Since I started exercising and saw some changes on my body, I began to pay attention to what I feed myself. Especially in the past three months or so I put on a lot more control on my diet because I really want to lose that stubborn belly fat (I guess I can say that I was trying to lose fat), and I have seen some results. About a month ago I started to calculate my daily calorie intake just wanting to give the process a push and to ensure that I stayed calorie deficit every day. It's been a while now since I had been on some kind of a diet, I'd like to loosen up a bit and get back to my normal eating habit, but I thought I'd like to do a little experiment before ending the stage. (中文)
I'd like to put out a disclaimer out there that I am not a professional or have any nutritional knowledge whatsoever, I do everything based on my intuition and the information from the APP I used (My Fitness Pal). I'm only sharing my own experience from this experiment.
So I tried to eat less carbs for one week while maintaining calorie deficit. As someone who loves carbs all her life, it is way too difficult for me to quit carbs completely or to eat very less carbs; all I could do was to eat lesser carbs than I normally do and the recommended amount from the APP. This is a challenge I'd love to try and have fun at the same time, rather than torturing myself.
According to the APP, my daily calorie intake for calorie deficit should be 1200, plus I normally burn around 250 calories in my workout, I usually let myself eat until I feel full in the range between 1400 to 1500 calories. If I was busy or not feeling hungry, I'd still try to have at least 1300 calories.
The nutrition of my daily intake for 1440 calories should be: 180 grams of carbohydrates, 72 grams of protein, and 48 grams of fat. Previous I normally had 160-180 grams of carbs, around 70 grams of protein, and I didn't really care about fat. Lol.
This week I was trying to not have more than 150 grams of carbs, at least 80 grams of protein, and fat...I didn't really care since I only had limited attention to focus on two types of nutrition hahaha!
My workout routine remained the same. I did increase a little bit of weights (just a tiny bit) and also incorporated resistance band because I just bought one and I couldn't resist it!
Here I am only sharing 6 days of my diet since the 7th day was my cheat day.
Let's begin!
Aug. 29
What I ate in a day:
Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 100g of 10-grain rice cooked in tomato salsa, and a cafe au lait (with 150ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Lunch: 130g of quinoa and edamame, 100g of cabbage stir-fry in oyster sauce, 50g of grilled chicken from Nando's, and a very light cafe au lait (with 50ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Dinner: 100g of julienne zucchini, 100g of beef cooked in tomato sauce, 100g of tofu, 180g of mixed beans and carrots cooked in tomato sauce, and some of the tomato sauce.
Fruits and snacks: 15 cherries, 1 golden kiwifruit, 40g of homemade kiwi ice cream, and 1 square of sea salt dark chocolate. Normally I'd have snacks in the afternoon, keep the fruits for whenever I feel hungry whether it is before or after dinner.
This is probably the first time I had so much protein purposely and it really kept me full for much longer. I felt like I ate lot today, but the calories was only 1220.
Macros intake:
Aug. 30
I pretty much ate the exact same things I had yesterday. It's too much work to cook every meal everyday for one, so I normally do meal prep for 3 to 4 days if I can. What's slightly different today was that I increased the amount of chicken to 100 grams to make up the calories and I didn't want to keep the yummy chicken in the fridge for so long!
What I ate:
Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 100g of 10-grain rice cooked in tomato salsa, and a cafe au lait (with 150ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Lunch: 130g of quinoa and edamame, 100g of cabbage stir-fry in oyster sauce, 100g of grilled chicken from Nando's, and a very light cafe au lait (with 50ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Dinner: 100g of julienne zucchini, 100g of beef cooked in tomato sauce, 100g of tofu, 180g of mixed beans and carrots cooked in tomato sauce, and some of the tomato sauce.
Fruits and snacks: 15 cherries, 1 golden kiwifruit, 40g of homemade kiwi ice cream, and 1 square of sea salt dark chocolate.
If you haven't tried Nando's grilled chicken, I highly recommend it. Very delicious!
Macros intake: Protein was increased to 94 grams, all else remained the same. Total calories was 1330.
Aug. 31
I still had the same stuff, but increased chicken for lunch to about 120 grams since it's all that left from my order. I got so full all day!
What I ate:
Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 100g of 10-grain rice cooked in tomato salsa, and a cafe au lait (with 150ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Lunch: 130g of quinoa and edamame, 100g of cabbage stir-fry in oyster sauce, 120g of grilled chicken from Nando's, and a very light cafe au lait (with 50ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Dinner: 100g of julienne zucchini, 100g of beef cooked in tomato sauce, 100g of tofu, 180g of mixed beans and carrots cooked in tomato sauce, and some of the tomato sauce.
Fruits and snacks: 15 cherries, 1 golden kiwifruit, 40g of homemade kiwi ice cream, and 1 square of sea salt dark chocolate.
Macros intake: Just a bit more fat than the past two days. Calories at 1348.
Sept. 1
I finished the rice cooked in tomato salsa, so I made oatmeal bars for breakfast.
