Diet, Nutrition and SupplementationPost here for supplement reviews or nutritional advice. If you're trying to get "ripped abz" THIS is where you should be.
At first glance, I'd say only 16% protein is pretty low. I'd consider tuning down the carbs a bit and upping your protein...
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You're 295 and eating 1500 calories. That's way too low. You need to eat more.
Look up Harris Benedict formula online. That will help calculate what you need to eat to lose weight. You are actually hurting yourself eating that little.
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Assuming you are at or around 30% bodyfat, that would put you at ~210 pounds of LBM. Take in at least one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass, so shoot for around 210g of protein a day. Supplement with fish oils if you aren't already. 1500 calories a day is fine for someone at your bodyfat level, but you are going to have to decrease carbs or fat to keep calories that low. At that bodyfat level, muscle loss shouldn't be too big of a concern as long as protein is adequate and you are weight training heavy.
I'd start aiming at increasing your protein by another 100-120 grams (you don't have to do it all in one day, or week, but work up to it slowly).
Also, add another 10-15g of fiber. That'll help curb carb longings and also help with digestion (what with all that new protein coming in!) Last thing would be to add in a few more fats... maybe some almonds.
And when you add all this stuff together, spread it out over 5-6 meals during the day.
Best of luck! (And by the way, that's not a terrible diet you have so far... I've seen far worse posted!)
RipStone: I started trying to lose weight about mid November... since then I've lost 15 lbs. I've just recently started to actually track what I eat though. Also, thanks for the macro breakdown... I certainly need something to go by and that'll help!
Here are the meals that actually made up the breakdown:
breakfast
-1 cup oatmeal
-1 banana
snack
-1/2 cup walnuts
lunch
-1.5 cups chicken noodle soup (left overs from the previous night)
-10 saltine crackers
snack
-tangerine
dinner
-turkey breast
-whole grain brown rice
-green beans
-1 cup skim milk
With lots of water in between all that... I don't feel hungry only eating that much... I guess my body has just gotten used to it. The only thing I use for a pre/post workout drink is a bottle of powered gatorade (I forgot to include it in the breakdown, oops). I've been thinking about adding a protein source to my drink though... seems like a lot of people use whey protein.
Originally posted by OldGuy: You're 295 and eating 1500 calories. That's way too low. You need to eat more.
Look up Harris Benedict formula online. That will help calculate what you need to eat to lose weight. You are actually hurting yourself eating that little.
Sidebar just for Old Guy: That's not necessarily true. We don't know how much of that weight is LBM, how tall this person is, and other variables. It is very feasible that their metabolism has slowed to a crawl - more than feasible, in fact, given that they have stated they are obese. For most sedentary males of an average height, I read that they will not go into starvation mode until they are under 1,200 kcals.
Physicians will often put very obese people on severely calorie restricted diets to get them out of the danger zone of obesity and then, when they are a reasonbable weight, up the intake slowly to increase metabolism. When someone is severely obese, most of their body mass is fat, and so most of what they will lose being in deficit is fat.
Even if physicians didn't do that, an individuals RMR may be well off what Harris-Benedict predicts and also below 1,500 kcals. I know that when I tested my actual RMR, it was way below the HB calculation (1,480 for someone who is 5'9.5" and 180). There's no way to know for sure except by experimentation or actual testing.
Obselete, do you have any idea of your BF%? If not, are you of average skeletal size (you can check by checking your wrist size)? Or small or big boned?
My point for OG was that you may not be, and I would guess probably are not, eating too little unless you are also heavily muscled. I am a bit shorter than you, and am also consuming 1,600 kcals a day (you can check out my log in the Training section for more details). If you are losing weight at a rate that your doctor says is safe, then stick with what you are doing.
The 40/40/20 recommendation above is a good one. Since you (and I) have so few calories to play with, make the ones you do eat count by having them be nutritious and filling. It took me about 2 weeks to get used to this level of intake. For those two weeks I was hungry all the time, but now my body has adapted nicely and I am satisfied at this level and losing fat.
Best of luck - you've already taken the steps you need to succeed. Now just continue to follow through until you reach your goal.
I don't know my BF %... I'm almost afraid to know. haha Also, I have an average frame.
I have a family doctor but I'm not under a doctor's care... I just finally got feed up with being so big and I'm trying to do something about it. I totally expected to lose the weight faster. I personally thought it was because I was still being a bit spotty with my diet. For the past couple of weeks I've tried real hard to be consistant in the gym and in the kitchen though.
Honestly, I didn't really know if I'm not taking in enough calories... I've just been trying to use what I think is a common sense approach mostly. I've eaten very bad for a very long time though so I didn't even know how to "eat clean"... thank god for this site though... I've learned a lot.
Here are the meals that actually made up the breakdown:
breakfast
-1 cup oatmeal add some 5-10 egg whites or a scoop of whey
-1 banana
snack
-1/2 cup walnuts
lunch
-1.5 cups chicken noodle soup (left overs from the previous night)
-10 saltine crackers
snack
-tangerine
dinner
-turkey breast
-whole grain brown rice
-green beans
-1 cup skim milk
With lots of water in between all that... I don't feel hungry only eating that much... I guess my body has just gotten used to it. The only thing I use for a pre/post workout drink is a bottle of powered gatorade (I forgot to include it in the breakdown, oops). I've been thinking about adding a protein source to my drink though... seems like a lot of people use whey protein.
15 lbs in just under 2 months IS pretty fast, and just at the edge where you are losing it too fast to be permanent. You've made all the positive changes. Really, if you can do it though, go to a doctor, if only for a 'before snapshot' of your vitals you can compare to. It can't hurt.
If you don't want to do that but want some snapshot, go to someone who can do a BodyGem RMR Test for you. Then you can tailor a custom kcal intake plan for yourself. With that information, some of the experts here can help you as well.
Here are the meals that actually made up the breakdown:
breakfast
-1 cup oatmeal
-1 banana
**add 5-10 egg whites or a scoop of whey**
snack
-1/2 cup walnuts
**add some cottage cheese**
lunch
-1.5 cups chicken noodle soup (left overs from the previous night)
-10 saltine crackers
**ditch the crackers, add some form of lean protein and veggies**
snack
-tangerine
**add some form of protein...tuna/cottage cheese, also add some veggies**
dinner
-turkey breast
-whole grain brown rice
-green beans
-1 cup skim milk
I was fat and now I'm not. I regret not going to the doctor to get a health "snapshot" from before. I'm in good health now, better than I've ever been, but I always wonder how bad off I was.
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