Talk to me about your eating please

[memenee]

Do you follow a plan? A diet? Macros? Count calories? Or just kinda eat intuitively? Also what are your goals? Weight loss or maintenance?

I am getting back to lifting. Deciding what kind of cardio to add in to help me lean out a little. Trying to figure out my eating - need to lose about 15 lbs and I’m not sure what to do. Curious where everyone else is at in terms of their nutrition.

Thanks, in advance for any help you can offer.

[sadlebred]

I am mainly vegetarian. I don't count calories or macros, but I know about what I eat each day and what I need to cut/add to lose/maintain. I try to eat a well balanced diet of 75% being "good" with healthy nutritious whole foods and 25% "reality". I believe in everything in moderation. At home I avoid HFCS and artificial colors. I always try to avoid any hydrogenated fat because of a long term health concern.

[vcubergirl]

I am totally vegetarian. When I was trying to lose, I would eat about 1400 calories a day, plus 100-200 extra on days I work out, usually in the form of a protein shake. I try to do about 60-80g of protein a day, and a split of fats and carbs from there. I try to avoid processed food and simple carbs, but I do eat a lot of dairy and eggs. DH is not veg, so he usually adds chicken, pork, salmon, or shrimp to our meals.

Mostly I follow the Michael Pollan advice of "eat food, not too much, mostly plants" and it's worked out well

[ktzmoh]

My eating really depends on what I'm currently doing in my training. For my recent race when I really went all in, I wanted to get a lot leaner and spent about 6 months losing 12 lbs. It was slow going for a number of reasons. Firsts, I was training a lot, so I didn't want to restrict my calories very much. Second,  I wanted to get leaner, so I was doing a lot of strength work to gain or maintain muscle while losing fat.

For the first 2 or 3 months, I just went by intuition and tried to just take the approach of not eating processed stuff and cutting a lot of snacking out. That only got me so far before I had to have a little more structure, so I started tracking my eating and aiming for a ratio of 40% carbs, 30% fat, 30% protein, and a calorie target that I calculated based on my weight, composition, training etc (so it makes sense for me but isn't applicable to anyone else). I'm a vegan so getting to 30% protein while staying at 40% carbs took some learning and experimenting. I think it would be easier for a vegetarian or an omnivore, but it was still doable for me once I got it down and knew roughly what kinds of meals get me there. I used My Fitness Pal to meal plan which was a new thing for me. I have used it before to track my meals, but never used it as a proactive meal planning tool, and it really was helpful. I planned out my days in the app ahead of time so I didn't wind up trying to pull something together for dinner that fit whatever macros i had left to fill.

My approach took a lot of patience and there were no radical transformations. I was far from perfect and definitely blew my targets many times. But I could see steady progress and it felt safe and doable.

Good luck!!

[bullygirl979]

Not to post hijack but ktzmoh where did you end up finding your protein sources from? I am trying to eat more plant based and I am struggling trying to find protein I can eat. Because I am being treated for breast cancer, my oncologist warned me not to eat too much soy.

[bullygirl979]

I'm kind of like sadlebred. I eat mostly vegetarian and try to do the 80/20 healthy vs not as healthy. I'm trying to lean down a little so I track calories on my fitness pal. I am aiming to lose, but I'm doing it slowly seeing as I'm training. I also have a fitness journal where I track my workouts, sleep, meals, etc. so writing it down in advance helps.

[cuadrado]

Sept 5, 2019 7:37:17 GMT -5 bullygirl979 said:

Not to post hijack but ktzmoh where did you end up finding your protein sources from? I am trying to eat more plant based and I am struggling trying to find protein I can eat. Because I am being treated for breast cancer, my oncologist warned me not to eat too much soy.

I'm sorry about your breast cancer diagnosis. I hope treatment is going well.

