Diet Modification Requests/Suggestions

[SonofBone]

Alright, in reading other peoples posts, you folks generally indicate that people don't give you enough details, but you'll probably say that I've given too many, lol. Anyway, here goes...

My girlfriend has been dieting for about 5 1/2 weeks. When she started she was 138 lbs. w/26.5 body fat %. She is now at 130 lbs. w/22% body fat. Her goal is 122 lbs. w/a body fat % of 15. She has been making progress, but she is finding it more & more difficult to keep progressing.

She is currently exercising her legs, shoulders, & arms 3x/week for approx. 1 hour/session. She feels like working her back makes her neck hurt and is just kind of against working her chest. Her cardio consists of about 2 30 minute jogging sessions & 4 1 hour sessions on the eliptical machine.

For her diet, I provided her w/a book called "The Leanness Lifestyle" by David Greenwalt. Greenwalt states that he was at 25% body fat, but could never get below 15% until he started counting calories. His looks prove it has worked for him.

David provides a formula to determine your base caloric needs based on your age, activity level & weight. Then you use 80% of that number (target calories) as your daily average, so over one week you'd be eating 80% of your base needs. Also, so your body doesn't adapt you take the calories up and down each day. Also, one bad meal per week.

I created a spreadsheet w/all of the formulas and tabs to breakdown the foods by day. This way the foods can be easily entered into the sheet.

We determined that her base needs were 1630 calories/day w/a target of 1300. Here is the breakout by day: Day 1 -- 1300, Day 2 -- 1560, Day 3 -- 800, Day 4 -- 1050, Day 5 -- 1300, Day 6 1800, & Day 7 -- 1300, so you can see that day 3 & 4 are really low and day 6 is the highest.

I think the approach has some validity, but I don't know that she is consuming the most nutritous foods and best ratio of protein/carbs/fats. This is where I'm hoping that you folks can provide some good suggestions. This is where I'm hoping that you folks can provide some good suggestions. Here is a list of her meals by day:

Day 1
Breakfast--2 boiled eggs, Orange, 1 pack oatmeal -- 250 calories -- 72 protein, 160 carbs, 18 fat
Mid morning -- pria bar -- 115 calories -- 20 protein, 64 carbs, 3.5 fat
Lunch -- Pria bar, apple -- 183.5 calories -- 20 protein, 132 carbs, 31.5 fat
Mid Afternoon -- Tuna salad, pita bread -- 190 calories -- 81 prot, 92 carbs, 19 fat
after work -- lean body MRP, milk -- 300 calories -- 195 protein, 87 carbs, 18 fat
Dinner -- Chicken breast & can of green beans -- 245 calories -- 182 protein, 48 carbs, 14 fat

To recap Day 1 -- 570 calories from protein, 583 from carbs, & 130 from fat. That is a 44/45/11 ratio.

I could go on and on w/the following days, but I'll spare you (unless I need to provide everything). Althoug, Day 3 kind of concerns me because she is having 4 pria bars, 5 boiled eggs, an apple, & a Michelina microwave meal. I don't think the pria's or microwave meals are too healthy.

Other foods she consumes are:

1/2 bag of rice
Go lean, one way, & uturn bars

Her weekly breakdown consists of 30% calories from protein, 51% from carbs, & 19% from fat. Also, we've been supplementing her w/R-ALA, CLA, & Acetyl L-Carnitine.

Whew! that feels like I provided a lot of information. What kind of changes would you make? I appreciate any & all input as I believe it will be more beneficial coming from you vs. me.

Sincerely,

SonofBone

[redsquirrel]

Well first of all, I don't think her protein is calculated properly. I never knew 2 whole eggs and 1 pak of oatmeal contained 72 proteins...or chicken and green beans having 14 fats...please clarify..

Without going into serious detail, she needs to drop the bars, and change to shakes or whole foods. She is also eating way too many fats and carbs. Her carb and protein ratios need to be flipped. The body will either burn fat or carbs for energy, and when it has both, it will burn the carbs first, ultimately storing the fats. Her diet is what needs the most help here.

As for her training, it sounds to me as if she is overtraining. Doing those exercises 3 times a week,it's almost inevitable. What will also end up happening, is when she does get leaner, her body may look unproportioned. It sounds to me like you and her need to do a bit more research on something that she will respond and stick to.

8 lbs in 5 weeks is good progress. And 4% BF is progress as well. What is getting harder when she is making those types of improvements? Right now, she needs 900 calories to maintain her lean body mass. So the day 2 and 6 seem high to me.

[SonofBone]

RedSquirrel,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I should've been more specific in what I was listing. The breakdown of proteins/carbs/fats per meal was a listing of calories, and since I didn't specify, I think you took them as grams. Yes, the orange, 2 eggs, & oatmeal have 18g of protein or 72 calories of protein. I'm multiplying protein & carbs by 4 per gram & 1 gram of fat by 9 to determine total calories.

I agree that the bars need to be dropped, and I'm going to try and get her to reverse the proteins/carbs as well.

I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I like you feel that she is making progress, and I'd like to see her doing all of her body parts in shorter workouts w/each body part being exercised preferrably once and at most twice/week. Also, I think a lot of cardio is good, but ranging between 20 to 40 minutes vs. the hour at a pop.

Thanks again,

SoB

[redsquirrel]

Ok,ok... I got it now. I was like where do you find eggs w/ 72 gms of protein?? LOL.. She could also drop the dairy and eat more complex carbs at meal 3 and 4. IMO, if she wants to lose BF, she could also drop the 6th meal and increase her fasting time.

Her cardio is good, but once she starts hitting a wall,she may need to change it up a bit. Switch to AM cardio, sprints, etc. Also, if she is doing cardio at the gym after her w/o, make sure she is eating a meal 1 hr or less prior.