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Advice on my diet please :)
Falhurk
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey folks,
Essentially I'm looking to get into shape, this includes a fair amount of walking, swimming and weight training, plus some rollerblading. However, I know that the fundimental starting point for this kind of change in lifesyle.
My goals are to get from my current shape to something a bit less "pear" shaped. I am about 6 foot 1 and weigh roughly 210-215 pounds (I'll be weighing myself on my first trip to the gym tomorrow). I look kind of like what John did when he first started, though I have a little more body-fat.
To get away from the computer I started swimming, in fact, I've started walking to the swimming pool. This puts me at about an hour and twenty minutes walking and about an hour in the pool. I've also severely been working on my diet and have started to see some real results.
Fortunately, I'm kind of obsessive. I've never been one to be alright with mediocre and as such I want to take this fat-burning idea to the next level, which of course is weight training.
I've yet to come up with a solid game plan on what activities I want to do at the gym (still reading and finding a solid full-body workout for myself). But my goals are to start tomorrow after work (tomorrow being the Monday) and my workout regime and my diet are to be worked out by then. Don't worry though, I've been reading for longer than today.
My goals:
First, to lose fat and slim down. I am overweight and I know it, this will change. Secondly, I'd like to bulk up a bit, get some abs and reasonably sized arms. This coming after the slimming down part. Though, I intend on weight lifting to build muscle which in turn will help me burn fat.
Anyways, the diet I came up with (the one I was hoping you fine folks could review and tear apart) is listed below. I've tried to stick as closely to the 20/40/40 breakdown as possible but I don't have enough fats in my diet and I'm not sure how to add more. Also, is having around 10% fat a bad thing?
The Diet:
5:00 AM: 1 packet of reduced sugar instant quaker oatmeal. 1 glass of Orange Juice. 1 Multivitamin.
8:30 AM: 1 can of tuna, drained
12:00 Noon: Multi-grain Bagel w/ 2tbsp fat-free Strawberry Cream Cheese
3:00 PM: 1 chicken breast, re-heated.
6:00 PM: 1 banana + Protein shake (1.5 servings, after workout)
9:00 PM: Huevos Rancheros Wrap* (Found it in the newest Mens Health magazine) 1 Multivitamin.
11:00 PM: Bedtime
*Huevos Rancheros wrap - Ingredients are 2 eggs, sliced scallions, 1 whole-wheat tortilla, 2tbsp shredded cheese (says reduced-fat Mexican cheese but my grocery store only had kraft which is why my calorie total is higher), 1 tbsp chopped cilantro (which I remove because I dislike it), 2 tbsp salsa.
My diet works out to be 1882 calories, I was shooting for 1900 calories as I'm trying to slim down a fair bit (though I'm not sure if this is too low). It also works out to be roughly 10% fat, 44% carbohydrates, 46% protein. The ratios would be severely different if I could find a way to add a little more fat.
I have purposefully spaced my eating out an additional hour based on my work schedule. I wont be able to work out until at least 5:15-5:30 and would like to eat my banana and protein shake after my workout. Figured I should mention this as it looks a little funky.
(I offer my apologies for the huge post, just wanted to give people a bit more information, I intend on asking for advice in regards to my workout regime in a separate post once I've come up with enough information.)
Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Essentially I'm looking to get into shape, this includes a fair amount of walking, swimming and weight training, plus some rollerblading. However, I know that the fundimental starting point for this kind of change in lifesyle.
My goals are to get from my current shape to something a bit less "pear" shaped. I am about 6 foot 1 and weigh roughly 210-215 pounds (I'll be weighing myself on my first trip to the gym tomorrow). I look kind of like what John did when he first started, though I have a little more body-fat.
To get away from the computer I started swimming, in fact, I've started walking to the swimming pool. This puts me at about an hour and twenty minutes walking and about an hour in the pool. I've also severely been working on my diet and have started to see some real results.
Fortunately, I'm kind of obsessive. I've never been one to be alright with mediocre and as such I want to take this fat-burning idea to the next level, which of course is weight training.
I've yet to come up with a solid game plan on what activities I want to do at the gym (still reading and finding a solid full-body workout for myself). But my goals are to start tomorrow after work (tomorrow being the Monday) and my workout regime and my diet are to be worked out by then. Don't worry though, I've been reading for longer than today.
My goals:
First, to lose fat and slim down. I am overweight and I know it, this will change. Secondly, I'd like to bulk up a bit, get some abs and reasonably sized arms. This coming after the slimming down part. Though, I intend on weight lifting to build muscle which in turn will help me burn fat.
