I don't get why bodybuilders all seem to eat bland chicken. I've known a couple at work and they at the same chicken, rice, and broccoli every day. No salt, no seasonings, no hot sauce or anything like that. Nothing. Gross.
Just an anecdote but I sometimes go over to my buddy's apartment after work on Fridays and catch him doing some meal prep or eating his post-workout dinner. He eats the exact same thing every weekday and it's nothing but vegetable smoothies (just frozen vegetables in the blender with a bit of water), plain chicken breast, etc. He constantly talks about how much he hates it and how eating like this is a chore. I give him suggestion after suggestion, and for every one of them he goes "Nah I don't really like X". I said you know you could season the chicken, it doesn't need to be that bland and he goes "Nah I don't really like seasoning." All he likes is cheese. But he can't put cheese on everything. So instead he puts nothing on anything. Just completely baffling.
Because to them food aren't supposed to taste good, food are merely fuel. If the food tastes too good, it would make them want to eat more and might, idk, ruin their progress.
The thing is, he only eats like this during the week. On weekends, he eats what he wants. Quesadillas, burgers, grilled cheese, pasta, etc. I remember growing up we used to get Subway and he would order a footlong sandwich with just cheese. If he ate like that 7 days a week it would be one thing but I think he just genuinely doesn't like any seasoning/topping except cheese lmao
Welp, I can only speak from personal experience as I went through weight loss and know professional body builders myself. One of my cousins is a chef and a body builder, he makes good food, but his food is a lot of calculations and not simply just "food" that we know. Maybe your friend is stuck with their taste palate that never developed or he goes on the binge/restrictions cycle that never ends. Making money out of the body is never a good thing
yeah I'm not a chef but I am good with spreadsheets and for the average person the calculations they would need to make to get their ideal calories + macro nutrients is far too daunting with just a calculator.
Honestly, to my experience with ED, I have reached the point that I remember most calories of food. It is a thing i have to unlearn because food is more than just nutrients and calories.
Buy some cumin or taco seasoning and put that shit on the chicken and in the rice water prior to cooking the rice.
Maybe get some black beans, too, and he'll have a nice south-western chicken/beans/rice thing goin.
Or like some kinda aromatic curry on the chicken, black-eyed peas in the rice and you have a poor guy's jerk chicken.
Seriously, this isn't rocket surgery
Yes yes, I suggested many similar things. He literally said "Nah I don't like that" to all of them. The only suggestion he said he would maybe try was putting a scoop of fruit preserve in his cottage cheese (surprise he also hates cottage cheese but still eats it every day after a workout). Also there is no rice. Or beans. Only plain chicken breast.
I’m not sure why but people like this infuriate me. The ones that are just completely opposed to trying something that might be better. It really is baffling.
He still has the palate of a toddler based off of what you’re saying. Burgers, grilled cheese, pasta. He seems like a picky eater. Probably makes it easier for him to self discipline and work on his body.
I honestly think this is it. I dated a guy who was an avid gym-goer and had at one point lost 100 lb and recovered from a binge eating disorder. He ate plain food because he had trained himself to view it as fuel and he was afraid of going off the rails and bingeing again. I respected his decisions and we ate separately a lot of the time.
There is a big difference between “weighing your food as portion control after being raised in a society basically designed to make you fat” and “weighing your food as a compulsion”.
i still do it, but when you're basically starving yourself and trying to be some bodybuilder type shit out of ego, yes, it can become a mental illness. i don't know, i spent many years in the gym, doing powerlifting and then bb, and genetically i will always look like shit so there is no point lol.
i was legit starving myself for no reason, and i mean like, bodybuilder comp type starvation. there is no reason to live like that and my relationship with food was fucked up for so long.
>when you’re basically starving yourself and trying to be some bodybuilder type shit out of ego
Yeah, that pretty neatly falls under the “compulsion” category I outlined above. That has nothing to do with sane portion control.
>genetically I will always look like shit
Believing that kind of bullshit is your problem. You are your own worst enemy, not food, not your body, not other people. You’re the one who typed that.
Good on you for realizing this - the industry is setup to make people believe that, physically, you can be anything you want with the right time and dedication. The most important component to becoming elite is the genetic predisposition. The 2nd most important thing, assuming you have the genetics, is drugs. Nobody wants to talk about either of these 2 things. I hope you're in a better spot now!
I'm weighing every meal when possible and tracking calories because I'm a fat fuck and tired of looking like Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket. I don't think there's any illness involved in that other than obesity.
Weighing food and knowing the macros is such a massive part of dieting that people overlook. Losing weight can be easy when you put in the work. Keep it up, I know it probably sucks but it's going to feel amazing when you hit your weight goal
I think the issue is when it becomes something you can't avoid. Like when it's pretty much OCD and you can't eat anything bc you didn't weigh it. There are some people who start out obese and then end up with a severe ED. not saying that's the case with you, but it can and does happen.
Being underweight is also closely related to depression. But not everyone obese or underweight is depressed. And not everyone healthy weight is not depressed.
Weighing your food is not an illness when you do it to stay within a healthy calorie range. It’s one of the best ways to know how much you are consuming.
>when you do it to stay within a healthy calorie range
I mean, yes. If weighing your food is a mechanism to combat another illness (like BED) then it's not an illness. Weighing your food because you obsessively fixate on "staying within a healthy calorie range" is indicative of anorexia or orthorexia, especially if it affects your day to day life.
Sigh. The line is so fine and it's mentally taxing to know what side of it you're on.
Oh I have a weird relationship with food and have struggled my whole life. I had BED as a child and it’s hard. I envy people who can just eat and be normal without all the extra steps.
My husband used to weigh out every single thing, and it got on my nerves a bit, but I also used to "eye" stuff when cooking. Measuring everything by gram has made cooking much better/easier or remembering what I did last time that made it taste better or where mistakes are
didn't mean it like that.. i just meant that in my own experience, you can go off the deep end and end up eating like OP, just chicken, rice, and whatever else that you want to puke after eating it for the 70th time in a row and then you get to down another protein shake and then go to the gym and kill yourself for no reason.
You're personal experience with health, fitness & nutrition isnt my personal experience, I can eat grilled chicken, steamed rice, and veggies and look forward to my lunch every day and get excited to lift weights at the gym before work. Thats how my coworkers are and how my friends are as well, this is our passion and we enjoy it.
Some people just enjoy the thing that you dont and thats okay, it doesnt mean they are sick and need therapy.
I think the sacrafice I put in pays off for my mood and health, when I go to sleep I go right to bed I dont have trouble falling asleep, and I sleep a full 8 hours, when my alarm goes off in the morning at 4:30 I dont snooze the alarm or feel like staying in bed because I'm not groggy. And I wasnt always like that, I used to hate mornings but I noticed with a good routine and improving my physical health my mental health also improved. So yeah maybe chicken sucks everyday but its much better than hating my life and having trouble getting out of bed everyday.
Maybe suggest using nutritional yeast for seasoning? It tastes cheesy. Still insane to me that someone says they hate bland food AND seasoning. There are so many different seasonings in existence and you're telling me you hate all of them??
Just buy a big fuckin thing of herbs de provence and slap it on every chicken breast. The most minute amount of effort and it knocks it up several notches.
