...How to eat?

[Ewalk91]

Yes how to eat maybe an insane question because you just put food in your mouth. But i guess my question is more directed toward what to eat.

Here is some background info.

I just hit 18.

This is my last year on my high school's gymnastics team (season starts in feburary)

I'm in athletic p.e. so i get a work out during school (monday : lifting Tuesday : sprints Wednseday : agility Thrusday : plyos Friday: Abs)

I just resently started to drink like two bottles of water a day (i know it's bad but before i would drink NONE)

I weight 137 (wish it would go up to 150)

I'm currenly 18% body fat. So i really don't have a sixpack, i guess i really just want a nice core not just the abs. I am strong and not trying to brag because i know people here are 10x stronger.

But i really want to get that body fat down to at least 15% to be happy.

according to P90X i should be consuming 1800 calories and I'm sure I remain in those guidelines.

Everything sounds good but my body fat is staying the same. Help?

[Joshua Naterman]

Post what you eat. How tall are you?

Give us a few days of your typical eating, broken down into what you eat with each meal, more or less, and if there's random other stuff like snacks just put that in a category of its own.

I can tell you right now that part of the problem is that you are too active and too young for that low calorie level. How often are your gymnastic practices, how long are they, and what do you do? Lay it out like you were writing a workout plan. Do you have any activities outside of gymnastics and PE? Parkour, playing ball with your friends, etc?

Doing all that will let us see what your activity level is, get an idea of what you look like, and understand what you are eating. This information will let us give you effective advice.

Without this information, we can not help you. I mean, you'll probably get random nutritional info but nothing that will specifically help you.

[Richard Duelley]

Post what you eat. How tall are you?

Give us a few days of your typical eating, broken down into what you eat with each meal, more or less, and if there's random other stuff like snacks just put that in a category of its own.

I can tell you right now that part of the problem is that you are too active and too young for that low calorie level. How often are your gymnastic practices, how long are they, and what do you do? Lay it out like you were writing a workout plan. Do you have any activities outside of gymnastics and PE? Parkour, playing ball with your friends, etc?

Doing all that will let us see what your activity level is, get an idea of what you look like, and understand what you are eating. This information will let us give you effective advice.

Without this information, we can not help you. I mean, you'll probably get random nutritional info but nothing that will specifically help you.

Agreed I will be watching this thread as well. Genearl advice: Eat lean meat, fish and lots of veggies! Fish oil and a multi vitamin cant hurt.

[Ewalk91]

Post what you eat. How tall are you?

Give us a few days of your typical eating, broken down into what you eat with each meal, more or less, and if there's random other stuff like snacks just put that in a category of its own.

I can tell you right now that part of the problem is that you are too active and too young for that low calorie level. How often are your gymnastic practices, how long are they, and what do you do? Lay it out like you were writing a workout plan. Do you have any activities outside of gymnastics and PE? Parkour, playing ball with your friends, etc?

Doing all that will let us see what your activity level is, get an idea of what you look like, and understand what you are eating. This information will let us give you effective advice.

Without this information, we can not help you. I mean, you'll probably get random nutritional info but nothing that will specifically help you.

I'm only 5'5 And i start my day with eating a serving of cereal, about 3 hours later i have a salad with egg whites and chicken on it. After school I'll have a snack like 90% of the time it's soup otherwise it's a sandwich. Dinner is whatever is being cooked, i layed off the fast food and now if i do eat it i get sick. If I'm hungry after 7 I'll drink a protein shake.

The breakfast and lunch are the same every day and the after school meal varies. I guess i can get some salmon to eat at that time of day.

Practice : It's three hours 5 days a week and i'm a pommel horse specialist. Since it's Girl season the guys get to just work on the events and not do conditioning.

Activities outside of school, nothing really but playing Call of Duty, and occasional pull ups before bed.

I do have a pull up bar, built a set of Parallets to do L work and planches, Have a punching bag in the garage. Just random info if i need/should be doing extra workouts.

