Lose fat, not just weight, by learning to avoid the most common diet mistakes like eating the "wrong" healthy foods, over-restricting calories and choosing the wrong foods.

1. you ignore the obvious

Men tend to look for obscure missing components in their diet and supplementation instead of taking a step back and analyzing what the real issues might be. Many would rather google for the latest fat loss diet than come to terms with the very real possibility that their eating habits absolutely suck.

You're ignoring the possibility that it could be the 12 beers you're downing every Friday night after work during happy hour. And it couldn't possibly have been the 4 frozen pizzas you ate over the course of the week.

You read somewhere that snacks are good for you, so you nibble on salted nuts and fat-free salted pretzels all day long. "That's not the problem," you think. It must be the fact that you're not using a fat burner...

You already know what your vices are. Stop pretending they don't matter. It always fascinates me how much men know about what they should be doing in terms of their diet, but simply don't do it. You have to stop being so damn lazy. Sometimes we just need a kick in the butt to wake up and get things on track.

• The solution: Be honest with yourself. Controlling and writing down what you eat is the best way to solve this problem. You can't control what you don't write down. This will give you an overview of what you are really eating compared to what you think you are eating.

2. you are eating the "wrong" healthy foods

You have been lied to.

The main goal of big food brands in supermarkets is to sell the foods that appear to be healthy. The reason for this? It's trendy to be healthy these days. If something is considered trendy, people will spend money on it.

More often than not, these foods are packed with sugar. But these companies will never tell you that. They've gotten so clever that they even put these little sugar delights in a healthy-looking, natural package.

Go to a supermarket of your choice and take a look. Everything is labeled as natural, organic, gluten-free, fat-free, heart healthy and high in fiber. These foods are typically low in nutrients and have no substantial nutritional value.

At best, they will make you feel cozy and warm. You think you're buying a healthier version of a candy bar by replacing it with a fiber bar. Guess what? All of these foods can make you fat and have devastating effects on your diet and your body.

• The solution: Eat real food. If you're fixated on getting nutrients by buying fiber bars and whole grain cookies, we've got news for you: you can get all those nutrients without the processed junk at a fraction of the price in the form of REAL food. Ditch those "fake" health foods and focus on foods that don't contain 27 ingredients.

3. you are fixated on losing weight

When a man says he wants to lose weight, what he's really saying is that he wants to lose fat. No man wants to be frail, scrawny and weak. But with a "weight loss" mindset, that's exactly where you're headed.

Muscle is what makes your body look solid, chiseled and athletic. The problem is that if you have a "weight loss" mindset, the scale won't tell you how much of the weight you've lost is fat and how much of the weight is muscle. So you'll probably consider it good news if you lose a few pounds.

But not all weight loss is good, this is the reason men get frustrated. They lose some weight, but they still don't look any better. In some cases, they even look worse. This is because when you lose fat, you will also lose a disproportionate amount of muscle mass. Getting skinny should not be the goal. Not being fat is your goal.

• The solution: If you want to lose body fat and maintain your muscle mass or even build additional muscle mass, you need to train hard. And therefore you will need more protein than a physically inactive person. As a baseline for protein intake, you should consume at least 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

4. you are not eating enough

A very large reduction in total calorie intake to induce fat loss is a common practice. This is a well-known problem for women, but men also make this mistake.

It is a well known concept that you will lose weight if you eat less. But remember, we're not necessarily out to lose weight. Heck, with some simple manipulation of water balance and carbohydrate restriction you can easily lose up to 5 kilos of weight. But as soon as you add water and carbohydrates back into your daily diet, you'll gain that weight right back. Although reducing your overall calorie intake is a step in the right direction, the two most common problems I see with this approach are the following:

• Calorie intake is reduced too much
• Not consuming adequate amounts of the right macronutrients

A good general rule is to start by reducing your calorie intake by 200 kcal per day. This will allow a sufficient calorie deficit to induce fat loss, while you will still have enough energy for physical activity and maintaining your lean muscle mass.

