My current diet

[opethdisciple]

Current diet, lose fat and get some muscle

I need some help on my diet.

I am trying to both gain muscle and lose my fat which I hold on my stomach.

I am 5'8 and weigh about 70kg.

I dont currently eat anything after weights, untill I get home usually (30mins later)

What my diet is currently during the week:


Breakfast - 30g Whey power/cup of milk, banana & 2 brown toast with honey and butter

(two cups of coffee between)

Lunch (weights day): Rice, beef or chicken and some salad.
Lunch (non weights day): I get a sandwich from the sandwich shop. (tuna, chicken, ham) bap with salad and mayo.

Dinner: Potatoes, veg and chicken/beef/fish.

Tea and water afterwards

After dinner for my sweet tooth, I will eat some dried fruits and maybe a 0% fat yogurt

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On weekends my diet is even less strict.

Saturday:

Breakfast - 30g Whey power/cup of milk, banana & 2 brown toast with honey and butter

Dinner - (really what ever mum cooks up) could be steak or something less ideal like fried pepper with meat and rice, chips, fried egg and salad (what I had this Sat, and was moaning to my mum!)


After dinner for my sweet tooth, I will eat some dried fruits and maybe a 0% fat yogurt


Tea and water afterwards

Sunday.

Breakfast - 30g Whey power/cup of milk, banana & 2 brown toast with honey and butter

Dinner: Sunday Roast.

After dinner for my sweet tooth, I will eat some dried fruits and maybe a 0% fat yogurt


Tea and water afterwards

 

[opethdisciple]

The only consolation at the moment, is that I am making some progress.

Getting stronger and slight* changes happening to upper body.

I'm very arware that I do not consuming no where near enough protein.

 

[opethdisciple]

Ok, well thank you all for the comments.

I was speaking to a freind yesterday and he made a valid point, I said to him that I was making progress, so the diet is 'adequate' or the time being, he said, well I was much like you, but then I thought to my self I spend all this time and effort and then I dont eat properly, Im not gettting the most out of my workouts.

I probably do need to take more responsibilty for what I eat.

At the moment, living at home, mum kindly does the cooking for me, but then even if I tell her what I want, eventually over time she goes back to chips and cheesy lasagna!

I'm a bit weary upping my calorie and food intake, becuase I get fat easy and have a hard time shifting it.

Is there a way I can met in the middle?

I can see two things with my current diet which are a problem:

1. No where near enough protein during the week and my lunch is rubbish!
2. My weekend diet is very poor as well, I just basically eat breakfst and then dinner and go out for the evening.

You guys are right, I am basically very low muscle mass, but hold my fat aound my waist. It's basically a mediterranean spread so it's genetic as much as environmental.

So far I am back in the gym for 5 weeks and things are going well. The first 4 week I think was my body adapting to doing excersise again, this week is the first week that things feel different. Like I want to test my strength with increased weights...

This is week 6.

First question I need to know is how much protein do I need to consume a day? Whats a realistic amount I need to grow?

The problem I have is I easily feel bloated and fat. I have tried 3 eggs in the morning but just felt like a fat bugger, thats why I went with the whey, smaller quantity to consume.


If I was to change it up for example:

Mon – Friday

Breakfast: Poridge with water, mix my 30g whey powder and a banana.

Lunch: I could go get a salad from M&S and get a chicken breast or can of tuna.

Pre gym: Here I need some help! No carbs at lunch means I need something to fuel my weight session. (I could easily fall in to the trap of just bread and a chicken breast)

Dinner: Brown rice or sweet potatoe, salad or veg and a source of lean protein.


Still feel a little lost, especially Lunch and pre gym. Dont know if I have to limit carbs, or what...

 

[opethdisciple]

I am going to say this one last time.

Thats what I have been doing so far. But it is also another oppurtunity to get in another portion of protein.

