Bodybuilder Derek Lunsford makes his nutrition a top priority whether he is preparing for a competition or not. In his latest offering, Lunsford opened up on his full day of eating in the 2024 off-season.
Derek Lunsford is the reigning Mr. Olympia champion, a feat he accomplished in 2023 after dethroning Hadi Choopan in a close-fought battle. As the number one bodybuilder in the world, Lunsford’s attention to detail in the gym and kitchen helped him make history as the sport’s first two-division Mr. Olympia winner.
With his off-season underway, Lunsford carefully selects which foods he consumes all for the sake of performance. Recently, he guided his fans through the typical bodybuilding diet he adheres to daily.
Derek Lunsford’s Full Day Of Eating In the 2024 Off-Season Explained
Find Lunsford’s full day of eating below:
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Meal 1
- Salmon (Megafit meal)
- Rice
- Salt
Typically Lunsford prefers eggs in the morning but switched to fish and rice after experiencing excessive bloating.
“Meal one. This may surprise you because if you guys have been following along you guys know I like to eat my eggs in the morning. I like to have a couple whole eggs. It’s my normal everyday breakfast. Today, salmon and rice.”
“I feel like when I was eating the eggs I was getting a little bloated and I didn’t like how I felt after I was eating the eggs. I said okay, let me just try something else. I started doing steak and rice in the morning or salmon and rice.”
Meal 2
- steak (Megafit meal)
- carrots
- potatoes
- demi-glace sauce
- avocado oil
According to Lunsford, 80 percent of his diet consists of Megafit meal prep options.
“Truth be told, about 80 percent of the food I eat is Megafit. So, I know today, somebody is going to be like, oh it’s a Megafit ad. Look, this is literally what I eat. If I was not getting it from Megafit, I would go to the store, buy steak or ground beef and that’s what I’d cook for this meal.”
He adds a demi-glace sauce to his steak and rice for added flavor.
“We got by the way this is like a demi-glace sauce, it’s flipping fire bro. The best sauce ever. We got the steak, I’m going to put that in the skillet, then we have carrots and potatoes.”
“So, admittedly, we’re going to need a little bit more carbs than this. This is only probably going to be like 30-40 grams of carbs. I’m going to up the carbs. I got some rice saved over from leftovers from the other meals.”
Meal 3 – Workout Shake
Lunsford follows up his workout with a protein-filled shake and coconut water.
“Post-workout we’re going to do the smores Isoject. This is the fast digesting, fast absorbing post-workout protein along with this time, Cocoa Pebbles,” said Lunsford. “I did say it’s a good post-workout carb. We’re going to mix this in together.”
Meal 4
- Pineapple Mango NoSauce
- half an avocado
- White rice
- Cod (Megafit meal)
For his second fish protein of the day, Lunsford enjoyed cod with white rice and avocado. He added that most of his sauces would be excluded from his meals if he was in contest prep.
“This one is good for fish, especially white fish. So, if I was contest prep, this would be excluded [the sauce]. For some people, they still keep their sauces in, I myself, I just season my foods and I would not be adding any extra fats. It’s off-season, I need more calories, I want to get good healthy fats so we’re going to actually get a little bit of avocado.”
Meal 5
- Chicken (Megafit meal)
- rice
- Buffalo Wild Wings sauce
- Ranch
- Brazil nuts
A bodybuilding classic, Lunsford’s last meal was chicken and rice, complimented with Brazilian nuts, ranch, and buffalo sauce.
“Good old chicken and rice, a bodybuilding staple,” adds Lunsford.
“We added in the avocado last meal. Good healthy fats, good healthy fats from the salmon and good fat from the steak earlier too. This is kind of where it’s off-season, adding in a little extra sauce including the fat in terms of my macros, but to be honest, probably not the best source of fat out there but you know what? That’s okay.”
Lunsford Discusses His Approach To Fats and Carbs
Lunsford walked fans through some of his favorite carb and fat sources.
“You can probably find a good variety of carbohydrates that fit into your plan that don’t upset your stomach and digest well for you. But again, rice, potatoes, and oats, those are typically my go-to’s and then because it’s the off-season I’m doing the cereal.
Fats, in the beginning we did just higher fat proteins like the salmon and steak, post-workout we didn’t want any fats in our post-workout shake but after that we added the avocado to the cod and that’s a great, one of the best sources of fat you can get out there. Then, with the chicken, we had the Brazilian nuts which we just ate. I like to have a variety of tree nuts,” shares Lunsford.
Even though Lunsford is focused on winning another Mr. Olympia title, he has expressed interest in other competitions. In light of Arnold Schwarzenegger raising the 2025 Arnold Classic Open winner prize money to $500,000, Lunsford teased a possible entry down the line.
Meeting the dietary demands of an Open class competitor is nothing to scoff at; Lunsford continues to eat as clean as possible in the off-season all to cement himself as champion at the 2024 Mr. Olympia event.
RELATED: Derek Lunsford Explains How To Build a Huge Back
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