Diet Help Please

[Danny Gunz]

Your diet won't make nearly as much difference as your dedication to a fat-burning workout program. So, don't kill yourself on the diet, kill yourself in the gym.
I'd avoid going so protein-heavy. You'll shed more water at first but it doesn't make as much long-term progress. The body seeks balance. Don't neglect fiber. Get more vegetables in there (on paper they seem useless, but your system really benefits from them). Don't do things that may frustrate you (frequent shakes instead of food, etc) because frustration is the #1 reason diets fail, people get sick of them.
Keep in mind, shakes can actually work against you as they are fast-burning (require very little digestion) and I've seen people gain fat from adding too many shakes. A piece of whole chicken is far better, even if it's lightly breaded and pan-fried in olive-oil (giving you a balance of protein, fats and carbs). The biggest favor you can do for yourself is to forget about calories and watch your macro-nutrients instead (grams of Protein, Fat, and Carbs) but that starts getting a bit more complex.

All-in-all, keep your intake moderate but balanced. And, bust that ass in the gym because that's where most of your progress is going to come from.

Thats just completely backwards. A clean diet is much more important to weight loss than exercise.

Both should go hand in hand though

[Redd Foxx]

Thats just completely backwards. A clean diet is much more important to weight loss than exercise.

Yes, in long term practice but that's not what we're taking about here. He won't lose 30lbs in 12 weeks by just cleaning up his diet. However, following a good diet and working out hard can certainly get him there or close, which is why I recommended it. The body doesn't make fast, drastic changes without either heavy exercise or extreme dieting. I never recommend extreme dieting for the damage it causes. There are many ways to practice a great weight-loss diet that doesn't make you feel terrible, hence my quote that you highlighted.

[Trigger unhappy]

If you cut gluten out of your diet, you'll lose weight. It happened to me.