Pre-Contest diet ???'s

[Sal Paradise]

I have a question about food timing, etc.

Right now I have started my pre-contest diet phase and I don't set specific times for my meals,
at least not yet.
Whether I do or not I have not yet decided, which is why I’m asking this.

Usually toward the end of my diet I simply graze all day.
The food volume is not enough to spread out into many meals so I just sit at my desk
and “graze” on the specified amount all day long.
If I plan to have 100 carbs I set that out and mix it with the appropriate amount tuna,
meat or whatever and nibble on it all day long or until it is gone.
If it's a super low carb day i.e. 25 grms then a 1/4 cup of oatmeal certainly isn't going to last -
but in general a larger portion of brown rice would be spread out much further.
It usually makes the food last longer, I have a better feeling of satiety and I potentially eat less.

Well now it's the beginning of the diet and I have sort of fallen into that 'grazing' routine
over the past year or so.
Do you think it would be wise to maintain this even now at the start of the diet or set
a structured food regimen?

For example:
I woke and had a protein shake at 8am.
The morning shake usually has 2 scoops of powder and 3-4 whole eggs + milk (that gets cut in a bit)
Then from 9:00am till 1:30 I had a pound of bison meat with approximately 1 1/2 cups of broccoli.
This is too light in terms of volume but it was a hectic day at work so sit down time was limited.
Then at 2:30 I was “grazing” on some brown rice and deer meat.
The total was probably 1 cup cooked rice and 6-8oz of meat at the most and some more broccoli.

I know this is not much food for my diet but I haven't gotten the totals worked out yet.
I will be working on the totals this weekend.
I just started this diet phase a couple of days ago.

Once I get the totals down my initial plan was to simply “graze” on the food and go from there.

Or if it is more beneficial I would separate out the meals into portions and have those at set intervals
with the specific carb/protein/fat ratios.

I simply don’t know if one way would be better than the other.
I know there is a general thought that says to eat many small meals all day and the “grazing” would
certainly fall into that category I would think.

Just looking for opinions so please let them fly.

Thanks,
Sal

[Corrodo]

Re: Pre-Contest diet ???'s

I put my pre-comp diet up in the aas section that I am following for a show in 12 weeks. Its a carb rotating as well. I like to stick to a solid plan, if I dont I will eat all dam bay to bro...I wrote out my 3 meal plan days and times to eat and what to eat...And within a half hour I eat those meals everyday at the same time. When you think about ityou can control the cals better that way and the timing as well. Eating every 2-3 hours is really grazing in a diet sense. If you graze all day your not giving your body enough time to burn what you ate, cause your constantly eating cals. Plus I think it will be easier to follow a strict plan and make sure you get your cals in that way, cause grazing might effect your total cal intake cause your not hungry for a whole meal when its time to eat one. But in a sense grazing is eating 7 small meals a day, so your not doing anything wrong really. Just out of simplicity it would be easier to space them out every 2-3 hrs per meal. But im an anal bastard so its hard for me to not have it organized...lol

[Sal Paradise]

Re: Pre-Contest diet ???'s

I put my pre-comp diet up in the aas section that I am following for a show in 12 weeks.

When you think about ityou can control the cals better that way and the timing as well. Eating every 2-3 hours is really grazing in a diet sense. If you graze all day your not giving your body enough time to burn what you ate, cause your constantly eating cals. Plus I think it will be easier to follow a strict plan and make sure you get your cals in that way, cause grazing might effect your total cal intake cause your not hungry for a whole meal when its time to eat one.

Thanks Corrodo -
I saw your post with the diet laid out, that's the main reason I posted this question. I figured I would get some decent feedback.

I also worried about the constant influx of cals. My worry was just that - would I ever really be burning any with calories constantly being fed.
YOu are also correct in the fact that I may not be getting enough, when I keep the food nearby, it's easy just to take a bite or two and then forget for another half an hour. Do that all day and you really never get in enough and muscle wasting could occur. It's not too bad in the offseason because the amount of food is so much more.

Thanks again

Sal