How To Eat To Build Muscle & Lose Fat (Lean Bulking Full Day Of Eating)

Today, I will take you through a full day of eating on a lean bulk. I will show you every meal, the nutrient breakdown, and the rationale behind the food choices and meal timing. For the past few months, I have been following a strict body recomposition approach to my nutrition. I have created a new body recomposition guide that is now available for pre-order on geoffnipper.com. The guide includes sample meal plans, pre and post-workout nutrition examples, a full supplements list, and more. If you pre-order the guide, you will get 30% off any training program as well. If you are interested in taking your nutrition to the next level, check out the guide!

Morning Routine

Every morning, I start my day with a morning walk to Tim Hortons to get a coffee. This helps wake me up and prepare me for the day.

Breakfast

For breakfast, I have scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, goat cheese, kiwi, and hash browns. This is a high-protein meal with relatively low carbs. I prefer to save my carbs for later in the day and around my workout. I also take fish oil capsules and a multivitamin as a nutritional insurance.

Pre-Workout Meal

The pre-workout meal is the most important meal of the day as it fuels your training. For this meal, I have a chicken sandwich with fresh chicken breast, shredded cheese, mayo, spinach, and mustard. I also have blueberries and a banana. I recommend a minimum of one gram of carbs per kilogram of body weight for the pre-workout meal. It is also beneficial to combine starchy carb sources with fruit sources to utilize multiple transporters for absorption.

About 30 minutes before my first working set, I like to have a meal and let it digest a bit before sipping on my pre-workout. This helps me get the most benefit out of the caffeine. After about 30 minutes into my workout, I usually have my intra-workout nutrition. While it's not mandatory, I recommend it under the following circumstances:

You want to optimize your training performance.

You have plenty of carbs to spare, so you don't want to waste them.

Your workouts last longer than an hour.

You trained fasted and need some carbs.

It's been three to five hours since your pre-workout meal and you need extra nutrients for energy.

The main idea is to have a fast-digesting carb source for continued energy during your workout. Aim for about half a gram of carbs per minute of training, starting around 30 minutes into your workout.

After finishing my workout, I don't rush to get protein in immediately. While timing your post-workout nutrients is less urgent than pre-workout, it's still important to get some protein in as soon as you can. If you don't have much of an appetite, it's perfectly fine to wait until you get home and have a meal. Try not to space your pre and post-workout meals by more than four to five hours to optimize recovery and potential gains.

For my post-workout meal, I like to keep it simple. One serving of oats with select protein powder, which is a blend of whey and casein. This combination may have benefits compared to consuming either one in isolation. I heat it up in the microwave and the macros for this meal are 34g protein, 4g fat, and 25g carbs.

A couple of hours later, my appetite starts to pick up. I have a big meal, such as a three-cup serving of chili that my mom made for me. This meal is high in fiber, which helps with satiety and slows digestion. I like to have fiber and slower-digesting protein sources later in the day. After heating it up, I add the macros to my tracking app and enjoy the meal.

If you're interested in the recipe my mom used for the chili, I'll include the link in the description. After eating, I plan to play basketball in a men's league here in Kelowna. I time my meals to have a big one about an hour before playing.

My Last Meal of the Day

I just got back from playing basketball and I'm feeling exhausted. Before I go to bed, I want to share with you my last meal of the day. But first, let me mention something interesting I've been reading about in a thesis by Yawn. He emphasizes the importance of consuming a high protein meal before going to bed, especially for well-trained athletes. This is because when we sleep, we go the longest without eating, which puts us at a greater risk of muscle breakdown. So, I've been trying to optimize my pre-sleep meal.

Cottage Cheese and Crackers

For this meal, I've chosen cottage cheese as the main source of protein. Cottage cheese is a slow-digesting protein primarily from casein. It forms a clump in your stomach, which takes time to be digested and absorbed. I like to dip some crackers in the cottage cheese, it's actually really good. I also have a kale salad with a banana on the side. This meal provides me with 40 grams of protein, 23 grams of fat, and 72 grams of carbs, totaling 630 calories.

Snacks and TV Time

As I enjoy this meal, I like to have some tough potatoes as a light snack. They are low in carbs and high in volume, making them a satisfying option. Additionally, I've been re-watching the TV series Breaking Bad. I'm currently on season five and I must say, it's the greatest show of all time in my opinion. If you have any show recommendations that you think are better, feel free to comment below.

Conclusion

I hope you found this last meal interesting. If you're interested in learning more about nutrition, I have a new nutrition guide available for pre-order. It covers both the basics and the complexities of nutrition.