Renaissance Periodization Diet Template

[JohnHelton]

I bought this template awhile ago, and I can't bring myself to using it. The main reason is that I have no idea what the heck I would eat at each meal. However, I know that this template absolutely works. Thus, I'm curious as to how those who have successfully used RP have made it work. What specifically did you eat for each of your meals? How did you fit in all those vegetables? Other secrets to your success? Comments/reviews in general?

@dcw @ahpowerlifts, I know you guys have done well on the template. Maybe you could share your tips here. Thank you in advance.

[Sumo]

• Their Template FAQ and HowTo answers quite a few things, they even have a youtube vid explaining it all.
• Each meal lists the amount of protein/carbs/fats your food should contain(not the actual weight of food).
• Top of the template gives you the RP recommended options for each macro. The recommended options will give you the best result, but you can substitute anything you can't or won't eat for whatever reason.
• Casein is not required, you can substitute with chicken or beef or whatever other source of protein, ideally not Whey but if there's nothing else that'll do too.
• The amount of veggies suggested is ideal to keep you regular and because they are thermogenic. You can eat less if there's simply too much, alternatively you can stirfry or cook the veggies in some way that you like and due to the water loss they will reduce significantly
• Ideally you should weigh your meat raw, before cooking, but if you choose to weigh cooked just make sure you are consistent.
• If you miss a meal, it's ok just move on, but if you miss meals on a regular basis you'll negatively affect the process. Imagine you regularily skip meals on Cut 1, which means you average 2000cal/day, and your weight loss stalls at which point you move to Cut 2. The intake on Cut 2, if you did not miss a meal, is 2000cal/day...see where this is going?
• Don't be afraid of eating lots of carbs in the evening, if you train late and the template calls for it, or afraid to drink the recommended carbs in your workout shake.
• When rating your workouts and you're on the fence whether it's Light/Moderate/Hard, choose the lesser if you're on a cut or go up if you're bulking.

[TimK]

I watched some videos on YouTube and it looked like something that wouldn’t work for me. I can’t wrap my mind around foods as discrete macro sources. The templates make it seem like you can just sit down with three piles of macros and grab the appropriate number of grams from each pile and eat your meal. Almost everything I eat is a combination of at least two of the three macronutrients. I just don’t see how the drastic increase in complexity is worth it vs just tracking calories and protein.

[JohnHelton]

My question is more about how one eats such that he/she isn't miserable. There are generally 4 meals per day. Always plenty of lean meats and vegetables (i.e. low fat) with decreasing carbs as one progresses from one fat loss level to the next. Maybe I need an RP diet cookbook, because I have no idea how to combine such an unsavory mix of food. Most specifically, I'm stumped by breakfast. Chicken with vegetables and oats in the morning sounds awful. Egg whites are disgusting. Certainly, people have figured out hacks to make these restrictions work better than my unimaginative brain can envision. And maybe everyone just abandons what I would consider a traditional breakfast. I don't know.

[michael]

You did great on your last diet. Why the change?

[JohnHelton]

You did great on your last diet. Why the change?

Thanks, but I am mostly curious about these things. I also thought it might be valuable info to the others thinking about going this route. For me a cut is a slow process. It takes awhile. During that time, gains are compromised. Understanding how to do it faster without losing muscle has value. This, I am curious.

[dcw]

John,

I'll try to put some thoughts down that hopefully isn't a repeat of what others may have said.

-

I pretty much ate exclusively from the following sources of food:

Protein:
-egg whites
-chicken breast
-albacore tuna
-whey
-casein
-non-fat greek yogurt (+ stevia for sweetness)

Carbs:
-bananas
-apples
-berries
-oranges
-white rice
-oatmeal
-life cereal
-cheerios
-gatorade

Fats:
-almonds
-olive oil

Veggies:
-peppers
-green beans
-broccoli
-tomatoes (sparingly)
-cauliflower (sparingly)

-------------------
9 out of 10 days my meals looked EXACTLY like this:

Breakfast:
pam spray + egg whites + peppers + V8 (+ oatmeal packets + banana if need carbs)

Workout:
whey isolate + extend BCAA + creatine + caffeine (+ gatorade if need carbs)

Lunch:
baked chicken breast + green beans or broccoli + V8 (+ rice + apple if need carbs)

Snack:
nonfat greek yogurt + stevia (+ fruit + honey instead of stevia if need carbs)

Dinner:
baked chicken breast + green beans or broccoli + olive oil + V8 (+ rice + berries if need carbs)

Pre Bed Snack:
casein + almonds (+ cereal if need carbs)

Plus lots and lots of various seasonings, low/no calorie sauces (mustard, hot sauce, etc..), diet A&W, and COFFEE. I also added a fiber supplement once I hit FL2 and FL3. I'm just not a big veggie guy (which helps explain the V8).
-------------------
To try and keep it simple, I had three types of days (hard training, light training, and non-training) which worked out like this:
M - Hard
T - Light (cardio)
W - Hard
T - Light (cardio)
F - Hard
S - Light (cardio)
S - Non-Training (but i usually went for a long [~5 miles] walk]

The non training day was the base template seen above without fruit or other carbs.
The light training days were the non training day + fruit at 3-4 meals.
The hard training days were the non training day + fruit at 3-4 meals + rice, oatmeal, cereal at various meals.

