My Goal

[Sandy]

Hi! I am new to the board and I have some questions. First off, I am 22 year old female, 148 lbs, 5'9". I would like to lose around 8 lbs. I workout 5 to 6 times a week. I run (2 to 3 mi.) and bike (10 to 12 mi.). So I've got the exercise part down.

My problem is diet. I have a sweet tooth and I think that is my downfall. I need some sort of diet to follow. My only beverages are water and milk (for breakfast). Can anyone help? Thank for reading!

~Sandy

 

[Kalrog]

Well, I am not about to come between a woman and her sweets! Learned that one when my wife was pregnant (she never liked chocolate before...).

As for your diet, you should probably look at something like a 50/30/20 split where 50% of your calories come from carbs (maybe 60% because of your aerobic activity), 30% from protien, and no more than 20% from fats. Where those come from is up to you, but try to get them as high quality as you can with as little processing as possible. Remember, sugar is just a simple carb and nothing about that is bad. The problem is that it is usually combined with a ton of fat calories and that combo will do you in every time.

Another thing that I would suggest is that you swap some of that cardio for weight/resistance training. It will build muscle and cause your body to lose fat even if you stay the same weight. If weights aren't for you, then you might look into some High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to get a lot of the same benefits as weight training and lose fat faster than slow cardio will do.

 

[Sandy]

Thank you for your quick response Kalrog. Can you explain HIIT? Is that just sprints? Can anyone give me specific examples of foods?

 

[Kalrog]

HIIT is kinda like sprints. The key is to cycle all out cardio (90 to 110 % of max) with fairly easy cardio (50 to 60 % of max). A good example of this would be that you do a warm up and then go for your normal 2 mile run but instead of going the same speed the entire way you would do an easy jog for 45 seconds or so and an all out sprint for 15 seconds. At the end of those 15 seconds you shouldn't be ABLE to keep up that speed. Then you slow down to an easy jog for another minute or so and repeat until you are done with your 2 miles. Don't be surprised if you can't go very far on the first few tries though - this is something that you haven't done before and you will need to adjust.

You know how sprinters and marathon runners both have very low BF% but the sprinters always look buff while the long distance guys just look skinny? Well, the extreem stress that the sprinters are putting on their muscles gives them a much better body even though the BF% is probably the same.

What foods do you want examples of? High protien? Good carbs?

 

[Sandy]

Ok, I can do that. Any info you can give on foods would be nice. I need examples for a good breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

 

[gypsy28]

heres some good suggesions for some meals:

breakfast:

-whole wheat toast w/ peanutbutter (go easy on the peanutbutter) + topped w/ sliced banana
- glass of milk (skim or low fat)
-piece of fruit or veg.

lunch-

-2 slices whole grain rye bread (or whole wheat) w/ 1-3 oz. sliced turkey
-yogurt (low fat)
-piece of fruit

dinner- pineapple shish kabob

chunks of pineapple, chunks of chicken (or shrimp), slices of green/red pepper, and zucchini or eggplant grilled (or broiled) on a skewer.

dipping sauce/marinade- lime juice+pineapple juice



other healthy choices for any meals are many kinds of soups...like lentils, black bean, barley

smoothies are good too...fruit, yogurt, juice (skip juice if you're watching sugar) and ice (you can add protein powder too)

 

[SRV524]

lol.......then there's ppl like me who could eat that all in one meal. I eat anything, stay at my weight or add a pound or two, then fluctuate down again. I need diet, I'm getting back into lifting/aerobics, but there's so much fatty stuff in this house and I can't help but to swallow down box after box of cheez-its.