Looking For Insight On My Diet

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

First off, I’ve been reading and lurking around this site for about 6 months, and finally I have a good reason to partake in this awesome forum. So, hello!

CURRENT INFO:
height 5’7" 163lbs 14-15%bf 22 years old

CURRENT GOAL:
10%bf

BACKGROUND:
I recently got back into martial arts, and have since spent the summer and fall shaping up. My current focus is to get very lean while maintaining as much lean mass as possible. I started out in April 2007 at a weight of 218lbs and approx 22-25%bf. I’ve never had my bf% professionally measured. I use a body fat scale at home. If anyone has any insight on what it might cost to visit a doctor and get this precisely measured I’m all ears! I’m posting this info primarily to get some feedback on my diet. I plan to gradually tilt it in favor of a “growing” style diet once I hit my current goal. But, as a FFB I’m being very careful and going one step at a time. It’s VERY easy for me to get very fat. Ironically, I also don’t have too hard of a time dropping fat, although this may just be because I always give %110. I have a history of spanning weights and fitness levels through my life.

DIET:

BREAKFAST=

1cup egg beaters
120 kcals
24g protein
4g carbs

1scoop shake
130 kcals
2.5g fat
20g protein
5g carbs

breakfast total=250 kcals, 2.5g fat, 9g carbs, 44g protein

LUNCH=

8oz chicken breast
240 kcals
3g fat
52g protein

2cups broccoli
60 kcals
2g protein
8g carbs

lunch total=300 kcals, 3g fat, 8g carbs, 54g protein

POST WORKOUT

2scoop shake
260 kcals
5g fat
40g protein
10g carbs

PWO total=260 kcals, 5g fat, 10g carbs, 40g protein

DINNER

8oz ground turkey
280 kcals
14g fat
42g protein

lettuce

2tbsp olive oil
240 kcals
28g fat

dinner total=520 kcals, 42g fat, 42g protein

TOTAL
kCALS= 1330k
FAT= 52.5g
CARBS= 27g
PROTEIN= 180g

EDIT- SUPPLEMENTS
HOT-ROX Extreme
GNC 100% Whey
fish oil
GNC mega men’s sport multi-vitamin
creatine mono

Forgot to mention I always make the shakes with water. I also drink about 2 gallons of water a day because I DO regularly sweat roughly 4lbs during my workouts everyday. Also, I counted carbs on the broccoli for lunch but I’m aware that generally those are mostly fiber. Also I didn’t count up the info on the lettuce. I’ll throw it in there. I do also snack a few times in the day between meals, almost always on beef jerky. My concerns with the diet are that I’m sure I have room for more calories but I’m not sure about the fat level (whether its ok, or needs to move one way or another). Carbs I would like to keep minimal. I do allow myself ONE and ONLY ONE cheat day a week, which I usually use to finally relax and kick back a few beers. By a few I mean a few (3 or 4). Always light beer. Usually something like Bud Select. Kills me to drink light beer because I’m a huge beer nut but you gotta do what you gotta do. Now for a rough outline of my workouts through the week. I’m not going into detail on all this but I absolutely will at another time.

WORKOUT SCHEDULE:

MONDAY=
MMA
Muay Thai
full contact sparring/conditioning (jumping rope etc)
all together this night is an approx 4 hour workout

TUESDAY=
weights (chest, shoulders, triceps, abs)

WEDNESDAY=
MMA
Muay Thai
full contact sparring/conditioning (jumping rope etc)
again approx 4 hours

THURSDAY=
Muay Thai
grappling (wrestling/jiujitsu)
approx 2 hours of martial arts
weights (back, biceps, abs)

FRIDAY=
MMA
Muay Thai
full contact sparring/conditioning (jumping rope etc)
again approx 4 hours

SATURDAY=
weights (legs)

SUNDAY=
OFF

The said times of all the martial arts are very serious I assure you. I wake up very sore every morning. Whether from beating people or receiving said beatings… Yes this weekly routine kicks. my. ass. Some how I keep up the energy level so I know something is right. Questions, fire away. I’m looking for some input for my diet. Thanks in advance fellas.

2

Congratulations on your progress to date. Well done.

Diet

I think your calories are too low, especially with your activity level. It’s also low in vegetables. I would add more and try to get variety. Try to get 5 cups of veg or more each day. When you think low-carb you should really be thinking low-grain. You don’t say how much fish oil you take but if you want to add to your fat intake, that’s the way to do it. Flax is good too and it also adds fibre.

