A general fat loss diet for the natural trainee...

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Just as the title implies. I've been around the block many times regarding diet plans and have ALOT of trial and error experience under my belt. (Some advice is taken from some of the most well respected people in the business)

All the info here is based purely on trial & error. Obviously everyone is different, but it's impossible to provide a FREE ALL INCLUSIVE diet for everyone.

I'm a big fan of Layne Norton's principles, so there's probably hints of his principles here as well. Most of everything I tried originally came from other sources, so I don't claim any rights to this data. This is simply what has worked for me in the past. (I'm actually currently receiving personal training advice from Layne, but I haven not shared any specifics on that information for obvious reasons)

I have a general diet plan that has worked for many of my friends at my local gym over the years. Here it is.....


General Fat Loss Diet Guidelines
General Info
Regardless of all the hype out there when it comes to losing weight, a fairly simple fact remains.....if you consume less calories than what you burn you'll lose weight. There?s a few tricky parts though:

- Figuring out how to make that weight loss primarily "fat" and not just "weight", which could also include losing valuable muscle mass

- Losing fat slow enough to where you're not burning muscle as well

- Eating enough food to where your metabolism won't come to a standstill, making it harder to lose fat

- Eating enough food to maintain your energy levels

When losing fat, there's three main things that play a factor:
- Diet
- Exercise
- Sleep

All three of these things are equally important and are absolutely necessary to lose fat correctly.

If you are obese, you first need to realize that only in extremely rare cases are people handicapped when it comes to weight loss. In 99.9% of cases, your obesity is not "genetic". Sure, your parents and siblings might be overweight as well, however it's most likely due to similar eating & exercise habits, not because you're handicapped. It has become too convenient in recent years to blame weight problems on someone other than yourself. Once you can come to terms with this, the hard part is over honestly.

First and foremost, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that donuts, chips, and soda (and the like) aren't the greatest things to eat when trying to lose weight. If you are truly serious about losing weight, you really have to limit these types of snacks to as little as possible. Once in awhile, it's alright to have a SNACK....this doesn't mean 2-3 times a week and it doesn't mean a half bag of chips. Have some willpower and get it together!

The method listed below is a generalized diet than will work for many people if properly followed. Please consult with you doctor or dietician prior to any diet plan.

Meal Frequency
Eating frequent meals has many advantages over the traditional 3 meals a day. Think of your metabolism as a fire....if you smother it all at once with a bunch of wood (fuel / food), it doesn't burn as effectively. However, if you slowly feed it throughout the day, it burns more effectively. The same goes for meals. If you spread out your calories throughout the day to smaller, more frequent meals, the calories are burnt more efficiently.

Eating every 3-4 hours is ideal.

Individual Maintenance Calories
Everyone has a certain daily calorie intake that basically "maintains" weight; no loss or gain. This caloric intake may change over time. For example, most people know that they could eat many more calories when they were younger than what they can now. This is usually due to decreased metabolism and activity levels. If you don't know what that current caloric intake is, a rough estimate can be calculated by taking your bodyweight times a certain multiplier. This multiplier generally will be somewhere between 13 and 17. For example, a 180 lb person will probably have a maintenance calorie intake between 2340 and 3060 calories. Keep in mind...this is a rough estimate. The best way to find out what your maintenance calories are is to keep track of your daily food intake and resulting weight loss / gain for at least a week. However, It's not extremely critical to know this number exactly since you'll be adjusting your diet based on weekly weight loss results anyway (discussed later).

To start with a fat loss diet, subtract about 500 calories from your maintenance calories. This will be your initial new daily calorie intake. As time progresses and you can observe your weight loss / gain, this may be tweaked to meet your individual needs. I would suggest adjusting your daily calorie intake each week by increments of no more than 250 calories. Stick with it for a week to see how it goes. If you don't lose enough weight (see below) or you actually gain weight (which should be unlikely), decrease for the following week. Don't panic and do something drastic!

Many people that try to lose weight drop their calories too low. By dropping calories to a low level, your body eventually starts to store fat and burn muscle because it's in starvation mode. This is the exact opposite of what you set out to do! Keeping the calorie intake high will prevent this from happening.

