Help with diet

[Gators]

Times are tight and can't really afford the online trainers right now, so wanted to get some input as to what type of diet to follow.

I'm 45, prolly 20% BF, 5'8" 195. Chronic inflammation (headaches, Sacroiliitis) and i'm tired of taking motrin every 4 hours. Carbs make me sleepy, don't eat fish (never liked it) or seafood. Have a good workout regimen, getting back on track with that this week.

I'm not looking to get a hand holding, but i'm frikkin confused as there's SOOO much good diet info here, and i'm new at this, i don't know shit about shit, need some direction...

 

[Omega-Red]

honestly what im finding to be GOLD right now is protein + good fats for all meals, and carbs pre / post workout.

also im basing my intake on hunger, im also making sure i eat food which digests quickly for ME, my usual protein sources are :- eggs/ beef/ turky/ whey protein.. carbs - fruits....fats - nuts/whole eggs/ olives.

with this i seem to be gaining muscle/ losing fat..

 

[pittsburgh]

PALEO diet

Esp if you have chronic inflammation. Google "paleo diet" and read up.

 

[Gators]

Lemme take a stab at this. Going to start with 3 meals and 2 'snacks' a day, barely eat twice a day now (know that's not good) so thinking i'll eat 7 times a day isn't realistic.

#1 - 40 grams of whey protein, 1 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup blueberries, 2 tbsp natural pnut butter, made in shake. (can use strawberries or raspberries?) (virgin coconut oil or red palm oil as subst. for pnut butter?)

#2 - 1/2 cup raw almonds

#3 8oz chicken breast (or grassfed beef, or 3 free range eggs), apple, 1/4 cup pecans or similar

#4 1/2 cup nuts (raw almonds, unsalted cashews, pecans, or walnuts)

#5 8 oz meat (like #3 meal), green leafy veg (broccoli, spinach, asparagus, romaine lettuce, brussel sprouts, collard greens), carb (such as steamed squash, berry, sweet potato)

--sometime snack for sweet tooth, cup of berries or peaches / Splenda and little whipped cream

Questions - what kind of butter can be used daily, if any. How bad is steamed squash as carb (have a ton in garden). Tomatoes? occasional 1/2 cup of avocado as fat source, with lemon juice? How bad is it to occasionally pan fry chicken w/ coconut oil as fat source?

 

[Gators]

Supplements - am - multi vitamin, 800 mg EPA, 200 mg DHA, Synetine, Turmeric.

Also, likely inflammation is due to shitty diet, i've been eating horribly

 

[illwill]

There are many ways to go about this. But I would recommend these two:

A) P+F for all meals

(1.5g x BW = P; .5g x BW = F; 50 grams of C total per day) Split the P+F amongst however many meals makes your life convenient. 3-6 meals are fine.

or

B) P+F for all meals EXCEPT your PWO meal which would be P+C

(1.25g x BW = P; .4g x BW = F; 100-150 grams of C total) Split the P+F amongst however many meals you'd like. Use 100g of carbs in your PWO meal. The remaining 50 grams of carbs will be incidental carbs found in your P+F sources.


You could even do 'A' first until you get down to 8-10% and THEN implement 'B' to get over any plateau you may hit at that point.


For method 'A' (ketogenic diet), design your meals around these foods:

Protein: eggs, chicken, tuna, salmon, white fish, turkey, whey protein powder

Fat: almonds, cashews, all natural peanut butter, avacado, extra virgin olive oil, fish oil capsules, evening primrose capsules

Carbs: only GREEN veggies.

For method 'B' ('timed' ketogenic diet), you can use the same protein and fat sources but with these carb sources too:

Carbs: oatmeal, fruits, veggies, rice, pasta.

Heck, you could just use lucky charms with water and protein powder for this meal. Your body is going to suck it up anyway.

cheers

 

[j-hawk]

No splenda

don't use splenda, it s all chemicals. Skip the milk, unless it is raw milk. Store bought milk is crap. I personally need to skip the nuts, I can never eat just a little.

