Thoughts?

[BCBall]

Hey guys. I started dieting in my goal to cut fat at the beginning of June and was able to shed from 205 to 185 and ~20%BF to ~17%BF and that was up until about 2 weeks ago where I've loosened up on the diet. I lift 5-6 days a week, switching from full body days to iso days to cardio days to normal lifting. My goal is to just shed the body fat and lean out.

Current Stats:
5'11"
190lbs
17%BF

Just trying to figure out the optimal diet for me.

My typical diet looked like (I hope this is enough information, apologies if not and I will do my best to fix it):

Meal One (8 A.M.)
Proten Shake (37G Protein)
Nutrition Count (Approx. 180Cal, 37G Protein, 5G carbs)

-WORKOUT-

Meal Two (10 A.M.)
Protein Shake (37G Protein)
Chewy or Oatmeal bar.
Nutrition Count (Approx. 350Cal, 40G Protein, 30G carbs)

Meal Three (12 P.M.)
LUNCH!
Any meal that is at Least 500-700 Calories 25% daily fat 45G protien, and 80-100G of carbs

Meal Four (3 P.M.)
Protien Shake
150 calories 37G Protien 5G carbs

Meal Five (6 P.M.)
~8oz Grilled Chicken, 1/2 Cup Brown Rice

Meal Six (9 P.M.)
Low fat yougart- 100 Calories 5g protien and 17g carbs

So thats ~2200 Cal, ~200G Protein, ~160G Carbs


I've been reading around the diet forums for the past few days taking in all the info and thought it was time to post a thread. Thanks for any and all input!!

[BCBall]

bump. anyone?

[SlimmerMe]

Are you only drinking a shake before your workout? is that all? and afterwards too? no food?

[RaginCajun]

i agree with slim. you may want to add in some chicken or steak instead of all the shakes. the gurus will chime in, but for now, try to work on replacing some of the shakes with food. also add around 50g oats or 1/2 cup oats to meal one, you do not have any fuel for your muscles. i would also get rid of the chewy/oatmeal bar. you also need some green veggies in there, like spinach, broccoli, asparagus, or romaine. hope this helps out some.

[Back In Black]

Your macro's and calorie count seen ok to me. You haven't listed the fat content of your meals but it looks like it should be about 90g, which is a little bit too high. I would try and get this to about 60g split evnly through your meals.



Too many shakes and you DEFINITELY want carbs before your workout. More fibrous green veggies needed and your carbs are all over the place. 100g at lunch but none before your workout and none at meal 4?

Do you workout 7 days a week? Do any cardio?

How about mixing 40g of carbs in powdered oat form, to your whey pre workout and maybe a coupl
e of egg whites too.

Post workout, again add 40g carbs as powdered oats and, if you don't eat for 2 hours, add casein to make up half the protein content.

Lunch 175g sweet potato, brocolli and a large chicken breast

Afternoon - 50g brown rice, tin tuna or more chicken and some asparagus

Evening - Your choice of carb giving 40g carbs, lean protein dource and some veggies.

Bed time - Cottage cheese, tea spoon natty peanut butter.

Add some fish oil/EVOO/rapeseed oil to your meals that are low in fat and you should be good to go. This should give you bout the same calories as you have now.

[gbrice75]

^^^ i'd stick with straight fish oil personally.

[Back In Black]

^^^ i'd stick with straight fish oil personally.

I agree. But it repeats on me like crazy and I hate the taste. And I like the variety of different fats.

[gbrice75]

But it repeats on me like crazy and I hate the taste

same here bro... fish burps are fvcking nasty!

[BCBall]

Your macro's and calorie count seen ok to me. You haven't listed the fat content of your meals but it looks like it should be about 90g, which is a little bit too high. I would try and get this to about 60g split evnly through your meals.



Too many shakes and you DEFINITELY want carbs before your workout. More fibrous green veggies needed and your carbs are all over the place. 100g at lunch but none before your workout and none at meal 4?

Do you workout 7 days a week? Do any cardio?

How about mixing 40g of carbs in powdered oat form, to your whey pre workout and maybe a coupl
e of egg whites too.

Post workout, again add 40g carbs as powdered oats and, if you don't eat for 2 hours, add casein to make up half the protein content.

