I’m busy juggling my diet now that I’m bodybuilding.

Well my new food regime is interesting. I’m eating fewer calories, same amount of protein and more carbs. The good news, I don’t feel hungry (yet) and I’ve dropped a pound so far.

Truthfully, while I think I’m eating way more carbs, to an outside observer my diet is still very carb restricted. Before the weight training my carb intake ranged from 20-25g. Now I’m upping that to 50-75 on non-strength training days. I bump up the carbs to 100-150g/day on days where I’m lifting weights.

Just enough fuel to recharge my muscles and let me burn fat.

Micronutrient Balancing Act
Since I’m doing a 3-month tracking challenge, journaling what I eat isn’t that much of a challenge. In fact, the change in diet made me more vigilant. My micronutrient breakdown is:

• 45% carbs
• 30% protein
• 25% fat

I’m focused on burning fat and preserving (and eventually growing) muscle, I now need to track my protein and fats. Today was my first real day tracking everything. It’s surprising how quickly I use up my “tiny” 25% of fat.

Oh Man, I Gotta Count Calories
My trainer capped my daily caloric intake to a 1300-1550 range. I eat near the top of that range on days when I weight lift.

I never paid attention to my calories when I dropped the 80 lbs. Looking at my food tracker on My Fitness Pal, it looks like I ate 1600 – 1850 calories/day.

This makes tracking my food even more important.  I don’t want to go in starvation mode. If so, the weight loss stops.