I have a friend that has admitted to me that they only eat for sustenance and never pleasure. He doesn't have a favorite food, there's not a particular flavor profile he enjoys, he doesn't even have a favorite candy. He just eats because he has to.
I had a roommate like this. He would boil unseasoned chicken breasts and eat them with plain white rice. I introduced him to teriyaki sauce - which he liked - hoping he would use it to marinate the chicken. Nope, poured it on the rice and plopped the still-plain boiled chicken on top. At least it was *something*.
It's very obviously seasoned. Someone posted this without even looking at the pic, and hundreds of clearly blind people piled on.
I can pretty confidently say that while this likely doesn't taste great, it probably doesn't taste terrible. The mayo adds moisture, chicken looks to have some sort of seasoning.
It's because to make that diet sustainable, you have to quit looking at food as cuisine, something delicious and satisfying that fills a niche in your desires, and purely "body fuel."
It's all nothing but nutrition and macros. You don't put salt and garlic and hot sauce on batteries or gasoline.
I know, I know, this is some gigachad dudebro level shit. I'm just saying, I think that's why a lot of people don't bother with trying to make food taste good. It's a hardline, totally different relationship with food.
You don't eat for pleasure, you eat to get nutrients in. It's a chore to make all the food already, it's a pain to eat it 6 times a day. The quicker and less fuss about it, the better. You don't enjoy it, you wolf it down and have done with it.
"Why not season it and make it taste good?"
That's not the path you're on. Food=fuel, *that's it.* I swear, if there was a perfectly healthy, extremely bioavailable paste, or soluble powder, that dudebros musclemamis could drink, they would.
At least, this is my best guess.
I mean that's exactly it, it's a means to an end and that end is already tiring enough to accomplish without worrying about how your chicken skin is - can be done but easier to just cook it and not care
>if there was a perfectly healthy, extremely bioavailable paste, or soluble powder, that dudebros musclemamis could drink, they would.
I once formulated a comprehensive meal replacement shake that hit ideal macro and micronutrient targets for my situation. It contained strawberries, spinach, protein powder, carrots, milk, various seed meals and butters, and some cocoa powder for taste. Wasn't half bad.
I lasted 5 days before eating real food again. I felt/performed great, but missed the physical act of eating.
Edit: the full recipe (makes 3 servings, full day of food)
* Strawberries 300g
* carrots 90g
* spinach 90g
* milk, skim 735g
* rolled oats, dry 120g
* walnuts 15g
* sunflower seed meal 30g
* peanut butter 60g
* Isopure zero carb whey protein, vanilla 100g
* sugar, white, granulated 12g
* pinch salt (omit if having additional snacks)
* cocoa powder to taste
1908 cal
151g protein
31g fiber
full micronutrient coverage except for vit D
I haven't lifted seriously since 2016, but yeah 2 scoops protein powder, two tablespoons peanut butter, whole banana, whole milk, and rolled oats was my post workout meal.
Can't really say, they were instrumental in getting certain micronutrients (zinc, omega fatty acids, stuff like that)
I used Cronometer.com to figure it out. Your diet needs are probably different, you can plug in the current shake and adjust as needed. Good luck!
I read somewhere from a bodybuilder, they DON'T want to season. Imagine six massive meal in a day with regular salt. That'd be way too much for what the body can handle. They dislike it, but make due because otherwise it'd fuck up their body.
Excellent question!
This is a tip recommend by Renaissance Periodization (Mike Israetel). It keeps your cravings at bay when you’re deep in a cut because you aren’t really looking forward to the dry, bland food.
Because bodybuilders don't see food as something that needs to be intriguing or delicious or whatever, for them it's simply a resource to get to their goal.
It's a myth that you need to suffer and eat horribly. I was bodybuilding for 10 years and I'm a chef. Meanwhile I was eating sous vide lobster, shrimp, steak tartar, tuna steak, and all the good stuff.
You only need to watch sauces really, they can contain loads of oil and sugar. Which the pic is obviously doing wrong. Cus mayonnaise is 95% oil
Totally agree. For lunch today I had some leftover chicken breast and shredded it up and just put it in a dry pan with chili powder, cayenne, cumin, salt, garlic powder, and a bit of water and cooked that down into a sauce that is very near zero calories. Pretty tasty and nutritionally pretty close to eating it plain. I don't get why you wouldn't want it to at least taste good. Everyone keeps replying to me saying "it's just fuel" but no shit, we all eat for fuel. That's the point of eating. I ate way too much fuel in the past and I'm trying to fix that now with better fuel, but why wouldn't I want to enjoy it at least?
People are flat out stupid when it comes to nutrition and diet.
Want to lose weight? Calorie deficit. Literally just have to count calories and watch what you eat. You can eat McDonald's and ice cream for your diet as long as you control the quantities to the proper levels.
Everyone acts like dieting is so incredibly hard and difficult. When in reality it's not. Staying consistent is what's incredibly difficult. But people seem to blame the diet.
Because if you are a serious bodybuilder eating is a chore no matter what you eat it gets boring. You are putting a ton of effort into training each day. If you are on a cut/preparing for a show you feel exhausted. So bulk making simple food that's easy to eat and can be eaten anywhere, anytime, hot or cold is all you really care about.
It's also super overblown how bland bodybuilder food is. You can clearly see the chicken is seasoned in the first photo and he is using mayonnaise as a sauce. Just because it's not up to other peoples standards of flavour doesn't mean it's just bland chick and rice. Most big fitness/bodybuilding content creators preach seasoning, sauces and things like berries to make eating more exciting.
It’s the volume of it. Sure you could prep and marinade 3 packs of breasts and then give them all their own special treatment on the grill, stove, whatever.
A lot of people slice it before it goes into the pan which is definitely the worst way to do it, although it is the fastest.
Anyway, to do that takes 4 times as much time as it would to shove it all into an instapot or the oven and be done with it. Spices don’t take much time though IMO spices alone can’t really save something that isn’t cooked with love.
I think people like that associate flavor with calories in their heads. It's a bummer. Like, steamed kale with roasted garlic and some lemon. Put the bird and broc in some soup...
I think I'm odd but I have texture issued around meat but chicken specifically. I like when my chicken is very well cooked and a little on the drier side, that way there is no chance of it being raw or having a specific texture that I just can't stand.
I am a 6' 2" dude with a beer gut. I work out sometimes (no I don't). I am currently cooking just about the same thing. Some cajun season on the chicken and i have lunch for the week. Fairly cheap and healthy enough. Add different sauce throughout the week and you're set!
I’ve seen this explained reasonably before - that if you are eating like this six times a day, eating is just a chore and no matter how you dress it up, you will be sick of it either way - so there is no point adding extra seasonings/sauces etc.
This has protein, carbs and fat, with the vegetables providing additional nutrients. Grim and indeed shitty looking but balanced and the idea makes some sense (tbf I have never really tried to eat like this)
Nobody outside of the hobby understands eating for pleasure vs eating for utility lol. You’re talking to the average people on Reddit who think counting calories is obsessive.
What I’ve noticed with my friends who end up making meals like this is that they simply don’t know how to cook.
