Diet Critique

[david_diesel]

Dearest Ladies of EF
Greetings
I have recently agreed to help a close friend of mine get herself into shape for a vacation in March. Her current stats are 5'6" 155 lbs. I'm not sure about BF%, I felt bad enough asking her weight for caloric purposes, I know she was self-conscious about it...but hey, I'm here to help her.
Anyhow, this is the diet I have laid out for her. Comes out to roughly 1600 calories (140 protein, 110 carb, 69 fat) This is a rough draft and I am open to suggestions anywhere you see fit. She will be doing cardio work at least 4 days/week for probably 50-60 mins/session. I haven't gotten to the details of it yet though. (So expect a few more questions in the future ;-) )

Thanks for your help in this matter

Meal 1 ~8am (Post Workout)
1 scoop Whey Protein
1 c. Whole Wheat Cereal (Wheaties)
½ c. Blueberries or Raspberries

Meal 2 ~11am
6 Egg Whites
1/2 cup Instant Oats (made w/water, cinnamon, splenda)
1 TBSP Flax Oil

Meal 3 ~2pm
4oz lean meat (Chicken or Turkey,) or 1 Can Tuna
2 slices whole wheat
1 slice cheese
Green Salad w/Olive Oil Based Dressing

Meal 4 ~5pm
6oz lean meat (Chicken Breast or Turkey Breast)
1 small Potato (2 ½ inch diameter)
1 oz Peanuts

Meal 5 ~8pm (1 hour before bed)
1 ½ scoops Whey Protein
1 ½ TBSP Flax Oil

 

[Sassy69]

Just a quick perusal - I'd probably replace the Wheaties w/ Oatmeal and toss the bread. I'd also probably break up the meals into protien & fats , protein & carbs - not mix carbs & fats in the same meals. Seems like a lot of carbs. Depending also on how she handles the amount of food, might suggest replace one of the protein shakes with real food instead.

Is she planning to include any resistance training in this program? If not, I'd suggest it. Cardio can become catabolic and especially for women who are out of shape and focused on dropping bodyfat, they often end up sacrificing what little muscle they have because they say they don't want to "get big" -- however that's a load of shit because they can't unless they lift heavy for several years or supplement w/ exogenous testosterone sources.

 

[david_diesel]

Thanks for your rapid reply Sassy. I thought about separating the carbs from fats however I was having a hard time getting in the fat calories, although you mention that 110 g carbs is a lot of carbs, so perhaps a little reorg on the macros will do the trick. I hate getting caught up on numbers and ratios but I think in this case if you can recommend a macro ratio to work around I might have a better idea of where to put certain foods.

She does not plan on doing weight training. Beleive me I suggested it and it was met with a lot of whines and funny faces. I tried to explain the benefits of adding weight training versus going strictly cardio but I don't think she's goin' for it. Her initial plan was to work out twice a week, it was hard enough to convince her that she needed to do at least 4 days/week.

In this case I tried to keep the foods palatable (meal 3 with the bread) I don't want her to fail because she thinks the food is nasty. I figure if she sticks to a diet she will begin to see a change which will motivate her to keep going with it. Somehow this motivation makes eating the nastiest things not so bad. I was thinking after she plateaus going in and tweaking it to cut out not so great carbs like bread and cereal.

I may be way off here, who knows. Thanks for the input and any more advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[Sassy69]

A good basic ratio is 40/30/30. I guess right now just getting the habit started is enough.

Personally I really want to slap girls who don't want to do resistance training. I coudl give you a thousand reasons why cardio alone is not a good route, but I won't bother. I might suggest she get a copy of Bill Phillips' BODY FOR LIFE book to get a solid understanding of how nutrition, cardio & training fit together. The diet outline is very flexible & not weird. You dont' have to use the EAS products. Most girls are so caught up in all the ignorant myths about diet & training that they never get anywhere.

 

[david_diesel]

Thanks again Sassy for your input. Let's see how she takes to my plan. I know she's going to get tired of doing the treadmill or elliptical for an hour each session. In two weeks or so I may try again with a different approach to weight training. Maybe something to the effect of trading minutes on cardio for minutes on weights. In other words, 20 mins of weights = 40 mins of cardio instead of doing 60 straight cardio. Whatever gets her going

Ciao

 

[musclemom]

She does not plan on doing weight training. Beleive me I suggested it and it was met with a lot of whines and funny faces. I tried to explain the benefits of adding weight training versus going strictly cardio but I don't think she's goin' for it. Her initial plan was to work out twice a week, it was hard enough to convince her that she needed to do at least 4 days/week.