Anyways, the diet I came up with (the one I was hoping you fine folks could review and tear apart) is listed below. I've tried to stick as closely to the 20/40/40 breakdown as possible but I don't have enough fats in my diet and I'm not sure how to add more. Also, is having around 10% fat a bad thing?
The Diet:
5:00 AM: 1 packet of reduced sugar instant quaker oatmeal. 1 glass of Orange Juice. 1 Multivitamin.
8:30 AM: 1 can of tuna, drained
12:00 Noon: Multi-grain Bagel w/ 2tbsp fat-free Strawberry Cream Cheese
3:00 PM: 1 chicken breast, re-heated.
6:00 PM: 1 banana + Protein shake (1.5 servings, after workout)
9:00 PM: Huevos Rancheros Wrap* (Found it in the newest Mens Health magazine) 1 Multivitamin.
11:00 PM: Bedtime
*Huevos Rancheros wrap - Ingredients are 2 eggs, sliced scallions, 1 whole-wheat tortilla, 2tbsp shredded cheese (says reduced-fat Mexican cheese but my grocery store only had kraft which is why my calorie total is higher), 1 tbsp chopped cilantro (which I remove because I dislike it), 2 tbsp salsa.
My diet works out to be 1882 calories, I was shooting for 1900 calories as I'm trying to slim down a fair bit (though I'm not sure if this is too low). It also works out to be roughly 10% fat, 44% carbohydrates, 46% protein. The ratios would be severely different if I could find a way to add a little more fat.
I have purposefully spaced my eating out an additional hour based on my work schedule. I wont be able to work out until at least 5:15-5:30 and would like to eat my banana and protein shake after my workout. Figured I should mention this as it looks a little funky.
(I offer my apologies for the huge post, just wanted to give people a bit more information, I intend on asking for advice in regards to my workout regime in a separate post once I've come up with enough information.)
Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Falhurk on
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As far as exercises for weight lifting, concentrate on whole muscle group exercises like squats, dips, pull ups, dead lifts, bench press, etc if you want to gain mass, and once you reach the strength level you want, you can look into doing specific exercises for shaping later on.
I was kind of worried about the veggies, which is why I put the multi-vitamin in but I'm still thinking it's not enough. I wanted to stay under 2000 calories because it should let me lose around 2.5 pounds/week, roughly anyways. I might have to bump that up though.
In terms of weight-lifting, I'm following a fellows plan (he goes by the name rtestes on the johnstonefitness.com forums) which goes like this:
My weekdays are looking something like this:
1.)Walk 7 kilometers to the pool (about an hour)
2.)Swim 64 lengths (1600 meters/1 mile) (about an hour).
3.)Go to work
4.)Go to the gym, using the listed routine. Either MWF or MTTF.
5.)Rollerblade when the weather doesnt suck so bad (and when I have the energy).
I'd like to change my walk over to a jog but I cant jog for shit quite yet.
Do aerobics concurrently. While it's good to build muscle, you will get worn out with anaerobic if you are in bad shape. A good hour of running is ~700 calories off the top of your diet. That means you can splurge on that extra piece of pizza (to get more protien etc.) and not have to worry. Drink 2 cans of mountain dew and you've almost canceled out your run. So again, AVOID NON DIET.
Drink a gallon of water within 24 hours of lifting weights. Your next lift will be 20% easier, as you will have excess fluids to move around and will have less soreness the next day.
Take vitamin supplements. Just the simple ones, nothing crazy. With less juices and processed foods, you'll have to recoup the loss of vitamins.
I've already cut out fast foods/soda/any bad foods really. The only fruit juice I drink is 250ml (1 cup) of orange juice with my oatemal at breakfast.
I'm working on drinking more water. I realize that this has been a pretty big flaw in what I've been doing, I have a hard time drinking two litres a day but I'm going to force myself to drink at least four (being slightly over a gallon).
I am taking a multi-vitamin suppliment. Though, I think I should probably add in more veggies to get more nutrients.
The only minor concern I had with your diet was the lack of fruit & veg in there. It's easy to not get enough fibre even if you're eating wholemeal breads and similar. Stuff like kiwi tends to be rich in potassium and provided that you eat the skin they're a decent source of fibre. Aside from this it looks pretty solid - keep it up and you'll be seeing some results.
