|
I'm writing this in response to DividedByZero's response to my last entry. Unfortunately, FatSecret does not format the comments very well (they don't keep paragraph breaks, grrr!) and my response was getting long, so I thought I'd make it a whole new entry. More comments are welcome, as I examine my diet and try to figure out my post-workout drowsiness. DividedByZero asked: Quote:How many calories are you eating per day? If you go too low it can make you tired. Other than that the only other thing I can think of right now is making sure you're getting enough sleep (about 7 hours). My diet calendar should be pretty accurate, and it's showing that I'm usually somewhere between 1100 and 1300 calories a day, and when I really stick to my diet it's more like 1000 or even less. Most of those calories come from dinner, and rest of the day I just eat fruit. Do you think maybe I should eat my big meal of the day a couple hours before I work out? I'm hesitant to change the diet itself (like, by adding food, changing the foods I eat, or how often I eat them) because 1) I'm getting used to eating this way and it feels great and 2) what inspired me to do it is that my parents did this diet and each lost about 20 kilos. So clearly it works. I do worry that I'm not eating enough calories though, and that it will hurt my metabolism. From what I've been reading here about metabolism, I have no idea how it worked for my parents. In theory they should have hit plateaus, but as far as I know they didn't. The diet is very specific about the kind of food I'm supposed to eat, so maybe that has something to do with it? Are some foods metabolism boosters? Also I wanted to add, I'm getting plenty of sleep (for once in my life, yay!) but the drowsiness I feel after a workout doesn't feel like the normal tired feeling. It's kind of a sleepy light-headedness that just makes me want to drift off as soon as I sit down. It's strange. Maybe I just need to get into the habit of working out and my body will adjust to expending energy in bursts like that. I was thinking of adding a description of my diet now, but I need to get some work done... I'll just say very briefly: fruit (green apples are highly recommended but I also eat an orange in the morning) for breakfast and lunch, and dinner is 300g (about 10oz) of a lean meat with a green salad or steamed vegetable. Green or white vegetables only. No carbs, no dairy, and also no added salt, though I tend to fail at that one. Oh and 4 to 5 liters of water a day, which is about a gallon. There's a bit more to it that I'll get into at another time, but this overview might help people give me some constructive comments :)
Diet Calendar Entries for 09 June 2009:
|
1137 kcal
|
Fat: 27.51g | Prot: 75.92g | Carb: 105.28g.
Breakfast: orange. Lunch: pineapple, apple. Dinner: Garlic Lime Chicken. Snacks/Other: fat free cool whip, strawberries, white wine. more...
|
|
2132 kcal
|
Activities & Exercise:
Sitting - 3 hours, Housework - 30 minutes, Circuit Training - 30 minutes, Driving - 40 minutes, Desk Work - 7 hours, Sleeping - 8 hours, Resting - 4 hours and 20 minutes. more...
|
|
 Comments
what time of the day do you work out? how long and what intensity? eating fruits and vegetables is very very good, lean meat too of course. I'm wondering if adding a complex carb 2 or 3 hours before your workout would help. keep the proteins for after the workout, your muscles will need them. hope it can help!
09 Jun 09 by member: jessyline
|
The diet you're following is good to lose weight but not so good if you're working out strenuously. You are low on the complex carbs that provide easily avalable energy for your muscles so your body may be lowering your metabolism to save energy.
When your parents did the diet, did they exercise too? Did they keep the weight loss off over the long term? The danger with diets that don't give your body enough fuel to keep building muscle is that you will have a little less muscle mass once you lose the weight and then a little less each time you diet. In the end, it will give you a lower over-all metabolic rate so you will gain weight on less and less food. It's something I'm only just coming to grips with and I've been playing the diet game on and off for 20 years.
09 Jun 09 by member: Bronze60
|
Jessyline: I still don't quite have a workout routine, I'm still starting out and figuring out what works best for me. I'm thinking it'll usually be in the afternoon though. So, maybe an hour or two after I have my green apple, and a couple hours before dinner? Thanks for the advice, I am hesitant to add complex carbs but I may decide to do so if this low energy thing becomes a problem.
10 Jun 09 by member: carmelly
|
Bronze: I wouldn't call what I'm doing working out "strenuously." My new goal is to try to do the circuit 3 times a week, which is 30 min and burns around 200-250 calories. On the day I don't do the circuit I will try to be active for 30 minutes with walking or housework or something light like that.
When my parents did the diet, my dad exercised and my mom did not. The diet recommends that you basically keep doing whatever you were doing before the diet, as far as your exercise routine. So my dad has been going to the gym for years, and he kept going. My mom hates working out, so she didn't start. They both lost weight at a steady rate, my dad's just went a little faster than my mom's... which makes sense since they were eating the same calories but he was burning more.
As far as the long term, that remains to be seen. It's only been a few months. Though I've met other people who have done this diet and have kept the weight off, though they kept a lot of the habits going obviously. It's not supposed to just be a diet, it's supposed to be a new way of thinking about food. And I think I'm starting to form those habits as well, but I still worry that whenever I want to eat out at a restaurant my weight will always shoot up.
I understand the danger with the diet lowering metabolism, I am just wondering if I am in the danger zone or not.
10 Jun 09 by member: carmelly
|
I like the whole foods, but is it just fruit until dinner? That could be why you're so tired. The simple sugars in fruit are great for a quick boost, but can lead to a crash if you don't have some protein or fat along with it. You might try fruit with nuts in the mornings and see if that helps stabilize you.
10 Jun 09 by member: Divided By Zero
|
Thanks /0, that's good advice. Yeah, it's just fruit until dinner, though sometimes I'll add a salad or something if I'm having a really hungry day. I'm actually more comfortable adding nuts to my diet than carbs. I know they're high in calories and fat but they don't seem to affect my weight as much as say, bread. But that may just be in my head.
Quick update though, when I worked out yesterday I didn't get that drowsy feeling. That might have been because I was very busy and didn't let myself sit down and relax, I just went on to the next thing. Or I may just be getting used to working out :) In any case I will keep all of this advice in mind for the next few days and possibly tweak my diet accordingly :)
10 Jun 09 by member: carmelly
|
| |
|
|
| |
Submit a Comment
You must sign in to submit a comment
|
|
|
Other Related Links
Members
|
carmelly's weight history
|