Thing is.. I workout a lot, but I still have a little to much body-fat. I know it's a dietary problem, my workout routine is quite allright, and quite intense. My food intake is too much and not right. What's the best way to eat, so you have plenty of energy, won't gain body fat, and get all the right vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc. ?? How many meals on one day? What not to eat?
Hades, search this topic on MAP! But to respond, eat 5 to 6 meals a day that have high protein and complex carbohydrates and minimal fat. The key is burn more calories then you consume. :Angel:
search... Search.... SEARCH! (Hey that word sounds really odd if you say it alot , i hate words like that)
i bet you are not eating too much, just the wrong sorts of food and at the wrong times. *5-6 small meals a day *a source of protein in every meal- lean meat, eggs, fish are my favourites although there are some vegetable alternatives of you are that way inclined. *cut out refined sugars and carbs completely *weight complex carbs towards AM and good fats towards PM *try and have fruit or veg with every meal, preferably both. *green vegetables are amazing. *nuts make good snacks, as does celery and humus *drink plenty of water and, if you can tolerate it, milk. check out this article for some good info on food. http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=05-212-diet
He said refined carbs. He then went on to recommend eating carbs in the morning, and both fruit and vegetables, which contain carbohydrates. Eat 5-6 small meals a day. If you want, you can keep a log of everything you eat for at least a few days to see how many calories, protein, fat, and carbohydrates you're getting. Then you can post up the log if you want and get feedback on that, or at least figure out what you could be doing differently (eating more protein, less junk food, more calories, fewer calories, etc.)
A cut and paste: This is going to be a long post, but hopefully, it is of some value to others. I have been trying to put together some ideas on sound eating and nutrition. The ideas below have been taken from a variety of sources and are what I consider to be good for those who participate in regular exercise and want to eat reasonably healthy. This is not designed for people that are professional athletes, nursing, pregnant, using steroids, or have any serious health issues. I am not a doctor nor am I a registered dietician. Most of my goals have related to weight loss more than weight gain. However, eating healthy is largely eating healthy. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. To lose a pound, you must reduce your calorie intake or increase calorie expenditure by 3,500 calories. You increase your calorie expenditure by either exercising or increasing your metabolism. The first centers on more work and the second on more thought. Know how many calories you need a day. Just being alive means that you will need about 11 calories per day per pound of bodyweight to maintain your bodyweight. This is your BMR. Add in appropriate calories based on your lifestyle and exercise. Subtract from that number and you will lose weight. Add to that number and you will gain weight. Eat within an hour of waking and every 3 hours after that. It speeds up your metabolism. For those trying to increase muscle mass, a more even distribution of protein is a big help. Portion size is very important. They tell you how big the portion size is on the back of the box for a reason. Sure, you can the bag of chips and each portion is only 150 calories. But there are 6 portions in the bag which means you just ate 900 calories of garbage. You should occasionally weigh out the portions you serve yourself so that you can see how much you are getting. Skipping breakfast is the worst thing you can do to your diet. It should be the biggest and most nutritious meal of the day. You have fasted for 8 or more hours and now the body needs calories to rev up the furnace as well as nutrition to keep the body strong. You should always eat after a workout with weights. The ideal is a whey shake with simple carbs. This is probably the only time you want simple carbs. The reason being that simple carbs increase insulin which helps to move glycogen into the muscles immediately after a workout. Having solid protein at the same time helps to not only create muscle synthesis but prevent muscle tissue breakdown. You should have this protein and carbs meal within 30 minutes of a workout with weights. Eat lots of fiber. Each gram of fiber absorbs about 7 calories of fat from a meal. Of course, if you had no fat, then the calories didn't get absorbed. Try for at least 35 grams of fiber. Cut the white out of the diet. White bread, white rice, white sugar, white potatoes, etc. They slow down your metabolism by increasing insulin production. Any bread or grain product should be whole grain. Whole grain releases less insulin. Rye is one of the lowest glycemic grains. When eating bread, try to dip it in olive oil or use smart balance instead of butter. Eat eggs. They are high in high density cholestrol and are not the heart attack magnet people thought they were. However, I do choose egg whites or egg beaters quite often. 