Quick macro/workout check? Any input?

[cw801]

Hey ladies!!

Just doing a quick status check on my macros and workouts.....basically, I have been building for a few months, but have started upping the cardio, lowering the carbs in the past couple of weeks in order to get ready for an event I have coming up at the beginning of November. It's not a competition, but I need to look as good as I possibly can for this.....so I did a quick check of my macros, and here is where I'm at:

Calories: 1586
Carbs: 108
Protein: 198
Fat: 41
(clean eating - no processed foods - except maybe on meal a week)

Workouts consist of weight training (full body) (I have been doing 21's this week to change things up) every day for 5 days a week for approx 30 minutes, with another 30 minutes devoted to cardio. Leg day I lift for the full hour and do no cardio.....one day a week I do 45 min of cardio with no weights (so, I workout 6 total days per week with one day completely off).

What I am going to start doing on Monday, for the three weeks until my event, is cardio in the mornings for 45-50 minutes (moderate), and I will do weights in the early evenings after work 5 days a week for about 45-50 minutes a day.

My goal is to lose as much fat as possible in the next three weeks without losing any muscle.....(or much).

Looking at this, do you ladies have any feedback for me? Do my macros look OK? Do you think if I continue to eat this way (all clean eating, btw....no processed foods - my fats come from raw almonds and olive oil) I am consuming enough? Am I eating enough calories to keep from burning up my muscles?

I don't want to waste these three weeks barking up the wrong tree - I want to maximize my food intake and workouts for optimal fat loss.........so if I'm heading in the wrong direction here, please steer me in the right one!

Thanks so much, as always!!

 

[Roxy722]

What are your stats? height and weight?

 

[cw801]

Oh....sorry! I am 5'10" and weigh 141lbs..........

 

[Blondie85]

Macros look good, but I would have to see your actual meal plan to be of anymore help.

 

[cw801]

Here is what I had yesterday - every day is about the same for me....I might have fish instead of chicken, or something....but it's generally the same most days. I don't really have a MEAL, per say, so i will just list what all I ate throughout the day, and the order I ate it in - I just try to eat something every couple of hours all day:

Isoflex Protein shake w/ 6oz 1% milk, 1/2 banana, 1/4 cup raw oats (immediately post workout)
1 slice whole grain bread w/ 1 tsp all natural peanut butter (post workout)
1 serving plain Greek yogurt with 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 serving raw almonds (30 grams)
1 serving grilled chicken breast (130grams)
1 cup baby carrots - raw
1 cup bell peppers - raw
1 serving chunk tuna (in water) w/ 1 slice wholegrain bread (no condiments)
5 or 6 egg-white omelette w/ 1 cup raw spinach and 1/2 cup raw mushrooms
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

And that's about it....unless I am hungry righ before bed, then I might have a few more almonds or carrots or something.......

 

[RottenWillow]

Here is what I had yesterday - every day is about the same for me....I might have fish instead of chicken, or something....but it's generally the same most days. I don't really have a MEAL, per say, so i will just list what all I ate throughout the day, and the order I ate it in - I just try to eat something every couple of hours all day:

Isoflex Protein shake w/ 6oz 1% milk, 1/2 banana, 1/4 cup raw oats (immediately post workout)
1 slice whole grain bread w/ 1 tsp all natural peanut butter (post workout)
1 serving plain Greek yogurt with 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 serving raw almonds (30 grams)
1 serving grilled chicken breast (130grams)
1 cup baby carrots - raw
1 cup bell peppers - raw
1 serving chunk tuna (in water) w/ 1 slice wholegrain bread (no condiments)
5 or 6 egg-white omelette w/ 1 cup raw spinach and 1/2 cup raw mushrooms
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

And that's about it....unless I am hungry righ before bed, then I might have a few more almonds or carrots or something.......

I suggest redistributing that protein intake. Right now I think you might be frontloading, with too little near bedtime.

I can tell from your macro report you're counting incomplete proteins, which is fine, but you do not want to consider that when determining the amount your skeletal muscle may need to grow during a bulk or be supported in times of caloric deficit.

