Hi there,
I'm hoping to pick up some bits of wisdom from you folks regarding my diet.

First a little about me:
-5'8", 175 lbs
-reasonably good shape, but could lose 5-10 lbs from my gut
-play squash once per week
-heavy weights twice per week


I'd like to focus on my lunch because it's been a set routine of mine for over two years now and because I think it's the most skewed. Generally I get in to work at around 2pm, and eat the following by about 6pm:
-carrots
-banana
-chocolate chip/bran/carrot muffin
-sesame/poppy/blueberry bagel with 1 slice of lunch meat
-flax/whole grain/stone ground/sunflower sandwich with 1 slice of lunch meat
-croissant (early snack)
-apple (late snack)

Earlier this week I actually researched what these foods are doing for me and found that I'm looking at a carb/pro/fat ratio of 80:10:10. Now I'm certainly no expert on any of this, but I'm pretty sure that's a bad ratio. From what I've read, it's making my insulin levels too high and would explain why I always feel so tired.

Getting my lunch down to a more reasonable 50:35:15 ratio seems a bit insurmountable to me. If I were to maintain the same general quantity of food, I'd need to subtract about 80g of carbs while adding 20g of fat and 60g of protein. I could start preparing chicken or beef ahead of time to bring in with me, but that gets time consuming and expensive and I don't think it's enough anyway.

So what I hope someone can help me with:
-Food suggestions
-Any other tips to balance things out
-Should I even be concerned with any of this?

For the record, my typical breakfasts and dinners are usually more balanced than above, and have similar caloric intake. But if you add up everything I eat over the course of the day, I'm still looking at about 65-70% carbs.


Thanks

yes, so many carbs at once will tend to make you tired.

if this has been your daily lunch for 2 years, it will be hard to change. Do a search of the forums related to protein food lists. this has been discussed quite a bit, and there are tons of ideas. Tuna is the cheapest meat I've found, but soy nuts are also a decent source of protein.

Yes, that's too many carbs to be considered a healthy diet. Especially carbs from sugar. It sounds like it must be a lot of calories. Are you tracking calories, or just macronutrients?

Croissants are full of refined flour and saturated fat and really have no nutritional benefit; best to avoid them completely.

Muffins are usually not very healthy, even low fat ones. They're okay for a treat once in a while, but most of them have large amounts of sugar and refined flour in them. Snacking on whole grain cereal from a box would be a better option than this, but even better would be a couple of hard boiled eggs.

Bagels are not great either, but they're at least better than croissants and muffins. A chicken and broccoli stir fry would be wiser than a bagel sandwich.

55-60% of your calories from carbs is not problematic if those carbs come mainly from whole grains (oats, barley, quinoa, brown rice, etc.) and vegetables (broccoli, spinach, pumpkin, sweet potato, tomatoes). Some fruit is also good, but don't go overboard, and make your choices count. Bananas have more sugar and less fibre than most other fruits. I prefer oranges.

Do you eat all of these things in one meal? carrots -banana -chocolate chip/bran/carrot muffin -sesame/poppy/blueberry bagel with 1 slice of lunch meat -flax/whole grain/stone ground/sunflower sandwich with 1 slice of lunch meat

If you can put together and post what you think would be a better diet for yourself, we can give you some more specific recommendations.

That seems like a very large lunch. Maybe you should cut it into two meals instead. Have one at around 5pm then the other at about 7:30 or so; if that’s possible.

As for more protein I also find that tuna is the most affordable source. At less than a dollar per can which contains 30g of protein, I think it’s the best deal on protein.

To lower your carb intake and increase your protein, replace the croissant with a can of tuna and add a can of tuna to your main meal. That will give you the 60g of protein that you’re looking for. Also try replacing the muffin with some whole wheat bread with peanut butter, a tablespoon of peanut butter has 7g fat, so have two and that gets you close to that 20g of fat you want to increase, it's fairly healthy fat and it tastes pretty good. Cutting the croissant out and replacing the muffin with whole wheat bread should cut your carbs down considerably.

In my opinion your diet is pretty bad. Not only is it not good for fat loss, but it's not too healthy either. You have one vegetable, carrots. If you're only going to eat one veggie (which I don't think is good anyway, a variety would be better), carrots wouldn't be the best choice IMHO.

I would suggest you read the sticky threads on this website and begin learning more about diet and nutrition. Get busy researching and post a new plan you feel is adequate. We will be here to help you with it!

