Food for though ;)

Dr4gul4

Well i dont often ask for advice, mainly as i like to work things out for my self.
however i just want to check my math are correct, and perhaps get sum extra idea's of replacment foods.

so lets get the show going.


Breaky - 8 am
1/4 cup of porridge, with 1/2 cup of low fat milk with 1 banana mixed in for taste.
1 full boiled egg, and 1/4 a cup of low fat milk.

11am - apple, green ...

1pm - Most days i.e Monday to Friday
Plain wrap,with a little less than a table spoon of mayo, Hot breaded chicken,mix peppers, and 5 or 6 sun dried tomatoes.
1 apple green.

3pm - An apple or a banana. usually a banana now.

7pm - I if dont go to the gym.
1/4 cup of brown long grain rice.
1 cup of garden peas.
Three chicken breasts, i cut them up pretty lean, and grill it.
1 pint of low fat milk.

If i go to the gym,i try and have eaten by 8:30 at the latest.

9pm - maybe sum nuts, or sum ryvita and peanut butter.


I drink Tea when im at home, and take 1 teaspoon of sugar with it.


You can all check out my work out in my fitness log.

just sum more info.

I'm 28 ( nearly )
5' 10"
and 90Kg's.

I've been 90kg's now for the last few months. been tryn to get my weight down.

Based on the sticky with g'em's math my calorie intake should be 2700 each day, in order to loose weight.

but thats based on lean mass. and im far from lean mass.


Any thoughs please people

tribulus

What do you want to know?

If you think the calories are a bit high considering it assumes some lean mass then drop them a bit and see how you go, lots of this will be trial and error, it's as much art as it is science!

Your diet is decent, a few things though:

Plain sugar is bad if you're trying to lose fat, particularly if you're having it later on in the evening. Try keep all your carb sources from veg and things like brown rice.

Watch the peanut butter - it's usually of crap quality with trans fats in it, read the label and find one that's more "natural".

You need some protein and fat(mainly unsaturated) with your 11am and 3pm meals, a piece of fruit is not a meal.

Instead of having 3 chicken breasts in one sitting, use the other two in your 11am and 3pm meals.

Best of luck

g'em

you're quite devoid of protein. Lumping it all together in your dinner in the form of three chicken breasts isn't very effective - your body can only handle so much protein at a time and so much of it will go to waste. Ideally you want to be getting protein with EVERY meal e.g

brekkie: one whole egg + two whites/ whey with your porridge
snack: nuts/ meat/ yoghurt
lunch: lean meat
snack: nuts/ meat/ yoghurt
dinner: lean meat/ fish
pre-bed: cottage cheese/ casein + whey shake

And you're missing out on good fats too - nuts, seeds, avocadoes, walnut/ sesame/ almond/ flax oils, oily fish (salmon/ mackerel etc). A calorie isn't just a calorie, think about how you can give your body all the *right* fuel it needs to do what you want it to do: gain muscle and lose fat. Eating protein in smaller doses through the day will help your body constantly rebuild the muscles you tear in the gym (repair and growth happens at rest) and fats are the needed to make the hormones that control that process - if your diet is low in fat it will dull your hormonal response (among a gazillion other great things that good fats do!).

You need fibrous green vegetables: broccoli, spinach, beans and also cauliflower, peppers (all colours), carrots, tomatoes. Try to get a serving of veg at every meal too (easier said than done I know, so even 3/6 meals is fine).

how does all that sound so far?

Hanley

As G'em said, don't lump all the protein together. Try and get a serving per meal.

Make sure you peanut butter is 100% peanuts. And NOTHING else.

There's a lot of kcals in that 7pm meal. Any chance you could spread them out a bit more evenly? Maybe bump up your breakfast some.

I went from just under 93kg to 86.9kg from the 14th of December til the last week of January. That's what... 6kg in 7/8 weeks. I was back up at 90kg by the start of this month, but that was pretty much all muscle that went on (i use pictures to track my progress). The rebound effect you'll get is awesome.

My 2700 kcals came in at roughly 200g carbs, 250g protein and 100g fat.

Dr4gul4

tribulus wrote:

Plain sugar is bad if you're trying to lose fat, particularly if you're having it later on in the evening.

I'm workin on kicking it all together.

tribulus wrote:

Watch the peanut butter - it's usually of crap quality with trans fats in it, read the label and find one that's more "natural".

Best i could find for the moment is 89% peanuts. but i'll keep looking

tribulus wrote:

You need some protein and fat(mainly unsaturated) with your 11am and 3pm meals, a piece of fruit is not a meal.

i'll work on this nxt then.

g'em wrote:

you're quite devoid of protein.

