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Guest Pallidus

Hello there!

 

I'm a new user and looking for some pointers. I have been looking to get on a better diet for health reasons for a long time, and I have discovered that nutrition is an intellectual black hole. No one knows anything! It's very irritating and it makes finding a healthy diet very difficult.

 

I first have to mention this is solely for health. I am a 5'10" male at 150 lbs. I've always been happy with my body image - I'm just looking to live a healthier lifestyle.

 

To that end, I'm looking for some advice. What are some foods to stock up on? What's a good caloric intake for a normal diet for a man of my size? How about a calorie reduced diet? Are fruits ok, or something to be avoided? Tricks to curb the hunger?

 

I actually think I may have already been on a reduced calorie diet for years now simply because I hate eating. In my head it's such a waste of time. Now I'm looking to boost it so that I can experience good energy levels and the improved focus and concentration that come with eating a nutritionally dense diet.

 

I am not averse to reading either, so if you have a good source that I should read feel free to link it! The difficult part is sifting through what's good and what's garbage - and when your uninformed, as I am, it becomes even more difficult and I'm hoping to avoid making mistakes that could hurt me.

 

Thanks for all your help!

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Hello there!

 

I'm a new user and looking for some pointers. I have been looking to get on a better diet for health reasons for a long time, and I have discovered that nutrition is an intellectual black hole. No one knows anything! It's very irritating and it makes finding a healthy diet very difficult.

 

I first have to mention this is solely for health. I am a 5'10" male at 150 lbs. I've always been happy with my body image - I'm just looking to live a healthier lifestyle.

 

To that end, I'm looking for some advice. What are some foods to stock up on? What's a good caloric intake for a normal diet for a man of my size? How about a calorie reduced diet? Are fruits ok, or something to be avoided? Tricks to curb the hunger?

 

I actually think I may have already been on a reduced calorie diet for years now simply because I hate eating. In my head it's such a waste of time. Now I'm looking to boost it so that I can experience good energy levels and the improved focus and concentration that come with eating a nutritionally dense diet.

 

I am not averse to reading either, so if you have a good source that I should read feel free to link it! The difficult part is sifting through what's good and what's garbage - and when your uninformed, as I am, it becomes even more difficult and I'm hoping to avoid making mistakes that could hurt me.

 

Thanks for all your help!

 

Hi Pallidus, http://www.scientifi...alth/cron1.html gives a CRON calculator to estimate the calories. I think it's a good starting point. Maybe you should work your way slowly to around 1700 calories per day over the course of several months. As for diet, most successful CR practitioners eat lots of different vegetables so that would be the first priority. Spinach, sweet potato\yam, broccoli, egg plant, peas, lentils, carrots, beets, beans, tomato, kale, onion, garlic etc. Fruits and nuts are successfully used by many, but not all CRONIES. My belief is that the fats from nuts are very good in moderate quantities, but that fruits are too sweet and should be limited, but others will surely disagree with that. I get my healthy fats from olive oil, flax seeds, flax oil, avocados, and a wide variety of nuts and seeds. My fruits are limited to a modest amount of berries and cantaloupe. Protein sources are another contentious issue with some choosing vegetarian/vegan and others going with a small amount of meats, eggs or fish. My choice is mostly vegan, so I use protein from soy, quorn, gardenburger and plant sources. Others eat grass-fed meats. Fish often contain pollutants, so some worry about that. Many CRON practitioners limit their grain consumption to mostly whole grains because processed grains are high in calories and low in nutrients. Research from Dr Luigi Fontana has shown that high protein diets can block the beneficial effects of CR, so you'll want to keep your protein down to a near RDA level. For your current size between 45 - 54 g of protein per day would be ok.

You'll need to keep track of the food you eat, so check out CRON-O-Meter which is a free app that many use to record food and diets. Balance of your diet and nutrients is critical for success. You'll need to balance the fats so that n6 (aka Omega-6) to n3 (aka Omega-3) fatty acids ratio is about 4 or 5 to 1. (n6 bigger than n3) You'll also need to balance the foods you eat so that you get at least RDI for all vitamins and minerals. It takes a lot of fiddling to get it right, but once you do, much of the hunger goes away. Finally the last way to balance your diet is by the macro nutrients. I balance my diet by 15% of calories from protein, 34% from fats, and 51% from carbs. Others prefer other balances.

 

Read Beyond the 120 year diet by Roy Walford, The CR Way by Paul McGlothin and Meredith Averill, and The Longevity Diet by Brian Delaney and Lisa Walford

 

Daily exercise, supplement the nutrients you can't get thru diet and you'll probably do just fine.

 

Get a full set of medical tests done before you start so that you can measure your progress over time. Details are in the books.

 

There's a ton of information in the email archives here, so just look. Lots of websites and blogs with further info.

Cheers and good luck with it. Feel free to ask questions.

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Hi Pallidus, welcome to the forum.

...I have discovered that nutrition is an intellectual black hole. No one knows anything! It's very irritating and it makes finding a healthy diet very difficult.

 

Maybe you just haven't been looking? The reality is that there's a nearly endless amount of information on nutrition in addition to fundamental guidelines put forward by governments and NGOs based on decades and decades of research and discussion. All your questions are answered here: (simple google search for dietary guidelines)

http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2010/DietaryGuidelines2010.pdf

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/downloads/MyPlate/DG2010Brochure.pdf

http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=3&tax_subject=256&topic_id=1342&level3_id=5140

 

Guidelines for prevention of heart disease and cancer, the two major causes of death:

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyDietGoals/Healthy-Diet-Goals_UCM_310436_SubHomePage.jsp

http://www.cancer.org/Healthy/EatHealthyGetActive/ACSGuidelinesonNutritionPhysicalActivityforCancerPrevention/index

http://www.aicr.org/reduce-your-cancer-risk/diet/?gclid=CK-qsN6OnawCFQjc4AodyBGJ2Q

 

Two specific diets which are held in high regard by the establishment right now:

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mediterranean-diet/CL00011

 

In a nutshell:

The guidelines are a solid framework. Tweak as needed.

 

As far as CR-

I am *only* speaking from my personal point of view (and not on behalf of anyone else), but I think that CR is not something that can be done casually and without a degree of meticulousness and dedication. I would personally suggest that CR should be undertaken with strict monitoring of the foods you eat, the use of dietary software to track nutrients, etc. Otherwise you risk malnourishment.

 

For example, although we don't know about your specific anthropometry, your BMI implies that you should be cautious about a "calorie reduced diet." Any general practitioner you're seeing would take pause if you, as a patient, said that you wanted to reduce your calories. You are not overweight, and CR leads to weight loss. Consultation with your doctor as well as blood work are a must IMO.

 

There just so happens to be a wealth of information on CR on this very website (fancy that).

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