Eating for recovery

[Donald]

Originally Posted by pandus13
Originally Posted by Donald
Article in NYT about a railroad worker who averages 74 hours of OT per week and earned $460,000 last year. On handwritten time slips. They are looking into fraud.

Many years ago, in my restaurant days, I've done one week of 90. Owners could not believe it so I send them to check their own cameras. I also reminded them they where 3 people short (one in jail for DUI, 2 recovering after drunk fighting hurts)
I'm not sure if you are implying something else.
I usually sleep 4-7 hours a night.


So we are not mixing terms, the railroad guy was putting in his regular time plus 74 of OT. Making more than the mayor of NYC and governor of NY do combined.

 

[vw7674]

Stuff rest days (1:7) in there or you will be resting in peace real early.
Eggs, egg white omelet if you can gag it down.

 

[mcrn]

Do you mean you will not have any days off for the whole month?

I used to work in a kitchen as well. I actually knew someone that worked 3 full time jobs. Literally 120 hours a week for 2 years. His motivation was to get his family over to the United States. It paid off....he worked in a kitchen and said the only reason he was able to do it was because of the quality and amount of food he was able to eat.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted by pandus13


I usually sleep 4-7 hours a night.


Irregular sleep is not for someone needing to work 16-20 hour days for the next month or-so. You want to develop a sleep-style of either 4-5 hours, 5-6 hours or 6-7 hours.....etc.
Sleep needs regular intervals to function correctly while awake. Try to get basically the same amount every night..... what ever the number is... 4? - 5? - 6? - 7?

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by Donald
Something has got to give. You cannot eat better to fix this. You can do a few days or maybe a week of long hours/little sleep. But not a month.



Trust me anyone can do this for months if not years but efficiency and everything which depends on cognitive function goes down the toilet.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by pandus13
Originally Posted by dave1251
Originally Posted by JLTD
High protein for recovery and make sure to get plenty of rest.

The body recovers faster when carbs are added with high protein.

Would Turkey meat with some whole wheat wraps and a bunch of nuts qualify?

Yes but I would look into a solid protein, fat, and carb ratio. If I'm doing heavy physical outdoors I need a lot more carbs and protein with a lot of plan water. If it's just working in a vehicle or inside the caloric and carb intake is a lot less.

 

[spasm3]

Carbs and lack of sleep will put the pounds on! Without sleep, you will crave the carbs.

 

[javacontour]

Your maintenance calories are probably in the range of 2000-2200 for daily life before you add any strenuous activity.

A good mix of macros is 40% carbs, 30% fats and 30% protein.

Protein figures to build and maintain a body are close to 0.8-1g protein / pound of body weight. So you are looking at 188-235g of protein which will be around 750 - 950 calories / day in protein. More protein on days where you are working harder, and less on days where you haven't worked as much.

Carbs will be about 4g carbs per every 3g of protein since carbs and protein both supply about 4 calories/gram.

A very rough value for daily fats would be a third of your carbs figure since each gram of fat is 9 calories.

For the simple 2000 calorie day, you are looking at 800 calories in carbs, or about 200g of carbs, about 150g of protein, and 67g of fats.

Adjusting for a 3000 calorie day if you do a lot of work, you are looking at 300g of carbs, 225g of protein,and 100g of fats.

I think I'd look to stay in those boundaries. Since you indicate you carry some extra weight, being in a calorie deficit won't hurt.

One cannot build muscle in a calorie deficit, but your body will burn fat, even if you eat carbs because it wants to maintain about 700g of glycogen in your system. If you burn through those carbs, your body will convert fat to glycogen and store it in your muscles and liver.

 

[javacontour]

One other thing. While I'm supposed to be limited to 60g carbs/meal and 45g carbs for snacks, I do throw out the T2D rules when I'm on long bike rides. I can burn 500-1000 calories/hour on the bike depending on my pace and the terrain. When I'm doing this level of work, I try to consume 30-60g of carbs/hour. Usually a banana per hour and I'm good for a 2-4 hour bike ride.

Most people will exhaust their glycogen stores after about 90 minutes of work. So a snacking plan that puts carbs back in

So perhaps the best advice is to keep healthy choices around for your snacks.

You are going to eat more if you are working this hard. So keep apples, bananas, grapes, oranges and similar around.

Might want some low or zero calorie Gatorade type drinks to put electrolytes back in you if you are sweating a great deal.

Cheese sticks, hard boiled eggs and nuts are good sources of fats and proteins and can be kept around as snacks.

No need to run for chocolate donuts and milk. Those are very calorie dense and offer little protein.

But they do taste good.

I do keep 100 calorie ice cream cups around as a treat at the end of the day. Portion size is set, so I don't consume 1000 calories of ice cream

 

[pandus13]

Thank you ALL, for all the good sensible suggestions.

Like it was said, It is just something a have to get done.

I guess I'll see you guys in a while.

Please keep motoring safely.