What are the Best Foods to Get Lean? Wrong Question.
Category : Uncategorized
When I was younger, I always wanted to see what the guys with muscles and six-pack abs were eating.
Sweet potatoes or regular potatoes?
Chicken or fish?
Carbs or no carbs post-workout?
I figured if I ate the same foods as some of the most ripped people out there, I would have a good chance of looking like them.
I had to figure out their meal plans so I could follow them as well.
In reality, I was asking the wrong questions.
I wasn’t even staying consistent with my current nutrition regimen, so what made me think I could do a complete overhaul to my diet?
In retrospect, why would I think eating specific foods would get me lean and ripped?
I didn’t realize it was about more than just the foods these individuals were eating.
It’s about the entire lifestyle as a whole.
Now, certainly some foods have more nutrient density than others. You’ll be better served eating certain foods more than others most of the time.
So instead of looking at which specific foods to eat, look instead at the following:
If you don’t follow this action step, nothing else in the rest of the article will matter.
You can have the best nutritional information in the world, but if you don’t stick with it, you’re not going to have success.
If something seems difficult, you’re not going to follow it in the long run.
No matter what foods you eat, if you’re not setting yourself up for success to eat them in the specific amounts needed over the long run, you’re likely going to fail.
Make it easy for yourself to succeed.
Create a routine around making a grocery list for the foods you need each week. Then, build a routine around going grocery shopping, prepping your meals and planning your meals for each day.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
For example, if you work Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., you can use the following strategy:
Sunday at 9 a.m. – create a sample meal plan for yourself for the week based on your macronutrient and calorie targets for the week; plan out the times you’re going to commit to eating these meals during the week
Sunday at 9:30 a.m. – go to the grocery store to get the foods on the list
Sunday at 10:30 a.m. – begin prepping the foods you need for the week; measure out the proper portions
Sunday at 12:30 p.m. – after meal prep is complete, place items in containers to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer
During this “magic” time on Sunday, turn off all distractions like social media so you can focus. Listen to a podcast, music or an audiobook while you’re doing your prep. If you have young kids, ask your significant other to take them for a couple of hours while you get things ready for the week.
Then, follow this routine every week. When you’re doing your weekly planning, make sure to prioritize time each week to prep your food for the week.
If you want to have success at anything in life, you need to be intentional about making it a part of your day or week.
Before worrying about specific foods to eat, you need to know how much food you need to eat.
Whether your goal is health, aesthetics or performance, you need to understand quantity is king.
As you can see in the above pyramid, energy balance (energy in vs. energy out) is the base of the pyramid. Things like supplements and nutrient timing aren’t as important as energy balance. And notice that specific foods aren’t even on the list.
Food is the “energy in” part of the energy balance equation, so it’s the most important thing to talk about after behavior and lifestyle.
So how do you figure out how much food you need to eat?
Well, you can use a formula you find online to calculate your calorie and macronutrient needs, and it may work.
You basically factor in your gender, age, height, weight and goal, and you’ll get a calorie amount to get you started. Then, you figure out the recommended number of grams of protein, carbohydrate and fat you should be taking in based on that number.
However, this formula works only if you’ve been eating around that same number of calories.
For example, the formula may say you need 2,000 calories to lose weight according to your gender, age, height and weight.
But if you’ve been taking in only 1,200 calories per day, and you start taking in 2,000 calories per day because the formula tells you to do so, you’re actually going to start gaining weight because your body has adapted to the lower calorie amount.
So the formula needs to be thrown out the window.
Instead, you need to figure out where you currently are in terms of your nutritional intake.
Keep an honest (note the word “honest”) food log for three to seven days.
Then, you’ll have a rough idea what you’ve been taking in calorie- and macronutrient-wise.
From there, you can determine where to go.
If you have no idea where to go, consult a qualified professional.
Now we can start talking about specific foods.
Let’s say you’ve determined you need 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbohydrate and 60 grams of fat to lose weight at a slow and steady pace.
Whether, your goal is health, performance or aesthetics, the majority of your nutritional intake should come from whole, unprocessed foods.
You know what they are – things like lean ground beef, sweet potatoes and veggies.
So if you need 150 grams of protein per day, you can find foods that fit into this requirement.
If you eat four meals per day, you’ll need 37.5 grams of protein per meal on average.
So you could have a whey protein shake for your first meal, four ounces of tilapia for your second meal, four ounces of 93% lean ground turkey for your third meal and one cup of Greek yogurt (mixed with other things) for the fourth.
Then, you can add in trace protein sources from carbohydrates and fats for the rest of your protein intake.
No specific source will magically help you achieve the body or performance you want, but when you follow the right plan for you and your body for a long period of time, and you make the proper adjustments along the way, you’re going to set yourself up for long-term success.
