Help Critique My Daily Diet

djsk · 2009-03-27 05:09:36 UTC

Could you guys please help me critique my daily food consumption?

I am 5'9" 168 lbs and currently my goal is to get rid of my love handle. It's not very big but it's there and it bothers me.

7:00am: I wake up and have a whey protein shake (Grow).

8:30am: At work I eat one and half serving of oatmeal with fresh fruit and green tea. Usually it's blueberries but when they are not in season i do apple or banana. I also have two pills of Flameout. (Can't afford to have four a day)

Usually I don't have much time after breakfast and lunch since i'm stuck in meetings. If i'm not, I usually snack on fruit and non salted trail mix.

Lunch: Lunch is a wild card for me since I go out to eat every lunch. But i always try to eat healthy by picking out fish, lean meat, chicken, and always get salad with dressing on the side.

4:00pm: This is my pre-work out snack. I have an apple, banana and non salted trail mix or just raw almonds and walnuts.

5:00pm: Work out for one hour to hour and half M,W,TR with cardio T, and weekends. I used to do long distance running but I quit doing it for sprints instead for cardio.

6:30pm: Surge with creatine after my work out.

7:30pm: For dinner for my main course i either have tuna, salmon, canned tuna, eggs, chicken, or beef. And I always eat my main course with a bowl of salad mix with no dressing, brown rice or sweet potato, and kimchee. Kimchee is a Korean dish. It's spicy fermented cabbage. There was a article on T-Nation about how good it was. I like it since it gives me a spicy salty add on to my food.

8:00-9:00: Sometimes I snack on fruits. Right now it's tangerines.

What do you guys think?

And could you guys help me answer some questions too?
-Since I can only afford to have two Flameout pills, should I just buy regular cheap fish oils from Costco and take those too with the flameouts?
-I usually sleep around 11:30-12:00, should i drink a protein shake before bed for what I am trying to achieve?
-And what do you guys think about my late night fruit habit? I'm starting to think all that sugar and carbs late at night isnt helping. Maybe I should cut that out.

Thanks for the help.

icwallac · 2009-03-27 05:18:11 UTC

I don’t see much vegetables outside of the salad at lunch. I think that might be a better option for late night snacking rather than fruit which you have more of early in the day.

Northernlion · 2009-03-27 05:23:19 UTC

What are you looking for with this critique? Most of your foods are clean but I can’t be arsed to put it into fitday and see what the calories are. If you’re serious about losing fat (a lot of people here will probably mock you for trying to lose weight at 5’9 168lbs but do what you want to do) then you need to do your Harrison-Benedict, -500 calories and then hit that consistently with the help of a food log.

If you’re looking for specific points of improvement:

It’s probably a bit too carb heavy and protein weak. You should be having sizeable amounts of protein with every meal (pre-workout could use some work, I’m going by memory here). I have a suspicion you’re not eating enough calories which, as you know, will counterintuitively lead to more fat retention. I don’t consume any sizable amount of carbs after the midway point in my day and I find that works great for me but perhaps you’re less carb sensitive (if progress slows, remove carbs in the evening). Watch ordering at restaurants because they can hide calories.

Northernlion · 2009-03-27 05:27:51 UTC

Just in addition for the other questions at the end:

-I am a poor student so I use incredibly cheap fish oil. It’s hard for me to tell when supplementation is working because I always use it in conjunction with clean eating but I have had no negative effects from it at the very least

-I would say YES because you need more protein but you already have adequate use of supplements considering how much more protein you could add to your diet in whole foods. It’s not a bad idea.

EDIT: Even if you don’t have a shake before bed you should have something high in protein (particularly a slow digestor like casein, found in cottage cheese) and probably fat. All of this advice is T-Nation canon that can be found in spades in the articles by Berardi, Lowery, etc.

Avocado · 2009-03-27 21:15:32 UTC

Your diet is pretty shit, sorry to say.

The food is good food but in the wrong proportions and for the wrong goals.

First, you should also provide us with your training program as well. that could be a huge factor in your lack of progress.

your diet:

is high in carbs and sugar
is low in protein
is low in fat
is too small

Barring some portion sizing issues you need to eat in the following style. you want to lose fat on a very small body. To do this is very hard. It is far easier to build more muscle and create a higher metabolism. But your call bad or not. the following is an example diet that would need the portions adjusted to fit but would likely work “OK” with the portions as is based on better food choice alone:

200g meat
protein shake [40g pro]
fiberous veggie that is green [7g of fiber total]

200g meat
small amount of SALTED nuts [salt is alright unless you go insane with it. good for training people. keeps you from getting lightheaded and other things. fear not some sodium]
Fiberous veggie [7g fiber]

pre WO whey shake [20g pro]

PWO whey shake [40g pro, see no Surge? I love Surge but It’s is full of sugar you cant afford. something tells me your training would not warrant it, buy low carb MD instead]

200g meat
fiberous veggie [10g fiber total]

pre bed shake

that is a skeletal outline of a more appropriate target diet. See how there’s nothing that digest too fast and little to no sugar.

With the small amount of cash muscle you have to work with you must keep the sugar low. Keep the protein hella high as in about 300g/day. I notice that when the protein goes way up the gut gets way low much easier.

Also, be sure to have a legit program that has had proven results. go for one on here that has worked for others.

Get a cheap bottle of liquid fish oil such as nutra sea brand and take about 2 TBSP/ day with your lunch and dinner. It will help the Flameout out and do wonders for your insulin sensitivity.