How good / bad is this for a daily diet?

BenEadir

46 year old 183cm 98KG male here.

I used to run 3-4 times a week and do 5k and 10k fun runs but my knee collapsed suddenly in April and long story short is I'm just off crutches having had an operation in August. The prognosis is that my running days are over as my knee has a lot of wear on the bones (similar to arthritis) and the cartilage is worn so thin that I'm walking (painfully) bone on bone.

Prior to April I was 90KG. I need to be 85KG as I have high blood pressure but I could never seem to get below 90KG for any sustainable period.

Thankfully I have a full range of motion in my knee so I'm now able to start getting back to the gym and use non impact equipment such as the elliptical cross trainer, the stationary bike and the rowing machine but I don't expect these alone will get me back towards 90KG which means I need to really focus on establishing a sustainable long term diet which will help rather than hinder.

Some things I like:-
Eggs - love them every which way and eat a lot of them.
Meat - love it.
Fish - OK but probably don't eat enough of it.
Carrots - love them raw.
Corn on the cob - love it with butter and ground black pepper
Butter - love it on bread with jam/marmalade
Beer - love a few bottles of IPA. Don't drink anywhere near as much as I did years ago but still probably drink 12 500ml bottles a week i.e. 4 Friday night, 4 Saturday night and 4 Sunday afternoon/evening if we have a family dinner/BBQ.
Breakfast smoothies in summer i..e frozen berries + spinach or kale + water or apple juice + ice + a banana.

Things I don't like:-
Cooked vegetables
Celery
Aubergines

So with all the above in mind I'm thinking of having the following and variations of same as my generic weekday diet:-

Breakfast:
Overnight oats (oats + spoon of honey + flaked almonds + skimmed milk)
Two poached eggs on one slice of multi grain bread with butter and marmite (sounds sick but you should try it!!)
Cup of tea with skimmed milk and no sugar (gave sugar up in May when I realised I wouldn't be exercising for a while)

Lunch:
Grilled lamb chops (454G frozen from Aldi) with a small amount of mint jelly and a cup of tea.

or

Toasted bacon and cheese sandwich on two slices of multi grain bread with a cup of tea.

or

A tuna and mayo sandwich on multi grain bread.


Dinner:
Because I'll be having a decent breakfast and lunch (I normally skip one or the other) I'll have a much smaller dinner which can vay depending on what the family are having.

Breakfast and lunch are 100% within my control and the portion I eat for dinner is 100% within my control albeit what's cooked isn't but it's usually pretty good stuff. We never do frozen dinners or pizza or crap like that although one every two weeks or so we'll decide to have a chipper dinner i.e. southern fried chicken and chips.

So, is there hope for me with the above diet or do I need to completely tear down my food habits and start from scratch?

Confession: I make pancakes for the kids on Saturday mornings. It's a treat for them with Nutella etc but it's also become a treat for me as I end up having the following:-

Two freshly made pancakes with a good amount of maple syrup on them + a 250g pack of streaky bacon grilled until it's crisp + two fried eggs over easy and a cup of tea.

Go easy on me!!

Alf Veedersane

It would probably be useful to start quantifying what you're eating with a small digital scales. It's not something you will need to engage in long term because after a while you'll be able to judge by eye how much is in what you're eating.

next is to get onto MyFitnessPal and log what you're eating. Again, it can be a short term thing as you can pick up pretty quickly what's in what you're eating.

This helps shape what you do.

Yeah, you could tidy up what you're getting into you now but first you need to be able to appreciate whether or not you're having too much or just enough as it is.


What would a typical dinner be? You gave the types of breakfast and lunch but nothing for dinner.

coffee_cake

Depending on calorie needs and intake the nutrition looks fine ... but you really need to get over the veg thing. What ways have you tried cooking it? Have you tried any of the frozen "stir fry" mixed veg bags? They can be reaaaaally nice stirfried or oven roasted with spices.

I would also suggest tracking the food on myfitnesspal to get an idea of the intake, you don't have to do it forever but until you start getting a feel for what is how many calories and if you need to adjust down
Alf usually links to a good calorie calculator, I don't remember the name of it

Alf Veedersane

I meant to add about the veg. They've probably always been boiled to just short of the point where they nebulised.

