Fitness and Diet
 

Hey all,

Yes it's that same old topic,but now it's Spring I thought I'd kick this off as I need some advise.

My life style has been poor of late, no exercise and food intake pretty poor simply due to being manic at work and with life in general. I've been known to be working a 17 hour day which has meant eating poor simply due to a lack of preparations will power, but that's all calmed down now, so I want to get in shape for this summer.

I need some advise from those with experience please. :luxhello:


I have a newish bike on order, which I'll use to commute to work 3 miles away.

I have around 1 hour free each day of free time to go to a Gym.

There isn't a lot I won't eat in terms of salad, fruit, fish etc if this ends up in my diet a lot. Oh and I like fresh coffee, in fact I have a percolator in my office, is this bad?


I realise that the above pretty much says cycle to work and eat salad with Tuna or Salmon, but I actually want to shed weight quicker if possible, and I don't know of any "tricks to doing it".

It's also worth pointing out I lost 2 Stone a few years ago through the Atkins diet, but I made me feel quite unhealthy with too much grease:(

For those of you I've not met, I'm mid 30's and around 5'11". Currently weighing around 14-15 Stone. Ideally I want to shed my gut, and get some definition in general. I'm at that size where I feel uncomfortable about myself :thumb::mad:

Cheers Rob

Wait for Mattyboy to reply :thumb:

I was in a similar situation to you last year so I bought myself a Garmin Forerunner with the HRM some decent running trainers and the foot pod to go with it and then used the training plans on Garmin Connect to shed just short of 2 stone.

Now I've given up the running since it did it's job and hitting the weights in the gym (I hate running but it serves it's purpose, prefer hitting the iron).

Diet wise I found running 3-4 times a week with one long run on Sunday I could literally eat anything and I still lost weight.

Check out bodybuilding.com its got loads of steroid looking dudes that put you off but the diet and nutrition stuff is excellent, I keep myself pretty fit going to the gym 4-5 times a week just dont be sucked in to all these supplements stuff and magic pills, diet and hard work is all you need, if your looking to lose weight I would say do weights first and keep pretty low weights with high reps and try and do 30 mins cardio perhaps 20 mins running and 10 mins on the bike

I would argue forget lifting weights altogether and concentrate on cardio of moderate intensity to 80% of your max if your goal is to lose body fat. Don't do too high an intensity as you'll just knacker yourself out too quickly before the end of your gym session, plus you still need to work the rest of your day. You need to be doing sustained fat burning exercises and don't make the mistake of jumping on lots of different machines, stick with one or two in the gym such as the treadmill or cross trainer. Don't train everyday either as you'll just over train yourself as your body needs time to recover, every other day should be about right since you'll also be riding to work everyday. There are no "tricks" to weight loss just hard work. No need to go wild on the diet front either, just have a balanced diet but keep and eye your calorie intake, excess intake will just result in more being stored as fat in your body if you don't burn it off. The definition will come with the fat loss.

Rob sent you a couple of links mate which will help, as a few of my training mates always go on 2 month benders around Xmas period then train/eat right for our Tough Mudder etc events taking part in throughout the year :thumb:

Your actual weight isn't that bad considering height ratio........is it the beer belly syndrome :)

All these hours your doing, must be that badge again for me :notworthy

During the winter when I don't get out on my bike much I use a turbo trainer in the garage. I've downloaded a couple of good spinning videos, way cheaper than a gym membership :thumb:
Also, I find it more convenient to pop into the garage whenever it suits rather than making the time to drive to the gym.

Cutting back on alcohol and eating sensibly coupled with the spinning I've lost over a stone since late January. I don't buy into the crash diet route as most are probably unsustainable.

Lifting weights will in fact retain muscle tissue and force the body to utilise fat. Remember the old adage 'use it or lose it'. A balanced routine incorporating weight training and cardiovascular exercise will yield better results. Using HIIT methods will also accelerate metabolic rate and keep it elevated long after the exercise.

Food wise keep it simple, smaller more frequent meals during the day. Moderate in carb and protein and low in fat. Forget high protein zero carb fad bollox. It's expensive, unhealthy and difficult to maintain. You should neither feel overly full or ravenously hungry. Both states are counter productive when it comes to weight/fat loss.