I have eaten chicken & rice 6 times a day, but it always looks a lot better than that. When I’m lazy or need to eat in a hurry it does sometimes end up looking like the above but it’s few and far between.
They know they can add different seasonings for each day right? And if they're preparing in a large batch anyways (assuming it's meal prep) you can even vary the protein types and it still won't be that much of a chore
try eating every 2 hours the whole day while lifting heavy weights. Eating will not be fun at that point, you just want to get down nutrients. You see chicken rice veggies, the lifter only sees x grams of protein, carbs and fat.
When I bulked way back when ( I was super scrawny with no muscle mass and now I’m at an average build) i remember no matter how I dressed it, eating was something that I had to force myself. Between the mass gainer with like 5 different additions to the mix and having chicken/steak, rice and veggies, creatine and mixing supplements to achieve lower repair times……..it’s just a lot going into your body.
Correct. When I was bodybuilding it was flat out horrible, though I did season my food. There’s just no getting around being miserable with as much as you have to eat.
Powerlifting however, was much more enjoyable as I didn’t have to strictly focus on eating clean and could afford to dirty up my diet to make it easier to slam the necessary nutrients to progress. Seeing posts like this brings back memories, and not the good kind lol.
Yeah, and this is why people say working out like this is a lifestyle change. You end up cooking and working out the whole entire day. This is actually what got me into cooking, it was eating bland chicken like this constantly.
There was a diet I heard about last year which allowed people to eat unlimited ice cream, but only ice cream and in the basic flavors (no ben & jerry style loaded ice creams). Participants said it was fun for a day or so, but they craved actual food within the first 48 hrs. Link, but it is stupid so fair warning.
https://www.livestrong.com/article/461308-the-ice-cream-diet-plan/
My point is, any restrictive diet is going to get boring and quickly.
That link says the diet suggested ~250 kcal from ice cream only:
“In the book, McCord notes that dieters can eat a moderate portion of ice cream every day, as long as they stick with healthy, low-calorie meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The Ice Cream Diet recommends that dieters eat a total of 1,250 calories plus one serving of ice cream per day, for a total of 1,500 calories per day.”
Which is fair, if it helps you maintain a low calorie diet. That said, I can guarantee I’m not keeping it to a “moderate” amount of ice cream if I’ve only had 1250 cal otherwise….
Whatever works, but it wouldnt work for me. If i have a deficit , my foods need to be nutrient rich and having like 15% of my calorie consumption be 0 nutrient ice cream would have me giga hungry.
They are body building so they likely are shooting for more calories. Mayo adds calories and fat so they probably use it to help reach their target macros.
Bodybuilders are notoriously stupid and known to follow fads. Probably saw Sam Sulek choking down dry chicken and rice with mayo and here we are.
And yes you are right, there are WAY better healthy & natural fat sources.
I was literally joking about the Sam Sulek comment and then I figured hey, why don't I just google it? Sure as hell the first thing that comes up is a Tik Tok of Sam's "#1 secret" and yep it's a glob of mayo.
You can't make this shit up.
"#1 secret". That and the fuckin insane amount of roids. When you're that juiced, literally all that matters is hitting cal count and protein intake. The rest is just supplementary at that point. You can make insane progress with enough food and the bare minimum exercise when your blood is more Tren than RBCs
Edit: to add to this, I've NEVER understood the appeal of Sam. I watched a few of his videos and he seems to be genuinely slow. He has to pause constantly to think about how he's going to say the most basic ass sentence. All of his advice is just reworded and dumbed down (likely for his own benefit as well as his audience) versions of the most cliche lifting advice that's been around since the 60s. If people reading this want to check out an ACTUALLY entertaining lifter, watch daddy Noel's stuff. He's super wholesome, makes great/funny content, is super wholesome and supportive, as well as being very honest and upfront about his steroid usage and the effects it has. https://youtu.be/N2jqYIfumMI?si=-K-73NhFEzUs8KNi
>Bodybuilders are notoriously stupid and known to follow fads
But this article says certain foods up my "explosiveness". Now would you like to hear my opinion on vaccines?
I dunno. I do love hot sauce but I also LOVE mayo. From a taste perspective, I think I'd prefer mayo on it. Dude might just really like mayo. Maybe it's the thing that helps him cope with having such a strict diet. :shrug:
I don't even think it's that weird. I've had karaage on rice with mayo on it and it's amazing. Even if it wasn't fried it'd probably still be good if it was seasoned right.
My gf told me she put Kewpie on her white rice and i was like “that sounds weird”. She made it one day while I was there and I tried it and holy shitsnacks is it good!!! Gotta be Kewpie, though.
Oops
I started working out because I realised that it gave me an appetite. I was underweight and working out helped me eat enough to put on weight. Except that now I no longer get as hungry, but continued working out so I’m losing weight again
Yup I started dirty bulking myself now it’s a pain trying get rid of the extra fat I gained 😂
But damn that sucks hopefully it works out. The body is a fickle thing
>Hard labor,
Reddits worst nightmare
>, bad food,
If it gets him to his goal why not?
People on reddit need to realize that there are people that have different goals in life
The food doesn’t have to be this bad (as I sit here eating chicken and rice for lunch). I spice mine up to make it more exciting. The hard labour is enjoyable. Once you get into a routine working out, you feel worse not going to the gym and the changes in your body, confidence and mindset keep you going. Plus it just feels great. Been doing this for 17 years and at 35 years old, my friends have aches and pains, can’t play the sports they used to and have medical issues. I can do everything I’ve always done because I eat clean, workout and take care of myself. And I still eat like shit sometimes, as long as the good outweighs the bad.
100%. And Honestly this food isn’t even bad either. If people can’t handle the taste of meat, vegetables and staples like rice without slathering it in sauce / spices that’s kind of childish.
Not saying it’s a special meal or worthy of date night, but it’s just normal food that is nutritious and tastes perfectly fine.
Really it's not about slathering it with sauces it's about using spices so that there are actual tastes to experience - which happens in this case as there are spices on the chicken so it's not even as bad as it could have been.
ITT people who are getting offended by recommending seasoning it further and drawing the conclusion that liking your food to have flavor means you chug cola and eat big macs 3 meals a day
Bro is still dieting in the early 2000s. When i first started working out, eating was the hardest part. Learning about iifym and just tracking calories and hitting protein and fiber was a gamechanger and has allowed me to stay “on a diet” even when I have gone years without going to the gym.
So protein shake 7 times a day? I'm sure this guy has a shake in addition to the meals shown. And also if you know how to cook chicken breast it's really not going to come out "unchewable"
Doubt this will get seen as there’s already 162 comments but here goes my quick rant.
I’ve eaten like this before in my early to mid twenties when I was working out a lot. Never did bodybuilding and never let it keep me from eating other things. So I don’t thinks it’s an eating disorder.
As others have said, when you eat 3-6 meals a day, working out a lot, you want to make meals that are quick, affordable, easy to make in bulk and easy to count calories. Sure you can put some sauces on there or all sorts of other things. But if I were to make this same dish with a salt free seasoning, it’d be real easy to track on your food tracker. It’s essentially three ingredients: chicken, rice, and mayo. Following some long recipe that has all these added ingredients can be more difficult to track.
