Weight loss advice please gents!

[Chris1712]

Afternoon everyone. I figure its about time I sorted myself out and lost some weight.

As it stands, I'm 21 years old and have been fat all my life. Currently I guesstimate my weight to be ~18-19 stone @ ~5'10". I'll get some real numbers together shortly.I'm currently at Broadcom doing a year internship, so I feel for the first time in ~5 years I've actually got the routine and time to change my lifestyle.

I'm going to the gym after work today to sign up, its only about 15 mins walk from me and I have a couple good friends that already go there. I do feel plenty committed enough to the exercise side of weight loss. Growing up I was always involved in sports playing footy at school and did a lot of cycling aswell, but as I say I was always a big kid. I'm quite looking forward to getting more active to be honest, especially weight training.


Anyway, I think I'll need a lot more advice/encouragement on the diet side. I eat a crap typical student/gamer diet and always have done. My problem is I absolutely hate cooking/preparing food. I'm really not one of these people that can spend half an hour in the kitchen farting around with herbs and spices. My personal feeling is food should be a quick fix . I.E. 'I'm hungry, eat, done.'

My typical food daily consists of the following.....

1000 Arrive at work, banana time.
1130 Little pot of grapes and apple slices (This is when the caterers turn up with sandwiches etc. so I grab a snack then)
1230 Lunch. Chicken Mayo Salad Baguette, bag of walkers and a kit kat.
1630-1730 Another snack, usually a breakfast bar type thing, nutri grain tracker whatever.
1830-1930 Get home from work. Tea time. Varies A LOT. Usually one of the following....

• Chicken Curry
• Chicken Breasts + Chips
• Chicken Jambalaya
• Cod & Chips
• Gammon, egg & chips
• Once a week will end up down the pub for a burger and chips
• Junk food once a week normally aswell, midnight maccy d's is kind of a tradition in my social circle on saturday nights.

As you can tell, all pretty much stuff which involves taking it out of the fridge/freezer whacking it in the oven for 20 minutes and consuming.
The curry/jambalaya is nearly always pre packaged ready meal style. Occasionally will do a curry properly. Chicken breasts tend to end up with melted cheese and lashing of BBQ sauce, or nando's/reggae reggae + spicy rice. nom nom nom.

Now I know what I need to get rid of/cut down on, but what to replace it with is what I struggle with. Chips and crisps are gonna be first to go, I'm thinking rice instead of chips but not sure what to have at lunch that will actually fill me up until I get home. The Lunch can be basically anything, we can order stuff the day before which they'll prepare and bring in. Sandwiches/baguettes/salads and even hot food like chilli and pasta bakes, so any suggestions for a nice baguette would be apprecieated. All I read about is Tune and Pasta, please bare in mind I despise both of those items with a passion so I'm looking for alternatives!
I'm generally starving by the time I get home at 1900 ish. I'm guessing once I start going to the gym, I'm going to need something afterwards aswell. I won't typically be able to go until ~9pm, so will be after tea. Is this where supplements can come in? Protein shakes and the like? Could they also potentially function as a meal replacement type thing during the day? While we're at it are fat-burners/appetite suppressors worth looking into also? I'm absolutely willing to take any help modern science can throw my way .

Provided I get some decent replies, I will be needing advice on workouts etc. aswell. I plan on going 3-4 times a week, probably all but fri/sat/mon. Personally, I'm more inclined to a resistive workout than an aerobic one. I would rather be a muscular ~14 stone than a standard ~13 stone. I just plucked those figures out of thin air btw .

Errrm so yeah, first things first diet advice please gents!

 

[Chris1712]

gastro band.
people lose loads on those things

Brilliant. Thanks guys, **** the exercise or diet change I'll just suck up some of your taxes via the NHS and follow Morba's advice.

 

[Chris1712]

As for training, well:

If you were my client, we'd work towards a cyclical, periodised training routine. First, would be basic condition, so let's start with that.

You need to start by assessing your fitness capabilities and working to small goals. Get on a peice of CV equipment of your choice, set a level that's appropriate and go for it. Establish how far, fast, long you can go for, and make a note, over the coming weeks, work towards improving that. Feel free to try this on several different machines. Aim for sessions of at least 20 minutes initially. Take a rest (up to 5 minutes) and go again.

For resistance, create a balanced routine, depending on your gym it would look something like this:

2 sets of 15 on each of the following, 45 seconds rest:

Chest Press
Seated Row
Shoulder Press
Lat Pull Down
Squat
Leg Curl
Leg Extension
Calf Press

Note down weights and perceived difficulty and work on improving them.

