Seeking advice on the best diet choice.

[Calder Photography]

Hi Guys!

I'm a 20 year old from Australia, I've been training Ross Enamait style for 2 years, and have just recently gotten into Gymnastics.

I weighed around 100kg 3 years ago, and didn't know very much about exercise/nutrition. as a result I lost a lot of weight (30kg) way too quickly, and now have a bit of excess skin that no matter how much I try, Won't go away. I currently weigh 74kg and am 5 foot 8 inches tall.

I recently became vegetarian, and am seeking advice on the best diet choices, and would love to hear from people who are in the same boat!

I've been looking into the benefits and overall praise for the Paleo diet, which I plan on trying out, but for the following reasons I don't think would be suitable for me:

*Being a vegetarian is contrary to the concept of the Paleo diet

* Milk. I just figure a way to get the amount of protein necessary without it.

My basic daily diet looks something like this:

Breakfast:

Protein shake (Whey/milk)

4 eggs scrambled (w/1 piece of toast)

Coffee

Snack: Nuts, or an apple

Lunch:

assorted veggies cooked together or a bowl of oats, muesli and 2 weetbix with honey. (sometimes have another coffee here)

An apple 45 mins before workout.

Post workout:

A protein shake consiting of:

1 scoop protein powder

1 tbsp all natural peanut butter

a handful of berries

Milk.

Dinner:

Usually veggie stir-fry or curry

After dinner:

1 piece of toast With a coffee.

I also take an assortment of supplements.

Sorry for the long-winded post! I'd love to hear some thoughts/suggestions, I'm at a bit of a loss.

Thanks so much.

Tom.

[Jay Guindon]

So I read this a couple times and didn't answer because I think you didn't use the search function and read the posts here. However, I feel bad because you asked a question and no one answered after a few days so....

There is a lot of information out there on nutrition, most of it conflicting, and this is due to people using epidemiological studies and cohort studies to make conclusions on diets rather than controlled trials. See food is more like a drug and needs to be studied under controlled circumstances to avoid confounding variable, however people for some reason like to look for correlations and then call this causation instead of finding real causation.

I don't know why you are a vegetarian but you probably read something like the China study which is an epidemological study and the controlled portion is then done in rats with a problematic protein and in a poorly designed way. Read here for a thorough review of why the China Study is bunk. http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/canc ... ina-study/

You should also read the vegetarian myth.

Now if you are a vegetarian for ethical reasons then that is fine, but if it for health reasons that is mislead. If you choose to saty vegetarina realize that will be harder.

Now, as far as answering your question here is the simplest way to put it.

Eat lot's of grassfed meats. If you cannot get grassfed then get leans cuts of regular meat.

Eat wild caught fish, preferably lots of the smaller ones like sardines and anchovies to avoid the concentrated heavy metals found in bigger fish.

Eat lot's of vegetables.

Eat a little bit of fruit, preferably that which is lower in fructose.

Eat healthy fats like coconut oil (you can cook with this) and olive oil (do not cook with this)

Limit your intake of nuts and eliminate seeds.

Eliminate grains and legumes

Grassfed dairy is acceptable in moderation and in moderation can be quite healthy but do not make it a large part of your diet.

Fish oil, vitamin d are great supplements. AS far as other supplements be sure to find out on pubmed what their effects are in controlled trials before you start taking them. Many supplements are hype and in a controlled randomised setting provide no benefit and in some cases negative effects. Again, epidemological and cohort studies are nearly useless in determining the efficacy of nutrients/foods.

[Brendan Coad]

Why don't cook w/ olive oil?

*edit* nm, quick google did the trick

Thanks for the heads up. Any good advice on where to get coconut oil?

[Razz]

I always see people recommend olive oil for cooking because no conversion of fats happen unless temperatures are ridiculously high, could someone bother to explain?

[Brendan Coad]

I always see people recommend olive oil for cooking because no conversion of fats happen unless temperatures are ridiculously high, could someone bother to explain?

lol I just googled and it said that conversion happens ridiculously low so you shouldn't cook with it =/

[Jay Guindon]

I live in Canada so this is a good source if you live here. I'm sure they ship internationally too. http://www.virgincoconutoil.ca/virgin-coconut-oil.html otherwise just look for organic virgin coconut oil at your grocery store.

So as far as the olive oil goes, this is my thoughts. There seems to be conflicting results on how much heat oxidizes the oil. Some say it's really low, others say it's high, and given that we can definitely agree that oxidized fats are gnarly, I tend to be conservative and won't cook olive oil until I find some better info on thermally oxidized olive oil.