Sport how do i get a balance of protein/carbs/fat

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amanda_b

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into every one of my 6 meals a day?

This is my typical day of eating

breakfast - Oats with half a banana & a handful of raisens
morning snack - 10 almonds or a yoghart
lunch - tuna or salmon, or a chicken salad, or a ham wholemeal sandwhich
arfternoon snack - a diet shake (109 cals) and a piece of fruit
evening snack - crackers & cottage cheese
dinner - chicken or steak with veges
occasional dessert snack - fruit & jelly or cookie

What can i add or take out of my meals to get the balance of protein/carbs/fat right?

Any help much appreciated :)

thanks
 
A lot of people here use to track calorie intake and distribution.
 
amanda_b said:
into every one of my 6 meals a day?

This is my typical day of eating

breakfast - Oats with half a banana & a handful of raisens
morning snack - 10 almonds or a yoghart
lunch - tuna or salmon, or a chicken salad, or a ham wholemeal sandwhich
arfternoon snack - a diet shake (109 cals) and a piece of fruit
evening snack - crackers & cottage cheese
dinner - chicken or steak with veges
occasional dessert snack - fruit & jelly or cookie

What can i add or take out of my meals to get the balance of protein/carbs/fat right?

Any help much appreciated :)

thanks
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Amanada,

Many people first establish a ratio split between protein, carbs and fat. Say 30%/40%/30%. This depends on your goals, experience and what makes you feel fuller for longer.

You then split your calories for each of the 6 meals according to this formula. Remember that 1g protein/carb = 4 kcal, 1g fat = 9kcal.

You can then make your food choices according to how much protein, carb and fat you need to consume each meal time.

This is a simplistic breakdown. There has been studies that have shown that your body's ability to convert carbs into energy is best in the morning and declines as the day goes. John Berardi http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/carbroundtable.htm suggests that the 6 meals should be broken into 3 protein + carb in the morning and 3 protein + fat in the afternoon. Your daily intake of p/c/f should still follow the ratio you've chosen.

There's a lot of helpful info both on the site linked above and on this site. It all depends on how scientific you want to be.

Looking at your daily diet. You're either lacking carbs or protein in your meals. For example your breakfast is purely carbs. Do you feel you go hungry again very quickly? I would add some egg white omlet (I have 4 egg whites every morning)

I would also break your daily food intake into 6 equal meals instead of snacking.
 
I have been trying to figure out how this protein, carbs, and fat thing works...but am struggling to work it out lol how do you know how much is allocated to each in your chosen meals? Most likely there are quite a few threads asking the exact same question but I am still working myself through the site.

:)
 
its difficult to get all three equal in 6 meals,thats why i dont bother i only have 3 a day sometimes 4.
there is evidence to prove that 3 a day is just as good as 6 a day
Effect of the pattern of food intake on human energy metabolism.

Verboeket-van de Venne WP, Westerterp KR, Kester AD.

Department of Human Biology, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

The pattern of food intake can affect the regulation of body weight and lipogenesis. We studied the effect of meal frequency on human energy expenditure (EE) and its components. During 1 week ten male adults (age 25-61 years, body mass index 20.7-30.4 kg/m2) were fed to energy balance at two meals/d (gorging pattern) and during another week at seven meals/d (nibbling pattern). For the first 6 d of each week the food was provided at home, followed by a 36 h stay in a respiration chamber. O2 consumption and CO2 production (and hence EE) were calculated over 24 h. EE in free-living conditions was measured over the 2 weeks with doubly-labelled water (average daily metabolic rate, ADMR). The three major components of ADMR are basal metabolic rate (BMR), diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) and EE for physical activity (ACT). There was no significant effect of meal frequency on 24 h EE or ADMR. Furthermore, BMR and ACT did not differ between the two patterns. DIT was significantly elevated in the gorging pattern, but this effect was neutralized by correction for the relevant time interval. With the method used for determination of DIT no significant effect of meal frequency on the contribution of DIT to ADMR could be demonstrated.


And another:

Br J Nutr. 1997 Apr;77 Suppl 1:S57-70. Links
Meal frequency and energy balance.

* Bellisle F,
* McDevitt R,
* Prentice AM.

INSERM U341, Hotel Dieu de Paris, France.

Several epidemiological studies have observed an inverse relationship between people's habitual frequency of eating and body weight, leading to the suggestion that a 'nibbling' meal pattern may help in the avoidance of obesity. A review of all pertinent studies shows that, although many fail to find any significant relationship, the relationship is consistently inverse in those that do observe a relationship. However, this finding is highly vulnerable to the probable confounding effects of post hoc changes in dietary patterns as a consequence of weight gain and to dietary under-reporting which undoubtedly invalidates some of the studies. We conclude that the epidemiological evidence is at best very weak, and almost certainly represents an artefact. A detailed review of the possible mechanistic explanations for a metabolic advantage of nibbling meal patterns failed to reveal significant benefits in respect of energy expenditure. Although some short-term studies suggest that the thermic effect of feeding is higher when an isoenergetic test load is divided into multiple small meals, other studies refute this, and most are neutral. More importantly, studies using whole-body calorimetry and doubly-labelled water to assess total 24 h energy expenditure find no difference between nibbling and gorging. Finally, with the exception of a single study, there is no evidence that weight loss on hypoenergetic regimens is altered by meal frequency. We conclude that any effects of meal pattern on the regulation of body weight are likely to be mediated through effects on the food intake side of the energy balance equation.
 
mackenziepiper, I'd keep it simple at first. What are your stats? Then post your goals. How long have you been eating the above menu? Do you workout? If so, what's your workout program like? Are you seeing results?