Veg are great for filling you up without a big calorie count.

Alf Veedersane

bluewolf wrote: »

Alf usually links to a good calorie calculator, I don't remember the name of it

This is it.

Plug in the numbers and it gives you an idea of what you need to be eating for fat loss/maintenance/gainz.

BenEadir

Dinners vary, thank God.

Tonight we're having a fish pie.

Other frequent weekday dinners would be a chicken and chorizo bake with cous cous, irish stew (well this time of year anyway), pad thai, spag bol, that sort of stuff.

Weekend dinners would be BBQ'd rib eye steaks with pasta and a salad or home made buffalo wings with home made blue cheese sauce on Friday/Satrudays and a roast lamb with roast spuds, yorkies and steamed broccoli and carrots on a Sunday.

MyFitnessPal looks very interesting. I love data so actually measuring what I eat in terms of calories Vs a daily target might work for someone like me.

Putting 12 beers a week into MyFitnessPal might not be such fun through!!

Alf Veedersane

Based on those breakfast and lunch choices, the portions of dinner are possibly a little big. They may be just fine but it's just an idea.

You'll have a better idea when you start plugging in the numbers.

BenEadir

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

This is it.

Plug in the numbers and it gives you an idea of what you need to be eating for fat loss/maintenance/gainz.

Well that was illuminating.

MyFitnessPal being downloaded as I type!!

Alf Veedersane

Just as a caveat, you can pretty much ignore the part of MFP that calculates calories burned. It's pretty poor.

Just use the food tracking part.

BenEadir

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Just as a caveat, you can pretty much ignore the part of MFP that calculates calories burned. It's pretty poor.

Just use the food tracking part.

Does that mean that the calories I "earn" in the gym can't be added to the daily allowance and still hit the target? That's a feature which I think I'd quickly find motivates me to get the gym work done i.e. if I can do an extra XXX in the gym it means I'll have a little leeway for some beer or some other treat.

Alf Veedersane

BenEadir wrote: »

Does that mean that the calories I "earn" in the gym can't be added to the daily allowance and still hit the target? That's a feature which I think I'd quickly find motivates me to get the gym work done i.e. if I can do an extra XXX in the gym it means I'll have a little leeway for some beer or some other treat.

The calories burned as per MFP tend to be an overestimation. I'd be inclined to divide them by at least 3 if I was going to use them.

The two easiest things in the world to do are overestimate the calories you've burned and underestimate what you've eaten.

Daemonic

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The calories burned as per MFP tend to be an overestimation. I'd be inclined to divide them by at least 3 if I was going to use them.

The two easiest things in the world to do are overestimate the calories you've burned and underestimate what you've eaten.

And I thought I was keeping things 'honest' halving the MFP calories burned

coffee_cake

I ignore the calories burned entirely and just put in exercise x times/week in the scoobyworkshop calculator

Alf Veedersane

Daemonic wrote: »

And I thought I was keeping things 'honest' halving the MFP calories burned

Depends. I never really used it but I remember dividing calories burned during squash by 3. Just to be on the safe side

Daemonic

Checked my exercise on the Scooby calculator and my guesstimates were pretty accurate
So it seems half or less of the MFP number is closer to the truth.

Bruno26

A good start would be reducing the amount of beer. Try drinking only two instead of four.

BenEadir

Bruno26 wrote: »

A good start would be reducing the amount of beer. Try drinking only two instead of four.

Ah come on, two beers wouldn't fill a hole in your tooth!!! :P

BenEadir

Daemonic wrote: »

Checked my exercise on the Scooby calculator and my guesstimates were pretty accurate
So it seems half or less of the MFP number is closer to the truth.

How can MFP get it so wrong and why can't they correct it?

Alf Veedersane

It will always be an estimate. Calories burned is a very individual thing and even a heart rate monitor is an estimate.

Diet is more important anyway so concentrate on fixing that rather than the calories you might or might not burn.

