u/euna0sei

I recently started working with a well-known Brazilian nutritionist/bodybuilder (I'm Brazilian), but the diet he gave me feels like very little food. Before I go back to him, I’d appreciate a second opinion from other women.

Diet:

• Fast until lunch
• Lunch: 200g chicken + 100g cauliflower rice
• Pre-workout: 300ml egg whites + 80g cottage cheese + 70g white rice on lower body days only
• Dinner/post-workout: lettuce, bell peppers, 200g ground beef or turkey, plus 220g sweet potato on lower body days or 170g yellow potato on upper body/cardio days

That’s everything. I track my food, and I was shocked to see that that puts a lower-body day (the higher-food day) at only ~1,165 calories: 87g carbs, 10g fat, and 172g protein.

I’m 5'4", around 59kg/130lb, with approximately 17.8% body fat and 28kg/61lb of skeletal muscle mass. My goal is to reach around ~14% body fat while preserving muscle, not actively trying to gain more (and no way I would with this amount of food!).

I lift 5x per week with progressive overload, to failure: 3 lower body and 2 upper body sessions. I do 20 minutes of zone 1/2 cardio after lower body days and 15 minutes of HIIT after upper body days. On weekends, I usually do a run or hike, and I average around 10k steps daily.

For full context, I’m also taking 3mg of var daily. I was previously on 10mg of tirze weekly but recently switched to 5mg tirze + 2.5mg reta.

I’ve been following this diet for 3 weeks, and I’m struggling. My appetite and food noise have increased significantly, so sticking to it is taking much more willpower than usual. I realize the tirze/reta change could be contributing to that, but I don’t think it’s the main culprit or fully explains how depleted I feel.

My lifts aren’t improving, and my body composition still feels plateaued. This seems extremely low for my activity level, especially in fats and carbs, but I want to make sure I’m not being unreasonable or “weak” before discussing it with him. Thoughts?