need some input on my diet please

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yanick356
yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Im 44, yo , 5' 8", 160 lbs, from 190 a year ago. Yes I have lost weight but I still have a lot of belly fat, and lost about half of my muscle. Lean everywhere but my belly. 20% bodyfat is my guess. Here is what I have been doing:

1500 calories a day, 75 grams of carbs, 140 grams protein and 60 grams fat. Eggs/oatmeal breakfast, salad/protein lunch, protein/more veges dinner. Protein bars, cheese, and nuts in between. No sugar, no fruit, or refined starches. 10 glasses water/day.

30 minutes jog-on the slowish side- 6/days week, 9 sets of weights different body part 4 times/week. Weights have been a struggle; often feel winded/light-headed quickly. Slow recovery the next day too.

I do eat back about half my exercise cals. Myfitnesspal is advising me 1230 net calories now, which seem too low.

Am I just getting old? Any insights would be appreciate it.
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Replies

  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    At 168 you must be fairly close to your weight goal. For MFP to say you should eat 1230 cals, you must have plugged in a weight loss goal per week of 1.5 or 2 lbs, which could be requiring much higher of a deficit than, say, .5 lb or 1 lb per week. If you're feeling light headed either way, 1500 calories may be too small for you and you should consider increasing by a couple hundred calories to start with , and see how you feel

    What is your weight training like? How heavy / which program or routine do you follow?

    This post is a sticky and should be very helpful: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1161603-so-you-want-a-nice-stomach
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    What makes you think you've lost half your muscle?
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    You put in too extreme of a weight loss goal and/or a low activity level.

    Change to .5 pounds and work more on lifting/building muscle.
  • yanick356
    yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
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    At 168 you must be fairly close to your weight goal. For MFP to say you should eat 1230 cals, you must have plugged in a weight loss goal per week of 1.5 or 2 lbs, which could be requiring much higher of a deficit than, say, .5 lb or 1 lb per week. If you're feeling light headed either way, 1500 calories may be too small for you and you should consider increasing by a couple hundred calories to start with , and see how you feel

    What is your weight training like? How heavy / which program or routine do you follow?

    This post is a sticky and should be very helpful: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1161603-so-you-want-a-nice-stomach

    I have a small frame and at 160 but still have a lot of belly fat. 1230 calories quoted by this site is to lose 2 lbs a week. Too aggressive perhaps?
    I just started back to weight training after a 4 month layoff. I did chest yesterday for example 3 sets flat bench 6-10 reps, same for incline and decline.
    I will consider upping my cals. thanks.
  • yanick356
    yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
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    I look scrawny for one, and have lost some strength. My shirts are loose around my arms, shoulders, back, and legs, but not as much around the waist.
  • Ameenasmum24
    Ameenasmum24 Posts: 17 Member
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    Im new around here. And I just started back on my journey... For the past week I been walking about 45 mins. A day and my question is do I have to log walking into my excercise or should I eat calories burned from walking etc...please help.
  • smarieallen85
    smarieallen85 Posts: 535 Member
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    At 168 you must be fairly close to your weight goal. For MFP to say you should eat 1230 cals, you must have plugged in a weight loss goal per week of 1.5 or 2 lbs, which could be requiring much higher of a deficit than, say, .5 lb or 1 lb per week. If you're feeling light headed either way, 1500 calories may be too small for you and you should consider increasing by a couple hundred calories to start with , and see how you feel

    What is your weight training like? How heavy / which program or routine do you follow?

    This post is a sticky and should be very helpful: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1161603-so-you-want-a-nice-stomach

    I have a small frame and at 160 but still have a lot of belly fat. 1230 calories quoted by this site is to lose 2 lbs a week. Too aggressive perhaps?
    I just started back to weight training after a 4 month layoff. I did chest yesterday for example 3 sets flat bench 6-10 reps, same for incline and decline.
    I will consider upping my cals. thanks.

    I'm wondering how people will answer this. I am down to 148 now and still trying to lose 2 pounds a week. I don't really understand why people think this is too much.
  • yanick356
    yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
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    You put in too extreme of a weight loss goal and/or a low activity level.

    Change to .5 pounds and work more on lifting/building muscle.

