Obsessive calorie and protein counting

[dvsxx6]

Hey all.

So I have an obsession with counting calories and protein. I have the idea of "the less calories you take in, the less body fat you'll have. Or the less you'll have to work out". And the more protein you have, the more weight you'll lose. Maybe that's true to a certain degree, but my sister told me that counting calories isn't good. I may be depriving my body of the nutrients that I need and I may actually be causing more harm to myself than good. So I'm wondering in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, what would I base my diet on instead of simply counting calories and protein? Obviously I would look for how many grams of fat, trans fat, and sodium [salt isn't very good either], eat veggies and fruits [i eat a lot of these], but I'm confused and a bit skeptical about what to believe or what I should look out for. I was told to go on the 1500-1700 calorie diet & I would like to maintain my weight of 103. I eat things that are about 160 calories or less per meal. I know that seems pretty low and I want to change that. I just don't want to mess up my metabolism when I'm older [i'm 21] and I want to always eat healthily and exercise [i exercise about 5-6x week]

 

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[Tony T]

You need to base your diet on calorie counting. However, you need to make sure that the calories you take in are from nutritious foods in all the food groups. There are millions of great nutrition web sites on the Internet so let Google be your friend.

 

I also suggest you take a very good vitamin supplement according to directions.

 

Lots of veggies, fruits, chicken, fish and lean meat should all be part of your diet. Don't omit carbs like breads, pastas, rice, etc., but go easy on them. Your life should stop just because you're on a diet.

[Darkzen]

Simply, eat whatever you want once you find a balance of activity to food intake. When I got out of the Army I stopped being active (3-5 mile runs 5 days a week, push-ups, etc...), but never reduced my appetite to match. Over the years I put on close to 80lbs. Two summers ago, I began trying to get back in shape and healthy. The main thing that people do not realize is, do not make changes to your lifestyle that you will not be able to live with. I stopped drinking empty calories (only diet soda, very rarely juice, etc...), I started exercising (not some amount that I couldn't keep doing either) and lastly I learned about how much I could roughly eat without gaining weight. Sometimes I eat a little more and sometimes a little less, but overall I stay in that neighborhood. When I'm exceptionally active I eat more, when I'm exceptionally inactive I eat less. It's worked great so far, I added about 40lbs of muscle and maintained my bodyweight (although the shape has changed).

 

Now that my weight and diet are stable, plus I have maintained this stability for at least a year... I started up ju-jitsu classes to trim and tone. I'm way too heavy to run yet, it'll destroy my knees. Once I drop the excess weight from cardio (ju-jitsu), I'll be able to add in running and other exercises to further lower my body fat.

 

It's all about steps and not making drastic changes to your lifestyle. Counting calories and measuring portions is for people that are either unable to control themselves or have to maintain a certain look for professional reasons (such as body-builders, models, fighters, etc...). If you're a regular joe/jane, no need to be extreme. I heard Bruce Lee used to blend all his meals into liquid form, to conserve the energy his body needed in the digestion process. That's just unnecessary imho, but then again I never really needed to jump 6 ft in the air from a standing position either.

 

Although, if it's something that you enjoy, go ahead and count/measure to your heart's content.

[dvsxx6]

I know most girls my age or just people in general try to avoid carbs. I think that is one of the dumbest things ever. How in the hell could you have energy without carbs?! That's just ridiculous and impratical and I would never be able to do that long term. I tried it for a lil' while and I actually gained weight cause I'd binge eat. Just a stupid idea.

[dvsxx6]

Lots of veggies, fruits, chicken, fish and lean meat should all be part of your diet. Don't omit carbs like breads, pastas, rice, etc., but go easy on them. Your life should stop just because you're on a diet.

 

I don't know HOW people can possibly live on a low-carb diet. That has got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever. There is no way that's practical and it's just a ridiculous idea. I remember I tried it, and after a couple of days I just could not take it and ate anything and everything. The low carb is very unrealistic. Those people that do it for long periods of time must be super human or something..

