Diet For a Non-Diet.

Diet and Nutrition
1

First off after much arguing and trial and error I have taking the nutritional advice of many of you on the site.

I work out 5 days a week:

Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesday: Upper Body
Thursday: Lower Body
Saturday: Plyometrics

(1/2 hour of light cardio pre workout, 1/2 hour of running post workout Mon to Thurs)

I lift heavy as I possibly can with out having an aneurism: dead lifts, squats, etc, usually 3 sets times 4 reps.

Any ways I have upped my calories to about 2800 plus a day, I am trying to loose some body fat while keeping and attempting to build muscle. My diet consists of four protein shakes a day, in them I put:

Base Protein Drink: 250 Cals
1 Cup Whole Milk: 120 Cals
1 Tbls Peanut Butter: 110 Cals
1 Tbls Flax Oil: 130 Cals
1 Tbls Benifiber 10 Cals
Some sort of fruit for flavor

Total: 620 Cals

I have 4 of these shakes a day, and one solid meal of beef , chicken, or some other high protein food. In addition to this I’ll eat some nuts if I feel hungry, almonds, pistachios, or walnuts. To drink I stick with water and green tea.

I was wondering if there was any sort of nutrients I’m missing that I really need with this type of diet? Does any one know any thing that I should change out from this sort of diet?

Thanks,
Smack

2

Where are the fruits and veggies? You want most of your calories to be from real meals not from shakes. I’d redo that whole meal plan. Also how tall are you how much do you weigh?

3

I blend up the fruit in my shakes, and the nuts I eat as a snack.

I’m 5’8" sitting at about 190 right now.

4

Calories aren’t everything. We would need to see how much protein/carbs/fat you’re taking in as well.

And yeah, I would switch it up to take in more real food rather than most of it from protein shakes. Or at least 50/50.

5

What are your goals?

You should be eating 1 to 2 servings of vegetables with every meal…right now you’re eating zero. I also agree with the other posters in that you need more solid food meals.

6

Well I’m trying to drop body fat while keeping my muscle mass. Between my four shakes and extra nuts and so forth I would say I?m getting a bit over 225g of protein a day. I?m probably getting around 70 to 100 grams of fat maybe a bit more, but I’m focusing on getting rid of processed food. Most all my carbs are from fruits that I mix into my shakes.

Quick break down

Protein: 225 +
Carbs: < 125
Fat: 70 to 100g (Most all of my fats are coming from my nuts and flax seed oil)

7

[quote]Smack78 wrote:
First off after much arguing and trial and error I have taking the nutritional advice of many of you on the site.

I work out 5 days a week:

Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesday: Upper Body
Thursday: Lower Body
Saturday: Plyometrics

(1/2 hour of light cardio pre workout, 1/2 hour of running post workout Mon to Thurs)

I lift heavy as I possibly can with out having an aneurism: dead lifts, squats, etc, usually 3 sets times 4 reps.

Any ways I have upped my calories to about 2800 plus a day, I am trying to loose some body fat while keeping and attempting to build muscle. My diet consists of four protein shakes a day, in them I put:

Base Protein Drink: 250 Cals
1 Cup Whole Milk: 120 Cals
1 Tbls Peanut Butter: 110 Cals
1 Tbls Flax Oil: 130 Cals
1 Tbls Benifiber 10 Cals
Some sort of fruit for flavor

Total: 620 Cals

I have 4 of these shakes a day, and one solid meal of beef , chicken, or some other high protein food. In addition to this I’ll eat some nuts if I feel hungry, almonds, pistachios, or walnuts. To drink I stick with water and green tea.

I was wondering if there was any sort of nutrients I’m missing that I really need with this type of diet? Does any one know any thing that I should change out from this sort of diet?

Thanks,
Smack
[/quote]

I’m not a genius of diets, so feel free to ignore me.

I’m a bit confused. You are trying to lose fat, but you are taking in close to 3 grand calories a day. This just doesn’t feel very right…

Using whole milk, peanut butter, flax seed and fruit all in one sitting? Except for the lucky few (muwhaha) who have the fat storage of water (eg, about none), this is going to lard you up pretty soon. The best principle, which I have found to, and seen, work, is to try split your fat and carbs apart, not stash them togeather.

I think you need to just sit down and go “IM GOING TO LOSE FAT” or “IM GOING TO GAIN MUSCLE” and choose one; your goal is still “lose fat, gain muscle baby! light weight baby!!!”

8

[quote]AKA wrote:
I’m not a genius of diets[/quote]

The rest of your post made that obvious. :slight_smile:

To the OP- while I agree with all of the real food comments, I don’t think it’s really all that necessary for short term dieting, if that’s your goal. The shakes you list sound fairly decent, and the real food meal is a good idea to help balance it out.

The real question is- how is this working for you? We can’t really tell you if it’s too much or too little or even the wrong thing without knowing what results you’ve been seeing.

9

Well I started up-ing my cals based on some feed back from this site. I was taking in only about 2K cals a day, but my cardio burns about 900cals a day alone. So I used the Dr. B calc to figure out what I need (it came out about 2400 a day). I’m thinking of dropping the Peanut butter from my shakes since I started adding flax seed oil.

As far as how I feel, I feel great. If I get my 4 shakes and my one meal, I’m never hungery and I really enjoy my one good healthy meal a day. I’ve lost about 20lbs over the past 3 months, and I see I’m clearly getting more defined.

The reason I’m thinking of changing out my Peanut butter for flax is because I love red meat. I know flax will help with cholesterol, and the meats and nuts both have saturated fats in it. My goal is to have a healthy lean body at about 12% body fat.

I do get vegies in my one meal. I have things like Chicken Creaser salads, or a raw meat dish I like with some vegies on the side. Things like this.

The reason I decided to go this route was because of the side effect of the velocity diet. When to are forced to eat in such a controlled manner you loose cravings for unhealthy foods. I really have seen this. I don’t even think about soda any more, the thought of processed food are no longer appealing. I had a burger the other day and the processed white bun just didn’t feel right.

I don’t all ways eat this way, I work on the weekends so I do eat more regular meals at this time.

As far as my cals, yes I think I’m going to pair it down again from almost 3K to about the 2400 to 2500 cals Dr. B’s calc recommended.

10

[quote]Smack78 wrote:
Well I started up-ing my cals based on some feed back from this site. I was taking in only about 2K cals a day, but my cardio burns about 900cals a day alone. So I used the Dr. B calc to figure out what I need (it came out about 2400 a day). I’m thinking of dropping the Peanut butter from my shakes since I started adding flax seed oil.[/quote]

As long as it’s natural peanut butter and not that processed crap there is no reason not to continue using it if you like it.

Also- what the hell kind of cardio are you doing that burns 900 cals? If you are relying on the machine to tell you that it’s way off- by a factor of at least 2, maybe more. Those numbers are based on worst case (i.e. a 500lb fattie with no endurance).

[quote]As far as how I feel, I feel great. If I get my 4 shakes and my one meal, I’m never hungery and I really enjoy my one good healthy meal a day. I’ve lost about 20lbs over the past 3 months, and I see I’m clearly getting more defined.

The reason I’m thinking of changing out my Peanut butter for flax is because I love red meat. I know flax will help with cholesterol, and the meats and nuts both have saturated fats in it. My goal is to have a healthy lean body at about 12% body fat.[/quote]

Is that your long term or short term goal? To be more defined and healthy at 12%? That’s a decent goal, just make sure you eventually find a eating plan you can live with the rest of your life. Short term dieting is only good for, umm… short term.

On the cholesterol thing- do you currently have an issue with high cholesterol? If not I wouldn’t sweat it. There really is very little coorelation between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol levels. Eat your red meat and saturated fat and be happy. Don’t fall into the 90’s way of thinking that fat makes you fat. It doesn’t. Quite the contrary actually.

You eat raw meat? Seriously? Or by raw do you mean just a slab of meat, but still cooked?

Also- don’t assume a ceaser salad is actually healthy. I personally don’t consider lettuce a vegetable in the dietary sense, given the high percentage of water. Eat your green veggies that have more substance, i.e. brocolli, green beans, spinach, brussell sprouts, etc.

That’s good that you got these results from the V-Diet. Some people don’t. Just keep in mind it was only 28 days long for a reason. It sounds like you are still on it, just a modified version. I would think eventually your fat burning abilities will dry up without some variations.

What does a regular meal consist of?

Drop it slowly…

11

eengrms76 thanks for the comprehensive feedback.

First yes it is 100% natural organic PB. I go to whole foods where they just grind up fresh peanuts right in front of you and you take home the resulting butter.

As far as my cardio, I mix interval running, stair climbing, and biking. Yes I am loosely basing it off the numbers on the machines, but I do enter in my weight age etc so you may be right (not sure)

No it is not my long term goal to eat like this, I do however actually find this easier then meal planning, and I find it is a good “non-starving” my self way to loose fat and know exactly what my cal balance is.

I really have no idea what my cholesterol is, I’ve never had is checked. = )

Yes I do eat raw meat, many times a week. It’s a middle eastern dish I LOVE. I do like broccoli, spinach, and cucumbers. I do eat them just not every day.

During the weekends when I don’t eat like this, usually a whole chicken through out the day with some cottage cheese. I’m going high protein higher fat, and trying to keep all my carbs from fresh fruit < 120 a day.

As far as calorie reduction, if I dropped to only 1/2 a tbls of flax oil in my shakes that would shave off 230cals right there, and maybe only 1/2 my shakes would have peanut butter and I would be right at my 2400 to 2500 calories that I should be getting.

Again thanks for all the well thought out questions and feed back.

12

Personally, I think you are paying too much attention to small stuff and not enough attention to getting fruits and vegetables with every meal.