# Looking for tips on fine tuning my diet plan for 2017 to achieve my ideal weight.



## Cody01 (Jul 23, 2014)

I'll start by saying I feel that the food and beverage end of things is likely where I'm failing I'm 38, 5'9, 225 lbs. Used to weigh much more so I have about 15-20 lbs. of loose skin I may never get rid of. I ride single track two days a week, fitbit day average for steps is about 13,000, and I spend two evenings a week on a total gym. I can do 50 pushups without pause. I feel rather fit but I know I should weigh less. A typical day starts out with a two egg omelet, sometimes hashbrowns, and normally a piece of fruit. Lunches and dinners are often similar since we make enough for leftovers most days. Typically home cooked chicken based meals with sides. We do mess up and eat things like pizza or burgers about two days a week followed with some beers. I would like to end up weighing 190 lbs by about May or June. I have had luck with low carb in the last but end feeling terrible and get sick of meats real fast.


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## dave54 (Jul 1, 2003)

Michael Pollan sums it as "Eat real food. Mostly plants. Less of it"

Go to the USDA Supertracker website and set up an account. Track everything you eat and do every day for a week at least. Two weeks is better. 2-3 days is not enough to get an accurate snapshot of your diet and activity. Print the reports that summarizes your daily intake and energy expenditures. Then you can see exactly what is preventing the weight loss.
My guess is the beer, and your serving sizes. Try a one egg omelet instead of two, half as much hash browns, fewer pizza slices, more salads and veggie sides. One old saying is half as much meat entree and add a second vegetable. You do not have to be a hard core vegan to enjoy an occasional meatless meal. Veggies also add fiber to to your diet. Fiber increases satiety and satisfaction without additional calories. Besides the other health benefits of increasing fiber. Most people, including many vegans, still do not get the recommended fiber amounts, which many researchers believe is too low anyway.

Another trick is remove the food from the table after you serve yourself. Less likely to have seconds. Use a smaller plate. That is a psychological trick. Your plate will still be full, giving your appetite the visual clues of satiety. But less food total.


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## Procter (Feb 3, 2012)

Ditch the fit bit. Studies show they mislead you into counting average activity as exercise, causing you to believe you can eat more.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...s-on-your-wrist-fitness-trackers-may-not-help

Pollan's advice would be great if anyone could actually keep it up. Plants digest faster, making you feel hungry earlier. Get more protein instead, it's beneficial in two ways. First it encourages muscle growth over fat, and secondly you'll feel full longer, so you'll eat less.

For example, replace the two egg omelet (and the fatty cheese) with 3-4 egg whites (get them in cartons from the grocery store). To mix it up, alternate between adding hot sauce, smoked salmon, ham, turkey, and a little low fat cheese once and a while. Definitely ditch the hashbrowns.

When you get a burger, get 2 patties, no cheese, 1 condiment only. Throw out half the bun.

Try to add a gym day.

Replace total gym with full body lifts and free weights:
Bench (dumbell or bar) 
deadlift
Squat 
Standing barbell row
Pull up
Dips
Cleans

In the gym, work harder, even if you're just lifting. Wear a HRM while lifting. Work harder, not longer: highly focused, 1 hour sessions. Your HR should peak to 155-165 at least during your sets, regardless of whether you're doing high rep or low rep. Recruit your entire body for the lift. Keep repeating to yourself: lift harder. You are not working as hard as you can. Time between sets, start next set when you HR returns to 120. Probably 2 min max between sets.


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## dave54 (Jul 1, 2003)

fit bits and similar trackers are accurate to a degree of magnitude. Use them as a relative guide. A reading of 13000 steps per day could in reality be between 11-15000, but an increase or decrease from the previous day is an indicator of your activity that day from the previous, not an absolute number. All activity burns calories -- even doing laundry and vacuuming. Not as much as an exercise workout but still more than sitting at your computer surfing MTB sites all day.

High fiber vegetables can be satiating too, even more so than high protein foods. Any time you reduce caloric intake you will feel hunger for a few days/weeks. After a while the chronic hunger goes away. Protein does not 'encourage muscle growth'. That is an old gym myth that refuses to die. Your muscles use amino acids to rebuild. If there are insufficient amino acids the rebuilding is limited. An excess of amino acids do not trick the muscle into rebuilding more than it otherwise will with just the adequate amount. Any amino acids not used in tissue building is either burned as fuel or stored as fat. The body does not store excess amino acids.