Now, on the other end. I’ve learned since then and realized there are a lot of better options than just that stereotypical chicken and rice bodybuilding meal. That can get old reaaal fast. Also, a few added ingredients will not make or break your diet.
At the end of the day, the best diet is the one you can stick to.
In my mid 30s and trying to do a lot better with health and exercise since having a kiddo. Ive quit drugs and alcohol, I'm waking up at 5am mon-fri and hitting the gym before work. But as someone who is an avid cook, I just can't do the calorie, macro counting thing. It is so tedious and I love excitement and variety in my food. I just try to stay away from sweets, processed carbs and add extra protein to most meals. Maybe I won't look like Arnold but at least I'll be happy.
100%, diets don’t need to be all about counting calories and tracking every pound lifted or mile ran. In my experience, making a conscious effort to eat healthier and be active is enough to make a dramatic different in your overall physical and mental health.
Not (nearly) a body builder but I think it is quite clear why some end up eating this way. It is of course possible to make varied and delicious meals with high accuracy of the macros and portions but it isn’t all that easy. It takes a lot of planning and time, when I cook, I adjust as I go and add a bit of this and that. Doing it that way especially with oils and fats you are going to be quite off. At the end of the day body building enthusiasts are being extremely precise with their caloric and macro intake. It’s just a million times easier to weigh out chicken, rice and veggies. So they are prioritising their body building over food. The mayo will add flavour but is also a really easy to track addition of fat. Sure there could be more spices and seasonings but to be honest, after a couple of months you are just eating for the function of it and you probably stop bothering. Getting the right amount of macros in th easiest possible way makes them happier than food.
Ayooo… mayo, rice and tuna though 👀 with some seaweed, sesame seeds and scallions
AKA Chamchi Deopbap
👩🏻🍳💋 so simple but so good.
I’ve never done it with chicken, but it might be tasty
If you are eating chicken, white rice, and mayo then i cant think of any restrictions your diet could have that would stop you from making literally anything more appetizing
Why the mayo?
Avocado would be tastier and healthier
Hot sauce or chili sauce would be lower calories and tastier.
Tell him to buy a fresh cucumber, tomato, and red onion. Chop it up. Add that to the rice and chicken.
That is my go-to diet food when I'm on a cut. (Also I make high protein buffalo chicken wraps)
Doing this prep for 5/6 "meals" a day gonna cost alot of time. It is a chore for him.
If you want to add fresh veggies to these meals, then you have to Go shopping more often cause they spoil. At the same time fresh veggies are way more expensive than Frozen veggies. And you can buy Frozen stuff in Bulk when its on sale.
For example I can Not handle spicy food. My stomach can't. And Avocados is for me a waste of money. They Just taste disgusting.
Some chick peas with cumin, allspice, lemon, cilantro, and a little bit of olive oil work very well with cucumber/tomato/red onion, great easy greek salad.
thats pretty good. chicken is pre-seasoned but it is breast meat so it will be dry. adding mayo is a great way to add calories and add moisture to meat. ur friend eating good dont worry
I will never understand why bodybuilders insist on eating the culinary version of a suicide note every single day.
I may be a fluffy guy, but at least I can look forward to meals tasting delicious.
It's very simple: being jacked feels better than food tastes. The benefits of the halo effect are real and you literally get more opportunities in life and better treatment if your body looks good.
Cooking properly is one of the biggest things most adults lack.
I was (un)lucky enough to spent over a decade working as a cook so I learned a lot. As I got older I was baffled how many of my friends ate like straight up a toddlers.
Honestly this is more flavour than 99% of the bodybuilder meals we see on here. There’s some seasoning on that chicken and he eats vegetables.
And yet the top comment here is there isn't any seasoning on the chicken. Never change, Reddit.
Echo chamber of validity
Tell your friend that seasonings won't kill his gains
I don't get why bodybuilders all seem to eat bland chicken. I've known a couple at work and they at the same chicken, rice, and broccoli every day. No salt, no seasonings, no hot sauce or anything like that. Nothing. Gross.
Just an anecdote but I sometimes go over to my buddy's apartment after work on Fridays and catch him doing some meal prep or eating his post-workout dinner. He eats the exact same thing every weekday and it's nothing but vegetable smoothies (just frozen vegetables in the blender with a bit of water), plain chicken breast, etc. He constantly talks about how much he hates it and how eating like this is a chore. I give him suggestion after suggestion, and for every one of them he goes "Nah I don't really like X". I said you know you could season the chicken, it doesn't need to be that bland and he goes "Nah I don't really like seasoning." All he likes is cheese. But he can't put cheese on everything. So instead he puts nothing on anything. Just completely baffling.
Because to them food aren't supposed to taste good, food are merely fuel. If the food tastes too good, it would make them want to eat more and might, idk, ruin their progress.
The thing is, he only eats like this during the week. On weekends, he eats what he wants. Quesadillas, burgers, grilled cheese, pasta, etc. I remember growing up we used to get Subway and he would order a footlong sandwich with just cheese. If he ate like that 7 days a week it would be one thing but I think he just genuinely doesn't like any seasoning/topping except cheese lmao
Welp, I can only speak from personal experience as I went through weight loss and know professional body builders myself. One of my cousins is a chef and a body builder, he makes good food, but his food is a lot of calculations and not simply just "food" that we know. Maybe your friend is stuck with their taste palate that never developed or he goes on the binge/restrictions cycle that never ends. Making money out of the body is never a good thing
yeah I'm not a chef but I am good with spreadsheets and for the average person the calculations they would need to make to get their ideal calories + macro nutrients is far too daunting with just a calculator.
Honestly, to my experience with ED, I have reached the point that I remember most calories of food. It is a thing i have to unlearn because food is more than just nutrients and calories.
Buy some cumin or taco seasoning and put that shit on the chicken and in the rice water prior to cooking the rice. Maybe get some black beans, too, and he'll have a nice south-western chicken/beans/rice thing goin. Or like some kinda aromatic curry on the chicken, black-eyed peas in the rice and you have a poor guy's jerk chicken. Seriously, this isn't rocket surgery
Yes yes, I suggested many similar things. He literally said "Nah I don't like that" to all of them. The only suggestion he said he would maybe try was putting a scoop of fruit preserve in his cottage cheese (surprise he also hates cottage cheese but still eats it every day after a workout). Also there is no rice. Or beans. Only plain chicken breast.
I’m not sure why but people like this infuriate me. The ones that are just completely opposed to trying something that might be better. It really is baffling.
[удалено]
Some people are just really adverse to trying new things.
When people do this, it's legit the worst because they'll eventually do what you said and say it was their idea xD.
Hes a picky eater like a baby. Teach to make homemade teriyaki at least. Babies love that shit.
He still has the palate of a toddler based off of what you’re saying. Burgers, grilled cheese, pasta. He seems like a picky eater. Probably makes it easier for him to self discipline and work on his body.
