What I eat in a day - Diet Start

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PumpkinChan

PumpkinChan

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Hello everyone.
I am currently 182(lbs) and I starting a diet along with going to the gym 6x/week for at least 1hour.
This is what I am currently eating:
Breakfast:
- milk with coffee (sugar free!), 1 or 2 cups of it until noon is all I usually have
Lunch:
- chicken salad (lettuce, grilled chicken, lemon juice)
- bowl of oatmeal, greek yogurt, fruit mix with nuts and a spoon of honey on top or peanut butter sometimes
Late afternoon, before training:
- greek yogurt
- oatmeal, yogurt, fruit mix, nuts and sometimes honey or peanut butter
- banana or banana with peanut butter
Dinner:
- lots of veggies and a small portion of meat (any)
- small sandwich and tea or coffee with milk

Sometimes at the end of the day I get something sweet like a square or two of chocolate.
What do you guys think about my meal plan?
 
Hi Pumpkin Chan. To be honest, sounds like a lot of healthy options, but not structured, which can sometimes have a reverse effect on achieving your goals. What type of training do you do at the gym?
 
I am in the 4th day of my journey and so far no results (one day I loose 1kg, the next day I have it back. Has been like this but its too early to tell..).
In the gym I start with 30 minutes on treadmill (I am walking in a fast pace then I switch to run , then walk, then run... as I can push myself). Then I will lift some weights, use machines mostly even to do some squats. Yesterday I was using a rowing machine but less than 10 minutes I think (I set it to loose 50cal just to try it out as it was my first time).
Then usually I finish in the treadmill again but since it was not available, I tried the elliptical cross trainer for 30 minutes.

In short > I try to start with 30min cardio, then weight lifting for maybe 20min and finish with 20 or 30 more cardio training.
 
Another thing, for the first couple of days, I felt sore the day after gym. Now, after 4 days, I don't feel that sore. Not that I want to feel sore at all but it kinda makes me wonder if I am pushing myself enough or if it's just a matter of getting used to it already.
Adding more info into it > I am 163cm (5,34777 ft) and 83kg (182,984 lbs).
 
What is your ultimate goal? Is it weight loss? Toning? Are you lifting heavy weights? These play factors on the scale. A bit of advice, Dont weigh yourself everyday. It can be very discouraging sometimes as your body weight fluctuates. When you weigh in, make sure it is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. That will give you more of an accurate weight.
 
I have been checking my weight in the morning on empty stomach and naked (I know this might seem crazy for some and for others it's normal, but if I am wearing clothes I don't trust the scale judgment :willy_nilly:).
Goals - loose 20 kg and gain some muscle but not much (I don't want to have a 6pack body).
I am lifting weights but on machines. I am doing squats with the help of a machine (lifting a machine handler when getting up... I don't know the name of that thing though).
Today I run as much as I could in the treadmill (30minutes) then i spent another 30minutes switching from machine to machine weight lifting and ended up with +30minutes on elliptical cross trainer.
However... I ate a banana, 4spoons of greek yogurt 1h before and I feel like I ended up my workout sooner because I was feeling hungry and weak. I might increase the portion tomorrow... Despite that, it was like 90min workout so I am still happy with my efforts.
 
Everyone´s different and we all have to find what works for us, specifically. Not every body works well on eating every couple of hours! I only eat three meals a day and that´s a thing which works for me. I think it´s good for you to experiment with what healthy foods work for you in which combinations, which seems to be exactly what you´re doing. Well done on a 90-minute workout!
 
Hi PumpkinChan & welcome to the forum. Do you have an idea of how many calories you are consuming? I'm a 3 meals a day person too as I find it helps keep my calories down a bit. I take a banana with me to eat during golf though & have some fruit after lunch & dinner usually. Congrats on the 90 min workout.
 
dmartinez7624. Since you do not have a diary, there is nothing one might use to assess the validity of your approach or knowledge, more so if you dole it out by private email. I disagree with your advice in regard to weighing daily for reasons stated in my diary and would be happy to debate the issue on my diary thread or yours. There is also a great deal of contradictory evidence in regards to frequency of eating. Factors such as a susceptibility to low blood sugar or tolerance to intermittent fasting vary with individuals.

PumpkinChan is taking steps that will invariably lead to improved health, fitness and weight loss as she pursues her efforts. The only advice solicited by her so far is as to what others think of her meal plan. You call the plan 'unstructured' but it seems to me to be highly 'structured'. I'm no expert but it looks damned fine to me and the meal plan, in the context of her intended exercise would probably work for me, so thumbs up except one caveat, I agree with you that breakfast is important but how does it, as you say: 'starts your metabolism for the day'.

I believe that if you have something of value to add to the forum, you should consider sharing it with the many people on this forum who have experience with what does or doesn't work for them so we may all benefit. Offering to send information privately to one individual serves only to arouse suspicion of your motives even if you have the best of intentions and solid information.
 
There are a lot of fad diets out there, whether its 5-6 meals a day, 3 meals a day, or intermittent fasting. This is a forum for advice. Im just sharing what has worked for me. Im not here to try and prove anyone wrong. PumpkinChan, all in all, you have to find what works for YOU, and how you can stay consistent with it. Keep pushing thru those workouts. 90 minutes is a big deal.
 
