE TRAINING
Nuts, seeds and rice are usually soaked for at least one night before eaten.
The pre-workout is prepared every evening in advance so I can bring it with me at work.
TRAINING DAY
For the main post-workout dish it depends, I might cook them 1 day in advance or just as I am back from the gym since these are usually quick to cook.
I could prepare this in advance as the other meals but usually, I prefer to eat them "fresh".
The rest of the post-workout is chosen in a way that I can fill up the rest of my calories and here I go wild experimenting new stuff. I like it like this.
Rest Day Meals
On rest days I have rather simple protein-rich meals. The trick is not to have food that doesn't make me feel hungry.
On rest days I hit my protein target and eat as little as possible of carbs and fat. In total, it's 860 kcal. Each meal has around 20g of protein except the last one where I fill almost double that amount.
Breakfast and Lunch
Fat-free quark cheese + strawberries + psyllium husk
Pre-dinner Snack
Lean fish or again the same as breakfast/lunch
Dinner
Mushrooms + onion/chives + olive oil + chicken/fish + strawberries
These days aren't my favorite as you can imagine but I can hit my protein target and not feel hungry. Here you can see an example of one of those days.
Conclusions
I hope this post was satisfactory enough for your curiosity. This is the way my meal plan and diet is structured. Might seem daunting at first but I got used to it and I really enjoy it.
If you have any question, feel free to ask in the comments below!
Are you ready to take action and become superhuman?
P.S. If you want to be coached by me and you are badass, committed
