Diet clean up

catherine22

Hi everyone

I am looking for a bit of help with my diet. firstly i have read the stickies and have got some really good information from them and I have also read a few of the other threads on this ubject to pick up a few pointers and again they have been helpful but there are few things I need to check.

I am going to a wedding in 3 weeks and I just want to firm up a little and just lose what I can before then without being too severe with my diet or exercise regime.

Exercise- normally 4-5 times a week and would consist of gym both cardio and weights and yoga 3-4 times a week. ideally I would like to,lose the majority of weight around my middle though I realise I cant really target weight loss to the area and the weight will come off from everywhere. I normally go to the gym in the morning round 10ish and the yoga class usually follows

my diet consists of this

9am- either boiled egg on toast and 2 slices of wholemeal toast or else alpen museli with skimmed milk. I probably have the egg around 3-4 times a week and the museli the rest of the time. Is this too many eggs for me because I know although they are a good source of protein, the yolk contains quite a lot of fat and i am not a egg-white omlette person, so should I just cut the egg altogether?

11am- apple and some sunflower seeds

1.30pm- either a wholemeal brown sandwich with chicken and salad or perhaps a tuna salad (no bread) or some soup. perhaps once a week, if i am having the sandwich I mite have crisps as well- is this doing a lot of damage (regarding my 3 week target I now have)

4pm- again some seeds or some dried fruit ie cranberries,etc

8pm- varies from lasagne and salad to spaghetti bolgonese and salad, potatoes and baked salmon with frozen veg, etc. My main issure here is am I eating too late. Although i do got to the gym earlier in the day, should i maybe go for a quick walk after dinner for 20 mins just because I am eating carbs later in the evening.

So there it is, my diet, any ideas would be greatly appreciated on how i could clean it up slightly over the next few weeks just to get maximum results

thanks

Sleepy

I'm no expert but from what I've read here and elsewhere:

Breakfast - Keep the egg, swap the Alpen for a sugar free muesli (try the healthfood section - some of the Kelkin ones are pretty good).

Lunch - ditch the crisps, empty carbs and trans fats

Dinner - try cut out the carbs (potatoes and spaghetti). If it's after a weights day in the gym, have a small portion of wholewheat pasta to fuel your body's recovery.

ali.c

Sleepy wrote:

Lunch - ditch the crisps, empty carbs and trans fats

.

That and the 250-300kcal serving per pack is probably not doing you any favours. Though i am not saying that crisips are in anyway good 1 a week isnt going to stop progress if the rest of your diet is in order. In the short term though id cut it out completely for the next 3 weeks.

Eggs contain alot of good fat and certainly arent going to be getting in the way of progress, if you like it and it fits into your routine then its all good.

Post workout you do need carbs, what time is your meal in relation to your workout? If its directly after then you need protein and carbs, if not then you could have just protein and veg.

Are you seeing results on your current diet because tbh its pretty clean to start with?

catherine22

thanks for the replies. i usually have my breakfast around 9ish and then head to the gym about 11ish - i will be heading shortly. i normally spend about 1.5-2 hrs in the gym, when i come out of the gym i have some nuts and seeds and then my lunch about half an hour after that. (today i will probably have tuna and cous cous).

i have one question about my work out though- i am using weights every other day- dumbbells usually. and when i do bicep curls and other exercises for my triceps, the next day my arms dont hurt. obviously i dont want to be in a lot of pain but i dont feel any pain in my arms- is this ok??? when i am in the gym i lift 4kg dummbells in each arm and i really find this really is my limit with regards weight that i can lift, but should my muscles be sore the next day?

Sangre

How many sets are you doing with the DB? You should do be doing around 3 sets of 10 reps each. You should be failing on the last rep or so in the last set, if you're not you need to up the weights.
They don't necessarily have to be sore after every weights session.

eclectichoney

i'm in the same boat in that i can barely do 8 reps with 3kg DBs for DB flys, frontal raises, tricep kickbacks etc. i'm slightly better at milliatry presses - 5kg, but you do see gains (i remember 2 months ago i was doing MPs with 3kg). Remember going from struggling with 2kg to 4kg may not seem like a lot - but it's an increase of 100% (that's what i tell myself anyway, to compensate for my weakness! at least im trying )

Sangre

Don't get bogged down on how much you're lifting but rather how physically tiring it is and how much you are progressing.

Sleepy

Sangre wrote:

Don't get bogged down on how much you're lifting but rather how physically tiring it is and how much you are progressing.

Very true.

Judge your workouts on how much you've worked, how much you've sweated and how fatigued your muscles feel not on numbers on the side of weights or on treadmill displays.

ali.c

biceps curls as a rule would give me arm DOMS the next day, however assisted pull-ups and dips do. After a good arm seesion holding the hair dryer is hard. Ultimately if your arms arent fatigued after the work out then you probably up the weight, even if it means you can only get 5 reps or whatever!
What excercise do you do and how many reps and sets.

I struggled inthe gym to get my shoulder press above 5kg on the machine for ages. Once i added in some compound excercises though my strength went through the roof!

catherine22

with 4kg weights (because the gym i now go to doesnt have odd number weight dumbbells???) i do seated 1 arm dumbbell curls 3x12, two arm deltoid raises over head again 3x12, two arm deltiod laterals 3x12, two-arm seated dumbbell extension 3x12, kick-backs 3x12. with resistance weights i do chest-press (15kg), shoulder press (5kg), upper arm (20kg).

with the resistance weights i can 3x12, but with the dumbbells i might only manage 2x12 or 2x10 but i am trying to up it.

ali.c

I do think its odd that you are using the same weight for all the excercises, usually i have found that certain muscle groups are stronger than others. Tbh if you can do 3sets of 12, then its time to up the weight if your only other option is a 6kg dumbells then switched to that and work on building up you reps, so if you can only do 3-5 reps then start with that. If you really want to give your arms a good workout and your gym has an assisted dip and pull up machine then throw 3 sets 8 of each

catherine22

the reason i am using 4kg for all exercises is because the gym i go to doesnt have any 3kg dummbells, so for example when i am doing the two-arm deltiod laterals, i should be probably using 3 kg because i can only really do 1x12 with the 4kg but i have to use the 4kg. i did move to the 6kg for my bicep curls today but for everything else i need the 4kg (though hopefully i will be incre4asing the weight next week because i have been working pretty solidly with the weights for the past 10 days or so)

one thing i wanna ask is, i am following the diet i posted above for the past week or more and am working out in the gym everyday either both weights and cardio or just cardio alone. i notice my arms and legs are developing more muscle because of the weights but i carry all/must of my weight around my middle and despite my regular gym going, i dont seem to be losing ANYTHING from my middle and i am really starting to worry- anyone any ideas how to get round it??? should i do more cardio for weights loss? at the moment i am doing 5000m on the rower which takes 30 mins on the days i do weights. on the days i just do cardio i do 5000m on the rower and about 20 mins on the treadmill running about 8k/hr

thanks