Real-Time
This changelog contains the specifics of my current diet (Two Meal Muscle) as well as previous versions of my diet.
TMM VERSION 3.5
I eat two meals per day. The first meal is at 11-12 p.m. The second meal is at 5-6 p.m.
See previous versions →
BREAKFAST
This is what I do after I wake up, before lunch.
I drink 16 ounces of black coffee, starting at 7:30-8 a.m. and stopping around 2-3 p.m. (I'm a slow sipper). I tend to delay drinking coffee until 1.5-2 hours after waking (I usually wake up at 6:30 a.m.) because smart people say this won't make you crash (as hard). I stop drinking coffee at 2-3 p.m. so the caffeine doesn't interfere with sleep.
I drink coffee because I enjoy the ritual and the taste and the effects of caffeine. As a bonus, coffee blunts hunger, which makes my mornings easier (because I don't eat breakfast).
WEEKDAY LUNCH
This is my first meal of the day. I usually eat lunch around noon.
First, superfoods: 1-2 ounces of beef liver with a teaspoon of raw honey; a 3.75-ounce tin of sardines; a chicken breast; unpasteurized sauerkraut.
Liver is one of the most nutrient-rich foods on the planet. 1-3 ounces daily is enough to pack a punch, more would be overkill.
Raw honey masks the taste of the liver and has other health benefits.
Sardines are the top dog of canned fish. They're cheap, convenient, and a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. Tuna and tilapia are for plebs.
Chicken breast is for proteins and only proteins.
Unpasteurized sauerkraut and other unpasteurized fermented foods like kimchi are great for gut health. (Pasteurization kills the beneficial bacteria.) Canned sauerkraut in supermarkets is pasteurized. Unpasteurized sauerkraut needs to be kept cold.
Second, “dessert”: ~170 grams (3/4 cup) of full-fat Greek yogurt with a banana.
Yogurt is good for your gut. I lean toward Greek yogurt because I'm addicted to Fage (brand). No other yogurt I've tried tastes like Fage (although some have come close).
Bananas because they're healthy and I love how they taste with full-fat Fage. (Sometimes I eat raw yogurt from the farm instead of full-fat Fage. Bananas don't taste as good (to me) alongside non-Fage yogurts, so I'll eat an apple or some other fruit instead.)
Lunch: notes.
This meal contains roughly 100 grams of protein. I strive to eat around 200 grams of protein every day (my body weight is 205 pounds) and splitting the load between both meals is best for muscle growth.
This meal is designed to contain enough energetic material to keep my taste buds happy and my body nourished and not enough energetic material to collapse my dinner choices. Sauerkraut, liver, and sardines have some energetic material, but not a lot. The concentrated sources of energy are the honey, the banana, and the yogurt. All told, the energetic component of these foods equals 300-400 calories, which is minimal. These foods are healthy enough and enjoyable enough for me to eat them without worry.
This meal is consistent but changeable. When I eat lunch, this is what I typically eat. It's healthy, it's affordable, and it's convenient. and I enjoy it. I have no reason to change it, but I could. Mango instead of banana? Sure. Kefir or cottage cheese instead of yogurt? Whatever. (Typically, when I deviate from the template, it's because I didn't prepare: I ran out of liver or sardines and have to eat chicken or ground beef instead.)
WEEKDAY DINNER
This is what my second meal of the day, in the afternoon, consists of. I usually eat this meal around 5-6 p.m.
First, a revolving door of proteins: typically chicken breast, chicken thighs, ground beef, salmon, eggs, cottage cheese, or any combination of these foods.
Shooting for at least 100 grams of protein. The proteins I eat often depend on what I'm trying to accomplish. If I'm trying to lose fat, I'll eat leaner proteins. If I'm trying to build muscle, I'll eat chubbier proteins if I want to.
Second, plant carbs. Typically boiled cabbage, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, or some other salad green.
This is to add bulk to the meal and help me feel full. When I'm trying to lose fat, I'll eat more plant carbs to compensate for eating less of everything else.
Third, energy carbs and/or fats. Typically potatoes (white or sweet), rice, raw honey, cheese, avocado, or plantains (fats used for cooking are also in this category).
The amount depends on the objective. If I'm trying to lose fat, I'll eat less of these foods. If I'm trying to build muscle, I'll eat more of these foods. (I don't eat many grains at the moment, but I have nothing against them.) This isn't to say I don't eat any of these foods when I'm trying to lose fat. I can (and do) eat some, but I have to limit myself in order to create a deficit. If I don't eat any, I'm guaranteed to create a deficit, so that's my floor and I know I have some leeway.
Fourth, dessert. Typically a serving of natural peanut butter, a banana, and a cup of raw milk. Sometimes with oatmeal.
If I have a “real” dessert to eat, I'll skip my “normal” dessert and eat the “real” one instead, in moderation. For instance, yesterday was Easter and I have some cake sitting in the fridge. I'll eat a small slice tonight instead of having a banana with peanut butter.
Dinner: notes.
This meal is the dial determining the direction of my diet. Lunch is a consistent nutrient bomb: I try to deliver the biggest nutrient impact with the smallest energy impact possible (within the realm of enjoyment). Dinner fluctuates depending on how aggressively I'm trying to lose fat.
Fat loss = lean proteins instead of chubby proteins, and fewer energy carbs and fats. to compensate for the loss, I eat more plant carbs.
Muscle growth = comparatively more chubby proteins and more energy carbs and/or fats.