Bruno26

BenEadir wrote: »

Ah come on, two beers wouldn't fill a hole in your tooth!!! :P

Yes but if op wants to change they should drink less. Should be fairly handy to consume 2 instead of 4 or switch to spirits and water or slim mixers.

BenEadir

Bruno26 wrote: »

Yes but if op wants to change they should drink less. Should be fairly handy to consume 2 instead of 4 or switch to spirits and water or slim mixers.

I know you are right and I guess I'll have to give it a go, but I do love my beer.

Given it's a Friday and I should be picking up some beer for the weekend I'm going to try changing to the following:-

2 really nice beers tonight and if I want to drink a bit more I'll have a whiskey and ice.

Same tomorrow night.

Sunday I'll share a bottle of red wine at dinner with my wife and have no beer.

I'll report back on Monday.

jjC123

Your meal plan seems pretty good in theory, but only if you maintain good portion control. Weigh any foods like pasta or rice because people often eat double/triple portions of these and count it as one. A few beers is okay but 12 is perhaps a little excessive? Maybe keep your four on a Saturday, but just have a whiskey on a Friday evening and Sunday afternoon?

If you really dont like cooked vegetables I'd recommend keeping a bowl of chopped carrots or chopped fruit in the fridge. It will stop you snacking on unhealthy foods between meals and provide you with essential nutrients that you might miss out on if you dont eat veg with dinner.

As for exercise, I recommend learning proper form for the rowing machine (worth it because it is an unbelievable training tool when used correctly). Concept 2 provide great training plans and there are indoor rowing competitions around the country with different age categories if you'd lie to get competitive in a sport again. Boards won't let me post the link to the Concept 2 website but check it out, its great (concept2 . com)

Good Luck!

BenEadir

Thanks jjC123,

I used to row a bit years ago so I think I've got reasonable technique. For some reason I've always found gym rowing very boring even though I don't (or didn't) find the treadmill as boring, a bit silly I know. Anyway, given I can't use the treadmill any more I'm just going to have to move on and rowing is indeed something I can do more of and the idea of setting some goals for myself in terms of distance rowed for X time or rowing at Y resistance for Z minutes is something which will help me focus.

Friday night has to remain beer night, it just confirms that the work week is over and the weekend is here.

I've a few more posts than you so here's the Concept2 rowing technique video

Alf Veedersane

You could always mix it up. In the unlikely event I have an hour of cardio to do, I'd consider half an hour on the bike and hald an hour rowing. An hour doing the one type of cardio in the gym can be boring.

And your hole would be in a sling if you were on a Concept 2 for an hour.

BenEadir

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

And your hole would be in a sling if you were on a Concept 2 for an hour.

Try sitting on one of these for a few hours and the seat of a Concept2 will feel like a big comfy sofa




Back on topic I generally have 45 minutes 4 times a week to exercise so I'm open to suggestions as to how I can get the max calorie burn given I can't do anything which involves impact on my knee. Would 15 minutes on the elliptical trainer + 15 minutes on the stationary bike + 15 minutes on the rower be a good starting point?

I also feel like I should do some weight to help strengthen my left leg in particular. I can get some advice from my surgeon before trying any weights but assuming he gives me the all clear and should I incorporate weights into my routine or should I just stick with the Cardio for initial weight loss?

Alf Veedersane

BenEadir wrote: »

Back on topic I generally have 45 minutes 4 times a week to exercise so I'm open to suggestions as to how I can get the max calorie burn given I can't do anything which involves impact on my knee. Would 15 minutes on the elliptical trainer + 15 minutes on the stationary bike + 15 minutes on the rower be a good starting point?

I also feel like I should do some weight to help strengthen my left leg in particular. I can get some advice from my surgeon before trying any weights but assuming he gives me the all clear and should I incorporate weights into my routine or should I just stick with the Cardio for initial weight loss?

Weights are arguably better than cardio because of the effect on your metabolism but it depends on what you do, e.g. the effort you put in etc. But a combination of cardio and weights will be pretty good.

Single-leg stuff like lunges and split squats would be good for levelling out imbalances in leg strength.

Definitely found that from doing split squats.