Diet Help - Post College Nutrition

Hi All –

I will be graduating in a few weeks and am off to Boston after a brief summer vacation to start “real life.”

All throughout college I have told myself that I need to focus more on nutrition, and as a nutrition student I am fairly embarrassed by how I have approached my diet thus far. I begin with great intentions, but fall off the bandwagon pretty easily and end up justifying poor food choices with the fact that I “want to gain weight.”

I’ve posted around T-Nation a few times before, always focused on my lifting program (which has similar trends to my eating habits) but as I sit here today I think the best way to approach my fitness lifestyle moving forward is to really hone in on my nutrition and let the lifting take care of itself. I’m currently injured (shoulder and back) and haven’t been able to lift much recently so I think now (and the summer) will be a great time to focus on my eating and get into a routine that I can easily continue once I begin work in the fall.

All of that being said, below is some basic information about me:

Age: 22
Height: 6’0’’
Weight: 200
Body fat %: Unsure, but I have the classic “skinny” fat problem
Experience: On and off for 5+ years (never consistent enough)

Bench 1RM: 290
Oly Squat ATG 1RM: 300
Deadlift 3RM: 405

I’ve read a decent amount around T-Nation about nutrition and think that a plan similar to the “Quality Mass Diet” by Chris Shugart is a good approach for me. Mentally and physically I need to be more disciplined and having a strict, well-defined eating plan will be great for me moving forward.

What I am looking for from all of you is general guidance and support as I move forward with all of this. I know that there is a learning curve to establishing a diet plan such as the one I will be attempting, and I would greatly appreciate any advice, criticism, tips, tricks, etc. that you can all offer!

To start I will be using the equation BW x 16 + 20% for my kcal intake which sets me up with:

Kcal/day (workout days): 3,840
Kcal/day (non-workout days): 3,440

The macro breakdown I am a bit more unsure about – any thoughts on how to divide these on a daily basis? I think carb-cycling is a good approach for me, so the -400 kcal difference between workout and non-workout days will probably come mostly from a decrease in carbs.

PLEASE don’t hesitate to comment and start a conversation in the thread - I really do need the support moving forward to help me get started, and to stay on the course I set. Thank you in advance for all of your help!

I feel like if building muscle and being lean is your ultimate goal, starting with a “clean slate” so to speak would be a good idea for you. Especially with summer right around the corner, a 6 to 8 week “mini cut” would allow you to lose 10-15 lbs of fat, and put you in a great spot to build lean muscle. Tracking macros is key; it’s not bad at all with the use of an app like myfitnesspal or fitday.

If you could try to roughly calculate what an average day has been for you, you could establish your starting macros for the cut. I think the fear of losing muscle is pretty overblown when dieting, so I’d say be pretty aggressive with the cut! Maybe 200 g carbs, 200 protein, and 70 fat to start out with, with 2 days of hiit cardio a week. Use the scale and mirror as a judge; if you are losing fat, stick with these numbers. If you need an extra kick, maybe drop carbs to 170ish, and so on. Don’t take this to the extreme and make it a long term cut; you’re just setting yourself up to gain muscle effectively. Once you are down to 185ish lbs, I would begin reverse dieting.

Add in 20 carbs per week, with a weekly cheat meal or refeed. This will ensure that your metabolism slowly builds, and over time you will be able to eat more and more food without putting on fat, all while building lean muscle with consistent training.

I am a big fan of “flexible dieting.” It utilizes prinicles of IIFYM, but I don’t like to call it that because to me, IIFYM evokes images of eating poptarts, popcorn, etc for all of your carbs. I eat “clean” 85% of the time, but if I am craving a treat, you bet your ass I’ll fit it into my macros! Hope this gives you a few ideas, good luck man!

I must have somehow missed it when I first read your post, but I just now noticed that you are planning on starting at about 3800 cals per day. In my opinion, this is pretty high for where you are at…if you are “skinny fat”, as you described yourself, you have to remember that you probably have 170ish lbs of lean body mass. That 30 lbs of fat bringing you to 200 lbs doesn’t burn calories…feed the lean 170 lb guy, not the 200 pound guy!

[quote]pwolves17 wrote:
I must have somehow missed it when I first read your post, but I just now noticed that you are planning on starting at about 3800 cals per day. In my opinion, this is pretty high for where you are at…if you are “skinny fat”, as you described yourself, you have to remember that you probably have 170ish lbs of lean body mass. That 30 lbs of fat bringing you to 200 lbs doesn’t burn calories…feed the lean 170 lb guy, not the 200 pound guy! [/quote]

x2 on that. Try to slowly bring down your cals to around 3000 and hold it there for a while. You will likely lose a bit of fat while supporting muscle growth.