Diet advice...

nesf

Right I could definitely use diet advice since a) I’ve never done a structured one before and b) I’d like to do it right and not screw it up.

I’ve briefly discussed it with g’em and she recommended a low carb diet based on my previous history/body type/etc. I feel overly full after eating a “normal” amount of carbs at anytime other than the morning so I figure that I might share something with t-ha (from his post in the sticky) in that I’m a fairly broad and heavy guy like most of my family and I feel sleepy/tired after any large amount of pasta etc. Wholemeal pasta/bread is even worse for it though I prefer the taste.


Calorie wise, I seem to need 2942 calories a day from the stickies (93kg and I assume that an hour’s brisk walking a day wouldn’t equal walking/active for the multiplier so I used the standing/sitting one).


Questions for people:

Is there any recommendation as a starting set of ratios for a low carb diet or should I just pick one, stick with it for a few weeks and then use trial and error to find one that works for me? The same with the deficit, should I just start at 15% and work from there?

Foods wise, I work/study from home mostly so eating 5 – 6 meals a day is doable. Can I reasonably avoid fruit? I like vegetables, nuts etc but fruit is not a food I enjoy and I know that if I’m going to make this diet sustainable I’m going to have to try and eat food I like. Could I get away with something like Multibiota to cover the gaps left by excluding fruit? I know supplementing isn’t as good as getting through your diet but would it make a huge difference?

Could I do something like make a batch of burritos (lean beef/lamb with chopped tomatoes and kidney beans) and split a “traditional” dinner into two meals served with steamed broccoli or cauliflower or similar? Oh and does anyone have (or can link) to any decent recipes? My mother was a cook and I grew up around it so I’m curious and interested in trying new things if I’m going to do this (i.e. make it fun rather than a slog).

Oh, and is snacking on something like walnuts during the day ok or should I try to have specific servings of them at specified times?

I just want to figure out something practical before I get our food for the week/forthnight this weekend.

Exercise wise:

I’m in a bit of pickle exercise wise, for the past 3-4 years I’ve been on medication that to a greater or lesser degree has screwed with my body (elevated or erratic pulse, high blood pressure, weight gain etc etc). At the moment I’m unsure about doing anything that’s very intensive without my doctor’s permission but since he’s messing around with dosages atm I’m loath to start something that I might have to finish abruptly. So what I’m thinking is that I enjoy walking and it’s not intense enough to be a potential problem health wise.

So, I figure doing 3-4km walks with a “heavy” backpack three or four times a week might be the best way to start and to build up slowly from there. I don't really have a convenient way to measure out distance (I've no decent map with which I can estimate off) but I figure if I just walk at a good pace for a set amount of time on a planned route that I can guesstimate stuff well enough to get by.


Yeah, I know overall it isn't that ambitious, but I figure small sustainable steps are better than pushing myself too hard too early and just getting sick of it or picking up an injury or something equally silly.

Dragan

First of all , fair play. I enjoyed your discussion with G'em and we often get people who come in, pontificate and thats it. Nice one for opting to make some changes and become fitter and healthier!

Now then, down to business!

nesf wrote:

Is there any recommendation as a starting set of ratios for a low carb diet or should I just pick one, stick with it for a few weeks and then use trial and error to find one that works for me? The same with the deficit, should I just start at 15% and work from there?

Good plan, though i would suggest you start at 20%. Starting too low can be harsh and cause serious energy fluctuations. Do 20% for 10 to 14 days, see how you feel and if you feel good then drop it. Get most of those carbs in from fresh veg and you sorted!

Can I reasonably avoid fruit? I like vegetables, nuts etc but fruit is not a food I enjoy and I know that if I’m going to make this diet sustainable I’m going to have to try and eat food I like. Could I get away with something like Multibiota to cover the gaps left by excluding fruit? I know supplementing isn’t as good as getting through your diet but would it make a huge difference?

Fruit dodging is a not that bad an issue when trying to lose a few lbs. Fruit equals high GI in some cases and lots of sugar, be it natural or not! I suggest you try and work in certain elements of the fruity family in time, but for you initial weightloss your good, in my opinion. I never eat fruit on a diet.

Multi vit wise multibionta is garbage, so for Quest or Solgar. More expensive but it will actually help. CoEnzyme Q10 is also a good option, though buy it on the net as it's a rip off over here!

Could I do something like make a batch of burritos (lean beef/lamb with chopped tomatoes and kidney beans) and split a “traditional” dinner into two meals served with steamed broccoli or cauliflower or similar?

Course you can, look up faux mash potatoes for something nice to go with your dinner! For other recipies i will post stuff tomorrow but cooking in bulk is a good option as there is always something healthy there to be eaten.

Oh, and is snacking on something like walnuts during the day ok or should I try to have specific servings of them at specified times?

Try and snack at certain times as opposed to instinctively in my view. Structure will be your friend on a good diet.

So, I figure doing 3-4km walks with a “heavy” backpack three or four times a week might be the best way to start and to build up slowly from there. I don't really have a convenient way to measure out distance (I've no decent map with which I can estimate off) but I figure if I just walk at a good pace for a set amount of time on a planned route that I can guesstimate stuff well enough to get by.

