Personal diet question.

[Diamondback 2/2]

Last few years I've been eating just one meal a day (dinner around 5-6pm). During that period I was not working out, drinking beer, etc. Started working out again about two months ago, immediately dropped 27lbs, but hit the wall. I would say body fat is between 20-25%, but that's really just a guess. I plan to see a nutritionist in the coming months, along with getting a hormonal test. But until then I'm looking at what I can do currently with diet. I'm going off what I've done been told in the past, and I'm wondering if there is something I'm not looking at right or over looking, outside of possible supplements.

Current diet plan:

Water, throughout the day/night, with a occasional booze night (yeah I know, but I gotta have cut loose time).

Breakfast, cup of mixed fruit, no real set plan on type.

Morning snack, banana, apple, orange.

Lunch, about 1qt size container of salad, mainly rabbit foods, with occasional tomato's.

Afternoon snack, celery, carrots, or another small portion of mixed salad.

Work out from 4-5:30pm, running, cardio, low weight hi-rep.

Dinner, 6-8oz of meat, 2 cups of steamed veggies greens, and a cup of rice (generally white or Spanish rice).

Evening snack, fruit based shake or apple, banana, orange.

Booze, normally beer, 8-12, once to twice a week, normally on the weekend.

Goal, loose another 20-30lbs by June 1st, get body fat around 15%. Outside of the boozing (nonnegotiable), what should a change? I'm not planning to bulk up much, just lean out the fat and tone up a bit.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[LibraryLady]

Too much fruit, not enough vegies.

Fruit = sugar.

Try using nuts for snacks. Plain, unsalted.

Try adding a little cardio first thing in the morning, get your metabolism a little boost.

LL

 

[Avenger hammer]

Multiple variables will come into play with any diet plan and cookie cutter plans can help but are not exactly tailored for everyone. You'll have to figure out your daily caloric needs. I dug out my book from my personal trainer course and I'll just go through that a little.

Step 1: convert your body weight in pounds to kilograms
Take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2.2
Example: 200 lbs ÷ 2.2 =90.9 kg

Step 2: For males take your body weight in kilograms and multiply it by 1 and then by 24 (hours in a day)
For females multiply your weight by 0.9 and then by 24.
Example: 90.9kg x 1 x 24 = 2182

Step 3: Determine your lean factor multiplier. For this I'll still use the numbers I have previously used but I will input the body fat percentage you stated in your post "20-25%"
For 20%-25% BF% the lean factor multiplier is .90

Step 4: Calculating your basil metabolic rate.
Now lets take this multiplier and multiply the answer we got for step 2
2182 x .90 = 1963.8 or simply 1964
1964 is your basil metabolic rate. Simply put, if you were to lay in bed doing no physical activities for a day this is how many calories your body would burn.

Step 5: Determine daily activity multiplier.
This is difficult to explain without showing my text book but it basically shows 3 categories ranging from "couch potato/fitness buff/athlete or hard daily trainer" with 2 sub choices in each to determine your daily activity level.
For the sake of this and reading your post I'll put you into fitness buff since you workout, but i'll put you in the light part. So your multiplier is 1.55.

Step 6: Calculate your daily caloric expenditure.
Take your basil metabolic rate and multiply it by your activity multiplier from step 5.
1964 x 1.55 = 3044.2
So that is roughly how many calories you burn through the day, granted I plugged in 200 lbs from the beginning for simplicity sake.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

Holy shit, I have no freaking idea what any of that meant.

ETA: I'm guessing this means once I figure my daily calorie burn, I would than adjust my intake to achieve the goal of fat loss?

My current weight is 218, that's been steady for 2 weeks. My current work out is 3-5 mile jog (slow about a 9.5 minute pace), and the P90x workout system with light weight. I'm doing this 4-5 times a week, primarily due to schedule. I would like to get to 7 days a week steady, I just have some scheduling issues to work out or just getting my ass up at 4am, which is not really practical right now.

 

[Avenger hammer]

I'm guessing this means once I figure my daily calorie burn, I would than adjust my intake to achieve the goal of fat loss?

My current weight is 218, that's been steady for 2 weeks. My current work out is 3-5 mile jog (slow about a 9.5 minute pace), and the P90x workout system with light weight. I'm doing this 4-5 times a week, primarily due to schedule. I would like to get to 7 days a week steady, I just have some scheduling issues to work out or just getting my ass up at 4am, which is not really practical right now.

Yes generally speaking once you know roughly how many calories you burn every day you can build from there. In my nutrition class I took a few semesters ago we were encouraged to have a food journal which could be anything from a note pad to an excel spread sheet or even just keeping the nutritional labels from what you ate that day. Basically it is the foundation from where you start. You can do almost any diet you really want once you figure out what your body needs. I personally always stick with the 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (218 for you) in order to sustain muscle mass spread out through the day.

