needing help - lots of numbers & info

[phantasmagoric]

ok. after doing PP for 1 year, i decided i wanted to go through my nutritional intake thoroughly. meaning, i'm curious how much carb, fat, protein, and calories i'm averaging per day.

i've never looked at the numbers before, but 2 months ago, i started noticing some jiggle :eek: so i decided to get more excercise and cut back down to phase I. well....its been about 2 months, and nothing is really happening. my endurance is higher, but i weigh the same, measure the same, and look the same.

i read in PP that if you're having a hard time getting the last few pounds off, to try cutting down a bit on fat and calorie intake. i've been monitoring my numbers to get a good idea of what i'm taking in everday. and i'm hoping that with some help, i can figure out what to change.

here are the averages:

Carb: 35g | Fat: 125g | Protein: 145g | Calories: 1700

my LBM is 118 lbs, and my level of activity is moderate (.6 grams of protein/pound of LBM). i classify it as moderate, because i do pilates at least 3 times a week, and i walk for 20 min everday. but my job is a desk job, so the rest of the time i'm sitting. with my level of activity and my LBM, my daily protein requirement equals out to about 71g. as you can see from the numbers above, i'm doubling that. maybe i'm wrong, but i think that's why i'm jiggling again.

i know that you guys are thorough :p so before you ask, let me tell you what i'm eating. here's a breakdown of today's menu, which is a very typical day of eating:

(I work evening shifts, that's why the times are different)

Breakfast: 11 am
-2 oz. pork sausage,
-2 eggs 1/8 cup cheddar melted on top
-3 oz. spam lite w/ 1 tsp mayonnaise
-glass of water

Snack: 1pm
-cheese off of 1 slice of pizza
-1 buffalo wing
-glass of iced tea

3pm, felt a little light headed:
-1/4 cup mixed nuts
-water, lots of water

Lunch: 5:15pm
-8oz beef chunks w/commercial BBQ sauce :( i soaked as much of it up as i could with napkins
-small salad w/ranch, all veggies, no meats
-diet soda

Snack: 8pm
-1 cheese stick
-1/2 cup brocolli flourets
-6 baby carrots w/ranch

Dinner: 11pm
-Chicken salad wrap (6 oz. chicken, mayo, lettuce, LC tortilla)
-glass of water

i look at that menu, and i feel bad :( because i think i'm consuming more than i need to. i've tried eating less, but then i feel like i'm starving, so i dont know what to do. :confused:

i know that a lot of you are much more experienced in this sort of thing than i am. and i know someone will have helpful advice!

thank you! :D

[Billie]

Phantas--

I don't have a great deal of time right now so I will probably edit this and do it in pieces.

First thought was maybe change some things around in what you are doing, that always seems to help. You eat dinner very late, can that be done earlier? Can you try to change up your exercise routine? Less or more of something new and different.

Sometimes we get anxious when things aren't working as fast as we want, but as I keep saying, it has to be about our health first, the weight the measurements are secondary. That is hard for people to come to and I appreciate that not everyone shares that point of view.

And maybe check those carb counts, for example, for breakfast you had:
-2 oz. pork sausage,
-2 eggs 1/8 cup cheddar melted on top
-3 oz. spam lite w/ 1 tsp mayonnaise

Are you calculating in the carbs the filler in pork sausage and spam? I don't know if there are but there certainly could be, and also there was a buffalo wing in there. You had nuts, some people can't do nuts, maybe try and take away nuts and cheese out of your menu and see what happens, in otherwords change things up!

Back later

[Viking Dan]

Yeah. Dreadful as it is to contemplate, I have found I do better when I totally knock out dairy. :(


Snack: 1pm
-cheese off of 1 slice of pizza
-1 buffalo wing
-glass of iced tea


You just ate the cheese off a slice of pizza? Buffalo wings probably have a lot of sugar in the glaze. I'm assuming the iced tea is unsweetened?

[Mitra]

If those calorie numbers are accurate, it doesn't sound as if you're eating too much - 1700 kcals is about my maintenance level, for a similar amount of exercise, but 25 years or so older, with about 30 lb less LBM.

You said you'd started to notice some jiggle. Does that mean that there was more jiggle than before, or just that you started to notice it? Do you know if you've been gaining fat? Are your clothes tighter? I also wondered what is your BF%?

Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to get the right fuel mix!

