Feedback on Current Meal Plan

Training Beginners
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I’m 234 lb. 5’11. – Want to lose 30 lb of fat.

When I lose 30 lb of fat then I think I want to gain more muscle. This meal plan is not a diet, it’s something I want to do from now on. Currently I’m losing weight so I have dropped down my calorie intake per day to try to be under 1800 while keeping my protein intake higher than normal.

I’m not mass lifting weights currently. I want to lose weight first – maybe this is a bad idea not sure. Most for exercise I’m doing Cardio. walks/jogs in park or elliptical machine. 50 minute periods keeping my heart rate around 130.

This is what i’ve been eating for the last 4 days. Today (thursday) is not complete yet, but I think you will catch on the the pattern I’m doing. That’s what I want feedback on. If I’m eating too much, or not enough, too often, not often enough etc. If my fat/sugar/carbs are too high/low.

Any feedback from people who have been in this position before of anyone who is knowledgeable in this subject I would be very grateful. Thanks!

Image Attached has this week meals so far. Use this spreadsheet I found off John Stones site.

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images are unreadable.

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Don’t wait on the weights!!! A little HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is fine but excessive slow, steady state cardio (i.e. jogging) will just turn you into a “skinny-fat” version of what you are now. Build some muscle and your metabolism will increase to support it. That makes dieting easier since you can minimize the inevitable plateaus and eat more in general to support your new active muscle tissue.

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As Panik wrote, I cannot read the images. However, I would STRONGLY encourage you to start a weight training program immediately. There is no reason to wait.

There are a million different weight lifting plans and a thousand different diets on this site that can help you drastically change your body and help you reach your goals. Just pick one of each and stick with it.

If you are just starting out with weight training maybe do something fairly uncomplicated, preferably working the full-body (nothing against splits).

Regardless of what you end up doing I wish you luck. Stay motivated.

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[quote]CharlieStrange wrote:
As Panik wrote, I cannot read the images.
[/quote]

To read the image (its just 1 image), right click on it and save it to your computer. Then open it, zoom in if it is too small. It should be fine.

Also here is a direct link to the image:

http://www.T-Nation.com/forum_images/da961-test.jpg

Just paste that in and then hover over the image and left click it to make it zoom in.

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Ah Ha New Explorer zoom mode, love it.

Ok not a lot of time to disect this but two words for you.

Starvation Mode. Your body is going to want to keep everything you feed it, because your barly feed ing it. Need to fuel the fire so to speak.

Read every article by Dr. Berardi regarding weight loss, especially this one.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459493

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Gotcha.

The link that Panik posted contains some of the best advice on weight loss ever written. Look, I don?t want to tear apart your diet. If you stick with it you?ll lose weight, but you aren?t going to achieve the body type that you are probably striving for?unless your ideal body type is the fat skinny guy.

If my goal was to lose fat and transform my lifestyle and I followed your diet, I would fail. I don?t think the results would be drastic enough for me to stick with it and there is enough ?almost? junk food being consumed that I would be tempted to consume more garbage.

Whether or not you modify your diet further I wish you luck. Remember to work hard and fun when you are exercising?otherwise, what is the point?

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Gain the muscle first before losing the fat! I guarantee you that if you focus on eating and gaining muscle, you will start to lose the fat. Try putting on 10 pounds of muscle. Focus on the basic lifts like, dead lift, squats, bench, pull ups, rows, and military press. Make sure you’re taking in enough calories to gain muscle though.

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so i’m not eatting enough?

What should be my calorie intake?

What is the junk I’m eatting?

I thought the only bad things where the small candy bars…which I’m going to get ride of, but it’s hard to just drop everything.

I’m very interested to know what else i’m eatting that is bad besides that though. Bannans? Cereal?

I think I will go ahead though and start lifting more. It’s just I thought it would be a bad idea since I’m eatting lower calories to do so much workouts?

I have taken two different tests where i breath into this device and the results of both (I have no idea how accurate these tests are):

2100 calories a day - resting state
2050 calories a day - resting state

Thus why i figured if I eat around 1700 calories a day and do some cardio I’d lose some weight and as long as I keep m y protein relativly high I would not become that “fat skinny” guy. – This maybe a misconectiption by me though. How does my diet create that situation.

I’m going to read the articles above suggested when I get home. Maybe those will answer my above questions in themselves.

Any feed back would be helpful esp the comments about the junk i’m eatting, as in why is it junk, which parts are junk?

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[quote]Falling wrote:
so i’m not eatting enough?

What should be my calorie intake?

What is the junk I’m eatting?

I thought the only bad things where the small candy bars…which I’m going to get ride of, but it’s hard to just drop everything.

I’m very interested to know what else i’m eatting that is bad besides that though. Bannans? Cereal?

I think I will go ahead though and start lifting more. It’s just I thought it would be a bad idea since I’m eatting lower calories to do so much workouts?

I have taken two different tests where i breath into this device and the results of both (I have no idea how accurate these tests are):

2100 calories a day - resting state
2050 calories a day - resting state

Thus why i figured if I eat around 1700 calories a day and do some cardio I’d lose some weight and as long as I keep m y protein relativly high I would not become that “fat skinny” guy. – This maybe a misconectiption by me though. How does my diet create that situation.

