Sunday 11 December 2011

The lean bulk (diet)

Here is my lean bulk diet. Whatever your goal, whether its weight loss or muscle gain without fuelling your body with the proper nutrition your going nowhere, It’s that simple!
If I could offer a few tips when it comes to eating right I would firstly say plan your meals in advance. If you know you’re going out shopping and won’t be able to eat for most of the day, take some pre-prepped healthy food with you. Nothing worse than getting caught out with no food and having to buy fast food. Secondly I would say get yourself into a routine. Wake up at 6am every day? Get your breakfast in at 6.30am every morning. Have a break from work at 1pm? Eat a meal at 1pm, you get the idea. I would also say - get creative, if I ate the same meals every day, all day for the last 2 years I would have given up ages ago! If you need a few ideas to get you thinking check out some of my previous blog posts on healthy meal ideas. Lastly, treat yourself once in a while. If you eat really well for a week an extra 500-600kcal blowout on the weekend won’t put much of a dent in your progress.
The diet
(Meals are subject to change on a daily basis, but the timings tend to stay pretty static. I also remove carbs pre-bed if I don’t train on that particular day. Lastly I’ve also included my supplements in green font, so you can see how they fit in during my day)
·         7am – chicken and mushroom omelette (made with 4 whole eggs)
small handful of almonds
2 x omega3 caps, zinc, vit D3


·         9.30am – 30g whey shake
·         12pm - 1 chicken breast, sweet potato and steamed veg drizzled with hazelnut oil
2 x omega3 caps


·         3pm – smoked haddock, brown rice and spinach drizzled with olive oil
2 x omega3 caps
·         5.30pm – 30g whey shake
·          7pm – steak, brown pasta and steamed veg
-WORKOUT-
·         8.30pm – post workout shake (30g whey, 100g carbs, 5g leucine)
·         9.30pm - peanut butter sandwich, made with 3 slices of wholegrain bread
·         11pm – 4 oatcakes with 8 teaspoons of cottage cheese
1 serving of FFN protein matrix mixed with 200ml semi skimmed milk
2 x omega3 caps
-BED-

I’m not a massive calorie counter, but if you want a real rough idea of the amount of macronutrients I’m taking in from my current diet, here it is:
Kcal: 3000-4000
Carbs: 300g-400g
Protein: 250g-300g
Fat: 80g-100g

Some important ‘take home’ points from my diet are…

-meals are little and often to keep my metabolism reved!
-high protein for increased protein synthesis
- No carbs with breakfast. Why? Carbs at breakfast causes your body to secrete serotonin, making you feel tired and sleepy (aka the carb coma!) not a fantastic way to start your day I think you’ll agree? The combination of lean protein and healthy fats for breakfast allows for a slow and steady rise in blood sugar levels.
-higher carbs pre-bed on training days. Linked to the previous point having high carb meals pre-bed causes my body to release serotonin helping me relax and have a deep sleep. Better quality of sleep means more testosterone and GH, which in turn means more muscle and less body fat!
-like I do with my training, I will also be progressing my diet by increasing calories by about 50-100kcal a week. I just go by feel so if the scales aren’t going up, ill increase portion sizes slightly, but I won’t go overboard or else I’ll end up storing body fat!
All this food talk has made me hungry, so I’m off to get a meal in now! On a final note, building muscle and losing body fat is simple when eat the RIGHT foods at the RIGHT time…

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