How does this Diet sound?

lufties

Ok lately after recently watching the Documentary 'Forks over Knives', I decided to try eliminate meat from my Diet, anyway here is a sample of what I consume on a good day

Breakfast-Porridge with Flaxfeed, Honey, a handful of Blueberries and Raspberries. Also a high quality protein shake. A glass of apple juice with a shot of wheatgrass and Camu Camu fruit powder.

Mid morn- some Raw Almonds, and handful of Edamame (soya bean snack), An Apple.

Lunch- A salad with celery, carrot, bell peppers(three colours), lime juice and Hemp oil as a dressing. Also some Oatcakes with Peanut butter.

Dinner- Lentil and Brown Rice Stew (Probably a bit too much) with Celery, Broccoli, thyme, Basil, Tomatoes, Garlic.

I also had some green tea, coffee and Camomile tea in between. and Approx 1.5 Litres of water.


Any opinions much appreciated

runawaybishop

Don't eliminate meat would be my initial opinion.

What are your goals?

TouchingVirus

Your goals? It looks like it's very carbohydrate heavy from the off and depending on the amounts you eat it could be pretty low on calories.

lufties

runawaybishop wrote: »

Don't eliminate meat would be my initial opinion.

What are your goals?

My goal is to become vegetarian ultimately, I have been eating some fish lately too so I'm not fully veggie.

Why not eliminate meat?

Alf Veedersane

lufties wrote: »

My goal is to become vegetarian ultimately, I have been eating some fish lately too so I'm not fully veggie.

Aside from that, do you want to lose weight, etc etc etc?

lufties

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Your goals? It looks like it's very carbohydrate heavy from the off and depending on the amounts you eat it could be pretty low on calories.

Well, there's peanut butter, lentils, a protein shake, and Edamame(which is high in protein. It gives me roughly 80g of protein. For my height 5'8" and weight 70ish Kg, this is an average amount.

lufties

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Aside from that, do you want to lose weight, etc etc etc?

Sorry, yes..lose weight, tone up..get healthy, feel good, have more energy, brain power..a lot of things really :pac:

TouchingVirus

lufties wrote: »

Well, there's peanut butter, lentils, a protein shake, and Edamame(which is high in protein. It gives me roughly 80g of protein. For my height 5'8" and weight 70ish Kg, this is an average amount.

What are the carb totals? If you're eating 80g of protein and 200g of carbs it's a high carb diet for example. Lentils are 60g/23g carbs/protein per 100g. Edamame is 10g/11g carbs/protein, peanut butter is 50g/25g fat/protein - so I fear unless you're eating a lot of Edamame at 50/50 split you're falling into that camp and that's not optimal for fat loss.

lufties

TouchingVirus wrote: »

What are the carb totals? If you're eating 80g of protein and 200g of carbs it's a high carb diet for example. Lentils are 60g/23g carbs/protein per 100g. Edamame is 10g/11g carbs/protein, peanut butter is 50g/25g fat/protein - so I fear unless you're eating a lot of Edamame at 50/50 split you're falling into that camp and that's not optimal for fat loss.

So what would you suggest I remove to balance it? It seems carb heavy alright but there's a lot of veggies in there, the Edamame is like a snack throughout the day to up the protein intake, like the almonds.

Its hard to know what proteins to take when trying to stay away from meat.

TouchingVirus

To elaborate my previous point with an example: I pegged you as 25 and pretty much sedentary for this. Your TDEE is ~2000kcal. The amounts will change if I got your age wrong or your activity level - calculators can be found all over the net. Aim for 15-20% lower than TDEE for fat loss and go for a 40%/30%/30% split of Carbs/Protein/Fat to start off. So at 2000 calories that's 800 carbs, 600 protein and 600 fat. At 4kcal per 1g of carbs or protein that's 200g of carbs, 125g of protein. Fat is 9kcal per 1g, so that's 66.7g of fat.

