Need a Good Diet

Hey guys, I’m new to this forum could anyone point me in the right direction of a good diet. I’m mainly concerned with losing body fat while maintaining my strength my current workout routine is Crossfits daily routine and Several other MMA related workouts any help anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated

thanks

to setting up a basic diet is relatively simple:

  1. set calories at ~20% below maintenance

  2. set protein at 1g per lb bodyweight or more

  3. set fat at ~20-30% calories (including 2-3g of EPA/DHA from fish oil)

  4. fill in the rest with carbs

  5. eat plenty of fruits and veggies for general health

Follow this plan consistently and it’ll get you where you need to be.

This is 95% of the picture, everything else (food choices, timing, etc.) are just details.

Geez Derek, this site has a TON of info on nutrition and diets!!

I suggest you read as much as you can concerning the subject.

You will find a diet to suit your goals somewhere on T Nation, thats a guarantee.

What body fat percentage are you sitting at right now?

How fast do you want to lose the fat?

How long have you been training?

How much muscle are you carrying right now?

Perhaps you should start with the T Dawg diet.

http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_diet_nutrition_bodybuilding/the_tdawg_diet_version_20

It is very simple, easy to follow and it works. I still use it from time to time.

Just a small word of warning Derek. Be careful for posting a thread like this. Because there is such a wealth of knowledge on this site, some members might come down on you for not taking the time to read and research before asking such a vague question. No matter how new you are to the T-Nation family, members expect you to do some research for yourself before posting a thread such as this.

I am not flaming you, just helping you with forum etiquette.

Good luck mate.

Thanks man i appreciate the help

-I’m not sure what body fat percentage I’m at now I’m not like obese but I’ve got a gut and some small man boobs.

-I’m looking to lose the body fat as fast as possible.

-i’ve been doin regular training for about 2-3 years on and off i just started doin crossfit style training for a few weeks.

  • I’ve got a decent amount of muscle I’m not weak I’m pretty strong nothing special or anything

To maximize fat loss you want a diet that maximizes the thermic effect of food.

Thus I’d do something like:

30% kcal from fats (Fish oil should be 5-10g, and the unfun way to do this is to take in the rest as MCTs. The more practical thing is to make the rest of fat come from fattier cuts of meat; itll help keep you full)

50-60% of protein to spare muscle and to maximize the amount of energy wasted through metabolism as heat.

20-30% of fibrous green vegetables and fruits.

Every 7 days eat 60% carbs 30% protein at 500 kcal above maintenance.

This is a shotgun approach.

Read JMoUCF87 ideal plan. I follow that near identical diet plan and I’m religious about it. It works. For meal timing I’d split 2-3 hours apart, Im a college student so I end up leaning toward 2.5-3 hrs.

Yeah, I agree. JMoUCF87 has it down pat with his breakdown of nutrients.

Some guys battle to work out the numbers though.

Thats why I recommend something simple like the T Dawg Diet Ver 2. It’s very easy to understand, and it’s a reduced carb diet that really does drop fat.

[quote]Derekj18 wrote:
Thanks man i appreciate the help

-I’m not sure what body fat percentage I’m at now I’m not like obese but I’ve got a gut and some small man boobs.

Some guys do carry fat there.

I recommend you take some form of Zinc supplementation like ZMA for the man boobs.

Of course dropping your body fat to under 10% will also help.

thanks guys