*** The 2011 Gym Rats Thread ***

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Ta Freefaller and UE for explaining things

Luckily I don't have many sweets / sugars / fizzy drinks etc, and don't actually drink that much alcohol...other than this Saturday...and Next Thursday - Sunday....But that's a holiday! ;)

Don't eat much bread...I tend to have Chicken Wraps of the whole wheat kind made by me...Normally contain a small amount of mayo, chicken breast (need to use more), and some green of some kind (basil / spinach / lettuce) and maybe some cheese. Don't eat much rice, so when I do i'll change that to brown rice.

Processed foods...hmm...We are pretty bad on this, primarily due to money constraints me and my partner have at the moment. However I need to work on it. I just find it hard NOT to have carbs in the evening...potatoes with my dinner for instance. :(
 
Thanks for the reply.

I love pasta and fresh bread :p - everything else seems possible to cut out in terms of carbs.
 
Change the pasta to wholemeal pasta, and try and make the sauce or accompaniment a bigger part of the dish than the actual pasta itself.

As for bread, fresh bread is ok within certain stipulations again, try making it yourself - a lot of the flours/yeasts/sugars that are used in supermarket bread (even the fresh stuff) is inferior, and used refined ingredients. White bread in particular is laced with sugars/low gi carbs and little fibre content.

For example, a lot of breads in the middle east use about 4 ingredients, and you can be sure that most of the ingredients aren't processed/refined - purely from the taste.
 
Delvis said:
Don't eat much rice, so when I do i'll change that to brown rice.

Processed foods...hmm...We are pretty bad on this, primarily due to money constraints me and my partner have at the moment. However I need to work on it. I just find it hard NOT to have carbs in the evening...potatoes with my dinner for instance. :(
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I found the evening meal the hardest one to change to low carb because I grew up on carb heavy meals (potatoes, pasta, rice etc) and your partner probably has. It helps if your partner is onboard with the low/no carb meals otherwise it can be a pain.

Anyway some of the things I have are:

chili, no rice, lots of mince
stews
casseroles
steaks with veg/salad
the fried breakfast dinner (a bit of a treat consisting of sausages, bacon, eggs, black pudding, mushrooms!)

I find you can generally get away with cheaper meats in stews because you cook it for such a long time.

It is more expensive to just meat based teas, especially if you're trying to gain weight as I am, because you basically have to double up on meat.
 
Freefaller, do you make your own bread? I fancy having a go, have you got any good recipes or will any google bread recipe do?

I rarely eat bread but we do have the occasional steak sandwich and we have drastically cut down the amount of premade/refined foods we eat, so making our own bread would be a good next step.
 
Since starting IF, I'm getting big thermogenic effects after anything I eat. After lunch I'm sat at work sweating and after dinner last night I had both my bedroom windows open and a fan going until about midnight! Dunno if/how its contributing to fat loss, I started IF 3 weeks back at 92.7, now waking up at 90.3. I've actually upped cals to about 2000 aswell (needed 1600-1800 to actually cut before) so somethings going right!
 
duvet77 said:
Freefaller, do you make your own bread? I fancy having a go, have you got any good recipes or will any google bread recipe do?

I rarely eat bread but we do have the occasional steak sandwich and we have drastically cut down the amount of premade/refined foods we eat, so making our own bread would be a good next step.
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I do but not often! There are some good recipes in the "La Cuisine" forum. :)


With regards to getting calories in, eat fats!

Fat = 9 cals per g
Carb = 4 cals per g
Protein = 4 cals per g

So you get more bang per buck. :)

For example a smoked mackerel fillet - I tend to have about 150-200g in the morning for brekkie (with a couple of eggs).

That (200g) equates to (without the eggs or anything else):

750cals
40g protein
3g carbs
3g of sugars
70g of Fats (20g sat, 15g mono, 35g poly)
11g omega 3
1g fibre
4g salt


Add the eggs and any other items for brekkie and you're nudging 1000cals for brekfast. without even going into double figures for carbs.

It's just an example, but calories are available out there, you just have to look into them.
 
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Freefaller said:
With regards to getting calories in, eat fats!

Fat = 8 cals per g
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Thanks; I'm pretty sure it's 9 cals though :)

I've started just having tablespoons of olive oil here and there to get my fats up, along with flax seeds, nuts, and PB. I'm not afraid of fat by any means.

I'll have a look for some bread recipes.
 
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Freefaller said:
As U_E said, ditch sugars and simple carbs. Try and keep any carbs to the morning, and fast your body from carbs for as long as you can. i.e. I don't have carbs from about 3-4pm to 630am the next day. Even during the day I tend to have under 150g (or even less than that) of carbs (which isn't a lot - it's only 600 cals). On weekends, I have as many carbs as I want without sacrificing protein and fat ingestion, and they will be good quality carbs. Once your body's sensitivity is improved you can then go back to a more "regular" number of carbs - but I tend to eat them if I'm going ot be very active, or if I need energy. I don't eat carbs at night else I burn up in bed, but in the winter, I load up on carbs and I'm toasty warm, wandering around in shorts. It also improves your body's comportment to other stimuli, like, alcohol, and illnesses too.

Start off by sacrificing, sugar, sweets, fizzy drinks, alcohol (only for a bit don't worry), white rice, simple carbs in general, processed foods, breads. It sounds really horrid, and it's bloody hard work initially, but long term you will start to reap the benefits.

