Planning Diets Natural Nutrition |

Hey Ray, 

  

   I keep forgetting to book an appointment to sit down to try and lose more fat off my tire, so I’ll try and type out my diet thoughts here.  It’s going to get long winded but here it goes. I’m sitting at 195lbs down from 242lbs after reading your book, and of course it’s not good enough for me.  I have been eating the same portions and food since day 1 when I set up the meal plans for 226lbs.  Here’s my game plan, let me know of it makes sense or not please. 

  

- Doing the wild rose cleanse this week starting Thursday. 

  

- At this point changing portions to adjust to 195lb BBE calculations but up the protein from .8/lb to 1g/lb.   Not a lot of change for my diet actually for the cleanse except for fish instead of poultry, plan to keep protein levels high just using fish (likely lots of salmon), everything else is a match… or close to anyway…. 

  

- When I am done the cleanse and go back to poultry, cottage cheese etc, I am looking at a few changes.  The carbohydratess are a no brainer, just cut back a bit.  For proteins I eat a pretty standard set of foods: Meal 1 - cottage cheese   2- chicken / turkey    3- chicken or salmon   4-chicken / turkey   5 & 6- burgers or pork chops, just something other than chicken or turkey.  My thoughts are to keep the daily proteins the same except maybe more emphasis on turkey, but change the night meals to white fish or some type - crab, cod, halibut, stuff like that with very low fat contents….  or should I be switching everything to white fish to try and cut fat from the diet? 

  

- Still have a protein shake at 10 am and eat ice cream at night (usually an ice cream bar) Ice cream is because I found myself getting dizzy a lot and realized it was lack of sugar, have felt a lot better since starting this…. anything I can do different as I realize its not the best thing for attaining a 6 pack! 

  

Work outs: Going to start running 3 miles, 2 or 3 days a week before work (this assumes I can drag my butt out of bed) to see if I can get things moving some more, otherwise I am fairly active in the evenings….  more so when my shoulder smartens up. 

  

Thoughts?   

  

Thanks again 

Mack 

  

From Ray: 

  

First I think you should start looking at body fat percentages now instead of the scale. I saw you the other night and you are getting really lean. I don’t know if you have a certain number you want to see on the scale, but if not, I would be more concerned with body composition than getting that scale to go down any more. After all, do you want to fight at 160 lbs and 10% body fat or 190 lbs and 10% body fat? Just a choice so let me know. 

  

Now on to the diet. The cleanse is going to make you feel awesome after and I think you will see great benefits from it. So that is a go. As for the BEE calculations, I wouldn’t drop as low as 195. I would only go for a 210 for now. Big changes usually cause the body to freak out and rebel. You don’t want that, you have to just tease it a little and not totally tick it off. 

  

With your activity level, I would not decrease the carbohydrates for the increase in protein. This is my opinion but I feel that if the carbohydrates are not available then your body is going to go after the protein next since it is not the macronutrient that is needed for survival, fat is. So it is extra muscle you are after, then add the protein on top but don’t decrease your carbohydrates right now. Not for an athlete. 

  

As for fat, you do not want to cut it out totally. Fat should be at least 15% of your calories. You need this for hormone production buddy. I like the way you cycle your protein sources, keep that up and I would actually go for more fatty meats at night along with fibrous carbohydrates if fat storage is a concern. If that makes no sense to you then we can talk about the science on that later. 

  

As for the ice cream at night, this is weird. You are considering cutting back on carbs for the sake of increased protein but then eating ice cream at night for the sugar you need. See what is happening there? This is another good reason why you need to keep your carb intake at the present levels or even bump them up just a bit. You only need to add a few grams of complex carbs here and there and the light headedness will go away. Try some oatmeal with a banana any time you need a sugar/carb fix. It will break down fast at the start and slow burn on the end from the banana and oatmeal combo. 

  

Now for the extra activity. I know you know the math of fat loss. 3500 calories per pound of fat is the magic number. Now how many calories are you in deficit when you calculate your classes, gym sessions and good eating. If you are in deficit then the extra running should only be because you like it or need to improve your performance in running. Doing excess work to burn calories can throw you into overtraining really fast. Watch yourself. I think you are doing enough activity already with the MMA, my class and the gym. If anything I would go with sprints in the morning if you must go for a run. 10 sprints for 100 yards with 30 seconds rest in between. 

  

Hope that helps buddy!

Ray Burton

www.buildingbodies.ca 

Eating for fat loss doesn’t have to be a terrible affair. It’s just a matter a relearning what is supposed to taste good and a little planning. It’s been awhile since most North Americans regularly cooked their own meals from scratch. What this means is that you are not used to eating foods that are conducive to fat loss in their natural states. What you have been eating you have learned to like because that is what was fed to you. Just like you learned to like what you were eating that has been bad for you, you can learn to like something else.

  

The best thing I can think of to illustrate where you are now to where you want to be with better eating is my cat. Yup, my cat. You see every morning I woke up and I opened the Tupperware container, scooped up some dry bits of weight reducing formula cat food and my cat went nuts. Ariel (my cat) was just tickled pink to be getting fed food at all. This is the way it worked day in and day out. That is until one day I thought I would be a caring owner and offer her a kitty treat as an appetizer and soft canned food for the main course.

  

I woke up that night to find the cupboards above the sink open and a half chewed through kitty treat bag on the floor. My cat had learned about synthetic yet yummy tasting treats. Sounds like anyone you know with cookies or another late night snack perhaps?

