What’s your diet look like?

Switched it up and ate ice cream and dominos this weekend and I think I got food poisoning. I’m pooped 8 times since 6am today in addition to 13 times yesterday. My asshole is literally on fire.

My typical diet is a smoothie (cashews, chia seeds, various fruits such as pineapple, apple, banana, berries) around 10:30am, lunch which is either pasta with lots of meat or meat, beans and rice. Costco protein bar, then protein shake around 7pm.

I work in corporate finance so am able to take an hour for lunch every day, but I usually eat at my desk. I know Seamless is big in banking, and for consultants, they usually can expense meals. Whenever we have consultants come in (McKinsey, EY, etc.) I never bring food other than a smoothie because they’ve always got pastries.

I’ve found I function best when I exclude dairy from my diet, and my skin seems to be better when I don’t eat cheese and ice cream. I’m a big fan of cottage cheese, and that seems to not be as potent as other dairy products.

 

I eat one meal a day (OMAD) 6x per week so usually that's dinner when I get in protein and a lot of greens. As many greens as I can. I have Sunday Brunch on Sundays so have breakfast then, but not any other day.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
BenBernyankin'

Does OMAD interfere with your cardio/strength in the gym? 

It depends. If I want to workout 2x per day usually I'll eat more during the day because I burned more calories. If I workout 3x per day, I'm eating all day. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

do you experience bad smell from mouth? it's common when people don't eat for a long time. if yes, how do you deal with it? mouth freshener spray or gum? gum will make you wanna eat more and will make your stomach produce acids which are supposed to help with food digestion, but if there is no food in the stomach, these acids can harm your stomach instead.

 

I have a ton of water at the beginning of the day. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Banker4LIFO

I've never understood how people do this. Would need to pee every 15 minutes.

So, you are okay being overweight then? Since the body needs water either from water or from foods.

SafariJoe, wins again!
 

My favorite smoothie: frozen strawberries, PB, banana, kale or spinach. I loooove lots of PB. And throw in some protein powder if you like, I prefer Vega

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Brio

I make a similar smoothie every single morning. Do you ever use powdered greens or have an opinion there. 

Put Kale or Spinach in the freezer and use it whenever for smoothies - it won’t go bad. It’s better for you than powders. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Meal 1 (~2pm)

- 4-5 eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, 1/4 cup blue berries, avocado and (1-2 cups) greens and maybe some whole wheat toast

- if in the office then swap out the eggs/bacon for oven-baked chicken thighs

6pm: protein shake if I hit the gym that day, which is most days)

Meal 2: (7-8pm)

- usually chicken or beef, (2-3 cups) greens, sweet potato or cod liver (2oz - omega 3 profile is insane)

- If I need something sweet then a half serving of dark chocolate pretzel bark thins

Intermitent fast from 8pm-2pm

*** Friday and Saturday night i'll usually eat whatever, gotta live a life

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

Yes, I started doing it when I started IB, fearful that I would get out of shape given the lifestyle. I started at a 12 hour fast and worked my way up to the 17-18 hour fast I do now. There are a few common benefits that many experience

       1. gives your body more time to burn the calories that you have already consumed and thus are more likely to be able to begin burning fat before you break your fast. Most are able to do this without losing muscle mass which is great. You may get different results if you do 24+ fasts, not sure on those. I pretty firmly believe this one as I am in better shape now than when I started IB out of undergrad and worked out harder than I do now.

       2. theres increasing evidence that fasting improves insulin sensitivity, thus lowering chances of diabities and related conditions

       3. If you have a tendency to overeat, it is helpful becuase you only have some much time and can only eat so much in 1-2 sitting rather than eating all day (assuming you are eating healthier / more natural foods which are almost always more filling and satiating than junk food

       4. I was always a late night snacker but nothing that I would eat or most people eat after dinner is going to be healthy. I doubt there's a lot of people eating late night salads. Keeping a fasting routine eliminates the possiblity as you just stop eating once outside your feeding window 

       5. Other debatable health benefits that I've heard about but haven't done a lot of research on. Some say their memory improved a bit also improvements in cardiovascular health have been seen. That said I haven't looked at those studies so not sure how they are comparing. Most people that fast regularly are probably healthier on average so you would need to test identical diet with one group fasting and one group not to get good results. There's a lot of noise in most medical research or faulty studies (i.e. most epidemiology designed studies aren't great).

 

When I'm at home I eat the exact same thing for breakfast everyday. It used to drive my significant other crazy, but she has gotten used to it.

Breakfast

1) Smoothie that I make myself each morning (kale, chard, spinach, banana, strawberries, pineapples, and mango)

2) Steel cut oatmeal with almonds, coconut, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds

3) Two slices of 7-grain toast with no salt peanut butter

Other meals (lunch and dinner) are much more diverse, but as a rule, I generally avoid carbs and never eat refined / processed foods.

No snacking between meals. If I feel hungry, I will just drink water or tea (feelings of hunger are usually thirst in disguise)

 

The key to progress is consistency and the key to consistency is routine/similar meals. If you can enjoy eating the same thing over and over then there is nothing you cant do from a diet standpoint. My typical day:

Morning - egg white omelet. The egg white is key, if you eat enough normal eggs then the cholesterol will add up. Usually I add a side of fruit and sometimes whole grain toast. 40g-50g protein right off the bat

Lunch - Rice, veggies, and ~ 1 pound of baked salmon or chicken. 100g of protein or so.

Afternoon snack - usually go to gym at some point in evening and need some food in the tank. Here will usually do canned tuna , oatmeal, fruit, or some combination of the sort.

Post workout - fruit protein smoothie

Dinner - healthy like the lunch, but still usually bland. Pasta with ground turkey, salmon/chicken with rice, potatoes and pork, etc. 

During the weekend I get away from this a bit due to life but still try to eat pretty healthy. Found the above has worked to feel great, stay lean, yet strong. 

 

Damn you must be a tank, that’s healthy asf. Do you flavor your food with different sauces? That just seems like it would get depressing to eat after a while.

Also how do you have time to cook that much food? I find myself ordering food because I just don’t have the time/energy to cook full meals, order groceries, clean, etc.

 

Breakfast: nut/seed/oat/fruit muesli with milk (also drink a lot of water for the first ~hour)

Lunch: usually some fruit, nuts, and yoghurt. Sometimes a salad

Dinner: varies, but normally a fried veggie mix, some pasta, or rice/lentil/quinoa based dish. I've cut back my meat intake to 3-4 times per week.

Throw in 1-2 protein shakes after workout +after dinner. 

 

D2/3 Mens Lightweight rowing. Practice + Lift five days a week.

3500 Calories, 220g protein, 450g carbs, 100g fat

I try and drink a gallon of water a day and split up those calories with five meals. Typically I eat eggs, ground bison, chicken, any vegetable you can think of and ALOT of rice and pasta. 

 

I'm way less rigid than I used to be. I eat pretty well I think, I love pasta, rice, fat, booze, and the occasional sweet stuff. I eat 3 meals a day, enjoy a glass of wine, and sometimes a nice cigar. I control the bad shit by focusing on sourcing, portion size, and exercise. example of something we ate recently

- cotoletta (chicken cutlet) with spaghetti cacio e pepe and a side salad of arugula, garlic, avocado, pine nuts, lemon juice, salt & pepper

I eat carbs with every meal and maintain insulin sensitivity and my body fat %. I should also mention I eat no enriched carbs (unless it's at a restaurant and I can't avoid it, I'm not the guy that asks to speak to the food buyer before I order an entree), but I still love carbs and they don't negatively affect me by my nor my doctor's judgment.

I think the diet world has gone too extreme personally, food is meant to be enjoyed. you can have a healthy diet and still have it be exciting and not filled with chia seeds (shredded cardboard), kale (leafy bug spray), baked chicken (wet rubber), and flavorless brown rice (warm packing peanuts)

/rant

 

Currently in a calorie deficit to get a bit leaner. high protein, moderate carb and fats.

My diet consists red meat, chicken, Oatmeal, berries, banana, avocado,honey. cream of rice.

I love smoothies with whey, frozen berries, banana and stuff because of the expansion effect, makes it qua huge if you let it blend for a while. good hack if you are having cravings.

