Diet Basics

Here is the diet I follow when I'm trying to trim down. The only difference when I'm maintaining is calories. This is going to be the part you hate, but you need to count everything you eat and drink. Otherwise you won't know if you are close to your goal. I personally love myfitnesspal.com and there is also an app. You can scan the food in from a barcode and it has almost every chain place and grocery store.

My Ratio:
Carbs: 45%
Protein: 35%
Fat: 20%

Calories: I do a three week series where every week the calories go down then I start over again. Adjusting the number of calories you eat per week, keeps your body working and you never reach that steady state. IMPORTANT: These are your total calories for the day regardless of how much cardio you do :) To figure out your starting calories see my post!

So if my starting calories were 1300, my plan would look something like this.
Week 1: 1300
Week 2: 1190 (110 cals less)
Week 3: 1130 (60 cals less)
Week 4: 1300 (170 cals more)
etc...

The key is to try to meet your protein goals every day. If you do that, you really don't have to worry about the rest b/c it all kind of happens naturally. The goal is that your protein intake should be 10% of your calorie intake. Usually I eat 4-5 small meals a day every 3-4 hours. What this means is that you need to do some meal planning!

Here is an example of what I would eat during a typical day:

Breakfast
1/2 cup of egg whites
handful of spinach
cooking spray
2 slices wheat toast
hot sauce

Snack
1/2 cup non-fat cottage cheese or non-fat greek yogurt
1/4 cup of fresh fruit (usually berries because they are low in sugar)

Lunch
~4 oz of lean meat (chicken breast, any white fish, salmon, tuna, lean beef, turkey)
1/2 - 1 cup of steamed veggies
1/2 cup starch (so brown rice, sweet potato, pasta, etc)

Snack
2 TBS hummus
12 baby carrots

Dinner
~4 oz of lean meat (chicken breast, any white fish, salmon, tuna, lean beef, turkey)
1/2 - 1 cup of steamed veggies
1/2 cup starch (so brown rice, sweet potato, pasta, etc)