Your diet should be composed of a combination of protein, fat and carbohydrates from a variety of sources. My motto is MODERATION. Eat what you like because you enjoy it, but in moderate quantities since often times the foods we tend to enjoy the most aren't the foods that provide the best breakdown of macronutrients. If you tend to gravitate towards fattier foods, then make sure the other foods you eat contain enough protein to meet you daily protein needs. That being said, what are the recommendations for daily macronutrient intake.
Protein: ~1.0 g/kg bodyweight
Fat: 0.5-1.0 g/kg of bodyweight
Carbohydrates: this macronutrient is a little trickier to nail down
- For someone in engaging in regular exercise: ~5.0 g/kg bodyweight
- For an athlete engaging in intensive exercise: 8-10 g/kg bodyweight plus
- 0.5 g/kg/hr during short-duration (<90 minutes) activity
- 0.75 g/kg/hr during long-duration (>90 minutes) activity
- 0.8-1.0 g/kg/hr during very long-duration (>3 hr) activity
So, what does this look like? Here is an excerpt from Alex Viada's article on How to Properly Lose Weight. For now, focus on the breakdown of each meal. If you're actually interested in losing weight then link to his article here.
Say we have the following daily intake for a sample individual (a 5'8" 165 pound 5k/10k runner who is looking to be more competitive at longer distance trail runs, and believes that dropping to 158 would make him lighter on his feet):
Breakfast: 1 cup oatmeal, ½ cup blueberries, 1 cup yogurt
Snack: 1 glass skim milk, ½ cup granola
Lunch: Spinach and walnut salad with 4 ounces salmon
Snack: Trail mix and 2 tbsp peanut butter
Pre workout: 8 ounces Gatorade, Clif ™ bar
Post workout: 1 glass chocolate milk
Dinner: 8 ounces grilled chicken, 6 ounces pasta, ½ cup kidney beans
Snack: 2 tbsp peanut butter, 1 glass skim milk, handful of almonds