Once you get your insulin response back up you're ability to react to carbs will improve - that reaction will help with fat burning rather than fat storage. Insulin is a shuttling hormone for moving nutrients around your body, but also a storage hormone, and just loves to store fats away. If you don't give it the opportunity to, it is force to shuttle the fats to aid with energy production.
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So you need to do is cut out:

Sugar, sweets, fizzy drinks, alcohol, white rice, simple carbs in general, processed foods, breads?

How long for? I'm interested in this, I'm trying to put on some muscle but lose my belly at the same time which is hard to do. Right now my weight very stable and has been for a month. Although my muscle mass has increased I don't think I've actually lost any fat which is confusing..

Is there some kind of guide or website where I can find more information about this (what do I google :p) ? Specifically what foods are good and bad to eat? Cheers
 
The longer you cut them out the more impact it'll have. You can still have them in your life, but on a decreased amount. It just depends how far you want to take it.

Furthermore, you have to realise that exercise and diet works in conjunction with one another. For example, doing a bicep curl, generates an insulin response to that part of the body. Every action you do has a hormonal reaction.

Believe it or not, eating is one of the most stressful things you do to your body on a daily basis.

The more lean muscle mass you have, the bigger the propensity your body has to burn calories as the more hormonal releases will occur, furthermore, your body will require more energy to sustain/fix and process your body's physique.

Steedie has made a good post and it's a Stickie - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18299646

Might be worth asking more specific questions there.

Remember, in spite of eating the right amounts annd control hormonal responses, the rules about calories and activity are still fundamental.
 
duvet77 said:
I found the evening meal the hardest one to change to low carb because I grew up on carb heavy meals (potatoes, pasta, rice etc) and your partner probably has. It helps if your partner is onboard with the low/no carb meals otherwise it can be a pain.

Anyway some of the things I have are:

chili, no rice, lots of mince
stews
casseroles
steaks with veg/salad
the fried breakfast dinner (a bit of a treat consisting of sausages, bacon, eggs, black pudding, mushrooms!)

I find you can generally get away with cheaper meats in stews because you cook it for such a long time.

It is more expensive to just meat based teas, especially if you're trying to gain weight as I am, because you basically have to double up on meat.
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Thanks

Sadly I have no idea if my partner is 'with me' on this, she doesn't care what I look like really...I just do this for myself as I enjoy the workout

I'd still find it hard to have no potato, it's basically my evening thing! :(...And I'd have to have SOME rice with my chilli, that's ridiculous ;)

Caseroles, I should do these more often, considering we have a slow cooker as well...

With regards to my partner eating what I eat...I tend to cook anyway, sooooooo...Problem is I'm not sure that she would want no potato :p...I'd have to come up with a soloution so I can cook potatoes for her more often and add in something seperate for me

Pah :(
 
Morba said:
Same, one of the reasons i don't like hot weather I think! Some nights im like a nuclear reactor!
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My body works like furnace as well. I am hot 90% of the time, except when I'm in the gym, running or out hiking when I'm absolutely on fire! This is why I can't understand people in the gym who wear hoodies or hats! If it wasn't for the fact that I would probably get beaten up, I would be out running or working out in the gym in my pants! :D

Maybe this is why I long to move to Canada so I can go cross country skiing again.
 
See now, I just had lunch:

Two wholemeal wraps with gammon trimmings, dash of mayo, spinach leaves.

Then on the side, some more gammon trimmings, more spinach leaves, some cottage cheese.

A Chicken drumstick as I just finished cooking a batch :p

Probably nothing compared to some people :(
 
Steedie said:
That is quite a feast by any ones standard! Good going mate! :D
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Is it? I just need to do it more often, it's okay now as I'm off for six weeks (and training harder mind) problem is when I go back to work, it's harder to get the same meals in.

I'll just have to try harder :)

EDIT: A good feast? There can't be THAT much bad fats there...Other than the drumstick and mayo
 
I find myself struggling to gain weight at the moment. I'm exercising 5/6 days a week and I enjoy doing it so I don't want to drop that down. I'm easily hitting 250g of protein a day so the idea of eating even more chicken, red meat, cottage cheese or protein shakes is borderline repulsive to me.

My carb intake is almost exclusively brown pitta bread at the moment (4-5 a day) - not ideal, but it could be worse. I find myself wanting to be much less strict with my carb intake because it feels like I'm floundering slightly at the moment.

Any food suggestions? I'm currently taken to penuts as those are quite high in calories, but I'm not sure if they are classed as a dubious foodstuff.
 
Delvis said:
Is it? I just need to do it more often, it's okay now as I'm off for six weeks (and training harder mind) problem is when I go back to work, it's harder to get the same meals in.

I'll just have to try harder :)

EDIT: A good feast? There can't be THAT much bad fats there...Other than the drumstick and mayo
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Not at all mate, that sounds good to me. Although I'd say you'd have been more than alright with just the two wraps! Still, gotta eat big to get big :) go for it

Nitefly, brown rice and sweet potato, these should be your main sources of carbs tbh, as they are clean but good all round sources of carbs too. A bodybuilders staple. Limit your bread intake to one a day maybe, lunchtime or something, bread isn't ideal, especially with how it's made, far too much other crap in it, even wholegrain breads :(
 
Nitefly said:
Any food suggestions? I'm currently taken to penuts as those are quite high in calories, but I'm not sure if they are classed as a dubious foodstuff.
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Standard penuts? Salted?

I used to eat a fair few cashew nuts...Not as bad as penuts if I remember?
 
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