Breakfast topic - I am actually not skipping my breakfast at all as I am taking cups of milk with coffee for the morning. I know this doesn't seem a proper breakfast however I feel like my body is quite used to it and without it I feel like I just don't "turn on" for the day and with more than that makes me feel a bit sick. And by sick I mean, my stomach starts feeling like something's wrong, something should not be in there, I can be nauseous or even feeling like in a "slow" mode (sleepy, need to rest, etc).
However, I will try to start adding something slowly. I am thinking about eating a couple of nuts in the morning along with my coffee.

cate > I am not counting my calories. I know that in the end it always comes to calorie deficit to loose weight. However, this is not my first diet and in the past I was the "calorie counting obsessed" person and I ended up in a hospital. I just realized I wrote something that might seem quite dramatic but it's true. I am in a different page in my life, I don't feel triggered to do un-healthy things like I did then but I tend to avoid what might make me way too attached to a "oh no, I just ate 1 calorie! I will skip dinner!". Some people can count their calories and it helps a lot. In my case, I prefer not to.

dmartinez7624 > The files you mentioned can be as resourceful to me as for other people. So maybe you can share them by uploading them and sharing the link. Also, the weighting everyday, adds up to the story I was mentioning to Cate as well. I try not to weight myself everyday but this time I know that I can even gain weight since I am weight lifting and I am taking pictures of me at the end of every week to check my body and I am focusing more into the pictures than in my weight actually.

Need some advice on this > Post workout meal !
Yesterday I felt a bit dizzy, light headed, weak after workout and that feeling was there to the next morning (woke up ok).
I am not eating immediately after workout since after that its a routine run (shower > groceries if needed > taking public transportation > getting home and prepare meals for dinner and next day lunch). I usually eat something while cooking but tiny tiny things only while I am waiting for the dinner to be ready (like eating half of a slice of bread or stealing pieces of veggies while I prepare salad).
So... I want to start eating something right after workout. I do not have a machine to make smoothies or shakes. Is there anything recommended?
Once I finish my training is almost dinner time too...
I don't go crazy with dinner portions since I measure my meals. I was thinking about carrying a cereal bar with me but I was trying to avoid them as well as bread, pasta and cookies. Cereal bars can have huge amounts of sugar and fat...
 
I'm glad you got through your previous behavior around diet and think it's splendid that you know what your body needs in general. Your workout sounds quite intense/long so I can see you getting trouble during or after it when you're on reduced calories. A protein shake might help (just shake it up in a sealable jar or something) or a friend of mine recommends unsalted, low-fat, cottage cheese with fruit. Greek yogurt would work as well, I guess, but you'll probably need more than a couple of tablespoons either way.
 
It sounds to me like your activity levels are a drastic change from what you have been comfortable with in the past. There are many interwoven variables to consider in weight loss efforts and in the enthusiasm to make changes, it is easy to lose sight of how they are connected. Every person is different and is an experiment of one.

I wish you success in meeting your targeted activity but I know that it would be far to optimistic for me to try to maintain the level of effort you have planned. You may well achieve rapid progress if you have the will to stay on track, but your light-headedness is a sign that you plan requires some modification. You may need more hydration, sleep, nutrition or calories to support your plan to see longer term success. I had a medical checkup to ensure that I wouldn't run into certain kinds of problems and use a number of metrics to identify whether my plan is backfiring on me. Dizziness is often associated with reduced oxygen to the brain, but it could as easily be an iron or other deficiency or insufficient calories. I had an elderly neighbor who needed to adjust a medication that a doctor told her had affected her potassium levels and caused her to faint and fall several times. Youth isn't sufficient defense.

What works for me is to start with a less aggressive exercise plan and to measure whether it is sustainable based on 3 heart based measurements that are not difficult or expensive to monitor, and eat about as much as I have in the past but with an emphasis on being mindful of variety and quality. Perhaps at some point I will be able to work as hard as you plan to, but I am now only laying a foundation from which I can safely add a greater emphasis on resistance based exercise.

If you have a weekly routine, say Sunday through Saturday and record your weight daily, you can get a really good idea of your weight progress by taking the average of seven daily readings and calling it your Wednesday weight. Taking a single reading once a week that may be out for typical bodily reasons, or because you decided not to drink any water the day before, or took a laxative or any number of other reasons that will only harm you, will give you an inaccurate measure and mislead about progress. I haven't yet got two weeks into my diary plan but the rolling four day average I run in my head tells me my modest plan is working for me and a more modest plan than yours might work for you. Your enthusiasm is admirable, but your body is warning you to pay heed.
 
6th diet day - I can now manage to run at 4.0 mph for 30minutes (not straight 30minutes : 5minutes running, 1minute or 2 fast walking and drinking water if needed). I plan to increase my stamina.
Before, I would run 30seconds or 1minute at the most and feel like I couldn't run anymore and I am not joking!
I think I just found my pace (I don't believe that after 5 days pushing myself in gym my body already is transforming into a super hero). Also, I started listening to music while doing it which pushes me even more since I kinda stop thinking about time or soreness or anything and take the "melody wave" as boost.

