Please critique my diet plan - calorie counting for the first time?

[dudsville]

I'm new to this section of mn and see a lot of threads I want to have a read of, but I came here to ask for your advice on my eating plan. I think I need to start calorie counting. Thankfully I don't need a lot of variety from day to day, and I know from past attempts that simply counting the calories of what I eat as I go (i.e. my fitness pal) is too much of a pita. I don't want to have to count every thing all day long, so I want to just get a set menu of items for every day, and I like to pick rather than have set meals, so my plan is to eat the following between getting up and getting home from work. I googled the average calories of each:

red bell pepper sticks 40, tinned tuna 70 and tbsp mayo 94

peanut butter 1 tbsp 94 and sliced apple 95

cottage cheese 98 per 100 g and cherry toms 18 per 100g

mozarella stick 80

hard boiled eggs 2x78

grapefruit 42

= 775 calories

I like all of this. Does it look ok?

Thank you Sacrebleu and 1800 cake of protein and fat with less than 10 gr of carb ? I just want to lose 10bs and have started exercising and IF to achieve this it’s slow going menopause 😂

Yeah, that should work.

IF is easy when you're in ketosis. 18/6 or 20/4 are good windows.

What kind of exercise do you do?

My plan is 4/5 yoga 3 days CrossFit plus walking with mindful diet 🤔

CrossFit is brilliant but it's highly anaerobic. Yoga is a brilliant choice too. Together that is a great combination.

So ... give it a few weeks to see how you feel energy wise with CrossFit. You may need to lower the weights to do the work because performance in CrossFit necessitates carbs unfortunately. Weight training you can get away with low carb. With CrossFit it is a lot tougher to hide from the carbs.

If you feel sluggish then add a protein shake + 50 g of dextrose post CrossFit workout only (within an hour).

Dextrose is basically pure glucose. It will get very quickly absorbed into your muscles as glycogen immediately after a workout and won't be converted to fat if you hit the window. It's not a lot but it could help. Over time your body will produce glucose from fat and restore muscle glycogen.

Whatever you do stay away from fructose (apples pears) post workout; it's almost poison as it doesn't get absorbed by muscles.

There's a lot of info here. I'm going to need time to "digest" it!

I know that restricting when I eat doesn't suit me. I've never done that, whereas I can change what I eat because I do prefer healthy food and had got into bad routines. I do naturally like to eat between 7:30/8 and 5/6 PM and then be finished. I'm not a picker of things or sweets.

I am counting calories over the week, as suggested above. I thought that was a cheat so glad to know others are doing it too!

I've since adjusted my original calorie count of things - different sites say different things so I've chosen to go with the highest estimates.

I have an office job and don't exercise, but I get an hour's walk with the dog daily.

I'll have to read the rest later. I really don't know anything about blood sugar, etc., thank you sacreblue but that will take me some time to understand!

@dudsville

It does take time to absorb. I find it's easier for me to do something when understand why I do it.

It's really about the insulin and knowing when you produce it. Once you get a handle on that everything else makes sense including not eating at all (fasting).

You'll need to find what works for you. We are all slightly different but the baseline biochemistry is the same for all humans.

I have an office job and don't exercise, but I get an hour's walk with the dog daily.

You could try slow running with your dog. Like this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9L2b2khySLE

If you are not a runner it's an ideal pace to start with and plenty do run at a slow pace with their dogs. You'd be burning fat as well as increasing your fitness too. You can run/ walk using the technique above if you prefer too.

This article outlines some of the benefits of slow running/jogging.

www.championseverywhere.com/niko-niko-pace-gentle-path-success/

It's how I started running. Thought I could not run previously very well at all until I tried this. Ran for half an hour for the first time without being breathless straight off on trying the technique outlined in the clip.

Very good advice @silverystream

I would personally go for weightlifting but light jogging can do wonders as well

Could do both, Sacre. I find it easy to fit a run in as I can do it from the door. If OP is going out with her dog anyway it might be quite easy to fit some running in.

Wow sacreblue thank you what amazing information ! Dudsville sorry for hijaking your thread ! I’m hoping to give it a start next week I’m in fitness retreat in turkey at the moment !

Very true.

Only caveat is body weight which we don't know about. Heavier people probably should not run until they've lost weight as injury could take hold.

If excess weight is a stone or two that probably is ok.

Instead of running and in case of high body weight I would row or cycle.

Anyway good luck OP!

Depends, Sacre. I was quite heavy (over 12 st @ 5ft 7). Good technique in running makes a huge difference. Slow running, like in the clip, is not much more stress on joints than fast walking. A year later and I'm running much faster (without extra effort) and nearly 3st lighter! I can also plank properly now whereas before I could only do a 'cheat's' plank due to back issues.

I have run barefoot too (on soft surfaces), wear 0 drop shoes with roomy toe box to allow the toes to flex and absorb shock.

@silverystream

Same. I converted to "barefoot " style in 2011 and the pain in hips and knees disappeared. I also picked up 20 seconds per mile immediately.

But 75% of people who wear fat soled running shoes land on their heels and so damage themselves. As such, weight will matter for a good proportion of the population who want to run.

Advising on running really is dependent on the person

Advising on running really is dependent on the person

Granted. But I really, really, felt I'd been given a gift when I discovered I could run, that is, after discovering correct technique. I don't think running should be automatically dismissed because some people run with a technique which risks injury. I run just about every day now. Just because I can. It's like I'm continually 'pinching myself' waiting to wake up.

I need to lose half a stone I've put on over 6 months ... I tried counting calories and it drives me nuts !! I obsess over food and eT low cal shit like Special K Bars !!!!
I'm going to cut carbs and eat healthy. Also I find it keeps me fuller

Try IF too. Reduces blood insulin levels and fat storage