Instinctive Dieting and Training

This Post falls under Dieting and Training. But I think the Diet part is def the most important.

Since i am Off season now, I HATE counting calories, grams, carbs, proteins and fats!
So I started thinking, why not "diet: instinctively? If you know your body well enough, and know how to read your bodies progress, then why measure every single little thing.
I know more or less how many grams my macros should look like at each meal.
I am bulking so I this makes instinctive dieting a bit easier. EAT BIG TO GET BIG! Simple as that.

I find the same with training. I listen to my body. I never train a rigid training program. There is always a certain blueprint I work with for each muscle group. I always do 3 sets warm up on first exercise of each muscle group. I always use the pre exhaust and FST-7 principles. BUT i never do the same exercises, number of reps or sets. I always AIM for 4 sets of 15 reps. BUT i sometimes can't reach those number of sets or reps as my body just fails before that.

I am going to stick to the instinctive diet and training for a few month and see how i progress. Just finished my PCT, so I am going to train clean for a few months.

Anyone else have opinions on this? Yay or Nay ?

This is the same principle I am following currently, off cycle aswell.

nothing set in stone in terms of calories and I don't count them, I follow a set macro breakdown per diff meal tho.. But additional meals too if I'm awake longer etc.

I'm also following a basic hst program too, a 3 day a week split.. Hitting big compound movements.

Must say I'm really enjoying it during my off period. And it's enjoyable while my mindset of be no off is fighting me haha...

Interested to see how you go bud

How do you calculate the calories in your food , like for example 230cals in 200g chicken breast or 500cals in 150g basmati rice?

Whould like to know where I could get the most Correct calorie calculations

Donkiekong, I have been training for quite a few years. And basically prepped the whole year for shows this year. So i know how 200g chicken breast should look like more or less and the same for rice

Oky thank you flex

I'm still a newbie at this game but want to compeet next year so I'm stil counting my calories and trying to find out the amounts of calories a Specific food tipe has gram for gram and I'm not sure where to start looking for the answer because google has to many different answers to one question and I don't know which to belive and not to belive

That is why we are here to help.
When and where do you want to compete? How long have you been training and eating clean?
What is the longest you have been on a strict diet?

I lost about 45kg in 7-8 months in 2012 , I went from 126kg to 81kg and followed a very low carb diet , I then started bulking up , 500 cals Above maintenance ,got the calculations from that diet section , and as I gaind weight I added the calories by calculating once again and keeping it 500 cals above maintenance as I picked up weight and muscle , I have been constant in the gym for 3 years now , and have been following a good clean diet no sweets and bullshit only good clean food and lots of clean calories

I now use calorieKing to calculate the calories in my specific food groups like for example the chicken breasts or the rice or oats atc.

I when from 126kg to 81 and am now 108kg and I bit of a high bf from the natural bulking but I'll get rid of that quickly

O yes and calorieKing assumes that there is 330cals in 200g chicken breast does this sound right??

I'm a big fan of instinctive training and eating. My golden rule is to always listen to my body. It tells us so much. You can ignore it and follow a rigid plan which often leads to problems or you can adjust and trust your instincts which is far better at keeping you in the game at 100%. However it's good to have guidelines that you try to follow because you know the plan works BUT if your body is telling you something else You should make slight changes.

It might be too advanced for complete newbies, they would probably do best following a strict plan so they can develop certain habits but down the line they should aim to be more instinctive in my opinion.