This meal is fluid. I separate “trying to lose fat” and “trying to build muscle” only in spirit. I bounce between “fat-loss days” and “muscle-building days” throughout the week. In other words, when I'm trying to lose fat, not every day will be a deficit day (lol, weekends). I can eat with more freedom for one or two or even three days a week and still lose fat, as long as the other days are guaranteed deficit days… and as long as I don't get myself into too much trouble over the weekend.
WEEKEND WEIRDNESS
My weekend diet weekend is usually different from my weekday diet (how original). This is a relic of being obsessed with “cheat days” when I first started dieting.
On the weekends, I'm more laid back. The degree to which my diet degenerates is unpredictable. In a best-case world, I stay close to my weekday diet. In a worst-case world, I eat (and drink) whatever I want, without care for quantity or proteins or nutrients. Some weeks I'm closer to a best-case world, and other weeks I'm closer to a worst-case world. Usually depends on external factors. Is it a holiday? Am I meeting with friends? One thing that's less sensitive to the social situation is alcohol.
Beer is a rather permanent fixture throughout the weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday, I skip lunch and drink a few high-ABV craft beers before dinner. I do this because I'm an idiot. I like the way beer tastes and the way beer makes me feel in the short term. It's negative in the long term. It's not healthy. It ruins my sleep. It makes managing my body composition much more difficult.
Shouldn't be a shock to hear this: I get better results when my weekend diet resembles my weekday diet. When my weekend diet sinks, I spend most of the week trying to minimize the damage. Every weekday becomes a fat-loss day, and I'm super strict with my energy intake. I have to create large calorie deficits to counteract the large calorie surpluses over the weekend.
It's really really difficult for me to build muscle when my weekends are a wreck because I'm forced to put a hard cap on my energy intake the following week to stay (somewhat) lean. It's like I'm drowning and my main concern is keeping my head above water, which is to say: staying somewhat lean.
STRATEGY
This is how I bounce between goals fluidly throughout the week (to summarize the global strategy).
First, I emphasize fat loss and getting six-pack abs. To do this, I bias toward fat-loss days, which involve (a) eating fewer energy carbs and fats at dinner and (b) not being a total degenerate over the weekend.
Second, once I get six-pack lean, I emphasize muscle growth. To do this, I bias toward muscle-growth days, which involve (a) eating more energy carbs and fats at dinner and (b) not being a total degenerate over the weekend. In an ideal world, I'd gain 1-2 pounds per month. Some of this weight is expected to be fat, so I will eventually lose the six-pack abs.
Third, once the defined six-pack turns into a less-defined four-pack, I switch teams. Fat loss is emphasized again until I'm six-pack lean.
Fourth, the cycle repeats ad infinitum…
Of course, this is an ideal strategy. Things haven't gone this smoothly for me in a few years for a variety of reasons (I drink too much beer). When the weekends spiral out of control or bleed into the week, I'm on defense. I'm doing everything I can (within reason) to minimize the damage and stay lean. If I didn't do this, I'd get real fat real quick.
CHANGELOG
These are previous “versions” of my diet.
TMM 1.0: 2011
I frontloaded my energy intake and was a devout carbohydrate cycler. On muscle-based training days, I ate more 2S carbs and less fats (and chubby proteins). On non-muscle-based training days and rest days, I ate fewer 2S carbs and more fats (and chubby proteins). As mentioned, muscle-based training depletes muscle glycogen and, afterward, the body wants to replenish what was lost. On non-muscle-based training days, there's no glycogen depletion and thus less need for 2S carbs. This was my rationale for carb cycling.
My “big” meal was lunch.
On muscle-based training days, for lunch (my first meal after training), I'd eat a giant portion of oatmeal alongside my infamous whey protein pudding (which was just three total 70cc scoops of plain unflavored whey protein concentrate mixed with minimal water) alongside a chicken breast or two. For dinner, I'd eat six eggs, plant carbs, and probably other things I can't remember. (This was over ten years ago, after all.)
On non-muscle-based training days, I wouldn't eat oatmeal at lunch. I'd have protein pudding with walnuts instead. I'd eat more chubby proteins and cheeses.
My philosophy back then: I needed to one pound of meat, six eggs, and three 70cc scoops of whey protein every day. On muscle-based training days, I'd eat lean proteins. On non-muscle-based training days, I'd eat chubbier animal chunks (ground beef, fish).
TMM 2.0 2014
I ate one meal per day. Nothing else changed. Same amount of food, just condensed into one feeding around 5-6 o'clock in the afternoon.
TMM 3.0 2019
I returned to two meals per day with the skeleton outlined in the current version of Two Meal Muscle. Lunch has changed a few times. Dinner principles have remained the same.
TMM 3.1
For lunch, I typically ate one can of tuna and carrots along with a small bowl of oatmeal topped with whey protein pudding. Eventually, I ran out of whey protein and didn't care to order more. I started putting walnuts and/or dark chocolate in the oatmeal.
TMM 3.2
There was a brief time when I ate large portions of beef liver (with carrots) and kefir for lunch. This didn't last long.
TMM 3.3
Started eating two cans of tuna. Carrots. Stopped with the oats. Started eating a shake consisting of raw milk, raw liver, banana, and raw honey. This lasted a few months.
TMM 3.4
Started eating sardines and sauerkraut, alongside small portions of cooked liver and raw honey. Started eating Greek yogurt with a banana.
TMM 3.5
Added a chicken breast to lunch.