200g/125g/66.7g are your macro goals - now fill them up however you please, with as many meals as you like but try get it all from food and try get protein in every meal. Use MyFitnessPal or something like it to track your consumption and make sure you're meeting the goals. Going a bit over one day and under the next is grand, it all evens out and the body isn't that exact, cravings do feature a bit Pure shakes are good but I treat them as a last resort - as in they are only for people who simply cannot get the amount of protein they need into them with food; either because of time or sheer volume. Take somebody who has already eaten 4 chicken fillets and physically couldn't get a fifth into them. Rather than miss the 30g of protein, they could shake it up guilt free at some point in the day. Something else perhaps for you to consider to make food with the protein powder - bake some oat bars with chocolate protein powder added for chocolate oatbars. Add some protein powder to an oats pancake mix, horse on some scrambled egg for breakfast.

You can find lots of information on sources of protein for vegetarians - it's not as easy to get high protein, low carb sources if you don't eat meat though, but it's manageable. All that matters is you do your best to hit those macros 40/30/30 every day and hit the gym to try stop losing muscle and tone up what you've got. If it's not happening for you tweak the diet, perhaps 40/35/25 but give it a few weeks first, you'll see results

lufties

TouchingVirus wrote: »

To elaborate my previous point with an example: I pegged you as 25 and pretty much sedentary for this. Your TDEE is ~2000kcal. The amounts will change if I got your age wrong or your activity level - calculators can be found all over the net. Aim for 15-20% lower than TDEE for fat loss and go for a 40%/30%/30% split of Carbs/Protein/Fat to start off. So at 2000 calories that's 800 carbs, 600 protein and 600 fat. At 4kcal per 1g of carbs or protein that's 200g of carbs, 125g of protein. Fat is 9kcal per 1g, so that's 66.7g of fat.

200g/125g/66.7g are your macro goals - now fill them up however you please, with as many meals as you like but try get it all from food and try get protein in every meal. Use MyFitnessPal or something like it to track your consumption and make sure you're meeting the goals. Going a bit over one day and under the next is grand, it all evens out and the body isn't that exact, cravings do feature a bit Pure shakes are good but I treat them as a last resort - as in they are only for people who simply cannot get the amount of protein they need into them with food; either because of time or sheer volume. Take somebody who has already eaten 4 chicken fillets and physically couldn't get a fifth into them. Rather than miss the 30g of protein, they could shake it up guilt free at some point in the day. Something else perhaps for you to consider to make food with the protein powder - bake some oat bars with chocolate protein powder added for chocolate oatbars. Add some protein powder to an oats pancake mix, horse on some scrambled egg for breakfast.

You can find lots of information on sources of protein for vegetarians - it's not as easy to get high protein, low carb sources if you don't eat meat though, but it's manageable. All that matters is you do your best to hit those macros 40/30/30 every day and hit the gym to try stop losing muscle and tone up what you've got. If it's not happening for you tweak the diet, perhaps 40/35/25 but give it a few weeks first, you'll see results

Great post! thanks for the help

I'm 32 years of age and disillusioned about diet plans. I'm actually of athletic build and not fat but i could do with toning here and there. I suppose i'm exploring vegetarianism at the moment more than committing to it. With a hectic schedule it takes a lot of effort I'm finding out.

runawaybishop

lufties wrote: »

My goal is to become vegetarian ultimately, I have been eating some fish lately too so I'm not fully veggie.

Why not eliminate meat?

Because you shouldn't eliminate an entire healthy food group for the fun of it. If you have issues with the ethicality of it then that's fine, but meat isn't bad for you in any way.

Diets that eliminate meat tend to be low in protein, yours looks to fall foul of this. 1 gram a kg is the minimum recommended, not a healthy amount. If you are doing exercise then you'd require more and looking at your diet i doubt you are getting even that much, so keep an eye on it.

To lose weight you need to eat less then you require for maintenance, to tone up you need to exercise. Consider doing resistance/strength work. You want to avoid losing muscle as you drop weight or you end up looking "skinny fat". Track your intake on myfitnesspal.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ <---tdee calc

lufties wrote: »

Great post! thanks for the help

I'm 32 years of age and disillusioned about diet plans. I'm actually of athletic build and not fat but i could do with toning here and there. I suppose i'm exploring vegetarianism at the moment more than committing to it. With a hectic schedule it takes a lot of effort I'm finding out.

You need a strength plan so, would you lift weights in the gym or at home? You can also do bodyweight exercises.

