slimming down

[nubbie]

Well, it have been 1 week since I started tracking what caloris I have put into my body for food. And so far I am shocked how fast I'm slimming down. While it actually been almost 2 weeks, I'm only saying 1 because I did not track the previous few days in my journal.

So, my stats so far. I have lost 2" from my waist, I down to 38" from 40". Weight wise, down from 198lbs to 188lbs. And body fat from ~22% to 18.5%.

I cannot believe how fast it is coming off. How? Watching what I'm eating, and Cardio. I'm usually up at 06:15 and out the door for 06:30 running for 30-40mins. Then in the evening, I'm doing 45mins of Jui-jitsu on Mon, Wed, Friday, and Sat (morning), and 45mins of Kickboxing, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat (Morning).

I have yet to start hitting the weights, that will be at a later date when my cardio is better.

Now here is my questsion, attached is a sample of my calories in a day.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/5803/calories1qi.th.png (http://img256.imageshack.us/my.php?image=calories1qi.png)

As you can see, I'm trying to hit 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fat. Most days I'm hitting it. But for my other stats, Fiber & Sugar, I'm all over the chart.

So, any recommendations on how I could improve?

[sleepyguy]

Contrats on the results! I would say more cardio... honestly though... don't jog too much... your knees will be hurting soo enough. That's why I enjoy the eliptical and recumbent cycle... also the rowing machine is great.

You diet looks good.

ot: been sick for almost 2 weeks now... no wieghts or cardio... geeze... wieghed myself yesterday... 161lbs... yeah... lost alot of weight from not eating while sick. first day back to the gym today though... i'm hyped! :)

[poedua]

Well, it have been 1 week since I started tracking what caloris I have put into my body for food. And so far I am shocked how fast I'm slimming down. While it actually been almost 2 weeks, I'm only saying 1 because I did not track the previous few days in my journal.

So, my stats so far. I have lost 2" from my waist, I down to 38" from 40". Weight wise, down from 198lbs to 188lbs. And body fat from ~22% to 18.5%.

I cannot believe how fast it is coming off. How? Watching what I'm eating, and Cardio. I'm usually up at 06:15 and out the door for 06:30 running for 30-40mins. Then in the evening, I'm doing 45mins of Jui-jitsu on Mon, Wed, Friday, and Sat (morning), and 45mins of Kickboxing, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat (Morning).

I have yet to start hitting the weights, that will be at a later date when my cardio is better.

Now here is my questsion, attached is a sample of my calories in a day.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/5803/calories1qi.th.png (http://img256.imageshack.us/my.php?image=calories1qi.png)

As you can see, I'm trying to hit 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fat. Most days I'm hitting it. But for my other stats, Fiber & Sugar, I'm all over the chart.

So, any recommendations on how I could improve?

You need to boost your carbs to 60% / 65% of total calories...you need carbs to fuel your muscles to enhance cardio performance and promote muscle growth ( whenever you start weight training )

So, it should be 65% carbs....20% fat.....15% protein. You aren't even weight training ......why the heck would you be taking in 40% protein ????????

On top of that, you're 188 lbs....you should be taking in about almost 2,900 calories a day to maintain a moderately active lifestyle that you're describing ...you're taking in around 1,600 calories. Your Resting Metabolic Rate - the calories you need just to keep your basic systems ( i.e like breathing ) operating is 10 calories per lb. body weight. That means you should be taking in - just if you laid in bed and didn't move out of bed - 188 x10 = 1,880 calories............you're not even at that , but at 1,600 calories a day.

Who the heck developed this diet for you anyway ??????

[mpt]

With that diet, you'll be pissing uric acid in no time!

[poedua]

With that diet, you'll be pissing uric acid in no time!

I'd agree 100 %. Protein being anything more than 15% of your calories ( I'd max at 20% even if weight training heavily - which he isn't ) - i.e 40% as he's doing - is a complete waste and is going to be pissed away.

Not only that, but he's taking in 1,600 calories a day...from that he's running for 30 minutes and doing 45 minutes of martial arts - easily burning up 500 calories.

That doesn't leave much left for anything else ..... a 188 lb. man is left with 1,100 calories a day to maintian a healthly body on ...I don't think so. :)

Restricting his caloric intake won't be efficient because the body begins using calories more efficiently by slowing its rate of metabolism - it thinks you're starving. . When carbohydrate supplies are as low as his are, eventually the body literally feeds on itself for fuel as muscle protein is broken down for fuel, causing loss of muscle mass. He keeps this up and he'll eventually be cannibalizing muscle tissue for energy IMO.

[nubbie]

Thanks for your input. Let me see if I can answer all the questions.

As for my caloric intake, I'm trying to increase it. I'm still trying to get used to what type of food and when to eat it. I know that it is low, but at the end of the day, I'm not hungry.

The diet it self, was started / created by me (that's why it looks crazy). I'm still learning how and what items to be eating in a day.

Your sugguests on Carbs, makes sense. This will give me more energy, and better ability to do cardio?

More pasta for my carbs?

[DVST8]

List a daily breakdown meal for the day. Are you eating 6 portioned meals a day as supposed to Break. Lunch and dinner?

[nubbie]

Yes, check out my attached image for a sample of daily intake.

[nubbie]

Ok, I just did some reading on carbs, and it looks like it is the way to go. After reading more info on it, it now makes sense.

I always though carbs and protein was the source of energy. But infact, it is just carbs. More carbs = more energy. That simple.

[poedua]

Ok, I just did some reading on carbs, and it looks like it is the way to go. After reading more info on it, it now makes sense.

I always though carbs and protein was the source of energy. But infact, it is just carbs. More carbs = more energy. That simple.

Correct, carbs are your primary high energy source for muscles.

