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[Meal plan + process pics inside] Breaking the plateau - attack my meal plan!
- Thread starter gracesophia11
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- natural bodybuilding
@gracesophia11 You look great dude but please don't overthink this.If you are in a caloric deficit you will lose weight, all of the other things like carb cycling and sodium intake have no impact on weight loss.
Once again, you look fantastic, but it hurts to see so much data and overthinking over stuff that makes no difference, you could get the same results just by sticking to a caloric deficit without starving and tracking all the details.
Once again, you look fantastic, but it hurts to see so much data and overthinking over stuff that makes no difference, you could get the same results just by sticking to a caloric deficit without starving and tracking all the details.
gracesophia11
New member
@matt5 @matt5 Thanks for your input; I can genuinely say that for me progress to the current state hasn't happened until getting the detail ironed out on the sugar I take in, a clearly nutrition routine and a disciplined way of ensuring hypertrophy. So the tracking of the "details" have been key to me and a motivating factor.
To clarify the goal here is not necessarily weight loss or living in a deficit but reduce body fat and increase lean mass.
To clarify the goal here is not necessarily weight loss or living in a deficit but reduce body fat and increase lean mass.
@gracesophia11 I think that would have more to do with you adhering to a structured training routine and eating better in terms of getting enough protein and sticking to you calorie goals.I don't think sugar has anything to do with hypertrophy...
If that allows you to stick to a diet and make progress I'm all for it, but I don't think it is very healthy and sustainable to obsess over stuff that doesn't give you any return. It only leads to you having weeks or days where you binge and eat "bad" as you said in your post, which does affect your progress.
If that allows you to stick to a diet and make progress I'm all for it, but I don't think it is very healthy and sustainable to obsess over stuff that doesn't give you any return. It only leads to you having weeks or days where you binge and eat "bad" as you said in your post, which does affect your progress.
gracesophia11
New member
@matt5
I may struggle with what you are referring to here wrt to obession; the point you are making is Sodium, Dairy, Sugar etc don't impact fitness results and a calorie is a calorie in your opinion?
Agreed that the effects of sugar i.e. are mostly indirect as in sugar causes cravings, and cravings cause higher caloric intake.
but I don't think it is very healthy and sustainable to obsess over stuff that doesn't give you any return
I may struggle with what you are referring to here wrt to obession; the point you are making is Sodium, Dairy, Sugar etc don't impact fitness results and a calorie is a calorie in your opinion?
Agreed that the effects of sugar i.e. are mostly indirect as in sugar causes cravings, and cravings cause higher caloric intake.
@gracesophia11 By obsession I mean obsessing over stuff that no one should be obsessing over if they don't have any health issues connected to it (intolerance to dairy, some health issues that require you to track sodium intake or something like that), people who want to look good don't need to have that info, it just leads to overthinking and putting the focus away from important stuff like caloric intake.Not to mention that once you aren't sticking to the strict regime you wanted to stick to, you will just go on a binge because you ate "bad food".
I look at my discipline as a limited resource, if I waste it on restraining from eating sugar or sodium or diary I won't have any to use for sticking to my calorie targets, and I will just give up, as do many people.
Calorie is not a calorie, it is important to eat healty, I won't get into that discussion, but also it is important to eat like a normal person and eat a chocolate bar here and there if you want it, you don't have to binge on chocolate which would lead to a higher caloric intake. I agree that MAYBE if you were to remove sugar from you diet you possibly wouldn't crave it, but doing that requires much more discipline than just eating one bar instead of 10.
Ultimately it comes down to what you can stick to and what makes you enjoy your life and still make progress, and I don't think you can do that while eating like a robot and obsessing over stuff that doesn't matter.
I look at my discipline as a limited resource, if I waste it on restraining from eating sugar or sodium or diary I won't have any to use for sticking to my calorie targets, and I will just give up, as do many people.
Calorie is not a calorie, it is important to eat healty, I won't get into that discussion, but also it is important to eat like a normal person and eat a chocolate bar here and there if you want it, you don't have to binge on chocolate which would lead to a higher caloric intake. I agree that MAYBE if you were to remove sugar from you diet you possibly wouldn't crave it, but doing that requires much more discipline than just eating one bar instead of 10.
