Good nutrition over 40

[Monketi Ghost]

I run, walk, and work out with dumbbells. I do situps, pushups, crunches, etc.

I have little body fat, but of course what I have gets distributed evenly to my belly these days. It might be a losing battle but I will win or die trying.

My biggest problem is sensible nutrition; I don't eat well. Twice a day, mid-afternoon and around 8-9 o'clock. 2000+ calories total, which I should up.

What I want is food ideas. I eat lots of chicken, rice, and this past year have tried to cut out fatty foods and unnecessary things like soda, anything that comes in a bag.

Good protein, and, my doc says, more calcium; I am heading towards osteopoenia. Suggestions are welcome!

 

[icerat]

More fruit & vegetables.

You're covering macronutrition, but ignoring micronutrition

 

[Monketi Ghost]

Thanks! I do get fruits and veggies, but my diet is haphazard at best; whatever I eat is not enough of what I ought to. Some days I eat pretty much as I should, others I forget to put anything down until like 5 'oclock.

Also I would like recommendations about an adult vitamin supplement because I'm getting to need one.

 

[madurobob]

A lot of what I've heard suggests vitamins are not much use unless you have a known deficiency. So, perhaps just a calcium supplement?

But, it also sounds like you need to do a much better job of spreading out your food intake into more and smaller meals.

Like you, I used to (tend to) eschew food before noon, after waking up around 6:00am. By then, I'd be *really* hungry and gorge on whatever I could find in the house. Then, not be hungry again until nearly bedtime. I'd eat then go to bed full.

Lately, tho, Ive been making myself drink a glass of water and have a small breakfast - usually cereal - soon after waking. That leads to more sensible mid-day lunch and small supper around 7PM. Both having good amounts of protein and green leafy stuff. I feel *much* healthier having done that for several months. Its quite possible my feeling better is caused by something else and the correlation with diet change is coincidental - but it feels like its working for me.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I run, walk, and work out with dumbbells.

Hey, that was uncalled for! I'm sure they're very nice people.

 

[Monketi Ghost]

A lot of what I've heard suggests vitamins are not much use unless you have a known deficiency. So, perhaps just a calcium supplement?

But, it also sounds like you need to do a much better job of spreading out your food intake into more and smaller meals.

Like you, I used to (tend to) eschew food before noon, after waking up around 6:00am. By then, I'd be *really* hungry and gorge on whatever I could find in the house. Then, not be hungry again until nearly bedtime. I'd eat then go to bed full.

This is definitely on my "list of things easily fixed". Better meal spacing, not eating before bed. Regarding that, it's becoming moot anyways- I get acid-stomach and keep Tums by the bedside.

Lately, tho, Ive been making myself drink a glass of water and have a small breakfast - usually cereal - soon after waking.

I have been hitting myself with more water and my typical "breakfast" these days is slamming a protein shake, a quart of milk, and banana. Much better than the nothing I was fueling myself with.

That leads to more sensible mid-day lunch and small supper around 7PM. Both having good amounts of protein and green leafy stuff. I feel *much* healthier having done that for several months. Its quite possible my feeling better is caused by something else and the correlation with diet change is coincidental - but it feels like its working for me.

I'm trying to figure if recent improvements in my nutrition have shown results or I'm just imagining feeling a bit more healthy. But if I do feel more healthy after an obvious improvement over nothing-to-eat, I must be better off for it. Right?

 

[VanillaCone]

But, it also sounds like you need to do a much better job of spreading out your food intake into more and smaller meals.

Definitely this. I'm 40 and have been working with a trainer and nutritionist for the past month to lose weight and eat healthier. They've got me eating six meals/snacks a day of 200 to 400 calories each, for a total of 1,800 calories per day. Lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of fish, chicken and turkey, no white bread or white rice, no red meat, not much fat and no alcohol. 16 ounces of water with every meal.

It's not the kind of diet a busy person could sustain indefinitely, because it does require extra preparation and planning, but I've been losing about five pounds a week so far, and I feel like I am eating plenty of food.

ETA: I'm also doing rigorous exercise three to four days a week. I would not be losing weight so quickly otherwise.

 

[Monketi Ghost]

If you had my problem you'd lose weight. My problem is needing to gain weight, and do it as muscle mass, not belly!

I'm trying to put together a list of foods and suggestions for distributing everything across myself in a good way. Hope the thread lives; might help others.

 

[James Fox]

You could try upping the olive oil and nuts in your diet, both are good for you and dense in calories. And if you’re working out gaining body fat from healthy fats should not be a problem. Also adding more fatty fish like salmon and using olive tapenade spreads on your bread might work along with an extra glass of red wine. …would that I had your problem.

 

[Monketi Ghost]

Don't wish you have my problem. It's not a great one to have. I use plenty of appetite stimulation and still rarely feel like eating before 5. If I force myself to breakfast on solid foods it feels like a force, and turns me off to the process of eating.

 

[madurobob]

So, you've um... tried weed?

 

[GlennB]

If you had my problem you'd lose weight. My problem is needing to gain weight, and do it as muscle mass, not belly!

I'm trying to put together a list of foods and suggestions for distributing everything across myself in a good way. Hope the thread lives; might help others.

Seriously - why do you "need" to gain weight? I'm 6' and 150 lbs (i.e. noticeably skinny) but reasonably fit and strong and I don't need to gain weight. I'd like to be more muscular for vanity (vanititious, vanitudinous ??) reasons, but dont need to be and certainly can't be arsed to do the vanity thing.