 

[opethdisciple]

This is my current routine:

Tuesday
Bench Press 5x5
Incline DB bench 3x8
DB Fly 3x12
Barbel Curls 3x10
Plank
Crunches

Thursday
Pull Up's 5x5
DB row 4x10
Dips 3x10
Face pulls 3x10
Leg Raises 3x10
Crunches


Sat
Leg Press 3 drop sets
Military Press 5x5
Step Up's 3x10
Lateral raises 3x10
Rear delt fly 3x10
Calv Raises
Pallof press 3x10
Crunches 30

And I have been a naughty boy withthe swimming in between. Last week wasnt feeling well so that was excusable, but today was a swim sesison, and legs where sore from Sat so skipped swimming...

 

[opethdisciple]

There are a lot of bodybuilding exercises in there that won't make an enormous difference to somebody like you, such as flys, lateral raises and calf presses.

Do dead lifts, squats, and more squats and you'll do a lot better. And ditch crunches for more planks.

I have bad knees. Cant do squats and deads etc... I'm lucky to be even able to leg press.

 

[opethdisciple]

I believe he has something physically wrong with his kness. He'll be able to elaborate further

Yes my knees are what the french would say le £u*ked!

The biggest problem is that I have damaged the cartalidge behind my knee cap in my right knee.

The last time I squatted it made it worse. Leg press seems to allow me to work the quads with out the pressure on the knee joint. Specifially the tibia pushing against the back of the knee cap.

If I'm honest I am basically in the process of holding out for as long as I possibly can before I finally cant take it any more and go in for a partial knee replacement.

Which at the age of 31, is not something I should have to consider. Doctors cant tell me how quick cartalidge will erode. Could be one year, could be 5 could be more...

At the moment I'm taking chondrotin, glucosamine and msm supplements, but they dont seem to do anything.

 

[opethdisciple]

Fat probably will be, but it shouldn't be large amounts, enough to counteract.

That ghandi type physique is a pretty bad one, but should respond pretty quickly to muscle building routines because there's so little in the way of muscle in the first place. Small changes with people who have low muscle mass will be quite noticeable.

Im not ghandi, becuase he was lean! I just dont have much strengh and carry genetic fat around my stomach.

At the moment, I think my aim is muscle over fat. Becuase from an aesthetic perspective, I would look much better witrh more muscle underneath the fat I have, than less fat on top of the small muscle I don't have.

 

[opethdisciple]

*Sigh* As with the last time we discussed this (with more detail), I leave your exercise routine here.

I'm not going to turn this into a medical thread by wondering what advice you've been given, but I would strongly recommend going to see a specialist physio that has dealt with sporting injuries as they will be able to help you much more than any doctor will.

Good luck.

Probably right yea. But the hospital I was treated at is the best 'NHS' hospital in London for Orthopedic issues.

 

[opethdisciple]

Honestly cant say I have made too much progress over the last 6 weeks.

I know my diet is crap, but dont know how much I need to eat etc....

Also is my routine fine? as in is it enough to promote growth, or is the reason why I havent progressed much in the last 6 weeks becuase my diet sucks?

 

[opethdisciple]

There are a lot of bodybuilding exercises in there that won't make an enormous difference to somebody like you, such as flys, lateral raises and calf presses.

Do dead lifts, squats, and more squats and you'll do a lot better. And ditch crunches for more planks.

Lookiong at the routine, what should I add or change around?

Can we just overlook the squats and deads please. I really cant do them. I hurt myself when I last tried squats, and even one of my surgeon/consultants has told me to forget about squating ever again.

The problem is not the fact I cant do them, it's the fact I have damaged the cartalidge behind my knee cap which the squats hurts!

I really have given it my best shot overthe last 6 weeks since I came back... even when I was ill, I still went to the gym. But I dont know if I've made enough progress over the last 6 weeks.

The diet I will improve. Can someone tell me how much protein I need to aim for? I am 5'8 and weight 70kg.


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I think I'm going to give a Full Body workout a try again.

Bench Presses, OHP, Pull-Ups, Barbell Curls, Dips, Leg Raises, Leg Press, Calf Raises

Done twice a week. (three times I believe is too much and doesnt give enough rest time)

Need to sort out my diet tho as that is probably the key thing I'm missing.

