*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

What?! Green veggies rock! Kale, broccoli, spinach, rocket, et al. are absolutely delicious! Other green veggies are also great, like mange tout, sugar snap peas, peas, courgettes, cucumber (though technically a fruit).

Don't buy frozen, and steam them for best flavour and to get the best nutrition out of them. Green leafy veggies can be eaten raw. I get through 2 big packs of spinach a week easily. I also love beetroot and sweetcorn, but there are a plethora of fruits and veg out there - I don't believe there's stuff around that people don't like.

Chris, your diet needs a lot of work dude. You need a better breakfast, and a more balance but varied diet. Diet is 80% of the effort required to live a healthier lifestyle - everything else comes hand in hand after that (fat loss, muscle gain etc...).

Keep away from sugary drinks and fizzy drinks. The initial weight loss is always faster owing to the change in lifestyle, 8lbs in a month is a lot to lose, so I'd aim at keeping it at that rate. You need to increase the antioxidants in your body (i.e. increase fruit and veg), keep your meat intake to lean meats, reduce simple carbs (even a wholemeal baguette isn't ideal - unless you take most of the soft part out). By not eating enough your body will actually hold onto fat more as well. Ensure you're getting a decent amount of oily fish in, sardines, mackrell etc... for the fish oils are hugely beneficial.

However, you should be proud. You're doing osmething about your lifestyle, you're changing your life around and that can only be praised. Just keep it up, you're on the right track. :)
 
Freefaller said:
What?! Green veggies rock! Kale, broccoli, spinach, rocket, et al. are absolutely delicious! Other green veggies are also great, like mange tout, sugar snap peas, peas, courgettes, cucumber (though technically a fruit).

Don't buy frozen, and steam them for best flavour and to get the best nutrition out of them. Green leafy veggies can be eaten raw. I get through 2 big packs of spinach a week easily. I also love beetroot and sweetcorn, but there are a plethora of fruits and veg out there - I don't believe there's stuff around that people don't like.

Chris, your diet needs a lot of work dude. You need a better breakfast, and a more balance but varied diet. Diet is 80% of the effort required to live a healthier lifestyle - everything else comes hand in hand after that (fat loss, muscle gain etc...).

Keep away from sugary drinks and fizzy drinks. The initial weight loss is always faster owing to the change in lifestyle, 8lbs in a month is a lot to lose, so I'd aim at keeping it at that rate. You need to increase the antioxidants in your body (i.e. increase fruit and veg), keep your meat intake to lean meats, reduce simple carbs (even a wholemeal baguette isn't ideal - unless you take most of the soft part out). By not eating enough your body will actually hold onto fat more as well. Ensure you're getting a decent amount of oily fish in, sardines, mackrell etc... for the fish oils are hugely beneficial.

However, you should be proud. You're doing osmething about your lifestyle, you're changing your life around and that can only be praised. Just keep it up, you're on the right track. :)
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OK then, some small changes I'm gonna try then.....

Adding some veg with my chicken, finally eating breakfast everyday and swapping out my lunch kit kat. The caterer's dont have a great selection of stuff and I'd like to stick to them because its free! Quite a few 'natural' things that look like tracker bars so I'll have a look at these, or some 'very low fat' yoghurt.
I could start having a Salad at lunch instead, but the wholemeal bread does a great job of filling me up for the afternoon so I'm hesitant to drop it yet.
Oh try and get in at least one fish meal a week aswell. This is something I've never regularly eaten so might take a while getting into this, is mackerel any good? Love that stuff.

Cheers for the help so far guys, I fancy trying to get my cals up closer to 2000 and increase protein % aswell.
 
Mackerel is gorgeous (IMO). Love the smoked stuff. It's full of good fats and oils and protein. :)

Carbs fill you up short term, but protein will actually (should) make you feel fuller for longer.

2000 cals would be a good minimum but I don't know what your RMR or BMR is so it's hard to tell.

Salads can a bit boring for lunch, but you can make them more interesting, by doing it yourself.

Red onions
Spinach
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Cress
Boiled eggs (2 or 3)
Tinned Tuna
Roasted Pine kernels
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Just an example. It doesn't have to contain all of that, but it's bloody healthy, and delicious! You get protein from the eggs and tuna, you get the ruffage and anti o's from the tomatoes and green leafy veg. Good fats from the olive oil and pine kernels, and little carbs. You will undoubtedly feel hungry after a couple of hours - so bring in some sensible snacks, like hummous and some wholemeal pitta or carrots/celery.

Make some cous cous or bulgar wheat to add to your salad if you want a bit of carbs. Or bring in some egg noodles. Or make some wild/long grain rice and throw it in with the salad if you want.

There's so much variety that can be done. I spend a little time in the evenings making healthy snacks for the day, but happy to pay the local cafe for some good wholesome food (I'm not on the same plan as you!). It does require time - and you've started to do a good job, you're making the first steps, that's the hardest part - the rest should be relatively straight forward, but still needs effort. :)
 
Chris1712 said:
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Take a look at the high fat diet if your aim is to lose weight, far more effective than carbs. A lot of people will say you need carbs, but the truth is you dont need very much, fruits and veg will provide plenty of it. Your body is designed to run off high protein and fats, not todays carbs which are calorie dense, but lack nutrients, argricultural farming hasnt been around anywhere near long enough for our bodies to adapt.

