Diet and Food Selection To Target Your Goals
Diet and food selection has a lot to do with meeting any kind of fitness goals. Your diet gives you the energy and the nutrients you need. However, too many calories in your diet can lead to excessive weight gain. Too few calories can quickly lead to a metabolic crisis, or even worse, starvation. And even if you hit your calorie target dead on, nutrient intake and food choices have a lot to do with determining body composition. Read on to see how changing your diet and food choices can help you better achieve your fitness goals.
Dieting For Cutting Fat
When cutting fat, your calories should be at a deficit. That means your are eating less in order to make calories in - calories out < 0. Fewer calories also means that you are more likely to get hungry. For that reason, I fill my diet with less calorie dense foods. Examples of such foods are sweet potato, whole grains, green vegetables, and some fruits. These kind of foods can help you have satisfying meals while consuming less calories.
Other factors to consider while dieting are the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) and macro distribution in general. As I discussed in How Much Protein?, increasing protein intake while cutting fat can help you actually burn more calories. But you don't want to get into a situation where you are completely eliminating whole categories of nutrients from your diet (as discussed in Diet and Metabolism). So, you want to make sure that you still consuming appropriate amounts of fiber, carbohydrates and fat. Nuts are a great source of fat and they are also a good source of fiber, so they can also help keep you full. And as for protein, I generally make sure that I consume a healthy portion of protein when cutting from lean meats. Why? Because they will keep me satisfied for a longer period of time, than say, whey protein.
What Not to Eat When Cutting Fat
Typically, I limit fructose and soy, along with other incomplete proteins. Notice, I said 'limit' not 'eliminate.' There is nothing wrong with a little fructose. Heck, if you are eating some fruits then you can't help but consume fructose. But you are also getting fiber and other goodies along with that fructose. Also, most fruits aren't that calorie dense.
Sodas, ketchup, most syrups and sweets are packed with fructose. These are the things I generally try to avoid, especially when calories and carbohydrates are restricted. Why? Well, for starters, excessive amounts of fructose has been shown to lead to metabolic disease. And another great reason to avoid fructose in general is that fructose consumption doesn't yield a leptin response like other carbohydrates do. That means too much fructose consumption will limit the amount of positive metabolic hormones released by your body and therefore, your overall fat loss [1][2].
Dieting For Gaining Strength and Muscle
Gaining muscle and strength, especially for experienced lifters, means eating at a caloric surplus. I explain how to do this in Reverse Dieting. But what I don't discuss is food choices. In truth, you can pretty much eat what you want as long as it fits your macros. However, practically it's a whole different ball game.
You may have the best intentions for food choices on a caloric surplus: whole grain, nuts, fruits, hearty vegetables, lean meats, etc. You know, 'clean foods.' But try eating 3000kcals or more a day on nothing but the foods I just mentioned. Besides having your friends and family hate you year round because you will never eat out with them, good luck lasting more than a month or two with that many calories of bulk in your stomach.
The reality is that food choices can and should change during a prolonged caloric surplus. Why? Because your goal is to maintain a caloric surplus, not to walk around with a lead weight in your stomach all day long. What happens if you need to consume over 4000kcals per day like some bodybuilders do? Bottom line: if you want to grow and maintain your sanity then you will need some calorie dense foods in your diet.
Relax, this is a time for joy. Instead of just fruits and vegetables, you can now eat granola, honey, pancakes, pasta, etc. That's not to say that you shouldn't still have fruits, vegetables, nuts and lean meats. You absolutely should! But you have a lot more calories to play with, so you'll also need some less filling foods with more calories if you want to keep growing.
What Not to Eat When on a Calorie Surplus
As I mentioned above, I still limit fructose and soy when on a caloric surplus. Why? Well, even though you don't lose fat on a caloric surplus, you should expect to improve your metabolism [see Reverse Dieting]. And fructose works counter to that goal.
References
[1] Johnson, Richard J., et
al. "Potential role of sugar (fructose) in the epidemic of hypertension,
obesity and the metabolic syndrome, diabetes, kidney disease, and
cardiovascular disease." The American journal of clinical nutrition 86.4 (2007): 899-906.
[2] Elliott, Sharon S., et al. "Fructose, weight gain, and the insulin resistance syndrome." The American journal of clinical nutrition 76.5 (2002): 911-922.
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