All I eat is meat and eggs, basically, and I need to use whey protein powder nearly every day to get protein numbers up that high. I'm very careful with "scoop" size, though, as overdoing it prompts water retention big time.
do you ever worry about your cholesterol levels and heart health? I feel like eating that much meat is a problem waiting to happen.
I think this is along the right lines for most people in advanced societies. We have near unlimited access to food which goes against any natural state of being hungry. I find that being able to handle periods of hunger is beneficial for weight management. This works well in addition to monitoring what you eat (reduce/limit sugars, empty foods).
Is it easy to embrace being hungry for longer periods? Not necessarily and it will take more time to get used to it if you don't practice it. Food companies alone have a big incentive to tell consumers you don't have to be hungry at all.
All I eat is meat and eggs, basically, and I need to use whey protein powder nearly every day to get protein numbers up that high. I'm very careful with "scoop" size, though, as overdoing it prompts water retention big time.
do you ever worry about your cholesterol levels and heart health? I feel like eating that much meat is a problem waiting to happen.
All my doctor says is "keep doing whatever it is you're doing."
Start with protein at 1.5g/kg bodyweight spread throughout the day. This is non-negotiable regardless of activity level. Aim for 40g/day of fiber. More the better. Top up your calories with carbs and fat to match your output (activity level + basal metabolic rate). Eat fewer calories if you're trying to lose weight. More than about 10% under though and your performance will start to suffer. Fuel your training! Energy gels and drinks make a huge difference if you're running a deficit - topping up through the session means you don't finish in a hypoglycemic mess and then need to binge just to feel normal again. Refuel immediately from training. Protein shake + banana.
I just wanted to chime in: the metabolism drop as you age is so small as you age its ridiculous. What actually happens is as you age you get less active!
Please recall your daily routine when you were a teenager: walking to school, with a backpack, after school activities, going to walk to the mall and the list goes on. This was a typical day.
As you age, you get more and more sedentary. Be truthful to yourself.
This is just a lifestyle issue. REMEMBER that!! Majority calories burned is from NON EXERCISE actions. Like walking somewhere and so on.
Yeah, even things like your adrenaline running high because you're talking to your crush between classes will burn more calories. Metabolism decline isn't even proven to exist prior to 60, and after that it only drops by 1% a year. It's all about adults not fidgeting, not moving between rooms frequently, etc. That and just eating more obviously.
Breakfast should be a bowl of cooked oatmeal. No sugar or cream added. Add some strawberries or blueberries for flavor. Add a banana on the side. Coffee and water to drink.
No snacks.
No processed breads. Goodbye Krispy Kreme..
Lunch: chicken or tuna salad. with crackers. Water.
Dinner: chicken or turkey. side salad. fruits and veggies. Water. Once or twice a week, substitute a bowl of black beans and carrots for your meat dish. Lots of protein in the beans but they taste like dirt. Carrots mask the flavor, and they are good for you.
Limit portion size. Try eating off salad plates instead of dinner plates. Makes it look like more food.
No evening snacks. No alcoholic beverages. No soda.
It's all about insulin baby. Intermittent fast, water fast, Atkins, keto, carnivore,... Take your pick. But you must manage insulin. Calories in vs calories out is nonsense.
When I was in my teens and early twenties it seemed that the only thing that determined my weight was the amount of running I did. Didn't matter what I ate, if I was training hard, I was lean. During periods when I wasn't running, even if I ate less and ate healthy, I would gain weight.
In my late twenties my appetite started to dramatically increase and I've been putting on weight every year, despite still training hard. I've tried everything to combat this... remove all junk food from diet, decrease carbs, increase healthy fats, eat more fruits and veggies, eat protein at breakfast, drink lots of water, blah blah blah tried everything. Nothing works, hunger keeps going up, calories keep going up, weight keeps going up.
At the beginning of this year I finally said f*ck it I'll just eat less and just suffer through the intense hunger. I was able to lose 10 pounds and 3 inches off my waist over two months,...170 lbs to 160 lbs and 35 inches to 32 inches at 5 foot 10. But I was basically famished the entire time. I raced very well during this time and ran my fastest times since college. After my last race this spring I decided I couldn't stand the hunger anymore and went back to my previous eating habits. Same healthy foods, just more of it. Gained the 10 pounds back in about 2 weeks. I'm trying to get the weight back down for some upcoming races this fall and I'm dreading it. Is there any way do this without starving myself?
OP’s 4-year-old claim of gaining back 10 pounds in two weeks implies a 2500C surplus per day, which is difficult to believe, especially eating “healthy foods”.