Aim for two CV sessions and two Resistance sessions a week for the moment. ALWAYS work to intensity, get hot, get sweaty go for it. Focus on really enjoying your training by remembering your goals and thinking about how great it will be to meet them.

Take a picture now, of you with your tshirt off from the front, and from the side. Put it in a draw for 8-12 weeks and take a look after that. Once you see an improvement, keep the original photo around to remind you what you never want to go back to, and keep taking new photos (and labelling them!) every 8-12 weeks.

Good luck bud,
Ant

Some solutions for food:
Breakfast (You should have this!)-microwave porridge is quick and will fill you up
Dinner- Steak is quick to cook and add some boiled potatoes/salad and job don
Lunch-Eat wholemeal bread sources and some good protein eg chicken/tuna/sardines etc.

Start basic mate, rapid, drastic diet adjustment just doesn't work.

You can cook and prepare a chicken stir fry in around 20 minutes, so why not try that instead of one of your meals.

Work towards reducing your portion sizes. Weigh your food, and reduce by 10g or so (on each food group) over the coming weeks. Aim to eat more vegetables, and less chips. Drink more water.

Likewise, the maccy Ds is really, really not good. Try to make small adjustments, go for diet, and choose a small meal option, and select a slightly smaller burger

Ant

Cheers guys .

Some great info for me. Signed up last night and have my induction on wednesday. From my chat with the receptionist the induction basically consisted of a CV calibration type thing, to get me something to aim for. And the same thing for weight training.

In regards to resistance/aerobic split. Am I better literally one day focusing on weights, next day just cardio and so on? Or should I be doing cardio & weights every session? Is one hour a realistic time span for either? They close at 10 you see, probably aiming to get there 2030-2100 4 times a week.

 

[Chris1712]

Wow a whole load of replies today!

Cheers peeps I will take all your suggestion into consideration. At the moment I'm still trying to muddle my way through the diet portion.

I have my 'induction' at the Gym tonight so will see how that goes. I feel like I'm more likely to push myself on a weights oriented routine than cardio. But we'll see once I actually start how much of this enthusiasm drains away and gets replaced with contempt . Jokes.

A few things i've picked up which i'm gonna introduce soon include chicken breast pieces in wholemeal pitta and oatcakes with peanut butter. The former as a meal probably with some rice and the latter as a hunger pang quencher! As for dinners I'm quite happy to eat mainly grilled chicken (with rice and steamed veg) as I love the stuff, its just trying to vary it a bit. Looking into stir fry's next!

Will try an update this thread after tonight depending how it goes .

 

[Chris1712]

your attitude is correct,you say you are looking forward to activity. that's the first big hurdle under-way, getting you motivated . your diet seems to be average not best, but not the worst, bigger people need more food to supply a body at rest. the b.m.r. start eating wholesome foods, i don't care how , get your auntie to make you some, but do not eat fast food or crap industrial foods like frozen pizzas and pies etc. also, fat is not your enemy, its a nutrient just as much as protein is. you need to get the right kind, from nuts, avocados etc. stay away from trans, sat fats. calculate your bmr , what calories your body needs doing nothing at all. maybe shave off 500 cals and burn off 500 cals too. 3 times a week. the key really is sensible eating and moderate exercise at first. this will work, i have done it. sorry i tried to paragraph this but posting from phone at mo'

Sounds good. Using various calculators for BMR seems to put me in the 2800-3000 calories range? This can't be right to be honest, I don't eat near that anyway let alone with exercise on top. I guess I need to pay more attention as to where those calories come from (ie carb/fat/protein). I do seem pretty stocked up on carbs in the grand scheme of things.

Using foodfocus.co.uk to help track my calories and I end up 1500 for the whole day . I would have thought that large a deficit would have me dropping weight anyway, let alone with a good hour or so of exercise on top?

Anyway, I digress. Induction at gym was good, only did a cardio induction as they like to split it up apparently. Weights induction next Monday.
I'm thinking of about 15-20 on the rower and the same on a bike, and doing a 'brisk' walk to the gym (its up a beast hill so should do he trick) plus 30-40 minute weights and see how things go.

Will report back post weight induction.

You seriously expect a 30 year old who has been very overweight their entire life to skip intensly as their cardio?

Luckily I'm 21, not 30. Dunno where that came from. Either way, I think I lack the coordination and grace for speedy skipping .

Chap in the gym has lost over 6 stone in the last few months and all he does is an hour or so on the treadmill walking and then some light weights.

