Critique My Diet!

[gcomt]

I like keto/fasting too, but I'm not the guy to go to for diet advice at all.

 

[Andrewkar]

2000 kcals is a way too low for you. My 173 cm girlfriend eats around 2500 kcals daily and stays lean (she is 31 and full of energy, no starving mode etc.). You could be losing FAT (not weight!) at 3500 a day easily while maintaining high energy and great mood. Read more about carbs restricting diets, I think it's much better and healthier choice and you will get sustainable results.

 

[turbin3]

Calorie maintenance level, BMR, or whatever people want to call it, is a highly individual thing. Genetics, hormones, thyroid activity, and a whole lot of other factors might dictate that one person has an extremely high maintenance level, while another person even of the same height/weight/age might have a totally different maintenance level. The best solution is simply tracking food for several weeks or even better for at least 2 months, and you can absolutely determine your true maintenance level. Things like BMW calculators can be wildly inaccurate, since they can't take into account all of those individual factors.

 

[Kevin]

2000kcals is not low. Ignore Andrewkar. Give intermittent fasting + 1-2 strength days and 2-3 conditioning days a try. You CAN do cardio style workouts, but they just bore me so I ended up trading the nearest CrossFit gym for marketing and work out there 5x a week now (2 lifting, 3 conditioning / classic CF). I eat 2 meals a day, about 80% paleoish and stopped counting cals (I had for the last 3 months).

I have never been 1. stronger 2. healthier (as measured by full blood panel + testing) and 3. had a better body composition (as measured by DEXA scan) than I have following this protocol

 

[stackcash]

Thanks guys. To be honest, I'm pretty happy that I've been diligent with my diet and workout schedule for this long. It's my longest run in my life.

I know there's plenty of stuff I need to critique, manage, adjust, and improve upon. I'm taking all that stuff into account and plan on making all of those adjustments. It's just, for me, I'm in no rush. I'm more concerned about sticking with fitness over the long haul than overwhelming myself with "what path should I choose" just yet. There's plenty for me to run on in this thread, and now it's time for me to dig in and read about them all.

 

[built]

2000 kcals is a way too low for you. My 173 cm girlfriend eats around 2500 kcals daily and stays lean (she is 31 and full of energy, no starving mode etc.). You could be losing FAT (not weight!) at 3500 a day easily while maintaining high energy and great mood. Read more about carbs restricting diets, I think it's much better and healthier choice and you will get sustainable results.

YOU FUCKN WOT M8

is she injecting thyroid hormones?

 

[Andrewkar]

2000kcals is not low. Ignore Andrewkar...

Sure...

YOU FUCKN WOT M8

is she injecting thyroid hormones?

Ha!
That's some good point mate.
She don't have to be on Ts...
She is fine tuned soo much that she is burning through even 4000 kcals a day for a week without ANY negative change to body composition.
That's the effect of a well planed and executed dietary plan. Sure, we up her calories to around 4000 when she is challenging heavier weights or do pull ups record.

 

[Kevin]

The math is pretty simple. Unless she's expending a massive amount of calories above her BMR via exercise or sitting in ice cold water, or is like 3-4 standard deviations above baseline BMR for a female of her size, 4k calories would be a ridiculous intake.

I'm a 6'3, 195lb guy eating 1900kcal a day at a 40/30/30 P/F/C split and working out 5 days a week. 3 bodyweight / HIIT and 2 pure strength. Granted I'm cutting, but even if I wasn't that would probably go up to about 2700-3000kcal at most.

 

[stackcash]

The math is pretty simple. Unless she's expending a massive amount of calories above her BMR via exercise or sitting in ice cold water, or is like 3-4 standard deviations above baseline BMR for a female of her size, 4k calories would be a ridiculous intake.

I'm a 6'3, 195lb guy eating 1900kcal a day at a 40/30/30 P/F/C split and working out 5 days a week. 3 bodyweight / HIIT and 2 pure strength. Granted I'm cutting, but even if I wasn't that would probably go up to about 2700-3000kcal at most.

I think you and I have the same body type. No homo. Hitting you up on Skype to steal your workout routine. Sorry, not sorry!

 

[Kevin]

Thanks guys. To be honest, I'm pretty happy that I've been diligent with my diet and workout schedule for this long. It's my longest run in my life.

