Need to reform diet (especially macros) - Please suggest

[thatsright]

Do any of you know of any sites where I can get some good diet suggestions, meal suggestions for high protein and low carb? Right now I’m going to gym, trying to lose fat, drop the lbs. But my diet is a bit off balance. My calorie count is within range and on target, but I need to mix it up. My daily diet is getting old. Need some new meal & snack ideas. High protein/low carb. But the most invaluable info would be how I can manage my macros and carb to maximize efficiency for weight loss. I DID look online, but as always, 50 different sites tell you to do things 52 different ways.

 

[Malfeas]

http://www.reddit.com/r/keto

This may help.

 

[smackababy]

We have already went over what you're doing for the calorie intake and it isn't on target for losing weight. If you want to maximize efficiency for weight loss, stop eating so much. You need to be 3500 calories below your maintenance to lose 1lb per week. That is a 500 calorie deficit each day for 7 days.

 

[z1ggy]

We have already went over what you're doing for the calorie intake and it isn't on target for losing weight. If you want to maximize efficiency for weight loss, stop eating so much. You need to be 3500 calories below your maintenance to lose 1lb per week. That is a 500 calorie deficit each day for 7 days.

Yeah, didn't we go over this with you already? What are you still wondering about? Did you read the fat loss sticky?

 

[thatsright]

Yeah, didn't we go over this with you already? What are you still wondering about? Did you read the fat loss sticky?

Yeah, sorry for all the double reading. What I really was thinking of asking, is to get some more balanced meal ideas. Actually some new recipes. I will re-read the fat loss sticky for all the stuff I forgot.

 

[z1ggy]

Yeah, sorry for all the double reading. What I really was thinking of asking, is to get some more balanced meal ideas. Actually some new recipes. I will re-read the fat loss sticky for all the stuff I forgot.

There's plenty of stuff you can make if you eat meat. I use a crock pot for most of my meals now because I can toss in meat + veggie + some sauce, and just let it go.

Use myfitnesspal to track your macros during the day and weigh yourself daily so you can fine tune your diet.

If you like apples and have/can buy a crockpot, I've been on spicy applesauce kick lately. It works with any meat, such as chicken, steak or pork. It's basically 1-2cups of applesauce, a pinch of cinnamon, then spices to taste (I use crushed red pepper, salt, garlic, onion flake and pepper). Cook on low for 6-8hours.

Also, I used to make salmon fillet quite often. Frozen patties at the store were like, $1.50 each and 2 of them were a great, 0 carb high protein meal.

Also, don't focus TOO much on the low carb thing. You still need carbs to help support your lifting regiment, especially if you are lifting heavy still (which I suggest). For me, 185lb guy, I get around 200-220g protein, and around 125-150g carb a day. When I was on <75g, I felt weak and my energy levels were low. If you are in caloric deficit, you shouldn't be putting on weight. So I generally keep protein at around 45% of my calories, try to keep fat to a max of 20-25%, then the rest as carbs, mainly veggies or brown rice.

 

[smackababy]

Yeah, sorry for all the double reading. What I really was thinking of asking, is to get some more balanced meal ideas. Actually some new recipes. I will re-read the fat loss sticky for all the stuff I forgot.

Mostly, what you're going to want to look at are dishes with meats lower in fat content (and thus, lower in calories). Chicken and fish are the best, IMO. You can bake, grill, BBQ, slow cook chicken and have a bunch of different ways to eat the same old meat. I would say 4 to 5 nights a week, I eat some form of boneless, skinless chicken breast.


The biggest thing though: weight your food and track your calories. Ziggy recommended MyFitnessPal, but I found Lose It! to be better. I like the interface and it has the ability to have a reminder go off so you can record your meal. I typically eat lunch at 11:30, and have a reminder set for noon. My only problem is that I feel it overestimates the calories burned weight lifting. I generally spend about an hour in the gym lifting heavy. 60 minutes is 500+ calories for "vigorous" according to this app. That seems high, so I generally use the "light/moderate" setting. It might be a bit lower than what I actually burn (I don't do "light/moderate" in the gym; what's the point of that?), but I am okay with that.

