vallumlj

I am 6ft and 14s 6 i am looking to lose my beer belly and bulk up. I have arranged to have a program done with a gym instructor this weekend and i want to do a lot of free weights as i have read this is good for both fat loss and building up.

I am after some advice on what type of foods are best to eat and how many times i should be eating a day. Also what type of foods should i be staying away from.

Should i be using protein shakes ?

Thanks for any help

The Chief

Eat plenty of clean protein, and eat 5 small meals a day with plenty of complex carbs, i.e. veggies etc.

have a protein shake after a workout but buy a decent protein, not some bulk crap from H&B

The Chief

Keep away from processed and refined foods i.e. sugary foods, cakes etc and pizzas, white bread. eat wholemeal as it is absorbed quicker

RichardS2005

Maximuscle have a good calculator where you put in weight etc and it calculates daily calorie needs if you want to put on/lose weight.

Calorie Calculator | Maximuscle Downloads

It also has a meal planner that works out how much protein/carb/fat you need to consume in each meal.

Best of luck

Richard

Robbieben

Chicken, fish, liver, kidney and other poultry meats are all good low fat sources of essential proteins.
Wholewheat products, bread and pasta are good slow release carbs and work well if eaten 2-3 hrs before training. Porridge oats with 2-3 eggs beaten in just before eating is a great breakfast, high value pure carbs with added protein from the eggs.
Bannana's are great natural energy bars.

I'd suggest you avoid protein shakes/mixes for the first couple of weeks but it's well worth taking Creatine, Holland and Barret usually have some good offers on Creatine caps, 3 caps 1 hr before the gym and 3 after with a pure fruit juice ideally red grape juice is best.

After a couple of weeks add a Whey protein shake 1 hr before and again after training. Met-RX Strawberry is nice and creamy with no powdery taste

rb5_336

I'm in the same boat.

Also worth looking into getting cardio into your schedule. Eat little and often is a great tip above, and only snack (if you need to) on healthy stuff. I like tesco's nut and fruit mix to snack on, fills me right up.

muscletalk is a good forum with great articles.

good luck with it!

rickya

iTrader: (18)

Dont forget cardio, at least 15mins before starting each work out if you want to burn some fat.

1.5 grams of protein per lb of your body weight

Lots of smaller meals rather than 3 large meals

Min 2 litres of water

Complex carbs in the morning especially e.g Oats/Bran/ & fruit

Must have protein after workout & some glucose (or natural sugars) to keep insulin maintained

Not too many carbs in evening

Must warm up & stretch before starting & dont overdo it!

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

good advice above, especially the eat more meals but smaller, be surprised how much more energy that gives which obviously helps with your work outs.

Instead of having protein shakes, you can have a small can of tuna just to vary it a bit, dont overdo it though with tuna because you will begin to hate it. A guy I work with reckons he used to mix tuna with orange juice at one stage to help him get it into him!

dome

In the words of Billy Connolly, "don't eat anything that comes in a bucket"

Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

Yeh a good shake each day should soon have your biceps and forearms looking good, don`t get into bad habits like getting your girlfriend to do them as thats just lazy and you won`t benefit much from that.

HPLovecraft

Cardiovascular exercise does very little to burn fat.

Get your muscles to grow and control your calorific intake.

Ultimate Exercise - Body Fat: Hard Facts About Soft Tissue

wilffive

You'll get quicker results in terms of looking trim or ripped if you cut back (rather than increase) carbs and up your protein intake to start with.

I wouldnt lpersonally oad up the carbs and start trying to put on serious weight till you have lost the flab and gained definition. If you're 14 stone odd now I wouldnt be too concerned about putting weight on too soon. The leaner look is generally better for you and for playing sport and women prefer it.

Luan Pra bang

does anyone have an opinion on that article as I have been wasting my time at the gym if its true.

HPLovecraft

High intensity interval training is a much more effective fat burner if you are doing cardio in an attempt to shed body fat, but you must be quite fit already to do it.

Have a look here :

fat loss and fitness: interval training

in fact clarences website is packed with useful info off all kinds !

