Need help with my diet ASAP

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
1

I’m trying to get myself into better shape and have been doing research on different diets and such.Here are some of the notes I took:

1lb muscle=600 calories
1lb fat=3500 calories

To gain 10 pounds of muscle a year you need 6,000 more calories a year than what you need to fuel your body.(That’s 16 more calories than you need a day)

For every two pounds of body weigt you need 1 gram of protein to fuel your body.If you’ve actually stimulated muscle growth(through working out)then you need 4 more grams of protein a day than what you need to fuel your body.

1 gram of protein=4 calories
1 gram of fat=9 calories
1 gram carbohydrate=4 calories

I calculated how many calories I need a day to fuel my body using a method on a website that stated that I need 2325 calories a day to fuel my body(it said if you have an active lifestyle to multiply your weight by 15)With the added 16 this comes out to 2541 calories a day.That seems way to high to me,if I eat that much i’ll have to gorge myself to fit that many calories in!!Wouldn’t that just make me fatter?

Using the method from the magazine to I figured out that I need 81.5 grams of protein a day to gain the muscle which seems reasonable.

I weigh 155 pounds BTW.

If anyone here knows how to calculate how many calories you need could you please tell me the method or tell me how many I need(a day)because I don’t think the method I found was correct.

Also, I work out 6 days out of 8 if that matters(About an hour and a half for muscles,flexibilty,etc. and 30 minutes to an hour to practice kung fu).

One last thing, could some of you guys maybe put down some sample diets that you think would work(or that you use)to help me stay fit?

Thanks for any help.

(I know this belongs on the training and health forum but you rarely get responses there so i’m posting it here)

2

I think the only way to do it is to have some expensive tests done to determine your metabolism.

Even bodybuilders don’t know exactly how much to eat. They gorge themselves then fast to get the weight off.

Another person’s diet might not work for you.

I’d recommend trial and error.

3

alow me to posibly correct you…
But you must be talking of kilo calories, not really calories cos those are real small amount of heat. Dont worry cos its a very common misconception.

Here is an example:
http://www.pact.cpes.sussex.ac.uk/users/edmundjc/twineham_energy.html

4

3500 calories of anything is a pound of anything.

I’ll explain more later, but your numbers were wrong.

IronFist

5

I think that is crazy how much protein you need, and I weigh 170. I think it has alot to do about your metabolism, because for me..I do not do alot of weight lifting, I most do striking and dynamic tension. I finding not nescessary to each that much protein, I just make sure to have lots of fiber in my diet. Eating that much protein would kill me, and all that food they got to be crazy.

6

nah, his protein estimate is good. basically the body has two states - anabolic and catabolic. the body can only be one of these states at a time. If your body is not getting enought protein, you will compromise muscle growth as your body will be in a catabolic state. for optimal growth and putting the body in a catabolic state, you should get 1.5 - 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. The RDA stats you see apply to general, recreational exercisers, not hardcore athletes.

To comment on eulerfan’s post, there are VERY good approximations of what the ideal intake should be based on a person’s weight, height, activity level, etc. of course you can’t estimate exactly how much you should take in, but the formulas are accurate. and body builders haphazardly eat on purpose. They do that during the off season. they do it to put on a lot of mass and get freakishly huge. around competition time, they burn off as much of the fat as they can so they are big and cut. they don’t fast - it’s a mix of diet and cardio, followed by another stage after they reach competition weight. This is the stage where they attempt to make their muscles peak (increased muscle density), and also achieve top vascularity.

I think I found where you got your research from on the net (this is what iron was gonna get back to you on)

"It is possible, by applying a few common facts derived from nutritional science, to figure exactly how many calories and grams of protein will be required for such growth. A pound of muscle contains 600 calories; a pound of fat contains 3500. Obviously a pound of fat contains almost six times as many calories as a pound of muscle. This suggests that it requires a lot less food to build muscle than it does fat. And, of course, the addition of fat requires absolutely no physical training. Fat contains more lipids, cell components high in calories, than does muscle. Muscle, on the other hand, is comprised largely of water, which is devoid of calories. "

Here’s the thing. Muscle is WAY more dense than fat, but they weigh the same. for that reason, a pound of fat is larger than a pound of muscle. think of the old “question” “What weighs more, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?” they weigh the same, but there will be way less bricks than feathers because bricks are heavier.

hope this helps.

7

Originally posted by IronFist
[B]3500 calories of anything is a pound of anything.

I’ll explain more later, but your numbers were wrong.

IronFist [/B]

What’s heavier - a tonne of lead or a tonne of feathers?

