I was wondering if someone could help me with a diet/nutrition question. I recently lost 20 pounds in six months and do cardio about three times a week and about an hour of free weight training on the other days, taking one or two days off. I am wondering how to work on my diet to maximize energy and get more cut, decreasing body fat while not necessarily losing more weight. I am a 31 yr old female, 5'4", 128 lbs at about 18.4% body fat. A typical days food for me: breakfast oatmeal, yogurt, banana; snack: cheese and wasa crackers; lunch: oatmeal, yogurt, plum; snack: vegetables; dinner: an egg white omelette with veggies or a plate of steamed veggies and banana bread. I do eat some junk here and there. I drink coffee and water, some milk. I've recently added flaxseed to my diet. I feel I have plateaued with decreasing body fat since I want to get more cut.
How to decrease body fat?
- Thread starter enigma31
- Start date
Trevor10
New member
just from seeing those certain foods, i would say up your protein intake a bit more. More protein= more muscle mass saved when losing weight...i know your female, but to maximize your fat loss, all you have to do is eat less. But to continue to hold on to the muscle you have, or at least minimize muscle loss, eat more protein.
6 meals a day have no bearing on weight loss - it doesn't make you more or less effective... it's total calories consumed durig the day...
Sources of proten - Check the nutriition forum - or search this forum -there's a few threads on it... but beans, tofu, eggs, turkey breast, pork tenderloin...
Sources of proten - Check the nutriition forum - or search this forum -there's a few threads on it... but beans, tofu, eggs, turkey breast, pork tenderloin...
You're relatively lean considering you're a female, good job. How did you go about determining your bodyfat%?
I agree with Trevor, you're diet is really lacking in protein. I understand that protein isn't the easiest of nutrients to get in, simply b/c the primary source of it comes from meats and most people don't have the time or the patience to go around cooking meats at every meal. That's where advanced preparation of such foods really comes in handy. For instance, I usually grill my meats two nights per week for the entire week. Once cooked, I measure them out and put each serving in the fridge. Now, something that was a pain in the ass to eat before is just as easy as any of the other foods in my diet.
Proteins: Chicken breast, turkey breast, pork tenderloin, lean ground beef, flank or top round steaks, low/no fat cottage cheese, any low/no fat dairy for that matter, fish, protein powders (can really give you that bump in protein if you are having trouble getting adequate amounts in dietarily), eggs, etc, etc.
Some other foods I label 'fats' also contain protein which add to the 'pot.' Things like nuts and peanut butter.
And this is by no means a complete list.
I'd work on getting the diet composition improved for starters. Once you get that under wraps, and if your diet still isn't working, we can start talking about some sort of cyclical diet possibly.
How are you currently measuring your foods? Do you use a food scale?
Also, more meals per day isn't really a factor when it comes to speeding up your metabolism. It can help regulate hunger and insulin for some, but not always. So eat how you feel works best for you in terms of giving you energy and avoiding as much hunger as possible.
is a pretty nifty tool you can check out.
I agree with Trevor, you're diet is really lacking in protein. I understand that protein isn't the easiest of nutrients to get in, simply b/c the primary source of it comes from meats and most people don't have the time or the patience to go around cooking meats at every meal. That's where advanced preparation of such foods really comes in handy. For instance, I usually grill my meats two nights per week for the entire week. Once cooked, I measure them out and put each serving in the fridge. Now, something that was a pain in the ass to eat before is just as easy as any of the other foods in my diet.
Proteins: Chicken breast, turkey breast, pork tenderloin, lean ground beef, flank or top round steaks, low/no fat cottage cheese, any low/no fat dairy for that matter, fish, protein powders (can really give you that bump in protein if you are having trouble getting adequate amounts in dietarily), eggs, etc, etc.
Some other foods I label 'fats' also contain protein which add to the 'pot.' Things like nuts and peanut butter.
And this is by no means a complete list.
I'd work on getting the diet composition improved for starters. Once you get that under wraps, and if your diet still isn't working, we can start talking about some sort of cyclical diet possibly.
How are you currently measuring your foods? Do you use a food scale?
