Diet and supplement advice, Please!

[2young2bfat]

Hi Ladies,

I have a diet problem. I'm 500 lbs. my goal is to obviously lose fat. But I want to put on lots of muscle (for rugby). Well not lots, but enough to be visible. I just started a new workout (pretty awesome) which I plan to change every month. Far as my diet goes.....DOOM!


Currently: 5x a week

Gallon of water a day
6am -workout

7am
1 cup of oatmeal in the morning
Large apple or small fruit salad
Water
2 hard boiled eggs

Or

Cereal and 2%milk
Fruit salad

9am
Whey with water
Handful of Almonds

11am
Turkey on whole grain bread w/ Tomatoes
Cup of fruit
water

or

Salad w/ chicken- balsamic vinegar

1pm
Tablespoon of peanut butter
Water
granola bar

3pm
Protein shake
Handful of nuts

7pm
Meat w/broccoli
Brown Rice
Some time without rice and I double the veggies

WEEKEND
Saturday- Carb it up

I work out: Monday-WEIGHTS W/ 30 MIN CARDIO
Tuesday, WEIGHTS W/ 60 MIN CARDIO
Thursday, WEIGHTS W/ 30 MIN CARDIO
Friday, WEIGHTS W/ 60 MIN CARDIO
Sunday - WEIGHTS W/ 30 MIN CARDIO

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE ARE THINGS I SHOULD CHANGE!

Currently for supplements: Fish oil, Flax seeds, One-a-day women multi vitamin
I want to try opti-woman, Lipo 6 Black-fat burner.
What do you ladies think?

[StephanieShine]

First of all congrats on starting this for yourself. Its a long process and you'll be learning and tweaking along the way. First off, at 500 lbs you really have a ton of muscle already - It takes alot for you to move around. Granted significant muscle will be lost as you drop the pounds of fat.
Second... I see you have 2% milk with your cereal and then have your whey in water. Would it fit into your macros to have skim milk (or even 1%) with both? I personally hate having whey with water.
Third - At your weight you probably dont need a high carb day. What are the calories and grams of FPC for the sample day you gave?
Fourth - Lifting weights 5 days a week right off the bat is going to be draining for you mentally and physically. Maybe start with 3 - 4 days a week. How is your lifting program split up?

[freebirdmac]

First, congrats on deciding to do this *and* do it the right way! This place is just the place for you. Second, you've put together a very good diet and exercise plan. My only caution is to not try to do too much all at once. This is a long journey

With that said, make sure you are eating enough!!! Right now your maintenance is around 4100-4600 cals. A 1000 cal deficit would get you to 2 pounds a week. Given your current weight you could do a higher deficit for awhile. Maybe shoot for 2000 cals. I'd put you around 2600 cals for that. The danger in faster fat loss is suppressing the metabolism, overstressing the body, muscle loss, and not giving skin as much time to adjust. Odds are you will probably need surgery for excess skin when all is said and done. Muscle loss can be countered with weight training, high protein, and BCAAs. Check out Xtend for the BCAAs.

I'd give yourself another day of rest in there. I agree with changing your lifting split to 3 or 4 days. Take Wed and either Sat/Sun off. A neighborhood walk would be fine.

Good luck!

[2young2bfat]

Originally Posted by StephanieShine

First of all congrats on starting this for yourself. Its a long process and you'll be learning and tweaking along the way. First off, at 500 lbs you really have a ton of muscle already - It takes alot for you to move around. Granted significant muscle will be lost as you drop the pounds of fat.
Second... I see you have 2% milk with your cereal and then have your whey in water. Would it fit into your macros to have skim milk (or even 1%) with both? I personally hate having whey with water.
Third - At your weight you probably dont need a high carb day. What are the calories and grams of FPC for the sample day you gave?
Fourth - Lifting weights 5 days a week right off the bat is going to be draining for you mentally and physically. Maybe start with 3 - 4 days a week. How is your lifting program split up?

I can definitely do skim milk. So on my "carb day" I should just do my regular diet? I can take an extra day off. Thank you.

[2young2bfat]

Originally Posted by freebirdmac

First, congrats on deciding to do this *and* do it the right way! This place is just the place for you. Second, you've put together a very good diet and exercise plan. My only caution is to not try to do too much all at once. This is a long journey

With that said, make sure you are eating enough!!! Right now your maintenance is around 4100-4600 cals. A 1000 cal deficit would get you to 2 pounds a week. Given your current weight you could do a higher deficit for awhile. Maybe shoot for 2000 cals. I'd put you around 2600 cals for that. The danger in faster fat loss is suppressing the metabolism, overstressing the body, muscle loss, and not giving skin as much time to adjust. Odds are you will probably need surgery for excess skin when all is said and done. Muscle loss can be countered with weight training, high protein, and BCAAs. Check out Xtend for the BCAAs.

I'd give yourself another day of rest in there. I agree with changing your lifting split to 3 or 4 days. Take Wed and either Sat/Sun off. A neighborhood walk would be fine.

Good luck!

So, I should eat just 2600 calories and burn whatever I burn during my workout? I checked out the Xtend, it sounds great.

[freebirdmac]

Originally Posted by 2young2bfat

So, I should eat just 2600 calories and burn whatever I burn during my workout? I checked out the Xtend, it sounds great.

For now, yes. The 2600 is just a guesstimate. After several weeks you can assess your progress and make minor changes if needed. Just don't go by the scale. Use measurements and progress picts.

[Emma-Leigh]

^
1/ unless you are VERY active.... you might find that this is too much. Many people miscalculate calorie requirements of those that are larger because they assume 'weight' = 'calorie requirements'.... It DOES need more calories - but not as much as you think... and not unless you move it a lot.

2/ I would, as suggested above, leave out the 'carb up' days for now... Have a treat meal once every week or once every 2 weeks...

3/ At the moment - my main suggestions would be to focus on the big things:
- eat less
- move more
- repeat every day for about 6 months then plan to continue for the rest of your life.

[ohtm27]

I agree with freebirdmac post. I trained a client that was 300lbs, she lost 30lbs pretty quickly. Although we focused on a 2lbs weight loss each week, and tweaked her diet if we noticed her losing a little too much too quickly. You do need to keep in mind if you lose too quickly you will have extra skin, and may even have lose skin after the process.

Keeping your calories as high as you can without lowering too much will help you lose the weight in addition keeping your cardio to a minimum. 30 min, 3x week starting out with a clean diet. You may only need to do walking at first, depending on your joints etc... You will lose. 5-6 meals a day (clean eating), every 2.5-3hrs.

With my above client due to her size we did not do any cardio or weights, we just adjusted her diet slightly to get the effects. She was prompted to walk several times a week. However she did not.

Getting the weight off by diet first then increasing walking to more vigorous cardio should alleviate any undue stress on joints and injuries. If you get injured you will be out.

Good luck!

[dreamer06]

i just want to say good luck, youre taking on an amazing journey to better yourself and its great you have realistic goals-good luck with it all!