Hmmm diet help, dont think I am eating enough.

[Lewtz]

Ok, stats update.

5'10
down to 252 from 261. Think it is mostly water weight, lost it quick.

Anyhow, here is my typical day right now.

6am
2% cottage cheese 1/2 cup, and 6 pineapple chunks from the can.

9am
banana

12noon
fat free yogurt

4pm
chicken breast+ greenbeans+ brown rice.

8pm-9pm depending
supper:
sometimes just tuna and pickles
or turkey sandwich

then i get off work at 5:30 and usaully get to my buddies to workout between 6-7:30 just depending.

it's hard trying to figure out how long before and after a workout I need to eat, and trying to fit it into my schedule

I'm usaully not hungry and if I am I will just bump a meal up a little, no more then 30min though.

I figured up I'm only eating like 1000-1100 calories a day, and I think I might be doing more harm then good doing that.

Just want to nip this problem in the bud really quick if I am. I "think" I feel good. Not sure to be honest. I have eaten like crap for so long, I know I feel better then I did 3 weeks ago, but I also dont know if I could be feeling "better".

Any opinions would be great. Main goal is to lose weight. I weightlift on m/w/f, with a 10min REALLY easy bike cardio warmup. On tues/thur I ride for 45min. On saturdays I'm doing some sort of outdoor activity or riding the bike.

[el_diablo0]

your 1000-1100 calorie food intake is nowhere near enough...believe me, I've been down that road. I basically stayed at the same weight forever when I ate little and exercised a lot (if you drop your daily caloric intake too severly the body will think it's being starved and will slow your metabolism to a grinding halt I think). The main thing that's gotta change I think is the amount of protein you're getting during the day (9 am and noon meals) and have some more carbs in your morning meal.

[Lewtz]

ok, i can add plain wheat toast for breakfast.. easy and quick enough. plus 2 slices would add 140 calories.

not sure easiest thing to add to snacks for protien. I have seen talk of nuts, what kind of nuts? maybe I could do peanut butter. Although I do like meat, what would be some easy meat protien that would be easy to do?

Also heard banana's are not a good fruit to eat while dieting b/c of the sugars in it.

Also is 7oz of tuna to much a night? should i cut back to 3.5 and just add something else in there to eat.

If nothing else I am eating better foods, so adding foods in should be easy now, I can always eat, eating isnt the problem, just need to figure out how much.

[sooner_ed]

Lewtz, I told you yesterday you needed to up your calorie intake. Have you heard the saying you have to spend money to make money? It also goes for food. You have to eat in order to lose weight!

[el_diablo0]

Originally Posted by Lewtz

ok, i can add plain wheat toast for breakfast.. easy and quick enough. plus 2 slices would add 140 calories.

not sure easiest thing to add to snacks for protien. I have seen talk of nuts, what kind of nuts? maybe I could do peanut butter. Although I do like meat, what would be some easy meat protien that would be easy to do?

Also heard banana's are not a good fruit to eat while dieting b/c of the sugars in it.

Also is 7oz of tuna to much a night? should i cut back to 3.5 and just add something else in there to eat.

If nothing else I am eating better foods, so adding foods in should be easy now, I can always eat, eating isnt the problem, just need to figure out how much.

Since you've got the bread on hand...might as well eat it with your 6am meal, add a large boiled egg too

I'd also not have any carbs in your 8-9PM meals, instead, transfer that turkey sandwich over to your 9AM meal, add some vegetables like tomatoes, green peppers, onion, lettuce...etc, extra veggies never hurt anything, I just think it adds some nice texture/flavour to that sandwich.

if you had some whey protein powder, I'd add a scoop of that and some high fiber cereal to your mid-day yogurt

8-9PM meal could be spinach, lettuce, onion, tuna, cottage cheese salad dressed with some balsamic vinnegar and olive oil (I add a lil' salt to the mix myself)

[sooner_ed]

Originally Posted by Lewtz

ok, i can add plain wheat toast for breakfast.. easy and quick enough. plus 2 slices would add 140 calories.

Lewtz, don't get caught up in the numbers game. Your first thought was if I add two slices of toast, that adds 140 calories. Just use some common sense. If you want a bowl of oatmeal, two slices of toast, and a piece of fruit, eat it. If you want cottage cheese, two slices of toast, and a piece of fruit, eat it. Basically, you know how much energy you are going to need for your day's activities. Eat to fuel your activity, regardless of the type of activity. One thing I do quite often is drink up to a liter of water before I have breakfast. I find if I work out first thing in the morning, I'm thirsty enough to drink that much.

Originally Posted by Lewtz

not sure easiest thing to add to snacks for protien. I have seen talk of nuts, what kind of nuts? maybe I could do peanut butter.

Almonds are excellent. Have a handful with some water. I make tuna salad and keep celery sticks with it. As a snack, I'll dip the celery sticks in the tuna salad. Cottage cheese is an excellent source of protein for a snack as well.

Originally Posted by Lewtz

Also heard banana's are not a good fruit to eat while dieting b/c of the sugars in it.

Bananas are just fine any time. Most days, I eat a grapefruit, an orange, and a banana. I did that while I was losing weight as well. The key to losing weight is in the amount of exercise you do. Eat healthy and work your butt off!

