What do you do for protein snacks? Also weight loss journey.

[Flowsion]

Why bother with such elaborate protein snacks? Whey isolate protein shake at the end of each day solves everything

[AlphaOut]

First I want to say great job and keep up the hard work. Don't get discouraged if your progress seems to slow. Your initial weight will fall off fast as hell, don't think you're doing anything wrong if it slows down. That's completely normal. I'd like to share with you my personal diet and current workout routine. Maybe you could incorporate it into what you're already doing, or just take bits and pieces. Everyone is different, so what works for me may not work for you and vise versa.

My diet
In the morning I have 1 egg with 3 egg whites, oatmeal with almond butter in it, and a protein shake (with Glutamine). My protein shake consists of 1 tbsp. of olive oil, a small handful of blueberries, and half the amount of raspberries. Blueberries promote abdominal fat burning (they contain Catechins), and raspberries promote weight loss. My lunch is generally sweet potatoes, tilapia / cod / salmon, and a salad with NO cheese, the dressing is balsamic vinegar / olive oil / mustard (mustard is a free food) mix. Super easy to make and tasty. Between lunch and dinner is a protein shake, no additions and no Glutamine. Just the protein and water or coconut milk. Some people use almond milk, but I find the high sodium content to not be worth it for me. Dinner is either chicken or fish, a small amount of cottage cheese, certain rice or quinoa or sweet potatoes. My dinner is large, I eat half before the gym and half after. I snack on carrots or celery throughout the day, and have peanut butter on hand for the celery to intake more fats. After the gym (during the "2nd dinner") I have another protein shake identical to the morning one.

I don't drink caffeine, but that's just me. Stay away from any sugary drink like soft drinks. Do not drink any store bought juice. Both of these things will completely destroy your progress and slow you down. Personally, I don't ever see a need to buy protein bars or anything like that. You'll get enough from your shakes and food alone. I'm on the go a lot at work, so I bought a "SmartShake." It has a compartment underneath to hold more protein. So mid day I can just dump more in and fill it with water. Super convenient. I try and do a 1:1 or 1:1.5 weight-protein ratio. For weight loss 1:1 is generally the accepted amount. Your body actually burns more calories than carbs or fats trying to process protein. When you're losing weight you're burning fat AND muscle. Its important to keep your protein up to help fuel fat burning and preserve calorie burning lean muscle.

Here is a master food list to use as a guideline of what is considered a balanced diet (everything in moderation).
https://bevnut.com/recipes/master-foods.html
Limit your fruit intake. I eat blueberries and raspberries for the reasons above.

My workout:

So my variations change almost monthly. Some people do back / bicep; chest / tricep; legs / shoulders. Rest 1 day (with cardio). Repeat. Others do back / chest; biceps / triceps; shoulders / legs. Rest 1 day (with cardio). Repeat. I do the latter occasionally.

Currently my workout looks like this:
Monday: Back
Tuesday: Arms
Wednesday: Chest
Thursday: Legs (Quads, Hamstrings)
Friday: Shoulders / Calves
Saturday: Complete compound movements.
Sunday: Rest

Every single day I do a 5-10 minute warmup jog. Every single day I do abs. You want your midsection to be punished every single day. Your core can handle it, I promise.

With that said, I switch my routine and go full calisthenics for a week or so. Or, I'll cut my workout with the weights and switch to calisthenics midway. Calisthenics is a great way to lean out and burn fat. It's very underrated in the gym scene. It promotes muscle endurance and strength through high reps and your own body weight. When you build endurance you're burning fat, however you won't see much muscle mass put on unless you add weight on a belt, for example. Calisthenics can be difficult and frustrating at first, if you're looking at advanced movements. But that's why its so fun. Every week you can see yourself getting closer to a specific movement (like a muscle up or front lever). Everything callisthenic begins at your core, if you choose to try it out, you'll notice an incredible core strength develop, and your body will follow suit.

I'd love to hear how your progress is going weekly, it's pretty motivating to read other peoples success stories. Again, keep up the good work!

[Zelion]

For those of you that work out and try and keep a high metabolism what you do you eat for protein through the day? I am trying to improve my diet and metabolism and I need ideas for what to eat every three hours or so.

Eating more often doesn't increase your metabolism. This has been debunked numerous times in studies and it needs to die.

A vast majority of people do not need any protein supplementation what so ever. This includes almost all gym users and is especially true if you are trying to lose weight. If you overdo your protein intake you might as well be eating candy bars. Basically everything you eat besides fruit contains protein and it just keeps trickling in. Write down everything you eat and drink on a normal day and calculate your protein intake. I would bet that you will be surprised.

