Am I Doing Everything Wrong?!?

JustinAnimal
JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I should maybe also post this in fitness, but am looking for nutrition advice first.

Here's what I am going for and what I do:

Goal: Lose weight (205 down to 190 lbs.) while putting on, or at least maintaining, muscle mass

Fitness: I lift three days / week, used to be stronglifts, but not a variety ranging from new rules to strong lifts (mostly compound lifts; squats every day; bench, row, shoulder press, wide-grip lat pulldown, step-ups, lunges, swissball crunches, prone jackknives are typical)
-I also do 15 minutes of intervals on the bike
-on my "off" days, I run or walk or hike or do an aerobics tape

Nutrition: my goal is currently set at 1650 calories / day, though I typically eat closer to 1800 or so. I get about 100 g of protein. I try to eat lots of green veggies and "superfoods" and I take fish oil and a men's multivitamin and a probiotic

Am I doing it wrong? Is my protein to low to put on muscle mass? Am I not eating enough? For some reason, I suffered a little breakdown today and am not confident with what I'm doing. I REALLY want to lose fat (and quickly) and I really want to gain muscle.

Replies

  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    As you get closer to goal the weight comes off slower and the improvements in the gym are less dramatic. Be patient.
  • RISEOFPATRIOTS
    RISEOFPATRIOTS Posts: 52 Member
    JustinAnimal wrote: »
    I should maybe also post this in fitness, but am looking for nutrition advice first.

    Here's what I am going for and what I do:

    Goal: Lose weight (205 down to 190 lbs.) while putting on, or at least maintaining, muscle mass

    Fitness: I lift three days / week, used to be stronglifts, but not a variety ranging from new rules to strong lifts (mostly compound lifts; squats every day; bench, row, shoulder press, wide-grip lat pulldown, step-ups, lunges, swissball crunches, prone jackknives are typical)
    -I also do 15 minutes of intervals on the bike
    -on my "off" days, I run or walk or hike or do an aerobics tape

    Nutrition: my goal is currently set at 1650 calories / day, though I typically eat closer to 1800 or so. I get about 100 g of protein. I try to eat lots of green veggies and "superfoods" and I take fish oil and a men's multivitamin and a probiotic

    Am I doing it wrong? Is my protein to low to put on muscle mass? Am I not eating enough? For some reason, I suffered a little breakdown today and am not confident with what I'm doing. I REALLY want to lose fat (and quickly) and I really want to gain muscle.
    Lose the fat first then worry about that. Your goal to lose weight? Then don't bulk up yet because it'll make it look like you aren't losing because of the muscle gain which could stress you out.

    Also you can list the green veggies and superfoods you eat?
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,224 Member
    Let us know how it goes because generally people that want to lose weight and gain weight at the same time have some pretty interesting stories to tell.
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    neanderthin wrote: »
    Let us know how it goes because generally people that want to lose weight and gain weight at the same time have some pretty interesting stories to tell.

    Thanks for that ultra-helpful remark. I'm asking for advice, so you could simply tell me that it is difficult or impossible to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. I actually am pretty sure you're wrong on that one, but I truly don't know, hence mya sking for advice.

    To answer a previous poster, the "superfoods" I try to eat regularly are kale, spinach, avocado, almonds, flax seeds and lots of other healthy fats and leafy greens. I also eat quite a few eggs, lean proteins (chicken breast, lentils, 99% lean ground turkey).
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    You're on the right track. A couple of suggestions -

    1) Aim to maintain muscle - you won't gain any meaningful amount on 1800 calories.
    2) Increase protein a bit to be safe.
  • Scarecrowsama
    Scarecrowsama Posts: 85 Member
    JustinAnimal wrote: »
    Am I doing it wrong? Is my protein to low to put on muscle mass? Am I not eating enough? For some reason, I suffered a little breakdown today and am not confident with what I'm doing. I REALLY want to lose fat (and quickly) and I really want to gain muscle.

    Gaining muscle while cutting weight is kinda hard, possible but hard, you want to make sure that you are using proper form in all your exercises and having proper recovery, this might sound simple but is often times the problem that 95% of guys in the gym struggle with.

    For the fat, abdominal fat is hard to loose and requires a good amount of time and perfect nutrition. Due to some gut issues I've been under eating the last month, I have the cut almost all the sugar and I have problems digesting fat so it is obviously making me loose weight, I have seen the lower abs showing a bit more but I still have some fat there covering, so be patient.

  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    you're doing fine. Numbers look solid.

    Focus more on maintaining muscle mass rather than trying to put on muscle mass- it's not going to happen really as you move downward on the scale.
    - 1600-1800 looks like a good goal to shoot for for someone at your activity level.

    It takes time so just keep pushing forward.
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    Thank you guys, I appreciate the encouragement and I won't expect huge gains in the muscle department. Shooting for that six pack, we'll see...
  • RISEOFPATRIOTS
    RISEOFPATRIOTS Posts: 52 Member
    JustinAnimal wrote: »
    neanderthin wrote: »
    Let us know how it goes because generally people that want to lose weight and gain weight at the same time have some pretty interesting stories to tell.

    Thanks for that ultra-helpful remark. I'm asking for advice, so you could simply tell me that it is difficult or impossible to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. I actually am pretty sure you're wrong on that one, but I truly don't know, hence mya sking for advice.

    To answer a previous poster, the "superfoods" I try to eat regularly are kale, spinach, avocado, almonds, flax seeds and lots of other healthy fats and leafy greens. I also eat quite a few eggs, lean proteins (chicken breast, lentils, 99% lean ground turkey).
    That's some good food trying adding quinoa(is a super protein food and don't cook), sesame seeds (rich in zinc, iron, and calcium), chia seeds, almond milk, greek yogurt. Adding more calcium in your diet helps you lose weight but do not go higher 250% on calcium per day.
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    i sure wish i could afford more seeds. love me some chia in my oatmeal. i do almond milk with my smoothies and Greek yogurt, too. thanks for the awesome suggestions. just a point of clarification: did you say don't cook the quinoa? How do you eat that? Straight? stirred into things? Great suggestions!
  • lindsayw79
    lindsayw79 Posts: 2 Member
    There are some serious tradeoffs to be made between the rate of fat loss and how well you can retain muscle (or gain it). That said the bar should tell you. If you are gaining strength you should be able to get it done, especially if you're quite new to lifting. Also are you doing any macro cycling? You probably wan to keep your carbs up around the lifting and cut them elsewhere.

    Try reading this post by Layne Norton on setting up a cutting diet.

    If you're happy to spend then Tom Venuto has a program on it
  • RISEOFPATRIOTS
    RISEOFPATRIOTS Posts: 52 Member
    edited October 2014
    JustinAnimal wrote: »
    i sure wish i could afford more seeds. love me some chia in my oatmeal. i do almond milk with my smoothies and Greek yogurt, too. thanks for the awesome suggestions. just a point of clarification: did you say don't cook the quinoa? How do you eat that? Straight? stirred into things? Great suggestions!
    Dude get a costco membership (it saves you tons of money)and get a bag of chia for like 14 bucks and it should last you 2 months. If you do your portions right and if you don't have a costco then do amazon. Your body doesn't need a huge amount of one thing just split certain portions between each food from different bulk items from costco or amazon and you get all the nutrients you need in a day or even more as long you don't go over your upper limit. If you want to do your portions best get a food scale that does metric units and US weight units.

    Also you don't have to cook quinoa if the bag says it has been pre washed which should be at costco. The reason you don't cook it because it reduces its nutrition value, Also you could mix it with cereal, maybe some yogurt, little salad, and etc. Use your mind :) Also I wouldn't do smoothies, juice or shakes since it destroys the fiber and some of the nutrition value that your body needs. You get the best doing it raw without cooking or processing (don't apply this to meat, rice, pasta shells, or potatoes) It is best if you do that way if you losing weight or trying to get peak health. However, it should be fine if you do it for a once in awhile cheat thing like...... treat it as a victory thing for losing a few lbs in a week but still eat healthy on that day too.


    Info on Nutrition needs:
    https://www.consumerlab.com/rdas/
    http://whfoods.org/nutrientstoc.php
    http://nutritiondata.self.com/
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    So very much appreciated, all. Keep the comments coming, if you have them. I'm slowly making these changes (and considering a costco card for the seeds and their awesome-quality meats). I've upped my protein to about 160-170 g / day and my calories to 1950-2100. I actually added weight to my squat, row, lat pull-downs and shoulder press yesterday, probably indicating that I'm new enough to lifting, but maybe also making small gains.

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