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Might give this a go.

Which boils down to 3x a week 2x10 reps:

Bench Presses, OHP, Pull-Ups, Barbell Curls, Dips, Leg Raises, Leg Press, Calf Raises

 

[opethdisciple]

How does this look?


Training day

9am Breakfast:

3 eggs scrambled on two brown toast


(1-2 coffee's between)


2pm Lunch:

Pasta/rice with chicken breast tuna will try and add some veg here.


(Only drink water post lunch)


WEIGHTS 7pm


8.30pm Post workout Shake: 30g weigh powder.



Dinner 9pm:

Steak/chicken/turkey/fish with rice/potatoes/sweet potatoes with salad or veg.


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Is that enough protein? Do I need to add a few oats to my post workout weigh?

 

[opethdisciple]

you seem so pre-occupied with worrying about your protein levels you seem to be forgetting that you diet/workout needs to actually be good.

Im not pretending to be the master here (bc im not) but I really find it hard to believe that you can leg press but not squat.

you need to define progress aswell? are you looking at mass lost, or muscle gained? it has only been 6 weeks - but you should be 100% noticing at least an increase in weight for a lot of your excerises.
as above 2x10 reps - no idea where you got this from? 3x8 , 5x5 sounds more meaningful

Id also try and work out 4 times a week (you seem to say you want to go from 3 to 2 days? giving up already???!) - absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be doing this, your body is in its prime to grow and can handle the punishment of an extra workout day.

this might be picky, but how long do you spend in the gym? because from your times it seems its an hour and a half? Seems like a lot of time to churn through your exercises even with adequate rest.

Lots of waiting sometimes for the bar or the benchies etc...

Regarding the protein, I thought if I knew how much protein I should aim for I can structure the diet around this.

Ok, yea, I have knoticed a little bit of progress sure. Tonage and a small increase in lifting capacity.

 

[opethdisciple]

Just NO.

I have posted before: DITCH THE BODYBUILDING EXERCISES.

No calf raises, curls or leg raises.

Stick to a 3x8 regime of:

Monday:

- Leg press (3x8 working to 5x8 because this is a crud facsimile of a squat);
- OHP;
- Wide-grip chin ups;
- planks (3x3 for 30 seconds moving to a minute.

Wednesday:

- Reverse lunges (with dumbells);
- Dumbell row;
- Chest/dumbell press;
- side planks (3x3 for 30 seconds moving to a minute.

Friday:

- SLDL;
- Single arm dumbell press (seated);
- Pull-ups;
- Push-ups (with added weights);
- Reverse okanks (3x3 for 30 seconds moving to a minute.

The point of weights to trim fat is to make sure as many of the big muscles are working as possible. Calf raises, curlz, etc. exercise muscles that are comparatively small (gastrocnemius is reasonably big, but not like quads or glutes) and will not burn calories to the extent you want, and only tire you out for stuff that actually helps.

Stick to this program. Cut out the pasta/rice for lunch and go for quinoa or lentils, and drop one of the pieces of toast from your breakfast. Add in a handful of nuts (almonds/cashews/walnuts) with your lunch if you need.

And JUST DO IT.

Thank you this is much appreciated. I was thinking maybe the reason why I havent made as much progress as I would like is the fact I only trian each muscle once a week. Thats the impression I got from that HST article.

Feel a little lost at the moment to be honest.

I've tried FB before and well I alwasy found that I couldnt give 100% to later excersises because previous one knackered me out. But on the other hand you can work out eah muscle group at least twice a week.

The HST articel looks complex. I thought maybe the reason why doing a FB workout 3 times is possible, is becuase the sets per excersise was small 1-2. That makes sense to me.

I understand that there is way more to it than that, but like I said thats a lot of info to digest.

There are a few things I'm a bit concerned about here:

Monday all good.

Wed: Reverse lunges... my right knee is boshed. (Maybe I need to try with no weights at the beginning)

Friday: SLDL - So form dependant that in the past when I have tried doing them, I just felt like a plonker. Needs coaching.

How do you add weight to push ups? Wouldnt it be simpler to just do say incline dumbell press?


I'm quite a fan of dips by the way any chance of adding those in.

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The more I look at the routine you posted the more I like it.

 

[opethdisciple]

Ok so as I understand it the routine 'mrthingyx' posted is for burning calories rather than building muscle?

 

[opethdisciple]

I'll get some fresh pics up tonight if I can.

 

[opethdisciple]

I dont think I can find the older ones.

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I really want to get somewhere guys. Doing the gym etc is part of the person I want to be.

(Without blowing my own trumpet) I am on the chirps a lot these days so feeling good about my self is in line with the way I want to present my self to the girls.

So stay with me. The effort is there. I have been at the gym solid for the last 6 weeks. I did wobble a little, but I still went go through my doubts and then had some positive sessions.

I even trained a few weeks back when I wasnt feeling well. So the will power to do it is there.

I get dissolusioned easy if I feel like what I'm doing isnt going full steam in the right direction. I have no motivation if I think my routine isnt spot on. But once I'm comfortable with what I'm doing, then the motivation is there.

I'll get some pics up...

 

[opethdisciple]

Right are you ready to be astonished?

Spoiler

Feeling the power?

So the question is, what would you do with that body?

Build muscle or trim fat?

 

[opethdisciple]

This is your problem, and will undermine either approach if you don't stick fast to one.

You need to cut/trim fat for a couple of months, building your strength up, and then we can play with hyper trophy.

BUt you need to show some commitment: you've been posting on here for a number of months without any real direction in your diet or programme. Now I KNoW you've been given both in clear terms, so you need to get your head down and stick to both pretty tightly for the next couple of months. Do not come back here, posting that it's not working or whatever if you get silly with your diet or decide to change your programme yourself.

So go do it. And good luck.

1. How do I add weight to pushs ups? Instead, could I do dumbell chest presses, flat or incline?

2. Inbetween gym sessions, I should do some cardio right? As I have dodgy knees swimming is fine right?

3. I understand that what you have suggested is for burning calories, but I did Wed session on wednesday and it was super quick. Is that fine?

4. Leg Press. What I was doing before was dropsets. So I would do amrap at 90kg, amrap as 70kg and amrap at 50kg. etc... I found this pretty good actually.
Can I stick with this, or do you suggest sticking to 3x8-5x8?

5. SLDL - Can I do this using barbels instead of using olymipic bars?

6. I guess there is no point adding dips to the routine?

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Diet:

After dinner, I do tend to eat dried fruit (apricots, dates, figs) and maybe a few nuts, as well as a 0% fat yogurt.

Im guessing I need to stop this as well.

What about tea, with semi skimmed milk. this is fine right?

 

[opethdisciple]

Also, how did the planking go? This shouldn't be easy if you're not used to it, so I'm curious...

Core work is some of the most miserable stuff in the gym because so few people do it (it's about the bro-gainz, amirite?), and even fewer do it properly (ab rollaz, or that silly weeble wobble thing that chicks do because Davina has ripped obliques), so if 30 seconds is easy, then push it to a minute.

And the point of going to the gym to trim down isn't to spend ages in there: that's for cardio bunnies who don't want to look like men (because obviously, lifting weights turns girls into East German hammer throwers). The idea is to chivvy along a nice calorie deficit in line with a good diet. This will help you lose weight without becoming too miserable, or making your recovery between sessions intolerable.

However, if the session is too easy and you're not feeling tired, then you aren't working hard enough. Simple. So up the weights.

Regular planks is not a problem. I have been doing them for the last 6 weeks and before also. There are abs underneath the flab!! But the side planks where tough as never done those before.

You like your single arm stuff dont you. I have access to a gym by the way, not working from home.

So rather than pushups will do single arm chest press. But why single arm and not regular 2 arms chest press?

Also the Single arm dumbell press (seated) is this basically a one arm shoulder press? Any you tube videos showing correct form?

Also leg press I should be aiming for doing 5x8 sets?