Any advice on how to drop weight whilst maintaining 1.6g of protein per kg of body weight
What are your actually dietary limits? You eat fish…but do you eat dairy? Eggs?
Too many variations of how people use the word pescatarian to know for sure - probably whey protein and greek yogurt - but…some pescatarians are also non-dairy so…
I don’t eat meat, but eggs, milk etc is fair game.
I am currently working on a daily 500kcal deficit and struggle to get enough protein based on the calories.
Typical meal plan:
Breakfast - Homemade granola
Brunch - Fish
Lunch - 4 eggs
Dinner - Fish, Quorn or vegetarian
Protein shake is on a training day
Snack - sandwich with cheese
Throw in an extra protein shake. The extra protein you eat will help muscle recovery and if your body doesn’t need it it will come out the other end. Also low milk is a good one if you can tolerate it.
And as an extra note 500 Kcal is a bit harsh.
isolate whey is the only answer
again 500kcal deficit is too much, specially for an athlete: 250kcal is the maximum to me
I appreciate that diet is a basic list, but on first glance it looks like it will be lacking in a lot of essential nutrients.
I would recommend you use MFP to log your meals and also use the macro/nutrients page, I think this is a paid for option.
I recognize that protein was your question but I really don’t see nearly enough vegetables in the above - hopefully both lunch and dinner include some fresh vegetables or a big salad?
If you are concerned about protein balance and want to maintain the same caloric totals you have to drop calories elsewhere. Given that you’ve got very little fat (basically just the eggs) I wouldn’t drop that any further - so we’d be looking at cutting carbs. You could replace granola with greek yogurt (maybe cut the granola volume in half and replace it with greek yogurt if you don’t want to cut the granola entirely). You also could drop one of the pieces of bread from your sandwich and replace it with some protein (protein powder elsewhere in the day, or an extra egg sometime)
Edit - worth noting I agree with the other posters - a 500 daily deficit is a lot while trying to do any sort of training. Are your goals around weight loss or fitness gains? If you’re focused entirely on weight loss then go for it at 500 - but recognize you’ll likely lose fitness in the process. If you want to drop weight AND maintain/improve fitness I wouldn’t go more than 250 negative as a general daily rule
Hi I use MFP and I get a good balance diet as you say it gives a good breakdown , I only posted the key protein elements. I eat lots of veg, fruit and salad. My main issue `as I saw it is potentially low protein whilst trying to drop weight.
I use a base calarie intake of 2000kcal which is 500kcal reduction. If I train I always replenish these calories
I eat lots of veg, fruit and salad. I should have said I have full fat greek yogurt, a banana and blueberries with my breakfast and 300ml of milk.
I think cutting out bread would definitely help.
Fitness is definitely the goal but I am 92kg and last year I was 87kg so want to get back to same weight. In reality if I keep my food basic and clean with the right training it should drop off me. Thank you all for the help
I recently discovered tempeh. Stuff is amazing.
PS - granola (home made or not) is possibly one of the worst things to eat if losing weight. its very high in calories for the satiety you get. Don’t get me wrong, i love the stuff, but save it for increasing intake when training hard rather than decreasing.
If you really want to cut the calories and up the protein you should look at the fat. That is FULL cream yogurt, milk must be fat free, also eggs have a good amount of fat in them. And look at the specific fish, not a fatty kind. I would definately chuck the granola as well. Invest in a nutribullet or similar…mixing protein powder, carrot, beats, spinach, banana and/or berries helps a lot to cut the carbs and get the protein with healthy nutrients. Dont know how healthy it is to go to low on fat, but it does answer your question.
If you eat anything but meat, this should be really easy. My default recovery shake is a milk shake (usually banana, but I also use kiwi, berries and other fruit). Tofu has lots of bioavailable protein. Legumes also have lots of protein, albeit at lower bioavailability. You have salmon, tuna and lots of other fish to choose from as well.
Given the plethora of protein sources that are available to you, are you really sure you are lacking anything here? I think one piece of advice that we have heard throughout the TR podcast is to fuel your workouts and rides properly even if you want to lose weight. Otherwise you benefit less from workouts and perhaps even train different adaptations (e. g. nudging your metabolism towards ketosis).
And for weight loss, you need to restrict your calorie intake. In my experience the best way to do this is to have a smaller dinner and limit your carb intake at the right points in time (perhaps not the night before your 6-hour group ride). During the period where I focussed on weight loss I would have a dinner with very few carbs once or twice a week (such as a salad with protein). Just make that protein fish or tofu and you should be fine. Another tip is to watch how much butter you use and to try and eat less during dinner. It is easier to sleep with a hungry stomach than to work with one. 
This way I lost 13.5 kg over 1.3–1.5 years (86 kg to 72.5 kg).
Thanks. Interestingly I measured out 50g of granola and I think I was possibly eating more like 150g so have cut it back to 50g. Also making sure that I eat well whilst at work so I am prepping my food for work so when I get home I have the energy to train.
I would ideally like to get most of my protein from other sources than protein powder, but I do recognise it does have plenty of protein, although a portion of fish tends to have more protein plus other nutrional benefits
Thanks good advice. Butter, cheese and bread are three foods I am trying to minimise. I am aiming to have 4 meals a day and will adjust based on how I am feeling. I will increase my strength training too, as my understanding this will help to keep my metabolic rate higher?
Yesterday I had
Protein 161g (36%)
Carbs 134g (31%)
Fat 63g (33%
You’re getting plenty of protein assuming a weight of 80kg or less
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I weigh 91kg. I dont think I had enough calories
How many did you burn on the bike?
You ate 1747 - so if you didn’t ride yesterday that could be as much as a 500 calorie deficit. If you burned some calories exercising then you almost definitely didn’t eat enough
You probably need more carbs
Yesterday was a rest day for me and I did 212g carbs, 84g fat, 143g protein
On a ride day where I had to get to around 4,000 calories (1900 on the bike, 2100 elsewhere) I did 417g carbs, 153g fat, 187g protein
I did a 40 min run and strength session so about 800calories so a deficit c970kcals. I always assume I eat more than this as I dont include veg and fruit in my intake as too much hassle to record. That said I feel that I needed more food.
How heavy are you?
165-170 lbs depending on the day. You should include the fruits and vegetables if you’re going to count calories - they all count
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I like to eat fish too… but that kind of fish you mean?
Salmon?
I like to eat Grilled Sea Bream. She’s not oily and white