Headed towards my bikini body!!

[LiLady11]

My journal, finally!! I'm headed towards a bikini body!!
Horray!! Once the new year began, my best friend and I, a fellow member, began our new diet. We got it from the Diet Board, the cutting diet from TheOneCrumcake. Here's the basics of it...

Meals 1-3: Roughly 30 grams of protein/ 25 grams of Complex Carbs at each meal. NO FAT
Meals 4-6: Roughly 30 grams of protein/10-15 grams of Unsaturated Fats. NO CARBS.
Veggies at any time during the day, and as much as wanted.

NEVER MIX CARBS AND FAT, EVER!!

I got a lot of this info from this site and from another.

As for exercise... Lift @4-5 times a week. Cardio 4-7 days a week.

So far, this is how I've done:
Jan 1
Meal 1- 3 egg whites, 1 yolk
cup of oats
Meal 2- can of tuna, half a green pepper
Meal 3- Myoplex bar
Meal 4- Chicken breast, small salad with balasmic vinagrette

Jan 2
Meal 1- 4 egg whites, 1/2 cup oats
Meal 2- can tuna, baked potatoe, tablespoon salsa
Meal 3- baked potatoe
Meal 4- Chicken breast, brussel sprouts, small salad
Meal 5- Handful unsalted peanuts

The last couple of days have been rough.. we finally found an apartment and the job search is on. But we did eat well and had a great steak dinner last night!!
Jan 5
Meal 1- Ballys Creamsicle Protein Shake
Meal 2- 2 cups Cherrios
Meal 3- can tuna, 5 saltines, unsalted tops

We've been hitting the gym each day so far, doing @35-45 minutes of cardio each time. And today we took a day off from weights, but the past three days were Arms, Legs, Arms. Since we're both kinda new to this, we haven't broken it up into different body parts. But we shall!!

Well, my journal and journey has begun...

 

[diamonddiceclay]

you should eat at least 6 times a day

 

[new@gettinbig]

Yes you need more calories!! You also should not eat a meal that consists of just a carb alone?? You need protein w/ each meal! A handful of peanuts is not considered a meal!! Why not try rotating your carbs?? This has been talked about several times..high and low days..matching w/ your training schedule....that is not enough food...you need more protein I would cut out the cheerios...and crackers..you don't need those..but eating 4 times a day isn't going to get you lean..eating less is not the answer..you will actually slow down your metabolism..

you should take in at least 1-1.5 grams of protein per lb...Take in some lean red meat..turkey breasts..fish..etc...your complex carbs should be oatmeal, yams, rice, veggies etc...no carbs like white bread and junk! Drink plenty of water...You should try to train w/ some sort of split...full body won't cut it...chest/back, legs, arms/shoulders...or back/bis, chest/tris, legs, shoulders..however you want to do it..3 sets of 8-10 reps and go HEAVY..no light weights..read the sticky threads above they will help you out...and believe me you will not reach your ultimate goal eating and training like this..it will only lead you to fustration

 

[LiLady11]

How many calories should I be consuming in a day?? I am currently @150 lbs. not sure of my bodyfat yet. I believe I am getting that measured on Monday along with taking some measurements. I put my foods in on Fitday.com yesterday, said I had @1500. Isn't that sufficient?? Please tell me more about rotating my carbs. Never heard of that before...
I will definitely cut out the Cheerios and the crackers from now on.
As for the weights, I've only just begun to learn about all the different machines. I've been just trying them out. This week my training partner and I are going to create a good split routine to follow. I'll write down what machines are there and what my current schedule has been!!

Thanks New!!

 

[new@gettinbig]

Machines are great but try to incorporate as much free weights as you can..do a search there is tons of info on different training splits w/ exercises and so on...keep your motivation up..once you get everything set you will do great

 

[smallmovesal]

i've started journalling my food at fitday.com - it's super addictive and fun lol.

they give you a normal person's ideal... so just bump up the necessary stuff to what you should be doing to build muscle...

 

[smallmovesal]

hmm. any other people have experiences with fitday.com?

 

[KEL]

He was looking for long grain brown rice, and tha values he was getting were WAY off. It was reporting twice the carbs as listed on any of the four varieties of rice I had in my pantry.

that's what the custom food section is for- some of the items just don't exist!

I'm with smalls on this it is addictive and fun

 

[LiLady11]

It is addictive!! But I'm annoyed with it right now!! Won't let me custom add my Myoplex Low Carb bar!! Dang it!!

To get back on the topic, thanks for all the replies everyone!! I think I'm going to try your split Spatts!!

LiL

 

[Gladiola]

LiLady,
What is the error message you are getting when you try to add a custom food on fitday.com? I haven't had a problem with it, but heard from my sister that a certain food couldn't possibly be as low in carbs as the label said - so they musta been lying or hiding something somehow....

