Following Suggestions

jsalzat

Lately I've been lazy about being attentive to what I eat and consequently my weight loss has halted as I've fallen into the habit of eating back all the calories I burn working out (plus some).

I decided that instead of trying to come up with another one of my custom-made personal eating resolutions (that I rarely follow through with), I would ask someone else for a simple suggestion to follow over the next month of logging. This morning after boot camp I approached my coach, and he gave me three simple eating suggestions (which I would probably not have given myself) which I intend to follow to the best of my ability throughout the month.

Just out of curiosity, what are some suggestions you've followed that have given you the most results in your fitness journey?

editorgrrl

Log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly.

Weigh everything you eat—even packaged food.

Eat "good" (whatever that means to you) 80% of the time. Fit yummy, portion-controlled treats into your calorie goal. Deprivation can lead to bingeing.

Sexypants! http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

deansdad101

Jsalz;

My "suggestion"?
STOP relying on "suggestions"!

Sounds snarky, I know, and it's really not meant to be, but if you've spent any amount of time around this (or any of the others) Forum, you know that in the space of a few minutes, you can find "suggestions" that run the gambit from "reasoned" to "ridiculous".

So too with what people purport to be "facts" (TDEE, Min Daily Cal Intake, etc) that are, at best, "myth", "anecdotal evidence", "common wisdom", old wives tales, "company line", or thinly disguised attempts to appear as an "expert" by parroting what others have repeated enough times to have the "wisdom" take on "everybody knows...." status.

In the end, there are NO "magic diets", NO "absolute" numbers, no "best" anything.

There are so many "variables", so many "guesstimates" involved, and so much "questionable" (as in under/over recorded) anecdotal data that placing ANY amount of reliance on ANY one, specific "recommendation" is folly.

I do realize that your "question" here focused on having someone (your trainer, other forum members) spoon feed you a "sample" diet plan (because you would be "unlikely" to do it yourself), but my contention ("suggestion") would be that your efforts would have a MUCH higher chance of producing the results you seek if you focused less on a specific eating plan, and more on the "numbers" (accurate daily tracking of cals IN, weight changes, etc.).

"What" you eat matters, of course, from the nutrition point of view and is obviously important (in terms of fat, carb, protein balance), but "How Much" you eat (portions and total daily cals IN) matter MUCH more when it comes to weight gain/loss and the rate at which it occurs.

CICO (Cals In, Cals Out) is pretty much all that matters. If CI exceeds CO you WILL (over the long term) GAIN (and the opposite is true as is the "fact" that if CI=CO you will maintain.

Simple enough - except for the "fact" that nailing down the exact "number" (of cals in) is, at best a daunting task and not as simple as plugging a few stats into an (any) online calculator. (too many "variables", "guesstimates" involved with ALL of them).

It's a good starting point, but the ONLY way to know for sure is to religiously, and accurately track YOUR data and "adjust" your daily cal intake goal based on what actually happens to YOU (over the course of at least a couple weeks).

Weight loss/week (averaged over 2-3 weeks) stops or slows down is NOT because your metabolism slowed down so much it overrode body's ability to burn fat, or because you went under some "magic" minimum number and your body went into "starvation mode" (there is no such thing for 99% of us) - it's because CI exceeded CO, it really IS that simple.

Eat what you like, focus first on TDCI (total daily cal intake). Log exact cals in, and weight daily (but do NOT "obsess", or even pay undue attention to daily weight fluctuations (up or down), fluctuations are perfectly NORMAL. It's the "averages" over a period of time (2-3 weeks) that matter.

If, after a couple weeks, YOUR numbers are not to your liking (keeping "reasonable" goals 1-2#/wk loss, max, in mind), adjust your cals in number down by 250 or so and give it another couple weeks to "stabilize" before considering another adjustment.

As time goes on, spend your time focusing on "fine tuning" your eating habits ("what" you eat) to more closely approximate a "healthy" diet (fat, protein, carb balance).

I'm not exactly sure of how your "current plan" is doing but if the 16# loss is over the 90 days you referenced, that's works out to a little over a pound/wk and is as close to "ideal" (maybe even a little high, especially as you continue to lose) as it gets - so whatever you've been doing is working just fine - KEEP IT UP!

Sorry for the wordiness, best of luck in your (all of our's) "quest", and, since all of this is nothing more than MY "suggestion" (read "opinion"), you are perfectly welcome to consider it based on my initial suggestion (second line of this post).