Anyone wanna give my diary a looksie?

kwedman488
kwedman488 Posts: 132 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm having a really hard time trying to optimize my results to lower my body fat percentage and work on/improve my muscle mass. I try to eat very well; I haven't adjusted my macro percentages on here yet (it reset after I updated the app on my iPod), but I have been working on keeping my macros at around 50% protein and I haven't cared too much about my carb or fat %, I've been focusing more on my protein intake.
I'm also having a hard time figuring out how many calories I should be aiming for; I am a college student, so I set my activity level as lightly active since outside of my workouts I'm either sitting in lecture, sitting at home doing homework, or up and about cooking or cleaning or whatnot. However I have a 50 min swimming class twice a week, 50 min step aerobic class twice a week, jazz dance class twice a week, swing dance class once a week, run 2 miles twice a week, and I'm working on P90X (i'm on the last week of round one) but I substitute the cardio days for insanity and do an extra leg day instead of the yoga day.
I'm 5' 2" and weigh roughly 112 lbs.
So anywho, my diary is open to the public, and I would love any critiques available. I log everything, and I use my HRM for all of my workouts including rising my bike back and forth to class (I live a mile off campus). So any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Replies

  • clambert1273
    clambert1273 Posts: 840 Member
    lol I don't think I could EVER hit 50% protein... I have a struggle at 30% and I eat ALOT for protein. Last night I had 9oz of Salmon and still didn't hit it lol

    You may want to try it at a 40/30/30 (carb/fat/protein) and see if that helps you. You can always adjust to fit your life and body :)
  • knot_enough
    knot_enough Posts: 176 Member
    hmm.. i do agree with the 40/30/30 comment. Protein is good for building muscle but your body needs the energy from the carbs to mobilize those proteins. But the bad part is that you cant have too many carbs because then the unused ones will become fat.
  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
    But the bad part is that you cant have too many carbs because then the unused ones will become fat.

    As long as you are eating at maintenance or a deficit then you won't really have to worry much about stagnant carbs. Also, that's really high protein intake. Basic rule of thumb is to take 1g per 1lb of lean body mass. This can fluctuate a little based on needs, but not by such a drastic amount. Have you considered a macro split closer to 50c/30p/20f? I find it works best for me and most people that have tried it. I looked at the last few days in your diery and they seem fine for fat loss but definitely for muscular gain. Calories are required to build muscle. So figure it this way. Say your BMR is 1400, this is a non negotiable number and you should never eat less then this value. Say you go to the gym and work out burning 500 calories. Part of the 1400 calories you have eaten in the day are used to fuel this, the rest come from body energy stores. When those deplete, guess where one of the places you body looks for energy? Muscles. In order to counter this, you need to eat back a portion of those calories. The trick is to ensure that you eat enough to satisfy BMR, activity, and muscle growth at the same time. This requires a value much closer to your TDEE. It will slow down fat loss, and muscle growth will be slow, but it's the most simplistic way to achieve both goals...
  • kwedman488
    kwedman488 Posts: 132 Member
    I did do about 40% p, 40% c, and 20% fat for a little while, and I was fine with it, but the reason I switched to 50% was to try to follow the P90X nutrition guide that says to hit 50% protein during the first month for helping to shred fat, so I've been working on adjusting food around to try to see if I can fit it. I'm not super stressed about it though-as long as my protein % is equal to or greater than carbs.
    So should I be trying to aim for slightly higher calories? The P90X guide has a minimum of 1800 calories but I'm really unsure of how much I'm burning during the workouts since I keep reading that using a HRM is innefective for it-which is what I use since I don't really stand around when I work out. I do the move until I can't do it anymore, write it down, and move on to what Tony says to do next. But I use my HRM to at least be in the general ballpark which makes more sense to me than using MFP.
  • clambert1273
    clambert1273 Posts: 840 Member
    I could not follow his guide during P90X... I would burn out and crash - it was very bad for me. I adjusted and went forward so just make good decisions with it and you will be fine.

    HRM will NOT be effective with P90X as it is weights (bodyweight and otherwise). I have started heavy lifting now and just eat the same amount per day without recording a "burn".. it will average out :)

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