Getting Started With Nutrition

Posted by Bryan on Feb 22, 2010 in Blog, Cycling For Beginners, Featured, Nutrition | 19 comments

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I’ve made a commitment that today I start counting my calories and eating better (you’ll know why tomorrow). I did buy a food scale this weekend and have messed around with The Daily Plate so that I can start tracking my calorie/nutrient intake on a daily basis.

Right now my daily calorie intake is set to 2013 calories. This takes into account my age, height, current weight, activity level outside of cycling, and my goal to lose 2 pounds per week. I’m certainly not going to bore you with what I’m eating each day but will provide any insight or lessons learned I have.

I Need To Get Smart

I am so dumb in the area of nutrition management as it pertains to cyclists. I know snippets of info here and there but there is so much info out there that information overload can be achieved in about 30 seconds. Stuff like hydration, supplements, when/what to eat before/during/after riding based on what type of ride it was, etc. I’m probably going to do some research and experiment a lot and see what works while keeping track of my calorie intake and losses.

Creating A Meal Plan

I want to move to a point where I plan out my meals a week in advance. That way it will make my shopping/cooking easier. I thought this might be easy but I’ve found out that it isn’t. I’ve found some 2000 calorie/day meal plans on the Internet and may give them a try (or at least portions of them). At least initially, I think I may just stick with weighing/counting what I’m eating and see how that goes right now. Today I have to pick up some measuring cups.

If any of my readers have recommendations, advice, or experience in these areas I’m all ears. That includes book recommendations.

Feature image courtesy of Beth Rankin.

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http://twitter.com/lovingthebike Loving The Bike

Hey Bryan, I'm proud of you for committing to better health. I'm an ex-personal trainer with some pretty good real world nutrition sense, so feel free to ask me anything if you ever have questions. Nutrition can be confusing because there are a lot of differing opinions out there and you'll often find you read one article that says one thing, and then another that says the exact opposite. Best thing to do is get started with a few things that you know you can commit to and then slowly started adding in more and more. Proper nutrition really is a lifestyle more than anything else….so you just have to find a way to make it part of your life.
As far as recommendations go, Body for LIfe is a great book with what I would call “real world” information. It's not some get lean quick diet thing…just good old fashion knowledge. I think they have some good recipes on their website as well.
Again, feel free to run anything by me…..I sometimes miss being a trainer and would love to help you out.
Darryl

bdewberry

Thanks Darryl. I may pick your brain some because it is confusing with so much info out there. I've seen the Body for Life book and will take a look at it.

http://twitter.com/lovingthebike Loving The Bike

Awesome, I really would love to help you out if I can…..or even just talk about cycling and nutrition with you. Feel free to contact me any time.

bdewberry

Thanks.

http://lifeandbikes.blogspot.com/ Life and Bikes

To me, counting calories and planning out meals a week in advance is tough and impractical. It's a surefire way to burn yourself out. I was very much in your shoes a while ago, and the biggest difference I made was simply deciding to clean up my diet. I stopped eating fast food, I drank at least half a gallon of water a day, I cooked everything I ate, and avoided processed foods. Simply ensuring that I ate meals with a decent amount of protein, vegetables, healthy carbohydrates like wheat pasta, and fruit for dessert has helped me lose 10 pounds in the past month. I also began eating until I was satisfied, but not full. It's a fine line, but the more I cook at home, the easier I found it to reach that point. Basically just making healthy choices did wonders for my weight loss goals. Combined with a healthy dose of cycling of course.

Calorie counting makes sense on paper, but in reality, what's published on packaging doesn't always add up to what's really in the box. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/07/healt…

The more you manage your own meal preparation, you the more you find what your body needs and doesn't.

bdewberry

Thanks. You bring up a couple of good points that I had already zeroed in one and a few others had mentioned. I'm going to count my calories initially so I can get a feel for portion sizes and what the food is doing as far as nutrients. Not eating out and drinking more water is a huge, huge part of my change.

http://twitter.com/lovingthebike Loving The Bike

Great strategy. I agree that counting calories is not necessary, but with that said, I do feel that you have to have a sense for how much you should be eating. Starting off by counting will let you understand how much you should be eating of different types of foods and then you can likely lose the measuring.
It does take a lot of self experimenting to find out how much and which foods react best to your body. Everyone is unique so you have to know what works for YOU. Keep a close watch every day as to how you're feeling and what foods react positively and negatively to you. Write a food journal for the next few days as well if you can.

bdewberry

A food journal is a good idea and something I can do right on The Daily Plate.

crazyjarhead

Good job man. You'll be surprised how fast it comes off when you start planning meals and keeping track of what goes in.

