Calling all nutrition gurus!

Alohathin

Hey, I've been logging my meals and exercise here for a couple weeks now, and it is going fairly well.

I was hoping that I could take a look at the meal diaries for some of you who know what the hell you are doing. My best friend is a nutritionist, so I do get help from him, but he is 3000 miles away, and doesn't often log his meals on here.

If possible, I'd like to look at the diets of both the 5-6 meal per day folk, and some intermittent fasters.

So, if you keep your log religiously, and would allow me to check it out, I can learn a lot from studying it. Thanks for your help.

blue

xarge

I think your diary is really really good! Normally I don't like that much carbs in my diary (completely personal choice as even good complex carbs make me more sluggish) but your choices are great. I think you can safely consider upping your protein intake to 150+ grams, you will still be getting plenty of carbs if you don't want to cut back on them by far.

I think you're still using the MFP defaults for macronutrient goals. Sorry if you already know this, you can change them through Home > Goals > Change Goals > Custom.

Alohathin

I think your diary is really really good! Normally I don't like that much carbs in my diary (completely personal choice as even good complex carbs make me more sluggish) but your choices are great. I think you can safely consider upping your protein intake to 150+ grams, you will still be getting plenty of carbs if you don't want to cut back on them by far.

I think you're still using the MFP defaults for macronutrient goals. Sorry if you already know this, you can change them through Home > Goals > Change Goals > Custom.

Thanks. Yeah, I don't pay too much attention to the goals. Mostly, I just try to follow the types of foods my friend recommends.

I do plan on increasing the proteins once I start working strength training into my schedule this week. I've only been doing walking up to this point.

xarge

Thanks. Yeah, I don't pay too much attention to the goals. Mostly, I just try to follow the types of foods my friend recommends.

I do plan on increasing the proteins once I start working strength training into my schedule this week. I've only been doing walking up to this point.

So the question is how you feel with your food choices at the moment. Do you feel tired or find yourself in cravings? You're drinking a great deal of water by the way. Especially while strength training compared to walking, you may experience more water retention for a week or two and that may be seen on scale. Don't let it discourage you.

Alohathin

Thanks. Yeah, I don't pay too much attention to the goals. Mostly, I just try to follow the types of foods my friend recommends.

I do plan on increasing the proteins once I start working strength training into my schedule this week. I've only been doing walking up to this point.

So the question is how you feel with your food choices at the moment. Do you feel tired or find yourself in cravings? You're drinking a great deal of water by the way. Especially while strength training compared to walking, you may experience more water retention for a week or two and that may be seen on scale. Don't let it discourage you.

I have to drink a lot of water; I live in Hawaii, and I sweat a lot. I'm also particularly susceptible to feeling the effects of dehydration. I'm not really worried about retention. Nor does a pound or two setback phase me. I am fully committed (finally) to getting myself healthy. I eat a banana and a little extra salt to make sure I don't throw my electrolyte balance off; and on days with long walks, I drink some G2 gatorade.

I feel good about my choices. I feel satiated. I have a ton of energy. I probably should be eating a few more calories, but food is really expensive here, and I'm still living off of savings. So, I'll have to live with the extra caloric deficit until I get a job. So far it hasn't been a problem, but once I add the strength training, it might be.

The sun is working wonder, too. I just moved here from the gloomy Pacific NW. heh.

I mainly wanted to get an idea of how people handled the order of their meals. Meaning, more calories in the morning, less at night? When do they eat carbs compared to their workouts? Protein to workouts? Things like that. I'd like to try to look at several diaries and see what works for most people.

I took a quick look at yours. Can I ask when do you normally do your exercise routines? Before breakfast? Between a certain meal? Is there a type of food that you like to eat directly before or after your workout? If so, why?

Thank you for the input, by the way.

xarge

I have to drink a lot of water; I live in Hawaii, and I sweat a lot. I'm also particularly susceptible to feeling the effects of dehydration. I'm not really worried about retention. Nor does a pound or two setback phase me. I am fully committed (finally) to getting myself healthy. I eat a banana and a little extra salt to make sure I don't throw my electrolyte balance off; and on days with long walks, I drink some G2 gatorade.

I feel good about my choices. I feel satiated. I have a ton of energy. I probably should be eating a few more calories, but food is really expensive here, and I'm still living off of savings. So, I'll have to live with the extra caloric deficit until I get a job. So far it hasn't been a problem, but once I add the strength training, it might be.

The sun is working wonder, too. I just moved here from the gloomy Pacific NW. heh.

I mainly wanted to get an idea of how people handled the order of their meals. Meaning, more calories in the morning, less at night? When do they eat carbs compared to their workouts? Protein to workouts? Things like that. I'd like to try to look at several diaries and see what works for most people.

I took a quick look at yours. Can I ask when do you normally do your exercise routines? Before breakfast? Between a certain meal? Is there a type of food that you like to eat directly before or after your workout? If so, why?

Thank you for the input, by the way.

Hawaii! No wonder. What a lovely place to live.

I can relate to being on budget as some things are pretty expensive in Europe as well especially if they're imported so I always stick to what I can find local. On islands, it's even harder as sometimes even water can get very expensive compared to mainland. Since you already eat nuts and honey, I can suggest making your own nut butter as a good calorie snack alternative. It works well with hazelnuts and peanuts so macadamia nuts will probably prove the same. It's grinding 8 oz of nuts a tablespoon of honey together until they're creamy. You can add a tablespoon of olive oil (or coconut or any that's liquid in room temperature) if the texture is too dry. You can try 1/5 of the recipe and see how it goes

For the frequency of calories, go with what works for you. There are absolutely no scientific basis concerning meals. I usually skip breakfast because I wake up with enough energy. On the days I go to the office, I pack my breakfast and eat when I'm hungry at work. There are people who do intermittent fasting (most of them eat on a 6-8-10 hour window only like from 4 pm to midnight and fast for the rest of the day) and they're all doing great. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting You'll find plenty of information if you're interested. As for me, I usually eat most of my calories in the evening and at nights and as long as you don't have problems sleeping with a full stomach, it absolutely has no negative effect on weight loss.

Same goes for pre and post workout food. Your body may need fuel before a workout but some people can do fasted workouts (I'm not one of them due to low blood pressure). Again, it has no negative effect. For postworkout food, protein+simple carbs was suggested to those lifting weights in an hour because of the anabolic window of muscles but that window isn't as short as broscience suggests. http://thebodyevolutionreport.blogspot.com/2011/09/post-workout-anabolic-window-real-or.html is a nice reading regarding what should be taken and when. TL;DR is nutrient timing plays a negligible role compared to reaching your daily macro roles.

Most of my workout is in late afternoon/evening or sometimes at night (I don't favor this as it gives me trouble to fall asleep). I do 20 minutes of jogging every day (can't at the moment because of a medial tendon strain), 10 minutes of HIIT rope jumping and usually 30+ minutes of bodyweight exercises every other day with alternating free weights which are more close to circuit training and high pace. I do these usually 1-2 hours after what I ate last (meaning I got around 600 cals on a 1400 cal day before workout) and eat the rest of my food after the workout because it's yummy and I can't sleep with an empty stomach, no way!

You can still use a more conventional method and time your meals along with your workouts but as I'm not convinced that it would matter, I prefer flexibility in my schedule.

Hope this helps a bit!

ETA: Forgot to add 30~ minutes of yoga every day but I don't count that as an exercise. But for that, I always do it on empty stomach because it gets uncomfortable with food or too much water.

Alohathin

I have to drink a lot of water; I live in Hawaii, and I sweat a lot. I'm also particularly susceptible to feeling the effects of dehydration. I'm not really worried about retention. Nor does a pound or two setback phase me. I am fully committed (finally) to getting myself healthy. I eat a banana and a little extra salt to make sure I don't throw my electrolyte balance off; and on days with long walks, I drink some G2 gatorade.

I feel good about my choices. I feel satiated. I have a ton of energy. I probably should be eating a few more calories, but food is really expensive here, and I'm still living off of savings. So, I'll have to live with the extra caloric deficit until I get a job. So far it hasn't been a problem, but once I add the strength training, it might be.

The sun is working wonder, too. I just moved here from the gloomy Pacific NW. heh.

I mainly wanted to get an idea of how people handled the order of their meals. Meaning, more calories in the morning, less at night? When do they eat carbs compared to their workouts? Protein to workouts? Things like that. I'd like to try to look at several diaries and see what works for most people.

