When you decide you’re going to create the best diet plan possible to reach your specific diet goal, there is one important question that you need to ask yourself first.
And that question is… just what the hell is the goal of your diet plan?
Meaning, what is it that you are looking to accomplish here? What do you want your diet to do for you?
It’s a simple question, yet there are quite a few different answers commonly given to it. For example…
- To lose weight.
- To gain weight.
- To lose fat.
- To build muscle.
- To look, feel or be healthy.
- To get toned.
- To improve a medical condition.
- To improve performance at a certain sport or activity.
- To look great naked.
- Any combination of the goals on this list.
And those are just some of the broader diet goals a person can have. Yours might be even more specific. You know, like lose 30 pounds of fat, build 15 pounds of muscle, lose 3 inches off your waist, lower your cholesterol, prevent heart disease, and so on and so on.
But no matter what your personal diet goal is or how broad or specific you may have narrowed it down, the first key step in creating your ideal diet plan is making sure you know what it is from the very beginning.
So, What Is Your Diet Goal?
Based on your answer to this question, certain aspects of your diet will need to be adjusted a certain way to best accommodate that specific goal.
Now, as you can imagine, there are a ton of different diet goals a person can have, and trying to cover them all in this one guide would be pretty close to impossible.
So instead, I want to break it all down into the 4 main categories that should cover virtually every common diet related goal a person typically has. They are:
- Lose & Reduce
- Build & Gain
- Maintain & Improve
- Combine
Now let me explain exactly what these categories mean so you can figure out which one you fit into.
Lose & Reduce
People in this group have the primary goal of losing fat.
It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to lose a little bit of fat (say 10 pounds) or a whole lot of fat (say 100 pounds). Male or female, old or young, no matter how much fat you’re looking to lose, this is the category you fall into.
This also includes anyone looking to “lose” or “reduce” anything, really. Meaning, if you came here thinking your goal was to lose weight, or lose inches, or reduce belly fat (or fat from any other specific area of your body) or anything similar, you are still a part of this category.
I personally think generic terms like “weight loss” are pretty dumb anyway, as “weight” can be a lot of different things (muscle, water, fat, etc.). In the majority of cases however, what people in this group are actually looking to lose is fat.
So, throughout this guide, whenever I give specific advice to the people who want to lose fat, I’m talking to you and everyone else in this diet goal category.
Build & Gain
People in this group have the primary goal of building muscle.
It doesn’t matter if you’re only interested in building a little bit of muscle and just being “fit,” or building a whole lot of muscle and getting “big.” Male or female, old or young, no matter how much muscle you’re looking to build, this is the category you fall into.
This category also includes anyone with the general goal of just gaining weight.
In the majority of cases, the “weight” a person is looking to gain is almost always muscle (and not fat). However, there are some rarer cases of very underweight people who just need to gain weight of any kind (muscle or fat) for health reasons.
In either case, the dietary requirements are similar enough that you’d still fall into this same category.
So, throughout this guide, whenever I give specific advice to the people who want to build muscle, I’m talking to you and everyone else in this diet goal category.
Maintain & Improve
People in this group have the primary goal of just maintaining their current weight and/or improving their health or performance.
Now, if your goal is to lose fat or build muscle, I’m not only going to show you the most effective way to do it, I’m also going to show you the healthiest way to do it. Why? Because that’s just how I feel it should always be done.
However, even though most of the people reading this are likely to fall into one of the above categories, there are actually some people out there who don’t really care about changing the way their body looks. Meaning, they don’t want to lose fat or build muscle.
Instead, they basically just want to maintain their current weight (not lose, not gain) while possibly also making some health or performance related improvements.
For example, maybe you just want to eat, feel and be healthier. Maybe you want a diet plan that will help prevent various diseases and disorders or just help improve a current health condition that you already have.
And beyond that, maybe you’d like to keep your body the same, but eat in a way that improves your performance at a certain sport or activity. Maybe you want to enhance recovery, have more energy, or just have a diet plan more suited for your sport, lifestyle or schedule.
Whatever it may be, you’d fall into this category.
So, throughout this guide, whenever I give specific advice to the people looking to maintain their current weight or improve their health or performance, I’m talking to you and everyone else in this diet goal category.
Combine
The people in this group have the primary goal of doing some combination of the previous 3 goals.
In the majority of cases, this most often refers to people who want to both lose fat AND build muscle. If this describes you, then this is the category you fall into.
So, throughout this guide, whenever I give specific advice to the people looking to lose fat, the people looking to build muscle, and the people specifically looking to do BOTH, be sure to pay attention in all cases because I’m talking to you and everyone else in this diet goal category.
What’s Next?
Now that you have your diet goal front and center in your mind, it’s time to start building the diet plan that will best allow you to reach that goal as effectively as possible.
First up, let’s figure out your ideal daily calorie intake…
Daily Calorie Intake – Why Calories In vs Calories Out Is The Key To Your Diet
(This article is part of a completely free and amazingly awesome guide to creating the absolute best diet plan possible for your exact goal and preferences. Check out the entire guide here: The Best Diet Plan)