What to eat to help lean out and get ripped?

alleyag

Honestly once your lean think again. What did you do to get where you are? It's not a matter of changing things up all the time. It's just staying extremely dedicated. I start to see my abs at about 8% bf and when I got down to six my obliques came. Staying this low all the time is tough and its hard to monitor changes in bf when its that low. Here's what worked for me. It's similar to what body builders do in pre comp dieting. Eat enough protein to support your muscle mass. I was eating at least 1 g per lbs of body weight. Cut most fats and almost all carbs out of diet. Still take fish oil and get in fats only from non saturated sources. Poly and monounsaturated fats only. Now carbs is tricky. You want to eat enough carbs that your not putting your body into a state of ketosis. So eat low carb and test yourself for ketosis on a regular basis. Once you see the stick begin to change color increase you carbs slightly. Everyone's body is different so your number will be different. No fruit, simple carbs or sugarss. Post workout you still need something so shoot for small amount of simple sugar after weight training. Only times you should be having any carb is post workout and first meal. Increase cardio. I was splitting twice a day cardio sessions 45 min each twice daily 5 days a week. Splitting it prevents from raising cortisol levels in your body which blunt fat burning. Supplement with bcaas before cardio to prevent muscle loss. Cardio performed am must be fasted with bcaa. Other cardio session should follow weight training when possible. Again supp. With bcaa. You should be at a calorie deficit not greater than 1000 no less than 500 everyday. Eat accordingly. Train smart. This will get you there but I don't recommend it for longer than 12 weeks as its a bit extreme. One maintenance week after 6 weeks should be implemented. So at 6 week mark eat maint cals for a week and continue to exercise. This will keep your metabolism from slowing down due to the extreme calorie deprivation. Have fun and use caution as over dieting can be dangerous. Stay motivated mfp!

Dude paragraphs are your friend. I have to take 2 advil now after reading this. No offense bro.

Hahaha sorry I'm typing on my phone and I put paragraphs but it changes it to one long *kitten* sentence. Sorry lol

joejccva71

Dude paragraphs are your friend. I have to take 2 advil now after reading this. No offense bro.

Hahaha sorry I'm typing on my phone and I put paragraphs but it changes it to one long *kitten* sentence. Sorry lol

Lol no worries. Good post btw.

TinaDay1114

Thanks, Steve, and all you other guys! This helps. :flowerforyou:

alleyag

Stroutman81 def has it. For those who may be confused by what I said vs him. I may have left some things out and tend to do this a lot as I assume to much. Having mass first is important. This is why I'm bulking again now. I got down to as lean as I wanted and found I didn't have as much muscle as I wanted. Tone was good but I needed more mass. Having a solid foundation is the only way to achieve the results most are looking for. I still will try to restrict body fat gains while bulking up so I don't have to work as hard coming back down. But I need to grow first.

TinaDay1114

It depends.

Really it should be 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you're not carrying a lot of body fat though, your lean body mass is pretty close to your total body weight. So it's easier to simply base it on total body weight.

If you're carrying a lot of body fat though, basing it on total body weight can put you at too high of a protein intake. Instead of worrying about what your lean body mass is in these cases though, I suggest simply basing it on goal body weight. Use goal body weight as a surrogate measure for lean body mass.

Make sense?

Steve, this does make lots of sens. But WOW -- MFP has me at only 69 g/day...that's almost half what it would be if I went by goal weight... I do tend to eat over that amount, but I don't think I'm nearly @ the goal weight range...

suzieqdiva

Excellent info all of you. I learn so much here everyday. Appreciate the guidance & support:)

gcineas

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stephanielynn76

You need to go in and change your settings for the percentages of carbs/proteins/fats! Someone recommended to me to put them at 40/30/30... I am still over on carbs all the time though...

It depends.

Really it should be 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you're not carrying a lot of body fat though, your lean body mass is pretty close to your total body weight. So it's easier to simply base it on total body weight.

If you're carrying a lot of body fat though, basing it on total body weight can put you at too high of a protein intake. Instead of worrying about what your lean body mass is in these cases though, I suggest simply basing it on goal body weight. Use goal body weight as a surrogate measure for lean body mass.

Make sense?

Steve, this does make lots of sens. But WOW -- MFP has me at only 69 g/day...that's almost half what it would be if I went by goal weight... I do tend to eat over that amount, but I don't think I'm nearly @ the goal weight range...

kdiamond

1. 1 gram of protein per pound (in your case) coming from lean sources.... chicken and turkey breast, lean cuts of beef, pork tenderloin, fish, protein powder, low/no fat dairy, eggs, etc.