This is, of course, assuming that you are already eating enough to maintain your normal body weight. This amount is considered your daily calorie expenditure.

If we are trying to improve our body composition, we should also focus on building some lean muscle mass. As mentioned above, to achieve this you need to consume adequate amounts of protein. Two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is the baseline for building lean muscle mass.

• The solution: Don't eat like a birdie. If you do, you will look like one. Two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight and about 20 to 25% of your daily calorie intake in the form of fat is a good starting point. The rest of your calorie intake should come from carbohydrates.

5. you drink too many caffeinated soft drinks

A few cans of soft drinks a week (a few means 2 or 3, not 14 to 15) probably won't hurt you if that's what you're in the mood for. But if you can't get through the day without drinking a few cans, then that's a red flag. A can of caffeinated soft drink contains about as much caffeine as an espresso. This caffeine will first give you a boost of energy, which will be followed by a slump in your energy that will leave you limp and more tired than before this caffeine boost.

A regular caffeine intake will have an increasingly weaker effect over time. Sooner or later you will develop a kind of addiction to caffeinated soft drinks. This will result in you drinking more and more of these drinks to achieve the same stimulating effect. However, consuming too many caffeinated soft drinks can lead to sleep disturbances and disturbed sleep is known to negatively affect hormones such as cortisol, which promote fat gain - particularly in the abdominal area.

If you consume low-calorie soft drinks, then sooner or later you risk suffering from the "Big Mac and Diet Coke phenomenon". People start drinking light drinks and this activates a mental trigger. They think that they can now eat anything they want because they are saving calories by drinking light drinks.

Countless people eat a diet high in fat and sugar while drinking light drinks. In addition to this, many start drinking light drinks when they start to put on weight as they hope this might help. However, if the lifestyle and behaviors responsible for weight gain do not change, then switching to light drinks will not help much. It's not the consumption of light drinks that makes you fat, it's the typically related behavior that people develop who make light drinks a regular part of their diet.

• The solution: Be a man and stop drinking so much of this junk. If you have a serious problem with this, limit your consumption to one can a day or choose better sources of caffeine such as organic coffee or green tea.

Keep in mind that caffeine has a non-negligible half-life in the body. If you consume 200 mg of caffeine at lunchtime, there will still be an average of 100 mg of caffeine in your body 6 to 8 hours later, depending on your sensitivity to caffeine.

6. you let the reins slip too much at the weekend

In men, alcohol can lower testosterone levels by up to 23%. In addition to this, your body's ability to burn fat drops by around 75% after 2 drinks. Your body becomes less efficient at burning carbohydrates and fat for energy, increasing the likelihood that the calories you consume will be stored as fat.

I'm not here to mother you. However, if you're serious about getting your body in shape, I can assure you that your weekly Vodka Red Bull or Jacky Cola orgies followed by burgers and pizza at 2am will be anything but conducive to your goals.

• The solution: make a decision. Carry on as before and let your hair down at the weekend or change a few parameters in your life that will help you achieve your goals. Your decision.

7. you give up vegetables

This is a much more common problem for men than for women. It is often seen as feminine to eat salad and vegetables or drink green smoothies. It's time to put this dogma to rest.

The leanest people in the world (bodybuilders, body and figure athletes) know that a diet rich in fiber-rich vegetables plays a crucial role in achieving a lean body. Even if you don't plan to go on stage, this principle applies to you.

These types of vegetables contain tons of fiber, which slows down the digestion of food and keeps you fuller for longer. This is a key factor when you are in a calorie deficit. In addition, it is often overlooked that eating vegetables helps to control inflammation.

When you train hard, you are affected by acidosis - a condition in which your body's pH shifts into the acidic range (which is caused by both the stress of training, which is unavoidable, and the foods you eat - which you can control). By incorporating large amounts of vegetables into your diet, you will simultaneously provide your body with alkalizing foods that support your recovery and energy levels and help your body avoid a state of extreme acidosis by promoting a balanced pH level in your body.

