New Job, Diet or Gym...

Sadgeek · 22 Jan 2006 at 14:30

Is my job slowly killing me? I’m not sure how accurate these electronic fat scales are, but mine thinks I’m about 27% fat which I can believe given the state of my body. It’s not all around my belly, but I expect the majority of it is. I know that there are deposits around my chest, so I guess the rest of my body has it too.

I’m 6ft 3, and weigh 14st 11lbs. My height means that I don’t look overweight, but the mirrors in the bedroom/bathroom show the truth. My weight is in all the wrong places.

Background

I think my problem is partly down to my job. I leave the house at 5:45/6:00am, and arrive in the office at about 8am. I’m then sat at my desk, or walking about the office until around 6pm, when I set off for home. Lunch is at my desk, and usually consists of a sandwich from the canteen or maybe some soup and a roll for dipping. I skip tea as I know I’ll get something at home.

Getting home at about 8pm, the last thing I want to do is go to the gym, even though I know it would do me some good. However, my wife usually has dinner ready for me.

I have just spent some money on Ebay though and got some weights and a bench etc so I try and get out to the garage if I can. Early days yet though, I’ve only had them for a week.

Now for the questions:

Is my job killing me, and part of sorting out my body should be to change jobs? Simple enough apart from there being a lack of opportunities down this far, and I would have to travel up to London. If it means a reduction in hours though, then it is a possibility.

To drive down my fat count:

Should I diet only until I get down to approx 20%?
Should I diet and do lots of weights?
Should I diet and do some cardio somehow?
Should I try and balance it, and do a diet along with weights and cardio if possible?

Thanks all

DanH84 · 22 Jan 2006 at 17:33

I'm sure other people will elaborate but here's a bit of advice.

I'd go for the balance, resistance training. cardio and dieting. You don't seem overweight for your height so you need to look at increasing or at least maintaining lbm while lowering bf.

I don't necessarily think you're eating enough, or rather often enough. Make sure you get a good breakfast and then have a snack mid morning (banana would be fine). lunch try and eat some tea because you'll be less hungry when the 8pm meal comes around. Eat sensibly and cleanly, there's no need to cut everything out but just ditch any rubbish.

If you have time problems with regard to going to the gym then you can exercise at home.

Bodyweight Squats.
Lunges
PushUps
Pull ups (requires a bar -they're easy enough to find)
Crunches.

That kind of thing should give you a decent work out. Remember that loads and loads of reps don't grow muscle you want to go heavy for limited reps/sets. If you need to increase weight fill a rucksack with something heavy and do the exercise with that on your back.

Cardio could be something as simple as a jog, or if you don't like that then buy a jump rope and learn to use it it'll be a great form of cardio for you.

Try and exercise 3-4 times a week.

red11 · 22 Jan 2006 at 18:43

What are your clear cut goals? Do you have an ideal target weight that you'll work to achieve?

Your diet is key here. I personally changed my diet to a healthy one before I started any sort of weights. It has worked for me so far, I just felt that I would let my body adjust to a new diet before hitting it with exercise and weights. There is a fantastic sticky at the top of the sports forum here that should point you in the right direction. It covers a wide range of topics concerned with bodybuilding and diet. So have a read

and work out what your goals are, whether they are long term or short term.

Sadgeek · 22 Jan 2006 at 20:54

Cheers guys.

A read of GordyR's sticky is useful, I guess I never quite got down to the lower reaches of it. Sorry.

I guess short term my target is to lower my body fat levels, though how much I should aim for on a weekly/monthly basis is another story. Any ideas on what I should be looking at for long-term success? Websites seem to suggest that 15-18% should be a good target, but is that realistic for 38 year old starting out with 27%?

The ketosis type diet sounds right for me, how long should you stay on this type of diet or is it more of a life-style change that you have to maintain until such time as you get down to the lower reaches of body fat? What are expected results of these diets on a weekly basis ie how much bf should I expect to lose?

Sorry for so many questions.

a1ex2001 · 23 Jan 2006 at 15:13

For me to put my life far enough on the back burner to be working the hours you do it would have to be paying me some serious money. Leaving the house before six and getting back at 8 is a sure fire way to kill yourself through bordom. work to live not the other way round. I would be looking to get a job a lot closer to home and working shorter hours. I work my contracted 37.5 hours a week and go for a nice walk at lunch time to ensure I don't spend all day staring at a computer!

Feel free to ignore me if your earning 50K plus a year and planning on retiring soon but other wise I'de be seriously re-assesing my priotities!

Sadgeek · 23 Jan 2006 at 16:13

Fair point A1ex, I'm certainly not on the salary you mention (though not far off), and can only wish to be able to retire soon

The job is interesting and far from boring, which means that the time flies by on the whole. Sure, it has it's off-days, but so does every job. I do enjoy the job though.

I'd like to think that the hours I have spent in the office have not been wasted and that I have benefited from them, but clearly if it has a serious effect on your health then I should re-consider. Trying to find the same sort of job down this way is not easy though, with 99.9% of the roles being based in, or around, London. Even those businesses with offices down here have their client base in London so then you lose out both ways as they only pay local rates, but still have to travel.

What I'm saying, really, is that I'm going to change my diet (and exercise levels) first and see how that goes. If I still continue to fall apart, then the job will need to be the next big change.

Youstolemyname · 23 Jan 2006 at 16:40

I can recommend 'the abs diet' by Mens Health. It is a really easy to follow plan, you don't starve yourself and you get to eat some great foods. It all revolves around cutting out the fat in your diet, eating a lot of protein and exercising 4-5 times a week. The excercise plan isn't a killer and you can do it whatever your fitness level.

I managed to shift my beer gut (admittedly took about 8 months though!) and feel a lot better for it.

hethers · 23 Jan 2006 at 17:41

From your description you appear not to have time to go to the gym, and even if you somehow mannaged to get there you'd probably fall asleep on the bike or fall off the running machine!

IMO a combination of diet/healthy eating whilst also making small changes to your life/work style to enable you to exercise more whilst working/playing will bring you the desiresd results.

2/3 months of a regime such as that will sort you out without costing a fortune or putting anymore strain on your available time. What's more you'll soon get to feel lots better with renewed energy levels.

My guess is that you really know what needs to be done