I took a quick look at yours. Can I ask when do you normally do your exercise routines? Before breakfast? Between a certain meal? Is there a type of food that you like to eat directly before or after your workout? If so, why?

Thank you for the input, by the way.

Hawaii! No wonder. What a lovely place to live.

I can relate to being on budget as some things are pretty expensive in Europe as well especially if they're imported so I always stick to what I can find local. On islands, it's even harder as sometimes even water can get very expensive compared to mainland. Since you already eat nuts and honey, I can suggest making your own nut butter as a good calorie snack alternative. It works well with hazelnuts and peanuts so macadamia nuts will probably prove the same. It's grinding 8 oz of nuts a tablespoon of honey together until they're creamy. You can add a tablespoon of olive oil (or coconut or any that's liquid in room temperature) if the texture is too dry. You can try 1/5 of the recipe and see how it goes

For the frequency of calories, go with what works for you. There are absolutely no scientific basis concerning meals. I usually skip breakfast because I wake up with enough energy. On the days I go to the office, I pack my breakfast and eat when I'm hungry at work. There are people who do intermittent fasting (most of them eat on a 6-8-10 hour window only like from 4 pm to midnight and fast for the rest of the day) and they're all doing great. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting You'll find plenty of information if you're interested. As for me, I usually eat most of my calories in the evening and at nights and as long as you don't have problems sleeping with a full stomach, it absolutely has no negative effect on weight loss.

Same goes for pre and post workout food. Your body may need fuel before a workout but some people can do fasted workouts (I'm not one of them due to low blood pressure). Again, it has no negative effect. For postworkout food, protein+simple carbs was suggested to those lifting weights in an hour because of the anabolic window of muscles but that window isn't as short as broscience suggests. http://thebodyevolutionreport.blogspot.com/2011/09/post-workout-anabolic-window-real-or.html is a nice reading regarding what should be taken and when. TL;DR is nutrient timing plays a negligible role compared to reaching your daily macro roles.

Most of my workout is in late afternoon/evening or sometimes at night (I don't favor this as it gives me trouble to fall asleep). I do 20 minutes of jogging every day (can't at the moment because of a medial tendon strain), 10 minutes of HIIT rope jumping and usually 30+ minutes of bodyweight exercises every other day with alternating free weights which are more close to circuit training and high pace. I do these usually 1-2 hours after what I ate last (meaning I got around 600 cals on a 1400 cal day before workout) and eat the rest of my food after the workout because it's yummy and I can't sleep with an empty stomach, no way!

You can still use a more conventional method and time your meals along with your workouts but as I'm not convinced that it would matter, I prefer flexibility in my schedule.

Hope this helps a bit!

ETA: Forgot to add 30~ minutes of yoga every day but I don't count that as an exercise. But for that, I always do it on empty stomach because it gets uncomfortable with food or too much water.

Awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Very much the kind of thing I was looking for.

kdiamond

You don't need to confuse yourself too much...

Stick to a pretty decent balanced diet of 40% carbs/30% protein/30% fat - it doesn't matter when you get what. I personally like to try to balance out each meal, because I feel fuller that way and it sustains me until the next meal, but that is not always feasible so I don't worry too much about it. There are many times I skip a meal because I am busy or not hungry or whatever, and I just make it up later on in the day. I stick to the 80/20 rule like many others - if I am pretty spot on 80% of the time, the 20% can be my play calories, if I decide to go out to eat once or twice a week. I also make sure to stay active. I don't feel like myself until I get an hour of activity a day, 6 days a week. It also keeps boredom eating at bay.

Alohathin

You don't need to confuse yourself too much...

Stick to a pretty decent balanced diet of 40% carbs/30% protein/30% fat - it doesn't matter when you get what. I personally like to try to balance out each meal, because I feel fuller that way and it sustains me until the next meal, but that is not always feasible so I don't worry too much about it. There are many times I skip a meal because I am busy or not hungry or whatever, and I just make it up later on in the day. I stick to the 80/20 rule like many others - if I am pretty spot on 80% of the time, the 20% can be my play calories, if I decide to go out to eat once or twice a week. I also make sure to stay active. I don't feel like myself until I get an hour of activity a day, 6 days a week. It also keeps boredom eating at bay.

Thanks for that. And no worries. I'm not confused. I have a pretty solid base understanding. I just like to weigh different opinions, since it isn't an exact science, and maybe learn a few things.