• The solution: Make it one of your goals to have a green smoothie day and also eat some vegetables with every meal.

8. you are afraid of carbohydrates

Here's the truth: carbohydrates are essential to your life. If you cut out carbs completely or follow a low-carb diet for too long, you'll go crazy (literally).

It seems like an entire industry was born out of the low-carb craze, but at the same time, we're not being taught enough about carbohydrates. The result? Carbohydrates have been demonized and branded as the bad guy that's to blame for making you fat. This is not the whole truth.

Whole foods such as rice, quinoa, buckwheat, potatoes and oats have been part of our diet for thousands of years. These foods are staples in the diets of many populations. Here's an interesting perspective to consider: ask yourself why 1.73 billion Asians who eat primarily rice and vegetables don't struggle with obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes as they do in the Western world.

In rural areas of Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, we see very few people suffering from the diet-related diseases that are so prevalent here. These people eat mainly carbohydrates. In rural areas of Mexico, corn, beans and squash (which are all primarily carbohydrates) make up the majority of the diet. And even these people rarely suffer from diet-related diseases.

If people in these rural areas don't have to deal with the diet-related diseases we suffer from, why do we in the West fear carbohydrates so much? It is the typical Western diet, overloaded with refined sugar and packed with unhealthy fat-making carbohydrates, that is the problem.

The types of carbohydrates that people in the rural areas mentioned live on are mainly whole, unprocessed complex carbohydrates. They contain little or no sugar and are digested much more slowly than the Oreos and chips we gorge on in the West.

The message is that carbohydrates are good for you. Bad carbs (processed carbs overloaded with sugar and fat) are the carbs that will make you fat.

• The solution: Don't eliminate carbohydrates from your diet, just put less emphasis on them. In addition to this, you should know which carbohydrates you should eat and which you should eat the most of.

9. you are not drinking enough water

About 75% of all people are dehydrated. At the same time, 85% of your brain, 80% of your blood and 70% of your muscles are made up of water, which is often painfully overlooked.

Water is essential for the basic functioning of our bodies and good health. Without these two, developing a defined body is impossible.

Nutritionist and author Chris Aceto explains it this way:

"The consensus in the bodybuilding community is that large water retention within the muscles acts as an anabolic factor. This allows the muscle to maintain a positive nitrogen balance, which directly influences muscle growth.

Just like plants, our muscles need water to grow.

• The solution: Drink at least your body weight * 30 ml in the form of water, which corresponds to 3 liters for a person weighing 100 kilos.

10. you follow someone else's formula to the letter

Bio-individuality cannot be ignored. Everyone is different.

Trainers and mentors have certain programs that they promote - typically because they have had quantifiable success with these programs in the past. However, this does not mean that these programs will work for everyone.

Generalization is good, but individualization is better. Some dietary rules are universal. They apply to everyone. But at some point, after the basics have been covered, you need to develop your own formula that works for you and your body.

Simplicity, guidelines and flexibility should be the foundation of your diet.

• The solution: When it comes to diet and nutrition, "Accept what is useful and abandon what is useless." - Bruce Lee

Source: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/10-mistakes-men-diet

Like many of the readers of this site, I grew up with bodybuilding nutrition. I read Championship Bodybuilding by Chris Aceto like the Bible, truly devoured Arnold's Ecyclopedia, and studied my favorite bodybuilding magazines every month.

A bodybuilding style diet (six meals, specific macronutrient ratios and nutrient distribution scheme, etc.) is one of the most effective ways to change your body, there's no doubt about it. And anyone who tells you otherwise has never consistently followed this style of eating with dedication and discipline.

But as I've worked with more people in the real world, my theories have evolved as well. I have started to ask myself three main questions regarding this approach:

1. is a traditional maximal fat loss/competition prep plan sustainable over the longer term?