2 eggs a day will not hurt you. Your body has to process the food you eat to convert it to fat. It only takes about 3% of the calories from a piece of fat to convert it to fat. It takes about 23% to convert carbs and protein to fat. Huge difference. Trans fats and saturated fats are hard attacks waiting to happen. Polyunsaturated fats such as canola oil are better and monosaturated fats such as olive oil are the best choice. Instead of butter or margarine which are saturated fats choose smart balance which is designed to reduce cholestrol. There is also a new type of oil that uses diglycerides instead of triglycerides (you know the one the doctor keeps telling you to lower) that is designed to help you lose weight. Baked, roasted, grilled, blackened, etc. are good choices for cooking meats. Frying is not. The flour on it is extra calories and the oil they are using is usually pure saturated. Salads are great as long as it is almost all veggie. Tons of cheese, bacon, croutons, ham, and a nice dollop of full fat ranch or bleu cheese dressing are going to put on a ton of weight. The extras that you put should be eggs, with as much of it being the white part which is the protein and no cholestrol or fat as possible, and lean turkey. A good recommendation for your dinner, lunch, and snacks, is to have half of your plate be vegetables. Have one quarter of your plate be complex carbs, and one quarter be lean protein like chicken breasts, turkey, fish, lean cuts of beef, or vegetable protein or whey shakes. And your beverage should be calorie free like water. Generally a good idea of your calorie intake should range between 60/20/20 to 40/40/20 (carbs/protein/fat). Realize though that your starches and proteins in particular are far more dense than the vegetables and thus need to take up a smaller amount of space on your plate. When choosing cuts of meat, choose those that have loin or round in the name are the leanest, ie sirloin, and have all visible fat trimmed. The filet mignon may taste a little better, but that is because of all the fat. You probably are not eating nearly enough beans. Beans are nutritional powerhouses and have some varieties have more antioxidants than blueberries which are the current poster child of antioxidants. They are also high in fiber and protein. Don’t have all your vegetables of one type. You need a variety. Dark Green Vegetables = 3 cups weekly, Orange Vegetables = 2 1/2 cups weekly, Dry Beans & Peas = 3 1/2 cups weekly, Starchy Vegetables = 7 cups weekly, Other Vegetables = 8 1/2 cups week Generally, the best choice for having your vegetables will be to have it fresh and raw. Canned vegetables and boiling your vegetables is going to remove a lot of the nutritional value. Prepackaged meals are generally a bad idea. They are loaded with preservatives, fat, sugar, and sodium. None of those are what you should be eating. Cardio workouts are a great way to burn calories. If you do it first thing in the morning, before breakfast, you tend to burn a higher percentage of calories from your body fat. If you want, have a little (very little) lean protein before the workout but keep carbs and fat to a minimum. Do remember to eat within approximately an hour of waking though. Weight lifting is key to successfully losing bodyfat. Each pound of fat burns approximately 2 calories per day. Each pound of muscle will burn between 35-50 calories per day. Weight lifting will not turn you into a musclebound bodybuilder unless you train to do that or take a lot of steroids. Cheat meals are great – at slowing down your progress. Only you can decide if the slow down in getting where you want from cheating is worth the “reward” that you got from cheating. Yes, the cheat meal may help you stick to your plan. For some, it doesn’t help them to stick to the plan but increases the likelihood that they will cheat more often. It is usually more difficult to try and bulk up and gain a lot of muscle quickly while lowering bodyfat at the same time. It is usually easier to work on one or the other. But be aware that you are not going to lose 10 pounds of fat in a week. If you lose that much, you are losing water or muscle. Likewise, you won’t be very fast at throwing on a lot of muscle. It will most likely be fat. Slow and gradual is the way to go. Having the same meals all the time will lead to deficiencies in certain vitamins and minerals and too much of others. Try to eat a wide variety. To improve your heart health, try to eat fish at least three times a week and use olive oil. Cover your bases by taking a quality multivitamin every day. Some multivitamins require you to take two a day or come in packs which allow you to spread it out over the day which may be a better choice. Finally, remember that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. You can get you daily calories from doughnuts and ice cream or grilled chicken breast and broccoli. However, one will give you empty calories that slow down your metabolism while the other gives you solid nutrition and speed up your metabolism. The choice is yours. How to track all of this and make use of it? First thing is to make yourself a check off sheet like they have for drinking your water. Put your 10 glasses of water a day on it. In the vegetable section, put red, green, orange, colored vegetabe boxes so that you get a variety of vegetables. Put three fruit checkboxes on there. For the protein section put two checkboxes for dairy, nuts and beans 2, other (including tofu, eggs, chicken, etc.) 3 checkboxes. Limit beef to only once a day or one of the checkboxes. If doing a weekly sheet, I would put three checkboxes for fish so you can track how often you have those. In the carb area put bad checkboxes. Try to limit to no more than 2 checks. Any white potatoes, white rice, white bread, sugary drinks, cakes, doughnuts, etc. Basically, if it is a refined carb, check the box and limit yourself to two. An example day would be as follows: Breakfast: Oatmeal (no checks as it is complex carb) Milk (1 dairy) raisins (1 fruit) Mid morning whey drink (1 dairy) banana (1 fruit) Lunch Turkey burger (1 protein) whole rye slices of bread for bun (no checks as it is complex carb) salad with radishes, onions, endives, etc. (1 check for veg) Mid afternoon 1 black bean w/brown rice burrito (1 bean protein, 1 simple carb check) 1 red pepper (1 red veg) Dinner Chicken breast (1 protein) green beans (1 green vegetable) raw carrots (1 orange vegetable) Ezekiel bread 1 slice Snack chicken breast leftover (1 protein) salad (1 vegetable) Also remember to track portion size so that calories are where they are supposed to be.
