...diet adjustment suggestions?

[VegannNY]

So - back when I was omni, I reached what I consider my ideal weight via the Atkins diet (stayed very low carb for about 4 months, and the weight just *poured* off.) Needless to say, I'm no longer eating animal products.

 

I weightlift 3-4 times a week for a half an hour, primarily compound exercises, and do 1/2 an hour of cardio 3 times a week as well.

 

Currently, my diet is relatively unprocessed, mostly based on fruit, nuts and veggies...and a small amount of grains (like whole wheat pitas or oat bran.) Meals are broken up into basically six small meals, 3 hours apart. I'm averaging about 1200 cals per day, according to fitday, and yet the weight has slowly been coming back. (I'm currently 10 lbs more than I'd like...and it's clearly not water weight!). Nor have the strength gains been coming - so I'm not succeeding too well on either front.

 

Bodystats: 126 (give or take), 5 ft 7, and though not sure about the BMI, I do have some solid muscle. (I'm not skinny fat) It's just this one layer of fat, which has decided to stay right around my waist and abdominals...

 

I've been interested in two possible changes to the diet, each rather different in philosophy.

 

1) Going basically paleo vegan. IE: Only foods that can be eaten raw, but without the animal products. (Using hemp protein and vitamins to make up for any deficiencies.)

 

2) Trying to go low carb with meat substitutes (therefore no fruit and mainly just veggies and nuts as additional foodstuffs.)

 

Anyone have any thoughts? This remaining 10 lbs has been driving me absolutely *crazy*, and there's got to be a good way to get rid of it!

 

Thanks!

 

--Janet (VnNY)

Edited July 18, 2008 by VegannNY

[Marcina]

You need more than 1200 calories, I'm sad to say. I used to eat low cal like that and I ended up getting sick. Try aiming for about 2000 calories. If you're consuming less, your body will go into famine mode and store fat, thus making it harder to lose weight.

 

Before a workout, it's important to eat carbs to fuel yourself throughout your workout. When I tried cutting carbs I ended up fatiguing quickly, losing strength, and I got shaky. This way, your body will recruit the carbs you ate for energy while you're exercising. After about 20 minutes, the body goes into "fat burning mode" and will start burning energy more efficiently and quickly.

Remember to also refuel after a workout with a protein and carb meal/shake.

 

Carbs can be your friend! As long as they are healthy carbs derived from whole foods.

[beforewisdom]

I would

 

1. Give up on gimmick diets

2. Read this viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13710

3. Eat foods that all at the same time are low processed, high fiber.

4. Keep a food diary with a daily calorie count

5. Adjust your daily calorie allowance to lose no more then 1 pound a week

6. Exercise

[DV]

Without knowing your height/weight/lean mass, I can't give you a good range for what your maintenance calories should be, but if you are maintaining on only 1200 calories then I think your metabolism is too low. It's difficult to get all of your needed nutrients on so little food and it's near impossible to build lean mass (unless you are a very tiny person).

 

Putting on lean mass and lifting heavy can definitely raise your metabolic rate. I realize that you probably just want to lose 10 lbs of fat but that may not be feasible at this time. If you increase your lifting sessions (decreasing your cardio if that's the only way you have time), lift heavy and increase your calories you may find that you don't gain any weight but start to put on lean mass while losing a bit of fat. This will not happen quickly, but neither did the weight gain.

 

Good luck!

[beforewisdom]

About what DV wrote.

 

Equal weights of muscle take up much less volume than fat. If you "put on weight" with muscle with a thought out eating plan you will actually become smaller, firmer and shapelier. You can put on the muscle and adjust your diet slowly to minimize any fat gain. No, you will not get bulky. I forget what the exact range is but women only have about a tenth of the testosterone men do. You would have to take drugs and live in the gym, intentionally busting your ass to get bulky.