In any case, even just the week of walking/swimming has done loads to make me feel a lot more healthy. This is the next major step.
I will have to figure a way to add in veggies. I have some at home too, just will have to see what sorts of quantities.
The multi-vitamin I take has 100% of my daily Vitamin A, 500% of my vitamin C (I hope thats not an issue) and 2500% of my vitamin B6 (hopefully I piss the excess out).
Is too much bad?
What would be a good way to add more fibre and what does it do?
Fiber helps keep your cholesterol low, and it helps with weight loss (because it makes you feel nice and full). Plus it helps move stuff through your intestines faster with lots of bulk, so that nasty stuff isn't hanging out in there too long, which means that diets high in fiber correspond with a lower risk for colon cancer. Hooray!
Dietary fibre's the part of plant or fungal matter which we as humans lack the ability to digest. An adequate quantity of fibre in the diet has been shown to decrease blood cholesterol levels and reduce the chance you'll have colon cancer later in life. It's very easy to miss out on fibre if you're dieting so it's definitely worth the time to eat a good variety of fruit and vegetables(not forgetting the wholemeal bread and similar you mentioned earlier).
Is there enough calories in my diet based on what I'm trying to accomplish?
I thought the whole point of them was that they had all the stuff you needed in one
Though, I suppose you could take them at the same time. I prefer to take them at two different times.
http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm
Right now the diet is 46% protein, 44% carbs and 10% fat.
Most of what I've been reading has been from johnstonefitness.com and bodybuilding.com. Every single source I've seen has recommended 20% fat, 40% carbs and 40% protein so I'm not entirely sure why you would recommend depleating carbs even more and upping the protein.
Would you, perhaps be able to explain that better?
Not enough fat. Too much carbs.
Are you a bodybuilder? Then why are you going to eat or workout like a bodybuilder.
Let me flip this on you - other than "you heard on the internet", why does your diet contain that ratio? What goal will that help meet?
Optimization of Protein Intake
In the above section, I've indicated that athletes may actually need fewer protein grams per day than the typical sedentary dose of 0.8g/kg. Actually, the Butterfield study suggests an exact number: 0.65g/kg.
In calculating the exact amount of protein they might recommend to maintain nitrogen balance, a 200lb athlete who trains consistently would find that they only need a measly 59g of protein to prevent nitrogen losses and protein malnutrition.
So, for those of you who staunchly believe that you're only required to eat enough protein to meet your needs,go right ahead and reduce your protein intake from 2.0g/kg to 0.65g/kg. In the meantime, I'll be encouraging everyone else to actually increase his or her protein intake beyond the current 2.0g/kg recommendation.
If this recommendation seems excessive, it's because you have a narrow view of how protein fits into one's dietary strategy. You're looking at protein in the same narrow way that people used to look at vitamin C; essential at a specific dose but conferring no additional benefits with a higher intake.
With vitamin C, we all know it's important to consume enough of it (at least 10mg/day) to prevent scurvy. However, it's also commonly known there are a host of health benefits associated with much higher doses (200mg/day or more) including a reduced risk of cancer, increased HDL cholesterol, reduced risk of coronary artery disease, and a reduced duration of cold episodes and severity of symptoms.
Like vitamin C, instead of thinking of protein as a macronutrient that provides no benefit beyond preventing protein deficiency, we need to recognize the benefits of eating protein (at any dose).
Increased Thermic Effect of Feeding — While all macronutrients require metabolic processing for digestion, absorption, and storage or oxidation, the thermic effect of protein is roughly double that of carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, eating protein is actually thermogenic and can lead to a higher metabolic rate. This means greater fat loss when dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding.
Increased Glucagon — Protein consumption increases plasma concentrations of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is responsible for antagonizing the effects of insulin in adipose tissue, leading to greater fat mobilization. In addition, glucagon also decreases the amounts and activities of the enzymes responsible for making and storing fat in adipose and liver cells. Again, this leads to greater fat loss during dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding.
Increased IGF-1 — Protein and amino-acid supplementation has been shown to increase the IGF-1 response to both exercise and feeding. Since IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone that's related to muscle growth, another advantage associated with consuming more protein is more muscle growth when overfeeding and/or muscle sparing when dieting.
Reduction in Cardiovascular Risk — Several studies have shown that increasing the percentage of protein in the diet (from 11% to 23%) while decreasing the percentage of carbohydrate (from 63% to 48%) lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations with concomitant increases in HDL cholesterol concentrations.