[Joshua Naterman]

You are not eating anywhere near enough. What you have is a good start though, it's pretty healthy. Shoot for 100-135g of protein a day, that's only 135 x 4= 540 calories from protein. You really need that for healing. Work in some baked or microwaved sweet potatoes, my favorite recipe is to skin one and cut it onto one inch or so chunks. THen I put the chunks into a glass container, add about 1 inch of water, and microwave for 6 minutes covered with a plate or the appropriate top. Perfectly cooked sweet potatoes! Then I mash them up, add some brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and clove, the ground versions. Mix it up and you have a really, REALLY tasty and healthy treat.

It will help you a lot to start taking shots of olive oil. I'd use the regular kind, not the light and not the extra virgin. I personally use the extra virgin, but they all have the same fats, and you need those. It is the overall cheapest source of monounsaturated fat, with very little saturated or polyunsaturated fat in it. Each shot is 1.5 oz, which is 3 tablespoons or so. It's almost 400 calories by itself. Have it with meals, not by itself, and maybe just start off with a tablespoon once or twice a day for a few days and then slowly up it until you're taking 1.5-2 shots. It won't give you the runs or anything, I have 3-4 shots per day. It's GREAT for cholesterol levels, and your testosterone will go up, which means that your body will heal and grow faster. Ok, I am on a tight schedule today, I have to go. I promise you I will have a much more complete post in a few days.

[Ewalk91]

You are not eating anywhere near enough. What you have is a good start though, it's pretty healthy. Shoot for 100-135g of protein a day, that's only 135 x 4= 540 calories from protein. You really need that for healing. Work in some baked or microwaved sweet potatoes, my favorite recipe is to skin one and cut it onto one inch or so chunks. THen I put the chunks into a glass container, add about 1 inch of water, and microwave for 6 minutes covered with a plate or the appropriate top. Perfectly cooked sweet potatoes! Then I mash them up, add some brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and clove, the ground versions. Mix it up and you have a really, REALLY tasty and healthy treat.

It will help you a lot to start taking shots of olive oil. I'd use the regular kind, not the light and not the extra virgin. I personally use the extra virgin, but they all have the same fats, and you need those. It is the overall cheapest source of monounsaturated fat, with very little saturated or polyunsaturated fat in it. Each shot is 1.5 oz, which is 3 tablespoons or so. It's almost 400 calories by itself. Have it with meals, not by itself, and maybe just start off with a tablespoon once or twice a day for a few days and then slowly up it until you're taking 1.5-2 shots. It won't give you the runs or anything, I have 3-4 shots per day. It's GREAT for cholesterol levels, and your testosterone will go up, which means that your body will heal and grow faster. Ok, I am on a tight schedule today, I have to go. I promise you I will have a much more complete post in a few days.

Alright thanks! i mean i heard of using the olive oil for a good skin moisturizer but never heard of just drinking it. And i guess i really am not getting enough calories if i want to gain muscle to get up to 150lb. And I'm assuming the extra protein will help me gain muscle and not fat and help turn some fat into muscle?

[Richard Duelley]

I really need to start the EVOO again along with my fish oil. . .I have just been lazey and havent felt like buying any when I go to the store. I had good results with just 2-3 tablespoons a day, one with breakfast and one with dinner, I just put it in the spoon and drank it! It just took me a while to get used to the strong flavor. :shock:

[Joshua Naterman]

Yea, I like the flavor but most people don't I had to get used to it. I have so much because I'm huge and need the calories

[Richard Duelley]

I think I am going to add it in again . . . I am all about easy (healthy that is) extra calories on my quest to gain some mass! 8)

[Ewalk91]

So the olive oil will help me gain muscle mass? And add in some calories that I'm not getting?

I guess when it comes down to it, I'm a little bit afraid of consuming a lot of calories and getting fat instead.

[Joshua Naterman]

I just pulled out my activity rate charts and checked to see what you're going to need. Now, this is basic and pretty accurate appraisal of your needs, which is calculated by taking your bodyweight, adjust you for the lean factor, adjust for daily activity level, and then seeing the number of calories you will need.

You are going to need 2900 to 3300 calories a day. You fall between the Heavy Activity and Very Heavy Activity adjustment factors. That means you need between 200 to 230% of your basal metabolic rate. That is JUST to maintain your weight at 135. You are not even close to that level of calorie intake. The fats and extra calories will not make you fat, monounsaturated fats are extremely easy for your body to process and actually make it easier for your body to burn fat by causing the body to increase the amount of lipase(fat digesting enzyme) that you have in your body.

You saw the numbers I gave you right? 135 grams of protein is 540 calories. That's 18.6% of the total calories you need. You should have around 1000 calories from fats, minumim. That's 33% of the total, and you may need possibly as high as 50%. It's going to depend on what makes you personally function better. Your carb intake will be the remaining 32-49 percent, rounded off, depending on what levels of carbs and fats make you feel the best.

I will tell you, as will everyone else here, that for the carbs fruits and vegetables are your friends. Apples are from 80-120 calories on average, to give you an idea. Each piece of fruit is around 100 calories. Veggies are usually a lot less. You'll want plenty of vegetables. For the most part, the more the better. It's ok to have some pasta and bread and whatnot, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are actually one of the best foods for you, especially if you put enough peanut butter on the sandwiches. A thin coating won't cut it. Use the 2 tablespoons they recommend on the jar as a minimum amount. Also, use the Skippy Natural peanut butter. It's got no hydrogenated oils, which your body really can't process, and it tastes incredibly good, and it isn't really more expensive. All right, I have to go shop. I'm hungry

Just think, now that I'm getting back into training all hard-core I'll be needing close to 5500 calories a day!

[Richard Duelley]

I have been eating SO much the past 2 weeks I am truly tired of eating but 3500+ calories is a CRAP TON of food when you eat lean and mean. Speaking of that I need to go scrounge something up . . . its been 2 hours 8)

And Slizzardman . . . I get a little nauseous thing of 5500 calories . . . :oops:

If you combine the fruit and peanut butter you will have a great tasting calorie packed snack, a banana and peanut butter is my favorite!

[Joshua Naterman]

See that's why the oil is so damn awesome!

One little shot with each meal is an extra 400 calories or so. I eat 5-7 times a day, so I'm really just having 2000-3000 Calories of oil along with normal amounts of food Not only is it cheap, but I feel amazing!

[Ewalk91]

Just tried the oil....it's not bad....but it's not good ether lol. And i guess the protein shake will help the calorie count since its 900 calories with milk. I'll start making a peanut butter and banana sandwich for a snack after lunch in school (glad my braces are off) Hopefully get some salmon in the mix. Hopefully i stay lean? or get leaner since i'll finally be eating right.

[Joshua Naterman]

Your diet will help some, but if you want to lose the fat then the best thing for an athlete in your position to do is walk uphill on the treadmill for an hour, eventually. Max incline, should be 12-15 degrees. Speed of 2.0-2.3 is plenty, you don't want to work too hard. You're already doing a lot, adding in a bunch of sprints and other things will hamper your recovery and strength. The walking will not. Start with 20-30 minutes a few times a week and slowly add on the minutes. This is very low intensity, you should be able to carry on a normal conversation no problem while you are walking. THat's the only way to burn a significant amount of bodyfat DURING A WORKOUT. Your other training along with your age already has your metabolism quite high, so the walking will help you lose unwanted fat without messing up the rest of your workouts.

[sasquatch]

I'm a half inch under 6 .5 and I only weigh around 170. I thought I must have only been eating 2000 calories a day, but when I averaged my calories for a week, I eat about 3800 a day. Maybe if I start taking olive oil, I'll gain some weight.

[Joshua Naterman]

Damn, you are tall.

[Ewalk91]

I wish i was about 5'8 lol....I'm not even avg male height....But what i don't have in height i will start to make up in muscle =) hopefully.

