Food variety crucial?

[GZA]

I realize that it's obviously better to have a high variety of food sources for your diet (for a more complete nutrition profile and I hear also to limit your succeptability to getting a food allergy to something you eat non stop all day every day) and I try within reason to get some variety when trying to eat clean but I know that my diet plans look a lot less "varied" than a lot of what I see posted in the boards... The main thing I have and can implement in my diet is eating clean but there's two rules I seem to not follow as stricly, which is eating lots of variety (because of time/money constraints) and also not mixing my carbs with my fats on a per meal basis... I find (on a cutting diet) that I often have enough fat in my meat products or with my cooking oils (olive/coconut) that I cant really afford to have just a "protien fat" meal because all my meals usually contain trace amounts of fats anyways to get me in the 20/30 percent range for my macros. and as far as variety goes, for example... all week I have taken in either cottage cheese, chicken breasts, egg whites (with an occasional yellow) or tuna as my protien sources and only brown rice as my one and only carb source. I made a huge vat of brown rice ahead of time so I never felt the need to make equally huge vats of oatmeal, bake yams etc... I notice if I ever do bake yams I like to eat yams most of the time until they are done and sometimes I get lazy and just do lets say egg whites three meals in a row or something like that... And basically what I'm wondering is am I severely hurting my gains because of this? It seems like a lot of effort to have such a varied meal plan and although I know it would be better for me to put in that extra effort to have lots of different foods ready and have an elaborate meal plan setup, as long as my macros are correct and the foods I eat are clean and I eat many meals a day would you say I'm getting most of the good effects that a strict diet can offer or will making the other improvements I know I "should" do but have failed to implement really make a big difference? I guess another thing I don't do (so every problem with my diet I can think of can be exposed for the sake of honesty) is strategically plan out the types of foods I'm going to eat as it relates to time of day... like getting rid of carbs in my last meal of the day or eating lets say a higher carb meal first thing in the morning to get me going... I do pay some attention to pre/post workout meals but that's about it. I guess if anyone has any experience "just eating clean" vs. having a well structured AND clean diet... I'd kind of like to know what sort of experience you had with each and what sort of differences you noted when paying attention to every detail vs just eating clean and often. As a side note I don't "cheat" here and there like a lot of people who don't seem that regimented in their diet... everything I eat is weighed out and so forth, my "structure/variety" is pretty much the only thing I know of that is off, but even then, I wonder if I'm missing out on some great quality gains by not "dotting all my I's and crossing all my t's". Thanks in advance for all your help

[jamyjamjr]

first off the next time you want to post please seperate your paragraphs so it's easier to read.. most people will ignore posts like this just cuz its hard to follow.. double space if you have to..

number two, variety wont hinder your gains (though your beef meals should be at night).. if you get a food born allergy then obviously it will, but this is rare..

i promote variety more because of the psychological factor of diet failure..

if you eat the same thing every day, you grow tired of it.. switching things up a bit will always help you out in the long run

dont get me wrong, i know guys in contest prep who eat chicken and yams for 10 weeks straight...


the #1 rule of dieting, find a philosophy/structure and stick to it..

hope this helped..

[Klimax]

I read only the reply.

[energizer bunny]

^^^^^^^x2

[GZA]

first off the next time you want to post please seperate your paragraphs so it's easier to read.. most people will ignore posts like this just cuz its hard to follow.. double space if you have to..

number two, variety wont hinder your gains (though your beef meals should be at night).. if you get a food born allergy then obviously it will, but this is rare..

i promote variety more because of the psychological factor of diet failure..

if you eat the same thing every day, you grow tired of it.. switching things up a bit will always help you out in the long run

dont get me wrong, i know guys in contest prep who eat chicken and yams for 10 weeks straight...


the #1 rule of dieting, find a philosophy/structure and stick to it..

hope this helped..

Thank you very much for answering, I'm sorry about that I never realized I was writing questions so hard to follow but I'll be sure to change that now that I'm aware of it.

Your answer was very helpful however, it takes a big weight off my chest.

Thank you!

[therecanonlybe1]

^^^^^^^x2

i just look at the pictures..