P90x is not a bad workout program, it teaches some really good fundamentals like dynamic warm up, good form and isometric holds. I've seen it help a lot of guys get in shape while we were deployed. I dunno about the 7 days a week idea though. Rest days are critical to help recharge you mental focus and not get burnt out and end up hating what you're doing along with the obvious muscle repair and hormone replenishment.

 

[JustMe]

I would cut back on the fruit intake, too much can lead to a sugar crash and kills testosterone.

I would also add a sugar free probiotic like Kefir Plain, You could make a smoothie with sugar free granola or peanut butter (for a healthy fat) Kefir, celery, carrots, kale or spinach maybe a couple fruits to sweeten it but then skip the fruit snack.

It is really hard to give a definite answer. @Avenger hammer makes a good point on having a food journal as each body is different. Believe it or not some peoples bodies will burn more calories if they consume a little bit more where as others are better off on a lower caloric diet.

One thing I realized that helped my body type was spiking my metabolism once a week aka cheat day 1 day a week I would eat what ever I wanted.

Also one more thing if you do a food journal you could try eating more fatty foods and testosterone boosting foods and see if that works for you, more eggs, avocado, spinach and take a vitamin that includes Zinc or eat more foods containing zinc...

 

[digrar]

That beer is going to kill you, 8 beers is about 1100 Cal, 12 is 1700ish, twice a week, that's near on 2 more days worth of energy intake a week. Not negotiable, so it's 3 hours of P90 cardioX you need to do to burn it off.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

That beer is going to kill you, 8 beers is about 1100 Cal, 12 is 1700ish, twice a week, that's near on 2 more days worth of energy intake a week. Not negotiable, so it's 3 hours of P90 cardioX you need to do to burn it off.

Or just eat less those days? I totally get the "don't drink beer" side of things, but I simply know I will, my buddies all drink beer, I like beer, what's the point of living healthy if you can't enjoy the good things in life, etc, etc.

I'm going to start the food journal today, also going to substitute carrots, celery and cucumbers for the fruit snack during the day. Still going to do the cup of mixed fruit for breakfast.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

@Diamondback 2/2 , I feel ya man. I really do, but could not drop a pound while drinking beer. EVERYONE in circle drinks beer, hence, I drink beer. And my weight loss suffers because of it.

Sweets, carby shit, etc have no effect on me - but offer me a beer...I'm fucked. Not even to get drunk, just because I fucking love the taste of a good cold beer.

 

[Devildoc]

Sugar, sugar, sugar. It will kill you. It is amazing what has a lot of sugar: most fruit, sports drinks, energy drinks....almost EVERYTHING processed has a shit-ton of sugar.

My two drachmas: cut the sugar (as in eliminate as much as possible), increase protein, focus on "good" carbs, eat more veggies.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

@Diamondback 2/2 , I feel ya man. I really do, but could not drop a pound while drinking beer. EVERYONE in circle drinks beer, hence, I drink beer. And my weight loss suffers because of it.

Sweets, carby shit, etc have no effect on me - but offer me a beer...I'm fucked. Not even to get drunk, just because I fucking love the taste of a good cold beer.

Yep, going from being a case a day guy (with no exercise) to try and keep it under a 12pk and only on the weekend, has been the biggest difference for me. I'm going to give it a month and see if I can continue to loose weight with diet change and keeping the beer. If it's not working, than I'll have to address it.

It's a bit awkward for me, I've let my physical fitness go so long, that now it's just about being healthier vs performance, hints the not wanting to give up my beer.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

Sugar, sugar, sugar. It will kill you. It is amazing what has a lot of sugar: most fruit, sports drinks, energy drinks....almost EVERYTHING processed has a shit-ton of sugar.

My two drachmas: cut the sugar (as in eliminate as much as possible), increase protein, focus on "good" carbs, eat more veggies.

I've cut out all cain sugar, well unless they put any in Bud Light.? But I was always told fruit based sugar is good, where cain based sugar is bad. Is that wrong?

I'm not eating anything processed currently, my family eats very healthy for the most part, we've cut all sugary drinks, we don't do canned veggies, fried foods, or fatty meats. We do eat rice, just about every meal, except for stews and soups (home made), breads and tortillas are probably one of the harder things to avoid in our diet, but I've been able to cut out bread for myself and use corn tortillas vs flower.

 

[Devildoc]

Part of the "wrong thinking" is the while there are, indeed, "good" carbs and "bad" carbs, there are also "good" sugars and "bad" sugars. A better way to look at it, perhaps, is "natural" vs "unnatural." An apple has sugar; so does a Snickers. One boots the body's blood sugar faster than the other and therefore elicits an insulin response differently. The rapid spike in blood sugar gets a big bolus of insulin, which leads to a whole hormonal cascade of badness.

All that said if you have to choose, you will choose the apple over the Snickers. It IS better for you. The other side of the coin is that the apple still has a lot of sugar, and may not play well with insulin and other hormones.

If you look at the broad view of most eating plans (I refuse to call them "diets) they are all variations on a theme, which is low-sugar, moderate-carb: Atkins, Paleo, Trim Healthy Mama (yes, there is such a plan, and it is a good one), South Beach, etc.