:smiley: :confused: :smiley:

8

Originally posted by TaoBoy
[B]

What’s heavier - a tonne of lead or a tonne of feathers?

:smiley: :confused: :smiley: [/B]

I believe a “ton” of either would be heavier. Haha. Australian spellings :stuck_out_tongue:

You guys are awesome. OZZIE OZZIE OZZIE! OI! OI! OI!

IronFist

9

Alright. I should go to bed but since you said you need help “ASAP” I guess I will give you quick answers first.

[i]I’m trying to get myself into better shape and have been doing research on different diets and such.Here are some of the notes I took:

1lb muscle=600 calories
1lb fat=3500 calories[/i]

Throw your notes away. Or at least put them away somewhere. You will learn almost everything you need to know here if you ask the right questions.

To gain 10 pounds of muscle a year you need 6,000 more calories a year than what you need to fuel your body.(That’s 16 more calories than you need a day)

I already said 600 calories does NOT = 1lb muscle. 6000 calories in a year? Damn I could eat that in a day. Now let’s go over another reason why 600 calories != 1lb muscle. (Note: “!=” means “does not equal”). Alright. Calories come from fat, carbs, and protein. If you eat 600 calories of fat, how could that possibly turn into muscle on your body?. Have I convinced you yet that 600 calories does not equal 1lb muscle? Good.

For every two pounds of body weigt you need 1 gram of protein to fuel your body.If you’ve actually stimulated muscle growth(through working out)then you need 4 more grams of protein a day than what you need to fuel your body.

No. Well, protein doesn’t even really “fuel” your body in the first place, but that’s not the point here. If you are trying to gain muscle mass, you should eat between .8 and 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, per day. 1g per pound is a good average. If you weigh 150lbs, that means eat 150g of protein per day. People say different amounts, which is why I said .8-1.5 should work. SevenStar says 1.5-2g per pound of bodyweight. It’s all good. These are general guidelines. I guess the faster your metabolism is the more you would probably need. If you’re using muscle building drugs, then 2-4g per pound of bodyweight may be better.

The point is, the 60g per day that the RDA says you need will not help you build muscle. As SevenStar said, that is for sedentary adults, not athletes, much less young athletes.

1 gram of protein=4 calories
1 gram of fat=9 calories
1 gram carbohydrate=4 calories

Good. You got something right from whatever source you got your information from. These numbers are indeed true. And if you want to confirm it, look on a products “nutrition facts” label and look at the total calories. Now multiply the fat grams by 9, the protein and carb grams by 4, add them all together, and it will equal the total calories listed at the top. Cool, huh?

I calculated how many calories I need a day to fuel my body using a method on a website that stated that I need 2325 calories a day to fuel my body(it said if you have an active lifestyle to multiply your weight by 15)With the added 16 this comes out to 2541 calories a day.That seems way to high to me,if I eat that much i’ll have to gorge myself to fit that many calories in!!Wouldn’t that just make me fatter?

First of all, 2541 calories per day is NOT very many, especially for an athelete. Remember, the 2000 recommended by the RDA is for a sedentary adult. As for getting fatter, unless you’re a total newbie you will put on a little fat with any substantial muscle you ad. Genetics will determine how much. If you’re an ectomorph don’t worry about it.

I say look at it like this. You could spend your time with formulas, or you could just do trial and error. It’s like this: however much you are eating now is resulting in you weighing as much as you do now. So if you want to gain weight, eat more. If you want to lose weight, burn more calories than you eat (either eat less or do cardio or both). Remember:

The only way to gain weight is to eat more calories than you burn.

The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in.

3,500 calories = one pound.

You mentioned above about eating a lot. If you are an ectomorph (naturally skinny, hard to put on any weight whether it’s muscle or fat), you WILL have to eat a lot to add and maintain weight. I am that way, too. I eat more than almost anyone I know and I’m relatively skinny (I’m 170, 5’9" with 8% bodyfat). All the muscle I have is ripped, though. That’s the good thing about being skinny… any muscle you put on is ripped… think Bruce Lee and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

[i]Using the method from the magazine to I figured out that I need 81.5 grams of protein a day to gain the muscle which seems reasonable.

I weigh 155 pounds BTW.[/i]

No. 155g of protein per day on average for you.

If anyone here knows how to calculate how many calories you need could you please tell me the method or tell me how many I need(a day)because I don’t think the method I found was correct.

You want to gain weight? You need more.

Also, I work out 6 days out of 8 if that matters(About an hour and a half for muscles,flexibilty,etc. and 30 minutes to an hour to practice kung fu).

Please make another post about training. This one is diet.