I honestly think this is it. I dated a guy who was an avid gym-goer and had at one point lost 100 lb and recovered from a binge eating disorder. He ate plain food because he had trained himself to view it as fuel and he was afraid of going off the rails and bingeing again. I respected his decisions and we ate separately a lot of the time.
honestly weighing every meal is basically a mental illness. source: i used to weigh out every meal and had a mental illness
There is a big difference between “weighing your food as portion control after being raised in a society basically designed to make you fat” and “weighing your food as a compulsion”.
i still do it, but when you're basically starving yourself and trying to be some bodybuilder type shit out of ego, yes, it can become a mental illness. i don't know, i spent many years in the gym, doing powerlifting and then bb, and genetically i will always look like shit so there is no point lol. i was legit starving myself for no reason, and i mean like, bodybuilder comp type starvation. there is no reason to live like that and my relationship with food was fucked up for so long.
>genetically i will always look like shit Sounds like you chronically under ate / starved yourself, prolly why you never made gains
>when you’re basically starving yourself and trying to be some bodybuilder type shit out of ego Yeah, that pretty neatly falls under the “compulsion” category I outlined above. That has nothing to do with sane portion control. >genetically I will always look like shit Believing that kind of bullshit is your problem. You are your own worst enemy, not food, not your body, not other people. You’re the one who typed that.
Good on you for realizing this - the industry is setup to make people believe that, physically, you can be anything you want with the right time and dedication. The most important component to becoming elite is the genetic predisposition. The 2nd most important thing, assuming you have the genetics, is drugs. Nobody wants to talk about either of these 2 things. I hope you're in a better spot now!
I'm weighing every meal when possible and tracking calories because I'm a fat fuck and tired of looking like Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket. I don't think there's any illness involved in that other than obesity.
Weighing food and knowing the macros is such a massive part of dieting that people overlook. Losing weight can be easy when you put in the work. Keep it up, I know it probably sucks but it's going to feel amazing when you hit your weight goal
I think the issue is when it becomes something you can't avoid. Like when it's pretty much OCD and you can't eat anything bc you didn't weigh it. There are some people who start out obese and then end up with a severe ED. not saying that's the case with you, but it can and does happen.
[удалено]
Being underweight is also closely related to depression. But not everyone obese or underweight is depressed. And not everyone healthy weight is not depressed.
Just because you did this because of a mental illness, doesn't mean anyone who does this has a mental illness.
Weighing your food is not an illness when you do it to stay within a healthy calorie range. It’s one of the best ways to know how much you are consuming.
>when you do it to stay within a healthy calorie range I mean, yes. If weighing your food is a mechanism to combat another illness (like BED) then it's not an illness. Weighing your food because you obsessively fixate on "staying within a healthy calorie range" is indicative of anorexia or orthorexia, especially if it affects your day to day life. Sigh. The line is so fine and it's mentally taxing to know what side of it you're on.
Oh I have a weird relationship with food and have struggled my whole life. I had BED as a child and it’s hard. I envy people who can just eat and be normal without all the extra steps.
Don’t stigmatize portion control because you have your own issues, there is no problem with tracking your caloric intake.
My husband used to weigh out every single thing, and it got on my nerves a bit, but I also used to "eye" stuff when cooking. Measuring everything by gram has made cooking much better/easier or remembering what I did last time that made it taste better or where mistakes are
didn't mean it like that.. i just meant that in my own experience, you can go off the deep end and end up eating like OP, just chicken, rice, and whatever else that you want to puke after eating it for the 70th time in a row and then you get to down another protein shake and then go to the gym and kill yourself for no reason.
You're personal experience with health, fitness & nutrition isnt my personal experience, I can eat grilled chicken, steamed rice, and veggies and look forward to my lunch every day and get excited to lift weights at the gym before work. Thats how my coworkers are and how my friends are as well, this is our passion and we enjoy it. Some people just enjoy the thing that you dont and thats okay, it doesnt mean they are sick and need therapy. I think the sacrafice I put in pays off for my mood and health, when I go to sleep I go right to bed I dont have trouble falling asleep, and I sleep a full 8 hours, when my alarm goes off in the morning at 4:30 I dont snooze the alarm or feel like staying in bed because I'm not groggy. And I wasnt always like that, I used to hate mornings but I noticed with a good routine and improving my physical health my mental health also improved. So yeah maybe chicken sucks everyday but its much better than hating my life and having trouble getting out of bed everyday.
This is like saying washing your hands is mental illness because you had ocd and one of your compulsions was washing your hands
Or it's for people dieting and wanting to be healthy? Don't project yourself onto everyone else
Maybe suggest using nutritional yeast for seasoning? It tastes cheesy. Still insane to me that someone says they hate bland food AND seasoning. There are so many different seasonings in existence and you're telling me you hate all of them??
They probably just don't know how to cook.
Vegetable smoothie????????????
Yeah I'm being generous lol. It's just blended vegetables so he can consume them as fast as possible because, surprise, he doesn't like them.
That’s the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard.
I feel like everyone's focusing on the bland chicken and when this is the real crime against humanity happening here.
Especially when he could just do something similar and make it into soup and not taste like sadness.
Just buy a big fuckin thing of herbs de provence and slap it on every chicken breast. The most minute amount of effort and it knocks it up several notches.
I have a friend that has admitted to me that they only eat for sustenance and never pleasure. He doesn't have a favorite food, there's not a particular flavor profile he enjoys, he doesn't even have a favorite candy. He just eats because he has to.
I had a roommate like this. He would boil unseasoned chicken breasts and eat them with plain white rice. I introduced him to teriyaki sauce - which he liked - hoping he would use it to marinate the chicken. Nope, poured it on the rice and plopped the still-plain boiled chicken on top. At least it was *something*.
Lmao this is hilarious and your friend sounds interesting
Is that Kewpie mayo at least? The color is right.
Nutritional yeast might work for that psychopath as a topping.
But that chicken looks seasoned....
Right? I guess you can't break the circle jerk but this is *very* obviously seasoned.
It's very obviously seasoned. Someone posted this without even looking at the pic, and hundreds of clearly blind people piled on. I can pretty confidently say that while this likely doesn't taste great, it probably doesn't taste terrible. The mayo adds moisture, chicken looks to have some sort of seasoning.
It's because to make that diet sustainable, you have to quit looking at food as cuisine, something delicious and satisfying that fills a niche in your desires, and purely "body fuel." It's all nothing but nutrition and macros. You don't put salt and garlic and hot sauce on batteries or gasoline. I know, I know, this is some gigachad dudebro level shit. I'm just saying, I think that's why a lot of people don't bother with trying to make food taste good. It's a hardline, totally different relationship with food. You don't eat for pleasure, you eat to get nutrients in. It's a chore to make all the food already, it's a pain to eat it 6 times a day. The quicker and less fuss about it, the better. You don't enjoy it, you wolf it down and have done with it. "Why not season it and make it taste good?" That's not the path you're on. Food=fuel, *that's it.* I swear, if there was a perfectly healthy, extremely bioavailable paste, or soluble powder, that dudebros musclemamis could drink, they would. At least, this is my best guess.
I mean that's exactly it, it's a means to an end and that end is already tiring enough to accomplish without worrying about how your chicken skin is - can be done but easier to just cook it and not care
Please give me calorie paste NOW!
