carbs, protein, fat, just not sure

[JeannieV8]

Hi,
I am trying to get an estimate of how much I should be eating each day since I seem to be stuck in bit of a plateau.
I am age 42, 5'2" 120 lbs (22.5% fat)
My goal is to get to about 110-112 and 16-18% body fat

I exercise 6 days a week - Strength train 3 days, cardio 3 days and either rest or do yoga on 7th day.

I generally eat around 1230 calories a day and I am guessing that is too low? I tend to eat very healthy and low sodium although I seem to end up high on my carb count and a bit low on my protein.

I went to figureathlete.com and according to that site and some basic calculations I burn 1247.54 calories doing nothing. When I do moderate exercise I burn about 1996 a day. It says that I should eat about 1596 calories a day to lose fat and breaks it down to:
carbs: 150g, protein: 180g, Fat: 35g

These numbers seem kind of high to me and maybe that's because these are based on carb cycling??? Does anyone know even just an estimate of what I should be trying to shoot for?

Jeannie

 

[Sonya Arellano]

Jeannie,

Generally when I follow a fat burning diet I follow 1-1.5 grams of protein per lb body wt., 50-75 grams of carbs per day coming from mostly from veggies and 1/2 gram of fat per lb body wt. I usually add additional protein as well.

How long are your cardio sessions? I usually up my cardio when wanting to lose weight. Interval training burns lots of calories! Are you lifting for endurance or strength? Keep in mind the more muscle you have the more fat you burn.

Do you take a fat burner? I take Lypo 6 for Hers and find it to be effective. Your caloric intake does seem low for the amount of exercising you are doing.

Just a few thoughts...........hope it helps.

 

[athomedavina]

As active as you are it seems you are not getting enough calories. When caloric intake is too low your body can go into a "hybernation" state where it it will hold onto everything you give it because it thinks it is starving. Are you eating every few hours and getting plenty of lean protein? Also, are you "changing up" your workouts? If you do the same thing week after week, that will put you into plateau mode, too. Try different lifts or add more weight but do fewer reps or vice versa.

Good Luck!

 

[JeannieV8]

Jeannie,

Generally when I follow a fat burning diet I follow 1-1.5 grams of protein per lb body wt., 50-75 grams of carbs per day coming from mostly from veggies and 1/2 gram of fat per lb body wt. I usually add additional protein as well.

How long are your cardio sessions? I usually up my cardio when wanting to lose weight. Interval training burns lots of calories! Are you lifting for endurance or strength? Keep in mind the more muscle you have the more fat you burn.

Do you take a fat burner? I take Lypo 6 for Hers and find it to be effective. Your caloric intake does seem low for the amount of exercising you are doing.

Just a few thoughts...........hope it helps.

Thank you Sonya for your reply. I generally do cardio for about an hour, usually Step. I just recently learned Imax 2 (intervals 1-5), so I've been doing that two times in a row 3 days a week. In the process of learning the rest of the intervals

I've been taking green tea pills, but just ordered Hot-Rox (as well as a ton of other stuff) and will be starting a new diet soon called the PFC diet which will have me eating 1500+ calories on training days and 1200+ on non training days. 140g protein, 100g carbs (training) 50g carbs (non training) and 25g of fat.

I am also going to be eating clean. My diet has been pretty sad and it's time for a change if I want to get results.

Oh and at the moment I am lifting for strength. I'm finishing up the SH series, prior to that I was doing GS's and before that Pyramids. Haven't decided what to do next.

Thank you for your help
Jeannie

 

[JeannieV8]

As active as you are it seems you are not getting enough calories. When caloric intake is too low your body can go into a "hybernation" state where it it will hold onto everything you give it because it thinks it is starving. Are you eating every few hours and getting plenty of lean protein? Also, are you "changing up" your workouts? If you do the same thing week after week, that will put you into plateau mode, too. Try different lifts or add more weight but do fewer reps or vice versa.

