average food intake.....Please advise

[krissytool]

Hey everyone......Ive recently lost 33kgs and have hit a major plateau! Havnt shifted any weight for over a month, I totally understand this is normal but I just wanted to double check dietary habits. If you have any advice I'll be more than appreciative.

This is what Id typically have on average per day:

Breakfast 8am-

-Multivitamin
-2x Organic Weetbix with skim milk and a banana
OR -2x poached eggs on multigrain/wholemeal toast

Snack 10.30am-

-Yoghurt, low fat and low sugar
OR -Muesli Bar

Lunch 12.30pm-

-Tuna with mixed salad
OR -4x Multigrain Crackers with ham, cheese, spring onion and avocado

Snack 3.30pm-

-Fruit / usually an apple or a few kiwi fruit
OR- Diced fruit salad tub

Dinner 6.30pm-

-Chicken breast with steamed veggies
OR - Steak and steamed veggies
OR - Steamed fish with a side salad etc

I drink at least 3 litres of water per day, no tea, coffee, soft drinks.....purely water. I also dont drink alcohol.

I dont have cheat meals and when I eat out its never anything greasy or deep fried....always fresh and healthy.

I exercise at the gym for 1 hour sessions, minimum of 5 times a week. 3 of those sessions will incorporate weights.

Is there anything I should change? I feel like im constantly eating!!! Am I eating the right things?

[ArkansasRob]

Here's advice.
You have to trick yourself. Its a weird concept.
Eating low fat dairy products and drinking skim milk is the problem.
If your body is not receiving enough fat, it will save the fat that it has and burn muscle off.
Try putting more fat into your diet so your body will tell itself that it can flush more fat out.
Do this for a few cycles and then go back into your amazing diet.

It might help.

If you don't believe or other people don't Im sorry.

[ultimatehlth]

Your caloric count looks like it would be low. Remember plateaus are a common occurrence when losing weight, but shouldn't last more that 2 weeks. I would recommend increasing your protein and healthy fat intake, don't cut calories below 8cals per pound of body weight or you needlessly slow your metabolic rate. I have clients have a cheat meal a week for 2 reasons: first it helps satisfy craving making it easier to stay on a diet and second the additional caloric hit you get with the cheat meal helps to keep your metabolism from resetting at a lower point.

Lastly, your exercise routine needs to change every 2 weeks to keep results from stagnating.

[Boss Man]

Lastly, your exercise routine needs to change every 2 weeks to keep results from stagnating.

I'd politely disagree with that. The body may adapt, but it could well depend on the type of regimen utilised and the persons genetics. What many people who seek to lose weight or bulk up may do is roation of exercise regimen every 2-6 weeks, but it therefore shouldn't be interpreted that this must be the case, but moreso that many do it out of preferance, usually to prevent something becoming boring, or in the belief they may stagnate.

They difference in peoples genetics coupled with the myriad of useful exercise systems out there, means I don't think it can be a cut and dried thing, that an individual must make a frequent regimen change, to continue to facilitate physical change, because someone may very well be able to continue to obtain results, even after few months with the same system, but then it becomes a case of will they continue that long, or change, to prevent boredom setting in?

Alternatively, regime change may be the wrong choice when dietary change will be so. I made that mistake in the past, wasting weeks on new systems, only to find diet held the key. Isolation of one thing needed to stimulate progress is essential, because dual change may result in one unnecessary change, that won't be identified.

I would err more on the side of keep the workout routine and if it looks like the progress yield is lessening or has stopped, make dietary changes a priority, as opposed to routine change, unless the routine become boring, in which case change.

For me, more often than not, from experience and obervations, diet facilitates renewed progress more than regime change, in a one to one comparison, though sometimes regime is the key not diet, but I'd still go for diet every time, as the first thing to ascertain, rather than assume it must always be regime that leads to stagnation .

Occasionally it's nethier and maybe a supplemental thing however, I.E. taking Creatine for example to stimulate bulk gains, but that for me is a mild factor, in renewed change of any kind, not a main factor.

[zachvanslyke]

Shamefully concise answer on changing a workout routine every two weeks- it depends on what your goals are. Huge gray area. If one is looking to build strength/size, I'd advocate sticking to the same exact exercises for several weeks or months at a time, mainly because the body first responds to the first 6 weeks of performing new strength movements with primarily just neurological adaptations. True adaptations in muscle size and tendon/ligament strength follow only after that. Much of the initial "gains" in the weight room are simply the "pump" effect and and better neurological coordination performing the movements. One may choose to cycle the sets/reps of the same movements, however, depending on what the exact goals are.
But if one has reached the point where they are already satisfied with his/her strength/muscular development, by all means, mix it up all the time to stay fresh and motivated. Have fun and be creative.

BROSCIENCE ALERT- the information above is highly anecdotal and based solely on what I've picked up from own 25 years of training and dieting experiences.