Fitness: What can I do to improve my diet?

[bubbleboy]

I'm 5'10" and weigh 170 lbs. I've always been the same weight for the past 6 years, regardless of how much crap I ate, drank (college stupidity), and sat. However, I've always wanted to drop some pounds and get that somewhat lean/toned body. Only issue is that as I'm still living with my family to help pay our mortgage/just graduated, I'm eating what's cooked. The cuisine isn't that healthy at all and I tend to get hungry quite often.

Typical morning has me just having a bagel with cream cheese and a small coffee at work, a lunch consisting of a salad, soup, and small sandwich, and dinner of whatever that's cooked at home. I usually eat in larger portions to keep myself full.

I'd really appreciate pointers on what I can do to modify my diet to be more on the healthier side. I swim often so that's what's keeping my calorie intake in check.

[ShishKabob]

For your average person a small meal will keep you full for about 3 hours, depending on it's contents (simple sugars burn quick, fats/proteins tend to last longer). Shortly after about 3 hours your body starts burning fat. HOWEVER, after that your body goes into starvation mode and stores fat. So, if possible try to eat more than 3 times a day, but keep the meals smaller. Unless you eat tubs of butter for dinner your daily caloric intake seems to be well below what it should be for a guy your size (5'10" @ 170 isn't that bad by the way). That means you need to step up your cardio. Swimming is awesome, but something in your diet/exercise plan doesn't add up. It's true some people have faster metabolisms, but even then for people of the same size and sex it is only about a 10% difference.

I'd increase your protein intake. It will keep you fuller longer and any excess calories from protein can go to maintaining muscle while you try to lose fat.

As far as getting lean/toned, it's important to note that it is extremely difficult to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. Check any bodybuilding site, there is a reason these guys have bulk periods (purposely eat too many calories while lifting very heavily) and cutting periods (eating too few calories). Muscle is built when your body is repairing it's muscles. HOWEVER, your body takes care of maintaining itself before it builds muscle. So, this means if you're not eating more calories than you're burning there are no calories dedicated to rebuilding your muscle. How long these periods are tend to vary from person to person, but I tend to see 2-3 months of bulking to about 2-3 weeks of cutting.

A good example is runners, especially long-distance. They're skinny as hell, even their legs. They exercise a lot but burn more calories than they take in. They build stamina for their muscles, but the muscles themselves don't really grow. On the opposite side is competition weighlifters (not bodybuilders). Competition weighlifters have a lot of fat. That's because they care more about not loosing an ounce of muscle than looking good.

I would suggest cutting first. It is very motivational to be able to see results in the mirror. If you're got a bit of fat on you it will be difficult to see results from building muscle since fat goes on top of muscle. Not to mention for most people it is MUCH easier to lose a few pounds of fat compared to gaining a few pounds of muscle.

For healthy foods you can always make an impact on dinner. Their are a million ways to cook chicken healthily and it can be found pretty cheap when on sale. Don't get the ground-up junk or deli-sliced. That stuff is generally lower grade meat with fillers. Whole-grain rice, cottage cheese, veggies, etc can all be found cheap.

Good luck, and give it some time!

[Heathrowguy]

Impressed with that info. Thanks

[theperfectdater]

You need to workout more. Do high intensity workouts for about an hour/day

[sweatgirl]

Keep a food journal and see what areas need improvement. Instead of eating a full bagel eat half a bagel and replace the cream cheese with Jelly. Eat a salad with protein and put the dressing on the side. if you still hungry eat a small piece of fruit. In courage your family to eat healthier and explain to them why. if you tell them that you want to eat healthier maybe that will get them to make better food choices. good luck. even think about taking a walk after dinner as a family or alone.