A little lost with all darn numbers, I need help Vets!

R

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Ok, I figured if i stopped drinking cokes and cut my portions combined with some cardio everyday (1 mile to start) I would lose weight. But since reading this forum that doesn't seem like the case at all. I am new to this. I can count cals. thats easy but when I gotta start counting fats, complex carbs(huh?) protein and all that stuff I get veery overwhelmed! Im going to list a sample day of eating for me (yesterday) so that yall can help me on what im doing wrong or right. You wont find any veggies b/c well they taste horrible and I just plain don't have a stomach for them. No fruits either. I have a serious allergy to about 90% of them(minus apples and strawberries). I'm 6'3 and 370 lbs. This is my 2nd day of working out, I will be doing 1 mile a day until I can do more.

Breakfast - Honey Nut Cheerios (300Cals--1.5fat--2gProtien--22gCarbs)
Reduced Fat 2% Milk (150 Cals--5gFat--8gProtien--12gCarbs)
OR
Oatmeal to Go Maple Brown Sugar(210 Cals--4gFat--4Protien--43gCarbs--10g Fiber) w/ a glass of Milk(150 Cals--5gFat--8gProtien--12gCarbs)

Lunch - 2 Slices of Honey Wheat Bread (140Cals--3gFat--2gProtien--14gCarb)
2 Slices of FF Cheese (60Cals--0gFat--10gProtien--4gCarbs)
4 Sclies of Turkey (200Cals--2gFat--36gProtien--12gCarbs)

Dinner - Goulash - Beef (350Cals--31gfat-0GCarbs-17gProtein)
Noddles (210Cals--7gFat-2gProtein--?gCarbs
Roasted Garlic Tomatoe Sauce (Maybe 1gcarb and 1g protein.

So for totals -- Cals - 1410 w/ Cheerios (Man I didn't realize it was that low!)
Carbs- 75g Carbs
Fat - 50g Fat
Protein - 78g (I know thats to low)
This is w/ the ceral for breakfast plus a snack at 3pm (reg. cherrios (so make it 1700cals.)

I doubt this is very good, in fact I bet its plain stupid but thats why i need yalls help. What are complex carbs? What are good and bad fats/carbs lol. How many cals should I need to lose with my height/weight? Kinda got all these questions haha. Perhaps someone here can school me in this. BTW, sry in advance for the typos haha.
 
Well. Hm. :) First of all, for the time being stop worrying so much about all the numbers. Start with learning what is healthy and what isn't ... and then you can slowly start figuring out the numbers. Also, check out a few of the online sites for counting calories. The one I use is thedailyplate.com - not only does it add up your calories, there's a little pie chart that tells you what percentage of fat, carbs, and protein you're eating so you can watch that w/out having to crunch all the numbers yourself. Let the computer do all the hard work for you. :)

Ok, next ... I'm just gonna lay it out here: You have to eat veggies. You have to. You can't say I don't like them and won't eat them. That's just not an option. And quite frankly, this might be blunt, but really ... there are HUNDREDS of different veggies and dozens of different ways to prepare each of them. To say you don't like any of them ... to me that's just being stubborn and silly. Everyone has some things they don't like, but saying you don't like any veggies at all and won't eat them ... that's dumb. Sorry ... not trying to be rude, just calling it like I see it.

If you REALLY can't stomach the taste of a lot of veggies, then learn how to disguise them in your food. It's pretty easy to do. I "hide" veggies in my food all the time -not because I don't like them, but it's an easy way to add even more veggies and nutrition to my meals. But out of the hundreds of veggies out there, there's no way you can't find one or two prepared in a way that you would enjoy them.

Ok, that's out of the way.

Next thing is that when I look at your diet I see a lot of packaged and processed foods that are full of chemicals and preservatives and TONS of sugar. You're eating a lot of packaged sugar, which is just awful for you. :)

So my next advice is to ditch all the packaged food. Honey Nut Cheerios are just crap and packaged sweetened oatmeal is worse. Have a couple of boiled eggs for breakfast instead. Or some yogurt. If you can eat strawberries, then have some of them. What about blueberries? They're considered a superfood - high in fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. You can buy them frozen and add them to a ton of stuff. If you want oatmeal, have plain oats and add a little bit of sweetener - honey or sugar if you must.

Your lunch actually looks ok. You want to make sure that the bread you're eating is WHOLE GRAIN, not just "wheat". That's what complex carbs are. Whole grains, not processed carbs. White bread, white pasta, those are simple carbs and not great for you. Complex carbs are whole grain breads and pastas, oats, brown rice, etc.

Dinner ... hard to say w/out knowing what goes into the goulash, but I'm suspecting the noodles are plain white egg noodles, right? Swap out whole wheat noodles or brown rice for those. Tomato sauce ... that's good if it's not packaged with a bunch of sugar in it. And ... *gasp* ... tomatoes are veggies! :) So why not add more veggies into the sauce - it's easy to chop up spinach or other veggies really really small and cook them into the sauce and you get an extra serving of veggies there.

Cheerios are an awful snack - better to have an apple with some peanut butter, or apple with a slice of cheese, or something of that nature.

I would imagine that with cutting out sodas and adding in exercise, you'll see some loss, but you will have to eat more healthily if you want to see real, meaningful, long term loss - as well as be healthy overall.
 
KaraCooks said:
Well. Hm. :) First of all, for the time being stop worrying so much about all the numbers. Start with learning what is healthy and what isn't ... and then you can slowly start figuring out the numbers. Also, check out a few of the online sites for counting calories. The one I use is thedailyplate.com - not only does it add up your calories, there's a little pie chart that tells you what percentage of fat, carbs, and protein you're eating so you can watch that w/out having to crunch all the numbers yourself. Let the computer do all the hard work for you. :)

Ok, next ... I'm just gonna lay it out here: You have to eat veggies. You have to. You can't say I don't like them and won't eat them. That's just not an option. And quite frankly, this might be blunt, but really ... there are HUNDREDS of different veggies and dozens of different ways to prepare each of them. To say you don't like any of them ... to me that's just being stubborn and silly. Everyone has some things they don't like, but saying you don't like any veggies at all and won't eat them ... that's dumb. Sorry ... not trying to be rude, just calling it like I see it.

If you REALLY can't stomach the taste of a lot of veggies, then learn how to disguise them in your food. It's pretty easy to do. I "hide" veggies in my food all the time -not because I don't like them, but it's an easy way to add even more veggies and nutrition to my meals. But out of the hundreds of veggies out there, there's no way you can't find one or two prepared in a way that you would enjoy them.

Ok, that's out of the way.

Next thing is that when I look at your diet I see a lot of packaged and processed foods that are full of chemicals and preservatives and TONS of sugar. You're eating a lot of packaged sugar, which is just awful for you. :)

So my next advice is to ditch all the packaged food. Honey Nut Cheerios are just crap and packaged sweetened oatmeal is worse. Have a couple of boiled eggs for breakfast instead. Or some yogurt. If you can eat strawberries, then have some of them. What about blueberries? They're considered a superfood - high in fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. You can buy them frozen and add them to a ton of stuff. If you want oatmeal, have plain oats and add a little bit of sweetener - honey or sugar if you must.

Your lunch actually looks ok. You want to make sure that the bread you're eating is WHOLE GRAIN, not just "wheat". That's what complex carbs are. Whole grains, not processed carbs. White bread, white pasta, those are simple carbs and not great for you. Complex carbs are whole grain breads and pastas, oats, brown rice, etc.

Dinner ... hard to say w/out knowing what goes into the goulash, but I'm suspecting the noodles are plain white egg noodles, right? Swap out whole wheat noodles or brown rice for those. Tomato sauce ... that's good if it's not packaged with a bunch of sugar in it. And ... *gasp* ... tomatoes are veggies! :) So why not add more veggies into the sauce - it's easy to chop up spinach or other veggies really really small and cook them into the sauce and you get an extra serving of veggies there.

Cheerios are an awful snack - better to have an apple with some peanut butter, or apple with a slice of cheese, or something of that nature.

I would imagine that with cutting out sodas and adding in exercise, you'll see some loss, but you will have to eat more healthily if you want to see real, meaningful, long term loss - as well as be healthy overall.
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Can I just say, as I was reading your comment about veggies I was laughing so damn hard lol. You are very right I am quite stubborn. Well to mark this slap in the face! I will go to the store tonight and make Goulosh tomorrow and put some spinach (veryy finely cut lol) in it. Perhaps I'll start with Spinach and Broccoli. I'll let ya know how it goes!

Also I completely forgot about eggs! I love eggs! I assumed peanut butter was a no no since it was high in fat but i guess if its just a snack it prolly isnt so bad. I will also go back and get "wholegrain", it's say its wholegrain on the back but perhaps its not I dunno.

I'm glad that lunch is ok, thats my favorite meal! Hopefully 90/10 ground beef is still ok to eat in small portions. But I will replace those noddles with wheat or something else. And also the sauce is Organic Roasted Garlic (very goood).

One more thing if I can, are apples and strawberries enough? I know 2 veggies isnt but its a start anyways. Should I look into a multi-vitamin to help get the things I need from them? Also how much protein should I be getting, cause right now I only get like 80-90 a day =/

And thank you Kara, your post was VERY informative and helped me a ton! I'm sure ill have more questions hehe
 
No problem. :) And I"m glad you took my veggie comments in good spirit. A few more comments for you:

Peanut butter is high in fat, so you don't want to eat too much, but it's HEALTHY fat. I love pb on an apple as a snack and every once in a while I have a pb sandwich on whole grain for lunch. Nuts and seeds have the healthy fats you need to help metabolize nutrients. You should try to get at least 20% of your diet from healthy fats: olive oil, nuts - especially almonds and peanuts, flax seeds, avocado, things like that. People have been conditioned to believe that fat is bad, but it's NOT. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and Omega3 and Omega6 fatty acids are NECESSARY for our bodies to be healthy.

Lean ground beef is fine. I eat it probably 2x a week on average. Sometimes I just grill burger patties on the grill and eat my burger as an open faced sandwich (i.e. 1/2 a whole grain bun). Sometimes I brown it and make tacos or Bolognese sauce (a tomato and meat sauce). And sometimes I make meatloaf with oats and lots of veggies mixed in (again, another way of hiding veggies).

Apples and strawberries are a good start. Definitely keep up with those.

I'd be happy to suggest options for veggies as well. SEriously - there are so many things you can do with them. I buy baby spinach by the bag - I wait for it to go on sale and buy 4 or 5 bags at a time. I chop it up really fine with my biggest butcher knife and add it to spaghetti sauce, in my meatloaf, in my taco meat, in layers of lasagna, everywhere. For some reason I find spinach really easy to mix in and it really doesn't mess with the flavor of anything.

Also, try roasting some veggies. Most people don't think of it.. but you can toss *any* veggie in a little olive oil and put them on a cookie sheet in a 425 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. They come out lovely and crispy. You can salt them, add curry powder, or chili powder, or any of a variety of spices to help with the flavor. I do this with all kinds of potatoes (especially sweet potatoes), broccoli, cauliflower, etc. Don't be afraid to experiment.

For protein: most people say you should aim for 1g of protein per 1 pound of bodyweight. I try, but I rarely get to that. I manage to usually get about 35% of my calories from protein, which gives me about 120g a day. I do supplement my protein with a scoop of protein powder every day. Sometimes I mix it in with my breakfast yogurt, and sometimes I just chug a scoop of powder in some water after my workout.

Finally, I don't think you NEED a vitamin if you're eating healthy foods, but I do take one anyway myself. I buy food based vitamins (i.e. nutrients from food materials, not chemicals) and take 2 per day. I think the last bottle I got was from Whole Foods. :)

Hope that helps.
 
KaraCooks said:
No problem. :) And I"m glad you took my veggie comments in good spirit. A few more comments for you:

Peanut butter is high in fat, so you don't want to eat too much, but it's HEALTHY fat. I love pb on an apple as a snack and every once in a while I have a pb sandwich on whole grain for lunch. Nuts and seeds have the healthy fats you need to help metabolize nutrients. You should try to get at least 20% of your diet from healthy fats: olive oil, nuts - especially almonds and peanuts, flax seeds, avocado, things like that. People have been conditioned to believe that fat is bad, but it's NOT. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and Omega3 and Omega6 fatty acids are NECESSARY for our bodies to be healthy.

Lean ground beef is fine. I eat it probably 2x a week on average. Sometimes I just grill burger patties on the grill and eat my burger as an open faced sandwich (i.e. 1/2 a whole grain bun). Sometimes I brown it and make tacos or Bolognese sauce (a tomato and meat sauce). And sometimes I make meatloaf with oats and lots of veggies mixed in (again, another way of hiding veggies).

Apples and strawberries are a good start. Definitely keep up with those.

I'd be happy to suggest options for veggies as well. SEriously - there are so many things you can do with them. I buy baby spinach by the bag - I wait for it to go on sale and buy 4 or 5 bags at a time. I chop it up really fine with my biggest butcher knife and add it to spaghetti sauce, in my meatloaf, in my taco meat, in layers of lasagna, everywhere. For some reason I find spinach really easy to mix in and it really doesn't mess with the flavor of anything.

Also, try roasting some veggies. Most people don't think of it.. but you can toss *any* veggie in a little olive oil and put them on a cookie sheet in a 425 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. They come out lovely and crispy. You can salt them, add curry powder, or chili powder, or any of a variety of spices to help with the flavor. I do this with all kinds of potatoes (especially sweet potatoes), broccoli, cauliflower, etc. Don't be afraid to experiment.

For protein: most people say you should aim for 1g of protein per 1 pound of bodyweight. I try, but I rarely get to that. I manage to usually get about 35% of my calories from protein, which gives me about 120g a day. I do supplement my protein with a scoop of protein powder every day. Sometimes I mix it in with my breakfast yogurt, and sometimes I just chug a scoop of powder in some water after my workout.

Finally, I don't think you NEED a vitamin if you're eating healthy foods, but I do take one anyway myself. I buy food based vitamins (i.e. nutrients from food materials, not chemicals) and take 2 per day. I think the last bottle I got was from Whole Foods. :)

Hope that helps.
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Ya this was a big help, I'ma just start out with Spinach, I doubt Ima get to much good stuff from it but its a start anyways hehe.

Ya I think for breakfast I'll start with eggs and a apple(while I drive to work)

I haven't started lifting yet(will be soon)but I am still pretty dam sore from my carido so I'ma go get some whey protein. I read up on it some and apparently whats best and absorbed the fastest (BV I think) is Whey isolate. Figured by using that it will make me more full and I can get enough protein everyday.

One last question, I usually work out at night around 7-8pm. With my schedule that's really my only choice. I know my metabolism is still going well after the work out is down. I hope that after my workout at night I should still be able to drink a protein shake. I only ask cause i always hear don't eat anything after like 8 so. Figured id ask.
 
The don't eat anything after 8 "rule" is mostly to get people to quit snacking. It really doesn't matter WHEN you eat, it's what you eat and how much of it. There are times that you can eat that will help with workouts and such, but working out late and eating late really is not that big of a deal.

Sounds like you're getting on the right track. :)
 
KaraCooks said:
The don't eat anything after 8 "rule" is mostly to get people to quit snacking. It really doesn't matter WHEN you eat, it's what you eat and how much of it. There are times that you can eat that will help with workouts and such, but working out late and eating late really is not that big of a deal.

Sounds like you're getting on the right track. :)
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Ya I'm trying too! First comes knowledge then comes application. You've been a huge help Kara, thanks again!
 
If it helps any, here's a pretty simplistic comparison of complex vs simple carbs.



For a more anecdotal explanation, ever hear the joke about how you eat Chinese food and you're hungry and hour later? White rice and other simple carbs tend to get processed very quickly by the body - so even if they're a lot of calories, you tend to be hungry not long after. Also, most of them tend to be processed so that their original nutritional value goes away. Why is 'enriched flour' used - because processed flour was so empty of anything but calories they had to enrich it so people wouldn't get sick from malnutrition :p

I also found a brand of almond butter that I like even more than the normal sugary peanut butter - it's sweetened with agave nectar (which is a sweetener with a lower glycemic index) and it's quite tasty. Of course, I forget the brand name right now but I can look it up when I get home if you're interested :D
 
Jeanette401 said:
If it helps any, here's a pretty simplistic comparison of complex vs simple carbs.



For a more anecdotal explanation, ever hear the joke about how you eat Chinese food and you're hungry and hour later? White rice and other simple carbs tend to get processed very quickly by the body - so even if they're a lot of calories, you tend to be hungry not long after. Also, most of them tend to be processed so that their original nutritional value goes away. Why is 'enriched flour' used - because processed flour was so empty of anything but calories they had to enrich it so people wouldn't get sick from malnutrition :p

I also found a brand of almond butter that I like even more than the normal sugary peanut butter - it's sweetened with agave nectar (which is a sweetener with a lower glycemic index) and it's quite tasty. Of course, I forget the brand name right now but I can look it up when I get home if you're interested :D
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Hey, thanks for that link. Very good infos, perhaps by the end of my goal I might actually know something! Even though I'm only on day 4 lol! BTW, I need to updates my diary.
 
Derrick said:
Just do it. Quit debating whether or not it will work and just freaking try!
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Whether or not what will work? I really have no idea what your talking about.
 
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