New to CF nutrition and workout ?'s

akrynski

I posted this in a general discussion but didn't get a lot of useful replies. The general comments pretty much amounted to "what you're doing is fine and what you eat before/after a workout is completely personal preference, it doesn't matter..." Posting here in case anyone has anything to add. Thanks in advance!

Original post:
I am currently 192# and 5'5.5" (down from 240# in 11/17). My goal is 140#. I've been using MFP on the lose 1 lb/week setting and not eating my exercise calories. I occasionally go off my food plan and don't log for a day, maybe once every two weeks or so, but otherwise I stay usually a few hundred below my calorie goal. I am a vegetarian and often don't meet my goal for protein.

I have been increasing my exercise and now am going to a spin class 4x/week (M, T, Th, S) and just last week added crossfit 2x/week (W and F). With the exception of Saturday which is late morning, all of the classes I am doing are really early (5:30 or 6 am).

I have some questions about whether what I am doing is going to help me reach my goals or if I need to make some changes. I want to get my weight down and also increase strength and definition. I've heard it's better to do crossfit on consecutive days, which I am not. My current schedule is dictated by when the spin class happens. I would be open to switching one of the spin days to a crossfit day if that would be better. I've never done any sort of consistent weight training before so I am a total novice.

I am also looking for advice about what to eat before and after these classes. I generally have a small breakfast of an egg and cheese spread on a sandwich skinny (about 180 cal) or oatmeal before my workout, and a banana after. Because I have been concerned about not getting enough protein, I tried a protein drink mix (it's about time, 24 grams of protein for 100 cal) this morning instead and added a scoop of pb2 for another 25 cal and 2.5 grams protein) before spin and had a banana after. I was nauseous toward the end of class, but felt better when I ate the banana after (I take medicine in the morning so it's possible that the nausea was from having only liquids, but I'm not sure).

Should I be worried about making sure I eat as much protein as MFP recommends? Will I be ok cutting calories like I am and adding strength training? Are these protein mixes a good idea? Do I need to eat differently before and after the crossfit workouts? Believe me, I am already embarassing myself fully in there, so I don't want poor nutrition to make it even worse

krokador

It's hard to give exact recommendations - as the other folks have said, nutrition does end up being a bit of a personal thing.

So bear in mind this is coming from a 5'6" gal who is currently 208 lbs and trying to get down to 175. I have been strength training for a while and do have a good amount of muscle mass.

But once you get into the swing of things doing crossfit, it is quite likely that you will need to up the calories a bit. Especially if you have your activity level set to sedentary. I do it 4-5 times a week typically (not all grueling workouts, mind you), and can EASILY maintain my current weight on 2.3kcals (when I count. Problem I have is that I love food a little too much xD). YMMV, as I've stated, I do have a good amount of muscle mass, but a very sedentary job.

The thing with CF/weight training in general, is that it can be done eating at a deficit, for sure. But the bigger the deficit, the less you will enjoy yourself. So If you factor in that you're already set for a 500 cals deficit a day WITHOUT eating back any exercise calories... Once you get past the fundamental training (please make sure you get a good amount of that, btw!), your performance will definitely suffer from the lower calories. If it's something you'd like to stick with for a while, maybe don't start yourself down a super steep slope.

As for protein recs, I seem to remember MFP's basic suggestion is something along the lines of 25g per day, innit? That's really low. Some of the guidelines out there can be daunting, though. I like to go with 1g/lbs of lean body mass, which gets me, personally, around 125g a day, but I'd say if you can get to half that amount or so (65-70g?), you're pretty good. There isn't anything wrong with protein powders, although by personal experience, I would avoid doing that right before a workout. Any liquid food tends to not settle down well.

My best formula has always been to get some carbs in beforehand (piece of toast with PB or honey, banana, something like that if on the same day, but I do tend to train fasted in the morning, so I'll try to have some starchy veggies or rice or a piece of bread before bed the day before) and have the protein shake after to curb that post-workout hunger.

I have nothing to offer as far as vegetarian guidelines, as I am a meat eater. But I do enjoy the occasional tofu stir fry or some beans and whatnot.

I hope that helps!

akrynski

Hey, thanks for your reply! I have my settings set to lightly active (I'm a school counselor at an emotional support school so I run around a fair amount...10,000 steps not something I have to work to achieve) and currently cal/day are at 1,740 (that's with the 1 lb/week loss). MFP has my protein goal set at 87g which is 20% but adjusts it up on days I log exercise (right now it's 6/7 days) to usually around 115-150. If I just look at it in percentages I see I am getting about 15%-20% protein most days. I usually come in somewhere between 1200-1600 calories before exercise, so I guess it's hard to hit the protein goal if I am not eating as many calories as the settings are dictating.

Today I ate my banana before spin instead of after and drank part of the protein drink before and the rest after. That seemed to work out a little better than what I did yesterday.

As for long term crossfit plans, I have no idea if this is something I will actually stick with or want to get more into down the road. Most likely I will just continue being an admirer of women with big crossfit muscles, rather than attempting to get them myself, but I suppose stranger things have happened!

bostonwolf

You aren't going to get big muscles doing CF without concerted effort and extra work (straight weighlifting.) You WILL get closer to the stronger and more defined look you mentioned in your first post.

If that's the goal, at some point cardio is going to have to decrease and strength-based training is going to have to increase. Whether or not that is Crossfit or a dedicated weightlifting plan (barbells, squats, deadlifts, presses) is up to you.

Andy__Dane

Standard advice is 40%/30%/30% carbs/fat/protein. With protein set at 1g of protein for every lb of lean body mass. And set your calories from that.

But this is just a guideline and everyone is different.

I train first thing in the morning, don't eat before hand as it's too early. Then have overnight oats with my protein powder mixed in as breakfast. That's the only powder I use though, prefer to get the protein through diet but I was struggling to hit 170g of protein from diet alone.