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Macronutrients
When developing a diet plan, there are three main macronutrients to worry about...protein, carbohydrates, and fats. These macronutrients are discussed below.

Protein
Protein is the building blocks for muscle. Common sources of protein are meat (chicken, lean beef, fish, etc.) and dairy (cottage cheese, lowfat milk, yogurt, etc). When dieting, try to eat about 1g to 1.2g of protein for each pound of bodyweight. Eat protein with every meal.

*Remember, 1g of protein roughly equals 4 calories. Also, a handy bit of information....1 oz of meat is usually around 7g of protein.

Healthy Fats
FAT IS NOT A BAD THING! Healthy fats contain Omega 3-6-9 and actually HELP you lose weight. Do not be afraid of eating healthy fats!

Try to get about 0.2g to 0.3g of healthy fats per pound of bodyweight. These healthy fats include almonds, olive oil, canola oil, natural peanut butter, fish oil, etc.

Try to keep your healthy fats separate from your carbs. In other words, when carbs are used around your activity periods (as discussed below), stay away from the fats. An ideal time to eat healthy fats is right before bed. It will slowly burn all night and curb hunger.

*Remember, 1g of fat roughly equals 9 calories

Carbohydrates
Carbs are used primarily as your body's preferred "fuel" source. Carb intake should be timed around your highest activity periods....breakfast, before & after cardio, before & after weight training. See below for daily totals.

The biggest factor associated with carbs is insulin. Insulin is complex topic, but to put it simply, keeping your insulin levels low will generally keep fat loss maximized. Higher GI (Glycemic Index...search internet for more info) carbs tend to spike insulin levels higher than lower GI carbs.

Two types of carbs exist; simple (fruits, sugars) and complex (oats, rice, potatoes). Simple carbs tend to be higher GI, however it's not always the case. The opposite applies to complex carbs (usually lower GI), however again, is not always the case. There's all kinds of quick & easy databases on the internet that list GI values for common foods.

To make it simple, stick to the basics for the complex carbs....brown rice, sweet potatoes, cous cous, etc. If you want to include some simple carbs such as fruit, make sure there's no artificial sugar added and limit it to 2-3 servings per day.

On a side note.....stay away from fruit juice. Most juice is from concentrate and has lots of added sugar. However, even 100% juice can quickly stack up the calories. Think of how many oranges it takes to make one glass of OJ?.....it's very easy to overconsume with juice. Plus, many of the nutrients and vitamins exist in the actual shell of the fruit, not in the juice itself. 100% juice has many health benefits, however you need to keep it to a minimal amount to prevent overconsumption. For example, 1 glass (about 2 cups) of grape juice has about 80g of carbs, or 320 calories!

Most vegetables contain a minimumal amount of carbohydrates. For this reason, vegetables can be used as a filler on most meals and not have a considerable impact on daily calories. Vegetables also contain lots of fiber and should be used for overall general health reasons.

*Remember, 1g of carbs roughly equals 4 calories

Daily Macronutrient Breakdown (Protein, Carbs, Fats)
Here's an example of how to figure out your approximate daily totals. Don?t stress out with hitting these totals exactly, but get them close (+/- 10g). (This is similar to what Layne adressed in his precontest article)

Starting bodyweight = 180 lbs
Estimated maintenance calories (from past experience or estimate above)= 2700
Diet calories = 2700 ? 500 = 2200

Daily protein intake = (1.2g x 180 lbs) = 216g (about 864 calories)
Daily fat intake = (0.3g x 180 lbs) = 54g (about 486 calories)

Your daily carb intake should simply be the calories that are left from your daily total:
2200 - 864 - 486 = 850 calories (213g) of carbs

So, in summary:
2200 calories per day
216g protein (about 864 calories)
54g healthy fats (about 486 calories)
213g carbs (about 850 calories)

Tracking Food Amounts
You need to at least write down what you typically eat on a daily basis. Coming up with a general diet plan in advance can eliminate much of the guess work and will not be so cumbersone as doing it each meal "on the fly".

