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.
Now that I am eating super clean (I've always eaten fairly "healthy") and I'm just trying to get my protein in, I find it hard to get 1800 calories in at a 35-40% heavy protien. Eating has become a fairly unenjoyable event for me.
I love my evening cottage cheese with berries and a little honey, but other than that...
Sorry to hear that you don't enjoy eating. I eat a strict and clean diet too and I look foward to everyone of my meals. Maybe you just have to get more creative and add some variety to your meals. Things like sugar free products can really sweeten up your food. I use sugar free Davinci sryup for my oats all the time and it's like a dessert. Maybe you could look into some cookbooks for ideas. Gourment Nutrition by John Williams and John Berardi is great.
I was raised on meat and taters and have no inhabitions slaughtering\eating critters SO the protein part isn't bad at all. Shooting for 6oz servings 4-6 times a day is like heaven! The trick to getting the #'s it is being sure that every time you eat you get some protein...preferribly a critter of some sort, but don't be afraid of skim milk, nuts, cheeses, ect.
The fact that I really hate to "cook" probably doesn't help my case much, huh?
I love nuts but that certainly doesnt give ya the protien as much as the fat. Skim milks ok, spose I can get more of that. I do like meat, however, I just have trouble with slabs o' chicken breast. I whip up a pretty mean tuna salad, and so it goes. I do have to get more creative I know. Looking at some more "flavor additions" would help. I just didnt know if I was alone in forcing down the "clean" stuff.
Don't be afraid to variate from chicken boobs. Pork loin is very lean and quite yummy (IMO). Their are several cuts of beef that are lean (although I'm brain farting right now and can't think of which are which), and don't forget fish!
Variety is important...if you don't like to do whatever you're trying to do then there's going to come a point to when you're not going to do it anymore. Make things interesting, try new dishes and ideas.
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A fun way to use nuts is to use them in your recipies. Rough chop some pecans and put them on your fish, sweet potato's, ect.
What exactly are your goals? I know you are trying to lose a few pounds, but is there another reason for eating so clean? I'm not saying it's bad to eat clean, it's not. Sometimes you need to move gradually into it though, and not just change your diet too quickly. If you are having difficulties with it and not enjoying it, you may be setting yourself up for failure. I don't know if you need to eat "super" clean to reach your goals.
As far as reaching your protein intake, have you tried ground turkey? The flavored pouches of tuna are great too...very easy and good. Do you like fish?...good source of protein and healthy fat. I also add fat free or low fat cheese to a lot of dishes. You could also supplement with protein powders and bars.
Hey guys, good suggestions. Hey traininggirl, I hoped you'd join in. As you know I'm trying to lose fat/weight. No specific time frames or mega stric goals, just that I've tried for 5 years to get my fat off and with occassional lifting and lotsa running, as in 50mpw and varied food intake (mostly calories, less %'s of things) nothing and I mean nothing has happened. So I just think Im kinda at the end of my patience.
Ground turkey what % fat do you get?
Is fat free cheese "good" for you or just a flavor enhancer?
How much/what kind of cardio do you do trainingirl?
I think Im afraid if I dont eat superclean, nothing will happen!!
I have a major will power, so Im not too concerned about sticking with it. I would eat cardboard, literally, if it took this damn fat off. Do I sound frustrated?
The MP3 at the top, "Customer Exclusive - Nutrition On The Go," is the one you might want to listen to. It has all sorts of tips for eating and making the food. And, it's the most recent/up-to-date, too.
The ground turkey - I get the 7% fat just cause it tastes better to me and I can take the fat in my ratios. They do have 1% that you can use as well though.
I use the fat free and low fat cheeses to increase my protein without the saturated fat you find in regular cheese.
