diet help

[milketc]

At the moment trying to lose a bit of fat whilst maintaining muscle

breakfast
- 4 vitabrits + 1/2 banana + milk
- 2-3 boiled eggs

morning tea:
- 1 apple
- 1 coffee with milk

lunch:
- 300-400g chicken breast
- 1 avocado

afternoon snack
- 1-2 boiled eggs
- 100g yoghurt
- maybe another apple

dinner:
- 300-400g chicken breast
- steamed brocolli + cauliflower

pre-bed:
131ml of milk

workout days:
everything the same except:

afternoon snack:
4 vitabritz + 1/2 banana + milk

* workout *

dinner:
300g chicken, ~0.6cups of rice, pataks butter chicken
3 vitabritz + milk

I had a spreadsheet which calculates the exact amount of macronutrients/calories but my excel decided to be broken just now and i cant open it. I feel that its quite a lazy diet but i cbf fairly hard working 8-5 mon-fri. I also feel that perhaps i shouldnt be eating so much avocado, but its sort of the only easy thing I can think of to go with my chicken breast thats reasonably healthy and tastes good. The chicken is always cooked with nando's marinade, surely the additional calories would be fairly insignificant? i find that most of it just ends up on the frying pan anyway :/.

exercise:
weights Sun/Tues/Thurs
swimming Sat

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KungFooGoo]

If you gave people more information they should be able to chime in.

Need height, weight, what you do on workout days, how long you've been training. Someone should hopefully be able to point you in the right direct after that. There are a few stickies on diet so reading those would be a good idea as well.

 

[milketc]

height: 178cm
weight: 72.5kg
body fat % based on scales varies from 15-18%
been lifting for 2 years on and off due to injuries/holidays/etc, as such have barely made any progress in that duration. Want to get to more like 10-12% body fat, didnt used to be so fat... tried GOMAD when i first started lifting along with starting strength but i ended up just gaining fat without the strength gains (Y)

current lifts approx:
bench: 3x6x80kg
squat: 3x8x80kg
dead: 3x5x95kg

I have had a look at all of the diet sticky's, i tried out the 2200cal plan for a while but it gave me the shits as i felt like i was constantly preparing meals for the entire day with all the salads and strawberries/yoghurt and rockmelon etc.

I did try intermittent fasting for a few weeks, although i felt that I was always starving from about 9:30-1pm and I didnt enjoy trying to stuff myself relentlessly full of food every night, Also, I like having breakfast.

 

[Fadi]

height: 178cm
weight: 72.5kg
body fat % based on scales varies from 15-18%
been lifting for 2 years on and off due to injuries/holidays/etc, as such have barely made any progress in that duration.

I think you've answered your own question regarding losing some fat mass. You hardly weigh anything, so body recompositioning would be the order of the day instead of losing weight. As far as you are concerned (and based on the information you've provided) I believe the answer to your need/want is, in a word: CONSISTANCY. Okay, I'll make that three words: CONSISTANCY OF EFFORT.

Let’s Lose Some Fat Mass…

Lose Fat / Maintain Muscle

Beginners; Look Here!

Cardio and Weights

Overweight? Not a problem

Yes I know, I didn't say anything about "diet", and that's because food is one of the pleasures of life, and I won't be depriving you nor would I be dictating to you what you should and should not eat, except to say, enjoy your food, and don't rush when eating it. It deserves your full attention in order for you to derive the most pleasure out of it. Everyone knows what food (real food) is, and you my good Sir, are no exception.


Fadi.

 

[MaxBrenner]

height: 178cm
weight: 72.5kg
body fat % based on scales varies from 15-18%
been lifting for 2 years on and off due to injuries/holidays/etc, as such have barely made any progress in that duration. Want to get to more like 10-12% body fat, didnt used to be so fat... tried GOMAD when i first started lifting along with starting strength but i ended up just gaining fat without the strength gains (Y)

current lifts approx:
bench: 3x6x80kg
squat: 3x8x80kg
dead: 3x5x95kg

I have had a look at all of the diet sticky's, i tried out the 2200cal plan for a while but it gave me the shits as i felt like i was constantly preparing meals for the entire day with all the salads and strawberries/yoghurt and rockmelon etc.

I did try intermittent fasting for a few weeks, although i felt that I was always starving from about 9:30-1pm and I didnt enjoy trying to stuff myself relentlessly full of food every night, Also, I like having breakfast.

Will answer tomorrow when I've got more time

 

[MaxBrenner]

OP, here we go and sorry for the delay.

You can maintain muscle while dropping fat as long as your consume adequate protein (2g/kg bodyweight) and do adequate weight training, ensuring that you are still progressively overloading.

