At a minimum you should be shooting for 1g of protein per pound of Lean Body Mass you want. A lot of beginners find it easier to just eat 1g/protein per pound of pure bodyweight. So, if your goal is 115 lbs, then eat at least 115g of protein.
Also, if you don’t take steps to prevent being in a catabolic state, you’ll hit your goal weight but look rather awful/skinny fat. I know it’s a hard thing to get used to, but eating more can often result in losing MORE fat a helluva lot faster. Plus, with the right foods, you’ll look a lot better in the end.
I’m going to echo ninjaboy, too… try cutting out those 50g of carbs and see how your body responds. It worked well for me, and I’ve since discovered I need to keep my carbs below 100g/day (the lower the better).
[quote]darwin420 wrote:
At a minimum you should be shooting for 1g of protein per pound of Lean Body Mass you want. A lot of beginners find it easier to just eat 1g/protein per pound of pure bodyweight. So, if your goal is 115 lbs, then eat at least 115g of protein.
Also, if you don’t take steps to prevent being in a catabolic state, you’ll hit your goal weight but look rather awful/skinny fat. I know it’s a hard thing to get used to, but eating more can often result in losing MORE fat a helluva lot faster. Plus, with the right foods, you’ll look a lot better in the end.
I’m going to echo ninjaboy, too… try cutting out those 50g of carbs and see how your body responds. It worked well for me, and I’ve since discovered I need to keep my carbs below 100g/day (the lower the better).
Happy lifting!![/quote]
Alighty. 1200+ calories a day, 120g from protien, 50g carbs but can I reduce the ‘net’ calorie intake back to 1000aprox. calories through training or is that defeating the point?
What about the days I don’t lift - if I eat the same I’ll be getting 1200/1300 calories which is about the same as my BMR, don’t I need to knock of a few hundred calories to do the cal in=<cal out equation or I’ll just be maintaining won’t I or even gaining (…the horror of it!)
Personally, I can’t tell week to week if I’m losing fat just by looking in the mirror. I just can’t. I measure the inches around my bellybutton, and I correlate it with scale pounds to how much fat I’ve lost.
I realize I’m more than a little bit late, but I figured I’d chime in, because no one else has posted this technique.
I don’t like to have different diets on training/non-training days. To me, it’s just simpler to cook if I eat the same quantities of stuff every day. It’s not like your actual caloric intake differs that much (note- this is a highly controversial issue. While science has shown you’re still recovering from a workout 24-48 hours later, many trainnees, prisoner and CT among them, have experienced good growth adjusting only their PWO calories to gain, and lowering pre-workout calories to cut, or carb-cycling) To me, the kcal thing is a weekly average anyways, so why not act like it?
But if you do take ninjaboys advice and have different training/non-training days, yeah, dropping 200kcal on off days is a good idea.
Thanks I think I’m set, I’ll put a bit of time into planning the diet structure and meals and planning the on-days-off-day schedule.
I’m not keeping a jounal or log on here as I keep a food log and diary on the daily plate, but I do update my profile page which has my current data/stats.
Maybe in a few weeks I’ll get the courage to post up before and after photos too.
[quote]Niranu wrote:
Thanks I think I’m set, I’ll put a bit of time into planning the diet structure and meals and planning the on-days-off-day schedule.
I’m not keeping a jounal or log on here as I keep a food log and diary on the daily plate, but I do update my profile page which has my current data/stats.
Maybe in a few weeks I’ll get the courage to post up before and after photos too.[/quote]
Stick with it Niranu!
I’ll look forward to watching your sucess.
[quote]Niranu wrote:
Alighty. 1200+ calories a day, 120g from protien, 50g carbs but can I reduce the ‘net’ calorie intake back to 1000aprox. calories through training or is that defeating the point?
[/quote]
That’s about right, eat enough to keep your metabolism up, and your training will help to create a larger caloric deficit.
Beer is a source of both carbohydrates and alcohol, and should probably be avoided all together during a diet, or limited to a small (1 glass a week) amount.
To answer your other questions, on days when you don’t lift, eat around 1200 cals, on days when you do lift, eat around 1400. Remember, your BMR is the number of calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day. Your actually daily caloric expenditure is higher by several hundred calories. Also, if you’re lifting heavy weights, as Otep noted you’ll still be recovering the next day, and will have an elevated metabolism.
On a side note, I’ve found the best way to add 200 cals to workout days is with a post workout shake. That way, I don’t have to change my overall diet, cooking, etc, I just have to have an extra drink. It also creates a half way decent carb cycling protocal without having to really think about it all that much.
Can’t wait to see how you do, good luck!
You caloric expenditure is going to vary from day to day, even between lifting days and non-lifting days. As Otep said, keeping the same intake day to day is a much simpler way to go, and your body won’t be negatively affected. So what if you burn 200 fewer calories on your off day. It’s just more fuel for your muscle recovery.
The more muscle you build, the more you’ll boost your metabolism, and the faster you’ll lose fat.