I would ask your oncologist again about a specific recommendation for soy. I'm a dietitian but not an oncology dietitian, and I was always under the impression that moderate amounts of whole soy (not soy protein isolates) are fine for those in treatments + survivors. I hear people being told by their doctors that soy interferes with tamoxifen when really the research shows it helps tamoxifen. It may be worth a conversation if you are feeling limited with food. 

www.oncologynutrition.org/on/erfc/healthy-nutrition-now/foods/soy-foods-diet-and-tamoxifen 

www.aicr.org/patients-survivors/healthy-or-harmful/soy.html

www.oncologynutrition.org/erfc/healthy-nutrition-now/foods/soy-and-breast-cancer?fbclid=IwAR3Dox9BfS2MYfMwidwKZWvaqIAzbMB4YbN3h5AZ4xfr0bDugrFoTyg18zA

Non-soy plant-based protein sources include chickpeas, lima beans, and other legumes (black beans, kidney beans, etc.), whole grains, nuts, nut butters, seeds, seitan and nutritional yeast. Sprinkling protein throughout the day will likely be easier to help you meet your needs better than trying to have 1 specific meal that is super high in protein. 

[wanderingback]

I dislike "diet culture" so no I don’t follow a certain diet. Diets don’t work. I was a vegetarian for many years but now I eat chicken and seafood.
At home I eat pretty "clean" and don’t buy junk food. When I eat out 1-2 times per week I don’t limit myself and eat what I feel like.
My biggest splurge is alcohol.

[moreace01]

So I don't normally really diet ever...but last winter I got sucked into doing a rather crazy diet through my gym. I knew I was gaining a bit of weight and I wanted to lose that and get in better shape for this season. It was a 6 week thing that was very high protein (like around 120g/day). I'll be honest, it sucked and I was really hungry cause it was pretty low calorie. However, I did learn that eating more protein works for me. It keeps me full longer and also, really helped with recovery after workouts as well as helping me not eat an entire pizza by myself or whatever.

Anyway, I can go track down the actual macros, but again, it was a focus on protein with a lot of veggies (low carb, green), small amounts of carbs and fats. I lost 12 lb in 6 weeks. That was last February. Since then, I've lost another 5 and haven't been trying but I understand portion sizes a little better and still do a relatively high protein diet (although nowhere near what it was). So have actually accidentally hit my goal weight.

I don't drink alcohol at all cause I don't like the way it makes me feel, but I definitely do eat all the foods I want to eat.

ETA: The diet I did last winter really changed the way my body looks. Obviously I'm leaner, but my muscles are way more defined. I feel and look a lot stronger than before. 

[bullygirl979]

cuadrado, thanks. I'm 6 years out from my diagnosis. I'm still being treated because I changed medications 4 years ago. I will ask again as I haven't spoken to her about it in years. I asked probably about 5 years ago but a lot can change in that time period!

[itsme]

I count macros and use a program I've been following for about 4 years and am maintaining right now. I lost a lot of weight on the program previously. It's helped me learn how to better choose my foods rather than eat empty calories because it fit my calories for the day.  

ETA: In previous "cuts" or weight loss I had lofty goals and hit them using this program but now I use it to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

[ktzmoh]

Sept 5, 2019 7:37:17 GMT -5 bullygirl979 said:

Not to post hijack but ktzmoh where did you end up finding your protein sources from? I am trying to eat more plant based and I am struggling trying to find protein I can eat. Because I am being treated for breast cancer, my oncologist warned me not to eat too much soy.

Some of my go to sources include soy, for sure. I eat a lot of edamame and tempeh, and I love tofu and yuba. All of that is from soy beans. But vital wheat gluten (seitan) is also an excellent source of protein and easy to munch on when I need a protein heavy snack.

I was running into trouble actually eating 30% of my calories in fat and had to start making more conscious efforts to up my fat so I incorporated more nuts and hemp hearts- lots of protein there.

Legumes certainly have lots of protein but also lots of carbs so I have to plan for it if I am sticking to a particular target. I love black beans and lentils most.

You’d also be surprised how much protein there is in veggies like broccoli and peas. If you use those as snacks during the day it all adds up.