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The High Performance Journal - May 28th, 2024

The moment I decided to get in shape was one of the most embarrassing days of my life.

A friend invited me to play basketball with some of his buddies. I remember running for the first time in years. My lungs couldn't take it. I felt like my chest had seized up.

That wasn't even the worst part…

As I was running up and down the court I felt a little "jiggle" in my chest. Not knowing what it was I decided to check it out when I got home.

I pulled off my shirt in front of the mirror and staring in front of me were a pair of man boobs. I was distraught. I was sad. I was angry at myself for letting myself get to this point.

I decided then that I'd do everything in my power to get myself in shape. I vowed never to feel embarrassed about my body ever again.

I decided to get my body lean and I haven't looked back since:

While I did a lot of things to drop the weight the most important thing I did was learn about ​proper nutrition​.

I realized that I could do all the exercise in the world but my weight wouldn't change unless I changed how I was eating.

So in this article, I want to share with you the exact 5 foods I used to drop 20+ lbs in 3 months and today I'm going to break them down for you so you can do the same.

Quick Note: These 5 foods were not the only foods I ate but they were the cornerstone to getting lean and staying that way.

5 Foods I Ate To Drop 20+ Pounds Off My Body

To add some context to this list there are a few things I'm looking for when choosing foods to eat:

1. Nutrient value
2. Calorie to protein ratio
3. Fiber intake

Not all foods will have all 3 but overall I'm looking to get this combination through the various foods I eat.

Also, aside from calories, I'm optimizing for ​protein intake​ and how full I feel after a meal.

With that being said, here are the 5 foods I ate to drop 20+ pounds off my body starting with...

1 - Extra Lean Ground Beef

Extra lean ground is a good source of carnitine, zinc, selenium, carnitine, creatine iron, and B vitamins.

Also, protein is the most important macronutrient for both weight loss and longevity because it helps you build and maintain muscle.

One thing I look for in food is its calorie-to-protein ratio, which is how much protein you take in per calorie.

For every 100 grams of extra lean ground beef, you're taking in 175 calories with 30 grams of protein.

So if you're taking in 300 grams of extra lean ground beef that means you're taking 575 calories with 90 grams of protein, which is pretty dan good.

I love mixing ground beef with the next food below...

2 - Cruciferous Vegetables

One of my favorite meals I eat, when I'm cutting, is a vegetable stir fry (pic) mixed with ground beef because of its nutrient value and fiber intake.

Fiber is important especially when cutting weight because it helps keep you full while also improving gut health.

My favorite vegetable I use is broccoli because it's packed with micronutrients like calcium, iron, phosphorous, potassium, folate, niacin, zinc, vitamin, C, and riboflavin.

Other vegetables I use are cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and arugula.

I cut these into fine pieces and cook them with my ground beef while adding some garlic and onions to make a wonderful stir fry.

3 - Chicken Breast

As I type this I can hear the groans from some subscribers,

"Chicken breast? Sooooo boring"

And I get it. It's not the flashiest food out there on the planet but it gets the job done.

The reason is the calorie-to-protein ratio I talked about earlier:

For every 100 grams of chicken breast, you're taking in 165 calories and 31 grams of protein.

This means 300 grams of chicken breast will come out to 495 calories and 93 grams of protein.

Chicken breast also contains good amounts of selenium, phosphorus, vitamin B6, and niacin but let's not get it twisted.

This is one of the best pound-for-pound sources of protein on the planet.

4 - Whey Protein

Now I know whey protein is not a "food" per se but I had to add it in because it's probably still one of the most underrated supplements on the planet.

Let's get it out of the way first that this is a great source of protein.

One 30-gram scoop is around 120 calories while giving you up to 27 grams of protein. These numbers are unmatched in terms of calorie-to-protein ratio.

But whey protein does so much more for people than they give it credit for.

It has been shown to help regulate blood pressure, treat type 2 diabetes, reduce inflammation, and even treat irritable bowel syndrome.

I add a teaspoon of psyllium husk to my shakes and this provides an extra prebiotic punch to the shakes to make this a staple in my daily diet.

5 - Free Meals

While eating "clean" is a tool we can use to get our bodies lean we can't discount the need for free meals.

What is a free meal? It's a meal that wouldn't normally be associated with being "healthy" but they're fun.

Examples would be pizza, donuts, ice cream, cake, etc.

Adding flexibility to your diet is a keystone to making it work for the short and long term.

This is why we look at healthy eating as a ratio:

80-90% of my meals come from whole nutrient-dense high protein sources and 10-20% of meals come from wherever I want.

You can think of these in terms of calories or meals:

1. Calories - Get 80% of your calories from whole sources and 20% from whatever you want.
2. Meals - Get 80% of your meals right throughout the week and allow for 20% of them to be from whatever you want.

Doing this allows for flexibility and gets away from the rigidity (and unsustainability) that people usually suffer from when dieting to get lean.

How To Use This List

Something I did with this list was create 5-7 meals that I rotated throughout my week.

One of the low-key hacks to getting lean using your diet is to simplify nutrition by eating similar meals every week.

This keeps the guesswork out of your diet and helps you get nutritious food that fits your goals without having to think about it.

While diet is important I would be doing you a disservice saying it's the only thing needed.

Ideally, you want to decrease the calories you bring in while increasing the calories you burn out.

A great way to do that is using what is called a G-flux method, which you can check out in this ​article over here​.

That said, unless you're plant based you can't go wrong with the 5 foods presented to you on this list.

Add them to your diet when cutting and your body will thank you.

Onwards and upwards 🚀

- Dan

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