Today I consumed 1210 calories and burned 1145 through exercise. My diet calls for 2117 calories a day, leaving me with a deficit of over 2000. I haven't had dinner yet. I have about 30g of fat and 183g of carbs to go today, though I'm up on protein.

All the restaurants are closed but the grocery store is 24-7 and I have a decently stocked pantry.

What should I make? I'll post dinner pics if y'all help me come up with something good.

183 carbs?

I think you should check your numbers

I'm not on atkins.

Spaghetti.

Actually, whole wheat pasta would be a good idea

Are you trying to maintain a weight or loose weight??

Lose. The screenshot above is set up for a loss of 2 lb/week (the lowest it will let you set it)

Brown rice....

You are not counting your resting metabolic rate of calorie consumption.  Which if you're a middle-aged sedentary guy is about 1800 to begin with.



That's the number of calories you burn just staying alive per day.  Laying in bed, doing nothing.

Gotcha..... it's hard to comment when I don't know your starting point..... meaning, are you 300 lbs. and 100 lbs overweight or are you trying to get rid of  just 20 extra pounds.
2 lbs. a week is a lot of weight to shed if you are only say 20 lbs. overweight...( I know it can be done but it's not really healthy)..... not so if you are 100 lbs overweight.

You should try to eat balanced meals.... you shouldn't  have that much protein intake with all those carbs left ..... you should eat the carbs before your workout ( energy)... well, most of them and then eat the protein for muscle repair after your workout..... balance is good.
Protein works with carbs..... protein levels out your blood suger.... eating all  those carbs now and then going to bed is not the best thing to do.

1200 calorioes a day is too low for any man. You need more protein as well. shoot for 1 gram per pound of desired body weight, at least.

I'm eating 2300 a day and still losing a pound a week.

That's where the weight loss comes in...... you have to burn more than you take in.

6', 260, so about 80 lb overweight. It was 120 lb over weight in January

Agreed about the protein vs carbs, but the timing didn't work well for it tonight - I worked late and had to get something to eat before I left work so I'd get to the gym an hour before it closed.

The 601 would be fine, but I quit drinking during the week. Unfortunately no pie right now either

What site is that?

www.thedailyplate.com

Tag, since im in the same boat as you phurba.





We're both at the same height weight class.



I started a diet 2 months ago only to gain 7 #s.  

You don't HAVE to eat 180 grams of carbs tonight and I wouldn't ... just my opinion.... you won't get sick or hurt yourself

I would just eat a LIGHT balanced meal , stay up for at least an hour and hit the sack..... try not to eat before bed like that though..... counter productive.

Sounds like you are doing good.... 2 lbs. a week is doable for you no problem.

I'm not trying to eat them all.. was just looking for suggestions for what to eat tonight since obviously I should eat SOMETHING else (though I'm really not hungry).

I keep pretty strange hours - I don't work a 9-5 job. Over the last couple of weeks it's been more like 2p-4a

A baked potato is a good complex carb.... apples are good .... whole wheat pasta is good.... brown rice....and there are others.

Match any of them with broiled or baked turkey breast or a piece of broiled salmon and some green beans,corn, salad with olive oil dressing and you are good to go.

Yes, you should eat something.

I am currently in a "get back in shape" program to.... have lost 25 lbs. and have 20 more to go.

64 grams of prot is way too low for most people to maintain muscle mass.



.7 x lean muscle mass = grams of protein for maintenance for non athletes



or 1 x lean muscle mass for athletes.



If you are taking steroids you can go up past 4 grams or keto dieting.



You are the only one who knows his lean muscle mass or can estimate (if you are a fatty, you have more than you think.  Most of us squat 200+ in the gym, you do it every time you take a shit).



I'd eat some chicken.  Or turkey.  Or beef.  



I love me some meaty bites though

Pie doesn't have any calories...

I'm fat but not out of shape (other than being spherical). A strong fatty? At the gym yesterday I did 3x12 squats with 110 lbs (could have done more but that's all the weight that was available at the time). I'm good for endurance too - I can do an hour of high intensity cardio without a problem. 20 pushups - no biggie. 3 days of backpacking with a 50 lb pack - bring it.

I'm the non-pixelated one. This was about 25 lbs ago.

Just don't get all caught up in those "charts" telling you what you should weigh.

I am 5'9" tall and when I am in shape, I weigh 215 lbs. with a 34 inch waist....  My brother and I are off the charts.

