Protein: As the main source for building muscle, protein is absolutely necessary for your muscle-building strategy. Take in around 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight (this equates to 180-270 grams for a 180 pound individual). This will guarantee that your muscles will be getting the correct dose of amino acids for maintaining and building muscle tissue. Some prime sources are chicken, lean steak, fish, turkey, ground meat, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt and protein powders.
Carbohydrates: Carbohydrate is a great muscle-sparing energy source. This particular macronutrient will be drastically manipulated as the diet plan goes along and will play a major roll in its success so be extremely mindful of your intake on a daily basis. Be sure to have an intake mainly of complex carbohydrates and fiber. Sources include brown rice, wild rice, sweet potatoes, whole wheat bread, wheat pasta, vegetables, some fruits and Ezekiel products.
Fats: Never count out a healthy fat. Certain fats are essential regarding maintaining hormones such as testosterone, increasing fat burning and aiding energy levels. Healthy fats will be utilized to replace carbohydrate on certain days to keep blood sugar levels steady and help with satiety. Good sources include avocado, walnuts, almonds, olive oil, natural peanut butter, some egg yolks and sunflower seeds.
Light the Furnace!
Now let’s look at how we can implement these macronutrients and manipulate them in such a way as to build more strength and mass while torching our fat stores. Protein levels will stay somewhat the same throughout the plan. You need that steady stream of amino acids to feed to the muscles for recuperation and repair to take place. Try out one gram per pound of bodyweight and assess your progress. If you find yourself stalling, try to up it to 1.25 or 1.5 grams per pound and then reassess. That is about as high as you will want to go with protein – the rest is up to carbohydrate and fat manipulation. Give each change in protein amount about four weeks before reassessing.
Here is the tricky part.
Now you will start to manipulate carbohydrate in such a way as to trick the body into delving into its fat stores for fuel. You will have high, medium and low consumption days.
You will eat low carbs for two to four days followed by medium and high days. On the low days your body will burn fat for fuel and save muscle so as long as your protein intake is high enough. Before you starve your body of energy after so many days of low carbs (which if prolonged could lead to lower testosterone levels and metabolism) you will have a day of moderate carbs and another day of high carbs. This will shuttle in fuel to the muscle, rev back up your metabolism and be burned without storing body fat. Carbohydrate intake will be approximately .5 grams per pound of bodyweight for low days (90 grams for a 180 pounder), 1.5 grams per pound on medium days (270 grams) and 2.25 grams per pound on high days (405 grams).
Fat intake should hover around .25 grams per pound of bodyweight or 20-30% of total calories. However, on low carbohydrate days it would be wise to increase your healthy fat intake slightly.
This will ensure your hormone levels will stay steady and will supply you with ample energy for your grueling workouts.
On the low carb days simply increase your fat intake by 50%. Remember that one gram of fat has over twice the amount of calories of carbs, so a little goes a long way. For example, if you had half of an avocado on a salad, now on low carb days you will eat ¾ of an avocado.
The Muscle-Building Fat-Torching Sample Diet
Low Carbohydrate Days
Meal 1
3 eggs and 4 egg whites
½ cup oatmeal (dry measure)
Cinnamon for taste
1 tablespoon of natural peanut butter
Meal 2
2 scoops of whey protein powder mixed in water or 1 cup Greek yogurt
1.5 ounces of almonds
Meal 3
6-8 ounces of meat, fish or chicken
Green salad with 3 tablespoons of olive oil dressing
Meal 4 (preworkout)
½ of an apple or banana
1 scoop of whey protein powder mixed in water
Meal 5 (postworkout)
2 scoops of whey protein powder mixed in water
Meal 6
6-8 ounces of meat, fish or chicken
Broccoli, green beans or peas or green salad with ½ avocado
Medium Carbohydrate Days
Meal 1
3 eggs and 4 egg whites
1 cup oatmeal (dry measure)
Cinnamon for taste
1 tablespoon of natural peanut butter
Meal 2
2 scoops of whey protein powder mixed in water or 1 cup Greek yogurt
1 ounce of almonds
1 apple
Meal 3
6-8 ounces of turkey with two slices of wheat bread and 1 tablespoon of light mayonase
Green salad with 2 tablespoons of olive oil dressing
Meal 4 (preworkout)
1 banana
1 scoop of whey protein powder mixed in water
Meal 5 (postworkout)
2 scoops of whey protein powder mixed in water
12 ounces of Gatorade
Meal 6
6-8 ounces of meat, fish or chicken
Broccoli, green beans or peas or green salad with ¼ avocado
1 cup of wild rice cooked
High Carbohydrate Days
Meal 1
3 eggs and 4 egg whites
1 ½ cup oatmeal (dry measure)
Cinnamon for taste
½ tablespoon of natural peanut butter
Meal 2
2 scoops of whey protein powder mixed in water or 1 cup Greek yogurt
1 ounce of almonds
1 apple
Meal 3
6-8 ounces of fish
Green salad with 2 tablespoons of olive oil dressing
1 ½ cup of wild rice cooked
Meal 4 (preworkout)
1 banana
1 scoop of whey protein powder mixed in water
Meal 5 (postworkout)
2 scoops of whey protein powder mixed in water
12 ounces of Gatorade
Meal 6
6-8 ounces of meat, fish or chicken
Broccoli, green beans or peas or green salad with ¼ avocado
1 medium sweet potato
BB-