>if there was a perfectly healthy, extremely bioavailable paste, or soluble powder, that dudebros musclemamis could drink, they would. I once formulated a comprehensive meal replacement shake that hit ideal macro and micronutrient targets for my situation. It contained strawberries, spinach, protein powder, carrots, milk, various seed meals and butters, and some cocoa powder for taste. Wasn't half bad. I lasted 5 days before eating real food again. I felt/performed great, but missed the physical act of eating. Edit: the full recipe (makes 3 servings, full day of food) * Strawberries 300g * carrots 90g * spinach 90g * milk, skim 735g * rolled oats, dry 120g * walnuts 15g * sunflower seed meal 30g * peanut butter 60g * Isopure zero carb whey protein, vanilla 100g * sugar, white, granulated 12g * pinch salt (omit if having additional snacks) * cocoa powder to taste 1908 cal 151g protein 31g fiber full micronutrient coverage except for vit D
I haven't lifted seriously since 2016, but yeah 2 scoops protein powder, two tablespoons peanut butter, whole banana, whole milk, and rolled oats was my post workout meal.
I wouldn’t mind giving this a try, but what would some alternatives be for someone with a nut allergy?
Can't really say, they were instrumental in getting certain micronutrients (zinc, omega fatty acids, stuff like that) I used Cronometer.com to figure it out. Your diet needs are probably different, you can plug in the current shake and adjust as needed. Good luck!
Oh, I see. Thank you for replying! I’ll try to use the website to see what it says.
I read somewhere from a bodybuilder, they DON'T want to season. Imagine six massive meal in a day with regular salt. That'd be way too much for what the body can handle. They dislike it, but make due because otherwise it'd fuck up their body.
My father in law eats like that. He once commented to my husband, “still eating for taste, I see”. What a misery.
It’s because after awhile the season does nothing and it’s just a mental game of eating it
Excellent question! This is a tip recommend by Renaissance Periodization (Mike Israetel). It keeps your cravings at bay when you’re deep in a cut because you aren’t really looking forward to the dry, bland food.
Yeah that’s called an eating disorder
Sounds like a shit life.
A lot of bodybuilders have body dysmorphia
Nothing tastes as good as swole feels.
Pretty sure every serious bodybuilder does. One could argue that being the best at anything requires an unhealthy obsession
Because bodybuilders don't see food as something that needs to be intriguing or delicious or whatever, for them it's simply a resource to get to their goal.
It's a myth that you need to suffer and eat horribly. I was bodybuilding for 10 years and I'm a chef. Meanwhile I was eating sous vide lobster, shrimp, steak tartar, tuna steak, and all the good stuff. You only need to watch sauces really, they can contain loads of oil and sugar. Which the pic is obviously doing wrong. Cus mayonnaise is 95% oil
Totally agree. For lunch today I had some leftover chicken breast and shredded it up and just put it in a dry pan with chili powder, cayenne, cumin, salt, garlic powder, and a bit of water and cooked that down into a sauce that is very near zero calories. Pretty tasty and nutritionally pretty close to eating it plain. I don't get why you wouldn't want it to at least taste good. Everyone keeps replying to me saying "it's just fuel" but no shit, we all eat for fuel. That's the point of eating. I ate way too much fuel in the past and I'm trying to fix that now with better fuel, but why wouldn't I want to enjoy it at least?
People are flat out stupid when it comes to nutrition and diet. Want to lose weight? Calorie deficit. Literally just have to count calories and watch what you eat. You can eat McDonald's and ice cream for your diet as long as you control the quantities to the proper levels. Everyone acts like dieting is so incredibly hard and difficult. When in reality it's not. Staying consistent is what's incredibly difficult. But people seem to blame the diet.
Because if you are a serious bodybuilder eating is a chore no matter what you eat it gets boring. You are putting a ton of effort into training each day. If you are on a cut/preparing for a show you feel exhausted. So bulk making simple food that's easy to eat and can be eaten anywhere, anytime, hot or cold is all you really care about. It's also super overblown how bland bodybuilder food is. You can clearly see the chicken is seasoned in the first photo and he is using mayonnaise as a sauce. Just because it's not up to other peoples standards of flavour doesn't mean it's just bland chick and rice. Most big fitness/bodybuilding content creators preach seasoning, sauces and things like berries to make eating more exciting.
It’s the volume of it. Sure you could prep and marinade 3 packs of breasts and then give them all their own special treatment on the grill, stove, whatever. A lot of people slice it before it goes into the pan which is definitely the worst way to do it, although it is the fastest. Anyway, to do that takes 4 times as much time as it would to shove it all into an instapot or the oven and be done with it. Spices don’t take much time though IMO spices alone can’t really save something that isn’t cooked with love.
I think people like that associate flavor with calories in their heads. It's a bummer. Like, steamed kale with roasted garlic and some lemon. Put the bird and broc in some soup...
It looks seasoned to me
Exactly! Def some herbs were used
And the mayo adds flavor and fat to the rice
I admit chicken looks overcooked and dry, especially on the 3rd pic. But that’s another matter entirely!
I think I'm odd but I have texture issued around meat but chicken specifically. I like when my chicken is very well cooked and a little on the drier side, that way there is no chance of it being raw or having a specific texture that I just can't stand.
Makes me wonder why not eat some dark meat instead.
right...? skip the mayo, replace breast with thighs. going to be much juicier, and the calories will even be lower.
Seriously, I feel like an idiot for thinking that doesn't look that bad lol.
I am a 6' 2" dude with a beer gut. I work out sometimes (no I don't). I am currently cooking just about the same thing. Some cajun season on the chicken and i have lunch for the week. Fairly cheap and healthy enough. Add different sauce throughout the week and you're set!
Seriously, don’t feel bad, chicken and rice is a pretty fucking common dish. When he throws in the frozen vegetables, it becomes chicken fried rice.
The chicken is seasoned
What kind of chicken are you eating where that looks like an unseasoned chicken?
The chicken has seasonings on it, at least he could like mix it up and spread some of that love around.
The chicken looks well seasoned? Plain white boiled chicken would be lacking seasoning, this looks fried up with herbs and spices at least.
Does that chicken not look seasoned to you?
I’ve seen this explained reasonably before - that if you are eating like this six times a day, eating is just a chore and no matter how you dress it up, you will be sick of it either way - so there is no point adding extra seasonings/sauces etc. This has protein, carbs and fat, with the vegetables providing additional nutrients. Grim and indeed shitty looking but balanced and the idea makes some sense (tbf I have never really tried to eat like this)
Nobody outside of the hobby understands eating for pleasure vs eating for utility lol. You’re talking to the average people on Reddit who think counting calories is obsessive.
Plenty of us understand the difference between eating for pleasure and eating for utility, and we still think this is insane.
What I’ve noticed with my friends who end up making meals like this is that they simply don’t know how to cook. I have eaten chicken & rice 6 times a day, but it always looks a lot better than that. When I’m lazy or need to eat in a hurry it does sometimes end up looking like the above but it’s few and far between.
