Diet feedback for a friend

[Whisper]

Hey all, a friend of mine just got a diet plan and was asking for my feedback. I gave her my initial thoughts, but figured I would ask y'all for the same, given that many of you are way more informed on nutrition issues than me. It's the same thing for every day:

Meal 1: 4 egg whites
1 serving oatmeal or grits
1/2 grapefruit

Meal 2: 5 oz. Chicken breast
Medium baked sweet potato
1 serving of veggies

Meal 3: 5 oz. Lean red meat
Medium serving of asparagus or brocolli
1/2 grapefruit

Meal 4: 5 oz. Turkey cutlet or tenderloin
1/2 cup brown rice

Meal 5: 5 oz. Tilapia or other white meat
salad or other veggie

To me, that looked like a lot of food for a 5' 3" 120-ish pound girl not trying to bulk up. I told her it looked similar to plans used by bodybuilder friends during their cutting phases. However, I didn't do a calorie count so I could be very wrong. There also don't look to be many carbs or healthy fats, so I told her fish oil at the least could help.

Thoughts?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Hey all, a friend of mine just got a diet plan and was asking for my feedback. I gave her my initial thoughts, but figured I would ask y'all for the same, given that many of you are way more informed on nutrition issues than me. It's the same thing for every day:

Meal 1: 4 egg whites
1 serving oatmeal or grits
1/2 grapefruit

Meal 2: 5 oz. Chicken breast
Medium baked sweet potato
1 serving of veggies

Meal 3: 5 oz. Lean red meat
Medium serving of asparagus or brocolli
1/2 grapefruit

Meal 4: 5 oz. Turkey cutlet or tenderloin
1/2 cup brown rice

Meal 5: 5 oz. Tilapia or other white meat
salad or other veggie

To me, that looked like a lot of food for a 5' 3" 120-ish pound girl not trying to bulk up. I told her it looked similar to plans used by bodybuilder friends during their cutting phases. However, I didn't do a calorie count so I could be very wrong. There also don't look to be many carbs or healthy fats, so I told her fish oil at the least could help.

Thoughts?

I honestly thought that plan looked pretty darn good. It's really not that much food, considering the meat is not very calorie dense and the veggies aren't very high cal either. She's got healthy carbs and veggies at every meal (sweet potatie, brown rice, veggies, grapefruit, oatmeal). She could stand to eat some seeds or nuts, but doesn't necessarily need to if her meats are cooked in something like olive oil.

 

[douglasb]

Like SociallyChallenge mentioned, that diet is pretty much completely devoid of healthy fats. I would add some natural peanut butter (or other type of nut butter), olive oil, fish oil, etc.

But overall, it looks pretty good, and not very many calories at all.

 

[Whisper]

Sounds good, will let her know. After looking at it a second time, I did catch on to the carbs a bit, yeah. Thanks guys.

 

[SKC]

Most of it has been said already. One thing I wanted to mention, in re: tilapia -
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708092228.htm tell her to be careful of the source, especially if it's farm raised.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

This isn't OT so are we allowed to ask for pics? haha

 

[Kaido]

It's the same thing for every day

= food allergies

Doctors recommend a 4-day rotation between eating the same foods, so that you don't develop an allergy to them. It doesn't happen in all cases, of course, but it greatly increases the likelyhood of a person becoming allergic to a food. I'd have her do at least 4 day's worth of different meals to avoid that.

 

[nanette1985]

As you said, looks like some variation of bodybuilders "performance nutrition".

Here http://www.camillofitness.com/articlelibrary/performancenutrition.htm is a place you can compare some other similar regimens.

Ditto on the fat and the strict repetition. Also google "slow carb diet" where you'll see some similarities - and some major differences.

Interesting.

 

[Whisper]

Thanks for the additional input, all.

I'd figured that the lack of variation would just cause the diet to become incredibly boring (and thus increase the odds of poor adherence); hadn't thought about developing food allergies. I believe the person who sent her the diet mentioned a few substitutions for each of the meals. I'll let her know, though, and will suggest that she introduce some variety, such as perhaps lean pork for chicken, different varieties of fish, etc.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

= food allergies

Doctors recommend a 4-day rotation between eating the same foods, so that you don't develop an allergy to them. It doesn't happen in all cases, of course, but it greatly increases the likelyhood of a person becoming allergic to a food. I'd have her do at least 4 day's worth of different meals to avoid that.

Do you know to what degree repetitive intake affects risk of food allergy? I know it increases, but I don't know if "greatly" is the word I'd use. You have a lot of allergies/sensitivities yourself so you'd probably know better though. If you've got any research on it, I'd like to read it for personal knowledge. Thanks, man.