(upbeat music)
- What is up everyone.
I'm Ebenezer Samuel, fitness director for Men's Health
and today I'm gonna crash you through the diet that I use to
build muscle, maintain muscle,
and keep gaining the strength that I really really want.
A little bit about me,
I'm generally weighing in between 177 and 182 pounds.
When I'm around that
I feel strong, I feel athletic.
I also feel explosive, and I have power,
and those are all things that are important to me.
It was not always easy for me to gain weight though.
I've been strength training since I was in high school,
but for a long time I wasn't really in control of my diet,
didn't know what I was doing.
When that came together,
once I learned that probably about five or six years ago,
then I was able to make really good gains
in terms of strength,
really good gains in terms of the size that I wanted too.
So now I'm gonna take you through
the method that works for me.
I eat every two and a half hours,
so from the moment that I wake up,
I'm gonna get something in my system.
Every two and a half hours after that,
for as long as I'm awake, I'm gonna eat.
I wanna make sure that I have some form of nutrition
floating through my system so that my muscles can
just constantly get that resupply of nutrients.
In general, I'm gonna track exactly one macro.
I'm gonna track my protein.
I wanna make sure that I'm around 180 grams of protein,
and I want that especially over the latter part of my day
coming in natural sources.
In terms of my other macros such as carbs and fat,
I'm gonna get those in throughout my diet
but I'm not gonna track those as aggressively
and a lot of times, as long as I'm hitting my protein,
hitting my eating intervals,
they're gonna fall into place right where they need to be.
I wind up most days around 120 to 180 grams of carbs,
which is good because I do train a lot.
If anything I could probably
raise that number and it wouldn't be bad,
and I'd wind up with anywhere from 60 to 90 grams of fat
in general all from good fat sources,
except on Saturday, we'll get there.
As you can see, I do have some fun in my diet too.
So let's run things through,
starting at the beginning of the day.
The first thing I'm gonna do when I wake up,
I will go to a supplement.
I will go to, ideally a whey protein isolate.
In this case I have this dymatize here.
I'll go there because that's a nice, good protein,
and you get something.
It's something I can make quick, I can have on the go.
So I will have on-and-a-half scoops of it,
protein supplement.
I will have one tablespoon of almond butter,
that is my morning good fat,
to make sure I have a good fat in there.
I've been trying to get more binge with my diet,
so I will have this Vita Hustle green supplement,
just that way I get a little bit of antioxidants
in the morning, get a little bit extra in there.
I'll mix that all up in water and drink it.
It is not the best tasting thing in the world.
It also does not taste as bad as you may think.
Two and a half hours after that,
we wind up around nine thirty or ten o' clock.
I go back in for another scoop of protein.
This is a habit I developed because
we have a morning meeting around then,
so the protein is easy for me to
down before I go into that meeting.
So one-and-a-half scoops more here.
That winds up being 37 and a half
grams of protein by the way.
And then another tablespoon of almond butter
mixed in water.
It does not taste great again, but it gets the job done.
Then I wind up around noon,
and now I'm shifting into natural sources of protein.
Now I wanna get in six ounces of salmon,
about three ounces of brown rice,
and two to three ounces of broccoli.
So that gives me a good vegetable, it gives me
a slow burning carb that's starting to to carry my body
through the rest of the day.
And then with that salmon,
I wind up with anywhere from 30-35 grams of protein,
and I also get good fats in there.
I really love salmon
as a go to protein source throughout my day,
and I think I probably have it every day.
Two thirty, I don't need a lot of choices in my diet,
as long as it's giving me the fuel I need,
so I go right back in, same thing.
I'll have another six ounces of salmon.
Another two to three ounces of brown rice.
Two-three ounces of broccoli again.
Around five o' clock.
Now I'm getting into workout mode.
I wanna have another meal right before I get into that.
Again I told you before,
I wanna kinda get a variety of protein sources in.
At least two throughout the day.
So my first one is salmon, if that happens.
My second one will be either chicken, a beef,
a pork, or something like that.
So I'll go with five or six ounces of chicken breast,
three to four ounces of potatoes
with some peppers and onions in there,
it's just another mix, a good mix of protein and carbs.
A little bit less fat.
If I do feel like I need more,
I will just literally go over,
grab my almond butter,
take a tablespoon,
scoop it in there, and just eat a spoonful.
Almond butter tastes great, by itself by the way.
After my lift, which probably takes about two hours,
I'll take a shower,
I'll come right back to the same thing again.
The chicken.
So another five or six ounces of chicken,
three or four ounces of potatoes.
Those potatoes are that much more important post lift
because they're helping just refill my muscles
and I can use the carbs after that,
and if I need, again, I will go back to the almond butter.
Around ten' o clock or ten thirty,
I'll even go back in to more salmon,
except I will subtract the carbs
when it's that late at night,
and two or three ounces of broccoli.
Really focus on the protein,
back down on the carbs a little bit.
Throughout the course of my day, on top of that
I'm also having plenty of water.
My aim is to finish off a full gallon of water
by the end of the day.
Before every meal, I will literally grab the gallon of water
drink as much as I can.
If I'm at the office,
I'll buy one of these bottles,
and I'll just drink it before meetings.
I'll be drinking it during meetings.
I don't have to talk
for every single minute of every meeting.
So to me, meetings are a really great chance to sit back
when somebody else is talking,
and guzzle as much water as I possibly can.
On Saturdays, that's my cheat day,
and when I get to that day,
I respect a couple things that I've done throughout the week
because they're important to me.
So one I respect my water intake.
I keep trying to drink that as much as possible.
Two, I respect my intervals.
So I keep trying to eat every two-two and a half hours.
My muscles need that constant fuel.
So I do not stop that on Saturdays.
And three, I respect my protein intake,
which is to say
I'm gonna make sure to get my protein in
although on Saturdays I will deviate a little more,
and a have a couple more shakes.
On top of all that, I will mess around
and that's the day where I will cheat,
and I will have stuff like these Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
As many of them as I want to.
Obviously, within reason.
I may have Oreos, or I may have Oreo Pop Tarts.
As you can see, I'm also a big cheesecake person,
so I may put away
a slice or two of that before the end of the day.
That winds up being,
my cheat day and that's my day to relax,
and then Sunday, I get back to work.
Trying to eat consistently,
and trying to stick to this general diet.
So there you have it.
That's a look at my diet, and the diet that worked for me,
and I think the key thing you take from that
is that this is the diet that works for me.
I don't think you need to find or be on a certain system.
Whether its keto, paleo, whole 30.
I think you wanna find something that works for you.
That you can sustain over the long haul
that still gets you the nutrients you need
and it gives you enough nutrients to build muscle.
That means you gotta get in your natural protein sources,
you gotta get in plenty of protein,
and you gotta get in water.
But how you do that,
work with it and find the way that works for you.
Don't fall in to the trap
of going out to a restrictive system,
but build a system that you can maintain.
Once you do those things,
as long as you're getting your protein in,
your training is good,
you're gonna see the gains start happening.
Let's go get it.