What should I EAT!? (part 1)
This is a HUUUUGE question, and it has more theories then the JFK assassination and the finale of Lost all put together.
And, what makes this harder is the fact that it is about 70% of what constitutes a good routine, any routine.
Remember last post? No? Here is a recap
The difference between these two guys? Diet. Yup. The things they put in that slot above their chins is what build everything below it.
How much to eat, what to eat, what supplements to take on top of eating are essentially what builds the body that you are trying to shape in the gym.
A good analogy would be an entire construction crew showing up on an empty plot of land with all the tools and guys ready to go, but without the bricks, mortar, wood, nails (food!) there is no house. Nothing, just a lot of spent time and energy.
So what should you EAT DAMMIT!
Well, again, this all matters in what you want your body to DO.
I am going to go ahead and give you a disclaimer right here,
YOU CANNOT BUILD MUSCLE WITHOUT ALSO PUTTING ON FAT. IMPOSSIBLE.
Sorry. You can research the hell out of it if you’d like, but just take my word for it, I’ve done a lot of it.
A lot of people want you to believe you can put on LEAN MUSCLE (as opposed to fatty muscle, right?!) and just become shredded. But it just ain’t so mi amigo.
One of the best articles on what and how to eat is by a powerlifting doctor which is kinda the best source you can find, and is detailed HERE.
But for the cliff notes and a dash of this and that thrown in, keep reading.
So, suffice it to say, when you, the novice are exercising you are going to be putting stress on your body, a fair amount, and just like running your car up a steep incline, it’s going to need more gas to burn.
So, ya gotta eat more carbs. Just gotta.
When, how much and what kind is something we will detail soon enough.
How about protein, that is like the bricks in our house. And since we are tearing up those muscles in our catabolic lifting state, we need to eat more protein to patch them up.
Again, we’ll go into detail soon enough.
And then we’ll also throw some good fats in there.
Now, here is a very clear, and easy Carb, Protein, Fat (called MACROS) chart as detailed from the link above.
Let’s take the main points of the above:
- WHEN YOU WANT TO GAIN MUSCLE, get bigger, You need to EAT MORE! More CARBS! A lot more, more PROTEIN! AKA, MUSCLE AND FAT, SORRY.
- WHEN YOU WANT TO LOSE FAT, cut some protein, and a good deal of fat and carbs.
- IF YOU DON’T WANT TO DO EITHER OF THE ABOVE, don’t eat more or less then you are doing now.
For the most part, all the nonsense data around these three statements could fill a textbook.
So when people say they want to get muscle, you have to eat more, all done. When you are tired of getting bigger with muscle and fat, then you start cutting the fat, by going into a carb deficit (that is a big part of the fat reduction since it carries twice the number of calories as carbs and fat does).
But what kind of carbs and protein? And when? And how about SUPPLEMENTATION!?!? ARGH! Don’t worry, we’ll get there.
For now, I recommend getting a tool, like MYFITNESSPAL, and maybe see how much you eat everyday.
