Getting started and planning for the day

jchrisman717

I think I have my goals down. After some research yesterday. My stats are 50 years old/5'2/170 weight. Here's what I came up with:

Calories - 1500 (this is with a bigger deficit and with 3 days of exercising so I will re-evaluate this after a few weeks)
Protein - 136 grams a days
Fat - between 45 and 50 grams a day
Fiber - 25 is my goal but I think I forgot to change this in MFP goals though I do track it so I'll aim for that and then when I tweak in a couple of weeks I'll change that.
Carbs - will be the rest of my calories but should be around 113 g. a day.

I do protein shakes and I love greek yogart. So that's a start. One blog I read yesterday said that she balances her day by putting in her essentials in her food log first - logs all her meals where she'll get her protein requirement, then goes back and sees how much fat and fiber she needs and fills those in - then leaves carbs for last. Not a bad plan. Just will take a little more planning on my part and then sticking with the plan!

Anyone else have any tips/ideas? My biggest challenge is that I love carbs and so does my husband and so not eating them will require will power from me.

rotnkat77

I think I have my goals down. After some research yesterday. My stats are 50 years old/5'2/170 weight. Here's what I came up with:

Calories - 1500 (this is with a bigger deficit and with 3 days of exercising so I will re-evaluate this after a few weeks)
Protein - 136 grams a days
Fat - between 45 and 50 grams a day
Fiber - 25 is my goal but I think I forgot to change this in MFP goals though I do track it so I'll aim for that and then when I tweak in a couple of weeks I'll change that.
Carbs - will be the rest of my calories but should be around 113 g. a day.

I do protein shakes and I love greek yogart. So that's a start. One blog I read yesterday said that she balances her day by putting in her essentials in her food log first - logs all her meals where she'll get her protein requirement, then goes back and sees how much fat and fiber she needs and fills those in - then leaves carbs for last. Not a bad plan. Just will take a little more planning on my part and then sticking with the plan!

Anyone else have any tips/ideas? My biggest challenge is that I love carbs and so does my husband and so not eating them will require will power from me.

Definitely get a good digital scale (one that weighs in grams & oz's) and weigh everything. I even keep one at work.

I tried doing low carb (30-50 net carbs), but I was having such terrible disgestive issues that I had to quit. Since I have upped my carbs and protein that has become a non issue.

Like I said earlier I use Feeding Fitness calculations to set my macros. Protein-145 (.7) Fat-83 (.35) Carbs-185 (which is what's leftover).

Anita

jchrisman717

I do have a digital scale at home and was actually thinking of getting one here for work. I eat at a really good salad bar with fresh fruit and chicken on it most days. I guesstimate about the amount of say chicken because its hard to take out chunks and weigh it. I may go to the salad and then add a chicken breast from the hot food section because that way it could be weighed.

I keep a personal blender here at work with my protein powder and so going to start incorporating more shakes during the day. I've done my food log today trying to work it out and boy I am almost out of calories after lunch and still need a fair amount of protein. So I'll definitely be doing a shake later. It will take some time for me to get used to this for sure.

lemurcat12

Hi--I followed you here from the introduce yourself post. My stats are pretty similar at this point -- 44, 5'3, 170.

I don't know if I'm officially doing IIFYM, but I do try to follow certain macro guidelines and have found that to be the way I'm setting my daily food plans, so I guess I kind of am?

I'm still doing MFP + exercise which makes any kind of percentage-based macros difficult, because calories jump around so much. I'm toying with doing a more TDEE approach, but don't want to mess with what is working yet. What I am doing currently is:

Protein - try to get 105 grams (usually find this challenging, it's picked because it's a reasonable guess at my LBM when I was thinner and even if my current LBM is actually higher (based on more optimistic guesses of current BFP), it's close enough to be reasonable)
Fat - at least 40-45 g, but more with more calories--typically aim for 30% and going over is not unusual.
Carbs - whatever is extra--typically more if I exercise a lot. I used to aim at under 100 and then changed it to under 125 and am still in the habit of eating that, but my current theory is to let myself eat more as long as the minimums of the others are met.

This is sort of ad hoc, because MFP uses the percentages and I instead tend to use grams and adjust the grams of carbs depending on how much I exercise in a given day. I probably need to refine it some.

I've only just started tracking fiber (got tired of sodium), and I tend to be lower than 25 because on most days I don't eat lots of grains/beans, despite the fact that I eat lots of vegetables (related to the restricted carbs that I'm used to). The vegetables aren't as high in fiber as I would have thought. I'm going to watch this for a while before I decide if I need to up it.

I love greek yogurt and basically all dairy, and sometimes use protein shakes. Getting in sufficient protein is definitely one of my challenges (but also makes a huge difference in how satiated I feel). The biggest change since I went back to a healthy diet in February is that I'm now eating way more meat than I ever have in the past, which is working for me so far, but I'm thinking I do need to maybe incorporate more beans and take advantage of protein in grains and so on.

perseverance14

I eat 1700, TDEE - 15%, this is the breakdown:

Carbs / Day 35%
Fat / Day 25%
Protein / Day 40%

I use shakes to get enough protein and I eat lean protein.

I do plan in advance a lot (I usually make my breakfast and lunch at night and bring them to work with me). I have just started eating at 1700 because at 1600 -20% I was losing too fast, and since I only have a tad over 14 lbs. to get to my goal, I don't want to lose muscle. I may decide to go down lower than my goal, which is 130, I will decided that at 135.

Having the food around you need, planning and/or preparing in advance, all of that will help.

jchrisman717

Thanks good suggestions. I am definitely going to have to plan more. Started on a whim today and I have 500 calories left, no carbs left and 91 protein. So yea going to try to eat mostly protein tonight for dinner.

I don't get up early enough on work days to make a breakfast but have plenty of time at work to eat - haha. So I usually do a protein shake with fiber and drink it on my way to work. I keep greek yogart here, and peanut butter. I have a good salad bar close to eat from and some pretty health choices - subway (double meat, flat bread) in a pinch, The Mixx which makes great good and healthy salads. So my problem is definitely going to be trying to not eat what my husband likes in the evenings. He wants carby dinners and/or box dinners (like box noodles). He works an active job and is not big so I want to encourage him to eat because he doesn't eat much at work. I will try to just stay focused on what my goals are and keep salads, veggies and lean proteins for me to eat in the evening.

perseverance14

You can do it. Do you lift weights? That has been helping me a lot, I am doing StrongLifts 5x5.

I need to post a new profile pic, the one in there now I was 39 lbs. down at the time, but lifting has so many benefits, I am loving it. Could never lose the fat off certain places just doing cardio.

jchrisman717

Thanks! Yes I've been doing New Rules. This had been a bad week for motivation and just an overall feeling that I'm achieving any goals. So hoping to be in this full force and motivated by Monday!

Yesterday not a good eating day but that's ok just shows me how important it is to plan ahead. Today and tomorrow is planning days to start on Monday. Found lots if great ideas on google and Pinterest and have my list on hand.

Does anybody eat quina (sp)? I'm wondering if I would like it. And egg whites. You can up your protein by adding extra egg whites to your scrambled eggs. And I've decided my husband is just going to have to get used to more chicken dinners as that is a good source of higher protein and lower carb choices.

perseverance14

A lot of people told me Strong Lifts 5x5 was better to start out with than new rules, I don't know, I have that book too so it may be something I try in the future.