Monitor Changes And Adjust If Needed
So remember what I said a minute ago about using your rate of weight gain as a map to help guide your calorie intake/surplus size?
Cool, because this 5th step is ALL about doing that.
Again, if youre not eating enough calories to support muscle growth, its not going to happen. And if youre eating more calories than your body can actually put towards the muscle building process, youre just going to end up getting fat.
This, combined with the facts that A) your maintenance level was just an estimate, and B) your surplus was just a starting point is why the key step to ensuring that your calorie intake is exactly what it should be is by monitoring what happens in the real world and adjusting when/if needed.
And I call this key stepThe Key Step.
Frustrated With Unhelpful Low
In 4 easy steps, youll have a custom weight loss meal plan made specifically for your body and your taste buds. Heres what were going to do in each step:
Eat Only Unprocessed Carbs To Lose Fat And Build Muscle
Packaged foods contain processed carbs that are not going to benefit you in any way. Get your carb count from unprocessed foods, and dont fill up on carbs unnecessarily. Look to fiber-filled veggies and healthy proteins as your primary food items, and add in some good carbs to round out the meal.
Carbs do fuel your muscles, but youve got to choose your carbs wisely.
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Lean Snacks For Grumbling Stomachs
While you adjust to this plan youll likely find hunger starts to get the best of you. Dont abstain, instead, tuck into these healthy snacks thatll keep you satiated without undoing your fat loss efforts
Apple slices with nut butter: Chop up an apple and eat it with two tablespoons of nut butters almond, cashew, walnut or peanut are all fine but go for low sugar, whole options. Chunky or smooth is up to you.
Biltong: This South African variety of beef jerky packs in the protein you get around 30g per 100g serving is virtually zero-carb and need not taste like cardboard if you find a good butchers. Again, go for the least sugary varieties.
Crudites and hummus: Dunk fresh, crispy celery, carrots, peppers or sugar snap beans into this healthy chickpea-based dip. Choose your hummus wisely though, check the label to make sure its not packed with salt.
Greek yogurt: Its full of healthy minerals including calcium, phosphorous and potassium, packed with live bacteria to improve digestion and has twice the protein of regular yogurt, so it helps your satiety levels.
Guacamole: Avoid the shop version to guarantee its free of any additives and make your own. Mash half an avocado and add a squirt of lime, a pinch of coriander and a bit of chopped tomato.
Lean Diet Plan For Male

Lean diet plan for male is one of the best decisions that a person can make when they are trying to live a healthier lifestyle. These diets work by making it so that you consume less calories than you burn. If it is done correctly, it can lead to some significant weight loss over time.
This is one of the best diets which will help you to maintain a healthy weight. You can make it quite easy by sticking to the food you should be consuming and avoiding anything that might derail your progress.
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Need Help With Your Diet And Workout
Don’t waste another minute of your time searching for what to do. I’ve already done the research for you and created step-by-step plans that work. Select your goal below…
- I Want To Build Muscle If you want to build lean muscle without gaining excess body fat, spending all of your time in the gym, using a diet or workout that isn’t customized to you, or doing myth-based nonsense that only works for people with amazing genetics, check out: Superior Muscle Growth
- I Want To Lose Fat If you want to lose body fat without losing muscle, feeling hungry all the time, using stupid restrictive diets, doing 100 hours of cardio, or struggling with plateaus, metabolic slowdown, and everything else that sucks about getting lean, check out: Superior Fat Loss
Want To Learn What The Optimal Muscle Building Diet Looks Like Read This Article
When it comes to building muscle and adding size to your frame, your diet is going to be the most important factor that you have to get right.
You can put in all the effort you want in the gym, but if your diet isn’t optimized for building muscle then you aren’t going to see the results you’re after.
In fact, this is exactly why so many gym-goers get stuck spinning their wheels in the gym. They neglect the most important aspect of transforming their bodies… Nutrition!
Because simply put:
When your diet is optimized for muscle growth, it will enable you to perform that much better in the gym and physically recover and progress that much faster.
But what exactly does a diet optimized for muscle growth entail?
Well, let’s start with the basics.
If you’re looking for a step-by-step program that shows you how to easily set up, track, and monitor each and every single important dietary variable – while equipping you with a science-based nutrition and training program designed to transform your body as efficiently as possible, then:
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Combine This Diet With An Effective Muscle Building Workout
Yeah, I know. This technically has nothing to do with your diet. Even still, theres no way I can leave this part out.
Consider it a bonus.
Simply put, the workout you use and how effective it is at stimulating muscle growth is absolutely crucial to your ability to both A) build muscle , and B) avoid gaining excess body fat.
Because again, youre in a caloric surplus supplying your body with extra calories. Those calories can either go towards muscle growth or fat storage.
