More on my diet

I didn't want to overload yesterday's post with all the details of my diet since it's probably a lot to take in.  Once you understand it though it all makes sense.

I originally got interested in this diet, which is basically a bodybuilders diet, but it works great when wanting to cut fat.  Last year at this time on digg there was a post about John Stone who took monthly pictures of his transformation for a year.  That was very inspiring and I went to his site and started learning.  His forum has thousands of members all working on the same goal and are very helpful and knowledgeable. 

One of the links he advocates on his site is FatLossTips.com this is basically the blueprint for the diet I am following (among a few well written forum threads that are also fat loss guides).

Key points:

1. Increase to 5-6 small meal evenly throughout the day: this increases your metabolism thus making your body more efficient in burning through your calories.
2. Eat fewer calories: this is a given but you really need to figure out what your body needs to maintain your weight,  when I figured it out I was about 2700 calories a day to maintain my weight, now if I pull back the number of calories by 500 a day I should be able to lose a pound a week from diet.
3. Increase your protein intake: this helps rebuild muscle after working out and it jump starts your metabolism.  Foods high in protein: chicken, turkey, fish, eggs (esp. the egg white). I also take a protein shake after a workout, this will aid in muscle healing.
   
4. Eat more fat: WHAT?! That doesn't mean eat any kind of fat you have to know to eat the right fats.  Foods like Fish, Avocados, flaxseed, peanuts are all good fats with omega-3's.  Looking at the nutrition label look for foods that have low to none Saturated fats if the food has fat listed (by all means stay away from Trans Fats!) These fatty acids not only help increase testosterone production, they aid in the prevention of muscle breakdown, help to increase your HDL level (good cholesterol) and assist in hormone production.
5. Take a Supplement: I have a Men's daily vitamin that I take in the morning.  This just adds to the good nutrition I am already taking.
   
6. Switch to water: Cut out all the soda's and juices that are loaded with sugar and switch to water.  This is the biggest change you will see in the beginning when you switch to water your body will lose a ton of the "water" weight it has stored from the sugary sodas and juices you've been drinking.

This diet is not all that hard.  Just eat naturally and avoid the highly processed foods and stick to vegetables, chicken and lean meat and you'll do fine.

Tomorrow, I'll discuss Weights and Cardio workouts.