Several databases exist on the internet that give the protein, carb, and fat amounts of common food.

Cardio
Many people that try to lose weight do everything they can to avoid cardio. The simple fact is that, yes, some weight loss is possible through diet alone. However, not only will that weight loss eventually stall, but just coming from a health standpoint, cardio should should be done regardless.

3-4 cardio sessions should be done each week. These sessions should be 30-45 minutes long. It really doesn't matter too much what time of the day that they are done, but it seems like doing them in the morning works better for some people. Make sure to get some food in your stomach before and after these cardio sessions. Fasted cardio (doing cardio on an empty stomach) is not a good idea in any case.

Walking, running, stationary bike, treadmill, jump rope, etc are all acceptable forms of cardio. Anything that can elevate your heart rate and is easily repeatable is fine. Don't chose something like pushups....you won't be able to keep a reasonable pace for a long period of time (your muscles will fatigue before your cardiovascular system).

There are two types of cardio; high intensity and low intensity. There's much debate on which type of cardio works better for fat loss. However, there's little debate to which one provides better cardiovascular health, and that is the high intensity variety. Personally, I also feel that high intensity works better for fat loss. Do a 5 minute warmup (moderate pace), then follow it up with ten, 1 minute intervals. These intervals should start with 10 seconds of 100% intensity, then the remaining 50 seconds can be a regular moderate pace. Once these ten intervals are over, finish up with a 5-15 minute cool down (moderate pace). High intensity cardio sessions can be done in a shorter time period.

Weight Training
Even more than cardio, weight training seems to be the absolute last resort when it comes to most people?s fat loss plans. The main goal of weight training is to build muscle mass. Increased muscle mass will also increase your metabolism. Increased metabolism will burn more fat throughout the day. A simple weight training regimen should be done 3-4 times per week. If desired, you can combine your weight training sessions with your cardio sessions. However, make sure to:
1)Do the weight training first
2)Eat a snack (protein & carbs) in between the weight training and cardio session

Typical Weekly Weight (Fat) Loss
Most people should only aim to lose 2-3 lbs a week at most. If you are losing more than this on a weekly basis, you may be losing muscle mass as well. You may initially lose more than that just due to water weight, but it will eventually slow down. (A obese person will likely lose faster as well)

One important thing to remember...the goal is to lose fat, not necessarily "weight". Losing weight too fast may mean that you?re losing that valuable muscle mass as well. In most cases, you want to hang onto that muscle mass!

Measuring Food
It's helpful to have a food scale that you can weigh your portions. After while, you probably won't need it since you'll get the feel for it. For example, a 6-8oz serving of meat is roughly the size of your fist. Being able to instinctively measure portion sizes is EXTREMELY valuable. Having a scale nearby to periodically check yourself is helpful.

Patience
This is THE key to fat loss! Don not expect overnight results. As long as you continue to lose weight (fat) at a reasonable pace (2-3 lbs per week), keep at it and keep focused on the goal at hand. Don?t panic and lower your calories too much in hopes of accelerating your weight loss....it will actually make your body want to store fat since it will go into a starvation mode!

Water Intake
Try to drink at least 1 gallon of water per day.



Well, that's it. Yeah, it's very general, but I thought it would help out someone just starting out. Let me know what you think....

[garcia123]

Thanks! I'll definitely use this.

[LP36]

nice man thanks

[Anaar]

Repped

thanks

[rxghost]

i think i'm following everything here pretty good.. except....


i'm definately not getting enough sleep.. maybe 4-5 hours a night? However, I usually make up for it on the weekends... but does lack of sleep really slow down weight loss? Isn't it all about calorie intake anyways?

[Mached]

i think i'm following everything here pretty good.. except....


i'm definately not getting enough sleep.. maybe 4-5 hours a night? However, I usually make up for it on the weekends... but does lack of sleep really slow down weight loss? Isn't it all about calorie intake anyways?

Everyone is different, however it's unlikely that 4 hours of sleep is enough! There's all kinds of theories and studies out there regarding the effect of sleep with weight loss......bottom line: get enough so that you're fully rested.

[magnumpeanut]

Thanks for the article, that was super helpful.