Help me fix my diet

G-Money

So about a month ago I got fed up with how I looked for various reasons and decided to get back into the gym. I cut out most of the crap I was eating and started exercising again. I've lost about 8 lbs in the past 4-5 weeks which I guess is ok although I was sort of hoping to drop a stone in the first month or at the very least a stone by Christmas. That is looking unlikely now seeing that Christmas is next week and I doubt I will lose 6 or 7 pounds by then.

But anyway. I've seen so much advice about low carbs, high protein diets and all sorts of other stuff mixed together that it's sort of doing my head in and I'm jumping from one thing to another.

Some stats first I guess. I'm a 32 year old male, 5ft 10 and I weighed 242.6 lbs earlier this week. When I started off a month or so ago, I was 251 lbs and the week before that I was 255 lbs, but for some reason I've decided to just assume my starting weight was 251 lbs. Don't ask me why as I don't know

Anyway, my daily diet is pretty much this:

Breakfast:
Oatflakes mixed with berries, nuts, goji berries and low fat yoghurt.

Lunch:
Grilled chicken breast, stir fried veg with cashews and spices. Glass of water.

Dinner:
Very small portion of fried mince or grilled chicken, about 50-60 grams (uncooked weight) of wholegrain/basmati rice mixed. Big load of frozen veg stirfried in extra virgin olive oil, dried spices, tomato ketchup. Glass of diet 7up.


Add into this that I usually like something sweet with a cup of tea in the evenings so I could have anything from a protein flapjack, to some oatcakes with organic peanut butter, to some of those chewy cereal type bars.


Most of the veg I eat is frozen veg. When I go shopping, I buy several packets of it and throw them into the freezer and cook what I need from them. I'll buy packets of mixed frozen veg like peas, carrots, corn. I'll also buy bags of frozen carrots, or broccoli or stir fry veg and fry them. I do this mostly for convenience as I don't want to go shopping every day for stuff. I like to go shop maybe once every two weeks and buy a load of stuff. When I'm there I usually buy packets of chicken breast fillets and then freeze them and cook one at a time as I need to.

I don't think I eat too much protein from what I can tell. If I have chicken for lunch and dinner, it's two fillets in total, one for lunch, one for dinner. I buy mince and freeze it and I've cut way down on both the portion sizes and amount I eat of it. The portion sizes are smaller than my fist now.

I don't buy a load of fresh veg as it tends to go off before I use it. I guess I could freeze it but then doesn't it just end up the same as frozen veg in a packet from the nutritional sense? I also don't really like fish and the only type I tend to eat is a tin of John West tuna. I don't see this changing either to be honest.

I also don't want to start buying a load of things like lentils and weird grains and then have no idea what to do with them. I don't usually take soup and I don't want to have to spend hours in the kitchen either making my dinner then making my lunch too for the next day. We have a fairly big salad bar at work but sometimes the selection can be quite plain and boring so that's why I've opted to bring my own lunch these days.

I should also say that I love my carbs but I am willing to cut down on them substantially, but not to the point where it becomes unhealthy.

I also normally allow myself one cheat meal a week (usually a chinese takeaway).

From what I've read, it seems like I may not be eating enough fruit and veg but as I mentioned on another thread, I don't want to be constantly eating all day long. If I'm not hungry or if I'm feeling full, I can see myself getting fed up if I have to go basically force myself to eat fruit or something when I could easily go without anything until my next meal.

I just want something simple and straight forward to follow. I'm not going to want to stick to something if it's not maintainable or if I'm constantly having to spend hours cooking.

Thanks.

Sapsorrow

Bit more detail there thanks! You're doing a really good job, I don't think you need to change anything apart from getting some fresh fruit and veg in there and some raw stuff (you mentioned the salad bar so you probably are already)
If you have a decent freezer what I do is make everything in big batches on a sunday or whenever I have a bit of free time and freeze batchs for other times when I'm busy. You can freeze pretty much anything you can think of to make.
If you have a hand held blender soup is the quickest and easist thing in the world to make aside from maybe a sandwich.
If cookings not your buzz though maybe just buy some packs of sugar snap peas, mangetout, baby corn, courgettes, carrots etc to throw in your stiry fry they all cook really quickly and if you have a stir fry every day they won't last long enough to go off anyway.
I know the grains I mentioned are a little unconventional but I just buy them as breads insterad of the usual wheat bread so don't have to come up with any recipes for them that way.
You'll do fine anyway you've figured out a good plan there and you will see results if you do some exercise with it, let us know how you get on with it over the next few months and good luck!

peepeep

Hiya,

Your diet seems quite good and your weight loss to date is sensible and consistent. Well done.

When you're buying mince, try to get lean mince or steak mince to make sure it's lower in fat (regular mince is seriously fatty). I actually like to buy cheap steaks from the local butcher, cut the fat off, then pop the meat in the food processor to make my own mince. That way you know exactly what fat content will be in your meat.

Tuna is great, since you will eat it I suggest incorporating it into your diet once or twice a week. Mix it with some chopped up tomatoes, peppers and red onion and drizzle with balsamic vinegar for a really tasty salad.

If you want to up your weight loss, then you might want to reconsider your cheat meal. Maybe have it once every fortnight instead of once every week. Otherwise, try what I do: I have a cheat meal but I make take-away style food myself instead of ordering it in. For example, I might cut up a potato, drizzle it with olive oil and paprika and bake it in the oven for 30-40 minutes until cooked; that makes really delicious chips that are relatively healthy. Have it with a baked chicken breast that you have rubbed with some cumin or chilli and its like having a chipper dinner except its not a zillion calories.