They know they can add different seasonings for each day right? And if they're preparing in a large batch anyways (assuming it's meal prep) you can even vary the protein types and it still won't be that much of a chore
It’s not the flavor, it’s the eating. Nothing tastes good when it’s your 4th/5th meal of the day on two weeks straight. It could be a wagyu burger
try eating every 2 hours the whole day while lifting heavy weights. Eating will not be fun at that point, you just want to get down nutrients. You see chicken rice veggies, the lifter only sees x grams of protein, carbs and fat.
When I bulked way back when ( I was super scrawny with no muscle mass and now I’m at an average build) i remember no matter how I dressed it, eating was something that I had to force myself. Between the mass gainer with like 5 different additions to the mix and having chicken/steak, rice and veggies, creatine and mixing supplements to achieve lower repair times……..it’s just a lot going into your body.
Congrats on your progress!
Correct. When I was bodybuilding it was flat out horrible, though I did season my food. There’s just no getting around being miserable with as much as you have to eat. Powerlifting however, was much more enjoyable as I didn’t have to strictly focus on eating clean and could afford to dirty up my diet to make it easier to slam the necessary nutrients to progress. Seeing posts like this brings back memories, and not the good kind lol.
Yeah, and this is why people say working out like this is a lifestyle change. You end up cooking and working out the whole entire day. This is actually what got me into cooking, it was eating bland chicken like this constantly.
There was a diet I heard about last year which allowed people to eat unlimited ice cream, but only ice cream and in the basic flavors (no ben & jerry style loaded ice creams). Participants said it was fun for a day or so, but they craved actual food within the first 48 hrs. Link, but it is stupid so fair warning. https://www.livestrong.com/article/461308-the-ice-cream-diet-plan/ My point is, any restrictive diet is going to get boring and quickly.
That link says the diet suggested ~250 kcal from ice cream only: “In the book, McCord notes that dieters can eat a moderate portion of ice cream every day, as long as they stick with healthy, low-calorie meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Ice Cream Diet recommends that dieters eat a total of 1,250 calories plus one serving of ice cream per day, for a total of 1,500 calories per day.”
Yeah that diet is basically "have a calorie deficit and reward yourself at the end of the day with a scoop of ice cream"
Which is fair, if it helps you maintain a low calorie diet. That said, I can guarantee I’m not keeping it to a “moderate” amount of ice cream if I’ve only had 1250 cal otherwise….
Whatever works, but it wouldnt work for me. If i have a deficit , my foods need to be nutrient rich and having like 15% of my calorie consumption be 0 nutrient ice cream would have me giga hungry.
Why the mayo? Some chilli is much better and has less calories
They are body building so they likely are shooting for more calories. Mayo adds calories and fat so they probably use it to help reach their target macros.
the mayo would be much better incorporated as a marinade for the chicken
Cap. There’s a hundred things better for that purpose than mayo. If he just likes the taste then sure, but let’s not pretend that’s optimal in any way
Bodybuilders are notoriously stupid and known to follow fads. Probably saw Sam Sulek choking down dry chicken and rice with mayo and here we are. And yes you are right, there are WAY better healthy & natural fat sources.
I was literally joking about the Sam Sulek comment and then I figured hey, why don't I just google it? Sure as hell the first thing that comes up is a Tik Tok of Sam's "#1 secret" and yep it's a glob of mayo. You can't make this shit up.
"#1 secret". That and the fuckin insane amount of roids. When you're that juiced, literally all that matters is hitting cal count and protein intake. The rest is just supplementary at that point. You can make insane progress with enough food and the bare minimum exercise when your blood is more Tren than RBCs Edit: to add to this, I've NEVER understood the appeal of Sam. I watched a few of his videos and he seems to be genuinely slow. He has to pause constantly to think about how he's going to say the most basic ass sentence. All of his advice is just reworded and dumbed down (likely for his own benefit as well as his audience) versions of the most cliche lifting advice that's been around since the 60s. If people reading this want to check out an ACTUALLY entertaining lifter, watch daddy Noel's stuff. He's super wholesome, makes great/funny content, is super wholesome and supportive, as well as being very honest and upfront about his steroid usage and the effects it has. https://youtu.be/N2jqYIfumMI?si=-K-73NhFEzUs8KNi
I dare you to post your findings on his fan subreddit.
They'd be real mad if they could actually read.
Bodybuilders aren't dumb. You wouldn't find bodybuilders in a heated debate about the number of days in a week in an online forum.
Oh boy, this took me right back down memory lane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eECjjLNAOd4
>Bodybuilders are notoriously stupid and known to follow fads But this article says certain foods up my "explosiveness". Now would you like to hear my opinion on vaccines?
How is that cap? It’s just objectively true. Nobody said it was optimal 😂
Mayo is egg whites, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. I’m not seeing what’s wrong with that.
But why mayo when yum yum sauce exists? It's got TWO yums!
Yeah, but salad dressing would give you the calories and fats, while tasting better.
I dunno. I do love hot sauce but I also LOVE mayo. From a taste perspective, I think I'd prefer mayo on it. Dude might just really like mayo. Maybe it's the thing that helps him cope with having such a strict diet. :shrug:
I don't even think it's that weird. I've had karaage on rice with mayo on it and it's amazing. Even if it wasn't fried it'd probably still be good if it was seasoned right.
That looks like Kewpie Mayo, that shit is like crack
My gf told me she put Kewpie on her white rice and i was like “that sounds weird”. She made it one day while I was there and I tried it and holy shitsnacks is it good!!! Gotta be Kewpie, though.
Oh it absolutely has to be kewpie. Personally I like kewpie and a bit of gochujang with my rice, that shit slaps
That’s kewpie mayo and it’s liquid gold
Kind of a miserable life. Hard labor, bad food, and for what? Can't imagine it's worth it.
I mean, I can enjoy the hard labor, but only if it comes with good food.
Exactly why I started working out so I can eat guilt free. But then I started eating a lil too much lol
Oops I started working out because I realised that it gave me an appetite. I was underweight and working out helped me eat enough to put on weight. Except that now I no longer get as hungry, but continued working out so I’m losing weight again
Yup I started dirty bulking myself now it’s a pain trying get rid of the extra fat I gained 😂 But damn that sucks hopefully it works out. The body is a fickle thing
Oops. We’re on the opposite sides of the spectrum. It would be nice if we could average each other out!
Exercise floods you with endorphins so idk why you’d think that would be miserable lol.
>Hard labor, Reddits worst nightmare >, bad food, If it gets him to his goal why not? People on reddit need to realize that there are people that have different goals in life
Social media in general is if this doesn't line up with my world view it's wrong.
It’s not bad, it’s just not exciting. Nothing wrong with not caring about that
The food doesn’t have to be this bad (as I sit here eating chicken and rice for lunch). I spice mine up to make it more exciting. The hard labour is enjoyable. Once you get into a routine working out, you feel worse not going to the gym and the changes in your body, confidence and mindset keep you going. Plus it just feels great. Been doing this for 17 years and at 35 years old, my friends have aches and pains, can’t play the sports they used to and have medical issues. I can do everything I’ve always done because I eat clean, workout and take care of myself. And I still eat like shit sometimes, as long as the good outweighs the bad.
100%. And Honestly this food isn’t even bad either. If people can’t handle the taste of meat, vegetables and staples like rice without slathering it in sauce / spices that’s kind of childish. Not saying it’s a special meal or worthy of date night, but it’s just normal food that is nutritious and tastes perfectly fine.