The answer for the majority of us is no - and this is true even for the truly hardcore athletes among us. Many competitive athletes can tell you this first hand: Post-competition binge eating, rapid rebuilding of lost weight, and the negative hormonal feedback loop associated with extreme training and nutritional approaches and/or doping programs.

Everyone can diet in some way when motivation is high - whether it's for a competition, a new photo on Facebook or even just a summer pool party where you know the bartender and have been wanting to attend for months.

But how will preparing for that one big day affect your long-term metabolic and hormonal health and your ability to get lean again the next time you try?

Is completely cutting out carbs, doing three hours of cardio a day and having the personality of a snail and the libido of a corpse the only way to get in shape? No six-pack in the world is worth that.

Someone will defend bulking and dieting as necessary, but for many it's a simple yo-yo scenario, even if it is an integral part of the athletic realm. It's neither sustainable nor good for your long-term goals or overall health. I've seen former competitive athletes become obese, develop type II diabetes and struggle with their health and body composition for the rest of their lives because of this yo-yo effect.

If this approach sounds appealing to you, then that's fine, go for it. To each their own. I'm more interested in finding a plan that I can stick with for the rest of my life and that allows me to stay in shape year round.

2. is it functional?

For years I had no problem making trips to the grocery store every other day, cooking a truckload of food twice a week, packing a bag of Tupperware containers every day, etc. Discipline and dedication are part of my personality.

When I started this sport, I mistakenly assumed that this was the case for everyone. You want to get in shape? Then do what you damn well have to do to achieve that goal.

But after working with more and more people in the real world, I realized this isn't functional or realistic for most outside of the fitness industry.

Have you ever worked with a Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose industry is moving forward at a thousand tweets per second? Have you ever counseled a doctor or lawyer who can be in the operating room or courtroom for half a day at a time? Or a college student who has a lot of classes and has to work half days to earn their degree and is trying to find enough time to score?

For these populations, taking a break every 2 hours for tuna and broccoli is simply unrealistic.

Is eating 6 to 8 small meals a day functional and doable for the next year, 5 years or the rest of your life as your priorities change and you chase other career goals and still want to stay in shape?

If you are leaning more towards "not really", then the next question is whether something like this is absolutely necessary to get results or if there is another way.

3. are there alternative approaches to meal frequency for overall fat loss and body improvement?

I'm not talking about bodybuilding competition diets at this point, which is why I don't need a bunch of angry bodybuilders throwing their sweaty posing briefs at me - unless they're women.

Getting ready for the competition stage is something else. If that's your goal, then I hope you're following a well thought out approach and not an exotic protocol for recreational bodybuilders. If in doubt, work with a good trainer.

I'm also not talking about mass building phases or people who are strictly dieting to improve their athletic performance. If your calorie requirements are 5000+ kcal, then you probably have no choice but to go down the 5 to 6 meals a day route.

However, this article - and my articles in general - are aimed more at the other 90% of the non-competitive strength athlete population who are simply looking for a sustainable approach to getting defined and who want to be able to say "I look good. I mean really good. Look at how good I look."

Anecdotal evidence

Just as I would advise you not to let an ADA or Paleo dictate your diet, I would advise you not to let a bodybuilding/fitness nutrition dogma dictate your life. If you are objective, the reality is that there are other methods and approaches to achieving great shape.

Legendary bodybuilder Serge Nubret ate only two meals a day consisting of huge amounts of horse meat with rice and beans. I know some will think of steroids now, but this type of diet didn't just work well for him. Many of his non-bodybuilding clients also reported excellent transformations in their body composition.

The "three meals a day" approach is belittled in the bodybuilding industry and often criticized as being counterproductive to fat loss or improving body development.

However, this is most likely the case because the typical American diet is used as a representative control group for this approach - mocha and coffee for breakfast, sandwiches and chips for lunch, pizza and cookies for dinner.

This is problematic for comparison because these are not the typical meals eaten by someone seeking to change their body composition.

