[Peanut]

I got back into the gym in December after my baby stopped nursing. I took the first 6 weeks to mostly just lift weight and not worry about changing my diet much. But now I’m looking for more results so I’m focusing on diet too. What I did:

Read up on macro-based diets. Get My Fitness Pal and start tracking your food. Figure out an appropriate calorie deficit for yourself (500 cals a day works out to 3500 cals/week= 1lb). It’s a bit of work at the outset to figure out the app and your calorie and macro targets, but once you get the hang of it, it starts to become quite fun actually. I’m aiming for 0.7g of protein per lb of body weight per day. And 0.4g of fat. But mostly I just focus on the protein and usually fall short on the fat intake.

I have a few “bodybuilding” themed cookbooks that I really enjoy (The Ultimate BodyBuilding Cookbook is getting heavy use in my house currently). Most recipes focus on higher protein with a balance of fat and carbs. It’s not keto but upping your protein does help maintain muscle while you’re losing fat. Might also be worth checking out healthy meal prep cookbooks/plans (just to make things easier).