There is a link to my log, that is all the food I will eat today. Today is a training day.
It comes out to about 125 carbs. I followed the sample diet on the T-dawg 2.0 page. Can anybody help me out with what to cut out? Or does it look ok for a 250lb guy?
Im brand new at this, and I just dont see how I can cut any more carbs without cutting out all veggies… which is a stupid idea.
First off, those numbers for the chicken seem abnormally high. If that is accurate, that’s a shitload of chicken at one time! Looks like maybe 3 lbs???
I would nix the almonds. Get your EFA’s from Flameout or other oils. If you absolutely have to have nuts, eat walnuts.
Your total calories seem too high for T-Dawg.
Basically in my opinion you’re eating too much food, not getting enough good protein (i.e. Metaboilc Drive shakes) and over doing it on non-essentials. Vegetables are good, but why so many?
What does your PWO shake consist of? If it’s Surge the cals are too low.
As for carbs, I wouldn’t sweat the 125 on work out days. Without the PWO shake you’d be right at 70 for non-workout days.
I eat chicken 2 times a day. 2 medium sized breasts for lunch, and 2 for dinner. They are just grilled, no breading or added fat. I think that the numbers they provide are a little high.
I will nix the almonds.
The PWO shake is a powder gatorade and whey protein mixture w/ 5 grams creatine.
I was trying to stick with J.B’s guidline, eat fruits and veggies with every meal.
[quote]RK wrote:
I eat chicken 2 times a day. 2 medium sized breasts for lunch, and 2 for dinner. They are just grilled, no breading or added fat. I think that the numbers they provide are a little high.[/quote]
I would say that much chicken is maybe 600 cals and 80g protein at the most.
[quote]
I will nix the almonds.
The PWO shake is a powder gatorade and whey protein mixture w/ 5 grams creatine.
I was trying to stick with J.B’s guidline, eat fruits and veggies with every meal. [/quote]
It was hard to tell when you ate the things, since it was just a list. Having them at each meal is fine. Be aware that you should probably go out of your way to remove the fiber from the carb content yourself when entering them in this program. That will give you a more realistic carb count.
Also- don’t give up the almonds if you like them. Just make sure they fit within the calorie limitations of the Dawg.
Good luck bro!
What are you trying to achieve with the T-Dawg diet and your training at the moment. Generally I would assume that someone on the T-dawg is trying to drop fat?
If you are following the T-Dawg strictly I am guessing that your calories on non-training days are about 2600 due to losing the PWO carbs. I think that this is probably a good starting point, but if you stay at that level too long you are going to shut off your metabolism too much. 2600 cals sounds too low for 250lb. I would maybe start increasing your cals by about one or two hundered a day each week to get your cals up above 3000. ie, 2700 a day next week, 2800 a day the following week.
There are some other posts on this site from other members using this kind of strategy and getting good results in terms of increased energy, increased weight loss and probably more importantly, an increased understanding of your bodies needs and reactions to different food intakes.
Ok. So if that much chicken is only 600kcal and 80grams protein I need to find more protein someplace. Or just eat more chicken…
I am not opposed to dropping the almonds, they are nice to snack on, but not one of my favorites. I would rather snack on beef jerkey or something.
I have to agree on the fiber comment that will help. The second thing is to maybe remove the gatorade or half it serving in the PWS. Other then that it looks good!
Helga- I am definately trying to shed a large amount of fat. I just dont want to lose what muscle I have in the process. I can tell that I need to fine-tune the diet a little bit.
Carbs 100/70
Calorie Guidelines
Yes, calories still count and you’ll need to keep a food log during the week. (See our article here for info on how to set one up.) Determining daily caloric intake can be as complex as you want to make it, or it can be simple. We’re going to keep it simple. No matter how scientific the formula is, how many calories to consume always comes down to the individual and his or her metabolism, activity level and lifestyle.
We suggest you multiply your bodyweight (in pounds) by the number 15 and start from there. So a 200 pound man would eat 3000 calories a day. After a week, he’d drop that by 500 calories. Now, we used to say that the average person should lose about a pound or two per week without losing muscle, but it’s a little more complex than that. See, if you’re really overweight, you’ll be able to lose several pounds per week safely (at least at first). By safely, we mean without losing too much muscle. But if you’re already fairly lean and are just trying to get super-shredded for summer, then the fat won’t come off that quickly and the “pound per week” rule of thumb is about right.
The “pound per week” rule can also be changed if you’re using an anabolic supplement along with the diet. The supplements (legal or otherwise) would allow you to eat fewer calories without the risk of muscle loss. Our sample 200 pound man may be able to drop to as low as 1500 calories a day with the right anabolic support. (More on that later.)
In the end, you, your food log and the mirror are going to have to be the judge when it comes to caloric intake. You should not be starving and your performance in the gym shouldn’t be too hampered by the diet. (Don’t expect to set any new personal records while on any fat loss diet, however.) The only way to figure this out for yourself is through experimentation. Weigh yourself every Saturday morning before you eat. Modify as needed based on your progress or lack thereof. Occasional body fat measurements (using the same method every time) would also be helpful, but the mirror should be your number one guide.
Protein Intake
The original T-Dawg diet was a little too low in protein. After all, we not only want to lose fat on this diet but preserve lean mass. Many people exceeded the original protein recommendations in the first diet and lost fat with no problems. Therefore, we’re going to suggest you get about 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight when on this diet.
According to his calorie guidline I would be eating 3750 Calories and 375 grams of protein.
