Exercise, Nutrition, WLS, and Cooking Q & A - 3/3/2014

If you are not cultivating mass and are trying to get SHREDDED, but you have questions about Exercise, Nutrition, WLS, or Cooking, please ask it here and I or someone with jump on it and get you what you need to be successful.

Let's Hear 'em!

well I just made a different post, but then saw this.  I know I asked you something similar (more about calories), but thought I would ask you this based on my NUTs advice:

I just met with my nutritionist for my (almost) 3 month follow up.  I have been having dizzy spells lately, especially after working out.  I have been eating about 800 calories / day with carbs ~50 grams.  

She thinks my carbs are too low and that I should shoot for closer to 100 grams / day.  She recommended fruit, sweet potato, and quinoa.  She also thinks 800 calories is a bit low for my level of exercise right now.

It makes me a bit (a lot) nervous to up cals and /or carbs. What do you think?

For workouts - i'm doing 60+ minutes a day w/ heavy lifting / running / spinning & yoga.  I added in more protein and water especially on the heavy lifting days.  

I would be willing to bet your dizzy spells are not related to nutrition but do either blood pressure or what is called orthostatic hypotension which basically means as you lose weight the pressure on your veins and arteries is not as great as when you were overweight and you are losing weight much more quickly than your body can keep up with. I get this often when I stand up too quickly or I have been laying too long and not as much blood is in my brain. When you exercise and run you tensing up muscle and pushing your blood out to your extremities when you are done, that pressure is not there and the blood quickly returns to center which brings just a bit too much blood away from your brain and you get a brief dizzy spell. I've had a few that were border line blackout. They pass fairly quickly. But I do not think they are related to nutrition.

All of that being said the carbs she is recommending are what I call (not my word actually) slow carbs. They are carbs that do not dramatically effect blood sugar, so I even a bit more confused as to why she is recommending them. She may be thinking energy but there again they are slow digesting so they won't have a huge impact. The fruit makes sense from a nutrient density perspective but really the wrong kind of carbs to keep you on track. I can tell you when I was where you are now I was eatin 600-800 calories per day and less than 40g of carbs and working out 2 times per day with a similar exercise routine. 

Thank you!  This is a tough journey - there is a bunch of conflicting information out there.  I guess we kind of need to experiment with what works for our body.  I don't think I will up to the 100 g /day she is recommending, but I might add back in a bit of fruit here and there.  

I'm slightly concerned about going the opposite way (anorexia) and really want to avoid compulsion about food in either direction.  

I am not saying you shouldn't just understand what you are doing. A Nutritionist is a basically trained professional where as a Registered Dietitian is a Ph.D or more like a doctor and may have a different opinion. Not saying its worth the cost but just understand what your nutritionist is telling you. Like even the list of carbs they gave you doesn't really add up to stopping a dizzy spell. I think she is implying you might be having low sugar but she just basically said eat more sugars, no strategy or anything like that. Here is something you can try to see if it helps and then you will know and it won't dramatically impact your carb intake for the day. 1 hour before your workout drink 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk with a scoop of protein powder mixed in. Do your work out and right after your work out eat an organic brown rice cake with 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter and banana slices on top. If you still get dizzy your issue is not nutrition. You get a nice blast of food before and immediately after. 

Now try this when you exercise pay attention to how much you are bearing down during your exercises and when you finish cardio come down more slowly over a longer time and see if you get less dizzy. Try to isolate the cause of your dizziness. If it is orthostatic hypotension there is not a lot you can do for it, it will go away over time. You can try something like cafffeine before your workout to keep your bp a bit higher.

You should listen to your professionals, you are paying them after all and if they are not working for you find new ones, but make sure you get a thorough explanation as to why they are suggesting something. Also make sure they have the whole picture. Don't assume just because they know you are a WLS that they remember how long ago or the type of surgery or even have a good picture of how much weight you lost. Make sure it is a topic of conversation.

As for the anorexia, the fact that you are aware and talking about it leads me to believe you will be OK. Awareness and concern are great drivers for staying away from it.

Hi , can you give me info on Coconut oil again, please?  How are you using it daily ?

thanks deb 

I put about a tablespoon of organic extra virgin (slight coconut flavor) in my coffee. I cook with it, its great for any kind of asian dish or anything that is slightly sweet. I use a more refined coconut oil (no flavor) for cooking (anything you would use olive oil for). There are tons of things you can do wit it, if you google coconut oil recipes you will be amazed what you find. There is an interesting recipe that I have not had a chance to try yet where you mix cocoa powder and sweetener with it, let it harden again and end up with what I understand to be a very nice tasting chocolate. I have considered trying this with protein powder too to see if I end up with a protein bar alternative since they are costing me about $100+ per month right now.

Just wondering I've lost a total of 190 lbs and do weight class 2-3 times a week, cardio 5-6 days week but I think I need certain days to do certain weights to work more and build muscle. Thats what I'm going for and it doesn't seem to be working Do I need to change my diet again with more protein shakes or shakes that suppose build muscle??

If you are trying to build muscle then yes more protein for sure. You might want to consider a BCAA supplement as well and maybe some creatine. Creatine makes you retain water so if you are scale obsessed then don't use it, if you want to see some muscle growth and you are happy with where the scale is then its worth a try.

Here is my workout schedule: M(Chest/Shoulders), T(Legs/Back/Biceps), W(Abs/Rest), Th (Chest/Shoulders), F(Legs/Back/Biceps), S (Abs/Rest), S(Rest). I do HIIT training in the morning and even on rest days I walk 2 to 3 miles.

All that being said is you are not seeing muscle gains because of all the cardio you are doing. You will see very slow gain and no gain if you are not eating enough protein.

Thanks... I will try and work on that and see what happens! :)