Any tips (Diary open)

Terasome

Hi I'm after some constructive advice or criticism on my diary and exercise please. I've read and read topics and now I am confused. Some people say eat your exercise calories back, others say don't eat them. :indifferent:

I am 157cm tall and 180lbs or thereabouts.

Thanks

CallmeSbo

Im not an expert, but I would say it looks good to me. But try to reduce your sugar. More protein wouldnt do any harm either. Good luck

Mmmporkrinds

Hi there, I had a look at your food diary and on the whole it looks good. Only thing I noticed is that the bread you eat tends to be white, so probably refined. Maybe if you ate whole grain bread it might give you more good energy. I certainly think it's best to eat back the calories you burn through exercise, but best to eat it back in whole-grain bread rather than white (because it has more oomph, or something - I'm no expert!)

bijoux2711

HI there
I am by no means an expert and I am a firm believer that you do need to work out what works for you but if you're struggling, i'd start by looking at your sugar intake and reduce it where possible. I know if I eat sugar (even fructose), I crave carbs and sugar like you wouldn't believe. Also, are you getting at least 5 serves of veg a day?

bijoux2711

I second the wholegrain bread option too. Will keep you feeling fuller for longer and reduce the blood sugar spike. Also, full fat dairy, although you're not eating a great deal of it by the looks of it, isn't a great option for heart health.

tammyc226

Yes, agreed try to eat the calories back. When I exercise, I find that I am incredibly more hungry than if I don't. I think its my body telling me I need to refill. In regards to the snacks they are mostly high calorie but not filling. Can you try swapping some of them for something more filling such as yoghurt or banana which would fill you up more but also satisfy some of those dreaded sweet cravings. Good Luck

snookumss

I looked at todays food and it looks good The carbs, protein and fats aren't bad. If you can, up the fats a tiny bit and the protein a bit more... like 20 or more at least. But I am really proud of you for not getting hardly any protein like some people!

Terasome

Thanks. I think most of my sugar is coming from natural sugars though. I can change to wholegrain breads but find eating one banana can spike my sugar up. Even my vege juice puts my sugar straight over the recommended intake.

I will be increasing my protein as of tomorrow morning.

em9371

looks pretty good
you need to eat back exercise calories, the goal MFP gives you already includes the deficit for your chosen weight loss per week so if you dont eat them back your deficit will be too high.

bijoux2711

Even natural sugars can make you fat. The body doesn't distinguish between sugar from fruit and sugar from chocolate when it's breaking it down although the benefits of fruit (fibre, nutrients, minerals) far outweigh the benefits of chocolate. I find the following explanation the most useful:

Bear in mind that every type of carbohydrate you eat is eventually converted to a simple form of sugar known as glucose, either directly in the gut or after a brief visit to the liver. The truth is, all the bread, pasta, cereal, potatoes, rice (stop me when you’ve had enough), fruit, dessert, candy, and sodas you eat and drink eventually wind up as glucose. While glucose is a fuel, it is actually quite toxic in excess amounts unless it is being burned inside your cells, so the body has evolved an elegant way of getting it out of the bloodstream quickly and storing it in those cells.

It does this by having the liver and the muscles store some of the excess glucose as glycogen. That’s the muscle fuel that hard anaerobic exercise requires. Specialized beta cells in your pancreas sense the abundance of glucose in the bloodstream after a meal and secrete insulin, a peptide hormone whose job it is to allow glucose (and fats and amino acids) to gain access to the interior of muscle and liver cells.

But here’s the catch: once those cells are full, as they are almost all the time with inactive people, the rest of the glucose is converted to fat. Saturated fat.

Extract from marksdailyapple.com

CallmeSbo

Even natural sugars can make you fat. The body doesn't distinguish between sugar from fruit and sugar from chocolate when it's breaking it down although the benefits of fruit (fibre, nutrients, minerals) far outweigh the benefits of chocolate. I find the following explanation the most useful:

Bear in mind that every type of carbohydrate you eat is eventually converted to a simple form of sugar known as glucose, either directly in the gut or after a brief visit to the liver. The truth is, all the bread, pasta, cereal, potatoes, rice (stop me when you’ve had enough), fruit, dessert, candy, and sodas you eat and drink eventually wind up as glucose. While glucose is a fuel, it is actually quite toxic in excess amounts unless it is being burned inside your cells, so the body has evolved an elegant way of getting it out of the bloodstream quickly and storing it in those cells.

It does this by having the liver and the muscles store some of the excess glucose as glycogen. That’s the muscle fuel that hard anaerobic exercise requires. Specialized beta cells in your pancreas sense the abundance of glucose in the bloodstream after a meal and secrete insulin, a peptide hormone whose job it is to allow glucose (and fats and amino acids) to gain access to the interior of muscle and liver cells.

But here’s the catch: once those cells are full, as they are almost all the time with inactive people, the rest of the glucose is converted to fat. Saturated fat.

Extract from marksdailyapple.com

Thanks for that.