the basics
Before I get into my diet I would like to give you the basic rules that I
follow during dieting and some key concepts you should know for future
reference when creating your own diet. Now if you already know about
dieting, feel free to skip right down to my daily diet that I used during
my “Shredded in 7” series. However, if you do not know about dieting I
suggest you read the little information provided.
What kind of diet did you follow?
I use a whole foods flexible dieting approach to my nutrition.
Why?
It doesn’t matter what stage I’m at with my diet. When I say stage, I
mean cutting, bulking or whatever I’m trying to do to manipulate the
way my body looks. My diet must target two things effectively. The first
is to consume the correct number of macronutrients. The
macronutrients are what is responsible for my body composition,
muscle building and fat loss, energy renewal and nerve function. I
make sure I hit my macronutrient numbers by tracking them with one of
the many apps available today. The one I currently use is
MYFITNESSPAL. This makes it very easy and saves me time from the
old days of when you had to write everything down.
The second thing that my diet must effectively cover is my daily
micronutrient needs. Now this is a very complex thing and I can write
an entire book on the benefits of individual micronutrients on your
training but we will simplify it. Micronutrients are essential for muscle
recovery and repair, cellular energy, immune function and more.
These are the two reason I prefer the whole foods flexible diet
approach. The flexible for me means just keeping those two principals
in mind even if I need to eat out. So even if I eat out, I’m looking at
healthy choices and whole foods. I do have a cheat meal on Sundays!
What else should I know?
A lot! Seriously dieting can be a very complex topic and I can spend
dozens of pages writing about the importance of each macronutrient in
the dieting process but we won’t do that here. As I said before this is a
simple outline for you to follow. I do however have a few other rules I
follow strictly when I’m cutting.
The first rule is my diet should help to me maintain as much lean
muscle mass as possible. This means no long-term starvation diets or
in other words diets with huge caloric deficits. We are talking 800-1000
calories a day below what you need.
The second rule is my diet should help me to maintain my energy
during my training. This basically ties into what I said earlier about
nutrients and staying away for super low calorie diets.
The diet
The last few things about my diet:
My diet usually consists of 5 meals per day and I count snacks as
meals. Now this is how I break my diet down because of schedule
and timing of workouts. You do not have to break your diet down
like this to see results.
My diet was roughly responsible for 50% of my weight loss.
Normally I follow a 70/30 formula. That means 70% of my weight
loss would come from diet and 30% from training. This is easier to
maintain in the long run but normally I would try to keep my
weekly weight loss between 1-2lbs and in this “Shredded in 7”
program I did not adhere to that.
With a short intense weight loss program like “Shredded in 7” I find the
50/50 approach better as I prefer the higher calorie diet for energy
during the training.
My diet was 500 calories daily under my maintenance calories. It
is important to know before this I was bulking and I knew roughly
how many calories I was consuming above my maintenance
calories.
If you are not sure how to calculate maintenance calories you can do
two things. You can either use a calculator like the TDEE
CALCULATOR (google search) or you can use your MYFITNESSPAL
and track your calories for 2 weeks as you eat normally without trying to
gain or lose weight. Watch the scale as you track and write the daily
numbers down. Then you would add them up and divide for your
maintenance calories.
The TDEE calculator is not 100% accurate because of many factors but
it does give you a nice ballpark figure to start with. You can then adjust
up and down the calories based on your results.
I suggest before starting the “Shredded in 7” program or any intense
workout program for weight loss you should calculate your number and
track it. Aim for a weekly weight loss between 1 to 1.5lbs from just your
diet alone.
PROTEINS/ CARBS / FATS
Now when it comes to how much protein, carbs and fats you should
consume on a diet or a bulk you will find it is not a simple question with
a simple answer. I’m going to show you what I did and you will need to
figure out what works best for you.
Protein– 1 gram per lb. of weight. You will often see bodybuilders
suggest ridiculous numbers here for protein like 2 grams per lb. I have
yet to see any studies that suggest any benefit in that amount I do
however increase the amount of protein during show prep and peak
week but that is a different topic. From experience this number has
worked great for myself plus or minus .25.
Fats- 25% of my calories
Carbs- Whatever is left over
To sum things up. On this diet, I was aiming for 2500-2600 calories. I did not
pick an exact number because I was not stepping on stage for a competition so I
did not want to stress out over being perfect. The same goes for my
macronutrients. The goal was to improve my appearance in 7 days and have
fun doing it. If you are slightly off on your diet and put in the work in your training
things will work out!
2500-2600 kcals
PROTEIN – 200-210
CABS- 270-280
FATS- 66-70
I start every morning with a cup of black tea - pure. One thing you will notice
about my diet is I eat the same stuff a lot and I change the portion sizes and
sometimes when I eat that thing. My life is always on the go and I need things
that fit my macros easily but are also healthy and take little time to prepare. If I
go over or under my macros, then on the following day I will make up the
difference in that macro
I prepare a few items in bulk on Sunday because I eat these a lot and it saves
me time.