If you're doing something easly like walking, the primary fuel used by your muscles is fat. Once you ratchet up your intensity to a moderate level ( i.e jogging ) you're burning a blend of carbs/fats ( 50/50...40/60 .....etc. ). If you go really hard, you rely mostly on carbs in the form of your muscle's glycogen stores.

Once carbs are digested, carbs are absorbed into the bloodstream as glucose. Glucose that is not immediately used for energy is stored in muscles as glycogen, and - the greater / bigger the glycogen stores in your muscles, the longer you'll be able to run, kickbox etc. You want to keep those glycogen stores in your muscles topped up for moderate to hard / intense workouts. But, once your glyogen stores are filled , the excess is stored as fat.

I think the reason some people shy away from the whole idea of taking in a lot of carbs, is becuase they may have some misconception that carbs are fattening in some way - they aren't. The process of gaining and losing weight is really quite simple. It's a function of the amount of energy (calories) taken in versus the amount of energy expended burned. Excess calories in the body are simply stored as fat - regardless if the source of the calories in your food is carbohydrate, fat or protein.

Thing is, the conversion of excess carbs into fat isn't a dominant occurance because you need the carbs to fuel your exercise - you burn carbs for fuel. The whole idea is to carbo-load your muscles to prepare for high demand workouts. And, it's important to remember, the more trained the muscle is, the more glycogen it can usually hold.

[batcave]

Restricting his caloric intake won't be efficient because the body begins using calories more efficiently by slowing its rate of metabolism - it thinks you're starving. . When carbohydrate supplies are as low as his are, eventually the body literally feeds on itself for fuel as muscle protein is broken down for fuel, causing loss of muscle mass. He keeps this up and he'll eventually be cannibalizing muscle tissue for energy IMO.
I agree. You can't keep this up forever. Once you go back to regular calories, you will gain all of the weight back.

[coomar]

I can easily consume sub 2000 calories on a day with 3 hours of a sport

though I do tend to go at least 50%+ carbs on those days

[sleepyguy]

sorry my fault... i didn't clearly look at your diet charts... just what you were eating. caloric intake is way too low. take advice from others here... you are just starving your body.

keep up the exercise routine though! good luck!

[nubbie]

I've cut back on my protein, and increased my carbs and I have to admit I do have more energy for jui-jitsu / kickboxing / running. I'm still having trouble eating healthing food and increasing my caloric count. I'm eating 6 meals in a day, and full allday long. I feel if I eat more I will get bloated.

I should have another meal log to post tomorrow.

[babysham]

how do you calculate/measure your body fat percentage?

[poedua]

how do you calculate/measure your body fat percentage?

( from an earlier post of mine )

In simple terms there are 4 basic ways they go about measuring body fat %

1) Immersion: This method is based on the fact that lean tissue (muscles, bones, etc.) tends to sink in water, while fat floats. The client is seated in a chair which hangs from a scale, rather like a scale in a supermarket's produce section. The chair and the client are lowered into a pool of water until the client is completely immersed, and the client's weight (while immersed) is recorded. The fatter you are, the more you tend to float, and the lower your immersed weight will be - muscular people weigh more than fat people while immersed. The immersion method is highly accurate, but obviously requires a lot of equipment.

You can estimate your fat ratio by seeing how well you can float on your back in a regular swimming pool: above 25% fat, people float easily; people with 22-23% fat (a healthy level for women) can usually float while breathing shallowly; at 15% fat (low for a woman, healthy for a man), one will usually sink slowly even with a full chest of air; at 13% or less fat, one will sink readily even with a full chest of air, even in salty ocean water.

2) Calipers: The physician or technician making the measurement gently pinches up folds of tissue in areas that normally accumulate fat readily (such as the back of your arm, your stomach just above the waistline, and your hip area), then uses calipers to measure the width of these folds. The thicker the folds are, the higher the fat ratio in your body. This method is only somewhat accurate since it measures just the fat which accumulates in these regions, not that which is imbedded between muscle fibers. However, it is a simple and inexpensive procedure.

3) Electrical impedance: This method is based on the fact that fat and lean tissues have different levels of electrical conductivity (muscle tissue conducts electricity better than fat tissue does). The test is simple, completely painless, and takes just a few minutes; a couple of sensors are attached to the body (e.g., to a hand and a foot) and used to measure the body's resistance to a weak electrical current - a lot of gyms use this

4) Formulas - based on weight-height-diameters -- i don't see these being very accurate, except for Covert Bailey below - USE THIS ONE

Some guidelines on % Body Fat.........

Fat Level .......... Men(%) .................. Women (%)

Very Low ......... 7-10 ........................ 14-17
Low .............. 10-13 ........................ 17-20
Average .........13-17 ......................... 20-27 **********
High .............. 17-25 .. .. .................. 27-31
Very High ......... above25..................... above 31

Heres' one home formula to estimate body fat % from Covert Bailley's and it's a formula using body measurements. (Again, he states that it is +/- 2% accuracy compared with underwater immersion tests I mentioned above .) Using a tailor type measuring tape, measure .......

Men 30 years and younger:
Waist + (1/2hips- feet together ) - (3Xforearm) - wrist = %body fat

Men over 30:
Waist + (1/2hips) - (2.7Xforearm) - wrist = %body fat

Always pick either the largest ( hips, forearm ) and smallest ( wrist , waist ) areas to meaure - in inches.

Here's a body fat % calculator I found on-line if it helps ( not tried it though )

http://www.gymgoal.com/dtool_fat.html - Covert is also listed here

[batcave]

how do you calculate/measure your body fat percentage?
I use a Tanita body fat monitor/scale: http://www.tanita.com/

I used to use the caliper method and it is very comparable. The scale is much more convenient.