TouchingVirus

lufties wrote: »

Great post! thanks for the help

I'm 32 years of age and disillusioned about diet plans. I'm actually of athletic build and not fat but i could do with toning here and there. I suppose i'm exploring vegetarianism at the moment more than committing to it. With a hectic schedule it takes a lot of effort I'm finding out.

You're very welcome. The thing is, this isn't a diet plan, it's just you finding out exactly what you need to eat every day for your current goal. So really, armed with that knowledge, your only plan is to finish each day at your correct macros. How you achieve that is completely choice - having that Snickers that you want at lunch is what makes adherence much, much easier. There is nothing you simply "can't have". For a lot of people, myself included, this is good news

Do look up strength work though, it's a real fat burner and will whip you into great shape when combined with eating right.

lufties

runawaybishop wrote: »

Because you shouldn't eliminate an entire healthy food group for the fun of it. If you have issues with the ethicality of it then that's fine, but meat isn't bad for you in any way.

Diets that eliminate meat tend to be low in protein, yours looks to fall foul of this. 1 gram a kg is the minimum recommended, not a healthy amount. If you are doing exercise then you'd require more and looking at your diet i doubt you are getting even that much, so keep an eye on it.

To lose weight you need to eat less then you require for maintenance, to tone up you need to exercise. Consider doing resistance/strength work. You want to avoid losing muscle as you drop weight or you end up looking "skinny fat". Track your intake on myfitnesspal.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ <---tdee calc


You need a strength plan so, would you lift weights in the gym or at home? You can also do bodyweight exercises.

Generally at home I'd do push ups, crunches and some light jogging(20 mins or so), nothing major to be honest. In this documentary i referred to, it maintains meat is bad and eating a veggie/vegan diet is much better for you with regard to overall wellness.

I am in a kind of transition period and am moving to London soon, so I can join a gym there and get a proper regime going. I must say though gyms do bore me..was never a fan :eek:

lufties

TouchingVirus wrote: »

You're very welcome. The thing is, this isn't a diet plan, it's just you finding out exactly what you need to eat every day for your current goal. So really, armed with that knowledge, your only plan is to finish each day at your correct macros. How you achieve that is completely choice - having that Snickers that you want at lunch is what makes adherence much, much easier. There is nothing you simply "can't have". For a lot of people, myself included, this is good news

Do look up strength work though, it's a real fat burner and will whip you into great shape when combined with eating right.

Well I enjoy greens and blacks chocolate, and the odd few pints, abstaining from everything naughty is difficult. I'll get that fitness pal app and see if it helps also.

runawaybishop

lufties wrote: »

Generally at home I'd do push ups, crunches and some light jogging(20 mins or so), nothing major to be honest. In this documentary i referred to, it maintains meat is bad and eating a veggie/vegan diet is much better for you with regard to overall wellness.

I am in a kind of transition period and am moving to London soon, so I can join a gym there and get a proper regime going. I must say though gyms do bore me..was never a fan :eek:

A beginner program focusing on compound movements will give you the best bang for your buck. Just doing pushups wont really do a whole lot. Starting strength is recommended often as it is simple and easy to follow and hits all the major movements. It takes 30-60 mins 3 times a week. You can do it at home or a gym, but as you are moving maybe a gym would suit you better - you'll be able to get advice on the lifts.


The documentary you refer to is based on fact manipulation and selects favourable data. Its widely dismissed, see here - http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/09/22/forks-over-knives-is-the-science-legit-a-review-and-critique/

irisheddie85

runawaybishop wrote: »

The documentary you refer to is based on fact manipulation and selects favourable data. Its widely dismissed, see here - http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/09/22/forks-over-knives-is-the-science-legit-a-review-and-critique/

Thanks for this link. I watched this recently on Netflix and was a bit dubious but a couple of friends watched it and are changing their diet because of it. I will definitely be forwarding this on

1inaMILLION

Dont do everything the media says is healthy they get paid to do that I eat everything and am skinny if you want to get healthy and fit go to yoga and ZUMBA and get vitamins they are not as boring as the gym NOW IM GOING TO GET JAFFA CAKES haha and yes I know what hour it is