I Need Some help with Nutrition

CCEF

Hey all, I'm very worried about my weight, I'm currently 22st1lb, and have decided to educate myself about food and fitness and then implement it. I read the sticky about nutrition and have a read around a few other sources as well.

Also, based on some reccomendations on boards I purchased NeilMcT's diet book.

I just wanted to check some of the figures on here and see what people think.

I'm starting my nutrition plan with an intake of:

Gym Day - Protein 224g, carbs 224g and Fats 100g.


Non Gym Day - Protein 224g, Carbs 56g and Fats 174g.


Does this sound about right?

Alf Veedersane

The ratios look fine. What kind of calories does that give you on gym days and non-gym days?

BetterThanThou

This is something some people may not agree with, but personally, I don't see the point of eating low carb on a non gym day and eating normal carb on a gym day. From my understanding, the entire concept of a low carb diet is that you starve your body of carbohydrates, replacing them with fats(not protein like some people believe, but you seem to get it), causing your body to go into a state of ketosis, which forces your body to use fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates, aiding in burning your body fat. However, to get into a state of ketosis, it can take days, I believe it's about a week, possibly more. So low carb is sort of an all or nothing deal. I personally don't like it, I've tried it, and it left me very tired and craving carbs, and I've personally been able to get good results by eating a clean diet with ratios similar to yours, so low carb wasn't for me. However, I do know people have gotten great results from it, and even one who claimed it gave him nearly superman levels of energy. However, it's something you need to absolutely commit to or it won't benefit you, a state of ketosis can be ruined by one cheat day if you feed your body enough carbohydrates as fat is only a back up fuel and harder to convert to glucose(what fuels your cells) than carbohydrates. So by all means, do low carb if you want, it's a great diet for some people. But eating low carb on non gym days won't do much other than make you fatigued because your body can't get energy efficiently.

Stench Blossoms

Keto and low carb are not the same thing.

I eat low carb. For example, the only carbs I eat come from oats and vegetables. But I'm no where near low enough to get into ketosis.

Alf Veedersane

I'd have said 56 grams of carbs was a bit too high for ketosis to occur anyway.

Stench Blossoms

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I'd have said 56 grams of carbs was a bit too high for ketosis to occur anyway.

Yeh exactly.

For me keto is anything less than 20.

CCEF

Thanks for the help all.

Both days work out at 2690 calories. From what I've read this is just at the point that if my caloric intake was any lower I would be losing too many calories a day from my diet. Is that right?

Challo

To be honest OP, I'd advise not worrying too much about these kind of breakdowns for now. The most important information is in the stickies. Keep it simple. Cut out junk food.

When that stops working, then you can get into the details of carb/protein/fats splits. If you are over 22stone, I think you will see results quickly by making basic changes to your diet as you have obviously been making years of bad food choices to get to that weight. I hope I don't sound rude but certainly for me, I can obsess over grams and whether something is following Paleo but in reality, most people just need to eat clean food.

Transform

Challo wrote: »

To be honest OP, I'd advise not worrying too much about these kind of breakdowns for now. The most important information is in the stickies. Keep it simple. Cut out junk food.

When that stops working, then you can get into the details of carb/protein/fats splits. If you are over 22stone, I think you will see results quickly by making basic changes to your diet as you have obviously been making years of bad food choices to get to that weight. I hope I don't sound rude but certainly for me, I can obsess over grams and whether something is following Paleo but in reality, most people just need to eat clean food.

this x 100.

You are 22stone not 13stone looking to be 12stone.

Do the basics for at LEAST a full year before worring about specifics

Anyone that even enters into conversations about low carb or keto at this stage is insane

Start with ditching the junk foods and getting off wheat then take it from there.

CCEF

Challo wrote: »

To be honest OP, I'd advise not worrying too much about these kind of breakdowns for now. The most important information is in the stickies. Keep it simple. Cut out junk food.

When that stops working, then you can get into the details of carb/protein/fats splits. If you are over 22stone, I think you will see results quickly by making basic changes to your diet as you have obviously been making years of bad food choices to get to that weight. I hope I don't sound rude but certainly for me, I can obsess over grams and whether something is following Paleo but in reality, most people just need to eat clean food.

No your grand, definitely not being rude. I appreciate the advice and all is welcome.

It's a great point about getting the basics right first, I've got caught up in the literature rather than spending time on the basics. It's my first port of call. Thanks

Donie75

CCEF,
I'm in a similar category to yourself. I am just over 20 stone but around 5 weeks ago I was 21 stone 8lbs. I've always been big but I ended up having a very sedentary summer due to my wife being sick. I couldn't really get out on my bike or leave the house and I ended up comfort eating.
I've lost nearly a stone and a half by cutting out bread (almost) and eating fairly clean and adding in regular cardio.

Here's my approximate diet.

Breakfast: 40 to 50g of porridge made on water with blueberries. Sometimes I will have an egg boiled or scrambled too.
Teabreak: An Apple & a black coffee
Lunch: Homemade Veggie soup and a wholemeal pitta with chicken & salad.
Dinner: Chicken or fish with veg or salad. No spuds but I sometimes have sweet potato.
I'm not saying its a perfect diet but it's working for me. I have reduced portion size and I keep an eye on calories but I don't count them.
The Myfitnesspal app is good too.
I've also bought Pat Divilly's book the 21 Day Jumpstart Plan. You can get it in Easons and you can follow him on Facebook. He just issues a podcast yesterday too. I'm not following his plan but it gave me some good ideas and I'm going to follow his plan in January.

I haven't done any weight training yet, I am concentrating on cardio but I mainly do low impact longer duration stuff. I am a keen cyclist so I'll do a 1.5 to 2 hour cycle on Sundays and 2 or 3 long brisk walks of 75 to 90 minutes duration.

I tend to ease off on the diet at weekends and have a few cheats. I might go for a few drinks on Saturday night but I'll do 50km on the bike the next morning. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat.