Hi all,Everyone knows it's easy to get fat in this industry. So, what's your daily or weekly diet? What types of foods are you eating when? Do you have a macro count? Do you have any rules that you stick to? (Including your role, height, weight, weekly exercise as well would be helpful).
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I think with meal stipends (when combined with stressful work), people's first inclination is to go get all their favorite comfort food, which is typically fast food. Really easy to binge on Chipotle, or Chick Fil A, or whatever every day, especially when it's on someone else's tab. But this is bad for 2 reasons, one is the obvious (it's unhealthy) but 2 you're also getting older and because you're stationary all day your metabolism is going to drastically slow down. So while in college you might've been able to burn off that taco bell for dinner pretty quick, it won't be as easy now.
That all being said, everyone has a different body that requires something different. I've tried the salad every day at lunch, and despite what combo I make, I always feel like I have no energy. So I've switched to a carb and fruit heavy lunch with a lot of protein, and then mix that with a pretty lean chicken and rice dinner. But that's me. I've known guys who've balanced it with a heavy breakfast, salads for lunch, and then protein for dinner. It's all about what your body needs to have energy to think clearly, and not destroy itself on the inside.
Meal stipends have to be so dangerous for heart disease. Nearly every meal which you can order in has a stupidly high salt content even if it's somewhat healthy. Having that more or less everyday will massively increase risk of hypertension
Getting chipotle with chicken, brown rice, lettuce, corn, and fajita veggies can't be that bad right? Obviously important to avoid the tortilla, queso, guac, etc but feels like one of the healthier fast-casual options
*IF* you can keep it to that, then sure it's not that bad. But personally, I have a hard time avoiding the sour cream and shredded cheese so it ends up being not good for me.
Slow day in IB? you get to have meals AND spare time to track them?
Salads, grilled chicken. Make sure to go to gym after work, but usually it's just work gym sleepMake sure I get a daily walk in the morning and try to maximize my steps through the day. Usually lift for an hour and hit the treadmill for 40 mins
Ordering out makes me sluggish so I like to keep it relatively light + lots of water and coffee make me have to piss so I get my steps in
At the risk of sounding disrespectful, what shop are you at where you have time for a walk and ~2 hours of working out in the evenings? Genuinely curious, not trying to be a smart ass.
Not disrespectful. I head out of the office around 6, lift till 8, then hop back on to finish up work
Just eat Sweetgreens or tender greens everyday
Not in IB nor have a meal stipend but I’m a huge proponent of very high protein and medium fats/carbs, ideally getting most of your carbs from veggies and healthy fats. There is some data out there that suggests eating higher protein alone with minimal activity can still stimulate body composition change over time.
Black coffee and cigarettes. Whatever leftover catering I can scrounge from the break room when they move it there at 2pm.
High protein, low sugar. Don’t stick to a perfect diet and enjoy desserts sometimes.
Workout 4x a week, mostly weightlifting. Coasting off some good college gains.
6’0” 170lb ~10% body fat
295 squat, 225 bench, 315 deadlift
This might be my most blazing hot take I’ve ever had & certainly slightly extraneous to original thread, but who decided that breakfast should be eggs or sausage or bacon… Why not chicken? Hear me out…
I’ve been trying this out for a week, so take it with a grain of salt. I do 2 meals a day. 3/4 to 1 lb of chicken breast & then a bowl of blueberries or blackberries or raspberries or a banana - any fruit will suffice. If you blanket that chicken in a deluge of Franks Red Hot, it will be BOTH filling and delicious. Besides that, drink at LEAST a gallon of water a day - most people are thirsty, not hungry. Also snack on a bag of baby spinach whenever, it’s $2, virtually no calories, and exquisitely based.
Working out, lift 3 days a week - M W F. The lifts are as M (Chest & Bis), W (Back & Tris), F (Legs & Shoulders). You should be able to run through these quick since you don’t use your biceps during chest exercises, etc etc. Also abs at the end of every lift. For T Th, do some light cardio, run for 30 mins or hoop for a bit; swim at the gym pool or hit the bag around. Do what you want on the weekends.
For me, this is sustainable & isn’t an egregious amount of work (30-45 min a day), obvious you might have to miss some workout if you have ZERO bandwidth.
Not telling you to change since many approaches work, but make sure you're getting health fats, especially those from meat, eggs, and dairy. Also raw spinach can cause issues if eaten in large quantities, I'd recommended researching a bit.
That being said I do the same thing many mornings, 1lb of chicken or beef and some fruit. Energy always high afterwards
How many hours after you wake up do you eat that chicken/beef
Workout roughly 30-60 minutes every day - combination of biking, weightlifting, running (15 miles a week - so not much), and then I hit about 10k steps a day, often more, and find every excuse to walk that I can. Sports once or twice a week when not traveling.
I don't have a macro count, and don't count calories anymore - I just make better choices and focus on being consistent. Avoid things like processed carbs (muffins, pastries, etc.), sugary sodas or juices, combinations of butter/sugar/fat, heavy carb meals, etc. I eat a lot of fruit, cheese, protein, salads, burgers, etc. If you have a burger - skip the fries, or eat half the bun. Things like that add up over time. Same with ordering out or eating out, pick what matters most. Spend a bit extra on the salad with chicken or salmon - it's worth it long term.
Drinking was always the biggest issue - when you drink a lot, or even frequently, it's simply harder to stay healthy. I drink, and used to drink a lot. If you are drinking, select wisely and limit the number - eat high protein, limit the carbs as best you can.
How are you able to get those steps in?
I can walk to my office - so that is about a mile ish each way, so that helps. Otherwise it's just getting up throughout the day and walking - take a 15 minute walk here, another one there. When I get home, I'll take another walk. Having a dog helps, but I did that before I had one.
Physical stats: 6'5", low 220s, been weightlifting for like 7 years.
Career: Still a student, will start a SWE job at FAANG in a few months - note this allows for my weird eating habits.
Daily exercise: Alternate days between weights (usually 2 compounds for a ton of sets, maybe some accessories if I'm feeling frisky), and cardio (usually rowing or Stairmaster, though more frequently Stairmaster because I, quite frankly, am usually not in the mood to puke first thing in the morning).
I usually wake up disgustingly early, a few minutes after getting up, I will have the following:
4 scoops protein powder in hot water (so it mixes easier), usually 1 pint of blueberries and about a liter of water. Then I'll workout for anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours. After this, I have my only real meal of the day which consists of 600g of steak, 1.5 of Fairlife homogenized milk (it's glorious), and a bunch of veggies which are usually just bell peppers & mushrooms.
And that's it - in total it's around 3500 cals, ~250g protein and I have no idea about the carbs & fats - probably high fat and ~100g of carbs if I had to guess. Given that I usually finish this meal by 9 am at the latest, if I'm hanging out with friends in the evening having a bbq/restaurant etc, I'll usually just get something like a steak or some other lean meat/salad or whatever.
Obviously, sometimes I will still demolish a pizza at 11pm...but most days I'm pretty good with it. If I'm feeling a little under-recovered, I'll up my carbs a bit in the form of an extra pint or two of blueberries/blackberries/raspberries pre workout. In the evening I usually go out for a 30-60min walk (basically as much as time permits), and listen to whatever audiobook at the same time.
Dude you have to be an absolute tank how do you not get hungry throughout the day?
Appreciate the compliment brother.
Two things: Firstly, I do, but usually not until around 6/7pm since my "breakfast" is so big, unless I'm particularly ravenous I usually can't justify the effort to cook so close to me going to sleep. Also, this might sound insane, but I kind of like the feeling of hunger.
Secondly, probably more importantly, is that almost counterintuitively, when you eat more infrequently (provided you're not literally starving yourself), you're actually just generally less hungry. I've had phases where I've done the 6 meal/day thing etc etc, and honestly the hunger I usually feel in the evening now is only slightly more than when I did that before my 6th meal of the day. I think this is because you kind of learn the difference between hunger and actually just cravings, I honestly have no fucking idea why, but this has been my experience.
In general, I feel pretty much exactly the same as when I used to eat normally - maybe sleep a bit better but I usually sleep like shit so I can't really comment much on that.
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