My Diet - What's missing?

[toojax]

I'm 46 years old and I've been doing a half hour of aerobic and a half hour of lifting 5 times a week for 13 months. My diet is mostly 1/3 protein bar and coffee in the morning, Subway turkey double meat with half the bun and lots of veggies for lunch and chicken, rice a little hommus for dinner. I probably add an apple in the afternoon and a couple of small snacks at night. Any ideas what I should be adding? I do take a multi-vitamin every day. Thanks!

[toojax]

Oh, and with this program I'm down from 240 to 195ish so far.

[Times Roman]

Mate
what are you trying to accomplish?
If i were to look at it like a typical body building diet, i'd have to say the whole thing needs to go.
For example:
protein bar is loaded with sugar and simple carbs. no!
subway sandwhich has horrible bread, a simple carb, converts to sugar moments after you eat it, spiking insulin levels, and then in response your glycogen reserves are dumped into your blood stream to mop up all the insulin. no! no!
Rice? I'm willing to bet a buck it is white rice? am i right? gly***ic level is too high. converts to sugar very quickly after it is eaten, plus all the nutritious fiber is gone and all the nutrieints too, compared to brown rice. no! no! no!
the only good thing i see is that maybe you are in a caloric deficit mode, which is the only reason you are losing weight. but this is NOT a clean diet!
If all you want to do is lose weight, and not worried about potential type2 diabetes down the road, you should be good.
If you want to build lean body mass, and develop a physique that is typical of a weight lifter or even a body builder, then it's time to go back to the drawing board. weight lifters nutritional requirements are significantly different than the "average joe" walking around. for one, we typically eat twice as much. because of this the diet needs to be extremely clean.

Let me know what your goals are and we can go from there.
---Roman

[SlimmerMe]

Welcome Toojax.

Times Roman gave you great advice. Hopefully you will read some of the threads and stickies and then come up with a better eating plan.

Good luck to you. This place will help you a lot. Gotta be patient.

[toojax]

OK. I asked for advice so I appreciate the honest feedback. A little harsh in my opinion but here's where I'm coming from:

At 240 I was way over weight, not a lot of muscle. Worked out hard for two months 5 days a week half aerobic half lifting and tried to eat "better". Weighed myself for the first time and didn't lose one pound. A friend suggested a calorie counting app and I treid to limit my calorie intake to 1,700 a day and I'm down at least 50 pounds of fat and added some decent muscle. I eat 1/3 of the protein bar right after or before my workout and get 100 calories with 10 grams of protein and yes some simple carbs. At lunch I'm having a Subway with double turkey, extra spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, extra pickles, pepper, no sauce and I throw away half the (wheat) bun. I know their buns aren't organic, "real" whole grain, etc. but I'm getting about 300 calories, lots of veggies and protein. Apple or yogurt in the afternoon. Munching on carrots throughout the day. Grilled chicken at night with rice from a local restaraunt. It's yellow rice from a Mediterrainian joint nearby which is probably white rice and some hommus. I posted on this forum because I know I'm not getting all the right nutrition but give me a little credit. I'm down 45 pounds and I'm seeking advice in the right places. Thre reality is that I work hard and I do take advantage of eating out a lot but I'm trying to order the right stuff. I keep getting better with my workouts and my eating but I'm not cooking for myself 4 times a week. I have a lot more reading to do. Anyways, thanks for the advice.

[toojax]

Oops. Sorry Roman. I didn't answer your question about goals. I'm at 195 and looking semi-decent imo, but I would like to lose another 15 pounds of fat, and then try to bulk up the muscle a bit. I've gone from a 40" waist to a 34" which feels great but I'm not in body builder shape by any means. I do look a lot better though. My arms have gotten some really good shape and definition, my pecks are filling out and I'm starting to see some abs. I'm not likely to ever have any goals in body building, I just want to look really good. This much progress in 14 months makes me think I could look pretty damn good when I never thought that was possible. Feels really great and eating right and working out a lot is getting easier every day. I can't imagine not working out and I don't mind eating a lot leaner then I used to. Thanks again!

[Times Roman]

Didn't mean to offend mate
we get many here that think they have a clean diet when it isn't even close.
most here lead a pretty stringent life style.
we are very strict about what we eat. most here do NOT drink alchohol, or do recreational drugs. for example, i drink water only, and it's been quite awhile since i've had a beer.
additionally, i've always been this way, more or less. my family thinks i'm odd, since i only eat whole foods, and do much of my own cooking. my son is starting to see the light.
but this is a discipline here. we don't do "protein bars" or subway sandwhiches.

just to let you in on a little secret, I adhere to the principles of "Life Extension", which brings on a whole host of other disciplines besides my weight lifting.