No im just a fecking eejit :rolleyes: , Protein from lunch, dinner and a shake before bed. i for got about that.

an average day for me is as follows.
Protein - 193grams
Carbs - 287gams
fat - 63grams

g'em wrote:

brekkie: one whole egg + two whites/ whey with your porridge
snack: nuts/ meat/ yoghurt
lunch: lean meat
snack: nuts/ meat/ yoghurt
dinner: lean meat/ fish
pre-bed: cottage cheese/ casein + whey shake

This is why ure a legend when it comes to food, you make it so simple

g'em wrote:

And you're missing out on good fats too - nuts, seeds, avocadoes, walnut/ sesame/ almond/ flax oils, oily fish (salmon/ mackerel etc). A calorie isn't just a calorie, think about how you can give your body all the *right* fuel it needs to do what you want it to do: gain muscle and lose fat. Eating protein in smaller doses through the day will help your body constantly rebuild the muscles you tear in the gym (repair and growth happens at rest) and fats are the needed to make the hormones that control that process - if your diet is low in fat it will dull your hormonal response (among a gazillion other great things that good fats do!).

I was eating a lot of tuna before hand, so im thinking of using t-ha recipe of boiling sum tuna, mixed with 2 egg's in the morning.
I have a few tesco's thing's of mixed nuts, which includes most of what you said above, there quite nice and i have my Supplements, for vitamin C, Cod liver oil tablets etc etc.

g'em wrote:

You need fibrous green vegetables: broccoli, spinach, beans and also cauliflower, peppers (all colours), carrots, tomatoes. Try to get a serving of veg at every meal too (easier said than done I know, so even 3/6 meals is fine).

Christ i hate veg, i blame my mother for force feeding me carrot's as child, but i'll see what i can come up with.

Maybe i'll take a shake in the morning also.

rubadub

Get yourself a weighing scales and calculate your calories. What you describe could vary greatly depending on the size of your "cup". and the size of chicken fillets, apples etc.



When people say excess protein "goes to waste", does that mean it passes through undigested? or does it still count as ingested calories which could lead to weight/fat gain.

Dr4gul4

I weight my self every Sunday ( usually ) in the gym, and im always the same weight. read the logs and you'll see.

And there all pretty standard, a cup is a cup. 10 Oz of fluid etc,



thats a pretty nice Cup also.

All the measurement are from what's on fitday, and I'm quite confident in my sizes.

I really just need to Balance out my food a little more.

But thank you for you're input

Dr4gul4

Hanley wrote:

Make sure you peanut butter is 100% peanuts. And NOTHING else.

I'll go take a look about for sum decent stuff this weekend so .

Hanley wrote:

There's a lot of kcals in that 7pm meal. Any chance you could spread them out a bit more evenly? Maybe bump up your breakfast some.

I'm now taking 30g shake for breaky, along with one whole egg and 1 extra egg white. i'll know that up to two egg whites soon.

Hanley wrote:

My 2700 kcals came in at roughly 200g carbs, 250g protein and 100g fat.

Maye if i change from Rice to Couscous it might help as there quite a bit of protein in it also.

It quite helpful knowing that you consume more protein then carbs daily.

ianmc38

Yeah I'm looking for some advice regarding snack meals (11am and 8pm). I'm usually starvin marvin at these times, but never know whats good to eat. I usually end up eating some wholegrain bread with something like cheese.

On a sidenote, is pork a bad meat to have in the diet (bacon, chops etc?)

rovers_runner

I'm in a similar situation to yourself OP.

I'm 24, 5'9" and about 170lbs.
Still bordering overweight but lost a half a stone in the last month or two qith the following.

Week:

Breakfast:
Yougurt or fruit juice

Lunch:
Sandwich - 1 filling, no meat

Dinner:
Noodles & wholemeal brown or
Super hoops & wholemeal brown or
Scrambled eggs & wholemeal brown

Have only drank 3 times since Christmas also and have given up the crisps and chocolate except on the weekends.

Average exercise routine:

Try to get 30 mins 4 days a week:

I run:
5/6k Monday
8/9k Tues
6/7k Thurs

Golf on Sat
or
6/7k Sunday


Basically I have my Calorie intake per day down to an average of about 1500.
And my average daily burning of Calories is about 500 across a week.

p-nut

Hanley wrote:

Make sure you peanut butter is 100% peanuts. And NOTHING else.

