T Nation

Help. Am I Starving Myself?

Supplements and Nutrition
#1

I wanted to reach out to all the Gurus in this site in regards to my current diet. A little bit of bacground:
I weighed in at 185 lbs and was active in MMA 8 years ago until I hyperextended my right arm grappling with Jake Shields. In addition to that marriage,kids,poor diet, not working out and long commute to work contributed to me gaining weight and BALOONING to 260 lbs.

I started working out again on 1/1/2010 like everyone else and got down to 244LBS and plateaud! I got discouraged and went back to my old ways. Then on 7/1/2010 started again. On 8/16 I started my diet and broke the plateau and weighed in at 239lbs.

Here it is my “diet” and schedule for everyone to critique!

4:50AM - 1/2C cottage cheese |10-20 pcs frozen blueberries| 1 scoop muscle milk with water.
5:30AM -GYM (M.T.TH.F)
6:30-7:00AM- Apple or banana with 10 egg whites and 1/2 cup cottage cheese (no cottage cheese on off days)
10:00AM- ON protein shake 2 scoops or 1 can tuna in water
1:000Pm- 4 oz chicken breast boiled with broccoli or brown rice or sweet potato
4:00PM- ON protein shake 2 scoops or 1 can tuna in water
7:00PM- Salmon or Steak or Chicken with broccoli or brown rice or sweet potato
10:00PM- 1/2 cup cottage cheese.

SUPPLEMENTS
Amino 2222, glucosamine 2 tabs, fiber one 2 tabs, multivitamin, calcium chews x 3, fish oil 6g,
vit C 500mg, EC STACK (25mg E and 200mg C- 3 times a day)I started with half the dose prior to going to this.
WATER CONSUMPTION
1 gallon and a half

#2

Honestly that doesn’t look like enough food. I eat more than that when I am dieting and I weight 185 lbs. Everyone loses weight differently, but I do well when I lose weight real slowly, that helps preventing plateaus. So my maintenance calories are around 3000k / day without including exercise. So when I’m dieting I shoot for around 2500-3000.

The other thing that works really well for me is carb cycling. A sample diet / workout routine that I’ve used looks like this:

Day 1: Chest / Back (high carbs)
Day 2: Lactate + Steady State Cardio (low carb)
Day 3: Rest (low carb)
Day 4: Legs (high carbs)
Day 5: Shoulders (medium carb)
Day 6: Lactate + Steady State Cardio (low carb)
Day 7: Rest (low carb)

As I mentioned before, everyone is different, but slow weight loss + carb cycling works well for me. I honestly would think about eating a bit more food.

#3

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#4

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
In my opinion, you are not eating enough fat. Why would your body let go of this most crucial of nutrients if it is not getting a steady intake.

Honestly, some people are outstanding at storing every last gram of fat. I have a client who trails triathlon yet is fat. Why? because like many people, he is scared to eat fat.

BBB[/quote]

Agreed, embrace the fat!

#5

Thank you for the feed back ethanwest and bushidobadboy I will adjust and add more food and quality fats to my diet. It’s amazing though that when I prepare all of these foods for a day, it feels so much to take in.

So @ 237 I should be consuming somewhere around 3500-4000 Cals per day?

I was also planning to start complexes this coming Monday morning. I’m on EC stack of 200mg C and 25mg E. What are your thoughts on doing this?

#6

[quote]ethanwest wrote:
Honestly that doesn’t look like enough food. I eat more than that when I am dieting and I weight 185 lbs. Everyone loses weight differently, but I do well when I lose weight real slowly, that helps preventing plateaus. So my maintenance calories are around 3000k / day without including exercise. So when I’m dieting I shoot for around 2500-3000.

The other thing that works really well for me is carb cycling. A sample diet / workout routine that I’ve used looks like this:

Day 1: Chest / Back (high carbs)
Day 2: Lactate + Steady State Cardio (low carb)
Day 3: Rest (low carb)
Day 4: Legs (high carbs)
Day 5: Shoulders (medium carb)
Day 6: Lactate + Steady State Cardio (low carb)
Day 7: Rest (low carb)

As I mentioned before, everyone is different, but slow weight loss + carb cycling works well for me. I honestly would think about eating a bit more food.[/quote]

Thanks for the feedback man. What are your thoughts on doing Cpmplexes in the morning while on EC stack?
What to eat before?