Lunch 175g sweet potato, brocolli and a large chicken breast

Afternoon - 50g brown rice, tin tuna or more chicken and some asparagus

Evening - Your choice of carb giving 40g carbs, lean protein dource and some veggies.

Bed time - Cottage cheese, tea spoon natty peanut butter.

Add some fish oil/EVOO/rapeseed oil to your meals that are low in fat and you should be good to go. This should give you bout the same calories as you have now.

I workout 6 days a week regularly, sometimes 5 and sometimes 7. I do 15 min low impact cardio before/after workouts.

Appreciate all of the good information, I will incorporate it in accordingly!

[Back In Black]

Personally I'd wait til after your workout to do your low intensity cardio, do 20-30 mins. It'll be slightly more efeective as a fat burning tool than splitting it before and after.

Not too much point doing it before unless you feel the need to use it as a warm up

[gbrice75]

I agree 100% with Stem re: cardio. Doing 30 mins straight > 15 split pre and pwo.

[Phate]

I agree 100% with Stem re: cardio. Doing 30 mins straight > 15 split pre and pwo.

While I agree pertaining to the durations listed, I have recently read a few studies showing that fat oxidization was shown to increase with multiple cardio sessions over a given period.

To the OP: Since you mention low impact cardio in particular, i would assume(correct me if i'm wrong) that you have some kind of knee or pedal condition(patellar tendonitis or a fasciatis maybe?). As such I would recommend 2-3 cardio sessions/day on cardio day ranging from 20-40minutes in length depending on what you can handle.

The optimum time for the first would be in the morning before eating(i would take 2-3g of ascorbic acid beforehand as well as 5-8g of BCAAs(instantized preferably) and the other times can be at your leisure, though after a workout would also be beneficial as long as you stay in an aerobic state(the talking test works well for this).

Also, if you are doing full body workouts, do you incorporate continuous supersets?

The guys here know their stuff and have given good ideas already, but i'll throw some into the mix as well.

Meal One (8 A.M.)
Proten Shake (37G Protein)
Nutrition Count (Approx. 180Cal, 37G Protein, 5G carbs)
As they stated, you need carbs before your workout, as you sleep your brain is rapidly consuming glycogen(it's primary energy source), which is why almost all breakfasted around the world are carb/sugar heavy, the brain is starved.
-WORKOUT-

Meal Two (10 A.M.)
Protein Shake (37G Protein)
Chewy or Oatmeal bar.
Nutrition Count (Approx. 350Cal, 40G Protein, 30G carbs)
Screw the bar, the HFCS in it is pointless for what you want, which is a high molecular weight carb source to change the osmostic pressure of your blood and force nutrients into the muscle cells. Sweet potatoes are great for this as well as brown rice(whole grain and preferably organic)
Meal Three (12 P.M.)
LUNCH!
Any meal that is at Least 500-700 Calories 25% daily fat 45G protien, and 80-100G of carbs
If the shake is whey based it will peak around 45-50 minutes after you drink it, so either add some casein to the mix or have this meal an hour after the pwo meal for optimum amino acid concentrations
Meal Four (3 P.M.)
Protien Shake
150 calories 37G Protien 5G carbs

Meal Five (6 P.M.)
~8oz Grilled Chicken, 1/2 Cup Brown Rice

Meal Six (9 P.M.)
Low fat yougart- 100 Calories 5g protien and 17g carbs
this isn't a meal, especially before bed you need slow digesting proteins(btw i like the yogurt as it is slow digesting and contains probiotics to aid in digestion, but you need something else as well. Beef, spirulina, fish even would work well, and add some fats(fish oils preferably) to slow digestion through the night.

I see a definite lack of phytonutrients, cofactors, and trace minerals here as well as antioxidents. Some great foods to add would be goji berries, spirulina(probably the best food on the planet IMHO), cacao(the highest levels of antioxidents, trace metals, and one of the rare carriers of PEA(phenylethylamine) which is the neuroamine that is correlated with happyness and wellbeing. Add some to your shakes(btw you DO need to cut back on the number of shakes you consume per day)
So thats ~2200 Cal, ~200G Protein, ~160G Carbs

[BCBall]

While I agree pertaining to the durations listed, I have recently read a few studies showing that fat oxidization was shown to increase with multiple cardio sessions over a given period.

