Diet Plans: How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat

The word diet can be a dirty word these days. Everyone is in their own dogmatic corner preaching their doctrine of choice. And anyone who isn’t a fellow believer is flat-out wrong.

I’m not here to preach a specific “diet plan.” I’m just a huge believer in keeping things simple. I’ve dieted for bodybuilding shows for years and have kept relatively lean since. I know what has worked for me and for others I’ve trained over the years. No tricks, hacks, or shortcuts. Just sound, balanced, sustainable eating habits that don’t require a discounted purchase of a specialized diet plan from a fitness influencer.

We all know what to do already: eat mostly whole foods, moderately prioritize protein, choose fiber-rich carbohydrates, and small doses of healthy fat, and limit added sugar, alcohol, and overeating.

When trying to build muscle or lose body fat why should we start complicating things?

What is a good eating plan to build muscle?

Eating to build muscle is much like training to build muscle; keep things simple. There is no magic diet proven to bypass the discipline, healthy habits, and consistency it takes to pack on muscle tissue.

Here’s a crazy idea. Adopt a few key principles to establish a baseline. These principles will give you a great start, but more importantly, they will guide you toward getting to know what will and won’t work for you.

We’ll take your existing eating plan and modify it going forward.

1. Once per week replace or improve a protein source for one meal. For example, if you don’t eat any protein for breakfast add some Greek yogurt or scrambled eggs. Only one meal per week. Over time you’ll have assessed all your meals throughout your day and optimized your protein intake.
2. Do the same for carbohydrates. This may be a little more challenging due to society’s ease of horrible carb choices and that’s why you’re slowly going through this process. Take just one meal each day and shift it to a healthier choice. For example, if we stick to breakfast add in oatmeal. Another step would be to reduce added sugar intake or add more vegetables to a meal. Whatever you decide be sure to do just one thing per week.
3. If you currently eat too many “bad” fats such as the saturated kind found in fried food try reducing that each meal, each week. If you feel the need to replace some fats opt for the healthy kinds such as mixed nuts, olive oil, avocado, and natural nut butter.
4. Once your diet is mostly “cleaned up” take a month or two and see how it has affected your training goals. Are you gaining strength? Are you gaining no more than about a pound of body weight per week while staying lean? If not, increase your calorie intake by 300 to 400 calories. Use small increases. See how your progress changes for at least six weeks before modifying anything else.

What are good dieting habits to lose body fat?

Here again, is an opportunity to keep things simple. It’s not easy with the deluge of diets and diet supplements taking up space and crowding out common sense.

When I was competing in drug-free bodybuilding I did it with what tools I had. I kept protein high, cycled my carbs, and kept healthy fats pretty minimal. Now, back then I was trying to get down to 4% body fat, which isn’t all that realistic or sustainable for everyday living. But I learned a lot during all those years of dieting and helping others do the same.

1. Prioritize protein. You’ve heard it over and over. Keep protein relatively high, around .75 to 1 gram per pound of body weight. This will help keep on your hard-earned muscle while you strip body fat.
2. Eat healthy fats but not too much. A little fat goes a long way and you don’t want to take in too much and sabotage your efforts. Go with a couple of servings per day of sources such as olive oil, nuts, avocado, and nut butter. If you have trouble determining a serving, pay attention to the labels on products.
3. Carbs are a bit tricky. You don’t want to avoid them altogether, however, here is where you’ll make some adjustments. Start with cutting out foods with added sugar, especially sugary drinks. This can also include certain bread and other perceived healthy carbs like oatmeal in a package. Prepackaged oatmeal, for example, can sometimes be filled with added sugar. Go with natural oats that will have you flavor them yourself with cinnamon or fruit.
4. Once you’ve established a cleaned-up diet, you can stick with it for at least six to eight weeks to see how your body reacts. If you’re losing around a pound or two per week and your strength, energy levels, and are sleeping well then stay on track. If you’re not losing any weight decrease your carbs by about 200 to 300 calories and give it another few weeks. If you’re losing too much weight per week, more than four or five pounds, and you’re energy and strength are sliding then your carbs are most likely too low. Increase them by 200 to 300 calories.

***

Take these tips for what they are and try hard not to complicate things. Sometimes all we need to achieve our goals are small, consistent changes. No overhauling is needed.