I started using the cycling machine instead of using treadmill a 2nd time. It makes my training less repetitive and I was surprised that it registers more calorie burn than the treadmill. I wonder how accurate that is. I know sweating more doesn't mean more fat burn but I felt like cycling was pushing me more, more difficult, sweating way more than running. Let me know your thoughts on this matter.

Hale, I had issues in my longs in my past. Severe issues. My longs blood supply was cut by half or more than that for a long period > that's the easier explanation. I don't feel effects of it now but it took me years to be able to breathe without pain or feeling breathless after a step. So, lack of oxygen can be always a thing for me. However, I think my situation now might be short portions of food, "light" food like salads and high intensity of training. I am thinking about getting potatoes or pasta/rice before training. But... since I really need to burn fat, I don't know if that will only throw me into a plateau.
 
Some people do well working out on an empty stomach, others don´t. You´ll have to find out what works for you. 90 minutes of training when around 60 of those are cardio I assume burns at least 700 calories and probably more. Added to the 2000 or so calories an average (non-obese) woman would burn in a day anyway you´d have to be careful to not undereat if you´re dieting at the same time. Working out on a big calorie deficit is simply hard (and not always the healthiest thing to do but that´s between you and your doctor). Good luck finding strategies that work for your body!
 
LaMaria said:
Working out on a big calorie deficit is simply hard (and not always the healthiest thing to do but that´s between you and your doctor). Good luck finding strategies that work for your body!
Click to expand...

I am not seeing a doctor.

I had pizza at lunch (business lunch). I could have said "no" but I just felt like it wasn't the end of the world, I am exercising now and I am shy and felt a bit "afraid" of asking for something else (almost no one knows I am on diet and I prefer that why so I feel less pressure as well).
In the end I was feeling so guilty, so bad... I was thinking "at least you could have only eat half of it! but you ate everything!", oh well....

I had brought with me banana, yogurt, honey and peanut butter all mixed as a pre workout meal but I didn't had it... because I was still feeling full of pizza. Workout out more than usually (2h30) and in the end I ate a banana. Feeling good so far!
 
No doubt you are aware of your abilities and history far better than anyone here. I understand what you say as my mother had tuberculosis in her early teens from which she recovered. She fainted frequently and her doctors ensured she had extra rations post WW II because she frequently had iron deficiencies. She was very prone to fainting during pregnancies. Her lungs are fine and she'll be in her nineties in a few years, but was again recently advised to increase her iron levels through diet. Oxygen intake require sufficient levels of hemoglobin in your blood and any iron deficiency presents a limiting factor to hemoglobin production. Lung capacity may be great, but they can still fail to get you enough oxygen with something as simple as an iron deficiency.

My sister competes in masters level swimming. She competed in New Zealand in 2017, and Vancouver the year before where she won 7 or 8 medals including four golds and several silvers (individual and relay). She is also a regular blood donor and is often prevented from donating because they test her blood to make sure it is safe for her to donate. Her iron levels are frequently too low for her to donate.

Adjusting food quantity may well help with your dizziness. It may be a deficiency in an element required by the brain, the blood, a gland or just volume of fuel. If you solve your issue by merely adding food, it will be difficult to identify which of the factors could have most efficiently addressed the deficiency.

Just for the sake of discussion, suppose you believe that it is a caloric deficiency and you solve it with rice. If adding rice helps with your symptoms, and rice has 1 unit of iron, then you can't know with certainty whether the rice of the iron caused the improvement. Suppose further that it really was an iron deficiency that made the difference, and your body works best with 8 more units of iron. Eating 8 more amounts of rice will bring you to levels will get your lungs supplying as much oxygen to the blood as possible, but you are now eating much more rice. Those are excess calories that exceed your bodily needs. Alternatively, you could have upped your spinach consumption, had some beef liver or perhaps a supplement and solved the iron deficiency with an iron rich food that had far less impact on your calories.

The same logic applies to potassium, iodine, vitamins or any of a multitude of other factors that can be evaluated. Where I live, a physical examination and basic blood tests are free. I can also go to a compounding pharmacist and he can order many more free tests to evaluate hormone balance, thyroid function and many others that a GP doctor won't check without specific complaints.

I have no idea whether your symptoms have anything to do with iron levels, but I doubt you do either. I was only exploring it as an illustration. You may have time, cost or other reasons that make it impractical to make use of my comments and trust you will make your own best choices.
 
Are you able to see a doctor & have some tests to see if you do have any deficiencies? It may save you a lot of trial & error. It may be possible to see a Nutritionist & get some guidance. Bananas are my go-to food for exercise. I often have 2 on golf days. Perhaps one straight after your workout would be of benefit to you.
 
In regard to the dizziness following exercise, make sure you are drinking enough. A lot of times any dizziness can be caused by simple dehydration and being overheated. Drink drink drink. Not until you feel sick or anything, but don't be afraid to reach for that water bottle during a work out.
 
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