Care to take a peak at my diary?

mandamerlot

Hey

I posted a question in the public forums and someone linked this group and said I should take my diary to the experts, so here I am

Background; 5'5", 26 years old, 138 pounds as of today- started at 141.5, lowest was 136.5 and have been bouncing up and down for the past month. Body fat is 26.6%

My calorie intake is set based on TDEE. I am trying to pay closer attention to my macros, but struggling to get in enough protein, clearly.

I was doing Weight Watchers, read a bunch of different threads and decided to go off of TDEE as I was struggling to find sustainable energy to complete my workouts once I started increasing the weight I was using. As I have increased my cardio to a RPE of 8/10, I am finding myself VERY hungry, especially after 4pm.

Looking for suggestions for a more satiating diet or ways to fill up and not kill my diet. Also any suggestions on my diary whatsoever are greatly appreciated. I have stopped focusing on the scale, and am more focused on a body recomp. I am following the Lean Women's Training Bible program on Bodybuilding.com (just the exercise + TDEE, not the supplements).

Thanks for taking the time to read this & for your advice!

jo_marnes

I can't comment on the diet, I don't have enough knowledge. I am just wondering how you are calculating your calorie burn as it seems massive!

mandamerlot

I can't comment on the diet, I don't have enough knowledge. I am just wondering how you are calculating your calorie burn as it seems massive!

HRM for cardio. The other adjustment is from a FitBit activity tracker based on my steps per day, and it is actually a negative adjustment vs what MFP would have logged.

Sarauk2sf

Tagging

mandamerlot

Bump

(sorry if I am not supposed to bump once it has been tagged- that thread didn't really say anything other than not to bump for 48 hours)

SideSteel

So there's a few things you can consider with respect to satiety to attempt to drive it up a bit higher, but some of this is variable and will require you to "see what works".

Increase fruit and vegetable consumption and decrease highly palatable foods.

Your food diary looks reasonable to me. You could try slightly reducing restaurant food and alcohol consumption (note: I don't believe your alcohol consumption is unreasonable but it's worth mentioning because those calories can be replaced with more satiating options).

You could evaluate how many calories are spent on sauces and items that increase palatability. I didn't spell that word right, or it's not actually a word, but I'm too lazy to go google it so hopefully you understood the sentence.

2) Consider your nutrient timing.

I'll throw a hypothetical at you.

Compare someone who has 3 meals per day with two small snacks between breakfast and lunch, and a snack between lunch and dinner, and a snack at bedtime. In a situation where calories are capped, the actual meals are likely to be much smaller than someone who eats 3 meals per day with no snacks. (Those snack calories are "borrowed" from the meals making the meals smaller).

Now this isn't to say that snacking is bad. Some people enjoy that method and feel less hungry. Others do much better by avoiding the snacks and eating larger meals.

I can't determine when you eat based on your food diary, but I'd suggest looking at the second option first to see how that works. It may take a short time to take effect if you are conditioned to snack between meals.

I would also be curious regarding your meal timing with respect to your workout. Training performance is quite important and nutrient timing can have a big impact on it.

mandamerlot

Thanks for the response

I'm willing to cut back on my wine ! I think it's the culprit in my weight loss being stalled, since eating at a deficit doesn't seem to be working and I doubt I am lifting heavy enough to be gaining muscle at this stage.

I eat at the same times every day; wake between 6:30-7, coffee first. Lately I have just been drinking my protein shake with water around 8 as I found when I was eating a bigger breakfast, by time I finished lifting and started into my cardio, my stomach was audibly growling with hunger. I find my gym performance is improved when working out in semi-fasted state, but am open to input on that as well.

I workout from 9:30-11, lunch is at 12:30, dinner is 6:30-7. I don't normally have a morning snack, most snacks are eaten between lunch & dinner and after dinner.

So if I understand correctly, I should look at capping my calories per meal and cutting out the snack to see if that helps keep me feeling full? Like 200 for breakfast, 600 for lunch, etc? It definitely will take some adjustment as I have spent the past 6 weeks training myself to eat smaller portions, haha.

SideSteel

Thanks for the response

I'm willing to cut back on my wine ! I think it's the culprit in my weight loss being stalled, since eating at a deficit doesn't seem to be working and I doubt I am lifting heavy enough to be gaining muscle at this stage.

Eating at a deficit will work if you give it time and you are actually eating in a deficit, but with water retention, potential errors in food intake estimation, errors in expenditure estimation, simply falling off plan - there are all kinds of obstacles that can get in the way of progress or how you interpret the data.

I eat at the same times every day; wake between 6:30-7, coffee first. Lately I have just been drinking my protein shake with water around 8 as I found when I was eating a bigger breakfast, by time I finished lifting and started into my cardio, my stomach was audibly growling with hunger. I find my gym performance is improved when working out in semi-fasted state, but am open to input on that as well.

I workout from 9:30-11, lunch is at 12:30, dinner is 6:30-7. I don't normally have a morning snack, most snacks are eaten between lunch & dinner and after dinner.

So if I understand correctly, I should look at capping my calories per meal and cutting out the snack to see if that helps keep me feeling full? Like 200 for breakfast, 600 for lunch, etc? It definitely will take some adjustment as I have spent the past 6 weeks training myself to eat smaller portions, haha.

Since you have a structured meal timing in place and you believe it's beneficial to you for gym performance, lets start by just having you look at food choices rather than the distribution of calories and see if this helps. Remove some/most of the alcohol consumption and reduce the restaurant food frequency and increase fruit/vegetable consumption and see if you notice a difference.

mandamerlot

Since you have a structured meal timing in place and you believe it's beneficial to you for gym performance, lets start by just having you look at food choices rather than the distribution of calories and see if this helps. Remove some/most of the alcohol consumption and reduce the restaurant food frequency and increase fruit/vegetable consumption and see if you notice a difference.

Sounds good, thanks. I was curious and went through my diary for all of April and I only ate restaurant food 5 times between all meals, is that considered excessive? I thought that wasn't too bad, but it'll save money in the long run anyways so no problem

I just got a new HRM (one that actually seems to be working) and I will agree that you may be on to something with the expenditure estimation being wrong, especially for my indoor treadmill runs.

How long would you like me to try this out before revisiting whether or not I need to make additional changes (whether to my cal goal or intake)?

mandamerlot

Oh, and adding that my attempts are not entirely fruitless- I have lost over 9 inches in my bust, natural & navel waist and hip measurements in the past month So my body is changing, just the scale refuses to move.

TavistockToad

Oh, and adding that my attempts are not entirely fruitless- I have lost over 9 inches in my bust, natural & navel waist and hip measurements in the past month So my body is changing, just the scale refuses to move.

Why are you bothered about the scale? No one sees that number, everyone sees the inches you lose...

mandamerlot

Why are you bothered about the scale? No one sees that number, everyone sees the inches you lose...

I guess because I am trying to lose body fat and seeing that number on the scale is hard for me. I didn't even break 140 for the first time in my life until I was 8 months pregnant and by 3 months post-partum I was down to 124.5lbs...

I am happy with the inches so far, but I don't see a difference. I guess I just like visible proof if that makes sense. Silly, I know.

SideSteel

Since you have a structured meal timing in place and you believe it's beneficial to you for gym performance, lets start by just having you look at food choices rather than the distribution of calories and see if this helps. Remove some/most of the alcohol consumption and reduce the restaurant food frequency and increase fruit/vegetable consumption and see if you notice a difference.

Sounds good, thanks. I was curious and went through my diary for all of April and I only ate restaurant food 5 times between all meals, is that considered excessive? I thought that wasn't too bad, but it'll save money in the long run anyways so no problem

I just got a new HRM (one that actually seems to be working) and I will agree that you may be on to something with the expenditure estimation being wrong, especially for my indoor treadmill runs.

How long would you like me to try this out before revisiting whether or not I need to make additional changes (whether to my cal goal or intake)?

Sorry I missed this follow-up question. How have things been since this post?