Training

I would think that training body parts once a week would interfere with you MA. You probably should be more interested in conditioning. You may do better with whole body training. That way you get higher frequency with less localized intensity. You should get better gains with less DOMS and higher performance in your MA trg. Adjust the reps/sets/load/rest between sets for your goals. There are lots of options.

Stu

3

[quote]stuward wrote:
Congratulations on your progress to date. Well done.

Diet

I think your calories are too low, especially with your activity level. It’s also low in vegetables. I would add more and try to get variety. Try to get 5 cups of veg or more each day. When you think low-carb you should really be thinking low-grain. You don’t say how much fish oil you take but if you want to add to your fat intake, that’s the way to do it. Flax is good too and it also adds fibre.[/quote]

Thanks. Yeah I was kinda unsure about the cals. It does seem a little low yes. My thought is that maybe I should be closer to 1500 or 2000. I take the GNC Fish Oils and take a large dosage. It daily comes out to 720mg EPA and 480mg DHA at 4 caps daily. They sell a higher concentrated version that is very close to Flameout’s, but I don’t know if it is necessary for me to go that high. Does anyone know? Just went out and bought some green beans also. I’ve heard Thibs kinda say green veggies are basically the more the better right? If so I’m all on board for that idea. Altho to be honest I over-eat on broccoli cause I like it lol. Usually more like a frozen bag per day.

[quote]stuward wrote:
Training

I would think that training body parts once a week would interfere with you MA. You probably should be more interested in conditioning. You may do better with whole body training. That way you get higher frequency with less localized intensity. You should get better gains with less DOMS and higher performance in your MA trg. Adjust the reps/sets/load/rest between sets for your goals. There are lots of options.

Stu[/quote]
Yeeeeeah I’m not gonna lie it may be interfering. I can’t really wake-up one morning and not feel like shit. Ever. Infact if I ever get to not set and alarm and sleep in my body will sleep all the way up to 12 or 16 hours! So perhaps keep it basic with benches, squats, and pullups? Or something along those lines? B-b-b-but I like rowing! lol.

4

Lettuce (iceberg) shouldn’t be counted as a vegetable. It is so low in anything useful, you might as well eat styrofoam.

Get some spinach, cauliflower, eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes and any other vegetable you like and add some of them to every meal. Post workout, feel free to have a piece of fruit as a nice little dessert or treat.

Have you done any sort of calculation for the amount of calories you need to maintain? I agree with stuward that you are probably taking way too little. And your guess that you need 1500-2000 may be too low as well.

5

Try whfoods.com for some food information and ideas. When Thibs talks about green veg he’s talking about spinach. There’s nothing wrong with brocolli but its the leafy stuff you want the most. My grocery store sells pre washed greens in a 1lb container. You just add a handful to some raw veg and you have instant salad. Tastes a lot better than iceberg as well.

There’s nothing wrong with rowing. In fact if you pull, push and squat each workout it’s best to rotate the exercises anyway. For pulls rotate rows, chins and cleans, for push, rotate bench, dips and OH press, for squats, rotate back squat, deadlift and front squat. Experimenting with different variations and different rep ranges is encouraged.

6

It’s already been said but your waaay low on calories. When I fist started loosing weight I did this too and it was a mistake. I lost a lot of lean mass with the fat which I now really regret. There was a two part article a couple weeks back titled nutrition for newbies which should answer a lot of your questions. It went through calculating required calorie intake as well as some sample diet plans based on goals. Based on your activity level I’d guess you probably need to eat about three times what your eating now. I have nowhere near your activity level and I still haven’t found my maintenance calories that keeps me from loosing weight even with twice what you eat on workout days.

