ExRx.net

WHERE ARE YOUR VEGGIES!!!!!!!!!

dood, you should be eating 1-2cups of veggies at EVERY feeding oportunity. For real, a cup of carrots and hummus with breakfast, some broccoli with your tuna sandwich. Veggies are essential for your health and what good is doing you to be big a beautiful if your defficient in essential vitamins, mineral, micronutrients etc.? You can look like the poster boy for health and fitness, even when your bladder develops stones the size of saturn and your renal functions go on vacation.

*steps off soap box*

That said, the less processed the food you eat the cleaner you metabolize it. The cleaner your metobalic process is the more effecient if functions. This leads to increases in metabolic rate as well as a mirad of health benefits.

Sample daily diet on work out days for me (2.5-4hrs apart):

Omelet (1c egg whites + 1 Omega 3 egg, 1-2cups veggies, 1/2c lowfat or part skim cheese)
12oz 2% milk

Shake that has around 40g protein, 15g Carbs, 10-20 fat(1/3 each of sat, mono, poly)
2c carrots and celery w/ hummus

8-12oz lean meat (Beef, Chicken, Turkey etc) dish. ex. Beef Stroganoff (mushrooms instead of noodles), Greek Burger (no bun) w/ salad, something along these lines

WORKOUT (workout drink,1/2 during and 1/2 after, with 30g protein, 76g carbs (dex/malt blend)).

Another shake, this one has 40g Protein, 60-80g carbs, 10-20g fat
another 2c of assorted veggies w/ hummus

8-12oz Fish with good omega FFA profile and veggie side.

2/3c Lowfat plain yogurt, 1 scoop Protein powder, 1tbsp natural peanut butter (if choc powder) or 1/2 blended berries (if strawberry or vanila powder), 1tbsp flax seed (meal or crushed)
2 stalks of celery w/ nat peanut butter dippage.

Sometimes I'll throw an apple or orange in with the shake feedings. I have several shakes I pick and choose from depending on my mood. I take fish oil caps with any meal that doesn't look like it is a good source of Omega Fats. I try to keep my fat ratios like this: 30% total calories (30% each of total fat for saturated, monounstaturated, polyunstaturated, 1:1:1 is ideal). Saturated fat in and of itself is not that bad. Infact there are some studies cited on exrx.net that suggest increasing Sat fat levels my help burn fat more effeciently. Trans is bad, all the other are good as long as they come in the right ratios.

I'm 5'6" 183lbs, 15% bf. I"ve been dropping fat while maintaining weight (lean muscle) for the last month. I eat a 600cal defiecient diet. If I wanted to get bigger I would simply add more carbs (good clean whole grain type carb) to breakfast and up my serving sizes on what I already eat to get a 500-750cal excess in my diet.

You gotta have them veggies man. They are key to your health and well being. Anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves.

What Elemental posted is an example of a bulking diet. However it is of the conventional kind, rather then clean. All you have to do to make it clean is have your shakes without all the carbs.

I guess nobody ever told the Inuits that they couldn't be healthy without vegetables.

http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=lw313

Keith

yes well, I doubt you eat as much fish and berries. I also doubt you are a over 100 years old. Evolution has changed everyone and your are not an ancient Inuit. While the Inuit your article discusses may not have ate the volume of veggies he should have (or COULD have) he also probably had a shorter live span and wasn't concerned with his BF% or LBM.


SO EAT YOUR DAMN VEGGIES!!!!!!

Here is an article about an explorer who lived with the Inuits and adopted their diet. Read the last paragraph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson

Keith

reguardless, its stil better to have veggies in the diet. For one, its a hellova lot cheaper to fill in some calories with fresh veggies vs. buying 3000-5000 (depending on activity level) calories worth of meat and fish. Just because something is possible doesn't mean its optimal or even recommended. If these Inuit tribes lived in an area more hospitible to plant growth you'd see more grains, veggies and fruits in their diet.

The human body above all else is one of the most adaptable systems on the planet. It can survive on nothing but meat, but if alternative forms of nutrition are available they should be used. In fact, most of the existing Inuit tribes around today do eat considerably more veggies than their kin of 100+ years ago. This is because they can and do import them. Now they still may have a diet of substantially more meat tahn the rest of the world, but you are also dealing with a group of people that have eaten this way for thousands of years. They are genetically disposed to this kind of diet.

As far that explorer living off of their diet for 2 years and not showing any deficiencies is concerned... I've been eating like crap of 25 years and I'm not showing any deficiencies either. However, I do notice a difference in my health, energy and awareness now that I ingest the "clean" foods I eat now.

My point is, the scientific evidence, availability of foods and some plain common sence all say that veggies can and should be a staple of your diet. If your absolutely dead set against eating veggies, then don't. You'll probably still live, but you probably won't be in optimal health. Which IMHO is like building a house on the sand right before hurricane season.

Actually, Stefansson lived on that diet for most of his life, and he lived into his 80's.

Keith

I never knew this about milk... in fact, on the main site, it says milk is a good food for fat loss, although upon further review I think that applies more to obese people losing fat rather than an already in-shape person. Are there any other (or does anyone have a link) to which foods should and shouldn't be eaten. Obviously, things like cheesecake or doughnuts shouldn't be eaten, but it seems I don't really know much more than the basics - I thought drinking a lot of (skim) milk would be great, due to the low calorie, high calcium and protein providing nature of it.

That is a very good question, Dave. These days people are fooled into eating all kinds of crap because it has this or that nutrient even though it has other things that should be avoided. Often times it is something like juice, where it has certain vitimins, but the sugar of soda. Just take a multivitimin and then you don't have to worry about not getting enough of something.

Next, don't eat anything with trans fat. It might say 0, but that just means it has less then 1 gram. There is no safe level though. So if you see the word "hydroginated", partialy or otherwise in the ingredients, don't eat it. Don't get it confused with "hydrolized" as that is totally different and safe.

Look at ingredients and nutritional info for sugar. You want to eat as little sugar as possible. No added sugar would be ideal. A little natural sugar is ok if you don't need to lose weight. If you do need to loose weight even that should be kept to a minimum.

White flour. This is like sugar and should not be eaten. Look for whole grain products intead.

Other simple carbs. You shouldn't eat much in the way of corn, potatoes, white rice and that sort of thing. Your carbs should be complex, like whole grains, veggies, beans, etc.

Many foods said to be healthy are not. Nutrigrain bars, other ceral bars, most breakfast cereals, flavored instant oatmeal, the regular slim fast shakes, rice cakes, many "low fat" products, most frozen entrees.

Most people are all about the fruit. Mostly stick with berries. Try to keep non-berry fruit to 1 peice a day.

If you are doing something other then low carb, keep the cheese to 1 or 2 servings a day.

People always rip on egg yokes. They really got a bad rap, but they are quite healthy. People always rip on meat too. Just keep it lean and it should be fine.

Nuts are good. Some people flip over the fat, but something like almonds for example are healthy. Don't go overboard though, they are a bit calorie dense. Leave the macedamia nuts for the low-carbers though. 220 calories a serving is too much.

That is what I could think of off the top of my head. There are a lot of pitfalls with food. In a nutshell, read labels and avoid trans-fat and simple carbs.

Dave, Ironman 's post was right on target. I'm just going to point you to
http://www.drsears.com
It's the Zone website, and there are food listings there. They aren't as kind to whole grains as Ironman was, but use your own judgement. Any whole (true whole grain, read labels) like barly, brown and wild rice (unprocessed) old fashioned oats, etc are definately OK, as are legumes (peas, beans) just watch the quantities.
Tim

Yea, the Zone works. You might need a little more protein, but otherwise great. There are lots of diets that work. You just need to pick one you can stick with. Most people seem to stick with the Zone and Southbeach pretty well. Some people like the meat, cheese, nuts and do good on lower carb diets. Some people can do without that and prefer the choices on a higher carb plan. As long as you stay away from the portion control only, or low fat type plans you'll be ok.

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