    Ok . I chose "inactive," since I sit all day at work. I updated to .5 lbs loss per week giving me 1980 calories. I will consider it for sure. Should I double the weight lifting and do less cardio? I also forgot to mention I walk for 45 min/day too.
    Im trying to stay under 120 grams of protein, so do I eat the extra calories in the form of carbs or fat?
    Thanks for your advice.
  • citalk2much
    citalk2much Posts: 50 Member
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    Belly fat is always the last to go give it time and keep up with the training
  • _runnerbean_
    _runnerbean_ Posts: 640 Member
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    Im new around here. And I just started back on my journey... For the past week I been walking about 45 mins. A day and my question is do I have to log walking into my excercise or should I eat calories burned from walking etc...please help.
    Welcome! If you set your MFP activity level as sedentary or lightly active then you should log your walking. General wisdom here suggests that MFP overestimates the calories from exercise so most people eat back about half the calories you burn from exercise. Well done on all the walking, keep up the good work.
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
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    At 168 you must be fairly close to your weight goal. For MFP to say you should eat 1230 cals, you must have plugged in a weight loss goal per week of 1.5 or 2 lbs, which could be requiring much higher of a deficit than, say, .5 lb or 1 lb per week. If you're feeling light headed either way, 1500 calories may be too small for you and you should consider increasing by a couple hundred calories to start with , and see how you feel

    What is your weight training like? How heavy / which program or routine do you follow?

    This post is a sticky and should be very helpful: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1161603-so-you-want-a-nice-stomach

    I have a small frame and at 160 but still have a lot of belly fat. 1230 calories quoted by this site is to lose 2 lbs a week. Too aggressive perhaps?
    I just started back to weight training after a 4 month layoff. I did chest yesterday for example 3 sets flat bench 6-10 reps, same for incline and decline.
    I will consider upping my cals. thanks.

    I'm wondering how people will answer this. I am down to 148 now and still trying to lose 2 pounds a week. I don't really understand why people think this is too much.

    it's too much because it constricts your calorie goal to a point where you're no longer fueling all of your metabolic functions, and also making it harder to get the necessary nutrition that your body needs. can you do it for a week or two without lasting harm? sure. can you do it for 3-6 months? probably not.

    if you've been on a large calorie restriction for a longer period of time than you probably should have been, you have to worry that your body will start catabolizing muscle to help meet its energy needs at a pace greater than you would probably like. this is essentially what happens when people go mad doing cardio and low calorie diets for a long time to lose weight, and then end up at their goal weight with a higher BF% than would normally be expected (i.e., skinny fat).
  • yanick356
    yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
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    Im new around here. And I just started back on my journey... For the past week I been walking about 45 mins. A day and my question is do I have to log walking into my excercise or should I eat calories burned from walking etc...please help.
    Most people on this site eat their exercise calories I believe. Some don't and some eat back half.
  • yanick356
    yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
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    Skinny fat is a good description of what is happening to me. My body refuses to burn fat...wants to eat muscle first..
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
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    Skinny fat is a good description of what is happening to me. My body refuses to burn fat...wants to eat muscle first..

    it's burning fat and muscle.

    the goal is to maximize the amount of fat burned and minimize the amount of muscle burned.

    you can do this by:

    1) not having an overly aggressive calorie deficit. nobody can really say what that is because it varies from person to person and situation to situation, but you'll know because your body will start prioritizing where it spends its calories and start neglecting unimportant functions such as hair health.
    2) eat sufficient protein
    3) lift weights 3-4 days a week to retain muscle mass

    doing all 3 things gives you your best chance of retaining the most muscle.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
    Options
    You put in too extreme of a weight loss goal and/or a low activity level.

    Change to .5 pounds and work more on lifting/building muscle.

    Ok . I chose "inactive," since I sit all day at work. I updated to .5 lbs loss per week giving me 1980 calories. I will consider it for sure. Should I double the weight lifting and do less cardio? I also forgot to mention I walk for 45 min/day too.
    Im trying to stay under 120 grams of protein, so do I eat the extra calories in the form of carbs or fat?
    Thanks for your advice.

    I'm not a macro expert but why would you increase your total calories but adjust your protein down?

    Also to get advise on what to do with your weight routine you may need to describe it with a bit more detail - which exercises and how heavy?. You could get advise ranging from keep doing what you're doing to change it up a bit, etc.
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
    Options
    You put in too extreme of a weight loss goal and/or a low activity level.

    Change to .5 pounds and work more on lifting/building muscle.

