- A 25-year-old woman submitted an average day of eating to be reviewed for Insider's Nutrition Clinic.
- She told Insider she wants to build lean
muscle without tracking her food intake. - A dietitian said to eat more
protein and up calories by increasing fats too. - If you'd like to have your diet reviewed by an expert, fill out this form.
Katherine, 25, submitted her eating routine to Insider's
She told Insider her goal is to build muscle while eating intuitively, without tracking calories or macros.
Katherine said she has an active lifestyle, exercising five to six times a week (35 minutes of jump rope and 25 minutes of weight lifting,) and walking about 17,000 steps a day.
Registered dietitian and strength and conditioning coach Kara Mockler told Insider that the two key factors for building muscle are eating in a calorie surplus with plenty of protein, and strength training.
"Katherine should make sure she is lifting heavy enough weights, working close to failure, and progressively overloading her muscles," Mockler said.
It's fine not to track your food too.
"While tracking macros or calories is a useful tool and provides objective data in terms of how much she is eating, it's not for everyone and there are other metrics she can track to ensure she is gaining muscle," Mockler said.
She recommends monitoring progress by tracking strength in the gym and body weight (aim to gain 0.25-0.5 lbs per week), as well as taking progress pictures. Katherine can then increase or decrease her food intake accordingly if necessary.
Katherine has protein oats for breakfast
Katherine starts her day with a bowl of oatmeal mixed with half a scoop of protein powder, topped with mango, pomegranate seeds, dragon fruit, and peanut butter.
Eating protein every few hours encourages muscle growth, so adding protein powder to oats is good, Mockler said.
The fruit provides lots of nutrients, too.
Katherine has chicken or eggs for lunch
A typical lunch for Katherine would be chicken with vegetables and avocado, or one egg and three egg whites cooked with baby potatoes in oil.
Chicken and egg whites are great protein sources, Mockler said, and avocado (as well as the peanut butter at breakfast) are good sources of unsaturated fat, which is beneficial for
Katherine eats a variety of foods, but she could benefit from more vegetables, Mockler said.
Katherine has dessert after lunch and dinner
For dinner, Katherine eats corn cakes with cheese, followed by a bowl of Greek yogurt with mango, kiwi, banana, strawberries, cereal, raisins, honey, cacao nibs, and peanut butter.
She has dessert after both lunch and dinner, such as a scoop of ice cream, handful of gummy bears, brownie, donut, or handful of caramelized peanuts.
Greek yogurt is another good protein source, Mockler said, but Katherine could try swapping one or both of her desserts for a higher protein snack.
"This not only would increase her total daily protein intake but could also boost her total calorie intake, which is necessary to build muscle," Mockler said.
Katherine could add pre- and post-workout meals
While it's good that Katherine is lifting weights, Mockler suggests swapping some of her jump rope time for more lifting, especially considering she's walking so much every day already. This would help her build muscle faster.
Adding in food around training could help too.
"If she isn't consuming pre- and post-workout meals, she could add in one or both of those, or change her schedule to have her meals and snacks line up with her workout better," Mockler said.
While intuitive eating focuses on listening to your body, Katherine may have to eat more than she feels hungry for if she wants to build muscle, Mockler said.
She recommends finding ways to add calories that don't make Katherine feel overly full, such as adding oil to dishes, increasing peanut butter portions, or drinking liquid calories, such as smoothies.