Mehdi's 5 food rules for building lean mass
Mehdi's food rules email compilation
I follow the StrongLifts daily strength tips. And regularly the tips are really good and I want to save them for future reference. This is one example of that. Six emails that are related and full of helpful information. Unfortunately Mehdi does not post these as blog posts/articles nor does he have links for each email.
5 foods rules for building lean muscle
#1. EAT PROTEIN WITH EACH MEAL
#2. EAT VEGGIES WITH EACH MEAL
#3. EAT LESS FAT
#4. EAT LESS CARBS
#5. EAT MOSTLY WHOLE FOODS
Stronglifts diet plan to maximize gains?
QUESTION
What is a good diet that would support the Stronglifts program?
For example I learned that many people who lift for big gains eat up to six times a day.
I'm not that into lifting yet lol.
I'm more about finding a consistent routine and knowing what will best support gains and recovery as time and progress continues.
-Ryder, USA
ANSWER
You don't need to eat six meals a day.
The standard breakfast, lunch, dinner with maybe a snack is fine.
I eat 3-4 meals a day.
When I started lifting weights I did all the crazy diets that we're supposed to do.
Counting every macro, 30g protein every three hours, 5-6 meals a day, can't eat the "forbidden foods", must eat "clean", fat is bad, carbs are evil, cheat one day a week, eat like a pig, feel guilt and shame, repeat.
It was never for me. I always preferred a balanced diet where I could eat whatever I wanted as long as it was in moderation.
That's how I grew up eating in Belgium. I was lucky to get good eating habits from home. Mom and grandma cooked three meals every day. We never did takeaways and ate out once a week at most.
There were many "food rules". Each meal had to have protein and vegetables. We ate carbs and fat but not much. We ate lots of fruit. We mostly ate unprocessed foods.
There were the occasional home-made cakes on Sunday, and ice creams in the Summer. But rarely more than once a week. And we had to eat lunch first.
Dad said when he was a kid, eating outside was taboo. If other kids saw you eating between meals, they'd make fun of you - "you didn't get food at home?!?"
I dated a girl once who got angry because I didn't want to eat cake for breakfast. I had "too many food rules". She had none. You don't start your day with high sugar/fat bombs. Desserts are a treat.
Many people who struggle with their weight seem to eat whatever they want, whenever they want, without any restrictions.
The only time they restrict themselves is when they try the latest fad diet - only to return to their old eating habits once they have achieved their goal weight.
That's called "yo-yo dieting".
Alternating periods of restrictive diets with periods where you have no restraints can lead to eating disorders.
See:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26841705/
There's a better way.
5 food rules for building lean muscle (1/5)
What follows is how I've been eating for the past 24 years and still do.
There were a few breaks where I did silly diets. I thought I'd get better results using more complex approaches but never did. So I always came back to this.
I like it because there are no "forbidden foods". I can eat anything as long as it's in moderation. So I get no cravings.
I also don't need to track calories and do math while eating. Calories and protein intake are controlled using a simple food rule system.
Here are the rules...
#1. EAT PROTEIN WITH EACH MEAL
Protein keeps you full longer when dieting. This prevents hunger when eating less.
See:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18469287/
Protein also has a higher thermic effect than carbs or fats. Your body burns more calories to extract energy from protein. This helps you lose weight.
See:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12174324/
Compare the thermic effect...
Fats: 2-3%
Carbs: 6-8%
Proteins: 25-30%
If you eat 100g of carbs, 6-8g is burned off during digestion and 92-94g is left.
But when you eat 100g of protein, 25-30g is burned off during digestion. And so you're left with only 70-75kcal.
This example shows you how shifting from a low to high protein intake can burn an extra 100kcal/day or 3000kcal/month.
Finally, protein gives your body the building blocks it needs for building and repairing muscle after your workouts.
If you eat 3-4 meals a day, and have a whole source of protein with each meal, then you'll easily reach 1g per pound of body weight.
"But Mehdi, the RDA is only 0.8g/kg!!! Why do you recommend 2-3x that?!?"
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) is the minimum amount for basic health.
We're not aiming for basic health here. We're aiming for building a lot of muscle and strength. Lifters need 2-3x more protein than the RDA recommends.
See:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28642676/
Even if you don't care about building a lot of muscle, protein still matters for weight management. It increases satiety.
That's why rule #1 is to eat a whole protein source with each meal.
Good sources of protein include...
Beef
Chicken
Fish
Eggs
Greek yogurt
Cottage cheese
Lamb
Pork
Etc
5 food rules for building lean muscle (2/5)
#2. EAT VEGGIES WITH EACH MEAL
Most vegetables are low in calories and high in fiber.
Eating more vegetables pushes the more energy-dense carbs and fats out of your plate. It becomes harder to overeat.
Compare:
100g rice, raw: 358 calories
100g broccoli, raw: 34 calories
100g gram in both cases. But broccoli has 10x less calories than rice.
That's why eating more vegetables helps lose weight. Your calorie intake drops.
Vegetables also keep you full longer. Their soluble fiber binds with water to create a gel-like substance in your gut.
This slows down your digestion. It takes longer before you get hungry again.