I’m going to read the articles above suggested when I get home. Maybe those will answer my above questions in themselves.

Any feed back would be helpful esp the comments about the junk i’m eatting, as in why is it junk, which parts are junk?[/quote]

I myself was 6’3" 225 2 months ago. I’m now weighing in at 245. My body has changed tremendously! I never thought that by gaining weight that I would look better, but when it’s muscle it doesn’t matter.

I am currently trying to take in 4500 calories a day. I take in at least 1000 immediately after lifting. It’s the hardest thing in the world to do, but it is so important. I eat a lot of veggies smothered in extra virgin olive oil. I also eat a lot of baked chicken. My favorite thing to do is leave a bowl of pasta salad in the fridge that consists of whole grain noodles, chicken, cottage cheese, sliced apples, dried blueberries, slivered almonds, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and extra virgin olive oil. I snack on it throughout the day. I also take a multi, fish oil, flax seed oil, and ZMA. To get to 4500 calories a day I use Cytogainer for breakfast and right after lifting. It’s a good easy way to add an extra 1500-2000 calories a day.

My advice for you would to be if you want to gain muscle, you’re going to need to increase your caloric intake. Increase it for a week or two and if you don’t notice much weight gain, increase it some more. Keep increasing it until you start to gain weight. If you’re lifting hard everytime you’re in the gym, you are not going to gain an enormous amount of fat. You’re muscle growth will outweigh your fat gain considerably.

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Also, what are you eating after lifting? Are you taking in a lot of carbs? Cause if you’re not you should. If I remember right, it should be about a 50/50 mix of protein and carbs. It should be done right after lifting and don’t be afraid to take in 750 calories at this time.

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Oh… one more thing. As far as cardio goes. Do it in sprints. 3 sets of 10 40 yard dashes will do a lot more for you than jogging for 50 minutes.

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Falling, here’s a link that shows how I help someone to put a diet together. Basically you eat meat, dairy & eggs for protein. You’re allowed all the fibrous green veggies you want. You include GOOD fat into your diet and cut out the BAD. You get 3 servings of fruit per day, which isn’t a lot (1 serving = 80-100 calories) and 1/2 to 1 cup of beans, depending on your body weight.

No cereal like Kashi, no crackers, no sugar, no flour, no white potatoes or white rice. A very few, limited starchy carbs are allowed only if you’re doing resistance training, which I’d strongly recommend. When a person diets, a percentage of what they lose is fat and a percentage of what they lose is muscle. When you don’t do resistance training, you actually lose more muscle than fat, which results in a severely compromised/slowed metabolism.

Losing weight and losing fat are very different ball games. You came to a site where the membership do everything they can to preserve and protect LBM (Lean Body Mass, aka “muscle”). We eat protein to protect LBM. We eat every 3 to 4 hours to protect LBM. Even though we do cardio, it’s done in a way to maximize the benefits and minimize the negatives. The benefits are increase cardiovascular fitness, a more extensive capillary network, lower BP, increase production of mitochondria (the organelles in the cells that create ATP/energy) and a few calories burned … the latter being the least important benefit.

There’s a lot of wisdom here on the site, in the articles on nutrition that you can read if you

  • click on Articles on the left hand side of the page, and then
  • click on Diet Programs or Nutrition and Supplements

The forums, too, are a wealth of knowledge. Do a little bit of reading and checking us out and see if it’s a good fit. After that, if you’d like some help with your plan, I for one, would be happy to help! (grin)

Good to have you here, Falling!!!

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I was thinking of the crackers and the candy bars and (to a lesser extent) the cereal. And don"t get me wrong, none of them are that bad. You aren"t in line at Wendy’s biggie sizing a triple quarter pounder extra value meal.

Take the crackers though. You could eat an 8 oz grilled chicken breast for 60 more calories and you’ll significantly increase you protein intake. You’ll probably also feel fuller too.

Berardi’s article (linked above) is great simple advice. I also remember something that Cosgrove wrote that was pretty straightforward. For your first meal have a lean protein and some veggies. For your second meal have a protein shake and a piece of fruit. Repeat two times and you have six meals. Now pick one of those meals and add some carbs to it (whole wheat pasta, brown rice, whatever) and consume that meal as your post workout meal.

Forget about counting calories, I think if you were to follow that simple advice 90% of the time and lift hard at least three days a week you’ll see significant results in six weeks, in twelve weeks you won’t recognize your body. Once you hit that twelve week mark and your body is used to lifting and your nutritional habits have changed, then start eating big and lifting bigger.

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[quote]CharlieStrange wrote:
Forget about counting calories, I think if you were to follow that simple advice 90% of the time and lift hard at least three days a week you’ll see significant results in six weeks, in twelve weeks you won’t recognize your body. Once you hit that twelve week mark and your body is used to lifting and your nutritional habits have changed, then start eating big and lifting bigger.
[/quote]

I agree with this! Make it as simple as possible. I think some people get too complicated. K.I.S.S. I’m sure you know what it means. Just get your butt in the gym everyday and make sure you sweat. If you’re lifting weights and not sweating, it means you’re lifting to light or not enough. Work your butt off and you’ll see results.

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I agree to many ppl want the perfect complicated plan to start try to change everything in life go simple and build you see awesome results taking steps adopting a lifestyle

Phill