The entire field of protein supplementation is so packed with pseudo science and outright lies that I am surprised they are not being shut down. They keep using the phrase "incomplete protein" for example and there is no such thing in the way they suggest it. Complete protein was a term coined in the 70s by a researcher who has spoken out against how it is used today and said that it was a very poor choice of words. It simply means all the types of protein your body needs, not that you have to have them all in one go and together like some protein puzzle. Some proteins in "complete protein" isn't even used for muscles I was told but I I was unable to verify this as some of the documentation was too technical for me.

Also, eating protein in excess does nothing what so ever for your metabolism. It just makes you fat.

1. It has been shown that higher protein intakes (>.8g/kg) are WAY more effective than lower intakes(<.4g/kg) for trained population for lean mass.
2. Overdoing protein equates to eating candy bars. Are you serious? This is asinine.
3. The term incomplete protein really means proteins that are low in leucine like vegetables and other grain based sources. All protein is not created equal in terms of muscle building. In order to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis, most people need to hit a threshold of about 3g in one protein bolus.
4. Eating more protein actually DOES make you burn more calories, although it's pretty negligible. Proteins' TEF (thermic effect of food) is the highest of the macros by a substantial margin.
5. Excess calories make you fat, not overdoing protein. That is nonsense.

I think that's enough for now.

[Bigbazz]

I literally melted when I started intermittent fasting, combined with dropping breakfast cereals (even the "healthy" low calorie bran stuff I eat") and eating more fruit and veg, less dairy but I didn't cut out fat (cooking with butter etc). Intermittent fasting after getting used to it completely stopped my desire/need to snack so controlling calories is extremely easy, it really puts to bed any idea that you need to eat regular meals to increase metabolism because fasting created the opposite effect, my metabolism seems to support me eating more calories now without putting on weight and I seem to have the opposite issue, I need to make an effort to keep weight on.

The protein industry is big business, don't get sucked into over supplimenting your diet though. Try your best to sort your basic needs from your food and add suppliments if they are needed, but they may not be.. Unless you're on the vitamin S your body is probably not going to do much with excess levels of protein other than turn it into massive protein turds. Someone suggested boiling up a bunch of eggs and using them as snacks for protein intake, sounds like a better idea to me than some packaged "protein" branded shite.

I suppose eggs get old after a while, but then so does canned tuna, as do protein shakes.. Speaking from experience of consuming a lot of all of three.

[pionock]

If you're looking for some decent protein snacks, you can never go wrong with mixed nuts and some fruit, dried or otherwise. Also, if you can afford it and can tolerate a bit of chalky texture, Greek yogurt with fruit on the bottom is a great option. This might be personal bias, but try baby carrots with peanut butter. Or some peanut butter on some rice cakes. Use your imagination. Generally speaking, you want to have a protein with a carb, hence why I suggested those combinations.

If you'd like some more help on stuff, feel free to pm me and I can elaborate on more. I've had to lose weight and get ripped for a men's physique show before, so I can offer some advice.

Edit: I almost forgot to say congrats so far on the journey. It's gonna be tough, but you're doing well so far.

[EyelessCrow]

I'd love to hear how your progress is going weekly, it's pretty motivating to read other peoples success stories. Again, keep up the good work!

I have gone to NOT weighing myself anymore, it's discouraging. My weight will not budge but people tell me constantly I look different. I just had a coworker tell me how different I look in 2 weeks time. Really the only different thing I've done is throw 10-15 minutes of bike in at the end of my workout. I'm not hitting my protein intake I don't think. My diet still needs work, I'm eating much better but it still needs work. My personal trainer buddy tells me I gotta get over the "being sick of the same thing over and over" which is why I started this thread because I was struggling with it. Now I just make a ton of chicken breast on sundays and use different marinades to change the flavor and eat that with some veggies and quinoa/rice/sweet potatoes.

It's just aggravating not seeing my weight fall anymore and not seeing the changes in myself. I don't think it's a plateau yet otherwise I wouldn't be told how much of a difference there is so frequently. I guess it's just a mental thing. I will say I do notice an increase in at least looks from women lol. I used to feel invisible, not so much now.

If you're looking for some decent protein snacks, you can never go wrong with mixed nuts and some fruit, dried or otherwise. Also, if you can afford it and can tolerate a bit of chalky texture, Greek yogurt with fruit on the bottom is a great option. This might be personal bias, but try baby carrots with peanut butter. Or some peanut butter on some rice cakes. Use your imagination. Generally speaking, you want to have a protein with a carb, hence why I suggested those combinations.

