Another rate my diet thread

cmyk

I have read the stickies but would appreciate someone more experienced casting their eye over my diet.

Male, 30yrs of age, 6'1 and between 76-78kg. Not sure what bodyfat%

Diet:
Breakfast 8.45
Large bowl of porridge/skimmed milk with peanut butter, raisins and honey.

Mid morning 11.15
2Xryvita crackers with peanut butter and banana

Lunch 1.30
Bowl of mixed salad: Carrot, chickpeas, lace noodles, broccolli with tin of tuna in sunflower oil or chopped chicken breast.

Mid Afternoon
Another bowl of porridge as breakfast (on training days) and couple of handful of almonds if not.

Dinner 7.00 if not training, 10.00 if I am
Roasted veg in olive oil with chicken breast or fish

Training:
Tues: 2Xhours bjj
Thurs: 2Xhours mma
Sat: Crossfit

Cycle approx 50km for the week (commuting on off training days)

What are my lacking in my diet? I am very commited and have v.good willpower but can't seem to shift the last bit of bottom belly. I have been eating as the above for pretty much 3months with sunday being a cheat day. Never eat processed foods at all, don't smoke and have approx 10-15 pints per month.

I really don't want to go down the road of counting calories, but maybe that's the advice that I'll be offered in order to achieve a lower bf%

Thanks in advance

cowzerp

Hi, your diet is not too bad but if its 3 months on you need to reduce the calories! reduce the portion sizes, not from protein but from fats and carbs, for example, just have porridge without the peanut butter, raisns and honey! then replace ryvitas and peanut butter with a piece of fruit!

just examples..but you need to reduce calories as its not working now.

cmyk

Thanks cowzerp, i actually thought it might be the other way around. Is there any truth to the myth that the body holds on to fat if daily calories are not reached on a regular basis?

I think I worked out before a rough guide of 2400kcals per day is my rmr.

g'em

cmyk wrote: »

Is there any truth to the myth that the body holds on to fat if daily calories are not reached on a regular basis?

It's not not true, but don't get hung up on it (i.e. don't worry about cal couting for now). Your calories have to be quite severely restricted on a chronic basis and/ or if you are experiencing high levels of emotional/ physiological stress it will prevent or restrict fat loss.

You've made good progress so far so for the final hurdle there's a new strategy you can try: eat carbs with protein or protein with fats, but never fats with carbohydrates. I'm not trying to go down the whole "food combining" route as I think all that talk of acid/ alkaline balances in the stomach is a load of bolloxology.

But long story short...

Drop the peanut butter at breakfast. Make sure your porridge portions aren't monstrously big either, and easy on the raisins - fresh fruit would be better and have more fibre.

Drop the ryvita mid-morning and have cottage cheese or vegetables or an extra piece of fruit.

Lunch is good, go heavy on the protein.

Dinner looks excellent (roasted sweet potato ftw!!) and again go heavy on the protein.

cmyk

Thanks G'em, appreciate that. Anything else I'm lacking in at all? I should've added that it's sugar free peanut butter. I'm not good on what fats to be taking apart from almonds/nuts.

Going to try to squeeze in a couple of full body weight training sessions a week too.

g'em

There's nothing glaringly obvious that you're missing, forgot to mention you could try hard-boiled eggs as snacks mid-meal for a protein hit.

Good fats come from a range of different foods but nuts, seeds, avocados, and oily fish (mackerel, salmon, tuna steaks not tinned) and nut and seed oils are the best ways to get them into your diet. Saturated fats aren't necessarily bad per se but if you eat a lot of meat and eggs then you get enough of it and don't need to make a conscious decision to eat more. And if you don't eat processed foods you don't need to worry about trans fats, although make sure your PB has nothing but nuts and perhaps a small amount of salt in it, the cheap brands have a terrible profile. You can also get hazelnut butter and, my personal favourite, cashew butter if you want a change.

dave80

cmyk wrote: »

I have read the stickies but would appreciate someone more experienced casting their eye over my diet.

Male, 30yrs of age, 6'1 and between 76-78kg. Not sure what bodyfat%

Diet:
Breakfast 8.45
Large bowl of porridge/skimmed milk with peanut butter, raisins and honey.

Mid morning 11.15
2Xryvita crackers with peanut butter and banana

Lunch 1.30
Bowl of mixed salad: Carrot, chickpeas, lace noodles, broccolli with tin of tuna in sunflower oil or chopped chicken breast.

Mid Afternoon
Another bowl of porridge as breakfast (on training days) and couple of handful of almonds if not.

Dinner 7.00 if not training, 10.00 if I am
Roasted veg in olive oil with chicken breast or fish

Training:
Tues: 2Xhours bjj
Thurs: 2Xhours mma
Sat: Crossfit

Cycle approx 50km for the week (commuting on off training days)

What are my lacking in my diet? I am very commited and have v.good willpower but can't seem to shift the last bit of bottom belly. I have been eating as the above for pretty much 3months with sunday being a cheat day. Never eat processed foods at all, don't smoke and have approx 10-15 pints per month.

I really don't want to go down the road of counting calories, but maybe that's the advice that I'll be offered in order to achieve a lower bf%

Thanks in advance

You could do with more protein in your diet theres only about 80-100 grams there at most, you could take the easy route and get a protein supplement, but you would have to reduce caloires from other food intake as each serving has about 100 cals.

cmyk

Yep PB is pure peanuts like you say with tiny amount of salt (kelkin). Didn't think you could get hazelnut/cashew butter, will def have a look out for that, presumably health shops? I also take a berocca in the morning for a bit of a vitamin boost as I don't like oranges.

I don't eat too much oily fish at the moment, I was taking cod liver oil too, maybe I should go back to taking that.

I do have the odd protein shake with water pwo, if I feel I don't get a decent meal after training. (USN Pure Protein) I like to try eating without supplements though as a rule.