I also made pan-fried pork (marinated in soy sauce and garlic) for lunch since I finished the grilled chicken yesterday. (I used very lean pork)
For fruits, I had no kiwifruits left and not too many cherries, either. I had 10 cherries and 100 grams of grape tomatoes.
What I ate:
Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 1 oatmeal bar, and a cafe au lait (with 150ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Lunch: 130g of quinoa and edamame, 100g of cabbage stir-fry in oyster sauce, 100g of pan-fried pork, and a very light cafe au lait (with 50ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Dinner: 100g of julienne zucchini, 100g of beef cooked in tomato sauce, 100g of tofu, 180g of mixed beans and carrots cooked in tomato sauce, and some of the tomato sauce.
Fruits and snacks: 10 cherries, 100g of grape tomatoes, 40g of homemade kiwi ice cream, and 1 square of sea salt dark chocolate.
Macros intake: carbs went under 120 grams, but fat increased quite a bit which was okay because it wasn't my focus. Remember, I have limited attention to focus on only carbs and protein! Calories at 1348.
Sept. 2
I changed some items since they started to run out. I made mixed veggie stir-fry in soy sauce.
There's only 20 grams of kiwi ice cream left, so I added extra 20ml of milk to my coffee at lunch. I also ran out of sea salt dark chocolate, instead I had this energy bar I got in a Taiwanese grocery store.
Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 1 oatmeal bar, and a cafe au lait (with 150ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Lunch: 130g of quinoa and edamame, 100g of veggie stir-fry in soy sauce, 100g of pan-fried pork, and a light cafe au lait (with 70ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Dinner: 100g of julienne zucchini, 60g of beef cooked in tomato sauce, 40g of pan-fried pork, 100g of tofu, 180g of mixed beans and carrots cooked in tomato sauce, and some of the tomato sauce.
Fruits and snacks: 10 cherries, 100g of grape tomatoes, 20g of homemade kiwi ice cream, and 1 Taiwanese energy bar.
Macros intake: carbs kept under 120 grams. Total calories at 1405.
Sept. 3
Last day!
I ran out of all meat, so I used canned tuna for both lunch and dinner.
Fried an egg for lunch to make up the calorie intake.
Prepared a light milk tea because I had no ice cream left, but I still needed some treats!
For dinner, beside a whole can of tuna, I also doubled the amount of tofu because: 1. to make up the calories, 2. to finish all the tofu I had left before it goes bad. Well, it was obviously too much for my stomach, but I was very happy to eat so much!
What I ate:
Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 1 oatmeal bars, and a cafe au lait (with 150ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Lunch: 130g of quinoa and edamame, 100g of veggie stir-fry in soy sauce, 110g of tuna (a whole can), and a very light cafe au lait (with 50ml of 2% milk, no sugar).
Dinner: 120g of julienne zucchini, 110g of canned tuna, 220g of tofu, 180g of mixed beans and carrots cooked in tomato sauce, and some of the tomato sauce.
Fruits and snacks: 200g of grape tomatoes, a very light milk tea (with 40ml of 2% milk, no sugar), and 1 Taiwanese energy bar.
Macros intake: everything looks very balanced, and I finally had more than 100 grams of protein! Total calories at 1327 and I was incredibly full!
Results: I wasn't expecting to see any results in just a week to be honest. However, since I've already completed the experiment, might as well to just take a look at how it went on my body.
Body shape: I am only comparing the before and after of my belly since it is my biggest problem area. I do not have a scale that can measure my body fat so no numbers are available for that matter.
My standing postures are different in the photos, but basically there's no change. My belly probably looks slightly bigger in the after photo due to overeating the previous day. Lol.
Body weight: I think most people are more curious about this. Would it make any difference after eating regularly and having calorie deficit? I honestly seldom weigh myself, but for this experiment I borrowed the scale from my housemate's girlfriend to find out how much I weigh.
As you can see, I even gained 0.3 kgs! Lol, if you really consider 300 grams a weight gain. Basically there's no change in my body weight; I think it is because I've reached my preset body weight and that's okay. I haven't seen this number since high school so I'm satisfied with it.
How I actually feel: Protein obviously kept me full for much longer time, even after I've ate a lot and felt very full, the total calorie intake was still lower than 1400 which was pretty descent. However, as a person who normally don't eat that much meat, it was quite unusual for me. Else I didn't feel much difference...just sometimes I really missed having white rice or white noodles haha!
Lastly, I need to put the disclaimer one more time. This is solely my personal experience and I had no fitness or nutritional background. The reason why I work out and did this experiment was not for weight loss; I started exercising simply because I had to shift my focus to reduce anxiety during self-isolation and lockdown. The change in my body weight and body shape are bonuses. Moreover, I did not starve myself to achieve any results the entire time.
That's everything for this experiment. :) Please take it easy on me and take this with a grain of salt if you want to try it.
Follow me on Instagram: asteffyo
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