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CMB

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cmb

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I'm 40 years old, male, 6 ft tall, 172 lb, working on losing some pounds. Cross-link to an earlier post of mine.

My method is novel (to me, anyway), so please tell me if this is a bad idea. Basically, calorie counting is a pain, so I eat the same thing for every meal except for dinner, which can be anything within a certain calorie limit. Then I don't have to count anything except at dinner. I just use the same portions for everything else every day. I have an app on my phone that I enter this all in every day. The foods I've chosen are intended to be nutritionally rich because the only variation is dinner.

Breakfast
---------

2 fried eggs 180 cals
1/4 c steel cut oats 150 cals
1 tbsp butter, salted 100 cals
1/2 apple 36 cals
---
466 cals

Multivitamin and fish oil with breakfast.

Lunch
-----

1 c (227 g) Chobani Greek yogurt, plain, non-fat 120 cals
1 tbsp honey, raw 64 cals
1 c baby spinach, raw 7 cals
1 garlic clove, raw 4 cals
1/4 c green lentils 150 cals
30 g pistachios, roasted, unsalted 170 cals
---
515 cals

Before Dinner
-------------

1 c whole milk, vitamin D 150 cals
2 scoops whey protein, grass-fed, Promix 100 cals
---
250 cals

Dinner
------

Anything for dinner, just keep it around 300 cals.

Before Bed
----------

Zinc, magnesium, vitamin B-6 (ZMA) supplement.

Total of 1,500 calories.


So right now, that's what I'm doing. I tweak portions and dinner allowance when I need to increase or decrease the total calories. Currently I'm losing 1–2 lb per week.
 
Before Dinner
-------------

1 c whole milk, vitamin D 150 cals
2 scoops whey protein, grass-fed, Promix 100 cals
---
250 cals

Is this a pre/post training meal or just a snack?
 
Are you vegetarian?

Nope, I try to include chicken or beef with dinner, but it's whatever the wife happens to make.

I'm open to suggestions on improvements. Maybe I'm not getting enough protein. Not including dinner, my phone app says it totals to 74 g of protein.
 
I would personally double the amount of protein and try to make most, if not all, of it from animal sources.
 
I would personally double the amount of protein and try to make most, if not all, of it from animal sources.

Same. But I'm biased. I eat red meat at every meal.

btw - since you're interested in weight loss, how much sleep are you getting?
 
Lunch
-----

1 c (227 g) Chobani Greek yogurt, plain, non-fat 120 cals
1 tbsp honey, raw 64 cals
1 c baby spinach, raw 7 cals
1 garlic clove, raw 4 cals
1/4 c green lentils 150 cals
30 g pistachios, roasted, unsalted 170 cals

Are these foods combined into a meal? Like lentil spinach salad with pistachios, garlic and Greek yogurt and honey? Sounds tasty.
 
I would personally double the amount of protein and try to make most, if not all, of it from animal sources.

Same. But I'm biased. I eat red meat at every meal.

So, for dinner I do pretty much always have beef or chicken. Unfortunately, meat is expensive. Otherwise we'd eat more.

btw - since you're interested in weight loss, how much sleep are you getting?

Your comment encouraged me to research this. I didn't realize there was such a connection: Does Sleep Affect Weight Loss? Thanks for the tip. I'm switching to 9 hours sleep. I wasn't getting enough before.

@cmb,


That's pretty lean/thin by most standards.



Like I said, you're pretty lean by most standards already.

-S-

For my height, the healthy weight range is ~140–180 lb. I was comfortable at 150 two years ago. I'm going to get down to 155–160 lb and then up the calories and stay there.

Are these foods combined into a meal? Like lentil spinach salad with pistachios, garlic and Greek yogurt and honey? Sounds tasty.

Only thing I mix is the yogurt and the honey. ;)
 
@cmb, whose numbers are you citing? So much of what’s a healthy weight varies by the person - how heavy your bones are, how much muscle you carry, etc. I’m 5’ 7” and lean at 150 lbs. If you were built like me but 6’ you’d be dead if you weighed only 140 or even 150.

-S-
 
Have you measured your body fat? you can get a professional do it for you, or you can try the online calculators for a rough number. The navy one is a good guideline IMO.

+1 to Steve above. I'm 160 lbs at 5'8" and I'm pretty happy with my weight. I would like being a bit leaner, I'm about 15% body fat now, but I'd rather maintain my bodyweight and increase muscle in order to improve body composition. In order to do so, I plan to get a lot stronger keeping my bodyweight roughly where it is now.
 
Have you measured your body fat?

Body Fat

There is a plethora of issue with measuring and individual body fat percentage.

Body Fat Testing
Articles

Jame Krieger, MS breakdown the flaws of each method that is used.

you can get a professional do it for you

"Get A Professional"

Finding a qualified technician is hard. The majority of Personal Trainers aren't qualified; but think they are.

The navy one is a good guideline

Incredibly Inaccurate

The "Navy Guideline Calculator" is grossly inaccurate.

Kenny Croxdale
 
Incredibly Inaccurate

The "Navy Guideline Calculator" is grossly inaccurate.

Kenny Croxdale

Yes, it is inaccurate. But if you put it in the context of the original post, you might share the conclusion that measuring the waist and neck is a useful tool for tracking progress of body composition, for a beginner in the 25% body fat range.
 
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Maybe I'm not getting enough protein.

Protein Intake

It appears that you may be right.

Amount Per Meal

Research (Dr Donald Layman and Layne Norton) determined that around 30 gram or more per meal is required to increase and maintain muscle mass. f

Nutrition Forum - Dr. Donald Layman, PhD


Layman does an excellent job in explaining the necessity of consuming at least 30 gram per meal.

Pulse Feeding

One of the primary keys to maintaining and/or increasing muscle mass is Muscle Protein Synthesis.

A certain amount of protein is needed per meal to trigger Muscle Protein Synthesis.

Younger individual can trigger the effect with around 30 gram of quality protein per meal. Younger individual systems are more effective than older individuals.

Older individual need more protein per meal than younger individuals. That because older individual's systems are not as effective. Around 40 gram of protein per meal is needed for older individuals.

Plus Feeding means spiking protein intake; ingesting more protein in each meal. Research has demonstrated Pulse Feeding for older individual can produce close to the same Muscle Protein Synthesis effect as it does with younger individual, who consume less.

The research on Pulse Feeding easily be found on line.

Higher Protein Intake On Lower Calorie Diets

Research shows that increasing protein intake on a lower calorie diet, preserves muscle mass.

Take Home Message

1) 30 gram of quality protein per meal is needed to maintain or increase muscle mass.

2) Higher protein intake on low calorie diets preserve muscle mass.

Kenny Croxdale
 
Yes, it is inaccurate.

Conflicting Statements

You state that it is inaccurate and in your previous post you stated, "The navy one is a good guideline IMO."

measuring the waist and neck is a useful tool for tracking progress of body composition, for a beginner in the 25% body fat range.

"Your waist line is your life line"

The waist measurement is a good indicator of body fat and possible health issues.

I see no value in the neck measurement.

A more effective measurement is the waist to hip ratio.

Kenny Croxdale
 
If I wanted to implement intermittent fasting, since I work out in the morning, would that mean eating breakfast and lunch and skipping dinner entirely? Training before lunch would be better—body is more awake—but then I'd have to shower again. For folks who do IF, do you have breakfast+lunch or lunch+dinner, and when do you work out? Lately, I've been skipping dinners and keeping the breakfast and lunch the same as usual, which has been working. I have had to do this to maintain the weight loss goal that I have each week (1–2 lb). After I reach my target weight (155–160 lb), then I'm going to increase calories again and train harder.
 
Not sure if I'm the best person to answer the question, but I tend to do 18-22 hour fasts 2-3x per week. I usually train on days where I eat 3 solid meals and occasionally 1-2 snacks.

There are a number of different protocols that are available on the internet. Seems like one of the most popular is the Lean Gains 16:8 method. Martin Berkham recommends to supplement with BCAAs if you train while fasted until you break your fast with food. I wouldn't do this as BCAAs will break you fast do to insulin response.

There's a guy named Thomas Delauer that has recommendations on training timing during the fasted window. He thinks for strength training you can do it in the AM and break your fast later (afternoon or even evening) and BCAAs aren't necessary. Increased HGH will protect your muscles and you may have increased lipolysis.



You could experiment and see what happens!
 
Alright, folks, I'm looking for some help. I've decided to follow your advice to increase protein and try IF, but I'd like some help figuring what my meals should be.

I went overboard googling and researching before settling on the foods I currently eat because of their various health and nutritional benefits (as touted on the Internet, YMMV)—and to be honest, I don't want to invest the time as I imagine ya'll have better advice anyway. What foods do you think I should ditch? and which should I add? In terms of meat, what's the best protein bang for the buck? I want to continue with the same calorie intake at this point, just switch out and in different foods. For a while now I've been eating the breakfast and lunch listed in my first post.

I have already unintentionally fallen into an IF pattern because I found the only way my weight would decrease was if I skipped dinner (prior to hearing about IF I didn't skip dinner because I didn't think it was safe!). And doing so has caused weight loss at a comfortable rate (~1.6 lb per week). So instead of skipping dinner, my plan is to skip breakfast, to eat a regularly planned lunch and regularly planned dinner (as in, eat the exact same meals just about every day). Obviously it doesn't always work out that way, particularly on weekends and if we visit with friends. I will continue training in the morning 5 or 6 days a week, so I'd be training in a fasted state.

Your thoughts? Thanks, all.
 
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