I know there's plenty of stuff I need to critique, manage, adjust, and improve upon. I'm taking all that stuff into account and plan on making all of those adjustments. It's just, for me, I'm in no rush. I'm more concerned about sticking with fitness over the long haul than overwhelming myself with "what path should I choose" just yet. There's plenty for me to run on in this thread, and now it's time for me to dig in and read about them all.

Yea don't fuck around adding too much too fast. 1% better every day = 37.8% better end of year.

 

[Andrewkar]

The math is pretty simple. Unless she's expending a massive amount of calories above her BMR via exercise or sitting in ice cold water, or is like 3-4 standard deviations above baseline BMR for a female of her size, 4k calories would be a ridiculous intake.

I'm a 6'3, 195lb guy eating 1900kcal a day at a 40/30/30 P/F/C split and working out 5 days a week. 3 bodyweight / HIIT and 2 pure strength. Granted I'm cutting, but even if I wasn't that would probably go up to about 2700-3000kcal at most.

Well, human organism isn't a linear system. So "your" math might get a bit useless at that point.

And no, she is perfectly fine with her caloric intake. I would risk to say that you are on the low side, a way too low (even while "cutting").

What's your BF and age? Then we can talk

 

[Kevin]

Well, human organism isn't a linear system.

Because I said humans were a 'linear system'. This is how you know someone doesn't know what they're talking about. Of course human beings aren't 'linear systems' (did you just choose those words because it sounded good)?

I'm 27, and cutting down from around 18% body fat.

Even if I went for a run, sprints, or a workout, I'd only be tacking on another 500kcal of energy expenditure on top of that, meaning that I'm STILL under 3k kcal with my BMR, activity multiplier, and extra exercise on top of it.

I've been eating consistently at ~1900kcal (~500kcal under BMR) and losing almost exactly a pound a week (500*7 = -3500 = 1lb fat), slowing down now since my BMR is dropping. You can't argue with legitimate hard data and math.

So, like I said: unless your girlfriend is legitimately MASSIVE, has a job where she's on her feet doing labor all day long, lives at 8,000+ft altitude 24 hours a day, or some other random freak outlier situation, her eating 4k kcal a day makes no sense and you have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[Andrewkar]

Hey, calm down

Just to clarify what I have said.

I said that she is going sometimes up to like 4000 kcals a day for a week or so when she's got a goal to make like new record in weight lifting or calisthenics for example. On a day to day basis she eats more like 2500 kcals a day. Give or take 200-400 kcals. I don't know exactly because we don't do calorie counting. We focus on getting as much kacls as possible into the system and then watching results and adjusting accordingly. And yes, even when she is up to around 4000 (or probably more) a day for a week or so she stays as lean as she was before but, most often than not she is faster and stronger (not bigger or heavier!). It's because we rely on carbohydrates manipulation mainly.

So, it's a completely different approach to your way. While you are using your mathematics, we are using direct action-reaction method. Calories don't count for us, only results in strength and BF.
We measure total body weight, BF and strength progress and that's all.

Also, I didn't said that you stated "human organism is a linear system". I just have said that human organism isn't a linear system, that's all. And that is true as we both have agreed.

However, the way you are relying on mathematics and using it is implying that you actually believe human organism is in fact a linear system.

So here comes the explanation. You are using mathematics to control progress (or lack of it) regarding to your own situation. You have just created you own hypothetical model of your body according to well known rules and conceptions (conceptions that in many cases works just fine). Those rules that you are using relying on counting calories etc. however, it doesn't mean those rules are any close to reality.

It's just a model/conception (way to visualize and measure the reality) you are using that helps you track your results and keep your diet and results under control.

In that case you are existing and progressing in a closed environment determined by well known rules and conceptions, which of course dons't mean you are any near to reality. It's just a way that helps you progress. And that's good and beneficial for you... to some point.

On the other hand, we (myself and my GF) we rely only on "What I see is what I get" method. We don't count anything in kcals because that would mean we should close our activities at around 2600 kcals a day for her and about 3300 kcals a day for me (BTW I'm 33, 184cm, BF 15% and around 87kg right now). In that scenario I would have a very tinny space for carbohydrate/fat manipulation. And all of that that would have created a huge underdevelopment to our progress.

So, we are doing things on a much broader level than you do. We are not limiting ourselves to just popular knowledge about body biochemistry that is published here and there. We are going all the way out without boundaries like counting kcals etc.

Anyway, my approach it's nothing new in fact. If you ask pro BBs they don't work in accordance to calories also. They just care about proteins and fats and the rest is carbohydrate manipulation.