Those items are as follow:
Chicken breast - baked or boiled
Sweet potato
Brown rice or white rice
Lentils
Black Bean
DAY 1
MEAL CONTENTS
MEAL 1 -BEFORE WORK
1.5 CUPS OLD FASHION OATS
1 CUP FROZEN STRAWBERRIES
1 SCOOP RICE PROTEIN MIXED IN- GENERIC
1 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER
1 CUP ALMOND MILK
MEAL 2- BEFORE TRAINING 4 EGG WHITES
1 CUP SPINANCH- pre-cooked
SNACK POST WORKOUT 1.5 SERVINGS PLANT BASED PROTEIN
1 CUP FROZEN BLUEBERRIES
MIX WITH WATER
SNACK
2 SLICES EZEKIEL BREAD
2 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER
1 TBSP ORGANIC AGAVE STRAWBERRY JAM
MEAL 3
2 CUPS BROWN RICE
1 CUP SWEET POTATOES
1 CUP KALE – pre-cooked
8 OZ CHICKEN BREAST
I Season my food with a variety of salt free spices but did not include that. Meals also do not
include garnishes I commonly use, such as cilantro and parsley
DAY 2
MEAL CONTENTS
MEAL 1 -BEFORE WORK
1.5 CUPS OLD FASHION OATS
1 CUP FROZEN STRAWBERRIES
1 SCOOP RICE PROTEIN MIXED IN- GENERIC
1 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER
1 CUP ALMOND MILK
MEAL 2- BEFORE TRAINING 3 BOILED EGGS
1 SLICE EZEKIEL BREAD
1 WHOLE AVOCADO
SNACK POST WORKOUT 1.5 SERVINGS PLANT BASED PROTEIN
1/2 CUP FROZEN STRAWBERRIES
MIX WITH WATER
SNACK
2 WHOLESOMECHOW – PROTEIN PANCAKE-ORGANIC
1 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER
1 TBSP ORGANIC AGAVE STRAWBERRY JAM
MEAL 3
1 CUP COUSCOUS
1 CUP KALE – pre-cooked
6 OZ TILAPIA
DAY 3
MEAL CONTENTS
MEAL 1 -BEFORE WORK
1.5 CUPS OLD FASHION OATS
1 CUP FROZEN MANGOS
1 SCOOP RICE PROTEIN MIXED IN- GENERIC
1 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER
1 CUP ALMOND MILK
MEAL 2- BEFORE TRAINING 4 WHOLE EGGS
1 CUP LENTILS
SNACK POST WORKOUT 1.5 SERVINGS PLANT BASED PROTEIN
1/2 CUP FROZEN STRAWBERRIES
MIX WITH WATER
SNACK
2 WHOLESOMECHOW – PROTEIN PANCAKE-ORGANIC
1 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER
1 TBSP ORGANIC AGAVE STRAWBERRY JAM
MEAL 3
½ CUP KALE – pre-cooked
½ CUP BLACK BEANS
8 OZ GROUND TURKEY
DAY 4
MEAL CONTENTS
MEAL 1 -BEFORE WORK
1.5 CUPS OLD FASHION OATS
1 CUP FROZEN MANGOS
1 SCOOP RICE PROTEIN MIXED IN- GENERIC
1 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER
1 CUP ALMOND MILK
MEAL 2- BEFORE TRAINING 5 EGG WHITES
1 CUP WHITE POTATO MASHED
½ AVOCADO
SNACK POST WORKOUT 1.5 SERVINGS PLANT BASED PROTEIN
1/2 CUP FROZEN MANGOS
MIX WITH WATER
SNACK
2 SLICES EZEKIEL BREAD
4 oz. ORGANIC SLICED TURKEY
2 SLICES AVOCADO
1 LETTUCE LEAF
1 HALF SMALL AVOCADO
MEAL 3
1 CUP STEAMED BROCCOLI
1 CUP BROWN RICE
6 OZ CHICKEN BREAST
DAY 5
MEAL CONTENTS
MEAL 1 -BEFORE WORK
1.5 CUPS OLD FASHION OATS
1 CUP FROZEN MANGOS
1 SCOOP RICE PROTEIN MIXED IN- GENERIC
1 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER
1 CUP ALMOND MILK
MEAL 2- BEFORE TRAINING 3 WHOLE EGGS
1 CUP BLACK BEANS
½ CUP FRESH MADE SALSA
SNACK POST WORKOUT 1.5 SERVINGS PLANT BASED PROTEIN
1/2 CUP FROZEN STRAWBERRIES
MIX WITH WATER
SNACK
6 OZ GROUND CHICKEN
1 CUP BROWN RICE
½ CUP SPINACH
MEAL 3
1 WHOLE CORN- LARGE
½ BROCCOLI
1/2 CUP BROWN RICE
6 OZ ATLANTIC SALMON
I often snack on apples and almonds but did not write this down. I use
these small snacks to make up lost macros in my diet.
On Saturday and Sunday, the meals will look pretty much the same
except for my Saturday Meal 3, Sunday Meal 2 and Sunday Meal 3. On
these days, I will replace those meals by eating out at a local small
restaurant. I of course bring my phone with me and write my macros in
from what I pick to eat. Sunday meal 3 is usually my cheat meal of the
week.