Remember the USDA Food Pyramid? The one that was
posted by the lunch line in your grade school cafeteria and
taught in health class? The government’s official position
on how you should eat to be fit and healthy included
recommendations to consume up to 11 servings of pasta,
bread, and crackers per day; limit meat and eggs to three
servings; and count potatoes as a vegetable.
Yeah, don’t eat like that.The Food Pyramid was so misleading and inaccurate that
in 2011 it was replaced with the USDA’s MyPlate, an
improved but still flawed approach to fighting obesity. To
be fair, the government’s nutrition advice is aimed at the
average American who desires to be in only average shape
(read: not obese). As we assume you picked up this book
to be bigger, stronger, more ripped, and healthier than
that, you need an entirely different approach.
To that end, we’ve created the Men’s Fitness Food
Pyramid—an easy visual guide to eating for physique
enhancement, performance, and optimal health. See how
the pyramid works below and then use it to build a better
body.
HIT YOUR NUMBERS
As a physique-conscious eater, you need to think in terms
of macronutrients as well as calories. Every food you eat
gets counted toward a total target amount (in grams) of
protein, carbs, and fat, which you can determine by
multiplying the numbers in the Men’s Fitness Food
Pyramid by your body weight in pounds. Hit these
numbers and you’ll hit your goals.
With that said, your nutrition doesn’t need to be as
precise as target coordinates for a missile attack. You’ll do
just fine eyeballing portions of protein, carbs, and fat
(which we’ll show you how to do) and keeping a general
tally.
MAKE ADJUSTMENTS AS NECESSARY
The calorie and macronutrient recommendations here are
just a starting point. Every trainee needs to find the
proper amounts for his own body. If you’re not losing
weight, reduce your carbs gradually, and try
experimenting with bumping up your protein and fat
intake a bit. If you feel as if you can’t gain weight, you can
add more carbs and even more fat, which will increase
your calories sharply. For any formulation you make, give
it at least a week to take effect before you make any
changes.
PROTEIN
With protein being the main component of muscle tissue,
your intake of it must remain high no matter your goal. To
make size gains, you need at least one gram of protein per
pound of your body weight to support optimal growth.
When dieting, you must create a caloric deficit—but that
can cause muscle loss if you end up cutting protein to do
it. That’s why we increase protein intake and decrease
starchy carbs. To get lean, you may increase your protein
to as many as 1.5 grams per pound of body weight; but
start lower and increase gradually as you reduce your
calories slowly. If you feel like you’re not recovering from
training or you’re losing muscle, up the protein fast.
The best protein sources are eggs, chicken, fish, lean
beef, turkey, quinoa (for vegetarians), and protein powder.
A three-ounce portion of lean meat or fish is about the
size and thickness of the palm of your hand and contains
20–25 grams of protein, five grams of fat or fewer, and
zero carbs.
CARBS
All carbohydrates break down into glucose, raising your
blood sugar levels faster than any other nutrient. As a
result, the pancreas releases insulin to remove surplus
sugar from the bloodstream and maintain normal levels.
Research, including a study at the University of
Washington School of Medicine, has found that exercise—
particularly strength training—increases insulin sensitivity
in the muscles. So if you’ve just worked out, more of thecarbs you eat afterward will be carried by insulin directly
to your muscles for replenishment. (Incidentally, this goes
for protein too, which is why it’s helpful to consume a
mixture of protein and carbs after training—we’ll discuss
this more later.) On the other hand, if you’ve been sitting
on the couch watching football, those carbs will just get
stored around your waist.
For this reason, we recommend that most of your carbs
come before, during, and shortly after training. It also
means that you need to eat fewer carbs when you want to
get lean—you need to keep insulin levels low. “If someone
is in fat-loss mode,” says John Meadows, C.S.S.N., a
nutrition coach and national-level bodybuilder, “I like to
limit carbs to pre-, intra-, and post-workout meals, when
they’ll go where you want them”—that is, to muscle tissue.
