Newb needs diet and supplement help (long, but good)

[earthbuddy1]

Im a newbee here. Need some advice. Over many years, I have gained weight, then maintained, then gained, now lost weight and have hit a wall. Heres my story:

Im 5' 2.5" tall. Male. 13 years ago I was lifting and weighed 145@11% bf (caliper). I felt good. Wanted to be bigger, but my muscles never bulked like my friends did. I guess Im just a hard gainer. At that point I got married. 5 years later I had gained weight and a larger waistline up to 160 lbs.

I still lifted though and I added cardio work to my routine. My diet was terrible though. Way to much sweets. I dropped to 155. I then added creatine and on advice from someone else, a protein powder. Big problem was it was a mass builder with gobs of calories, carbs and protein. I hit 175 in 2 months with an even larger waistline, my gym closed up and I had a falling out with a buddy and coworker who I thought had blindsided me on a promotion at work.

With that, I really just hung up my lifting gloves. I still ate bad and joined another gym, but only avg about 2 times a week of half hearted lifting. I obsessed that I was going to lose weight. Then after I hit 200 lbs, I just dropped the gym membership. I hovered at 190 to 205 for a few years, bought a used boat and enjoyed many watersports and managed to patch up things with my buddy. But i still obsessed that I was going to loose weight.

2003 and the birth of my daughter was good. Work was good, life was good and I resolved that i would just be a plump daddy but still do the things I wanted to do. That is untill I tried to continue my watersking. I now found that I could no longer cut the heat of summer, and got tired too fast to go out on the boat.

There I was. An official couch potato.



I went through most of the year like that, untill one week, I noticed that I did not want to eat any sweets. Then I got the flu. I lost 5 pounds and that started my new found ability to loose weight.

I went through the first 6 months of 04 really well. I bought some freeweights and bench used from a guy and started a twice weekly, full body routine. I started walking everyday during lunch. I found I could push away from the table, and I no longer had cravings for sweets. I oozed energy. By June of 04 I was at 160lbs from a high of 205 just 6 months before. I felt great. I was unstopable.

I continued my lifting twice weekly and walking and bikeing everyday. By sept I had got to 158@16% bf (caliper) but was getting tired. Thats when I hit a wall. I continued to push, but old cravings were comming back. During december, I went on some vacations and by january, I was at 168lbs and eating more sweets. Stress was very high with a huge workload at work and my wife was expecting again. I had to take over many home duties also since she was in a higher risk situation and was put on bed rest for awhile.

Now here I am. A new dad again. I want to be a dad that my kids can be proud of. A man who not only has an attitude and nature of a good true man, but a man that looks like a man as well. I need help.

I got on fitday and found that during my weight loss year, that I was taking in about 1500 to 1600 cal. It showed that my total output was 2900 to 3000 cal. Now with the added sweets and second helpings, Im taking in 3000 cal. Im going to cut the sweets and second helpings again.
Fitday showed that about 46% of cal was carbs, 32 was fat and 21 was protein.


My questions are this,
1:Is that balance of carbs, fat and protien ok?
2: Should I suppliment with protein or anything?
3: I want to take a good multi-vitamin, but what?
4: What can I take to get my energy back?
5: Why am I being hit with cravings for sweets, when the year before, they had diminished?

Money is very very tight so cheap is the only way for me to go. Any help or advice you can give me?

[Anthony]

1. 1600 calories x 21% protein = 84g of protein. About half the protein you should be getting under conservative estimates. I also think 1600 calories is a bit low.

2. Maybe, but it shouldn't be too hard to get 160-200g of protein from regular food.

3. Doesn't matter, they are all pretty similar.

4. Eat well, sleep well, and train. You need to find a balance instead of going to extremes.

5. Most cravings are caused by imbalances ... could be nutrient imbalance or mental imbalance. You said you were stressed, so that would be my guess.

[drew]

1. Try to make that 40% protein, 30% of each fat and carbs.
2. Try to get 1.5g protein per lb of body weight. If you have to use shakes, do so.
3. Get the generic brand of whatever men's multi-vitamin they have at your local drug store.
4. Caffeine is great for energy. If you like coffe, drink it black.
5. I don't know.

[Built]

The ratios of P:C:F that work are really unique to the individual, and really aren't at all important.

The big deals are protein (1-1.5g per pound weight as drew suggested, I go with "per pound GOAL weight" for really overweight people) and calories.

Keep fats above 30% of total calories, and how the rest of your fat and carbohydrate calories come in is a matter of personal comfort. I find it easier to diet if I keep fats a little higher, some folks don't seem to need this.

[earthbuddy1]

Ok. Looks like I need more protein in my diet. I will work on that. I will also lower the carbs some too.

Is there a rule of thumb for when to eat carbs and when to eat protein and fat? I will walk during lunch time for arobic and fat burning benifits. I will lift in the evening after dinner.

Built, In another post you said:
"You don't get an anabolic window after cardio (presuming it's ONLY cardio, and not lifting followed by cardio), so there's no reason to stimulate an insulin response.

Cardio often leaves you feeling a little hungry. Fat with protein tends to satisfy hunger better than carb with protein. It does for me, at any rate.

And finally, fat burning stops in the presence of insulin plus glucose."

This sounds like something I might should concern myself with. Could you explain these statements a bit for me?

[Built]

I time my carbs to coincide with my lifting. You can click on the link in my sig to see how I do it.

The biggest deal is calories. I use fat and protein to try to control my appetite, and for me, that means lowering the carbs a bit more than most. You may be fine with higher carbs. It's pretty individual.

I understand that fatburning is halted as soon as there is sugar to burn, so I avoid it after steady-state cardio (but NOT after HIIT - that, you feed like lifting).

Do you know about the anabolic window after lifting?

[earthbuddy1]

The only windows I know about are the ones I work on everyday (98, xp) and those in my house and car that I see out of.

Enlighten me.

Another thing, could I undermine my fat burning efforts if I drink my water laced with a little bit of gatoraid? Im talking 1/4 cup of gatoraid to 1 qt of water.

[Built]

The anabolic window is the time after lifting, when your body has to repair all the damage you did with the intense activity (lifting).
Your metabolic rate goes higher, and your muscles are more insulin sensitive than your fat cells during this time. You don't get this from cardio.

Ditch the gatoraid. The prepared stuff has too much fructose.

The powdered stuff would be okay to sip while lifting, but not for cardio.