  

Somewhere along the way, we all forgot what real food was. Real food doesn’t come in wrappers and doesn’t last 3 years on a shelf. Foods that burn fat and keep you fit and lean need to be prepared. Where most of us hit the stumbling block though is the preparation phase. We are too busy to find time to prepare. Because of this rushed lifestyle we end up grabbing something that is in a wrapper. No nutrition and no substance, just filler. That filler usually has a lot of calories too.

  

So what are you to do in order to get a handle on eating better and head towards fat loss with your food intake instead of weight gain? You write down three days of food intake. For the next three days, write down every single thing that goes into your mouth. Include the times of day you ate, what you ate, how much you ate and your level of hunger when you ate it. I don’t care if a tub of ice cream when in you mouth, just make sure you write it down.

  

You can learn an awful lot about your eating habits by taking a look at this info. You will also see where you can make the big improvements that wont kill your lifestyle too much. For example, you will be able to see if the biggest area of improvement lies in needing to eat more, eat less or if its just a change of food choices. After you make the easy to implement improvements, if you want more fat loss, you can tweak the details some more.

  

Take a look at what days seem to kill your best eating habit intentions. Once you know, you can start a work around. The one thing you do not want to do is try to change everything at once. This is a guaranteed trip to the loony bin. Just make once change at a time and don’t go any further until that one improvement to your eating habits is an ingrained part of your lifestyle.

  

I’m going to give you a little tip that will help this process out immensely. That tip is to take a piece of paper and divide it into two columns. On one side you write the pro’s of eating better and on the other side you write the cons of eating better. This sounds simple but this really helps you to see right in front of your face the motivations and reasons why you are taking certain actions with your eating habits. Now a lot of the pro’s will take care of themselves, it’s the cons you want to be concerned with. What you are going to do is take one of those cons and think for as long as you need to in order to figure out a way to get around that con. It doesn’t matter if it takes you days, just figure it out. The way to arrive at any goal is not to find the easiest path but to clear the path as you go. You could wait forever to find the perfect path.

  

I hope this helps you out.

Ray Burton

FatToFitBook.com

I don’t make a lot of money, but I am needing help with my weight loss.  I’ve already lost 120 pounds last year and initially it was near 150 pounds, but gained a little.  I am frustrated with how things are going now because I can’t seem to get my body to lose weight.  I am in the 220-230 range and used to weigh 350 pounds.

 
 I do look different, but not happy still being a plus size, albeit, I look totally different.  I still have weight to lose and need help and motivation.  I keep waiting for something that’s not happening.  I had gone on a liquid protein diet for a year or over a year and didn’t eat solid food.  In that year I lost a lot of weight and also exercised vigorously. 

 
Now, I want the physique of a bodybuilder, but don’t know how to get it.  Don’t really know what to do or if it’s possible.  When I step out of the shower, I am reminded of my weight loss and how much I still want to lose.  I want to get that giggly stuff off of me and be the size I know is under there.  Can you help me? 

 
I saw that your ebook is 35 dollars, but how much is it to get the help being a supporter and a personal trainer?  I just don’t have a lot of money to work with.  All I know is that I didn’t come this far to be a borderline plus size.  What really hurt was gaining a little back and that was because I backed off of exercise initially.

 
 I’m back at it again, but I’m not totally committed and consistent. I want to work with weights, but feel intimidated in the gym, seeing strange people and a room full of equipment that I don’t know completely how to use.  I want to have the physique of a bodybuilder - a female feminine bodybuilder, not a man-ish looking woman at all.  My arms are still fat (my uppers) and well, I carried a lot of weight for a long time, but things seemed to go back into place, just a flabby mess and still got 50-70 pounds to lose.  It’s hard to face, but I’ve faced it- it hurts, but I’m not done losing weight.  If I had not backed off the exercise, I would no doubt have already reached my goal weight of 150 pounds.  I need so desperately to get there because that is where I know the true me really is. 

 
Even though I’ve been complimented and told I’m pretty and look so good now, I’m not happy with this result.  I know I need to lose more.  I want a flat stomach and the things I was cheated out of physically, like having a slender body.  I know it will take work and I’m ready for it, but I realized that having guidance and motivation from someone knowledgeable would certainly rekindle that fire within that enabled me to keep the determination to lose all that weight, in light of the severe difficulties that I had to overcome.  Is it possible to achieve what I’m wanting?  Thank you in advance of your reply,

 
Sincerely, Heidi

 
Answer: It is always possible to achieve a goal. Some goals take longer than others to achieve that’s all. You have already lost 120 pounds, that means you know you can do it. Now you just need to lose another 80 and you will have achieved your goal.

 
I can tell you one thing for certain. The next eighty will be easier if you are not on an all liquid protein diet. This is a terrible way to struggle through weight loss. My hat goes off to you for how hard that must have been. To tell you the truth, it’s a miracle you didn’t give up sooner.

 
I had to say that because if you want to do it properly with out the torture, you can eat good meals, work out normally and still lose 2 pounds a week. This means that if you start now, in ten months or August 5^th 2007, you will be 150 pounds. That is the honest to goodness truth. There is no reason under the sun that I know of that can keep you from this goal other than you simply not trying or not having the proper information.

 
You asked about the cost of the extra support from a personal trainer. There is none. As long as you are willing to wait a day or two for me to get through questions from other people, I will answer your question. Its free because this is what I do. People buy my book and then I walk them through it. There may be a day when I cant keep up with the mail, but I will let everyone know that now it may take a week or two for me to get back to them. That’s all.

 
I hope this helps you Heidi. Follow your dreams and know that making a choice involves taking action. Let me know if I can help further.

 Julie asked a question over at the Fattofitbook.com support forum and I thought I would put it up here: