Dieting Question

When you’re creating a food log and working out your macronutrients and percentages, should I be counting the protein amounts from vegetable sources? An ounce of raw almonds, for example, has 5.7 grams of protein. Should I be counting that towards my goal of 1 gram per lb of bodyweight per day? I ask because I’ve heard we should only count complete proteins.

I'm starting T-Dawg on Monday and am putting together a spreadsheet. I want to try and work out as many details as I can now. Same thing with fiber. Should I consider that in my totals or subtract it from the total carbohydrates? I've heard it both ways for both vege protein and fiber, so thought I'd throw it out to the forum. Thanks!

I would probably count the protein from nuts and incidentals, although it’s likely not going to add up to a large amount anyway. Fiber does not need to be counted toward your carb intake.

Hi, Tyler. I keep a food log in an Excel spreadsheet. I have 4 columns; one for each of the macronutrients and one for calories.



A lot of foods have a combination of 2 or 3 of the macronutrients. I just throw everything in its respective column and total the numbers at the bottom. I count everything.



Re fiber, it’s not absorbed or utilized by the body, nor does it cause the body to produce insulin. I subtract fiber from total carbs.

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Ok, I won’t count the fiber, but I will the protein. TT, I have listed calories and the macros on my spreadsheet, but I also split carbs into “fiber” and “sugars”; and I’m also keeping track of saturated fat. I figured I’d do all this since I was reading food labels anyway and it’s all right there. I’m not too worried about sat. fat, but thought I’d count it anyway. As for fiber, I want to make sure I get 25grams per day (will be mixing some Metamucil or phsyllium in with my shakes). And I also wanted to track my sugars just for the hell of it.

I’m starting T-Dawg Sunday and it couldn’t be a better time for it. I think I’ve put on about 5 lbs of pure lard in the last couple of weeks. I feel like a fat, lazy sack of shit. This will be the kick-in-the-ass I need. Thanks again, guys!

Tyler

Hey Tyler. If you’re doing T-Dawg, then remember to include vegetable protein towards your total calories, but I wouldn’t let it be part of the 1g / lb of protein per day (just cause it’s incomplete)

There’s one thing that I mentioned when doing the Poliquin diet. Remember to NOT count fiber grams as carb grams - with some nutritional labels you have to back calculate the carb grams from the total calories, because the label won’t tell you the fiber grams and will just include them in your carb count. If you do not exclude fiber grams, you won’t be getting enough carbs per day. This isn’t so serious on the T-Dawg diet, but on the Poliquin diet, I nearly starved to death before I figured that out.

Thanks for the tips, El Mac! Yeah, I’m working on my spreadsheet now and find myself having trouble getting in enough active carbs per day. Actually, perhaps you could answer this for me. On the T-Dawg, it originally said to get 70 grams of carbs per day, including the 40 from your post workout shake. However, the few addendums I’ve seen to this diet suggest we take our carbs to 100gr per day (incl the post wo shake), yet if we’re of a higher bodyfat percentage (I’m around 15% right now) we should consider skipping the carbs post-workout. So, I’m kind of lost in terms of what amount of carbs I should be taking in. I’m only up to 38.4 per day right now (fiber content subtracted). BTW, I’m going to be doing Meltdown along with T-Dawg. Any thoughts?

Tyler

Tyler,
If you are leary about taking a post workout shake why not take a scoop of surge during the workout. It will give you the extra pep you will need on a low carb diet. I would also check reader mail on issue 192 regarding the newer version of T-dawg. :slight_smile:

Newbie, it’s not so much the carbs in the post-workout shake that I’m worried about. It’s more the simple carbs. But thanks for pointing me to Issue 192. I had read that and had it in my mind that that was where the “don’t use Surge if you have a higher bodyfat percentage” came from, but I was wrong. In thinking about it more, I believe it was on the Forum that someone suggested that. I believe it was based on the fact the Meltdown didn’t really induce microtrauma in the musles, therefore glycogen replenishment post-workout was not necessary. I think that’s what was said. Anyway, I’m doing a search on that now. Nonetheless, thanks much for feedback!

Tyler

Tyler, while I agree about most vegetable protein not being worth counting, be sure to count your beans if you are eating them with a grain. Together they make a complete protein. I think the formula is 2 parts bean to one part grain, but I am not sure.