A fitness pro’s diet: 5 habits for optimal health and performance
Imagine you are fully equipped to thrive. You maintain visible abs year-round. Your diet promotes longevity and fuels your various adventures. It’s flexible, adaptable, and doesn’t implode just because you’re backpacking through Southeast Asia or vacationing in Mexico.
Instead of “feeling your age,” you feel better than ever. You have more energy and less fat. And you start looking for ways to test your newfound health and fitness.
Believe it or not, this life is obtainable. By the time I entered my 30s, I was gaining weight, unfit, and feeling terrible. Today I’m lean, muscular, and tackle Ironman and Spartan Ultra races.
At 43, I’m in the best shape of my life.
Of course, the transformation didn’t come easy. Once I started to get serious about my health and fitness, I encountered a huge roadblock. Most diet and fitness advice is total garbage, making it difficult to separate diet facts from diet fads. It took me years to figure it out.
However, a healthy diet doesn’t need to be complicated or extreme. In this article, I’m going to show you 5 major ways my diet differs from the Standard American Diet (my old diet). I’ll show you why these differences make such a huge impact, and I’ll give you some tips on how to start implementing them today.
It takes time, but if you can get these 5 habits in place, you’ll rewrite your health and fitness. Let’s dive in!
1) I consistently eat 50% more protein.
On average, only 15% of the typical American diet consists of protein. This isn't surprising. Many people consume meals with no obvious source of protein. Pizza, quesadillas, and pasta are all terrible sources of protein.
In contrast, every one of my meals includes a generous portion of high-quality protein such as meat, poultry, eggs, fish, or yogurt. In fact, protein typically takes up around a quarter of my meal or plate.
As a result, around 20-25% of my daily calories come from protein. This affords two huge benefits over the average American diet.
First, protein reduces my hunger. Eating more protein can be uniquely satiating, especially if you eat too little. This can help you lose weight and keep it off without going hungry.
And it isn't just me. A variety of scientific studies have shown a large reduction in hunger associated with moving from a low protein diet to a moderately high protein diet. Although the effect drops off dramatically once you get enough protein. The sweet spot is somewhere around 20-25% of calories.
Second, protein is the fundamental building block of the body. If your goal is to get healthy and fit, protein makes exercise more effective. It helps build muscle, strength, and recover from your training. And here again the sweet spot will be somewhere around 20-25% of calories or roughly a quarter of your plate.
To be clear, even if you don't want to build muscle, protein is a key ingredient in losing fat, improving recovery, and making the most of your training.
How to get started today:
I recommend tracking your protein intake for at least a month to develop an understanding of how much you're consuming. Don't worry, you don't have to do it forever. Today, I almost never track my protein intake. At this point, I can generally look at a meal and know if I'm going to get enough protein. But it's a skill I've built over time from regularly tracking my protein intake. I highly recommend you take the time to do the same.
So how many grams of protein is enough?
I'm a huge fan of the physique coach and scientist Menno Henselmans. So much so, that I spent 8 months working through his coaching certification. He's conducted some of the best studies on protein, so we'll use his general protein intake recommendation.
Total newbies: if you're a total newbie and not particularly interested in building muscle, 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body per day (1.6 g/kg/d) is a good goal.
Everyone else: everyone else should aim for 1.8 g/kg/d. To maximize your recovery, I recommend eating a protein-rich meal within two-three hours of your training. And for maximum muscle growth, I recommend a protein-rich meal within the two hours before your training.
Now there are more advanced protein timing protocols and all that, but the vast majority of fitness enthusiasts don't need to worry about it.
To learn more about protein intake, check out my article, Optimizing Protein Intake: Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Boost Recovery
Okay, now that you've got your protein down, let's tackle fruits and veggies.
2) I eat 2-3x as many fruits and veggies.
The average American consumes only 2.3 cups of fruit and vegetables per day. That’s not great, and again, it should come as no surprise. Fast food has little, if any, fruit or veggies.
In contrast, my diet contains 2-3 times as much fruit and veggies. I try to cover roughly half of my plate with non-starchy veggies and low-calorie fruit. This alone averages out to around 800 grams of fruit and veggies per day. And then on top of that, I make fruit or veggies my go-to snack and sometimes add some starchy veggies to my meals. Consequently, I often eat almost 3 times as much fruit and veggies as the typical American.
Now, you probably know you should eat more fruit and veggies, but you probably don't realize just how insane the benefits can be.
First, it dramatically reduces the number of calories in your diet. If you fill up on a big pile of veggies, you simply won't be consuming as many calories.
Second, consuming loads of fruit and veggies is incredibly healthy. Research shows that it can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, while reducing your risk of all-cause mortality by up to 31%.
Third, fruit and veggies are a great source of fiber. As you'll see below, fiber is incredibly healthy and can help you lose weight.