Also, more meals per day isn't really a factor when it comes to speeding up your metabolism. It can help regulate hunger and insulin for some, but not always. So eat how you feel works best for you in terms of giving you energy and avoiding as much hunger as possible.
is a pretty nifty tool you can check out.
Darth Pooh
New member
Fitday misses out on a lot of BRAND foods, so you have to enter those manually but it's still a great tool for logging. (Kashi cereal comes to mind for me).
Can't agree enough about protein shakes being a GREAT source of protein especially when you need to get both calories and protein in... problem I see with that is, women have much less calories than men (not ALL, just in comparison between me and my girlfriend), and drinking 110 calories for one scoop of protein can be 110 sorely missed calories (Personally I need two scoops a day for 46 grams of protein, I can't cook that much in advance or I will let it go to waste, I am not a LEFTOVER guy).
Can't agree enough about protein shakes being a GREAT source of protein especially when you need to get both calories and protein in... problem I see with that is, women have much less calories than men (not ALL, just in comparison between me and my girlfriend), and drinking 110 calories for one scoop of protein can be 110 sorely missed calories (Personally I need two scoops a day for 46 grams of protein, I can't cook that much in advance or I will let it go to waste, I am not a LEFTOVER guy).
ali2
New member
Is there an assumption that the incresed protein will lead to greater muscle mass rather than an increase of weight due to increased calories?
I would assume that if she isn't gaining or losing on her current diet, that the addition of more protien (either by way of a shake or actual food) would result in a caloric surplus. Is the assumption that the surplus will be used to fuel increased cardio/weight activity, therefore reducing what remaining body fat there is?
My first attempt at a 'technical' discussion - if I am way off here or don't know a thing, be gentle w/me, I have had a rough day today
I would assume that if she isn't gaining or losing on her current diet, that the addition of more protien (either by way of a shake or actual food) would result in a caloric surplus. Is the assumption that the surplus will be used to fuel increased cardio/weight activity, therefore reducing what remaining body fat there is?
My first attempt at a 'technical' discussion - if I am way off here or don't know a thing, be gentle w/me, I have had a rough day today
Doc Bunkum
New member
Based on that question alone - and taking 18.4% body fat as accurate - what's really happening is that you're carrying a lot of water in your tissues, as well as a small amount of subcutaneous fat that makes you look "smooth".
The only way to attack that problem is to tightly control your carbohydrates. And no, I'm not suggesting you go on a low carb diet. A much better approach is to cycle your carbs around your exercise days. After all, you need carbs for energy.
Won't go into more detail here as this is beyond the scope of this forum. But check you PM's. I'll send a reference to more info - if you're really sincere about "cutting".
BTW, take into consideration the other suggestions about paying more attention to quality foods in your diet. There's a saying that more fat is burned in the kitchen than in the gym. Or was it more muscle is built in the kitchen than in the gym? Either way, the same principle still applies.
Oh heck, I'll just put a link here in case anyone else might be interested. I see the original site is down, but there's a copy on this site. Not as easy to read here as the original, but still a pile of good info.
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Hey, everyone thanks so much for the help! Steve, that makes sense about preparing protein ahead of time. I'll try that. And Doc Bunkum, that article helped so much. I knew that fat loss was different from weight loss but that really explained it. I figured out my carbs and proteins for the cycling diet, and I'm going to start tomorrow. I do mostly eat complex carbs but I'm going to up my protein with eggs, tuna and peanut butter, etc. I'll let you know how it goes. Does anyone know if by doing the cycling diet I will be losing actual poundage or just looking leaner? I weighed in at 126.7 tonight and am curious to see if I'll actually lose inches and pounds or just inches. I'll be doing a combination of weight training and cardio tonight.
Other other thing! I just checked the carbs and proteins on the food I eat and now I'm starting to see how if I eat them in different quantities than what I'm eating, I can eat way more food by way of protein. I can't wait to try this. I hope this is what I need to break through to that next level. For example I have the horizontal and vertical lines faintly visible on my stomach and my obliques are getting more prominent. I've been wondering what I had to do to keep making progress.