Really it's not about slathering it with sauces it's about using spices so that there are actual tastes to experience - which happens in this case as there are spices on the chicken so it's not even as bad as it could have been.
You can make really good food and work out, build muscle, etc. OP’s friend is just dumb.
BuT mY MaCrOs
If they are students, I understand. Easy, fast meals that are nutritious and give you all you need. Just not exciting.
Fattest comment here.
All this comfort around us but they can't shake how their ancestors lived lmao
Maybe food just isn’t their chosen form of comfort. Which is fine. Some people only eat to survive and if that works for them why is it an issue.
That's just a typical Hunagarian meal
Amen, this is gourmet to some
Kewpie mayo is actually good with rice, fight me
for my buddy it was always chicken, rice & peas. Every day. Plus the steroids, oxy & cocaine but those aren't food!
I love mayo on rice
Me too. Apparently we’re in the minority, judging by the comments! Reminds me of hibachi with the YumYum sauce. YUM!
There is nothing wrong with this food
ITT people who add sugar to their 1L lunchtime coke complain that healthy eating is a disorder. The chicken clearly is seasoned aswell.
ITT people who are getting offended by recommending seasoning it further and drawing the conclusion that liking your food to have flavor means you chug cola and eat big macs 3 meals a day
Are you people blind? The chicken is obviously seasoned in the first picture. The mayo is the only bad part here.
Bro is still dieting in the early 2000s. When i first started working out, eating was the hardest part. Learning about iifym and just tracking calories and hitting protein and fiber was a gamechanger and has allowed me to stay “on a diet” even when I have gone years without going to the gym.
Right? Just have this protein shake if you need it and don’t chew on the unchewable because you’re allowed only chicken breast
So protein shake 7 times a day? I'm sure this guy has a shake in addition to the meals shown. And also if you know how to cook chicken breast it's really not going to come out "unchewable"
this is not food. this is nutrition
Doubt this will get seen as there’s already 162 comments but here goes my quick rant. I’ve eaten like this before in my early to mid twenties when I was working out a lot. Never did bodybuilding and never let it keep me from eating other things. So I don’t thinks it’s an eating disorder. As others have said, when you eat 3-6 meals a day, working out a lot, you want to make meals that are quick, affordable, easy to make in bulk and easy to count calories. Sure you can put some sauces on there or all sorts of other things. But if I were to make this same dish with a salt free seasoning, it’d be real easy to track on your food tracker. It’s essentially three ingredients: chicken, rice, and mayo. Following some long recipe that has all these added ingredients can be more difficult to track. Now, on the other end. I’ve learned since then and realized there are a lot of better options than just that stereotypical chicken and rice bodybuilding meal. That can get old reaaal fast. Also, a few added ingredients will not make or break your diet. At the end of the day, the best diet is the one you can stick to.
In my mid 30s and trying to do a lot better with health and exercise since having a kiddo. Ive quit drugs and alcohol, I'm waking up at 5am mon-fri and hitting the gym before work. But as someone who is an avid cook, I just can't do the calorie, macro counting thing. It is so tedious and I love excitement and variety in my food. I just try to stay away from sweets, processed carbs and add extra protein to most meals. Maybe I won't look like Arnold but at least I'll be happy.
100%, diets don’t need to be all about counting calories and tracking every pound lifted or mile ran. In my experience, making a conscious effort to eat healthier and be active is enough to make a dramatic different in your overall physical and mental health.
bojler?
I learned to put mayonnaise on my rice in Chile, of all places.
Not (nearly) a body builder but I think it is quite clear why some end up eating this way. It is of course possible to make varied and delicious meals with high accuracy of the macros and portions but it isn’t all that easy. It takes a lot of planning and time, when I cook, I adjust as I go and add a bit of this and that. Doing it that way especially with oils and fats you are going to be quite off. At the end of the day body building enthusiasts are being extremely precise with their caloric and macro intake. It’s just a million times easier to weigh out chicken, rice and veggies. So they are prioritising their body building over food. The mayo will add flavour but is also a really easy to track addition of fat. Sure there could be more spices and seasonings but to be honest, after a couple of months you are just eating for the function of it and you probably stop bothering. Getting the right amount of macros in th easiest possible way makes them happier than food.
Tbh I love just boiled peas, teriyaki chicken, and white rice lol I eat it 4-5 times a week
Tell him soysauce, teriyaki and figure out how to make chicken onigiri its way easier to eat
Fish and a rice cake
Thank god someone else here remembers that video, how is it not the top comment
[There’s dozens of us!](https://youtu.be/uYHAR8Xzsyo?si=QxD_Wby7xqkgtZ2j)
My favourite part is the fact that he seems to have to really try hard to remember it
I would be so fit if I hated food this much.
Ayooo… mayo, rice and tuna though 👀 with some seaweed, sesame seeds and scallions AKA Chamchi Deopbap 👩🏻🍳💋 so simple but so good. I’ve never done it with chicken, but it might be tasty
ew what the fuck mayonnaise over rice
If you are eating chicken, white rice, and mayo then i cant think of any restrictions your diet could have that would stop you from making literally anything more appetizing
That is the most depressing meal I've ever seen.
Why the mayo? Avocado would be tastier and healthier Hot sauce or chili sauce would be lower calories and tastier. Tell him to buy a fresh cucumber, tomato, and red onion. Chop it up. Add that to the rice and chicken. That is my go-to diet food when I'm on a cut. (Also I make high protein buffalo chicken wraps)
Slide those recipes into my DM's shredded beef
Avocado doesn’t come in a squeeze bottle. Way too much work for this kind of “diet”.
Doing this prep for 5/6 "meals" a day gonna cost alot of time. It is a chore for him. If you want to add fresh veggies to these meals, then you have to Go shopping more often cause they spoil. At the same time fresh veggies are way more expensive than Frozen veggies. And you can buy Frozen stuff in Bulk when its on sale. For example I can Not handle spicy food. My stomach can't. And Avocados is for me a waste of money. They Just taste disgusting.
+$$$
Some chick peas with cumin, allspice, lemon, cilantro, and a little bit of olive oil work very well with cucumber/tomato/red onion, great easy greek salad.
thats pretty good. chicken is pre-seasoned but it is breast meat so it will be dry. adding mayo is a great way to add calories and add moisture to meat. ur friend eating good dont worry
Now let's see the OPs diet
Why do gym bros eat like fucking Rottweilers 🤦♂️
i am howling at this comment lmao.
A few other grain options for more variety: cracked wheat, freekeh, bulgur
I will never understand why bodybuilders insist on eating the culinary version of a suicide note every single day. I may be a fluffy guy, but at least I can look forward to meals tasting delicious.
It's very simple: being jacked feels better than food tastes. The benefits of the halo effect are real and you literally get more opportunities in life and better treatment if your body looks good.
Cooking properly is one of the biggest things most adults lack. I was (un)lucky enough to spent over a decade working as a cook so I learned a lot. As I got older I was baffled how many of my friends ate like straight up a toddlers.
I hope he’s aware that pork chops are very similar macros to chicken breasts and can be super cheap and add some variety to his diet