 

[VanillaCone]

If you had my problem you'd lose weight. My problem is needing to gain weight, and do it as muscle mass, not belly!

I'm trying to put together a list of foods and suggestions for distributing everything across myself in a good way. Hope the thread lives; might help others.

Maybe I should find out which foods improve reading comprehension! sorry for not reading the OP more carefully...

 

[madurobob]

I run, walk, and work out with dumbbells. I do situps, pushups, crunches, etc.

I thought about this as I ran my XC trails this afternoon. If you're trying to gain weight, the endurance aerobic things like running may be working against you. As I understand it, such endurance activities can reduce muscle mass as your body looks to get energy from the muscles since its easily available - especially if you're not eating enough of the right stuff.

So, if you're trying to add weight - add muscle mass - it might make sense to cut out or cut back on the endurance aerobic stuff for a little while, while maintaining the anaerobic workouts.

 

[CelticRose]

If you had my problem you'd lose weight. My problem is needing to gain weight, and do it as muscle mass, not belly!

I'm trying to put together a list of foods and suggestions for distributing everything across myself in a good way. Hope the thread lives; might help others.

Don't wish you have my problem. It's not a great one to have. I use plenty of appetite stimulation and still rarely feel like eating before 5. If I force myself to breakfast on solid foods it feels like a force, and turns me off to the process of eating.

I hear ya. I have trouble maintaining a healthy weight too, and any weight I do gain seems to all go to my belly and hips. Meanwhile, my legs and arms look practically skeletal.

There is so much information and misinformation out there about how to lose weight, but hardly any on how to gain it. And you're right: it's no picnic being underweight (pardon the pun). Low energy, getting cold easily because you don't have that insulating layer of fat, feeling weak/faint if you're the slightest bit late for a meal, having to eat frequently, etc.

 

[casebro]

I think we get plenty of calcium in food. Or milk, cheese, meat... If you have calcium problems, you need D3 and K2, NOT more calcium. And magnesium, a trace element we are often short of.

Vitamin K2, menatetranone, works for calcium metabolism. It puts the calcium where it belongs, not building up in the kidneys or arteries, or on heart valves.

I've been taking 30mg/day for three months now. My zyphoid process hardened up, 40 years late. The bone dents in my right tibia have filled in, 40 years after Sunday motocrossing. And, at the doctor's yesterday, he can't hear the heart murmur anymore. And I just got the email of lab results. Kidney function is wonderful. Seems lots of kidney probs can be caused by calcium build up. But I'm diabetic so calcium there is not my concern. Still the kidney numbers are now better than ever, and I've been diabetic for 33 years.

The Japanese are treating osteoporosis with K2-40mg/day. Which is cutting down fractures by ummm 70%.

But YMMV. I dunno about osteopoenia. My goal is to clear the calcifications from my 'hardened arteries', a large factor in hypertension. Looks like it might just become part of my plan to be immortal, which is so far, so good!

 

[CelticRose]

Here's a thought: have you tried soup for breakfast? Sometimes when I've got a cold the only thing I can stand to eat first thing is chicken noodle or chicken rice soup. If you're having trouble getting solids down first thing in the morning, maybe that could be an option for you.

And for calcium, yoghurt (the Greek yoghurt is good), ice cream, cheese, pudding, broccoli (yes, broccoli has calcium), cottage cheese, milk.

 

[Denver]

How about adding eggs?
And almonds?

 

[Monketi Ghost]

I think we get plenty of calcium in food. Or milk, cheese, meat... If you have calcium problems, you need D3 and K2, NOT more calcium. And magnesium, a trace element we are often short of.

Vitamin K2, menatetranone, works for calcium metabolism. It puts the calcium where it belongs, not building up in the kidneys or arteries, or on heart valves.

I've been taking 30mg/day for three months now. My zyphoid process hardened up, 40 years late. The bone dents in my right tibia have filled in, 40 years after Sunday motocrossing. And, at the doctor's yesterday, he can't hear the heart murmur anymore. And I just got the email of lab results. Kidney function is wonderful. Seems lots of kidney probs can be caused by calcium build up. But I'm diabetic so calcium there is not my concern. Still the kidney numbers are now better than ever, and I've been diabetic for 33 years.

The Japanese are treating osteoporosis with K2-40mg/day. Which is cutting down fractures by ummm 70%.

But YMMV. I dunno about osteopoenia. My goal is to clear the calcifications from my 'hardened arteries', a large factor in hypertension. Looks like it might just become part of my plan to be immortal, which is so far, so good!

My doc prescribed Fosamax. But a little digging turned up stories of bad fractures in the bones of people taking it, including a doctor I work with.

Can't do that so I have to get ready calcium into me, along with vit D to make it rock.

 

[Monketi Ghost]

Here's a thought: have you tried soup for breakfast? Sometimes when I've got a cold the only thing I can stand to eat first thing is chicken noodle or chicken rice soup. If you're having trouble getting solids down first thing in the morning, maybe that could be an option for you.

And for calcium, yoghurt (the Greek yoghurt is good), ice cream, cheese, pudding, broccoli (yes, broccoli has calcium), cottage cheese, milk.

Check! Yay! I do eat plenty of yogurt. Ice cream yah, but goes right to gut. Also I have a hard time controlling myself, shouldn't eat the whole half-gallon in one sitting...

How about adding eggs?
And almonds?

Eggs less, almonds more! Good suggestions these.

My last bp was 96/60, body weight 140.