Cardio - I only do once a week if that...but my goals are different than yours and my bodytype may be different. If I increase cardio, I drop fat and muscle very easily. Look more at what YOU are doing and works and/or doesn't work for you...since we are all different
You say you've done occasional lifting...have you tried it for an extended period? Building some muscle will increase your metabolism and allow your body to burn fat more efficiently. When I started working out with weights...I didn't lose any weight, BUT I went from a size 10 down to a size 4. Now I'm in a 2/4. I lost the bodyfat which is what you are looking to do. So if you haven't given weightlifting enough of a chance yet, I would suggest trying it since other things you have done do not seem to be working.
You guys are so good to us softbodies!
LostDog, Don't get me wrong I love to eat
Just not pounds of chicken boobs, as someone so aptly put it. Its once again the laziness kicking in. I just have to become more creative with my culinary skills...I know. Someone told me once that getting your nutrients from real food is superior to shakes and bars, so of course, being the perfectionist I am, means I'm trying for the most part to stay away from those.
Traininggirl, I have done weights on and off since my late teens. I go back and forth from training heavy to lighter with higher reps. When I train heavy I seem to get "bulkier" than what I like, so I back off and go back to lighter weights. Ultimately, I can't say that I've trained heavy and hard for more than say a few months at a time. Definitely not since the 2 babies came. I'm always just curious what has worked for others. My body has proven to me that I am a unique specimen when it comes to losing weight I find when seeking workout or nutrition info from others that I read or talk to as many people as possible, that I believe are knowlegable, and take bits and pieces from each. One major thing I will listen to though is that numbers wise, you haven't lost any but have gone wayyyy down in size. I have a little scale frustration happenin right now. My legs and but are sooo sore today, thanks to a great workout on Friday, but the scale remains within a pound or so up or down to where its been for too long.
I understand the whole muscle vs. fat thing with regards to the numbers, it just takes alotta strength to stay off that damn scale.
I went from a 2/4 prekids to about an 8/10 too!
would love to get with range again.
I put muscle on very easy but the fat hangs on for dear life.
Originally posted by slowerthanslow: You guys are so good to us softbodies!
LostDog, Don't get me wrong I love to eat
Just not pounds of chicken boobs, as someone so aptly put it. Its once again the laziness kicking in. I just have to become more creative with my culinary skills...I know. Someone told me once that getting your nutrients from real food is superior to shakes and bars, so of course, being the perfectionist I am, means I'm trying for the most part to stay away from those.
I agree about real food vs typical shakes and bars, but the shakes and bars I'm talking about are made from real food, so they count as real food. The ebook I referred to has all sorts of recipes for bars that are good and healthy. Shake recipes, too.
Here's one that Johnka makes:
Supershake - vanilla protein, 2 tbsp yogurt, 1 tbsp greens +, 2 tbsp flax meal, ice, water - blend until smooth, and then toss in a couple tablespoons of almonds or cashews, blend on low, just until nuts are chopped for texture.
Here's some that I make:
Fruit Shake: 1 cup cottage cheese, ice, water, artificial sweetener, frozen fruit like strawberries, peaches, blueberries, etc., 2 tbsp flax meal, 1/2 nuts.
Peanut Butter Shake: 1 cup cottage cheese, ice, water, artificial sweetener, 2 tbsp peanut butter, 2 tbsp flax meal. A banana is optional, too. Sometimes I stir in some low carb Smuckers jelly at the end, for a PBJ shake.
They're all real food, compared to most store bought shakes.
LostDog, those shakes are very doable and sound interesting. I will do some blending soon!
Right now I have plain, easily dissolvable protien powder that i basically mix into a small cup of water and chug.
Traininggirl: not to "compare" us, as we are different, but since you have had such dramatic
results, can you tell me a couple of things? On average how many cals do you eat a day/week and in what ratios and also do you lift heavy? You said you really don't do much cardio so you are a very interesting specimen indeed to someone such as myself/runner girl.
Let me give you my stats first...5'8", 122lbs (too low I know...I am TRYING to gain)...it is very difficult for me..always has been. (Don't hate me..lol..people always hate me when I say that) When my changes occurred I was 128 and stayed at that. My bodyfat level decreased as muscle increased.