It is more the sub-optimal dietary choices that are the problem and not the meal frequency pattern itself. Three meals a day can work well for fat loss - provided you make good food choices.

In contrast, the traditional Japanese diet (fish, lean meat, eggs, vegetables, rice, sweet potatoes, less processed foods, etc.) results in one of the lowest diabetes and obesity rates in the world. And don't get me started on genetics. There are studies that show that when native Japanese people switch to a more Western dietary pattern, their health biomarkers drop dramatically and their body fat percentage skyrockets.

I'm not trying to make everyone feel like they're turning into a Japanese person, but you can certainly learn a few things from this approach to eating - just as you can from any effective approach including Paleo or Mediterranean diets.

While I think a Paleo diet is a good starting template for an overweight, sedentary office worker, I think the traditional Japanese diet is a good template for a strength athlete looking for a healthy carbohydrate-based nutritional approach to improving their body development.

Here is a typical day. I have adjusted the values to better suit an 85 kilo man rather than a 45 kilo geisha:

• Breakfast: 2 to 3 whole eggs, 120 grams of fish, 1 cup of rice, sea vegetables*, green tea.
• Lunch: 250 grams of teriyaki chicken, 1 cup of rice, mixed vegetables
• Dinner: 350 grams salmon or mackerel, miso soup, 1 cup rice, spinach salad
• Dessert: 1 piece of fruit or ½ cup of mashed sweet potato

This provides an 85 kilo bodybuilder with about 180 grams of protein, 180 grams of carbohydrates and 40 to 50 grams of fat as a by-product of protein foods.

* Sea vegetables are basically nothing more than seaweed, which may not sound particularly tasty, but have been a staple in the Japanese diet for centuries. Sea vegetables also provide one of the widest ranges of minerals of all foods, including iron, magnesium, zinc and especially iodine. The name sea vegetables is a collective term for a number of different vegetables such as nori, hijiki, wakame, arame, kombu and dulse.

The next step is to add an appropriate training nutrition protocol on training days. For lean people trying to build as much mass as possible, a high quality weight gainer is the most effective natural method I've come across.

Heavier guys or athletes subject to weight class restrictions will probably be better off with a high quality protein powder and fewer carbs to achieve significant, but less dramatic, gains in strength and mass.

Cliffs Notes on meal frequency

When I was still in school, I tried to make up for what I missed during chemistry class because I was daydreaming about the couple hot girls in my class by reading through "Cliffs Notes" - a series of textbooks with condensed information on various topics - on the relevant subject. Here's my Cliffs Notes version on the science of meal frequency:

A study conducted by Bellisle and colleagues examined the purported benefits of frequent meals on the thermic effect of food (TEF for short). While the researchers found evidence that the thermic effect of food was higher with more frequent meals, the differences measured were neither clear nor significant, leading them to conclude that total food intake is still most important in the energy balance equation (1).

Another study conducted by Burke and colleagues looked at an identical carbohydrate intake over a 24-hour period, split into either meals every four hours or hourly meals. No significant difference in muscle glycogen storage was observed between the two groups (2).

Lastly, a study conducted by Norton concluded that although frequent intake of amino acids is a common practice, it is unlikely that eating another meal 2-3 hours after the first meal is sufficient to cause a further increase in protein synthesis, as amino acid/leucine levels are already elevated.

Norton concluded that it may therefore be more beneficial to consume larger amounts of protein during a meal and wait longer than the 2 to 3 hours between protein doses typically recommended in the bodybuilding community (3).

Leaving personal bias or tradition aside and looking at the scientific data objectively, there is clearly not much difference between smaller, more frequent meals and larger, more spaced meals when it comes to fat loss and metabolic factors associated with fat loss (food-induced thermogenesis, energy expenditure over 24 hours, etc.).

Some will use these scientific studies to "hear what they want to hear" and rail against a bodybuilding diet. "I knew it. Three meals a day is superior to a six meal a day approach. Bodybuilders are obsessive, compulsive idiots."