Start by setting a calorie target, then slowly take out carbs from each meal until you end up with under 50g.
 
Agreed 100%. Though there are still some carbs out there which aren't bad - but minimising carbs is definitely the way to go, however, it's hard as hell, but once you've got used to it it's not bad.
 
What kinds of foods would be used on a high fat diet? I know where to find protein and carbs. I'm more interested in the fats and in which foods they can be found. I struggle to get a variety of fats into my diet.
 
Benny06 said:
What kinds of foods would be used on a high fat diet? I know where to find protein and carbs. I'm more interested in the fats and in which foods they can be found. I struggle to get a variety of fats into my diet.
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Things like olive oil, lard, beef mince(not lean mince), lamb mince, eggs, omega 3 tabs, cheese, double cream, yoghurt, salmon/haddock, all red meats and pork, flax seeds/almonds/walnuts.

Minced beef is brilliant, can get a good 800g for about 3 quid. Major amount of protein and fat, chuck some cheese ontop, mushrooms/onions/spinach/tomatoes and some olive oil. Have this neearly everyday! Easy, fairly cheap and tastes lovely.!
 
Thanks for the replies.

I usually coat my chicken in olive oil before grilling it. Not a massive amount but it helps. Could it be put in scrambled eggs? I guess I could add butter, switch from skimmed to full fat. Cheese and yoghurt can easily be added in when the time comes. Not looking to change my diet just yet!

I love turkey mince! I usually throw some salt, peper & mixed herbs on it and roll it all around. Pack it down and cook it in slabs on the George Foreman :)
 
Freefaller said:
The high fat diet means good fats though, not things like chocolates, sugar and tubs of lard.
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Lard is great for cooking, best to be used over olive/vegetable/sunflower oil! Coconut oil is also another great addition to the high fat diet, whether that be putting it on food or cooking with.

Benny, its easiest just to put a bit of olive oil in anything, aslong as its possible, even in shakes. Such an easy way to get good cals in.
 
High fat me? WHAT? Fryup for breakfast, bacon sarnie for dinner, chicken leg, lamb. I'm not even training due to having a bad cold last week :p Seriously though if you burn it off quick enough and you can actually use your eyes and the mirror I don't worry about being too strict with it.
 
Problem with high fat diets are though they are not very alkaline as they rely heavily on animal proteins, which is fine, as you can't beat a steak. However it's best to balance over all. I don't think a particular "type" of diet is any worse than any other, you have to forge it around your lifestyle and your training goals. I get about 250g of carbs a day and it's ideally suited for me, I train regularly and hard, it's nice to have the energy and glycogen available more readily. It's not for everyone of course. :) Furthermore carbs post work out are IME and IMO absolutely vital, as it creates a bigger insulin spike, which in turn speeds up the uptake of glucose and amino acids to the muscle cells - therefore promoting glycogen and more importantly protein synthesis, and rather crucially blunts the production of cortisol, as this suppresses protein synthesis and causes catabolism. Therefore muscle tissue growth is more efficient and glycogen refuelling is faster. Heck, higher levels of test and other anabolic hormones can be but a good thing right? I want to ensure I get all the nutrition to my cells ASAP.

So whilst the facts of high fat diets is absolutely spot on and isn't going to cause bad cholesterol and can even reduce triglycerides in your body, I'd still advocate a well balanced diet with low gi carbs.
 
I don't know how to explain it, but how does one increase the 'thickness' of their biceps, if you know what I mean? If you look at me from the side, then you can tell they're growing outwards, but from the front, they look thin. :confused:
 
G-MAN its genetics and theres not much you can do except getting bigger overall. Trying to use different exercises to "shape" muscles is really a waste of time (unless you are a pro of sorts).

I have fairly long, thin muscles so my arms never really look impressive, but the more mass you pack on the more they will fill out.
 
If any of you are interested there is quite an active group on FaceBook called British Gym Rats which would be helpful for many of your queries.
There is also an online forum which is being set-up for the group at www.BritishGymRats.co.uk but this isn't as active as the group on FaceBook yet.
I hope whoever joins finds out some useful information which will help them in reaching their goals.
Cheers
 
I'm finding high cable curls to be working quite well for the 'peak'. I've always had a reasonably good peak even though photo's on here don't convey it well! I also find high cable curls will highlight which one of your biceps is the weaker too.
 
PAz said:
G-MAN its genetics and theres not much you can do except getting bigger overall. Trying to use different exercises to "shape" muscles is really a waste of time (unless you are a pro of sorts).

I have fairly long, thin muscles so my arms never really look impressive, but the more mass you pack on the more they will fill out.
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What with a vial of "tanning oil"? haha. I pretty much agree with Paz, you can create the illusion of muscle shaping by enlarging surrounding muscles/ over stimulating particular heads etc but in the end as with anything it comes down to genetics mostly.
 
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