At first glance at that daily intake, your protein intake could be increased and not purely from a muscle maintenance point of view.

Dropping bodyfat is simply being in a calorie deficit. Nothing more and nothing less.

Having a large calorie deficit (greater than 20-25%) can be detrimental to both maintaining muscle and training performance.

Cardio is beneficial if total caloric intake is becoming extremely low and therefore is leading to nutritional deficiencies (macronutrients and micronutrients) which then lead to a downgrade in hormonal function and overall satiety with food intake. So unless you need to eat more, doing cardio offers very little benefit.

Also hunger and appetite level is determined by habitual eating patterns and frequency. It can be adjusted over time. With that said eat when hungry, eat to what fits your schedule and preference. With that said, having breakfast or 6 meals a day offers no metabolic advantages nor does any meal or nutrient frequency.

Food types are again of personal preference. Our bodies only 'see' nutrients not food types or names. Food avoidance should be avoided as all foods can be had if used appropriately to meet calorie and macronutrient requirements.

It does not need to be complicated. Chances are if it is, there is something wrong and unnecessary micromanagement and bro-protocols are in place.

 

[dave]

Here is an easy method Mike.

Make sure you get at least 2g per kg of protein per day no matter what. From there make sure you hit your calories however you want. If you eat meat you will make your minimum fat levels easily and therefore your carb levels won't be that high. Maxie boy set out the main calorie deficit points in his post.

This method makes it easy to hit your calorie limit and protein levels and keep to it. Make sure you add veggies and fibrous foods to your diet as I know you will. Vary your foods as you need/want.

Supplement wise take a multi vitamin and some fish oil each day and if you are poor veggie eater maybe a greens powder. Other than that you don't need anything or any special food.

 

[milketc]

Ok... so here's an estimate of my food intake from the last week

cals -- fat -- carbs -- protein
2600 -- 51.03 -- 355.85 -- 253.77 workout day
1773 -- 51.325 -- 111.675 -- 202.35
1595.5 -- 53.15 -- 115.75 -- 154.65
2708.51 -- 26.294 -- 372.04 -- 212.31 workout day
1732.15 -- 45.438 -- 136.55 -- 192.85 30min swim
2344.56 -- 41.666 -- 265.07 -- 207.382 workout day
1913.52 -- 37.431 -- 176.025 -- 205.53
2714.82 -- 53.984 -- 286.09 -- 238.722 workout day

Intake is likely to be slightly higher than what i've recorded as i've ignored all ingredients from the salads except for tomato/avocado and ignored the balsamic vinegar i put on the salad and the nandos marinade i put on the chicken.

I've been eating like this for the last 4-6 weeks, haven't lost any weight and haven't gained any strength.... thoughts?

- rarely swim, try and workout every 2nd day.
- rarely drink alcohol (usually once every 2 weeks)
- frustrated, might as well have been eating shit and getting pissed this whole time, would have had the same effect.

food intake is similar to my initial post, although i've been having salads instead of the whole avocado for lunch.Thinking of just cutting calories more and focusing on losing fat or increasing calories to ~3000 every day to focus on gaining muscle.

 

[dave]

Since I canter be fucked. Total up your calories for the week and compare that to a 500 cal per day deficit and see if it still computes.

 

[jchen]

Perhaps be MORE consistent EVERY day.

Know EXACTLY what you need to eat in order to be at a deficit.

 

[milketc]

Since I canter be fucked. Total up your calories for the week and compare that to a 500 cal per day deficit and see if it still computes.

Works out to be 2172cals per day on average. I'd probably add 100-200 per day due to inaccuracy.... So 2372 which is probably maintenance for me, Fml. its bullshit that there's no benefit from eating maintenance calories of healthy food!

 

[dave]

Works out to be 2172cals per day on average. I'd probably add 100-200 per day due to inaccuracy.... So 2372 which is probably maintenance for me, Fml. its bullshit that there's no benefit from eating maintenance calories of healthy food!

Health and Body Composition are two different things. You eat healthy to be healthy, you don't eat too much so you don't get too fat.

What do you do for a job. 2300 is my BMR (plus a little extra) then due to my job and activity levels I am sitting at 3000-3500. Now given I am bigger than you and therefore I don't expect yours to be the same you may expend a bit more than that due to your activity at work.

Also my advice would be to add in some good hard and fast walking if you have the time. It is easy to do and does not eat into your recovery like other forms of "cardio". Incline or hill walking is always best. If you don't have time try adding in a little harder work twice a day for 15 minutes. It is either that or eat less food (10-20% below maintenance).

exrx.net has a good BMR and basic calorie expenditure you can use to give a rough estimate of what you are likely expending each day due to life.

