36 – Eating rules of thumb, recipe tips, problems with grains

4 thoughts on “36 – Eating rules of thumb, recipe tips, problems with grains”

1. 

   BLC Mike

   20 June 2010

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   Thanks for the input, guys. I actually try to eat a smallish snack every 2 hours and that has kept me from being hungry. At work, we have free string cheese, which I love, and little bags of cashews and peanuts, so I get the fats in even with a low fat soup lunch.

   Btw, I was at Costco today and they have almond butter (nothing but almonds in the ingredients) so I grabbed some to try. I also got some baby spinach and open water salmon, along with a bottle of balsamic vinegar to make a variation of the “HMFB” salad mentioned in this episode. :)

2. 

   Kevin

   17 June 2010

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   Hey Mike,
   That’s awesome, nice work on getting fit!

   I try to stay away from numbers when it comes to diet. I used to be of the “40-30-30” mindset, where around 40% of my calories would come from carbohydrates. But I found that this was too many carbs. A general rule of thumb is to build your meals around fat & protein, and use mainly fruits and vegetables as your carbohydrate source. Granted, we are all in a bind sometimes and need to eat the prepared foods. Just try to stick with the ones that have a lower percentage of carbs than protein and fat, and you should be good to go.

   Wes may be able to give you specific numbers to shoot for, but for me, using the above methods tends to work very well in staying healthy & fit!

   Good luck with everything and thanks for listening!
   Kevin

3. 

   BLC Mike

   16 June 2010

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   First, I have to tell someone, and here seems like a good place: Someone just pulled me aside at work and asked what diet I was on because I’m noticeably losing weight! That felt great! I’m glad the effort is paying off and listening to HMFB podcast is a big contributor to that!

   Second, and to be honest, I haven’t listened to this episode yet, so forgive me if it’s covered, but what is a good guideline for carbs in a meal? For example, yesterday I ate a can of Progresso Beef Pot Roast soup for lunch (yeah, I know it’s prepared, but it’s what I had handy). Total for the can is only 240 calories, so it’s presumably not packed with carbs, but it did have some potatoes and carrots in it, which aren’t the best for carbs. So, would something like this can of soup be considered “low carb”? How many grams of carbs on the label would be good to stay under for a meal if I’m going to eat prepared stuff from time to time?

   Thanks!
   Mike

   • 

     Wes

     20 June 2010

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     Great job on the progress, Mike. As far as amount of carb consumption per meal goes, try to split up your total amount for the day into similar amounts per meal. A good rule of thumb is to limit your total carbs to around a hundred grams per day, which as Kevin implied usually ends up being less than the Zone 40% of calories per day guideline. So, around 30 grams (or less) per meal would work. That soup sounds pretty tasty; in addition to the excess spuds, you just have to watch out for the noodles and sometimes rice or barley they put into soups. Carrots aren’t so bad, btw; even though they have a high glycemic index (which gets nullified when mixed with other foods, btw), they aren’t that carb dense.

     In addition, soup usually doesn’t have much fat (a lot of the manufacturers boast about their products being “low fat”), so you’ll have to add for example some olive oil or nuts on the side to fulfill your energy needs.

     Cheers,
     Wes