Replacing supplements with food - what to add to diet when I start LP?

[Adam Levine]

Karl,

I'm currently "preparing" to go on full LP - reading the books, losing weight, practicing technique, planning how I'll get 1 1/2 hours 3x/week to do it... I'm currently on a 1600-calorie a day diet and have been on a restricted calorie diet for about six months, but intend to eat more when I do full LP.

Of course, the main thing I think about is food - I'm within 15lbs of goal weight and should be there in 2-3 months, and want to plan and prepare for what I do when I go on LP.

I don't trust the supplement industry - it's badly regulated, you don't know if you're getting what they say, and that big study that said multivitamins were worse than useless stuck it for me. I'd much rather get my supplements through food.

My question is, what to add and how, that will help me both with the LP and my main health issues (diabetes and cholesterol).

The first one everyone mentions is fish oil. Canned pink salmon is delicious, and it seems that 3 cans per week would give me enough DHA/EPA (and 1500 calories, so I'm not doing it now). If I were to do that, do I need to eat the fish oil every day to get the beneficial effects, or can I concentrate it into 3 days per week? I'm thinking two salmon sandwiched (one can on some whole wheat bread)...

The other is Mark's milk recommendation - how does that work for those of us that aren't skinny 16-year olds? I wouldn't mind drinking a lot of milk - would a half gallon be enough for my 47-year old self? Is there a good chocolate milk that isn't loaded with added sugar (diabetes...)? Ultra-filtered milk in that volume would be pretty expensive.

What other foods-to-replace-supplements are there?

-->Adam

[Karl Schudt]

Hey Adam,

First: whey isn't a supplement. It's food. It's the protein portion of milk. Protein is correlated with cost, and so whey is a cheap way to get it. Not all whey is equal, of course, but there are independent lab reports. I use #2 on this list: Top 10 Protein Supplements

Other protein sources: lean meats like chicken breast, pork, some cuts of meat. The reason to keep it lean is to manage the calories. You won't want to do the full 19-year old male diet. But you will need to get enough calories to get strong.

Chicken breast is the go-to protein for most of us, but it needs to be cooked right. I like a sous vide cooker--cook it to 145 degrees and it's edible. But there are various ways to make it not so rubbery.

Milk should be fine, but you might want 2% or skim in order to manage the calories.

I think you are fine if you are eating plenty of fish, unless it's to manage triglycerides, in which case you should probably take it daily.

Other than that, creatine seems to be the only supplement that really works. Well-tested, usually useful, helps you get rep #5. It's safe and cheap, but if you really don't want to take it, you should be ok if you are eating plenty of red meat and fish.

I'd probably work with an RD if I were you, though.