Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

So part is by choice, part isn't.


I exercise somewhat, around twice a week at the gym. Ideally I'll be aiming for 4 days. I mostly do a combination of strength training and high rep cardio work outs, and rpm classes (spin class).

I walk to work every day, to and from, 4.6 km of walking (though to me since I've been walking my whole life isn't much).

problem is, I fucking love food. I'm a chef, and it's a fitting career for me. I was diagnosed with bad acid reflux when I was 20. Doctors said it was too young to be having that kind of issue. After getting medication to kill off a bacteria that was causing acid in my stomach, I went on an allergen free diet. It helped me find out I was allergic to dairy. Like badly allergic to casein.


5 years later, I still have acid reflux pretty fiercely. They say if I don't make efforts to remedy it, I could eventually develop cancer in my esophagus. That'd be a bad time.

I've also been a slight chub for most of my young adult years. by slight chub I mean more fat than I'd like for my lovely beer gut. I fucking love beer too. but that's besides the point. I'm at 6'2" and 198lbs which is the most I've ever weighed. I used to play ITG every friday, and would play during my breaks (I worked at the theater where the cab was) and that kept me scrawny most of my late teen years. SCWolf would remember those intense days. These days the amount of exercise I do isn't enough.


Doctor is ordering me to go back on my allergen free diet. This diet is brutal in terms of habit, but as far as restrictions it's not -that- bad. I have to do two months without the following:

-dairy
-wheat (any gluten)
-eggs
-soy
-shellfish
-nuts

also very limited amounts of acid causing foods, such as coffee, tea, tomatoes, and alcohol. After the two months, I have to incorporate them all one by one in two week intervals (save for dairy which would probably kill me).

I'm taking this opportunity to combine this diet with weight loss. This is where I ask you fellas for advice. How would I go about this without depriving myself of nutrients I need? Cutting everything at once will be a sort of shock and I feel like I'll either be starving myself or pigging out on roast beef. I'm pretty well versed in culinary arts to meal planning isn't an issue. I'm mostly worried about what things I shouldn't opt out of my diet.

I'm set at 2931 calories daily for maintaining weight, I'd like to get to 175lbs (losing 23lbs)

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

You're not actually allergic to all of that stuff, other than dairy, are you?

I honestly don't see the benefit of cutting gluten unless you're legitimately celiac, but you could, albeit it makes eating extremely annoying. It's really the only reason you'd be at risk for vitamin deficiency. Drop this unless you're dead set on it.

Cutting nuts while dieting is a straight up good idea because they have too many calories for a cut.

Aim to eat 2000 calories a day. Depriving yourself of nutrients you need is actually pretty hard to do under normal circumstances, but with your gluten restriction it's a bit easier since you're losing so many damn foods.

Just keep everything simple. Avoid making food fancy with sauces and things that add calories. Since you're a chef, your natural tendency is probably going to be to make everything more interesting to eat, but the more stuff you add to the core foods, the more unnecessary calories you're eating.

A sample diet I might eat if I am aiming for around 2000 calories without any dairy or gluten:

Fruit and vegetable medley in the morning. Could mix it into a garden salad. ~300 cals

Lunch, spinach salad with a chopped up chicken breast in it and a low cal dressing. Add an apple or something. ~500

Dinner, plate full of rice, chicken breast with a leg in there too mix in broccoli. ~800 cal.

Evening snack; something sweet you like to kick cravings. I like berries and whip cream. A big bowl is barely 100 cal. Use left over rice from earlier and mix a meat medley with some fat in it, add some sauce or something you like you make it tastier. If you're feeling lazy you can always eat a can of Tuna or other quick protein source (though I'd make sure it's not completely leanso you're getting your fats) munch on vegetables.


That would cover all macronutrient requirements and micronutrient requirements.

Obviously that's just a template but it gives you an idea of how you could eat and lose weight really quickly while adhering to those rules.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

awesome thanks. I always have a hard time figuring out how much calories are in what I eat especially homemade shit is hard to quantify


I MAY be allergic to other allergens that I'm cutting out, it's not because of some new age gluten free diet haha. Some of them might be causing acid flareups

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

It's hard to determine exactly. Just google the calories in most things you eat and estimate 2000 calories. You'll probably be off by a few hundred calories, but being in the 1700-2300 range is going to be fine. You'll eat under 2000 sometimes because your guessing is off, but other days you will eat more, so it balances out.

Do a dry weigh in every morning (use bathroom, don't drink anything until after you weigh), and write it down in a log. Your weight will flux up and down, that is normal, but if you're eating an average of 2000 cal/day, your AVERAGE weigh in should slowly start to go down.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

awesome~

in terms of liquids, are there generally no-nos for drinking water to lose weight or drinking tea/coffee regarding calorie intake?

cuz I essentially have to drink a fuckload of water all the time

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

Water is perfect

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

For any diet I always recommend mostly water, with any beverages you want that are 0 cal + 250-500 ml Milk a day, but since you're diary free ;)

Diet sodas, coffee, tea are all fine. Just no additives to the coffee or tea that have calories. e.g. don't be that asshole that has a coffee and goes LOL 0 CALORIES BRO but has over 150 calories of sugar in it.

