T Nation

From Pure Liquid Diet to Protein Shakes and Veggies

#1

Hi everyone, I could use some advice. I have been dieting for the last couple of years and lost over 140 pounds. To do this I’ve gotten progressively stricter so that for the last few months I’ve just been getting by on 2 scoops of protein with 2 cups of milk 4x day. My gut has gone from 56" to 38ish" but I seem to be stuck and my strength gains are crap (been training about 20 years so not a newbie but not very strong these days.)

My question is does it make sense to scrap the milk and instead have my 4 shakes with a big salad or mixed frozen veggies each time. Would probably dump some salad dressing on there as that would give me some fats. I figure this would slash the carbs and sugar in all the milk and hopefully a dress any micronutrients deficiencies leading to fat loss and strength gains. At this point the salads and veggies would be a tasty treat lol. The change would also drop my protein from 273grams a day to 200 grams plus whatever is in the veggies.

Last I checked (couple of weeks ago) I was 233 pounds and according to my skin calipers this morning I’m 22.8% body fat…allegedly…lol.

Thanks for reading and any help would really be appreciated, it can be hard to maintain objectivity when it comes to yourself.

#2

Congratulations on the fat loss. I think you’ll benefit a lot from eating your meals rather than drinking them.

The added fibre plus the extra energy it takes to digest the meals will give you a bit more wriggle room.

I’d do in phases, like this:

Week 1-3: drop morning shake/milk. Replace with veggie and bacon omlette. Keep the rest
Week 3-6: drop the dinner shake/milk. Replace with steak/fish, salad or roast/steamed veggies and rice or potatoes
Week 6-9: drop afternoon shake/milk. Replace with salad and tuna (with dressing).
Week 10+: final shake is alright but you may want to have yoghurt, nuts and fruit instead.

Or similar setup with foods you enjoy. I think this will put you miles ahead of swapping milk for salad.

This will be least disruptive to your current habits and give you the best chance of success.

All that said, I’d expect weight loss to occur if you swapped all your milk for salad but I don’t know how great nutritionally that is.

#3

Thanks for the details, thats awesone. That’s kind of what I was planning when I reached my goal of a 32" gut or abs (if such a thing is possible lol). The shakes help right now because I already cook other stuff for the family so between the time and cost effectiveness for the protein plus…I don’t really trust myself to eat real food yet. I’m afraid of slipping back to my old ways, that’s why I was saving the Atkins type stuff for my maintenance lean gaining phase but I don’t know. It’s the mental aspect, to do this I had to start to see meals as fuel and stop seeing food as pleasure or stress relief so I’m concerned about making progress in my recomp is I start enjoying food again before I’m done.

#4

Just wanted to say thanks again Strongmangoals, your advice helped me beat my food phobia and I’ve shaken off the shake addiction and switched to real food, still very regimented, but real and am making more progress, last over 24 more pounds since my op, and feel much better. Wish you all kinds of gains brother.