As for veggies I typically eat about 1lb of broccoli a day(love the stuff) but I also try and have a big spinach leaf salad at lunch and mix it up with cucumbers, cauliflower, and carrots when I get bored. Iceberg is included in my diet but is mostly just as a filler since it has the nutritional content of cardboard. So how about this for a sample diet with a + next to the changes:

DIET:

BREAKFAST=

1cup egg beaters Omelette
+onions, cheese, 1tsp EVOO
1scoop shake

breakfast total=~500cal

+SNACK=
+1oz walnuts
+1cup Broccoli

+Snack total= ~200cal

LUNCH=

8oz chicken breast
2cups broccoli
+1 med apple

lunch total=~400 cal

POST WORKOUT

1scoop shake
2 Scoops Surge

PWO total=~370cal

+PWO MEAL=
+1 piece of fruit
+8oz chicken breast(or other meat)
+1 Metabolic Drive bar

+PWO MEAL Total = 550cal

DINNER

8oz ground turkey
+Spinach, Cucumber,onions
1tbsp olive oil

dinner total=~450

TOTAL
CALS= ~2500cal

I know it’s hard but you need to eat more. Honestly I’m absolutely terrified of getting fat again and it took me probably 3-4 months of slowly increasing my calorie intake to realize that a couple hundred extra calories a day isn’t going to make me balloon up again.

PeterD

7

Thanks for all the input guys. Just to clear the air the lettuce is NOT iceberg it’s romaine. And I switch it up between romaine and raw spinach each time I shop. I noticed Surge was added. I’m very interested in a specific PWO shake but could the extra carbs in Surge fuck me over as a FFB?

8

[quote]Breakzilla wrote:
Thanks for all the input guys. Just to clear the air the lettuce is NOT iceberg it’s romaine. And I switch it up between romaine and raw spinach each time I shop. I noticed Surge was added. I’m very interested in a specific PWO shake but could the extra carbs in Surge fuck me over as a FFB?[/quote]

Not if your taking it PWO. Your body will pretty much metabolize whatever you put in it for the first 45min or so after a workout. I take 1/2 scoop
Surge after my stretching with 1/2 a low carb shake, and sip the other 1/2 during my workout. Then I take two scoops with 5mg creatine immediately after my last prehab lifts at the end of my workouts. Once you train with Surge you won’t even want to go without it. BTW if you look at my avatar you’ll notice I’m a FFB also. It’s not about avoiding all carbs but timing them properly.

PeterD

9

[quote]Breakzilla wrote:
it’s romaine. And I switch it up between romaine and raw spinach each time I shop. [/quote]

No need to ‘switch it up.’ Just get both. Or, go to costco/sam’s and buy their box of pre-made salad greens ($0.96) and a box of their spinach (about $3) then mix the two. Eat it buy the hand fulls, have a large pile on each plate or however you prefer.

10

[quote]Arioch wrote:
Breakzilla wrote:
it’s romaine. And I switch it up between romaine and raw spinach each time I shop.

No need to ‘switch it up.’ Just get both. Or, go to costco/sam’s and buy their box of pre-made salad greens ($0.96) and a box of their spinach (about $3) then mix the two. Eat it buy the hand fulls, have a large pile on each plate or however you prefer.[/quote]

Sounds good to me I def like my veggies. I like the idea of eating more.

OK so a while ago I picked up this PWO stuff on the UBER cheap from everyone’s favorite shit hole Wal-mart. From my look over it it seems decent for the price but ain’t got any protein and is low on the creatine… I’d appreciate it if you guys could check out the supp facts and lemme know what you think of it. It was like 18 bucks I think. Not positivie cause I got it a couple months ago but here it is…

sixstarmuscle.com/products/creatine/creatine.shtml#suppfacts

I’m only interested in this stuff cause I’m a student already paying $150 a month between training and gym membership. Plus supps. So any money I can save is worth considering. Thanks again.

11

Mix it with a scoop of protein and it should be OK for PWO. I wouldn’t double up the dose as recommended due to the sugar content. On days you don’t work out, don’t take it.

12

UPDATE:

I recently spent some time reading Berardi’s Grappler’s Guide to Sport Nutrition and all I can say is wow!!! This book is excellent and is probably the best best thing I will ever read in my life. Just for shits here’s a new update…

HEIGHT= 5’7"
WEIGHT= 155
BF= 10.9%

Low and behold I am approaching my first goal of 10%. My abs are finally almost visible. Currently I am cutting weight to make 140lbs for a NAGA event this weekend (March 1st). Once this weekend is done I plan to start gaining some weight back and slamming that BF% another 2% or 3%. Once I find my USB cable for my digital camera I’ll upload some progress pics…

PS= You guys were hella right about the calories. Brought my calories up, and my BF continued to melt down!

13

Well done, and thanks for the update. Best of luck at the event.

Stu