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posted by Iron addict on intense-training
Eating Precision
I was over at a friend of mines house who trains the other day, and he excused himself to go into the kitchen and make a protein shake. Like many people that need lots of cals but are carb sensitive he takes a couple of tablespoons of olive or flax oil with his shake. As I watched him scoop out the protein I noticed the scoop had fairly drastic differences in volume. Then, when he got to the oil, he was using a regular "eating" tablespoon. I mentioned it was nowhere near a "real" tablespoon that his serving size was based on. He said “no way”, I said “way”, and before the whole thing degraded into a Bevis and Butthead like “no way, “way” thing, I challenged him to get a “real” measured tablespoon and check.
He scratched his head and said he wasn’t sure if he had one. He called his girlfriend who was in the front yard doing girl things with the flowers and she found the tablespoon. Turns out 2 of the so-called tablespoon he was using were about one “real” tablespoon serving size. And he was wondering why my macro-nutrient and kcal suggestions just were not putting the size on fast enough.
While I am not suggesting that all trainees need weigh and measure every last thing they eat. Many that are having problems will need to do that for at least a time while they get their diets nailed down. When I write a diet for someone the trainee often has a tough time make it “happen” for them. It is often just because they are guessing so wildly when preparing their meals. Here are a few simple suggestions to make things a little easier.
Have a good reference book, or online reference site that tells you the macro-nutrient caloric count of a wide variety of foods.
As stated above a tablespoon, teaspoon, and so fourth should be the actual items, not silverware.
Your drinking cups should hold a KNOWN amount of fluid for when you take in anything liquid that has calories.
When buying meat/fish/chicken, I almost always buy packages that weigh 1 lb each. It’s then easy to either eat the full pound, or a ˝ lb serving. Either way I am damn close to getting the proper serving size.
Take the time to weigh some sample sizes of the foods you commonly eat. After you have a good visual image of what the size/volume of a particular item is, you are likely to be extremely close from that point on without having to go to the trouble of weighing it. Weighing food is a pain in the ass, but often needed by trainees that are having a tough time cutting, or gaining mass.
I have trainees tell me that their schedule forces them to eat out a fair amount and they are totally at a loss for the macro-nutrient profiles and caloric count of the food they are eating. Probing a bit deeper, I usually find the quick-fix meal is fast food. While I certainly cannot praise the choice, I know we all must do what we must at times. When I tell them pretty much every fast-food place in the country has the caloric and macro-nutrient profiles of the foods they serve posted or in take with-you pamplets they usually go…..oh, I never noticed.
If you don’t have a food scale you are lost. BUY ONE! They are cheap. You won’t need to use it for everything you eat, nor for even a small portion once you know what a proper serving size consists of. But unless you have used one at least a little bit, you are probably only guessing.
Iron Addict
__________________
Eating Precision
I was over at a friend of mines house who trains the other day, and he excused himself to go into the kitchen and make a protein shake. Like many people that need lots of cals but are carb sensitive he takes a couple of tablespoons of olive or flax oil with his shake. As I watched him scoop out the protein I noticed the scoop had fairly drastic differences in volume. Then, when he got to the oil, he was using a regular "eating" tablespoon. I mentioned it was nowhere near a "real" tablespoon that his serving size was based on. He said “no way”, I said “way”, and before the whole thing degraded into a Bevis and Butthead like “no way, “way” thing, I challenged him to get a “real” measured tablespoon and check.
He scratched his head and said he wasn’t sure if he had one. He called his girlfriend who was in the front yard doing girl things with the flowers and she found the tablespoon. Turns out 2 of the so-called tablespoon he was using were about one “real” tablespoon serving size. And he was wondering why my macro-nutrient and kcal suggestions just were not putting the size on fast enough.
While I am not suggesting that all trainees need weigh and measure every last thing they eat. Many that are having problems will need to do that for at least a time while they get their diets nailed down. When I write a diet for someone the trainee often has a tough time make it “happen” for them. It is often just because they are guessing so wildly when preparing their meals. Here are a few simple suggestions to make things a little easier.
Have a good reference book, or online reference site that tells you the macro-nutrient caloric count of a wide variety of foods.
As stated above a tablespoon, teaspoon, and so fourth should be the actual items, not silverware.
Your drinking cups should hold a KNOWN amount of fluid for when you take in anything liquid that has calories.
When buying meat/fish/chicken, I almost always buy packages that weigh 1 lb each. It’s then easy to either eat the full pound, or a ˝ lb serving. Either way I am damn close to getting the proper serving size.
Take the time to weigh some sample sizes of the foods you commonly eat. After you have a good visual image of what the size/volume of a particular item is, you are likely to be extremely close from that point on without having to go to the trouble of weighing it. Weighing food is a pain in the ass, but often needed by trainees that are having a tough time cutting, or gaining mass.
I have trainees tell me that their schedule forces them to eat out a fair amount and they are totally at a loss for the macro-nutrient profiles and caloric count of the food they are eating. Probing a bit deeper, I usually find the quick-fix meal is fast food. While I certainly cannot praise the choice, I know we all must do what we must at times. When I tell them pretty much every fast-food place in the country has the caloric and macro-nutrient profiles of the foods they serve posted or in take with-you pamplets they usually go…..oh, I never noticed.
If you don’t have a food scale you are lost. BUY ONE! They are cheap. You won’t need to use it for everything you eat, nor for even a small portion once you know what a proper serving size consists of. But unless you have used one at least a little bit, you are probably only guessing.
Iron Addict
__________________
