Healthy Diets

[Requiem]

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This is in response to elmoz who posted in my dessert thread and felt that everyone could benefit, here you go:

I've done a lot of reading into all around fitness, a large part of which is diet. I've discovered I wasn't eating enough protein on average (1g/kg body weight on average, 1.5g/kg for athletes) which equates to ~120g of protein myself daily (im 80kg).

As well it's healthier to eat 4-6 smaller meals per day than 3 large ones, and it helps to keep my energy constant. I found that around 2-3 pm in the day I would die no matter what is going on (during school, work etc) and now I eat around 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm.

In terms of the actual foods, i'll be glad to explain what I eat if you wanna get specific. Poly 3 unsaturates are extremely beneficial for you, try to load up on these and avoid saturated fat like the plague.

Some foods/meals I eat include:
Protein Shake: 1 whole banana, 4-5 strawberries, 24g Whey Protein, ~5 teaspoonfuls vanilla yogourt and ~250mls Skim Milk. Extremely healthy, literally zero fat and quite a bit of substance/energy. Great for post-workout.

12-Grain Omega-3 Enhanced bagels: Per bagel i'm getting 12g of protein, ~.7 g omega 3 and 1.4 g omega-6, a good source of fibre (very important in reducing lipids) and very little (1-2g) of fat. I may spoon on a bit of peanut butter for added protein and a few more calories. I usually drink a giant glass of skim milk with this.

Vector Cereal + Skim Milk: If you check out the vitamin/mineral content on this, it's quite substantial. The cereal has ~10 or 12g of protein + the protein in milk, loaded with essential nutrients which is a great way to start. Low in fat, as per usual.

Barbeque: My family enjoys barbeque, I love it. However red meat is high in cholesterol, and is generally not good for you. So, I removed it from my diet. No more stirloin steaks, and you really don't miss it after you get into a solid habit. Instead, here's what I eat:
Marinated Salmon (very very good for you and extremely delicious, I like this more than steak and great source of poly-3's), grilled skinless chicken breast (low fat, high protein, exellent), garden salad + low fat dressing (another big serving of your fruits/veggies), whole wheat roll + corn.

Take-out: I usually eat out once or twice a week. Last time i've been to McDonalds? two years ago. Burker King? over a year. Here's some great choices that are healthy, quick and taste great:
Subway: Footlong roasted chicken with lettuce tomato green pepper oignon and little to no mayo. Very little fat (couple of grams), tons of protein + vitamins/minerals from the vegetables/fruit. Honestly, I get the meal with cookies. I gotta have some love.
Extreme Pita: Grilled Chicken whole wheat wrap, very similar meal. A small bit of cheddar cheese, mushrooms oignons peppers and a touch of salt and pepper. Honestly, it tastes sensational.

Another thing to point out is that if you're really active physically, you consume a lot more calories per day and you're generally a lot hungrier. This works to your advantage, some foods you normally may not have enjoyed suddently taste very satisfying after a 10k run, or after an hour of pumping iron.


If anyone has any other questions or comments feel free!

 

[feileung]

I'd just like to add my support for this post.

A few years ago I changed my diet in almost exactly this way. I lost 40 pounds and felt/feel better than I ever remember. High fiber, high complex carb, high protein, low fat (~40-50g/day). The main differences between this and the way I eat are that I don't eat meat other than fish and I typically go for soy milk over cows milk.

Somebody posted in the "What's for dessert?" thread that "diets are overrated". I can definitely agree w/this statement given the standard American definition of the word "diet". However, what Requiem is talking about would better be called a lifestyle change. This is not something to do temporarily in order to lose weight. If you eat like this and exercise regularly the rewards just keep coming, no need to set an end date or goal other than feeling good.

One thing I'd highly recommend that everyone do is commit to logging their food intake for a month or two. I use www.fitday.com. Many foods are already there but if not you can add them or get the info from www.calorieking.com. This exercise really goes a long way to giving a person a sense of what they're putting in their body (calories, fat, carbs, protein, nutrients, etc). It's a bit of a hassle but thorougly worth it in my opinion.


Anyway, thanks for the great post Requiem. As people interested in health care I think we owe it to ourselves and our communities to understand and communicate how to be healthy and stay healthy as well as how to recover when we slip.

 

[RyanMaverick]

Just registered for that site feil. I really like it, I've been looking for something that will log calories for me and give me an idea just what I'm putting into my body day after day. I'm going to start logging everything I eat/activities in order to get an idea of what my caloric deficit/surplus actually is. However I'm not sure what some of the target goals for protein/fat/carb distribution should be, and I'm not sure why it says that I'm burning 3000cal/day. I'd assumed that 2000 calories was the normal intake for someone my age/height etc, and in order to lose weight one must achieve a deficit. Perhaps somebody could weigh in on this? Thanks and I'd reccomend that site to anybody who wants to check it out.