One last thing, could some of you guys maybe put down some sample diets that you think would work(or that you use)to help me stay fit?

One thing to think about… after a certain point, any more mass you add will hinder your health. Pro bodybuilders, for example, are in terrible shape. They get out of breath from just walking across the stage. Their hearts can be over-stressed from pumping blood through all that extra muscle. Some of them have digestive issues from eating 6000+ calories per day. Etc. But, you’re probably a long way form this point, so don’t worry about it too much yet. And obviously, the more you weigh the harder pullups will be :slight_smile:

Thanks for any help.

I hope this helped. Now go read it again and then ask any questions you may have.

(I know this belongs on the training and health forum but you rarely get responses there so i’m posting it here)

Please pick one forum. I noticed you posted the same thing in both forums. This type of thread is generally better suited to the training forum.

IronFist

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That’s a long post! :eek:

IronFist

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The reason I said that number seemed high is because I usually don’t even eat above 1,000 calories a day.That would double what i’m eating now which I would thing would make me gain fat weight(bad thing)instead of muscle weight(good thing).I’m already fat enough as it is,I don’t need any more.What kind of foods would you recommend that I eat and how much of it should I eat to gain muscle and not fat?

If i jump rope 10 minutes every morning along with my workout I listed above do you thing that will be enough to make me loose the extra weightI put on from this?

12

1000 calories sounds REALLY LOW to me. I eat about 2,500 a day. I’m 145 at 5’10". Fairly slim. 1000 a day is a pretty strict diet.

I wonder how you calculated your caloric intake. I think you might be making a mistake somehow.

13

You need roughly 20-30 minutes of having your training heart rate over 80% (check on that, don’t know if that is the exact percentage) to have any cardiovascular improvement.
Secondly, pay attention to what kind of calories you are taking in. Is it saturated fat? Saturated fat is probably one of the easiest things for your body to convert over to body fat. Also, a low caloric intake will slow your metabolism, making weight loss difficult.
What works for me is, run 3 times a day, no less than 2.5 miles each time, reduce not calories, but fat, to roughly 10% your RDA. You can cut carbs too, in an extreme situation, but that really limits your dietary choices.
Warning, you may lose muscle in the process, but I have found, at least with my body, it comes back fairly easily.
There should be tons of dietary resources on the net… check them out.

Drake~

14

Educational post, Ironfist. Very helpful, especially since I’ve changed my diet in the last month, and I’m still tweeking it to make it work for me.

I had not realized the distinction between how many calories 1 gram of different things yield. For instance, I have been looking at the nutritional info on my foods, and when I check them, I usually look at the calories and the grams of fat, protein, etc. However, I assumed that if all the grams were equal, then the type of calories would be equal, which was clearly wrong. There’s a few things that I’m gonna have to cut way back on, knowing that fats yeild more calories per gram.

Thanks.

15

****, Ironfist, you mentioned Bruce Lee.

Hey, me too!

Viper55:

Why why why!?

What are your goals? How long have you been doing MA? How long have you been body building? How long have you been watching your diet? Whats more important, Looking like Bruce Lee or having MA skills like Bruce Lee?

Set small managable goals, then achive them, then set some more, etc… Seems to me like you are scrambling to be like mike in 1 week… doesnt happen bro.

Do your forms, jog in the morning, jump rope before class, eat white meat and salad, and be patient.

16

Yeah, for a sedentary person. This person claims to be exercising three days out of four and claims to be a bit overweight.

This is either a complete miscalculation or severe body dismorphic disorder.

17

1,000 claories per day is way low. How active are you currently? are you SURE you are only taking in 1,000? that may be why you are “already fat enough” as you put it. you aren’t taking in enough calories to sustain the muscle that you currently have. when that happens. you lose it. Also, by taking in less calories than necessary to maintain, your body shifts into “conservative mode” where it makes your fat cells split. Your body basically says “holy shit, I’m starving…I gotta do something to help myself out” consequently, you can actually gain weight while taking in so few calories.

18

There’s no way you’re eating 1000 calories a day and being active at the same time, unless you’re anorexic or crash dieting or something.

List what you eat in a normal day.

And if you weigh 155, how the hell are you “fat enough already?” What is your bodyfat percentage? How tall are you?

1000 calories… that’s how big my dinner was last night :slight_smile:

IronFist

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Nobody listens to me or nobody likes proper physics terminology??

:mad:

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Originally posted by Xebsball
[B]Nobody listens to me or nobody likes proper physics terminology??

:mad: [/B]

no, no… you got it all wrong man..

nobody likes you and nobody listens to proper physics terminology.

just kidding man… couldn’t resist. =)