The OP wants to lose weight. The best exercise to lose weight is push-aways at the dinner table. Reduce calorie input. But not too much. Starvation diets have a nasty side effect of lowering basal metabolic rate, so you expend fewer calories than you would by eating normally. Shoot for a ~300 kcal per day reduction at first. Fine tune as you progress. At 225 and your height, and not knowing your other metrics, I would guess your % body fat to be between 25-35% -- about double the ideal level. (There actually is such a thing as too little body fat. Below ~8% for men is considered unhealthy).
You are age 38, so it has taken you ~20 years to reach your current weight. (?) It will take time to lose it. Maintaining your fitness level and weight requires a lifelong habit. A lose-weight-fast scheme will work to drop to a desired level, but unless a permanent lifestyle change occurs the weight will quickly reappear. You have to literally re-learn to eat.


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## Procter (Feb 3, 2012)

dave54 said:


> Protein does not 'encourage muscle growth'. That is an old gym myth that refuses to die. Your muscles use amino acids to rebuild. If there are insufficient amino acids the rebuilding is limited. An excess of amino acids do not trick the muscle into rebuilding more than it otherwise will with just the adequate amount. Any amino acids not used in tissue building is either burned as fuel or stored as fat. The body does not store excess amino acids.


Protein: This is true, won't disagree with you.

But it's extremely hard for someone to reduce their calories and as you said, it's generally temporary. This is why I recommend increasing the muscle stimulation, and increasing the protein to match that to replace bad calories with better ones (which keep you full longer). This allows OP to keep close to the same eating habits (which are _extremely_ hard to change) but still accomplish his goal.

Steps/fitbit: steps aren't the exercise OP needs, he can only use steps to reduce weight if he is fanatical about his diet. Virtually no one can sustain that. This is a waste of time.


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## jeffw-13 (Apr 30, 2008)

Procter said:


> Ditch the fit bit. Studies show they mislead you into counting average activity as exercise, causing you to believe you can eat more.
> 
> http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...s-on-your-wrist-fitness-trackers-may-not-help
> 
> ...


This is something that worked great for me. I only had about 45 minutes to do my workouts so there was only brief rest between sets so my heart rate was up the whole time. I packed on 20 lbs of muscle in no time and improved my cardio & overall performance. (Ice hockey)


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## Cody01 (Jul 23, 2014)

Ok, several was to go here it looks like. I think I'll start out by cutting out beer and cutting carbs other than ones that come from veggies. Increase lean foods to a extent. Hit up some free weights and I'll try some 8.0 incline on the treadmill for 20 minutes every other day as well. Thanks guys.


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## dave54 (Jul 1, 2003)

Cody01 said:


> Ok, several was to go here it looks like. I think I'll start out by cutting out beer and cutting carbs other than ones that come from veggies. Increase lean foods to a extent. Hit up some free weights and I'll try some 8.0 incline on the treadmill for 20 minutes every other day as well. Thanks guys.


Do not completely eliminate carbs from your diet. Carbs are the primary fuel. Some are needed. Also protein building requires carbs. Simple carbs are the best for immediate post workout, complex carbs otherwise.

The minimum workout time to lose weight is generally considered to be 150 minutes per week. 300 is better (and there seems to be an upper limit around 500 minutes where additional time has little benefit. Varies by individual.) I would advise to keep the fitbit, as a reminder to keep moving around and reduce sedentary time. Latest research shows that long periods of sitting down 2 hours at a time without a break, like at a desk job, is a 'negative exercise'. So hitting the gym for and hour, then sitting all day at a desk cancel each other out for zero benefit. The fitbit could be your reminder to get up and move around several times per day. 
I also disagree that one cannot change eating habits. Changing a lifelong habit is not easy, but is achievable. You do not have to life the life of an ascetic monk. A few beers per week, and chocolate shake and double bacon cheeseburger can still be part of a healthy eating plan. Just be conscious of how much of the villains you eat, and intentionally balance out with healthier choices. There is no such thing as an unhealthy food. There are unhealthy diets. Orthorexia is considered an eating disorder.

FYI alcohol has 7 calories per gram with zero nutritients.


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