[jburgess]

I am trying get on a healthy diet weighing only 115~ pounds I use to just eat whatever I could find when I felt like it. Usually only eating one meal a day. Now it turns out I am suppose to be eating (just a guess I am not really sure) 2,000-2,500~ calories a day divided into 6 meals (15g protein and 15 carbs?) and for morning/ postworkout shake 20g protein 40g carb (.4g protein and .8g carb per kg body wieght) the problem is almost everysingle thing I know has carbs in it besides plain meat and with that in mind its kind of hard for me not eat over 20g of carbs( a single slice of bread can have more than that!) with most meals any suggestions? Also Ive been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables and avoiding sugar and sat/trans fats, etc.

[Nabisco]

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. Are you saying you are 115lbs? Or is that the weight you're targeting?

If you are 115lbs, what are you goals? Getting bigger? Just eating healthy? An answer to these basic questions will help myself and others provide quality advice.

If you answer these it would greatly help.

Height
Weight (115?)
Goal (ie bigger, leaner, stronger?)

[DBinMD]

The advice given to you of .4g protein and .8g carb per kg body weight is probably not that far off what’s generally said, but keep it in English, the math is simpler. .4 * 2.2lb/kg = .88 or just round up to 1.0; 1 gram/lb of body weight of protein (actually I would say 1 to 1.5 g/lb). .8 g * 2.2 = 1.76 or round up to 2. These are just estimates; experience will tell you how to massage these. So in your case 115 to 175 grams of protein, 230 grams of carbs. Carbs and protein are each 4 cals/gram; (115+230) * 4 = 1380 cals. In a 2000 cal diet the rest (620 cals) would be fat. Fat = 9 cals/gram, so 70 grams of fat. So you if you had 6 meals/day the average would be 20g of protein; 40g of carbs; 12 g of fat (the numbers are rounded. That’s the approximate nutrition in a sandwich.

6 meals per day is a worthy goal but if you can’t, you can’t. In your case it’s not practical. Your caloric needs just aren’t high enough. Frankly, I’ve been known to have a 2,000 cal breakfast but I wouldn’t recommend it. Since you’re trying to gain weight, as long as you’re getting your protein don’t worry about too many carbs.

Below are some more details:
1) Try to make the calories of good quality. This usually means knowing what’s good for you and preparing it yourself. Don’t depend on eating out; you have no control of the content.
2) Lot’s of lean animal protein. Don’t listen to the nutritionists (but you already know this). The rule in resistance training for decades has been about 1 to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. You can attack this one of 2 ways. The first is the easiest, 1 gram/pound of bodyweight. Just count the protein from animal sources. In your case 115g. The second is to count every bit of protein from all sources. This can be tedious but something like fitday.com can help. That should be 1.5 grams/pound. In your case 115 * 1.5 = 170g. This is ball park, some people will tell you something a little different but this is the approximate goal.
3) If you are still have trouble gaining (or losing) and you are certain it is not your training then you need to track everything you eat and then adjust. Keeping your protein between 1 to 1.5 gm/lb of body weight adjust the fats and carbs. Diet tracking software like fitday.com can help.

If you have any more questions just ask.

[jburgess]

Well, I read about insulin spikes in the morning/ post workout which should include .4g protein and .8g carb per kg body wieght which for me would mean a shake with about 20g protein and 40g carbs. So I am guessing since I dont want to cause these spikes with every meal of the day I should cut these grams of carbs and protein in half? I guess my problem is I am concerned about the amount of carbs in my meals since theres so many carbs in just about everything. Also I am trying to build muscle but not fat... So I should be eating a few hundred? calories above maintenance but what about on non-workout days or if I do cardio should I be eating even more calories than that?

[DBinMD]

Yes, I’m inclined to say cut the proportion of carbs to protein in half (not carbs and protein). Although I’m familiar with the theoretical usefulness insulin spikes, I’ve never heard of the .4/.8 g/kg details you’ve given. I’m also inclined to say it’s a level of detail you don’t need, at least right now.

I think the breakfast and post wo shakes are a good idea. A breakfast meal would be better, but not always practical. I’d maybe up the protein to 30g. If you use whey for part of it you should easily keep the carbs down. Whey is about 23g of protein to about 5 g of carbs. Throw in 8 oz of 1% milk and you get another 8 grams of protein and 12 grams of carbs. Or use 1.5 scoops of whey and 12 oz of oj and get another 33 g of carbs. So in terms of grams of protein/carbs/fat this comes to:
31/17/6 total 243 cals or 34/38/5 total 313 cals.

So now we have 2 meals down, 2 or 3 more to go and about 1400 cals and about 110 g of protein. So you can do three normal meals using a protein/carb/fat ratio of about 30g/35g/10g.

Using the whey and oj shake that’s
154g/180g/40g or 1680 cals/day. It’s hard to say what your needs are. I’m inclined to think 1680 is a little low. You’ll need to track closely to find out.

One word of warning, while many people can develop a 6 pack and more muscle often people find it difficult to build muscle without some increase in body fat.

Does that answer your question?

DB

[jburgess]

Lately Ive been eating maybe over 1,000 calories a day I am use to eating less than that. I am thinking the GI rating of the carbs is more important than the amount of carbs by how much I dont know. Also I am not real sure what my maintenance calories should be Ive gotten different numbers from different websites... still I think Ive put on a couple pounds.