You've got to learn to embrace the feeling of hunger, because you are going to be experiencing it a lot if you want to stay lean. That's the conclusion I've finally come to. It's not the end of the world, but you do have to work at redefining the way you perceive hunger and feeling satisfied. The old way just isn't going to keep you lean as you age. I eat lots of meat and vegetables and avoid carbs. Don't know if that makes a difference or not, but it does leave me feeling better.
I am in my mid-forties. If I stop drinking and run 40+ miles a week I start to loose weight. If I stop drinking and run 70+ miles a week I find it difficult to keep weight on.
I eat a mostly vegan diet, but still gain weight if I drink and don't exercise.
I am in my mid-forties. If I stop drinking and run 40+ miles a week I start to loose weight. If I stop drinking and run 70+ miles a week I find it difficult to keep weight on.
I eat a mostly vegan diet, but still gain weight if I drink and don't exercise.
Forgive my misunderstanding, but what's the difference between "losing weight" and "finding it difficult to keep weight on"?
Eating to physically fill your stomach with volume is a misguided strategy. Like very very misguided. It’s only a coping strategy for people doing a “starve yourself” diet, not a healthy way to live.
Most runners / athletes already know this truth: the very best feeling is to be bursting with energy with an empty stomach. That is the best state to be in for performance and it’s also true in general for regular life.
If you are trying to lose weight without starving yourself in one way or another (any diet that results in consistent or regular low energy or hunger), then the #1 most important thing is to be eating enough carbs. You should never be low or out of glycogen or low blood sugar (except possibly at the end of very long or very hard workouts).
There are different types of hunger. When you have energy, hunger is more of a neutral feeling than a discomfort, like “oh it’s been a while since I ate and I should probably refuel soon or I might start to crash.” You need to avoid that crash by eating meals that are generally high in carbs but not pure carbs, so they replenish glycogen and give steady energy (not a spike and crash). And eat in a good pattern, like we all know that we can replenish glycogen most effectively post workout with 3:1 to 4:1 carb:protein ratio. And slamming a ton of carbs before bed means they just get stored as fat more than glycogen.
For exercise, strength training is good to build/maintain muscle mass. For your cardio/running training, DO NOT DO MIDDLE INTENSITIES. The slower you run your easy mileage, the higher % of fat burn and lower % glycogen burned. So you can get your mileage in without blowing through your glycogen and then replenish your glycogen with a post workout meal and feel energetic afterwards. Having a good amount of glycogen is essential to “feeling good” regardless of how full or empty your stomach. (The only alternative to this is to go full true keto).
Losing weight makes polarized training extra extra important. Even if you really enjoy some good “middle intensity” workouts like long easy tempos, I’d drop them until you get back to maintaining weight rather than losing weight. It’s better to save your effort for very high intensity shorter workouts and then do the bulk of your mileage at an intensity that burns little glycogen.
For macros, it’s fat that ends up getting the lowest priority. Whatever your activity level, there is a minimum number of carbs you must get to fuel your activity. There’s also a minimum amount of protein needed to maintain muscle mass. There’s really no use for extremely high fat foods/meals. They may be more “satiating” but then you’ll find yourself with a full stomach but low energy and that’s an awful state to be in, literally the opposite of what feels good and what is conducive to a high energy lifestyle.
You don’t need to do low fat everything. Put nut butter on your bagels, put whole milk in your cereal. But the basis of the meal should be something that is low fat & high carb (bread, pasta, oatmeal, rice, etc) with a bit of high fat ingredient added. Running 60mpw I’m at around 20% of calories from fat and as you go up in mileage your fat calories would go up a little but carbs would go up a lot, so fat % would drop below 20.
If you are undereating carbs right now, you will (in the short term) gain weight when you fix this. Glycogen is heavy! And then your body needs to adjust to actually having energy again. And maybe you accidentally overeat until you figure out what your body needs. It’s a process, not “eat more and immediately get ripped”
Do this check on yourself: if you are comfortably sitting somewhere and you want something across the room like you left your phone there or a drink or the remote, and you ever think “I’d rather just sit here than go get what I want” then your energy level is broken. The only time that’s acceptable is after a very hard workout.
please think about the times that you’ve felt hunger but also felt great and kept expending energy for a while, perfectly happy and feeling great. That is a state that you can purposely create and be in every day (for portions of the day. You’re not going to feel hungry when you’ve just eaten)
finally, drink plenty of water and have good sleep hygiene or you undermine everything.
Just eat clean and do sports. There is no a secret pill
The problem is that if I do what I have always done, for some reason nowadays I am gaining weight. I am still running a lot (certainly more than in high school) and I probably eat less since I work a lot and don't eat at work. Yet I am gaining weight. Why?