New to Nutrition... So what makes us fat then??

subscriber

Hi folks,

I have a five year fitness background in running, triathlon and regular gym work. I`m a 26 year old male. I have always maintained my diet as reasonably healthy but have only now really began to properly examine it and want to improve it further. My goal is not necessarily weight loss, i`m at 80 Kg and slim but want to tone up and get that six pack.... so to speak. Ill be realistic don`t worry!!!

I am not looking for any exact diet per say but more a few general rule of thumbs of what to eat, not to eat and hopefully create a list of stuff I can have on a regular basis to vary throughout my diet. I was going to pay a nutritionist for advice but said I would come here first.. Good faith in these forums...

With so much diet advice on the market, it is difficult to know what to cut out. I`m hoping people here with first hand experience can guide me. My diet at the moment looks something like this.

Breakfast: Any combination of:

Fruit and fiber cereal (kelkin brand)
Bananna
Rhy bread or Gluten free bread
Boiled or scrambled eggs
Turkey rashers grilled
Yogurt
Fruit - apple or orange

Lunch -

Mixed salad most days... (cucumber, mushrooms, tomatoes, scallions, either green or red peppers, closeslaw) Mixed with either cold ham or turkey or else hot chicken breast from hot food counter in shop.. Salad comes from home, chicken breast from the deli on the day.

Soup - Either farmhouse vegetable or Thai Red soup
Fruit
Natural confectionery company - sweets
kelkin brand cookie
Nutri grain Elevenses Bar

Dinner:

Either brown pasta, brown rice or regular white potato. Good variation of all throughout week.

Good quality meats from butchers. Sirloin steak, chicken breast wrapped in bacon, Lean mince burgers, Chicken stir fry, lamb stew, beef stew.

Followed by some snack, again, usually kelkin brand cookie.

I suppose this is not an exhaustive list but gives some idea of what my diet is like. Obviously I wouldn`t be eating all of the above at meal time every day. It would be a selection of any two or three within a meal but they would be the foods i would be selecting from.

I also take a protein shake with avonmore protein milk after the gym. I do not drink regularly, only one night in about ten but to be fair, I binge drink wen i do. Both beer and spirits. this needs to stop.. I know.

So really i do not understand what the main thing is that makes us fat? Is it dairy, is it wheat, is it sugar.. Can you help me improve my diet??

Thanks
Subscriber

the groutch

*grabs popcorn*

Bruno26

http://time.com/2988142/you-asked-are-all-calories-created-equal/

subscriber

the groutch wrote: »

*grabs popcorn*

U should not eat popcorn, I heard it makes you fat.

brownej

subscriber wrote: »

Hi folks,

I have a five year fitness background in running, triathlon and regular gym work. I`m a 26 year old male. I have always maintained my diet as reasonably healthy but have only now really began to properly examine it and want to improve it further. My goal is not necessarily weight loss, i`m at 80 Kg and slim but want to tone up and get that six pack.... so to speak. Ill be realistic don`t worry!!!

I am not looking for any exact diet per say but more a few general rule of thumbs of what to eat, not to eat and hopefully create a list of stuff I can have on a regular basis to vary throughout my diet. I was going to pay a nutritionist for advice but said I would come here first.. Good faith in these forums...

With so much diet advice on the market, it is difficult to know what to cut out. I`m hoping people here with first hand experience can guide me. My diet at the moment looks something like this.

Breakfast: Any combination of:

Fruit and fiber cereal (kelkin brand)
Bananna
Rhy bread or Gluten free bread
Boiled or scrambled eggs
Turkey rashers grilled
Yogurt
Fruit - apple or orange

Lunch -

Mixed salad most days... (cucumber, mushrooms, tomatoes, scallions, either green or red peppers, closeslaw) Mixed with either cold ham or turkey or else hot chicken breast from hot food counter in shop.. Salad comes from home, chicken breast from the deli on the day.

Soup - Either farmhouse vegetable or Thai Red soup
Fruit
Natural confectionery company - sweets
kelkin brand cookie
Nutri grain Elevenses Bar

Dinner:

Either brown pasta, brown rice or regular white potato. Good variation of all throughout week.

Good quality meats from butchers. Sirloin steak, chicken breast wrapped in bacon, Lean mince burgers, Chicken stir fry, lamb stew, beef stew.

Followed by some snack, again, usually kelkin brand cookie.

I suppose this is not an exhaustive list but gives some idea of what my diet is like. Obviously I wouldn`t be eating all of the above at meal time every day. It would be a selection of any two or three within a meal but they would be the foods i would be selecting from.

I also take a protein shake with avonmore protein milk after the gym. I do not drink regularly, only one night in about ten but to be fair, I binge drink wen i do. Both beer and spirits. this needs to stop.. I know.

So really i do not understand what the main thing is that makes us fat? Is it dairy, is it wheat, is it sugar.. Can you help me improve my diet??

Thanks
Subscriber

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I'll tackle the obvious stuff from what you posted.