 

 

I guess there's just got to be a balance of all the food groups. Everything in moderation. I think maybe I'd still need to count calories, but I have to make sure that the fat, trans fat, sodium, and chlorestorol are low and that the calorie count for the entire day is between 1500-1700 to maintain my current weight

 

anyway, Thanks for the replies

[amaysngrace]

So are you taking in 1600 to 1700 calories or are you only eating 160 calories three times a day? (= 480 calories )

[Tony T]

I just found this link which answers your question. Hopefully, there's some information in the story you can use. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20414799/

[youngandhopeful]

if your going to the gym 5-6 times a week, you need to mae sure your feeding your body. You said you want to maintain your weight, so why are you calorie counting so intensly. Why don't you just eat healthily, without worrying about the calories, and just weight yourself each week. If you notice your weight dropping, eat more, if your putting on weight, cut down on your intake.

 

In my opinion you don't need to worry too much about what your consuming, as long as you don't eat lots of fatty foods. It seems strange to me that you were conscious about your protein intake. Really unless you want to build muscle, you don't need you protein to be higher than the RDA.

 

Good luck x

[StartFresh]

Calorie counting and protein counting are good, I do that too, but you need to pair that with carb and fat counting as well. I stick to a 40/40/20 (daily %'s) of protein/carbs/fats (mono and polyunsaturated).

 

1600-1700 calories sounds low, especially for someone of your age. You might want to be more in the area of 2000-2100, more if you are active. Stack your complex carbs in the earlier portion of the day, weigning them off as the day goes on. My last main serving of carbs is usually lunch (brown rice) with the exception of wheat toast with dinner simply because I go to the gym after work and need carbs for my workout. If I dont work out at night, dinner is typically some form of protein (eggs, chicken, fish) and vegetables.

 

103lb's is very small, how tall are you?

 

-SF

[johan]

If you want to do it right, here's what you do:

 

1) Buy a good digital scale.

 

2) Download (free) software that reports the nutrient values of all kinds of foods. I did it, they are out there.

 

The software I found allowed me to enter the particular weight of the food I was eating and then would report back the vitamins, minerals, macro-nutrients (cholesterol, water, protein, carbohydrates, fat, etc.), and amino acids in the food.

 

I would build meals based on nutrients. What has the most vitamin A? Carrots. So plan to have some of those. What about vitamin D? Olive oil, so get some of that. What about vitamin E? The only decent source is mushrooms. They aren't good for much else. Zinc? Meat or, surprisingly, napa cabbage. Vitamin C? Two oranges will do it. And so on. Tuna is great for providing most of the amino acids, and it doesn't carry the cholesterol that eggs have. Soy is also good. I don't remember where I got the B vitamins or most of the minerals, but I had to get certain foods to provide those if what I already had planned didn't already cover them.

 

I found that I could eat these things all day, feel full pretty much all the time, and i was still somewhere between 1500 and 2000 Calories, which really wasn't enough. And there was no need for any multi-vitamins.

 

I cut and paste the weights of what I ate into a spreadsheet which would sum up the like values of all the foods I ate in a day, and at the end of the day I could see what I was deficient in. I could see if I was high in fat or cholesterol or whatever.

 

But I was getting all the nutrients recommended for a day. Except fiber. It's difficult to get the recommended amount of fiber (around 35 grams). There aren't many foods that have more than 3 to 5 grams in a serving. Even high-fiber cereals don't provide more than about 7 grams in a serving. So you might have to supplement that.

 

That was fun for about 2 weeks. Then I got sick of it. But I learned a lot. It's actually pretty fun to do.

 

One thing you'll learn is that you really have no idea what the food values of some foods are. You'll learn to only eat things that have lots of certain things. And you'll find out that some foods that you thought might be good for you are pretty much as worthless as a Snickers bar.

