When trying to get ripped, do you have to count your calories, protein and carbs? (vegetables, proteins)

[Tony22]

I am trying to lose fat and gain muscle. All the websites that I go to are saying that you have to do count all of those but how do you know how much each thing has though. It seems difficult.

[AnonChick]

First of all, congrats on getting down to a healthier weight. You've been using Insanity as your main exercise routine, and that's a lot of work.

If you're still flabby and lack muscletone, you really do need to work on your food intake and get into a strength-training routine. How much of whatever to eat, depends on a lot of things: your metabolism, any allergies and sensitivities to food, any other personal dietary restrictions (such as being a vegetarian), and a bunch more stuff.

You'll get different answers from different people here, because we are all presenting our own personal choice of what works for us. We also can't really advise you if we don't know what you're currently doing. In other words, telling you to "cut back on carbs" is meaningless, if we don't know whether you eat a lot of carbs or not, in the first place.

I'd say the only advice I would give, which is pretty generic and you've heard this a million times already:

eliminate anything with sugar or sweetener added to it. Fruits have sugar in it naturally, so you can still eat fruit.
no more than one serving of starch per day. So - 2 pieces of toast = 1 serving. 1 hotdog bun = 1 serving. 1 baked potato = 1 serving. 1 cookie = 1 serving (but you can't have the cookie because it has sugar in it).

Notice also, I didn't say cut down on carbs. I didn't say that, on purpose. You SHOULD consume carbs. Vegetables have carbs, and you need to eat your vegetables. The two carbs that you need to be careful of are sugar and starch, specifically. And I recommend not replacing the sugar with artificial sweetener because the foods that contain those artificial sweeteners are usually nutritionally void or otherwise lacking, and you would serve your purposes better by filling your belly with more nutrition and less crap.

[Tony22]

Thanks. I eat a lot of chicken,fish and other proteins. I also only eat whole wheat bread.

[Luckyd609]

Get most of your calories from protein and lift heavy.

[AnonChick]

Originally Posted by Tony22

Thanks. I eat a lot of chicken,fish and other proteins. I also only eat whole wheat bread.

It doesn't matter if the bread is whole wheat, it doesn't matter if you grew the wheat yourself and had a dozen virgins pluck it all with golden tweezers at harvest time. What matters is HOW MUCH you are eating of it.

[d2mini]

NO ONE advocating a low carb diet is advising cutting back on vegetables. Veggies, many fruits (especially berries), sweet potatoes, etc can all be part of a low carb diet. You couldn't physically eat enough spinach to push your carbs too high for the day.
I would stay away from bread all together, at least for a while. Or indulge in it once a week. Same with sugar... get rid of it.

[Tony22]

Originally Posted by d2mini

NO ONE advocating a low carb diet is advising cutting back on vegetables. Veggies, many fruits (especially berries), sweet potatoes, etc can all be part of a low carb diet. You couldn't physically eat enough spinach to push your carbs too high for the day.
I would stay away from bread all together, at least for a while. Or indulge in it once a week. Same with sugar... get rid of it.

It is so hard to get rid of carbs though. They are in everything. Also, I know you need carbs in your diet but not a lot unless you are bulking up.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Tony22

It is so hard to get rid of carbs though. They are in everything. Also, I know you need carbs in your diet but not a lot unless you are bulking up.

But you never want to "get rid" of carbs; you just want the carbs you eat to come from non-starchy vegetables, and a limited amount of fruit and grains. As d2mini implied, not all grains and fruit are created equal; I will choose berries, cherries and apples over other fruit, and oatmeal and (a very small amount of) whole wheat over refined carbs.

"Limit" does not equal "get rid of."

[AnonChick]

Why is it, when every response so far has been to EAT CARBS but cut out starch and sugar, is the OP continuing to whine about how he can't eliminate carbs?

Is he just not paying any attention to what anyone is telling him?

EAT CARBS. LIMIT STARCH AND SUGAR.

I can tell you the same thing in French and Spanish if it'll help.

[Henrybishop]

We need to have more proteins for building up the muscles. Make sure to have at least 30 grams of protein at breakfast, lunch and dinner and 10 to 15 grams at snacks.