Skinny Fat - Diet (Basic Points)

The worst mistake you can ever do, and which I did, is to eat too little.

That also translates to : yes, you have to know what your calorie budget is and how many calories your food costs you. I'm no nutrition expert and everything I know about counting calories, I got online.

The sites I frequent are:
www.tomvenuto.com -- I also read his Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle book.
www.livestrong.com
www.self.com

Basic important points:

• Calorie budget
• What is your personal calorie budget for weight maintenance?
• What is the maximum number of calories you can cut from your budget?
• Gain Muscle
• Guys don't necessarily have to become bodybuilders. But muscle is not only useful for increasing metabolism, it's actually attractive.
• For girls, it's quite impossible to have a guy's body unless you're aiming for it. So do increase your Lean Body Mass (LBM)!
• Zigzag diet plan (for muscle gain and weight loss)
• Read about it: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drsquat6.htm
• Small Frequent Meals
• There is no time for snack when you have a scheduled meal every 3 hours
• A meal is more effective than a snack because it is complete (carb + protein + minimal fat)
• Frequent meals encourages increased metabolism
• Thermic Effect
• On top of RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate = how much you burn as a vegetable), eating/digesting food burns food. So the more you eat of the right kind of food at the right time would make your body burn more calories instead of storing it as fat for future use
• Starvation Response
• As simple as skipping a meal can cause the same effect of starvation response in your system
• So you can just imagine what eating too little or not eating at all can do
• Moderate amount of carbohydrate in the diet is beneficial
• You need carbohydrates
• If carb levels are too low for too long a period of time, you're risking entering "starvation response"

I have been eating less than my calorie maintenance for three months. I've lost 8lbs (of fat) so I have to cut back even more... but I'd rather not eat less.

So I increased my calorie intake but made changes on my exercise: my primary goal is still to reach 17% body fat, and to get there I'm aiming for some muscle gain.

In order to gain muscle, I'm observing the following:

1. Compound exercises
2. Enough protein in the diet (around 40%); every meal = every 3 hours

See Skinny Fat for all Skinny Fat rants, raves, and information.