Currently, I am recovering from surgery and out of the gym, so I will give you info during "training season". I ate around 1800-1900/day, 40g fat, 175g protein, 200g carbs, but cycled carbs up to 225g 3 days a week. I gained muscle, dropped bf on this. When I get back though, I will be increasing all of these numbers to gain some mass. It took some tweaking to figure out exactly what worked for me. You've got to try something for a while, and if you don't notice positive changes, switch it around some. Unfortunately, it will take time.
Yes, I do train heavy...as heavy as I can possibly go. And I use free weights and a lot of compound movements. Abs are only worked once a week if that as well, cause my core gets such a workout from going heavy with the free weights. I don't know if you've seen my pics posted in various places on here, but as you can see, I am not bulky by any means. Making changes in the diet and lifting heavy, has allowed the bf to drop off while giving me definition. If women want to get big, they need steroids to make that happen, it's just not in us naturally to occur.
As far as me and cardio...I really don't like doing it. So I do as little as I can. But I get awesome results without it. Believe me, lifting heavy weights..my heart is pumpin' out of my chest. I can literally feel it at the end of a squat set.
Well let me join inline behind everyone else and say I too must despise you!!! The only thing that saves you is that you worked your booty off to get that way,so, your excused.
Sorry to hear about the surgery, hope its nothing "serious" Were you way stringent, keeping to those ratios? Did you have a cheat meal? Amazing you did all that with little to no cardio. I hear you on the heart rate during heavy lifting though. Starting out at 128 at 5'6 is a little underweight to begin with, so that may be the tuff part with you and cardio and adding mass. It must be tuff to put on muscle when being that slim. Good for you. I haven't seen any pics, I'll have to go look for them. Though Im sure it will only cause anguish on my part I'm sure your antsy to get back into the gym. thanks for all your advice. I will stay away from the scale.
Yes...stay away from the scale!!! I only jump on once in a while out of curiosity. The way my clothes fit and measuring with a measuring tape seems to work better for me, and I'm not to fixated on seeing that number move.
As for my ratios, I came within 2-5g every day. It seemed every 3 weeks or so though, a Saturday night would come around and I would just say f-it and have a few drinks (or more than a few..lol) and some not so great food at the bar. But, it didn't hurt my progress. I needed to let go of it once in a while to keep my sanity.
Good luck to you. You will get there. Just make changes in what you have been doing. Your body can get accustomed to running and there will come a point when it won't help with the bf loss any longer. I'd say if you add some weights in there, work on figuring out what ratios work best for you, you will see results.
Originally posted by slowerthanslow: LostDog, those shakes are very doable and sound interesting. I will do some blending soon!
Right now I have plain, easily dissolvable protien powder that i basically mix into a small cup of water and chug.
Just remember that a "meal" doesn't have to be conventional. My wife won't eat 6 meals a day, but is trying to eat every 2-3 hours. For her, nuts and raw fruit and veggies are a godsend.
So, a handfull of nuts, some veggies, then wash it down with your protein drink and you've got your meal. Maybe eat a piece of fruit here and there, too.
My lunch cooler almost never contains prepared meals. Just a bunch of protein sources, veggies, fruit, nuts, etc. I mix and match throughout the day. About the only things that I pack that are thought out meals are salads and leftovers.
Ok guys, I will move forward with your advice.
Will keep you up to date, should you care.
Im sure I'll have more questions, so keep an eye out puuuuulease. Thanks!
I find when seeking workout or nutrition info from others that I read or talk to as many people as possible, that I believe are knowlegable, and take bits and pieces from each. One major thing I will listen to though is that numbers wise, you haven't lost any but have gone wayyyy down in size. I have a little scale frustration happenin right now. My legs and but are sooo sore today, thanks to a great workout on Friday, but the scale remains within a pound or so up or down to where its been for too long.
I'm sure your antsy to get back into the gym. thanks for all your advice. I will stay away from the scale.
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