Eating properly and strength training

[LivingMyBestLifeAt60]

Hi everyone. About 18 months ago I was 100lbs overweight and a committed couch potato.
I am now 80lbs down and a lot healthier.
I found eating low carb, omad and lots of walking really worked.
My son has convinced me to start going to the gym with him, even though I thought i was way too old and I would hate it, I found that I'm really enjoying it.
He has helped me build a program and he (gently) pushes me every week.
I know i need to change the way I eat now to get the most benefit though, but a bit apprehensive about changing my diet too much.
How do I increase my protein intake and still continue to lose a little more weight?

Alter your ratio of carbs and protein around.
Have a good source of protein every meal.

I have full fat Greek yogurt, nuts and berries every morning. It give me protein, keeps me full and stops me snacking , so helps my weight loss.

Weightlifting is great!

Have you worked out how much protein you actually need and compared that to how much you are getting in your diet already? A sensible balanced diet is likely to be near enough unless you are lifting seriously heavy weights multiple times a week. Excess protein is turned into fat, it doesn’t magically turn into muscle!

@notacooldad Thanks. Greek yogurt & berries is one of my favourite dishes actually 😋
I try and eat that or oatmeal with berries, or an omelette, a couple of hours before I go to the gym. I then have a big salad with a protein source, salmon/chicken, for dinner, and handful of nuts does me for a snack usually. Should I increase or decrease something?

You need to keep an honest food diary for a while (MyFitnessPal is supposed to be good) and then look at the macros.

@MagpiePi Hi, I'm trying for around 80g/day of protein. Just wondering if I can optimise my food/working out times.

i don’t think you need to get too obsessed with when you are eating. Have a snack before a workout if you feel you need it and a bit of protein afterwards - a glass of milk or some yoghurt is fine, otherwise just try and stick to a balanced, varied diet.

Try to get up to 100/120 g of protein - I do that by adding a couple of scoops of protein powder to my Greek yoghurt - I get really nice vanilla flavoured protein powder so it also satisfies my awful sweet tooth.

@YellowAsteroid Good tip. My son uses protein powder, I'm sure he won't miss a scoop or two😋
@MagpiePi I feel quite comfortable with my diet now, just wondering if I could optimise it somewhat.

i would have thought you need to analyse your diet in a more detailed way to know where you could make changes.
If you want to lose weight, then at a basic level you need to be in calorie deficit. You can either do a lot more exercise to use more energy, but, a weightlifting session doesn’t use that much energy by itself and you have to pack on a lot of muscle to raise your metabolic rate high enough to lose weight on the same calorie intake.
If want to alter your diet to include more protein but reduce the overall calorie intake, then do that.

Yeo Valley Thick or Fage Greek Yoghurt do a 10% protein per 100g yoghurt. Highly recommend.

Cottage cheese - great mixed with scrambled eggs.

Prawns - great on different things.

Eggs.

I usually aim for fish and meat each day.

Sorry I have no input as need the same advice, but just wanted to say your son sounds like an absolute gem!

You could add a protein shake or any other protein you like, within an hour after the gym, that would take you up to 100g a day and it’s good timing to make the most of your workout.

Try to get to 1.5g of protein to 1kg of bodyweight. Lots of great suggestions here re greek yoghurt/cottage cheese/chicken breast/legumes/protein powders.

Creatine is also worth supplementing if you find it takes a little bit of time to recover from a weights session as it gets heavier, it helps!