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Well, seeing as there's quite a few people on here who are quite into the whole fitness and losing weight thing, or are just getting into it, I thought I'd share my progress so far.
About 18months ago I started going the gym, wanting to get stronger etc. Began eating like a horse, not bothered about diet as long as I was getting plenty of protein and carbs and happy as long as each week the number on the scales got bigger
Seeing as I was always proper skinny, yet with a bit of a pie belly, as I trained this genetic trait didn't change, and although I got stronger and filled out, so did my belly
After about 12months, I realised something needed to be done. I'd gone from skinny with belly (11.5 stone or thereabouts) to roughly 14 stone...(6ft btw)
So, motivation pics taken, it was time to lose the gut!
Using a cyclical ketosis diet, which meant 6 days a week without carbs, hour of low intensity steady state cardio every day, except weight training days (weight training 3-4 times a week) Occasionally would manage cardio in the morning and weights in the evening.
The idea behind it, is to lose the fat, whilst keeping as much muscle gain as possible. Once carb stores are depleted, fat becomes the main source of fuel. Protein intake kept high to try keep off muscle catabolism.
Typical days food would be something like:
Breakfast: 5-6 eggs either scrambled or in an omlette, salmon and tomatoes.
Handful of nuts for snacking - brazils, almonds, wallnuts.
Lunch, either chicken salad (with a lot of chicken, splash of balsamic vinegar for dressing) or 3 tins of tuna with salad.
Protein shake after work.
Gym
evening meal
Chicken stir fry with steamed green veg - spinach, broccoli, green beans, sugar snap pea's etc
Or steak/fish/mince beef etc with the above side.
1 day a week would be a 'carb up' day, to replace glycogen in the muscles. I forgot to do this for the first couple of weeks, and it had a huge effect! No energy when weight training, lifts went right down.
On carb day (saturday) I'd have bowl of milk & oats, followed by the usual eggs.
Brown rice/pasta maybe, wholemeal pitta bread... it was usually quite varied but was always decent carbs, none of the simple carbs or starchy stuff.
So... fast foward about 4 months... Gone from about 188lbs down to 156 ish!
Had lost a bit of strength as my lifts had gone down, but not by to much. I then started a clean diet to try to put on lean mass.
This is pretty much where I'm up to now, 162lbs all my lifts are better than what I did previously, yet I'm 26 lbs lighter
Oh, the yellow head is a side effect of the diet
My problem is though, its taken ages just to put a few lbs on. Lifts are progressing ok, but progress is just slooooow, lol.
Diet these days is:
7.30am Breakfast - bowl of oats, 1/2 hour later protein shake with cocoa powder, cinamon & 1/2 banana (made with water)
10am: wholemeal pitta bread with chicken, cottage cheese, cucumber & either ham, or occasionally peanut butter.
midday ^^see above
3pm Same again.
430pm gym
6pm protein shake straight after (same as morning one)
7pm usually chicken stir fry with green beans, sugar snap peas etc
occasionally a bolognaise but instead of pasta have green beans & brocolli.
10pm shake before bed.
Gym routine is a typical 4 day split - legs, back & bi's, chest & tri's, shoulders done over 7 days. (ab work is just done at the end of whichever routine i manage to get done a bit quicker and have some energy left)
I do the big 3 (deads, bench, squats) religiously, lol. Bench is weak though, upper chest needs more development I feel.
Days in between I train MMA, BJJ and go climbing once a week - i consider those my cardio workouts, HATE doing cardio in the gym!
Any advice on how I should proceed from here? Am thinking I might try incorporating plyometrics into my routines, as strength gains from these translate well into the MMA side of things (so i've heard anyway)
About 18months ago I started going the gym, wanting to get stronger etc. Began eating like a horse, not bothered about diet as long as I was getting plenty of protein and carbs and happy as long as each week the number on the scales got bigger
Seeing as I was always proper skinny, yet with a bit of a pie belly, as I trained this genetic trait didn't change, and although I got stronger and filled out, so did my belly
After about 12months, I realised something needed to be done. I'd gone from skinny with belly (11.5 stone or thereabouts) to roughly 14 stone...(6ft btw)
So, motivation pics taken, it was time to lose the gut!
Using a cyclical ketosis diet, which meant 6 days a week without carbs, hour of low intensity steady state cardio every day, except weight training days (weight training 3-4 times a week) Occasionally would manage cardio in the morning and weights in the evening.
The idea behind it, is to lose the fat, whilst keeping as much muscle gain as possible. Once carb stores are depleted, fat becomes the main source of fuel. Protein intake kept high to try keep off muscle catabolism.
Typical days food would be something like:
Breakfast: 5-6 eggs either scrambled or in an omlette, salmon and tomatoes.
Handful of nuts for snacking - brazils, almonds, wallnuts.
Lunch, either chicken salad (with a lot of chicken, splash of balsamic vinegar for dressing) or 3 tins of tuna with salad.
Protein shake after work.
Gym
evening meal
Chicken stir fry with steamed green veg - spinach, broccoli, green beans, sugar snap pea's etc
Or steak/fish/mince beef etc with the above side.
1 day a week would be a 'carb up' day, to replace glycogen in the muscles. I forgot to do this for the first couple of weeks, and it had a huge effect! No energy when weight training, lifts went right down.
On carb day (saturday) I'd have bowl of milk & oats, followed by the usual eggs.
Brown rice/pasta maybe, wholemeal pitta bread... it was usually quite varied but was always decent carbs, none of the simple carbs or starchy stuff.
So... fast foward about 4 months... Gone from about 188lbs down to 156 ish!
Had lost a bit of strength as my lifts had gone down, but not by to much. I then started a clean diet to try to put on lean mass.
This is pretty much where I'm up to now, 162lbs all my lifts are better than what I did previously, yet I'm 26 lbs lighter
Oh, the yellow head is a side effect of the diet
My problem is though, its taken ages just to put a few lbs on. Lifts are progressing ok, but progress is just slooooow, lol.
Diet these days is:
7.30am Breakfast - bowl of oats, 1/2 hour later protein shake with cocoa powder, cinamon & 1/2 banana (made with water)
10am: wholemeal pitta bread with chicken, cottage cheese, cucumber & either ham, or occasionally peanut butter.
midday ^^see above
3pm Same again.
430pm gym
6pm protein shake straight after (same as morning one)
7pm usually chicken stir fry with green beans, sugar snap peas etc
occasionally a bolognaise but instead of pasta have green beans & brocolli.
10pm shake before bed.
Gym routine is a typical 4 day split - legs, back & bi's, chest & tri's, shoulders done over 7 days. (ab work is just done at the end of whichever routine i manage to get done a bit quicker and have some energy left)
I do the big 3 (deads, bench, squats) religiously, lol. Bench is weak though, upper chest needs more development I feel.
Days in between I train MMA, BJJ and go climbing once a week - i consider those my cardio workouts, HATE doing cardio in the gym!
Any advice on how I should proceed from here? Am thinking I might try incorporating plyometrics into my routines, as strength gains from these translate well into the MMA side of things (so i've heard anyway)
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