Dietary thread

[chassis]

Ive decided that I'm going to start going on a low carb high protein diet for training.

 

Can anyone offer me advice as to what's good to put on your menu. I know stuff like Tuna is high in protein, but what can I have thats actually low in carbohydrates?

 

Also I'm a pretty big coffee drinker as I said before. Is black coffee(usually filter) high in carbs or what?

[Guest Fishtank]

I'm still trying to lose 10 more lbs by counting calories

no candies, no sodas

glass of red wine every night

[impakt]

No, I'm gonna die young anyway.

[Guest ruiagnelo]

A couple of big macs should do it.

[Guest blicero]

I'm still trying to lose 10 more lbs by counting calories

no candies, no sodas

glass of red wine every night

 

that's the way to go.

 

I've lost 20lbs so far this year without starving myself or massively changing my diet, just by counting calories – there are many great free iphone apps (lose it) and websites (daily burn / calorie king) that make this very simple to do.

 

you can lose a lot of weight just by being aware about how expensive certain items are in terms of caloric intake.

 

it's really a pretty simple concept: eat less calories than your body needs to maintain your current weight and you will lose weight. eat more and you will gain weight.

 

it's been very revelatory for me, so i apologize if it sounds like i'm proselytizing.

 

A couple of big macs should do it.

 

once you see how many calories are in a Big Man meal, you will never eat more than 1 a month.

[encey]

Ive decided that I'm going to start going on a low carb high protein diet for training.

 

Can anyone offer me advice as to what's good to put on your menu. I know stuff like Tuna is high in protein, but what can I have thats actually low in carbohydrates?

 

Also I'm a pretty big coffee drinker as I said before. Is black coffee(usually filter) high in carbs or what?

Carbs are grains, for the most part, so coffee -- liquid w flavors extracted from beans -- is not a carb.

 

Other good sources of protein are cheese (though higher in fat) & milk/soymilk. Beans of various kinds are great too -- chickpeas, pigeon peas, lentils.

 

One simple way to at least lower your carbs would be to have pizzas w thinner crusts, pastas w higher sauce-to-noode ratios, and sandwiches that are open-faced.

[chassis]

Ah, my Achilles heel. I've alternated between extreme calorie counts that came up to 900-1,000 a day while compulsively exercising; I've smashed two sandwiches and fries at Burger King with buttfuck-sized soda.

 

A really important thing to consider is what you want your body to look like. If you are a fatty and want your fat deposits to shrink, it's actually a much better idea to eat a carbohydrate-focused diet and engage in aerobic acivities (brisk walk, jogging, or running >20 minutes). You eat up the glycogen reserves from your muscles and liver, which signals your fat cells to release fatty acid chains into your blood for fuel. You can have an endurance over an hour versus just 20-30 minutes on a strict protein diet. Strict protein diets are hard on your kidneys and make you foggy with all the uric acid floating around in your blood from protein hydrolysis. Just eat like normal people except a little less of it and focus on the "progressive overload principle"--start slow on the track, alternate running and walking--before I knew it, huffing and wanting to puke just by walking a mile at 300 lbs. turned into me running for 3 miles continuously at 185 lbs. Just sayin'. This is an old one for me; food, exercise, and weight have been my bedfellows for a long time.

 

That a good policy for people who feel they're over-weight and want to lose weight.

 

For me, this is all about fat burning and muscle building. I'm about 5"8' or 9' and I am about 10 stone. Ive seen it on one of those weight to height graphs and I'm dead centre of the perfect weight.

 

Ive decided that I'm going to start going on a low carb high protein diet for training.

 

Can anyone offer me advice as to what's good to put on your menu. I know stuff like Tuna is high in protein, but what can I have thats actually low in carbohydrates?

 

Also I'm a pretty big coffee drinker as I said before. Is black coffee(usually filter) high in carbs or what?

Carbs are grains, for the most part, so coffee -- liquid w flavors extracted from beans -- is not a carb.

 

Other good sources of protein are cheese (though higher in fat) & milk/soymilk. Beans of various kinds are great too -- chickpeas, pigeon peas, lentils.

 

One simple way to at least lower your carbs would be to have pizzas w thinner crusts, pastas w higher sauce-to-noode ratios, and sandwiches that are open-faced.

Thats good stuff.

 

What are good snacks to have that aren't heavy on the carbs. Like I just had some popcorn which is ok I think.

 

But more importantly, what kind of alcoholic drinks are good. Beer is my Achilles Heel, so much carbs. Is vodka and use or what?

