Want to lose some podge and get back to being fit

Buckster said:
thanks guys, to be honest lots of people at work and out of work have being asking me what the magic trick is, some fad diet etc

unfortunately nope :( just lots of exercise and avoiding "bad" foods.

to the OP - good luck, get in the right mind-set though and you'll be set :)
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I do seem to be looking forward to even setting out my meal plans etc...wanna get rid of the belly and back to havikng a six pack like i did 10 years ago ><

...My god that makes me sound old and im only 23 :(
 
Hope you don't mind, mini hijack. G18241 - I am in almost exactly the same position as you. My stats are pretty much the same as yours, except I think I am a touch heavier. I am far from fat but the extra weight is mainly in my thighs, chest and torso. I also used to be around 12.5/13 stone with this frame. I have always eaten a lot of food but over the years, I have been doing less exercise.

A week ago I started using an app on my X10 (My Fitness Pal) which is very useful. I can track everything I eat (it uses the internet so can find almost any food item you can think of) and all the exercise you do. After you enter your weight etc, you set a target weight and it will adjust your calorie intake according to how much you want to lose. I am aiming for 2lbs a week.

I hate running, especially in the cold. Skipping is the way forward, however I can't skip :o. Fortunately I have a rowing machine in the house I live in so aim to do an hour/600-700 calories/10k a day. Are you going to put a plan together? Mine currently is:

Bowl of cereal for breakfast or several pieces of fruit

Fruit as my snacks

Usually sandwiches or last nights dinner for lunch

More fruit as snacks

Usually a meat inspired dinner

Any maybe some additional fruit as a post dinner snack

Plus lots of water and green tea throughout the day and burning around 800/900 calories a day with walking and rowing.

I think the problem with me was my portions were much to large and I would not eat breakfast and eat only at lunch at dinner. Eating smaller portions and more frequently is the way forward. Though I am worried that I may be eating to few calories and burning too much. Let us know how it is all going, I am quite interested considering you are pretty much in the same boat as me. Good luck :)
 
xibinim said:
Hope you don't mind, mini hijack. G18241 - I am in almost exactly the same position as you. My stats are pretty much the same as yours, except I think I am a touch heavier. I am far from fat but the extra weight is mainly in my thighs, chest and torso. I also used to be around 12.5/13 stone with this frame. I have always eaten a lot of food but over the years, I have been doing less exercise.

A week ago I started using an app on my X10 (My Fitness Pal) which is very useful. I can track everything I eat (it uses the internet so can find almost any food item you can think of) and all the exercise you do. After you enter your weight etc, you set a target weight and it will adjust your calorie intake according to how much you want to lose. I am aiming for 2lbs a week.

I hate running, especially in the cold. Skipping is the way forward, however I can't skip :o. Fortunately I have a rowing machine in the house I live in so aim to do an hour/600-700 calories/10k a day. Are you going to put a plan together? Mine currently is:

Bowl of cereal for breakfast or several pieces of fruit

Fruit as my snacks

Usually sandwiches or last nights dinner for lunch

More fruit as snacks

Usually a meat inspired dinner

Any maybe some additional fruit as a post dinner snack

Plus lots of water and green tea throughout the day and burning around 800/900 calories a day with walking and rowing.

I think the problem with me was my portions were much to large and I would not eat breakfast and eat only at lunch at dinner. Eating smaller portions and more frequently is the way forward. Though I am worried that I may be eating to few calories and burning too much. Let us know how it is all going, I am quite interested considering you are pretty much in the same boat as me. Good luck :)
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Yep, started making myself a spreadsheet, just need some advice as to what foods are going to be best to stick with, without spending tonnes of money :p
 
A year and a half ago i weighed 16 stone, drank quite a lot and didnt really excercise.

Now weigh 12.8 stone and cycle about 100+ miles a week and basically all i did was drop Tv, computer games and decided to get outside and use some energy. I eat a bit less, i am currently chomping through a papa johns XL pizza but i find i am still shedding weight as its a monthly 'treat' and the rest of the time i find myself eating a lot healthier you just need some motivation. YOU CAN DO IT!
 
apples are good snacks I've found, take a while to eat, and not too many calories, and not exactly bad for you

obviously diet varies from one person to another, and from one day to another but in general I've been eating:

Breakfast, Wholemeal Pita bread, low fat yoghurt, piece of fruit, fruit smoothie

1 hr pre Gym - 1 banana

Gym - 6k run + weights

Lunch - cheese or tuna sandwich (if cheese not much as its not particuarly good for you)

Home snack - another piece of fruit

Dinner - fillet of salmon baken in oven, lots of potatoes, brocolli, green beans - plate full of food

its worked for me
 
Is it better to lose your desired weight (say 2-3 stones) and gain a little muscle by bulking up or lose less weight and convert fat to muscle?
 
xibinim said:
Is it better to lose your desired weight (say 2-3 stones) and gain a little muscle by bulking up or lose less weight and convert fat to muscle?
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No such thing mate.

Just eat healthily get your cardio done and hit the weights, you'll lose fat but won't be a skinny runt when you're down to weight you want to be.
 