Improved Weight-Loss Profile — Brand spankin' new research by Layman and colleagues has demonstrated that reducing the carbohydrate ratio from 3.5 - 1 to 1.4 - 1 increases body fat loss, spares muscle mass, reduces triglyceride concentrations, improves satiety, and improves blood glucose management (Layman et al 2003 — If you're at all interested in protein intake, you've gotta go read the January and February issues of the Journal of Nutrition. Layman has three interesting articles in the two journals).
Increased Protein Turnover — As I've discussed before in my article Precision Nutrition, all tissues of the body, including muscle, go through a regular program of turnover. Since the balance between protein breakdown and protein synthesis governs muscle protein turnover, you need to increase your protein turnover rates in order to best improve your muscle quality. A high protein diet does just this. By increasing both protein synthesis and protein breakdown, a high protein diet helps you get rid of the old muscle more quickly and build up new, more functional muscle to take its place.
Increased Nitrogen Status — Earlier I indicated that a positive nitrogen status means that more protein is entering the body than is leaving the body. High protein diets cause a strong positive protein status and when this increased protein availability is coupled with an exercise program that increases the body's anabolic efficiency, the growth process may be accelerated.
Increased Provision of Auxiliary Nutrients — Although the benefits mentioned above have related specifically to protein and amino acids, it's important to recognize that we don't just eat protein and amino acids — we eat food. Therefore, high protein diets often provide auxiliary nutrients that could enhance performance and/or muscle growth. These nutrients include creatine, branched chain amino acids, conjugated linoleic acids, and/or additional nutrients that are important but remain to be discovered. This illustrates the need to get most of your protein from food, rather than supplements alone.
Looking over this list of benefits, isn't it clear that getting lots of protein would be advantageous to anyone's training goals? Since a high protein diet can lead to a better health profile, an increased metabolism, improved body composition, and an improved training response, why would anyone ever try to limit their protein intake to the bare minimum necessary to stave off malnutrition?
It seems to me that whether someone's on a hypoenergetic diet or a hyperenergetic diet, the one macronutrient they would want to be sure to overeat would be protein. Instead, their protein prejudice often leads most trainees to look for what they consider the bare minimum of protein, and then overeat carbohydrates and fats instead. That's a big performance and body composition mistake.
I have yet to meet a healthy man or woman that couldn't use more protein in his or her diet. It's high time we drop our prejudiced attitude toward protein and start giving it the respect it deserves.
Now get outta my lab — I've got work to do and you've gotta go eat some protein.
1.) I would have to agree that there isnt enough fat in my diet.
2+3.) I am interested in eating and working out like a body builder because the results I am looking for falls directly in line with what they recieve. My diet contains this ratio (or at least close to, minus the fats) based on my goals.
Now, I realize you may be a big fan of this John Beradi guy (and he may have some good information, I'll have to review) but to dismiss both johnstonefitness.com and bodybuilding.com because "You're not a bodybuilder" seems foolish. At the very least, it would be wise to look at the sources.
In any case. I appreciate that you've taken the time to give me a bit of information (and be assured, I'll read what's on http://www.johnberardi.com) however, taking down extreme amounts of protein isnt something I'd be willing to try quite yet. Especially considering articles such as http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50900.
"Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat."
If you have the discipline to mix that food selection with zone type ratios and timing and you do a few intense weight sessions a week and you get plenty of sleep and lay off the booze you will lean out in no time. If you want to gain muscle bodybuilding style then I'd recommend the bodybuilding sites (t-nation, berardi). Although remember: if you are young, healthy, and untrained, everything works. In my personal (fat lazy out of shape armchair) opinion, you can't go wrong just drinking the crossfit koolaid for a few months and seeing where it takes you.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Tweaking it slightly, unless you are working out every day it's best to shift the wrap to six or 7 and push the protein back a bit before you go to bed. Also while you should eat more fruit and what not (don't count this as a replacement) try swapping your OJ for some V8 juice for extra fibre keep in my from memory they have a few more calories than OJ as well.
In terms of water, drinking four liters a day is easy, I drink a liter before I go to work. My fridge has about 5 gatorade bottles in there just in the fridge (remember to clean them about once a month) that I just drink fill and replace, grab yourself a bottle as soon as you wake up (I usually have about half a one from drinking it at night) finish half of and go have your shower, then drink the rest before you go to work.
Not 200 mm from my hand lies a water bottle which I drink from constantly, as soon as it is empty I'm up to refill it (and usually up to piss about then too) it is not hard to drink plenty of water during your day.