That just seems really high for a diet calorie wise. I dont know where I could add more calories without adding more carbs and fat. It just seems like I would have to eat empty calories just to be eating.
I would cut out the milk personally but then again I’m not a huge milk fan. Another thing is you gotta realize that you may have to limit things like oatmeal on the days that your taking in your PWO meal simply because of your carb limits. On your lifting days, your carbs should being coming from post workout meal and veggies. On your workout day feel free to toss in a little oatmeal or a whole wheat tortilla maybe even some fruit. I’d also rely more on your green veggies for your fiber and maybe get some milled flax seeds. The kidney beans and such really aren’t needed.
I personally never drop my fat intake below 100g when I’m dieting(before I started the AD) Try tossing in some extra virigin olive oil and a little red meat.
Just a few suggestions…
Your post-workout shake seems a bit suspect, I think you should be getting in a little more carbs and you could definitely get in more protein. Look into “Solving the Post-Workout Puzzle” by Berardi
Part 1
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460833
Part 2
Personally I love red meat. But it is really hard to come by in my school cafeteria. Short of a hamburger.
Im not a huge kidney bean fan so I may drop those.
[quote]RK wrote:
According to his calorie guidline I would be eating 3750 Calories and 375 grams of protein.
That just seems really high for a diet calorie wise. I dont know where I could add more calories without adding more carbs and fat. It just seems like I would have to eat empty calories just to be eating.[/quote]
There are a million different formulas out there to work out what your maintenance calories are. Good luck working out which one of the million is correct for you.
You are going to have to be prepared to use a lot of trial and error in the early stages.
Is what you are currently eating working for you and helping you achieve your goals? If it is, dont change it at the moment. If it isnt working and you are not losing the weight you want, you need to change something. Just keep in mind that you are only going to want to make small changes. Adjust the calories you are eating by 100-200 a day (either increase or decrease) and see what happens. Or do you need to change the timing of your meals. You may get a change in results by simply moving all the P+C meals to the morning and only having P+F meals in the afternoon/night.
There is not going to be any magic numbers or answers that anyone can give you, but trust me, you will learn a lot about yourself if you are prepared to be patient, and just keep on tweaking things to get it working better. You will start to learn what works for YOU and what doesnt.
I started a T-Dawg diet a while ago and had great results. Now my diet looks nothing like the T-Dawg, but that is not from any drastic diet transformation. All the changes happended so gradually as I learnt more about my body responding to different macros and meal timing that you wouldnt even notice the changes at the time they were happening.
OK. Bullshit aside now, be patient, make small changes but learn to understand how the changes affect you and you will be fine.
Ain’t nothing wrong with a little ground beef. Should try to keep it as lean as possible but a little 85% ground beef won’t kill ya.
Btw what are you using for your post workout shake?
Edit: My bad I didn’t see ya already posted that up top
[quote]huge76 wrote:
Your post-workout shake seems a bit suspect, I think you should be getting in a little more carbs and you could definitely get in more protein. Look into “Solving the Post-Workout Puzzle” by Berardi
Part 1
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460833
Part 2
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=462147
[/quote]
Umm one full serving of Surge(2 scoops) has 25g of protein and 49g of carbs. Pretty close to what he’s got down. If he doesn’t have Surge what he’s doing is pretty decent.
[quote]helga wrote:
OK. Bullshit aside now, be patient, make small changes but learn to understand how the changes affect you and you will be fine. [/quote]
Damn good advice!
Are you taking HOT-ROX? If not, I’d recommend them. In addition to speeding up the fatburning process, they’ll allow you to maintain your lean mass while dropping calories lower than would normally be safe. I’m on the Dawg right now, and at 190 lbs. my daily calories often drop below 2000. Without HOT-ROX this would probably cause me to drop some muscle, but I haven’t had any problem with that so far as I can tell.
Thanks for the advice guys. Helga’s advice makes alot of sense to me. So I will stick with this and see if i get results, if not I will tweak it.
I am going to start playing with my Fitday log for a while so what you see later is different than what it is now.
HOT-ROX are kind of out of the question. Being a jobless college student my funds are kind of tight.
My PWO shake is pretty much the same breakdown as Surge, minus the extra supps that Surge offers. It will have to do until I can afford more supplements. Surge looks great, but it is a little pricey at 10 servings a tub. Im working over spring break, so depending on what I pull in, i may be able to afford some of the good stuff I read about here.
[quote]K-Narf wrote:
huge76 wrote:
Your post-workout shake seems a bit suspect, I think you should be getting in a little more carbs and you could definitely get in more protein. Look into “Solving the Post-Workout Puzzle” by Berardi
Part 1
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460833
Part 2
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=462147
Umm one full serving of Surge(2 scoops) has 25g of protein and 49g of carbs. Pretty close to what he’s got down. If he doesn’t have Surge what he’s doing is pretty decent.
[/quote]
Yes I do realize that, however the instructions on Surge recommend that for people over 225 (which if I am not mistaken the poster said he was about 250) should take 3 scoops, the amount of carbs and pro being 73.5 and 37.5 respectively.
Obviously this depends on lean body mass and many other factors but I believe that 55 g carbs and 25 g of protein is not an adequate amount for someone who weighs 250.
I weigh 245 (probably around 10-13%) myself and I am FFB so I need to eat in a similar manner to the t-dawg year round. I have taken Surge both 2 scoops (to save money) and 3 scoops and I noticed a difference, I just did not recovery as well from 2 scoops. The premise behind the T-Dawg that makes it superior to other low carb diets (besides healthier food choices) is the post-workout nutrition it provides. The post-workout window needs to be capitalized.