This will be the final installment of the series - I decided to post the workout nutrition and "how to eat" blogs separate. This post will attempt to combine everything we have learned so far into a step - by - step plan to construct your full diet.
Step 1: Timing Your Meals
The human body operates best on four to six feedings per day, consumed every 3-4 hours. Always establish a rhythm of eating, where you sit down to each meal or snack at the same time daily. One should not feel too full nor too hungry at any point in time over the course of the day.
Step 2: Determining What Foods to Eat
The human body digests and absorbs specific foods better at specific times of the day. One must eat according to these natural rhythms. Simply base the emphasized foods around your individual nutrition type, at the proper ratios. The general body clock is as follows:
AM: Emphasis on fruits, more carbs and less fats.
Mid-Day: Emphasis on either grains/starches, or a mix of fruits and vegetables.
PM: Emphasis on vegetables, less carbs and more fats
Note that all of these recommendations need to be tweaked according to the individual’s metabolic type, and vary from person to person.
Another way of looking at the nutritional rhythms of the body is this:
AM PM
Fruits -> Vegetables
Carbs -> Fats
I should say that I still recommend vegetables with every meal, while minimizing or cutting out most fruit later on in the day.
A general template for your main meals could look like this:
Breakfast: Fruits, as well as some type of protein and a smaller amount of healthy fats. A whole foods smoothie is a great option – but not if you are having a smoothie for a snack later in the day.
Lunch: Grains/starches, or a mix of fruits and vegetables. A salad of mixed fruits and vegetables is a very good option, along with perhaps some sort of grain/starch if these apply to your nutritional type. Remember to consume some type of protein and some healthy fats as well. A great option for fats could be some high-quality oil of your choice over your salad.
Dinner: Consume a large greens salad as well as some protein and healthy fats.
When choosing snacks for in between these meals, try to choose raw options. Great choices include nuts, seeds, raw fruits, raw vegetables, goji berries, and hummus. When eating your morning snack, lean towards raw fruits with some nuts or seeds. A trail mix of goji berries and hemp seeds is a great option. Another option could be an apple with some almond butter. For your afternoon snack, lean towards raw veggies with hummus, or some more nuts and/or seeds with vegetables (think celery sticks with almond butter). If you are a high level athlete in heavy training, you can make one or two of your “snacks” whole food smoothies to get some extra calories. Try not to exceed one or two smoothies per day, though.
Step 3: Determining Portion Size
Portion size depends largely on an individual’s bodyweight goals, among other things. A good rule is to eat until you are 80% full. If you wish to lose weight, you need to consume less energy (calories) than you expend. If you wish to gain weight, eat until you are satisfied, but gradually teach your body to metabolize food in a rapid fashion so that you can consume a higher quantity of food while still absorbing all of the nutrients. Remember – you aren’t necessarily what you eat, but what you absorb and assimilate.
Many coaches recommend force - feeding yourself during a mass gaining phase, and while I have some experience with this (during my very skinny days I would consume up to 7000 calories per day) I don’t particularly recommend it for most people. Yes, you need to bust your ass at the dinner table just like you do in the gym. However, eating more food than you can assimilate and being stuffed and constipated all the time is not going to benefit you in the long run. A healthy organism will grow faster than an unhealthy organism. Gradually increase your tolerance for food and strive to eat in a sustainable way.
I will also say that it is of benefit to oscillate your mass building efforts. What I meant by this is, go all out in the kitchen and in the gym trying to push your training weights and calories through the roof. Follow this with a brief back off period where you deload in the gym, and eat less food, less often, allowing your body time to rest and recover as well as detoxify and enzyme load. A good plan would be to go hard in the gym and in the kitchen for three weeks followed by a back off period of one week. You could also do a five days on – two days off schedule, or a 6 weeks on, two weeks off schedule. Only you can decide what works for you. During the heavy phase you might eat six meals per day for 4000 calories, and bump that down to four meals per day for 3000 calories during the lighter phase. Again, experiment and see what works for you. Personally, I like the three weeks on, one weeks off plan the best.
In order to successfully plan a day of eating, consider the natural rhythms of the body, what food it is likely to absorb the best at that time of day, and gear those foods to your nutrition type. Create portion sizes specific to your goals. Experiment and find what works best for you.
Hopefully this series has provided you with the information needed to construct a full diet plan for yourself.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at taylorallantraining@gmail.com, and we can set up a consultation.
- T
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