[medman]

Fruit, nuts, veggies, and grains - you didn't mention legumes. I'd be concerned that one of the reasons that you're having trouble improving your strength might be that you really aren't getting enough protein. Without soy, other beans, lentils, chick peas, and our other nitrogen-fixing friends, and just a 1200 calorie diet at that, you might be in trouble. And without legumes to balance out the essential AA 'holes' found in the grains, you really might not be getting a full complement of essential amino acids..

 

Something else to keep in mind - and I know a lot of girls who have fallen into this trap - is that your metabolism adjusts when you take in a reduced-calorie diet for too long. That's one of the reasons for the yo-yo effect of so many diets. Right now, for your size and activity level, 1200 sounds like a shockingly low daily calorie intake. If you started eating more, maintaining a healthy diet, and keeping the activity level up, I suspect you'd adjust to it and wouldn't have as many problems with increasing strength and such. I had a (vegan) girlfriend who did something similar - she would be eating about 1/3 as much as me at any given meal, but her body just adjusted to the low calorie intake and it didn't help her lose weight; all it did was sap her energy levels and make her iron deficiency worse (less food eaten = less vitamins and minerals taken in, keep that in mind as well).

[VegannNY]

...thanks for the input, everyone. I'll try upping the calories, get more legumes into the diet (I haven't been adding them as of late.) I guess the hardest thing is feeling comfortable enough to eat more than I currently do, given the goal of losing fat. (BTW: I'm definitely okay with gaining muscle mass...the more, the better!)

 

There was one recommendation of going up to 2000 calories. I know that I can google and run a calorie calculator on the web, but wondered what had worked for other people? FYI, except for my workouts, my office activity is extremely sedentary - stuck at my desk for 7 hours or so at a shot. (Though I try to sneak in a set of pushups every now and then.)

 

Thanks...! (I'm really glad to have found this forum/community!)

 

--Janet (VnNY)

[DV]

If you are currently maintaining on 1200 calories, I would not go up to 2000 unless your activity level changes. I think you should start lifting heavier and add 200-500 calories per day for about 2 weeks and then evaluate your progress. It's really difficult to estimate the exact number of calories you should have per day because so there are too many factors to consider. It's really not an exact science and only you can accurately track your progress.

 

Good luck!

[beforewisdom]

That is where a daily food diary with a calorie count and weight monitoring come in. She can make small increases in calories while lifting to avoid eating too much.

 

Scale weight varies too much on a daily basis

http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/weight/scale.htm

 

So for daily weight monitoring I would get a good scale ( gives you the same weight if you step on it 3 times in a row ) and I would use a site like fitday.com or physicsdiet.com that gives you an average weight on a graph.

[VegannNY]

DV (and Co) -

 

Thanks for the input and advice.

 

Of course, I'm very familiar with fitday, and logging calories, scales and such (!)

 

But the concept of upping my calories to push the metabolism into gear is definitely worth pursuing, though hard to sometimes accept when looking to lose fat. Still, I've never been adverse to gaining mass or weight as long as it's muscle. I'll touch base and let everyone know how the experiment goes. In the meantime, here's a pic at my current stage of development (hope the image attaching works, haven't done it before):

 

(Okay, not so much development here...yet)

 

Best,

 

J (VnNY)

[DV]

Wow, you are slim! I just realized that at 5'7", weighing 126 lbs, you are at the low end of the "normal" weight range. You could easily pack on another 10 lbs of muscle before trying to lose any fat. I think that at your weight, trying to lose just fat might be difficult. If you add some muscle first, I bet it will be much easier. You've got a great base to start with!

[beforewisdom]

VeganNY, you don't look fat. Given that I think lifting weights with a monitored diet will probably do the most for improving your appearance, if you think it needs to be improved. I'm out of touch as to whether or not body fat measuring tools are worth anything. However, you can tape measure whatever part of your body gains fat first. If you find it increasing quickly, you know you are eating too much and putting on fat. Correlate that with you _average_ scale weight ala fitday and how you feel. You should be alright.