How does my diet look?

[Guy Fawkes]

Hi,
I am a newbie and have started lifting weights properly for the past 6 weeks or so. I just wanted to run my diet by people to see what they thought. Any feedback welcome.

Quick background:
5'8"
145lbs
I'd say I'm fit. I've been gyming in a lifestyle kind of way for 5 years and have been doing mainly cardio and some weights (very badly I have now discovered!).
My resting heartrate is in the 50s (59 at present - relaxing at home).
Blood pressures is normally 110/70 or thereabouts (just checked its 111/66).
BF seems to be somewhere around 15-19% depending on when its measured and with what.
6 weeks ago, I hired a personal trainer and I now realise that I've been more or less wasting my time for the last 5 years.
My goal is to get bigger, increase core strength, lose some fat and improve my fitness.

Diet:
My new diet is now something like this per day. The main changes have been to increase carbs (I used to eat lots more protein); reduce saturated fats and fat overall; replace all white breads/pastas with wholemeal; eat fresh/organic everything where possible.

2200 calories
50g fat (9 of those are saturated)
320g carbs (95 of those are sugars, 27 is fibre)
75g protein
2g sodium
2g salt

The protein tends to slot into the middle of the day.
I no longer eat any chocolate, crisps, fried food or drink coffee or anything like this.
Snacks for me are now seeds, fruit, wholegrain, etc.
The only supplement I take is some flaxseed oil every other day.
I eat quite a lot of fish - that is probably where most of my protein comes from.

Regime:
This centres around 3 intense sessions in the gym with my trainer. These are a couple of days apart and each one trains two different parts of the upper body (e.g. chest/biceps, back/triceps, shoulders/abs). This is a workout like I've never done before, lots of supersets and working to failure. At the end of a workout I can't even lift my gym bag!

The only cardio I do now is 10 minutes of 8kph/16kph split minutes and maybe 10 minutes of 8kph after the workout.

The results? Unbelievable. I've not put on any weight in 6 weeks. In fact I think I've lost a pound or two. Biceps are +1". Chest is +2". I feel a hell of a lot stronger, posture is much improved.. Basically, the results are coming really fast. If only I'd done this 5 years ago, I'd be Arnie now (well maybe not )

So the questions I have really are to do with the diet.. I still seem to be hungry a lot of the time and weight seems to be fairly constant or slightly down. Is my calorie intake about right? Or maybe I should up it a bit?

Are the 9g saturated fat ok, or should I be getting this closer to 0g?

As far as rest goes, is there any problem with doing some light dumbell work on off days while waiting for the eggs to cook, etc.?

Any other comments very welcome. Thanks.

[edit: Forgot to say - I am 32 years old.]

[RipStone]

first of all, good job on being dedicated and cleaning up your diet.

what are your goals exactly? at 5'8'', 145lbs, you cant be carrying too much body fat at all. i think the last thing you want to do is lose weight. if i were you i would focus on adding muscle right now. and you do this by eating more calories then you burn. if you are hungry, this is a sign from your body that you are not eating enough. the result is gonna be loss of muscle mass. right now, you think the program you are doing is great cus whenever anyone starts a new routine they will experience "newbie gains". but these gains will wear off and your lagging diet is gonna catch up to you.

also, why are you eating so few grams of protein? you should have at least 1g of protein per pound of body weight.

[Guy Fawkes]

Hi,
my trainer suggested a calorie intake of 2000, which I found impossible to keep under, so I upped it a bit. You're right maybe I should go a bit higher, e.g. 2400 and see how that pans out. I did a bf measurement this morning and it was 15%, so that's two 15s in a row now. I think when I started out it was more like 19%..

On the protein front, that wasn't intentional, that's just how its worked out. I logged every single think I ate for 4 weeks and it was pretty consistent at that level. I think I may add some more calories in with some clean high-protein food then.

Thanks for the feedback.

ps For anyone who's starting out, don't give up! The diet alone will make you feel awesome!

[thajeepster]

Originally Posted by Kameldude

Hi,
my trainer suggested a calorie intake of 2000, which I found impossible to keep under, so I upped it a bit. You're right maybe I should go a bit higher, e.g. 2400 and see how that pans out. I did a bf measurement this morning and it was 15%, so that's two 15s in a row now. I think when I started out it was more like 19%..

On the protein front, that wasn't intentional, that's just how its worked out. I logged every single think I ate for 4 weeks and it was pretty consistent at that level. I think I may add some more calories in with some clean high-protein food then.

Thanks for the feedback.

ps For anyone who's starting out, don't give up! The diet alone will make you feel awesome!

yeah eat some meat , sounds like your eating all carbs and only getting protein from carb sources. eggs at breakfast, and a chicken breast at lunch/dinner or lean beef/fish. add in some cottage cheese and a whey shake or two throughout the day and you should be right where you need to be protein wise.