Dietary guidelines?

[KE53]

In Starting Strength, there are some guidelines given for diet, with modifications for "older guys" and "fat guys".

I guess, I'm not quite sure where I fall on the spectrum. I'm 43 years old, male, 225lb. I wear a 42 inch jacket and 36 inch jeans (at the waist), though jeans tend to have smaller than true sizes on them so I'm probably a 38 waist. I'm 6'2. So I'm middle aged (I'm not sure if that's what is meant by "older guys", or if he was talking about 60 year olds) and I'm not skinny but not obese either (I have a belly -- is that "fat" for these purposes?)

I'm a complete novice, so I'm doing the complete novice program recommended in the book. Workout 3x/week, squats to start every workout, followed by bench or press (alternating), followed by deadlift. I'm adding 5lb to bench and press every time I do it, 10lb to squat, and 15lb to deadlift. Warmup followed by 3 work sets of 5 for every exercise except deadlift, which is warmup followed by 1 work set. I haven't added the power clean yet (I am waiting until 2 days is not sufficient recently for the deadlift)

So, what are reasonable dietary guidelines here? Should I be drinking some whole milk? I assume, less than is recommended for a 19 year old? Or should it be none at all? Also, what are reasonable protein/carb/fat levels to aim for, at least to start? At 43 I do not digest food like I did when I was 25; my appetite is a lot less and I am full for longer after meals.

Also, this is possibly a stupid question, but I absolutely hate the taste of milk. Is a Starbucks latte made with whole milk (the default is low fat but they will make it with whole milk if you ask) a reasonable source of milk? I'm going to drink the coffee anyway so this would not be increasing my caffeine intake.

[Robert Santana]

Thanks for posting. My suggestion is that you start by taking an inventory of what you are currently consuming so that we can better assess what you need. Milk isn't bad but do you need more/less/etc? Not sure.

[KE53]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm guess I'm eating more or less enough for maintenance because my weight kind of fluctuates between 225 and 231 and never really leaves that range.

This is hard for me to answer because I don't really keep track. When I'm hungry, I eat. If friends want to go out for food, I'll go if I have time. I don't really cook at home -- we get free food at work and I eat out (not fast food) otherwise.

I'll try keeping track for a day and report back tomorrow. Honestly I can't even estimate it from memory.

[Nockian]

You should measure your belly properly. Jean size tells you nothing. I have a 36" waist and wear 32" jeans.

My advice, work out your maintenance calories at your current weight, then plan macros to include 1g per pound, then manipulate carbs and fats to suit. That may/or may not contain milk, that's your call. There are several websites that explain how to work out maintainance calories based on your current level of activity which includes training days. Once you have allocated all your macros, then work out a diet accurately, measure everything to begin with and stick to it-the simpler it is the better and preferably whole foods rather than anything processed. It will be pretty boring, but stick to it for a few weeks and it does become easier.

Better still, if you haven't the time, or all that planning looks a bit daunting, pay Santana to set it all up for you.

I've just set up my wife's macros and diet, took me almost a day to do it properly. Lots of tabulation, research and basic maths.

[KE53]

Ok, so, when I add everything up, today I ate about 215g carbs, 142g protein, 132g fat. I significant chunk of that fat came from 2 avocados (I searched around online and found 29.5g fat per avocado).

I'm guessing I need to add about 80g protein (to get close to 1g / lb of bodyweight). Should that be at the expense of carbs (something like, say, 150g carbs, 220g protein, 130g fat) or do I need more calories? Should I cut the fat down? 2 avocados and 15oz whole milk (in a latte) is already 75g of fat, and those are just "snacks".

[Robert Santana]

Ok, so, when I add everything up, today I ate about 215g carbs, 142g protein, 132g fat. I significant chunk of that fat came from 2 avocados (I searched around online and found 29.5g fat per avocado).

I'm guessing I need to add about 80g protein (to get close to 1g / lb of bodyweight). Should that be at the expense of carbs (something like, say, 150g carbs, 220g protein, 130g fat) or do I need more calories? Should I cut the fat down? 2 avocados and 15oz whole milk (in a latte) is already 75g of fat, and those are just "snacks".

Cut the fat down up the protein and carbs.

[KE53]

Thanks again for the replies.

How many calories am I aiming for here?

Something like 250g carbs, 225g protein, 100g fat would be about 2800 calories. Is that about what I should be aiming for? Or do I need to raise the carbs even more?

[Robert Santana]

That's a start.