Clarence Bass: Bodybuilding & Fitness Home Page

read and rethink!

Luan Pra bang

So high intensity interval training combined with weight training seems to be the key and boring my **** off for an hour a day in a exercise bike is a waste of time ? By high intensity interval training I take it they mean spining.

The Chief

tbh i believe you need to combine everything, dont believe everything you read on the net.

1. maintain a healthy clean diet, do not eat processed rubbish and eat 5 small meals a day to regulate yoru blood sugar level, but.... dont starve yourself. keep protein levels high.

2. Weight train, extra muscle requires more calories to sustain it so in theory you can eat more yet lose weight

3. Cardio - dont do loads on the same day as your weights, but 10 minutes as a warm up is ok, do your cardio on a seperate day.

I put s**t loads of weight on over the last 4 years and i mean a loads but
In 4 months i've dropped over 22kgs in weight yet put over an inch on my arms just by following a healthy diet, weigh training 2-3 times a week and doing a bit of cardio and a nice long walk at the weekend.

i'm still a fat t**t but i'm heading in the right direction.

HPLovecraft

I'm not saying that traditional aerobic exercise is bad for you - of course it isn't ! - but it's not a very effective way to lose fat is that is your primary reason for doing it.

I, for one, do accept what I read if it is shown to be a fact i.e. not based on what someone 'believes' or 'feels' is correct. And the above articles contain cold, hard facts.

Einstein wasted a large portion of his life trying to disprove much of quantum theory because he had the 'feeling' it was wrong - 'God does not play dice'. He simply couldn't accept the truth - a truth that was confirmed through experiment.

In reply to luan - Do a bit of reading around HIIT and follow the advice given if you're thinking about giving it a go.

The original 'tabata' protocol is discussed on clarences website:

Forget the Fat-Burn Zone

Aerobic training article: In Search of the Ideal Aerobics Routine

What I find most interesting is the comparative time for a traditional aerobic workout vs the HIIT workout! Much much shorter for the HIIT plus more benefit.

If muscle building is your thing you should know that high volume training isn't the only way to go - high intensity weight training produces great gains in muscle mass in a fraction of the time (as little as 2 times a week for around 20 mins a workout).

A good site is:

Ultimate Exercise - Personal Weight Training

Go to the articles section at the top, and read - you might find the one on 'recovery' and 'the dose - response relationship of exercise' quite interesting.

Happy Training !

rb5_336

I regularly follow the real life journals over on muscletalk, and the vast majority of peolle in real life prove that cardio is needed to compliment the muscle build with fat reduction, to achieve the overall goal.

Plus as you say, cardio is extremely good for you, so i'd encourage everyone to perform cardio irrelevant of any goals. How can you keep up with your boy playing football in the park without being fit ?

Luan Pra bang

I started doing 70 minutes of cardio 4 days a week but it is boring as anything and your body seems to find easier and easier ways of doing it with out getting any fitter. I tried some intervals yesterday and apart from almost throwing up it seemed more interesting and left me some time to do a little resistance training afterwards. Next week I will get one of the gym trainers to design me a work out based on two lots of intervals per week and 2 lots of resistance and see how it goes.

rb5_336

I've done a fair bit of cardio training in the last few years. I went from not being able to run a mile without feeling sick to competing in 4.5 hour duathlons and running 10k in 45 mins.

My advice is to get outside as much as possible, gym cardio by comparison is so boring, whereas on a bike or running outside it's much more interesting.

Also if I need todo say an hours cardio indoors, i can much easier do it by 20 mins x-trainer, 20 mins treadmill and 20 mins bike. The hour goes quickly.

Another thing I like on the treatmill to make it more interesting is a cross country programme that varies the speed and height

HPLovecraft

Thought I would post this here as it makes for some interesting reading if strength/mass building is your thing:

optimum

Basically a study that addresses the question of intensity, recovery (ie. 'how long should I rest between workouts in order to grow ?') and decompensation (ie. 'how long do I have before my muscles begin to atrophy ?').

Some of the results might surprise you !

Also contains some info on 'max contraction training' that I have read good reports about.

HPL