Well I have been on my journey of eating better and the nice thing about my normal eating is that I do not eat a lot of sweets and I drink diet soda. I guess I am looking for some critque on my meal plans so so I will post an example (today's meal) of what I eat.. I want to pin point what could be missing.. Here goes. Keep in mind I am 6ft and 260 lbs sadly.

Breakfast - 2cups of oatmeal (cooked) and 1 cup lowfat cottege cheese
meal 2 - a handful of baby carrots (around 10-15)
lunch- 2 cups (cooked) brown rice, 1/2 cup peas carrots and 1 can tuna in water
meal 3- Whey protein powder (2 scoops @ 26g protein/scoop) 52G protein total.
meal 4- I turkey sandwich- 2 pieces of oven roast turkey, 2 slice whole wheat bread, 1 tbsp mustard and 1 boiled egg (all combined into a sandwich) Also a lean cuisine type deluxe pizza @ like 340 calories maybe.. and for a late night snack maybe 10-15 raw whole almonds.

From this what do I appear to miss ? This is very similar to my daily intake especially lunch because I have cooked a huge batch of brown rice and throw in some raw canned tuna.. Sometimes I sub in an apple for a snack or 2 quaker rice cakes for a snack. Any advice is much appreciated.. By the way I looked up fat loss calorie intake and it should be 2500. for Extreme fat loss 2000 cals.. I guess I want to confirm I am eating enough healthy nutrients.. Today for example I lifted but I want to do it right and not consume too few calories if that is my current case.

ps> Sadly I will admit after work I drank 1 pint of vodka with a 2 liter of diet 7 up and a 40oz of Bud Light. To some it appears to be a lot of booze but I can handle that nightly.. I really would like some input on this because I feel like I am becoming an alchoholic because I drink this about 4-5 days a week and if someone could post how this would hinder my progress I would appreciate it. I know its bad but I don't see it as that many calories per se.



Any advice is much appreciated. :bb:

Alcohol is NEVER good for you, whatever your goal is. It's not just about calories. I looked up what 1 pint is and it's almost half a litre?? Of vodka?? Daily???

You know how our bodies react when we put alcohol in them? A big red light starts flashing that says poison was just ingested and the body goes into overdrive to clean it out. It's not entirely successful and you feel drunk.

Seriously? You just asked if drinking half a liter of vodka daily could hinder your progress? It does more then just hinder your progress...

Half a liter...I hope I'm not the only one here that thinks he should switch forums to some alcoholism support. :p

after work I drank 1 pint of vodka with a 2 liter of diet 7 up and a 40oz of Bud Light... I can handle that nightly... because I drink this about 4-5 days a week.

Forget about how this would affect your ability to lose weight/gain muscle... how does this affect your life? That's quite a bit of alcohol to be consuming daily and while it will certainly have a negative impact on your weight loss, I think it would have an even deeper impact on your overall quality of life. Perhaps someone here with more experience in this area could chip in but that really seems like a HUGE RED FLAG to me and is something that should be remedied before anything else in your diet/workout plan.

Sad to say but you are an alcoholic!

It's not about if you can drive after it or not.
Alcoholic is not the person who gets drunk. Alcoholic is a person who can not stay away from the drink.

So
1. Yes, it does affect your fitness goal and affects it a lot. It's not only calories, it's the metabolism that is being shot with alcohol, it's an ability to grow muscles being shot as well.

2. Just stay away from alcohol. Do not buy it yourself, do not keep it at home. Nobody says that you can not drink when you are at the party. Just keep your weakness in mind and that is all.

As I was reading your meal I was thinking it looks pretty decent considering what other people eat with the exception of your morning snack being way too light, those carrots have hardly any calories in them.

Then I read your PS section and I just wasn't sure if it was for real or as a joke. If it's for real it's a very sad statement and I would agree with everyone else that you are indeed an alcoholic and you need to seek help with that issue before you can attack any other issues.

Just FYI, that pint of vodka has 1024 calories in itself, no matter that you mixed it with diet 7up. Add in the other 370 calories from the 40 oz beer and you're at 1400 calories in liquids in the evening. Do this 5 times a week and you're at 7000 calories. That will become 2lbs of fat before you know it! And these are just the pure caloric numbers, never mind all the other terrible effects this amount of alcohol will have on your system.

But to answer your diet question, we can't really tell if it's a good diet or not (without the booze) unless we know what you weight, your fat percentage, what your goal is and what you're trying to achieve. Without that information we can't even assess whether it's too little or too much calorie for you.

Thanks for the input. I know that is a lot of booze but I have a very high tolerance. Anyways I keep making the excuse that I just want to relax after work blah blah which I know is BS. I will try to cut that out and maybe drink occasionally. :spank:

As far as the meal plan goes I think I will stick roughly to what I have been doing as I didn't receive anything really negative about the eating plan per se (minus the booze). I may try to sub in a protein shake in the earlier part of the day or something.



