My response to TML1970’s blog….she has made incredible progress - you go
you have made incredible progress. you should be very proud of that. what i can tell from your post is that you have quite an active lifestyle, but im not too sure what you are eating. im a believer that good carbs are good for you and you should not eliminate them but eat them at the right time of day to fuel your body and ultimately create a fat burning machine with your increased metabolism. That also means eating more often during the day. Everytime you eat clean, you turn on your engine. Break up a 1200 calorie a day diet (just a recommendation, but 1200 should be sufficient to help you lose some pounds) into 5-6 meals a day. Look toward about 300 average calories a meal…that might be a better way to look at it. You also want to increase you protein intake to about 20-25 grams of protein per meal. Thats a good low sugar protein shake, a breast of skinless chicken, 4 turkey meatballs…start looking at the lables and figuring out what 25 grams of protein "looks" like so you can eye-ball it on your own. Since you are pretty active, you cant forget your carb grams with your meals. Keep you carb grams even with your protein grams for now, so you can refuel the glycogen in your muscles and ultimately get more or a powerful (yes, sweaty!) workout. 20-25 grams of GOOD carbs looks like 2 slices of Ezekiel bread (the only bread i eat…and i take it with me to restaurants), 1/2 a cup of oatmeal (great with splenda and cinnamon), 1/2 a sweet potato (with fat free spray butter, spenda and cinnamon - super good! almost a desert!), 1/2 cup of whole wheat pasta…there are tons of options, just ditch white carbs for "brown" whole grain carbs and MOST IMPORTANTLY eat them for meals 1, 2, 3, only and 4 (none), 5 (if its post workout, have about 10 grams of carbs - a little bit of banana {only post workout} or a little sweet potato {you need to replace the glycogen in your muscle post workout}) and meal 6 is only Protein (like a low sugar shake or a slow digesting protein like non fat cottage cheese) that holds you over through the night. One more important note is to not go too many minutes without eating after your am workout. I tried something new that made a huge difference. If you workout at a gym in the morning, make a 1/2 of whole oats and keep it in your car while you work out and chow it down before you drive home. The sooner you eat riight after a workout, especially an am workout, the less likely hood of getting your body in a catabolic state (which means your body thinks its starving and will not "BUDGE" and release the unwanted fat while conserving you muscles. Muscle building is the cornerstone to burning fat and you will burn more calories on your own with a higher % of muscle, the fat will burn off. Calorie counting will still be key, and drink a 1/2 gallon to gallon of water a day. Dont forget a good multivitamin and you will be on to creating a Fat Burning Machine! PM Anytime if you have any other questions.