EDIT: hangon, you are getting 6 hours of sleep a day? Screw that you need at least 8 for your body to rest and recover, go to bed earlier as well.
Satans..... hints.....
Berardi is the shit. If you spend any time on t-nation or other big sites you'll see refrences to his work. His full program _precision nutrition_ is just gold. Sign up to browse the forums at http://www.precisionnutrition.com/ and see for yourself. Everyone lurking should do that too. knowledge = power.
1) Cool - make sure you get good animal fat and lots of omega 3's. Fish oil suppliments are good if you don't get enough in your diet and are pretty cheap.
2) I'm not discounting them, i love the BB strongman forum, it just that doing the same routine as a compitition level bodybuilder isn't condusive to your fitness goals yet. You're not at 10% bodyfat trying to get to 4 or 5%. You're a typical out of shape guy that's making a change to be slimmer and healthier. Yeah, eventually you can have the 8 pack and whatever if you work hard. But start from where you are.
3) I also would change your workout. :P Stay off the machines and stick to big compound exersises. Squat*, deadlift, overhead press. DB or BB, just not machines. Google for the book "starting strength" or search "rippetoe" on BB.com because the 5x5 is awesome.
* = awesome squat seminar vid via PN forums that will get your form right! http://thefitcast.com/?p=108
No matter what, document EVERYTHING. that way you can see what works for you. And good luck man. Keep up the intensity and you'll get there!
http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/protein_debate.htm
http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/dear.htm
yeah yeah I'm a berardi nuthugger. But despite looking like an emo goofball, dude know his stuff.
http://www.johnberardi.com/about/jb.htm
I mis-read you and I apologise
I've got a fair amount more reading to go but it seems that I've got to change the diet. Basically what I'm going to do is change things so that they:
1.) Incorporate a bit more calories, around 2200 should be alright and I should lose fat.
2.) Add more veggies.
3.) Add more fat
4.) Possibly change around what I'm eating at certain times. As in, I should eat more at breakfast but less in the afternoon/evening.
More advice is defeantly appreciated.
Keep doing it that way. There are at least some nutrients that your body can only absorb so much of at a time. (Calcium is the one that I have been told works that way by a dietitian, I doubt it's the only one) Spreading your intake out over the course of the day is much better than taking it all at once (also probably part of why getting your nutrients from food is better than getting them from vitamins) since anything past what your body can use is essentially wasted.
If you want to add some variety into your diet you might incorporate some Barilla Plus multigrain pasta (yellow box)
I dig penne style pasta but whatever floats your boat.
about 1 uncooked cup of it has 17g protein, 3g fat, 360mg Omega-3, and 7g fiber.
Easy to cook and fast, then instead of a spaghetti sauce hit up their site (on the bottom back of the box) for some recipe ideas. Also there is ONE on the back of the box that basically is the pasta and some veggies sauted in extra virgin olive oil like asparagus, onion, tomato and squash. then it also has some salt & pepper and basil incorporated in the recipe. Sounds good. I've yet to try that particular recipe though.
It's a full healthy badass meal in a bowl.
Another thing I eat is a turkey wrap in a whole wheat tortilla with turkey lunch meat, tomato, onion, lettuce, black olives, and mustard.
edit: oh and as for the multivitamin thing.. yeah take it twice a day like it suggests. I myself go with 1 flintstones complete a day.
and if anything above is incorrect and isn't good to eat than someone please chime in, I'm a spanking new novice at this healthy eating.
That actually sounds sooooooooo good.
But, this is day two of this diet, I'm going to be changing it up a bit at the end of the week (as I want to make it a week on this, to see how I feel about it).
The interesting thing is that it's about 15 minutes to my 9:00 meal but I'm not hungry at all. I'm curious as to if I should skip it or if I should just stick to the diet? Maybe I should just have a glass of milk or something.. I don't know.
I'm going to sleep between 9:30-10:00 now. Gives me about 7-7.5 hours sleep
I just posted a pretty long and general post about fitness in the fitness thread if you wanted to browse it and pull some of the point out to help.
And yeah the turkey wrap is really good. I sometimes splurge and use a bit of ranch (not tons) instead of mustard and it is 1000 times better (to me). But since I do cardio every day and I have to make sure and eat ENOUGH fat calories a day, it can help (just don't go near trans fat).
I'll check up on the thread, should be on the latest page, I hope.