The Autopilot Diet

Justin DiVall

• 2 min read
The Autopilot Diet

I have used two approaches to keep my diet dialed in and maintain a healthy weight, tracking and autopilot. During tracking, food is weighed, scanned, and logged into an app like MyFitnessPal to ensure I meet my macro (protein, fat, carbohydrate) and calorie needs for the day. Tracking allowed me to eat whatever food I wanted as long as it fit into the calorie and macro goals for that day. Tracking my food was educational but became too tedious. My favorite approach is what I call the autopilot diet, where I leverage constraints and rules to meet my goals.

The autopilot diet is based on easy-to-follow constraints and general rules that allow me to lose fat and gain muscle without the stress of tracking my daily intake. There are variations of constraints that can be used based on goals and lifestyle. Below I will review some constraints and some general rules that can be leveraged, and then share what I personally do.

Constraints

  1. Intermittent fasting – skipping breakfast or dinner
  2. Removing or heavily reducing particular foods – for example, grains, bread, pasta
  3. Removing or heavily reducing carbohydrates
  4. Don’t cook – leverage a meal service

General Rules

  1. Protein goals must be met. I aim for 0.8–1 g of protein per lb of body weight.
  2. Eat real food – 80–90% of food must be whole food.
  3. Extended fasting – There should be some periods of fasting.
  4. Must be effortless with your current lifestyle.
  5. Enjoy the food you are eating – don’t eat something just because you think it is healthy.

For me, I skip breakfast and only eat lunch and dinner. I rarely eat bread or pasta. For dinner I leverage a meal service. Following these restrictions and general rules, I am able to maintain a healthy weight with no stress.

Typical Day of Eating for Me

Breakfast

  • Black coffee
  • 16 oz of water with electrolytes

Lunch

  • Ground beef
  • Potatoes
  • Protein shake with matcha and creatine
  • Yogurt with berries/fruit and honey

Snack (sometimes)

  • Fresh fruit
  • Cheese stick
  • Chomps beef stick

Dinner

  • Meal service meal
  • Using Cooking for Days – this is a great company out of Burlington, MA. I’m impressed with their meals. Meals are typically 600–700 calories with 50 g of protein.

I also leverage a 36-hour fast once a week for six weeks a few times a year.

I hope you find this helpful, and I encourage you to experiment and discover what works for you. Experiment and develop your own guidelines so you can enjoy what you eat and build the body you want.