I'd recommend no alcohol either or just occasional drinking. Stick to a drink if you're going to drink, don't get plastered. Alcohol is absolutely loaded with calories and alcohol metabolism is very awkward (your body generally can't burn fat while alcohol is in your system). One of the only people I've had trouble getting to lose weight was drinking every day and not logging it as calories lmao.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

I recently lost 25 pounds, so I can provide some advice.

Remove ANY foods in your house that aren't healthy. If you live with someone else, either roommate/girlfriend, I'd just tell them you're not gonna buy too much junk or any at all. Since you're a chef, I'd look into salad, soup, and vegetable dishes that can be prepped for lunches/snack meals since they're typically low in calories depending on what additives you use.

Chicken is also a great plus because from what I recall a 4 oz piece is around 140 calories grilled. I don't eat much fish, but I heard you can get away with a ton of fish too since it's all typically low in calorie (little more expensive than chicken though iirc). Personally I'd grill up 2-3 pounds of chicken with a seasoning and eat that all week for dinner along with the small vegetable microwave heat-ups (like broccoli or carrots, sometimes those ones with a good mixture) on off-days.

For me personally work is ALWAYS what killed me. Sometimes I didn't make enough time to bring something healthy, so I'd have days where I'd buy lunch due to time constraints. This part is kind of not important since this was, for me, once every 3 weeks that I'd be stupid and forget to pack anything, but I'd just look at popular fast food chains and what's the healthiest/cheapest item on the menu. IE Wendy's large chili is ONLY 210 calories, McDonald's has grilled chicken snack wraps (without the ranch/cheese) are around 200 calories, and Subway 6 inches are around, on average, 280-330 calories (depending on the dressing you get, then easily 350-400). Honestly all fast food has too much sodium anyway so I'd avoid it lol

Outside of eating, cardio cardio cardio. You play ITG and shit so that's not an issue, personally I either run, jog, or walk 3-4 days a week. Gym is perfect too so keep doing that, u got this buddy

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

I've been doing a lot of research on things to eat on a daily basis that are easy to incorporate for routine


stocked up on stupid amounts of chicken so that'll be fun. also have lots of haddock though i'm not 100% sure oily fish like salmon is guilt-free

I almost never eat fast food thankfully. I walked 10km today with 45 mins of itg. sweating from my eyelashes is always good.

i'm worried about quantifying how many calories i burn from exercising. I know it allows for more calories to be consumed but I don't want to overdo it

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

If you're dieting never try to eat back calories you burned in the gym.

Just stick to 2000 regardless. You can't accurately gauge how many calories you are burning in the gym. The easiest thing to do is, if you are logging your weight and your weight is dropping TOO FAST, up your calories then, and only then.

And even then, only do this if you're still dropping too fast after 2-3 weeks. During the first week or two, you can expect to lose a lot of weight if you're dieting properly because your body is going to drop a lot of water.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

been counting calories with a phone app. amazing how many calories are in flour... (rip morning crêpes)


never count activity as calorie freebies. sticking strictly to daily amount. so difficult aaaaaaa

been under 2600 calories for 3 days. i'm feeling the effects of it. i don't want to starve but feel like I get the shakes around supper time haha. maybe not enough sugar?

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

What do you typically eat in the run of a day? If you're using My Fitness Pal, take a screenshot and post it. Could be a number of things.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

Yeah, post your diet.

It's not your sugars though unless you're diabetic.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

Holy shit i was just about to post my breakfast from my fitness pal on here lmao

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

This was yesterday

I admit eating out for supper wasn't beneficial lmao. Also day off gym so only exercise was walking to and from work

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

That's a lot of calories for your size tbh, and too much garbage that isn't filling you up.

I'd avoid soup like the plague because it's just not very filling. Where are the vegetables and lean meats.

You did alright for breakfast and then it goes downhill.

What you're feeling is probably more related to not feeling full than anything else, for most people that are used to overeating or eating a lot of food, the feeling of being hungry can make you light headed.

Push through it and eat more whole foods that are bulky with low caloric density (meats, vegetables). Drink lots and lots of water. This will minimize the feeling of being hungry and allow you to eat less calories, getting more work done on your weight without feeling shitty.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

Yeah i admit that day was a flunk haha.

Tea is helping cope with hunger. I used to overeat insanely (like 3500-4000 calories a day). Working in a kitchen with food all day is hngggg. Only reason I'm not the size of a blimp is my job activity and the fact I have no car lmao.

I'm switching out snacks with wheat in favor of vegetables. Kinda surprised at how many calories flour has D:


Thanks Doc~

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

6'2" 198lbs is fat? I'm almost 6'4" 205-210lbs. I don't think I'm fat. But, I guess that's my opinion? Good luck, man! Acid reflux is terrible.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

It depends entirely on body composition. If you don't have much muscle, it's certainly overweight. Not obese by any means, but it never hurts to improve your condition.

Re: Starting a brutal diet + exercise
 

I don't have much muscle mass. Maybe legs.

I just have a goal I'd like to get to.


At 1400 calories counting supper. Napping made me forget haha