How important is diet?

I'm just wondering because it's hard for me to get a top notch diet, since i live with parents i rely on what they cook for dinner which varies, one day it will be a great steak caserole with lots of vege, and the next it will be chicken nuggets.

So i was just wondering how important is this, as long as i'm not over eating.

My diet atm is like this:

Breakfast: cereal with milk (cornflakes/shreddies/oats)
Midday: Tuna mayo/egg mayo sandwhich & apple/banana
Dinner Between 4pm-6pm: Whatever is made.

I workout either after midday or after dinner depending on the day, because i'ts the only time i have.

I don't get much control over meals apart from the fruit, sandwhiches and other snacks. For example, i like to buy nuts and eat these as a snack.

So, any tips to improve this? Does it need improving? And what other foods are cheap that i can buy myself ?

Oh and, i'm basically looking to cut down a bit of body fat which is making me self concsious and gain strength and muscle growth over time.

Nutrition is definitely important, and depending on how clean you eat will result in how well your body recovers. However, even if your diet isn't perfect you will still make good gains, especially with how your diet is. To lose fat I would stick with more fat/protein and keep the insulin spike low, but really, as long as you've got room to improve you should be fine. Trying to get your family on a nice clean diet would be awesome, but you should be able to do well without it being topnotch (obviously the best diet would yield the best gains, but in order to do well, I don't think your diet needs to be spot on. Again, clean good diet is key to maximum gains, but not having the best diet is no reason to slack on training.

cheers for the reply!

Its hard to get the family to eat well everyday due to the fact there is 5 kids and we are relatively poor, a lot of meals are done for conveniance.

That being said, i think most of the family want to improve, and i'd say at least 4 meals a week are decent quality.

Come september, i'll be able to take full control of my diet since i'm going to univesity.

It's great to see that you're interested in taking charge over what you eat. I'd say diet is one of the most important factors in overall health and wellbeing. Next being lifestyle, exercise, sleep, stress, etc.

You diet isn't terrible, but you can still improve some. Cereal really isn't good for you. Instead, you may want to have something lower in sugar in the morning. Maybe something like oatmeal, eggs, etc. Spiking insulin in the morning can make you feel tired and slow.

Make sure you're eating enough to sustain recovery from your workouts. If you're too tired to workout or aren't gaining strength, eat more. It helps to have muscle mass when you want to lose bodyfat. There's a big difference between 115 pounds at 8% bodyfat and 165 pounds at 8% bodyfat (same height). One looks like they're on a starvation diet, the other looks healthy.

LittleBeastM - SS3 wrote:

Seriously, im already getting fat just from watching this

LittleBeastM - SS3 wrote:

Don't forget about breakfast.