I kept this same basic template throughout the entire diet, and would just decrease the amount of each food as needed per the template.

Sunday's were brutal due to Saturday and Sunday both being lower on calories, but Monday was the "beginning" of each week so I'd have motivation for a good weigh in. I'd crave Monday morning's oatmeal all weekend long, lol.

Getting to eat more on the hard training days is what made this diet tolerable. Because of that, If I were to do it again, I would actually train hard more often (like a 4 day or 5 day template) so I could eat more. #willtrainforcarbs, amiright?

It's also worth mentioning that I work 2nd shift and only get a Sat/Sun weekend every six weeks. This actually worked in my favor, as I tend to get cravings at nighttime. Most of the time I was working and was too busy to even think about being hungry. As long as I made myself go to bed as soon as I got home, I'd be ok. And other than going out of town for training, I didn't have to worry about "staying strong" during gatherings, because they were few and far between.

A very supportive fiancé who also works a crazy schedule and makes her own food really helps, too. I'm sure having to pass up evening dinners/weekend pancakes/etc with the family is another added stressor.

I watched some videos on YouTube and it looked like something that wouldn’t work for me. I can’t wrap my mind around foods as discrete macro sources. The templates make it seem like you can just sit down with three piles of macros and grab the appropriate number of grams from each pile and eat your meal. Almost everything I eat is a combination of at least two of the three macronutrients. I just don’t see how the drastic increase in complexity is worth it vs just tracking calories and protein.

Yep. I had to force myself to only choose foods that were *mostly* one macro to make it work. Initially trying to do the math with multi-macro foods (eggs, milk, beef, breads/pastas, etc...) would make me pull my hair out. But it's actually quite easy with single macro foods...you just add/subtract wherever you need. Also note that I may in fact be insane, as I can (and usually do) eat the same foods every day.

[Sumo]

I watched some videos on YouTube and it looked like something that wouldn’t work for me. I can’t wrap my mind around foods as discrete macro sources. The templates make it seem like you can just sit down with three piles of macros and grab the appropriate number of grams from each pile and eat your meal. Almost everything I eat is a combination of at least two of the three macronutrients. I just don’t see how the drastic increase in complexity is worth it vs just tracking calories and protein.

It's actually significantly less complex than tracking calories, I'm assuming you do care about how much fat and carbs you get alongside your protein. The RP templates account for inccidental macros, which means when you weigh your oats you only care about the carb content and disregard the protein and fat, for recommended protein sources you don't worry about counting the fat in the meat, and fat source... Essentially you'll never get to the end of your day and realise you have some silly amount of protein/carb/fat amount you need as you do with traditional calorie/macro counting.

You can combine foods to make them tastier, but it does require you put your thinking cap on. The problem most people have is that creating a meal, a stir-fry for example, is not really possible with the usual sauces and condiments that are stacked with sugar and fat.

Ultimately it comes down to willingness to change habits and a little short term discomfort.

[TimK]

It's actually significantly less complex than tracking calories, I'm assuming you do care about how much fat and carbs you get alongside your protein.

I do not.

[Sumo]

@TimK so how exactly do you track calories? you count your protein, to make sure you get enough, and then only add up the fats and carbs to so you know how many total calories for the meal?

[TimK]

@TimK so how exactly do you track calories? you count your protein, to make sure you get enough, and then only add up the fats and carbs to so you know how many total calories for the meal?

No. I generally have no idea how many grams of carbs or fat I eat on a given day. I just aim for a total calorie target and a total protein target. Way easier to hit those two numbers than to try to hit three specific macro targets. Just try to get 40g or more of protein with each meal and if I’m still short I can make up the difference with some whey.

I’m willing to accept that carefully manipulating carbs and fats might be necessary for elite athletes or contest bodybuilders, but I am neither of those.

[Sumo]

I think I didn't work my question quite right, how do you know the daily caloric intake if all you track is protein? maybe I'm misunderstanding...

[perman]

On a cut right now and don't intend to do anything like this.

Why can't cuts be as simple as the following:
- Pick calories and macros such that you lose 0,5-1% BW per week. Do high protein, and choose fats/carbs based on preference. HIgher carbs probably better for most people who train 4+ times a week.
- If you fall outside the interval weight loss rate interval or if you see stagnation over enough days, titrate 100 daily calories of consumption the correct direction. I typically drop 100 daily cals if the weight stays still for half a week.
- Start with more starchy carbs and reduce starchy carbs to reduce calories. The lower you go, the more vegatables and the less rice/pasta/grains you'll have.
- Take a diet break after 2-3 months and reset your metabolism.