You can get a lovely one in the health store that is pretty much 99% peanuts with a tny bit of salt. I love the stuff, i eat it with a spoon its that good. i've even started buyin the 1kg tub of it:D Hey its only 7 euro!!! but i find it dissappeards FAR too quickly.....

rovers_runner wrote:

Have only drank 3 times since Christmas also and have given up the crisps and chocolate except on the weekends.

All i can say is fair play to you!! Drinking is one of those filthy habits i need to stop. I say it every weekend but i always end up goin out the next. Its probably the only flaw in my diet. Its not even that good like!! You go out, spend 50 or 60 quid, get mouldy drunk, do stupid things, and hav nothin to show for it but a bangin headache and your stomach in knots the next mornin! Not to mention the fact that it ruins any gains!!

Jesus, i really do need to quit:D

J.S. Pill

Seeing as we're all asking questions about food...

As I understand it, if you eat something sugary after a meal it raises your insulin levels which in turn can lead to increased fat storage (I honestly don't know anything about the exact mechanisms of this process).

Is there any harm in having say a yoghart or tea and bikkies after dinner or will this negate all the trouble i went to with making and eating a nice clean meal. And does it make any difference if the meal is relatively low in Carbs fat?? (Last night Chicken chow mein: 2 chicken breasts, lots of veg, small amount of noodles and some packet sauce)

Goal is lean weight gain by the way.

Dr4gul4

J.S. Pill wrote:

Is there any harm in having say a yoghart or tea and bikkies after dinner

My question would be why ? if you're still hungry add more veg to you're dinner.

Hanley

ianmc38 wrote:

Yeah I'm looking for some advice regarding snack meals (11am and 8pm). I'm usually starvin marvin at these times, but never know whats good to eat. I usually end up eating some wholegrain bread with something like cheese.

On a sidenote, is pork a bad meat to have in the diet (bacon, chops etc?)

11am.. Somthing high in carbs and protein. Maybe a big chicken wraps with some veg

8pm... protein and fat. Maybe a chicken fillet, 7 walnut halves and an orange.

Carbs late at night aren't the best in my expereince. When I'm trying to drop weight I genenrally taper them back from about 5pm.

Also, Nourish is my favourite place for peanut butter. They do a 100% chunky organic peanut butter that is just delicious. Only 2.65 a jar. Amazing.

g'em

Dr4gul4 wrote:

My question would be why ? if you're still hungry add more veg to you're dinner.

exactly. JS Pill, be hoenst with yourself, is tea with sugar and biccies going to help you add lean weight? Probably not. Will an extra fillet of chicken or maybe some PB on wholemeal bread or extra veg as suggested? Probably.

g'em

rovers_runner wrote:

I'm 24, 5'9" and about 170lbs.
Still bordering overweight but lost a half a stone in the last month or two qith the following.

Basically I have my Calorie intake per day down to an average of about 1500.
And my average daily burning of Calories is about 500 across a week.

you're undereating. 170lbs on 1500 calories a day? your metabolism is probably going to suffer for that. It's like a furnace - you supply it with small amounts of food in regular intervals to keep it burning strong, not sporadic scraps of food. I know it's tempting to eat less to lose weight, but your body needs fuel to survive. If you don't give it that fuel it hangs on to what it has and weight loss becomes terribly difficult.

J.S. Pill

g'em wrote:

exactly. JS Pill, be hoenst with yourself, is tea with sugar and biccies going to help you add lean weight? Probably not. Will an extra fillet of chicken or maybe some PB on wholemeal bread or extra veg as suggested? Probably.

Well I never take sugar in the tay!! And its not that I'm still hungry per se. After a large meal, even when we're utterly stuffed, we're all going to crave something sugary (hence the whole notion of desert). I'm trying to distinguish the sugar gained from the biscuit from the fat that may be gained from the meal from raising your insulin level with the said sugar.

Supposing I was to eat an apple about an hour after lunch - are we talking about the same effect?

Don't worry, I don't go reaching for the mars Ice-cream after dinner and I've managed to stay quite lean - I'm just wondering if should I just stick to the tea.

g'em

J.S. Pill wrote:

After a large meal, even when we're utterly stuffed, we're all going to crave something sugary (hence the whole notion of desert).