Good sources of vegetables include:
Broccoli
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Spinach
Zucchini
Eggplants
Tomatoes
Beets
Bell peppers
Carrots
Squash
Mushrooms
etc
A good rule of thumb is to eat half a plate of vegetables with each meal (the other half should be protein - rule #1).
5 food rules for building lean muscle (3/5)
#3. EAT LESS FAT
Fat has many benefits.
One, fat is tasty. Low-fat diets are tasteless and usually impossible to stick to.
Two, fat keeps you full longer.
Your body needs more time to break down and absorb fat. This slows down how fast meals empty from your stomach. It takes longer before you get hungry again.
Three, fat is important for the production of hormones like testosterone. Some vitamins need fat for absorption (ex: vitamin A, D, E and K are fat-soluble).
The problem: fat is energy-dense.
Compare again:
Protein: 4kcal/g
Carbs: 4kcal/g
Fats: 9kcal/g
Fats have more than double the calories than carbs or proteins. One tablespoon of olive oil is over 100 calories.
This adds up quickly.
And so you need to limit your fat intake.
Eat mostly lean proteins (chicken breast instead of chicken thighs)
Use less fat for cooking (a thumb size portion of butter for cooking)
Avoid deep-fried foods - grill, bake, steam or broil instead.
Etc
To be clear: the goal is not to avoid or stop eating fats. If you do that you lose on the benefits of fat listed at the top.
It's fine to eat olive oil and even butter.
Just not too much.
5 food rules for building lean muscle (4/5)
#4. EAT LESS CARBS
Carbs are easy to overeat and don't keep you full very long.
Compare:
100g zucchini: 17 calories
100g chicken breast: 120 calories
100g pasta: 348 calories
100g worth of food in all three cases. But the carb-dense pasta has 3x more calories than the chicken breast, and 20x more calories than the zucchini.
That's why you want to limit your carb intake. It limits your calorie intake.
One way is to only eat carbs in one meal per day, like dinner. Example...
Breakfast: protein + veggies
Lunch: protein + veggies
Dinner: protein + veggies + carbs
The benefit of having carbs only at dinner is that it gives you flexibility during the day.
Say there's an unexpected birthday at work with a lot of cake. Eat those carbs and skip your usual ones at dinner.
The goal is not to avoid carbs. The goal is to limit your intake to limit calories. Limiting carbs to one meal a day helps that.
"But Mehdi, what if I'm trying to gain weight, bulk up or add mass?!?"
Then you can eat carbs with each meal. It would be too hard to eat a lot of calories otherwise. Eating less carbs is for people who want to lose or maintain weight.
"But Mehdi, don't you need carbs to fuel your workouts?!?"
Yes, but far less than most people think.
We're lifting weights here, not running ultramarathons. You don't need that many carbs to do 10-15 sets per workout.
See:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35215506/
That's why rule #4 is to limit your carb intake to one meal a day.
Good sources of carbs include:
Sweet potatoes
Whole-grain rice
Corn
Barley
Buckwheat
Oats
Quinoa
Fruits (banana, apple, orange, ...)
etc
5 food rules for building lean muscle (5/5)
#5. EAT MOSTLY WHOLE FOODS
Whole foods are minimally processed. They come close to their natural state when they are harvested or raised.
Chicken breast is unprocessed food.
It's simply a piece of meat. There are no extra sugars, fats, salts or additives. The only processing is separating the meat from the breast of the chicken.
Chicken nuggets are processed foods.
They're made of ground-up mechanically separated meat - pieces of chicken with bones and gristle. The result looks like a white slime.
That slime is mixed with fillers, binders, breading, etc. They also add sugars, fats and salts to improve flavor. Then they add additives to extend shelf life.
The result is something that doesn't look or taste like real chicken. It has its own flavor. The flavor of "junk food".
Other examples of heavily processed foods include...
Hot dogs
Sausages
Bologna
Salami
Plant-based meats
Etc
The problem with processed foods is that they're usually high in sugars and fats. This increases your calorie intake.
Compare...
100g chicken breast: 120 calories
100g chicken nuggets: 223 calories
Chicken nuggets have almost 2x more calories than chicken breast.
Those extra calories come more from fats and carbs. Compare the macro nutrients...
Chicken: breast vs nuggets
Protein: 25g vs 14g
Fat: 2.6g vs 12g
Carb: 0g vs 16g
Chicken nuggets have 50% less protein but 5x more fats and extra carbs. Fats and carbs are cheaper than protein. That's how they drive the price down of nuggets.
Eating whole, unprocessed foods most of the time limits your calorie intake. This helps you lose or maintain weight.
There's nothing wrong with eating chicken nuggets once a week if you enjoy that, and as long as you don't go overboard (watch out with buffets for example).
But the rule of thumb is to eat whole, unprocessed foods 90% of the time.
If you eat 3 meals a day, that's two meals a week where you eat processed foods.
The other 19 meals a week you should eat whole, unprocessed foods.
If you follow this and the other four rules I shared over the past five days, you'll build lean muscle mass.
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The source of the texts above is from Mehdi's daily strength tips. I recommend subscribing at https://stronglifts.com/tips