To the OP: Since you mention low impact cardio in particular, i would assume(correct me if i'm wrong) that you have some kind of knee or pedal condition(patellar tendonitis or a fasciatis maybe?). As such I would recommend 2-3 cardio sessions/day on cardio day ranging from 20-40minutes in length depending on what you can handle.

The optimum time for the first would be in the morning before eating(i would take 2-3g of ascorbic acid beforehand as well as 5-8g of BCAAs(instantized preferably) and the other times can be at your leisure, though after a workout would also be beneficial as long as you stay in an aerobic state(the talking test works well for this).

Also, if you are doing full body workouts, do you incorporate continuous supersets?

The guys here know their stuff and have given good ideas already, but i'll throw some into the mix as well.

Meal One (8 A.M.)
Proten Shake (37G Protein)
Nutrition Count (Approx. 180Cal, 37G Protein, 5G carbs)
As they stated, you need carbs before your workout, as you sleep your brain is rapidly consuming glycogen(it's primary energy source), which is why almost all breakfasted around the world are carb/sugar heavy, the brain is starved.
-WORKOUT-

Meal Two (10 A.M.)
Protein Shake (37G Protein)
Chewy or Oatmeal bar.
Nutrition Count (Approx. 350Cal, 40G Protein, 30G carbs)
Screw the bar, the HFCS in it is pointless for what you want, which is a high molecular weight carb source to change the osmostic pressure of your blood and force nutrients into the muscle cells. Sweet potatoes are great for this as well as brown rice(whole grain and preferably organic)
Meal Three (12 P.M.)
LUNCH!
Any meal that is at Least 500-700 Calories 25% daily fat 45G protien, and 80-100G of carbs
If the shake is whey based it will peak around 45-50 minutes after you drink it, so either add some casein to the mix or have this meal an hour after the pwo meal for optimum amino acid concentrations
Meal Four (3 P.M.)
Protien Shake
150 calories 37G Protien 5G carbs

Meal Five (6 P.M.)
~8oz Grilled Chicken, 1/2 Cup Brown Rice

Meal Six (9 P.M.)
Low fat yougart- 100 Calories 5g protien and 17g carbs
this isn't a meal, especially before bed you need slow digesting proteins(btw i like the yogurt as it is slow digesting and contains probiotics to aid in digestion, but you need something else as well. Beef, spirulina, fish even would work well, and add some fats(fish oils preferably) to slow digestion through the night.

I see a definite lack of phytonutrients, cofactors, and trace minerals here as well as antioxidents. Some great foods to add would be goji berries, spirulina(probably the best food on the planet IMHO), cacao(the highest levels of antioxidents, trace metals, and one of the rare carriers of PEA(phenylethylamine) which is the neuroamine that is correlated with happyness and wellbeing. Add some to your shakes(btw you DO need to cut back on the number of shakes you consume per day)
So thats ~2200 Cal, ~200G Protein, ~160G Carbs

So to clarify, I should wake up, take said nutrients, then cardio, then breakfast, then workout? Just a little confused since I now know I need to eat something before working out. I plan on working out 2x daily, one early morning, and one early afternoon.

Re: Shakes, Two shakes a day would suffice? One Pre and one Post workout?

For the PWO meal I'm a little confused on how much to eat there. As SteM mentioned above, would the 40g powdered oats added to the shake be enough to last until lunch?

And lastly yes, I do incorporate supersets when doing full-body days.

(I really appreciate all the help you guys have given me, making me feel VERY confident in conquering this fat loss!)

[Phate]

So to clarify, I should wake up, take said nutrients, then cardio, then breakfast, then workout? Just a little confused since I now know I need to eat something before working out. I plan on working out 2x daily, one early morning, and one early afternoon.
yes, that would work, as far as what nutrients, i would do 2-3g of vitamin C(lowers cortisol) and 5-8g of BCAAs before cardio, then eat breakfast(btw, the powdered oats are good as they will be digested quickly so you will have some glycogen for the workout, try to limit fats in your first meal as they slow digestion.
Re: Shakes, Two shakes a day would suffice? One Pre and one Post workout?
That should work
For the PWO meal I'm a little confused on how much to eat there. As SteM mentioned above, would the 40g powdered oats added to the shake be enough to last until lunch?
In a bind the powdered oats are fine, but personally i would go with brown rice, sweet potatoes, or red potatoes, etc.. Is your shake only whey? if so like i mentioned earlier you should have a meal an hour afterwards, or you can add some casein also you could add some good fats to the meals after your PWO(fish oil preferably, but olive, rapeseed, flax etc... will work as well, this will slow digestion and help to stabilize your blood sugar levels so you 1) won't be hungry as quickly 2) won't get as much of an insulin spike which is great for increasing insulin sensitivity which will improve fat loss over time 3) will get a sustained protein breakdown to amino acids
And lastly yes, I do incorporate supersets when doing full-body days.
great, i love supersetting
(I really appreciate all the help you guys have given me, making me feel VERY confident in conquering this fat loss!)