I've had to custom add the orgranic quick-cooking oatmeal I eat, but otherwise everything has been fairly accurate - at least calorie wise. I've double-checked on a few things, but I know the calories are right, cuz I was a calorie-counter for over a year before I started using fitday. I never bothered to do the calculations on my own of Percentages of calories from pro, carb, etc. & I LOVE that it does it for me.

Agree... super addicitve & fun!

Did you all know you can make your journal public??? I've already sent the link to a few friends of mine who have not a clue how to eat healthy & want some ideas. Helps keep me in line too cuz I know they're checking up on me!!!

-Gladi

 

[new@gettinbig]

I wouldn't worry about or rely on an internet site for reference to your food and journaling...they are obviously set up for the general publics good nutrition which is not close to what a bb needs to put on muscle mass etc...I think they are a waste of time..but that is just my opinion..do whatever you think helps you.

 

[Debu]

That's why I posted what values most people use for rice, chicken, potatoes, etc. Every different book, product, mag, states something different. And if you are counting carbs and protein you want it down to the last half-gram right Steel? (j/k)

 

[Cheetarah]

How many calories should I be consuming in a day?? I am currently @150 lbs. not sure of my bodyfat yet. I believe I am getting that measured on Monday along with taking some measurements. I put my foods in on Fitday.com yesterday, said I had @1500. Isn't that sufficient?? Please tell me more about rotating my carbs. Never heard of that before...
I will definitely cut out the Cheerios and the crackers from now on.
As for the weights, I've only just begun to learn about all the different machines. I've been just trying them out. This week my training partner and I are going to create a good split routine to follow. I'll write down what machines are there and what my current schedule has been!!

Thanks New!!

Personally, I would throw any automated system that is supposed to tell you how many calories you need out the window! There are just too many factors involved for any automated system to come up with a correct number. I think the best way is to figure out your own maintenance calories by eating normally, when your weight stays the same, and for one week keep track of your calories. At the end of the week, average them to get your maintenance calories then you can go from there. And you don't need to subtract a lot of calories to cut, you'd be surprised at how much fat you can lose just by eating clean. You don't NEED to starve yourself, cutting your calories too low will only result in overtraining and muscle loss! For example, the current plan I'm using, I've been losing an average of 1 lb of fat a week and gaining some muscle at the same time, about 2 lbs of muscle gained in 3 weeks. My maintenance calories are 2650 and I'm cutting right around 2350! It's only 300 cals below my maintenance calories and I'm losing fat! And I weigh 140 lbs (5'5"around 18% body fat) right now. I just hate seeing so many women diet on such low calories, it is NOT NECESSARY!

And fat DOES NOT make you fat. Heck I eat 105 grams of it a day and I'm STILL losing fat! I started at 22% body fat in August and got down to 16.6% before Thanksgiving. I'm living proof that fat does not make you fat. I've heard of never having high fat AND high carbs but this stuff about not having ANY fat with carbs? Where did that one come from? Fat is not evil. You NEED fat, good fat. Fat actually slows down digestion and absorption which is what you want when you eat carbs, so that your insulin doesn't spike. I NEVER have carbs WITHOUT fat and I always have protein with my meals as well. And I INCREASE my fat when I go low carb. You must give your body enough fuel, whether it be carbs or fat and hopefully the protein is spared for muscle tissue rebuilding. Anyway, I hope I was of some help.

 

[new@gettinbig]

Cheetarh once u become leaner taking in that much fat is not going to be good...when dropping as you become leaner..it gets harder and taking in that much fat is not needed..yes you need fat to lose fat..but not 100 grams of it!! 20-40 grams at most...it may work for you now..but later you will need to make adjustments.

 

[hookdup]

I find fitday addictive too.
I eat a few different protein bars and I've just gone into the custom menu and typed in everything off the label of the bars. Most of us don't have a lot of variety when it comes to bars / protein shakes / meal replacements, so I've found I've done a few custom foods and the rest has been pretty consistent.
The only time I've had problems is when I've eaten at restaurants and the problems were mainly to do with the fact that I was eating food I probably shouldn't have....
But then again .... who can resist Pad Thai??? I know my limitations!

 

[KBgrl]

i use fitday.com when im realllly watchin what i eat. it takes some time....but once u get the hang of it.... u will be able to manipulate the values successfully. keep us posted.

good luck lilady!

 

[SteelWeaver]

That's why I posted what values most people use for rice, chicken, potatoes, etc. Every different book, product, mag, states something different. And if you are counting carbs and protein you want it down to the last half-gram right Steel? (j/k)

EXACTLY!!

 

[SteelWeaver]

And good luck LiLady! You'll get there, even if things seem confusing - eventually you start figuring it all out.