[encey]

Snacks are tough. You could snack on raw veggies & a dip like mustard -- but you get hungry again soon.

 

Almonds or other nuts are great for staving hunger, but again they're so fatty you can't have a ton of them.

 

Yogurt is decent.

 

Peanut butter or even some kind of powerbar-type food (Clif, Luna, etc.) might have low enough carbs along with the benefit of lots of protein.

 

 

My impression is that you'll tone up most effectively if you work out many times a week, and either alternate between pure cardio and pure, long weight sessions, or do cardio every time and focus on one weight group each day as well.

[chassis]

Snacks are tough. You could snack on raw veggies & a dip like mustard -- but you get hungry again soon.

 

Almonds or other nuts are great for staving hunger, but again they're so fatty you can't have a ton of them.

 

Yogurt is decent.

 

Peanut butter or even some kind of powerbar-type food (Clif, Luna, etc.) might have low enough carbs along with the benefit of lots of protein.

 

 

My impression is that you'll tone up most effectively if you work out many times a week, and either alternate between pure cardio and pure, long weight sessions, or do cardio every time and focus on one weight group each day as well.

 

I found the perfect snack. Tuna.

[plisb]

I watch what I eat and have a strict economy so I end up eating lots of beans, full grain pasta and low fat milk when I do drink that, and sure I eat junk food once in a while but it's the whole picture that matters. And as I stay active and have gotten used to it through-out my youth, eating is mostly a joy for me as there's a need for it and I won't have to restrict myself too much.

 

Anyway, I don't know your knowledge on how the body works or training works. But my advice would be to educate yourself on the matter, if you're really serious about changing your habits and health condition for the better. Read some on what the body needs and how it recovers from training, and handles an increase/decrease in different fat-types/carbs -fibers/white carbs etc/protein.

 

Look at what a body needs and go from there. To try a work around always has its backside as eg. cutting the carbs aint no good for building muscles as you're muscle effect is dependent on recharged muscles, which would be fueled by a fatty/protein-process that aint ment for that. Also if you care about the environment please don't consume more tuna :]

 

When I work out I usually go for pushing my O2/blood-capacitya and through that keeping a high metabolism in total, then having a day off every now and then for recovery. Not that hard really, and fun too when you find good training - that's what you've gotta tell yourself and then just keep it up. It's a sweet thing to do for yourself and the reward is sleeping good at night, and waking up freshhhhhhhhhhh.

 

Eat healthy and enough(educate yrself on that perhaps), start exercising (educate yrself on techniques and progression perhaps), learn to know/understand your body.

[Braintree]

I went vegan a couple months ago, so I have to scrutinize everything I eat. It's rewarding for my conscience, but very frustrating sometimes. Especially when eating out. And it's pretty hard to get enough calories since fruits and vegetables just don't have a whole lot of them. I get enough vitamins, but I'm always struggling to get more calories. I've lost a lot of weight since I started, though. The fattiest food I eat is rice, so I'm starting to tone more.

 

Ive decided that I'm going to start going on a low carb high protein diet for training.

 

Can anyone offer me advice as to what's good to put on your menu. I know stuff like Tuna is high in protein, but what can I have thats actually low in carbohydrates?

 

Also I'm a pretty big coffee drinker as I said before. Is black coffee(usually filter) high in carbs or what?

 

Honestly, you shouldn't worry about carbs. Carbs are what give you a lot of your energy. Try black beans and brown rice. They're very good for you since it makes a complete protein. You're body doesn't have to spend as much energy digesting as it would with other foods.

[chassis]

Vegan

 

Why is this rewarding, I don't get the whole vegetarian thing. I have a friend who is vegetarian but she said its because she cant stand the taste of meat. But I don't understand how its morally wrong.

 

But sure whatever makes ye happy I suppose. Im fairly happy with how its going so far. If I can stay of the junk food I'll be happy enough 'cause I'm the worst for that.

[QBLA]

in october of 2008, i weighed 215... now i weigh 165.

[Guest disparaissant]

I'm lactose intolerant and was vegetarian for ~5 years. So, essentially vegan. It sucked. Don't know why I stuck with it for 5 years, but I guess I was in decent shape the whole time.

[chenGOD]

You know those exercise magazines like men's health or muscle&fitness? They often have diet plans in them that are very effective for what you want.