Fourth, fruit and veggies are loaded with vitamins and minerals, some of which are completely unique to plants. Once I increased my consumption of fruit and veggies, I simply felt far better.
How to get started today:
A great way to get started is to pick one meal per day, let's say lunch, and focus on filling half your plate with fruit and veggies. A big fresh salad with a good source of protein is great for this.
From there, you can build up to three meals a day. Try it for one month. I bet you'll feel the difference!
If you’d like to learn more about fruit and veggie intake, check out my guide, Fruits and Veggies: Live Longer, Get Leaner, Perform Better
3) No frat boy food.
If three-quarters of my plate is filled with veggies and high-quality protein, it doesn't leave much room for junk food. In fact, I’d say less than 5% of my diet is junk food. Most days, I don’t eat any junk—no cereal, candy, pizza, or fast food. Because I have two young kids, I occasionally indulge, which probably brings my average up closer to 5%.
Contrast this with the standard American diet, which is nearly 60% ultra-processed food—burgers, fries, pizza, treats, etc. This is certainly the most extreme aspect of my diet, but it affords me three huge benefits.
First, if you stop eating junk food, you’ll stop craving it. I almost never crave unhealthy food. That wasn’t always the case, but a year or so after quitting junk food, my cravings went away.
Second, junk food is extremely easy to overeat. For most people (myself included), eating a reasonable amount of pizza requires godlike levels of self-control. I’ve found it's easier to just take the temptation off the table.
Third, junk food is very high in calories. If you can eat less of it, you’ll consume fewer calories, and thereby lose weight.
How to get started today:
Cutting back on junk food can be really tough. If this is a challenge for you, I recommend checking out my two articles on junk:
4) I don’t drink any sugar sweetened beverages.
Imagine for a moment coming home from work and you’re absolutely starving. You grab a glass of orange juice. It’s certainly a healthy enough option, but will it reduce your hunger? If you’re like most people, it won’t even make a dent, and it certainly won’t make a lasting dent. High-calorie liquids don’t reduce hunger. Consequently, their calories get added on top of whatever we’re going to eat.
Now, most Americans regularly consume sugar-sweetened beverages. This might be a Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino (580 kcal), a can of Coke (140 kcal), or an 8 oz glass of orange juice (110 kcal). In any case, it’s as if these calories enter a second stomach that refuses to track their calories.
I still drink coffee with cream, super smoothies, and occasionally red wine. But for the most part, I completely avoid drinking my calories, and I certainly abstain from the sugar-sweetened stuff.
How to get started today:
I almost exclusively drink water. Initially, I found it boring, so I would add some fresh lemon or lime. Now, it’s my genuine preference. Zero-calorie drinks are also a great alternative. Many of my clients switch to zero-calorie sodas to great effect.
5) I eat almost 3x as much fiber
On average, Americans eat between 10-15 grams of fiber per day. Meanwhile, I probably eat nearly 3x that much fiber. Here's why.
Fiber is the part of plants that the body can't break down. These magical carbohydrates are insanely healthy and take longer to leave your stomach. The extra time fiber sits in your stomach is extra time you spend not being hungry. Consequently, meals rich in fiber leave you feeling fuller for longer. And the effect isn't trivial!
Research has found that eating 14 more grams of fiber reduces your caloric intake by 10%. So, as you can imagine, my high-fiber diet leads to a massive reduction in hunger and thus a big reduction in calories. It helped me get lean, and it helps me stay lean.
But that's not all. Fiber is also very healthy. It can lower your LDL cholesterol, lower your blood pressure, improve insulin sensitivity, improve blood sugar control, and decrease your risk of death. Not too shabby for a part of plants your body can't even digest!
How to get started today:
I've never actively tried to eat more fiber. I've never had to. If you follow through on my recommendations above, you'll get all the fiber you need.
For one thing, junk food is very low in fiber compared to "real" food. A big part of processing food is removing fiber. If you cut back on junk food, you'll increase your fiber.
For another thing, if you increase your fruit and veggies, you'll increase your fiber. For instance, 800 grams of veggies contain roughly 30 grams of fiber.
Finally, if you reach for an orange instead of orange juice, you'll get a couple of extra grams of fiber. Liquid calories almost never contain fiber.
Final Thoughts:
There you have it: 5 major ways my diet differs from the Standard American Diet. Because of it, I’ve been able to maintain visible abs in my 40s, support my Ironman and Spartan Ultra Training, increase my energy, improve my recovery capacity, and dramatically improve my overall health and longevity.
Now as you can see, the diet I’m describing isn't a formula, and it isn't a list of foods. It's more like a practice. It’s like learning to play piano or learning a new language. It's a set of skills that can be developed over time until eventually, those skills turn into habits and become automatic.
Once they're automatic, they no longer tax your self-control. They leave your willpower free to conquer other endeavors.
It's a difficult journey, but it's certainly worth it.
Thanks for reading!
