Advice for a big tall guy who wants to lose weight and build muscle

jon86 · 7 Dec 2011 at 00:49

Hi,

I am 6'4" and am overweight at 17 stone. I have set myself a goal to become a lot fitter, lose a good 4 stone and put on a fair bit of muscle by next summer. I am a member of a great Esporta gym and have just re-embarked on a 5-day a week gym routine.

When I am at the gym, I currently do about 20 minutes of intense (for me, at least) cardio on a cross-trainer (my cardio has to be low impact on my knees) and currently manage 3.1km in 17 minutes (incl 3 min cooldown) on level 12. I also spend about 45 mins doing a 3 day weight routine (arms, legs, abs and back).

I have just changed my diet a fair bit as well. I have porridge for breakfast, a banana at around 11am and two wraps with lots of deli meat and salad and a banana for lunch. For dinner, it varies but it generally contains a fair bit of protein (tuna, lean pork chops, chicken or beef) with lots of fresh vegetables (onion, mushrooms, leeks, peppers, broccoli, carrots, etc), some potato/pasta/rice and often some pulses like black eyed, haricot or broad beans. Sometimes I have a 120 cal yoghurt or low fat ice cream (120 kal) of some kind as a sweet dessert after my dinner.

I don't take any protein or any other supplements yet but I intend to. I imagine I should just go for MyProtein unflavoured Impact Whey with some Flavdrops and have a shake in the morning and one just after I finish my gym routine? What is the best flavour Flavdrops? I don't like artificial tasting flavours.

How does my gym routine sound? Is it a reasonable routine to follow? I have tried rowing but it wears me out too quickly and I feel sick after 5 minutes of it. Do you think I should do some sort of conditioning that I have read about on here?

How does my diet sound? I try and drink a lot of water during the day and have been cutting out a lot of sugary food and late night binges that I used to have.

Thank you all so much for all your help and advice,

Jon

jon86 · 7 Dec 2011 at 13:42

I'd never heard of Intermittent Fasting until today. Would you recommend following the Leangains 8/16 regime? I'm happy to not pack on so much muscle for the next few months if it means I can lose the body fat. Body fat depresses me much more than not having so much muscle.

jon86 · 8 Dec 2011 at 07:15

That's cool, thanks.

How do you eat the full daily calorie allowance in such a short space of time? Perhaps around 2000 calories (number to be more clearly determined) in just 4-6 hours?

Also, would you also take some amino acids before going to the gym?

Thanks again.

jon86 · 10 Dec 2011 at 06:27

I might try a 4 hours eating period but might make it 6 hours, depending on when I can actually eat and when I can go to the gym.

I am pretty busy most evenings and worry that I won't have enough time in the 'eating' period to actually eat some good food.

I finish work at 5pm and if I start eating at 3pm ('breakfast'), I'd only have 2 hours after work to eat a good meal and that would interfere with my gym time as I'm often out of the house from about 7-8pm most days. I can eat at my desk at work so maybe I can just be better prepared bringing in cooked food from home and eat my 'good meal' before 5pm. Would that be ill-advised?

When you learned to do IF, did you have any side-effects from constantly being hungry and the associated low blood sugar? If so, how did you overcome this? Does the hunger pangs and associated low blood sugar go away? I'm concerned that I might not be able to concentrate so well (at work) if I have low blood sugar? I've not fasted like this before.

mrthingyx said:
...
I'm not au fait with the Intermittent Fasting regime, but I must confess it sounds like misery on a plate (or not, as is the case). But that's only because I enjoy my food too much...
...

Haha, yes. It will definitely be hard work but I'm going to commit myself to it for a while and use it as a way to lose weight and retrain myself to eat less in general. I've got used to eating loads of food and can be a bit of a glutton at times. It will be good to train myself to not do that anymore. Cheaper on the wallet too.

jon86 · 12 Dec 2011 at 21:58

Mansize_tissue said:
What's unappealing about IF to you? I find it perfect. I get to eat everything I usually would, in the portions I usually would; except I skip a morning meal, which is great because I never have time to eat before work anyway.

Nothing is unappealing.

I tried it for the first time yesterday afternoon to today and it was not too hard. I fasted from 16:00 yesterday to 12:30 today when I ate a good 800 calorie lunch. I had some hunger pangs from around 9am but I understand that morning hunger pangs will disappear in a few days. I ate a good dinner at 18:00 that I estimate gave me around 1000 calories. I won't eat again until 12:30pm tomorrow.

Does that sound good?

jon86 · 13 Dec 2011 at 06:28

I have sometimes skipped breakfast before and didn't find it too hard. More time for bed, I say!

I read that the body will soon get used to not eating breakfast and I won't get the hunger pangs anymore.

jon86 · 14 Dec 2011 at 21:09

It's for a whole load of reasons. One is definitely to look better but I also just want to be fitter and have more stamina, being able to do things like run further without panting and gasping. I also want to curb my appetite and bring it under a bit more control (which I am already finding is starting to happen). I am focusing on diet and lifestyle changes and will get to my target weight before I start wanting to 'bulk up' a bit more.

jon86 · 14 Dec 2011 at 21:49

When the hunger pangs come, I just ignore them and drink water. The hunger goes away after a while. I thought I'd want to eat like a glutton when I did eat but surprisingly I don't. My body just says "cool, let's eat" and I can eat until I am satisfied and stop again. I really like that.