But that's not what the science says. It says that both approaches are more or less equally good. Translation? Both can be effective in the real world.

Remember the hierarchy of fat loss: optimal food choices, total calories, and targeted macronutrient ratios based on individual factors are the most important steps in designing an effective fat loss diet. When these variables are controlled, meal frequency is not as important.

The optimal meal frequency pattern for you is the pattern that best helps you stick to your diet. The most maintainable and functional approach in your world is the best approach for you.

In other words, the physiology of meal frequency doesn't matter that much. Both science and anecdotal experience prove this. It is the psychological and social factors that are the most important variables in your decisions.

Of course, this requires some experimentation on your part. How does a meal frequency fit into your daily routine, how does it fit with the demands of your career, lifestyle and social life?

Some have found for themselves that eating smaller, more frequent meals gives them better blood sugar control, gives them more energy and makes them less prone to bingeing and dieting slips. Even though they eat smaller, calorie-controlled meals, on a psychological level they like the idea that another meal will follow shortly. They like to stay one step ahead of hunger, or that feeling of never feeling hungry and never feeling too full.

If they have to go through a long period without food and are hungry, they find it very difficult to make good food choices. They end up overeating on junk food. A traditional fitness/bodybuilding approach might work better for this group.

Many fitness athletes suffer from the fear that if they ever go longer than three hours without eating, their body will start to "cannibalize" itself and they will lose all their hard-earned muscle mass. These people have a "feed the machine" mentality. Regardless of the physiological truths, psychology is the key component of nutritional success. Smaller, more frequent meals may be the best approach for this demographic as well.

With busy professional lives and an aversion to packing food and carrying it around in Tupperware containers every day, some find that eating 6 to 8 meals a day is very impractical and unrealistic for their lifestyle. They can't manage to fit six balanced and complete meals into their daily routine. They therefore end up eating a few solid meals and then simply resorting to snack foods - usually the highly processed, carbohydrate-rich unhealthy snacks.

In addition, when they do eat, they prefer to eat a full, filling meal. The small, fitness-style meals don't satisfy their appetite, leaving them constantly hungry and craving. From a psychological point of view, such a dietary approach makes them feel like they are constantly depriving themselves or constantly dieting.

Lastly, there are those whose career or lifestyle fits very well with the traditional "3 meals a day" approach. Ultimately, this is the pattern that society and civilization has defined as the normal structure in most forms of society. We have our breakfast meetings, our lunch breaks and our evening dinner dates.

Three balanced meals might be the easiest approach to follow for the working population who are not professional athletes. Slaving away to try to fit in a fitness approach of eight small meals a day might be unrealistic and counterproductive.

Just remember that food choices are crucial. Three balanced meals a day with good food choices will produce different results than three meals consisting of junk food and the typical foods of the Western diet.

References

1. Bellisle et al. 1997. Meal frequency and energy balance. Br J Nutr Apr;77 Suppl 1:S57-70.
2. Burke, et al. 1996. Muscle glycogen storage after prolonged exercise: effect of the frequency of carbohydrate feedings. Am J Clin Nutr 64(1): 115-119.
3. Norton, L. 2008. Optimal protein intake and meal frequency to support maximal protein synthesis and muscle mass. SlideShare.

By Nate Miyaki

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/deep-meal-frequency-thoughts

A cyclical carbohydrate intake for fat loss

There comes a time for almost every exerciser when they want to get defined.

If you already train regularly with weights, then changing your training program probably won't result in a dramatic reduction in body fat. How you train will have the biggest impact on your performance, but how you eat is what will really determine who you look like in the mirror.

In other words, you need to focus on nutrition if you want to get lean and a cyclical carbohydrate intake is one of the most effective approaches you will find.

Cycling your carbohydrate intake means that you vary the amount of carbohydrates and/or calories you consume in a given day.

Bodybuilders have long known that carbohydrates appear to have the most significant impact on body composition of the three macronutrients. As a result, there are hundreds of different approaches to cyclical carbohydrate intake, each of which varies this popular fat loss strategy slightly.