They say I should weigh like 170 or so max. I think.... if I weighed that much, I'd be sick as hell.

I am 52 years old and can still go pretty much all day long..... can work 90% of the young'ins into the ground at the gym..... have to show my drivers license to prove my age to some of them.

Then I would up my protein intake.  



That's me and my advice as a personal trainer and former fatty.  



All I gave you was ballpark measurements from the latest numbers.  There are 500 books out there on nutrition for athletes and most of them tend to fall into the range I gave.  So, get yourself tested or use BMI to give yourself some breathing room on lean muscle mass.  I hate BMI, but you're going to be +-10% on any bodyfat measurement outside water displacement and it's not worth it for you... or me... or anyone but scientists who want to study how much protein we need.



Protein gets a bit of a bad rap because people tend to say your body has trouble converting it to energy vs carbs and anything not burned for energy gets turned into adipose tissue (fat).  No shit, right?  So do carbs when you eat above your deficit.  



Muscle builds muscle.  Carbs feed your muscle.  Both trigger hormonal responses the minute you start to digest either.  Protein will spur glucogen and Carbs insulin.  Insulin and glucogen work against each other.



To many carbs and you get a pancake hangover (you need a nap after 30 minutes of eating a pizza, pancakes, sugary foods).  What goes with that is a massive insulin dump to balance your blood sugar.



Glucogen wont make you pay the same price at night and it helps spare those muscles you work so hard to keep.  



When I first leaned out, I lost a ton of muscle and just pushed myself through will power and generally hating the world and life.  The first thing I would change is the level of protein I took in.  While lowering carbs will mean you lift a bit less, it wont cause you to lose muscle.  Your lifts go right back up when you start eating carbs again.  Losing that muscle by shortchanging your protein means you have to rebuild it from basic building blocks.  



Good luck



 

Thanks loveless. There seem to be so many schools of thought on the "right" way to progress that it's hard to figure out what to do. I've all but decided that I'll just take the hit to the wallet and hire a trainer/nutritionist for a while.

Yeah, you're definitely right about the charts. I don't really care about that - when the gut is gone that will be the proper weight for me

Your body DOES have a hard time converting protein to energy..... carbs and fats are what your body wants to and does use for energy...... protein is for muscle repair and growth.
People who are into the fad diets try to trick their bodies into using protein for energy but it's a bad move.

Some proteins/foods burn more calories than they themselves contain..... they do not get converted into fat.

Actually, protein and carbs DO work together..... protein levels out and extends blood sugars ...... I can lower my blood sugar buy eating proteins.... they are intertwined.

Send me an IM if you want some support/advice/etc. Phurb. I used to be 290 lbs and am now about 190-195.

I don't need support but I'm always open to advice!

Everyone is going to break your balls about that calorie count being too low. I would not necessarily agree. It can be done, i have been doing it for a while. The screen shot of your daily totals is worrisome though. Everyone says you will crash after a few weeks of doing such a large deficit. I think this can be avoided, but not with that diet. It just seems a little short on raw materials. I am not an atkins guy (infact i hate it), but those carb numbers are WAY out of whack for your caloric intake. Remember that your body likes carbs because they go from pie-hole to usable chemical energy pretty fast. Your body is REALLY efficent at storing carbs (as fat).

There are ALOT of things you can (and should) spend 520 calories on before you eat it in bread. I am not saying never eat bread, but i would keep it WAY down, like 100-200 calories. The milk is not that wise of a choice either, just not alot of bang for the buck in terms of cals and carbs.

For dieters, there are few absolutes, and there is always a little room for that food you really like. The problem is you are not on a "diet." This large of a calorie deficit is extreme dieting/ weight loss, and to a degree that many/most doctors would advise against. I am not saying not to do it, just remember, you are slipping into dangerous territory both in terms of your ability to stay on the diet, and in terms of your health. There is no margin for error in such an ambitious diet.

I have avraged about 1200cal a day for the last 5 months and its going great. i have lost a metric shit-ton of weight, running endurance is WAY up, and slowly but surely i am making strength gains. The key to making an extreme diet work on the long term is to think of your calorie allowance as a bank, and spend that cash as efficiently as possible. a 1200cal day for me looks something like:

breakfast : kashi cereal with almond milk - 180 kcal

lunch : 1 whole-2 white egg omelet filled with fresh tomato and hot sauce(NO CHEESE) 160 kcal

afternoon: protein shake (made with unsweet chocolate almond milk) 180 kcal

dinner: varies of course, tonight was 4 oz of salmon and 6 (24-1 size) shrimp sauteed with broccoli, onion, carrot, and a white wine siracha sauce. side if small portion of basmati rice. after a tiny bit EVOO this came out to about       600 kcal

With a total of 1120, there is still room for a half-cup of cottege cheese (80 kcal) for an evening meal.