Ultimately it comes down to what you can stick to and what makes you enjoy your life and still make progress, and I don't think you can do that while eating like a robot and obsessing over stuff that doesn't matter.
gracesophia11
New member
@matt5 Thanks for your input and perspective. Personally, I have noticed a much higher sensitivity to sugar than ppl around me. That means its been harder for me to moderate portion sizes of sugary food and keeping intake moderated unless I have been cutting out as much sugar as possible very intentionally.
@gracesophia11 As long as it doesn't drive you nuts and cause you to binge on sweets once you can't keep it up anymore, I don't see anything wrong with that.
@gracesophia11 Is it possible for you to consume no calorie sweetener?
gracesophia11
New member
@gracesophia11 Hmmm...you look great. But if you wanted to drop some water weight, to give the illusion you’re leaner than you are, I would drop your sodium by 500-1000mg. But you gotta remember that the guys you see on the bodybuilding stage are pretty dehydrated for the couple hours they’re competing. They don’t walk around daily looking like that.
gracesophia11
New member
@spokaneoc Thanks for picking up on the sodium question; what I am reading and trying to validate is indeed that bringing down sodium would essentially get you more of a temporary leaner look when tied with water and carb manipulation protocol etc. For every-day physique / muscle growth it may not have a big impact / adverse effects?
cptnemo2011
New member
@gracesophia11 6’5” here and 220. What the eff is your chest workout? My chest is always lagging and I could use some help
gracesophia11
New member
@cptnemo2011 There's a link to my body workout routine in the post; nothing special at all. Pushups, elevated pushups, side-to-side pushups.
cptnemo2011
New member
@gracesophia11 Thanks
bananaboat86
New member
@gracesophia11 https://mennohenselmans.com/john-fawkes-psychology/
https://bretcontreras.com/sugar-the-sweet-truth/
https://mennohenselmans.com/protein-is-not-more-satiating-than-carbs-and-fats/
Great job first of all!
If you need to go lower In calories and want to avoid binges, higher satiety food can help. The fewer calories per 100g a food has the more satiating it will be. The more satiated you are the more adherent you will be. Find some foods you like and stick to them.
Even whey protein isn’t very satiating. Look at how much the skyr you have weighs for 100 calories. You get waaayy more food than 28g of protein powder...
Try to have a fiber minimum and hit it with Whole Foods. 10g per 1000 calories is an okay starting point. I’d recommend 35g or so.
Some good food choices that can be highly satiating:
Vegetables
Fruits, especially berries. Strawberries for example, only 140 calories for 450g of food!
Egg whites
Non fat Greek yogurt, quark, skyr
Cottage cheese
Eggs
Some of my go to meals:
Omelette, Greek yogurt and berries, Mexican burrito bowl with cauliflower rice, Greek yogurt with cinnamon and apples.
Good luck!
https://bretcontreras.com/sugar-the-sweet-truth/
https://mennohenselmans.com/protein-is-not-more-satiating-than-carbs-and-fats/
Great job first of all!
If you need to go lower In calories and want to avoid binges, higher satiety food can help. The fewer calories per 100g a food has the more satiating it will be. The more satiated you are the more adherent you will be. Find some foods you like and stick to them.
Even whey protein isn’t very satiating. Look at how much the skyr you have weighs for 100 calories. You get waaayy more food than 28g of protein powder...
Try to have a fiber minimum and hit it with Whole Foods. 10g per 1000 calories is an okay starting point. I’d recommend 35g or so.
Some good food choices that can be highly satiating:
Vegetables
Fruits, especially berries. Strawberries for example, only 140 calories for 450g of food!
Egg whites
Non fat Greek yogurt, quark, skyr
Cottage cheese
Eggs
Some of my go to meals:
Omelette, Greek yogurt and berries, Mexican burrito bowl with cauliflower rice, Greek yogurt with cinnamon and apples.
