Critique My Program

[VeggieLifterChick]

I'm 5'4'' 137 and 30% body fat right now. I'll be happy at 16%, but right now I'm trying to get it down to 20%. I'm following the "Back on Track" program out of Muscle&Fitness Hers magazine. So, I lift 3 times a week (MWF) - circuit training total body 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise. I've been doing this for 3 weeks and I haven't seen any results in terms of loss of bodyfat but my strength has been improving. The scale I have, made by Tanita, supposedly measures bodyfat so I've been checking that and I'm finding no progress at all. How often should I measure it to look for a change? I'm doing cardio 4-5x week, 30 mins. 2 days HIIT, 2 days running at about 9 min mile, 1 day taking it easy on the elliptical and the stationary bike. So I'm thinking it must be my diet that's holding me back. I don't have a set diet but I do set guidelines for myself, including eating 2-3 servings of veggies, 1 piece of fruit, 1 protein supplement after training, a multivitamin, and eating carbs in the morning. And drinking 8 cups water every day (nothing but water or decaf tea to drink). Since I don't have a set diet and I can't really since I'm at school, here's a sample of how I've been eating. Please be harsh and honest as to what I need to do:

 

[VeggieLifterChick]

The Diet

*I'm estimating the amounts*

What I ate on Tuesday:

whole wheat bagel with margarine
banana
-2 cups water

.5 cup oatmeal w/ 25 g choc protein powder (2g CHO per serving)
-2 cups water

sandwich: wheat bread, 1 slice swiss cheese, lettuce,tomato, 4 slices of smart foods "meat" (soy) approx. 10 g protein for 3 slices
apple
-2 cups water

flounder
small baked potato w/ 1 tsp sour cream
-2 cups water
*multivitamin

decaf green tea
balance bar
zone bar
(bit of a binge...)

What I ate today:

balance bar
1 nutrigrain waffle (plain)
2 cups water

small dark salad (lettuce, carrots, shroom, tomato) with 1 tbsp bleu cheese dressing
apple
.5 cup cottage cheese
1 tbsp of kidney beans and .25 cup of rice
2 cups water

nature's grain baked "energy bar" from sam's club: its nuts seeds dried apples flax seeds etc
(260 calories, 10g protein, 44g CHO, 7g fiber, 5g fat)
2 cups water
*vitamin

.75 cup of tuna salad on wheat bread from deli next door
2 cups water

.75 cup of oatmeal with 25g choc protein powder (2g CHO in powder)
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp splenda
2 cups water

 

[VeggieLifterChick]

By the way...I'd be happy to post some before pictures if someone would tell me how to. You know, so that in 3 months when I look hot as hell I have documentation of my improvement.

 

[new@gettinbig]

WOW you are eating way to many carbs!!!! Try rotating them..high on days you work out and low on days you do not..cut out the bagel and banana...and carbs late at night...are you training heavy??? I think changes in your diet would do wonders for you...it takes time...be consistent for 4-6 weeks and see how u do..but you need to cut the carbs a little...rotate them. Cut out the cheese and sour cream tool.....cutting takes a little sacrafice!

 

[SteelWeaver]

Hi VeggieLifterChick - I'm a veggie lifter chick too! (but I don't eat fish)

I can't comment specifically on your diet because there aren't enough numbers there - maybe try typing it all in at www.fitday.com to get a clearer idea of the numbers, but I can tell you my own experience: I lifted and trained like a madwoman for more than a year before I twigged on about nutrition, and even then, I didn't know what to do - I knew it was the diet, but didn't know what I needed. I used to eat tons of cheese and bread and beer, and tofu, lol.

Anyway, I finally got real help when I came here - through reading and from everyone, but especially MS - I know she's given you some advice in the past, too. It's amazing how much my diet has changed since then - what it really really comes down to is - you have to KNOW what you're putting in your mouth. I used to estimate, and when I finally added up my estimation properly, accurately, I found out I was eating 4000 cals a day. Well, I was TRYING to gain weight, and I wasn't - even on that amount of food.

Now I'm cutting - I posted a sample of a day's menu plan on KBgrl's "to all the veggies out there" thread - in mid-January, I think. I'll go find it. You could just adjust the calories down for your stats, and use it, or use it as a mid-point for carb cycling, or ... well, something.

You can switch out some egg whites for fish, and throw out the fat in the cottage cheese (I can 't buy fat free here).

 

[SteelWeaver]

OK, found it:

http://boards.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=101795

One other suggestion - you might want to toss out the processed soy products and add in home-made versions, or simply tofu or legumes + protein powder, or egg whites. They're often high in sodium and other crap - but then, it depends on your stance on sodium. I don't have one - just like to eat the cleanest food I can.

Good luck! (Oh, and really, nutritional analysis software or websites kick major butt for serious dieting!)

 

[VeggieLifterChick]

Thank you steelweaver for those awesome links. I just signed up to Fitday.com. I do keep a journal but I don't keep track of the numbers so I'm sure this will help A LOT. I don't know how many calories I've been consuming, honestly, but how many would you estimate it was? I'll do some work on FitDay and see if I can figure it out. I can't believe you were eating 4000 cal/day, but then, now that New@ pointed it out and I checked out that link to the discussion board, I can see how off I am! Well maybe on the bright side, I can handle this amount with only a pound or so of weight gain for eating like this for 3 weeks. So maybe I'm on the high end of the AMR scale. I clicked on the link George Spellwin sent in the news letter to calculate it. It was over 2000 (I think 2300) at the high end. A formerly ED veggie friend of mine told me I should probably eat between 1300-1400 calories a day to lose weight while working out. This sounds low to me, but then I'm not used to cutting. Is there a formula or something I could use to calculate it my BMR correctly?
Yes you're right, MS did help a lot on a past veggie thread and she really helped me get some ideas for some awesome protein sources down. I just didn't really know how to find the nutritional info to plan it out like Spatts.
And New@, carb rotating? I've heard about it before, especially from Spatts, and I've seen the famous cutting diet link. Just with meat involved it confuses me as to how to translate it. Is there a way you know of to figure out exactly how many carbs to eat when you're cycling? And is this the same thing as calorie cycling?
Ladies you are awesome! Very helpful posts. Good karma coming.
OK one more question. How do you get the smilies in your post? Is that a platinum thing? I only see the faces up top and they're message icons. I asked this awhile ago when I first joined but I can't remember how to do it now.

 

[Gladiola]

Hey VLC,

As for smilies.. when you type your message, you should see them all to the left & you can click the little "GET MORE" button to see them all.

As for calories - YES, 1,300 is TOO LOW! To get your bodyfat low & gain some muscle - you need to FUEL that muscle growth. I haven't seen the diet discussion you're referring to, but I'll assume someone already mentioned how the protein (amino acids) fuels the mucle growth & without enough calories your body will burn muscle & store fat - like in a 'survival mode' (muscle = active tissue that burns calories, fat =stored energy that doesn't take many calories to sustain).

Your friend is right in that you WILL lose weight with 1,300 calories - but it'll be muscle! Also, remember that one pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat (denser tissue) - so if you take a pound of fat off your thigh & replace it with a pound of muslce -not only will you have all those other benefits - you'll have a smaller thigh! (stronger, harder & sleeker, burns more calories, benefits to bones....) Sorry if I'm being redundant, I don't know

As for carb cycling... I think Spatts keeps fat constant & protein somewhat constant (maybe a lil more on a low carb day) & just rotates carbs. There's no set formula though, just play around with it. Personally, if my calories are too low I BINGE so I keep "stuffing my pie hole" with healthy stuff.

Also FYI - flax seeds aren't a good source of fat like flax seed oil (they go right through ya!)

 

[Gladiola]

As for carb cycling... There's no set formula

Oops, I need to clarify. Spatts has a set formula she uses for bulking & one for cutting - but it's her set formula. It's not necessarily the best thing for everyone.

 

[VeggieLifterChick]

I checked out FitDay.com and I put in 1500 for my minimum daily calories and 2000 for my max (during this "cutting" phase). I put in 100-150g as my protein range and 75-130g as my CHO range. I put in 40-45g for the fat range. Is that about right? I weight 137, 30% bf, trying to get to 20% right now (a loss of approx 13 lbs of fat).