Diet help

[gymtime]

Hey boys, my first post!

Need some diet help. I'm 33yo, 215, around 12%bf, trying to lower the bf. I lift three days/week, 20-30 min of cardio on the off days. I take a day or two off once a week. Been working out for eight years.

Here's a typical diet day for me. Including water all day long. Plus I cheat like hell on Saturday nights. Any suggestions? Any major problems? Trying to eliminate remaining fat around the mid section and chest, upper arm areas. Can't seem to do it.

8:30am 16oz lofat cottage cheese/unsweetened pineapple

11:30 teryaki chicken w/ brown rice (eat about half the rice)

2:00pm protein shake (45g prot/5g carb)

4:30pm tuna w/ a little light mayo and relish on wheat tortilla, I'll eat two of these, roughly a can and a half of tuna.

6:30 12 egg white/protein mix shake. Workout 7:15-8:45 or so

9:00pm two chicken breasts, veg. water.

 

[gymtime]

One more thing everyone, been doing creatine since july 1st. Also take multies, ripped fuel, and flax oil ed.

 

[cheeta]

gradually up your cardio until you can do an hour straight, first thing in the morning

 

[gymtime]

bump

 

[blood_drinker]

How many carbs does that diet have bro?
It seems you are around 80 with those wheat tortillas.

Do the following

1) POst macro nutrient totals and ratios for the diet

2) Concentrate your carbs in the morning and no carbs in the evening. You have a nocarb protein shake, THEN you have a couple of wheat tortillas with tuna. Switch that around.

3) You have enough protein and water, thats good.

4) It seems your carbs are around 80 as I said before. Either lower to 50, or up them to 150. You could also go CKD style, but by the looks you dont want to. 150 g will give you more energy for practically everything.

I recommend your ratio to be 40%carbs, 30%protein, 30% fat.

5) Meaning you could add 2 tbsp of oilive oil and fry that chicken.
You need fat to burn fat.

Obviously , 1 tbsp = 149cals, so watch out for going over your daily intake. PM me in case I forget about this post.

 

[gymtime]

I fuckin' KNEW someone was gonna ask me to add up nutrient totals. Don't kill me Blood, but I honestly have never measured it out. I'm kinda going on guts. I'm shooting for around the 50-25-25 mark. But I don't know for sure.

I know the shakes, according to the nutrition info on the tubs are 4 or 5gr of carbs, 50gr protein.

The tortillas are 21gr of carbs, 4 gr protein, and 120 cals each. Those, about a cup of brown rice and the fruit in the morning are about all the carbs I get in a day.

I'll also take your advice on the olive oil. I've probably cut out more fat than I should so I'll try that. That chicken has been getting pretty fuckin' dull anyway.

Thanks again bro!

 

[Hoffmeister]

I'd agree you need fat, but I'd try to get it from EFA's (Udo's, Flax, etc.). I think that frying the olive oil does some harm, but don't know for sure.

Plus, the whole "no carbs in the evening" thing is another one of those diet myths that has pretty much been disproven.

 

[gymtime]

Yeah, I was just reading BD's post on post-workout meals. I've been sticking to no/very low carbs after 4pm and IT SUCKS!!! I work out fairly late and I'm hungry as hell when I get home. All I give myself is chicken and veg most of the time. And I almost always go to bed hungry. It'd be nice to be able to eat at least SOME good carbs after gym time (no pun intended).

 

[Hoffmeister]

Just remember, it's calories in vs calories out.

The only real "magic" I've seen any evidence for is incorporating a periodic "refeed". This is what makes the CKD work so well; the carb-up. But it can be used on non-keto diets just as effectively.

The key is to go high carb/low fat on the refeed. It resets leptin levels and your metabolism. And it will keep you losing weight longer without dropping calories too low.

 

[gy]

Hoffmeister, I really enjoy your posts as they make a lot of real world sense. However, i have to disagree with you on the proposition that it's mostly cals in vs cals out. I think macronutrient ratio can make a huge difference from person to person. Some do extremely well on a low carb/high fat approach while failing with the inverse at the exact same caloric allowance. I've spoken to many trainees who simply do better with one ratio over another. I'm not sure if it has to do with oxidation capabilities in individuals more slanted toward carbs vs lipids, but there definetly is some variability in the population. I for one used to do very well on a low carb approach about a year or two ago, but don't do so anymore. I think it's important to take all the studies that are often quoted or drawn upon over on MFW with a grain of salt, as most of these draw there patients from the general population and not those who have been experimenting with different training and dieting regimens such as in the BB/health and fitness community. Research is great and super important but even with all the data being released on Leptin and re-feeds, I personally don't see many people getting ripped with those techniques (although you personally have done a great job on your website). My point in this post is that one should be open minded to listen to many opposing ideas and then try to see which one works the best for them, wether it's based on university research journals or BB articles.

Anyway I would appeciate your thoughts on my post. Thanks.