Good luck, and welcome to JSF. :)

Just went grocery shopping for the upcoming week and here's what I've done:

Removed:
-bagel
-croissant
-muffin

Added
-peanuts
-can of tuna
-romaine for the sandwich

Macronutrient distribution is now 55:15:30, from 80:10:10
Calories have gone down to about 1150 from the 1300 it was before
I think I still need to fine tune this a bit, maybe mix different fruits and vegetables in, swap the banana for broccoli etc...

My one worry is that I'm going to be starving later in the day and will end up going to buy junk from the vending machine to save me until I can get home for dinner. I'm going to try to have a larger breakfast.

Thanks for the help everyone, any more advice is welcomed.

EDIT: forgot about peanuts

That's 1300 just for lunch, right? A muffin itself quite often has upwards of 500. Add 250 for the bagel, 250 for the sandwich, 200 for the croissant, 150 for the apple and banana, 50 for the carrots,....

What do you eat the rest of the day? This still doesn't sound ideal to me. Are you eating 6 times a day? That will help with the vending machine cravings.

That's 1300 just for lunch, right? A muffin itself quite often has upwards of 500. Add 250 for the bagel, 250 for the sandwich, 200 for the croissant, 150 for the apple and banana, 50 for the carrots,....

What do you eat the rest of the day? This still doesn't sound ideal to me. Are you eating 6 times a day? That will help with the vending machine cravings.


Agreed, I don't think I'm anywhere ideal yet as well.

That's 1300 for lunch, yes. Note that I often would break it up a little bit; small snack earlier in the day, small snack later.

The rest of the day varies a fair amount. I don't eat six times per day, unfortunately. I'd say 3-5 depending on how big one considers a "meal".

I sometimes skimp on breakfast due to time or lack of appetite. Other times I'll have a bowl of cereal or some toast with milk or OJ. On workout days, I typically have 4 fried eggs and a few slices of chicken bacon followed by ham or chicken and a protein shake afterwards. For dinner, tonight for instance I'm eating a steak with a side of corn. Tomorrow I'll probably have ground beef and peas or green beans. The next night I might have some frozen chicken strips with some french fries. I usually have a beer with my dinner. On weekends my fridge is often running low and I'll splurge on some Quiznos or Harvey's... I'm sure that's probably bad, but hey, I just started this nutrition thing last week.

I've recorded everything I've eaten since last Monday, if it helps.
Daily averages:
Calories: 3200
Carbs: 358g
Fat: 88g
Protein: 121g
Sugar: 116g
Sodium: 4700mg (<---eeeek)

I've recorded everything I've eaten since last Monday, if it helps.
Daily averages:
Calories: 3200
Carbs: 358g
Fat: 88g
Protein: 121g
Sugar: 116g
Sodium: 4700mg (<---eeeek)
That's a little scary. Not just the sodium; the whole thing.

By my simplest estimation method, I would guess that your maintenance calories to stay at your current weight might be about 175 x 15 = 2625. You won't be losing much weight if you're eating more than 2500 calories a day.
I sometimes skimp on breakfast due to time or lack of appetite.
"If you're not hungry for breakfast, it means you ate too much the night before" ~ from a TV exercise series.

I would go eeeeek :eek: With all that sugar-carbs and so low of protein... What is your goal ? skinny fat ??? :D

Wow. 116g of sugar! Damn on the sodium....drink LOTS of water to help flush that out.

Your carb choices are calorie dense but offer little satiety, fiber or vitamins and minerals. Better change that up to more complex grains. Changing your love of white flour products is simply a matter of will. Get some fiber and vegetables in your diet (carrots are not ideal because of the higher sugar content).

Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, celery, dark leaf type lettuce, kale, green beans etc...

Protein: cottage cheese, tofu, canned meats (tuna, chicken), pre-cook chicken breast store in freezer. Takes a minute to defrost in the microwave.

Chili with ground turkey, black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans etc.......make a huge pot of it and store it in microwave safe containers in the freezer.

Don't make excuses, find solutions.

Your protein intake are scarily low.. take away those sugary and processed stuffs from your diet and replace with healthier alternatives,

If time and preparation is a concern, perhaps have more dairies, soya products - soya milk, tofu etc., egg whites and finally protein shake when all else fails. Sandwich is easy to prepare too, just some lean meat (tuna, turkey, chicken.. whatever), tomato/lettuce and wholemeal bread. Taste great too.

Thanks for the help all, very useful.

My primary goal in all this is just general health; I'm not too concerned with my weight really. The only change I've seen in it over the last 6 years was when I started lifting weights. I don't know how much I have to eat to gain weight, but the current amount doesn't do it.

Anyway, a lot of changes planned. I tried some Tuna today, I didn't like it at first, but I got used to it. I like a lot of the other ideas: the broccoli, celery, chili.. among others. Gonna seriously monitor that sugar and sodium too.