New to this looking for helpful advice

joe said:

If you're dieting and count calories chocolate and basically anything with a lot of sugar and fat will make it harder cause they are so incredibly 'rich in calories'.

E.g. , compare:
One subway cookie - about 800kJ, about two mouthfuls, keeps you going for about 1 minute before you want another one..
One roast beef 6 inch sub without sauce and cheese = About 1100kJ, slightly more than the cookie but will keep you going for ages.

Lollies, treats, sauces, cheese, fats in general are very calorie dense. And they're fucking addictive and especially hard to resist if they're a habit AND you're hungry. I strongly recommend kicking them completely. Don't touch them.

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THIS!!!! i just dont touch that kind of food, I just cant stop. Dont get me wrong. Sometimes i still will, But nothing like a couple years back.


havent touched the work cookie jar for months. 1 leads to 5.

Goosey said:

I just don't know where to start with you Bazza20.

Only to say this.
There is sugar in everything.
Have a look at your previous posting, you're all over the shop

If a bloke is having difficulty losing fat, then reducing what he can will make an instant difference.

I'm not this bloke, neither are you, we are all individuals and although weight training and the methods used can be exactly the same for everyone, diet and how our body processes it, is IMO different, I'm no expert on diet, like I'm no expert about alcoholism but we can share personal experience which is as I said is different for everyone.

I could take you line of thought and say drink two liters of full fat milk (a day) along with everything else, but use protien powder to supplement the nutrient shortfall, that's thinking is just stupidity to me.

I say, cut out the sugar where you can, instead of two spoons of sugar in your 4 cups of coffee, eat grapes, carrot, spinach, meat, instead of two blocks of chocolate, eat one piece and such, because you supplement fish oil and eat avo's consider, low fat dairy, mix it up vary your diet.
I'm saying no more, this is just basic nutrition, FFS

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You said stop eating food with sugar in it. Blanket statements like that are meaningless. Sugar itself is not bad, it depends on the context of the whole diet. You even say don't eat food with sugar then say eat grapes. They are full of sugar, not that this is bad. I know give me a couple kgs of grapes and ill eat the whole lot in one go if I'm not careful. You won't lose weight if you drop a sugary drink out of your diet then replace it with a kg of grapes. The whole diet needs to be looked at, you can't just say avoid these types of foods and eat these types of food and you will lose weight.

You say my line of thought is drink 2 liters a day of milk. Where did I say that? And supplement protein powder for shortfall?? What?? I don't do that and it isn't my line of thought. Not sure what you mean by that.

Yeah, refined sugars (cane sugar, that within cakes pastries, chocolates) HFCS (not a massive deal here) and reconstituted crap "fruit juices" / cordial can be pretty much avoided and replaced with superior sources.

On the flipside;

In the 80s, there was the fat phobia. Everyone was carbing up and demonising fat. Now in the 2000s, we've had the reverse. Everybody loving fat, and demonising carbs. Yet there have been still a lot of sloppy physiques.

I had a few clients who had adopted the low(er) carb approach, I took a look at their diets and they were adamant everything they were eating was healthy. Which was true.

Vegies, fruits, great sources of protein (fatty fish), nuts, avocados, olive oil. Yet they were gaining 'weight' (fat). When I told them to do a food diary, the simple reality was that they were consuming far too many calories from fat despite all their sources across the macros being great.

It is very easy to underestimate your fat intake, particularly in the liquid format. While it is an integral part of your diet, and does slow gastric emptying and have generally a good effect on satiation, it is easy to over consume. It has a low thermic effect. Per gram it has the highest number or calories. These fundamentals still need to be remembered. So if your diet is well rounded, and you're eating from quality sources yet the body fat is saying otherwise, you may very well be consuming too much fat. Just a thought.

needs to eat less calories then he burns...

Therefore if he starts counting his calories he will quickly learn that he is better off eating a chicken and veggie meal rather then pizza or other sugary meals cause it uses up less of his maintenance calories...

However he will also find that he can eat pizza and icecream if he plans his calories around it...

Me personally.... I avoid tim tams and chocolates cause there are other foods I would rather splurge my calories on.... Like Cheeseburgers!!!! => Still losing weight....

Minchia said:

It is very easy to underestimate your fat intake, particularly in the liquid format. While it is an integral part of your diet, and does slow gastric emptying and have generally a good effect on satiation, it is easy to over consume. It has a low thermic effect. Per gram it has the highest number or calories. These fundamentals still need to be remembered. So if your diet is well rounded, and you're eating from quality sources yet the body fat is saying otherwise, you may very well be consuming too much fat. Just a thought.

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NO! This over thinks things...

Means person is eating more calories then they burn....

All diets work provided there is a calorie deficit...

Count the calories... Adjust as required...

nazzysmith said:

NO! This over thinks things...

Means person is eating more calories then they burn....

All diets work provided there is a calorie deficit...

Count the calories... Adjust as required...

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???

Did I say otherwise? Too many calories from one macro is still too many calories. Means you need to reduce the fat (or caloric) intake to fit within your overall daily and weekly budget.

Minchia said:

???