Even though I'm more of a "sets & reps" oriented writer, I have my own variation of cyclical carbohydrate intake. It's a strategy I've used successfully with many athletes including myself. Last year, I reduced my weight from 105 to 85 kilos for a competition using the plan I will present here.

Like my training programs, this plan is not easy but it is simple and straightforward and it works - if you have the discipline to follow it.

The plan consists of the following four phases:

1 - Super Strict

As the name suggests, this is a very strict diet phase. It should be used at the beginning of a diet as a kick start or at the end of the diet as an effective way to lose that last bit of fat. This is a tough, brutal diet and, as I will explain, should only be followed for a short period of time.

During this phase, carbohydrates are the most restricted: You are allowed 50 grams of carbs per day and the significant majority of those carbs must be consumed in the form of vegetables. No traditional starches or sugars are allowed during this phase.

2 - Normal

This is the main phase of this plan. It is low in carbohydrates and high in natural protein and fat. You are allowed to eat 100 grams of carbohydrates per day, most of which are consumed in the form of vegetables, with a small amount of fruit and starch allowed, but no junk food.

One of the reasons I call this phase "Normal" is because I want to change people's mindset. Many people believe that high-carb days are normal and that we should eat 500 to 600 grams of carbohydrates a day. Carbohydrates are not evil, but you still have to earn them through activity. Most people are quite physically inactive and so their carbohydrate intake should be limited.

In the new nutritional mindset, a low-carb diet should be "normal" and higher carbohydrate intake should be seen as a wasteful binge.

3 - High carbohydrate

Low carbohydrate intake is good for fat loss but often not ideal for performance. Most readers will be training hard and heavy, so an occasional carbohydrate boost is necessary and this is where the high-carb day comes in.

On the high carbohydrate days you should consume a large amount of carbohydrates in the range of 400 to 800 grams per day. The purpose of this is to replenish the body's glycogen stores, stimulate an anabolic response through an insulin release and give your mind a break from the moderately restrictive phase of the diet.

The basic idea is to eat a lot of vegetables and add to this an unlimited amount of fruit and natural unprocessed carbohydrates, as well as a small amount of processed carbohydrates if necessary. Carbohydrates from dairy products are also allowed.

4 - Holidays

You can let your imagination run wild on these days. I generally believe in moderation for most things - including moderation of the moderation itself - which is why you can feel free to feast during your vacation. The shock to your system from the intake of nutrients can actually be a good thing if it happens on an occasional basis. You decide on your own vacations (I've listed mine below), but in general it should be less than 21 days per year.

The diet plan phase by phase

(The numbers indicate the number of servings per day for the given food).

Foods are listed in order of preference by category:

• Natural Protein: fish (any, but wild caught fish should be preferred), chicken, beef, turkey, lamb. Pork, seafood
• Natural fats: olive oil, organic butter, poultry skin
• Natural starches: sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, oatmeal
• Processed carbohydrates: wraps, pita chips, all types of bread (the more fiber, the better), pasta, popcorn, crackers, granola bars, fruit bars
• Desserts: ice cream, cake, brownies, cookies, candy bars
• Processed meats: breakfast meats, homemade hamburgers, pepperoni sausage, hot dogs, bacon, sausage

Weight loss system

• For rapid weight loss: Follow the super strict phase for 3 to 14 days to promote significant weight loss and then move to the normal weight loss or maintenance phase.
• For normal weight loss: Combine 5 to 6 days of the normal phase with 1 to 2 days of the high-carb phase. If you are losing weight too quickly, add half a day to one more high-carb day. If you are not losing weight fast enough, reduce the high-carb phase by half a day.
• To maintain weight: Combine 4 to 5 days of the normal phase with 2 to 3 days of the high-carb phase.
• To gain weight: Combine 3 to 4 days of the normal phase with 3 to 4 days of the high-carb phase.

