Acceptable Clean Foods

Diet and Nutrition
1

I’ve seen many topics and articles, describing recommended macros / calories and whatnot, there is a lot of good information out there;

Question 1 - would anyone like to share a comprehensive list of clean foods you use to help you stick to a diet plan? Preferrably with some method for determining the number of grams / calories / macros? I’m trying to start a controlled diet and am having trouble figuring out exactly what I should go shopping for.

I read Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION and it’s very general, I’m still clueless as what foods to shop for, that I could realistically use for say, an entire week’s worth of meals.

Question 2 - The aforementioned site makes it seem as if calories don’t matter as much as other factors. If you’re trying to bulk and follow the guildelines on the site, you won’t gain lean muscle mass without enough calories, correct?

Aren’t calories the most important factor when cutting fat or gaining muscle? Below caloric deficit, lose weight. Gaining muscle requires caloric surplus. How is this not an important part of the article? Sure, processed foods and hormones can screw things up, but calories from clean foods will still determine whether or not you lose weight. To switch from a bulking phase to a cutting phase, you’d just eat less of the same foods, and vice versa, no?

Bah.

2

Here’s a pretty good list:

3

They have a pretty comprehensive list over at FigureAthlete (Yes, I sneak over there once in a while. They have some interesting articles over there) http://figureathlete.tmuscle.com/free_online_forum/sports_food_model_body_women_training_diet_beauty_nutrition/clean_foods_list

4

I’d recommend looking into precision nutrition (precisionnutrition.com/) to start with since it’s a good dense source of info on how to handle nutrition and diet. It helps to explain the types of foods you need, why you need them, and the strategies to employ to integrate them into your diet.

Once you have that foundation then just go to any bookstore and pick up a few of the ten million cookbooks out there and experiment with what you’ve learned.

Overall calories are critical body comp but that one variable is nowhere near sufficient in determining your outcome. For example, people with terrible insulin sensitivity (ie pre-diabetics) can cut calories significantly without losing substantial quantities of body fat. This is one out of the many reasons why it’s important to look beyond calories and macros when you consider your nutritional needs.

5

What’s your definition of clean food?

6

Just wondering because some people say that low carb or low fat food are clean, some say clean means no artificial ingredients, and there are also people who say that clean means unprocessed.

7

I still say sticking to the basics in terms of proteins, fats and carbs… Like chicken/tuna/steak/lamb/sweet potato’s/brown rice/vegetables/fruits/eggs/milk… I mean from there you can add and customize as much as you want