Cookies made it into your list (twice)! If you are looking for unnecessary calories to cut I'd start there. The natural confectionary company sweets while having no artificial flavours they are still just sugar! Sugar is bad!
If you are looking for a replacement snack then try nuts. But obviously don't go overboard as they are calorie dense. I usually go through a bag of mixed nuts in a week!
The best diet you can do is the one you will stick to. Depending on your timeline for your goals then you can make gradual changes to your diet. Start with the obvious. Other stuff to look out for is anything with lots of sugar in it. Don't be afraid of food with fat in it. It's the sugar that makes you fat.

You say you're 80kg and are slim and do lots of tri and running and are looking to "tone up" and for that six pack look? It sounds as if you are probably lacking in muscle mass.
You mention gym work but don't specify what that entails. For your gym work you should do heavy weights. If you don't know what you are doing then get a PT to show you the ropes. Head over to H and F here and there is loads of advice on what to do.
Make sure you do some dedicated core work. I find a good Pilates class once a week to be great. Great for overall flexibility too. You'll have a six pack in no time.

Bruno26

Too many carbohydrates from processed food, sugar and grains make people fat. Nothing else. Full fat dairy does not make people fat- help yourself to butter, cream, cheese etc.

conzy

Bruno26 wrote: »

Too many carbohydrates from processed food, sugar and grains make people fat. Nothing else. Full fat dairy does not make people fat- help yourself to butter, cream, cheese etc.

Ignore this man

Too many calories make people fat.

In a few weeks I'm going to eat nothing but avocados, jars of peanut butter and double cream and gain 1kg a week just to prove you wrong

Bruno26

conzy wrote: »

Ignore this man

Too many calories make people fat.

In a few weeks I'm going to eat nothing but avocados, jars of peanut butter and double cream and gain 1kg a week just to prove you wrong

Ignorant to the full truth about why we get fat.

Too many calories from sugars and grains make people fat. Therefore carbohydrate foods make people fat .

Peanut butter will make you fat . The avocado and cream won't.

mdolly123

Anything processed can't be trusted. The further a food item makes it from its original form to a processed item should be graded like potato - crisps etc.... How does cheese become cheesestrings and how does this still qualify as a dairy product?

conzy

Bruno26 wrote: »

Ignorant to the full truth about why we get fat.

Too many calories from sugars and grains make people fat. Therefore carbohydrate foods make people fat .

Peanut butter will make you fat . The avocado and cream won't.

What about almond butter? Or macadamia butter?

Bruno26

conzy wrote: »

What about almond butter? Or macadamia butter?

Incomparable- not a nut!

whirlpool

If it's made from grain or corn or if it's sugar, it will spike your blood sugar and then rapidly drop your blood sugar, which will cause cravings for more junk foods and therefore lead to increased body fat, will make you tired and will f**k with your hormones.

If it didn't grow out of the ground (i.e. if it was created in a factory), your body won't know what to do with it and will store it as fat.

If it tastes like sugar (e.g. artificial sweeteners) it will keep you craving sweet things, all of which are bad for you one way or another in the long run.

Following those simple rules, you will have to majorly overhaul your diet, but you will lose fat and keep your muscle.

Eat protein to increase your muscle.

A calorie deficit will reduce your weight but not necessarily your fat - a calorie deficit will take from muscle too. So I don't recommend considering calories unless you're obese which you're not.

Bruno26

whirlpool wrote: »

If it's made from grain or corn or if it's sugar, it will spike your blood sugar and then rapidly drop your blood sugar, which will cause cravings for more junk foods and therefore lead to increased body fat, will make you tired and will f**k with your hormones.

If it didn't grow out of the ground (i.e. if it was created in a factory), your body won't know what to do with it and will store it as fat.

If it tastes like sugar (e.g. artificial sweeteners) it will keep you craving sweet things, all of which are bad for you one way or another in the long run.

Following those simple rules, you will have to majorly overhaul your diet, but you will lose fat and keep your muscle.

Eat protein to increase your muscle.

A calorie deficit will reduce your weight but not necessarily your fat - a calorie deficit will take from muscle too. So I don't recommend considering calories unless you're obese which you're not.

Great post

El_Dangeroso

Things that are so tasty that you eat them past the point of not being hungry any more make you fat. Processed foods are always designed to be like this so that's why they are best avoided.

If you always find yourself overeating a food, it's best to not have it in the house, sometimes this can be healthy things. For example, with me I can easily eat 800 cals of rice cakes, plain, I just love the crunch and salt. So I avoid them even though other people couldn't eat more than 4. So it's individual in that way.

We all know the stuff we can't really moderate.

Bruno26

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Things that are so tasty that you eat them past the point of not being hungry any more make you fat. Processed foods are always designed to be like this so that's why they are best avoided.

If you always find yourself overeating a food, it's best to not have it in the house, sometimes this can be healthy things. For example, with me I can easily eat 800 cals of rice cakes, plain, I just love the crunch and salt. So I avoid them even though other people couldn't eat more than 4. So it's individual in that way.

We all know the stuff we can't really moderate.

It's much easier to choose the correct foods to buy / eat than to try to eat certain foods in moderation (counting the calories).

El_Dangeroso

Bruno26 wrote: »

It's much easier to choose the correct foods to buy / eat than to try to eat certain foods in moderation (counting the calories).

Yes, it's easier to eat things than fill you that relying on willpower to stop eating.

Try eating 800 cals of plain potato, most people would struggle. 800 cals of pringles, not so much.