As a general guideline you should never over-eat or drink to the point where you feel like throwing up to gain mass or depriving yourself of food or liquids to cut up. These are the absolute wrong ways to diet and will only hurt you in the long run. To gain mass or to get shredded you want to have at least 6-7 meals a day, but the two different diets is determined by how much you eat at one time. Even when you cut up, you need to constantly eat to supply your body with protein and to prevent your body from going into a catabolic state, in which it feeds off of itself in order to supply its body with nutrients. The more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn to maintain it. Furthermore, if your body knows that food is coming it will use that food as readily burned energy. When you don’t eat for long periods of time it stores that food as body fat to be preserved for food in a later time in the day. Often times it is not used as energy so the fat accumulates. 

Also, you should be drinking at least a minimum of 1 gallon of water a day. Whether you are gaining mass or cutting up, your water consumption should not change. Water is the one of the most important nutrients your body can get. In addition, try to incorporate a variety of juices (ex: orange juice, apple juice, vegetable juice, etc) into your fluid consumption to meet daily nutritional needs.

Cutting Meal Plan #5

Meal 1: Breakfast wrap (low-fat sausage, scrambled egg whites, low-fat cheese, salsa, whole wheat tortilla)

Meal 2: Mixed Fruit Salad

Meal 3: Teriyaki salmon with cooked spinach and brown rice    

Meal 4 (Pre-Workout): Nutrition Shake

Meal 5: Pork tenderloin with asparagus and baked potato

Meal 6: Cottage cheese with strawberries