eating six meals a day

[DarrenL]

Hello Chaps

I would like your advice, and any replies will be much appreciated.

At the moment im cycling ALOT- training for london2Brighton. Cycling around 60 miles on week days, and another 20/30 on weekends (this is going to increase over the next few weeks). In addition to this, I also do Gi Jeun Do- a Martial Art 2/3 times a week.

So i'm targeting a goal of 13.5 stone, at the moment i'm 15.5 stone.

with the increase in exercise, ive also changed my diet (believe me, its a life style change and not a fad!) and im eating around 1,500-1,800 calories a day. This has been fantastic to help shift my initial weight, and I know to sustain it I need to eat properly and supply my body with enough energy to release fat and burn the weight off.

So, 6 meals it is on the days I cycle and the usual 3 on the days I dont(unless the general consensus is 6 meals every day?)

I know the meals I eat need to be balanced, and here is what I think is needed:

Brekkie 8am: Cornflakes

11.30- Chicken/Turkey Breast in Pita (one slice) salad and a bit of light mayo (or a protien shake and bread)

1pm Lunch- chicken/turkey breast, one cup of brown rice, veg

3.30- Chicken/Turkey Breast in Pita (one slice) salad and a bit of light mayo (or a protein shake and bread)

5pm- not sure- by now i'd be pretty sick of turkey/chicken!!! Any suggestions?

Evening Meal- varies, but its very protein heavy and hardly any carbs.

So, in our collective wisdom, how does this sound? anything I can improve upon? or anything I can change? Anyone doing something similar want to give me/share any tips?

Thanks!

Daz

[grumbledoak]

There is fk all nutritional value in cornflakes, or breakfast cereals in general. I'd have a banana and a glass of milk instead.

And why the light mayonnaise? Proper mayonnaise is made from Olive Oil, which is practically a health food in itself. Like margerine, no doubt the 'light' version is far worse than the original.


ETA- And, on re-reading, I don't rate your chances of sticking to a chicken only diet. Either plain boredom, or a fat craving, will get you. Fish is good, pork is good, lean beef is fine, and healthy fats are good for you...

Edited by grumbledoak on Thursday 20th May 21:40

[DarrenL]

Now that is exactly the sort of info I was after! Now I have more ideas then just chicken or turkey! I'm quite a good cook (no one has died) So now I'll plan to add more
fish, beef etc and I'll get creative... On the fat craving, I'm going to get flaxseed oil for the Essential fats.

Light Mayo was recommended and I guess I'm just blindly following that advice, does anyone know the difference between light and normal Mayo?
Ok so now I think I'm getting somewhere!

[Slagathore]

Hellmans do a lighter than light mayo, I use that if I feel like it. I only every really have it with a tin of Tuna to make it a bit nicer. The nutritional info doesn't seem bad at all.

Speaking of which, Tuna is a good, I'd add some of that to the plan.

Porridge is good for breakfast. Low GI and all that lark.

Cous Cous is fairly quick and easy to do aswell, all you need is a kettle, and as with the porridge, its carbs the body can use well. Couple that with a tin of tuna and a bit of light mayo and you have a fairly healthy lunch. Or you can use the sachets of tuna, they're a lot nicer than the tins, as they come in a sauce already.

PHD Nutrition and CNP do some flapjack bars, can get a box of 24 for around £16. I've started using them as a late afternoon snack before gym. I looked at other bars, but my mate said to get flapjack ones as they have carbs the body can use, whereas some of the others have carbs from polyols, which the body can't/doesn't use? The flapjacks still have polyols, but I think they had less. (someting similar to that, I got confused after he mentioned polyols, alcohol and sugar)

I'd still eat six meals on the days you're not training aswell.

I use that in my diet, and I guess it's working for me, it might not work quite the same for you, though.

[samdale]

DarrenL said:

does anyone know the difference between light and normal Mayo?

light mayo they get rid of fat but add carbs. as said, the fats in full fat mayo are good as they come from oil and egg.

either way you'll only be having a little blob of it at a time

some people will say to lose weight cut out the carbs and stick with the full fat (to get your "good" fats). others will argue that you still need "some" carbs and 70% fat is too much to justify for just 10% carb.

personally full fat all the way

also, speaking of eggs, they're another very good thing you could to add to your diet

ETA: also agree with the uselessness of cornflakes, how about scrambled eggs for brekky?

Edited by samdale on Friday 21st May 13:01

[spikeyhead]

I used to get through six meals a day

Breakfast, four weetabix
mid morning, a roll from the trolley at work
Lunch, whatever the canteen had as a main meal
Dinner, when I got home
Evening, lots of beer
Late evening, a kebab

and I didn't put any weight on, so it must be good.

[spikeyhead]

swerni said:

spikeyhead said:

I used to get through six meals a day

Breakfast, four weetabix
mid morning, a roll from the trolley at work
Lunch, whatever the canteen had as a main meal
Dinner, when I got home
Evening, lots of beer
Late evening, a kebab

and I didn't put any weight on, so it must be good.

sorry mate if I was going to get tips on tying women up you would be the man, but nutritional and training tips, computer says no

You're surely not suggesting that I don't take good care of my fine body?

[dubbs]

Way to do this with least pain....

1. Find out your Basal Metabolic Rate, this is the minimum calories your body needs for running itself and the limit you must feed yourself to ensure you don't flick in to starvation mode and metabolism drops to stop you burning efficiently

2. Work out how many calories you are burning on each ride

3. find a nice amount to lose a week based upon one lb of fat taking about 3500kcals to burn off

4. accept that you'll plateau now and again where you'll get muscle building and that's heavier than fat, good news, after a plateau you'll burn quicker and for longer as more muscle = more kcals to keep it fuelled

5. Take your time, in 2004 I was 15stone 10 and promised myself to get to 14st which I did. From there I went to 13.5 and now I'm under 13 but it's only been this year that I've decided to really push down to that "slim" category (and am still pushing) purely as all that exercise got me in to triathlon and I'm now trying to get quick

6. Eat what you like, give yourself a break every now and again, don't exercise to fatigue, enjoy a curry if you fancy one but just make a conscious choice to share one or buy a shashlick rather than a masal,etc.,

7. Remember, it took a long time to get to your current weight, to do it properly and as a lifestyle change that will stick do it slow and steady.

So... it's there, take your time, see it as a long term goal and enjoy nights out, food as you like it but keep things managed always. That way you can have fun and it really does become a lifestyle thing rather than a rush to a target followed by a few months "congratulating" yourself down the chippie

Good luck!!!

[spikeyhead]

swerni said:

spikeyhead said:

swerni said:

spikeyhead said:

I used to get through six meals a day

Breakfast, four weetabix
mid morning, a roll from the trolley at work
Lunch, whatever the canteen had as a main meal
Dinner, when I got home
Evening, lots of beer
Late evening, a kebab

and I didn't put any weight on, so it must be good.

sorry mate if I was going to get tips on tying women up you would be the man, but nutritional and training tips, computer says no

You're surely not suggesting that I don't take good care of my fine body?

nah your just and expert in tying up birds

I reckon my mate Ellie is better at tying birds than me

[grumbledoak]

Is that "trussed up like a chicken" ?

And, if so, why?

[Bill]

swerni said:

The important thing is you have a varied diet.

Personally I wouldn't bother with six meals a day, it's far too much like hard work.
Have three healthy meals a day and if you're hungry have some healthy snacks.
You also seem to have missed out the fruit and veg from your diet.

+1 Given the amount of exercise you're doing I'd just eat healthily and watch the weight fall off Unless you're an obsessive type 6 super-healthy meals a day isn't sustainable as you'll get very bored of it very quickly.

[broadhat]

Bill said:

swerni said:

The important thing is you have a varied diet.

Personally I wouldn't bother with six meals a day, it's far too much like hard work.
Have three healthy meals a day and if you're hungry have some healthy snacks.
You also seem to have missed out the fruit and veg from your diet.

+1 Given the amount of exercise you're doing I'd just eat healthily and watch the weight fall off Unless you're an obsessive type 6 super-healthy meals a day isn't sustainable as you'll get very bored of it very quickly.

A little bit of planning and 6 healthy meals a day isn't difficult. Plus the planning means there's less chance of making a dodgy choice when you're hungry.

I found the Food Doctor recipe books a great way of ensuring the food doesn't get boring. I'm 6 foot and have dropped just under 2 stone in 7 months which was very easy to do and certainly is sustainable. It's all about your mindset. Some people will find it too much 'hard work' so it depends upon what your motivation is.

Portion size was/is the hardest thing I've had to learn. I do high intensity interval training and burn up to 800 cals a session but it doesn't take too much eating to undo any good work. Weight loss will come from sorting out your food, exercise helps but is not the main source of weight loss long-term.

[Bill]

broadhat said:

It's all about your mindset. Some people will find it too much 'hard work' so it depends upon what your motivation is.

IMO it's superfluous.

I've dropped the best part of two stone by not eating and drinking as much, simple as that.

Edited by Bill on Monday 21st June 16:06

[bales]

broadhat said:

Weight loss will come from sorting out your food, exercise helps but is not the main source of weight loss long-term.

I don't agree with that, it just depends on how much of each you do.

I would say exercise is the main source of weight loss, or at least it is the most reliable method.

Its pretty difficult to be fit and fat at the same time...

[broadhat]

bales said:

broadhat said:

Weight loss will come from sorting out your food, exercise helps but is not the main source of weight loss long-term.

I don't agree with that, it just depends on how much of each you do.

I would say exercise is the main source of weight loss, or at least it is the most reliable method.

Its pretty difficult to be fit and fat at the same time...

1 pound of fat is around 3500 cals. A hour of fairly intense workout will consume around 600 cals so you need to do about 6 hours to burn one pound of fat.

Alternatively eat 500 cals a day more than you need and you'll put on a pound of fat a week. 500 cals isn't too much - most supermarket sandwiches will have more.

So 6 hours of solid exercise is needed to burn off the calories of 7 supermarket sandwiches. That's why I say food is the best way to control weight. Ideally do both.

On the fit and fat subject, yes you can be both at the same time. The advantage of being fit and fat (rather than just fat) is that you have less fat around your internal organs and that's the fat that tends to kill you off early.

[broadhat]

swerni said:

600 an hour may be the case for anaerobic exercise.
1000 an hour is more realistic for cardio.

I average 1000 an hour on the bike

600 is a figure I recall that most people do in an hour's workout at the gym class which is why I went with that. I burn around the same as you an hour but I know most don't! We're all heart-monitored up in our classes and per hour it tends to work out around 700 for the girls and 1000 for the boys. The vast majority of work is aerobic.

Even so 30 mins of high intensity intervals doesn't seem like a fair trade for a Sainsbury's cheese sandwich

[Silver993tt]

broadhat said:

Alternatively eat 500 cals a day more than you need and you'll put on a pound of fat a week.

only if the body was 100% efficient at extracting the calorific content from the food in question, which of course it never is. There's no way that a food containg 500 calories will end up being 500 calories in body fat. It will always be less and how much depends on each persons bodily make up. Therefore, consuming 500 calories in a food intake won't translate to 1lb of fat, it will be noticeably less.

[DarrenL]

Ok, so it's ben a few weeks now, and I've dropped 2kgs! Which is great stuff! My training was for L2B, which is now over, my next goal is a possible marathon next year.

I'm going to start training for the marathon in 2weeks(taking an 'active' rest for a while!) so I think I'm going to stick with the 6 meals and hopefully lose this last 1.5 stone!

[working class]

I am serioulsy struggling to eat 4 meals a day and drink 3 shakes, im convinced its the hot weather!