Have you tried using the osteoporosis argument with regard to her resistance to weight training? Weight training builds stronger bones and stronger bones are resistant to osteoporosis and osteopenia in maturity ... and you did tell her that muscle burns fat when you're just sitting (my personal favorite)?

If she flat out HATES exercise, you could have a real battle on your hand; trust me, you can lead a horse to water ... on the other hand, if you're getting the "female" argument "I don't want to get all muscly ..." God, were it only that easy. The average woman hoping to hit a reasonable level of health and fitness doesn't need to push as hard or heavy, won't be cutting her bodyfat super low, and won't be taking supplements. She'll just look healthy and (I really hate this word) "TONED" when she hits her weight loss goal. She'll look better in a swim suit

Now if only someone could tell me how to get an overweight 50+ year old MAN to weight train when he considers EXERCISE the only dirty word in the English vocabulary ...

 

[david_diesel]

MM
Haven't tried the Osteo angle yet. Told her that muscle burns fat. I think right now she's just skeptical and doesn't know what to beleive. I can't blame her. Four years ago when I started training, I was determined to do it MY WAY (the wrong way) and wound up costing myself several pounds of muscle which took me over a year to gain back. One of the biggest problems right now is outside influences. I work with this girl and as soon as any of her female coworkers hear her talking about dieting they right away start spouting some half-assed explanation about how to do the South Beach diet. You'd swear that my employer endorsed this diet...every girl I work with who is dieting is doing it....with no weight training (Makes me wanna pull my spikey hair out )
What I need to do right now is get her to listen to me and have faith in my method. Like I mentioned before, my plan right now is to get her in the habit of eating right and working out consistently. After she does this for a few weeks and begins to see results, I think perhaps her faith in me will escalate and I may be able to get her to use weights. I think she's overwhelmed with info and mis-info (<---- is that even a word)

In regards to getting a 50 year old man to weight train. Well thats a tough one. Not as easy as putting a cute girl on the treadmill in front of him

 

[musclemom]

One of the biggest problems right now is outside influences. I work with this girl and as soon as any of her female coworkers hear her talking about dieting they right away start spouting some half-assed explanation about how to do the South Beach diet. You'd swear that my employer endorsed this diet...every girl I work with who is dieting is doing it....with no weight training (Makes me wanna pull my spikey hair out )

What I need to do right now is get her to listen to me and have faith in my method. Like I mentioned before, my plan right now is to get her in the habit of eating right and working out consistently. After she does this for a few weeks and begins to see results, I think perhaps her faith in me will escalate and I may be able to get her to use weights. I think she's overwhelmed with info and mis-info (<---- is that even a word)

Well, if she keeps bringing girlfriend's advice up to you, or contradicting what you tell her, my simple response to that is, "so how does she look?" I'm so willing to bet that most of the ladies who are giving her advice aren't fitness models AND the ones who DO look good, I WILL Guar-AN-TEE they did NOT get there just dieting, they exercised regularly and I'd point that one out to her as well. And as for the ones who run down what you're telling her ... I think I'll stop now Catty female office politics pfffft!

But the other thing, don't beat yourself up too much. She argues too much, be straightforward, there's nothing wrong with saying, "look, you asked for MY help, now you don't want to follow the plan I'M spending MY time developing ..."

 

[david_diesel]

So guess what....we had a talk tonite and the weight training IS SO ON. I convinced her. Not exactly sure at what point it happened but she agreed to it. I'm pretty confident that she's serious too because she was quite excited today to be eating her "clean diet". There was even a time this evening when I thought I was gonna lose her to the smell of someones fried chicken wings beckoning from the office kitchen but she held strong and asked me if it was OK to have sugar free jello. I'm looking forward to helping her, especially since we are both on the same page right now. Although this is just the beginning....

Thanks again for your help ladies.

 

[musclemom]

So guess what....we had a talk tonite and the weight training IS SO ON. I convinced her. Not exactly sure at what point it happened but she agreed to it. I'm pretty confident that she's serious too because she was quite excited today to be eating her "clean diet". There was even a time this evening when I thought I was gonna lose her to the smell of someones fried chicken wings beckoning from the office kitchen but she held strong and asked me if it was OK to have sugar free jello. I'm looking forward to helping her, especially since we are both on the same page right now. Although this is just the beginning....

Thanks again for your help ladies.

Congratulations! Once she starts seeing the results you can get when the weights/cardio/diet all come together that might just be the right kind of motivation she'll need