This is no easy path. If all you want to do is lose some weight, eat a "healthier" diet, and firm up some muscle, that's cool.

But most here are going to critique you as if your goals are that of a body builder... which is what many here (not me) are geared up to do.

So let me help you out.
First, knowledge is power. You really must learn about nutrition if you want to play this game.
Go here to learn about TDEE (Total daily energy requirement):
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...TE-blog480.jpg
calories above this and you gain weight. below you lose weight.

Learn about the macros in your meals here:
http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...nutrient-Chart
as a rough rule of thumb, you should start with a 40/40/20 split (protein/carbs/fat)

here is some additional reading about diet i'd like you to consider reading:
how to cut and sample diet:
http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...nd-sample-diet...

how to gain lean muscle mass:
http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...s-kind-of-diet...

and some recipes that are more or less board approved:
http://forums.steroid.com/forumdisplay.php?11-RECIPES

another thing to consider. go to your doc and request blood panels be taken, including free/total test. at 46, pretty sure your test levels are not optimized. it's a good idea anyways even if you don't need TRT. if you do find that you could benefit from TRT, then i'd suggest considerding it. we can talk more about that later.

next.
i have no clue about your exercise routines. i'm glad you are doing the cardio.
but some additinal reading.
Ronnie Rowlands slingshot method here:
http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...raining-System

guidelines for growth here:
http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...nes-for-Growth

if you are serious about weightlifting, then i'd suggest you post a sample diet in the diet section. disclose what you eat, meal by meal, with the macros you just learned about. please include your tdee you have recently learned how to calculate. our diet gurus will be more than happy to analyze it and make serious recommendations.

Sorry you felt i was tough on you. But i'd rather give it to you straight like a man that to tap dance around the issue and not be direct.
Good luck!
---Roman

[BBrian]

Hey toojax, it sounds like you've made some really great progress so far. The reason you've managed to redefine your physique up to this point is simply because of the changes you made; exercising regularly and, I assume, taking in a much more healthy diet than you once were. But now you've probably reached a plateau, where you are going to have to, as Times Roman pointed out, completely change your diet to something far more strict. Times Roman wasn't being harsh at all, he's simply pointing out what he knows is obvious. So let's start with the beginning, breakfast. Leave the protein bar at the grocery store, it's worthless. Start with eggs, 100% whole wheat/whole grain bread, old-fashioned oatmeal, and skim milk. Here you have a source of quality protein and carbohydrates, which you absolutely were not getting from 1/3 of a protein bar. Then, two and a half to three hours later, eat another light meal that is completely devoid of simple carbs. Then at lunch, another two and a half to three hours later, you're ready for lunch. The reason you want to eat five to six meals a day is simple; by eating more meals, you're getting the message to your brain that your body does not need to store food as fat because it knows it will have more coming in relatively soon, and this is the key to increasing metabolism. Consequently, your body will burn more of the fat that is has been storing up to this point. Back to lunch, the Subway diet is great for the Jared types that have far more fat stored than the is natural, but you're past this point and ready for the next step. Subway is convenient, but again, you're at the next step and it's time to forget Subway. While they do offer relatively healthy options for the obese, they do not offer a lot of options for someone like you who is trying to get surpass their plateau. Like Times Roman stated, their breads are junk - all of them. You need to forget fast food in any form and start relying on the grocery store now. This means buying 100% whole wheat bread (their wheat bread is nothing more than white bread with caramel in it, disgusting), fresh vegetables (their vegetables are far from fresh), lean turkey and chicken, and no dressings like mayonaise. Subway's chicken is reprocessed junk. After lunch, you're ready for 2-3 more meals that consist of only fresh, non-fat ingredients. The nutritional forum here is loaded with great meal ideas, now is the time to start researching them and find them.

[toojax]

OK. Thanks guys. I really do appreciate it and this is exactly why I started looking in the nutrition forum. I posted in the over 40 section a while back and got some good tips on lifting at my age. I made a lot of progress with some basic principles and then I just felt I needed more knowledge to take the next step. I'm gonna keep reading and I read the unnofficial cutting sticky. The basic message I've gotten so far today is more good protein, better (no simple) carbs, more frequent meals, a small amount of "good" fats. I've gotten used to eating a lot of the same meals every day and I think I need to come up with a new game plan for most days. The first thing that stood out was maybe popping some hard boiled egg whites, 1 piece ezekiel bread, oatmeal and skim for breakfast. Fast, easy, solid. Still gotta figure out the rest of the day. Thanks!