Analyze my diet!!

[gypsy]

Hi everyone. Could you PLEASE analyze my diet for me? I've been the same weight for about 2 years now - well - same body fat, I've gained muscle weight. I really want to jump start my body into losing that STUBBORN weight in my lower half - I have the worst saddlebags. Anyway, I am 5'5", 117 pounds. 14.5% body fat, acording to calipers. I am doing wind sprints for 20 minutes 3 times a week, and lifting for 1 hour 3 times a weight. Here's what I'm eating:

8:00am
protein shake (15 protein, 9 carbs, .8 fat)
orange

10:30am
1 cup cucumbers
2 stalks celery
3 ounces grilled chicken

Noon:
large salad of lettuce, brocoli, cucumbers
5 ounces grilled chicken
2 tbsp full fat dressing

2:00 pm
protein shake
orange

4:30pm
3 ounces grilled london broil
1 cup cucumber
2 stalks celery

7:00
7 ounces lean steak
1 cup steamed zucchini

This is a sample day - comes out to (I think) about 1600 calories a day. My fat percentage is way to high I'm sure, but I hate low fat salad dressings! Let me know what you all think - I am desperate to break this freakin' plateau. Thanks.

 

[Gladiola]

Wow, you are quite slender. Maybe adding more muscle would help with the 'saddle bag issue'.

First, don't worry about fatty dressings - olive oil is a great source of healthy fat. You can take olive oil & balsamic vinegar to mix up your own dressings. You need some good fats.

It might be worthwhile to calculate those percentages. 20-30% cals from fat is decent, & it seems like you might be just at that. You also seem very low carb, might want to increase that, or try to rotate carbs (i.e. go higher some days, go with this diet on non-lifting days).

How long have you been lifting heavy & regularly? Might also want to increase lifting to 4X per week.

 

[valerie]

NO good fats? No good complex carbs? Try increasing the wts you are lifting to devolpe more muscle. At that ht and wt you could certainly use more of that. I'm one inch taller and weigh 20 lbs more but no bags anywhere. Check out Spatts cutting diet or just do a search on diets and you will learn alot. -Valerie

 

[FitFossil]

I concur with the advice given. You do need more healthy fats in your diet. Good fats help burn bad fats. They help with satiety and controlling blood sugar. You have lots of fibrous carbs (like broccoli, cuc, etc.) which are good, but I'd substitute half of those w/ complex carbs (like oatmeal, beans, brown rice, etc.) - they are slow-burning and a good source of energy. Same w/ the fruit, your body sees it as "sugar", have it early in the day and/or save for post-workout, and have it w/ some protein like you're doing.

I'm personally familiar with the saddlebag issue. My upper and lower body used to look like they belonged to two different people - a skeleton on top with big jiggly thighs. I spent most of my time doing cardio and light weights, esp with legs because I didn't want them any bigger.

After years of that I said F*ck it! - I decided if my legs were going to be big, I'd rather they be big and muscular than big and fat. I started doing all the "no-no" heavy leg exercises like squats, deadlifts, etc. Lo and behold after a few months the extra muscle totally remade my legs. Also that extra muscle made it a lot easier to burn fat. As my legs leaned down, I was shocked to find they really weren't "big" at all. I gained 10 pounds but lost 2 pant sizes.

While the heavy weights made a big difference, the biggest difference for me was diet. Before, my diet had been all about eating as little as possible, as such, my workouts were weak and my body was inclined to store every calorie that came its way as fat. But to grow muscle I had to start fueling my body. Your diet is way better than what I started with. The point I want to make is don't be afraid to eat. As your body gains muscle, you'll need to increase calories to feed that muscle and keep your metabolism up. That'll get the fat off and prevent its return.