[Joshua Naterman]

You will. I wasn't able to think like this until recently, so I don't know if you will be able to, but don't worry about anything. Just do your workouts, live your life, eat what you should eat, do the walking, and enjoy the results as they come. It WILL happen. When you roll dough, put pizza sauce on it, top it the way you like it, preheat the oven, put the pizza in, cook it, and take it out on time you end up with a delicious pizza. You COULD worry about the pizza and sit by the stove and stare at it every few minutes, or you could relax and do something else until it's time to pull out the pizza. Either way, as long as you follow all the steps you end up with a perfect pizza. Your body is the same way. As long as you do what you're supposed to do, the results come. They take time, and they are supposed to, because your body can only build new tissue at a certain maximum rate, and it can only burn fat at a certain maximum rate. Just do what you're supposed to and everything will be as you want it to be, without you worrying

[kickwell]

Wow, Slizzardman - you know your stuff. Quick question - if I'm an older man (31) and not interested in gaining weight (I'm 6 feet tall and 180-185) is the olive oil a good choice for me? Is it possible to use without gaining excess weight and bodyfat? Thanks bro, I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge!

[Joshua Naterman]

That depends. If you are maintaining your weight with your current diet, then you don't want to ADD in any oil, but instead replace other calories with it. A tablespoon with every meal is great, combined with slightly smaller portions. Not much smaller, just 100 calories or so less. Not too much, and you either want to replace crappy fats with the good fats, or replace some refined carbs like pasta or bread with some oil. Or, you could just do a few hundred extra Calories of work A 20-30 minute jog would do it. Either way, adding the olive oil will only make you healthier.

[Jason Stein]

My friend,

The gym where I'm fortunate to train offers Poliquin Biosignature BF-site ratio measurements, as well as several "baseline" workouts to measure work capacity and general fitness.

Some examples of these would be:

Poliquin Biosig Before/After: http://www.crossfitportland.com/archives/2150

Testimonials: http://www.crossfitportland.com/archives/2629

Part of the reason I'm mentioning this is because the advice you dispense --- low protein/high carbohydrate ratio, encouraging and maintaining a grain-based diet, low-impact cardio --- runs contrary to prescriptions of the coaches at my gym, as well as trainers like Robb Wolf and Ido Portal, as well as leading scientific evidence (such as this study about why aerobic exercise doesn't lead to decrease in BF, as reported in the NY Times http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/phys-ed-why-doesnt-exercise-lead-to-weight-loss/).

Are you able to post BF-measurement before/after results, or at least testimonials from clients who've seen some success following your prescriptions?

regards,

jason

[Joshua Naterman]

Yes, I am. I am glad you asked that, too There is a good reason why I prescribe the walking: two classes of people benefit more from them than from interval training, and for two different reasons. Athletes who are already training at a very high level cannot afford to throw in more high intensity work, because they are working close to their body's recovery capacity as it is. High intensity intervals, which do on a base scale produce faster results, simply cause too much glycogen depletion and muscle damage to be considered a wise addition to a high level athlete's in-season regimen. Of course, if there is an off season that allows them to modulate their training to incorporate the extra recovery necessary for the interval training, then they should probably do that. The other class of people is extremely obese people. They simply can't sustain the effort in the beginning. I have personally supervised 30-40 of my ship's crew while I was in the Navy and helped them all achieve either the weight loss results, strength gains, size gains, or a combination. I am sorry that I do not have numbers for those people, I wasn't keeping strict track. I wish I was, because I know that would help here What I DO have is the information from 3 friends who insisted I train them when I got home from the Navy. Here are their results:

I was able to have my friend Mikey, here in GA, stay right at 5' 11" 200 lbs while going from a 38 inch waistline to a 32 inch waistline in 7 weeks. He walked an hour a day 6 days a week, which is more than I recommend for the average person, but he was highly motivated and took the first 4 weeks to steadily ramp up to that. When he first started working out he could barely lift the 25 lb dumbbells on incline press, and he couldn't even squat 135 once with decent form. After the 7 weeks he was squatting 185 with good form for 6 reps, and he was doing his work sets with 45 and 50 lb dumbbells. That's not bad for less than 2 months. We estimated that he went from low 30's to around 15-17 percent bodyfat, and in the next month he dropped to 12-13% with a 30.5 inch waist while continuing to maintain the 200 lb bodyweight.