Good Luck!

Thank you athomedavina for your reply. Yes I believe you are right about the hybernation which is what my body has been probably doing. I haven't been eating much meat and my main protein comes from whey protein shakes, tuna and cottage cheese mixed with yogurt. I've also been told I've been overdoing it on the dairy with the skim milk, yogurt and cottage cheese.

I am revamping my whole diet soon and should see some changes that I've been waiting for

Jeannie

 

[kariev]

Hi, just wanted to know what the PFC diet was?

Thank you Sonya for your reply. I generally do cardio for about an hour, usually Step. I just recently learned Imax 2 (intervals 1-5), so I've been doing that two times in a row 3 days a week. In the process of learning the rest of the intervals

I've been taking green tea pills, but just ordered Hot-Rox (as well as a ton of other stuff) and will be starting a new diet soon called the PFC diet which will have me eating 1500+ calories on training days and 1200+ on non training days. 140g protein, 100g carbs (training) 50g carbs (non training) and 25g of fat.

I am also going to be eating clean. My diet has been pretty sad and it's time for a change if I want to get results.

Oh and at the moment I am lifting for strength. I'm finishing up the SH series, prior to that I was doing GS's and before that Pyramids. Haven't decided what to do next.

Thank you for your help
Jeannie

 

[JeannieV8]

PFC diet

Hi, just wanted to know what the PFC diet was?

Hi Kariev, basically it's a low carb, high protein clean diet. I will be eating lots of tuna, chicken, and trying to get myself to eat eggs. Lots of salad too.
Strength training is also a very important part of this diet too which Cathe's dvds will fit right in nice too Same with the cardio.

For the article on the PFC diet here's a link:
http://www.figureathlete.com/free_o...nutrition/the_pfc_diet_brilliantly_simple&cr=

If you decide to do it let me know because it would be fun to do it woth someone.

Jeannie

 

[kariev]

This diet looks really good. Are you doing it as the example lays out on the website? have you started it yet? it seems pretty straight forward and not too restrictive. i really need to eat cleaner. i eat alot of processed foods which i think are making me crave more junk. i may be up to doing this with you.

Hi Kariev, basically it's a low carb, high protein clean diet. I will be eating lots of tuna, chicken, and trying to get myself to eat eggs. Lots of salad too.
Strength training is also a very important part of this diet too which Cathe's dvds will fit right in nice too Same with the cardio.

For the article on the PFC diet here's a link:
http://www.figureathlete.com/free_o...nutrition/the_pfc_diet_brilliantly_simple&cr=

If you decide to do it let me know because it would be fun to do it woth someone.

Jeannie

 

[JeannieV8]

This diet looks really good. Are you doing it as the example lays out on the website? have you started it yet? it seems pretty straight forward and not too restrictive. i really need to eat cleaner. i eat alot of processed foods which i think are making me crave more junk. i may be up to doing this with you.

I just started it the other day and I am running into problems with my calories being too low while trying to keep within all the other ratios. I was so concerned that I didn't do cardio this morning for fear of burning more calories then I can spare.

I didn't do the example diet they had on the website because that was based on a 150 pound woman. I am 5'2" 119 lbs (I just dropped another pound within the past few days) and the woman who wrote the diet gave me these ratios:

calories:1200+ on non strength training days, 1500+ on strength training days
Carbs: 50 on non strength training days and 100 on strength training days
Fat: 25
Protein: 140

Fibrous veggies don't count at all and so I am having a lot of difficulty getting my calorie numbers up there. For example yesterday was a strength training day and I only got 1,045 calories!! Waaayy too low
103 carbs
33 fat
166 protein
These numbers aren't right.

In a little while I am going grocery shopping in search of clean food to help me get within a better range, but I really don't know what to get.

I have all the supplements that diet recommends and then some. Their protein powder is excellent!

I really believe this diet is going to work for me IF I can get the numbers right.

Jeannie