I categorize vacations as the following:

• Meals after a competition
• All vacations (up to one week in length)
• The following holidays: Christmas, New Year, Easter, your birthday
• Optional: Your partner's birthday, anniversaries

A concrete example

Below is an example of the food intake for one day of each of the three main phases (I assume you don't need help planning your food intake during vacations / public holidays)

* As for the skin of the grilled chicken, you should pay attention to what it is coated with. I prefer a homemade version, which consists only of spices. You shouldn't use a spice mix with sugar.

On the high-carb days, you can use pre-workout, intra-workout and post-workout supplements that contain fast-digesting carbohydrates to boost your training performance and speed up your post-workout recovery.

On super strict and normal days, you should only use carbohydrate-free pre-workout, intra-workout and post-workout supplements such as BCAAs, leucine and fast-digesting protein such as whey protein or whey protein hydrolysate.

I assume that only organic eggs from free-range chickens are used and that all dairy products are organic, preferably from grass-fed cows. Most of the rest of the meals can be prepared at home in advance.

On the high-carb days, I try to include foods in my diet that are widely and readily available, although this may come at the expense of choosing the absolute ideal foods.

The good, the bad and the butt-ugly

All diet plans have their pros and cons. I'm not saying this is the only way to achieve fat loss, but I do believe it is a sensible and workable way.

For me, this system has the following pros and cons:

The advantages of the program:

• It's relatively easy to follow. You wake up, you know what day it is and you do your best to stick to the guidelines for that day.
• It works well in real life. If you're out with friends or attending a social event, you make that day a high-carb day. The system also allows you to feast during your vacation. If you're working your butt off day after day in the gym and in the kitchen, then you simply need to let go of the reins occasionally.
• Once you've internalized this system, you can modify it for a number of different goals by increasing or decreasing the number of high-carb days. If you want to gain weight but stay relatively lean, try this plan with 3 to 4 high-carb days. If you are not losing fat at the desired rate, then gradually reduce the number of high-carb days by half a day per week until you reach the desired fat loss rate.
• This program focuses on natural, unprocessed, whole foods, which should be the foundation of any successful diet plan. You can, of course, substitute foods with other foods of equal value - if you don't like poultry, replace it with salmon, etc.
• This program allows cravings and doesn't continually ban them, which can be a test of willpower and won't necessarily make you the most popular person.
• This program works. Enough said.

Cons of the program:

• It can be easy to turn your high-carb day into a full-blown cheat day. You see chips and think "oh, it's a high-carb day" and you eat them, followed by a candy bar, two plates of spaghetti, etc. You can eat a lot of carbs, but they need to be at least reasonably natural and healthy. If you want two baked potatoes with your steak, that's fine, but two portions of chips are not the same.
• Consuming carbs after a few low-carb days can sometimes increase carb cravings instead of reducing them. For me, I've found that the first breakfast after a high-carb day can be tough as I get used to a higher carb intake. The second and third days are easier because I'm not comparing the smaller meal to the big meals of the high-carb day.
• It can be hard to do an intense training session on the low-carb days. The solution to this is to plan your high-carb days so that they fall on the days of your hardest workouts - or at least the day before - so that you have enough glycogen for your workouts. I usually schedule my high-carb days on Mondays and Fridays, but you can plan yours to best fit your training program.
• Your body weight will fluctuate a little more than normal with this plan. It should drop relatively sharply from one low-carb day to the next, but may increase significantly after a high-carb day due to replenished glycogen stores and the accompanying water and salt. However, if you monitor your weight you will see a steady decrease in weight combined with a similar decrease in body fat.

Final words

For me, all the disadvantages are manageable and controllable and are more than outweighed by the benefits of this program. You train hard in the gym and now it's time to show the results of that hard work! If you're frustrated with the results of regular calorie restriction and want to try something new, then you should give this program a chance. You have nothing to lose - except body fat.

By Tim Henriques

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/carb-cycling-for-fat-loss