Originally Posted by Lewtz

Also is 7oz of tuna to much a night? should i cut back to 3.5 and just add something else in there to eat.

I eat plenty of non-starchy veggies at night. I might have (regardless of the sodium) a couple slices of low-fat or fat-free lunch meat with it. Or perhaps some cottage cheese before I go to bed.

Originally Posted by Lewtz

just need to figure out how much.

This isn't as difficult as it may seem. The key is to drink water before you eat and then take at least 20 minutes to eat. Don't eat fast. Take your time. For me, if I eat at regular intervals, I pretty much know the volume of food I can eat and be full. I have a plate here at home that is for me specifically. It is smaller then everyone else's plate. I pretty much know how much food I can put on that plate that will satisfy my nutritional needs and hunger. The plate always looks full, but compared to what everyone else in my family eats, it's very little. Psychologically, I think I'm eating a lot because I see a "full" plate. Once I finish that plate, I'm done. Many times, I still feel a little hungry, but if I drink some more water and wait about 20 more minutes, I find myself very comfortable.
Most of this is a learning process. You just have to play hit and miss with it. Everyone's appetite is different. Just keep adjusting things until you find exactly what works for you.

[Lewtz]

"Lewtz, I told you yesterday you needed to up your calorie intake. Have you heard the saying you have to spend money to make money? It also goes for food. You have to eat in order to lose weight!"

Heh yeh, reason I am posting this, trying to get it worked out better.

Hard boiled eggs at breakfast are just not gonna cut it, just not quite enough time mon-thur, but I will see if I can work it in. Maybe I could put them on as soon as i wake up, and then take the shower and get dressed and such, and eat them right before i brush my teeth and walk out the door.... fri-sun they would be easy to add in.

i love sandwichs so turkey sandwich at 9am would be fine with me.

guess i could try powder with the yogurt, gotta buy some. Any suggestions on cereal? I'm not real up on cereals. I do love raisen bran though.

"spinach, lettuce, onion, tuna, cottage cheese salad dressed with some balsamic vinnegar and olive oil (I add a lil' salt to the mix myself)"
I'll try that, see fi I like it. What kind of portions here? would 7oz tuna be to much?

so something like this would be better?
6am
2 boiled eggs, 2 pieces of wheat toast

9am
turkey sandwich(2 wheat bread, turkey,cheese)
--how many calories here so i know what kind of turkey and cheese I can be looking at.

noon
-yogurt + whey...maybe add cereal?

4pm
chicken + greenbeans + brown rice

8-9pm
tuna/salad... and its best to not have many carbs here right?

[Lewtz]

ed, thanks bud.
,and thanks diablo also.

I know/see what your saying, just sometimes I start thinking to much, and forget all I have been reading and thinking before.

not possible for me to work out in the mornings, wish it was. But that would require getting up at like 4am, and thats not happening.

I'm out of tuna and almost out of cottage cheese and such, so i'm going to the grocery tonight. I'll make another list(got to or i forget stuff) and add a couple things to my diet.

I really want to do this right, but dont want to hidner myself by not eating enough, to me that seems worse then eating a bit to much. And i know it can cause problems.

..thanks to you both for helping a bit.

[el_diablo0]

Originally Posted by Lewtz

so something like this would be better?
6am
2 boiled eggs, 2 pieces of wheat toast

9am
turkey sandwich(2 wheat bread, turkey,cheese)
--how many calories here so i know what kind of turkey and cheese I can be looking at.

noon
-yogurt + whey...maybe add cereal?

4pm
chicken + greenbeans + brown rice

8-9pm
tuna/salad... and its best to not have many carbs here right?

lookin much better than when you started. Raisin bran is fine for the mid day cereal. supper is good also, yes fewer carbs at night.

Don't be afraid to mix it up a bit when you get bored of eating the same thing day in day out...bur just make it sensible and it'll all be good.

[sooner_ed]

Originally Posted by Lewtz

I really want to do this right, but dont want to hidner myself by not eating enough, to me that seems worse then eating a bit to much.

Eating too much can be fixed easily by an impromptu cardio session to burn it off.
I found in my own experience that there is an awful lot of information that can be asorbed when we want to do things right. And sometimes we get to the point of information overload and things seem to get confusing. What I did was make myself a list of foods that I knew I could eat. I wrote down all of the protein options, the carb options, the fat options, and fruit options. Once I made my list of foods underneath each one of those headings that I knew I would eat, that would be my grocery list. Then I would make my meals from each of one those. If I knew I needed some protein, I picked one from the protein list. Same with the carbs, fats, and fruit. Sometimes we just need to forget about all of the technical detailed information when it comes to losing weight. All of that technical detailed stuff comes in handy once you've lost most or all of your weight and you're working on specific bodybuilding goals. But as far as losing weight, just Keep It Simple. Eat healthy, keep portions in moderation, and work your butt off! As you go through this process, you will find what works and what doesn't work and you will simply make the necessary changes as you go because what works for one person may not work for another.

[Lewtz]

I'll do that this afternoon at work Ed, not much work going on anyhow, and will give me something to look busy on, heh.

[abarlament]

Do you know your BF%? If it's fairly high, you can get away with very low calories.

[Lewtz]

no, but i'm sure it is pretty damn high.