You’re overthinking it. I eat fruit all of the time. Peanut butter and apples.pine apply cantaloupe. I still have a six pack at 50. I still have muscle at 50

Fruits contain bioflavonoids and various micro nutrients like apigenin, fisetin & spermidine that have a huge positive impact on organ health, as well as regulate detox from high food intake and manage cellular damage from the lifestyle. High metabolism means high oxidation so if you’re consuming twice the calories, then you’re oxidizing twice as much which is what drives inflammation (not the good kind). Pre & probiotics for gut & brain health and fiber is crucial if you’re going to be consuming twice as many calories as the average dude. Digestive health is the literal foundation of all you’re made of. If you cannot extract nutrients properly or remove waste appropriately, that pretty much a wrap.
Lastly. Fruit is a live food, and as such has inherent vitality.

This is fasted from this morning post cardio. I eat what’s called “IIFYM”…Since the body breaks everything down to three basic things - glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids, I believe that the body doesn’t differentiate if those carbs, fats, or proteins (to be broken down to those 3 basic components) come from whole grain organic or from McDs. I eat everything from candy bars to fast food to lean ground turkey with plain rice (yes I actually crave that sometimes because I’m weird). Only thing I don’t do is drink alcohol, coffee, juice, or soda. Not for “health” reasons just don’t have a taste for any of them. I’m 210 in that picture and I eat ~190-200g protein a day. I don’t look at macros as %s, because based on TDEE and calorie surplus/restriction scenarios those %s can vary drastically. So call it 200g of protein, somewhere between 70-100g fat, rest is carbs. That can be anywhere from 200g (last stretch of getting to ~6% bf) or 1000g carbs (deep in to a bulk).
Micronutrients can be backfilled with vitamin supplements.

TLDR: live your life, exercise regularly (lifting AND cardio), and enjoy the deliciousness of modern processed foods.

Below I linked an article referencing wild blueberries and increased fat loss. It is an article referencing the study. Not the actual study. I remember when the study came out years ago talking about how wild blueberries are high in a compound that increased fat oxidation. I eat over 2 pounds of fruit a day. And I actually eat more on a cut. 500 grams of that is wild blueberries. I have hypoglycemia, so I have always had a sweet tooth. Fruit has never hindered my fat loss. If anything, it helps because I'm not eating the extra 2000cals of candy that I would love to eat haha. The extra fiber also helps with increase the food volume while keeping calories down.

https://now.humboldt.edu/news/study-suggests-wild-blueberries-help-burn-fat

i will recap on what iFiT just said. this is a good post because alot of people have the mentality that they are training to be pros but in reality alpt of us arent pros and arent even really like true bodybuilders. alot of us are just normal people that just really like working out and taking care of our bodies and looking nice. and alot of us stress ourselves out and make ourselves suffer cuz they dont want to have any sugar, fat,carbs and sodium in our diets. when in reality, we are goong overboard with trying to keep a strict diet. now dont get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with keeping a strict diet. and theres the exception if you were overweight and now in shape and have to keep a strict diet to stay slim or have health issues,thats perfectly understandable. but for a lot of us, as long as you keep a balenced diet and dont completely live off sugar and salt. you can enjoy yourself with some flavorful food everyday and its not really gonna make any huge difference in how you look(only in your mind it will). and please people, stop worrying about having everything sugar free, those synthetic sugars substitutes are so fucking bad, your killing yourselves over some extra calories. the only people that should be using those are diabetics

I believe everyone would benefit from adding pineapple to atleast there post-workout meal to help with digestion
And adding acouple frozen blueberries to the cream of rice meal & whey drip to help with texture

I’m not a pro athlete or ever a competitive bodybuilder. I’ve always eaten what I want, when I want and how much I want and I think it’s worked out for me over the years. Unless your livelihood depends on it, it’s one less thing to think and worry about. At least that’s the way I look at it.

Agree on a complex diet. Moderate on most fronts. Fructose from fruit shows on science that prestage would be harmful. But who really gets sub 5% on here and those who do already have the diet fully mapped. Processed sugars and processed foods in general cause all of us issue.

Reality is you might get cut stage ready on one diet while i cannot. Roids are roids and we can both grow on similar cycle. But food imo is that great divide. My old trainer took back to back pro titles and precontest hit over 3lbs of oats a day. Dude was shredded.