That's a habit mroe than anything actually - there's really no biological craving for sugar after a big meal, if anything a protein and fat rich meal will blunt any cravings you have because you'll have a nice full belly

By all means have some fruit a while after dinner, try and keep it low GI fruit though and if you have some protein with it (even some yoghurt) it'll minimise the insulin response. That's being largely pedantic about it though - if you're bulking eat lots. If you're putting on more fat than you'd like, train harder and eat a little less/ better quality foods. Keep things nice and easy

J.S. Pill

g'em wrote:

By all means have some fruit a while after dinner, try and keep it low GI fruit though and if you have some protein with it (even some yoghurt) it'll minimise the insulin response. That's being largely pedantic about it though - if you're bulking eat lots. If you're putting on more fat than you'd like, train harder and eat a little less/ better quality foods. Keep things nice and easy

Groovy - thanks for that!

MeditationMom

Here are some old rules I follow that help me a lot.

Breakfast: eat like a king
Lunch: eat like a lord
Dinner: eat like a pauper - going to bed with a full stomach puts on a lot of weight over time.

Sometimes just for fun, I look at the whole day as one meal. Soup and Salad for breakfast/brunch, dinner for lunch, and just desert for dinner.

As far as the OP diet - I would not have a banana every day. A banana is a meal by itself for me. Often a good lunch on the go. To up the protein I often have a banana smoothy for lunch with soymilk and other goodies, like ground nuts thrown in. All you need is one of those hand blenders.

Also three chicken breasts a day - that is like eating a whole chicken a day. That would be much too much food for me, unless I were a construction worker or warrior, out in the cold every day. I am no expert and can only talk about what it would mean for my body.

Also, I really don't like exercise. But, if I don't get a 30 min walk in at least three times a week, no matter how well I eat, the weight just sneaks itself around my hips and thighs.

hunnymonster

meditation mom, Have you looked at the stickies and done the maths to find out what you need to do?

MeditationMom

In order to go from 148 to 132 pounds by July 1, I am supposed to consume 1400 calories a day. Exercise three times a week for 30 min minimum each. I can do 40 min twice a week without it interfering with work and family and will have to get creative to increase that. Eat the amount of protein the size of my palm a day (which is a lot more than I do now) So those are my guidelines for now.

I just read the stickies. Hope I didn't break any rules already. I didn't realize diet was such a touchy subject, legally and otherwise.

Dr4gul4

No hard done over all im sure, were all here to help, and 1400 is quite a low number, are you 100% sure that the right amount

Either way, if you have a clean diet and so sum exercise you will loose weight.

MeditationMom

I have never counted calories - my clothes either fit or don't. It will be interesting to do that. My metabolism seems to have slowed as I am getting older. It has just been this very slow and steady increase over the last two or three years that over time will not be good, since I have a lower back problem and need to keep my weight down, not to mention the vanity factor.

There is a diet called the Johnson Upday Downday Diet.

"I just read an article in a Woman's World magazine (Jan 30 '07 issue) about the Johnson Upday Downday Diet. You basically eat what you want/need one day, and the next day you semi-fast. This pattern supposedly activates a gene which has some interesting health benefits as well as helping with lose weight." (Posted by Beth N. on a site called Traineo) You can read the thread there, it is helping a lot of people to lose weight, particularly yoyo dieters.

I think I might try that. It seems so low pressure and so flexible.

nesf

Being starving hungry every second day is low pressure and flexible? Whatever about the health side of things, from a quality of life viewpoint that diet would be a bad idea.

MeditationMom

I don't think I'll try it, anyway. Thought it was interesting from a psychological point of view for yoyo dieters, which I am not.

I am not sure about the 1400 cal - it was calculated by traineo if I wanted to be at 132 pounds by July one, which was just random info I put in - ideal case scenario. It would mean losing 16 pounds in two months. Eight pounds a month. Not too unreasonable, but maybe not the best since it took me three years to put on this extra weight. Slow and steady daily improvements in food choices and exercise will be my best bet. Basically a return to better habits I had in the past.

Even though, I don't think I would feel like I was depriving myself on 500 cal a day after a day of three big meals. Often I give myself a night without dinner just to sleep better and let my body catch up with my eating. My metabolism is slow to begin with and my body thanks me with increased energy when I skip a meal, especially at night. I never skip breakfast, though. But 500 cal for a younger person, especially a male would probably be too little.

rubadub

MeditationMom wrote:

a day of three big meals.....
My metabolism is slow to begin with and my body thanks me with increased energy when I skip a meal, especially at night.

Skipping meals only serves to slow your metabolism even more. You should aim for 6 meals a day, equal size calorie wise and equally spaced, breakfast can be a little bigger.

MeditationMom

I've heard that. Will try it. I have put on half a pound since I started paying attention again to all of this. Luckily I know it is from the new leg muscles due to my walking and stair-master episodes this week More muscles this week, better metabolism next week. Six meals, rather than a down day starvation day - I like this forum!