Lastly adopt a regime/lifestyle that you can maintain indefinitely. Too many people start an exercise program with a hung ho attitude, fully committed and enthusiastic initially. However the desire and will soon wanes and within weeks they conclude it's too hard, life's too short blah blah.


It's not rocket science. If your goal is to be healthy just eat less and do more. Avoid processed crap. Go back to nature. Anything off a tree, out of the ground or organic is good. Tin, packet or box usually means not so good. If your goal is altering body shape then refine diet and exercise accordingly. Find what works for you, experiment with different routines. We are all individual and what works for x won't work for y. Forget fad supplements, basic is usually best. Good luck mate :thumb:

:lol1::lol1:

I'm well into fitness but I admit that weight loss isn't my area of knowledge.

To the OP - I'd concentrate on the cycling (try ten mile rides to burn a bit more off); the gym is good for building muscle but gym cardio machines are soul sapping tools of evil.

This. ^

End of.

Losing fat 101 by Saxo Boy.

Rule 1. Nutrition is the most important thing
Rule 2. Lifting weight is the next most important thing
Rule 3. Cardio can help, but you can completely do without it if you do 1 and 2 correctly.

Most people know what needs to be done with Rule 2 or 3. You either lift weight 3x a week until failure or your run/swim/cycle 3x a week until you are breathing out your arse.

Rule 1 is where everybody - myself included - f**ks up. I've lost 2.5st in the last 8 months and I achieved it by pretty much starving myself during the week. I have done and tried everything and progress has been slow, inconsistent and miserable. I have also lost a fair amount of muscle mass and stalled my metabolism.

Recently I did a lot of research and changed things up by eating clean and healthy. Here's the thing though, people (myself included) think that eating clean means being miserable. I cannot stress how good it can be? You can eat way, way, way more satiating foods than on any kind of 'diet' and, in fact, half your battle is finding a way to get the food down you. Right now I'm on about 800 calories for the day, 43% of which has come from protein (81g). It's 15:30 and I'm rammed full but know that I have to head down and find a way to eat in order to hit my protein and calorie targets for the day. This is what I've had so far (remember it's a Sat so I was up later; I'd usually have another meal in by now):

Breakfast
125g low fat Greek Yoghurt
35g no added sugar Alpen
1/2 Banana

Lunch
1 whole egg & 4 egg whites (more like 1.5/3.5) scramble with splash of skimmed milk and seasoned to taste
1 slice wholemeal toast

Snacks
200ml skimmed milk with 25g Whey Protein (shake)
100g cottage cheese (straight up, love this stuff!)

That is a LOT of food and it keeps me nice and full. Tonight I plan to have chicken fajita's on two wholemeal wraps with lots of onion, peppers, lettuce, 50% fat cheese and some greek yoghurt in place of sour cream. I'll still have to eat more than this to hit my targets.

I cannot stress how good it is to eat clean and to be full than to try and starve yourself or follow a fad diet. There are plenty of tasty options if you do a little research.

The key to eating a clean cutting diet is to identify what your body needs and ensure you get it from your diet. I have around 150lb of lean mass meaning that I need around 150g of protein a day. This needs to be spread fairly evenly throughout the day if possible. Once you know this, everything stems from there. Hitting my protein target is 600 calories and I have a further 1200 from carbs and fats.

The upshot of all this is that my body has all the protein it needs to maintain muscle mass and I'm operating off an overall calorie deficit. Under these conditions - when combined with some weight training - my body should have no need to cannibalise muscle tissue for the amino acids (protein) it needs or for energy. Instead, given the calorie deficit, it will turn to my fat stores and use those. My body is happy to do this because it's getting all the macro-nutrients, vitamins, minerals, etc that it needs from my diet and doesn't detect a possible starvation or famine. It simply needs a little more calorific energy for the day and it takes it from the batteries (fat).

This is the healthy way to lose fat (note, not weight as this can be misleading if you are dropping muscle mass) and it is way, way easier and tastier than any diet I have ever been on.

Building muscle obviously ensures you're burning some calories just sitting watching tv since muscle itself requires nutrition just to exist. Also running / cardio by itself will consume everything fat and muscle making you look like some kind of zombie / sickly child. Without doubt it is highly recommended to hit both the weights and cardio, I got so many comments that I was going to disappear soon when I was running alone that I felt it just wasn't healthy by itself (for a guy) besides that having weight lifted for close to ten years before doing nothing and eating junk it was only a matter of time before I was back in the gym on the free weights it makes you feel great if you can get into a routine.

All this is great thanks, I see what your all saying although coming from different angles.

Food intake needs to be right for my build, ie enough protein for the muscles and yet not too much that you store fat. I like the idea of Saxo's diet for today, cheers for that.

Exercise is no trouble now I have a little more time on my hands now, but I suffer a little with the knees (3 operations following football Injury's) so running could be an issues, so I have opted for a bike.

I'll get down to my local gym on Tuesday (as I'm working 16 hours Monday) and get started. The Diet can also start Monday as I'm out tonight and it will likely get messy being a colleagues retirement meal.

Thanks everyone
Rob

Swimming is probably the best single form of exercise for your goals. Very good for cardio and getting some definition, especially in your upper body. And possibly most importantly for you, it won't destroy your knees

Know the feeling as I out working a lot now,used to be mad into fitness etc,was quite muscle/bulky once upon a time,now I just keep things maintained ;) .
As for supplements,some say don't bother as are waste of time,you'll get mixed answers on this,gone through quite a few different brands over the years,some more effective than others,and some were just bad,the cheaper brands either tasted foul or gave me a bloated stomach.
One of my Favorites is USN muscle fuel anabolic,I find it works good for me,but don't use it continuously as can be quite costly,but also to give my body a break from it.
One exercise equipment I take with me when working is the Bullworker,it might not look much to look at,but offers quite good resistance for a on the go workout,if you stuck at work and can't make the gym etc.
For cardio have you looked at the Shaun T insanity DVD set.
Take this workout in your own time and what you can comfortably cope with,because it will push you into a sweaty mess :lol1: ...

Supplements are, as the name suggests, a supplement to an otherwise sound diet. I haven't trained today but I had a protein shake as I knew I'd struggle to hit my 150g naturally in the time I had left in the day (long lie :D).

Right now I'm sitting on 1600 calories and 131g of protein. I'll probably hit about 1800-1900 calories for the day and 150g of protein before the night is out. However, the shake gave me a 25g boost that I may have struggled to otherwise achieve with my late start.

Anyone who thinks they can buy pills and shakes and solve all their problems is going about it the wrong way.

Another piece of advice is to try and taper your calories throughout the day. During the week I put down a 700 calorie breakfast at 7:30am and I'm absolutely stuffed at the end of it. Not only does this fire up my metabolism and fuel me for the day, but studies have shown that a hearty protein filled breakfast reduces the urge to overeat for the rest of the day. Get some slow acting carbs in there as well and you actually have to force yourself to have a small mid-morning meal/snack.

Rob, I wouldn't try to be too scientific As it becomes tedious. I lost 4stone a few years ago & went from obese to mega fit in 18 months. My two brothers who run several marathons a year were disgusted when I beat them both in a 10K run for a bet LOL. My secret is simplicity, gym 3 to 4 times a week for 1 hour, half hour cardio as in tread mill bike or cross trainer, & half hour weights, I also keep one session for purely cardio for a full hour.
Diet wise what works best is cutting out all junk food & booze & eating loads of lean meat fresh veg salad & fruit. I keep carbs fairly low but do not exclude them just be sensible. I also give myself a binge day every week where I eat & drink anything I want. Counting calories can work for some but if you eat healthy you won't need to. In short concentrate on fitness & strength & eat a common sense healthy diet, it's simple if you stick to the basics.

I can't stress this enough.

March is usually the time when all the folk that aimed to get fit/lose weight for a new years resolutions in January give up.

This is not a 3 month affair, nor a 12month one. It HAS to be something you can keep on top for the rest of your life. Otherwise there's no point - you'll just go back to square one

Just to chip in, you need to be a bit careful on the high protein intake. If you watched the Horizon program on the 5:2 diet, you would have seen that the protein intake is responsible for stimulating IGF production which is a marker for cancer risk. By having 2 days a week of low calorific intake it suppresses this IGF rise. Also there was a study out within the last fortnight saying something similar http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s...s-smoking.html

If you're getting a bike to commute then once you have got use to cycling, should take a few weeks. Then use your free hour to extend cycling time. Watch your diet and volume of food.

Just before going to bed do press ups and squats.

I have gone from 10 miles on an exercise bike to 90+miles on a road bike in just over a year. Now regularly doing 150+miles a week and lost nearly 3 stone. Cardio is the way to go strength as a supplement workout.

