To think that my PT is crazy .... just look at last weeks food diary

[mosschops30]

I have to send my food diary to my trainer every week (trying to lose 4 stone of baby weight, one stone left to go) This week she emailed me back and said 'yes its ok in some areas but we really need to work on your eating if you want that bikini body for your hols'
Now dont get me wrong, my goal is to be back to a size 8/10 and in a bikini but I really cant do any better with my eating and exercising.

Have a look and tell me what you think:

Mon 3rd
B - Bowl of cereal
L - Cheese & celery sandwich on wholemeal bread
D - Spaghetti carbonara (no cream, small amount of spaghetti)
(30 lengths swimming)

Tue 4th
B - Bowl of cereal
L - Humous & celery, onion bagel with cream cheese & a tomato
D - Homemade beef burgers (no bun) with salad

Wed 5th
B - Bowl of cereal
L - Jacket potato with beans & tuna (no mayo no butter)
D - Chicken breast with roasted veg
(1.5 hours gym)

Thurs 6th
B - Porridge & banana
L - Ham, chicken & swiss cheese baguette
D - Tuna steak & homemade ratatouille
(45 min spin class)

Fri 7th
B - Porridge & banana
L - Leftover ratatouiile & 3 ryvita
D - Homemade vegetable soup (no bread)
(i hr pilates class)

Agree with last poster. The diet looks OK but if trying to lose weight I'd go for more fruit and veg and less carb. I presume you also exercise on a weekend. Also what are you drinking? I need to reduce my alcohol intake if losing weight and drink more dilute squash.
If you ask 4 personal trainers for advice you'd probably get 4 different ideas on what to do though, I wouldn't spend money on them and just tend to up my exercise and fruit and veg and cut the fat, sweet stuff and savoury carb if trying to lose weight.
I'm quite sporty though so wouldn't want someone telling me how to plan my training programme, and there are loads of folk at the running club I could ask for advice if stuck, although some have decidedly weird diets. If you're not used to exercising regularly it probably helps to have someone to encourage you if your friends are inactive.

mosschops - I don't think you're giving us quite the full picture here. You say that you are having at least 5 a day fruit and veg, and yet you have listed food for Monday which includes only celery towards that.

Some of the carbs that you are eating (baked potatoes, bagels, baguette) are very high GI, and you would be far better off with a lower GI option such as brown rice or wholewheat pasta or quinoa.
2 pregnancies with gestational diabetes has really taught me a lot about GI and blood sugars, and I would thus also try to cut back on the cereal at breakfast time, replacing it with something more protein based (omelette, bacon and eggs, smoked salmon and eggs etc).

But on the whole it's very good, esp if you are managing not to snack in between meals.

Wow, many replies and lots of good advice.

Have you ever checked out your metabolic type? I am a Protein Type and DH is a mixed type. This means my body will function better on high protein, medium fat and low Carbs. DH is a mixed Type and his body functions better on a balanced mix of the three macro-nutrients each meal. So it would be difficult to give advice without knowing this. Does your Trainer actually tell you what you need to do or replace instead of just saying "you really need to work on your eating" which is no help at all.

When I am sent a food Diary the most important things I take into consideration the following
:
*Portion Sizes
*Balance of Macro-nutrients per meal
*Activity level for that day, type, length, intensity
*Adherence / Consistency

• Is the Food log 100% accurate including any cheats? This means you write down everything that passes you lips. *Occurring weight loss, if this is your goal. It sounds to me as if dress size is your goal so I wouldn't worry too much about what the scales say. If you want weight/fat loss I would request a weigh in sent to me every Monday so we could track changes and adapt eating accordingly.

This is the feedback I would give:

Have a look and tell me what you think:

Mon 3rd
B - Bowl of cereal (What Cereal? How Much? What milk? How much? )
L - Cheese & celery sandwich on whole meal bread (What cheese, how much, butter etc?)
D - Spaghetti carbonara (no cream, small amount of spaghetti)
(30 lengths swimming) (What pace ? how hard did you find it on a scale of 1-10?)

Tue 4th
B - Bowl of cereal (what type, how much, milk, what type? You get the picture)
L - Humous & celery, onion bagel with cream cheese & a tomato (Low fat Hummus? I would replace the Bagel for Rye, Pumpernickel or Sourdough bread and the Cheese with a good lean protein source i.e. Chicken, Turkey, Tuna, ham to increase your protein intake.)
D - Homemade beef burgers (no bun) with salad
(What salad, more detail please)

Wed 5th
B - Bowl of cereal(what type, how much, milk, what type?)
L - Jacket potato with beans & tuna (no mayo no butter)(1/2 Jaket Potaoe, whole poatoe? What beans, how much etc)
D - Chicken breast with roasted veg
(1.5 hours gym)(Doing what, list your workout and intensity levels?)

Thurs 6th
B - Porridge & banana
L - Ham, chicken & swiss cheese baguette ( shop baught or home made. Full bagette or half, butter? Would have been better without the cheese)
D - Tuna steak & homemade ratatouille
(45 min spin class)(Excellent!)

Fri 7th
B - Porridge & banana
L - Leftover ratatouiile & 3 ryvita
D - Homemade vegetable soup (no bread)(No protein here all day, eggs, meat of fish is needed in at leat one meal of the day).
(i hr pilates class)

I guess what I?m saying is I would make the Client give me as many details as possible as portion size is a big problem when people are trying to lose weight even if they are eating healthily. It means more work for me but better results for the Client. I would reduce white Carbs to a minimum and cheese replacing it with any vegetables of your choice. If you east clean you will get results, slowly but surely.