 

[milketc]

Health and Body Composition are two different things. You eat healthy to be healthy, you don't eat too much so you don't get too fat.

What do you do for a job. 2300 is my BMR (plus a little extra) then due to my job and activity levels I am sitting at 3000-3500. Now given I am bigger than you and therefore I don't expect yours to be the same you may expend a bit more than that due to your activity at work.

Also my advice would be to add in some good hard and fast walking if you have the time. It is easy to do and does not eat into your recovery like other forms of "cardio". Incline or hill walking is always best. If you don't have time try adding in a little harder work twice a day for 15 minutes. It is either that or eat less food (10-20% below maintenance).

exrx.net has a good BMR and basic calorie expenditure you can use to give a rough estimate of what you are likely expending each day due to life.

I work in an office environment, I used the calorie requirements calculator on exrx.net...

Based on height:
BMR = 1805cals
Activity = 752cals
total = 2557 cals

If I use bf% based off bf% scales (varies between 15.5-17.5%) its a total of 2364cals.

 

[dave]

I work in an office environment, I used the calorie requirements calculator on exrx.net...

Based on height:
BMR = 1805cals
Activity = 752cals
total = 2557 cals

If I use bf% based off bf% scales (varies between 15.5-17.5%) its a total of 2364cals.

Good start. Say 2400 cause I am lazy. You are looking at either a 1900 intake each day or varying that but keeping an average of 1900 per day for the week. You could also instead increase your energy expenditure from 250-500 calories and then eat more. That could take you either 15-30 minutes of hard intense exercise or and 45-90 minutes of walking (throughout the day). Choose one or the other for manipulating your calories.

For days you can't burn more cals you just eat less. Keep protein at 2g per kg of BW and the rest of your cals can come from whatever (assuming you intake a fair bit of fat with your meat otherwise a minimum of 0.4g per kg). Eat however helps you keep your calories in check. Health side of things is your own choice but getting in enough micronutrients, phytonutrients and fibre will make you feel better overall.

 

[milketc]

After another couple of months of minimal gains I've been trying some intermittent fasting without much success... so decided to put together an exact meal plan to follow every day, as up until now i've just been eating anything and putting it into my macro/calories spreadsheet that i made and have been attempting to get roughly 2100cals on rest days and 3100 cals on workout days.. although ive been increasing it a bit over the last couple of weeks and seem to have just gained some fat instead of any strength sigh. the diet is possibly lacking in fruit/vegetables...


REST DAY
Lunch 2:00pm
300g chicken
0.7cups dry rice
200g yoghurt

Afternoon snack 4:30pm
50g of cashews
4 vitabrits + 1 banana + milk

Dinner 7:30pm
3 cans of tuna drained
1 avocado + salad (cucumber/tomato/lettuce/balsamic vinegar)
500mL low fat milk

calories fat carbs protein
2447.9 126.81 252.15 182.525

WORKOUT DAY
Pre-workout 12:00pm
2 scoops of protein powder in water

Post workout 2:00pm
300g chicken
0.7 cups dry rice
200g yoghurt
6 vitabrits + 1 banana + milk

Dinner 8pm
400g steak
300g sweet potato + cauliflower + broccoli steamed
500mL light milk
100g low fat ice cream

calories fat carbs protein
3157.5 61.81 334.5 279.94


Workout A:
3x10 Barbell squats (80kg)
3x8 barbell bench press (80kg)
1x5 deadlift (100kg)
3x8 dumbbell rows (30kg)

Workout B:
3x10 Barbell squats (80kg)
3x8 military press (50kg)
3x8 barbell rows (60kg)
3x8 lat pulldown (50kg)

I try to go to the gym every 2nd day, was hoping to gain strength/muscle whilst losing some fat like other people claim using IF but im still weaker than i was before christmas and no leaner fml. nutrient content of foods obtained mostly from internet. once i get to 8 reps i add some weight.

I obtained the macro ratios from this calculator: IF Calculator
set to:
lean massing
protein: 1g/lb bodyweight
carbs/fat split (rest 50%/50%) (workout 75%/25%)

Outputs from calculator:
rest day: 223.7g carbs, 160.6g protein, 99.4g fat 2432 calories
workout day: 487.6g carbs, 160.6g protein 72.2g fat 3243 calories

im still about 73kg and 178cm tall

Anyway, does this diet/routine look aiight? I dont know whether IF is popular at all on this forum, havent really noticed it mentioned much. Was thinking of perhaps trying a different gym routine.

EDIT: made a new thread for this post.