I don't want to be a skinny runt as the weight I am aiming for (with my frame) is about average. Just curious about when I should work on the muscles as I have none lol. I have a found a few dumb bells knocking about the house, so far done almost 2 weeks of cardio (an hour a day or around 10K on the rowing machine). So just add weights into my schedule now then? Thanks :)

G18241 - I am sure there are better but my diet seems to be working well enough. I basically eat what I was eating anyway (for lunch and dinner) and have substituted all of my snacks for fruit. At first my net calorie intake was a little low (one day I did feel drained but it was a Friday) but have increased it and all is well so far. Most of my food intake was from boredom so keeping myself busy helps. My app tells me I tend to go over my RDA for sugars and vitamin C, though I swear one measly orange will take you over 100% - I love oranges! Didn't realise how much salt is in foods these days, bought a sushi pack from Sainsburys yesterday, it was tiny but had 3g of salt in it!
 
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Any developments Gary? Have you considered doing HIIT? Seems to be quite popular on these forums. Anyone who does it, do you have to do it with running? Could I substitute the running for e.g. rowing (machine)?
 
Rowing works really well for HIIT, I prefer it cause I don't have to be out in the snow/rain plus I can go balls out much easier on the rower. Like fatigue catches up with me much later :)
 
Same, I like to exercise inside. Good news, think I will look up some HIIT schedules later today. The weight loss doesn't seem to be going all that well, was down by almost half a stone (with an empty stomach) but seems to have settled/gone back up to 0.25/0.3 stone.


* Doing it for three weeks, burning around 600-800 a day (give or take a few days) and eating enough with an ok balance.
 
TBH fruit isn't ideal if you're trying to lower your body fat, don't forget that fruit is very sugary. Also, fructose (the sugar in fruit) can only be absorbed and metabolised by the liver. This leads to some glycogen (storage carbohydrate) replenishment but also a considerable amount gets converted very readily into fat. A lot of these metabolic products will sit locally so you can end up storing fat in your liver (iirc it's been found that high fructose in rats creates livers like alcoholics!) - not good. Not to mention the insulin spiking effects of eating any sugar...(although fructose has a low glycaemic index compared to other sugars)

That's not to say "Don't eat fruit!", but it really shouldn't be your go-to snack if you're trying to reduce body fat. I'm just trying to point out the error in thinking that because fruit is "good for you", you can eat lots of it. I probably eat fruit every day because it *IS* good for you, just in moderation. Vegetables on the other hand you can eat all day...

In this situation (and probably all the time tbh) you should focus on consumption of either complex carbs, protein, or fat based snacks. The only real problem with fat is that it's very calory dense, but you should absolutely not avoid it.

As far as snack suggestions:
nuts
seeds
meat
rice crackers
cottage cheese

...can't think of any more right now. I don't really snack very much, I just tend to eat 3-5 times a day.

Also, the guy who doesn't have much cheese in his cheese sandwich because it isn't good for you... well, that just isn't true ;) and from looking at your diet, while pretty good and has apparently worked for you nicely, isn't very high in protein. Maybe that isn't important to you, but that kind of diet tends to be prone to muscle catabolism.

...and also, there was another guy asking about when he should start to build muscle because he didn't want to be skinny when he finished his cut (sorry, I skimmed through the thread and didn't catch any user names). I wouldn't stop cutting until you hit your desired body fat, assuming that it's a realistic aim. However, provided that you have a decent amount of protein in your diet (at least over 100g a day, but preferably a lot more) and that you start training with weights now, you'll find that you develop a moderate amount of muscle even though you are cutting. At the very least this approach will minimise your muscle loss.
 
Cheers Icecold, really useful information. I must admit I am going into all of this a wee bit blind, and have substituted most of my snacking with fruit (apples, oranges, bananas and satsumas) :o. I am going to start doing weights some time this week and try and incorporate my rowing into HIIT. I will have a proper sit down and come up with a better plan, though money isn't exactly flowing at the moment. Gary, with all of this information - the world is our oyster :p
 
;)
No worries. As I said, don't stop eating fruit, just be wary of over doing it.

Do you like nuts? I'm sure you could pick some up in bulk for a decent price.

Just throwing this out there as I have no idea what you like, but have you considered stews? Or a salad with some chicken/bacon/anchovies/whatever and home made dressing?

For example, pack of chicken thighs (cheap), some mixed tinned beans or haricot beans (I don't mean beans in sauce :p), leak, carrot, stock...

Find a deap pan
Prepare stock (a stock cube in hot water)
Wash beans (they are usually covered in starchy sticky stuff out of the can)
Brown the thighs in oil on a high heat and remove from pan
Add leak and carrot to the pan and soften in a small amount of butter. Adding herbs at this stage is awesome too (meduim heat)
Add the chicken back to the pan with the beans and add stock until the contents of the pan is covered. Season with salt and pepper (low heat. it should be simmering)
Put lid on pan wait for it to cook down (basically about 45 mins to an hour, although it can be longer depending on how much you're cooking. The amount of fluid should be reduced)
Eat!


You can make a big batch of this and then eat it over the course of a few days. There will be some recipies online with quantities of everything, I just make lots :D. With 1 or 2 thighs per portion it's really very cheap. Try some sweet potato to go with it.

Ok now I've made myself hungry!
 
Yes, but you might have been surprised with what would have happened if you replaced those calories with something else. Having said that, I might be imagining it but I may have read that apples have something about them that's good for fat loss...don't remember. Meh, whatever works for you :)
 
not sure icecold I eat them as they take a while to eat - so keep you occupied :)

don't buy little oranges etc these days as you can scoff a pack quickly
 
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