Proper Diet Structure | simple-carb-solution

Diet Structure

Diet structure is an area largly overlooked by most. When I say "diet structure" im referring to when exactly you eat and what is eaten when... which might sound a little confusing, so let me explain:

In order for a diet to be effective it must be sustainable. Crash course diet will only be effective for as long as you are on them, and maybe not even that long. For lasting results with no rebound, you must make a lifestyle change an maintain your diet indefinently. Because of this, I am going to propose a method that is easy to follow, maintainable, and will fit into almost anybody's daily schedual. The only exception for this method is an in season athlete.

Intermintent Fasting:

It might sound extreme (I assure you its not), but I am going to propose that most of you cut breakfast out of your daily routine, and start practicing daily (or just a few days a week) interminntent fasting. Intermintent fasting is when you will abstane from consuming any source of calories for a set time, usually anywhere from 12-18 hours. This is most easily done by starting from dinner the night before and fasting until around lunchtime the next day. So if you eat dinner at 8 at night, you will not eat or drink anything with calories until around noon the next day. A little earlier on some days, and maybe a little later on others. Does'nt seem horrible right?

This will do a number of things. It will increase insulin sensitivity, natural growth hormone, IGF (insluline like growth factor), and will allow your body to replinish its enzyme pool to best prepare for the meals ahead, thus improving digestion and absorption. "but breakfast is the most important meal of the day!?" Sorry. No its not. Morinings while fasted are when our bodies are in their prime fat burning state and are ready to use body fat for energy. Using body fat for energy is somthing our bodies are meant to do, thats why it put the fat there in the first place. There are no negative effects in doing this. By eating first thing in the morning, you bring your bodies natural fat burning state to a screaching halt and let it convert itself into an "energy storage" (fat storage) state. The technical name is switching from Metabolism is not negativly effected by fasting either, that is based off of several other factors incuding calorie intake, sleep patterns, and activity level.

Eating in the early hours of the day (specifically eating carbs early in the day, more on this later) is the cause for many of your 2 pm crashes when you feel tired and fatigued. This is because your body has swiched into "rest and digest" mode. This can be avoided as fasting is incorporated into your daily routine. I invite everyone to try Intermintent fasting for one month to see if it is a possible option for them, as it is not always for everyone and may effect some individuals diffrently, specifically women. If you find that you feel better on 12 hour fasts instead of 16 hour fasts, only do 12! Its not complicated. Though I do recomend that everybody impliment what I will discuss next, and that is manipulating your macronutriants, or in other words your diffrent protiens, fats, and carbs that you eat throughout the day

Carb Timing:

I would recomend that everybody reduce the time that that they eat carbs thoughout a given 24 hour period to at least 6 hours, preferably 4 for most. This will drastically improve insuline sensitivity which is basically a fancy way of saying how well your body handles carbohydrates. If you eat carbs all day, insuline is always in your bloodstream. When insuline is present the body cannot burn fat. period. so by reducing the window that is avoided and your bodies response to carbs is much more efficiant, making it more likely to use those carbs for muscle glycogen instead of converting them to body fat. This is also improved by leaning out and having a lower body fat percentage which is essential. Therefor your meals in the early day should be composed of primarily protiens and fats. The only carbs you may eat durring tis time are vegtables and possibly a piece or two of fruit, but thats it! Eat most (or all) starchy carbs at dinner. This will allow you to burn fat all day and still eat a large delicious carb filled meal at night. This will improve body composition as well as overall health and wellness.

Example:

So a day of eating may look like something similar to this:

Wake up a 7 am and drink plenty of water followed by some black coffee or tea if you so desire.
At noon eat a vegtable filled salad with a lean protien source while using some vinigar or olive oil for dressing. keep this meal around 100 to 400 calories.
At around 4 you may have a piece of fruit or two, or some other meal similar to the previous. This meal can be bigger or smaller depending on how big you first meal was, I try to only eat between 15% and 35% of my calories thoughout the day, while saving the rest for dinner.
Finally, at around 7 o'clock, Its time to feast. Load up on your carbs for the day and eat the rest of your protien and fat calories. So for someone eating 2,200 calories a day, that could potentially be an 1500 to 1800 calorie meal prodomenantly composed of carbs! Sounds pretty awesome right?

Following this style leaves a dieter feeling as though they are not actually dieting at all, making it very sustainable. You get to eat until you hearts content every night while still enjoying the delicous carbohydates you know and love. So to recap:

Fast 12 to 18 hours a day or somewhere in the middle (change it up)
Eat most of your protien and fats early in the day durring your smaller meals
Save at least 80% of your carbs for dinner and finish eating any protien and fats you have left.

Macronutriant numbers and Calories:

If you are sedintary you do not require the same amount of carbodydrate that an athleate does and vice versa. Nor do you require the same amount of calories. For sedentary populations multiply your lean body mass by 12-14. The range that that yield is about how many calories you can eat in a given day. About 35% of your calories from protien, About 25 - 35% of those calories from carbs, and the rest of your calories com from fats.

There are some exceptions for athletes/active people (and kids) who have lightning fast metabolisms that will be discused on the next page.