Advice on meal plan

[Bornforgreatert]

Hello Everyone,

I would really appreciate if some of you could comment or give some advice.

My weight is 75.7kg and my goal is 70kg.
Daily avg calorie spent is approximately 3000kcal.
I am of moderate fitness and moderate activity person.

I have been tweaking my diet using fitbit log and after a lot of refinement, I have come up with a plan as below:
Calories:1410, fat:46.2g, fibre:27g, carb:95.1g, protein:145.9g, sodium:1742.9mg
27% from carbs, 31%from fat and 42% from protein.

Reason for this diet:
1. As I am trying to lose my big paunch, I decided to go low carb and I read in one of the forums to keep the carb intake less than 100g so that the body burns the stored fat.
2. My weight in pounds is 166, and I read somewhere to have 80 to 100 percent of weight in lbs of protein in grams
3. Finally, kept the fat to around 25 to 30 percent of the entire calorie intake.

Question: there seems to a huge deficit in calorie intake compared to calorie spent around 1500to 1600. Is that ok? I am a bit concerned. Earlier I used to take much more protein, around 200 g, and I read it is not good for the kidneys. It seems hard to raise the calorie intake without surpassing the protein and carb limits.

Thanks for reading the long post and look forward to hearing from all of you!

[steff]

Paleo diet, Sugar Busters, Carb Cycling diet, can help you figure this one out.  All bodies are different, you have to find what works for you.

[Bornforgreatert]

Thanks Steff,

Do youknow of a good resource which talksabout these diets and the calorie breakdown in particular?

[steff]

There are lots of Paleo books.  They focus on vegetables and proteins, no carbs.   You can find lots of info on the web about Paleo, plus there are recipes. 

Sugar Busters, is the title of the actual book.  It has recipes and concentrates on proteins, fats, fruits and vegetables and other complex carbs. 

Chris Powell has two books out about Carb cycling.  To be honest, carb cycling is the easiest one for me to use.  I have done all three. I like carbs, but once I get started eating them, I don't quit very easily.   The carb cycle program has no carbs one day and then limited complex carbs the next.  It just makes it easier for me to keep from going over board.  And, I believe that I can make this change permanent.   That's the real trick, finding something that you think will work for you for the long run.

My body requires more protein.  Eating carbs causes me to have increased inflammation which may be the leading causes of many deseases including, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis and cancers.  I feel better and look better (no puffiness) if I eat fewer carbs.

[Bornforgreatert]

Thank you steff,

Thats good info. I prepare my own food, and choose the food to make sure my diet criteria are satisfied (as I have detailed in the first post). I am a pretty mathematical guy. So I need the books and articles to show some numbers in a detailed manner so that I can reconcile my diet.

But even after I know the numbers, my main issue is how to balance the 3 components. I have protein at 145g, carb at 95g and fat at 27g. And these seem to sum up to very low calories and I dont want to raise intake for any of the three components but want to increase the calorie intake on the whole LOL.

I am of the opinion that morethan 150g of protein is bad and carbs less more than 100g is bad for losing weight.

Thanks for your response!

[whome · Accepted solution]

I believe you are correct about the need to keep the protein to a reasonable level - you don't say how tall you are but I would think you must be fairly active to burn 3000 a day - a 1500-1600 deficit is pretty big - enough to lose 3lbs a week which is more than is usually recommended - 

Personally, I have dropped from 170lb to 145 since Jan 1 this year and I worked on a goal of 500 deficit but it worked out to being more like 700 - 800 on average - 

I believe the key to fat burning may be in the exercise intensity - you really want to keep it down to 70-75% of maximum heart rate - up around 90% and the body goes to glycogen stores for energy - down around 70% it pulls from the fat storage - so longer slower runs (or whatever)- be the tortoise, not the hare.

BTW - I lost my weight aiming for a 50% carb- 30% fat - 20% protein target and it worked just fine (for me)

Good luck and keep at it - you can do it

Craig

[Bornforgreatert]

Thanks Craig. That is essential information.

I am a male, 5 feet 11 inches.

edit: I am 29 years of age.

So, I do a lot of cardio and activities. On a typical day, I play 45-60 mins of squash including 10 mins of warmup and 3 mins of cooldown (around 3 to 5 days a week). Each time I i do this, I burn around 600-800 kcal depending on the intensity. My average hear rate is around 145.

I also follow the insanity workout routine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beachbody#Insanity). Typically 30-40 mins. I burn around 550-650 kcal per day (6 days a week).

My average heart rate is 155 or so. (Note that insanity is most of the times cardio and max interval training).

Could you please tell me whether this routine is fat burning or not? I dont want to put in all of this work and not lose fat in my tummy!!

Regards

[Naomi94]

Dear Bornforgreatert:

What I am reading is that you want to lose belly fat. Your BMR is about 1700 calories per day, and your goal is to eat 1400 calories per day. 

So here is the question: Do you want to eat 1400 calories a day for the rest of your life? Do you want to do a lot of cardio for the rest of your life to keep the belly fat off?

At some point, you will want to losen up on the diet. At some point, you will get sick of all the cardio. At some point, you will get older and older. So, the question is, how do you keep in shape, and maintain a 6-pack set without going red in the face with cardio?

You must focus your attention on muscle building activities, and keep the cardio on the backburner. I am not saying to stop the cardio, what I am saying is do not make it your main focus for losing the belly fat. 

Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you put on, the less cardio you will have to do over time. Think about it for a second. How many ribbed guys who use the free weights have a 6 pack set of abs actually jog for an hour a day. Those guys rarely do cardio.

Watch these tutorial videos as they will help you understand my point: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfY_4m3RVRc

This is a longer video about nutrition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ENsP5BPpo

[Bornforgreatert]

Thanks Naomi for the resources.

To answer your question - this diet is going to be very short maybe another couple of weeks.

I will totally get on the muscle building phase soon. But I want to trim down as much as I can before I start on the building phase.

Thanks for the vids.

[whome]

.

Good luck

Craig