Eating

afraser1991

Hey Guys!
I have a question for the fellow Young Adults .... I am currently doing insanity in the morning or in the afternoon whichever I have the time for, but I find I am lacking in the food column. Normally I read posts of people eating to much bad food but i am having a hard time eating enough. I am a male, 21 about 285 pounds, down from 311, and i am 6'2''. Like i said i do insanity and i also go for a walk with my dog, about 2 miles every night. My main goal was to do the 60 days of insanity and then go into p90x. Reason was to improve my cardio and lose weight before i attempted the big X.

Here is what i normally eat. I am a routine type of person so i normally eat the same things every day.

Wake up at 5:30AM - Feed dog - do insanity - have a large glass of water
6:00-6:30AM- eat breakfast. Either an English muffin with peanut butter and a banana, or have a strawberry smoothie with 2 cups of protein powders ( 2g fat 25g protein)
10AM- have a neutragrain bar
12PM- have either a sausage with basmati rice and a cup of broccoli, or have an open face tuna sandwich with a large slice of tomato, and broccoli
2PM- have a hand ful of almonds
5PM-6PM Eat supper - either steak and salad, or white fish with potatoes or quinoa salad.
7-8PM walk the dog
bed at 9-10PM

WOW i forgot that i go to bed at 9-10 i feel so old but there is my day in a nutshell, i work as a salesman so i am at a desk or in a client’s home for most of the day so insanity and the walk are my main workouts.

Normally i am coming in around the 1100-1300 a day for calories, but im not hungry enough to eat more and for some reason it doesn’t make sense to eat more food to lose weight. My goal set from MFP is 2,100 calories.

So my question is am i not eating enough and what do you guys do to hit your goal but eat healthy?

EloniJayne

This may be useless but from mine and my mums experience then its hard to hit your exact amount of calories for the day, I'm often under on mine also; but I think that as long as you feel full and you're not damaging your body by not eating enough then keep doing what you're doing if you're comfortable with it.

Like I said, not sure if this is useful or not! haha xx

pteryndactyl

1100-1300 is WAY too little for a guy. You're setting yourself up for problems later. General recommendations say the *bare minimum* most women should eat is 1200, and for men it's about 1800.

A quick Google search tells me that the BMR of a 21 y/o male at 6'2" and 285 pounds is just over 2300. BMR = the number of calories you'd burn in a day if you did nothing. Like, stayed in bed and slept. Doctors use BMR to calculate the number of calories to feed coma patients. Are you a coma patient? I hope not!

You should eat at least your BMR if you don't want to kill your metabolism. Eating too far below your BMR for an extended period of time will likely confuse your body, cause your weight loss to plateau, etc. Moreover, it's hardly a sustainable diet for the rest of your life.

You need to figure out your TDEE and take a cut from that. Another quick Google search -- if you're "sedentary" (I don't think you are) your TDEE is approximately 3164. You should be eating somewhere between your BMR and TDEE for best results. A 20% cut from TDEE is 2531. Try eating around there.

How to get the calories in? Eat more often, eat slightly bigger meals. Eat full-fat foods, peanut butter, avocados, beans, nuts, etc. Eat a piece of cake. Your snacks are pretty small - a nutrigrain bar? Try an apple with some peanut butter, pb&j sandwich, etc.

I know it doesn't make sense to eat more to lose weight, BUT...so long as you burn more than you consume, you're good. With all the calories you're burning from day-to-day life and exercise, you're netting very few calories here. Can your body run on 0 fuel? Not forever. Food is fuel -- your body needs it to work properly.

Think about it like this...do you put gas in your car? Of course! Now say you want to drive 500 miles. Do you fill your tank up completely, or do you just put in 1/4 of a tank? You want to fill it up, or else you won't be able to make the trip. If you don't fill it up completely, your car will start stalling somewhere, and you'll be stuck. Now pretend your body is the car -- do you want to properly fuel it (eating/netting your goal) and make it to your destination? Or do you want to get stuck somewhere on the way?

bakemma

I do Insanity also, and you should eat protein AND carbs about 30 minutes BEFORE you exercise! And also based on what you say you eat you could probably use some more Good fats, and considerably more fruit and veggies. Think like apple and almonds. Nutrigrain bar and kale chips. Plus it will give you more energy and kick start fat loss. Too few calories can cause the body to slow the metabolism especially when you do exercise. Hope this helps. ( without sounds Momma-ish or *****y. lol ) Good Luck.

seanyboycampbell

I agree he should up his calorie intake a bit, however, advising the man to eat cake? That is a moronic suggestion when he wants to lose weight.

AshSparkz

Hey, Just my advice.

You're eating a lot of red meat, this generally can be quite bad due to the high levels of bad fats. You've got your good healthy fats through your peanut butter which is great. but try mixing it up, Swap the steak for good quality chicken and turkey breasts.

my advice would be to swap around your cardio times, Try walking your dog in the morning and doing your 2/3miles then, doing this on an empty stomach will help use fat stores for energy. Then when you do your insanity in the night time, you'll be using up your left over carbs of the day, meaning theyre not sitting around storing as fat!

My opinion would be to have your last meal as your protein shake after the insanity and then eat a good source of protein in the morning like eggs. This should help! Feel free to message me if you need anything else

pteryndactyl

I agree he should up his calorie intake a bit, however, advising the man to eat cake? That is a moronic suggestion when he wants to lose weight.

I believe you're the moron if you choose to take one sentence out of context, completely ignoring the healthier options I gave him right beforehand. Regardless, eating a piece of cake is hardly a bad piece of advice for someone who wants to lose weight in a sustainable manner. We shouldn't aim for complete restriction; we need to learn how to maintain a healthy balance. This guy is going to come across cake at SOME point in his life. He shouldn't feel like he can NEVER EVER EVER eat cake again. If he can factor a piece of cake into his calorie goals for the day, there is NOTHING wrong with that.

afraser1991

Hey we all need some cake once in a while!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I am going to be upping my calorie goal to 1800-2100 a day and see how that goes. I have been averaging 2lbs a week in weight loss at 1200 calories a day but like a few of you said i don’t want to hit that plateau that everyone keeps talking about.

Now one person had the idea I should switch my walk and insanity times, do you guys feel that doing a harder workout at night is better than the morning?

I love to hear what you think about that one, and when you guys work out - if you do


Thanks!
Andrew

Lcorona414

Hi Andrew, how have you progressed in the last couple of weeks?

I am 5'4" and my bf is 6'4", and we both weigh 165lbs! I am using MFP to lose weight, and he is using it to gain weight. We are both now working out 3 days a week. I do all of the food shopping and meal planning for us, and from what you say that you eat, it sounds more like my meals! I go for 1200 calories a day, and my bf aims for 2800. Here are some swaps I make for him to sneak in more calories, healthy fats, and protein:

Breakfast: my oatmeal is made with water and I add fresh/frozen berries. For him, I use whole milk, a banana, and throw in a scoop of protein powder. When we have protein shakes, I use skim milk and water, and for him I use whole milk, peanut butter, and an extra scoop of protein powder.

Lunch: for a chicken or tuna salad, I make mine with greek yogurt and herbs, I make his with olive-oil based mayonnaise and/or avocados. I'll eat mine in lettuce wraps, and I get him whole-grain pita pockets or whole-grain tortilla wraps. He usually needs more food than this, so I pack something else, like Mediterranean pasta with olives and feta, or hummus (with pita chips and red peppers).

Snacks: I eat fresh fruit, 100-calorie containers of greek yogurt, or individual size slim-jims. For him, full fat yogurts, string cheese, and trail mix. We both enjoy having hard boiled eggs for snacks or in the morning for a protein boost. We also like to microwave sweet potatoes, and I top mine with chili powder and greek yogurt, he uses full-fat cheese and sour cream.

Dinner: usually meat/fish and vegetables. I have 1/3 meat, 2/3 veg. He has 1/2 meat, 1/4 veg, 1/4 other carb (pasta, rice, potato).

For him, breakfast is the hardest because he doesn't have an appetite in the morning, but then he's ravenous all day. I make him have a protein shake in the morning, and remind him to eat something small every hour. Also, its a great portion control trick for me to eat about 1/4-1/3 of everything he consumes. I love eating out together, because a single entree is already too big for one person, so we split it 1/4 3/4. We have enough for 2, and never have to pay for 2

ShallaLovee1

I do Insanity also, and you should eat protein AND carbs about 30 minutes BEFORE you exercise! And also based on what you say you eat you could probably use some more Good fats, and considerably more fruit and veggies. Think like apple and almonds. Nutrigrain bar and kale chips. Plus it will give you more energy and kick start fat loss. Too few calories can cause the body to slow the metabolism especially when you do exercise. Hope this helps. ( without sounds Momma-ish or *****y. lol ) Good Luck.

Totally agree! You should always eat something before doing your workout. Seems like you eat pretty good. I don't eat that "healthy" so I can't really say anything about that. The lowest I eat is 1300 the most could be from 1700-1900 depends on what's going on. I eat 1 or 2 times every time I eat which is about every 2 hours. Never hungry unless I go hours without eating. I want to fasten my metabolism so I eat regularly. I sometimes eat as late as 11. It all just depends. You should eat more I say that mainly because your a guy. Also, because your doing Insanity, your body needs that energy because it burns so much of it just by you living and breathing.

Best of luck to you!