Lost 4 kg during the the last month and a quarter doing that, and it's been fairly easy. Though it's been easy because it's maybe the 3rd time I've done it this way. Started at 2400 Kcal at the start of January, down to 2200 now. Have traditionally failed and quit around 2000 kcal a day on the last couple of cuts, but if I can establish good routines with pre-packaged meals with plenty of veggies over low amounts of rice/grains, I think I can go lower this time.

[damufunman]

I bought the RP diet eBook, thought that was helpful. I've been trying to do to a light version of what the templates seem to be (based on some of the example ones I've seen online, reading some of RPs articles, and the eBook) trying to do. I can't do that many veggies, and I'm way low on fat, but the weight loss is coming along nicely (probably too much muscle loss due to not training enough).

If you can work out the portion sizes for different types of meat/protein sources (and assuming lean meats so fat is somewhat under control there), you should be able to just pre-portion those out and have them ready to go.

I do a shake when I wake up (driving to work), non-fat greek yogurt in the morning, then lunch and dinner are some protein source, plus another shake in the afternoon because it's easy, especially with a 1 year old. It's not perfect, but they emphasize in the book that calories is #1 priority followed by macros, and that makes up about 80% of the effect of the diet. Timing, food composition/quality, supplements are 10/5/5% respectively, and eating high quality foods isn't too hard. I'm ok with being not spot on with timing, but planning fats away from training and carbs closer isn't too bad. Just the spacing gets a little wonky if you work in an office or have set break times, but I don't think it's a huge problem to have uneven timing.

ETA: Cooking ahead of time is really helpful. If you can handle monotony, cooking up a big ass batch of veggies (if you prefer them cooked) on the weekend and just plopping a heap into a container along with rice or potato and meat is great for lunch. I know they say keep it bland, but I season everything because my wife won't eat it otherwise (started prepping lunch ahead of time for her because she couldn't cook while being home with the baby, and she hates cooking, and it worked out really well so I figured I'd take advantage of it too).

[JohnHelton]

Historically, I have cut using the same method as @TimK. I track all my calories, trying to hit a target for the day. Plus, I have a protein target. I let my carbs/fats fluctuate, not having a target for either. I think this works really well when I'm in compliance. It doesn't work well on the weekend when I go out to dinner and blow my calorie target. Looking at @dcw's success, I think so much of it has to do with compliance. Going forward when I cut, I think I just need to plan shorter cuts. That will make commitment easier. It is hard to be a dietary monk longer term. I read somewhere that MIke T cuts on pivot weeks. That seems like a good idea. Cut pretty hard during a deload and then go back to eating maintenance or more.

[perman]

Historically, I have cut using the same method as @TimK. I track all my calories, trying to hit a target for the day. Plus, I have a protein target. I let my carbs/fats fluctuate, not having a target for either. I think this works really well when I'm in compliance. It doesn't work well on the weekend when I go out to dinner and blow my calorie target. Looking at @dcw's success, I think so much of it has to do with compliance. Going forward when I cut, I think I just need to plan shorter cuts. That will make commitment easier. It is hard to be a dietary monk longer term. I read somewhere that MIke T cuts on pivot weeks. That seems like a good idea. Cut pretty hard during a deload and then go back to eating maintenance or more.

I'm a single guy with no kids, and I find it easy. Just get rid of any social life, and your cut is set.

[JohnHelton]

Historically, I have cut using the same method as @TimK. I track all my calories, trying to hit a target for the day. Plus, I have a protein target. I let my carbs/fats fluctuate, not having a target for either. I think this works really well when I'm in compliance. It doesn't work well on the weekend when I go out to dinner and blow my calorie target. Looking at @dcw's success, I think so much of it has to do with compliance. Going forward when I cut, I think I just need to plan shorter cuts. That will make commitment easier. It is hard to be a dietary monk longer term. I read somewhere that MIke T cuts on pivot weeks. That seems like a good idea. Cut pretty hard during a deload and then go back to eating maintenance or more.

I'm a single guy with no kids, and I find it easy. Just get rid of any social life, and your cut is set.

Yep. People tend to be social with regard to eating. My wife likes to eat out over the weekend. Of course, you can eat out and only consume 500-600 calories, but it isn't easy.

[TimK]

I think I didn't work my question quite right, how do you know the daily caloric intake if all you track is protein? maybe I'm misunderstanding...

I don’t only track protein. I also track total calories.

[Manveer]

I think I didn't work my question quite right, how do you know the daily caloric intake if all you track is protein? maybe I'm misunderstanding...

I don’t only track protein. I also track total calories.

How?

[TimK]

I think I didn't work my question quite right, how do you know the daily caloric intake if all you track is protein? maybe I'm misunderstanding...

I don’t only track protein. I also track total calories.

How?

Are you guys fucking with me or something?

I use MyFitnessPal. I guess technically I’m “tracking” everything but I only pay attention to total calories and protein.

Also I’m on day two of an ice-storm induced power outage that looks like it will last for three more days and I’m typing this from a chinese buffet and definitely not hitting my targets for the day, so feel free to disregard anything I say.