Good luck!
gracesophia11
New member
@bananaboat86 Love it, I yesterday night actually watched a video on the importance of fiber and the recommendation trying to get in about 10g of fiber with a meal. I should be fine for my lunch (between the avocado, cauliflower and broccoli) but should stick to making my protein fluff at night with frozen raspberries (high in fiber) and add some fiber-rich snack between lunch and dinner. Does that sound right? Very actionable, thanks again @bananaboat86
bananaboat86
New member
@gracesophia11 Honestly man you seem waaaay to into the weeds. I have been there. It seems like you made it really far on extreme protocols but those protocols aren’t what get you to “natural bodybuilding “ lean levels.
If you don’t mind me asking. Who do you follow for information? From what I can tell you have gone down some dark holes of the nutrition internet.
Successful natural body builders don’t do 8 day water fasts. Or think they aren’t making progress cause of the protein powder quality.
You are so far gone I feel like you need a foundational level of education on how this shit works.
I’d recommend getting your information from:
Eric Helms
Greg Knuckols
Mike Isratel
Abel
Menno Henselmans
Eric Trexler
MASS research review
Revive Stronger
James Krieger
Read Eric helms muscle and strength pyramid books. Specially the nutrition one.
If you still want to be leaner you need to get your diet in check. I don’t recommend snacks while dieting.
Since you are doing If I would have 3 maybe 4 meals across your feeding window. If you wanna calorie cycle. Try setting it up so more calories come after your workout. I normally like to make sure my post workout meal is about twice as much as my preworkout.
THe protein powder and instant oatmeal isn’t doing shit for satiety.
An example of this in action. 2500 calories per day. Might look like:
Pre workout 500 calories, 50 grams of protein
Post workout #1 1,000 calories. 80g of protein.
Post workout #2 1,000 calories 80g of protein.
That’s a lot of food if you make the right food choices
My recommendation for food would be something like:
Pre-workout- 450grams of skyr, 200g of diced apples, sweetener, cinnamon, half a serving of almonds or granola (the almonds and granola are caloric and not very satiating but add some good flavor
Post workout- 2 chicken breasts, 400 grams of broccoli, avocado, maybe even more vegetables. Vegetables give you sooooo much food for the calories.
Post workout 2 - have your protein fluff, cottage cheese with strawberries and sweetener. Etc.
Your food choices are what makes it hard to stick to the diet. You need to enjoy what your eating man.
If you don’t mind me asking. Who do you follow for information? From what I can tell you have gone down some dark holes of the nutrition internet.
Successful natural body builders don’t do 8 day water fasts. Or think they aren’t making progress cause of the protein powder quality.
You are so far gone I feel like you need a foundational level of education on how this shit works.
I’d recommend getting your information from:
Eric Helms
Greg Knuckols
Mike Isratel
Abel
Menno Henselmans
Eric Trexler
MASS research review
Revive Stronger
James Krieger
Read Eric helms muscle and strength pyramid books. Specially the nutrition one.
If you still want to be leaner you need to get your diet in check. I don’t recommend snacks while dieting.
Since you are doing If I would have 3 maybe 4 meals across your feeding window. If you wanna calorie cycle. Try setting it up so more calories come after your workout. I normally like to make sure my post workout meal is about twice as much as my preworkout.
THe protein powder and instant oatmeal isn’t doing shit for satiety.
An example of this in action. 2500 calories per day. Might look like:
Pre workout 500 calories, 50 grams of protein
Post workout #1 1,000 calories. 80g of protein.
Post workout #2 1,000 calories 80g of protein.
That’s a lot of food if you make the right food choices
My recommendation for food would be something like:
Pre-workout- 450grams of skyr, 200g of diced apples, sweetener, cinnamon, half a serving of almonds or granola (the almonds and granola are caloric and not very satiating but add some good flavor
Post workout- 2 chicken breasts, 400 grams of broccoli, avocado, maybe even more vegetables. Vegetables give you sooooo much food for the calories.
Post workout 2 - have your protein fluff, cottage cheese with strawberries and sweetener. Etc.
Your food choices are what makes it hard to stick to the diet. You need to enjoy what your eating man.
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