Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Transform Your Body Forever Using the Secrets of the Leanest People in the World

by Tom Venuto

THE 12 WORST FAT-STORING FOODS One of the best ways to start the meal planning process is to learn which foods to keep out of your daily meal plans. Then your odds of choosing the most nutritious foods are automatically higher. The Terrible 12 • French fries and other deep-fried foods • Ice cream and milk shakes • Doughnuts and pastries • Candy and confections • Sugar-sweetened soft drinks • Sugar-sweetened juice drinks, energy drinks, teas, and dessert coffees • White bread and white flour products • Potato chips, corn chips, and fried tortilla chips • Bacon, sausage, and processed lunch meats • Hot dogs and fast-food burgers • Pizza with thick crusts and fatty meat toppings • Sugary breakfast cereals

THE 12 BEST FAT-BURNING FOODS Like “fattening foods,” the term “fat-burning foods” may be a misnomer because all foods add calories to your energy balance sheet; they don’t subtract them. Some foods have a very low calorie density, but there’s no such thing as negative-calorie foods that take more calories to digest than they contain. Clearly, however, certain foods are better for fat loss than others, for a variety of reasons. Lean protein foods have the highest thermic effect and suppress your appetite better than any other macronutrient. This is one of the many reasons you include a lean protein with every meal. Fibrous vegetables are always a superb choice because they’re high in fiber and low in calories. The most “fat burning” of all meals is lean protein plus fibrous carbs (fish and broccoli or chicken and a green salad, for example). Whole fruits and natural, high-fiber starchy carbs are also good choices, although you must control the starchy carb quantities to keep your calorie deficit. The amount of starchy carbs in a meal plan can vary a lot, depending on your goals. Accelerated fat-loss or competition-level diets usually include fewer starchy carbs. But overall, these are the staple foods that make up the foundation of the program for most people. The Terrific 12 ✓ Whole fresh fruit ✓ Vegetables (any fibrous carb or nonstarchy vegetable) ✓ White potatoes (or sweet potatoes) ✓ Fish and shellfish ✓ Oatmeal, rolled or steel-cut (unsweetened) ✓ Brown rice ✓ Beans ...

THE SIX EXCHANGE GROUPS AND BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE FOOD LIST Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle makes more precise distinctions about food groups than most diets. We subdivide carbs into starchy, fibrous, and simple. Proteins are narrowed down into lean proteins, because we usually don’t want the extra fat calories (with some exceptions, such as fatty fish). Dairy products are narrowed down to non- or low-fat (to save calories), and fats have their own category. That makes six food groups, and the foods within each group can be exchanged. CARBS Starchy Complex Carbs (Starchy Vegetables and Whole Grains) Fibrous Complex Carbs (Nonstarchy Vegetables and Leafy Greens) Natural Simple Carbs (Fruit) Potatoes Broccoli Apples, applesauce Yams Spinach Bananas Sweet potatoes Asparagus Blueberries Oatmeal Cucumber Raspberries Beans Tomatoes Strawberries Brown rice Cauliflower Blackberries Lentils Brussels sprouts Nectarines Chickpeas (garbanzos) Celery Plums Black-eyed peas Onions, scallions, leeks Peaches Green peas Bell pepper (green or red) Pears Corn Cabbage, bok choy Grapefruit Pumpkin Kale Oranges Barley Mushrooms Watermelon Winter squash Eggplant Pineapple Quinoa Zucchini (summer squash) Cherries Millet Carrots Mango Whole wheat String beans, green beans Kiwifruit 100% whole grain bread, cereal, and pasta Lettuce and leafy salad greens Melon/cantaloupe All other whole grains and starchy vegetables All other nonstarchy vegetables and greens All other whole fruits (dried fruit...

THE BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE MEAL BUILDER: A SIMPLE TEMPLATE FOR CREATING FAT-BURNING MEALS Once you’re familiar with the highest-quality foods and you understand the different food groups, the next step is to pick the foods you like and put them together into your own customized meals. The classic bodybuilder’s meal is a lean protein, a starchy carb, and a fibrous carb. Here’s the template: Step 1: Choose a lean protein for every meal. Step 2: Choose a starchy carb for every meal. Step 3: Choose a fibrous carb for every meal. Step 4: Add healthy fats into some meals as needed to reach your daily goal. It doesn’t get much simpler. As long as you understand which foods are lean proteins, starchy carbs, and fibrous carbs, it’s as easy as one, two, three. Even if you don’t track your macronutrients by the numbers, if you follow this template for most of your meals, your numbers will be in the ballpark. Think of all our templates for meals and daily meal plans as easy starting points and guidelines, not as commandments carved in stone. Later in the chapter, I’ll show you some alternate templates and ways to customize daily meal plans. For now, here are a few ways you can modify the meal template to suit your preferences. 1. Swap fruit for fibrous carbs. Some people eat vegetables for breakfast (veggie omelets, for example), but fruit is a popular breakfast food, so in the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle meal template, you can swap fibrous carbs for fruit if you choose. Fru...