GilesBathgate's Journal, 30 June 2015

Wow a 3kg drop over a weekend....are you missing a body part? 

This can happen quite easily. I had quite a lot of carbs followed by a big meaty meal on Thursday. I assume the carbs replenished my glycogen stores causing my body to retain more water, and the meat digested slowly so was still in my stomach by the time I did my weigh in on Friday morning. Over the next few days, the meat fully digested, I was burning off the glycogen by running, and also losing body water. I often say that the scale weight isn't important, since its just a measure of how much water you happen to have rather than Fat. What's more useful is the average weight over a week or month, and skin-fold calliper measurements. 

I can't say my scales have ever dropped that much over a few days...but I am a slow loser on the scales. I always feel it in my clothes before it shows up on the scales. When I previously lost 7 stone, I recorded my weight every day (it took me near on 5 years to lose!!!) and it was a good way to learn about fluctuations and what makes your weight go up and down - I don't panic now when I go up 2kgs over night lol! 

The other thing that is helping me is my meal planning program that I wrote. If you look at my recent diary entries, you will notice not only does it always come out at exactly 70% of my RDI calories, there is also about 121g protein, 46g Fat, and 150g carbs. It doesn't seem to matter what food I put into it, it always gets it right. I even planned a day of meals around a dominos pizza which I had yesterday lunchtime. 

I can never seem to get my protein percentage up without my calories going too high 

Try this: Meal1: 155g Avocado, 226g Egg White. Meal2: 76g Olives, 94g Bacon. Meal3: 162g Whole egg, 32g Flax. That gives, 30% protein 63% fat, and 7% carbs for 1125kcal. Give or take, depending on which FatSecret Ingredients you happen to use. I don't know how you make all that taste nice though ;) 

ugh that sounds pretty grim :( Think I'll stick with my meals...I also have to see this working in the long term and eating like that I wouldn't last the week. I try to keep my fibre up, but otherwise am just focusing on healthy choices.....with my addictive nature I can't get to obsessive with the numbers.... 

I assumed you were trying the ketogenic diet, low-carb, LCHF or something similar. Personally I would agree that lots more fibre and veggies is a better diet for long term health. 

I just eat what I want and watch my calorie in take - it might be a slow way, but it works in the long term. 

Well look at it this way, if you want to increase the amount of protein without changing the calories, you either have to eat less carbs, or less fat. So either skip adding the honey in your breakfast, or the coconut oil. Personally I would drop both and add Whey protein powder ;) 

Great posts guys! Interesting and informative at the same time. Keep it up!! 

The "fake" sugar and processed stuff puts me off using protein powders....I prefer to stick with raw ingredients and know exactly what I'm eating 

Although I would forfeit my entire day's food for a big fat juicy steak ;)  

You want to get the unflavoured variety, and always check the ingredients. The one I use has; Whey (from Milk), and Soya lecithin. No preservatives, no additives, no artificial sugars. http://goo.gl/8AWdD3 

I see they hide that one right at the bottom of the list....I see it is also made of milk, which I don't drink. I'll have to try and get a sample of it and see what it's like and if it effects me at all. 

Yes if you are lactose intolerant Whey protein is not going to be very good option. Some brands are ultra filtered, and have all the milk sugar removed entirely. But most people with lactose intolerance go for the Soya based ones. Pulsin Soya from H&B is a good choice. There are also Rice, and Pea isolates but they are disgusting IMHO. 

I once bought hemp protein powder - I drank it for a month and it was that bad that I seriously considered that I would rather just be fat.... 

Oh, I forgot to mention hemp, that's the worst which is why I've never tried it ;) Soya has a slightly creamy bean flavour, much like soya milk if you like that.  

I'm committed to what I'm doing at the moment for two months....but will keep the soya protein in mind if what I'm doing doesn't work 

Oh yeah, don't let me tell you what to eat. I just wanted to demonstrate the flexibility of my software, I am quite proud of it. Maybe it needs tweaking so as to not come up with such grim meals though ;)