2. 25-35% of cals coming from fat... the majority should be from the good fat sources such as olive oil, nuts, fish oil, flax, avocados, etc.

3. 3-6 servings of fibrous veggies per day

4. 1-3 servings of fruit per day

5. If you still have "room to wiggle" calorically speaking, you can pretty much fill these cals with anything you want. I imagine you won't have a lot of room to wiggle though so be sure to use these wisely.

Sugar isn't going to kill your hopes of being lean. I maintain a lean physique year round and eat more sugar than most any two MFPers consume in a day. Sugar doesn't negate the laws of energy making us store fat in the absence of an energy surplus. But you're right, you should prioritize the foundational stuff (the stuff I mentioned above) above what many would consider junk or dirty food.

This is good information!! I don't buy into the whole "you have to eat clean" terminology. Yes I eat healthy and I follow those guidelines above for the most part, but there are days I have ice cream (regular sugar and cream ice cream), jolly ranchers, cake, etc., and I maintain a lean physique year round. Stick with the basics, eat as healthy as you can, watch your calories and you can have abs of steel!

kdiamond

You need to go in and change your settings for the percentages of carbs/proteins/fats! Someone recommended to me to put them at 40/30/30... I am still over on carbs all the time though...

Yes!! MFP's suggestions for ratio breakdown are crap.

myofibril

This is good information!! I don't buy into the whole "you have to eat clean" terminology. Yes I eat healthy and I follow those guidelines above for the most part, but there are days I have ice cream (regular sugar and cream ice cream), jolly ranchers, cake, etc., and I maintain a lean physique year round. Stick with the basics, eat as healthy as you can, watch your calories and you can have abs of steel!

Yep, flexible dieters tend to fare much better than rigid dieters...

stroutman81

So I have lost 27 pounds and am very close to my goal weight. I try to eat lots of fruits/vegies, whole foods, lean proteins etc but am wondering what I can change in my diet to really lean out and become more cut as I loose those last 5-10 pounds. I know I should probably cut out all sugar. I would love to look ripped and am curious what has worked for others. Any tips from those who've been successful in this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Fruits=too much sugar, up the green veggies and protein, cut carbs down to mostly complex carbs in the AM and simple carbs pre and post workout, carbs should not be in your diet outside of breakfast and pre and post workout in small amounts,

Make sure you have enough fats too when you cut your carb intake.

You honestly believe that fruit prevents people from losing fat even in the face of a hypocaloric diet?

stroutman81

It depends.

Really it should be 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you're not carrying a lot of body fat though, your lean body mass is pretty close to your total body weight. So it's easier to simply base it on total body weight.

If you're carrying a lot of body fat though, basing it on total body weight can put you at too high of a protein intake. Instead of worrying about what your lean body mass is in these cases though, I suggest simply basing it on goal body weight. Use goal body weight as a surrogate measure for lean body mass.

Make sense?

Steve, this does make lots of sens. But WOW -- MFP has me at only 69 g/day...that's almost half what it would be if I went by goal weight... I do tend to eat over that amount, but I don't think I'm nearly @ the goal weight range...

MFP based it on the RDAs recommendation, which is based on antiquated research. They're just slow to update. Check out this convo I had with another MFPer regarding protein:

http://body-improvements.com/questions/#comment-116

margieward82

Bump

Teemo

Admittedly I haven't checked out the forums there in a while. I was mainly referring to the articles and such. I know a buddy of mine, Alan Aragon, used to frequent the message boards there. Not sure if he still does. But he's golden in terms of the info he dishes out. And there were some intelligent posters there. But still, when I used to frequent it, the brotology really watered down the quality of the forum.

It's nice to hear things are a bit better over there nowadays.

He's still there!

Alan is great. He still frequents the forum. For a while I thought he was also a moderator because of his full name in the sidebar of the forums. Love his blogs, very helpful and very informative.

And he IS a moderator, last I checked.

You honestly believe that fruit prevents people from losing fat even in the face of a hypocaloric diet?

I think it makes a difference depending on exactly what it is the first poster is looking for? If her goal is to "be ripped" "year-round" then fruit makes no real difference because being ripped year-round is really just a function and achieving and maintaining low bodyfat. In that respect, there's nothing for her to eat other than less of whatever she is currently eating. (Or create a caloric deficit some other way).

