Posted: 8/13/2008 8:15:55 PM EDT
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7/15/08 237lbs and decided I was sick of being fat. I'm 29, 5'9'' 40'' pants, 30'' inseam. Played baseball from 4 years old through college so I do have an athletic build under my fat. During college I was 165lbs and couldn't gain or lose a pound.... Was eating McDonalds, lots of Mexican food, lots of meats (steak/chicken) and rice. Drinking 4-8 beers a night. Drinking 1-2 liters of pop per day (not diet) 8/13/08 225lbs 38'' pants fit me well now. Bought a Trek (6700sl) bicycle and am up to 10 miles per day M/W/F Am walking indoors or out 4 miles on T/TH No more McDonalds breakfast burritos... :) GNC Protein shake with skim milk for breakfast. Multi-vitamin Banana and hard boiled eggs for lunch. Sunflower seeds or pepper jack cheese for mid day snacks. 2 liters of Coke ZERO during the weekday, no caffine on weekend. Limiting meats to 3 days a week. Lots of fresh fruits, salads and vegetables (my tomatoes in the garden are fully ripe) so I eat about 3/night. That's it so far. I think most of my calories before had come from the pop during the day and beer at night. Between 1,000-1,500 calories were from those alone.. Add a Mexican dinner on that and I'm looking at 4,000 plus calories. I'm limiting my calorie intake to around 2,500 or less calories per day. My goal weight is 180lbs. I intend to start weight lifting in the AM as soon as I can move my olympic size set from my parents basement to mine. I also have dumbells. Anyone want to critique my diet. So far I'm full and satisfied with what I'm eating. It's been a big overhaul from the crap I was chomping down before. I think 12lbs loss this month has really helped my self esteem. I have tons of clothes in the 34" waist line and would love to be able to wear them again. My desk job doesn't keep me active at all and I had gotten to the point where I felt so large that I'd get 2 pair of cargos and 4 collared t shirts and rotate. I have lots of nice clothes of variety sealed up in the closet. Any suggestions so far? I'm also looking to get into running when I hit the 200lb mark as I don't want to chance a knee injury with the weight I'm putting on them now. The cycling and walking is good and I can increase those distances. My fitness goal is to run 5 miles between now and this time next summer. Will update in a month with progress and maybe some pics. |
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Not that I'm really one to talk, but that's a heck of a lot of soda. How is your water intake? That also doesn't seem like much meat, but that's your deal. I probably put down too much protein. As for the running, I don't see why you can't start a limited running program now. I'm pretty sure your knees can handle it. Good luck. Sounds like you have a decent plan. |
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I was in a situation similar to yours. 5'11, 220 lbs, and sick of all the fat accumulated in 30 years. I had lifted hard from 18 until around 23 but from 23 to 30 it slowly tapered off and finally I wasn't doing it at all. I ended up losing 40 lbs by running like a fiend and totally changing my diet. I ended up eating lots of those nutrition bars, such as Zone Perfect, Balance, or Cliff Bars, and would eat 6 small meals a day. No more soda either. This worked very well for me, but that was before reading about how bad soy can be for men. Those bars are packed with soy so I no longer eat them. I actually dropped weight too fast and probably lost some muscle in the process. It sounds like you have a solid plan that is working so far. Just be sure to not eat too little, or else your body will shut down and you will stop losing. That is a lot of aspartame you are consuming. I'd be worried about that. |
  don't mean to hijack, but huh?
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Looks like most of you 2500 calories are coming at night. Do you eat dinner then exercise, or just eat and go to bed a few hours later? I've cut down on the carbs and that helped me loose some weight so far. I'm not big on the no carb thing, but (for me) cutting back to 10 - 12 15 gram servings a day has helped. |
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I see no reason to limit meats to 3 days a week! Lots of good protein you are missing out on there, and plenty of lean choices available - chicken breasts, tuna, top-round beef/london broil, even pork tenderloin is fairly lean. And unless you are scarfing down a huge protein shake or 5-6 eggs at lunch, I'm having a hard time envisioning how you are getting to 2500kcals. Overall, I'd say you are probably eating too many carbs (fruit in moderation is good, but remember it is still pretty much all sugar - and tomatoes are fruit), and not enough protein and good fats. But portion sizes would be required for proper commentary, or better yet, log it on fitday.com and post the macro breakdown. Obviously, what you are doing is working from a weight-loss perspective, but you want to do it in a manner that is both sustainable and results it as little lean loss as possible, a large part of which is taking in enough protein such that your body is cannibalizing your muscle to get what it needs. As for exercise, I'd say start adding a weighted pack to your walks to ramp up the intensity. Start out with about 20 lbs and work up from there - as your body drops the weight, make up for it (and more, if/when you can) in the pack. |
Tomatoes are ok from a carb standpoint, but most fruits in small amounts are ok. One small apple (4oz), small bananna (4oz) = one serving 15 grams. |
Oh yeah, everything is good in the proper proportions. I was just making the comment that it seems like a significant amount of his diet is coming from carbs, quite a lot from fruit. As mentioned, for the most part portions weren't mentioned, but your standard serving of a protein shake generally only has ~25g protein and eggs are about 7g, and other than the 3x weekly servings of meat, these were the only major protein sources mentioned, and the only source of fat mentioned was the cheese, sunflower seeds, and eggs. So... even if he was having a double-serving for the protein shake and 4-5 eggs for lunch, we're talking maybe 80g protein across the day when adding in the incidentals - while he doesn't need to necessarily eat like a bodybuilder for his goals, that's still too low IMHO. And again, depending on the serving size of the fat sources, that really seems like it might be low as well, and lacking EFAs in any case. So.... based on my guesstimates, ~80g protein, maybe 40-50g fat - that's a heck of alot of carbs to make up the 2500kcals mentioned. |
No doubt on the carb amount being too high. It kind of shocked me how many carbs I was eating each day. It's amazing how much bread was a killer from the carb standpoint. It makes me sad to have to cut what bread I used to eat out completely. And for get the Mexican food altogether for the most part. unless you toss out the rice, beans and tortillas. 
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I'd recommend you make a list of the stuff you are eating now, and get the carbs, protein, fat, and calories off the label. Throw it into an Excel spreadsheet and play with the quantities until you get around 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat. If you find yourself gaining weight, cut back on the overall quantities, but keep the relative percentages the same. Rocko's advice on walking was very good. You can burn a lot of calories just by walking briskly, and even more if you carry a pack. Get a camelbak and fill it with water when you walk. By drinking water, it will help supress your appetite. Also, I'd suggest you get started weightlifting ASAP. Rippetoe's Starting Strength program is an excellent starting point. It's very hard to lose weight while gaining muscle, but at least if you start early, you can get the mechanics of the lifts down. |