 

[Gators]

So the ketogenic diet is going to lean me up a lot faster? I remember doing the Adkins years back, felt like shit for a few days, NO energy.

So i should use water for shakes, not store milk or raw milk, to lean up faster?

Pre work out shake (say 45 min before) with carbs from berries / oatmeal should give me some energy before i hit the gym? Post work out should have carbs too, then basically carb-less the rest of the day?

 

[illwill]

So the ketogenic diet is going to lean me up a lot faster? I remember doing the Adkins years back, felt like shit for a few days, NO energy.

So i should use water for shakes, not store milk or raw milk, to lean up faster?

Pre work out shake (say 45 min before) with carbs from berries / oatmeal should give me some energy before i hit the gym? Post work out should have carbs too, then basically carb-less the rest of the day?

The ketogenic is NOT the only way but it works for most people. The main thing is to pick a method and stick with it. Not jump from method to method before results come. In other words, have resilience and patience. You will feel like shit for the first week. Perhaps the first TWO weeks as your body acclimates to fat oxidation rather than carbs as it main fuel source.

For shakes, it all comes down to your macros. Meaning, the total amount of your protein, fat and carbs via the formulas I gave you. For the record, I always use water.

IF you choose the ketogenic method, then NO carbs pre or post workout. If you choose the TIMED ketogenic method, then you could split the carb allotment between pre and post workout. I tend to do better post only. The key would be to pick which way you want to eat your carbs (Pre only, pre & post or just post) and stick with it. This way, after 12 weeks you will know what works for YOU. If you mix up the 3 different ways then how would you truly know which way works best for you?

 

[Gators]

OK, thanks much illwill

I really hate feeling like crap, being lethargic, and being in and out of the heat all day, might just kick my ass. I guess my question is how much more effective is the ketogenic method at burning fat than the same 'diet' with some carbs via fruit mixed in a few times a day?

I guess i should I should have posted this in the beginner forum, sorry, maybe a Mod can move it there...

 

[illwill]

OK, thanks much illwill

I really hate feeling like crap, being lethargic, and being in and out of the heat all day, might just kick my ass. I guess my question is how much more effective is the ketogenic method at burning fat than the same 'diet' with some carbs via fruit mixed in a few times a day?

I guess i should I should have posted this in the beginner forum, sorry, maybe a Mod can move it there...

People use caffeine or ephedrine to help them get through that first week or two.

You won't really know which is more effective for YOU until you give it a try. Experiment on your body to see what works best for YOU. BUT give each method a serious effort for the sake of fairness. I'd say 12 weeks for each method.

For instance this is what I did early on when learning about my body:

method 1: Carbs every meal - ehhhh, didn't work for me plus the carbs tended to bloat my face up more than my liking .

method 2: P+F every meal - worked very well for me but towards the end my cardio had to get upwards of 2 hours per day

method 3: P+F every meal & P+C POST WO - worked even better than the straight keto method and with less than half the cardio

method 4: +F every meal & P+C PRE WO - didn't work as well as as carbs POST WO. but to be fair, my effort wasn't 100%. Probably 85%, so it could have been that.

These days, I tend to stick with method 3.

Good luck!

 

[warrenpeace]

There's more than one way to skin a cat, IMO. I used to think keto/low carbs was the only way for me to diet, and it was successful for me (in spurts), but long durations of keto tended to leave me flat and eventually reduced LBM. If you're "assisted" and do the right kind of cardio, you may be better able to maintain muscle and drop fat fast on keto, but I wasn't adding hormones to the mix with that diet.

I think if you measure out your meals, and keep your macros in the right ratios (protein higher than carbs) then you can have chicken and rice 5x a day and get ripped, but an added emphasis needs to be made on cardio during times when glycogen is low (AM or PWO). Where people go wrong with moderate carb diets is not portioning out their carbs, or using the wrong sources. I know I can eat 1,000g of carbs in one sitting and not skip a beat, so measuring out that cup of rice is key and not going beyond that. Just my take. If your job is labour intensive, I'm not sure keto is for you, but everybody's different.