I don't how much protein powder, or what type or quality, you have for breakfast, but hopefully you have at least 60g of a very high quality protein. 60g of powder of that quality would yield something like 52-54g of protein. Yogurt is probably 8 grams of good quality complete protein. Tuna probably 35g. Your chicken is at most 40g of good quality complete protein. Even if your eggs are jumbos that's only 18g of complete protein, but it is at least a very high quality protein.

Breakfast is the best time of day to run a (relatively) high carb balance since both your liver and muscles will be depleted, particularly given your workout schedule. The glucose your body makes out of those carbs will get passed right into the muscles and liver, not adipose. I think you could add more carbs with that shake. I'd suggest shoot for 40g of actual protein intake from your powder.

Last meal of the day you really want to eat 10 jumbo whites or 6 whites and one whole. Both ways that's only about 30g, but the lower amount is acceptable since it's the absolute best whole food protein source in the world. The olive oil there is a great idea as it will slow digestion and prolong the amino release while you sleep. I might also bulk up that egg meal with a high soluble fiber food choice which will slow down digestion even more. You could even just do some unflavored all natty psyllium seed husk powder...essentially no calories at all there.

 

[cw801]

This is great info.......exactly what i was looking for. I use Isoflex for Protein Powder........it's super low sugar and carb and high in protein. Thanks so much!!

 

[RottenWillow]

This is great info.......exactly what i was looking for. I use Isoflex for Protein Powder........it's super low sugar and carb and high in protein. Thanks so much!!

I meant what is the protein source and type. Is it whey concentrate, whey isolate, casein, egg, super plasma protein (the uber mack daddy of powders), beef protein, etc.

I searched for Isoflex just now and could only find hits for whey isolate, which given the panels I saw, seemed to be source at a pretty high quality. You're getting 90% protein out of each scoop.That's pretty good. Best stuff is 93-96%, so you're up there.

Might seem overly anal to you, but in the future you might want to go to a totally unsweetened, unflavored, even more pure product for final contest prep. It allows you to fully control the type of calories you're getting. See what I mean? There's no "filler" in your powder. It's protein, straight up.

Places like proteinfactory (but there are others) allow you to create your own mixture where you can specify the types and grades of protein you get plus absolutely anything that gets added to it. For example I do 80% whey isolate, 10% super plasma protein (which is insanely good stuff, but also insanely expensive), and 10% creatine. No sweetener, no flavoring, nada. Now I control exactly what's in the final product I drink. If I choose I can add stevia, cloves, and some cinnamon for flavor. If I want to avoid absolutely any extra calories on a given day for any reason I could drink it plain.

 

[cw801]

Yes, that's what I have - Whey Isolate.......I'm curious about the Proteinfactory stuff, now - I will check it out online today sometime. Sounds pretty interesting.......my hubby and I share protein, and he has a sweet tooth, so this is a bare-bones as he will get. I will probably wind up getting my own......I could care less about taste - it's results I'm more interested in. Him....not so much!

While I'm training like I'm going to compete, I'm not actually in a competition in a few weeks. I am going to SEMA (an annual, world-wide car show in Vegas) in a few weeks......I will be meeting a ton of potential sponsors and attending industry parties, so I HAVE to look as good as I possibly can. Although.....since I'm a super competitive person, perhaps I will actually consider competing at some point down the line.

I changed up my morning foods starting today. Instead of a shake/banana/oats, I am going with a small bowl of steelcut oats, cinnamon and some fresh fruit with a scoop of protein powder, and a slice of whole grain toast. I will work on more proteins throughout the day, with my carbs in the mornings, post workout.

 

[Blondie85]

RW covered all the bases except when I cut, I take out the carbs post workout. I only eat carbs in my morning meal and an hour before lifting. It has always worked well for me. Also instead of carrots and peppers I would do beets and sweet potato, both have more health benefits and are better for cutting.

 

[cw801]

Really? I love sweet potatoes.......!

 

[RottenWillow]

carrots, green/red/yellow sweet (bell) peppers, sweet potatoes, and beets are all fantastic choices. Every one of those has a glycemic load of either 1 or 2, which is stupidly low. The GL means the glycemic index is low and it has very few calories. You could mix and match to get variety and avoid boredom. Just note that you are likely to eat a great amount (weight) of beets and sweet potatoes since they are heavier so you would want to watch those portions with your ounce/gram food scale. Once for ounce though they are all almost identical in macros and GL's.