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Until about 5-6 months ago, I barely ate any protein or fats, partly because of several books I have read, a really bad course regarding the Atkins diet I tried a few years ago and several other things.

I read a book by a climber Mark Twight, who advocated a higher protein / higher fat type of diet for endurance trainers. At this point I also started doing more compound exercises mixed into circuits 'crossfit' style as well as looking at my diet and eating more protein and fats. I am now leaner and stronger than I was 6 months ago, but now I want more, and my diet is probably the worse part of my routine and the thing I know least about.

Here is what I tend to eat

1) @0630: 100g full corn oats with 200ml Fruit juice.

2) @0900: (post workout shake) 3scoop whey powder + 1 scoop peanut butter (no milk). Only on workout days

3) @1100: 2 pieces of fruit and a hand full of nuts

4) @1230-1300 lunch: 1 tin of tinned fish (tuna, herring, sardines) and 100-150g full corn bread (German rye bread).

5) @1600 100-150g full corn bread (German rye bread) with 100g of peanut butter, or 1 can of fish. || Or 2pieces of fruit and a handfull of nuts).

6) @1900 (post workout only), 3-4 boiled eggs.

7) @ 1900 - 2000 (end of day meal). 200-250g piece of meat with 200-300g of veggies and a whole load (40g?) of olive/sesame/walnut oil.

So my question is, what kind of diet is this? There is still a reasonable amount of carbs in there, but it's full corn oats before breakfast, rye bread and fruit/veggies. The fruit tends to be apples and bananas and veggies are a depending on what I buy at the shop.

What could my next step be, with regards to my diet. In 2 weeks, I will move onto a part of my program where I focus mainly on strength training, this would probably be a good time to try and put on some lean muscle mass for 4-6 weeks, while after that is a power/power endurance phase where I can probably 'cut' a lot of weight down.

I also feel that my diet has plateaued, in the first few months I shed loads of fat, but now it's relatively constant. Suggestions welcome :)

Cheers
Dan

I can't speak for what your program is but Mark Twight used the Paleo Diet when getting the 300 cast into shape. I think I've posted this site before but it's worth posting again: http://www.paleodiet.com/

The author's site is http://www.thepaleodiet.com/

Your diet confused me some because of the amount of corn in it until I realized you meant "whole grain". It seems you are doing the Paleo Diet with some grain added in to accommodate modern tastes.

Hey Stuard, I was just about to translate it for him, vollkorn brot = real heavy dark dense whole wheat. You can see the wheat berries when you slice through the stuff. I believe he is also describing Rugbrot, a real dark heavy rye bread. I love that stuff. Very hard to find here in the states, but they're one of the few I eat. I love using them for the openface sandwhiches
Tim

It sounds great. When I lived in Toronto I had access to all kinds of ethnic foods that I haven't eaten since. The grocery stores keep discovering new foods though. I'll keep watching for these breads.

hehe. Sorry, yes I meant whole grain, not full corn. I mixed up my translation, wholegrain/wholewheat in german is 'vollkorn' (add in some funny mountain dialect and you have a whole load of language trouble).

I am not following a particular diet for the last few months, just trying to get my diet into something resembling a 'healthy base line'. Previously (5-6 months ago) I ate an 80% carb diet with pasta 300-500g of pasta/rice/potatoes a day, little protein etc.

What I have tried to do over the last few months is to:

1) Eat lots more protein.
2) Eat lots more fat.
3) Eat no starchy carbohydrates like potatoes, pasta, rice.
4) Eat only Grainy carbs in the morning-mid afternoon.

So I now have the diet in the first post, but with the added whole grain bread and whole grain oats.

What I want to know, is that now I have a baseline of lots of foods I like, my body is able to perform without the starchy carbs, how can I adapt my diet to do certain things, for example

1) Cutting. To cut, I would cut out the bread during the day and add veggies+extra protein?

2) Bulking: I would add extra carbohydrates during the day?

I'm not very good with nutrition but feel I have now built a good nutritional foundation and want to start periodizing my diet. I also don't want to put too much weight on, I have a good mix of strength-weight ratio and don't want to put on too much weight (an extra few kgs would look nice though :p).

Cheers.

I really can't tell you how to bulk or cut, other than to add or subtract calories (increase/decrease portion sizes). What you're on sounds very paleo, and I think Twight got a lot of his Paleo thoughts from Dan john's Meat, Leaves and Berries philosophy. You might want to get ahold of either book by Dr Mauro DiPasquale called "The Anabolic Diet" or his upgaded book "The Metabolic diet". Dr DiPasquale is a Canaian physician, who has been dealing with nutrition and other methods for a long period of years. He is also a multi Canadian national Powerlifting champ, and has won the IPF at least once. He developed this diet, and it is very close to what you are doing, in order to shed fat for wieght class weigh ins, while maintaining and developing strength. He has certain guidelines about setting up calorie prescriptions for whatever mode you want to be in, I just don't have them off the top of my head, and it boils down to 5 day very low cab, high fat, moderate to moderately high P, , then two refeed days of lowered fat, moderate to moderately high carb and protein. Might want to look into that if you like what you're doing now.
Tim

Tim,
Thanks for the advice on both this and the other thread. I always thought doughnuts were just white bread dipped in lots of sugar ... I should have known there would be a catch.

So I will basically spend the next 4-5 weeks eating more of everything, trying to put on some weight. I am weighing in at about 74kg at the moment. To add the extra calories, I will probably add more of the wholegrain carbs and fruits/veggies.

I haven't managed to find DiPasqualle's book in the uni library or on amazon, but I did find some interesting research articles regarding anabolic / paleo diets and they make for some interesting reading. I think the best was suggesting to take a 'shot glass' of olive oil, 4 hours into an endurance effort to stimulate fat oxidization once glycogen stores are depleted.

Ask and ye shall receive:

The Anabolic Solution for Bodybuilders:
http://www.amazon.com/Anabolic-Solution ... 967989612/

The Metabolic Diet:
http://www.amazon.com/Metabolic-Diet-re ... 967989604/

The Anabolic Solution for Powerlifters:
http://www.amazon.com/Anabolic-Solution ... 967989620/

Hope that helps.

Peter

Peter,
Thanks for the links. Unfortunately for books, postage is pretty hefty so I have to look on amazon uk or de.

I'm suprized to see that amazon us has them, but amazon uk doesn't.

Daniel, I find that in Canada too. Amazon.com will have books Amazon.ca doesn't have. I was going to get the new "Starting Strength" but I'm not paying $16 to have it shipped from the US.