[Guest analogue wings]

coffee is probably ok in the carb sense, but caffeine can have a big effect on your work out

 

there's some evidence that it makes you burn fat over more readily available carbs when you work out

 

OTOH, it cancels out other supplements like creatine

 

So I guess don't waste your money on creatine

[Guest Blanket Fort Collapse]

... there's zero carbs in black coffee

 

and yeh caffeine and green tea supplements are supposed to be really good for building muscle/losing fat

 

but you can just drink black coffee and green tea instead of paying a bunch for supplements

[Guest Rabid]

Avoid processed foods, in particular processed sugar. Substitute with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats. If you break down and eat some junk now and then don't worry about it; moreover eliminate stress from your life. Eat more often, with less in each meal, 4-6 meals a day. Eat regularly and about the same time each day. Lift weights for longterm metabolism increase and do cardiovascular exercise on your off days.

No, I'm gonna die young anyway.

I used to be mildly bipolar, then I started researching health and fitness. There's nothing more rewarding than a healthy lifestyle, but people are impossible to convince so I won't try.

Kidding aside, I try to at least keep it less than a few cans a month because tuna are apex predators and are one of the high mercury accumulation species. But, I don't know why I should give a fuck about mercury when I drink myself into the ground on some weekends, puke, and then eat McDonald's or other shit late night food to prevent hangover. Mercury is the least of my concerns I think!

Eating tuna will lower your mercury levels.

[Braintree]

Vegan

 

Why is this rewarding, I don't get the whole vegetarian thing. I have a friend who is vegetarian but she said its because she cant stand the taste of meat. But I don't understand how its morally wrong.

 

But sure whatever makes ye happy I suppose. Im fairly happy with how its going so far. If I can stay of the junk food I'll be happy enough 'cause I'm the worst for that.

 

I don't think it's wrong to eat meat, I just don't agree with how the meat/egg/milk industry is run, so I choose not to be a part of it. They treat livestock more like furniture than living creatures. If you have the cash, I would recommend buying meat from Trader Joe's since they're usually grass fed and from smaller farms.

[Guest tysen]

Better than a big one shot overnight change of diet, I think, are multiple small changes over the course of time. For instance, if your favorite meal is a BLT, use mustard instead of mayonnaise (then maybe later switch to whole grain bread, and later on cook the bacon in a way as to almost eliminate the saturated fats). Do small things like that every so often and after a few months your diet will be much improved with no pain.

 

I sound like a miracle drug infomercial.

 

Also, water. Drink loads of water. Drink water when you're not thirsty.

[Muflontillah]

edit:wrong ....(read as DieHard thread)

[chenGOD]

coffee is probably ok in the carb sense, but caffeine can have a big effect on your work out

 

there's some evidence that it makes you burn fat over more readily available carbs when you work out

 

OTOH, it cancels out other supplements like creatine

 

So I guess don't waste your money on creatine

 

 

Sustained caffeine intake can possibly negate creatine effectiveness. One cup in the morning before workout will almost certainly have little to no effect on creatine intake. From the sounds of the OP though, he drinks too much. Drink lots of water, you want to stay hydrated, because your muscles work better when they're hydrated. So one cup of coffee a day, lots of water.

 

Also it sounds like he wants to build muscle mass, in which case he should be taking protein for now anyways, as creatine helps build lean muscle mass. Protein on the other hand is very useful for building raw muscle mass.

 

you should be eating lots of natural protein, like egg whites, chicken breasts, etc etc. Supplement with protein bars a couple of times a day. Make sure to keep eating your veggies though.

 

When i wasn't a student and had time to work out properly my diet was something like this.

 

Breakfast: 2 lightly poached egg whites, one slice of multigrain toast, one strip of lean bacon, one cup of coffee

Workout

Post workout - protein shake + 2 egg whites (raw in the shake)

lunch - 2 chicken breasts sliced over salad leaves, no dressing (get a variety of leaves to add flavour)

snack - protein bar, 2 oranges (or some fruit but oranges are so good for you), can of tuna

dinner - usually some lean meat of some sort, with veggies on the side (asparagus, brussel sprouts, onions etc) - sometimes add some pasta.

late night snack - protein shake (I didn't always have the late night snack)

 

drink plenty of water throughout the day.

I gained a little weight, all in muscles, but burned lots of fat. had a nice look, not like a jacked up roid monkey.

[AJW]

Who watches what they eat?! Who doesn't! It's an important part of the eating experience to mainting eye contact with your food. Ya silly douche ya.

[Braintree]

Thanks xxx

 

Sorry if we're derailing this thread.

[pabs]

in october of 2008, i weighed 215... now i weigh 165.

 

that's insane! well done.

 

I too have lost a ton of weight. I weighed 184 in January 2009 and now weigh 148. I have a lot of muscle mass also, so overall shit is great!