Did I say otherwise? Too many calories from one macro is still too many calories. Means you need to reduce the fat (or caloric) intake to fit within your overall daily and weekly budget.

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Yeah bud... What you suggested could have worked as it reduced calorie intake... And I know that you know what your talking about as I do follow your posting...

So if your diet is well rounded, and you're eating from quality sources yet the body fat is saying otherwise, you may very well be consuming too much fat. Just a thought.

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That line should say... Your obviously still consuming too many calories... (Or not burning enough)

Bazza20 said:

You said stop eating food with sugar in it. Blanket statements like that are meaningless. Sugar itself is not bad, it depends on the context of the whole diet. You even say don't eat food with sugar then say eat grapes. They are full of sugar, not that this is bad. I know give me a couple kgs of grapes and ill eat the whole lot in one go if I'm not careful. You won't lose weight if you drop a sugary drink out of your diet then replace it with a kg of grapes. The whole diet needs to be looked at, you can't just say avoid these types of foods and eat these types of food and you will lose weight.

You say my line of thought is drink 2 liters a day of milk. Where did I say that? And supplement protein powder for shortfall?? What?? I don't do that and it isn't my line of thought. Not sure what you mean by that.

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Yes you are right I did write this, and I was wrong to word it this way, thanks.

nazzysmith said:

Yeah bud... What you suggested could have worked as it reduced calorie intake... And I know that you know what your talking about as I do follow your posting...



That line should say... Your obviously still consuming too many calories... (Or not burning enough)

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I meant in relation to a very specific scenario, yes it is collectively still consuming too many calories - but if you're consuming too many calories from fat, you'd certainly want to reduce your overall caloric intake, but perhaps target it at a specific macro you were overeating, as opposed to cutting into your protein intake etc.

In the case of one of the clients, he was looking to get into contest prep - and all we did was his protein & CHO intake relatively steady as it was OK for his body weight and activity, and reduce his calories from fat (guy was eating far too many nuts/using too much oil, despite how good it is for you).

TLDR: Just another way of rearranging your macros to fit your caloric needs

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for commenting, very much appreciated!!

I am trying to read through all posts and take information from each. I think the best option for me is to try to steer clear of sweets all together as like someone commented they cannot stop at 1.....I have the same problem. I never drink any kind of fruit juice or fizzy juice so that is not a problem, I have 1 cup of tea a day first thing in the morning with 1 teaspoon of raw sugar.

Is it bad for muscle growth if I under eat on fats? I only regularly fats from about 90g of Mundella Greek yogurt and about 20g of uncle Tobys traditional oats + a small amount of milk in my tea....so I suppose what I am asking is can I under eat on fats from dairy?

Dez1888 said:

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for commenting, very much appreciated!!

I am trying to read through all posts and take information from each. I think the best option for me is to try to steer clear of sweets all together as like someone commented they cannot stop at 1.....I have the same problem. I never drink any kind of fruit juice or fizzy juice so that is not a problem, I have 1 cup of tea a day first thing in the morning with 1 teaspoon of raw sugar.

Is it bad for muscle growth if I under eat on fats? I only regularly fats from about 90g of Mundella Greek yogurt and about 20g of uncle Tobys traditional oats + a small amount of milk in my tea....so I suppose what I am asking is can I under eat on fats from dairy?

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I wouldn't be too concerned with this. Fats from various sources play a pivotal role in your health, just make sure you mix up your sources. Don't be concerned with under eating fats from dairy - but if you're not eating much fat in general you might want to increase it from sources such as fish, nuts, and olive oils so long as it fits within your daily caloric intake and doesn't skew your other macros.


In reference to the example I gave before, if your alloted caloric intake for the day is roughly 2,500 calories (giving you a 500 kcal deficit) and you're getting 200 grams of fat in a day, that's far too much (have seen it happen). On the flipside, if you're totaling 15g a day it is too low.

I am not suggesting calorie counting day in day out, but I have always advised that a builder does not build a house without a measuring tape. It's a good idea to;

a) Have an idea of what you caloric intake should be, based on your activity, body weight/LBM etc
b) Have an idea what sort of macros you're eating within each meal if you're a novice. Over time you will know your body and your food quite well, and be able to have an educated guess on what's you're consuming with each meal. Often people starting out and novices have absolutely no idea what they're consuming, and when I have broken it down to them they're often over or under reporting their calories by 900-1100 on average.

You won't be counting calories your whole life, it's not sustainable, it's not a healthy preoccupation to have with food; but it is good to have a great education and understanding on what you're putting into your body. It will save you hassles down the track and many frustrations.

Please note there's no magic bullet, anyone suggesting something ironclad or onesizefitsall is not good advice. There are guidelines we should all use and fundamentals that you can't break away from (calories in, calories out et. al.), but individually, bodies respond differently and you will get to know what yours likes and doesn't like - this includes other aspects of your journey such as training. As a novice, you will start with the basic principles, such as reducing calories and some consistent training (the broad end of the funnel). As you progress, you'll go through to the narrow end of the funnel where you will refine what you do according to the results you're receiving.

For more reading on nutrition which is evidence based; Lyle Mcdonalds site has some great articles to chew through. He's quite dogmatic, but his advice is sound.