For muscle gain, Meadows prefers to add carbs (shakes
included) to meals around training time first, before
adding them to other meals.Carb foods include potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, oats,
fruits, and vegetables. Fruits should be consumed in their
whole-food form and limited to two or three pieces daily
(excess fructose, the sugar in fruit, is stored as fat). Green
vegetables can be eaten steadily regardless of the goal. Eat
one gram of carbohydrate per pound of your body weight
when dieting and two grams per pound when you want to
put on muscle.
A fist-size portion of cooked rice or potatoes is about
one cup and gives you 40–45 grams of carbs and
negligible protein and fat.
FAT
“We need to provide a baseline level of good fats for
hormone production,” says Nate Miyaki, C.S.S.N., a
nutrition consultant and bodybuilder in San Francisco,
CA. Fat, particularly the much-maligned saturated kind,
helps in the creation of testosterone, which does
everything from getting you big and lean to keeping your
“little friend” ready to say hello. Contrary to popular
opinion, when dieting, you don’t need to drop your fat
intake much, if at all; fat loss comes fastest when
carbohydrate intake is reduced. Plus, fat is satiating as
well as a good source of energy.
Most of your fats should come by way of your protein
foods, but avocados, nuts, seeds, and a small amount of
oil like coconut and olive oil can be included as well.
Aim for 0.4 grams per pound of your body weight daily to
start. One tablespoon of any oil is about 15 grams of fat,
and one cup of almonds or peanuts has 70 grams of fat.
Two tablespoons of nut butter is about the length of your
thumb and contains 15–20 grams of fat.
WORKOUT NUTRITION
Research hasn’t yet clarified the optimal amount of
protein or carbs you should eat around workouts for the
maximum benefit. But it is clear that some is better than
none, and the presence of both is crucial. A 2006 study in
the European Journal of Applied Physiology gave male
subjects one of the following to consume after weight
training: a 6 percent carbohydrate solution, six grams ofamino acids (components of protein), a combination of
both, or a placebo. Those drinking the carb-and-aminos
shake experienced greater muscle gains than any of the
other groups, which the researchers presumed was
because the concoction did the most to reduce muscle
protein breakdown after training.
Meadows recommends taking in 25–50 grams of
protein, 25–35 grams of carbs, and 10 grams of fat before
training. Afterward, consume another 20–40 grams of
protein and 40–80 grams of carbs—you can begin
chugging this shake during the workout as well to limit
muscle breakdown even further, though this may not be
necessary and could upset your stomach. We like to make
shakes with whey isolate or hydrolysate as the protein
source, and Vitargo or highly branched cyclic dextrin for
carbs.If powders and shakes aren’t in your budget, Miyaki says
you can go old-school and eat fruit pre- and post-workout.
One or two pieces should provide enough carbs to halt
muscle breakdown. And a lean three-ounce slice of
protein to accompany it is fine.
A PERFECT DAY
How to plan your eating to achieve your goals
Let’s say
you’re a
180
POUND
MAN
who
wants to
lose
his gut.
You could
start
your diet
eating about
2,100
CALORIES
DAILY
(180 × 12)
consisting of
180g
PROTEIN,
180g
CARBS,
and
70g
FAT.
HERE’S A LOW-STRESS EATING PLAN TO FIT THIS
GUY’S BUSY SCHEDULE.
BREAKFAST
8 oz black coffee
3 scrambled eggs
1/3 cup unsweetened oatmeal with cinnamon
POST-WORKOUT
25g whey protein
1 banana
LUNCH
3 oz grilled salmon
Large raw salad w/ 2 tbsp olive oil and vinegar
1 cup sweet potato or white potato (cooked)
DINNER
6 oz baked chicken breast
1 cup jasmine rice or potato (cooked)
Steamed broccoli
SNACK
Meal-replacement shake with 50g protein, 25g carbs, 5g
fat
DESSERT
2 tbsp almond butter mixed with one scoop chocolate
casein protein
and water (to make a pudding
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