in bold

[BCBall]

Here is what I have so far, let me know what you think!:

Wake up: Load up on H2O + 2-3g of vitamin Cand 5-8g of BCAAs (thanks Phate)

Cardio

Breakfast : 4 egg-whites, 2 piece wheat toast (210 Cal, 2g fat, 26g carb, 29g protein)

Workout

PWO : Protein Shake w/ powdered oats (250 Cal, 4g fat, 38g carb, 36g protein)

Lunch : 1 Can Tuna Fish sandwhich on wheat bread w/ ? (350 Cal, 7g fat, 24g carb, 45g protein)

Workout

PWO: Protein Shake w/ powdered oats and 1 tbsp EVOO (370 Cal, 33g fat, 38g carb, 36g protein)

Afternoon : 8oz chicken w/ ½ cup brown rice and ½ asparagus (400 Cal, 5g fat, 40g carb, 50g protein)

Dinner : 9oz Basa Fish w/ ½ cup brown rice and 2/3 cup mixed steamed vegetables (650 Cal, 7g fat, 44g carb, 54g protein)

Before Bed : 1 teaspoon natural peanut butter (33 Cal, 3g fat, 1g carb, 2g protein)

Total ~ 2013 Cal, 57g fat, 173g carb, 226g protein


Concerns:
-I was a little fuzzy regarding how to spread out the fat intake or not.
-Enough veggies incorporated?

NOTE: I plan on starting letro to reverse gyno from a fudged up ph cycle(you don't have to tell me, I'm stupid) as soon as I receive my shipment.

Still working on perfecting my actual workouts, however.

[gbrice75]

While I agree pertaining to the durations listed, I have recently read a few studies showing that fat oxidization was shown to increase with multiple cardio sessions over a given period.

Definitely not disputing this - I actually agree... the more the better IMO. For instance if one could do (2) 30 min sessions, I think that's great. However if one only had a total of 30 mins to spend on cardio, 30 mins straight duration would be a better option than 15 and 15... unless both those smaller sessions were high intensity and/or HIIT type cardio.

[BCBall]

Here is what I have so far, let me know what you think!:

Wake up: Load up on H2O + 2-3g of vitamin Cand 5-8g of BCAAs (thanks Phate)

Cardio

Breakfast : 4 egg-whites, 2 piece wheat toast (210 Cal, 2g fat, 26g carb, 29g protein)

Workout

PWO : Protein Shake w/ powdered oats (250 Cal, 4g fat, 38g carb, 36g protein)

Lunch : 1 Can Tuna Fish sandwhich on wheat bread w/ ? (350 Cal, 7g fat, 24g carb, 45g protein)

Workout

PWO: Protein Shake w/ powdered oats and 1 tbsp EVOO (370 Cal, 33g fat, 38g carb, 36g protein)

Afternoon : 8oz chicken w/ ½ cup brown rice and ½ asparagus (400 Cal, 5g fat, 40g carb, 50g protein)

Dinner : 9oz Basa Fish w/ ½ cup brown rice and 2/3 cup mixed steamed vegetables (650 Cal, 7g fat, 44g carb, 54g protein)

Before Bed : 1 teaspoon natural peanut butter (33 Cal, 3g fat, 1g carb, 2g protein)

Total ~ 2013 Cal, 57g fat, 173g carb, 226g protein


Concerns:
-I was a little fuzzy regarding how to spread out the fat intake or not.
-Enough veggies incorporated?

NOTE: I plan on starting letro to reverse gyno from a fudged up ph cycle(you don't have to tell me, I'm stupid) as soon as I receive my shipment.

Still working on perfecting my actual workouts, however.

What do you think of the diet?