NOTE: After review it is obvious that my original calorie intake estimate was wrong. I've edited this post to revise it to 2,000 calories. I originally said that it was 1000, which makes no sense.
I am looking for dietary advice in order to maximize my results. Prior to getting into swimming I was consuming about 2,000 calories per day and trying to favor protein. Considering that I was sitting in front of a computer most of the day even 1,000 calories may have been too much. My weight pretty much stayed around the same 220lbs (lean weight target being somewhere around 185lbs).
Now that I am swimming I probably need to change my dietary intake. I do want to get rid of the extra pounds as soon as possible. However, with these 1 1/2 hour workouts and only 2000 calories I felt out of energy for the first couple of days. My lack of conditioning probably had a lot to do with it.
Some of the questions I have are:
Should I try to remain close to 2000 calories in order to expedite weight loss and then stabilize at a higher caloric intake?
My workouts are at 5:30AM. I can't have breakfast prior to the workout. This means that I am working off of energy from dinner and stored fat. Should I favor certain foods for dinner?
Also, what would be the best distribution of caloric intake throughout the day? Should I front load (heavy breakfast) or have a larger dinner to put some energy away for the morning workout?
Any other thoughts/advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Parents
Former Member
I got bored after an injury last year that took me out of the pool and prevented me from lifting, so I decided to loose some weight. My diet, six days a week, consisted of all the green vegetables I could eat, boneless skinless chicken, protein bars and egg whites. One day a week, I ate about 3-4k calories of pizza, cookies, alcohol, whatever.
For exercise I road a stationary bike averaging about an hour a day, but that was an average. One day I did 3 hours taking a short 10 minute break to refill water and have some coffee. My injury prevented me from doing ANYTHING that involved the upper body, so even riding a real bike was out.
IIRC I lost 24.x lbs in 6 weeks, 190ish to mid 170s, ~15% bf% to upper single digits. I lost a ton of muscle mass during this time, but there wasn't any way to maintain it either.
If you limit yourself to protein and green vegetables, I really don't think you need to starve yourself.
The unlimited green vegetable and protein diet with lots of exercise is certainly effective, but if you have 50 lbs to loose, the most effective diet and exercise program is going to be the one you can stick with.
I got bored after an injury last year that took me out of the pool and prevented me from lifting, so I decided to loose some weight. My diet, six days a week, consisted of all the green vegetables I could eat, boneless skinless chicken, protein bars and egg whites. One day a week, I ate about 3-4k calories of pizza, cookies, alcohol, whatever.
For exercise I road a stationary bike averaging about an hour a day, but that was an average. One day I did 3 hours taking a short 10 minute break to refill water and have some coffee. My injury prevented me from doing ANYTHING that involved the upper body, so even riding a real bike was out.
IIRC I lost 24.x lbs in 6 weeks, 190ish to mid 170s, ~15% bf% to upper single digits. I lost a ton of muscle mass during this time, but there wasn't any way to maintain it either.
If you limit yourself to protein and green vegetables, I really don't think you need to starve yourself.
The unlimited green vegetable and protein diet with lots of exercise is certainly effective, but if you have 50 lbs to loose, the most effective diet and exercise program is going to be the one you can stick with.
