Building a Mass Without Supps Part 4 - A Clean Diet Strategy

Hello guys and welcome to another read that I hope will inspire you on your journey to a great body. In this writing, find out everything you need to know on eating clean without over-stressing about it. Our goal is to get the lean muscle. Without any or with the help of a few natural supps.

Whether you aim for taking a few pounds of fat of bulk up, these natural, ground principals will undoubtedly help you get it. I will lay down the most basic math on the amounts of "fuel" per day your body needs. That`s just something to start with. Because without it, you`ll be just walking around the woods without compass.

Then I`ll talk about which foods to strictly avoid and which ones you can stick with forever. I will create and example of a daily meal plan for bulking up. Remember, this is for the Natural "Non-Competitive" Bodybuilding category of trainees, so if your goals are higher, please consult your coaching professional about it first.

So, "What is a Clean Diet in the first place" you ask? If you haven`t already knew, by clean eating, we mean taking protein-rich, fruit and vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats food. And "Why is it called Clean"? Because you are dumping all the bad stuff away, like refined sugars, too much salt, coffee and/or alcohol, white flour etc. I know it sounds like a mission impossible, but trust me, I`ll show you how to enjoy your meal plan without having to completely get rid of your vices. :)

To me, a Clean Diet is attenuating the bad, not completely restrict yourself from it. Enjoy every piece of something you love as long as you stay within the boundaries of a healthy lifestyle.

Also, just a heads-up, this topic will only focus on a natural food diet, not the supplements that go with it. I will dedicate a special article about the supps only for the purposes of clearing everything out properly.

Now, let`s take a look at some elementary calorie math.

Whenever you want to start loosing weight or gain a few, whether you Google it or checking with any Fitness/Nutrition professional you will start from your basic calculations. The famous BMI abbreviation that stands for "Body Mass Index", when carefully summed up, can show you where you currently stand in the weight or body mass category. Based on your weight and height, it indicates how much fat do you have.

The latest numeric standards are:

• <18.5 = underweight
• 18.5-24.9 = healthy
• 25-29.9 = overweight
• >30 = obese

Now that you know which category you`re in, the next step will be determining how much calories do your body needs to perform basic tasks. Like breathing, digesting food, brain performance etc. That is known as BMR or "Basal Metabolic Rate". It`s basically the number of calories you burn during a 24-hour window. You can use an online calculator as one found here if you don`t wan`t to get bored with the exact formulas. Some overall rule is that it takes 11 Kcal for every 0.5 kg of women`s body weight and 12Kcal per 0.5 kg for men.

Let me give you my example:

I`m 33 years-old, have 64 kilograms and my height is 180cm. Or in pounds and feet: 141lb and 6.9 ft. So my BMR equals 1409 Kcal. That`s just the basic fuel my body needs to survive.

A few more steps and we`re done with muscle-building math. ;)

The next step will be determining your PAL or "Physical Activity Level". Put in simple words, it`s how much you are involved in movement activities, like walking, exercising etc. If you`re mostly inactive i.e. mainly sitting during a day (aka a sedentary person), your PAL is 1.2. If you do include walks and you workout at least 1-2 times a week, you`re 1.3.

Our Natural-Building Mass group is anywhere from this next one, where you have 2,3 workouts per week which categorizes under 1.4 and/or 3-4 times a week that is 1.5 PAL. I don`t recommend you fall under the last category of exercising hard every day with the PAL level of 1.7 as that comes over and out of our rules of perfect health lifestyle.

So you can be either 1.4 or 1.5 with building your lean muscle.

Moving on...

Because with all these numbers that we have now, we can finally get to that amount of our daily calorie needs. So then, when you find out how much fuel your body burns at your current level, you can determine how much calories will you have to loose if you want to burn fat. Or, with our main goal here, how much "juice" you will need to take to gain weight i.e build a muscle.

As simple as it is now, just multiply your BMR score with your PAL level to get your main number. In my example, BMR is 1409 and my PAL 1.5. So my daily energy needs are: 1409 x 1.5 = 2113 Kcal. That`s how much my body needs to retain this current weight of 64 kilograms.

Now, if I would like to bulk-up a bit more, which I constantly do by reaching my 65kg when the fall and winter come, I would have to increase my calorie intake by 20%. Meaning multiplying the number above with 1.2. That will give me a healthy 0.25-0.5 kg of weight gain per month. But based on your metabolism, which you can also control, sometimes it takes me faster to get there, like a week or two. A lot of factors are included. But all this is impossible without the proper weight training routine as you already know.

Now, below this text I`ve attached my favorite book about healthy food plans by amazing Anita Bean. It`s a fourth edition and I`ve been here from the very first one. The book is simple-written, for everyone to understand. With plenty of answered questions on multiple health issues. Very informative and most of these calorie calculations I mentioned previously are from what I`ve learned myself and from her wonderful book. And you simply must have this book at your disposal whichever health issue you have or don`t. It will help immensely.

And that`s it! The basic math rules are done! Now, sit back, relax, make a smoothie like I did just a moment ago and take a look at some of my great meal plan choices.

My meal plans are pretty straight forward. I got used to not always having every item at my disposal. So improvisation led me to some great, practical and fast servings. That stayed on a healthy nutrition shelf.

The cooking part is always a key thing here. With following a few basic rules about what not to eat and what is your daily dose of a must-eat food. As you already can imagine, a proper balance of the recommended daily nutrients from the three major groups is the key feature here. You must have a proper dose of Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats on your daily plate.

To eat good, you don`t have to have "special diet". Giving yourself excessive restrictions, will highly affect your mental state. And when holding a grudge like that, you are putting unnecessary stress on your body right before even starting to do anything about your positive change.

I don`t encourage the fast-food at all. But even an occasional meal bites won`t harm you. Given that you are in the range of your daily calorie intake of course. But still, there are some things that I just don`t endorse at all. Beverages like Energy Drinks and any soda drinks. Or any similar foods. Why? Because with these types of foods, even the small amount taken can do your health wrong. And fast-bring you back to the negative results, like high blood sugar, belly bloats and serious mess with your hormonal levels.

One of my and I`m guessing everyone`s favorite topic when nutrition comes at stake is the proper caffeine intake. Yes, that. Well, numerous of scientific researches are there and it`s pretty damn overwhelming to explore. And make a final decision.

But what I concluded from my own research is that it comes depending on a few factors. Like:

• what kind of coffee are we talking about
• what type of person are you, caffeine hypersensitive or not
• the timing of coffee digestion
• the amount of coffee you take

One thing is crucial here. Make sure you have a balanced diet if your coffee and milk needs are high. Because they strongly affect your Iron levels. And with training hard, you can easily find yourself in the Iron-Deficiency Anemia box. And even tough treatable, it is not an easy thing to handle, believe me. I will address it in one of my next topics soon. It can mess up your whole training and life routine.

Give yourself time. Don`t rush into things. For the end here are couple of guidelines to a healthy meal plan that will work 100%. Don`t get discouraged if you don`t see the fast results at first. It was not easy on your health system to take all the bad stuff that you`ve been absorbing. So it takes a bit more time from it to switch to a new way of running its craving machine.

For those of you who already build a nice strong health environment, this will be piece of cake. It can serve as a small reminder that will keep you on the right path that you are already on.

To show my gratitude, and before we jump to those simple rules to apply, I prepared a special gift for all my wonderful readers which you can grab by hitting my email direct at iamcookbeat@gmail.com with the title "I Want The Prize!" and every reader will get it!

Thank you. Now head down to the basic rules of eating.