Diet & nutrition advice please

RoboRat

I have recently started a diet recommended by a friend as I have put on a bit of weight (even though I train about 4 times a week!) and I would like to cut it. The diet is as follows but im not sure if im under-eating or if this is a good idea:

• Breakfast: Bowl of porridge and 2 boiled eggs (supposed to be a 6 egg omelet with 2 full eggs and 4 whites but i cant stomach this in the morning)
• 11am: 50 gram of brown rice and chicken breast
• 1.30pm: as above
• 4pm: green vegetables (broccoli, peas, sugar snaps, mangetout) and chicken breast
• 6pm: as above
• 10pm: 2 boiled eggs or a 6 egg omlette only using 2 full egs and 4 egg whites

At the moment I am 15.8 stone, when I started last week and I was about 16.1 or 16.2. I am 6 foot but I am very stocky by nature (46" chest) and I have good muscle mass but I can never seem to lose the fat off my stomach. I train very hard 4 times a week (1.5 hours Monday playing football, 2 hours Tuesday doing MMA, 2 hours Wednesday doing Judo & 1 hour Thursday playing football).

I guess I am worried about eating so many eggs and I don't want to complete this and then heap on the weight when im finished.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

El_Dangeroso

Any reason you eat 6 times a day?

Unless there's something wrong with your adrenals, it's good to take a long break between meals if you can.

2-3 meals a day is best and you can have bigger meals without being tied to the kitchen all day.

Also the diet is painfully low in fat and carbs (I eyeball 80-90g carbs and <30g fat), you should generally pick one to reduce and stick with it. Have some butter on your veggies, eat some avocado and dress salads with olive oil.

El_Dangeroso

Also, don't worry about eggs.

And you will pile on the weight if you don't stick with a healthy maintenance diet.

RoboRat

Thanks El_Dangeroso, Im eating 6 times a day because I was told that its better for weight loss to eat 6 small portions than 3 large portions - i know they sound large but they really aren't, one small chicken breast (or half a regular one) and 2 spoons of brown rice is quite small for someone my size!

Im doing this because I always ate sensible (porridge for breakfast, large salad for lunch and sensible dinner) and I have never been able to shift the stomach weight. The reason im eating so much protein is that I have a lot of muscle mass and I don't want to lose that during the weight loss.

I do agree that its low in carbs and I may need to address that as I have been finding training quite hard but I will see how this week pans out - lost about 2kg last week. In regards to being tied to the kitchen... its not too bad as i do it all at once and then divide it into the portions for the next day (God bless George Foreman)

Thanks for taking the time to reply :-)

corkcomp

eating 4 (sensible) meals a day is the best compromise Ive found, it stops any major hunger pangs between meals and if you watch the portion sizes it should allow you to cut effectively. Personally i wouldnt even go down the road of 6 meals a day, im not sure how sustainable it is in the long term, id be lucky to find time to prepare 1 or 2 cooked meals...
Is there any reason your consuming so many eggs? Im not saying there is anything wrong with eggs but once a day is probably enough to eat them, you could have tuna or some other protein source at night.

RoboRat

Thanks Corkcomp,

I think after this week I may go to 4 meals and only eat extremely lightly after training. Its just very hard to get my mealtimes right as I get up, have breakfast, have lunch (usually a salad with turkey breast) about 1, then work 'til 5.30 (having a bananna at 4pm) and head straight to training from 6-8, then I am ravenous when I finish and end up having dinner about 8.30 and going to bed at 10.30/11.

I might change my eating and go with:
8pm Breakfast: Porridge & 2 eggs
11pm: 50g brown rice with chicken breast
2pm Dinner: Some protein (lean beef, pork, chicken or turkey) carbs (potato, pasta or brown rice) & veg/salad
4pm: Bananna
8.30pm: Small bit of protein and veg

Would that sound a bit better?

corkcomp

looks pretty good but if it were me id swap the 2 and 8pm meals, you will likely be very hungry after training if you dont have a decent meal of some sort

RoboRat

I am usually very hungry after training but I don't think its good to have carbs so late at night. If i have a small meal it with protein it will satisfy the hunger but it wont be sitting in my stomach all night.

Think i will give it a shot and then see how its working, I have been told so many conflicting things... don't eat late, dont eat carbs late, eat several small meals, eat 3 decent meals, don't eat more than one egg, eat as many eggs as you like... I think I will try different things and see what works for me as I have a slow metabolism so I need to wok around that!

Red Cortina

There are lots of myths out there propagated by the school of bro-science. Martin Berkhan has done a really great job of debunking them here in this article: http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

El_Dangeroso

Nice study showing 3 meals a day is superior for appetite control than 6:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20339363

Bottom line, you are not a cow, so don't graze like one.