Owkay... thanks for the replies, and that T-nation.com article is quite useful as well! It's quite frustrating you know.. I'm in excellent shape, I have a 4-5 day workout routine, and my upperbody looks great, I just have a small beer belly I can't get rid off, and that's really bothering me. Especially when you do hundreds of ab exercises daily, lot's of cardio, boxing.. So basically my diet should be: 5-6 smalls meals a day, a lot of fruit and vegs, lots of protein, no junk food, and cut out the fat?
fruit, veg, nuts, milk, have carbs and they were all mentioned by name. there are some excellent carbs but the average diet is full of rubbish ones eaten at the wrong times.
While we're at it, can we see what your workout routine looks like? Hundreds of ab exercises are really a waste of time. Pick a couple and do a few sets a week (would you do hundreds of squats and benchpresses daily?).
yeah... about your routine it needs ome work first.... Monday weights right? all upper body.. where are the power lifts? (squats deadlifts, etc...) secondly, tues spinning.. ok wed boxing for an hour.. ok thurs.. rest? friday..boxing for an hour sat - possible workout sun - possible workout first.. if any day should be worked our on the weekend it is saturday to at leastr alow some time for your body to recover before hitting the irons again mate thursday should also be a weight day for you in my opinion I would add 20 minutes of HIIT to your weights days at the end of the workout... 1 minute work and 30 sec rest periods for 20 minutes on a treadmill should be enough... I would do deadlifts, squats, power-cleans, lunges and say turkish get-ups on thursday... i would also do shoulders on this day and leave chest and back for monday if you waned you COULD restructure M & Th to be the SAME workout using compound lifts and get more bag for your buck.... bench, dips, weighted pull-ups, chins, deadlits, squats, clean & jerks, and say snatches,,,,,,not in that order or even just those lifts.. but something like it are you really working out well in boxing... are you dripping when you leave? if that is not an hour of hard cardio.. then you need more IMHO with an additional day of weights on Th, HIIT trainning after your workouts, and really pushing yourself in boxing class (teacher will do it in spinning) you should be fine.... if you like add hiking or some ACTIVE rest on Sat and Sun... that would be my advice
@ kmguy8 My boxing classes are really hard. Sure as hell dripping at the end. I'm fairly tall and have a long reach. I'm occasionally a sparring partner for the amateur boxers at our gym. The whole session is a very intense workout. It includes a lot of sparring, bag work, combo drills, techniques, circuit training, stretching etc. It also under the supervision of two instructors, so it's not "come in, and do whatever you like" no, they tell you what to do, when you do it, etc. Well.. about the weights.. It's quite a problem.. I know one day of weights isn't enough, and squats, deadlifts etc. are very important, but sore muscles doesn't come in handy when you have a boxing class the next day. If my back and legs are killing me, how am I supposed to box properly? See, If I hit the weight at monday, I have tuesday to recover, because do spinning on tuesday, so soreness in my chest, back, and shoulders isn't a problem. Spinning doesn't cause that much pain, so I have no problems performing at boxing. If I train legs as well on monday, I have too much soreness during spinning.. What you said about the same workout on M & Th.. Would something like this do the trick?: Dumbell press 5 sets piramids bench press 5x5 Weighted Pull-ups 5 sets piramids Dumbell rows 5 sets piramids Military Dumbell press 5 sets piramids Squats 5x5 Deadlifts 5x5 I could drop spinning, but my only cardio would be boxing, and that is much more anaerobic than aerobic.. soo.. I could drop boxing.. No way!! :cry:
