Two rules encompass everything you need to do to successfully improve your body composition. If these rules are fully understood and implemented into your eating habits you will automatically be doing all the right things. Each rule is designed to cover other aspects of dieting that you will not really have to think about if you know just these two rules. That way you don't have a huge list of do's and don'ts to keep track of. 

 Rule #1- Balance Your Meals! 

There are 3 macro nutrients your body needs in order to operate properly day to day: 

 1. Fat- regulates all processes (digestive, immune, brain activity, etc.), also protects joints and organs. By eliminating fat, you will actually lower you metabolism. 

2. Protein- Building blocks for muscle tissue repair (need another reason? ok, it is also the hardest of the 3 to digest, which means it raises your thermic heat, which means it raises your metabolism, which means you burn more calories, yeah!) 

3. Carbohydrates- Your body's #1 energy supply. Eat frequent doses of healthy carbs (fruits, vegetables) and you won't crave bad carbs (donuts, ice cream). Carbs also contain most of your key vitamins (you know, all the letters) these are key to keeping your metabolism going. Remember your metabolism is all the processes your body has to complete daily. Vitamins help fuel these processes. Vitamin E for tissue repair, C for your immune system, and so on. Don't eat vitamins and your body can't complete its processes efficiently and your metabolism slows down. You will burn less calories at rest. 

OK, now for a little math. I'm going to show you how to balance your meals. Take your weight divide by 6 (the number of meals you will eat per day). I weigh 205. 205/6 = 34.16. This is the average number of grams of protein I should eat every meal. So for the sake of making the math even easier I'm going to round down to 30. For a person who works out regularly and is satisfied with his/her physique, they need to follow a 1:2:3 ratio for every meal. 1 gram of Fat per 2 grams of Protein per 3 grams of Carbs. My meal would look like this: Take my 30 grams of protein, divide it in half for fat, 15 grams of fat, and add the number of fat grams to my protein to get the carbs, 45 grams of carbs. 15 grams of fat, 30 grams of protein, 45 grams of carbs is a typical meal for me. For someone who wants to lose some fat, they might want to try a 0.5:2:2 ratio. But never eliminate a macro nutrient from your diet. 

Rule #2- Think 3 hours ahead when picking out your food. 

       This means ask yourself what you are going to do in the next 3 hours. Let's say it is 12 noon, and you are at your office (or school) and you are about to eat lunch. Think about what you will be doing between 12 noon and 3 o'clock. Are you going to run 3 miles, or are you going to sit behind a desk and do paperwork for those 3 hours. If you are going to run, in other words be active, then eat a substantial meal, because you are going to need the energy. If you are going to sit for 3 hours, in other words be inactive, then eat a smaller meal, because you are not going to need the energy. Make sure you still eat all 3 macro nutrients (fat, protein, carbs). Essentially this means your biggest meal of the day will most likely be the one 3 hours before your workout. Our stomachs are only so big. We are human beings, not cows. Cows have five stomachs, we have one, they can eat nonstop. Our stomachs are only large enough to get us by for 3 to 4 hours, if you don't over eat and make your tummies hurt. So eat every 3 to 4 hours. Not only will this help you resist junk food, this will also keep all the processes (your metabolism) in your body running efficiently. Thus, you will continuously use more calories at rest, and these calories have the potential of coming from your fat, yeah! 

       Final Note: You need to figure out your metabolic rate. Stay under this number on a daily basis to lose weight. Stay over this number to build mass. My MR is 3600 calories a day. I need to eat less than 3600 hundred calories per day to lose, and stay over 3600 to gain. Very simple right? Keep a diet journal for 7 days till you get the hang of eating the right amounts. Pick up a book from Barnes N Noble that has a list of all the foods and the 4 values you need to know (fat, protein, carbs, and calories). Don't worry they are small books, and you can get them for less than 8 dollars. 

I know you will succeed. Have fun!