    Ok . I chose "inactive," since I sit all day at work. I updated to .5 lbs loss per week giving me 1980 calories. I will consider it for sure. Should I double the weight lifting and do less cardio? I also forgot to mention I walk for 45 min/day too.
    Im trying to stay under 120 grams of protein, so do I eat the extra calories in the form of carbs or fat?
    Thanks for your advice.

    I'm not a macro expert but why would you increase your total calories but adjust your protein down?

    Also to get advise on what to do with your weight routine you may need to describe it with a bit more detail - which exercises and how heavy?. You could get advise ranging from keep doing what you're doing to change it up a bit, etc.

    she probably thinks that the protein macro is a maximum. :huh:

    it's not. it's a minimum. it's ok to eat more that the daily goal. lots of people don't realize this and try to apply the same thinking to their macros that they do to their calorie goal, thinking they have to stay under.
  • yanick356
    yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
    Options
    Skinny fat is a good description of what is happening to me. My body refuses to burn fat...wants to eat muscle first..

    it's burning fat and muscle.

    the goal is to maximize the amount of fat burned and minimize the amount of muscle burned.

    you can do this by:

    1) not having an overly aggressive calorie deficit. nobody can really say what that is because it varies from person to person and situation to situation, but you'll know because your body will start prioritizing where it spends its calories and start neglecting unimportant functions such as hair health.
    2) eat sufficient protein
    3) lift weights 3-4 days a week to retain muscle mass

    doing all 3 things gives you your best chance of retaining the most muscle.
    So a weight of 160 with 20% bodyfat requires about 130 or so grams of protein right? Is 40pro/ 30 fat/ 30 carb a good ratio?
  • yanick356
    yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
    Options
    You put in too extreme of a weight loss goal and/or a low activity level.

    Change to .5 pounds and work more on lifting/building muscle.

    Ok . I chose "inactive," since I sit all day at work. I updated to .5 lbs loss per week giving me 1980 calories. I will consider it for sure. Should I double the weight lifting and do less cardio? I also forgot to mention I walk for 45 min/day too.
    Im trying to stay under 120 grams of protein, so do I eat the extra calories in the form of carbs or fat?
    Thanks for your advice.

    I'm not a macro expert but why would you increase your total calories but adjust your protein down?

    Also to get advise on what to do with your weight routine you may need to describe it with a bit more detail - which exercises and how heavy?. You could get advise ranging from keep doing what you're doing to change it up a bit, etc.

    she probably thinks that the protein macro is a maximum. :huh:

    it's not. it's a minimum. it's ok to eat more that the daily goal. lots of people don't realize this and try to apply the same thinking to their macros that they do to their calorie goal, thinking they have to stay under.
    I try to eat a gram per pound of lean body mass, as any amount not needed converts to sugar. Is this right?
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
    Options
    Skinny fat is a good description of what is happening to me. My body refuses to burn fat...wants to eat muscle first..

    it's burning fat and muscle.

    the goal is to maximize the amount of fat burned and minimize the amount of muscle burned.

    you can do this by:

    1) not having an overly aggressive calorie deficit. nobody can really say what that is because it varies from person to person and situation to situation, but you'll know because your body will start prioritizing where it spends its calories and start neglecting unimportant functions such as hair health.
    2) eat sufficient protein
    3) lift weights 3-4 days a week to retain muscle mass

    doing all 3 things gives you your best chance of retaining the most muscle.
    So a weight of 160 with 20% bodyfat requires about 130 or so grams of protein right? Is 40pro/ 30 fat/ 30 carb a good ratio?

    protein (minimum) in grams = R x (lean body mass in lbs)

    R is a number between 0.8 and 1.0 depending on your calorie deficit, muscle mass, and goals. most people choose 1.0 to be safe. morbidly obese people who are not strength training can probably get by with 0.8 for quite a while at the beginning. bodybuilders and power lifters usually choose a number above 1.0.

    lean body mass = (100% - BF%) x bodyweight in lbs.

    so in your case,

    protein = 1.0 x (100% - 20%) x 160 = 128g

    i actually wrote a short blog post explaining how to convert FIXED goals into ratios for MFP use.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/BrainyBurro/view/setting-your-mfp-macros-a-quick-easy-example-663914
  • yanick356
    yanick356 Posts: 39 Member
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    Appreciate it!

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