 

Sounds bro-sciencey and I'm not a doctor but try keto/carnivore for a couple months. I had a lot of digestion/food sensitivity issues from several bouts of antibiotics. These theoretically killed all the good bacteria in my gut needed for digestion.

After doing carnivore for a month (to starve bad gut bacteria - again, brosciencey but worked), I started taking a shit load of probiotics (VSL3, recommended by this joe rogan phd lady) and slowly reintroduced fruits and vegetables.

Another month after that, I can now (intermittently) safely eat carby junk food that would have literally debilitated me beforehand with aches/joint pain/skin rashes.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, but this was all based on what I could research for related concepts like "leaky gut" and "metabolic flexibility." Hippocrates did say that all health begins in the gut, and modern medicine is starting to revisit this with gut biome research.

 

I've tried Keto as well, did it on and off over the last year or so (no more than 2.5 months on in a single period). I generally enjoyed it but it makes going out a massive pain in the ass and generally less fun since you can't partake in much if any drinking (would occasionally get a vodka soda) and certainly none of the good tasting unhealthy foods you'd normally eat out.

Keto/carnivore is a great way to get shredded in the short term even if you're already in good shape as the diet does not allow for inflammatory foods (i.e. most carbs, even vegtables in some cases and can be individual dependent). Its pretty much just losing water weight which is why people on these diets generally urinate more often as they have less places to hold fluid. You can lose 5-20 lbs within 2-3 weeks but 75%+ of that will be water weight and you'll gain it back within a month or so once off the diet, assuming you eat the same as before the diet.

Keto didn't affect me at the gym too much though I usually stick to around 45 minute workouts. I've heard Keto is not great for endurance athletes as you need more glucose then you'll have on keto. You will definetly have gut bacteria changes on the diet during the first week "keto flu" as your body reduces the amount of bacteria that break down simple sugars (usually create the cravings for it in the first place) and replace with more bacteria that break down fat and protein. This is an oversimplication as the gut biome is incredibly complicated and sensitive as already pointed out.

 

I used to do OMAD (with the help of caffeine reducing my ghrelin) but since I've cut out coffee it has been quite a bit more difficult!

Nowadays a realistic week day looks like the following:

7am-6pm: Fast/Green Tea

6-7pm: 1st Workout (in the gym)

730pm: Grass-Fed Denatured Whey Protein + Spinach/Kale + Berries/Pomegranite in a blended protein shake

10pm: 2nd Workout (quick at home)

11pm: Two Wild Salmon Fillets (cooked with extra virgin olive oil) + Broccoli/Cauliflower/Aspargus

Before bed: Dark Chocolate (satisfies cravings sooooo well)

12pm: Pass out

Then I will usually destroy all my progress on the weekends :)

There is more than one way to get there. I'd rather have 30 chapters than 3000 pages.
 

This is a pretty low quality take. Pointless? Working out fasted means your body has less adenosine triphosphate to burn, leading to an accelerated timeframe to accessing fat stores as energy during your workout. Moreover, a fasted workout is tremendously more effective at burning fat and is definitely not "pointless". Sure if you're going for a squat/deadlift/bench PR then eat some carbs before; however, if you're just trying to put on muscle while staying lean fasted workouts are great (just make sure to get sufficient protein in your remaining meals of the day when you break your fast). 

There is more than one way to get there. I'd rather have 30 chapters than 3000 pages.
 

organ meat is legit and gets clowned when the Liver Kings of the world appear.

beef liver is more nutritionally dense than nearly any plant (google it), and it also delicious when cooked in a skillet with some butter

 

I've lost a significant amount of weight over the past two years (100+). Began the journey with a very harsh diet, 1200 calories a day combined with walking.

Meals were mostly 4oz of Chicken + 1/2 cup of Rice + Lettuce. Every single day I ate that for every meal except on the weekends. I felt tired but it was the peak of covid and I got addicted to seeing the weight fly off.

Things have changed, mostly focused on building muscle for the past 5 months. I do spin + weights and that diet was absolutely NOT sustainable. I resisted getting off that crash diet because I was terrified of putting the weight back on. Even though logically I could have bumped my calorie intake significantly and still be in a deficit.