If you'd like some more help on stuff, feel free to pm me and I can elaborate on more. I've had to lose weight and get ripped for a men's physique show before, so I can offer some advice.

Edit: I almost forgot to say congrats so far on the journey. It's gonna be tough, but you're doing well so far.

I'm grateful for my love of peanut butter lol, I can put that on anything and be happy. I might have to try the rice cakes and peanut butter thing. I think I'm just over complicating the whole thing and just need to keep it simple with nuts, peanut butter and carrots and things like that as you say. Greek yogurt I am not sold on. it has that aftertaste I can't stand.

[AlphaOut]

I have gone to NOT weighing myself anymore, it's discouraging. My weight will not budge but people tell me constantly I look different. I just had a coworker tell me how different I look in 2 weeks time. Really the only different thing I've done is throw 10-15 minutes of bike in at the end of my workout. I'm not hitting my protein intake I don't think. My diet still needs work, I'm eating much better but it still needs work. My personal trainer buddy tells me I gotta get over the "being sick of the same thing over and over" which is why I started this thread because I was struggling with it. Now I just make a ton of chicken breast on sundays and use different marinades to change the flavor and eat that with some veggies and quinoa/rice/sweet potatoes.

It's just aggravating not seeing my weight fall anymore and not seeing the changes in myself. I don't think it's a plateau yet otherwise I wouldn't be told how much of a difference there is so frequently. I guess it's just a mental thing. I will say I do notice an increase in at least looks from women lol. I used to feel invisible, not so much now.

Don't worry about weight. I'm sure a ton of people tell you (and you already know) muscle weights more than fat. If anything, measurements will give you a way more realistic result. Your weight will start to fall slower and slower due to the elimination of excess fat, which comes fast at first. You should look up some homemade protein bar recipes. They're super easy to make, and great to eat when you're on the go. As for your protein intake, don't over think that. Many people turn to second guess their protein when they feel like they're not getting results. Your body can only process around 30g of protein at a time, so anything more than that at once turns out to be a waste. It won't be stored as fat, but it won't be utilized to develop muscle.

I switched to calisthenics when I got bored of my routine, or felt a plateau effect coming on. It's also an incredible way to get lean while building strength. Most calisthenics exercises focus on your core as well, so you'll notice a difference in the waist in the coming weeks. Keep up the great work, and don't forget that everyone deserves a cheat day.

[pionock]

I'll add some more advice and helpful motivation, now that I've had time to think about your situation. Personal anecdotes inbound:

After my fitness show I went from a ripped 5'7" 175lbs back to my original weight of 205. I even packed on more muscle over the next 5 years, which led me moving out to Kuwait for this job at 220lbs. I finally tried to lose weight last year and nothing I did worked. I knew which foods to eat, and my lifting routine was solid, but nothing happened. I almost gave up, until I decided to make some small adjustments to my diet. Soon as I did that, the weight came off. Then hit another plateau, so I made some tweaks, and I've been doing it successfully so far, for 15 lbs of fat gone. I'm now 204 and I've got about 15 more to go to be at my ideal BF%.

My point is to not lose the drive and if you find yourself stuck at a weight, then make a small adjustments in either exercise or diet. More than likely, your diet will make a bigger difference, as there's only so much exercise you want to do in a day.

I agree with others in that you shouldn't focus so hard on the number on that scale, but I would recommend you still look at it and log it somewhere. I use a Google Sheet app on my phone to keep track of it. Use that weight to help ensure you're still on track with your weight loss. 1-2lbs per week is normal and healthy and ensures you lose as much fat without losing muscle. Simply put, you will lose weight faster than any muscle you're gaining.

By logging your weight daily, you can see any progress, or lack thereof, being made. If you notice you've gone through about a week or two without a change in weight, you can then evaluate what to change to make to see if it works. Only make a small change, like adding some more minutes to cardio or adding/subtracting food from your day. Then observe for another week or two and see if you bust through that plateau.

One final note: Get into the habit of taking weekly or every other weekly pictures of yourself. Same time, same day, usually right after you wake up. This helps you really visualize the changes.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but this works.

[Zayv]

For anyone struggling to get calories in - I got a pretty good solution for that.

These things are stupid addicting and calorie dense. I usually use Arbonne protein powder (have a discount for it & it's high carb) but you can use most any powder:

https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/reci...?recipe=913934

Literally one of the best tasting things I've ever eaten.

[Deleted]

eggs, chicken and protein powder milk shake. sometimes I eat chickpeas when I'm tired of meat...