@greg - I am 6 ft, 260lbs currently with probably a decent amount of BF. Overall goal is to be in the 190-200lb range and not bulk up but just try to gain some muscle and be more toned.

Thanks for the input. I know that is a lot of booze but I have a very high tolerance. Anyways I keep making the excuse that I just want to relax after work blah blah which I know is BS. I will try to cut that out and maybe drink occasionally. :spank:

You aren't getting it. Your tolerance has nothing to do with it. That amount ONCE a week is still probably going to wreck an otherwise healthy lifestyle.

Cut out alcohol for a month, increase protein in the AM, reduce carbs PM (pizza, even 'healthy' isn't a great late night snack) and see where you are. If the thought of cutting out alcohol for a month bothers you, you should find a 12-step program.

Well I have been on my journey of eating better and the nice thing about my normal eating is that I do not eat a lot of sweets and I drink diet soda. I guess I am looking for some critque on my meal plans so so I will post an example (today's meal) of what I eat.. I want to pin point what could be missing.. Here goes. Keep in mind I am 6ft and 260 lbs sadly.

Breakfast - 2cups of oatmeal (cooked) and 1 cup lowfat cottege cheese
meal 2 - a handful of baby carrots (around 10-15)
lunch- 2 cups (cooked) brown rice, 1/2 cup peas carrots and 1 can tuna in water
meal 3- Whey protein powder (2 scoops @ 26g protein/scoop) 52G protein total.
meal 4- I turkey sandwich- 2 pieces of oven roast turkey, 2 slice whole wheat bread, 1 tbsp mustard and 1 boiled egg (all combined into a sandwich) Also a lean cuisine type deluxe pizza @ like 340 calories maybe.. and for a late night snack maybe 10-15 raw whole almonds.

From this what do I appear to miss ? This is very similar to my daily intake especially lunch because I have cooked a huge batch of brown rice and throw in some raw canned tuna.. Sometimes I sub in an apple for a snack or 2 quaker rice cakes for a snack. Any advice is much appreciated.. By the way I looked up fat loss calorie intake and it should be 2500. for Extreme fat loss 2000 cals.. I guess I want to confirm I am eating enough healthy nutrients.. Today for example I lifted but I want to do it right and not consume too few calories if that is my current case.

ps> Sadly I will admit after work I drank 1 pint of vodka with a 2 liter of diet 7 up and a 40oz of Bud Light. To some it appears to be a lot of booze but I can handle that nightly.. I really would like some input on this because I feel like I am becoming an alchoholic because I drink this about 4-5 days a week and if someone could post how this would hinder my progress I would appreciate it. I know its bad but I don't see it as that many calories per se.



Any advice is much appreciated. :bb:

When I see this kind of post, I interpret it as a cry for help. I may have some experience here as I am a drug/alcohol counselor and make no bones about being an alcoholic myself, having been in 8 rehab hospitals in my life. Alcohol hinders protein synthesis (BIGTIME) so aside from just spinning your wheels with the diet and training, I can help you get set up in a program much like what NCNBilly described, if you need some help. Just PM me and I'll do all I can to assist you. This goes for anyone else here on the JSF community who feels they might be having a serious problem with drugs of any kind.

Thank you all for the input. This Saturday I am going to my sisters for the week and I don't drink when I am up there. I believe this should kick start a smarter pattern. To be honest with all the eating better and working out I don't want to put in all that effort to sabatoge it with booze. I know I am more of a strong minded person so I will challenge myself for the better of my own health and to have all this hard work at least pay off for me. After back/triceps yesterday and chest/ biceps today I can't hardly move my arms so I'm not going to go through this for nothing.

I have gotten in a really bad pattern, same goes with me not eating well and exercising but I am forcing myself to make a change and this is my next hill to climb on my list. I wont even get into it about smoking because that is another mountain to climb but I will try to take baby steps and not overwhelm myself with drastic change.

In a month or so I will try to post some progress pictures (I have October 22 pics) so I am waiting till the end of this month for some pics and next month then I will see the pictures for comparison and share them with you all.. This website is great and soo informative. Whenever I feel like eating like crap I always just skim through the forums to regain composure ;)

If you eliminate the alcohol in your life you will do more for your body then years of gym and perfect diet could ever do!

But I should be quiet here haha, I smoke cigarettes and that special green tobacco.

I'm in a similar situation to you MixwelL. I could quite easily/happily do 8-9 pints of beer after work 5 times a week. I also smoked 20 a day for 10 years which i quit on Jan 10th this year. I think the main thing for you to try and do is quit smoking. You wont believe how much more healthy (even with drinking) you feel when you get the habit/nicotine out of your system.

Trying to quit smoking, drinking, eating rubbish/changing diet and training (basically your life) is going to be quite a task. I'm not a specialist or anything but I think you should do one or two things per time.

If anyone think's I'm wrong please feel free to correct me :).

Well, I'm not fond of labels. I don't think we need to call you an alcoholic and say that you need help in order to convince you that drinking that amount is not doing you any favors in regards to your goals.

It's kind of hard to look past that to the rest of your diet.

It could be that you can continue to drink moderately and still move towards your fitness and health goals. But manipulating your protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake is going to make such a minimal impact compared to manipulating your alcohol intake that it's hardly worth the trouble.

Note that if you do cut back drastically on your alcohol, you may want to significantly increase your caloric intake from solid foods. Don't fight this, because a few extra calories from fruits and vegetables, lean proteins will do more for your body than the empty calories from alcohol.

Can you implement a new habit for relaxing after work? Maybe a walk around the block, possibly even going for a massage? It will be harder to cut back on your alcohol until you come up with a suitable substitute for it.

I will tell you that there are a lot of people on the forums who are or who have struggled with addictions, so you are in good company here for support.

Well, I'm not fond of labels. I don't think we need to call you an alcoholic and say that you need help in order to convince you that drinking that amount is not doing you any favors in regards to your goals.

It's kind of hard to look past that to the rest of your diet.

It could be that you can continue to drink moderately and still move towards your fitness and health goals. But manipulating your protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake is going to make such a minimal impact compared to manipulating your alcohol intake that it's hardly worth the trouble.

Note that if you do cut back drastically on your alcohol, you may want to significantly increase your caloric intake from solid foods. Don't fight this, because a few extra calories from fruits and vegetables, lean proteins will do more for your body than the empty calories from alcohol.

Can you implement a new habit for relaxing after work? Maybe a walk around the block, possibly even going for a massage? It will be harder to cut back on your alcohol until you come up with a suitable substitute for it.

I will tell you that there are a lot of people on the forums who are or who have struggled with addictions, so you are in good company here for support.

Thanks for the support.. I've heard soo many positive things about people who have quit/slowed down on smoking and that is my biggest obsticle as I have been smoking for about 10 years and I am only 26 years old... I feel that although I smoke and am overweight I still have a lot of energy for my size.. Hell when I used to play basketball at the gym I would run games until almost everyone else was tired.. I feel i am not the typical lazy overweight person because I really do push myself...

I always say to people that no matter how much people tell me smoking is bad I will not quit until mentally I am ready.. Well mentally I am ready to stop eating like shit, mentally I am ready to go to the gym as a normal routine. It may be an excuse but I keep telling myself "Until I can eat better and go to the gym I will not try to stop smoking because I want to take it little by little" After the next few months of eating better and going to the gym I should try to mentally prepare myself to cut back/stop smoking which I feel will be the hardest part of this whole journey. I have never once committed my mindn to the concept of not smoking and to be honest if I could not smoke 1 cigarette in 1 week I feel like I could do anything because that is my strongest addiction right now. In due time I may try to cut back/stop but right now that is my BIGGEST obsticle.

The booze is more of a want than a need because I can go 1 week easily without drinking but I have yet to go 1 DAY without smoking a cigarette which I soon hope to accomplish.

Same here. I also smoke close to 10 years and I'm 25 years old. Getting rid of smoking is next on the todo list right after sorting out nutrition and weight lifting. I really like smoking, because of pleasure, for social reasons, but it just has to go. It's like living a healthy life style but every once in a while you stab yourself. But hey I eat healthy and exercise! Surely that would be benecifial when I get lung or throat cancer!

it is true you booze you looze.I have tried in the past to get results while continuing my drinking habbits its not just the calories but there is something about alcohol that just makes things slide backwards. i have found the only way for me to get results in the past was to ditch the booze. I find the first two weks the hardest but then I dont miss it?

Alcohol is a toxin. It has a tiny nutritional value and actually depletes vitamins and minerals from your body and other foods you eat. It irritates the stomach and messes with your digestion. The liver needs to detox the body of alcohol which means it can't handle other macronutrients. Toxins are given a priority. It promotes body fat storage and lowers the ability to burn storaged fat. It depletes water from your cells making you dehydrated. Also something with some hormone which is used to build muscle, it messes with that too. And we haven't even touched that it can be addictive. Even one beer per day can become addictive if you are that type of a person.

But on the up side, it makes you think you can dance and pick up women way hotter then you even if their big boyfriend is right next to them. When he hits you you won't feel a thing and probably not even have a memory of it so I guess alcohol isn't all negative.

Drink only on special occasions. One or two deciliters. Count the calories toward your daily needs. Yeah easier said then done in december, I know. :whistle: