Sport Diet Check - Can someone please take a look?

Sport Fitness
Wondering if someone would be able to take a look at my diet.

I am 19, female and weigh 48kg (102 pounds). I am 157cm (61.8 inch). My body fat is 24% so I am looking to reduce this.

Sample of my diet
Breakfast - Wholegrain toast w/ tomato, egg, kiwfruit, yoghurt - 300 calories
Snack - 8 Almonds and mandarin - 100 calories
Lunch - Salad w/ tuna, lite mayo, little bit of cheese and a fruit - 300 calories
Snack - Yoghurt and apple - 100 calories
Dinner - Homemade curry w/ brown rice (veges in the curry) - 300 calories

I generally do cardio most days, alternating a 30min run with a 40min walk the next day. Any guidance greatly appreciated.
 
1100kcals is not enough, your body will slow down in order to conserve calories and you will find it very difficult to lose weight and to keep yourself on the diet.

If your doing cardio you definetly need the energy- even if you are trying to lose weight. I'd say add another 250kcals in at least, but thats my own opinion.
 
1. a caloric deficit tends to reduce weight, a caloric deficit combined with a reistance exercise program tends to reduce body fat: do some weight training!!! I would replace the 40 minute walk with 40 minutes of weight training, 3 days a week.
2. some individuals do not tolerate grains and starchy carbs well. You might try cutting out the toast and rice and concentrating your calories on protien sources (meat, dairy, eggs, nuts) and fruits and vegetables, and try to steer mostly to low glycemic index fruits and vegetables.
 
Wondering if someone would be able to take a look at my diet.

I am 19, female and weigh 48kg (102 pounds). I am 157cm (61.8 inch). My body fat is 24% so I am looking to reduce this.

Sample of my diet
Breakfast - Wholegrain toast w/ tomato, egg, kiwfruit, yoghurt - 300 calories
Snack - 8 Almonds and mandarin - 100 calories
Lunch - Salad w/ tuna, lite mayo, little bit of cheese and a fruit - 300 calories
Snack - Yoghurt and apple - 100 calories
Dinner - Homemade curry w/ brown rice (veges in the curry) - 300 calories

I generally do cardio most days, alternating a 30min run with a 40min walk the next day. Any guidance greatly appreciated.

Hi smax011,

From what you listed there your food choices look great! Do you count calories and have a macro nutrient ratio set up, ie percentages of carbs/fats/proteins, and/or have worked out menus for X amount of days in advance so that you know what you are going to be eating?

How did you work out that you are around 24% body fat, bio electrical scales or body fat calipers? Anyway... 24% of 48kg = 11.52kg of fat. To be honest that's not a bad amount to have already! But... I guess you would like to lower it a little bit more huh, hence your post!?! Have you got a goal body fat percentage in mind? Say 18-20%, or maybe lower?

Say for example you want to get to 18% whilst keeping as much lean mass as possible. To do this you will need to lose around 4-6kg by creating a low enough calorie deficit to be losing around 1kg per week, but not so low as to start losing a lot of weight from your muscle mass. This will take a few weeks to work out, but once you know your maintenance calorie amount it will be easy to make adjustments if and when necessary.

Working out your maintenance amount of calories using the stats given and using the BMI scale (just as a reference), including exercise calories, you should/could be eating roughly between 1400 and 1800 calories per day (and still be able to reduce your body fat). The total calories from the foods you listed is 1100, I would up that a little more to a base of 1400 and keep track of your body fat percent (do not worry about total weight, as I'm sure you know the difference already), if your weight stays the same, or increases but your body fat lowers, that's ok! If you weight and body fat both go up on 1400 cals (which I doubt it will) you need to make a reduction in calories and exercise more and/or at a higher intensity. I would recommend you up your cals to 1400 for a week (and if poss use a macro nutrient ratio, OR watch your food choices* (see carbs)) and see what happens with your weight and body fat percent.

Exercise wise, what kind of cardio are you doing? Is it steady pace or do you use interval training? Walking is great but really doesn't burn many calories, unless you walk 30 miles per day! lol ... As you are used to doing cardio daily I would recommend for the first few weeks that you do a minimum of 30 minutes cardio each day 6 days a week. This might sound like a lot, and it is!-but it's better if you initially need to do this as it will help you work out your maintenance calorie amount (there is method to the madness). I would suggest you do a either all interval training (HIIT) or a mix of steady pace and interval training, depending on your fitness level.

dswithers is absolutely right about weight training! You need to keep as much lean mass as you can, and the only way to do this is with resistance training. You list no type of weight training in your post, (although you say you are going to incorporate it asap). I would recommend you start of with a full body routine at least twice per week. Make sure your work all the major muscle groups, legs, back, core/abs, chest and arms. If you are new to weight training do a full body routine for at least 4 weeks before changing the style, ie one day do an upper body routine and the other day do a lower body routine.

Going back to your diet, you could well be eating more protein which will help maintain your lean mass. (dswithers is right again). Carbs wise you don't have to give up any carbs but watch the sources and when you eat them. If the portions are average to small they can easily be eaten in the morning and tapered off, or not eaten at all, later on in the day. It's worth making a list of all the starchy carbs you eat (which I doubt is more than 6 types!) and then only eating those up until your midday meal, then in the afternoon simply eat root vegetable/vegetable/salad based meals and protein. This way you'll still get the required energy for the duration of the day, (and your cabs fix in the mornings heheh), and the rest of the day you'll have less starchy carbs in your system (that could otherwise be being stored as fat)! (and you can still eat relatively high carbs, say 45% of your daily calorie total).

((It's wise to split your carbs into natural starchy, ie potatoes white/sweet, rices, noodles, pastas and breads. Natural fibrous, which is basically all other veg excluding potatoes, (also bear in mind countless websites have contradictory advice on which veg are high and low in starches). And natural simple carbs, ie fruit!))

Protein and fats, aim to get at least three or four+ servings of protein daily from lean sources, so tuna, turkey, beef, chicken, mackerel, salmon, quorn, soy isolate (which are all complete proteins). Vegetable proteins are not complete proteins but as a last resort are better than nothing! Fats, if you eat fish/red meat every day/other day, especially mackerel, salmon and beef you'll get a good amount of fats and amino acids. I see you eat almonds, which are a very good choice! Peanut butter may also be an option/addition. In general avoid adding extra fats when cooking as most will be in the protein sources, if chosen correctly!
 
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