And so there are two possible scenarios
How do you make #1 happen and avoid #2?
Space Your Carbs Around Your Training
You wont have an endless amount of carbs on this Ultimate Diet Plan for Building Muscle.
To get the best from your foods, try eating carbs before your workout in order to give you energy, and afterwards to help with the repair process.
Training low on energy will only lead to poor workouts and sub-maximal results.
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Principle No 8stay On Your Feet As You Sweat
Think about it: You sit at work all day. You sit in your car. You plant your butt on the sofa to watch sports. Why would you go to the gym to do more sitting? Plus, almost any exercise you can perform sitting down is based on one we used to do standing up.
So stay on your feet. You’ll not only burn calories but also stay more focused and engaged in your workout. Better yet, combine multiple exercises and move quickly from one to the next with minimal rest between them. When possible, use one arm or leg at a time. The muscles that keep you balanced and stabilized end up doing twice as much work. All this activity will create a more efficient, more effective workout that’s more likely to produce the results you want. Now up and at ’em!
The Science You Need To Know
To understand the difference between natural and non-natural eating, you need to know a few things:
Calories
Every diet that makes you lose fat works via caloric deficit. Removing a macronutrient from your diet doesn’t make you lose fat if you’re consuming a caloric surplus.
For fat loss, calorie consumption is the most important factor. I’ve known keto dieters and intermittent fasting proponents who’ve not been remotely lean despite eating that way for a year or more. It’s not that keto doesn’t work it’s that if you consume a caloric surplus while eating keto, you’ll gain fat, just like with any eating style.
That said, calories are NOT the only important factor, especially if you’re interested in improving body composition .
Insulin
Many believe nothing is more important than calorie expenditure. They’ll even say that insulin sensitivity and thyroid hormone levels don’t matter. I’ve even read one evidence-based expert say that insulin won’t ever make you fat.
Technically, they’re right. Insulin facilitates the entry of ingested nutrients into their respective storage facilities muscle, liver, and fat cells. Insulin doesn’t make you store more nutrients than you ingest. It can’t. So, in a way, those who say that are correct: it’s the caloric surplus that makes you fat, not the insulin itself.
So even though caloric intake is key in gaining or losing weight , insulin and insulin sensitivity are also important.
Cortisol
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Optimize Your Pre And Post Workout Meals
Your pre and post workout meals aka the meals you eat before and after your workout can play important roles in both your performance during the workout and the recovery process that comes after.
Are we talking super, crazy, ultra, mega important? So important that they can make or break your results?
Not even close.
When it comes to building muscle, your total calorie, protein, fat and carb intake are ALWAYS the most important parts of your diet. By far. Every other part of your diet is of secondary and/or minor importance in comparison.
Having said that, getting these meals right will still be beneficial to your results.
So, do that. Heres what I recommend
Consume a meal containing a nice amount of protein and carbs from whatever sources you prefer within 1-2 hours before your workout, and again 1-2 hours after your workout.
Simple as that.
Create A Budget Friendly Menu

For optimal fitness, your body needs nutrients from lean proteins, good carbohydrates, and healthy fats for optimal fitness. Knowing what the body needs is the first step to creating a budget-friendly menu. Next, locate discount food stores and bulk purchase outlets, and clip coupons for extra savings.
Organics and canned food items will be cheaper in discount food outlets. Compare prices and reduce stress by locating one or two favorite stores to save on transportation costs.
Prepare a food budget ahead of time and don’t be tempted by impulse items.
Remember: Your budget is critical, healthy food is a priority, and your goals to gain lean mass are important.
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Eat Protein Every Day To Lose Fat And Build Muscle
Protein is essential to both fat loss and muscle gain. For fat loss, include protein in every meal to have an increased thermic effect. You see, protein-rich foods help to increase your metabolism because your body requires more energy to digest them.
Which foods increase the thermogenesis, or fat burning process?
- Chicken and turkey
- Cottage cheese and full-fat yogurt
- Red meat like pork and beef
Exercising Builds Muscle Mass And Helps You Lose Fat
The great thing about exercising is that a lot of exercises will burn fat and build muscle, both at the same time. Its neat, too a kind of bonus, actually that as you build muscle mass, your body burns more energy. This effect even works when we are at rest.
So, to me, that is an incentive to move as much as you can. Its a great reason to work out with intensity to get full benefits.
Thats why when I exercise, I like to use weights. To me, theres just something about pushing myself to the limit. And to boot, lifting weights can boost your metabolism.
Its been proven that hours after you have completed a strength training exercise, your resting metabolic rate is still elevated. So, the intense weight lifting session you powered through is continuing to give you calorie-busting benefits.
If you are someone who loves a cardio workout but wants the lean muscle mass building effect of weight training, HIIT may be for you. How does it work? Short bursts of exercise, like jumping rope and sprinting, can help to burn calories in quick exercise intervals. These bursts can be done throughout the day, freeing up time to concentrate on your strength training sessions.
Whichever type of exercise gets you moving is the best kind. Dont be sedentary. Move your body and combine that movement with strength training to lose fat and build lean muscle mass.
Lift weights at least twice a week, or if you can, take part in a strength training workout at least every other day.
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Snacks For Building Lean Muscle
- Protein bar shoot for 100-200 cal barsGreat picks: QuestBar, PureProtein, thinkThin** These are all low sugar look for sugar < 5g **
Calories in Your Lean Muscle Diet Plan
First, it is important to understand that it all starts with nutritious calories.
Eating in a small caloric surplus is one of the most critical factors for optimal muscle growth. That way, the body has an adequate supply of energy to complete its many processes, and it can also dedicate more energy to muscle repair and growth.
But, to ensure that youre eating in a surplus, you need to count calories and weigh your food. For that, you need to know your BMR and TDEE (the total number of calories you burn daily.
By knowing how many calories youre burning, you can eat slightly more than that and ensure proper muscle growth. This is the key to building lean muscle.
To calculate your BMR and TDEE, you can use a simple online calculator.
Dinner Items For Building Lean Muscle
- Grilled Chicken
- Steamed Veggies without Butter: Broccoli, Spinach, Lima Beans, Green Beans, Cauliflower, Carrots, Kale, and other leafy greens.
- Sirloin Steak with two servings of rice and steamed veggies
- Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad TGIF, Chilis, most chain restaurants
- Chick-Fil-A: Grilled Cool Wrap
- KFC: Quarter Chicken with Green Beans
- Pollo Tropical: Quarter Chicken with Black Beans
- McDonalds: Grilled Chicken Snack Wrap
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Avoid Processed Foods To Lose Fat And Build Muscle
Processed foods are really a lot of empty calories that do not provide nutrition at all. Sure, they fill you up and satisfy hunger for the moment, but they do nothing for your body.
The simplest reason for avoiding processed foods is to know exactly what you are putting in your body every time you eat. Look at it this way, the best way to have control over whats in the calories you eat is to eat food in its natural state.
An orange is an orange, plain and simple and a chicken breast, is well, chicken. Healthy, wholesome foods that are naturally good for you should be the mainstay of your diet.
Foods that have hidden sugars, unhealthy fats, and ingredients you cant pronounce or even attempt to understand should not be in your grocery cart. There are also a lot of fake healthy foods out there that trick you into thinking you are eating well, when in fact, you arent at all.
Remember these tips when avoiding processed foods:
- Foods that claim to be low sugar or sugar-free will have ingredients like aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose
- Fat-free items are typically fat-reduced but sugar-increased
- There are lots of names for hidden sugar, like maltodextrin, barley malt, sucralose, glucose-fructose, and corn syrup solids
- Gluten-free items can contain a lot of sugar, salt, and fat, so read the labels carefully
- Instead of refined white flour when baking, look to whole wheat flour, cassava flour, chickpea flour, or almond meal
Making Adjustments To The Muscle Gain Meal Plans
Once you know how many calories you should be eating each day, choose a mail plan that closely matches your daily requirements.
Its unlikely that the number of calories you need will precisely match the meal plans.
For example, a man with a lean body weight of 152 pounds might have a daily calorie requirement of 2800 calories. In his case, he would take the 2500 calorie meal plan and increase some of the foods across one or two meals, or choose a 3,000 plan and reduce some foods.
Simply adding one slice of wholemeal bread and one large egg to the 2500 calorie meal plan would bring the number of calories up to around 2750, ideal for our 152lb man.
Make slight adjustments if your calorie needs dont match the plans.
Important Note: As I mentioned at the start of this guide, you dont need to stress about getting your calorie requirements dead on. It would be impossible to be 100% accurate with this whole process. Your goal with your daily nutrition is to create a slight surplus of calories to facilitate the muscle building process, and to ingest ample doses of protein throughout the day to increase protein synthesis.
The carbohydrates and fats provide an energy source and aid these growth processes.
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Meal : Before Bedtime
Yes, many nutritionists and even doctors suggest that one shouldnt eat post 8 P.M but there are times when you might get snacky at night and wish to make an exception. For those times, its best for you to have a combination of slow processing, lean body Protein and healthy fats. Paneer with ½ a spoon of peanut butter will make for a good combination.
We think this might have cleared your doubts to some extent and you have the answers you were looking for. If you would like to know more about a diet plan for a lean body and what other options you can consider to include in your diet then you can do it by getting in touch with our expert nutritionists and having them prepare a customized diet plan for you. Do it with FITFEAST by FITPASS and start your fitness journey today.