I put together a diet which I started last week, that is identic to something I did 10 years ago with great results (except for meal #5 which I won't homecook now, and buy a finished store-bought similar dinner).
During the 2 months I followed that diet strictly 10 years ago, I lost ~4-5kg of fat mass and gained ~2-3kg in protein/mineral mass, and my body measurements changed accordingly, so I'd say it worked great back then.
But I was also strength training hard 4 times a week and was younger, so I'm not sure if a similar diet will be best for me today.

Nowadays I'm mid 30s, ~182cm, ~90kg, a bit overweight in the midsection with unhealthy visceral fat, and would like to slowly lose that unhealthy fat, while maintaining an all-around healthy diet. If I were to guess, I should probably lose 5kg of pure body fat to be well within the healthy range.
I'll be doing yoga/stretching exercises (back injury/deformation, need to keep in check) about 60-90 minutes daily, split between early morning and late evening.
I'm doing 1-2 cardio exercises a week (tennis) for 90 minutes.
I'm doing light strength training at home, ~30 minutes after warm up, most days (no yard work during winter, I'll get a gym membership next spring).
Strength work at home will be some apparatuses (Reverse Hyperextension due to back, Glute Ham Raises), resistance bands, dumbells, and bodyweight exercises (squats, pushups, core etc).
I don't want to invest more than ~30 minutes (+warm up) to strength work ~5-6 days a week for now and during the winter, and the workload will be relatively light.
Cardio will be between meal #3 and #4, strength work between #4 and #5.
I will otherwise not be much physically active.

So, to my question, which is about the diet. Are the macros for the following ok, considering what I wrote about my lifestyle in the coming months?

Diet: 5 meals, first 4 homecooked, last processed (ready made meal in store, boil in plastic bags). Includes food from as far I can tell all needed foodgroups to get different micronutrients and fibre I need daily. Aimed for 2.5k kcal daily, unsure if that is optimal with my level of activity, but can adjust later if needed. I counted the calories/nutrients in everything except for the small amounts of cooking oil I'll be using. Except for 1 glass of milk and 1 cup of coffee for breakfast, I'll be sticking purely to water for hydration. No supplements.

~08:00 - Meal #1 eggs, walnuts, salad, tomato, yellow onion, cucumber, carrot, milk (250ml), 1 cup of coffe
~12:00 - Meal #2 salmon (sea caught), salad, tomato, yellow onion, cucumber, carrot
~15:00 - Meal #3 brown beans, red lentils
~18:00 - Meal #4 spaghetti using whole weat, saus, low fat ground beef, onion
~21:30 - Meal #5 chickenbreast, herb sauce, carrot puree, potato (storebought finished meal) (This meal used to be for the same diet 10 years ago: 200g chicken, 200g potates, 100g broccoli, 100g cauliflower)

Macros:--kcal--prot----carb-----fat-----fibre (numbers inside parantheses are simple carbs and saturated fats)
Meal #1 - 569 / 40 / 21(21) / 35(5) / 5
Meal #2 - 606 / 52 / 7(7) / 40(8) / 4
Meal #3 - 218 / 14 / 33(2) / 1(0) / 13
Meal #4 - 625 / 57 / 68(14) / 13(4) / 6
Meal #5 - 416 / 34 / 39(13) / 13(4) / 6

Total:
kcal: 2434
proteins: 197g
carbs: 168g
of which is simple: 57g (I knew there were simple carbs in things like sauces and milk, but I didn't know all of the carbs in vegetables like onions and carrots were simple as well)
fat: 102g
of which is saturated: 21g
fibre: 34g

carb/protein/fat in ~percentage of energy (kcal):
carbs: ~28%
proteins: ~33%
fat: ~39%

So my diet is close to a 30/30/40 split for carbs/proteins/fat, with proteins being slightly over carbs, but..
I'm a bit worried if 2g+ proteins/kg bodyweight, and protein being slightly over carbs will present a problem long term. Or maybe it is fine to have roughly protein=carbs, and fat being most for % of energy in a diet.
Anyways, google seems to suggest eating a shitton of carbs, and I dunno. I learned in sports school some time back that a 50/25/25 carb/protein/fat diet was good, but I dunno about that either; hence my post here.
Thanks in advance to any helpful feedback!

This post was edited by Dragon_Reborn on Nov 10 2023 08:17am

Carbs don’t make you fat and you’re not over carbs.

General rule of thumb, for best performance, 1g/lb of protein, 0.35-0.5g/lb fat and the rest of carbs are a great split.

But for pure diet purposes, this is fine. Fat makes food palatable, and you’re not that much over 0.5g/lb. At the end of the day, just make sure you’re in a deficit.

Alright, thanks. Got any good sources on the rule of thumb to read up on for an interested guy? It's good to hear that those numbers seem to work well!

So, going by what you said, I'll maintain this another week, and take new waist measurement+weighing after next week ends.

If I'm losing some fat, I'll maintain my numbers, if not I'll cut down, and a good place to cut down on then seems to be fat; so I can for example cut some fish out of my #2 250g salmon meal, say 150g salmon instead , and wait another 2 weeks and check again. (alternatively swap meal #5 out for low fat "kesam" similar to 1% fat cottage cheese I think)
(If my waist goes down, but weight stays the same, I'll maintain numbers without cutting cals, and wait and see)

Another question, popped into my mind: Would you eat 1-2 bananas additionally, after cardio days (tennis), due to the extra caloric burn, or just let those days be the same with more caloric defecit than the other non-cardio days?

This post was edited by Dragon_Reborn on Nov 12 2023 01:08am

https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/are-you-getting-too-much-protein

This source which seem reputable suggests that for people who lift weights regularly as part of their training need 1.2-1.7g protein / kg bodyweight (0.55-0.77g protein / lb bodyweight), and for overweight people the extra weight isn't counted.
It also says that the body can't utilize more than 40g protein each meal. I'm not sure if that means that the excess will simply be used for energy like carbs or fat would (different metabolic process) and what that means but; if true, is it a problem then that your body metabolizes the 10-15g of excess proteins as energy, as opposed to that energy coming from carbs? Something about higher blood lipid levels; or not if not consumed with high saturated fat foods? And extra tax on the kidneys? But this might not the an issue for regular healthy people?

Going by that source, I should replace at least 50g proteins in my diet with carbs (I'm not even lifting heavy weights). So still iso more source on what @ozzyarmy3 said.

Protein does a few things.

1. It curbs hunger. So if you’re in a deficit, a higher protein diet will generally help with cravings.
2. It prevents muscle loss. In conjunction with resistance training, a high protein diet can help prevent muscle loss while you’re in a caloric deficit. That way, when you’re done with your diet, you don’t look like William Dafoe.

As for only being able to metabolize 40g per meal, there’s only a sprinkle of truth in this statement. Different proteins have different bioavailability and different metabolizing times. Plant based protein has the lowest bioavailability out of all proteins, and this is why you probably shouldn’t count bread gluten in your protein intake. While casein and whey sources have much better bioavailability. BUT WAIT, casein digests SUPER slow compared to whey, so does 40g of casein keep you out of a catabolic window for longer? ALSO what about lean proteins like chicken breast???

There’s too many variables to simply say “my body can only absorb ‘x’ amount of protein per sitting.

Also also, if your body is in the presence of carbohydrates, then it will utilize the carbs as a source of energy. By the time your body has metabolized carbs for ATP, your protein has already been broken down into amino acids and have been metabolized.

Again, for pure performance and minimal muscle loss.

0.75-1g per lb of protein “maybe even 1.2, but that’s completely hypothetical” of protein.
0.35-0.5g per lb of fats
Rest carbs

Or be a normal person and don’t obsess over diet like I do.

Sources: I stayed at a Holiday Inn.

This post was edited by ozzyarmy3 on Nov 13 2023 08:19am

Thanks, your last post made a lot of sense with many things, including things I had forgotten to consider, such as different protein types. What you're saying about casein digesting slowly (Def used to think more about proteins during my vanity phase in high school lul) vs others such as meat, whey etc, it's weird how mayoclinic doesn't take this into consideration at all in that article, and makes a blanket statement of "this much protein per meal max". Like yeah, see what you're saying there.

I've been running this diet for 2 weeks now. It feels like I have a bit more energy and I've been getting in my exercise and training without much difficulty.
I have to say I've been noticing especially this last week a bit of hunger (and to a lesser degree cravings for different stuff), mostly in the evenings, but passing. Anyways manageble, will continue with my current diet and cals/macros.
Drinking just water (and a glass of milk+coffe for breakfast) was superboring the first week, but I've gotten used to it by now and it feels nice. Hardly any cravings for Pepsi Max which I've been drinking a shitload of for years now.

Anyways, 2 weeks, pretty sure no muscle loss, weight 92->90 kg, measurements all pretty much the same, except waist which is down 3 cm.

Now, if I could only snap my fingers and magically get enough quality sleep each night...

macros are very overrated

even carbs for energy are overrated

if youre doing any sort of conventional bodybuilding style of training you're not coming anywhere near close enough to training hard enough to need 10000000 grams of carbohydrates a day

depending on how intensely you lift you might want to take special care to bump your carbs up the day before / breakfast before a leg day

otherwise it's irrelevant unless you're a serious athlete training multiple times a day.


eat a gram of protein ish per lb of bodyweight



after that eat whatever you want that's of decent quality. some days you'll happen to have more fat. some days more carbs. it will balance out.


you come at this way too methodically. its not that serious



eat enough protein and hit the calories you want to hit with mostly whole, natural foods.
train
sleep

look at dieting (not dieting but your diet) as a monthly thing instead of a daily thing. you don't need vitamin a every single day. you don't need a certain amount of omega 3 every day. if you don't eat omega 3 for 3 days and then you have 8 ounces of salmon, your body can figure out what to do. ETC.

Nvm

This post was edited by ozzyarmy3 on Nov 25 2023 05:56am

Guessing its been a while since u watch Spiderman 1, bro....

There's a lot of sense in what you're saying, thank for your feedback.
I'm trying to keep it simple and something I can manage, and if it's structured it's easier to plan and follow through, at least in the beginning. Cause I kind of need to make an extra effort to manage to stick with it, and don't want to give myself many "outs" so to speak. Like suddenly I start skipping meals cause I didn't plan them in advance, and didn't feel hungry and then it gets worse or w/e.

Anyways, 8 weeks done, lost about 7 kg in between weighings, something like this:
before - 92kg - 103cm waist - 110cm hip
2 weeks - 90kg - 100cm waist - 109cm hip
4 weeks - 89kg - 99cm waist - 108cm hip
6 weeks - 87kg - 99cm waist - 108cm hip
8 weeks - 85kg - 97cm waist - 107cm hip (today)

Additionally I'm down 2cm across my chest, and arms stayed the same. Also not really sure how to measure waist/hip with waist/hip ratio in mind. Google says across the "thinner part", above your belly button and between the ribgace/hipbone on the sides, but that works better for skinny people right? Feels like cheating if you're a bit fat and jumps over the "bottom belly bulge", so I measured it across the thickest part lying down. My waist measurements would be 5cm less if I measured it across the "thinnest" part standing up (9-10cm less if I "suck it in"). So not really sure if I'm "well within" 0.9:1 waist/hip ratio or not...

Regardless, I think I underestimated a bit the amount of fat I needed to lose. I think with my diet and moderate strength exercise at home+cardio, I've mostly been losing fat within those 7kg lost, and little to no muscle. But looking in the mirror, I can see I need to lose a few more kg.

Come early spring my plan is to start strength training with equipment, both "basework" (don't know proper english term) outside in the yard (yoke, farmer's walk, sledgework etc), in addition to the moderate stuff I do inside, and late spring join a gym and do proper strength training. Kinda want the 100/150/200 kg big three and then reassess my goals and see if I just want to maintain+padel/yoga/martial arts even maybe, or focus more on strength building.

edit: Happy New Year y'all

This post was edited by Dragon_Reborn on Jan 1 2024 03:28am