Relax....it's not as macro-nutrient critical as you may think. Sometimes it's not what you eat but what you don't eat. Ask yourself a simple question: how far from the farm is it? vegetables, fruit, meat....unprocessed, unrefined, no artificial ingredients, preservatives, coloring, chemicals: this is the stuff your body wants and thrives on. Beyond that, it's just about eating a healthy combination of all the food groups.
The abrasive truth of the matter is, our bodies don't need nearly as much protein as todays diets push. More often then not, protein is the promoted food only for the sake that it has a weak caloric punch...all of only 4 calories per gram, whereas fats have 9 calories per gram. Protein also digest slowly and takes more energy to digest. Many diets have you eating the protein not because you need the protein but because they just want to see you avoid the carbs/fats. Sure, if you're weight-training you need more protein to sustain the needs...but don't fall prety to all the marketing hype these protein-shake/powder companies will have you believe.
So long as you get enough protein each day, you'll be fine. Sure, having some protein before, during and after a weight-training session may ensure a micro-kick in increased performance....but your splitting hairs. When you read the labels on these protein shakes and they instruct you to have a shake in the morning, pre-workout, post-workout, for dinner, before you go to bed....it's VERY similar to hair shampoo's that tell you to wash 2-3 times; ultimately they're just trying to increase your use of their product!
There is absolutely no better source of nutrients then what real food offers. The supplement industry gives us Calcium...but guess what; we can't absorb it well without the presence of vitamin D, and we can't absorb vitamin D without some magnesium & zinc..and the chain goes on & on. If you eat a well-balance diet, you'll probably get everything you need...but for safety and fun watching translucent-yellow urine, take a multi-vitamin and maybe some fish oil.
So for breakfast, pass on the donut, pancakes, fruit loops, buttery muffin and other foods that you won't find close to the farm. Oatmeal is great and you can match it with some good protein of your choice, eggs are popular.
As for your question, after cardio you've not really worked the muscle like you do with weights. Weights are generally slow-twitch muscle and cardio is more fast-twitch. You can have your protein after cardio, but it's nothing more or less then any other food.
Nutrient timing is far over-blown...just eat the right foods and you're good to go!
Your weight will fluctuate...so what you are calling a "problem" is not a problem. I'd not suggest getting on the scale more then once per month. In the beginning you'll see a lot of movement but after a couple months things will mellow-out and the fight will begin. Your hydration level, how much food you have in your intestines and several other factors will vary.
A pound of fat is about 3,500 calories....and your body can only breakdown, metabolize and access stored fat at a certain rate. Understand that when you exercise only about 30-40% of the energy you burn comes from fat, the rest is generally from glycogen. That said, and figuring an average of 35% calories from fat, you'd need to burn 10,000 calories with exercise to see one pound of actual fat burned. Strenous exercise for a guy your size might burn about 720 calories per hour, so you'd have to exercise about for nearly 14 hours to burn one pound of fat. Think about that. Now...you lost 5 pounds in one week; that's 17,500 calories; do you really think you exercised and cut your intake that much to account for an actual FAT LOSS of 5 pounds? No, of course not....hydration and lots of other factors come into play.
As I mentioned in another thread, each gram of gylcogen requires 3 grams of water to sustain in your body. When you cut carbs, your body drops glycogen storage...for each gram of glycogen gone, so too goes 3 grams of water: this is the "water-weight" you hear about people losing.
True fat loss generally can only happen at a rate of about 1-1.5 pounds per week. And be aware: during calorie deficit & dieting, as much as 30% of your weight lost came from lean muscle! You may want to re-think where those 5 pounds came from...the number certainly sounds great, but we're not trying to lose weight, we're trying to lose fat.
Do cardio 3-4x per week, do weights 2-3x per week...alternate days. More then anything else, what you put in your mouth will dictate your results. It's very easty to eat-back the calories you burn while exercising. Remember how only 30-40% of what you burn is fat..the rest is glycogen; the body knows very well the glycogen is gone (low blood-sugar) and your body will SCREAM with hunger and inspire you to replenish those lost calories. Just so you know, I'm told that glycogen can only be replenished by consumption of food; you can't take it from fat..so it's okay to eat after exercising. It would make sense that you can eat as much as 60% of the calories burned, but I generally go with about 25-40%. Despite what were told, you don't have a mere 1-hour "window" of time to replenish your glycogen or else suffer weak performance next time. Current research says your body will divert incoming energy towards the glycogen storage before it stores it as fat...so they're like empty little fuel-tanks waiting to be filled. BUT THERE'S THE SECRET: the 65% of energy during exercise that came from glycogen will now inhibit that consumed food from becoming fat...so if you can avoid eating-back all those calories you burned, you'll have burned fat during the cardio AND your body will burn fat because your refueling glycogen and the food you ate isn't hitting your fat!
I sure hope that all makes sense, cause we're touching on some major heavy-duty psyiology stuff here. But the thing is, you don't have to understand the body to make our progress...just eat whole food, eat balanced portions, watch what you eat (count calories), get rest, take a multi-vitamin, get your cardio, do your weights, stretch and the path is inevitable.
We green or what?