Good advice. Counting calories and being zealous over macro nutrients can become a ball ache. As above keep it simple and let common sense prevail. Eating more than 500 calories in sitting in my opinion isn't advisable. Most people are unlikely to burn that amount off unless they're doing a lot of physical activity straight after. Furthermore you're likely to feel overly full if you're eating clean calories. It may work for some but wouldn't work for most.

Exercise wise I'd aim for at least an hour per session wether it be cardio or weights. After around half an hour of intense activity your body starts to utilise fat stores. Also a chemical change will boost metabolic and release endorphins. This is why ten minutes here and five minutes there aren't effective. Eat cleanly but allow the occasional treat. Do not snack and never go more than three or four hours without eating.

Rob, don't diet as if you get into exercising properly you won't need to, you appear to be a few stone over weight but its stamina and determination that will shift your weight. I would ride the bike to work and I would also start running as you don't see many fat runners ;)

Make sure you push yourself 6 times a week and you will be able to enjoy loosing weight and eating well. Best thing is get a calorie chart as you can then pick what is best to eat based on what you like.

When I was really serious about training I had loads of apples in the house as if I was hungry I would snack on one but don't forget sometimes being hungry just means you need something to drink so drink as much water as you can ;)

I didn't want to over complicate matters but I'd also consider intermittent fasting. One day a fortnight perhaps.

You can end up a bit obsessive.
Unless you're gonna be some kinda athlete;
Educate yourself, if not already, on what's healthy and how you can cut out/substitute the more sugary/high fat/high cal foods.
Reduce calories.
Throw some exercise in.

You'll lose weight.

With all due respect, your final statement is pretty misleading and is one of the key reasons we have an obesity epidemic.

Very few people understand a) how much calories are in food and b) how much cardio exercise they have to do to burn it. I've lost count of the amount of people I have seen tucking into a stuff crust pizza after 30 minutes on the treadmill thinking they have earned it. Congrats, including after-burn and excluding basal metabolic rate you maybe burned 400 calories. Your pizza has 2600 calories....do the math.

If you are capable to doing 150 miles a week you are no doubt fit and healthy and cardio keeps you nicely in balance. However, few people would get anywhere near this fitness and if they continue with bad diet habits will fall off the cardio wagon long before they do.

By far the most sustainable way to radically alter your body composition and shape is to build lean mass and cut fat. For that you have to get a little scientific (or naturally be a shrewd eater) with your diet and you have to overload your muscles with weight training.

Its suprising the calorific values of alot of food.

A large Mcdonalds meal deal on it own pretty much maxes out a WHOLE day's worth of intake (calorie wise). But thats Mc D's for you..you'd expect that.

But 30grams of Aldi Fruit and Fibre looks like nothing in a bowl yets its 112cals PLUS the milk which is 50cal per 100ml (semi skimmed). I can quite easily put 200grams of cereal into a bowl and wham..thats 750cals before the milk. Not good if your aiming for 1600cals daily intake.

Chocolate covered cookies...50cals a pop - you'd expect that (I've eaten a whole box to myself on the odd occasion. :o )

Tea? Milk? Two Sugars? That's also 50cals a pop.

Cereal can be killer if you don't watch your portions. Did anyone see Supersize vs Super-skinny the other week where a guy on it used to eat monster bowls of cereal that were 1000 calories a pop (granted, honey nut cornflakes with full fat milk). Mental.

Burning 1000 calories is a serious amount of work but putting 1000 in can be done in seconds.

People done realise how many calories are in things.
If it tastes good, there's a reason for that, it's usually sugar or fat which = calories.
Anything containing fat, oil, cream, butter, mayo, sugar etc is obviously gonna be higher cals than a lighter version.
Anything stodgy, starchy and filling will be full of carbs and therefore also be quite calorific. Rice and pasta are very deceiving.
Cereal is ridiculous. The bland, cardboardy tasting stuff, such as bran flakes or fruit and fibre are the 'better' ones, but even those aren't brilliant.
Fruit, the more watery the better, berries are pretty good too.
Banana are quite substantial and therefore 2.5 bananas = McDonald's hamburger.
But in the other hand, you can actually get a 6"subway for the same calories if you make the right choices.