The rice at dinner was a treat, usually i leave out the starch and double down on the veggies. In any case, by avoiding caloric black-hole foods (high calories and a comparatively low nutritional value, like bread, butter, peanutbutter, cheese, mayo, salad dressing, ect) you can craft a low calorie diet that contains a surprising amount of food.



Edited to add:

And just to contradict everything i just typed, there is a guy in the fitness forum who went from fat dude to rockstar on a "4 bowls of total a day" diet

I am averaging 800-900 calories per day and I have gone from about 190lbs to 150lbs in about two months. For being 5'4" I think that's pretty good.

Eat more protein and a lot more vegetables.  Protein and fiber help to make you feel full which will help over the longterm.

Roast chicken/steak with some rice/pasta/sammich and some form of veggies that you like.


60g of protein is really, really low.  Are you on a very high carb diet or something?

Just remember, weight loss isn't magic or hard to achieve.

In the last 20 years, I have let myself get out of shape twice.  When I get back in shape, people are always amazed at how fast I can do it.

You just have to watch what you put in your mouth and get good exercise.... no magic.... burn more than you take in.

Look this over, it's fairly informative.... see what they say about exercise too.

http://www.naturalfatburningfoods.com/

Along with the above  mentioned foods, I eat....

Yogurt... Greek yogurt.... low fat, high protien
Olive Oil...... VERY good fat
Figs...... just outstanding all the way around
Fresh Vegies
Whole Wheat Pasta
Whey Protein
Barley..... not commonly eaten but FANTASTIC grain.... check it out... I use it in soups, stews, breads, and make barley tea.
Nuts..... Almonds and Walnuts are packed with good stuff
Fish.... all kinds.... Cod,Trout, Tuna and Tilapia are my favorites ...... Sardines are a good snack if you like them
Brown Rice
Fruits..... Bananas,Cherries and Strawberries mostly
Natural Fruit Juices
Hard Cheeses
Eggs.... they REALLY are good for you in limited amounts.... I eat them hard boiled.
And of course there are other good foods ..... especially grains.

Stay away from high fat foods like Bacon etc.....NONE OF YOUR CALORIES SHOULD COME FROM FAST FOOD!!!!

It ain't hard...... you just have to leave the "American" diet behind and get out there and move.

Don't waste a lot of time counting everything.... it has it's place... but.... just eat the right foods and it'll happen all by itself.... REALLY.....

BAck down a bit and re-read the post.
If you want more detail go back to an old post I did about nutrition here
For the record, I have no problem with athletes doing keto diets.  I have done them to keep muscle and it works fine for me.  
But don't read in between the lines and add subtext to what I posted.  
It pisses me off and I will gladly put my Cooper, NASM, ISSA, and Crossfit certs for personal training up against your internet outrage any day.  
This is why I stopped giving advice about nutrition.  Some internet genius misreads a post and goes psycho because he doesn't understand.  
"I can lower my blood sugar buy eating proteins...."  –––– This is a false statement.
Glucogen and Insulin work in the same pathway from the pancreas and work in OPPOSITE levels.  High blood sugar (carbs) you get insulin.  Low blood sugar (protein) you get glucogen.  YOU CANNOT LOWER YOUR BLOOD SUGAR WITH GLUCOGEN.  However glucogen and lower blood sugar are a by product of replacing high carb meals with higher levels of protein.  Fuck.
And no, your body has no issue converting protein to energy to a point where it will store protein as fat rather than burn it during glucogenesis.  Carbs are more easily broken down, but if you run a deficit both will be used.  Whether you go to 30 grams of carbs on a keto diet or 300 grams of carbs and a 1000 calorie deficit.
OP needs to study for himself or pay a trainer.  For every good post you get 10 idiots who troll /fit and BB.com for 100% of their info.  It's posts like yours that keep me from even bothering to try to help most of the time.  



Like I said, Good Luck OP.



I'm not going to bother, but if you want help just pm me and I can send you the names of a few books you might want to read.