 

[LibraryLady]

Beer = sugar.

Look into the chemistry of alcohol. I know someone else can rattle off the pertinent details, I'm lacking caffeine and time to do it this morning.

LL

 

[Devildoc]

Basically, during fermentation yeast breaks down sugar into alcohol. Although the sugar "converts," it is not eliminated. And depending on what you drink, sugar is added to the process: sugar in malted barley --> beer, sugar in crushed grapes --> wine, etc.

Furthermore, the finished product results in increased insulin production which can lead to low blood sugar, and the alcohol can inhibit the body's response to low glucose.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

So for the science types here - If I stayed away from enjoying two high calorie 12 oz beers in the evening, and went instead to 5 or 6 oz of bourbon or wine, would that make a difference, or is alcohol a no-go regardless, when you are trying to drop weight?

 

[Devildoc]

So for the science types here - If I stayed away from enjoying two high calorie 12 oz beers in the evening, and went instead to 5 or 6 oz of bourbon or wine, would that make a difference, or is alcohol a no-go regardless, when you are trying to drop weight?

While there is 0 grams of sugar in some beers (craft beers and specialty beers can have quite a bit), the carbs will get broken down into glucose, which is a form of sugar. So consult Dr. Google to see what beer is 0 grams/low-carb, and which are not. A regular ol' Bud has 4 grams of carbs per 12 oz can.

There is almost no carb and no sugar in straight bourbon.

So what that comes down to is the calorie count of each: two 12-oz beers of 200 cals each is 400 cals, or about 30-45 min of exercise to burn. Six ounces of bourbon is about 420 calories (at 120 cals/2 oz), so about the same.

When it comes to liquor where a lot of people get into trouble are the mixtures and add-ins.

Edited to add, I like my booze, all of it...beer, wine, liquor. I just moderate my amount and adjust exercise accordingly. Also, some of this info came from just googling some of this stuff.

 

[Gunz]

Or just eat less those days? I totally get the "don't drink beer" side of things, but I simply know I will, my buddies all drink beer, I like beer, what's the point of living healthy if you can't enjoy the good things in life, etc, etc.

I'm going to start the food journal today, also going to substitute carrots, celery and cucumbers for the fruit snack during the day. Still going to do the cup of mixed fruit for breakfast.

I wish you luck, brother. I drink 3 or 4 beers every afternoon before dinner and I don't want to have to give it up. If they ever tell me I can't have my 2 cups of joe in the morning and my beers in the afternoon, that's when I check out.

But...keep eating healthy and exercising and try to cut back on the beer. (Easy for me to say.)Maybe just try to put more positives into your day to balance the negatives.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

So for the science types here - If I stayed away from enjoying two high calorie 12 oz beers in the evening, and went instead to 5 or 6 oz of bourbon or wine, would that make a difference, or is alcohol a no-go regardless, when you are trying to drop weight?

A old friend of mine (67 years old) stopped drinking beer all day and went to a glass to two glasses of bourbon a day. He was a case of beer a day guy as well, but had some real heart issues (had his pilot license pulled). He lost about 40lbs almost immediately (in like 6-8 wks). He was drinking about 4-6 oz glass of Makers Mart over the course of several hours. Although he did drink like 5 diet cokes along with it. But he lost alot, I mean pretty chunky guy to bean pole. Not saying what he did is healthy, but he did drop a lot of fat.

I had another buddy, who ballooned up to 290lbs (normally about 190lbs), he literally starved himself for about a month, then started a healthy diet and daily exercise, he is smaller than mean right now. But is still drinking beer, he is in a crossfit gym though, which is far more intensive than the P90X I'm currently doing.

 

[Devildoc]

A old friend of mine (67 years old) stopped drinking beer all day and went to a glass to two glasses of bourbon a day. He was a case of beer a day guy as well, but had some real heart issues (had his pilot license pulled). He lost about 40lbs almost immediately (in like 6-8 wks). He was drinking about 4-6 oz glass of Makers Mart over the course of several hours. Although he did drink like 5 diet cokes along with it. But he lost alot, I mean pretty chunky guy to bean pole. Not saying what he did is healthy, but he did drop a lot of fat.

I had another buddy, who ballooned up to 290lbs (normally about 190lbs), he literally starved himself for about a month, then started a healthy diet and daily exercise, he is smaller than mean right now. But is still drinking beer, he is in a crossfit gym though, which is far more intensive than the P90X I'm currently doing.

And this is a case of calorie counting. Beer is pretty caloric, 145 calories in a Bud (110 in Bud light). So, two a day is about 300 calories, which is about 30 min of pretty intense exercise to burn. So all things being equal, no additional calories and no additional exercise, your weight shouldn't change. Take some of the richer, ticker beers, they are worse, around 200 cals each.

Me, I drink usually one a day, sometimes two, adjust my exercise and diet accordingly.