Sounds like a plan! Talk to your doc about possible excercise you can do or even if he knows a good person he would recommend you to work with! Do the walking though, not just for the weightloss but also for the health benefits!

Yeah, I know overall it isn't that ambitious, but I figure small sustainable steps are better than pushing myself too hard too early and just getting sick of it or picking up an injury or something equally silly.

Your spot on. Everything needs to be done in stages, too many changes too quickly will make life alien and uncomfortable and you may not stick to the plan.

Those answers are a bit rough and ready and i will look over things again tomorrow and maybe add things. If you have anymore questions please just ask!

nesf

Dragan wrote:

Good plan, though i would suggest you start at 20%. Starting too low can be harsh and cause serious energy fluctuations. Do 20% for 10 to 14 days, see how you feel and if you feel good then drop it. Get most of those carbs in from fresh veg and you sorted

Right, atm I'm "recovering" from being off coke. I used to drink 2 litres a day or so but have successfully replaced it with water for the past week and my body is complaining about getting used the lack of a steady stream of sugar and caffeine. I need to sit down and work out a food plan and I’m a bit at a loss how to calculate some things like cooking from scratch since I assume just totting up the what the raw ingredients total would be way off.

Dragan wrote:

Fruit dodging is a not that bad an issue when trying to lose a few lbs. Fruit equals high GI in some cases and lots of sugar, be it natural or not! I suggest you try and work in certain elements of the fruity family in time, but for you initial weightloss your good, in my opinion. I never eat fruit on a diet.

Multi vit wise multibionta is garbage, so for Quest or Solgar. More expensive but it will actually help. CoEnzyme Q10 is also a good option, though buy it on the net as it's a rip off over here!

Right, I’ll have a look around tomorrow for either of those tomorrow.

Dragan wrote:

Course you can, look up faux mash potatoes for something nice to go with your dinner! For other recipies i will post stuff tomorrow but cooking in bulk is a good option as there is always something healthy there to be eaten.

Faux mash? I hate the real stuff so I’ll pass..

Dragan wrote:

Try and snack at certain times as opposed to instinctively in my view. Structure will be your friend on a good diet.

Cool, thanks.

Dragan wrote:

Sounds like a plan! Talk to your doc about possible excercise you can do or even if he knows a good person he would recommend you to work with! Do the walking though, not just for the weightloss but also for the health benefits!

I might do but my doc is in Dublin so I doubt he’d be able to recommend anyone to me. I’ll go through it with my GP when I see her next and go from there.

Dragan wrote:

Your spot on. Everything needs to be done in stages, too many changes too quickly will make life alien and uncomfortable and you may not stick to the plan.

Those answers are a bit rough and ready and i will look over things again tomorrow and maybe add things. If you have anymore questions please just ask!

Nah, I appreciate it, I’m looking for structure really. I’ve been losing weight through eating better and walking more for the past year or so but I wasn’t putting any effort or structure in there so it wasn’t efficient. I’m sleeping regularly again and I figure the summer might give me enough time to get some exercise in. I’m not working from a completely sedentary base which is something but I know that I’m not in a condition to jump back into martial arts classes and enjoy the training.

As for pontificating… well I’ve a lot of opinions and like to analyse stuff so meh, it happens

g'em

howdy, I know you're sick of hearing from me at this stage but meh, I wanted to drop by anyway

As D said, start out with around 20% carbs - and don't forget, that's a rough figure, leave your maths/ physics head out of it!! If you don't want fruit fair enough, although fruit + yoghurt = yummy smoothies

Take things nice and slowly, no need to try and radically overhaul everything all in one go. First try and eat your 5-6 meals a day. Then after a couple of days take a look at your macronutrients and see how you feel - are the carbs making you sluggish or are you energised and alert? A few days after that look at another aspect of the diet and so on, so forth.

Pre-preparing meals is a *great* idea, I'll see can I dig up some recipe ideas too.

Like you said, small sustainable steps are the way to go.

nesf

g'em wrote:

As D said, start out with around 20% carbs - and don't forget, that's a rough figure, leave your maths/ physics head out of it!! If you don't want fruit fair enough, although fruit + yoghurt = yummy smoothies

Cool, I'll have a think about how to limit carbs to 20% and try to be aware of it. As for smoothies, I don't like them either something about the texture just puts me off.

g'em wrote:

Take things nice and slowly, no need to try and radically overhaul everything all in one go. First try and eat your 5-6 meals a day. Then after a couple of days take a look at your macronutrients and see how you feel - are the carbs making you sluggish or are you energised and alert? A few days after that look at another aspect of the diet and so on, so forth.

Pre-preparing meals is a *great* idea, I'll see can I dig up some recipe ideas too.

Yeah, I definitely agree about not trying to overhaul everything at once (thus the dropping coke and seeing how that went before even contemplating the next step, it's a lot of sugar to just suddenly lose). simu seems to like the idea of pre-preparing meals so that idea should go. Since she'll be eating it as well she'll have to agree!