#7

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
In my opinion, you are not eating enough fat. Why would your body let go of this most crucial of nutrients if it is not getting a steady intake.

Honestly, some people are outstanding at storing every last gram of fat. I have a client who trails triathlon yet is fat. Why? because like many people, he is scared to eat fat.

BBB[/quote]

Besides Steak ofcourse what are your suggestions to get a daily good fat intake? Nuts?

#8

Be careful with the nuts because they are easy to overdo with. However, maybe get 2 tbsp of peanut butter in a day, make sure you cook everything with olive oil. Also, try adding some avocado into your diet. That will help with the Omega-6, but you still need to get the Omega-3 in, so I would recommend trying to eat fatty fish on a pretty frequent basis, salmon is hard to go wrong with.

As for the complexes, nothing wrong with that. I like to do fasted HIIT training in the morning when cutting fat. I just usually need something to get my ass out of bed with when I’m on low carbs, like a Spike or 5-hour energy.

#9

Another great way to boost healthy fats is to add a bit of olive or flaxseed oil to your shakes. I actually think this makes their consistency better–they’re richer and smoother.

Also, this is a minor point, but I recently read about antioxidants and dairy. Basically, blueberries are one of the top foods (up there with red wine and pomegranate seeds) with respect to antioxidant properties, which can have a great effect on recovery and disease prevention. However, dairy products block your body’s absorption. I would swap the blueberries for a different fruit in your breakfast, and incorporate the blueberries as a snack sometime when you don’t also have dairy.

Congrats on the fat loss, keep kicking ass.

#10

[quote]MediumStrong wrote:
Another great way to boost healthy fats is to add a bit of olive or flaxseed oil to your shakes. I actually think this makes their consistency better–they’re richer and smoother.

Also, this is a minor point, but I recently read about antioxidants and dairy. Basically, blueberries are one of the top foods (up there with red wine and pomegranate seeds) with respect to antioxidant properties, which can have a great effect on recovery and disease prevention. However, dairy products block your body’s absorption. I would swap the blueberries for a different fruit in your breakfast, and incorporate the blueberries as a snack sometime when you don’t also have dairy.

Congrats on the fat loss, keep kicking ass.[/quote]

awesome! will go to the store today and make another grocery run. I’m taking 600mg of fish oil already so still take flaxseed right? no more blueberries for breakfast. orange ok?

237 today even with breakfast in the tummy and 30oz of water!

#11

[quote]likewatr61 wrote:

awesome! will go to the store today and make another grocery run. I’m taking 600mg of fish oil already so still take flaxseed right? no more blueberries for breakfast. orange ok?

237 today even with breakfast in the tummy and 30oz of water!
[/quote]

I take around 15-20 GRAMS of Fish Oil when I’m dieting and taking in mainly protein along with flax seeds and a couple other fat sources. Getting all of these healthy fats into you should speed the process up.

#12

If you’re already taking fish oil, spending the extra money on flaxseed oil probably isn’t necessary. I’d go with a cheap bottle of olive oil.

Orange is great for breakfast–and definitely keep the blueberries in your diet, just eat 'em without dairy.

237, rock on.

#13

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
In my opinion, you are not eating enough fat. Why would your body let go of this most crucial of nutrients if it is not getting a steady intake.

Honestly, some people are outstanding at storing every last gram of fat. I have a client who trails triathlon yet is fat. Why? because like many people, he is scared to eat fat.

BBB[/quote]

Should I consider getting CLA with what I’m taking below?

9 caps of Fish oil 1200 mg each tab, 3 tabs on breakfast, lunch and dinner.
2 tbsp of Almond butter at night
preparing foods with either olive oil or what do you think about Coconut oil or palm oil?