I am really looking to iron out my diet this year and see how lean I can get - my food sources for everything except before bed are pretty much just chicken, tuna, salmon, tilapia, egg whites, raw almonds, cream of rice, rice, oatmeal occasionally, sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, kale, green beans and that’s really it.
I’m looking for assistance around my before bed meal. Currently I’m doing the following:
Egg white & spinach omelet
Casein shake
2 low fat string cheese sticks (total 5g of fat for 2)
Small handful of almonds
My fat sources have been fish oil & raw almonds and I’m not 100% sure these are the best healthy fat options out there. Don’t really care what I eat as long as it gets results. Let me know your thoughts, thanks!
You don’t have to have a nighttime meal. Take your daily needs and try to split them up evenly. Keep it simple.
Carbs can be eaten before bed. I started eating oatmeal a couple hours before bed while cutting and I think it actually helped me. It definitely made me feel better.
I was hesitant to explain that I eat about 100-200 calories of dark chocolate before bed while dieting. Why? I had the macros and then some. It also made me feel as if I was not being deprived.
I have also never met someone get fat off of 200 calories of anything. Thinking you can only eat X, Y or Z at certain times is an extremist mindset which will hinder more than help.
@The11thHour to your original post, what do you consider lean? How far away from that target are you and how much time have you allotted to reach it? There is a big difference trying to be at low single digit body fat by a specific date than trying to shed a dad bod.
Why are people still leaving out the yolks ? Your food choices look pretty lacking in micro-nutrients, I.m.o.
I enjoy a 6 to 8 whole egg omlette before bed or some red meat.
I think your overall calorie/protein intake is more important than timing.
I’d ditch the salmon (unless it’s legit wild caught) the tuna, tilapia (no nutrients at all…poor fish are raised on soy pellets and junk) and egg whites. eat whole eggs, fatty red meats, wild caught fish… it worked very well for me, and I’d wager, most serious lifters
Then you know more than the general audience you are asking the question to so be weary of that. I would counter your question with another, why? If you goal is strictly a push the limit experiment, you are already in a category of lean where your personal habits and genetic makeup will dictate a lot of the details.
Back to your original question, I would still say it doesn’t really matter. If the question is rephrased to what results you are trying to achieve from this meal, you answers might be different. You say assistance around bedtime, what does that mean? Go to sleep not being hungry? Burn more fat while you sleep(the paradoxical context of that sentence alone helps explain my stance on why it doesn’t matter)? The answer, no matter what, is going to be whatever helps you best maintain your overall deceit long enough to achieve your goal while fitting into your daily macro goals. For some people, it is dark chocolate, for others it could be water and veggies, etc.
You answered your own question. Macro manipulation. If I personally have X grams of fat left in a day, I’d rather use it on butter than egg yoke. If I need another 20 grams of protein without other fat sources, egg whites are a good choice. So basically it comes down to either personal preference, or some people still believing the yellow part is bad without context. I agree with you on the micro part, some people seem to forget about how important that is.