[phantasmagoric]

You had nuts, some people can't do nuts, maybe try and take away nuts and cheese out of your menu and see what happens, in otherwords change things up!

Back later

if i took nuts and cheese out, i dont know what i would eat. :confused: those 2 things are what i eat for snacks to keep me going between meals.


You just ate the cheese off a slice of pizza? Buffalo wings probably have a lot of sugar in the glaze. I'm assuming the iced tea is unsweetened?

yes i just ate the cheese. it was a department meeting at work, and all they had in the way of food was pizza and wings. the wing, however, was fried, and i removed the skin/breading before eating it. i guess i forgot to mention that. and the tea was unsweetened.


You said you'd started to notice some jiggle. Does that mean that there was more jiggle than before, or just that you started to notice it? Do you know if you've been gaining fat? Are your clothes tighter? I also wondered what is your BF%?

there was always jiggle. but after doing PP for awhile, i lost 25 pounds and had a lot less jiggle. but in the last couple months, i've started to notice more jiggle than i used to have. meaning, more than what i had 6 months ago. and my clothes aren't fitting as comofortably as they used to. that's not to say that they dont fit, but they are feeling more snug. by the PP book, my calculated BF% is 21.89%. i know this is perfectly normal.

but looking at those numbers, i'm concerned that i'm eating more than i need to. if i dont need to eat 145g of protein a day, then why am i? and the same goes for other nutrients as well.

[Mitra]

It may not be the answer you want, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. 22% body fat is not only perfectly normal, it's at the lower end of the normal range (for women who aren't serious athletes). It's pretty well ideal. And, as I said before, your calories seem fairly low for your size (LBM).

I think I'd try making your exercise regime a bit more challenging - maybe try some of the more difficult pilates exercises. It doesn't necessarily need to take longer if you're short of time - you could find ways to work harder in the sessions you already do. That will help both by improving your posture, and by improving the underlying muscle tone.

[laughingW]

Are you at equilibrium... or do you think you're very slowly gaining? Perhaps adaptation has set in.

Did something in your routine change 2 months ago? Or was that just when you noticed it.

At this point I would start a series of 2-week experiments to see if I could shake things up. (a week isn't long enough for me and a month is too long)

And I'd try things in this order. Me not doing all these things have plateued me.

- Increase the demand by cranking up the challenge on exercise.

- lose the cheese (it makes me puffy - I've demonstrated that). I save protein from meals or use nuts.

- take out the excess protein and backfill with fat & greens.

- add veggies to every single meal

- If using prepared sausage, chicken, dressings, wraps, the sodium might be keeping things at a standstill.

[deirdra]

laughingW has some good ideas, but food-wise I'd do them in reverse order, starting with replacing the prepared foods with homemade since food additives and the wheat and soy in wraps can trigger immune and inflammatory responses that make one stall (one LC wrap causes me to retain 1-2 lbs of water!). I still eat cheese with no problems, but not soft cheeses or ones with extra milk solids like many "American" or skim milk cheeses since these have more lactose & casein (food allergy/intolerance triggers for many). Aged hard cheeses like swiss & cheddar have the least. And eat more veggies - they are good for you and will fill you up. I eat unsalted nuts, like almonds, every day, but salted nuts, peanuts & cashews can be problematic so I avoid them. If you haven't guessed, I've been doing a lot of reading on food intolerances lately and it is clear that they have caused most of my problems. Since the PP benefits of reducing grains and sugar reduced many of my fat, asthma and allergy problems, that motivated me to look into the rest of what I was eating. "The False Fat Diet" by Dr. Elson Haas is a good place to start if you are interested.

The PP advice "if you're having a hard time getting the last few pounds off, try cutting down a bit on fat and calorie intake", when you are already eating a reasonable number for a person of your size and exercise level, was the worst advice I ever followed. If it leaves you feeling unsatisfied and deprived it is a recipe for failure. I ended up gaining back 30 lbs, just like I did on every every other diet (they all offer this advice) I had been on in the past 35 years. And I notice that many of the original eatprotein members who were following this advice disappeared from the boards, so I presume it didn't work for them either.

I'd recommend keeping the calories at the same (~1700) maintenance level, but changing the content - few/no prepared foods, get most of your 35 net carbs from vegetables, reduce protein to 71-100g and eat MORE fat.

[laughingW]

You said it better Deirdra! I totally agree on the percent of fat.