Ideal diet for a 45 year old man

[Moose]

Some of you know this about me. I used to drink but have quit for several months now with no plans of returning to that lifestyle.

 

During these few months I've been riding my mountain bike 2 times a week doing 10-12 miles on Tuesdays and 15-18 miles on Thursday.

 

I'm also planning on running a couple miles on Saturdays. (The Thursday through Tuesday stretch is hard to do without needing a long recovery time after my rides on Tuesdays.)

 

Can anyone point me to an "Ideal" diet, supplements, tips that I can use regularly and consistantly throughout the week to maximize the benefits of my workouts?

 

Also, I am seperated now and have plenty of room for a bow-flex or some sort of weight lifting equipment that I want to use to build my upper body...

 

This may have been discussed already, so apologies if so....thanks!!

[tman666]

When determining your dietary needs, the first thing you need to do is look at your total caloric needs. If you're trying to gain weight, you need to take in more calories than you're burning off. If you're trying to lose weight, you need to take in less that you're burning. Probably the best way to do this, assuming you've been at a stable weight for a while, is to track your current diet carefully for a week or two to determine exactly what you're currently eating in the way of calories and macronutrients. A food scale helps with this. Once you've determined your maintenance calories, you can either add a daily 300-500 calorie surplus or subtract a 300-500 calorie deficit, depending on whether or not you're looking to gain or cut down.

 

The next step is to determine your protein needs. For someone who is active such as yourself, I would recommend that you shoot for about 1 gram of protein per lb. of desired lean body mass per day. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs right now and are pretty lean, but you'd like to be a lean 170, eat around 160-180 grams of protein per day.

 

From there, subtract the amount of protein calories from your total caloric intake that you determined. For example, if you are trying to eat 2,800 calories per day, and you're eating 180 grams of protein per day, you'd subtract 720 calories from 2800 to get the remaining caloric intake amount for the day. A gram of protein contains 4 calories, a gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories, and a gram of fat contains 9 calories. Figure up alcohol at 7 cal/gram.

 

From there, you can determine what you'll need in terms of calories from carbs and fat. You can manipulate the ratio of carbs and fats depending on your activity level and preferred food choices. On days where you've had a lot of physical activity, you should try to get more of your calories from carbohydrates, where on days that you're more sedentary, you'd probably want to minimize carbs and make up calories from healthy fats (from sources like avocados, olive oil, nuts, and some animal fats).

 

There are endless ways that a person can obsess over and tweak their diets. Personally, I hate counting calories/macros/etc. What has worked the best for me is to track my progress in terms of physique and performance. If I'm gaining weight when I don't to be, it means I need to eat less overall. If I'm not gaining enough weight, it means I need to eat more overall. Nutrition and fitness is one of those things that's sort of a result of a running average. If you train hard and eat well 90 percent of the time, the other 10 percent of the time you can ease up on the reigns a bit. Obsessing and stressing over one's diet is silly, in my opinion. Learning what your basic protein requirements are and then eating according to what you like, while paying attention to how much you're eating is probably the most important thing. The other minutia is just that: small potatoes. A lot of people fall into the trap of obsessing over the small things, which can lead to more stress than the big picture is worth.

[FitChick]

There are online calorie trackers that are useful. Here is an article reviewing a few. Buy some measuring cups, measuring spoons and a food scale if you really want to be accurate.

[EasyHeart]

Meat and vegetables.

 

yw

[Imported]

Get a gym membership.

 

For home, I keep it simple because of space and because I workout at the gym usually anyway.

 

I just have an Ironmaster Superbench, the 120lbs quick-lock dumbbell set as well as a barbell and the dip and pull-up attachment that goes on the bench.

 

Ironmaster - Strength Multiplied

 

Ironmaster - Strength Multiplied

 

I had a set of powerblocks before this and much perfer the feel of the ironmaster dumbbells. Takes a few more seconds to change weight, but feels way more solid.

[shorty7]

I'm lazy, so I'm just gonna quote myself and highlight some important tidbits:

 

 

Here's some advice that I know to be effective:

1) Always eat at home.

2) Eat on smaller plates. Put away your dinner plates and use your salad plates as your "dinner plates".

3) use this formula on said smaller plate (as if you were looking at it like a pie chart):

a) 10% should be "white space" -- nothing on it

b) 50% should be Vegetables. Not frozen, fresh and/or steamed would be best. Have variety in texture and color.

c) 15% should be carbs (brown rice and/or tofu noodles in lieu of traditional pasta noodles are recommended)

d) 20% should be protein (fish and chicken are recommended)

e) 5% should be liquids this can include soup and/or drinks

 

4) Cut out sugary drinks like juice and soda altogether, drink water. And lots of it.

5) THROW AWAY ALL THE JUNK FOOD IN THE HOUSE. Seriously.

6) Go grocery shopping AFTER a full meal. That way you'll only stick to things you need to stock up on instead of buying on impulse.

7) Eat Large breakfasts, medium sized lunches, and small suppers (Eat like a King for Breakfast, A commoner for lunch, a pauper for dinner...something along those lines)

8) ONLY EAT UNTIL YOU'RE ABOUT 80% FULL.

 

Good note on carbs: Whole wheat bread and/or brown rice is good, just remember to chew a lot before swallowing as they can be harsh on your stomach.

 

A diet really shouldn't be about the foods you eat but more about how you eat. As long as you keep to healthy habits, you shouldn't have problems.

 

For optimal and best results, take your pie-chart meal and eat in THIS ORDER:

1) Veggies first

2) Protein next

3) Carbs last

 

In other words, RESIST ALL TEMPTATION to reach for that dinner roll at the restaurant table until you've had at least your salad and soup first.

[fit4future]

hye,

there are pedometers which count your heart beat rate, running rate, running speed etc......

it helps you to increase your workout time or calculate your workout time and you can buy pedometers or MOVBands directly from online it is really helpful to calculate your energy:bunny::bunny:

[fucpcg]

Like I tell everyone else, buy the book The Zone Diet.

[whichwayisup]

Not a joke here Moosey..Seriously, consider going to a cooking class. Learn as much as you can about cooking healthy foods.

[USMCHokie]

One of my good friends at work coined the term, The Lion-Horse Diet. Ever see lions and horses? They're f*ckin' huge!! Just eat what they eat.

 

And join a gym. Much better than a home gym that will sooner gather dust.

[johan]

While I've been off of running I made a big pot of chicken soup and another one of chili. I portioned them out into salsa containers I've saved and froze them. It's what I ate every night for dinner for the past three weeks. I'm visibly more lean now.