I like to keep things simple until I plateau and need to change something up. Then I dig a bit deeper and get a bit more involved. If you're just starting out, this process may help:

- Find out how many calories you need to eat each day to MAINTAIN your current body:

- If you have more than 15 pounds of fat to lose, subtract 150-250 calories from that total number. If you have LESS than 15 pounds of fat to lose consider eating 100-250 calories more per day (to build lean muscle)

- Once you have your new number, divide it by 6. Now you know approx. how many calories you need to eat at each meal.

As an example let's assume you should have 325 calories at each meal. A gram of protein contains 4 calories. A gram of carbs contains 4 calories. A gram of fat contains 9 calories.

If you want to follow a special ratio of carbs/proteins/fats then divide 325 by the percentages. Now you know how many proteins/carbs/fats to eat at each meal.

Keep in mind that MOST animal proteins contain enough fat. So there isn't a need to eat additional fat in most cases.

One caveat: if you only have a few pounds of fat to lose then your goal should be to add lean muscle and NOT focus on fat loss. Those are two different programs and would result in a different workout and nutrition plan.
 
wow...hi Lynn :) ,
Well I’m 21, 164cm, 58kg. I want to get down to 54kg and tone up my body more (abs and waist). I do nightfilling 3-4 evenings a week and it is fairly active…keeps you on your toes. It involves moving the whole night up and down step ladders, lifting boxes etc. I have been doing it for 4 years now and my arms, shoulders, thighs, and upper back are toned quite nice. I do other work that involves running around too during the day.

I have basically just been living on 3 meals a day but I know I wouldn’t have got very close to the calories I should be having. My workout routine involves my work, as I mentioned above. I also do swimming twice a week, skipping three times a week, and 30mins walk three times a week. As for weights, I do 9kg weights for my biceps, and lighter weights for my triceps…both of them 3 times a week, and I also do lunges and squats 3 times a week on the days I do the nightfilling. I hope that kind of helped clear it up lol

I used the calculator that you linked to and my calories per day is at 2081. Seeing as I only want to lose 4kgs (8.8lbs) I should be eating 2181-2331 in order to help build more muscle? I’d have 364 calories at each meal and of course as you kindly helped me out, with the ratio for protein, carbs, and fat, I now understand better how to go about getting my meals to balance.

Thanks so much for your help Lynn, this is a wonderful forum and I thank you for taking the time to help me out.
I’ll be sure to post around the board more often, am trying to find my feet with all the posts I want to read through lol

Have a good one :D
 
Hi there,
you've already gotten some good advice. The best way to get a good ratio of carbs, protein and fat is to include some of each in each meal. You can try to evenly balance carbs and protein in each meal and include a small amount of fat. Keep in mind that carbs and protein have 4 calories in each gram and that fat has 9 calories in each gram. So, you want to have much less fat than carbs and protein.

Here are some idea examples that you could change:
For breakfast 1/2 cup oats and 4 egg whites
For a snack cottage cheese and fruit
For lunch whole grain bread and lean meat and veggies
Later in the day try to eat lower glycemic carbs such as veggies and legumes

Hope that makes sense and let me know if I can help!

Sarah
 
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Thanks for the post Sarah :)
I will try some of those ideas out and see if it works for me. When I do my exercises in the morning, is it best to do them on an empty stomach or should I have my breakfast first? Don't know how much of a difference it would make, maybe you would know :)

Thanks again for the post..woohoo :D
 
mackenziepiper said:
Thanks for the post Sarah :)
I will try some of those ideas out and see if it works for me. When I do my exercises in the morning, is it best to do them on an empty stomach or should I have my breakfast first? Don't know how much of a difference it would make, maybe you would know :)

Thanks again for the post..woohoo :D
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There's no clear cut answer. Some people do fasted cardio and say they have great results. Research shows that a tiny bit more fat is burned doing fasted cardio than cardio after breakfast. However, the research also shows that the people who do fasted cardio are prone to be hungrier throughout the day than those who eat breakfast before cardio, and end up eating more.

I tend to encourage people to eat before doing cardio. Even people who aren't prone to low blood sugar episodes may find themselves having one and feeling weak, dizzy, faint. And eating a good meal will help you perform better. But if you do decide to try fasted cardio, make sure to drink plenty of water first and take a small snack with you just in case.

Sarah
 
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sarahfitchic said:
However, the research also shows that the people who do fasted cardio are prone to be hungrier throughout the day...
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I'll go for the option of not becoming a little more hungry then lol I have found that when I go swimming and having had a breakfast it does help...never tried without breakfast, so now I have an idea of what could happen.

Thanks a lot Sarah, have a good Sunday.
 
You're welcome. I just wanted to add that I agree with Sarah's advice. Eating before cardio is advisable (IMO), but NEVER do weights on an empty stomach. It's pretty much a closed case that eating before weight lifting is necessary :)

Best of luck!
 
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