Now a typical meal is 7oz of Chicken + 1 cup of rice and lettuce. I try to hit my protein goals with two protein shakes and a light breakfast if required. I will say that I'm a bit of a nut because I simply do not get bored of chicken and use it as the core protein base for my meals, but I do throw in lean ground beef too and when I go out I might indulge with something else. I think the biggest key is to get a food scale and track everything, if you do that you can probably eat anything you want and not get too bad. When you go out, just opt for more healthy choices and drink vodka sodas or something along those lines. 

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

Eggs, chicken breast, salmon, brocolli, carrots, brussels sprouts, sweet potato, protein shake (milk, PB, plant based protein powder), protein cereal, protein pancakes, blueberries, avocados, apples, popcorn (I have a bag of white corn kernels), ground turkey 93% lean, oikos triple zero yogurt, multivitamins, ashwaghanda, I only drink water, I cook with extra virgin olive oil. I am sure I missed a couple things, but yes this is mainly what I eat/drink/use for a diet.

 
Most Helpful

My diet is pretty  much the same. Breakfast- oatmeal with protein powder/coffee; Lunch- meat/rice/quinoa/vegetable and an orange; snack- eggs and apple/peanut butter/coffee; dinner- same as lunch and a salad; late snack- banana/honey/cinnamon/peanut butter. 

When you keep your diet somewhat strict, it lets you have other, slightly less healthy stuff at times. 

Tips (if anyone is looking):

1. Don't drink calories. People put on a lot of weight this way when they make coffee that they turn more into a milkshake, have some sort of soda/sweeten drink during the day, and then alcohol at night. Not saying these are bad, but could add 1,000+ calories a day, that's how you put on the weight. 

2. "Track" what you eat. Not saying every calorie or ounce, but I think outside of high calorie drinks, people "trick" themselves into thinking they ate healthy, but they didn't really. For example, people will rationalize, "scooped out bagel for breakfast, salad for lunch, chipotle for dinner", when in reality, breakfast included 1/2 lb of cream cheese, salad had additions that made it high calorie, chipotle is high calorie, and inbetween someone brought donuts to the office/couple mini snickers/couple cookies when I got home, on top of the drinks, that's how you get overweight over time. 

 

These are all great points, thanks for sharing.

On the drinking point - I’ve cut out sweet drinks altogether, but the real killer for me is alcohol. When I stopped drinking during covid, I lost like 25 pounds from not going out twice a weekend.

I’ve been thinking recently, and having 5-10 drinks on a Saturday easily can be over 1k-2k calories (especially if cocktails/mixed drinks). And then when I’m drunk and want food, I’ll often just say “fuck it” and then eat another 1k+ calories in pizza or junk food. So that an extra few thousand calories, times 2 nights, which really add up over time.

I’m trying to not eat food after drinking (or opt for something smaller like 1 slice or a bag of baked chips). Also I used to literally only drink michelobs/straight vodka because that’s the lowest calorie you can get for the ABV. I can’t bring myself to do that anymore but am going to try to eat less before going out so I don’t drink as much before I’m drunk.

 

True, I mean, it does get difficult, if all your friends are going to do something you want to do it as well (dunno how young/old you are). 

Alcohol is funny (easily explained) if you eat while drinking, your body will work through the alcohol first, basically shutting down your metabolism, leading to weight gain (google : does alcohol turn food into fat).

Not trying to be "preachy" ether, but baked chips are a good example, people believe them to be much healthier than regular chips, when in fact they are very close to regular chips in terms of calories/nutrition. Same think with salads at McDonalds or Naked Juice, about as many carbs/sugar as a Big Mac or Pepsi. 

 

I don’t recommend dieting, however, if you have a well proportioned diet and take extra fiber supplement(meta mucil, benefited, etc.) you’ll see more consistent energy and an increase in you metabolic rates which help induce fat loss. Also, due to the amounts of fiber you are consuming you’ll feel more full on less food which will help cut out snacking in between meals. However, since you did not explicitly give a goal for this question the true answer to any questions you have about diets is it depends on what you’re aiming to achieve.

 

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