Hope it helps

Hmm I can see that last weeks example probably wasnt a very good indicator.
When I have salad its usually a fair mix of lettuce/cucumber/tomatoes/peppers/oinion/sweetcorn/avocado
also when i do the roated veg it includes butternut squash, courgette, peppers, onions, similarly ratatouiie includes tomatoes/aubergine/courgette/peppers

so in each other those meals is usually 4 of the 5 a day.
I rarely eat bagels, it was a treat (anlthough how the fuck a bagel can be a treat I dont know, thats how sad all this eating thing is).

Im seeing her tonight and she is going to go through the food diary and new training programme.

I would say you need to increase the exercise if possible.

Increase the exercise diddl?!

Are you mad?????????? increase from 5 times a week to what?? every day????

so far this week I have done:

saturday - gym
sunday - swim
monday body combat class
tuesday - gym
wednesday - my only day off
thursday - is spin class day
friday - will be pilates

Yes!

If possible a bit of power walking a couple of times a day?

I bike every day but have now started walking for half an hour first thing in the morning & again in the evening.

I do not think that your food intake is high or carb-heavy. It seems like a fairly austere diet, especially with that amount of excercise, and if you are actually losing weight / size, then I would NOT decrease any further. you will affect your metabolism and risk yo yo dieting and poutting it all back on.

Also, with that amount of excercise you may well be toning up, losing inches, but not weight, because muscle is much heavier than fat.

Concentrate on excercise and muscle tone, not starving yourself.

And well done for losing 3 stone.

diddl i walk ds1 to school and back every day which is 40 mins in total.
I really dont think I need to exercise more, I am happy with what Im doing without going OTT.

Thanks DOW i know there are bits of my diet I need to work on but we'll iron that out tonight. I agree, I think becoming obsessed with carbs etc is not a good way to eat, I cant stand all these things that are impossible to maintain, i want to get the weight off and keep it off, not get it all off super quick and then put it back on

Oh no with that walking as well-I find that exercise spread out throughout the day works better.

And eating my main meal at lunch is better for me-but I know that´s not possible for everyone.

Cut the carbs and add some weights training into your workout plan, it will speed up you metabolism. Dh has to cut weight for martial arts fights on a regular basis and if you can eat a lot of lean protein, eggs and fruit and veg, the last stubborn bit will shift.

Weight training builds muscle which burns more calories than the same amount of body fat too so is good for long term weight loss. Dont use big weights and you wont bulk up. PT can tell you this.

She INBU - the last bit of weight is the hardest to lose, also your body gets used to reduced rations/excercise so you do end up needing to step it up.

But blooming well done - 3 stone is a massive achievement! Make sure you arent overdoing it...

How much exercise you do really depends on what you are doing at the gym. If you're on the running machine or one of the aerobic machines at a good pace for 40+ minutes it is intensive exercise. I have seen women at the gym in full make up who spend most of their time chatting and pushing the odd light weight up in the air occasionally, much like the women at the pool who do 2 lengths then chat for 5 minutes and repeat the pattern for an hour. I doubt their pulse gets much above 80.
The exercise regime sounds varied, but most of the folk I know who do exercise regularly eventually find 1 or 2 sports that suit them and go regularly, building up a social network in that sport and training for particular races etc. Doing a bit of everything and it all very gym based might make it seem a bit aimless. If you enjoy it then that'll keep you going I suppose.

Well, as "ineffective" as my short term, lose 1 stone diet was, the weight stayed off for 3 years (until I became pregnant), and I am perfectly healthy, although thank you for your concern.

I don't really think I need to see a Dr though, given that there's nothing wrong with me, and I"m not ill. But again, thanks for your concern! I'm not quite sure where you get that I see food as some kind of weakness - all I said was that what I found useful for losing the last stone was a fairly strict diet, high in veg, salad and lean protein - it's hardly an eating disorder when I'm eating 3 meals a day.

But anyhoo, this isn't about me - OP losing 3 stone is fantastic, and if you're still losing weight and are happy, then that's great too.

But I still plan to re-do my diet if I can't shift the baby weight

"Dont use big weights and you wont bulk up. PT can tell you this."

Actually you will find that most PTs will tell you that as a woman you will find it very hard to "bulk up" without doing an intensive heavy weight lifting programme. It's a common myth that women should use light weights with lots of reps. Bullshit, get moving some metal.

load up your meals with veg (the increased fibre content of the overall meal helps) and increase your intake of fruit

Well ive lost another 5lbs and another 3% body fat. Am now down to 9st 2lbs and have 9lbs to goal weight.

She mentioned the protien, cutting out red meat, more fish and chicken, more vegetables and fruit as a snack rather than with breakfast.

Have a new training schedule now for the next month. Bring it on, the bikini deadline is in sight

Well done! Can't argue with 5lbs weight loss. Question - if you are losing weight on the current regime, why change?

no reason, I am over the moon with my weight loss and body fat percentage dwindling!
She said that the constant change in gym sessions and the mixture of exercising will ensure there is no tail off as the body wont get used to one thing.
My OP was about the diet, which it turns out wasnt that bad just need to include what I mentioned below, which a lot of people pointed out

Well done!