Cut down on the rubbish and do your cardio. Not as easy as it sounds obviously, but that's it.

Thats crazy fast weight loss.

Absolutly nothing unhealthy about peanut butter as long as its not the sugar loaded crap

Goodo.

 

[Chris1712]

[tourettes guy]UPDATE![/tourettes guy]

OK guys just got back from my third sesh in das gymnasium (Fri/Mon/Weds thus far, will probably keep this pattern up) and heres what I've been doing.

Its not absolutely finalised, just roughly what I do when I'm there. I still need to get the weights bang on, particularly legs. Even after all the cardio plus the leg weights they feel pretty fresh. Generally order is rower/bike/weights/treadmill.

Things I'm thinking about re-assessing/changing.
Rower overall, need to up the resistance I think and try and up the speed a bit. Its generally my warm up but I vaguely enjoy it so wouldn't mind introducing more.
Leg weights. The lot could probably go up 5/10lbs.
Triceps/Biceps could maybe do with a bit more weight.
Changing weights reps to 3*8
In time introducing free weights.

Possibly (after 4 weeks or so) splitting the cardio out. IE

Mon Weights + Some cardio
Tue Cardio
Wed Weights + Some cardio
Thu Cardio
Fri Weights + Some cardio

The reason for this is the muscle fatigue is stopping me going everyday, rather than general tiredness. Ofcourse this may well change by the time I come to think about changing.

Also, protein! The vast majority of weight loss 'guides' 'tips' whatever tend to recommend anywhere from 0.8-1.5gm per lb of lean mass in protein. I'm not making this, even with chicken/turkey rolls (wholemeal now ) and 2x chicken breasts + (wholemeal again) rice in the evenings. Should I introduce protein shakes post workout? The lass at the gym said it would be worthwhile.
So on that subject, recommended e-tailers/brands/offers? Don't really want to drop too much money on the stuff just yet I've already spent a lot on gym clothes etc. etc. So VALUE is where I'm looking! Bang for buck.


So yeah, comments/anything really?

Cheers team!

 

[Chris1712]

Hi Mate,

see if you can try and fit in some more good foods before looking at shakes, recently I've cut down on the shakes, having scrambled eggs (from the microwave!) and so on. In fact scrambled egg on wholemeal is awesome!

Just gotta remember that the shakes will be calories too, I think what you're saying about your diet change is quite good, stick with it and see how you go.

Dark shadow should be in here soon (I hope), and RimBlock, with some good tips, don't be disheartened by going to the gym 5 times a week, which is good, but not necessary. Doing weights workouts only 3 times a week, with space for recovery is pretty much the norm, so dont worry about that. Remember to sleep well, eat well, train hard, and you'll be progressing awesomely.

Sounds good. Scrambled egg on wholemeal is winner winner chicken dinner. I've only ever done scramble in the microwave with milk, how does it turn out without it as I never buy the stuff!

Will try and get to the gym again tonight but it closes early (2100) on fridays for some reason, so will be a tight squeeze.

After chatting with some mates locally I'm gonna look into protein shakes for post-gym. My calorie deficit seems huge anyway (even though its not far off what I've always eaten ) so i've got room for shakes anyway, and I'm quite happy to let modern science give me a bit of a boost .

Chris.

 

[Chris1712]

OK guys, need some advice. Please.

Below is my daily food intake, ish.

I'm not sure on weights for the chicken and bread mainly. The roll is a 6-7" wholemeal sub, the rolls are pretty nice and i'm lead to believe by the caterers they're baked daily. Anyway, weight on that badboy? I've just stuck with the default value on foodfocus.co.uk as I have no idea. Same with the amount of chicken in it, I'm just guesstimating at it being about 2/3 or a chicken breast.

I know not having a proper breakfast is bad, I'm just never hungry until lunch time. I've had a tip from a workmate to start having ~40g of oats for breakfast to get my metabolism going and last until lunch. Comments? Sounds good to me.

So yeah, would you say the values are about right? Next week I will dropping the Kit-Kat as often as I can and replace probably with grapes or an apple. Also having a smaller rice portion.

The total calories seem pretty low to me to be honest, so I'm not certain its all right.

Gym is pretty much the same still, though have upped the weights by 5lb across the board. Now doing my final of 3 sets with an extra 5lb for smaller muscles and 10lb for bigguns, really makes the last 8 reps a good challenge. Speed on bike is average of about 71rpm now aswell, so a smidge higher. Generally covering 8.5km on it.