G-Money

peepeep wrote: »

Hiya,

Your diet seems quite good and your weight loss to date is sensible and consistent. Well done.

When you're buying mince, try to get lean mince or steak mince to make sure it's lower in fat (regular mince is seriously fatty). I actually like to buy cheap steaks from the local butcher, cut the fat off, then pop the meat in the food processor to make my own mince. That way you know exactly what fat content will be in your meat.

Tuna is great, since you will eat it I suggest incorporating it into your diet once or twice a week. Mix it with some chopped up tomatoes, peppers and red onion and drizzle with balsamic vinegar for a really tasty salad.

If you want to up your weight loss, then you might want to reconsider your cheat meal. Maybe have it once every fortnight instead of once every week. Otherwise, try what I do: I have a cheat meal but I make take-away style food myself instead of ordering it in. For example, I might cut up a potato, drizzle it with olive oil and paprika and bake it in the oven for 30-40 minutes until cooked; that makes really delicious chips that are relatively healthy. Have it with a baked chicken breast that you have rubbed with some cumin or chilli and its like having a chipper dinner except its not a zillion calories.

What temperature do you cook the potato and chicken breast at? And how long for?

With the chicken, do you rub the spices on it before putting it into the oven, during the cooking, or after?

I haven't cooked potatoes in years, but that doesn't sound like a bad idea for the weekends when Im more likely to eat junk but have more time to cook. When I come home from work, I'm often just not willing to have to wait 30-40 minutes for food.

peepeep

Cook the chips on 180 degrees; depending on how thick you cut them, they will take between 30 - 40 mins. You'll know when they're done as they're tender all the way through and starting to crisp up on the outside.

On the same temperature, a chicken breast will only take about 15 mins to cook. Try sprinkling over a good bit of cumin, as much or as little chilli as you like, then add a bit of olive oil and rub in the spices. Add a bit of salt and pepper, put it on a baking tray and just put it in the oven. After 15 mins just cut it open at the thickest part to make sure its properly cooked; if there's any pink left, put it back in the oven for a few more mins.

Sorted!

G-Money

peepeep wrote: »

Cook the chips on 180 degrees; depending on how thick you cut them, they will take between 30 - 40 mins. You'll know when they're done as they're tender all the way through and starting to crisp up on the outside.

On the same temperature, a chicken breast will only take about 15 mins to cook. Try sprinkling over a good bit of cumin, as much or as little chilli as you like, then add a bit of olive oil and rub in the spices. Add a bit of salt and pepper, put it on a baking tray and just put it in the oven. After 15 mins just cut it open at the thickest part to make sure its properly cooked; if there's any pink left, put it back in the oven for a few more mins.

Sorted!

Cheers.

Any particular type of potatoes? Do you leave the skins on or what? I don't have much of a clue about spuds. I haven't bought any in years.

Gaz

Are you exercising ? A good program of weights and cardio will speed things along for you.

G-Money

Gaz wrote: »

Are you exercising ? A good program of weights and cardio will speed things along for you.

Yep I'm doing both of those.

Just thought I'd post here as well as the Fitness forum and perhaps get a little more information about food and diet from here.

Gaz

Good man ... with regard to your diet I think you are on the right track, dont be afraid of protein though, a good portion with every meal is important, get in healthy fats and try to keep all your carbs as low GI as possible , so oats, wholegrain bread and rice etc.

Maybe watch the fruit intake, fruit although good is high in natural sugars, so maybe just a small amount early in the day.

Also maybe consider a good whey protein, this is great for getting in that extra bit of protein with your breakfast or post workout.

best of luck !

G-Money

Gaz wrote: »

Good man ... with regard to your diet I think you are on the right track, dont be afraid of protein though, a good portion with every meal is important, get in healthy fats and try to keep all your carbs as low GI as possible , so oats, wholegrain bread and rice etc.

Maybe watch the fruit intake, fruit although good is high in natural sugars, so maybe just a small amount early in the day.

Also maybe consider a good whey protein, this is great for getting in that extra bit of protein with your breakfast or post workout.

best of luck !

Thanks.

I was having a whey protein shake after my workouts but I decided to skip it as my main focus at the moment is burning fat. I guess I could maybe mix a scoop of it in with my cereal. Not sure how good that would be though seeing I take my cereal with yoghurt instead of milk.

I'm so confused though as one person says if I build more muscle, it will burn more fat and I should have a protein shake to help build muscle. But then someone else says I should cut the protein shake if I want to lose fat. Can make a man's head spin

I'm not afraid of protein at all I just don't want to end up overeating. A friend who's like a physio/personal trainer sort of put me onto an eating plan, I forget what it's called, but basically you cut out all carbs, dairy, sauces, for two weeks. Then gradually re-introduce them. To be honest I found it far too strict and it was doing my head in and after a week I cut it out.

Can I ask though, healthy fats? What healthy fat should I be consuming and how often?

Gaz

Calories in versus calories out is the important bit ... work out your daily needs then cut it by 10-15%. Eating lots of protein not only helps build muscle but on a calorie deficit will help to maintain muscle.

Healthy fats would be things like raw nuts, fish oils, avocados, nut oils/butters.

1 pound of fat is 3500 calories, so if you can reduce by 500 a day with a combination of diet and exercise you will lose a pound a week, a recommend amount is 1-2 a week, so you seem to be on the right track.

WesternNight

You mention one glass of water and one diet drink in your meal plan. I assume that's not all you're drinking, but if it is...increase the water!