• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

What should I be eating?

blank

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
2,503
Reaction score
2
How about this:

My cardio is increasing steadily, and the same guy who "hated running" a few months ago (thread available for reference) is now getting comfortable with the treadmill in addition to the bike. I am seeing strength gains in the gym and generally feeling wonderful when I go there, and my goal is to go every other day during the work week and Saturday and Sunday.

So I'm firmly in the build muscle and lose fat camp, aren't I? Those are my goals -- to significantly cut the 23% body fat number that I'm carrying, and to build muscle while I'm doing it and look better. And I am following the general principles that are re-affirmed by trainers and my friends who are very athletic: mostly full-body exercise, almost all compound, focusing on the large muscles, etc. Squat, bench, dip, pull up, etc. It is my understanding that you burn fat by building muscle, which will eat those calories and burn that energy, and that fat.

So what should I be eating? I typically go like this:

Morning: 25G "24 hour protein" shake w/ flax

At work: multi-grain cheerios, skim milk, a banana. Double espresso.

Mid-morning: another banana OR another piece of fruit OR some nuts or trail mix if I have it

Lunch: often a turkey sandwich, on wheat, or a salad. Very rarely something ***** or unhealthy (a burrito every 2-3 weeks)

Mid-afternoon: Something, don't always know what. It might be another bowl of cereal, or some fruit, or nuts, or something in that time period. 0, 1 or 2 cups of green tea. Mayhaps a starburst or tootsie roll.

Post-workout (if I work out): 50G Whey Protein Isolate (no-carb, but that's just because it's the kind I happened to buy)

Dinner: some combination of chicken breast, quinoa, soy pasta w/ jarred pasta sauce, perhaps some raw veggies or canned peas or corn.

Dessert: fruit shake (OJ base, and then 2-3 different fruits put in.) Sometimes flax.

And I'd say 6 liters or so of water on average throughout the day.

So, how's it look, how can it get better (given my goals)? I see noticeable improvement in my physique as it all goes on, though the belly is a stickler. And as a side question, I never know how much flax to add into a shake. I've taken a huge bag of the Bob's Red Mill ground flax and put it in a ziploc bag, and took a 25G protein scoop and put it in there. Don't know how much I should be adding.
 

Nil

Distinguished Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2005
Messages
8,432
Reaction score
3,689
Almost all cereals are crap. Eat oatmeal instead.

I don't particularly like bananas on any sort of diet either. It's a very calorie dense fruit. Stick to berries instead.

Skip the juice. If you want fruit, eat it, don't drink it.

Try to eat some sort of lean protein at each of your meals. Whether it be eggs, turkey, chicken, another protein shake, whatever.

To find out how much you should eat, find your basal metabolic rate (BMR), making sure to take into account your level of physical activity, and subtract around 15-20% off of it. That figure should be your goal for caloric intake.
 

blank

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
2,503
Reaction score
2
I can make most of these changes. The office offers oatmeal (plain quaker oats) that I can mix with lo-calorie yogurt in the morning for breakfast. Had it today. I can skip the juice as well, but why? And I know bananas are calorie-dense, but aren't they good calories?
 

odoreater

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2005
Messages
8,587
Reaction score
45
Building muscle and losing fat at the same time is very difficult to do, except as a complete noob. Generally, building muscle requires excess calories and losing fat requires a calorie deficit. Other than that, I would just say listen to your body, if your satisfied with how things are working for you based on what you are doing, keep doing it, if your progress starts stalling, then shake things up a bit (probably by starting with taking out the starburst and tootsie pops).
 

javyn

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
Messages
25,520
Reaction score
14,826
I'd cut out any and all starches for about 2 weeks to get your body into fat burning mode. Also cut out those bananas and replace with apples, at least to get youstarted. Apparently if you do this, your body goes into this "ketosis" mode. I'm trying this now myself. As of Saturday, we will be living off of chicken breast and cabbage for the next two weeks.

I'd check out bodybuilding.com. There is a lot of good advice in the nutrition section of that forum. Just be ready to wade through a whole lotta BS....I'm talking worse than Styleforum's CE....but there are gems there, just need to find them.
 

why

Distinguished Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
9,505
Reaction score
368
Fewer calories and more protein
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 91 37.4%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 90 37.0%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 26 10.7%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 40 16.5%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 38 15.6%

Forum statistics

Threads
506,854
Messages
10,592,546
Members
224,330
Latest member
johnsonpauly12
Top