 

[z1ggy]

Mostly, what you're going to want to look at are dishes with meats lower in fat content (and thus, lower in calories). Chicken and fish are the best, IMO. You can bake, grill, BBQ, slow cook chicken and have a bunch of different ways to eat the same old meat. I would say 4 to 5 nights a week, I eat some form of boneless, skinless chicken breast.


The biggest thing though: weight your food and track your calories. Ziggy recommended MyFitnessPal, but I found Lose It! to be better. I like the interface and it has the ability to have a reminder go off so you can record your meal. I typically eat lunch at 11:30, and have a reminder set for noon. My only problem is that I feel it overestimates the calories burned weight lifting. I generally spend about an hour in the gym lifting heavy. 60 minutes is 500+ calories for "vigorous" according to this app. That seems high, so I generally use the "light/moderate" setting. It might be a bit lower than what I actually burn (I don't do "light/moderate" in the gym; what's the point of that?), but I am okay with that.

I've found Lost it! had meh numbers for everything in general. I also found more foods on Myfitnesspal than Lose it!. Not sure if Lose it! has social aspects to it, but I can even track my Gf's status in myfitnesspal because we are "friends" on it.

Also, you'd be surprised smack.. At how many calories you do actually burn when lifting hard. I'm not PhD, but I did a rough calc simply from the equation for Work, and applied that to lifting. I eventually got a number of Joules used from lifting weight, converted it to energy in Calories and applied it to different routines. 4 sets of heavy squats (obviously depending on weight & reps) netted something like 200+ calories used (squat 4 sets, 225x5 I think.. I'll redo the calc tomorrow). I don't even know if I could apply that simple principal for humans and lifting weight, but I was surprised to see that. Also, less surprising was doing things like bicep curls only netted you a few dozen calories burned. So moral of the story.. lifting heavy while dieting is still a good idea to burn extra calories.

Edit: Just checked my math. 225x5 for 4 sets would burn approximately 100calories for an average male. However, that did not take into account weight, age or anything else. Just pure physics at work. But anyway, just based on that, I think a person would need to lift EXTREMELY hard and for a long duration to burn 500calories during a work out. And as a cliffnote... I really don't think the equation applies fully. I think it's just a good point to make that people probably don't burn as many calories in the gym as they think, maybe sabotaging their diet in the process. That's why it's important to weigh yourself often.

 

[smackababy]

Lose It! has worked better for me (perhaps what I eat is accurately documented better than what you tried) and the reminders was probably the best part. I think there is a social aspect to it, but I don't bother with that stuff.

As far as lifting, I only know it was overestimating, because I noticed when I wasn't losing as much as I should have (only cutting a little and @1lb a week, the extra calories overestimated was keeping me closer to .25lb a week). Since I've adjusted it, I am back in line with where I want to be. It also just has a generic "weight lifting" exercise, and isn't exactly scientific. I would imagine on leg days I burn more than on arm days, but by keeping it at under estimating, it balances out better in my favor.

 

[z1ggy]

Lose It! has worked better for me (perhaps what I eat is accurately documented better than what you tried) and the reminders was probably the best part. I think there is a social aspect to it, but I don't bother with that stuff.

As far as lifting, I only know it was overestimating, because I noticed when I wasn't losing as much as I should have (only cutting a little and @1lb a week, the extra calories overestimated was keeping me closer to .25lb a week). Since I've adjusted it, I am back in line with where I want to be. It also just has a generic "weight lifting" exercise, and isn't exactly scientific. I would imagine on leg days I burn more than on arm days, but by keeping it at under estimating, it balances out better in my favor.

Yeah I don't even bother putting in exercise because it is almost negligible compared to just not eating things. If anything, I use it as an extra "boost" in my calorie deficit and consider that it maybe gives me an extra .1-.2lb of weight loss per week.

I think the foods I had trouble finding were protein shakes that Myfitnesspal happened to have.