If her goal is to lean out and "be ripped" for an event such as a competition or going on a cruise, then the sugar is counterproductive to that goal since she should be trying to dry out carbs/sugars as much as possible prior to that date.

dfwheeler63

Everybody, love this blog, so much wonderful info. I am 5'4" and weight 141 so I need to about 15 lbs. I have not been eating enough so I need to step that up. Thanks again for the great info.

joejccva71

If her goal is to lean out and "be ripped" for an event such as a competition or going on a cruise, then the sugar is counterproductive to that goal since she should be trying to dry out carbs/sugars as much as possible prior to that date.

I know several competetive bodybuilders that eat fruit when cutting to contest condition.

Mathisfun

Bump.

TK421NotAtPost

Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon, Tom Venuto.... Making note to myself to add Stroutman to that list.

Fantastic stuff!

MomBod81

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MomBod81

You need to go in and change your settings for the percentages of carbs/proteins/fats! Someone recommended to me to put them at 40/30/30... I am still over on carbs all the time though...

How do you do this?

TK421NotAtPost

You need to go in and change your settings for the percentages of carbs/proteins/fats! Someone recommended to me to put them at 40/30/30... I am still over on carbs all the time though...

How do you do this?

Go to the My Home tab, click Goals, Change Goals, select Custom and put in the percentages.

stroutman81

Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon, Tom Venuto.... Making note to myself to add Stroutman to that list.

Fantastic stuff!

Well thanks. I've conducted interviews with Lyle and Tom. I communicate with Alan but we've yet to connect for an interview. I think Lyle has influenced all of us, including Alan and Tom, more than anyone. He's truly a shining star in this field. He's not the most approachable guy, but make no mistake that he's smart as hell.

joejccva71

No one ever mentions Martin Berkhan. Am I the only one that appreciates this guy?

margieward82

You need to go in and change your settings for the percentages of carbs/proteins/fats! Someone recommended to me to put them at 40/30/30... I am still over on carbs all the time though...

How do you do this?

Find where it says "Goals" on your MFP homepage, click and then choose to change them using "Custom" ... It's super easy once you find it and easy to play with as frequently as you need Let me know if you can't find it...

Huskeryogi

No one ever mentions Martin Berkhan. Am I the only one that appreciates this guy?

I do, I do!

joejccva71

No one ever mentions Martin Berkhan. Am I the only one that appreciates this guy?

I do, I do!

Yay! *high five*

TK421NotAtPost

No one ever mentions Martin Berkhan. Am I the only one that appreciates this guy?

Perhaps when he comes out with his long awaited book. Who knows... 10 years from now when IFing becomes more mainstream, he may be viewed as a genius.

I definitely appreciate Berkhan, but quite honestly, Lyle McD and others have been doing similar strategies to manipulate nutrient partitioning well in advance of Berkhan. The genius of Berkhan, IMO, lies in the way he packaged the strategy in a way that is easy for us to understand and very marketable. So yeah, Berkhan is pretty high in my book too.

stroutman81

I think it makes a difference depending on exactly what it is the first poster is looking for? If her goal is to "be ripped" "year-round" then fruit makes no real difference because being ripped year-round is really just a function and achieving and maintaining low bodyfat. In that respect, there's nothing for her to eat other than less of whatever she is currently eating. (Or create a caloric deficit some other way).

If her goal is to lean out and "be ripped" for an event such as a competition or going on a cruise, then the sugar is counterproductive to that goal since she should be trying to dry out carbs/sugars as much as possible prior to that date.

I was assuming that she's not about to step on stage and was looking for a long term solution to being lean.

OP, please correct me if I'm wrong.

And I've a buddy who makes his living off of contest prepping figure and bodybuilder women. Most of his clients are eating carbs right up to comp. There are a lot of practices that take place in bodybuilding/figure circles that highlight the difference between correlation and causation.

Coming in dry is much more about "screwing" with aldosterone and antidiuretic hormone levels than it is about simply cutting carbs. You need to be VERY specific about the timing and consumption of water intake which involves a period of increased consumption followed by a period of decreased consumption.

I'd imagine that this is well outside of the scope of most people around here.

stroutman81

No one ever mentions Martin Berkhan. Am I the only one that appreciates this guy?

Hell no. I mention Martin all of the time. Guy puts out great content and has helped a lot of people through IF. I think the physiological effects from IFing are over-hyped based on the totality of research. If there are physiological benefits to it, they're likely miniscule. There might be a slight partitioning advantage... but who knows. We'll know a lot more in due time once more research comes about.

But there's no doubt that some people do awesome following an IF approach and chances are it's more about it matching certain dieters in terms of behavior/psychology.

But Martin is definitely one of the good guys.... anyone taking an evidence based approach that's paired with objectivity and the desire to maintain information integrity is aok in my book.