 

[Cheetarah]

Cheetarh once u become leaner taking in that much fat is not going to be good...when dropping as you become leaner..it gets harder and taking in that much fat is not needed..yes you need fat to lose fat..but not 100 grams of it!! 20-40 grams at most...it may work for you now..but later you will need to make adjustments.

So you're saying I'll have to go low carb AND low fat? Gosh, I hope not, that would really suck. I starve enough as it is on low carb days!

I hope you didn't think I meant mod carbs and mod fat. Generally I increase my fat intake as I decrease my carbs so I never have a lot of both. I'm aiming to get down to 12%. I hope that doesn't entail eating low carb AND low fat, ack! As you may have noticed, I'm generally of a different school of thought when it comes to cutting. I advocate low carb, mod fat diets only because I believe insulin to be the real enemy. At least it is for me cause I think I'm at least somewhat insulin resistant so I believe the key for me in losing fat is to keep the carbs in check. I've also got several competitor friends who generally keep their carbs low and fat higher. Thru experimentation they have said they found that the more they dropped their carbs and increased their fat intake, the leaner they became. Of course these are all male friends so I can't be certain that it will work for me as well. Plus I'm on the birth control pill so I'm sure that isn't helping me either.

But anyway I do appreciate any input from you as I know you have competed so you know what has worked well for you and I'm always open to new ideas, especially things that have worked for other women. I'm just hoping I'm not gonna have to get too crazy to get down to 12% body fat. I'd really like to get there and maintain but at the same time I don't want to have to stick to an impossibly strict diet to do that. I eat really clean now as it is. The only cheats I really have are protein bars. It's really hard to stay away from them when you sit in a supplement store all day with them staring at you!

 

[Cheetarah]

I think what she's saying, and what I would say, is that if you cycle your carb intake (rather than slowly stair stepping it down to nothing but protein), you will NOT HIT A WALL, and you will CONTINUE TO LOSE FAT.

Yep, already doing that. This is the diet I was following before the holidays. I'm currently working on a new plan now, I change it pretty often.

Diet Ratios P/C/F (all in grams, six meals per day):

Sat - 40/40/15 for daily totals of 240/240/90 35%/35%/30% total of 2730 cals

Sun - 40/30/15 for daily totals of 240/180/90 39%/29%/33% total of 2490 cals

Mon - Thu 45/10/20 for daily totals of 270/60/120 45%/10%/45% total of 2400 cals

Fri - 42/25/17 for daily totals of 252/150/102 40%/24%/36% total of 2526 cals

I use (or at least try) only foods conducive to keeping the fat burning going. I eat only green veggies for carbohydrates for meals 5 & 6.

 

[new@gettinbig]

I still think your fat intake is too high?? Anyone else agree or is just me? Yes you need good fat and yes it is good for you, but 90-100 grams?? That is a lot of fat! What are you eating to get that amount?

 

[Cheetarah]

I still think your fat intake is too high?? Anyone else agree or is just me? Yes you need good fat and yes it is good for you, but 90-100 grams?? That is a lot of fat! What are you eating to get that amount?

Yes it is a lot of fat but fat is not evil unless you are taking in more calories than you are burning. Fat slows down digestion and absorption, makes you feel full for longer, in addition to the other obvious, like needed for vitamin and mineral absorption (some) blah blah blah. But the main reasons I take in high fat is that I am keeping my meals as low glycemic as possible and teaching my body to burn fat as fuel. And again, several male bodybuilders I know have actually gotten leaner by decreasing carbs and increasing their EFA's. It seems more fat/less carbs = leanness.

It's not diffcult at all to get in that much fat. My fat sources are egg yolks (usually only 2 a day), mayonnaise, olive oil, fish oil, and just the fat that is naturally present in the foods I eat such as chicken and lean steak.

But anyway, it's been working well for me. The best is that even though I am somewhat hungry and could eat most of the time, I think the higher fat intake is keeping me from really starving, added to the fact that I'm only about 300 calories below my maintenance calories anyway. I eat very clean INSTEAD of really restricting my calories. You really don't need to restrict your calories that much if you are eating clean enough and I think this is a mistake too many women make. They decrease their calories too much and suffer the consequences because of it.

Now I'm not saying this high fat intake will always work for me, perhaps I will plateau, but that is also why I tweak my diet often, so that it doesn't happen and I continue to burn fat. So far so good. Also I believe there have been studies that show fat helps preserve LBM. So just another reason. And since I've been cutting since back in August, I've not lost a single lb of muscle and in fact have only gained muscle while losing fat. Anyway, I guess I was just wanting to throw another school of thought out there, one which I ascribe to and has been working well for me. And I hate seeing other women starve themselves with too few calories and too little fat.