 

There are "superfoods". You can base an entire diet on walnuts, oatmeal, blueberries, oranges, napa cabbage, bread, turkey, carrots, broccoli, olive oil, flax seed oil and a few others I can't remember (all that data is on my other computer.)

 

I doubt you'll get as carried away as I did, even though I will say I had fun doing it.

[StartFresh]

^^ I used www.fitday.com

 

Its free, might not report the exact nutrient values but its defenitely eye opening in terms of the calories in the foods you eat, along with how much protein, carbs, and fats they contain.

[shadowofman]

I recommend any books by Dr. Loren Cordain (sport med. prof. at Colorado State) or Joe Friel (triathelon coach).

There basic philosophy is:

Lean Meat (fats: try to eat monounsats and polyunsats/omega3/6/9 in equal amounts)

Fresh Fruits (traditionally humans only ate these in the spring/summer, to bulk up for winter)

Fresh Veggies (no legumes, no tubers; other than that, you can't overeat veggies)

If you are going to work out alot, you will need to add some carbs like grains and potatoes after a workout.

Protein takes more calories to burn than they provide. You should be getting all your vitamins from fruits and veggies if you are diverse. If you are eating the right foods, then you would have no need to count calories. You couldn't eat enough lean meat and veggies.

One more important thing. NO DAIRY

Very high in saturated fat. Proteins that could cause auto immune diseases. And a messed up pH to your kidneys. Interestingly, the milk industry would have you think that old people should be consuming mass quantities of milk for the calcium in order to prevent osteoprosis. In fact, high doses of acidic dairy foods will cause your kidneys to pull an alkaline substance from your body. As it would turn out, calcium from the bones is the most available source. So drinking milk is actually causing osteoprosis and the industry knows it.

[StartFresh]

One more important thing. NO DAIRY

Very high in saturated fat. Proteins that could cause auto immune diseases. And a messed up pH to your kidneys. Interestingly, the milk industry would have you think that old people should be consuming mass quantities of milk for the calcium in order to prevent osteoprosis. In fact, high doses of acidic dairy foods will cause your kidneys to pull an alkaline substance from your body. As it would turn out, calcium from the bones is the most available source. So drinking milk is actually causing osteoprosis and the industry knows it.

 

I've never heard that before. I drink a gallon of milk every 5 days or so. I have 3 protein shakes a day made with milk. i do use skim milk to minimize unnecessary fat intake though. I will investigate into this. Any further reading on the kidney issue would be appreciated.

[shadowofman]

Here is paleodiet.com

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/nutritional_tools/acid.shtml

Basically, humans are never meant to consume milk of a cow. And no human milk after what, two years old. We learned how to get milk from beasts because we are so smart. But we weren't smart enough to understand what it has been doing to us. Meanwhile the dairy industry has branwashed people into thinking that milk is "wholesome". The FDA just added more recommended servings to the food pyramid.

[FleshNBones]

Here is paleodiet.com

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/nutritional_tools/acid.shtml

Basically, humans are never meant to consume milk of a cow. And no human milk after what, two years old. We learned how to get milk from beasts because we are so smart. But we weren't smart enough to understand what it has been doing to us. Meanwhile the dairy industry has branwashed people into thinking that milk is "wholesome". The FDA just added more recommended servings to the food pyramid.

Maybe we were meant to eat bugs.

http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/PDF/pdf2006/2Feb/Banjo%20et%20al.pdf

[FleshNBones]

Here are some more nutritious bugs. You can get some calcium from the little buggers.

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/misc/insectnutrition.html

 

 

I believe there is a lot of nutritional value to bone marrow and brain.

http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-offal-lamb-brain-braised_f-Y2lkPTQxMDgyJmJpZD0xJmZpZD03MDE0NiZwYXI9.html

[shadowofman]

We are meant to eat bugs. I would actually love to start trying. They are awesome for you.