My friend Bryan wanted to keep his bodyfat, which was at 16%, and he went from 155 at 5'10" to 195 in 10 weeks. His strength went through the roof. He was doing his work sets with 70 lb dumbbells, and he started with the 30's. His bodyfat remained at 16% the whole time. He was walking 45 minutes to an hour 3-4 days a week, depending on what he felt like doing.

Lastly, my friend Andrew started at 6'1, 148 lbs. Yea. He was a skinny bastard. In the same 10 week timeframe that bryan was making his gains, Drew gained 27 lbs. He actually dropped from 14 to 13% bodyfat during that time. He too walked 4 days a week.

During the same timeframe, I gained 11 lbs, from 215 to 226lbs at 6' 2" and my work sets went up from 75 lbs to 105 lbs with the dumbbells and from 215 to 295 with squats, for sets of 10. I dropped from 13% to 9% bodyfat. I was walking 5 days a week for an hour. Keep in mind that I was a highly trained athlete at the time. That makes the change in numbers far more significant. People believe that a highly trained athlete is lucky to put on 15 lbs of lean mass in a year without drugs, but I can prove that to be untrue with just about anyone. I put on around 18.61 lbs, according to my calculations, in 10 weeks.

This was in combination with a diet specific to our needs as far as bodyweight goals, and was all meats, veggies, and rice, with some pasta at times, and lots of cooking with olive oil. At the time, those Uncle Ben's microwave rice packs were 99 cents, so we ate those all the time with meals

See, it is true that for pure weight and in most cases fat loss, the high intensity interval training will produce slightly better numbers. Not a massive difference, but a few more pounds for sure, probably an extra percent drop in bf. However, it cuts into recovery much more than the walking. So, for the purpose of reshaping the body while still adding muscle size and strength at a fast pace, the walking is superior. I am not claiming that it is the best thing bar none, but it is the best addition to an already heavy training schedule.

A side benefit is that people are lazy. They would much, much, MUCH rather walk for an hour and watch tv than do 20-30 minutes of high intensity interval training. I do make sure to tell them that once they reach their target weight or bodyfat, they really need to throw in a session or two per week of higher intensity stuff, because the walking does nothing for their heart. You need the high intensity to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. A few months of weight loss-specific walking isn't going to put anyone at risk, they're more than compensated in the short term by the benefits of dropping the fat and building the muscle. After the fat's at or close to target level, I encourage a shift to more intense, cardiovascular training.

[griffdrc]

he went from 155 at 5'10" to 195 in 10 weeks

this is bs... you can't gain 40lbs of muscle in 10 weeks... thats 4lbs/week... sorry

Keep in mind that I was a highly trained athlete at the time

and i don't mean to sound harsh but what makes you say that? i had kids on my high school football team that could lift more than that and i wouldn't consider them highly trained athletes....

[Ewalk91]

You will. I wasn't able to think like this until recently, so I don't know if you will be able to, but don't worry about anything. Just do your workouts, live your life, eat what you should eat, do the walking, and enjoy the results as they come. It WILL happen. When you roll dough, put pizza sauce on it, top it the way you like it, preheat the oven, put the pizza in, cook it, and take it out on time you end up with a delicious pizza. You COULD worry about the pizza and sit by the stove and stare at it every few minutes, or you could relax and do something else until it's time to pull out the pizza. Either way, as long as you follow all the steps you end up with a perfect pizza. Your body is the same way. As long as you do what you're supposed to do, the results come. They take time, and they are supposed to, because your body can only build new tissue at a certain maximum rate, and it can only burn fat at a certain maximum rate. Just do what you're supposed to and everything will be as you want it to be, without you worrying

I like your analogy...and i think i've been doing good for the day, oil with cereal, salad at lunch, peanutbutter and banana sandwich bout a half hour after the salad. And about to eat a chicken sandwich. You seen to know what your talking about so i'm just going to wait while my pizza bakes and hopefully it'll come out ultra ripped with a side order of better looking abs. So thank you for your help and i'll be reporting back with some results later.