Watch your diet and volume of food. You missed this sentence, which is probably the most important. Off for a cross country cycle now for a couple of hours where I will burn in excess of 2000 cals :)

Losing weight is easy, calorie control is the only sustainable way. Calories in less than calories out equals a weight loss, it really is as simple as that.

Dieting does not work, forget Atkins, low carb, low fat, weight watchers etc, they are not sustainable, great in the short term, you can lose a couple of stone by sticking rigorously to an Atkins low carb diet but it's impossible to sustain over the long term. The same with any diet.

Also in conjunction with this, so does continuous CV work at the gym, we all know that most people have great intentions and the gym lasts the same as the diet before we tear up our memberships and go back to our old habits.

So what's the answer? Keeping at a healthy weight is 80% diet 20% gym, if you don't like pounding the treadmill and cycling hundreds of miles, don't. You need something that you will sustain as a lifestyle change.

My advice is to get into weight training, not CV. CV is horrible for most, it's not enjoyable and it nackers your knees, back and you lose muscle mass. Instead of CV work and getting your heartbeat upto 90% of its max, do it the other way and start hitting the dumbells and freeweights. Do you have a garage that you can put a weight bench in? Start here, not on the treadmill. Why? You're robbing Peter to pay Paul with CV, you will lose muscle along with fat.

You want to be aiming for no more than 1.5-2lbs per week, anymore and you're doing it wrong, your body is not getting the nutrition it needs. It needs to be a slow change, not a fast one. 1.5lbs a week times 20 wks and that's 30lbs down. That's what you should be aiming for.

The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you can consume and subsequently burn. Remember the 80/20 rule. Majority of it is what you eat.

Okay now to the diet part, you've probably heard of low GI and high GI foods, this is what you need to concentrate on. I bet on your diet at the moment, you feel tired, no energy, not alert, always craving more sugary food, never ending cycle. This is due to a dependence on sugar. Look at the carb contents of food and if both carb and carbs which sugars are close to one another, it's a high GI food. Something that has 20g of carbs and 19g of that sugars. That is bad (unless you're going for a workout) If you read 20g of carb of which 3g sugars, this is a lower GI food and is good. Will keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Stay away from high GI foods that are going to spike your blood sugar, increase your insulin and make you feel even hungrier than you were before. It's a vicious cycle, it's sugar to blame, not fat, sugar. Hungry, you eat a mars bar and a pack of crisps to satisfy that hunger, you feel great for all of half an hour and then bang, insulin kicks in to combat the sugars you've just put in your body then a big low. You want more, you feel tired, you reach for another sugary food. Vicious cycle continues. You need to first break that.

You need to eat 5-6x a day, your 3 main meals plus 2-3 snacks. You need to do this to keep your metabolism up and running, you should never feel hungry.

Protein, that's the key, download my fitness pal app and input your food for a week to see what your macros are. You want to be aiming for about 40/30/30 split (Protein/Carbs/Fat)
The app works this out for you. If you have this balance you will feel on top of the world. You will have energy, you will sleep better, you'll feel more alert, you won't be hungry.

When you're lifting weights, you want to be getting about 2g of protein for every 1kg of body weight, so 80kg = 160g Protein. This will help maintain and build your muscle mass.

Start off by visiting the website my protein. Buy a pouch of True Whey protein (choc orange is very nice) and use this as a breakfast and lunch replacement with semi skimmed milk. In the snack between breakfast and lunch, eat a chocolate protein bar about 1030am. For afternoon snack about 1500, eat some chicken strips and then for evening meal, eat something healthy, spicy chicken, brown rice, etc

For you, you want to be eating around 1600-1750 cals a day in order to lose weight but maintain/build muscle. Protein is your key, keep to the 2g per kg and you will keep and build muscle. On your gym days, up this to about 2000cals by guzzling down the extra calories. Also, you want to be doing no more than 3-4 workouts a week, never train the same muscle group two days in a row.

Don't diet, don't join the gym, don't cut foods, do any of them and you are going to fail. A new way of eating and training is required. Sure, you can still have the odd kebab, pint of beer etc, you need too, otherwise you will fail. Diets do not work and if you're not a CV man (hate running) do not follow a CV style exercise regime. There are so many benefits to lifting weights and following a 40/30/30 macro program for your calories.

My plan works and it's sustainable. I do not see it as a diet, all you need to do is get familiar with a dumbell and start taking onboard a bit more protein.

Follow that above and I guarantee you will see a massive change in yourself.