The Best Diet For A Lean Look

There are many ways in which you might want to improve your appearance. But many people have this goal of trying to look as lean as possible, or at least get a little leaner than they currently are. Lean essentially means that you have a lot of muscle showing, with very little to no fat on display, and it is a look that a lot of people find attractive, which also makes you feel a lot more confident. Beyond that, being lean also generally means that you are probably taking care of yourself quite well. Here we look at the kind of diet you might want to go for in order to keep a lean look. 

Plenty Of Protein

The first really unavoidable thing you have to eat is protein – and plenty of it. If you are not getting enough protein, you simply won’t be able to bulk up, and without bulking up you are missing that crucial element of the lean look. But there is often a lot of confusion about how much protein you should be consuming, and whether you need to be eating lots and lots or just a little. In truth, the amount of protein you need is generally a lot less than many people assume – but it is still going to be a major player in your diet if you want to look lean, so make sure you don’t overlook it completely.

Actually, the amount of protein you should eat if you want to be lean is about one gram per pound of bodyweight every day. As you can see, that is not a huge amount of protein, and it can be easily found in a normal healthy diet without having to eat loads of meat and eggs or really taking any protein supplements. Of course, if you want to speed things up then taking sarms is never going to hurt, but you should make sure that the majority of your protein is coming from good, high-quality food sources above all.

So what kinds of sources are those? There are many that you might want to choose from, and it is best to ensure that you are getting your protein from as wide a variety of these as possible. You’ll want to look at red meat, chicken, eggs, soya, grains, nuts, seeds, flaxseed, and so on. If you’re not getting enough of these in your diet, then you may wish to look into a supplement that can help you out here; this post on The Nutrition Insider covers one particularly tasty option for getting more protein that can be easily incorporated into your cooking.

A final word on protein before we take a look at some of the other elements in your diet you should focus on: you won’t achieve faster results by simply eating too much protein every day. It really won’t make a difference if you go double over the amounts listed here, so don’t bother. In fact, it will only mean that you have more weight to try and shift, so it’s not really worth it anyway. Stick to these values, and you should find that you are much more able to get the lean look in no time.

The Question Of Carbs

Everyone who has ever tried to gain a lean look, or pretty much any other look for that matter, will have run into the issue of carbohydrates. This, again, is an area where people get very confused and find themselves wondering how much or little they should have. It is actually probably a lot simpler than you might think to get this right, but you do need to make sure that you are calculating it right and not going overboard on it. The general rule of thumb when it comes to carbs is that you want to keep them low. That’s because they generally just end up adding fat stores to your body which are harder to shift, and that is obviously not what you are going for when you are trying to get the lean look. So how little should you eat, and how can you make sure that you are getting the amounts right?

If you are particularly trying to lose weight because you know you have excess fat to deal with, then you’ll probably be looking at around 100 grams of carbs per day and no more than that. If you are simply trying to maintain your weight but grow a little muscle, you might up that to around 150 grams. In fact, you can alternate these if you wish, or even have five days of one and two of the other per week, or whatever other plan seems to work best for you. But you should always follow that general rule of thumb, and keep the carb count as low as you possibly can.

If you are not already clear on where you can get good-quality carbs from, generally it comes in the form of potatoes, oats, rice, whole grain bread, and indeed anything else wholegrain. If you want to be a little healthier, switch out white potatoes and have red or sweet potatoes instead, and choose wild rice or brown rice over white. As long as you have those sources of carbs, and not too many of them, you are going to be so much healthier in no time, and you will find that you feel a lot more energetic too, which is going to help you keep up with your exercises when you most need to do so.

Water

While you are doing all this, and especially when you are working out a lot to try and gain muscle, you need to make sure that you are keeping hydrated. Without being properly hydrated, the entire process becomes a lot more difficult to maintain, and you will find that you struggle to really make it all work out. Again, there can be a lot of confusion around water and how much you need, so it’s a good idea to look into this in some detail and make sure you are getting it right from the start.

As a general rule of thumb, you should aim to drink about a gallon of water every day. This is a minimum, and if you can drink even more than this then that is going to help you out even more. Keeping yourself hydrated and healthy will make the entire process of bulking up and getting lean so much easier and less stressful too, and you will find that you are going to be a lot less hungry, making the dieting portion of the process so much simpler to keep on top of as well. You should also make sure that water is your only beverage during dieting. Avoid sodas like the plague, and make sure you are not drinking any alcohol – or at least keep it a minimum if you can.

Foods Of Note

Now that we have looked at the essentials, it might be helpful to know about some of the foods that you can get a lot out of, and which are particularly useful for a lean diet. If you can get plenty of the following into your daily diet, you will find that the entire process of becoming lean is going to be so much easier and simpler.

First up, salmon. This is a wonderful choice for muscle building which also helps to promote your general health. It contains plenty of protein, and those all-important omega-3 fats which are one of the healthiest forms of fats around. Salmon has been shown to rapidly increase muscle mass during workouts too, so it’s the kind of thing you should be eating plenty of if you can.

Next, make sure you are eating plenty of eggs. They are an easy to eat and tasty form of high-quality protein, and they also contain a number of other important nutrients like your B vitamins and choline. Eggs are vital for energy production, and often form part of the backbone of a good workout diet.

If you eat meat, one of the healthier options to go for is chicken breast. This is a relatively clean meat, and one which gives you an easily-digestible form of protein too. If you can stick to this being your only meat, you will be very healthy indeed, and will still be getting the protein that you really need to bulk out.

Finally, a word for greek yoghurt. People don’t often realise that this contains a lot of protein, and a combination of different ones at that, making it a wonderful choice for any bulkers. Some research has shown that you will increase in lean mass if you are eating greek yoghurt every day. The best way to have it is with your oatmeal or muesli in the morning, with plenty of fruit mixed in. That’s a healthy breakfast that is going to keep you going throughout the day when you need it most.

As you can see, the diet for a lean look is actually relatively straightforward to follow. Bear these essentials in mind, and you should find that you are able to bulk up and get lean in no time.