Looking for a bit of advice/confirmation

phonemonkey

phonemonkey

phonemonkey

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On the wagon
Hey guys,

I'm currently doing the couch to 10k plan (end of week 5 now) and compliment this by alternating it with a strength/core class every other day when working.

When not working I will do some strength/core stuff every day and either run or do a CV session later on in the day.

A typical day food wise would look like:

Breakfast - porridge with strawberry, raspberry and blueberry through it, a cup of tea and a glass of semi skimmed milk.

Snack - banana and protein shake

Lunch - cold meat salad with a bowel of soup

Snack - handful of seeds, and orange.

Dinner - mince and sweet potato mash with carrots, parsnip and neep.

Snake - protein shake and slice of whole meal toast with peanut butter.

I also drink 1.5l of water a day

I'm looking to lose weight, and develop some lean mass and muscle tone.

Any comments?
 
Regardless of what kind of food you eat, to lose weight: calories in < calories out. It's as "simple" as that. Everyone is different, so we can't just tell you to eat XXXX calories because someone's maintenance calories might be 1800, someone else might be 2200.

You can get a rough figure based on your height/weight/resting heart rate, but ideally if you want to figure it out properly you'll need to keep track of everything you eat for a few weeks, and weight yourself every week. Based on how much you've gained/lost you can figure out your maintenance because roughly speaking 3500 calories = 1lb. E.g If you ate +500 calories a day for a week, you'd gain 1lb. If you don't want to do it having to calculate everything (as it can get very tedious), then if you have a consistent meal plan just take note of what you're eating and the amount, and then as the weeks go by, just adjust the amounts you're eating depending on if you're gaining/losing/maintaining.
 
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Read the links in the OP of the GymRats thread, for a start.

Secondly, you will lose weight (combination of water and fat) which will make your muscles more defined (not toned, unless you are Davina McCall and know nothing about the body). You will find it very hard to nigh on impossible to gain lean mass on a calorie deficit, simply because your body is using everything it has just to stay functioning, not get huge.

Third good luck! I would personally do it without the cardio, but hey! :)
 
tom_e said:
That would have made much more sense.
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So would that! :D ;) <3

To be fair to the OP, protein shakes do serve the purpose of getting extra protein in without significant caloiies, even if he/she would be better off just eating more meat/soy/hemp/whatever.

Not bananas, however. ;) :D
 
So I'm not eating enough? I'm an exceedingly short guy at only 5ft and currently weigh about 64kgs.

Thanks for the replies so far guys, plenty of *ahem* food for thought
 
We're not mind readers, we have no idea if you're eating too much or too little because you don't provide any measurements.

edit: I don't mean to sound like a ****, it just happens.
 
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tom_e said:
We're not mind readers, we have no idea if you're eating too much or too little because you don't provide any measurements.

edit: I don't mean to sound like a ****, it just happens.
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My measurements? Or good portion size? See above for my measurements if that's what you're asking
 
In that case - using the example in the OP edited to add measurements

phonemonkey said:
Breakfast - porridge (150g) with strawberry, raspberry and blueberry through it (mixed up cup) a cup of tea and a glass of semi skimmed milk.

Snack - banana and protein shake

Lunch - cold meat (3 slices of cold roast beef) salad (3 handfuls of mixed leaves plus cucumber and pepper) with a bowel of soup (standard tin of soup)

Snack - handful of seeds, and orange.

Dinner - mince (200g)and sweet potato mash (1 medium potato) with carrots, parsnip and neep. (1/2 of each

Snake - protein shake and 1 slice of whole meal toast with peanut butter.

I also drink 1.5l of water a day

I'm looking to lose weight, and develop some lean mass and muscle tone.

Any comments?
Click to expand...
 
You can use a site like http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ to work out how many kcals you're eating, then you can work out how many you should be eating using a something like this http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/
You then want to be aiming for around a 500kcal a day deficit to get your weight loss going.

You will struggle to put on any noticeable lean mass while also losing weight, it can be done but it's slow hard work and best left till you know your body better.

Tone doesn't exist you just look better when you lose the podge.
 
So would you recommend running a calorie deficit as you describe above and losing the weight I need to lose, then increasing uptake to build muscle?
 
phonemonkey said:
So would you recommend running a calorie deficit as you describe above and losing the weight I need to lose, then increasing uptake to build muscle?
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It depends on how your body is at the moment, you may be better off adding some mass first so you don't just end up skinny fat.
 
Well I'm a fat knacker but I like cakes so I just keep on bulking! :D
Stick a photo up on here and people will let you know which way to go is best.
 
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