I really like Bob Greene's stuff. His recipes are easy to make and delicious. http://www.thebestlife.com/
Balance of nutrients seems to be his focus, with the only thing being restricted is portion sizes and certain nasties like animal fat.

http://mildstallion.wordpress.com/ Al

I agree with crazyjarhead. There's a lot to be said for planning ahead – that way there's less room for you to say “what the heck” and go for the bad stuff, or overdo the portions.

Another seemingly minor tactic that works well is to make sure you eat before you go to the store. My wife and I make a point of that and has shown some results. Like jodycb says, making small changes that don't seem significant by themselves do add up in concert with each other.

bdewberry

I can understand eating before going to the store. I'm guessing the feeling of fullness would lead to less impulsive buying.

bdewberry

Thanks. I'll take a look at that site.

jodycb

Yeah I do advocate some planning, like if I have an idea that 1 sausage, 4 pierogies, a heap of sauerkraut and a 1/2 cup of peas uses up the rest of my calories, and I know that before the meal that's all I will eat. If I don't know that ahead of time it leaves me a lot of room to… well… lie to myself a little.

But there is a balance you have to try for. You can focus so heavily on food accounting that it gets to be like doing your taxes. It stinks and you want to rebel against it. And I don't love the idea of using other people's food plans. If you try to change too many things in your life at once sometimes you make the hurdles overwhelming. Like training to ride a century, you don't start off the first day and go the whole way. You change a few things at a time, incrementally, and it's not a big deal.

If I go gung ho and change everything I end up giving up. Cold turkey works with cigarettes (it did for me anyway) because you never smoke again. You still have to eat… every day.

I know I'm arguing both sides here… and I'm not even contributing a useful resource.

Here's one. I like the Better Choices Diet at nutritiondata.com.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/topics/better-choi…

Sorry for the long winded posts. I seem unable to achieve short and to the point.

bdewberry

Thanks for that long winded comment. You can make all those you want. You also bring up a very good point. I don't want to make this so hard initially that it becomes a burden. Thanks for the links too.

http://chrisfit2009.wordpress.com/ chrisfit2009

I'd like to start by saying good on you for being proactive and taking charge of your diet. It is something I have yet to do seriously. With a healthy diet and all that riding, you'll reach your weight goals in no time.

Saying all of that, I'm really not sure about this. I understand the need for good nutrition, or better still, the right nutrition. But I'm just not sure about planning ahead. Still it's better than meal replacement. I know you haven't mentioned anything about meal replacement, but a mate of mine has. He has 50kgs (110lbs) to drop and his doctor has advised him to replace meal with diet shakes. I fail to see how that is teaching him to eat sensibly. What happens when he reaches his goal and stops the shakes? He hasn't learnt anything and isn't likely to.

Planning ahead is a much better solution, and teaches good eating habits and food choices but I always wonder about the wisdom of a regimented diet. What happens if you're at the end of the week and all you've got is chicken, but you don't want chicken? Is there any sense in eating something you don't want to? That sounds like a recipe for disaster, because eventually you'll be eating stuff you don't want to.

I agree with Life and Bikes, it just seems impractical. Surely being able to prepare a fresh, healthy meal on any given day would be better?

Anyway, kudos on taking a step forward. I keep telling myself that I'm going to improve my diet on March 16, and adjust my exercise regimen to boot. By then, you'll be well into your new diet and will hopefully be able to post back with some feedback on it.

Good luck.

bdewberry

Thanks. I don't plan on doing meal replacement shakes and rather focus on good overall eating. I did a good search after reading your comment and Men's Health says that MR shakes are good for people in good health trying to lose 10-20 pounds. I'm no expert but trying to lose 110 pounds with diet shakes doesn't make much sense to me either.

If you don't mind me asking, what's the significance of March 16?

http://chrisfit2009.wordpress.com/ chrisfit2009

Yeah the MR stuff was my little rant for the day.
And March 16 is two days after my last big ride for the season. I don't want to mess with my diet before then, and I'm going to have a day off from everything the day before (ie rest rest rest). On 16 March, I will also start to change my riding habits to higher rep rides and less focus on speed and time.

bdewberry

Thanks for all of your great comments below. You've all brought up some good points and food for thought (sorry for the pun). I plan on taking this slow at first with three things taking priority:

1. Track my calories so I'm eating 2000 calories per day.
2. Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day.
3. Stop eating out and cook meals at home.

After a few weeks we'll see how it's going and make adjustments as needed.
http://chrisfit2009.wordpress.com/ chrisfit2009

Yeah the MR stuff was my little rant for the day.
And March 16 is two days after my last big ride for the season. I don't want to mess with my diet before then, and I'm going to have a day off from everything the day before (ie rest rest rest). On 16 March, I will also start to change my riding habits to higher rep rides and less focus on speed and time.