ExRx.net

Well I figure I'd stop by and ask for a little bit of advice. I spent part of August and all of September on the road for work. And unfortunately eating out mostly every day, while extremely tasty, comes with it's downsides. I gained a ton of weight in 7 weeks. But lately I've lost of a bit of ground in the weight lost department and I'm looking for a few suggestions or comments.

A typical day:

9:30AM : Whey Protein and Quaker Oatmeal (280 calories

12:30PM : Lean cuisine and cottage cheese ( ~450 calories)

3:30PM : Chobani Yogurt and Almonds (320 Calories)

5:30-6PM : Egg Whites with cheese and whole grain bread (500 Calories)

7PM : Gym

Post workout : 32 oz skim milk (320 Calories)

About 1870 total calories.


Dinner will generally alternate between egg whites w/chese and chicken breast w/spices but both are just about the same amount of calories.

I do a Chest/Back, Legs, Arms/Shoulders, Rest rotation in the gym so I windup in the gym 6 out of every 8 days. I also do at least 40 minutes of cardio on chest/back, leg, and rest days. And I do 20 minutes of cardio on Arms days. Sometimes the gym and dinner get swapped due to my schedule.

Currently I've lost about 8lbs on this in 10 weeks and I'm at 210lbs, 26% fat. I don't mind the weight so much as the percentage. But now I've actually put a few pounds back on, not due to the holidays, and the loss seems a little slow when I compare my BMR + activity to calorie intake.

I'm looking for any advice in terms of diet or routine modification. I'd appreciate any help, thanks.

Since it went on fast, it should come off fast if you use a little discipline. However, you seem to be on the low fat road to low calories. Diets based on whole foods have been proven to be more satisfying and more nutritious. Drop the egg whites and eat whole eggs. The nutrition is in the yolk. On particular importance is choline, found only in the yolk and important for fat loss. That's not the only good thing about egg yolks but it's enough on it's own.

I normally use a healthy dose of olive oil on the pan when I make the eggs and I normally go for about 150g of carbs a day. I have lost a fair amount of the weight I put on but now I figure I might as well keep going and maybe get down to about 180-185.

But I shall try the whole eggs. I sided with whites because they are low calorie and high protein.

The fat in the yolk is more satisfying. Cut the oats if you have to cut. You need the fat to get the fat soluble vitamins, A, D, E, K and some B vitamins. Another suggestion is to drop the lean cuisine and add a salad with a small amount of meat or fish. The same calories will be much more satisfying and more healthy.

Whey protein in the morning, exercise at night?
From what I've read, for optimal nutrient intake, you should consume your whey and BCAAs either pre-exercise or post-exercise, but not past 3 hours after exercising. Sport Nutrition (Jeukendrup, Gleeson, 2e.)

I have my milk post exercise and I have the protein in the morning to balance out the protein intake across the day.

I think that brings up a good question: is it important to balance protein intake throughout the day?

My experience....
I eat the majority of my carbs in the morning, tapering off by lunch, none at dinner. I increase my protein intake throughout the day, and only eat protein (and fat) at night.

Since I've started doing this, I've noticed more muscle separation (implying less body fat), yet my weight has stayed the same (implying more lean muscle gain). Nothing scientific, mind you and it might not all be due to my diet; during the time that I changed my diet, I also started doing my modified 5/3/1 program.

You could just use real milk in the morning and then, whey post workout.

Jebus is right. The point of whey (as opposed to other forms of protein) is that it is supposedly more rapidly absorbed, and thus more bio-available for protein synthesis following exercise. So most people take it immediately before and/or just after their workout. In the morning, remote from your workout, any protein will do. So if you are going to spend money on whey, drink it at work-out time.

Whole milk and whole eggs are good for you.

The reason I also drip feed protein is essentially fat and carbs are stored where as protein needs to be in the system to be picked up, from what I can gather - therefore when recovering (which is pretty much all the time) I like to think my body always has protein available / eat it with every "meal" as the 7 nutrition rules state. Even though the basis is somewhat weak (I don't actually know the above to be a fact) A: the protein replaces carbs B: shovel method, if it is there and wasted so what, better than needed and not there.