 

[feileung]

It's calculating your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) as is done here http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html

Then it's adding your "lifestyle" activities to make up the balance of that number.

It takes a caloric deficit of ~3500 to lose a pound....in theory. This is an average and, unfortunately, your body begins to spend calories more slowly w/decreased caloric intake. This is what causes people to hit a plateau in dieting to lose weight. It's much more effective for the long run to split this deficit between calorie restriction and active calorie burn through exercise.

Another factor that slows people's weight loss is the fact that if you're not exercising to build muscle mass then ~ 25% of the weight you lose comes from muscle. Muscle actively burns calories, fat doesn't. As you lose weight in this fashion your BMR decreases. Combine this factor w/the natural slowing from calorie restriction and you reach a point where your efforts are self defeating.

This is why it's better to make tweaks to your lifestyle that you can live with for the long haul than it is to temporarily deprive yourself severely in order to shed a few pounds which become progressively more difficult to keep off!


I know you didn't ask for all of this information about weight loss but it can't hurt to put it out there🙂

 

[Requiem]

www.fitday.com is a great informative tool for people looking to begin to understand their calorie expenditures, and where they're getting their calories from.

But, another few interesting topics you guys should look into:
Every lb of muscle added to your body through strength training burns an extra ~50 calories daily. This demonstrates how exercise and weight training will substantially increase your Basal Metabolic Rate with time and dedication. Increasing your BMR will result in a noticeable energy increase throughout the day, and if you're looking to lose weight it's a huge plus.

Another topic that should be discussed is the body's "set point". The set point is the driving factor in appetite, it's the body weight your body wants to maintain whereby for example if you're not eating enough you'll feel hungry, if you overeat you'll feel full.

One interesting aspect of this "set point" is that it can be manipulated, lowered or increased. Ways to lower your set point, which is the driving force between hunger include moderate aerobic exercise, ideally 3-5 times per week. Drugs can alter this as well, including nicotine - which is why you often find smokers gain weight immediately after quitting. Amphetamines will lower your body's set point, decreasing overall appetite and will lower you body weight. Of course, that method isn't recommended. However, going jogging, playing sports etc a couple of times per week will begin to lower it whereby you'll actually end up eating more than previously (because you're burning so many calories) but still end up losing weight, and maintain a lower body weight.

Let's keep the topics rolling!

 

[elmoz]

Awesome response to my question. I am into nutrition too, although not so much into working out (I do it, but it's a chore). You have some really good ideas of what constitutes a healthy diet. I haven't been to a fast-food place like you mentioned in years either. I also cut out red meat as well as pork. Unfortunately I'm still addicted to high fat foods, but I'm working on it.

The main ways I started going in the right direction as far as food choices was: reading the ingredients on EVERYTHING I eat - I try to scan the label for any ingredient that I wouldn't want to put in my body, as well as to avoid excessively processed foods. I totally avoid high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils (this was my first big step) and they are in nearly everything we eat here in the US. Although I still eat some meat, I avoid anything preserved with nitrites like hot dogs, bacon, etc. I also avoid simple sugars, and I am mortally opposed to artificial sweeteners. I am not a big sugar junkie, so it's not usually a problem, but if I do need some sweetener, I use honey. I avoid white bread and white rice, and eat whole wheat bread and brown rice instead. I don't drink cow's milk, or soy milk, but use rice milk instead. I learned that soy tends to have a lot of estrogen-like compounds in it, so men should especially avoid high amounts of it. Rice milk is a good alternative. I also buy organic foods whenever possible, to avoid ingesting hormones, pesticides, and GMOs.

 

[Requiem]

Cutting out bacon / hot-dogs etc are huge, I think one hot dog has like 20g of fat. That's just unacceptable..

The best way to get over foods you find yourself wanting now and then is simply to never buy them. Never go to a grocery store hungry, and when you're there just simply avoid it and you'll get into a habit without the processed foods pretty quickly.

If you use some sweetener like "splenda", it's actually better than white sugar as aspartame isn't damaging to you - unless you have phenylketonuria 😛. For drinks like coffee/tea etc I use brown sugar, it's healthier and imo tastes better, it has a nice distinct flavour to it. Organic products are definitely beneficial, although financially out of reach for some people. If not, by all means go for it - it's excellent and I notice a difference in the quality of foods prepared organically.

I drink cow's milk - (skim milk), i've read research for and against cow milk, it seems to be on the fence scientifically right now. Generally when a topic can go either way there's not enough evidence backing any suggestion so for now I drink it as it contains a huge amount of micronutrients (vitamins minerals etc) and is a great source of protein.

Cheers.