Eating to get ripped: Best foods & sample meal plan to get lean fast

Are you getting serious about your health & fitness and wondering what should you eat to get ripped and get lean muscles fast?

OR, if you have all sorts of these questions like…

What should be my perfect get ripped nutrition diet plan? What is the best shredded diet to get lean fast? How a perfect get jacked diet looks like? What are the best foods to eat to get lean? What are the best vegetables to get ripped?

…and much more (the questions have endless variation), then you are the best place on the planet!

One thing I have to admit: starting a rigorous exercise plan is clearly a key part of achieving your healthy lifestyle goals, but it’s important to remember that working out is only one part of the equation.

I mean, at least as important is a healthy diet, and a healthy diet doesn’t just mean cutting out on Friday night takeaway binges; you need to keep an eye on what you’re eating 24/4 – 365, if you are serious about getting shredded perfectly.

If you stick to every part of it, you’ll put yourself on the fast track to losing weight and will become leaner, but even if you just use it as guide to the kind of foods that you should be eating, it will still help you make huge changes.

So are you ready to learn how a perfect diet for getting ripped and get lean muscles fast looks like?

If you have no idea (which actually I think ;), then don’t forget to read below the whole post if you really want to lose those extra pounds of fat and get lean, ripped, jacked body.

Best dieting tips to get ripped & lean

To perfect your getting-shredded diet,  you first need to understand the difference between eating for shredding and eating for general health i.e not only the two kinds of food but quantities of those foods also matter.

Also, you have to keep track of all the calories and macronutrients your body is taking to ensure that you are on track to grow muscle and reduce body fat. This can be achieved by following these steps.

Step 1: Cutting back your calories to lose fat

Never forget this Universal fact: Whether you are cutting, bulking or trying to change your body composition your calorie intake is crucial.

Calories work by fulfilling 100% percent of your body energy needs. You get them from whatever you eat and burn them in different bodily functions and exercise movements.

When your body takes more calories than it needs, it is stored and preserved in your body as “fat” and when your body takes less than what you need, these stored fat reserves of the body are used as fuel.

So, in short, cutting their calories regularly is the most effective tool to lose your body fat.

Step 2: Choose your weight goal and balance out carbs, proteins, and fats

Let’s say you are weighing 250lbs right now and want to reach 180lbs – the bodyweight you believe would give you a ripped look (or estimate the weight you think will give you lean muscles look).

• 45 percent from protein, 
• 35 percent from carbs
•  20 percent from fat.

As for fat, keep it minimal to avoid getting your calories out of your control since a 1 gm of fat has twice the calories of a gram of protein or carbs), but make sure to not reduce them to so low levels where they start negatively impact hormones like testosterone. So, 0.4 gm per pound is a good start.

Step 3: Eat A lot of protein

Eating sufficient protein is crucial for your overall fitness goals whether you are looking to lose weight or gain muscle. This a, in fact, a key nutrient for building, repairing, and preservation of your lean body tissues i.e your lean body mass.

Protein is also our best friend in case of your calorie deficit bodies because it is a protein that preserves your lean muscle mass while losing body fat at the same time.

Additionally, many of the research studies have confirmed the fact that taking at least 25-30% of your calories from protein sources can reduce your frequent food cravings i.e appetite control thus making it dieter’s best buddy.

Best protein-rich foods include:

Step 4: Eat only healthy fats and consume them in moderation

It’s generally understood that eating fats will make you fat. This is factually not true unless too much of your calories come from it.

Also, it is the fat that is stored in your body as compared to other macros but limited research does suggest that some individuals might be more prone to changes in their body composition from fat intake than others.

So this is not always the case with everyone. Since fat is calorically dense, unless you are following a specific, high-fat diet like keto, keeping your total fat consumption in check could be crucial to help you control your calories and your fat loss efforts

Moreover, your choice of fat matters too. Research studies are suggesting that healthier, unsaturated fats are less likely to be stored as fat compared to saturated fats. 

Last but not least, Including some healthy fats is also thought to be appetizing and satisfying. So aim to keep healthy fats at least 20 to 30% of your total calories.

Step 5: Try out carb cycling

It’s another misconception that carbs are only responsible for weight gain. The reality is if you are really hitting the gym hard, you could actually be better off consuming an adequate amount of carbs.

This can be done through a little trick called ‘carb cycling’ which can save you from going low carb.

I am sure you need more explanation regarding this. 

Step 6: Try out portion controlling

You have to agree with me when I say….

Even if you are carefully and precisely cooking all your meals by yourself, it would be an uphill task to figure out more accurate portion control unless you are weighing your own food regularly bit by bit.

The truth is every calorie in your each food matters. When you don’t weigh your food and keep adding with rough estimates of a cup, those extra calories are bound to swell up.

To support this argument, in some research studies, it was clearly found that people, on average, add up an extra 20% of calories by not accurately estimating or weighing their food portions.

How to prevent this problem?

It is advised to invest some money in buying a food scale and invest some time in learning what weights align with your portion and calorie goals and make sure they are perfectly accurate when preparing your own meals.

Here are some examples:

Get-shredded sample meal plans

As you reduce the number of calories you eat your body starts to burn fat for energy. But calorie cutting can make you lose muscle – so don’t overdo it. 

However, you need to exercise one caution; Don’t try cutting your calories too much. When you do this, your body thinks it’s starving so it starts to conserve and store them, which reduces the rate at which you burn body fat.

Below I am putting up a sample meal plan that will help you in getting through a getting-ripped stage and fulfill your purpose of both losing fat and gaining muscle.