Question: Your candid advice is very refreshing in this day and age when people are passing promotions off as advice. Ok, I hear what you're saying about your preference for 5-6 real meals over Meal replacement products (MRP's) like Myoplex. Without reproducing your entire nutrition manual here, could you give me some examples of "good meals" in between breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Answer:

Thanks for the compliment. I too am tired of seeing supplement companies deceive people to make a fast buck when everything you need to get in great shape can be found right in your local grocery store.

A complete meal always includes a lean protein and a natural, complex carbohydrate. The best meal of all for muscle-building and fat-burning purposes contains three things:

1. Lean protein (chicken, fish, egg whites, etc)
2. Starchy carb (potato, rice, etc)
3. Fibrous carb (broccoli, green beans, salad, etc)

Here's a whole day's worth of sample meals for you:

Meal1:
Oatmeal
egg whites
orange

meal2:
Cream of rice
egg whites

Meal 3:
baked potato
Top round steak
Asparagus

Meal 4:
Brown Rice
Chicken breast
Green beans

Meal5:
Yams
Chicken breast
Broccoli

Meal 6:
Salmon
Yams or sweet potatoes
Mixed green salad with light dressing

Eating like this is obviously a lot of work; shopping, cooking, packing food in Tupperware, eating every three hours, etc, etc., but it's all worth it. I'm 100% convinced that this type of all-food diet is superior for getting results to one that uses lots of meal replacement drinks and powders.

The thing is, most people can't eat like this - they're just too busy. That's when supplements are useful - for convenience purposes. Better to have an MRP shake than miss a meal. Let me give you an example of how and when someone might fit MRP's into their daily diet:

Last night I went to a bodybuilding contest in Manhattan and a group of us went out to dinner after the show. Vince Galanti, Mr. USA, was with us, so I picked his brain a little bit and I asked his opinion on the subject. He agreed that whole foods are always best. He said that right now he's eating 5 out of 6 of his meals from whole foods. The reason one of his meals is a shake is because he has a personal training business and in the mornings he has back to back clients for 5 or 6 hours. There's just no way he can sit down for a regular meal because he's only got about a few minutes (if that) between appointments. He said that for his second meal, he has a whey protein shake instead of food; using supplements is the only way he can eat anything at all. (By the way, we ate shrimp cocktail, plain salad, sirloin, and a plain baked potato for dinner. You can eat a healthy bodybuilding diet - even at restaurants).

All the top bodybuilding champions I know prefer food over supplements (Vinnie, for example, works for Universal Nutrition, so I assume he can get whatever supplements he wants for free, but he still goes mostly with food).

EAS recently came out with a ready to drink MRP (Myoplex) and I have to admit, nothing beats that for convenience; there's a case of them in the trunk of my car and I have the packets (powdered) in my drawer at work - but I save them for "emergencies."

I believe the effort it takes to eat whole food pays off. Don't believe the advertising hype - No MRP is better than real food no matter what kind of "proprietary, super-duper mega secret anabolic protein complex" they use.

By the way, Vinnie is competing in the nationals in New York City in two weeks and he's a favorite to win (he looks incredible!) Check out his website at www.vincegalanti.com

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