A few questions from a newbie

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mjpisat
mjpisat Posts: 46 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Started at 208 lbs. and am currently at 200 lbs in six weeks. I'm lifting three days a week doing Rippetoe starting strength program, play hockey 1-3 days a week (only cardio I get) and using MFP to put me at a 1 lb a week calorie defecit. MFP has me at about 1750 calories a day. i do my best to follow it, but I'm not always perfect. Not a race here, but I eventually want to get to around 165-170 lbs. Haven't weighed that since 2000.

here are my questions:

1. do you count your veggies in your calories? I've been eating a portion at lunch and dinner. it's just raw veggies. I haven't been counting them.

2. I try to have one serving of blue diamond almonds a day. They have 15g's of fat which usually puts me a little over what mfp says I should have in a day. out of that 15g's, only 1 g is saturated fat. Should I worry if this puts me a little over what I should have.

3. since mfp underestimates how much protein you should have, I changed my calorie make up to be 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat. That sound like a good ratio?

4. I've read that you should eat 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass while trying to lose fat. I'm estimating that I'm about 20% body fat so that would be about 160 lbs. of lean mass. going my mfp i should be at 1750 calories which puts me almost 180 grams of protein a day. Any insight in to that? am i taking in too much if I want to lose?

thanks

Replies

  • jenjenpenny
    jenjenpenny Posts: 1 Member
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    1. yes, count your veggies. they are usually not worth many calories but still good to keep track of. also you can measure what other good nutrients you are getting from your vegetables. the caloric value is not much but they may be high in fiber and other vitamins which is great!

    2. almonds are considered 'good' fat. it's not a huge deal because it is monounsaturated, but still be mindful of how much fat you are taking in. almonds are recommended on basically every diet site ever. great source of energy and protein.
  • breakingthepath
    breakingthepath Posts: 124
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    The scale doesn't seem to think that what you're doing is a problem, so keep it up :)
  • mjpisat
    mjpisat Posts: 46 Member
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    One more thing. is it ok to have a cheat day once a week? I don't pig out, but I eat what I want. probably get a little more than my daily calories, but way higher in fat than the other six days a week.
  • kellyreynolds14
    kellyreynolds14 Posts: 56
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    Ok here is MY personal take on all this: yes count the calories you get from veggies. Every calorie is important in the simple weight loss equation of "you must burn more than you consume". It is also good practice in case you want to review your diary and analyze any trends. For example you may want to look at days you were able to stay under calorie goal - what EXACTLY did you eat?

    About the almonds, watch your portions. One serving of almonds isn't a heaping ton of almonds, If I remember correctly I think it is about 28 almonds or so. As long as you are having reasonable portions I wouldn't worry too much about the fat you get from them although you may still want to keep an eye on your overall fat intake if it is getting out of control (not likely to happen if the other foods you are eating are veggies, fruits and lean meats tho).

    As for your protein questions, I don't really know much about that topic so I will stay away from giving any input on that!

    Lastly onto "binge" days: I have read several schools of thought on this. Some people practice what they call a spike diet, where they chose one day a week to spike their calories. They eat 500-1000 extra calories on these days compared to the rest of the week. Alot of people swear by it so if you think that will work for you, give it try! You still have to manage the spike and try to stay under the 1000 calorie "extras".

    Personally, I am currently just starting out on what is called calorie cycling. It is basically eating within a certain calorie alotment for the week, varying the amount of calories you have from day to day. Ex: my goal is to average 1500 cals per day. Yesterday I had 1700. Today I am aiming for 2000, tomorrow 1200, the next day 1400, etc. You basically yo-yo your amount of calories arount your targeted average. The goal is to have the average for the week end up at 1500 per day. This is supposed to confuse your body and help with platues. I know you probably didn't really want to know all this but I am really excited about this new concept so just wanted to share :-)

    I am done ranting and raving and rambling on now. Good luck!
  • MissVickie220
    MissVickie220 Posts: 29
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    Drinking Vater helps soooooooooo much ( no Dub=a=u) I improvise and use V anyvay make sure you drink lots ov Vater lbs vill drop oph ( no eeeph either ) LOL keep up the good vork :drinker:

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