Easy Lean Eating
Anyone can tell you what to eat. How to succeed in actual practice is a different animal.
Eating to get lean involves nutrition science, biology, emotion, psychology, and real life logistics. Most strategies just obsess over one of these and ignore the rest.
I took 17 years of nutrition coaching experience, extracted the core effective features from all working strategies, and fit them together in harmony.
The "Core Foods" approach
Stop focusing on what you shouldn't eat. Focus on what you SHOULD eat. Core foods are the bare minimum you must eat every day to stay healthy and build muscle. Pick from the right categories, keep them whole and unprocessed. Most people end up eating the exact same ones every day to keep it simple.
Proteins
Protein powder
Plain Greek Yogurt 0-2%
3-4 Eggs*
Protein Bars (<15g net carb)*
Tinned Tuna
Tinned Salmon*
Salmon*
Any White Fish
Chicken/Turkey
Chicken/Turkey Dark Meat*
Beef*
Pork*
Any Ground Meat*
Fats
Nuts
Avocado
80%+ Dark Chocolate
Nut Butter
Olive Oil
Coconut Oil
Avocado Oil
Non Light Cheese
Vegetables
Broccoli*
Kale*
Spinach*
Brussels Sprouts*
Asparagus*
Cauliflower*
Cabbage*
Carrots
Bell Peppers
Cucumbers
How much is enough?
Stop counting calories too. Measure portions with your hand. Smaller people have smaller hands, larger people have larger hands. You'll end up closer to perfect than you think, and it's 10x easier.
Only add separate fat portions to very lean proteins. Any protein that isn't very lean (under ~10g fat) already counts as 1 of your 2 fat thumbs. Examples: eggs or dark meat.
At least one vegetable serving each day needs to be cruciferous.